career of Greece since she became a kingdom does not warrant a belief that in her hands Crete is likely to develop into an efficient naval or military station; and on a general survey of the whole situation in the Levant, it is permissible to hope that, with the exception - truly a large and serious exception of the substitution of Germany for England at Constantinople, and the gradual extension of German commerce at the expense of English throughout the East, no revolutionary changes in what is

popularly called the near Eastern question will occur for years to come. In arriving at this comfortable conclusion the admirable fighting qualities of the large and easily mobilised Turkish army has not been overlooked, nor the probability of its being officered in the future by German officers even more than is the case now. Whether under German influence the Turkish navy is destined to undergo a resurrection, and become again a powerful factor in national defence, remains to be seen.

On the eve of the fifth session of the present Parliament, with important domestic legislation immediately before us, and recent events which we need not particularise too closely but a short way behind us, it may be well to consider under what auspices Ministers enter on their task, and what prospect they have of bringing it to a successful issue. It is not to be It is not to be denied that some dissatisfaction exists among their own followers; and perhaps the same might have been said of every Government that has lived into its fifth session for the last seventy years. But

it must not on that account be supposed that this discontent is always of the same kind and can always be summarily dismissed with the consoling reflection that it is only what is common to all Governments. There are several forms of this complaint, to which all parties in turn are liable. Sometimes it arises from pure satiety, mere weariness of Aristides, and corresponds with the proverb that you may have too much even of a good thing. Sometimes it is only the querulous murmur of men who must be finding fault with something, and can never restrain this propensity for more than a very brief period. Sometimes, since in parties composed of heterogeneous materials it is impossible to please everybody, the rebellious feeling is sectarian. But there is also a

kind of discontent more deeply seated than either of these, and resting on more solid grounds. And truth compels us to acknowledge that the disapproval of the present

Government which lurks in the Unionist ranks at this moment is not without some element of this description, and that it is exclusively due neither to transient peevishness on the one hand nor to sectional disappointments on the other.

Our readers well know the sentiments of 'Maga' on the foreign policy of the Ministry; and when we advise both Conservatives and Liberal Unionists, on the announcement of the Government measures, to judge them entirely on their merits, and not to allow themselves to be influenced by any external considerations, we shall not be misunderstood. It should be left to the Opposition to use mistakes in one department of administration for the purpose of discrediting others which are totally unconnected with it. We can hardly doubt that Conservatives in general will recognise the truth that a Minister who is unsuccessful in diplomacy may nevertheless be the most trustworthy guardian of the Constitution, and of the rights and liberties of all classes of her Majesty's subjects.

But the discontent referred to is not entirely confined to the foreign policy of the Government. Some there are who object to the whole tenor of

their recent domestic legislation, on the ground that it is practical socialism; others think that members of the Government have shown too much indifference to the growth of Ritualism in the Church, and that there is a danger that the Government may be pressed to take the matter into their own hands and pass a second Public Worship Regulation Act. It is difficult to say whether their refusal or their consent would be the more disastrous. The one would add fuel to the flame; the other would alienate thousands of the clergy, who have no sympathy whatever with Ritualism, but dislike Government interference still more. A third charge against the Government is their weakness in yielding to the clamour of a noisy minority on the question of vaccination-an error no doubt to be regretted, but scarcely sufficient to outweigh the claims of a Conservative Government to the confidence of a Conservative people.

Of these three troubles ahead of us, the fear of socialism, the impatience of Ritualism, and the irritation created by compliance with an ignorant prejudice, we propose on the present occasion to deal only with the first, as that has the widest scope, and will probably continue to operate as long as the Administration lasts. To those honest Conservatives, then, to whom socialism is a bugbear, we would offer, with all respect for their principles, the following considerations.

It may be, and often is, urged by a class of old-fash

ioned Conservatives, that whatever democratic changes may have been rendered inevitable by the course of events it is for the democratic party to effect; that these changes can be made more safely through the agency of a Liberal Government controlled by a Conservative Opposition, than by a Conservative Government controlled by a Liberal Opposition; that the Conservatives, by allowing the Liberals a monopoly of office, could make much better terms with them than by keeping up a rivalry in which their opponents would be always bidding over their heads for Radical support, and could prevent the necessary changes from going further than they themselves would have been obliged to carry them had they held the reins of Government; and that in this position they would be at least equally useful to the constitution, and preserve more completely at the same time their own dignity and consistency. There is something attractive in this conception of a great defensive party treating the usual rewards of public life as dirt beneath their feet in comparison with their duty to the constitution, wielding power without place, and exercising an influence out of all proportion to their number, because known to be disinterested. It is a very pretty theory; and if we do not accept it, it is not because we do not understand or appreciate it, but because the only conditions which made such an arrangement either possible or desirable have ceased to exist.

