THE POLITICAL FUTURE.

It is a significant and, we think, auspicious circumstance that the present leader of the Opposition should in his first speech in that capacity make the frank, and we have no doubt perfectly cordial, acceptance of the principle of democracy that was put forward by Mr. Murray Smith in his remarks on the Reform Bill. " I am not," observed Mr. Smith, " perhaps, disinclined to democratic measures myself, although I may sometimes talk against them. I am perfectly willing to occupy the position I occupy in this democratic community. I am willing to accept all the responsibility of the democratic situation, but at the same time I am surely justified in pointing out any defects, and in urging on the House the necessity of caution in proceeding in the direction of changes, if for no other reason than that we cannot go back again, for the motto of democracy is vestigia nulla retrorsum.[no backward steps]" It must be a favourable condition of our political progress when we find the leader of what is relatively the Conservative party of our politics thus unreservedly giving in his adhesion to the rule of democracy. It then becomes the case that we are not divided by a strife over the first principles of political life, but that one broad, common platform underlies all our parties, and that their differences relate merely to the application of the principles to practice. The remark of Mr. Smith is the more wholesome in its effect as there is among a number of unthinking people on his side of politics a great deal of colloquial twaddle prevalent of a very adverse tendency. It is among many the fashion to speak as though we have, or had, at our choice some second alternative to the present democratic rule in the shape of some undefined Utopian Government by the Best and Wisest—in other words, by the well-to-do. All who have given any attention to the facts know that such a choice was not open at any time in our history. A glance round at the constitutional systems in force in the different British colonies shows, by the evidence of realised fact, that the only alternatives are the rule of the people or the rule of Downing-street. At a certain stage of progress the latter condition is inevitably outgrown, and nothing remains but to work out the former one wisely and well. The greatest of English Conservatives, in putting before the Government 100 years ago the alternatives of acting with the people or fighting against them, said, "For you have no other materials to work with but those it has pleased God to form into the inhabitants of this island." The remark is emphatically true as applied to us. We have not, and cannot have, any other material in these colonies. And the more distinctly our politicians of all parties can realise that our sole problem is to evoke the best results possible from these unalterable conditions, the better it will be for the harmony of their work and for the results they will achieve.

Evidence that these principles are becoming equally clear to thinking minds in England is afforded by an important article on "The Dawn of a Revolutionary Epoch," which is contributed to the January number of the Nineteenth Century by Mr. H. M. Hyndman. Mr. HYNDMAN, we believe, is of Conservative leanings in politics, and it hence becomes the more significant that he does not look for salvation from the perils grimly threatening to the "monarchs and statesmen" who, according to Lord Beaconsfield, so wisely manage the affairs of the world, but to the great restless democracy, stirred by vast hopes and lofty ambitions and capable of determining great issues to good or to ill. The writer has no difficulty in showing the signs of impending social and political revolution visible in Europe at the present time. While "monarchs and statesmen" are straining their utmost efforts to enlist the whole manhood of the nations in their armies, and to prepare for wars on a scale such as the world has never seen before, the lower strata of society are becoming penetrated by vast conspiracies having for their objects the overthrow of the existing social and political framework. The state of Germany is typical of that of a great part of Europe. In spite of the enormous machinery of police and military repression so unscrupulously wielded by Prince Bismarck, the repressive legislation which he has introduced, his conception of government as simply a demonstration of brute force to hold in check the mass of the people, it remains the case that every election proves the growing extent and audacity of the socialist organisations, whose object is avowedly the dissolution of society and its reconstruction on a new basis. " And yet," writes Mr. HYNDMAN, "with men thus exasperated at the denial of all freedom and the underhand suspension of laws passed with difficulty for their benefit, the military conscription is still in full force. The malcontents are passed steadily through the army, exposed to the hated Prussian discipline at the hands of that hard-handed and hard-headed Junker class whom they are learning to look upon as more bitter enemies than any foreign foe, and return to their homes—such of them as do not seek refuge across the Atlantic—to remember that a million more trained soldiers hold the same opinions that they do, and await only a favourable opportunity to show their real strength."

As it is in Germany so it is in degree in Russia, Italy, France ; it is so in some degree even in Great Britain and in America. Education and an increasingly bitter sense of the disparity of fortune are producing in the artisan and labouring classes a rankling animosity against a state of things which they believe presses with unfair rigour upon them. Great cosmopolitan — or, as we say, international— conspiracies are spreading amongst them, and are honeycombing the foundations of society. Governments, for the most part, have but one idea—that of repression by force. And how futile and chimerical that may prove in the hour of trial was shown by the fall of the French Empire, which, supported by military rule and relying on half a million bayonets, vanished into air at the first military reverse and the first shout of a Paris mob. Even in England we see something of this feeling with regard to Ireland, where " no sooner," says our author, "does a real difficulty arise in applying the ordinary law of the country with vigour and effect, than straightway a cry is raised for a suspension of the first guarantee of all liberty, and Parliamentary lynch law is proclaimed on the housetops as the highest statesmanship." When the storms break which now impend over the political world of Europe, the best hopes will be with those nations which have done most, not to prepare the strongest means of repression, but to interest the largest proportion of the people in the maintenance of society. In the concluding words of Mr. Hyndman, " Those who condemn democracy, who look askance at the determination to give political power to every class, in order that all may be able to insist upon their share in the general advancement, are but rendering more probable the overturn they dread. The old days of aristocracy and class privileges are passing away fast; we have to consider now how to deal with the growing democratic influence, so that we may benefit by the experience of others. This can only be done by a steady determination at the outset to satisfy the needs and gratify the reasonable ambition of all." In the coming days of social convulsion, when the foundations of the nations are rocking in earthquake, it will be well for those countries which stand on the broadest bases and are best knit by community of interest and participation in the government into one coherent fabric. And it is gratifying to think that in this respect few states have made more progress than we have in Victoria.

Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), Saturday 26 February 1881, page 17