Mr. Balfour, in a speech at Wigan on Tuesday, justly
main- tained that when Mr. Gladstone talks of Labour questions, he really means political changes by which the political power of the labourer is to be increased in the constituencies, and not social changes which are intended to better the social condi- tion of the labouring classes. He means "One man, one vote," and a reform of the Registration,—planks in the New- castle Programme which, as Mr. Balfour says, "are likely to remain planks for many a long year, till they are rotted away by the slow lapse of time." As regards social questions affecting the labourer, such as excessive hours of labour, combination laws unfavourable to the labourer, the state of the houses of the poor, and so forth, the Conservatives have really done a great deal more than the Liberals, though they have been a great deal less in power. And it is likely to be so for the future, so long as these great constitutional revolu- tions are always put in the forefront of the Liberal policy. It is impossible to improve the house while you are digging away at the foundations and underpropping its ricketty walls.
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