THE ROYAL FAMILY AND THE CONSERVATIVES.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2584, 2 July 1881, Page 2

THE ROYAL FAMILY AND THE CONSERVATIVES.

(From London “ World.” There are some respects in which the immediate political consequences of Lord Beaconsfield’s death may be easily exaggerated. The departed statesman was, indeed, something more than the greatest leader whom modern Conserva-

tisih has 'ever had ; he was its only leader. The place which he has left vacant can never be filled, for the simple reason that the innumerable chances of Nature are against the reproduction of a political genius ao abso-, lutely unique. Peel created Conservatism, and ruined the party which he created because hedeprived it of principle, of cohesion, of enthusiasm. Disraeli restored to Conservatism all those essential attributes of which it had been robbed by Peel, and produced the most marvellous kind of organisation which has ever been witnessed. The Conservatism that hailed Lord Beaconsfield as its leader was not merely a political but a social system. He had pressed into the service ot the Conservative cause every floating force that he recognised as available. Clubs, drawingrooms, country houses, smoking-rooms, music halls all became under his management, the recruiting grounds of Conservatism. To render any sort of service to Conservatism was not only to do an act of political usefulness, but to insure some measure of social acknowledgment. The Queen and the Court are still at the head of English society ; and, beneath the magic of his manipulation, the Queen and the Court became openly identified with the Conservative party. Her Majesty, indeed, accepts the Ministers whom the graceless favor of a democracy thrusts upon her. But she accepts them just as she does the east wind, or the necessity of periodical visits to her capital. The Heir Apparent is the model of a constitutional Prince, and is as courteous to Mr Gladstone as he was to Lord Beaconsfield. But his Eoyal Highness conceals his Conservative predilections as little as his august mother ; and all this is directly the work of the statesman who now lies buried in Hughenden churchyard. Lord Beaconsfield, indeed, was always greatly assisted in establishing this alliance between the Crown and Conservatism by the Queen’s personal aversion to Mr Gladstone. Dislike and distrust of the Liberals in general and of the present Prime Minister in particular were one of the solemn legacies left by the Prince Consort to her Majesty. She has been true to the sacred trust; and the great moral which all right minded readers are to deduce from Sir Theodore Martin’s big biography is that no follower of MrGladstone can be a good patriot and a loyal subject. This is the the true explanation of the popular power which, in the hands of Lord Beaconsfield, Conservatism became. English society rests upon a basis of loyalty and sycophancy ; under Lord Beaconsfield what was sycophantic,and a good deal of what was loyal, identified itself with Conservatism. The great man saw that an age of democracy was ah age of snobbery, and, with an adroitness only paralleled by his success, utilised that influence in the interest of the Conservative party.