was found to be the only man loud enough and abusive enough to hold the leadership of the Conservative party, and the gentlemen of England loyally accepted him as leader. Given such a leader and such a party, and any one can foretell the result. He will oppose everything, revile everything, promise everything, and they will echo all he says. Their purpose is to drive the Liberals from power, and to that end every means is honest. In prviate life it is only the policeman which prevents the advent of such daring spirits to power and plenty. There is no policeman in politics, and falsehood is privileged. The man who steals turnips from a field goes to prison, the man who gets votes by false pretensions goes to Downing Street. What shall we say of the speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill, by what name shall we call them? As we write, they lie before us. It is a melancholy task to turn from one of these speeches to another. With shame and sorrow we remember that the man who spoke them is the leader of our House of Commons, that he stands representative to the world of an ancient and proud assembly, whose traditions are nobler and purer than those of the Roman Senate. It is a fact to startle and alarm the whole Anglo-Saxon world. We have come to a time when not virtue, but the want of virtue, gains our insignia of honour. What do the Tory gentlemen of England think of it all? What is their opinion of a man who speaks one day with the voice of Mr. Newdegate, and next day with the accents of Mr. Bradlaugh? What do they feel when he alternately leagues himself with Mr. Parnell, and appeals to the passions of an Orange mob? Are their feelings rage and shame, or do they smile at the acuteness of the dodge? If resisted to the bitter end, and then include it in a scheme of county government? In what terms are we to speak of a man who, out of office, fills credulous and simple souls with the wildest hopes in a policy of Fair Trade, and in office calmly ignores all that he has said? Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Chamberlain had been guilty of any one of these stupendous contradictions it would have lasted a whole generation of Tory speech-makers, and would probably have blasted his career. But Lord Randolph Churchill thrives on exposure. Newspapers print his speeches in parallel columns, revealing an odious trickery, and his friends applaud him to the skies. The more dishonest Lord Randolph Churchill becomes the more popular he grows. Now, it has been a high and almost a holy tradition of British politics that we could put implicit trust in the honour of our leaders. No one appreciated the character of Sir Robert Peel as did Mr. Cobden, no one admired Mr. Cobden as did Sir Robert Peel. Lord Palmerston was often justly and occasionally with injustice vehemently attacked, but it never occurred to any one that Lord Palmerston was not a gentleman. Even when the passion of debate led Lord Salisbury to say what he would hardly have sworn to in a court of law men noted the fact, perhaps with severity, but they never regarded it as anything other than the temporary aberration of a high and honourable mind. As to Lord Iddesleigh, most of us would be inclined to accept his bare word against our own memory. To this great tradition Lord Randolph Churchill stands utterly opposed. The Liberals distrust him and despise him; the Conservatives are perfectly aware that the same reasons which lead him to serve his party would lead him to sell it. Upon the answer to these questions depends the other question, often and oftener asked, whether the Tory gentleman has not ceased to be. For we solemnly believe that no one can at once understand and approve of the policy of Lord Randolph Churchill and possess the feelings of a man of honour. How can the same man rage against the tyranny of the Closure, and then imme-sesses a sombre interest. diately adoptit as a just and necessary measure? What honest change of opinion can bring a man within a few short months to say that Bulgaria is altogether wrong and altogether right? Is it possible that within a brief period, to be measured rather by weeks than months, a political leader should, from considering the settlement of a peasantry on the soil as the idea of a maniac, come to add it to his programme ? By what process compatible with honesty can a statesman describe Local Option as a dark intrigue to set up social tyranny, a thing to be The appearance in politics of such a man as Churchill, especially when he follows such another man as Disraeli, is not only a cause of shame, it is a cause of alarm. The fact that he has a large and enthusiastic following who hail with acclamation all his knavish politics posWhere we see the vulture we look for the carrion. When men Such men as he are familiar to history, and when they appear the alarm bell should peal its loudest. Once Italy was filled with noble republics, upheld by the valour and the virtue of their citizens. Then there appeared the race of Machiavelli-statesmen who made political virtue a jest and turned politics into a cynical game. The result was immediate and disastrous, and the seats of power and commerce became provincial and half deserted cities. When the hour had come for Spain to pass from the throne of nations politicians of the type of Disraeli and Churchill swarmed in her Court. While France was hurrying down to the dread red gulf of revolution it was no other class of men who deluded her people and their rulers. The instinct of a party may be deceived, but it cannot be deceived always. The party and the leader of the party must be in sympathy. If, then, Lord Randolph Churchill is to represent the Conservative party, what are we to think? Allow largely and liberally for prejudice and passion, yet what is this dreadful thing that remains? We cannot disguise it. It is dishonour, it is rottenness. A fatal disease has made its