THE RESTORATION OF THE UNIONIST PARTY.

Great and learned men have held up to the admiration of mankind the Constitution of England, and shall we, instead of keeping ourselves in the schools of real science, choose for our teachers men incapable of being taught, whose only claim to know is, that they never doubted; from whom we can learn nothing but their own indocility; who would teach us to scorn what, in the silence of our hearts, we ought to venerate. Let us rather follow our ancestors, men not without a rational, though without an exclusive confidence in themselves who by respecting the reason of others, who by looking backward as well as forward, by the modesty, as well as the energy of their minds, went on insensibly drawing this Constitution nearer and nearer to its perfection by never departing from its fundamental principles, nor introducing any amendment which had not a subsisting root in the laws, constitution and usages of the Kingdom.-BURKE,

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THERE has been of late a revival in Unionist fortunes, of which the election at Pudsey is a significant demonstration. The bye-elections, alike in those constituencies where the Radical nominee has been defeated and in those where he has been returned by a largely reduced majority, have proclaimed with no uncertain sound a reaction in the national temper. So far from this being merely due to the capricious veering of the aura popularis, or to that spirit of contrariety, sometimes of a passing nature, which is apt to manifest itself on such occasions against the Government of the day, the omens still continue propitious, and phenomena of clear interpretation point to a real, a sustained advance in Unionist sentiment.

Several causes have combined to produce this effect, foremost among which must be placed the steady and energetic instruction of that body of public opinion, which, long "suckled in a creed outworn," is now being forced by the hardships attendant upon unequal conditions of industrial production to perceive that the primary and essential element in freedom of trade, duly insisted upon by its earliest and principal exponents, namely, "perfect competition," has never been realised, and is as little likely of realisation as the universal acceptance of the system which was once so confidently predicted. The fundamental errors of past and present Cobdenites, both as regards international trade and cameralistics proper, consist in seeking to determine practical questions by a priori methods, without allowing either for actually existing conditions or for those which may arise with the growth of other societies; in fixing attention exclusively on price, and sundering the interests of the producer and consumer; in a misapprehension and confusion of the doctrines of paternalism, of the limits of State interference and the sphere of legislative aid,

and of the natural movements of self-interest; and, finally, in apprehending that progressive freedom is achieved by indiscriminately throwing away the weapons of defence before competitors contract to show an equal consideration. The function. of the Unionist Party and its auxiliary and affiliated organisations to demolish such fallacies is being materially assisted by the gradual awakening of large sections of the community to a proper sense of the causes of their increasing misfortune. The results of those elections which have been fought on the straight issue show that the shadow of the cypress rests upon the sophistries of the old school of catallactics; since the British mind, ever slow to grasp the purport of an innovation-especially slow where the benefit is palpable-is at last beginning to connect consequents with an undoubted cause, to discover that all cannot be well with a system (even although our great-grandfathers did adopt it to suit the convenience of the times), under which trade declines and unemployment and distress augment, and, by a parity of reasoning, to favour the party which propounds a reform.

In addition to the justifiable resentment which they feel at the gross deceptions successfully practised on them during the General Election, accompanied as that resentment is by a very reasonable suspicion of a party convicted of obtaining an advantage by false pretences, the people, imbued with an English appreciation of courage, view with contempt the pusillanimity of a Government, which, having such strength, yet dares so little. Notwithstanding its braggart demeanour and apoplectic oratory, they see this cumbrous creature cravenly submissive to every group of malcontents, fanatics, socialists, or reckless empirics, however paltry and insignificant; like the overgrown bully at school, who fears any youngster bold enough to stand up to him. In truth, a flabby leviathan! Promise-crammed manifestoes have singularly failed of fulfilment. Up to the date of writing only two of the measures indicated in the last King's Speech have passed the House of Commons, the Small Holdings Bill and the Land Valuation Bill for Scotland; and, as the latter has been rejected by the Upper House, only the former small item can be placed to the credit account. The Licensing and Education Bills have been read twice, the Miners' Eight-Hour and the Old-Age Pensions Bills once. The Irish Universities Bill and the Children's Bill are before Standing Committees, while the Port of London Bill has not yet been touched by the Joint Committee : and many others cannot become law for want of time. Thus, where the labour of the mountain has not aborted, its progeny has scarce emerged from the swaddling-clouts. And as a crowning ill there now supervenes that diminution of trade, which has so

invariably synchronised with a Radical tenure of office as to be more than a coincidence. For the repetition of instances makes it inductively demonstrable that the prosperity of the first year of Radical power is a legacy from predecessors, and that the subsequent stagnation is due to the incertitude and to the sense of the unstableness of things engendered at home, abroad, and in the Colonies.

