Rumours have been circulated during the week that if the
Government were to be defeated they would not resign but instantly dissolve. That is, of course, absurd. It involves, to begin with, a charge of want of patriotism against the Govern- ment which they have done nothing whatever to deserve, and which it is in our opinion monstrously unjust to bring against them. To throw the country at this moment into the turmoil of a General Election would be an act which could only be described as criminal. But, as a matter of fact, no such action could take place, even if it were contemplated. Remember,if the Government were to be beaten it would not be by their politi- cal foes, but in reality by their own followers. What would then happen ? Say that the Ministry—though we hold it im- possible—did not resign, but simply advised her Majesty to dissolve. She would most certainly do nothing of the kind till she had first consulted other prominent statesmen, and those statesmen at such a crisis would clearly advise against dissolution, and would, we doubt not, agree to carry on the Queen's Government. Dissolution, involving six weeks' general paralysis, will certainly not be allowed by the Queen, the House of Commons or the nation at the present juncture, and therefore the matter is really not worth arguing about. No man who had agreed to the policy of dissolution, or had not done his best to prevent it, would get twenty votes at the polls.
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