If once that
charge can be substantiated, I regard the Liberal cause as lost--and
lost for many a year to come. Any Government almost is better than a
Government which cannot govern; and the sentiment is so universal that I
have no doubt the shifting ballast, which decides all elections, would
go with a rush to the Tory side, and would enthrone in the place of
power a strong Tory majority and an almost omnipotent Tory Government.
The Tories know this, and calculate upon it, and will devote all their
energies, therefore to reducing the present House of Commons and the
present Ministry to discredited impotence, contemptible paralysis. Such
a conspiracy must be met in the proper manner. Obstructive debate must
be mercilessly closured; old rules must be abandoned without a sigh, and
give way to others more adapted to the necessity of the time. Above all
things the House of Lords must be flouted, humiliated, and defied. It is
on the spring-tide of popular democratic and anti-aristocratic passion
we shall have to float the next Liberal Government into power.
[Sidenote: Nepotism in the army.]
When business commenced on August 29th, there was a beggarly array of
empty benches.
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