Ir has become very evident of late that the Conservative party in England has recovered from the stunning effects of the defeat it suffered last year, has begun to sharpen its weapons, and to drill the rank and file again. A few seats have been won this year; the leaders have been making speeches at monster and crowded meetings in the Provinces, and have exercised more control over the policy of the Ministry than could have been expected from the enormous minority they are in in the House of Commons. All these things lave encouraged -the party generally, the intent and acute criticism of Sir. Stafford Norhcote, Mr. Gibson and others of their best speakers, have naturally enough raffled the self-complacency of their Radical opponents. Not long ago Mr. Chamberlain gave what was undoubtedly meant as a reply to the strictures of the Conservatives, and he was duly praised in the Radical nows-papers, though he had only uttered the commonplaces of his party. In former years the task of defending the Ministry in Birmingham, would either have been committed to, or spontaneously undertaken by, Mr, Bright. But age, instead of mellowing, has increased the rancour of the Right' Honourable gentleman's tongue, and now his friends are more afraid of it and the indiscretions it utters, than are political opponents. The Irish policy of the Government has been chiefly challenged by the Opposition in their speeches out of Parliament, but it seems extremely donbtfal if the English constituencies have any very clear, not to say strong, opinions upon it. The need for a Coercion Bill was admitted by the majority of Englishmen, but no one liked such a measure, and many were ashamed that it should have been necessary. This Inst feeling was not confined to the Liberal party, but was shared by many Conservatives in Parliament. The feeling of the constituencies was the same; that it was a disagreeable daty that bad to be done, and the sooner and the more thoroughly it was done, the better for the whole United Kingdom, But the Government, no doubt from the divided councils in the were weak and vacillating, and more than actual mistakes in their policy, which is sare to alienate that Large class of electors who do not call themselves either Whig or Tory, bat whose swing, to the one side or the other, settles the question of which party be in power. The same class is likely to have boon similarly affected by the Montenegrin affairs, the Greek mess, and the metro. cession of the Transvaal. Even such a small matter as the settlement of the claims of the American fishermen for injuries done to their craft and nets in Nowfqundland, would remind many.of the dishes of bumble pie which the foreign policy of the last Gladstone Government compelled the public to eat. If we are right in supposing that the non-bartizan portion of the electorate were beginning to fall away from the Government, the scolding which such newspapers as the Spectator has recently given to the Liberals who have ventered to think differently from Mr. Gladstone, and the attempts of the Birmingham six hundred and the}. National federation of Reformers, - to stir ap the advanced electors in the constituencies represented by members who have shown a little independence, are all explained, and also the activity recently displayed by the Conservative leaders. The news thst, in little more than three months after they had ordered the evacuation of Candabar,. that city and probably " large part of Afghanistan has been captured by the rebel whom we defeated about a year ago, will certainly not strengthen the position of the Ministry, It may not affect their strength in the House of Commons, at least to any degree likely to bring them into serious difficulties, because the majority of the House affirmed the wisdom of their policy in Afghanistan early in the present cos. sion, Besides, to a great number, possibly to a majority of their sup. porters, the defeat of the Ministry. followed, a it would be certain to be, by a dissolution, is something too Lorrible to be contemplated. For, probably, few were so surprised at the result of the elections of last year as many of the majority which was then returned to parliament, and these must know by this time that re-election is hopeless, unless some unforeseen piece of good fortune happens to their party, Il the boasting of the advanced that the triumph of last year was chiefly owing to them, it was 800n seen that however many Radical candi. dates may have called themselves extreme, as members, the majority were not much different from the Liberals of former parliaments. A few fiery spirits proposed last year to out down and cast away everything in the Constitution which displeased them, and to introduce a new order of affairs, the chief characteristic of which was to be compelling the silence of their political opponents, The House of Poors was to be abolished out of han changes were to be made in the land laws and the distribution of political power. But the political tomperatare is more moderate now, very probably because little sympathy was shown with these extreme views, except in a dozen or so of democratic constituencies, This quiet condition of political life favonra the Conservative party, and is doubtless the cause of the activity its leaders have shown lately. And any weakening of the power of the Government in the country will compel the Premier to cast in his lot with one section or the other of his Cabinet, the result of which will be that the, Whigs will rebel against the Radicals who now compel them to hew wood: and draw water for them, or the advanced section will withdraw and shake the dust of office from their feet; and either result will strengthen the party of moderate @utyorts,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.