NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Tit English boroughs have elected their representatives; many of the counties have done so ; returns are dropping in from Ire- land and Scotland ; and altogether some two thirds of the House of Commons has sprung into political existence.
Various have been the speculations as to the probable composi- tion of the new House; the Morning Chronicle being the most 'specific in its estimate. According to the classification adopted by that journal, the last House, consisted of 283 " Liberals," 112 " Peelites," and 263 " Protectionists": and if the remaining elections carry out the promise of the earlier half, the next House will have 333 Liberals, 97 Peelites, 228 Protectionists.
Other speculators have thrown discredit on these calculations; which did not profess, indeed, to go for much. In the first place, it is said, Yes, the boroughs show a Liberal gain; but look to the counties. Now the counties, it may be answered, could not well be worse than they were, and there are some signs that any change will be for the better. North Lancashire, for instance, sends the Radical Free-trader Mr. Heywood to the seat once occupied by Lord George Bentinck's lieutenant, Lord Stanley, and more recently by. Mr. Talbot Clifton, a Conservative. And elsewhere there seems to be a decided yielding in the obduracy of county Toryism. Again, it is said that the number of new and unknown men is considerable enough to cast great doubt upon any calculation which attempts to be specific.
A still more fatal objection is, the utter confusion of party dis- tinctions even among the older elements of the House. Of those classed-as " Liberalii," how is it possible to reckon the proportion who would follow, through thick and thin, a Government called " Liberal," if that Government be no more actively Liberal than it was last session ? Of those called " Peelites," how many are to be reckoned as differing from Liberals ? It is blinding one's perception of all that has passed in the last six years, to presume that there will be any real antagonism between "Liberals" and the genuine followers of Sir Robert Peel ; or to assume that a Whig Government will make progress so bold and rapid as to provoke resistance from the said Peelites. Any classification based on such grounds is a wilful ignoring of what we all know. Prima facie, the " Peelites" and 'Liberals" may be considered as one parly, with the "Protectionists" or Tories as an Oppo- sition.
But even that classification would mislead ; since the ultimate disposition of parties in the House must mainly depend on the measures introduced to it ; and meanwhile the confusion of parties is such as to render any classification purely imaginary and pro- fitless. It is for that reason that in our lists of Members elected we last week abandoned the idea of marking any kind of distinction. There is in the very nature of things a tendency to new and un- experienced combinations. For example, an approximation be- tween the central nuclei of the Liberal and Peel sections would probably be accompanied by a corresponding centrifugal tendency on the part of the opposite extremes. Yet divers contingencies— the arising of any peremptory exigency, or the offering of any decided, able, and palpably beneficial policy—might at once con- solidate both the extremes round either centre.
We are the slave of conventional terms and of obsolete associa- tions if we suffer ourselves to retain the notion that all professed "Liberals" are more advanced in their opinions than many "Con- servatives." Take the two titular leaders of the two parties to illustrate the mistake. Lord John Russell is a " Liberal " ; a leading Whig principle is " reform "' but Lord John Russell re- gards reform as a thing accomplished. He has indeed disclaimed the_" finality " that he once avowed; but his whole course of ac- tion shows a reluctance to move further ; and although he will not adhere to the term, it is not to be concealed that he is inclined to regard the Reform Bill as final. To preserve is the professed
principle of the Conservative party—to improve if needful, but as a means of preserving. But that subsidiary process of improve- ment is clogged with no dogma of finality ; and in fact, the Con- servative improvers have gone much faster than professed reform- ers. Lord Lansdowne explains great reforms, according to the Whig view, measures to be prepared by the struggles of ages— urged with the "coy, reluctant, amorous delay" of whole gene- rations. The Whigs are always for reform—in the next century. The Conservatives deprecate change—until it is inevitable ; which it may prove to be tomorrow. Nor is all that we class as Liberalism really deserving of the name. It is not Liberalism which has ousted Mr. Hawes from Lambeth, or Mr. Macaulay from Edinburgh ; but sectarianism. The rejected candidates were more liberal than the rejecters : many Conservatives who begin to perceive the necessity of na- tional education are far in advance of the so-called Liberals and Radicals who ousted Colonel Fox in the Tower Hamlets or Mr. Roebuck at Bath.
Amid all the lax opinion and lax practice of Parliament, one high moral feeling has gained hold of legislators in numbers which are increasing—that any measure which appears beneficial to the people, or beneficial to any considerable portion and not in- jurious to others, deserves respectful consideration at least, and support or opposition strictly according to conscientious convic- tion. A Whig contemporary has justly remarked the crossing and recrossing of divisions on various questions in the last Parlia- ment; the usual party distinctions being quite lost. The same peculiarity is likely to be observed in an augmented degree in the next Parliament; and its effect will be carried still further by the multiplication of new questions. Take any of the unsettled clues"- tions now before the public, or any likely to arise ; take the muster-roll of the new Parliament ; try to make out a probable division-list ; and then see if your division in any way corre- sponds with the old, or even the newer classification of parties. Whyoverysuch supposititious division-list would indicate a special classification.
A marked and very decided change has no doubt taken place ; but it is one which cannot be set forth by arithmetical figures. It consists in the new footing on which old Members resume their old seats or pass to new ones. For example, Mr. Wilson Patten, elected by North Lancashire as a Protectionist Tory, re- ceives a renewal of his tenure as a " Peelite " or Liberal Conser- vative. The whole class of reelected Peelites are in the same po- sition : their progress has been accompanied by that of their con- stituencies • and, without the distinct transfer of any constituency to new hands, the whole class has been lifted up bodily and transferred to a totally different position. Even the stanch Pro- tectionists assume a new tone : Mr. Disraeli, Sir John Tyrell, and many others, declare that they will not struggle for repeal of the new Corn-law—they relinquish their old position. It is waste of pains to test the Liberalism of the new Parliament by splitting it into classes under old titles, not only because such distinctions have lost their force, but also because the whole body of the new Legislature occupies advanced ground.
This sufficiently obvious fact has one bearing of incalculable importance : it entirely alters the relation between individual statesmen and the whole mass of the Legislature. Those states- men who perceive and adopt the alteration—who frame mea- sures in accordance with the growing demands for reality, ear- nestness, substance, and mastery—will acquire an immense in- crease to their power. Those who are blind to the general advance—who remain where they were before the tide had flowed—who think that measures contrived for appearance' sake may still serve—will find nothing but mortification and defeat. Such statesmen can have only one kind of success—that of more disorganizing instead of reorganizing the Legislature. In such case, the new Parliament would be a short Parliament, with a mortified and barren history.
