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aggrieved by our proposing the Radical Council of the Bill; that to be beaten on making the Con- servative proposals would be neither a disgrace nor a party injury, as the towns care nothing, and the counties very little (and they less than formerly, beyond the professional politician), for the whole change, while, on the other hand, to commit our- selves to this Radical scheme of a purely elective Council would fatally tie our hands, and those of moderate Liberals in the future, should a more Conservative treatment be possible hereafter. And whose applause should we gain? That of Sir C. Dilke, the Radical wing, and the permanent doctri- naire officials of the Local Government Board, who have ulterior schemes of revolution which they expect to forward by this change.
Personally, I have always been in favour of our dealing with County Government, but then it was on the supposition that we should treat it in a Con- servative way, admitting freely the new democracy, but tempering it by admixture with existing authorities, and drawing into the Council all the leading elements of the county.
If, however, our own proposals are to to be those of a most Radical character, full of bad precedents for the future, I am confident that it will be better for our character and for our own party, and much safer for the country, that we should leave them to be propounded by the Radical Party, to which they rightly belong, and not hamper the possible controlling forces of the moderate Liberals by the previous concessions of a Conserva- tive Government.
January 11, 1886.
H.
PRIWERD
AT THE FORSIGN OFFICE BY T, Harrison.—15/1/06.
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