TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT.
THE new Government of Lord Salisbury is likely to be what the old naval romance-writers used to call a "craft of decidedly rakish rig." With Lord Randolph Churchill as Leader of the House of Commons, and Chancellor of Exchequer into the bargain, and Mr. Henry Matthews as Home Secretary, it will certainly not be given credit for too much sympathy with the old Conservative shrinking habit of mind. No doubt on foreign affairs, with Lord Iddesleigh for the Chief Secretary, there will be little disposition to invent melodramatic strokes of policy. But we may fairly hope that foreign affairs will, for a time at least, leave us at peace to grapple in earnest with the Irish problem, and, let us add, with the problem of Parliamentary obstruction, should that again come to the front. Certainly in the two most striking figures of his new Administration, Lord Salisbury has sought to give the impression that staid sobriety is not exactly the char- acteristic of the new Government. With a dashing Queen's Counsel for his Home Secretary, with a master of unscrupulous vituperation for his Leader of the House of Commons, and theoretically at least an avowed Protectionist for his Chancellor of the Exchequer, there is no doubt that Conservatives of the more intellectual and dignified type will feel a little embar- rassed in their attitude towards his new Government. Nor can it be said that when once his generous and self-forgetful offer to Lord Hartington had been declined, Lord Salisbury has taken too much pains to inspire confidence in the Moderate Liberals. Lord Randolph Churchill,—the author of the insults to Mr. Gladstone addressed to the electors of 'South Paddington,—is the last man in whom it is possible for any one, be he Conservative or be he Liberal, to feel any sort of confidence. Doubtless he has been far more temperate and sagacious during his short tenure of office than he has ever been when not weighted by responsibility. And it is possible that, like his great hero, Mr. Disraeli, he may prove more saga- cious as a leader than he has ever even tried to be as independent politician. But we know very well that the only security for his principles will be the elasticity or non-elasticity of the principles of the party that he must lead. We know that he 'emulates the great man who was never weary of " educating " his party. And no one will doubt that any policy, revo- lutionary or otherwise, which followed the line of least resistance, would be taken up willingly enough by Lord Randolph Churchill, so long as he saw the chance at once of converting the phalanx behind him to that policy, and also of bringing over to his ranks a fair number of deserters from the ranks opposed to him. For the future, the guarantee for Conservatism, so far as it exists at all, is only the limit to the squeezability of Conservatives. The Unionist Liberals are, no doubt, much less squeezable, and for a time at least, Lord Randolph Churchill will be com- pelled to consider their wishes. But if ever he sees a chance of effecting a successful combination with the Radicals, which would more than replace the support to be given by Lord Hartington's followers, we do not doubt that he would seize it. The sectuity, so far as any remains for a steady Constitutional policy, is, in the first place, the necessity for obtaining Lord Hartington's approval ; and, in the next place, the difficulty which Lord Randolph may find in persuading his own fol- lowers to wheel round. As regards Home-rule in Ireland, we believe and hope that that difficulty will prove insurmountable, and, indeed, that the recent Elections will have convinced Lord Randolph Churchill that it is more likely to increase than to diminish. But it cannot be denied, that so far from having any fresh guarantee for a steady policy in the character of the Leader of the House of Commons, we have instead a fresh source of danger.
With Lord Salisbury, whose bias towards a policy of re- taliatory taxation is well known, at the head of the Government, and Lord Randolph Churchill, who has apparently held for some time, we do not say that Protection is a wise policy, but at all events that it is a policy by which tempting baits can be offered to democracies, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, we should be seriously alarmed for the fiscal policy of the new Government, if we did not think that the Liberal Party are a great deal too strong in the House to render any tack in a Protectionist direction probable. It is, indeed, not absolutely impossible that Mr. Parnell's policy of protecting Irish industries might be adopted by the new Government
as an equivalent for Home-rule, if there were the least chance of Mr. Parnell's accepting so humiliating a bribe.. But as that is, we imagine, out of the question, and as, moreover, we suppose that even some of the Irish Party themselves may have sense enough to see that to accept an offer from England to aid Ireland in ruining herself, would not be a very patriotic course, we hope we may dismiss from our minds the danger of any important, any grave tampering with the traditional policy of Free-trade, as one that need harass the minds of only political self-tormentors. But taking the new Government as a whole, we cannot help expressing our deep regret that the enlightened Conservatives, Conservatives of the type, for instance, of Sir Henry Holland (who, according to one account, remains Vice-President of the Council of Edu- cation, without gaining a step), are to have so little influence in it, and that so much additional influence is handed over to the faster politicians. Mr. Matthews has, we hope, long ago sown his political wild-oats, and is not likely, as the representative of Birmingham, Roman Catholic though he be, to flirt with the Fenians, as he once did when he represented Dungarvan, and descanted with so much fervour on the "poetic" souls which dignified that otherwise rather prosaically destructive party.. No one can doubt for a moment his transcendent ability. We
hope that he will for the future apply it to the service of a great Constitutional cause, and that the country will gain a distinguished statesman, though the Bar must thereby lose one of its most brilliant representatives.
We shall look with the greatest anxiety to Lord Salisbury's declaration of policy. It is not to be denied that there is some appearance of weakness about his apparent wish to defer any declaration of Irish policy till next year. Of course we do not expect him to say, either in August, or necessarily even in Octo- ber, precisely what he thinks most needful for Ireland. But we should have expected him to declare emphatically and at once that he intends as soon as possible to deal with the agrarian question in a manner to create a conservative-minded peasantry in Ireland, and that he will not tolerate the attempt of the National League to substitute its own laws for the laws of the United Kingdom. On these two points he ought to be explicit. We do not think that when Parliament is sworn in, and the leaders are re-elected, there ought to be any delay iu announcing an Irish policy in harmony with the results of the recent Elections. It may well be that after the striking evidence given by the English people that they do not intend to concede a subordinate Parliament to Ireland, the Government may find it much easier to counteract the machinations of the National League, even without exceptional measures, than it was last year. We observe with satisfaction that in one case, where a local agent of the National League had interfered to denounce an eviction ordered by one of the courts of law in Ire- land, the Judge promptly directed the arrest and punishment of this agent of the League for "contempt of court." And that precedent may be fruitful of weighty consequences. Still, it is beyond doubt that the Government may find the ordinary law inadequate to a successful conflict with the National League ; and if they do, they should at once call Parliament together and demand fresh powers. Moreover, they should, in deference to the decision of the people given in the recent Elections, announce publicly their intention of making the Union a reality, —as well by the requisite agrarian reforms as by defeating the conspiracy which pervades so large a part of Ireland against the authority of existing laws. Without some such formal announcement of policy as this, the electors will feel that the due respect has not been paid to the will of the constituencies. What is to be feared is that the Government wish to gain time for further vacillation. Now, Lord Salisbury had enough time to vacillate in, during his last term of office, and his vacillation did him no good. Ireland is far more likely to be manageable if, with quiet firmness, he declares his resolve to cement the Union instead of breaking it up, and to defeat any combination intended to break it up, than if he takes up an attitude of reserve, which will probably mean, and will certainly be construed to mean, irresolution. It is neither necessary nor desirable to talk of "coercion ;" but it is both necessary and desirable to let Ireland know that if the new Government does not succeed in defeating the conspiracy against the law by the means now at their disposal, they will not lose another autumn without demanding more. Time gained to hesitate in, at such a crisis as this is time lost, and worse than lost. It is of no use that the electors of Great Britain are resolved, if they cannot Slid a resolute Government to give effect to their resolve.
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