6

A few words more-and those of thanks to old friends and correspondents, who have kindly urged me to continue my Gossip ;' and, in return, let me beg their help to procure me, if not the possession, at least the perusal, of a worthless little book which I have been looking for in vain for some years. It is entitled the Book, or Procrastinate Memoirs. An historical romance, 12mo, 1812. It was written by Mrs. Serres; but I do not know whether her name appears on the title. I have many editions of the Book relating to the Princess of Wales, but none bearing date of 1812. I believe the work just named is the only one called the Book dated in 1812.

WILLIAM J. THOмS.

THE POSITION OF THE WHIGS.

THE present moment is one in which politicians of all shades may fitly take stock of their position and make the most of the breathing time which is allowed them in the interval of comparative repose which must elapse before the beginning of the next session. The Whigs, however, must find their task the hardest one. The Conservatives have a definite object before them; elated by recent victories, and well aware of the difficulties under which the Government is labouring, they are prepared to aggravate any existing discontent, and take advantage of every division in the ranks of their opponents. Sir Stafford Northcote has profited by Admiral Duncombe's exhortation, and is determined that his party shall not complain of his want of 'go,' while the local organisations which, previous to last year's election, had been neglected, are now making great efforts to retrieve their former position. The Radicals, on the other hand, are equally alert, know equally well what they want, are skilfully led and organised, and gain every year fresh means and facilities of concentrating their power in any one given direction.

The Whigs occupy the place of the blank leaf between the Old and New Testaments, to use Sheridan's simile, and would find it very hard to formulate their wishes or give honest expression to their opinions. They are continually being told by the Quarterly Review and other organs of the Tories that their position is a false one, that they have all to lose and nothing to gain by their association with the Radicals, and that it is their duty to secede at once and save the Constitution from the attacks impending upon it. Their blindness is inveighed against, and they are asked whether for the sake of a little office it is worth while to lose the causas vivendi. The Tory monitor knows, however, well that he has raised the cry so often, that his warnings are apt to be regarded as a false alarm, and that the Whig, secure in the recollection of previous difficulties surmounted, will reject his advances and rest easy in the pleasant conviction that as things have been so will they be, and that no ordering of the universe is probable which does not make a satisfactory provision for the comfort of Whigs. If promises to re-constitute everything on a new basis have been extracted from him during a general election, the occasion was one of great excitement, and many winged words were

sent at random which were never meant to find any mark at all. If, however, something must really be done-if the wishes of the constituency are too plainly expressed to be wholly disregarded, and an earnest minister is determined to make use of his majority-another House has been interposed for the salvation of the State, and the peers, who have no burdens to bear, no meetings to address, no questions to answer and no bills to pay, must at least not flinch from the odium which is hurled upon them for a few weeks by the Radical press. If the Intransigeant says that they are all drunk at nine o'clock in the evening, they can find comfort in the thought that they can refuse a subscription without alienating a religious connection or a trading interest. The use of the House of Lords in some eyes is to enable Whig members of Parliament to vote with the Radicals, and to support large measures of reform, with the comfortable assurance that their labours will be useless, and that what has been spun on Monday will be unpicked on Tuesday. These assumptions, however, are dangerous, and the Whig must be prepared to be told that his position is a false one. Circumstances in the past have favoured him.

When the Reform Bill introduced in 1860 broke down, Lord John Russell frankly admitted, that though four different Bills had been introduced at various times by different Governments, the country at large cared nothing about them, and that the question of reform would therefore have to be postponed until public opinion was roused in its favour. In 1866 the Whigs destroyed a moderate Reform Bill, and paved the way for the introduction and success of a far more sweeping measure, which was distasteful to none more than to themselves. From this date new forces made themselves felt in politics, and Lord Strangford's description no longer applied. I saw early the imposture of the great game between Whig and Tory; the solemn farce wherein they fence with buttons on their foils, and, seeming adversaries, play the cards into each other's hands.' After the election of 1868 the farce ended, and the increased strength of the Radicals in Parliament made inaction and compromise impossible. The general election in 1868 turned upon purely Irish questions, and the Whigs found themselves obliged to support the leader of the Liberal party in his Irish legislation. They supported the disestablishment of the Irish Church, announcing at the same time their hostility to the application of any measure of a similar kind to England; and when they came forward as candidates they pledged themselves to no details in dealing with the question of the land. The Act of 1870 was accepted grudgingly and of necessity, and was understood to be the last concession that it would be needful to make to the Irish, and the last that sane men would recommend. At the close of the Parliament in 1874, the Whig felt that he had been hurried, so to speak, off his legs by legislation, and that a number of

measures sufficient to last Lord Melbourne or Lord Palmerston for thirty years had been crowded into five sessions, and that at a similar rate of progression there would be nothing left to disestablish or disendow after another appeal to the country. The result was that he entered upon his candidature of 1874 in a spirit of apathy and of alienation from the Radical, the effects of which were quickly seen in the Conservative victory which followed.

