Year: 1878




be looked for with great interest.


The Meeting of Parliament.


On the present occasion the Parliament
of England meets in very peculiar crcum-
stances. Had the Prime Minister consulted
merely his own wishes it would not have
been called. even though it is reasonably
safe to suppose that the abject and almost
servile majority which lie controlled before
the adjournment will be rs facle under his
manipulation now as it was then. He had,
therefore, only to go through the forms Of
submitting his policy to tho judgment of
the representatives Of the nation, with the
certainty, or next toit. that ready ma
Jority would be at his dictation. Yet he
did not want to subject his policy to even
that merely formal and periunctory super
vision. He wanted not merely to be
personal ruler in substance but in appear
ance. He gave way on this point. however,
although it is known that he has ruled
hitherto the consent of those who are nom
inally his coadjutors in the Ministry as alb
solutely as he has ruled majority in Par





the threat of dissolution, and has held
feeble government through the fact that he
could do without the men Of whom it was
made up better than they could do without
him. People who watch for the chance to
step into pair of shoes likely to be vacant
presently must be near to where the shoes
are likely to be left if they hope to succeed.


But it was given out that Earl Beacons-
field was constrained to reinquish his objec-
tioos to the assembling of Parliament by
the scruples of the Marquis of Salisbury
and Sir Stafford Northcote against the re-
fusal of what seemed required by an intelli-
gent public opinion. 1t is doubtful if that
was the real reason why the Premier
changed his mind Immediately after his
contemptuous refusal to hear what the lib
erals had to say on the point. Perhaps the
Queen herself thought it would be wise to
hear from Parliament in this important
juncture of national affairs. She may even
have said SO. And if she did then Earl
Beaconsfeld must have hastened to smother
his own wishes not because under the
English constitution the desire Of the Sow
ereign can overrule the policy Of premier
in favor with Parliament, but because
it is one of the political fancies of the Earl
that the Queen is the real Executive and
the Prime Minister q mere machine to full
inmate the royal will. He puts his own
fancies in the form of the Queens will He
does this with an ostentatious pretencc
that they are the Queens will in fact as well
as in form and he could not make an ex-
ception against the one case in which the
Queens will really came to him in an au-
thentic shape. Her Majesty, it need
scarcely be said, has not the Premier's
Oriental admiration for absolute power and
personal authority. Indeed, between her
and her Grand Vizier are reversed the rela-
tions ordinarily found between sovereigns
and chief ministers. It is not o constitu-
tional minister who softens a sovereign will
in the interest of law and popular rights,
but a constitutional sovereign who cries
halt to o premier mounted on that some
what damaged racer. Royal Prerogative, and
minister, moreover, disposed to ride the
steed to that hot destination laid down in
the proverb for some sorts Of persons not
accustomed to equestrian exercise.


Parliament may approve all that has been
done, and varnish with its consent and even
applause all the empty pretences. 1t very
likely will, because this is case in which
conviction and change Of opinion do not
count. In the country there is q change of
opinion on the foreign policy of the govern
ment-and such change as would leave
many members out in the cold if there were
an election now, and there may be one
sooner than they desire if they do not
behave themselves handsomely on divisions
There will be debate on the Indian war,
but no harm will be done and there will
be some sharp criticism of the wonderful
failure to provide for the evacuation of
Turkey by the Russians, but little rhet-
oric about the perfdy of the Muscovite
will get them safely over that