appearance in the politics of Britain: Will we vanquish it or will it vanquish us? :0: CHARITY OR JUSTICE. "men become permeated with injustice. Mankind may be divided into two classes-purposes until legislation and administration the buyers and the sellers of labour. The age and health of a community may be ascertained The object of the true Democrat is to remove by applying this simple test: what are the re- the evils which have thus arisen. During the lative degrees of respect in which industry last fifty years much thoughtful intelligence and property are regarded? When a com- has been devoted to the subject, and substanmunity is young and vigorous are tial progress has been made towards the realisafamous as they lift up axes against thick trees." tion of Democratic ideals. At the beginning In the later stages of its existence men are of the present century patriotic Democrats honoured in proportion to the extent in which wisely devoted their attention to those Conthey possess wealth and live without labour. stitutional reforms which are essential to pracIn its youth, and until a nation has arrived at tical measures. In some degree they succeeded. middle age, shopkeepers confer obligations on Parliament received a slight infusion of the purchasers; but in the course of time this feel- Democratic spirit, and something was done ing changes, and purchasers are supposed to towards turning the tide of legislative injustice. confer obligations on shopkeepers, and usually As yet, however, the power of privilege, or receive their obsequious demonstrations. In plunder, is still gaining upon the claims of early times the men who receive a service industry and justice. The working classes of touch their hats to the men who render it. In the community, although better off, are more later and degenerate days those who render robbed now than they were ever robbed before. service touch their hats to those who accept it. They realise a smaller proportion than formerly Tested by any right standard this change of what they produce. Human labour has beindicates the advent of disease and presages come five times as productive as it was a decay. Labour, whether of hand or brain, is century since, and the working classes, instead the sole means by which human needs can be of benefiting five hundred per cent., are not satisfied, and when the worker is treated with fifty per cent. better off than they were a injustice or disrespect society must be going hundred years ago. Wealth and luxury have vastly multiplied; relatively the difference between wealthy idlers and needy workers is greater than ever. More persons have perished from famine and more children have cried from hunger during the present century than in any previous period of our history. The very productiveness of our machinery and commerce has become a curse, and we are paralysed because we cannot bring together the producers who are encumbered with produce and the poor who are perishing from want. down hill. A fierce struggle between the buyers and sellers of labour begins early in the life of every community, and it usually ends first in the degradation of labour and then in the overthrow of the State. The buyers of labour, being men of more experience and knowledge than the majority of workers, soon take the lead in affairs, and manipulate them to their own advantage. They obtain control of the government, which they use for their own Charity which "never faileth" has ceased to be effective for good; politicians, philosophers, and philanthropists are alike at their wits' end to suggest a remedy for the juxtaposition of abundance and destitution which it seems impossible to bring together. We are anxiously "learning to do well," but we are neglecting the previous lesson, "cease to do evil." We must cease to rob industry before we can regulate it with advantage. There is, and will be, a curse upon charity until we are just. The working people of this country are crushed under a weight of injustice which must be removed. In taking down the edifice of wrong we must begin at the top, and cease to give pay and place to those who have none but hereditary claims. The Duke of Cambridge receives as much pay as 1,500 soldiers, and if his pay could be doubled as a retiring pension the country would be a gainer, for under no circumstances can a vast institution like the British Army be what it ought to be so long as personal merit is disregarded for hereditary claims. Injustice pervades the whole of the Civil Service. We give enormous and unnecessary salaries to the upper departments and starvation wages to the real workers. No such inequality is to be found in Democratic countries, where working men have real influence both in legislation and in administration. A constant system of robbery goes on under the name of compensation. When the ground required for the Law Courts was cleared the parish parson demanded and received compensation for the removal of a poor population which he was paid paid for looking after. No abuse, however flagrant, can be abolished without compensation," whereas the only sound principle of compensation is to pay those who have suffered from wrong, not those who have benefitted thereby. We pay a Charity Commission" £38,000 a year, which employs itself in taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Our system of currency is so arranged as to benefit wealthy capitalists and give them great advantages over traders of moderate means. Under the agreement made with the railway companies, who can command votes in Parliament, they profit to the extent of £300,000 per annum, under arrangements recently made for the Parcels Post, while the public lose, and postmen have increased work, in some cases without any increase of pay. But all these items of fraud sink into insig nificance when compared with the robbery of land. This robbery, in the shape of agricultural rent, mining