to despise. Cambridge and Chester, Gloucester and Salisbury, Cheltenham and Rochester, were well worth the winning, for they reflect the opinion of those who are deaf to popular clamour. In brief, there is no class in the community which has not proved its displeasure at the revolutionary, anti-English spirit of the Radical party, and declared aloud that our reign of terror is at an end. that they should take to theirs, and they have given But it is The Counties of England which have most conspicuously distinguished themselves, and in so doing they have not surprised those who knew them best. There is every reason why they should renounce their allegiance to a party which has done them nothing but ill. In the first place, the Radicals at the last election deceived them with wild fairy stories of large loaves. Those fabulous loaves have never been seen since they were carried exultantly ambition of this gentleman round the countryside. But on far higher grounds than the mere discovery of a Radical falsehood, the rural districts of England have declared themselves in favour of Tariff Reform. The policy of Manchester was especially designed to ruin the agriculture of England. It was the purpose of the Cobdenites to sacrifice the country to the town; and when after some years of repeal distress overwhelmed the agricultural counties, Mr Cobden had no better advice to give to the labourers than the advice, since approved by Mr Lloyd-George, to set class against class. But, as we have said, the agricultural districts know more of the Peers than he does; they remember the unnumbered kindnesses of landlords, whose object in life has been the happiness of their tenants, not the extraction of an economic rent; they look askance on the small holdings with which the Radicals tempt them to the slavery of Socialism; and by their votes they declare their belief in the system of small ownership advocated by Mr Balfour. But it is not merely their own interest which they ac claim. They acclaim also the imperial supremacy of England, and once more their their innate conservatism has saved their country from revolution. England, then, has done well. We would that we we could record a similar improvement elsewhere. Of Wales and Ireland Unionism has has nothing to expect. Wales is obsessed by the noisy eloquence of demagogues. Ireland, though Tariff Reform alone could restore her to fortune and prosperity, would rather lose all than sacrifice her opportunity of agitation. But of Scotland we had some hope, and up to the hour when these words are written we are grievously disappointed. We do not pretend to diagnose the disease. The most favourable supposition is that the Scots temper changes slowly. And we can only trust that time will bring the country north of the Tweed to a wiser opinion and a more stalwart loyalty. The Radicals, if they succeed in forming a Government, will depend upon the votes of the Irish and the Labour members. It is the best indication how far Mr Asquith has travelled on the path of revolution that he openly accepts the alliance of Socialists and Home Rulers. He will give them his support. Of that there is no doubt. It remains to be seen how far they will support him, or by what ingenuity he can attach to himself the adherence of two parties fiercely opposed one to the other. On every side we hear, not of the Radical Party, but of the Coalition-a coalition more infamous than that made more than a century ago by Fox and North, which very justly put an end for ever to Fox's political career. The Home Rulers are the avowed enemies of England; they are still marching through rapine to the dismemberment of the Empire. The Labour Party, if we may believe its journals, hates nothing and nobody so much as its Liberal allies. And these are the sects which Mr Asquith, who cannot govern Mr Lloyd - George or Mr Churchill, believes he will bring into a quiet and orderly coalition. We can imagine no system of bribes which will satisfy them both. The most striking fact in the political history of the last two years has been the decline of Mr Asquith's authority. He is a leader who is content to follow, a Prime Minister ready to obey the most turbulent of his colleagues. That his lack of statesmanship has contributed something to the reverses which his party has sustained few would would deny. He never showed himself less of a statesman than he has done since the election began. The speeches which he has made in the hour of crisis. prove how loose is his grasp upon public affairs, how dimly he understands the spirit of the nation. He has announced publicly that he will attempt nothing until he has settled the question of the House of Lords. How he will settle it he refuses. to explain. One thing only is certain that he will put his revenge before the advantage of England. He who lays a impossible, according to Mr finger upon the Constitution Asquith, because Manchester must have the loftiest faith in supports Free Trade. London his wisdom and good intent. is nothing, Birmingham is Has Mr Asquith this faith? nothing, Liverpool is nothing, Can he exclude all thought of the English counties are nothparty from his mind? To ing! Manchester has obeyed observers from outside the the command of Mr Asquith: House of Lords perfectly fulfils her Catholics have listened to its functions. Even though it the sly promise of Home Rule, be not framed upon