The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-02-05
the elections In Engis nd-Probably
Not . Conservative Revelation.

If the canvass in the English boroughs may.
AZ hitherto, be assumed to indicate the pos
sible result on the whole vote, the conservative
reaction is certainly less formidable than "
threatened to be at the outset. -Four days OF
this canvass have given the conservatives. IN
the election of one hundred and eighty men,
bers. a majority of thirty -four. AT this rate
the conservative triumphs will scarcely do
more than neutralize the overwhelming ma
jority the liberals had in the last Parliament.
For we must not forget that the conservative
''gains" are made not from condition OF
nearly equal parties, in which case political
power would already have substantially changed
sides; but these gains ON the contrary, come
to a party that in the last House of Com
mons was in minority as abso-
lutely hopeless as that OF the democrats
in our own House of Representatives party
that owed no success to its legitimate power
in the House, but that was indebted for the
points it scored to disaffection in the ranks
of its opponents Considering the recognized
numerical superiority of the liberals in the
Parliament just dissolved, and drawing the
comparison in the statement of successes
from the distribution of parties in that body,
it is obvious that the conservatives may make
very great gains indeed on the whole canvass
and yet at the end leave the liberals with an
effective majority 1t would not be justifable
to regard this as the imminent result, but it is
not unlikely event-for the conservatives
will scarcely keep up on the whole poll the
proportion OF their gains in the boroughs
but if they should keep up the proportion
then the utmost extent of the reaction will be
to give the conservatives bare majority in
full House.
1t is premature, therefore, to argue that
there is reactionary revolution, or that the
nation is so profoundly alarmed at the prac-
teal aspects of liberal legislation as to be
ready to return once more to the worship of
the ancient and badly damaged images
Through and through, the nation is liberal.
Assume for the conservatives any policy-a
programme that would be consistent with
their history and their purposes, so far as
known-and it is impossible to conceive of the
English people as in sympathy with such
policy or programme. Much Of the opposi-
ton that the liberal party now encounters at
the polls is due to spirit of impatient petu-
lance, consequent upon the disappointment of
the people at finding that the liberalism of
the Ministry was not exactly the liberalism Of
the popular taste. Indeed, the Ministry is
| more directly at issue in this canvass than
party principles People are not voting
| for the conservatives so much as
they are recording their disapprobation
of certain ministerial measures-and Mr..
Gladstones blunders, and the exaggerated
unpopularity Of his associates are thus pro-
ducing their legitimate results. In the Min
istry there is, altogether, no extravagant pro-
portion of talent; but there is more insuffera-
BILE insolence and q more undisguised and
even openly announced contempt for public
opinion than was, perhaps, ever known in a
Ministry before One of the most certain
things in the politics of Parliamentary coun-
tries is that the possession of majority so
great as to leave no healthy apprehension of
the opposition leads directly to such abuses of
power as to endanger not only the purity and
the supremacy, but often the very existence of
the party. In our own Congress we have
lately seen that the republican party conf
dent of its power, threw away respect not only
for honesty, but even for decency. 1t voted
out of the public Treasury, ostensibly for public
interests in great railway lines, enormous sums
of money, and this money, after short and
slightly roundabout excursions came into the
members pockets /; and when this corruption
was exposed by the press Congress assumed
and accepted for itself the whole odium by
refusing to punish the delinquents. In the
presence of respectable opposition such con-
duct would have led directly to loss of politi-
cal power; but as there was no such appre-
hension and no check, abuses were persisted
in till the party has lost its last possibility of
ever carrying the country. In England the
result is certainly not SO bad, but it is in the
same direction. There the abuse of power,
consequent upon q majority large enough to
be trifed with, was kept within certain
limit by the dribbling away of the majority,
but it still sufficiently disguised the country.
One might almost fancy in review of the
measures of the Gladstone Ministry that they
were ingeniously contrived as if the object
proposed were to ALLEVIATE the largest possible
number of influential classes. In the discs
adjustment of the Irish Church churchmen
saw direct application of the reasoning of the
judge who hanged Hodge for stealing tur-
nip because turnips implied legs of mutton.
In the hands of a power that disestablished
the Irish Church could the English Church be
looked upon as quite safe? They could not be-
lieve that they were free from danger, and thus
the alarm was taken by the most unqualifedly
influential class in the whole country, and, while
divided before, this class became now united
and active enemy. In the abolition of pur-
chase the military class and the families of
aristocratic liberals generally were lost. All
the tribe of legal functionaries were
offended at improper and Irregular appoint