Lords, and the
Crown itself, must be defended on the ground that they are institutions
necessary or useful to the preservation of civil and religious freedom,
and can be maintained only so far as the people take this view of their
subsistence." These are the principles of democracy. It is here laid
down that the people are the only legitimate court of appeal on
political questions, and that the decision rests, and ought to rest,
with the numerical majority. Before this court the most venerable
institutions of the realm may be brought to have their merits sifted,
and an adverse verdict is to be followed by a writ of execution. The
only test by which they are to be judged is their utility. If they
fail to stand it they are to be voted nuisances. The standard of utility
is not to be the interests or the supposed rights of any person or
class, but the interests of the whole people. The people themselves are
to decide what is meant by their liberties, how far they extend, and
what other interests shall be superadded in making out the standard
towards which our institutions shall approximate.

If these are the principles of Neo-conservatism, our case is made out
with a superfluity of proof. Of course there is a pretence of acting on
these principles already. When a measure is before Parliament it is
assumed that the sole issue in dispute is its utility. The Conservative
debater recognizes the decisiveness of this test just as freely as his
opponents. But these principles have not been openly avowed by the
Conservatives. The "hypocrisy" with which Mr. Disraeli taunted them
still flourishes in the form of amiable prepossessions. A vast mass of
mystic and traditional lumber still enters into the foundations of
Conservatism, and if all this "wood, hay, and stubble" were to be burnt
up it would fare ill with the frail fabric overhead. The practical
policy of Conservatism would not alter, and could not be altered much,
but its pretensions would have to be pitched in a lower key, and the
excessive modesty of the part which alone remains to it in the politics
of the future would be put beyond dispute.

It would be interesting to see this theory of Conservatism, quietly
admitted though it be into the working details of legislation, hawked
for acceptance among the Opposition benches, and note the result. What
is this new creed of yours? we can fancy the hon. and gallant member for
Loamshire ejaculating. That there must be no class in