The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-11 00:00:00

THE CONSERVATIVE BANQUET.

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The Standard quite fails to detect the force of the gibes
and sneers of the leading Government journal at the City
banquet of the Conservative party. The guests at that
banquet were assembled for a certain specific purpose,
namely, to celebrate the victory gained by the Conserva-
tives of the City in the Registration Court. The occasion
certainly warranted some celebration of the kind. The people
of London have demonstrated to the kingdom the remark-
able fact, first proclaimed, as Mr. Disraeli says, by the
great towns of the North of England, that the extensioi
of the franchise under the Conservative Act of 1867 has
increased the influence. and added to the numbers of the
I
Conservative party. t was not a very unusual and surely
a pardonable way of celebrating what certainly is a great
triumph. The disappointment at not finding Conservative
principles set down in, regular order as a part of the menu
of the City banquet is, perhaps, natural enoughinthe organ
of a Ministry which has to issue a new " ticket " for
every parliamentary session. The principles of the Con-
servative party in this country are tolerably well known.
by this time to all the world. It is very. likely that we
are all wrong, and that thr Times only is right ; but even,
if we admit so much as this, we do not see our way
very clearly to any definite code of principles. If
it comes to that, where do we find what are called
the Liberal principles ? Who is the expositor of those
principles ? If a banquet were to be given to-morrow at
which Mr. Lowe, Mr. Fawcett, the Earl of Clarendon,
Mr. Heron, and Mr. Stansfeld were present to grace the
festive occasion, should we have an ebullition of princi-
ples ? If so, we should like to know what principles, and
how many.

The Post fears it is only too evident that the Conserva-
tive party is routed, and that the death of the late Lord
Derby and the refusal of the present Lord Derby—not
very wisely made public—to take his father's position
has dislocated their organism. There is, in-
deed, little left of them except a few phrases
and some reminiscences and traditions, about as
useful and effective as the toasts wsth which rabid
Orangemen spice their drinks in Ulster, or the old
Jacobite custom of passing the wine-glass over the water-
bottle when drinking the King's health. But let it not
be supposed that we condemn the Conservative party, or
despise them. By no means. We give them high credit
for their conduct last session with regard to the Irish
Church Bill. • We approve their attitude towards the
Irish Land Bill. Yet we are sorry for them. Our sorrow is
that the Conservatives, whom we have hitherto always held
in honour, although differing from them, are not genuine,
and have not the true ring, They are, indeed, we fear,
only lacquered, or, at the best, electro-gilt. It would be
their salvation if they would only lay to their hearts the
maxim that though speech is silver, silence is golden, and
learn that outbursts compounded of wailing and boasting
are almost worse than ridiculous, and betray an ignorance
of strategy, and of the principles of party warfare that
it is painful, even to their opponents, to contemplate.