A NEW FIGHTING SPIRIT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1350, 30 January 1912, Page 4

A NEW FIGHTING SPIRIT.

The newspaper opinion, to be found among the cable news to-day, that Mr. Bonar Law's speech at the Albert Hall was "the best fighting speech for years," will confirm the impression formed by many of those who read the summary published yesterday. Of course, the summary must be read as such. _ It consisted almost entirely of striking statements, which, set down in a series, had rather a dogmatic air, but in the spcech, as delivered, every one of the Unionist's leader's' verdicts upon political affairs was, no doubt, supported by evidence. Me. Bon.u: L.uv is not the man to talk of "failure and incompetence," of the nation being led to the verge of war, or of an unprecedented exodus of capital, without being able to give on the spot facts and figures enough to carry conviction. His spcech, in its exceeding plainness, directness, and sheer naked forcefulness, marks out Mr. Bonar Law more clearly than ever as a new type of Unionist leader. In place of the subtlety, the rhetorical finish, the aristocratic and scholarly aloofness of a Salisbury or a, Balfour, there is the businessman's keen practical sense and vigorous unadorned language. The change may not prove altogether pleasing to all sections of the party, but there can be little doubt as to its effectiveness with the general public. The Saturday Review alluded the other day to the new leader in terms which were condemned by the Spectator as in execrable taste:

_ His defect is that he is not rooted in the Conservative tradition, docs uot touch .the Tory imagination. lie is not of tho land, not of tho grand old ruling class; not a Churchman. One cannot conneot him with the public school system, the University system, the Services.

Apart from the question of taste, the Saturday Review does really indicate in the above words much of the true significance of the change of leaders, but it is questionable whether what it regards as defect is not, on the contrary, advantage. Mr. Bonar Law will appeal successfully to classes that know nothing about the "Tory imagination" and are cold to the "Conservative tradition." Political power -is drifting away from the English aristocracy, and coming more and more into the possession of the business people and the workers. To these classes Mr. Bonar Law, though no class advocate, may make a more successful appeal than lay within the range of his predecessors. He is probably not so great a man as Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, but there is no other who can do so much to carry on Mr. Chamberlain's interrupted work of broadening the popular basis of the Conservative and Unionist party. It is for this reason particularly fortunate for the party that he has been placed at its head at a time when a considerable enlargement of the franchise is on the Government's programme. Yet, curiously enough, his election as leader came about by way of compromise, the bulk of the party being divided pretty evenly between Mr. Austen Chamberlain and Mr. Walter Long, both of whom, to avoid a contest, gracefully withdrew. A prominent Liberal is said to have remarked: "The fools have blundered upon ,the most formidable leader they could possibly have chosen."