The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-26 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, NOV. 26, 1868.

Entering Parliament with so enormous a majority,
it is certainly not surprising that the Chiefs of the
Opposition are beginning already to forecast the
arrangement of a new and Liberal Administration.
It would be matter for astonishment if it were other-
wiser They feel themselves, naturally enough, to be
Masters of the Situation. And, in consequence of
this, as rational men, they look forward to the exceed-
ing probability, not to saydead certainty, of their tak-
ing office sooner or later—sooner more probably than
later. The difficulty, it was conjectured before the old
Parliament was dissolved, before the present appeal
had been made to the country—one of the principal
difficulties at least foreseen at that time in regard to
the formation of a Liberal Cabinet, was felt to be one
arising out of what is called across the Channel an
embarassment of riches. There were so many claim-
ants on the front opposition bench, both in the Lords
and in the Commons, but principally in the Commons,
for nomination to one or other of the great
offices of State, in the construction of the
prospective Cabinet, in the formation of a Liberal
Administration ! Happily, for the next Prime Minis-
ter, when his time comes for the selection of his col-
leagues, something, at any rate, of this anticipated
difficulty, has been cleared away by the results of the
General Election itself, a General Election now all
but completed. By the Right Hon. THOS. MILNER
GIBSON'S rejection at Ashton-under-Lyne, one of
those who might reasonably have looked to
the future Premier for office, has been
summarily swept out of view altogether. In the
Marquis of HARTINGTON, at any rate for the time
being, another claimant for a seat in the next Liberal
Cabinet, has disappeared. Mr. BRIGHT'S objection to
many of the formalities of official life—to kneel-
ing on a soft cushion in the Council Chamber
to kiss hands, for example,—to dressing himself
out in that hideous Court suit, the absurdities of
which everybody recognises—to these and to a num-
ber of other fantastic ceremonials sufficiently ludicrous
every one of them iti themselves, but simply intoler-
able to a man of Mr. BRIGHT'S strong common sense
and disdain of what he would probably call so much
tomfoolery : objections like these confronting him, as
it were, upon the very thr,shold, preclude (it is felt
by all, it is feared by his more intimate friends and
adherents) the honourable member for Birming-
ham from assuming the position of a Cabi-
net Minister. Lord RUSSELL, again having
ong been recognized as such by every one but him-
self—now at last would seem himself to have begun
to suspect that, as a Cabinet Minister, he is little
better than an anachronism. But, together with Lord

RUSSELL there are others of the old world Whigs
whom it would be simply ridiculous for any one to
dream of seeing again inducted into official life as
members of an Administration. Such past and
gone Mummies of Ministers let us say, as
Lord HALIFAX and Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY.
They, at least, we are (thank GoD) rid of altogether.
Degraded long since to the position of mere Political
Fogies, they are, beyond all manner of doubt, set aside
as men who are obsolete, cushioned, shelved com-
pletely. it might be, doubtless, if only out of respect
to him, as a statesman who has been himself
thrice Prime Minister of England, that a place even
now might be allotted to Lord RUSSELL in the next
Liberal Cabinet—as a Minister, as the phrase is,with-
out portfolio. Just as was done some years ago in re-
gard to that Nestor of the Whig Party, the late
Marquis of LANSDOWNE. And Lord LANSDOWNE had
never been Prime Minister, whereas Lord RUSSELL
has, and that thrice. But the nomination of such a
a nonentity as Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY, or of such
another nonentity as Lord HALIFAX to any similar
honorary position, much more, be it said, to any post
requiring administrative energy or ability, would
involve, in itself, nothing less than the covering with
ridicule of any Cabinet so monstrously overweighted.
They, too, therefore, are as completely out of the
question, though for a different reason, as Mr.
MILNER GIBSON, or as the Marquis of HARTINGTON.
Again, there are certain flighty, eccentric, unreliable
Liberals hitherto seated on the back benches, or
below the gangway, who might just probably, had
they been returned to the new House, have entertained
a faint idea of being appointed or reappointed to
lesser offices in a future Liberal Administration ; but
who, not having been returned at all, are now swept
aside from among the number of even—day-dream-
ing aspirants ! Conspicuous among these, being Air.
HoßsmAs, Mr, ROEBUCK, Mr. MILL, and Mr. BERNAL
OSBORNE. The difficulty hitherto looked forward to,
therefore, as threatening Mr. GLADSTONE, immediately
on his being called upon to select his colleagues
in the construction of a new Liberal Cabi-
net—that dreaded difliculty of an embarrassment
of riches— has been already very much and very ob-
viously diminished. Abstracting (from the list of
those at one time thought of as just possible
colleagues of his) merely the names we our-
selves have here quite casually enumerated—viz.,
those of Mr. MILNER GIBSON, Lord HARTINGTON,
Lord HALIFAX, Lord STANLEY Of ALDERLEY, Mr.
OSBORNE, Mr. MILL, Mr. ROEBUCK, Lord RUSSELL
even, and, we would add here, Locd RUSSELL'S some
time Under. Foreign Secretary in the House of Com-
mons as a politician utterly unfitted for office, if for no
other reason, because of his late disgraceful speech
upon the hustings at Southwark, Mr. LAYARD—Mr.
GLADSTONE'S choice of colleagues will be narrowed
to the really able and energetic members seated
around him or immediately behind him in the House.
Conspicuous among whom there will be of course Mr.
' CHILDERS, Mr. W. E. FORSTER, and, (happily for his
party, restored once more to the House of Commons)
the most gifted of all our diplomatists, the new mem-
ber for Tamworth, the Right Hon. Sir HENRY
BULWER. Conspicuous in the Lords, on the other
hand, will be the Duke of ARGYLL and the Earl of
CLARENDON. From statesmen and administrators
such as these, the new Premier, directly his time
Comes, will have to select his colleagues in the next
Liberal Cabinet.

