New-York tribune., 1878-11-23
BEACONSfIELDS FATAL FOLLY.

An INSIDE VIEW OF THE PREMlEHS POLICY.
HE sEvEN YEARS PtrLfAMENT-sIGNIfICANCn OF
LORD NoRTuBROOk's RECALL HE AFGHAN
WAR AND Irs PROBABLE ErsCL1s.
1.-THE following is part of Il private letter
from an eminent English writer whose name
is familiar To both continents. II was not in
tended for publication, ana the inside views
of The present English policy which it presents
are therefore, all the more interesting and
pquant. 1t clearly sets forth Lord BeacODs
fields hold upon Parliament, his disregard of
the voice of the people, the attitude which he
is determined tine Qnecn shall assume and the
results which the writer expects Will follow
the Afghan war.l
IoNpoN Nov We are in most unhappy fix
with this Lord Bcaconsicld. The usurpatiOn, called
the Septcnnial Act, which has cursed us for more
than a century and half, il at the bottom.
use the word u,urpation strictly. Parliament,
elected for three years, voted that It would SIT
seven and nailed this precedent upon Us rs a law.
Our last Parliament .lS7Il returned three Tories
70 two Liberals from several causes: ~ The
masses of poor men, newly enirahchised, very
largely voted for the Tory candidate either
because they think monry-~pcudIlg the first of
virtues and, therefore, give their vote TO the most
who were Literal. ~ Great numbers of
persons refused To vote for candidates called LIB
erll because they were cmnrnly iiilbcrGl, III sup
porting tie surgical outraGcS on dcfcnceless
wOhlen and the cruel cOmpds'on Of pseudo yaccina-
ton, or in refusing - localities Il right 10 resist
uoXious drnk-shopS. (}.l Non-Coniormlsts were
disgustcd by Mr.. Forsfcr's PLAYING into the
hands of the Episcopal Church ~ the mat
ter of National education, and resented
Mr. Gladstoncs unfair interpretations. which
granted public lchrrch) money to the Epis-
copal Protestant Cnurch of ireland. unfair as they
viewed it, and were ycxcd by his coqnetry with
the Catholic priests in the mater ol DUOIn Uni
vcrsity a. And perhaps chiefly, because MI
Gladstone, at the crisis Oi discomfort ia his own
ranks suddenly dissolved Parliament without no.
ticr, took his own party unpr2pareG, aud
unclaimed no policy or principle To animate their
efforts, except that lie hoped to reduce taxation.
This seemed an attempt to bly us in the dark, won
nobody, and disguised many. In party sense it is
tho greatest error that Mr. Gladstone ever made.
The new Parliament brought this man. Beacons-
field into the Premiership; he found a surplus oil
five TO six millions sterling in Tie Treasury which
he squandcrcd apparently so as to gam
partisans and after a year began steaith-
ily, ms new foreign policy, when we
did rot understand until late in the Autumn Oh
1876. I'm August and September 1876, the move
mcnt against aiding the Turks combined Tories ana
Radicals indiscriminatcly; but the Premier treated
it as party move to oust him, and insisted on inc
whole Tory party accepting his policy ho
has got the Queen on mis- side by making her
Empress" and by protesting to follow
up tho policy of Prince Albert lin 1s53Ib4; else
the rory Cabinet itself would have tossed him out.
With the Queen at his back, Beaconslield can keep
this Parliament seven full years; and the Tory
members cf whom many would have no chance OF
reflection are more than ever his slaves because he
con dissoyo Parliament whenever he chooses.
Until lately no one guessed why Lord Northbrook
was prematurey recalled from India. and Lord
Lytton sent ont. 1t was to carry out this mans
frantic scheme Of accounting the Queen paramount,
not over India only. but also over tho neghboring
country of the Afghans and renewing the pol