TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A GOVERNMENT WHO ARE NOT GOVERNING. THE Government are in a position of peril. On Tuesday night their majority, not in a snap vote, but in an arranged division, fell to 23, and this though the Unionists, who did not expect anything crucial, had not mustered in very, great force. The Liberal papers are full of explanations of how and why these things have hap- pened, but it must be confessed that they are not very illuminating. The real reason why the Government are tottering, and why, in spite of their apparent strength, it is quite possible that they may come to grief within the next few weeks, is a simple one. It was recently expressed in a sentence by an able and impartial " watcher by the tide." " The Government," he said, "are not governing." The Government are asleep, or mad, or bemused, or have fallen from the box—no one can exactly say which, for it is im- possible to see inside a hooded van, and of such make is a Cabinet. All we can see is that the reins are loose on the horses' backs, and that they are galloping along, swerving first to the right and then to the left, as masterless horses always do. It is all Lombard Street to a China orange that sooner or later they will come into collision with something and be upset. No doubt luck often seems to befriend runaways, but usually destruction overtakes them in the end. They miss an omnibus by a hairbreadth. They swerve to the right just in time to avoid a coster's barrow. They are back again to the left side of the road so quickly that they only just avoid the dray which is lumbering up the middle. They gallop furiously down a straight stretch, by a miracle touching nothing in their mad career. Then come even more intricate threadings of the traffic and hairbreadth escapes. Not seldom fate does not contrive a catastrophe till the bystanders have given up holding their breath and con- elude that the runaways have got through safely. The last obstacle is passed, the road seems practically clear in front, and then the team whose luck has enabled them to avoid much greater dangers run up against the kerb, or turn suddenly and sharply down a side road, and over goes the van. " Smashed, by Jingo !" cries the crowd, as Mr. Stead cried in a famous leading article written on the sudden upset of Mr. Gladstone's Government on a Budget resolution in 1884. The Government had a very near shave on Tuesday, and though it is possible that luck may still befriend them, it is, in our opinion, very much more likely that the political crowd will be shouting " Smashed, by Jingo ! " before we are half-way through August.
The fact that the Government are not governing and that the reins are on the horses' backs can be proved in a dozen different ways. The Government have no policy and no plan of action. Ministers do not know, no one knows, what the policy of the Cabinet is as regards the Amending Bill. They only know that they dare not pass the Home Rule Bill as it stands without fitting to it some kind of safety-valve. But they have not settled even among themselves whether they will exclude all Ulster or only the six counties. They have not decided definitely to abandon the time-limit, and as to how they are going to satisfy Mr. Redmond they have not the least idea. They have not a notion how they will act supposing the Ulstermen lose patience, or some untoward event takes place, say, on July 12th. Whether they dare coerce Ulster, and if they dare how they are going to do it, is a sealed book to them. Again, they have no considered plan of action if the body which they at first thought was going to be so useful to them, the National Volunteers, begins to be trouble- some. They have not even thought of an answer to such elementary questions as what they are going to do if, as seems extremely probable, the Nationalist Parliamentary Party urges them to withdraw their prohibition of the entry of arms into Ireland. One might have supposed that, since any sane Government's first principle must be to pre- vent recourse to civil war, and, therefore, to retain entirely in their own hands that essential mark of sovereignty, the ordering of armed men, they would at any rate keep lethal weapons out of the bands of the contending parties in Ireland. Yet it is said that the Government have quite seriously considered the withdrawal of their proclamation iu regard to the importation of rifles and ammunition. They dare not run the risks involved in keeping rifles out of Ulster, and they are frightened by the Nationalist plea that it is not fair to let Ulster arm and prevent the South and West from arming also.
The Government have so long had no policy for Ireland except that of keeping the Irish Nationalist vote on their side at all costs that we may be accused of hashing up stale news in dwelling upon this point. But it is equally clear that the Government have no policy in regard to the Budget, a matter concerning which hitherto they can claim always to have been " gloriously -wrong " and "splendidly mendacious." Yet at this moment no man can tell whether they really mean to give a good thumping grant in aid of the rates, or whether they are going to throw a sop to the Single Tax men by creating a. system of municipal taxation on site values. No doubt Mr. Lloyd George's original idea was that, having foozled the Imperial Site Values Tax, he would try whether he could not do better by taking a new patent ball and making a fresh start from the municipal tee. But if that was the official policy when the Budget was introduced, who dare say what the policy is now ? So many thimbles have been put on the table that it is very doubtful whether the arch-conjuror himself knows where the pea is. Some people, indeed, believe that he has lost it altogether. Equally uncertain is the Government's plan for dealing with such problems as rural housing—the great land boom has apparently gone over- board altogether. No doubt the Government, true to their rule, "When in doubt introduce expensive legislation and more taxation," rushed a Housing Bill into Parliament on Wednesdav, but one has only got to read Mr. Runciman's account of it -to know that it is a razor meant to sell and not to shave. The Government have, in reality, not a glimmer of a ghost of an idea how to provide the cheap cottages about which they talk. Probably the new Bill will never get through, or, if it does, no cottages will ever be built under it ; but we venture to say that if by a miracle any are built they will cost the Government at least £250 per cottage all told. But if such cottages are to be let without loss to the State this will mean that the tenants will have to pay at least 5s. a week for them—a pleasant prospect, even if the Government were to contrive to secure £1 a week as the minimum wage for all rural labourers.
