The Portland daily press., 1871-10-31
DAILY PRESS,
PORTLAND.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 81 1871



Sagacious readers of current news might well
be excused from believing the report that the
subject of a regency has actually been dis
cussed in British Cabinet Council, were it
not that the most startling rumors from our
English neighbors have lately proved true.
The Queens serious illness was at nrst re-
garded almost universally as hoax, but is
now received as an indubitable fact. A still
more astonishing story, II posslple-that OF
a league between the Tories and workingmen,
having for its immediate purpose the ameiora-
ton of the condition of the latter, and for its
final result the transfer of power from Mr..
Gladstone to Mr.. Disraeli and his Conserya-
tive friends-proves to be by no means with.
out foundation. The latest cable dispatches.
not yet confirmed, report that the working
men finally declined the alliance that must
of necessity be founded on the model of
Esop's societas leonina. 1t is to be hoped
that they have not, like the proletarians of
of Rome, France and most other formerly
despotic countries, committed the fatal mis-
take of accepting the patronage and protec-
ton of privileged class in lieu of the rights
they might boldly claim without Offering any
consideration whatever. But the letters of
Mr.. George W. Smalley to the New York
Tribune show conclusively that negotiations
have been going ON since last January, and
that there was at one time a fair probability
of their success. Mr.. Disraeli's hand is recog-
nized in the matter, though his anne does
not annoor in tho transantionc Sucb an al
lance would be but carrying into effect long
cherished ideal of the author of C0ningsby
and Tancred. Scott Russell, the engineer
was the chief agent of the Council of Rep
resentative Workingmen, an organization
formed expressly to enter upon this negotia-
ton. The Conservative peers, among them
Lords Salisbury, Carnarvon, the Marquis of
Lorne, Sir Stafford Northcote and other well
known names, are reported to have accepted
formally the workingmen's proposal, namely,
that the latter should be provided with homes
in the country, technical as well as clement
ary education, public amusements and public
markets, that eight hours should be days
work, that the principle of municipal self
government should be accepted, and, finally,
that the organization of the public service
should be much enlarged, probably meaning
that railroads, &C., should be operated by the
government. These principles were to be
embraced in law, the introduction of which
in the House of Lords was expected to fall
like bomb-shell i'm the middle-class, boM-
geois camp of Gladstone. OF all the peers
mentioned as parties to the conspiracy Lord
Salisbury, the personal enemy of Disraeli, is
the only one who has yet denied his connec-
ton with it. Mail advices will probably con.
firm the report that the workingmen prefer
to trust their destinies in the hands of the
rather mildly reformatory Liberal ministry of
Mr.. Gladstone, rather than to sell out to the
Tories for so poor a consideration as the as
sent of the latter to few distractions. But
if the Queen is really about to accept an en-
forced retirement from her position, these and
all other minor political speculations will be
swallowed up in the fierce agtatious that will
follow. .a