If the moderate Liberal was angry at the want of support he failed to receive from the Radical, the Radical was equally inclined to show his distrust of his weak-kneed colleague. It is only a few years ago that Mr. Chamberlain alluded to Lord Hartington as the late leader of the Liberal party, and compared him at a meeting in the country to Tweedledum; while the more advanced section of the Liberal press denounced the moderate Liberals in unsparing language. Had the election of 1880 turned upon home questions exclusively, it may be questioned whether the result would have been what it was. Unfortunately for the Conservatives, Whigs and Radicals agreed together in their opposition to the foreign policy of the Government. If Lord Beaconsfield was distrusted, Lord Salisbury was still more so, and the philippics of Mr. Gladstone welded together the heterogeneous constituents which make up the sum of the Liberal party. The Whig entered Parliament last year in the belief that his political acts would be confined to supporting the Ministry in a non-intervention policy, and in the introduction of a county franchise Bill, which should come after six years of Liberal government and pave the way for a successful appeal on his part to his constituents. The illusion has been roughly dispelled. Charles Greville expressed surprise at the views of the Whigs in 1834, and was astonished that, after swallowing the camel of the Reform Bill, they should strain at the gnats which were perched upon the camel's back. Since 1832 they have not been given any camel to swallow until the present year, when they have had a dromedary and a camel to interfere with their digestion. The Government was expected to adopt a policy of peace, and its action in Afghanistan received the support of the whole party. Its action, however, in the Transvaal has been profoundly distasteful to the Whigs, and no attempt has been made by them to controvert the position laid down by Lord Cairns. Nevertheless no secession has taken place on this account, and it is evident that to bring about such a result their own interests must be attacked. With the exception of the Duke of Argyll and the peers who left the Government last year, they have acquiesced in the enactment of a measure which entirely changes the relations between tenants and landlords in Ireland, and which in all probability is the herald of a long agrarian agitation in this country. Had such a measure been presented to Parliament towards the end of its existence, there would have been little chance of its success; but the momentum acquired at the general election had

not spent itself, and in spite of Adullamite murmurings and votes which called forth swift reprobation from the headquarters at Birmingham, the Whigs showed their dislike to the Bill in words `chiefly and are still dutiful followers of Mr. Gladstone. Their action this year therefore bears out the views of those who hold that pressure is all that is required to hurry the moderate Liberal along, and that the improved means of communication that exist between a member and his constituents increase every day the facilities of "turning the pressure upon him. On a suggestion from London that a member has doubts on any question, the Liberal committee for the borough holds its meeting, passes resolutions to the effect that it has viewed with surprise such and such a vote, trusts that it may not be repeated, and, winding up with expressions of confidence in the Government, forwards copies of the resolutions to its member, the Prime Minister, and the Ambassadors accredited from foreign courts. The member acknowledges the first few resolutions with civility, curses the resources of the postal system, and ends by becoming the delegate of his committee, or by quarrelling with them. The modern constituency is a curious product of the century, and combines within itself almost all the faults of ancient and modern times. The candidate formerly bought his votes, and remained free and independent himself; now he buys his votes, but he is the slave of a committee, who soar into the region of abstract politics, and choose to forget that the election has cost 4,000l., and that the returned expenses were only 2,500l. The recollection of this fact is constantly present with the member, and stimulates his independence, as there is probably no rival who is prepared to spend the same sum when an opportunity occurs. If a Bill should ever be passed which completely checks all expenditure, and enables a candidate to be returned in a borough for 150l., and in a division of a county for 400l. or 500l., the number of Whigs in Parliament would be diminished. Their money rather than their opinions recommend them to some of their constituencies, and, in the absence of special qualifications, they might be replaced by politicians of a broader type. But the chances of successfully putting an end to electoral expenditure are far too remote to justify speculation on this head. It may be predicated as a rule of the Whig that he is not a poor man, and that his social position is an ascertained one. He is sufficiently independent to be able to disregard the opinions of the majority by whom he is surrounded. The bias of county life is strongly towards Conservatism. The employer of labour credits the Liberal party with the increased difficulties he meets with in dealing with his men; the clergyman knows that his citadel is already marked out for attack, at least in the north, where Dissent is the mainspring of Liberalism; the publican fears further restrictions, and possibly no compensation for disturbance; while the landowner marks the sallies of Mr. Bright,