Now, said Mr. Chamberlain, whatever the former demerits of the
Tories might have been, no one could deny that an Old Radical like himself had got real reforms out of this Tory Government, with which a practical man should feel himself very tolerably well satisfied. England and Scotland had got Local Government in two succeeding Sessions. A good Allot- ments Act had been passed, by which the agricultural labourer had for the first time the means of procuring for himself a firm hold of the land, and already the number of allotments had doubled and trebled. Free education had been conceded to Scotland, and Mr. Chamberlain thought that it would follow for England. A great step had been made towards what he called graduated taxation ; for he had never wished for a graduated Income-tax, but rather for a graduated House-tax and graduated Death-duties. Now, Mr. Goschen had taken a decided step towards graduated Death-duties. Then in Ireland the policy of the Government had been temperate and Radical in a very trite sense,—in nothing more so than in making the restoration of law and order their first end. Democracy had no meaning if the laws made by the majority of the people were not to be firmly maintained. Then all that had been done for the improvement of the condition of the peasantry in Ireland had been solid, and the Irish people would soon find out how indifferent their representatives are to these solid measures, and how anxious to keep up a discontent by which agitators live. Under these circumstances, he, as a Radical of the old type, of Mr. Cobden's and Mr. Bright's type, was quite satisfied, and he was anxious to see how long the Liberals would endure the yoke of Mr. Labonchere and the New Radicals. When they got tired of that galling yoke, the Unionists' arms would be open to receive them, and we would even kill for them the fatted calf. That is quite true, but political parties never do seem to repent themselves and get weary of feeding on political husks such as hardly even the swine would eat. Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain will extend their arms in vain.
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