, 1880-04-25

1
! The unexpected defeat of the Tories il
England, the permanent displacement o
Lord Beaconsdeld, the overwhelming tri
u1nph of the Liberals, their accession t,
| power, and especially their accession witt
| such man as 4lr. Gladstone, the Plumet
Knight" Of the victory, as the leader Of tn,
House of Commons, are all steps In tht
direction Of republicanism and Of large
popular participation in the Government.
In this country such an event would have
been hailed as a sweeping reform victory
for 1t was not fought as against Lord Bea
conshcld or upon any single issue Of bat
government, but for change and reform it
every detail, both Of foreign and domestic
policy. 1t was an uprising Of the people in
every sense of the word. The battle was
fought against the aristocracy, the Estab-
lished Church, the publicans, the plu~
tocracy, and the official classes, and
in the face Of these odds there wa5
gain OF nearly half a million OF
votes over the election OF 18Th, when
the Tories secured control Of the Government.
Among all the London daily papers there
was but one, the Daily Ne1us, that supported
the Liberal party, and yet Of the twenty-five
members from that city fourteen were for
h1r. G1adstone's cause, and Of the voters
2S5,0oo to 204 900. Such victory as this in
tic very citadel Of Toryism shows that the
people were aroused to the determination
that personal governments give way to
Government more III accord with political
progress, liberal policy, and republican ideas,
and that will ha al +ho
stronger since the Imperial consideration
that followed the retiring BeaconsGeld and
the Imperial snub that greeted Lord Harting-
ton when summoned to meet her Majesty.
That is line Of argument in favor OF repub-
Hcanism that even the wayfaring man, though
q fool, can understand
Among the various steps which lead to q
more republican method OF administering
the Government will be q reform in the in
fa1nous1y unjust Land laws, which bear with
such crushing weight not only upon the
tenantry of Ireland, though they feel its
bufdens the most, but also upon the tenantry
OF England and Scotland. It may not amount
to an absolute emancipation Of the British
agricultural serfs from the grinding rule Of
the land monopolists, who now take every
thing that is produced and reduce their vic
tins to the point of starvation, but it will at
least tighten their burdens, SO that they can
at least live and'will not have TO look to this
country for their means Of support It may
not be able to allow them actual ownership
OF the land they cultivate, which was
fllched or confiscated from their an
cestors, but it will furnish them with
inducements to labor and to make improve
ments upon their farms, without having
those improvements charged over to them
again In the shape Of Increased rentals.
Land reform will be followed by electoral
reform, and the old condition Of things which
existed hundreds OF years ago, and has come
down without change, will be wiped out
Rotten boroughs will no longer appear In
Parliament with the voting power Of great
cities, and the owners of deserted, worn-out
estates, with few hundred sQualfd people
On them, will not be allowed to exert the
same influence as large, industrial, growing