Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-27
DEMOCRACY IN ENGLAND

l The present condition of English parties l and politics is profoundly interesting. MT. 1 Jennings writes to the World that the posi- I tion of the Conservatives is very much like I that in which the Democrats in the United States found themselves after the war. They are without power in the Legislature and discredited outside-scattered, enfeebled and disheartened. But, in his opinion, the Con servative party will differ from our Demo- cratic party in being e1tinguished. He says on this point: The victory of the English Radicals last April meant something more than the temporary overthrow of their oppo- nents It rests with them to decide whether those opponents shall exist any longer as
 party, and no one need doubt what their de-
 cision will be. It is in their power to carry
 out such changes in the present representa- tive system as that in the future Conserya-
 tive majority in five constituencies out of six
 would be next to an impossibility. There can
 be redistribution of seats, in the course of
 which incurab1y Conservative constituencies
 would be swept away, and this would be
 connpanied by extension of the suffrage
 to agricultural laborers, which would at once
 and forever swamp the landlords. It is quite possible, moreover, to go beyond this, and to
 exclude certain classes altogether from the Legislature. By these, any other appi- which may offer themselves, the Ratli- calls will endeavor to turn what their oppo- nents looked upon as merely a temporary re-
 verse into fatal and irretrievable disaster.
 The Conservatives thoughtit was only ascratch they received last April; in reality, it was in
 all probability their death blow, although istence may still be made.
 MT. Gladstone's followers have signiAed their wish to be known as the Democratic party and MT. Jennings expects that the new party will do it's work thoroughly. The Pall Mall Gazette recently stated that the ''Demo- cratic legislation" at present demanded by the people could not be provided by ''pluto- cratic machine" and that Mir. Gladstone would find himself compelled to ''bring Par lament, by change in it's construction, into harmony with what, rightly or wrongly, he believes to be the wishes of a great majority of Englishmen" These words are taken to mean the abolition of the House cf Lords and the substitution of workingmen in the House of Commons for plutocracy. And even the overthrow of the monarchy is an event which is probably not beyond the cal culations of a large section ot the Democrat ic party
 MT. Jennings does not encourage ''the privileged classes'' of England to look for generous treatment when the day of reckon ing comes. Says he: The divisions be- tween classes have become more and more strongly marked of late years, and it may be said with greater truth than that the rich and the poor in England practically con- stitute 1.-two nations" /" The grievances which the poor smarted under years ago, even if they have been redressed, will still be sponsible for them. What they. hold now the law can take away from them, and it only needs 0 majority to make the law, and that majority is in the hands of the once despised and powerless class. A leading Radical prom ises that measure shall be introduced next session making it misdemeanor for any one to hold uncultivated lands, the penalty on conviction to be dispossession with some compensation to the dispossessed person. This and similar bills might be rejected by Parliament at present constituted, but, as Mir John Morley says, Parliament will have to be brought, 'by change in its construc- tion, into harmony with the majority of Eng lishmen."
 This picture of the present position and aims of Democracy in England may seem to some overdrawn, but there is no doubt that 1 momentous revolution is in progress there. 1 Where it will stop and what it will effect can not now be told, but the English are evident ! ly now on the road to republic.