IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 542, 6 July 1880, Page 2

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

Conservatives in England have been gaining slightlyoii the Liberal majority since the general election. The Home Secretary, Sir William Harconrt, a smart and very bouncing debater, has been displaced at-Oxford cily by a Tory as the result of his appeal after taking office. The Lord Advocate for Scotland has in like manner lost his seat for Wigtou, on appeal after his appointment. Mr Knatchbull Hugcssen, a clever writer of amusing stories, was raised to the peerage by Mr Gladstone to make room for a Liberal in the Lower House, but when that Liberal sought election for the same constituency,the voters returned a Tory. These after-claps of the election storm arc significant of the shifting character of the balance of parties in the United Kingdom. Earl Beaconsfield is reported to have made a vigorous and quite cheerful speech at a gathering of his party held at Bridgewater House. It was quite natural that the doughty though defeated chief should express surprise that his old enemy, Mr Gladstone, should have taken office again after vowing so fervently that he had done with official cases for ever. The truth is, as all men can see, that when the Liberal reaction raised the Opposition into power, Mr Gladstone was the only man for the position of leader. No other prominent Liberal was strong enough to hold the party together by the commanding force of his genius. Lord Hartingtoh was too young and too weak; Mr Bright was too old and too lladical; Mr Forster was too much disliked by the Denominational Dissenters. Mr Stansfcld could not command the confidence of the various sections uf Liberals. The only other daring candidates of any prominence were Sir William Harcourt and Mr Übamberlaine. These men arc heads of sections, but cannot be called rivals to Mr Gladstone. Earl Granville might be made the nominal head, as Liberal leader in the Lords, but the party would bo torn to pieces in a month unless some strong hand governed and held them together in the Commons. Mr Gladstone, or as they used to call him, King Gladstone, is just the man for the position at presentIt is very doubtful whether he can hold the Liberal sections together for a long period. In viewing Imperial politics, our opinion is that the great bulk of colonial politicians will sympathise with the Liberal party in their domestic policy and with the Conservative party in their foreign policy.