TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD ROSEBERY'S PARTIAL SUCCESS. -FIORD ROSEBERY has not yet succeeded in inducing the Radical wing of the Liberal party to accept his leadership. They tried at first, it is true, to read into his speech at Chesterfield meanings which they could tolerate, and, partly out of a new-born hopefulness natural to a party in extreme depression, partly out of mere audacity, to create the impression that Lord Rosebery had accepted the leadership of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, and that that vacillating politician had in the goodness of his heart pardoned in his rival some previous aberrations. He would even overlook Lord Rosebery's view that the war was both just and unavoidable. The audacious device failed. It is not necessary to believe one word of the carefully invented stories about negotiations, and inter- views, and letters between Lord Rosebery and Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman to perceive that the followers of the latter, whose voice is much more important than his own, have repented of their hasty acceptance of the Chesterfield speech, and are determined to reject Lord Rosebery even if in so doing they should forfeit their last remaining hopes of a return to power. They proclaim in tones ever growing more shrill their devotion to their " only leader," Sir Henry, who, they believe, has at length jumped down from his fence among them ; and one of their organs, the Daily News, which usually reveals their feelings, if not their minds, openly writes Lord Rosebery out of the party. He is to continue ploughing his lonely furrow, or, if he likes, to join the Unionists and direct their foreign policy. A temper of that kind is unusual in English politics, though we see something like it in the attitude of those English Prohibitionists who would rather that drinking went on as at present than that remedial measures should be accompanied by compensation to publicans. They are consumed for a time by an inner rage which overwhelms all considerations either of their great object or their party interest, and they will not hearken.
Nevertheless, if Lord Rosebery will stick to his policy and to his work—and our inner doubt refers only to the latter—he will, we conceive, succeed in his great task of building up a strong and useful Opposition. That, it must be remembered, is the business before him, and not the formation of a Government. No new Government is as yet wanted or is possible. The Government is doing its work, if not with complete success in South Africa, yet upon strong and well-defined lines, and with a good prospect of success ; it is supported in both Houses by irresistible battalions, and outside the Houses by the public belief that it is the only Government which fully shares the determination of the people that British rule Shall henceforward be supreme, and direct, throughout South Africa. Even if Lord Salisbury resigned, or by some unexpected concurrence of chances were beaten in the Commons, reconstruction would have to be tried before the Unionists would consent to see the reins placed in Lord Rosebery's hands. They will not break with the Conservatives ; and the Conservatives, who form a solid block outside as well as inside Parliament, would insist on the experiment. Unless the wholly unexpected occurs, there is a long interval to be struggled through between him and power. Still, be has produced a deep impression ; he has proposed a plan which, though we cannot approve it, is a plan, and not an adumbration of vague ideas ; and by able and persistent criticism, by clear and constant showing that it is the methods and not the ends of the Government with which they quarrel, and by evidence that they have within their own ranks men as able as their adversaries, he and his followers may build up the strong Opposition that the country needs. Of course, in buildino,° it they will find the obstacle that fear of them will of itself make the Government more efficient, will silence murmurs, and will rebrace the ranks of the majority, every convert who departs leaving his eomrades more united and more bitter ; but that is the obstacle encountered, and in the end overcome, by every Opposition. Lord Rosebery's following will be numerous even at first, for the Radicals and Irishmen who reject him must still vote with him against Government or answer for it to their constituencies; and in truth the extent of the following matters little. A regiment with only officers is a very good regiment when the object is to raise a new army ; the success of the Peelites showed us.that, and we do not suppose that the most sanguine of Imperialist Liberals hopes to win without a Dissolution, during which the electors will not reckon up heads, but minds and programmes. Intermediatelv the natural play of our Constitution will be restored, and nothing will be allowed to drift bemuse there is no one able effectively to con- demn, or criticise, or advise. In this Parliament those who were willing were so out of touch with the people that their breath was wasted, while those who agreed with the people left the Government to carry out the popular will as it best could. There has been much dereliction of duty on the part of some of the best Liberals, due, no doubt, in part to accident, and in part to hopelessness, and that, as we read the symptoms, is about to end.
But, some politicians are saying, the prospect is not of this long contention, but of the formation of a Coalition Ministry with Lord Rosebery at its head. Well, far be it from us to despise coalitions, for a coalition under another name saved Ireland to the United Kingdom, and embedded in the minds of the people the idea of a sane Imperialism. We can, too, conceive of many cases in which nothing but a coalition could enable the King's Government, when arrested by unforeseen difficulties or an equality of jarring parties, to go on. In the present instance, how- ever, we hardly see the force which is to effect such coalition, or the motive with which it will be sought. A majority of the Cabinet is not shrinking from the war, or requiring to be replaced by men who believe in its prose- cution. We are told that the motive would be "efficiency," which Lord Rosebery has made his watchword ; but effi- ciency in what ? We must beware of phrases. Suppose Lord Rosebery and five of his ablest followers introduced into the Cabinet, what increased efficiency would they bring? They could not prosecute the war more zealously, or find a general more trusted, or be more successful in resisting foreign interference. If the idea is a more efficient remodelling of the Army, where is Lord Rose- bery's man ? A writer in the Fortnightly Review, who is exceedingly in earnest, says the man would be Mr. Chamberlain ; but granting Mr. Chamberlain's efficiency, which we grant most heartily, he is in the Government now, and could be made War Minister, if that is to be the end sought, as easily through reconstruction as through a coalition. The force required to effect such a change will hardly come from the people, unless, indeed, they were to summon Lord Rosebery by acclaim, in which event he would name his own Ministry, and coalesce with no one, least of all, perhaps, with the old Conservatives, whose indignation at his Chesterfield speech was expressed through the Standard with so amusing a burst of wrath. The personal intervention of the King which " Calcha.s " demands would, even if possible, set a very dangerous precedent, and might evoke among the electors a. spirit of criticism and resistance which would weaken Government qua Government far more than the protraction of the war has done. The only possible Dictator in this country is a Minister supported by Parliament and trusted by the country, and if we have not got one now, which is a fact apparent on the face of things, we must wait till he appears. We fear, in fact, that for the present we must go on as we are, with only such improvement as we shall obtain from the presence of a strong and vigilant Opposi- tion, instead of an Opposition consisting of languid and dispirited groups connected by no link except a discredited name. Lord Rosebery says he can give us that, and if he will consent to endure slavery for a Session we do .not doubt he can. Our doubt is his endurance.
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