We could add almost indefinitely to the list of matters in which the Government are not governing and have no policy, but we shall trouble our readers with only one more item. The Government do not even know whoa they are going to get their summer holidays—a, matter about which most men have come to some sort of decision by the middle of July. Here the conflict of opinion, the riot of indecision, the hubbub of contending plans, are almost deafening. One section of the Liberal Party shrieks that there shall be no autumn Session in any case. Another section swears that it would be impossible for them to sit on all through August and September without disaster, and this they must certainly do if they are not to have an autumn Session. Some say that the best way out is not an autumn Session, but an adjournment at the beginning of August till tha first of October. Again, others say that the true way will be to drop all the new proposals in the Budget, and merely carry on financially on the basis of last year, plus liberal promises as to the wonderful things which will be done in the Budget of 1915. Probably this plan, which would allow for an early prorogation, would be the wisest, but there is a formidable obstacle—Mr. Lloyd George will not consent to it. He still believes that high taxation and the squandering of untold money upon valuations and phantom land taxes which produce sums equivalent to the square root of minus one are exceedingly popular with his fellow- countrymen. Invincible optimist as he is, he is understood to have at last come to the conclusion that his popularity has been a little damaged by the Marconi scandal and the Insurance Act, and he therefore clings passionately to the notion of rehabilitating himself.by_ ,a beautiful new Budget. To give up the fragments which his opponents in the Cabinet have left of his chef d'ceuvre would, he believes, mean the ruin of his reputa- tion. Therefore he is understood to be an advocate of the autumn Session. The Nationalists are, of course, anxious above all things to get the Home Rule Biil, if possible minus the Amending Bill, on to the statute book at the earliest possible date, and to accomplish this they would gladly sit continuously throughout September.
The Government, however, cannot give way to this simple policy. They know well enough that the moment the Home Rule Bill is put upon the statute book their Irish supporters will go back to Ireland. But their support withdrawn from the lobbies would almost certainly mean disaster for the Government. The Government, therefore, dare not finish the Irish Bill before they have got the rest of their business completed. They realize that the moment the Irish Bill is on the statute book they must prorogue Parliament as rapidly as possible. And here comes in another difficulty. The Irish Bill can only be passed over the heads of the Lords under the Parliament Act at the end of a Session. Therefore to pass the Irish Bill at once must mean a prorogation and not an adjourn- ment of the House. If, then, the House is to reassemble in the autumn, the Home Rule Bill will have to be hung up, or the extreme risk run of a Session in which the Irish need not trouble to attend. With all these difficulties before him, we do not wonder that the able Lobby Corre- spondent of the Daily News is bewildered between the various alternatives which he sets forth, and finds it impossible to come to any practical conclusion.
In view of all these circumstances, what should the Opposition do ? Assuredly they should watch and wait. No doubt the policy of watchful waiting has been rather discredited of late, but this is just one of the occasions when it ought to be adopted. The Opposition must be most careful that they do not by some slip on their part give the Government a new lease of life. The saying that the Government are always digging their own grave, and the Opposition are always filling it up, has a certain truth in it, and the Opposition, if they are wise, will determine not to pursue a policy so pleasant to their rivals. After all, the country does not expect an active policy from an Opposition. What it looks to them to do is to stand by and be ready to take service if the Ministry come to grief. Their role is to be ready for an instant call. They must remember also that nothing pulls a Government so much together as a too zealous or a too undiscriminating Opposi- tion. If a Government in a difficulty are left alone, especially a Government so weak as the present one, the masterless hounds will begin fighting amongst themselves. If the Opposition are too active, they are almost certain to give their opponents an excuse for rallying and re- forming their broken ranks. A certain discreet effacement of themselves, while family quarrels are going on on the other side, is the best policy for an Opposition to pursue.
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