New Zealand Tablet Fiat Justitia.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 45, 7 March 1874, Page 5

New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1874. THE CONSERVATIVES.

The latest news from England informs us of the resignation of Mr Gladstone, in consequence of the great Conservative re-action which has placed his party in a minority in the British House of Commons. This will be pleasing news to many throughout the world. Not that Mr Disraeli, who had been entrusted with the task of forming a new Ministry, is more popular or more esteemed than his great rival. As a statesman, orator, scholar, and as a man of integrity,. Mr Gladstone has no superior. Nevertheless, very many will rejoice that his party has been defeated, and that he no longer leads the old forces as Premier.

The career of each of these statesmen is deserving of attentive study. Both have diverged from the political road on which they started in the race of life. Mr Disraeli, set* out a 8 a Radical, and by a dexterous wheel now finds himsel leading the Conservative party. Mr Gladstone began as a High Tory, a Conservative of the most orthodox principles he is now far on the road to Radicalism. It is very unlikePC that the former has discarded all his Radical principles an leanings, or that the latter has flung aside all his early tenet 8 of Conservatism. Both, it may fairly be presumed, are bette r than the parties they lead. If, then, the people rejoice at the change of Ministry in England, it is ndi because Mr Gladstone is out and Mr Disraeli in ; but because the Nati->a has at length come to see the depths of the fearful abyss te which Radicalism was so rapidly conducting it. The days of Old Toryism are ever, to return no more, and the motto of the rew Ministry must be conservative yet prcgressive. On no other principle can it last even through one session. Progress is the word of the day, and an end must be put to all abuses. But wh Ist nothing can be more certain than this, the late general elections have demonstrated the determination of the nation to conserve whatever deserves conservation. The constitution of the country, the institutions of the nation venerable for a«e and services, the noble trad.tions of a thousand years, must not be touched with profane hands. • True, abuses must be swept away ; but the life of the nation must not be imperilled in the process. The heait of the nation is sound still, and her instincts healthy. For years people have witched with dismay the steady progress of un-Christian and anti-social principles ; with horror and alarm they have seen them — in consequence of the exigencies of a political party— ascend iuto high places, and become embodied in statesmen otherwise most estimable. The principles which made England w hat she is as a nation were being flung away one by one, until at last an effort was impudently made to raise up an un-Christian and Godless generation. Patience cuuld endure no longer"; respect for the man, the orator, and genius, could be no longer pcrmitte.l to blind the nation to the dangerous tendencies of the measures of the politician. It became evident that it was no longer safe l«> trifle with revolutionary principles, or even partially embody them in legislation. The example of the Continental countries taught an instructive lesson. Democracies bec<»n:e tyrannical, republics turned into instruments of cruel oppr^--

«ion, the forms of constitutional government converted into a cloak for the plunder and enslaving of the people, presented a picture on which the eyes of honest men could not look "without dismay.

What more natural, therefore, than that they should ask themselves, is it not time to stem this torrent, to trample out this plague, which is desolating the Continent, befoie it gains the ascendant in our own country 7 This, we believe, is the reason of the re-action, and all who love law and order will fervently pray that it may be lasting. We are not— we never have been— admirers of Mr Diskaelt, or of the old Tory party; on the contrary, our sympathies and our aid have always been given to the Liberal party ; and Mr Gladstone we have regarded as a great and good man, though sometimes mistaken. But when we see the persistent attempts of the Secularist party, to conciliate which Mr Gladstone discarded his Irish supporters— when, we say, we see the persistent attempts of the Secularist party to destroy the faith of Ireland, and of all Christian people in the Empire— when we see one so influential in his party as Earl Russell take the chair at a meeting convened for the purpose of approving of and encouraging the persecution of Catholics by the" German Government—we are compelled to lay aside our likings and our sympathies, and rejoice in the triumph of a true principle, although its advocates are not everything we wish. If Mr Disraeli and his party could only divest themselves of tfie soreness they feel in consequence of the disestablishment of the Irish Protestant Church, and discard the Orange principles, according to which the Conservative party has ever administered the affairs of Ireland, his Government might rally round it almost the entire Irish representation. Were this to happen, the new Disraeli Ministry would be the strongest that England has seen for very many years. But, otherwise, his majority of about fifty is too small to give much hope of his remaining very long in power. At the present moment conciliation would effect wonders for the Empire ; but will there be conciliation ? This is the great question, and we fear very much no such happiness is in store for the Empire. One great good, however, has been effected. Radicalism and revolutionary principles have been checked by the common-sense of the constituencies. There is one remarkable feature in the recent contest which is significant. The cablegrams tell us that the re-action has taken place chiefly in Scotland, Lancashire, London and Middlesex. The parts of England mentioned are precisely the places where the Catholic vote i 3 strongest. May not this have turned the scales 1 The next news may bring us similar intelligence in reference to Scotland. In a close contest, the Catholic vote h dtcisive. We here may learn a lesson from this.