THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 21, 20 September 1895, Page 19

THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

(From a Correspondent.)

Limerick, August 4, 1895. You will have been, long before this letter reaches you, acquainted with the result of the general election in the United Kingdom, and by the time it appears in print the great political strnggle will have passed into the domain of ancient history. At the same time a britf review of the principal features of the fight and the causes, as they appeared to an outsider, which led to the complete rout of the Liberal party — rank and file— will not be unacceptable to your readers. Many causes have been assigned for the discredit into which Liberal politicians have fallen in Great Britain. Even among the leading Liberal organs in the country there is a great divergence of opinion as to the reasons why;tbe party suffered bo crushing a defeat, and when this is bo, with tbose who are cony rsant with the variations of the political barometer, it would almost seem pesnmptuous on the part of a visitor to attempt to gauge the motivts of the constituencies in turning a complete somersault, in many cases, after manj years of faithful adherence to the principles of Liberalism and progress. There can be no doubt, however, that during the last three years the Liberal party have been getting into bad odour with the country, on account of the very little progress they were able to make with any of the reforms which occupied a prominent place on their programme when coming into power. True, indeed, the Lords barred the way in many cases, but it is contended that the members of tbe gilded chamber would have accepted the inevitable and passed measures, however unacceptable, had the Ministry shown more grit, and had they shown their determination to appeal to the country on the rejection of anyone of their policy Bills. The Lords bad been cognisant for a long time of the weakness of the Ministry, and the narrow majorities which they could count upon in the Commons emboldened|tbem in their rej ction or emasculation of measures sent up to them from the people's representatives. Tbe attack on the House of Lords was not considered to be a genuine affair, but rather a party shibboleth for tbe purpose of diverting public attention from tbe incompetence and weakness of the Ministry and to cover the ignominious rebuff* which they received from time to time in consequence of their want of determination on matters of vital interest. Home Rule was hung op indefinitely, so that British measures of reform should have their innings, af.er which it was supposed that thi real campaign against the House of Lords should begin. But any Btadent of English history knowj full well the tenacity with which English people oling to any of tb^ir institutions, and what a difficult matter it is to get John Bull to movi in

the direction of reforming, not even to mention abolishing, one of the estates of the realm ; and if he bean this in mind he will readily understand the Herculean natnre of the task, which a weak Ministry undertook when it adopted as the main plank of its platform the abolition or radical reform of the Upper House. An Englishman to whom I wan speaking the other day not unaptly compared public opinion in England to tbe movements of an elephant on ground which the animal is hardly sure of. The leaders of progress and those who are anxious for reform keep shouting to the animal to go onward, and prod it with their sticks to induce it to move, whilst the unwieldy and nervous beast now pats forward one leg, but before it reaches terra firma the animal draws it back again and then tries wilh the other, until, having finally satisfied itself that the ground is Bafe, it deliberately makes the final movement, where it remains firmly rootei until satisfied that more progress can be made. The elephant is not like the horse, which might be compared to some European nation, which rushes forward without taking sufficient notice of its surroundings, and finds itself in a quicksand and, having extricated itself with difficulty, rushes to the rear of its original starting p int too terrified to make another attempt forward, but plunging to tbe right and lefr, to the great danger of the people io charge of it, and to ihe evident amusement of the attendants of the slow but sure elephant. It will require some years of continuous labour from the Liberal leaders of Great Britain to educate the public mind that the nation can get on without the House of Lords. Perhaps after some years under the regime of a Conservative Government they may alter their views and, taking the Liberal party into favour, give it a mandate to reform the Lords. Bat public opinion is certainly not ripe as yet for its abolition, and it is a mistake for the Liberals to follow up such a political will-o* the-wisp until the members of the Gilded Chamber have so incensed the electors of Great Britain by their contemptuous rejection of some ouasure waich the balk of ttn p3>ple hti sat, their mioda on having. That reform must follow the wish of a united nation. Lord Bosebery and Sir William Harcourt are in their turn made the scapegoats for i he ill-luck that has followed the banner of the party of progress at the hustings. Many of tie Radicils consider that the late Premier was oot sufficiently advanced in hs views to be leader of the party, and thai his attacks on the Upper Chamber were more pretended than sincere, their suspicions being more than confirmed by the additions which he made to it before leaving offioe. Some of the organs of Liberalism ixp-essed the hope, after the defeat of Sir William Harcourt for bis old constituency, that he should give way, as leader in the Commons, to a raaa less enatnoared of fads the particular hobbies of Bir William unsuiting him for the leading position which he held. Sir William is a stroag L >cal Vetoist, and had bound the Lib a ral Party to this creed. It is needless to say