THE result of the elections is now so far certain
that we can estimate it without waiting for the con-
clusion of the few remaining contests. The Liberal
majority will be something under 120, or say
fifteen more than the 100 which we assigned to the
Opposition before the elections began. It is impos-
sible that the Conservatives can continue to hold
office long in the face of a hostile force so over-
whelmingly large. Even those of them who have
the most boundless faith in their leader's skill-as a
tactician admit that this majority cannot, at all
events for the present, be withstood, and that they
must for a time go out of office, though, as they
affirm, only for a very short time. But the elections
have an interest far beyond -their effect upon the
position of the two parties. The independent poli-
tician values them less for the changes which they
will cause than for the spirit which they indicate.
There are a few broad facts concerning which
there is no room for doubt. All the arithmetical
feats in which party journalists delight will not
explain away this fact—that Ireland, Scotland, and
Wales have decided for Mr. GLADSTONE'S policy ;
or this—that Lancashire has decided against it ; or
this—that the extension of the county franchise has
not elicited that amount of Liberalism in the counties
which was anticipated. Let us consider these facts,
and try to estimate their importance.
In the first place, it was obvious from the outset
that Ireland would pronounce as it has done. The
circumstance that the Roman Catholics are to the
Protestants as ten to one (the proportion on the poll-
book is somewhat smaller) rendered it inevitable that
the voice of the Irish people would be given against
the Protestant Established Church. The verdict
has been even more decisive than we expected.
In Ultra-Protestant Belfast and Londonderry,
the supporters of Mr. GLADSTONE'S policy have won
two seats. The opponents of that policy explain the
circumstance by mentioning that the Presbyterians
voted for the Liberal candidates. But this fact
aggravates, rather than extenuates, the importance
of the decision. If the Presbyterians, the Protestants
of Protestants, pronounce against the Irish Church
—pronounce against Lord MAYO'S scheme of
giving them Government grants, what hope
is there for that institution, for that
scheme ? Their fellow-religionists in Scotland have
arrived at the same result. In Scotland, Protes-
tantism is far less identified with State religion than
in Ireland, and there the decision has been pro-
nounced with an approach to unanimity that is quite
unprecedented. Not only do all the Scotch boroughs,
without a single exception, return Liberals, but
ancient Conservative strongholds in the Scotch
counties have been wrested from the great
territorial magnates, to the surprise as much
of the victors as of the vanquished. That the Duke of
BuceLmuell should be unable to retain the seat
which his son held, that in Peeblesshire and Selkirk
he should be within four votes of losing another seat,
that Sir W. STIRLING-MAXWELL should be put to
flight by a London alderman and Major WALKER
by a London attorney, are facts perfectly astounding
to those who know anything of social life in Scotland,
who know the old feeling of clanship which still exists
among the Scotch tenantry, and the reverence which
they have for their lairds. But the Scotch are
an intensely religious people, and their religion over-
comes all the traditions of fealty to their hereditary
chiefs. Add to this the very important consideration
that they have long leases, and therefore are not at
the mercy of their landlords as the English tenant
farmers are, and we are able to estimate the force of
this great demonstration in behalf of religious
equality. In this respect Wales is very
similar to Scotland. The Welsh are nothing if
they are not religious, and though they, too,
have great regard for the old Welsh chieftains,
they do not hesitate to reject them in favour of
" Sassenach" strangers, if these come forward as the
representatives of religious equality.
We turn now to Lancashire; and here we find the
voice of the people as decisively against Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S policy as in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales it
has been decisively in favour of it. Three Liberal
Cabinet Ministers, including the Liberal leader himself,
have been rejected by Lancashire constituencies, and,
remembering that this great county is very little
associated with agriculture, and is closely identified
with manufactures, this rejection is a phenomenon
which requires explanation, It is the more remark-