Whether it could ever have been realised at any time, whether a powerful political party could ever have been kept together on such terms, is more than doubtful. A party which abjured office, and could offer no rewards to its adherents beyond the satisfaction of their own consciences, would find, we are afraid, that this inducement was not sufficiently powerful to bring many recruits to their colours-or, at all events, that class of recruits of which both parties stand most in need. Young men of ability, with their way to make in the world, however warm their sympathies with the Conservative cause, could not afford to labour where they could only reap barren honour. But it is waste of time to pursue the inquiry any further. The division of parties which the aforesaid theory presupposes survives only in name. During the last quarter of a century we have been passing through a transition period, from which we are only now emerging, with new political combinations, new conceptions of social duty and of the relations between class and class, and an awakened popular intelligence no longer to be satisfied with the Radical shibboleths which deceived a less instructed generation. The people begin to understand that the so-called Liberalism of Mr Gladstone was fast endangering the empire. The scales are dropping from their eyes, and a large majority of the nationnot a mere party majorityrecognise in a wise and well

regulated Conservatism the best guarantee for both our moral and material greatness. They see that the interests of the Unionist party and the interests of the country are identical: that Radicalism would destroy public credit, and dry up the springs of commercial enterprise; would curtail our empire, and thereby contract our markets; would degrade or annihilate aristocracy, and with it a great school of culture, manners, and refinement; would overthrow a Church which is our best security for religious toleration; and through these various attacks on all that stimulates invention, energy, and adventure, on all that keeps alive our traditional respect for authority and order, on all that places a check on fanaticism or bigotry, would in time destroy our most precious and priceless heritage, the national character.

The Unionists have so completely identified themselves with a policy of constructive progress that the better part of the population is now thoroughly on their side. And it is for our rulers to say whether they will keep them so or not. If they will, there is only one policy for the Government to pursue. They must not be frightened by hard words, or by the groans of political nightmare. The only sure foundation on which our institutions can repose is a contented people. Let the people of this country see that their rulers are alive to their real wants, and ready to satisfy all their reasonable and natural aspirations, and we need have

no fear of either a bloodless Jacquerie or a tyrannical communism which is wholly alien the national feeling, the national traditions, and national love of independence. Lord Salisbury and his colleagues have adopted the only Conservative method now open to them. They take their stand on the only ground which can make and keep the Unionist party the national party in the country. Their only possible policy is to ensure constitutional stability by the satisfaction of popular demands.

There is no reason why these demands should not be met by a Conservative Administration in a generous and sympathetic spirit, without either weakening the machinery of government or violating any of the fundamental laws by which society is held together. If this is socialism, then socialism is the truest Conservatism the only Conservatism possible. But it is NOT socialism. What is really meant by the term is as likely to find support from the present Government as Plato's Republic. Socialism means that all is for society and nothing for the individual. How can State assistance to old age and poverty be so described? If it can, then the greatest socialist who has ever figured among English statesmen was Pitt himself.

Many years ago, when Mr Chamberlain spoke of "ransom," he made choice of an unlucky word to express an unquestionable truth. What he really meant was nothing but what has been practically in opera

tion for the greater part of the century, and long before. The poor law, the repeal of the corn laws, the substitution of direct for indirect taxation, the successive extensions of the franchise, have all been, under different names, forms of the same policy. That it has been sometimes pushed too far, we should be the last to deny. What have been represented as popular demands have sometimes been unreal, serving only to cover the gratification of class jealousies and party animosities. But the principle has been recognised by both parties; and it is too late to protest against it now, even were there any wisdom in doing so. The people, we repeat, are in no sense hostile to existing institutions, to rank, property, and privilege. If they can get what they want without disturbing them, they will be perfectly contented. If they can obtain through Conservative channels those material comforts to which they consider themselves entitled, Chatsworth and Drumlanrig, Blair and Belvoir, Lambeth and Bishopthorpe may go on for ever, for all the trouble they would take to overthrow them.

What we would insist upon is, that this outcry against socialism is a false alarm ; that the legislation which has provoked it has no no affinity whatever to socialism properly understood; and that the material comforts, self-respect, and independence of the working-classes may be promoted by State assistance, without deviating one hair's breadth from the truest Conservative