that each • plank in the platform of the Lib rata raised up hosts of enemies. '' To rob the poor man of bis beer "w is wor*e than atiempting to rob him of his liberty, or at least it waa tantamount to it. << Bung and Oo." ia all-powerful still ia the British Isles, and temperance disciples are making bat slow progress there. The publican has always been the especial protegd of the Conservative party, (or do not the whole of the breweries and nine-tenths of the public houses belong to the upper-crust people. Therefore, there never was an election in which the in'erests of the publicans and their friends, the brewers and their independent!, and the Conservatives were more closely bound together than on this occasion, and, it is needless to say, that the litter made full uej of their opportunity, and showed the liquor party that the return to power of tbe Liberals would be the death knell of the liquor sellers. S jlf-interest is the most powerful machine one c*n have for welding together in one compact whole the mo«t antagonistic particles of society, and so it may ba safely assumed that not alone the defeat of Sir William EUrcourt but that of many other members of the party was dua mainly to the Local Veto question and tha very closa allaince of the publicans and Conservatives. The Independent Labour Party contributed in many c^ses to the defeat of the Liberal candidates. This section of the community, insignificant in numbers as has been clearly shown by their support at the polls, have deceived the public and have been deceiving themsalves as to their real strength in tbe country. They have mistaken the applause which they bad received in the promulgation of Bocialistic doctrines when haranguing crowds in Hyde paik on Sunday afternoons, and at various places throughout the country, as approval of their socialistic doctrines, but tha ba lot box must bave showed them conclusively to**, however enthusiasticilly the British workman may applaud their frothy vapour nga on a public plitform, re wanted something more solid in a representative in Parliament. God, man, and beast Were on the sane level, according to many of these demogogues, and everything worthy of reverence, esteeai, and love wis to maka way for the new god of Libour, Society was a monstrous evil, aid religion was a barbarous superstiiion. Kiir-H»rdie wai the apostle of this calt in ihe House of Comaains, aii it is superfluous to say that his ecce itncit'es bivo doae m >re to kill the pretensio is of the independent, or socialistic Lab jr party than all the Bpeccb a of tbeiropponents. Howeve-, there is every reason to believe that their egregious vanity in seek ng 10 oust c Titan Liberal candidates from their seats had been carefully and sedulously cultivated by 'he Tory p&rty for their own en is As in the da kst clou I there is sure to be a silver lining, so the catastrophe that has o\ertak*n tbe Lber>ls is not without its bright spot, and that is the complete i-quelchiag wh eh the socialistic tail of tbe Radical seciion ha< rec ivsd which wi.l no d übt keep them quiescent for s ime tima. It is not much surprise that the Tories were snecrs-ful in the comtry constituencies, for these have been their strongholds for many years. In fact everything was in their favour there at tiie piesent election. Agriculture has never been at so low a"n ebb us during the past few years in England. Wnat with bid harves's, low prices, and unlimited supplies of all kinds of pioduce from abroad, like the policeman in the comic opera, ihe lot of the Englihh firmer was not a happy one. There has been a mild port of Rotation g^ing on amongst some pf the Tory landlords and agriculturists for some years in favour of an impost, on cereals, breadstuff and meats from foreign countries, so as to enouragi ani assist British agriculturistsA'though tnia h >s never taken any tangible shape stir, it was a sort of carrot dangled befoie the eyes of the agricultural donkey, who saw hope even in this very remo'e indue ment. Besides this the Tories have always b_ J en more or less inc.ined towards a >-ystem of protection for agricu,tu-al produces, whilst the Liberals are irrevocably wedJed to fr c trale. Under thes? circumstances it is no surprise that the cou try population wen' sohder than ever for the Tories, especially as there were vagun hints thrown ou', by irresponsible Const rvative candidates, that their party would very probably introduce a Land Bill for England similar to that which had bjen passed for Inland. The greatest surprise of all waa thp solid wiy in which many of the supposed litdical consti uencies in London supported the Tory part). This is explained on the grru'id that there has been a great re-action in London jn favour of Toryism in const quence of ihe muddling of the progressists in the County Council, wiiere they have increased taxation to an enormous extent, and frittered uway money in experimental reforms. In many of the constituences, too, in consequence of the atti ude which the Radical candi latea took up with reference to the voluntary schools, and the favourable replies w iich were received from the Conservatives, the Catholics supporte i the latter, and it is believed that in some cases they managed to turn the scales. As far as doing justice to schools where religion and secular k owledge are imparted si \e by side, there need uothiog be expected from the Radicals either at Home or abroad. In one sense the result, so far, of the general election in Ireland has been eminently satisfactory, as the country has again solidly demonstrated that it bas Dot abated one a whit in its demand for

