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Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7924, 29 July 1886, Page 4

It may be remembered that Belgium, like the United States, and still more lately Holland, has within the last six months been the scene of large strikes, organised agitation, and fierce labour riots. One of the most mischievous results of these things is the re-action they provoke. Two years ago the Clerical or Tory party in Belgium gained a partial success at the elections. The Liberals, however, were confident that the elections to be held in June, 1886, would redress the balance, for Belgium is supposed to be a distinctly democratic and progressive country. But these elections, when held, as they have just been held, did nothing but entirely confirm the clerical victory of 1884. Observers attribute this to the alarm and insecurity excited in all the propertyholding classes by the wild doings and wilder talk of the rioters and their Socialist friends. Nothing is so, certain to stiffen the backs of the property owners of any country, small as well as large, brave as well as timid, as an open defiance of law and order. Their Conservative friends tell them that a gulf is opening under their feet; they think that there is something in that and that the something is their own property. At any rate, they think that for a while, at least, progress has gone far enough, and that the time has come to put the break on. There is no reason- to doubt that feelings of this kind have had their effect in little Belgium. What far more nearly concerns us is that similar fears have probably had not a little to do with the Tory re-action in England; and the consequent defeat 5 of Mr Gladstone. The chronic lawlessness of Ireland has been brought home to the dullest English conception by the unlucky riots in London and Leicester. John Bull, rich, old and timid, has begun to shake in his shoes, and decline to tread unknown paths. Asked to surrender the government of Ireland to men who have systematically defied law and harassed property (or whose allies have done so without these men’s condemnation), John bethinks himself that if Ireland be yielded to Nationalists, he may some day be asked to yield up England to Socialists. His nerves have been shaken, and his mind is liable to be preyed upon by imaginary terrors. His fears may be chimeras, but they are natural, and with them Mr Gladstone has had to reckon to his cost.