New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-04-16
A CONSERVATIVE REACTION.

DEFEATED or THE SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTION
THE LIBERALS REUNITING-A LUCID SPEECH
FROM SIR CHARLES DILKE-RoYAL INTERVIEW
ton.
Iron TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUSE.l
LONDON, April There is crashing of teeth
among the Tories. The Zulu debate has reduced
their majority from 100 to 90. Jingosm Is, for the
moment, under cloud, and instead of the 400, or
nearly 400, patriots who could once be counted on
to vote bndy for whatever trumpeted as I'M
perial policy, the division list of Monday night
records but just over 800. The whips expected at
the worst 70 majority. The i'll luck which began at
| Isandua pursues them in St. Stephens, and once
moro rumOrs of dissolution are spread abroad
| in order to cOerce recalcitrant followers OF
| Lord Beaconsfeld into the ranks Of the
party which has tried to persuade the country that
| 1t Is the only National party Nobody believes
that Ministers will do mad thing as
| to appeal TO the constituencies In the
thickest of their troubles. The constituencies
are less maeable than some Of their representa-
tives and, unlike Mr.. Gladstone, Lord Beacons-
field clngs closer to office as his majority dwindles.
For the first time since the beginning of the Russo
| Turkish war, the Liberal party have managed to
! give unbroken party vote in the House OF Com
| mons. They may thank Sir Bartle Frere and Lord
Chelmsford for reuniting their scattered forces.
| In a different way they may thank Sir Charles
| Dixie Also large part of the credit belongs to
him. and he has not only earned it, but got 1t. Sell
| dom has any speech of any man not absolutely In
| the front rank been much praised as that with
which he opened this three days debate. Compile
! ments have rained on him from all quarters. He
spoke for two hours. and. though half dozen men,
bers of the Government replied to HIM, his speech
remains unanswered. This a case where his
great ability in mastering facts had good field for
display and lie not only mastered them
| but rnarshalled them. He arraigned and
/ convicted Sir Bartle Frere. Ministers had
| contented themselves with censurng their
! headstrong pro-consul. Sir Charles Dixie proved
| that Ministers themselves were responsible for the
acts which they had censured that they had ample
warning of the policy Sir Barte meant To carry
out and that while he seemed 30 have forced their
hand at the last, there was good reason to believe
! they would have been willing to sanction his rash
schemes but for the disaster TO which they led.
| They waited Providence. Sir Bartle was not
willing to wait. He began IN invasion with forces
which he had previously asked for as barely sufii-
Gent for defence. If Ministers were ready to
| accent the success of such venture, they
! must be equally ready to accept the con-
SEQUENCES of failure. Their only logical escape
was 10 dIsown their agent. hey deSpise logic and
| rely on docile majority. Bu- no numerical voting
power can break the force of the conviction which
has got possession of the pOpu ar mind Sir Charles
bikes first merit is that he has put it in the power
of every reader to up the case against the Gov
eminent for himself. Perhaps 1t is even more to
the purpose that he gave tone to the whole debate
| which followed, that he flung away compromises
and went to the country with an indictment every
count of which he proved.
Only three men who pass for Liberals voted this
time with the GOvernmcnt-not one of them man
has
| Roebuck long since abandoned the party to which
he once gave damaging support. Sir Edward
Watkins politics are railway politics. Mr.. Owen
Lewis-but who ever heard of Mr.. Owen Lewis
On the other hand, many waverng Liberal has
come back to his colors, and Tories so staunch as
Mr. Gorst who mi gIt have had place in this Gov
eminent had he chosen SIR Henry Holland, who
had long been Under Secretary for the Cooniesj
Mr. Melor; and Tory of Tories, Sir Robert Peel,
voted for Sir Charles bikes ceGsure on the Ministry
The effect abroad is much more relnarkable in the
press first of all. The Times IS once more yeerlng
abont. Mr. Walter voted with the party which he
still at times calls his and his journal has turned
the cold shoulder to the Government ever since it
discovered that its popularity was on the wane. l
do not mean that 1t has resumed its Liberal
opinions. or renowned all commerce with the
Conservative camp. Its conversions and re-
conversions are not often SO sudden or so COM
nete as that But on this particular question it has
changed front. 1t has gone back It's friends
at the very moment when Its help was
mast wanted. 1t has deserted them on
question on which it had supported them as
long as there was reason to believe that the coun
try supported them. With respect to the opinion OF
the country, The Times has now as always, unusu-
ally good means OF information. Ii was, L think.
tbe father of the present Mr. Walter who once gave
n vivid account Of Jhe processes by which they
tested the feeling of the multitude of the private
and public letters which poured i'll on them when
any tonic tina. stirred strong feeling was upper
most and of the sureness with which, by such
means. the editor OF this journal was able to know
when To burn the idols they had lately been ador-
ING Other testimony 10 the same effect may be
heard ON every side Everybody y0u meet talks
of the decadence of Tory fortunes. Probably
TOO much is made of it just at this
moment. The extent of the change is exaggerated,
but that there has been change. and a consider
abe one, IN the temper OF the country, Is beyond
d,ut.
Little things rs well as great point in the same
direction There seems reason why little fail
IRE i'm South Africa should damage a Ministry more
than all its great failures in Europe, but 30 1t Is.
The little failure, 1t is true comes at moment
when the consequences of the great failures are day
by day becoming more evident After the usual
number of ,enias il is now admitted that q mixed
occupation Of Eastern Roumea has been proposed by
Russia. aud that, III one shape another some such
arrangement will have 10 be accepted. The re-
fusa to accept il would bring about either con-