royalties, and ground rents extracts from the pockets of the industrial classes at least £150,000,000 per annum, and so reduces their condition that they are compelled to work for £150,000,000 a year less wages than they would otherwise receive.' The national resources, which belong to, and are under the control of, the poor, are abundantly sufficient to meet all the charges which they incur, and thus every penny which is demanded in rates or taxes represents fraud. The demand comes upon us because our rulers commit breaches of trust in allowing the income from public property to be paid to private persons. It would not be one whit less unreasonable or less unjust to devote the proceeds of the Income Tax to the Dukes of Westminster or Bedford than it is to allow them to appropriate ground rents. How is this robbery to be stopped, supported as it is by all the power of law, authority, and custom? Physical force, resistance on the part of the sufferers, is impossible. But it is just as impossible for a Government to coerce a people if they are determined not to submit to injustice. When a tenth part of the population are thus resolved the attempt to enforce unjust demands will fail, and it will be seen that "those have rights who dare maintain them." Charity will never fail to find suitable fields for the exercise of benevolence, but its wholesale application as a corrective of injustice has always led to disappointment. Destructive methods do not commend themselves to sensible people. We have to introduce improvements into existing society as repairs are made on railways without stopping the trains. To prevent injustice, i.e., cease to do evil, should be the first aim of the genuine reformer Working men now know that practical politics mean comfort and abundance instead of want and starvation. They know that the deliverance of themselves, of their wives, of their children, and of their children's children depends upon their intelligent and self-denying efforts. But the cry arises from all sides, How can we work? What shall we do? What leader shall we follow? There is no leader; and at present no leader is wanted. "The truth shall make you free," and every man can learn to know and to spread the truth. The time is coming when every one must think for himself. When a man sees that he is robbed let him talk over the matter with someone else who may also see it, and let the two talk to a third. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of truth and honesty much may be done. A social evening with half-a-dozen friends may accomplish much. There are men among the working classes with clear heads, stout hearts, and keen eyes who alone, or in company with a few others, may do great things for the deliverance of their order. Let them watch for opportunity, use it when it comes, and never -:0: cease spreading the leaven of truth and justice. Thus, without violence, but with a force as gentle and as powerful as a sunrise, a blessed revolution may come about, when every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid. WILLIAM SAUNDERS. THE SKYE ATROCITIES. It may seem strange to apply the above term to the events which have and are presently taking place in Skye under the authority of the British Government, but we shall justify it by proving that these were and are dishonest in conception, illegal in execution, and cruel in procedure. Dishonest in Conception. Dr. Cameron, M.P., in a masterly exposition of the whole question which he gave to a meeting of the citizens of Glasgow, in the City Hall, on the 10th November, pointed out, on the authority of Sir William Harcourt in his memorandom of November 2nd, 1882, to the Lord Advocate, that "Recourse should not be had to military aid unless in cases of sudden riot or extraordinary emergency, to deal with which the police cannot be obtained; and soldiers should not be employed upon police duty which is likely to prove of a continuing character." Dr. Cameron proved that no such emergency had arisen. The landlords had declined to pay their proportion of the Poor Rates and School Rates, on the ground that they were not receiving the rents which they wanted, thus, all unconsciously, demonstrating the fact so often urged by land reformers that landlords contribute nothing towards taxes, except a proportion of what they extort from the produce of labour upon the land. Now, there are authorities in Scotland who are vested with the power to enforce the payment of these rates. These are the Commissioners of Supply, who are the landlords, and who have to pay a moiety of the expenses of the police, and the Parochial Boards, who are dominatingly composed of landlords, factors, and their nominees. These bodies had the means at command of demanding and collecting the amounts due to them, but these means they did not employ, because an extra staff of policemen, if policemen were at all required, would have been an extra expense to them, and consequently they repre sented to the Government, or we must assume they represented, that all ordinary means of collecting the rates in Skye had failed, and that extraordinary appliances were necessary in order to save the machinery for poor relief and education from coming to a standstill for want of funds. But what were the actual facts? "At the end of March the total amount of arrears of Poor and Education Rates in Skye was £5,200. Of that sum £3,600 was owed by the landlords, £1,000 was owed by the tacksmen and farmers paying more than £30 of rent, and under £600 was due by crofters." Of these arrears due by the crofters, it was pointed out by Mr. J. G. MacKay, of Portree, long before the expedition set sail for Skye, that much of them were against people long since known to be dead or removed from the island, and more of them standing against the names of those at that moment actually upon the pauper roll. It can easily be seen from the figures quoted above that