such prin- and therefore she is the only ciples as appear logical to the governess of the British Emgentlemen of the Labour Party, pire! Thus Mr Asquith, to it has again and again saved suit his own pleasure, has put the country from the worst an entirely new construction peril of all-the peril of hasty upon the theory of representalegislation, and, during the last tive government. He has given few months, it has shown itself "the sacred will of the people once more a clearer interpreter a wholly fresh interpretation. of England's opinion than the A few weeks ago those solemn House of Commons. It is the words meant the whim of Mr usefulness of this institution, Lloyd-George, accepted by the then, that Mr Asquith and his majority of the House of Comcoalition would destroy, and mons. No words were too though they coalesce on the violent for the Peers, who had end, they do not coalesce on dared to thwart that majority. the means. The Irish and the The will of the people was the extreme Socialists are in favour will of the Cabinet, and it of total abolition. Mr Asquith should prevail. Now it is the himself prefers a phantom. will of the Cabinet no longer. Sir Edward Grey desires elec- It is the will of Manchester, tion. Mr Haldane is a staunch and no doubt Mr Asquith besupporter of a reformed Second lieves it still sacred, and Mr Chamber. Well, they may be Churchill is still confident that left to fight it out, and when it shall prevail. Was there the battle is over the House of ever a more ludicrous comment Lords will be found stronger upon democracy? Apparently than ever. the sanctity resides in Mr Asquith, and even if he be in a minority, yet he thinks he should prevail! If he understood the rudiments of logic, and had a sense of humour, he would contemplate with respect a Unionist majority of one, and acknowledge with all solemnity that he must never oppose by word or deed the expressed will of the people. He has put One other principle Mr Asquith has enunciated which deserves the attention of all Unionists. "I wish to put it on record at the earliest possible moment," said he, "that whatever may happen in the remainder of the elections before us, in the new Parliament Tariff Reform is a practical impossibility." It is practically himself in a worse position even than these deliberate contradictions would imply. Having declared that the vote of Manchester blocks the way of Tariff Reform, he declares also that the vote of Ireland is sufficient to wreck the British Constitution. A majority of Englishmen supports the House of Lords, but a majority cast against Mr Asquith is nothing. Manchester is with him, and therefore she must not be thwarted. He has purchased Ireland for the moment with a half-believed promise of Home Rule. Therefore Ireland is competent to destroy the Constitution of England. It is difficult to characterise Mr Asquith's "statesmanship" in temperate language. But many years ago & satirist prayed that we should never see inflicted upon us such a ruler as Mr Asquith has proved. "Never may a craven pilot," wrote the satirist, "at our vessel's helm preside, Swayed by mob-tongued agitation, taking demagogues for guide, Truckling to the voice of faction, listening for the loudest cry, Gauging pressures, measuring noises, what to grant and what deny." The satirist's prayer has not been answered. The craven pilot has presided too long at our helm; but he shall preside there no longer, even if it take a stormy session of drifting hither and thither on the ocean, and another general election, to save the ship of state from his impotent command. Printed by William Blackwood and Sons. BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. No. MCXXXIII. MARCH 1910. VOL. CLXXXVII. AS IT MIGHT BE. THE India India Council, new style, was assembled in anxious conclave. Calcutta was hot-damply hot, and honourable members perspired heavily as they sat at the baize-covered table; above their heads the electric fans hung motionless, for the machinery, owing to some cause or another, was out of order. Severe remarks on the inefficiency or contumacy of his subordinates had already been addressed to the Hon. Minister for Public Works, who had defended himself with eloquence, while wiping his damp hands nervously upon the pink blottingpaper which lay before him. The President of the Confederated States of Hindustan was addressing the Council. He stood on the steps of his richly decorated gilt chair almost a throne which had been imported from Paris; above his head hung an allegorical picture representing VOL. CLXXXVII.—NO. MCXXXIII. "India the Motherland." Upon the heavy gilt frame of this was a plate informing the world that it had been presented to the Confederated States of Hindustan by the Independent Labour Party of Great Britain, "in token of admiration of the success which has crowned the efforts of Indian patriots to throw off the yoke of the foreign oppressor"-the last two words were inscribed in scarlet letters, and the whole inscription was so long that the engraver had been compelled to exercise all his art to settle it comfortably into the limited compass of the brass plate provided. The President, who spoke at great length and with evident emotion, naturally used English as the medium of his remarks, and his concluding sentences had evoked a perfect hurricane of applause from his audience. "Come the four corners of X |