TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT.
T"position in which the Government stand at the end of this anomalous Session—for in spite of the adjournment, the legislative Session at all events is at an end,—is, perhaps, the most anomalous thing in our recent history. They have lost by resignation two of the weightiest of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues ; they have carried nothing of great importance, except two Irish measures, one repressive and one supplementary to the legis- lation of last Session ; they have been forced into war without the help of the ally with whom they were identified during the whole course of the immediate antecedents of the war ; they have had to raise the Income-tax, to provide means for the war ; they have failed to secure the mandate of Europe for their operations in 'Egypt, though their whole policy has been based on the effort to secure the concert of Europe ; further, they have not reformed as yet the Procedure of the House of Commons and the Prime Minister has not only admitted, but emphatically declared, that that House is
reduced to legislative impotence. And yet they are a much stronger Government at the close of the Session than they were at the opening ; the country has more confidence in them than at any time since the first formation of the Cabinet; and the magnitude of Mr. Gladstone's political power is not only the envy of all his rivals, but is the common talk of Europe.
To a very great extent, the anomaly explains itself. It was the known and profound reluctance of Mr. Gladstone to go to war which probably more than anything else obtained for his Government a certain depreciatory estimate in the Press of Europe, as well as a contemptuous treatment from the Tories of the United Kingdom. Of course with the giving- :way of that reluctance under an urgent pressure of necessity, the depreciatory tone abroad and the high-sniffing tone in England have necessarily ceased,—indeed, more than ceased, because with the war has come the incidental revelation, which only the war could have brought, of the high effi- ciency of all the Departments charged with the duty of making war. It is felt that Mr. Gladstone's selection of Lord Northbrook for the Navy, and of Mr. Childers for the Army, has been a singularly wise selection ; that, reluctant as England under him is to make war, England has never, for generations back, been so competent to make war efficiently as she now is ; and the knowledge of this fact, of course, increases, and very justly increases, the respect in which Mr. Gladstone's states- manship is held. Here, at last, as Europe sees, is a Minister to whom war is genuinely abhorrent, but who none the less, if he feels compelled by duty to commence it, can wage it in a masterly fashion which takes the sting out of the historical' taunt against "England the Unready." It is remembered that when Lord Aberdeen had to go to war, there was no such readiness. It is remembered that when Lord Beacons- field expected war, whether there was such readiness or not, there was an ostentation and boastfulness concerning "the three campaigns " which did not look like modest confid- ence. But in this case, there has been no unreadiness, and yet no boastfulness; • promptitude and decision when the final moment arrived, and no attempt to discount it by hectoring while there was still a hope of securing all the objects of war without its disasters. Of course, all these things tell on the European repute of Mr. Gladstone's Administration. Europe cannot help remarking that the statesman who was given credit for shrinking from every threat of war, has been found singularly equal to the emergency when the necessity for war came. Then Mr. Bright's resignation,—deserved]y great as is the people's respect for Mr. Bright,—absolutely strengthened the Administration, so soon as the necessity for war was clear, The English people do not like to have discordant elements in a Ministry. And for a man of avowed Peace principles to remain a member of a War Administration would have suggested to all England the fear lest the war, once begun, might not be energetically carried out. Again, the contrast between the promptitude of England and the vacillations of France, has necessarily increased the reputation of Mr. Gladstone's Government. To some extent, we think that France has suffered unjust imputations in the matter. We have no fear of Germany before our eyes to make us quail in our duty, for we are safe in our island, and moreover, have no reason at all to fear the jealousy of Germany. It is not unnatural,—it is even not unreasonable,—that the French democracy, having suffered as it did in 1870, should not be willing to run the slightest risk of any such calamity again.. But whatever the explanation,—and we admit a sufficient explanation,—for the timidity and unreadiness of France, of course the contrast between M. de Freycinet's inaction or M. Duclerc's inaction, and Mr. Gladstone's action, cannot but redound to the reputation of Mr. Gladstone. The wonder, perhaps, is that what has added so much to the repute of Mr. Gladstone's Government abroad, and amongst the Tories, has not diminished it amongst the Radical constituencies of England, who rose up with so much might against the Jingoism of Lord Beaconsfield. But here Mr. Gladstone reaps the fruits of that matchless " earnestness " with which his enemies continually reproach him, so that Lord Beaconsfield. is credited with the epigram "that Mr. Gladstone has not one single redeeming vice." The constituencies have caught the significance of that earnestness, and they trust the man. When Mr. Gladstone says that the expedition to Egypt is necessary, they believe him, and believe also that he under- takes it with reluctance, and under a strong sense of duty. Hence, it is because Mr. Gladstone is the Minister whom every one knew to be so utterly averse to aggression' that even great Radical constituencies trust him now when he assures them that his action in Egypt is not one of aggression. He now gains the full advantage of his reputation for never crying "Wolf !" even though there might have been some reasonable suspicion that the wolf was near, until he had the means of knowing that the wolf was at hand. If any other Minister had assured the English people that a war in Egypt was necessary to secure the free passage of the gates between Europe and Asia, and to prevent the reckless oppression of the Egyptian people, the con- stituencies would have doubted, and some of them would have revolted against the Government. But it is Mr. Gladstone who tells them so, and in Mr. Gladstone they have implicit trust.
The same profound personal confidence of the country in Mr. Gladstone is visible in relation to the Irish policy of the Session, and to the proposals for the reform of Procedure which are still in the future. Mr. Forster's secession, accom- panied as it was by the introduction of a measure for which Mr. Parnell and his colleagues were clamouring, would have shaken to its fall a much stronger Government than many of those of recent years. No one can say that the most was not made of "the Kilmainham Treaty," that Lord Salisbury and his colleagues did not manipulate it in, every form in which it could be made to assume the appear- ance of discredit and disgrace ; and yet no one can say that they produced any impression on the country. The fact that Mr. Gladstone was at one and the same time pressing forward, with all his wonted earnestness, measures for detecting and preventing crime, and measures for relieving the misery and remedying the injustice which are the most permanent of the roots of crime, struck the imagination of the country so powerfully, that in spite of Mr. Forster's secession, in spite of the appearance of co-operation with Mr. Par- nell, in spite of the gloom caused by the assassinations in Dublin, and in spite of the wrath produced by the persistent obstruction in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone received a loyal support in the country which enabled him to achieve a triumph at once over the Irish malcontents and the angry majority in the Peers, and to end the Session with Lord Salisbury gnashing his teeth over the desertion of his supporters, and speaking of himself almost as an owl in the desert, or a sparrow sitting alone upon the house- top, to whom no one was disposed to hearken but himself. The great majority in the Commons was never more united than in the last phase of this great struggle ; the great majority in the Lords was never more disunited.
It is a curious spectacle this, of a Ministry which has lost three of its ablest and one of its most popular members, and is almost the stronger for their loss ; of a Ministry which can only carry two important measures in a most laborious Session, and is all the more respected for its steady though ineffectual , struggles ; of a Ministry, at the head of which stands a man who has just done the last thing he was expected to do,— engaged the country in war,—and is all the more trusted for his defiance of all expectation. The truth, nevertheless, is that in all these things Mr. Gladstone is reaping what he has sown. He soared in times of disaster, difficulty, and depression, the Most ample evidence that he would not depart from principle for any ambitious adventure, however fascinating ; and now he is reaping his harvest in the confidence of England that what he does is required by principle, and will be justified by his far-sighted sagacity and his scrupulous self-restraint.
Previous page
