TOPICS OF THE DAY. •
THE FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT.
T,ORD SALISBURY'S Government fell, in the first place, because it wished to fall. In saying this, we do not mean to imply that it was wrong or weak in resigning after its defeat on Mr. Collings's motion. We do not, we confess, see what Conservatism means if Conservatives, after all they have said about Mr. Chamberlain, and all the ridicule they have poured on the offer of " three acres and a cow," are to accept a motion which embodies Mr. Chamberlain's vital principles, and which was supported in speeches such as that of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Chamberlain himself. It is not their business, at all events, whatever Mr. Balfour may think, to endorse the new departure of the Radicals ; and if they had, done it, they would only have forfeited the last relics of respect from the old Conservatives, who, after all, must form the core of any Tory organisation that will work. The division showed that the Ministry were in a hopeless minority ; that the Parnellites had betrayed them, as they were certain to do ; and that they stood before Europe a powerless Government, liable to be turned out of office at any hour. They were right enough to resign on the vote ; but, nevertheless, their own willingness to go had much to do with their going. Had they come forward with a firm and moderate Irish policy, rejecting Home-rule, and asking for a renewal of the Crimes Act as essential to protect civilisation in Ireland, they would have secured support enough among mode- rate Liberals to enable them to retain office ; but either from divisions among themselves or from positive incompetence, they were unable to do this. They shuffled between two policies, never adopting either. One day they made the Queen say that a policy of repression would be adopted if necessary, and the next day they stated, thereby exciting the "innumerable laughter" of a contemptuous world, that they must wait for the report of Mr. Smith before doing anything. Mr. Smith is an excellent man, and would have made a clear report on the agrarian side of the Irish Question ; but the National League is a visible fact, not needing to be reported on. Lord Ash- bourne has forgotten more about Ireland than Mr. Smith will learn in two years, and Lord Ashbourne sits within the Tory Cabinet. Then, when a chorus of half angry, half scornful disapproval warned the Government of their mistake, they rushed down to the House of Commons to announce that they had changed their policy again, and would deal with the National League by Bill, a Bill which would never get through the Commons till the Parnellites had been expelled. The Moderates were disgusted, and without them the Government had no hope, and its position was simply intolerable. With great European questions on hand, with a most difficult Budget to face—for with a falling revenue they have been spending freely—and with motions like Mr. Jesse Collings's perpetually threatening them, and frightening their own county Members, they, a mere third of the House of Commons, with their only strong man locked up in the gilded Chamber, utterly outmatched in debating power as well as numbers, with a wooden leader in the House Of Commons, supported by a Puck as adjutant, were to wait from day to day till it pleased Mr. Parnell to give them the coup de grace. They were not even united in resolution. Nobody believes that Lord Randolph Churchill sincerely rejects all idea of Home-rule, though he would dearly like to go to the country as protector of "the integrity of the Empire ;" and if Lord Salisbury had not, at all events, considered a plan wholly inconsistent with legislative unity, his speech at Newport had no meaning. Under such circum- stances, to lay before the country a policy which it would accept by acclaim, and which would of itself overbear the parties, was impossible ; and as that was their only chance, a speedy resignation was the dictate not so much of "honour," as of common sense. They wished, no doubt, to be beaten about Ireland ; but they were foiled even in that design,—as they were sure to be foiled, Mr. Parnell, not to mention bigger men, being quite able to see through any Parliamentary trick ; and being foiled, they were right to accept Mr. Collings's motion as a vote of no confidence, and to go out. They have done fairly well in foreign affairs, for though they have not even advanced the Egyptian problem towards solution, they have certainly protected the rising strength of Bulgaria, and have probably averted an exhausting struggle with France in Indo-China; but they have failed in home politics. They have made the Irbil tlituAtien mch 'TOM 137 an unscrupulous
experiment, they have not proposed any legislation of value— for we look on their Procedure Rules as an evasion of the necessity for Closure—and they have jobbed a good deal in the distribution alike of offices and of honours, spoiling, for example, the greatest of personal dignities, a seat in the Privy Council. Their failures, however, would have been forgiven if they had acted with determination about Ireland ; but they have not, and they must take the consequences. We only hope the lesson will teach their party, which must always exist, and has its roots in the very heart of Englishmen, that to Conservatives, at all events, firmness is as necessary as judgment ; and that while Liberals may, from the very nature of their theory, agree to differ and yet be strong, the country only turns to Tories when it is thirsting for unity, decision, and will.
The near future is very dim, for, as we have intimated elsewhere, it rests entirely upon the accuracy or inaccuracy of Mr. Gladstone's conception of the Irish Party, and of the relation of the English democracy to Ireland ; but the immediate future is clear enough. If Mr. Gladstone can form a Ministry, he must form one. The alternatives occa- sionally suggested are absurd. The Moderates have a totally different part to play from forming Ministries just now ; and if they had not, no alternative Ministry could live if formed before Mr. Gladstone had received the commission, which is his by right of his place in Parliament, of his history, and of the feeling of his party. Form any Ministry conceivable, and he would sit there the strongest man in the House of Commons, able to shake down any Ministry in a night, and in truth, though not in name, master of the sovereign Assembly. He must form his Government, and we do not believe that he will have any material difficulty in forming it. If the Moderates hold aloof, as we hope and believe, unless he has reconsidered his Irish views, will be the ease, the Administration will be more or less Radical ; but there are plenty of competent men for all offices, and the leading work must be done—as, indeed, it always is done when Mr. Gladstone is in power—by the Premier himself. It is his genius which is to succeed, if success be possible ; and he must trust it, even if he has, like the late Lord Derby, to call a Cabinet out of the ground. There can be no clearness, no purpose, no sense in English politics until he has stated his plans, and until the people, with whom the issue rests, have either ratified or condemned them. We only trust that in organising his Government he will secure his own ascendancy, for it is no hour for divided counsels or inept com- promises, and that he will make certain of an intelligible and a resolute foreign policy. That is not so important as the policy to be adopted in Ireland, but it is important, neverthe- less ; for the "Imperial Powers" have ideas which the spring will develop, and the Egyptian Question is a Chat Moss, swallowing men and treasure, without the slightest sign as yet of a firm embankment rising above the sludge. For the rest., the country must possess its soul in patience until Mr. Gladstone's Government is made, even though the intolerable forms of our Constitution, which leave Parlia- ment at the mercy of a minute foreign faction, impose on us also, through the antiquated rule as to re-elections, the neces- sity of leaving Ireland for one more month in the hands of anarchists. The course about to be taken is the only course that can be taken, and there is neither energy nor wisdom in wasting time in regrets or in discussing impossible alternatives.
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