TOPICS OF THE DAY.
Wit:ERE TILL FREE-TRADE DEBATE LANDS US.
Tim result of the great debate last week caused us no surprise. As we anticipated, the substance of Mr. Villiers's motion was car- ried by a large majority; but, as we had also foreseen, another issue besides that of Free-trade was practically involved. From the first days of its existence we have noted the fact that the Derby Cabinet did not stand upon ground which could be determined by the ordi- nary Free-trade tests. It was true when the Derby party repre- sented that they did not enter office upon any direct movement of Protection or defeat of Free-trade, but that they simply fell into it through the vacuum of the Treasury-bench, from which the Whig Ministry had melted away by its own weakness. When the great meeting at Manchester was held to rearonse the country, we pointed out the fact that the Ministry could not be beaten on a ground which they declined to occupy defensively. It was the same at the general election—Ministers avoided the contest. And when the assembled Parliament in this autumn session, we all knew as welt as their own whippers-in that the majority would be against Pro- tection, but that Ministers would decline to be against the majority. By many manoeuvres they have contrived to imply in the record of Free-trade a record of their own licensed position ; and the grand majority which joined in the compromised resolution voted " yes " upon the continuance both of Free-trade and of the Protectionist Ministry. The debate records their political shame, but establishes the fact that they are not to be shamed out of office; while their opponents are not in a position to resort to any more coercive weapon than shame. The political effect of the division is not to be considered great either as a victory or a defeat Of the resolutions proposed, if one set was nearly as good as another where there was so little differ- ence, probably the fittest of all was the set originally penned by Sir James Graham and appropriated by Lord Palmerston. But, advanced as it was, in opposition to the original motion, the amendment became a declaration of Free-trade with an abatement; and the pure Free-traders resisted, not its terms, but its implies, tion. That they did not attain a majority is of no great political importance: it is as well that the 26 should know their own strength without mystification or exaggeration. In the 468 there were more than the sturdy Free-traders; and while the Free-trade party is so strong as it is in fads and abilities, while it can for all political purposes command the abilities of many who are not ab- solutely attached to its ranks, it has gained a positive advantage in correctly knowing its own compacted strength. The larger ma- jority, or "unanimity," which might have been obtained by a little more delicate manoeuvering, might have induced false re. Fiances. All Free-traders now know upon whom they can count ; whereas upon the gross majority as it stands they cannot count at all. The larger number has agreed to Free-trade for the present ; and no doubt, that same majority, led by Ministers, will be faithful to Free-trade as long as it suits the larger number of them. That which the breath of a vote has made can be an- made by the same process. It only wants a sufficient number of conversions—and the conversion-market is well supplied in the present day—it only wants a sufficient exercise of opportunities in place, to procure the rescinding of that final declaration in favour of Tree-trade. A mere "resolution," whether "abstract" or spe- cial, can have no assured permanence when even an act of Parlia- ment might be subjected to repeal. The safety of the Free-trade doctrine lies in the compulsion upon Ministers for the time, who- ever they may be, by facts, by public opinion' and by the self- interest which guides official men. No words can bind them stronger; and it will be the duty of the compacted party of Free- trade to maintain those influences in full working condition. A greater duty never was intrusted to a body of public men; and we believe that they are sufficient both in numbers and abilities to fulfil the duty.