H >me Rale E ghty two Home Hulurs have ben returned, notwi'b. standing many adverse causes militating again Bt tbe unity of the people from within and without the ranks of the people. Of these 70 are M'Carthyites, 11 Redmonditrs, and one political prisoner, and however these may differ in many essential points, still it must be conceded by the moßt ultra-Unionist that they agree on the main plank and that is a domestic legislature for Ireland. Not alone bave the Unionists been crushingly defeated in the whole of the national constituencies where they had the temerity to appeal to the people, but the Derry election resulted in a brilliant victory for the Home Rulers, Mr Veaey Knox having succeeded in wresting the seat from Mr Rosa, Conservative, who represented the city since 1892. Set. geant Hemphill also successfully upheld the Home Rale cause in North Tyrone, having beaten the Conservative candidate by about 90 vates, and thus reversing the result of the contest of 1892. These were the two moat important contests in Ireland, inasmuch as the Conservative candidates were backed up by the combined forces of Orangeism, landlordism, and Unionism. Oa the other hand, there has been a very unpleasant feature in connection with the general election in thia country, and that waa the intensity of the bitterness with which the Pamellitea and AntiParnellites regarded each other. To an outsider this seemed nothing less than sheer madness. Instead of combiniog forces to work in unison against the common enemy, they wasted their energy in needless conflicts and in scurrilously abusing each other, oo language being considered too strong whan directed agaiDst the opposite party. To add to the confusion, there was a cleavage in the followers of Mr Justin M'Carthy, the leader of the split being Mr Timothy Healy. It is needless to say that these internal dissensions have been a source of great joy to the Unionist party, who imagined that they would be able to slip in for some of the Nationalist seats in consequence of these internecine disputes. It was bad enough to have tbe Nationalist leader made ihe butt cf all the sarcasm, hostile and unfair criticism, and mendacious and scurrilous abuse of the Redmondites and their allies, the Tories and coerciocists, but, to make t ,c " confusion worse confunded," Mr Tim Healy was reported to have said at » Nationalist convention in Cmagh that the M'Carthyites had sold four seats in Ulster to the Liberal party for £200 each. The report of the c -invention, which was held in private, appeared in a Conservative orgaa, at.d, although Mr Healy has s-ince denied tbe accuracy of tferep rf, still he has not withdrawn the main points of the charge. It is needless to add that the cha'ge of trafficker g in sea s was used not alone to damage the Irish party in this country, but the coercionists magnifi.d and distorted the whole affair for the advancement of their causß amocg9t the English coratituencifß. Mi esrs M Canny and Blake, on behalf of their party, and Mr Kllip, the Liberal wbip, denied in toto tbe foul accusation ; but the evil had been done, and no amount of documentary cv dence would have availed in dissipating the bad imprt-s-ion which ha-1 been creat d by Mr Healy's political bombshell. Mr Healy has been condemned oa all sides for making such a charge, especially ia the midst of a general eUc' ion, for even if it wjretrue v was contended, and rightly so too, the time and place for investiga'ing the truth or falsehood of such an indic'ment was when there was no bin? else to dis nrb mto'a mind«. The only conclusion one can come to is that Mr Healy w*s only too anxious to publish any charge which would further his personal interest*, regardless ot the consequences to the country. Tbe true explanation of the maHer was th*t the Irish party, finding their funds running short coul i not undertake the expet.ses attendant to a thorough registration of four northern constituencies, and had ask d the Liberals to take these in band, and, at the same time, allowing them to run H >me Rule candidates for inn same. Without attending to the registration the Irish party could not look at these constituencies, an \, hs ibey had no money to spare for this purpose, the Conservatives would have a walk over were it not for tbe Liberals providing funds and cundid-ites. Such a compact w»b an evident gain to Ireland, and one wondeis bow such an able and astute politician as Mr Timothy Healv did not see it in this lig'it, or, if be did not why ba did n it refrain from making his charge when ha should see that it would be used to the detriment of the Irish cause by our enemies. The Tunes, as usual, pounced upon it and worked itself up in o a regular freDzy over the matter, ani wis not pacified for Bonw i(a\ h after the enSphatic denials of the principals of both sides concerned. Were it not for this incident and a few others it is evident th*t the Uedmoudi c party woud have been considerably reduced at thia election, ani their power for mischief considerably curtailed, for, however honebt or conscientious they miy be — and I do not deny that they may bn induced from gooi motives to persevere in tbe Imp of ac ion which they bave pursued for the past few yearsstill it is quite evident their methods are meeting not alone with tha approva', but blro with the tangible support of every Coercionist in the c mntry. The Reimondite candidates recaived all tne votes of the Tories in the constituencies where no Conservative stood, whilst the party gets any amount of fulsome fl ttery from he Tory organs. It may be safely said that there are not four Hedmoodite members out of the ten elected, returned by a m jority of the Home Rulers ia th« constituencies. The Redmondites have expressed themselves from time to time wnh indecent pleasure at the defeat of prominent numbers of the late Government, wbili-t they, and their organs, have been quite elated at the success of the coercionists. Looking from a neutral standpoint at this matter one cannot help doubting the sin. cerity of John Redmond and his party when they express their plea, sure at the prospect cf half-a-doz-m ysars of Tory rule in this country {To be concluded.')