The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-03-04 00:00:00

TH3 DECLINE OF CONSERVATISM IN
POOLE.
To tAa AUtor.

could have wished that an abler pen than
mine would hare written upun the subject of this
lettar, and I have arbb-d in rain just long enough
to persuade myself that I am stfliciently well qualified
at least to call the attention of the public to a few
facts, if not to make an el,thoratecomment upon them
a task which I leave to some Liberal politician harini
more haws and ability than myself.
- - - -

—,
I note with pleasure how Conservatism la on the
decline in Poole. The Antebps Maser, according to
the admission of the Tories thsmeslre wee numerically
• failure, and what greater failure than thin could •
political dinner hare? The great short-coming,
however, °sly stands at the head of • long list of minor
short-oomings, to be found in the speeches of those
Pntimmin whom post-preafiel productions have been
Lately under diecuseion. The.. speeches are deficient
in their logic, their coustrawnoe, their oonrtmey, and
their truth. Many of them were made to assume
the f wm of "sops in the pea' to the golden image set
up by a (erode Nebuchadnezzar, who has commanded
all her true.blue Flabyloniaas to fall down and worship
at the sound of " all kinds ef mu io" which fall from
her lip., in obedience to which isandate we view the
mMage of • greet many (" not so many as before")
of Belehassarh guests.
-

Allowing tha; the speeches have undergone the
usual "trimming-up' promos which post-m aegis:
speeches are wont to receive at editorial hands, it is
emery to disown the spirit which pervaded the assembled
enthusiasts, who, smarting un,ier the Ming of defeat,
both individually and collectively. resort to evet7 devise
end excuse to make Mei: own case froxi, their op.
patents' case bed, and to if ire us that all mankind
who are not Conservative& are absolutely devoid of
sense. They enjoin their supporters to peruse the
best sources of ioforreation, provided for them in the
Conservative Hall, whence " therarbied reports of the
Deily New* are excluied. It is not their cue even
to note the actions of their iviverearies—no, they are
far above thia, and the Immortal pronoun spend is the
only one tt ey can de line. Note bow the Right
Honourable Member for Willeoluvon "bet his train;"
surely kis popularity in Poole is large enough for the
bare sound of his name to provoke "long and con-
tuitions
_cheering."

Mr. Ashley "at the tail of the atrocity mongers" is
an idea which 0411110.1 mach laughter; but Mr.
nine votes ahsedof the embryonic peer (as the " i!lirdhl7
Springfield" informs us he le) canoed much more laugh-
ter, and if we turn to Debrett we shall see that the
information as to her being "a lady In her own right"
Is quite oorrect--a fact we wonder we never thought of
before; but some people will be so facetious, and are
so very clever at jsgging other people's memories.
Perhaps the bag speech of the evening was the one
made by the Sector, who say. that he is generous
enough to allow his neighbours to differ with him,
and likes every man to form his own opinion. This
freedom is a qualification the typical Conservative is
tutored not to power." Do se you are told, end ask
no questions," are the standing orders of the Tory
poliddooo. In political Pools minister, of religion
are wont to gram political feast, with their presence.
"Church and State" Li their gran 1 cacao.; but out•
skiers can look /?•10hd this. and dieoern the work of
the great manorial wire-puller, who has learnt the art
of patting "hi. reverenoe'opon die back, who, tickled
by the ncungiutonti brings einsaf to believe that it
would be sacrilege for him to be ablaut when called
upon to grace the festive board.

- - --..,
It la a well-known fad that Poole fishermen, and all
the tabooing classes of Poole, are but just emergi
from a period of M m
etres. ore severe than any
hare experienced for many many years—ln feel, t
would be difficult to say when duty here really been
&guard before this last winter. It follows this that
A. cloud on of £lOO ON led to at the basolat was
gives at a time when, so tar as diatom wail cosaerned,
It we. not really required. And why? Thls leads ens
to ask lb ea saaaaat was lass of bow the Moe% was
apnied. Who hod 41b. "horikamluk Pa

Bahamas who had now ot it am be counted by wants ;
but thw is s problem it would wut be convenient. I low,
to wcrit out. _ _ . _

Bin highway to tbeCanford Estate 6 over Pooleßar •
if OW highway 6 impassable is it not to the advantage
of tie owner of the estate to make it otherwise ? And
eery landed prorietor looks towards improving his
owt property. 'lb. gentleman who celled attention
to Mgr noble gifts. in spite of the artistic method he
resorts to tell his hearers ttf his popularity, deserve. a
wed or two to qualify his remarks generally. He, like
n/others. forgets that lAberals area. jealous °libel'.
1°14641 opinions se he is, and ample means, and
tansfioent hearts, however commendable in themselves,
should never be brought forward as lever. to biaa
matured opinion. No one admires generosity snore than
I do, but generosity when used for any purpose oilier.
wise than for its own sake, that to to say need for some
other and ulterior view, mammas the form of bribery, a
subject upon which Conservative homilies abound in
POOl., where the Conservatives, with that purity so
characteristic of them, would shake their pions beads
at the thought of throwing away even the tiniest of
sprats t catch the largest mackerel. I fancy I can
see toe face ol the newly-elected and worthy chairman
of the Poole 'onservative Association, as be is reading,
with eyed beaming with delight. L ed.6shley's letter.
Here was • nut (doubtless he thought) for the Liberals
to crack. But lot the men of Cricklade and the men of
Hull judge the author of that letter, and not him,
and let them say if th.y think much of their
former member, who went out of his way to set
a wary snare in his own brother's preserves. Nay, let
the house of Shaftesbury, and that part of it which haa
"gone wrong" (to quote the wonldbe hamtli ring
remark of the worthy chairman) commend tbe
fraternal spirit eviuosd in that letter, anti it will cease
to be held in the LIMO estimati .a I now hold it in.
But who shall judge this noble h tom ? Why. no l.se
a man than the =Arm sn of the Poole C .naervatire
Arociation —lst them believe him—and—tremble l—the
ne broom, who would sweep the house of Shaftes-
bury (that is to say the: part of it which be," gone
wrong") as clean as be would the Tory party in Poole.
Let him sweep—eweep hard, aye, and scrub, and
scour, and rub, but he will never put the polish of
pelcularity upon the Tory party in Poole. And why?
"Phew is • stain;" he admits it, he is to lad it
out, and he lives but to rem we it. But he
bag found it out' long_ before he uttered these
words he discovered it He knows that

