THE CHANCES OF A CHURCH-AND-QUEEN CRY.
EVERY speech that Mr. Disraeli makes renders it more evident how thoroughly he intends to work his two cries at the approaching general election,—' Our Protestant Queen' and Our Church Establishment.' In the speech of yesterday week he dwelt emphatically on both heads. He had been charged, he said, with trying to raise the 'No-Popery' cry ; that was a mistake ; but he had heard with surprise that for the first time there had been a cry raised in the country, of 'No Protestantism.' Mr. Disraeli did not reveal where this cry had been raised, remarking rather unnecessarily that it had not been raised in the House of Commons, or he should have taken note of it before. But like the really deliberate, though in manner excited charge, which Mr. Gladstone, in the debate on the Resolutions, erroneously ascribed to the suggestions of "a heated imagination,"—namely, that there existed an open con- federation between the Romanists and the Ritualists, intended to destroy the Church, and injuriously "touch even the tenure of the Throne,"—Mr. Disraeli's attempt to identify the attack on the Irish Establishment with the cry of 'No-Protestantism' was meant as a cue for the country, and not for the House. He took care, too, yesterday week to drag in the Throne, as usual, to the thick of the battle. Mr. Gladstone's policy, he said, would probably "dim the splendour of the British Throne." In Coningsbg, Mr. Disraeli made Mr. Taper remark that "a good Church cry before a registration would do ;" and Mr. Tadpole rejoins, "I am all for a religious cry ; it means nothing, and if we are successful does not inter- fere with business when we are in ;" and so they agree on a cry that shall "go strong on the Church," and yet, if possible, hold out prospects "to the Wesleyans," whom Mr. Taper and Mr. Tadpole think they have "too long confounded with the mass of the Dissenters." Mr. Disraeli is following just the same tactics now. He is trying his best to wriggle out of the concessions to the Catholics proposed by Lord Mayo at the beginning of the session, and to undermine confidence in Mr. Gladstone by representing him as leading the party of No Protestantism,' and by painting him as plotting deep to "dim the splendour of the British Throne."
What is the probable chance of success for this strategy ? There is no doubt but that Mr. Disraeli has succeeded in uniting the clergy almost en masse on his side. In one division of a considerable county, out of fifty-one clergy- men who voted for the Liberal party at the last election, it is calculated that not above six or seven can be counted upon for the next. The Bishop of London, head of the Liberal clergy, is one of the great leaders of obstruction. Not a man of any great note, except, we believe, Dr. Temple, Professor Maurice, Mr. Llewellyn Davies, and a few of the most distinguished London clergy, has remained true to Mr. Gladstone. Virtually we do not doubt that the Clergy are consolidated in opposition to the friends of ecclesiastical equality' in Ireland. Whatever fascination the abstract idea of the Queen's Supremacy may have, will also swell the numbers, of the same party ;—we say "the abstract idea," because the Queen's Supremacy in Ireland has never been and will never be recognized by the Irish Catholics, and is never likely to be less recognized than it now is by the Irish Protestants—estab- lished or disestablished. Still, all the evangelical zeal of the clergy against the withdrawal of the Protestant garrison in- Ireland, and much of that political liberalism among the clergy which dreads the democratic tyranny of Voluntaryism, will be united on the Tory side in this great contest. Mr. Disraeli is not unlikely for a time to take Lord Palmerston's place, both as the Record's "man of God," and, at the same time, as the Conservative statesman who defends the property- of the Establishment against every shrill cry of voluntaryism or radical reform.
But admitting to the full Mr. Disraeli's probable success with the clergy, how much are we to consider that this will do for him in the next registration of voters ? Will the clergy carry with them any respectable proportion of the- Liberal laity ? Will the cry of "Our Protestant Queen and our Church Establishment !" alarm the Liberal country doctor, or the Liberal country solicitor, or the Liberal squire into the ranks of the enemy ? That the clergyman, especially where he- is an able and popular man, will have his following, and will carry with him a churchwarden or two as a matter of course, is to be assumed. But, as a rule, we regret to think,—though for the prospects of this contest it may be a matter of good omen,—that the jealousy of the clergyman felt by the secular notabilities of most country parishes is probably greater than his influence. If he carries a few with him, there will be not a few who, supported by their party, will seize willingly enough the opportunity to show their independence of him. In fact, the extraordinary unanimity and coherence of the Liberal party on Mr. Gladstone's Irish Church policy, sufficiently shows that the clergy have exerted no power as. yet to turn the Liberal squires or the Liberal laymen against him. In nearly every country parish there is a brisk demand for opportunities of showing independence of the clergy with- out showing disrespect for religion, and we imagine that this- will be thought a very eligible opportunity of the desired. kind in most English parishes. The admission that the Irish Protestant Establishment is a disgraceful anomaly has been so long made freely on all hands, even by those who,—now that the moment has come for choosing their side,—are ranging- themselves as its defenders, that as a rule the English laity, of the middle class, at least, are by no means likely to allow themselves to be persuaded that the battle of the English Establishment should be fought on Irish soil. There is a- perceptible disposition to snub this clerical view as a pro- fessional extravagance savouring of class-interest and theo- retical doctrine rather than practical sense. We do not believe that the clergy will succeed in breaking up to any tangible extent the present organization of the Liberal party in the counties.
