The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1886. THE NEW CONSERVATIVE POLICY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1413, 22 November 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1886. THE NEW CONSERVATIVE POLICY.

The immense advance which has been made within the past few years in the Liberalism is evidenced by the fact that the real old-fashioned Tory has, like the dodo, absolutely I ceased to exist, and we may go further I and say that the old-fashioned ConserI vative is also evidently on the way to I become extinct in his turn. For while I Whigs and Tories have long given place Ito Liberals and Conservatives, these I last in their turn are now fast disappearing and giving place to Radicals j and Liberals respectively. For the ConI servatives of yesterday are assuredly the j Liberals of to-day, and those who are in favor of more radical j reforms than they are prepared to j demand must be Radicals indeed, j Ihe truth of these remarks is abunI dantly shown by the very remarkable J manifesto of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Randolph j Churchill, as set forth in his address at a meeting at Dartford on the and j October last. From this we learn that I his Government will propose legislative J measures with a view to enable agricultural laborers to acquire small J freeholds of their own, for extending I the principle of local government in I England, Scotland, and Wales, as well I as in Ireland, for liberalising education, for the sale of glebes, and, if necessary, j to deal with the present unfair system of railway rates, and that economy Jin expenditure and the reduction of J taxation will also be among the J aims of the Conservative party. These J are the very sentiments of true j Liberalism, the chief planks of a Liberal I policy, and the Daily News may well j say that “ the Government are going to J do next year nearly all that the Liberals j have been striving to do for half-a-I dozen sessions.” The only difference I between the principles of the two great I political parties at Home, and that j which justifies the retention by the j party which acknowledges the lead of J Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph | Churchill, of the name of Conservatives lis their determination to uphold the J integrity of the Empire, and to maintain j the influence of England in the Councils lof the nations. The Liberals have J always been disposed to regard the j colonies as rather encumbrances than j otherwise, and as regards European I affairs have been inclined to waive all I considerations other than the interests j of the British bondholder and those of J the Manchester school, caring little or I nothing for the maintenance of the I national prestige, and were it not for j the reforms in domestic and internal j policy which formed articles of their j creed would have had to yield the reins j of power long before last general elecI tion. And now that the Conservatives, I under Lord Randolph’s leadership, have adopted as items of their policy all the reforms which the Liberals have proposed, while at the same time prepared boldly to maintain the integrity and dignity of the Empire, they have gone far towards destroying the very ! raison d'etre of the Liberals as a party, and should attract to their banners men of all shades of opinion other than the deepest tints of blue and red, in other words, all but the downright Tory or the ultra-Radical. The broad and enlightened policy which is now put forth as the Conservative creed must appeal to the sympathies of the masses of the people, and if it be loyally pursued and vigorously carried out will deserve and secure for the present Administration a long lease of power.