the landlords and the tacksmen were the principal delinquents. Their arrears could easily have been forced at any moment by the law of Scotland, which provides for the imprisonment of such delinquents, and it is safe to say that the imprisonment of a few lairds in the luxurious accommodation of Portree Prison would not have occasioned any commotion among the populace. Wise in their generation, however, the lairds and the tacksmen, who knew all about the expedition to Skye, paid their rates practically when the expedition was in sight of their shores, and then pointed to the poor crofters as being the only remaining delinquents upon whom the full terror of the law was to be exercised. These facts either were or were not known to Sheriff Ivory. If known, and it is almost impossible to doubt they were, then the expedition was dishonest in conception. If not known, they could have been known on the most superficial examination, and hence we argue incompetency. In either case those responsible for the expedition being sent were dishonest or incompetent, and ought to be removed and punished. It is thus shown that there was no real emergency justifying the expedition, but there was a Landlord Emergency. The new Land Court established in the Highlands, having got the power not only to fix present fair rents, but to deal with past arrears, the rackrenters of Skye saw that now or never must they enforce payment of arrears, and so went in for the "dirty trick" of procuring the services of the sailors and marines of Great Britain and Ireland to enforce payment of their arrears of rack-rent under the dastardly pretences of collecting legalised taxes. Illegal in Execution. Sheriff Ivory, who is in charge of the expedition, at a very early stage in its progress quarrelled with the Chief of the Police-force, who left the island, and the sheriff then took command of the police, from that moment constituting himself a detective of the people upon whose actions he might be called to adjudicate as a judge. The absurdity of this position is clear to every one but prejudiced partisans. Sheriff Ivory ought only to have acted as a judicial oversman, guiding the action of others, but his zeal has outrun his discretion, and in consequence he committed illegalities. Possibly he aimed at being legal, but if so he is an exceedingly poor shot. in she had no girl. She was very much frightened, and before the officers had been long in the house she turned sick and fainted. She remained in a semi-conscious state for some time, during which one of the constables stayed behind until she had partially recovered. At the croft adjoining the woman, who was questions. She was in bed with a baby six very delicate health, refused to answer any months old, and was greatly excited at the Macdonald, going to the bed where two boys manner in which they ransacked her house. were sleeping together, wakened them, and asked, 'Where is your father?' The boys were too frightened to answer. They then opened the chest, but finding nothing went away." Further, little boys of 11 years old have been arrested and conveyed to prison at Portree, and there wiled and interrogated by policemen in the apparent guise of fellowprisoners, with the object of obtaining from. them evidence incriminating perhaps their fathers or near relatives. Then, after they have been kept sometimes a day or two, they are released, as there is "no evidence against them." Your whole columns would require to be at disposal to tell all that has been done, but the latest escapade is to our mind the most alarming for the liberties and possible lives of the lieges. The Rev. Donald MacCallum, of Waternish, and John MacPherson, of Glendale, were arrested on the 13th November and lodged in Portree Prison. Mr. MacCallum We have been taught to believe in Scotwas set free on the following Monday, the land that a crofter's hut is as inviolable as 15th inst., on a bail bond of £100. MacPhera nobleman's castle, and that it could not son is still kept in prison. The grounds of be invaded without a warrant judicially their arrest were inciting to resistance of the granted, specifying the persons for whom the legalised forces at a certain meeting where both search was being made, and their offence. were. Why is John Macpherson still kept a All this he has overturned by a mid-prisoner? According to the newspapers of night raid upon the township of Herbista, where every house, with one exception, was indiscriminately ransacked, without any produced authority, apparently for the sole purpose of arresting any male found upon the premises. Here is a specimen of the legal operation, as reported in the Glasgow Herald of 29th October, and that paper cannot be accused of sympathy for the crofters:-" At another house, in which there was a widow about 70 years of age, the woman was wakened by the glare of a lantern on her face. On looking up she saw several policemen standing close by the bed. She was asked by the sheriff-officer where her husband was, and on her saying that she was a widow, they asked her where her son was, to which she replied that he was in his grave. Then they asked where her girl was, and she said the day, because his papers, correspondence, &c., are being overhauled in the meantime, and, no doubt, translated from vigorous Gaelic into polluted Saxon for the delectation of Sheriff Ivory. If such things are legal, where is the security for any man who dares to come forward and voice the wrongs of his fellows! The motto seems to be: Stamp out the agitation, legally, if possible, but-stamp it out. Cruel in Procedure. Cruel, because of incompetence; cruel, because of callousness; cruel, because of inhumanity. Incompetent, because it tempted resistance, if, indeed, a trap was not laid to goad to resistance. With a large force to draw from, two sheriff-officers were sent into a most disaffected district to serve writs without any |