But what will the new 12/. county electors contribute to the contest ? There can be no doubt that in the metro- politan counties, and indeed in all which contain large suburbs a few miles removed from great cities, the new county electors will swell the strength of the Liberal vote. We have no profound respect for the Liberalism of those caravans of commercial immigrants who invade the neigh- bouring city every morning, taking counsel of their newspapers in the train, and return every night to their dinners and cigars. in the country. For the most part, they are dilettanti Liberals, who fret under Mr. Gladstone's earnestness, sympathize with Mr. Jefferson Davis or Mr. Johnson as the last representative of American reaction, and seldom feel a ray of enthusiasm ex- cept when reading the compositions of Mr. Hamilton Hume or behalf of Mr. Eyre. But hollow as this commercial Liberalism, too often is, it has at least no vestige of sympathy with the No-Popery cry. It despises the fears of Exeter Hall as much as it despises the philanthropies of the Jamaica Committee. It considers that the common sense of the thing is to get, rid of the Irish Establishment, and laughs at Mr. Disraeli's claptrap about dimming "the splendour of the British Throne." The worldly and secular feeling which is one of the poorest and worst elements of modern Liberalism may yet con- tribute to the success of a better faith than its own in all those counties in which considerable suburban districts are now by the 12/. voting clause to be embodied. The indifferent, care- nothing, liberty-depreciating Liberals who are now so numerous, are pretty certain not to be fascinated by Mr. Disraeli's cry of
"Our Protestant Queen and our Church Establishment !" The only doubt is whether they will take the trouble to vote at all.
But the great mass of new county voters will probably be small farmers, village tradesmen, and shopkeepers. As for the small farmers, even on Liberal estates they will very often be high Tories, and in some Liberal counties,—as, for example, Derbyshire,—they will not improbably turn the balance in the direction of Conservatism. But the village tradesmen and shopkeepers will be a more numerous element still. And the effect on them of Mr. Disraeli's cry will depend almost iuvariably on their religious connections. The small Church shopkeepers in hotly divided districts will often hold aloof, and in districts with a greatly preponderating party, either Liberal or Conservative, will probably vote with that party. But the im- mense numberof Dissenting shopkeepers who will be enfranchised for the county by the new Act will probably be nearly unani- mous and very strongly united for Mr. Gladstone's policy. It is true that in some places there may be doubts about the Wesleyans. Mr. Disraeli, like Mr. Tadpole, is quite alive to the chance of dividing the Wesleyans. When he can, like the former, put up a "baronet for a county member very much looked up to by the Wesleyans," he will not, we may be sure, miss his chance. The Wesleyans have never quite given up the notion of re- joining the Establishment, and are more than half disposed at times to fight its battles on the chance of a compromise. But then those of the Wesleyans who are the least politically hostile to the Establishment,—the followers of Wesley rather than Whitfield,—are also those who are by no means the most furious against the Catholics. They are not disposed to ignore the practical injustice of establishing on national revenues a Church of the smallest minority. And as far as we can learn,—in those Wesleyan districts already investigated at least,—the Wes- leyans appear to be clear and firm for Mr. Gladstone, and this on no fanatic grounds. The Independents and Baptists are united as one man. The more heretical sects are almost equally unanimous, being moved partly by disgust for Mr. Disraeli's antecedents, and partly by a hearty desire for this tardy justice to the Irish Catholics. On the whole, we believe the great Dissenting bodies, whether in the counties or the boroughs, will act for Mr. Gladstone with as much unanimity as they showed in resisting Sir James Graham's Factory Education Bill in 1843.
And what of the new borough franchise ? In the petty boroughs we fear that now, as before, wealth, and not principle, will win ;—only that it will take still more wealth and still less principle to win. So far, no great result will arise either way from Mr. Disraeli's war-cry. Unscrupulous wealth will be poured out both for "our Protestant Queen and our Church Establishment," and for "Justice to Ireland." But in the greater boroughs there cannot be a doubt that household suffrage will add immensely to the force of an earnest but (as yet) quite secular Liberalism, and that this force will be exerted on behalf of "Justice to Ireland,"—which means, of course, disestablishment. The cry of "Our Protestant Queen !" will do as much as anything could to diminish a justly popular Sovereign's popularity in the great centres of manufacturing in- dustry. There is an air of cant about the cry, especially as raised by Mr. Disraeli, which our working classes will be the first to feel and appreciate. It is true indeed that in a few places where the Irish settlements are large, and probably also unpopular, there may be a political race-conflict of some magnitude. But, those exceptional cases apart, there cannot be a doubt that in the great boroughs where opinion and not wealth carries the day, the new voters will be in general of the warmest and most earnest secularist type of Liberalism, with an intense personal enthusiasm for Mr. Gladstone. On
the whole, then, we cannot help believing that Mr. Disraeli
is destined to find his new Taper and Tadpole cry a fail- ure. In Scotland and Ireland at least it has not a shadow
of a hope of success. In England, the not very creditable unanimity of the clergy will probably be balanced by other elements of Mr. Disraeli's own creating, so that we sincerely hope to see him "hoist with his own petard."
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