A POLITICAL VOICE FROM PENTON VILLE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1827, 28 April 1888, Page 3

A POLITICAL VOICE FROM PENTON VILLE.

MR OUfINENOHAME GFUU4.M TO TOE LIBERAL PARTY. January's 'Contemporary" contained

a p*per, it v ill be rememborefl, on the

I " Prospect of the Liberal Party, " by Mr j Haidsne. Jt whs quiat and perhaps a

! Mttle puplltanJmDns. Mr R. Cunnfnghrmft i Graham follows tt v? m the February

number wi'h h. short d'acouree on the question, " Baa the L'beral Pa-ty a .Fatnre ? " wrUton m a Radical, a onra?eoua, an almost rollicking spirit. The article h, however, rather pessimistic. " I doub'," says Mr Graham himself, " all optimistic v'ews. I bflieve thnt nev^r before m England have the relations between the S ate and the people b3en bo intimate and utralnt'd, I doub 1 ; whether the ep!rit nf Hate and Fear animating the one, and the epiritof Menaos and Discontent the other, have ever encountered each other before with such violeot pressure &s at this moment. The people dislike and distrust politlc'anp, Liberal as well as Tory. They Have begun to realise what manner of men these are to whom they so tamely saVmit to rule them, and the sudmission is being lit tip Into onqairiaa and ugly quaetlons, which are being a«ked a f this moment m every workmen's club m the lend," But if Mr Graham la pessimistic, at least he speaks ont his mlod straightforwardly. " Has the Liberal party a future ? " he nnks, and answers : —

If tho Liberal patty is to be the pirty of humanity tha party that Uto redress uocial ineqculitiep, to make epual Jawa, to remove the stigma of poverty, to check vice In high places, to allow man to make as rich by thefc work without our taxing them before they begk, to stand between thß employer and the employed, the landlord and the tenant, (ho poor and the polloe, why, then may it live a thousand years. But, an it will not do this why. let it go, m God's name, and rebate itself to the limbo of all worn-oat parties ! That the old Ib passing away Jb, of course, since time was time, a truism : bat it fa because the Liberal party seems indt<poßvd to ftdinit this, and ia Reeking to restrain the new ideas la old brain pane, that tha children'd toeth are being set on edgo with the sour grappa of individualism, the stotnpehs ory out for a satisfying meal of Socialism.

Mr Graham polo's out tint the labor Interest is beginning to succeed by adopting the methods whioh havo led the Irish party to victo»y~- fighting fur their own hand : —

That the Slate la at some peculiar turn-ing-point of its history — that the enfranchisement of the working man and the power it glvt a him is being realized by his accommodating At- P.'j, Mr Haldane proves to na. He says that nearly all the Scotch members who represented mining constituencies voted In favor of the eiaht honrß clause, independently of party— mark that ! - and adds, " Indeed m soma of these constituencies the choica for the member lay between doing so and most seriously endangering hia seat." Now, can any one seriously think that these men voted for this clauße conamore ? No;' they knew that If they did not the miners had the power, ihe strength, and the organisation to throw them oat. If thin la wrong, then the whole system of ihe franchise fa wrong ; but if It is right, what ia to become of the Liberal part; m the future ? Will it, as a* party, go on from step to step and from trade to trade, as they btcome organised, voting to retain its power while limiting the principle, or will it frankly at once recognfce that itonly exists for the good of the peoplo, and not for its own benefit? . . , Long ere thia, those of the Liberal psrty who have any perception most have been prepared for this movement. Did any senbible body of men imagine for an instant that a class of men like the miners, wheag conditions of labor are bo exceptional, and whose facilities for organisation sva co extensive, would be content to ait down quietly with the franchise In their possession, either not using It or merely using it to return A. ot B. to power? The miners argued thus : we wanted an Eight Hours Bill, we saw at once that only a demonstration of foroj would constrain any considerable body of man to v.ne tor it. They aaw clearly that between Liberal capitalise and Tory aristocrat the miner Wvu'.d be left as before In his darkneßs every hour of the week m a narrow seam

for an ndffinite number of hours per day. They knew that the Roman miner, though a slave, was at lea^t well fed and cared for while he bad strength to work, and they saw that they, In spite of Christianity and Liberalism, were treated as but parts of the machinery of the mine, tvlth thia difference, that the mxohlnery had coßt money and they had not. What wonder, therefore, that, having appealed from Tory demands to Liberal sympathy, they fell back upon themselves !

Will not others do likewise ? thinks Mr Graham. Then, after attacking ralue^al rents, and urging the estenaiop of the principle of that attack In the direction of land nationalisation, he cendadea thus : —

The new democracy eeeraa not to reverence Liberalism an we once knew It, but Gladstone. . « . Nothing but tha deepest scorn _1b manifest for thoße timorous, miserable, invertebrate animals who, while posiug as liberal li'adorp, are really Tories at heart ; who have seen the poor bludgeoned and outraged m London, the croftere driven to desperation, the Welch farmers Infuriated, and have said not a word ; too timorous to rlak a newspaper reviling, too utterly empty to be ablo to face the pin -prick of public opinion, bo that an Immediate collapse brings aboot one thing only — at any price and at any coßt return to Downing street, and a fat Balary— incompetent leaden?, aB useful to a democracy as a bliod d°g to & blind beggar ; aa utterly liliboral arid far lees honest than tho mcßtantiquatad Tory, content, for hia aole funstlon, to endeavor to force down people's throats their ahallow and petty schemoa-which oan reault alone m their own personal achievements. The Liberal party, Mr Graham euma up, must get rid of theso nobodies nnd show that It has no fear of modern thought. L. must pledge itself to an Eight Hour's

Bill, iretitnle a municipality for London,

nationalise the land, and commence pubUo vforka for the unemployed j and then, if it has good luck, it may regain the confidence of the democracy — that is to say, if some other party has not been beforehand In the field.— « Pall Mall G zatte."