THE NEW SCHOOL OF CONSERVATISM.
WE Liberal-Unionists are in such close community of interest with our Conservative allies that we have the strongest possible motive for following with attention the evolution of their political character ; and at the same time, being free from any organic connection with them, we are in a peculiarly favourable position for observing the dominant currents of Conservative opinion. That a very great change has taken place in the character and policy of the party within the last few years, and that this change is mainly to be attributed to the alliance with the Liberal-Unionists, no one denies ; but it is to be noted that even by Conservatives the new development is usually regarded as a merely superficial and temporary adoption of Liberal opinions dictated by political opportunism, though opportunism far removed from that of the ordinary time- serving type. To some extent this, no doubt, is true in the case of the older men, who were nurtured and had grown to eminence in the old traditions. With them the change has been of the nature of a compromise to which they have been compelled by the need of conciliat- ing the Liberal opponents of Home-rule. But the point to which we wish to call attention is that around the older men a new growth of Conservatism has been arising, in which the new views are not artificially superadded to the old traditions, but in which both are combined in living organic union. The resulting political type has a character quite different from that either of the older Liberals, or of the former generation of Tories. In some ways it is superior to both. The new Conservatism is at once pro- gressive and traditional ; it is deeply imbued with that true historical feeling which looks to the past not in the spirit of reaction, but as a basis for construction in the future ; and, to a great extent, it is free both from the taint of narrowness and selfishness which has always clung to Toryism, and from the sterilising influence of that self- confident but dreary and soulless utilitarianism which has too often impoverished the heart and intellect of Liberals.
We are describing something which is hardly yet sufficiently developed for strict definition ; but that such a school of Conservatism is forming itself, and that it is the school which must increase while others decrease, becomes more and more apparent. It is no mere transient product of the agitation for the Union, or of any other momentary necessity, but is deeply rooted in the political needs of the time, and is sure to prove enduring. If the Home-rule catastrophe had never occurred, the pressure of the new democratic order would of itself have tended to produce some such revolution in the character and policy of Conservatism, though in that case the revolution might have been less dramatic in its origin and slower in its pro- gress. As it is, however, the stress of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy and the alliance with Liberal Unionism have been the chief factors in the new development. From that alliance, and from its absorption of the middle classes, which, even before 1886, had been proceeding, the Con- servative Party of to-day has imbibed, in addition to what was good in its own traditions, much of what was best in the Liberal traditions as well. It has all the strength that comes to it from its long connection with the counties, the home and source of what is best in the English character; and, at the same time, its recently acquired hold on the great towns has substituted breadth for the narrow- ness of the country, and has tempered the adventurous extravagances of aristocratic Toryism by the infusion of the practical and commercial spirit of the middle classes. Just as the Liberal Party was, on the whole, the best organ for the government of England through- out the greater part of the half-century following the first Reform Act, while many glaring abuses had still to be corrected and the State to be placed on wider foundations, so we are inclined to think that a Conserva- tive Party of the kind we have described will be found best suited to the needs of the time before us. Our needs now are constructive ; there are no obvious and unques- tionable abuses and restrictions to be swept away ; it is a time for cautious and gradual advance. The Liberal movement has degenerated into a movement of disintegra- tion, and it is only in the Conservative Party that a basis for construction can be found. While the Liberal ascendency lasted, the function of the Conservatives was merely negative,—to oppose, sometimes wisely, more often unwisely, the slow but irresistible current of revolution which, under Liberal guidance, was con- ducting us to the democratic goal. In that direction, however, we have now reached our limits. Such faddist proposals as " One man, one vote," or the abolition of all property qualification, though they are necessary to giving theoretic completeness to the democratic character of our suffrage, are not, we think, likely to have much attraction for the English mind, and, at all events, their adoption would not mean any great alteration of the pre- sent conditions. Our Government is now substantially a complete democracy, and the Conservatives are showing a praiseworthy readiness to accept that fact with all the good and evil that it implies. They realise that their true policy is not to thwart the democracy in all its aims, but to guide and educate it, and to enlist on the side of their party such Conservative in- stincts as it possesses. These, we believe, are neither few nor feeble. We should not be surprised if, in the long-run, the chief disadvantage of democratic rule proved to be its rigidity and immobility rather than its changeableness, though, till the movement against property and the first outburst of general destructive- ness have spent their force, the danger is all on the other side. While this danger threatens us, the mission of Con- servatism is to preserve the shelter of a Constitution over our heads, to elevate gradually the democracy to a sense of politi- cal prudence and responsibility, and to inspire it with that traditional spirit and that consciousness of noble national life in which it is still so wanting. The possession of such a mission is a high privilege for a party, and is a great advance on the merely negative attitude and political-brake functions of the past. Conservatism as a political creed has, in this way, received a moral and intellectual basis such as it never before possessed, and its changed status is attested by the steady drift towards it of all the best intelligence of the time, a drift which was at one time equally well marked in the direction of Liberalism. Liberalism, even the degenerate Liberalism of to-day, is still indeed strengthened in some degree by the memory of its former strength, and Conservatism in like manner weakened by the memory of its former weakness; but this will not long continue. The demo- cracy will soon learn to distinguish between the party from which comes solid and practical, if unpretentious, work, and the party which lives on vague promises and devotes its energies to the pursuit of political will- o'-the-wisps. When we have defeated Home-rule—and it is only on that supposition that we should have any heart for looking into the political future—the super- stitious belief in Liberal infallibility will receive its death- blow.
Much of what is best in the new Conservatism is never- theless a heritage from the older and purer Liberalism, but one element of strength it possesses which, it must be admitted, is of purely native growth. That spirit of reverence and loyalty which, as it were, consecrates the institutions of temporal government and clothes them with a religious sanction, is in the main a Tory tradition. Liberals have always been too much absorbed in sweeping away abuses, to have opportunity for the cultivation of such a spirit, which might only, in any case, have sapped their energy for the necessary work of bold and unhesitating reform. Limitations, however, even if temporarily a source of strength, sooner or later make themselves felt ; and a little more of this spirit might have saved the party from embarking on its recent course of wilful destructiveness. The Tories, it must be confessed, never succeeded in expressing this sentiment of religious reverence with much attractiveness, or in giving to it much purity or elevation. With them, the true faith usually degenerated into an idolatrous superstition, consecrating wrong and stupidity, and placing obstacles in the way of intelligence and justice. Nevertheless, one feels that even in the extravagance of divine right there is something not wholly false, and something which is more than ever needful at the present time, If the new Conservatism can succeed in giving more perfect expression to this spirit of reverence and loyalty, if it can succeed in surrounding our ancient institutions with the glamour of religion and imagination, and in teaching the democracy that they are not to be mended and tinkered according to the dictates of a cold utilitarian logic, or at the suggestion of every chance in- convenience, it will have gained for itself a new and fruit- ful source of influence, and further claims to the admiration and respect of all good citizens.
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