AN EXHAUSTED PARTY NAME. [To THE gDITOH Or THR "SPECTATOR. "]
Sin,—We have frequently the advantage of being told that things are what they are ; that their consequences will be what they will be ; and are asked pointedly why we should try to deceive ourselves. The statements of fact are whole- some, and the question admits of only one answer by an honest-minded man. Yet many of us persist in shutting our eyes to the state of things in the Unionist Party, in refusing
to recognise its inevitable consequences, and in endeavouring to deceive ourselves. The plain truth concerning the party is that it has been killed by the Fiscal Reformers, Tariff Reformers, or Protectionists. The rose by all these names smells just as sweet. It was a coalition of Conservatives, Liberals, and Radicals formed to defeat Mr. Gladstone's Home- rule policy. The understanding was that each of the allies was to subordinate particular party wishes to the great common purpose. We need not inquire now which of the three had to make the sacrifices. To-day another and .a very different common purpose has displaced the preservation of the Union from its commanding rank, and has substituted for it some- thing which we may call for short " fisctariteetion," since some of the authors of the change dislike the word " Pro- tection." They have given ample proof that in their opinion the one virtue necessary for political salvation is " fisctari- tection." Some of them have voted for a candidate who avowed his belief in Home-rule and Disestablishment. Many show themselves quite ready to play with Socialism under the name of social reform. The manifest disposition of all of them is to accept anything provided they can thereby forward the happy chance which will rid them of Free-trade. Surely it is absurd to pretend that the party in 'which they dominate is a " Unionist " Party. It is a party which may support the Union in a formal way till it sees a chance of effecting a combinazione with the Nationalists, and which will then swallow Home-rule, with or without some change of name to save its face. We deceive ourselves if we think that any management of Mr. Balfour's can put a hook in the monster's nose. It used to be said that if Mr. Chamberlain died the whole movement he had started would collapse. Mr. Chamberlain is in retirement, and there is unhappily little immediate prospect that he will take an active part in public life again. Yet the movement goes on. Mr. Balfour cannot stop it. He will not stop it in future if be lives. If he were to be removed from the political arena next year, the bemused instincts of selfish interest, which have been too strong for the Unionist leader already, will not be weakened by his disappearance, and will go on driving their dupes on the road they are already travelling. These things being thus, why should those of us who are Unionists because we believe in the value of the Union, and who are Free-traders because we believe that freedom of trade is indispensable to this country, continue to hang on to the skirts of a sham Unionist Party, and endeavour to deceive ourselves by hoping against hope and evidence that some hocus-pocus of Mr. Balfour's will send the Protectionists back to sleep ? Would it not be more profitable. as well as more manly, to take our stand as Conservatives sans phrase, and drop the superfluous " Unionist" ?-
"While three men hold together, The kingdoms are less by three."
A hundred thousand votes may make all the difference between victory and defeat in a General Election. The certainty that they will be cast with decision will have far more effect than poor-spirited attempts to hang on to the debauched Unionist Party in the face of insults.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ETCETERA. THE YOUNGER.
Previous page
