The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1884.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5165, 21 November 1884, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1884.

From the cable messages of the last ie*? days, it would seem that Mr Gladstone's great Franchise Bill has at last safely weathered the House of I ords. The battle, now to be regarded as over, has not been sc particularly long one seeing the importance of the measure at stake, the time occupied in the struggle having been only about eight months. The fight, howeverhas been keen and fierce, and, up to the very last, the cries of "No surrender "' have been loud and defiant. That the Tories and the Lords / -must r in the end, give way, has bear plainly enough apparent for some months past. The Liberal victory has been certain^ not only because their side has bees enormously the stronger in numbers, but because they have fought so remarkably well — have shown such a remarkable combination of eneigy, discipline, and selfrestraint. The proverb tells us that Providence is on the side of the strong bat^ talions, and this must especially be the case when the strong battalions have also the better generalship. The triumph of the Franchise" reformers has also been a triumph of orderly constitutional agitation. A hundred years ago such a wave of excitement and enthusiasm as that whici has passed over the United Kingdom ia this year of grace 1884, would have led tosuch wild outbursts as the Gordon B iots r when London trembled before a drunken mob, houses were burned down and pillaged, prisons broken open, and the mil ir tary called out. Even fifty years ago thr first great Reform Bill could not passwithout such scenes as the burning of Bristol Castle, to say nothing of the outrage on the Duke of Wellington's houseMr Gladstone has managed to enfranchise two million British voters, and to meet and beat the whole resisting power of English Toryism, during months of ceaseless agitation, without having to look back upon anything more serious than one rather rowdy meeting at Birmingham. The friends of law and order, to say nothing of those apprehensive persons 7 who are always professing to look upon reform as the road to bloodshed^ rioting, dynamite, and revolution, may take courage when they think over the peaceful progress of the great English constitutional struggle of this year. The result, indeed, only bears out the dc^ctrinewhich thinking Liberals have long held^ viz. : — That in civilised and fairly prosperous countries, the more freedom the people get, the less dangerous the mob becomes. So good have the tactics and organisation of the Liberals been, that the Conservatives have been able to hit upon no countermining arrangements more original and effective than feeble parodies of the meetings, processions, and demonstration* of the reformers. The working classes of this Colony may very easily find, in th • struggle just ended at Home, a lesson pregnant with instruction to themselves. The working classes of England have just won a mighty victory ; but then they had the ablest men in England to lead them; people of all ranks in society fighting with. them ; and a good cause. The political associations, who profess to represent the working classes here, were smitten hip and thigh at the late general election: but then they had none of the requisites for success above mentioned.