TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE English people have many fine qualities, but a steady reasonableness is not one of them. They cannot emu- late the Scotch and Welsh here for a moment. The Scotch and Welsh are both very religious, but they can see what really injures religion and what does not, and are not misled by superficial appearances. The English, on the other hand, are subject to somewhat spasmodic impulses, and like bolting horses, are very apt to take the bit between their teeth, when they find that it guides them in a direction in which they do not want to go. The dislike to Mr. Bradlaugh,—founded, we believe, even more on other publications of his than on his atheistic opinions,—has been so rampant in many constituencies, that English Members, no doubt sharing this dislike to the full, and caring very little how far they could or could not justify on principle the vote which they wished to give against him, have done Mr. Bradlaugh a very great service, in the effort to express their aversion. They have set him up as a perse- cuted man for another spell of two or three years, and have given all the vogue they can to those peculiar opinions on the subject of religion and morality for which they desire to express their loathing. They have -done a very foolish thing, whether they voted against the Affirmation Bill, or whether they adopted that very weak and unmeaning course of re- fusing to give a vote at all ; and before many weeks are over, they will probably bitterly regret the impulse which led them to take the bit between their teeth and bolt. But there will always be plenty of Englishmen to act on irrational impulses, even when they know in their own minds that the impulses on which they act are not sane ones, as they pique themselves on these impulses,—in other words, on the unsteadiness of their own judgments. And the only hope is that as the influence of education is brought to bear more and more upon England, Englishmen will feel less proud of their unconquerable disposition to ignore the bridle of reason, and bolt under the influence of panic where it is least safe for them to go. We are aware, of course, that these remarks do not in all probability apply to such Members as Messrs. Fitzwilliam, Sir E. Watkin and Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens. They have voted with their eyes open, no doubt from sheer dislike to the Government, and not from dislike to a particular application of the principles of religious liberty. But it was the impulsiveness of their constituents that alone rendered it safe for them,— safe, at least, in their own estimation,—to express their dis- like to the Government in this way ; and so long as the English people are what they are, they will constantly furnish excuses to their representatives for helping the cause they would prefer to defeat, and undermining the cause they want to help. English public opinion has none of the steadiness of Scotch and Welsh public opinion. Liberals in Wales and Scotland know what they mean and do it, and so do the Conservatives. In England, neither Liberals nor Conservatives, as a Party, always know exactly what they mean ; and even if they do, they will some- times follow their humour, and do the opposite. Their con- victions are only some of the elements on which they act. Not unfrequently, they will act against their convictions to express an irrational but overwhelming aversion. Some of the English and many of the Ulster Liberals have acted thus on the occasion of the Affirmation Bill, and if we judge rightly, the result will be most mischievous to the cause they have at heart. We do not in the least blame the Irish Home-rulers, Catholic or otherwise, for seizing the occa- sion to do what they think will injure a Government which they cannot forgive for its various efforts to do justice to Ireland. They have acted on the supreme instinct of their political being, and by that they are to themselves justified. But the English and Ulster Liberals have, by their desertion or abstention, done all in their power to weaken the hands of the only Government from which they can get the measures they really want, and that, too, with the result of extending the power of the man whose mischievous influence over the country they wish to blot out. They will soon repent their blunder, and their constituents will repent it still sooner. For we regard the vote of Thursday night as likely to cripple the Government very materially, not only in its conflict with obstruction, but in its general moral influence.
We conclude that after Sir Stafford Northcote's pointed remark that he deprecated the attempt to discuss the question on party lines, there is on neither side of the House the smallest wish to make a political crisis out of the defeat of the Government. Why the Conservatives do not wish this, it is not very easy to see. Probably Sir Stafford Northcote 'mows that a dissolution on an all but accidental question of this sort, even if he could force one, would give him a follow- ing of a very unsatisfactory kind ; and perhaps his ascend- ency in the councils of the party is not yet securely enough established over that of Lord Salisbury to render an immediate crisis desirable. But however this may be, it is clear that Sir Stafford in his very moderate speech of Thursday night did intend to deprecate as much as possible any party aspect for the division, and it is obvious enough that the Liberals will not court an appeal to the country on a matter on which the drift even of Liberal opinion is so vacillating and capricious. But none the less. it seems to us idle to deny that the Government have received a blow from the effects of which they will hardly recover before they have gone to the constituencies again, and that their own policy should now be shaped with the view of rendering possible an appeal to the country as speedily as is consistent with the pledges they have already given. We do not for a moment think that they should give up the Tenant-farmers' Compensa- tion Bill, for that is a matter on which their oppo- nents will hardly venture to join serious battle ; and it is,- moreover, one of great urgency in the present condition of agriculture. It is most desirable, too, that the common impression of the indifference of the Liberals to the welfare of the farmers, should not be confirmed by any apathy on a practical matter so pressing and so definite, and we earnestly hope that this measure will be pressed on with all convenient speed. But as regards the rest of the Government programme, we hold that they would do well to drop all reforms which essentially require a strong and united party,—like the Government of London Bill, for instance,—and which are not very well under- stood by the public at large, in favour of those on the character of which a very strong opinion will be formed by both parties in the country, and on which an appeal to the country is far from improbable. We all saw in the Government, of 1869-74 how completely the defeat of the Govern- ment on the Irish University Bill paralysed it for general work, and how soon after that defeat the collapse came. If the Government go on with a long pro- gramme of measures of somewhat local significance, for passing which they require great authority, without possessing it, they will fritter away their influence, as they did in 1873. The only course to be pursued now, as it seems to us, is to prepare as soon as possible the greater political measures promised by the Government,—especially the County Fran- chise Bill and the Redistribution Bill,—and thereby to- quicken the popular interest felt in an Administration which has suffered this serious shock. No Government in England undergoes a blow of this kind without suffering in influence, and we do not believe that even Mr. Gladstone's Government will be an exception. The vote of the House of Commons has declared that, in the opinion of the majority of that House, the effort which the Government made to defend the cause of religious liberty was not demanded by the circumstances, and partook rather of the nature of unjustified sympathy for Mr. Bradlangh than of respect for the principles of religious liberty. We all know, of course that this opinion is a false- opinion. We all know that kr. Gladstone, in his mag- nificent speech, expounded the true ground for the action of the Government; but it is impossible for a Government which has failed to convince the House of Commons of this, to com- mand the same influence after the hostile vote as it com- manded before it. The only wise course, -therefore, is to press on as soon as possible the larger political measures with which the Government is identified, and to appeal to the people, if necessary, upon the character of those measures. Let us not again make the mistake of allowing the confidence of the country to ooze away in driblets, while the Government is pressing on difficult and complicated measures, the significance of which will not be fully realised in the provinces, though they expose a great surface to the opposition of open foes and of disaffected allies. A shaken Government should concentrate its efforts on those larger issues on which alone the country will rally to its aid.
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