The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-27
Dtsraeli's A1itiress-The Conservative
Policy.

opens the canvass in England and may be ac-
cepted as presenting in somewhat hasty array
the principal points upon which the conserva-
tives make their appeal to the country APP
parenuy the most important OF these points Is
the accomplished Squire of Hughenden him.
self, for his return is assumed, not merely as
indispensable, but as having an Importance
that it is impossible to exaggerate. civil and
religious liberty in Europe, it appears from
the address, 'mainly depends upon the
strength and stability of England" and there
fore the leader of the opposition especially
wishes to be in Parliament ''to resist the i'm
pairment of Englands strength and to sup
port her imperial sway" so the fate of
Europe rests with England, and the fate OF
England rests with the author of "Lothair;"
and it is gratifying to know that that gentleman
does not propose to keep in the background,
but is ready, and even eager, to prevent the
tremendous calamity of the ruin in Europe of
civil and religious liberty.
Aside even from this somewhat extravagant
statement of Mr.. Dsraeli's relations to civil
zation generally, his address seems to us
wanting in his usual felicity Of thought, as
well as in his usual good humor. Its tone is
peevsh its argument, where it deigns to
argue, is disingenuous and unfair; but its
worst feature is that it argues very little, and,
while it lays down no distinct line of policy
against the government policy, it refers to
this latter only in terms that are aiscourteous,
ii not opprobrious. Evidently the Premier's
70 oti irri-
tate the opposition, and they enter the contest,
not with confidence and high courage, but in
the spirit of men already contriving excuses
for the defeat they have good reason to an
ticipate. They cannot forgive Gladstone for
the painful position in which they found
tirement of the Ministry last year, they
were unable to assume the power that the
liberals virtually dared them to take. The fact
that the government with several adverse
votes against it, and one Of these o vote upon
which it deemed it proper to resign, was yet
SO completely master of the situation that the
conservative party dared not undertake to
govern in its presence, is too much for the
tory equanimity, because the fact was a
humiliation to that party by its exposure that
alone the tories were not able to cope even
with their crippled enemy; that their historic
splendor was gone; that even the barren VIC
tory scored in their name was not really gained
by their adherents, but was due to assistance
received from votes upon which they could not
count for further service.
1t is laid down in the address-and this is
doubtless primary point of the conservative
poIicy-that it would be better for the country
'f the foreign policy of the government were
more energetic and its domestic policy less
energetic" The point in the domestic policy
to which objection is especially made is the
'.incessant harassing legislation" BY this is
meant the Ballot bill, the Education bill, the
Irish University bill, the bills for the extern
sion of the suffrage-in short, all those great
constitutional measures which are the realiza-
ton OF the liberal revolution, and the agitation
Of which has fairly broken up the crust of that
old-fashioned, tory England that was so pre-
eminently 90 pleasant place for gentlemen"
but also land of slavery for the laboring
population. Naturally the tories dislike laws of
that sort, and as laws of that sort are the kind
for which parliaments nowadays have a pre-
objection they quite as naturally extend their
antipathy to the fact of legislation, and would
like to stop it altogether. For this reconstruc-
ton of the domestic institutions of England
| they would substitute Gan energetic foreign
policy" That is to say, they would prefer
that the energies Of England should be en-
IL <bo
neighbors in order that her own might be left
alone. They mean that they would rather
have fought the United States on the Alabama
case than have paid fifteen millions Of dollars
to settle it, and that there should
not be battle field on the Con-
tinent on which the 'thin red line of
British troops did not figure. This criticism
of the course Of the liberals and this PROPOSE
ton for o substitute indicate at glance the
change that has taken place in the history of
England since the days when the resources
of the country were squandered in the wars
against Napoleon, and when the staggering
burden of the national debt was laid on the
shoulders of the British people only to keep
down the French people. In our time
British Premier deems that the more legiti-
mate sphere of his duties is the government
of England and the amehoration, so far as
laws will accomplish it, of the political and
social condition of her people; and this
modern notion Of government rather than
recurrence to the former notion, will, we
believe, be supported at the polls.
We see In Mr.. Disraeli's address nothing
likely to affect the political opinions of Eng
land in sense favorable to his party
nothing but wornout and futile Pigments of
the fancy, utterly inadequate to arrest the tide
of liberal opinion that, despite some apparent
eddies and counter-currents on the surface, is