598 CAN THE TORIES TAKE OFFICE AFTER ALL ? 



of the Duke's return to power, leading, as they suppose it will, to 

 old Tory principles ; others, more moderate, are disposed to consider 

 that their leader will propose certain salutary and safe reforms. 



The Tory, mutato nomine Conservative party the distinction 

 being, we believe, something like the distinction between a crocodile 

 and an alligator, as Jekyll said of the difference between an attorney 

 and a solicitor this party, in our opinion, will be neither enabled 

 to recur to old Tory principles, nor to propose salutary and safe re- 

 forms. The people will not have them at any price. Nor do we 

 think that force will be resorted to, for the purpose of keeping them 

 in place. We do not believe that the disorders of the State can be 

 remedied by a regimental regimen. A great writer says, "The strength 

 whereby such an effect can be expected, consists not in a pair of fists, 

 but in an army ; and an army is a beast w r ith a great belly, which 

 subsists not without very large pastures ; so, if one man has sufficient 

 pasture, he may feed such a beast ; if a few have the pasture, they 

 must feed the beast, and the beast is theirs that feed it. But if the 

 people be the sheep of their own pastures, they are not only a flock 

 of sheep, but an army of lions, though by some accidents they be, 

 for a season, confinable to their dens." 



It is, however, quite clear that should the Tories persevere in a 

 determination to keep their places, and consequently to neutralize, 

 or to destroy the growth of reform, they can only hope so to do by 

 these means ; and by the adoption of a line of policy which, to vise 

 the words of the same writer, " has more of the man and less of the 

 law in it." 



But affairs, as yet, are not come to this pass ; and our perfect con- 

 viction is, that the turn that things will take must be a turn into the 

 old channel, with the additional impetus of current which the com- 

 pressed strength of the popular party must necessarily impart to it. 

 The Tories will be in the predicament of the prudent Scot, who was 

 seen stealthily crawling through a garden-fence. " Where are you 

 going?" demanded the gardener. " Back again," was the timely 

 reply. In like manner, and as speedily, must the Tories te go back 

 again," and it will be well for them if, perceiving the analogy of the 

 cases, they recognize at the same time the expediency of the retreat. 

 But we are told by some of the Tory organs, that it is unfair to 

 infer this or that of a cabinet which is not yet formed. This device 