It would be interesting to analyse exhaustively the content of modern Radicalism, if only for the purpose of inferring per contra what a right policy should be, and what the true rationale of Unionism. For it may be taken generally that what belongs to the one is repugnant to the other. A study of the history of the last fifty years leads to the conclusion that Radicalism is based on no ordered system, but is a mere farrago of inconsistencies. During the early half of last century its adherents were wont to make much capital by charging the Tories with classlegislation; and no doubt they were to some extent able to substantiate the indictment. But for many years they have rendered themselves still more liable to the same accusation. The essence of the Radical modus operandi is to stir up class-hatred by playing on the ignorance of the working classes, abetting the tyranny of the Trades Unions, utilising the bigotry of the ultra-Nonconformists, and, if not directly inciting the Irish Nationalists, at any rate condoning their crimes and disaffection. In continually pandering to the lower orders of society they exhibit a much more contemptible form of morigeration than that of courtiers to princes. Posing as the champions of education, they nevertheless draw their main strength from those who are destitute of it. Heedless of the moral of the old Roman fable of "The Belly and the Members," they isolate the various sections of the community and provoke their mutual antagonism, in order to seduce the votes of one or others, as occasion may serve. With this object they would seem to have adopted an atomic view of society in preference to that deeper view which regards it as an organism composed of interdependent and correlated parts. This laudable doctrine they extend to cover their conception of the Empire: as witness their strange behaviour in the Colonial Conference; their supercilious treatment of Natal; their indifference to the wrongs inflicted every day upon the English in the Transvaal, which amounts to a virtual encouragement of the unjust methods of a Government which they should never have instituted; not to mention other particulars of conduct as numerous as they are reprehensible. Again, although having claimed for themselves alone during a hundred years the title of reformers and the monopoly of

beneficent legislation, on the one hand, when the most crucial question of modern times has arisen, the revision of the Tariff, they have opposed reform; whilst, on the other, they are proving themselves impotent for aught save measures which are either predatory or contrary to the spirit of the law and of the constitution. To the same genius for perversity we owe that unhealthy product which, happily for other nations, is peculiar to our own, a species of individual most succinctly defined as a pro-enemy, who proceeds on the general assumption that, whenever we have a difference with others, by some ordinance of nature we must be in the wrong, a disloyalty which cloaks itself under the hypocritical guise of altruism. We should be well advised to extend the application of the laws of treason and sedition to persons whom the Athenians would haye ostracised, a Spartan mother have slain as a disgrace to the family and the State, and a Roman paterfamilias have whipped from his doors. In fine, whenever affairs of national moment, such as our defences, or imperial problems, such as colonial preference, are under discussion, the extreme type of Radical stands at once revealed as the μixpofuxos, "the small-souled man," the man of narrow and crooked vision, unable to revere a glorious tradition or to admire the unrivalled deeds of our ancestors, incapable of patriot ardours or of appreciating the grandeur of our present position, and with no confidence in or understanding of our Imperial destiny. It is impossible to apply the language of scientific accuracy to such a medley of characteristics, or to assign to Radicalism a niche in any recognised department of philosophy. The older Liberalism had some pretensions to a wide utilitarianism, the greatest good of the greatest number: its descendant, where it is not positively destructive, is laissez-faire, haphazard, opportunist in the worst signification of the term. It has no basic principle; its desire is void and objectless; it pursues no end-in-itself; it is not teleological. Like a man with locomotor ataxy, it moves hither and thither, willy-nilly, at the mercy of its ungoverned limbs. Well may we describe it as :

Now, the object of this article is to discuss the means whereby the Unionist party may be restored,-" restored" in the combined sense of being renovated and revitalised, and of being replaced in its former position of ascendency. To rely, however, on the support to a cause afforded by the mistakes and deficiencies of the opposite party, or on the fact that it contains within itself the fast germinating seeds of its own disruption, constitutes a vast imprudence. A clear philosophy and a definite programme

are equally necessary. A writer of considerable parts has recently bewailed the lack of a publicist who should provide the Unionist party with a political philosophy for the twentieth century. Yet no new system need be sought; since the maxims enunciated by Aristotle, Locke, Burke, Brougham, and other classics are still applicable to modern exigencies, and must ever hold good as the permanent foundation of the science and art of good governance. We have also the broad, unwritten rules of our constitution and the great charters of our liberties. The desideratum is the correct observance of established principles rather than the formulation of new. Large as is the debt owed to the Liberal Unionists for their practical self-effacement during the first years of the coalition, and little as one would wish to see any division emphasised between those related by affinity, it is nevertheless a matter of considerable regret that the appellation of "Conservative" is becoming gradually less familiar, seeing that the stable doctrines it connotes are the most valuable property brought into the settlement, and especially so now, in view of the chaotic disturbance of traditional conceptions wrought by the revolutionary propaganda of the Socialist-Labour faction. Conservatism may be summarily described as the maintenance of the Protestant religion, of the constitution, of the unity of the Empire, and of the rights of property. The principles upon which these doctrines rest are indisputable they are rooted in our history; they are adequate to every need, in that they are susceptible of evolution and of adaptation to new environment. Thus they look forward as well as backward. (To the reflective constitutionalist Clio is more than a Muse.) The Unionists should be at once conservative and latitudinarian, after the manner of those who gathered round Lucius Cary at Great Tew, and whose speculations and conclusions created the groundwork of the political thought of modern England.

Assuredly the condition of civil liberty is a proportionate distribution of power among the different estates. But the present tendency is to render it increasingly disproportionate, without regard to the claims of merit and interest or to the connection between taxation and representation. The result is that the lower degrees of the electorate exercise a predominance which is out of all relation to their position and qualification. And with a Government such as this, which, intent on vote-catching tactics, may widen the franchise at any moment, there is always the danger of being confronted with a ramping democracy. Wellknown examples, alike in ancient and modern times, demonstrate the evils inseparable from the absolutism of the mob-ill-regulated movement, corruption, mismanagement, a lowered general moral,