Much wonderment has been expended upon the peculiar appear- ance of that veteran ex-official who intervened as a "mediator," and reconciled parties to a general confusion. His position is re- garded as unintelligible ; the more as there was nothing in his own explanation to account for his taking exception to the Free-trade resolution at the eleventh hour—or rather at the thirteenth hour, ' for the critical hour of Protection had been passed. Lord Pal- merston himself did not say that he might not have revised the resolution at any previous stage, or even dictated its terms, at his own pleasure. If he raised a question of the kind in the House of Commons after the contest had begun, it would seem, by his own silence on the point, to have been the result of his own choice. But why did he make that choice ? In putting constructions upon his acts, busy gossip is not without its suppositions. It is not indeed supposed that Lord Palmerston can have been misled into any calculation so wild and hopeless as to join the present Cabinet in its weakness. There have been great changes in the history of parties and of individual statesmen—striking transi- tions from one Cabinet to another; but to pass from the stronger camp, in whatsoever disorder, to one in a position which cannot be maintained, with men that could. not have maintained the strongest of positions, is a species of self-sacrifice unknown ; and Lord Pal- merston is not that enthusiast who is to be suspected of preferring the losing cause- The continuance of the present Ministry, to which no term can be at present foreseen, does not depend in any degree upon its own strength ; it depends upon exactly the same cause vihich made Curran fearless of removal from his bed by the mid- night intruders who surrounded him, but who were incapable of uniting upon a policy. Ministers, indeed, have made their own bed so that they cannot lie upon it; and it is believed that no adver- sity will make Lord Palmerston enter into partnership with bed- fellows so situated. He can as little intend to join a Cabinet which is in itself an organized defeat, as Mr. Gladstone, with all the Christian toleration of his begging-off on Friday, can intend to join any defamer of PeeL But current speculation has another denouement to the drama : the great actor in the Cabinet, it is said—its great help and its great difficulty—is to be congenially removed to Constantinople, or to Jerusalem; and then the Minis- try, broken up, is to be reconstituted and reinforced by Palmer- ston—not alone, for it is surmised that his seductions are diligently pursued to carry with him the most pliant of the Peelites. Ac- cording to this surmise of common rumour, often wrong yet some- times happy in its blundering conjectures, the present Ministry will last for a time upon the sufferance of those who cannot help it, and will be succeeded by a regenerate and truly Conservative Government, embracing all the talents that can be brought within a Conservative category. For the Whigs and Liberals, at present, there is no admission.
"No admission except on business"; and they have not made up their minds to their own business. Their vocation is not on the right hand of the Speaker, but on the left; and there they have a valuable duty to perform. With a Ministry in place that conforms to one creed and holds to another, there is a most especial occasion for a well-constructed and well-manned Opposition. The Opposition is well manned, but not as yet well constructed. It has not only to make up its mind sufficiently for getting into office, but it has to make up its mind even for action as an Oppo- sition. It has not fitted itself to its new circumstances ; which are unprecedented. We have a party in power succeeding to the old Tory.Government ; but yet that Tory Ministry professes Free- trade Irish education " reform " of all sorts, and everything that is liberal, its members disclaiming prejudices even on the subject of the elective franchise. Such are the professions of the Tory, the Conservative or reactionary Government ; but there is not the slightest sign that the Opposition has yet conceived a policy in advance of that Ministerially professed. The Opposition and the Members thereof want some practice in further Liberalism—some additional teaching from events—before they can attain their full strength. Since the Tories have become "Whigs and something more," the Whigs must seek a new vocation for earning the popular confidence. They have not yet occupied their ground even as an Opposition; but there is no doubt they will have the very best of opportunities, the very best occasions for practice. With a Government so feeble as the present, they may retaliate the old "pressure from without" ; and, since direct statesmanship is not the fashion of the day, the Liberals may show their skill in legislating through Tory instruments. The Whigs were " squeez- able," but the Opposition of their day had no zeal at the work of squeezing : the present Ministers are more squeezable, and the Whigs could lend a hand at the screw, and teach future Oppositions how to apply the pressure. In that way, we may get better mea- sures than if our Liberals were incapacitated by the embarrassment of office.
But they will have another duty—to guard against covert en- croachments and specious deceptions ; for deeeption is the very life of the actual Government. Toryism used to bully ; it now cajoles. Thus reverting to the true functions of an Opposition, the Liberals, remanded back to apprenticeship, may for a season prac- tise their hands in the work of political criticism ; and so train themselves for getting back to office when they shall have at last made up their minds so to do.
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