Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-17
LORD BEAcoNSFIELD.

The downfall OF Lord Beaconsfeld is
quite as much surprise to England as to
the rest of the world, and because this is
so the many attempts to explain it by
pulling his policy to pieces are irrelevant.
For it is certain that no such change of
public opinion as has just been evinced was
suspected by either Liberals or Conserva-
tives, and this fact proves that the Govern
ment policy had not evoked any appre-
ciable dissatisfaction prior to the election.
The theory that Beaconsfield was some
sort of a conjurer, who deluded and mysti-
fed the people, and so brought them to
acquiesce In course distasteful to
them, will not stand analysis. On the
contrary, there is abundant evidence that
the Government policy was approved by
the majority until quite recently, and that
the change in public opinion has been a
matter of the last six months only. The
most rational conclusion seems to be that
the masses approved the Imperial policy so
long as it appeared that England was
likely to achieve glory and honor
by it, but that the failure of
Lord Chelmsford in South Al
RIGA, and the continual blunder-
ing in India, finally destroyed this
feeling of confidence, and paved the way
for the change which has so abruptly and
surprisingly closed Lord Beaconfeld's pub
lie career. We have never been able to
subscribe to the theory which holds that
statesman to have been an abnormal phe-
nomenon, and which has stignatized him
as charlatan." We can see in his career
nothing which was not fully in accord with
his surroundings. He has been man of
his time emphatically. He has undoubt
edly played the demogogue, but he has
found his account in it, and he has
given the English people the kind of gov
eminent they demanded. At this moment
Imperialism is unpopular because it has
been unsuccessful, but if all the seductive
promises of the Premier had been fulfilled,
it cannot be doubted that he would have
retained popular confidence indefinitely.
And his failures were due far more to the
incompetence of his agents than to any
defects in the policy he was administering.
Had Sir Garnet Wolseley been in
chief command at the Cape from
the first, there would have been no
Isandula. Had a greater statesman
than Lord Lytton been in India there
might have been no such disasters as the
Afghan business has entailed. In either
case the chief ground of dissatisfaction
would have been wanting, and we are
strongly disposed to believe that Mr..
Gladstone's eloquence would have been
exerted in vain. Lord Beaconsfield is not
a statesman of the first rank, but he has
understood his time remarkably well, all
things considered, and if he has fallen at
last, it must be remembered that it is only
his advanced age which renders that fall
final. A younger man might well hope for
another turn of Fortunes wheel. Mr..
Gladstone few years ago was repudiated
quite as emphatically as his rival now is,
yet his turn has come again. Lord Bea-
consfeld is not the shocking example
some people would make him out to be,
and history will probably award him
higher position than many of his contem-
poraries are willing to grant him now.