liartipty Damply bed a great fail;
All the King's horde. aol ail the cues f 12•11
Couldn't pat Ilampty Ducapty up again."
But his popul trity with hie perty. 111 wee proved by
the ballot which took plsos, miles him think himtelf
equal to Cho tank.
- - -

The people of Pod* con resent an injury—Liberals
and Conservatives resemble each other in this respect.
A political section of Chi bn.gesses ( secti in forming
the majority also) have not v half avenged themselves
for the injury they received in 1874. The other half
has yet lob. aocomplished ; 111. merely smouldering,
and when the t mem arrives, and ill, not far distant—
for the political death knell et lerselitish (woullbc)
autocracy In free England to be aouod.i, the men
of Bristol and the men of Glainorganshire will unite
with the men of Poole to welcome into oaks a
Parliament in which he who mpired to represent them
will be as conspicuous by his absence ae he lain his
town of Porde.

The lest speech worthy of notice is the last one
reported, and came from the lips of the President of
the feast. It is one of the most significant speeches of
all, inasmuch as it was made to toast the • Conser-
vative working men." These "crooked straLlat
lines," these " round squares," exist only in the
mind of such men as the President,, but not
in reality. That a erasion of the community
404115 exist thet is styled Conservative working men no
ens disputes; but who are they They are not poll-
tidans ; they are merely weather-cocks upon the
summit of a tower of ignoranoe, pointing to the direc-
tion from which the in ist money owns& Thema men
cry out about the badness of the times. Under the
Tory rule they receive Conservative patronage ; they
wield their It if. and fork at the Conservative
Banquet; burn the Conservative coal; sleep between
Conservative blankets; are "bail fellow well met"
with the Conservative candidate ; and here their Con-
servatism ends. These men study Reynolds', and
believe in It; but fear (nauseam' one, m may another,
whilst others rent under 'onservative landlords. Som.
of these men have learnt their lesson ter enough to do
as they are told, whilst other., actuated by fear as to
their acti ms when away from the ballot box, will,
under its mcrecy, obtain the only satisfaction which
remains to the Conservative working-serf. who has
been so carefully manipulated by those having the
rule over him, that he knows to speak nut
boldly would entail in all probability his ruin.
I would ask, if Conserve/lam in Pools is (as the
Antelope speakers would have us to believe) in such •
flourishing state. why we meet with such a long array
of excuses in their speeches. Their "ii." were as
conspicuous by their multiplicity as were the "H's"
of thegarrulous cobbler by their absence. Thus we hear
—lf the Home Rule que•tlon ha I not turned up.
Fry would not have been returns I for Bristol. If
there was no "stain' to blot out. Conservati-m woald
have flourished in P •ols. If" %faster George" (" The
Fishermen's Friend" !) hi I not been dsqualifi ol—as
others like him hevejim tly been since—there would be
a Tory majority in the Council. If the mew .or for
Poole had adopted the fratern .1 example set film, and
" turned his °oak" another member of the House of
Shaftesbury would not have " gone wrong." If the
ex-town councillor, ex-chairman, and "whip" of the
Poole Conservative Association and his coufreers had
moralised the el °tors, they would all have
been returned into the Council, and so on,
and our present loral politicians are only following
the example set them by their representatives at
Westminster, who proclaim with a flourish of
trumpets every trump card they win • trick with,
hut lay all their numerous revokes and misdeals at
the doors of their Radical opponents. Thus everything
which goes wrong (and how much comes under this
head!) is the result of mismanagement six years ago,
in fact " • legacy left them by the radicals." The
only legacy left them by the Radicals was Gladstone's
five millions, and where Is that? And where are the
six millions voted to them under the oonfideuoe
trick! and who shall estimate the good fruit+ of
the fivepenny income tax, to be doubled next year?
Let the versatile ex-member for Crinkled' and Hull
answer this before he writes another letter to the
Tories of Poole. and backs them up with the vain ,
hope that they shall ever be able to send their reps- I
sentative to his much-coveted seat in the House. Let
us ask where is the honour our opponents have asso-
ciated with their peace. They cry' POMP I" and there
is no peace, and Zulu =macre* distress, strikes, and
Increased taxation are the bases upon which their
structure at present is tattering. Well may the
Hibernian, clamour for Home Rule, or any rule but
that which they now have. 'The "creaking door" of
Conservatism has hang long enough upon its hinges,
but let us each and all unite to bring forward the
oiled feather of true Liberalism the only system under
which free England for free 'Englishmen can ever
prosper as she has done in days long gone by.
jam,
Yours truly,
Lux a Taarriaza.
Pools, February 22ad, 1819.