IMPATIENCE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The letter of your correspondent " Workman" in the Spectator of September 28th conveys a truth which is too much lost sight of, a truth which needs to be dwelt upon in season and out of season. Impatience is the deadly foe of Improvement. Ever since Robert Lowe shrieked " We must educate our Masters "—the newly enfranchised residuum of 1869—impatience has been the keynote of the political concert —or discord ! The present political chaos—characteristically manifested, as " Workman " puts it, in the result of Midlothian —began with the State schooling of 1870. As any one with real political foresight might have predicted, this measure of incipient Socialism was as the letting out of water. It would be asking too much space if I tried to enumerate all the measures for improving the condition of the people which grew out of State schooling ; but your correspondent has uttered one epigram which tells the whole story. "Your free education ends in the cine- matograph entertainment " ! " Workman " also says, " The culminating factor of the present unrest may or may not be the Insurance Bill "—which, by the way, he ought to have called the Insurance Act—but whether "culminating" or not, assuredly it is an object-lesson in impatience. In short, all improvement must come from within, not from without ; from the people, not from Parliament. Impatience cries out for measures like the Insurance Act, which began to break down before it had been enacted. I know not whether "Workman" anticipates a Unionist victory at the General Election, whenever that comes, but I do hope for such a victory, because (besides every other reason) the Unionist Party is homogeneous. A coalition is like the dog that is "wagged by his tail." A united party can adopt a policy of patience, which is the only policy suited to the time. What are called constructive policies are policies of impatience.
Unluckily there is a section of the Unionist Party which is only too eager to outbid and "dish" the Socialist-Separatist Coalition by dint of something they call a constructive policy, which if carried out would end as constructive policies hitherto have ended—in disaster. It is written, " In returning to rest shall ye be saved—in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Must I complete the quotation ?—I am, Sir, &c., FREEDOM AND PATIENCE.
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