TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A NONDESCRIPT CONSTITUENCY.
THE Constitution remains in a state of coma. The Govern- ment has no power ; the Opposition is not in power ; the House of Commons is afraid to use power ; and nobody seems to know how that discreditable and inconvenient state of affairs is to be remedied. Will the Government resign, or dissolve now, or dissolve by and by, or hang on waiting the turn of events ? Nobody knows, and the only general impres- sion seems to be that dissolution and no dissolution are equally inconvenient ; that both sides, utterly wearied out, will unite to patch up a constituency ; that an appeal to the new Electors will be made in September ; that a winter session will be held for a fortnight to decide which party is to govern, and that then everything will once again be tolerably plain sailing. Anything, of course, may interrupt this very pretty programme. The House in a sudden fit of self-respect may pluck up courage to lead Mr. Disraeli out by the collar, and leave him to dis- solve if he can and dares in the teeth of his own supporters ; or the Cabinet may be beaten in a way Lord Stanley cannot endure ; or the country may declare unmistakably that it is tired of seeing the Constitution set at naught for the con- venience of one man ; or the Boundary Bill may be thrown overboard ; or some really serious but unexpected question may suddenly compel the majority to risk all hazards rather than see Imperial interests disregarded. But failing any such new feature in the situation, we are inclined to believe that the compromise so loudly whispered about may ultimately be accepted. Mr. Moncrieff seemed to point to it in his question of Tuesday night as to the progress of the Scotch Reform Bill, and Mr. Disraeli certainly pointed to it in his tart demand to be allowed to settle the course of business his own way.
We cannot say we like the prospect at all. The technical difficulties in the way, though no doubt important, could, it is true, if Government were trustworthy, be satisfactorily surmounted. Neither the Irish nor the Scotch Reform Bill presents any insuperable obstacle to an early dissolution, for there ought to be only one division upon each. The county suffrage in Ireland must in fairness be reduced to 81., in order to place it on a level with county suffrage in Great Britain ; but anybody who thinks the Government will either dissolve or go out upon a detail like that does not understand Mr. Disraeli, or his supreme conviction that he can manage a hundred-pound franchise or universal suffrage with equal facility, and very much the same result. There is nothing else to fight about, for the Tories must adhere to the dis- franchising clauses of their Bill, and it is no business of Liberals to help in " grouping " villages like Portarlington in order to keep them alive. In the Scotch Bill, the only moot point is the grant of additional seats to Scotland ; and on that point the Scotch Members have displayed, to their permanent credit be it spoken, the national spirit of moderation. They mean to have the seats, but they know the Liberals neither will nor can desert them, and they are content to wait, secure that the Liberals of the next Parliament will think twice before they ignore the Scottish claim. Sitting down breechless on thistles is not an exhilarating amusement, and Scotland is always tolerably confident that at the end of any great scramble she will be found in possession of her just share, " an' maybe a bittie mair." We do not see indeed why Mr. Baxter's com- promise should not be accepted, as the Tories say they will not resist it,—the cession to Scotland of ten seats taken from the ten smallest boroughs with two members each,—as it will mark out very nicely the boroughs that must be abolished next year, and leave fewer members to fight for them. On the other hand, if the House is honest and determined it can remove most of the registration troubles by mere volition. It can, for instance, decree that every voter otherwise qualified under the Act who presents himself at the booths shall be held for this one election to have personallypaid his rates for twelvemonths, andleave that absurd battle to be fought out afterwards ; can multiply regis- tering officers by ten, can, if need be, settle the fact of house- holding or lodgings-holding by employing the machinery of the Census. It will cost money, but we undertake to say that Sir R. Graham, if he receives the order and the cash, will, in one month, produce a register of every parish in the United King- dom good for all practical purposes, and quite satisfactory to the country. But then we distrust the House of Commons doing anything of the sort. It cannot do it without help from Government, and Mr. Disraeli does not want an honest appeal to the constituencies at all. He wants either a dis- honest appeal, on the " No Popery " cry he has striven to get- up, or an appeal to a nondescript constituency,—the old electorate plus just so many of the residuum as Tory election agents with, in the language of the children's song, " their pockets full of money and their cellars full of beer," can lug,. or drive, or coax, or cajole up to the polling-booths. He has failed in the first object, but if the Liberals are not wide awake and prepared he may succeed in the second, may patch up a constituency which will reject him by only a bare majority. This innovation will be sanctioned, that relaxation allowed, and the other temporary expedient adopted, till the new electors, impeded by forms, harassed by inquiries, fright- ened by threats of taxation, will either recede from the polls, or what is quite as likely, and would be much worse, establish. their claim by a series of riots in every great town. In the counties Liberals need have no fear. There they will have the aid of unpaid but energetic agents, who know everybody„ stick at nothing in the way of exertion, and rather like a little browbeating in the path of duty,—the country Dissenting ministers, who have never had a chance yet, who are as hard as steel, and who may be trusted not to lose their opportunity. Let the lords of the Welsh counties in particular look to it, for they have men to meet whom they have never beaten yet, have to coerce Welshmen on "a question of conscience," certainly not the easiest of earthly undertakings. But in the boroughs the effect of household suffrage may be half neutra- lized by imperfect or fraudulent registration, and if it is neutralized we shall instantly have the new Parliament paralyzed by the cry that it represents nothing. The long interregnum of six years would be continued for three more, and household suffrage would be discredited almost before it had been tried. Surely a dissolution now would be better than this, intolerable as the nuisance would be, discreditable as it is that one man should for his own selfish ambition be permitted thus to harass an entire nation ? It is of the highest importance that the new Parliament, which will have faults and weaknesses of its own, should not be deprived of what may be its highest merit, the power to act with sternness and decision, by a popular belief in the existence of a flaw in its title to represent the nation. How Tories, who know well that for nations there is no retrogression, that the only change now possible in the franchise is to admit every adult male, can risk another such discussion on the bases of power we are wholly unable to conceive. Yet it is they who allow their leader to play tricks which bring, first the party, then the Throne, and then the new House of Commons into conflict with the nation.
We do not see the necessity for a dissolution in September at all. If the Liberal party is not prepared to risk all on a vote of confidence, it should pass the Scotch and Irish Bills, with one great amendment in each, come to terms on the Boundary Bill, and urge on the Suspensory Bill through all its stages with ever increasing majorities, leaving it to be thrown out, as Tories presume it will be, in the Lords. Then, about the middle of August, will be the time for the final and successful attack upon the Government, to be followed, first, by a proro- gation, and then by a dissolution so arranged as to allow of an election in January, when the registers will be ready, and the boundaries all arranged. This, no doubt, will leave Mr. Dis- raeli in power for eight months more, but how is that to be helped if he is determined to adhere to office, and if the House is afraid to encounter the expense of two dissolutions in one year ? It is most discreditable that it should be so, that a man should be able to hold the Premiership in defiance of the body which represents the nation ; but the fault is with that body itself, which has not the courage or the sincerity to express its own convictions and act on its own resolves ; and the evil is a smaller one than an appeal to a packed constituency would be. At all events, if the compromise is to be made, if the Liberals are to tolerate the Government till September on con- dition of a winter session of a House elected by the newly enfranchised, let them make sure that the Householders will not be carefully debarred from voting. There is no flaw in the arrangements of which a Tory agent will scruple to avail himself, the provision for personal payment of rates will admit of endless squabbling, and still more endless appeals, and a Parliament elected by a nondescript constituency of ten-pounders and the lowest householders together,—half the ten-pounders raving with fanaticism and half the house- holders with beer,—mayprove nearly as bad as this one,—worse, it is impossible it should be.
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