The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-01 00:00:00

SATURDAY M Y Ist, 1880.

CHANGING SIDES.

The opening of the Tenth Parliament of
Queen Victoria witnesses another turn in
the political w7t-el, so many of which have
occurred during her Majesty's reign. The
young and eas..er politician who has just
entered into public life, and sees nothing
before him but the immediate success of his
own party, can scarcely comprehend the
mutations of fy.:litical change which go to
make up the incidents of State in one single
reigr. Tie party in power one year, with
apparently a long spell of office before it
has been often-enough in oppositionthe next
straggling in a minority, and seemingly
without much hope of reversing the latest
popular verdict. Whether a Parliament be
long or short, the bye-elections are watched
with great interest on both sides, the ad-
dition of a vote to this or that side being
claimed as showing which way the tide is
running in the country. When an appeal
is made to a great and populous constituency,
as happened on more than one occasion
during the last few months of the late Par-
liament, especially in the cases of Liverpool,
Sheffield, and Southwark, all the greater
interest is centred in the answer given.
And yet the verdicts given at these bye-
cleetions ar illnsory often enough, seeing
that both. and Southwark reversed
at the general election the judgment they
had pronounced at the bye-contests a few
weeks previously.
An ancient constitutional maxim is that
the Sovereign reigns, but does not govern ;
and through all the political vicissitudes of
more than forty years, Queen Victoria has
shown how to respect it. The space of time
occupied by Her Majesty's reign can
scarcely be better illustrated than in the
mere statement of the fact that the minister
who now occupies the first place in her
councils in the 71st year of his age was a
young man of eight-and-twenty when she
first came to the throne. In the varying
circumstances of plitical change which pass
over a nation in es, course of nearly half a
century, the Queen has ever shown an
adherence to constitutional forms which,
in the midst of the fierce light that beats
upon the Throne, has silenced the criticism
of even those most disposed to find fault if
there was an onportunity of doing so. The
energy sitbi-xi*.h the battles at the polls
are fought out is certainly not less now than
it was forty yews ago. It is true that we
witnehs no such scenes as those which
precs.,derl VA) psssing of the first Reform Bill
when the riots in sume of our large towns
assumed sUch alarming proportions as to
suggtst fre idea that the country was on
the ve-rge of revolution. But there can be ,
no question as to the intensity of party '
feeling now arty more than at any general '
election since her Majesty's accession, save
perhaps the first when no political question
was before the country, and when a dis-
solution of Parliament was rendered neces-
sary from the mere fact that a new Sove-
reign had ascended the Throne. On every
occa9ion since 1837, however, a clear and
distinct issue has been placed before the
constituencies upon the sending out of the
writs for a new Parliament. Sometimes,
as in 1841 and 1852, the question has been
between Fi•ee Trade and Protection; on
,ther °cessions, as in 1857 and 1865, it has
been one of confidence in a particular Minis-
ter ; but whatever may have been the issue
before the people, the Sovereign has never
failed to give effect to the answer when once
it has been returned. Those who have
busied themselves in predicting that this
Sovereign would follow this or that personal
predilection have always had their prophe-
cies falsified. Even if the Queen has any
private prejudices, which is perhaps doubtful,
these have never been permitted to interfere
with the discharge of a grave and constitu-
tional public duty.
.As to the new (+over—.-- f. with the best
will in the world it is not likely that they
will be able to make much impression on
t she laire work before them this year.
By the time the re-ehetions have taken
place consequent upon the appointment of
the ministers who vacate their seats on ac- ,
cepting office, the Whitsuntide recess Neill '
have arrived, so that, as far as 1880 is con-
cerned, he C.tbinet will probably content
itself with a mcderate Parliamentary pro-
gramme. Great, measures are not to be pre_
' pared without deliberate consultation, and
orpor4.-nnitv 'or this has scarcely yet been
61,-en. Bills may be looked for which will
pr.,...vir1,21(:5s vigorous resistance from their
adver, sin point of principle, or which
w• den' d less expenditure of the labour
of oilioial exposition and defence upon com-
plexities of detail, Next year, and after a
_