FRANKLYN} [exclaiming]{Well!! 
   SAVVY} [all]{I like that! 
   HASLAM} [together]{Priceless!

BURGE [continuing remorselessly] Come down to facts.  It wasn’t principle that won the war:  it was the British fleet and the blockade.  America found the talk:  I found the shells.  You cannot win wars by principles; but you can win elections by them.  There I am with you.  You want the next election to be fought on principles:  that is what it comes to, doesnt it?

FRANKLYN.  I dont want it to be fought at all!  An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood:  a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.  You know very well that it will not be fought on principle.

BURGE.  On the contrary it will be fought on nothing else.  I believe a program is a mistake.  I agree with you that principle is what we want.

FRANKLYN.  Principle without program, eh?

BURGE.  Exactly.  There it is in three words.

FRANKLYN.  Why not in one word?  Platitudes.  That is what principle without program means.

BURGE [puzzled but patient, trying to get at Franklyn’s drift in order to ascertain his price] I have not made myself clear.  Listen.  I am agreeing with you.  I am on your side.  I am accepting your proposal.  There isnt going to be any more coalition.  This time there wont be a Tory in the Cabinet.  Every candidate will have to pledge himself to Free Trade, slightly modified by consideration for our Overseas Dominions; to Disestablishment; to Reform of the House of Lords; to a revised scheme of Taxation of Land Values; and to doing something or other to keep the Irish quiet.  Does that satisfy you?

FRANKLYN.  It does not even interest me.  Suppose your friends do commit themselves to all this!  What does it prove about them except that they are hopelessly out of date even in party politics? that they have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing since 1885?  What is it to me that they hate the Church and hate the landed gentry; that they are jealous of the nobility, and have shipping shares instead of manufacturing businesses in the Midlands?  I can find you hundreds of the most sordid rascals, or the most densely stupid reactionaries, with all these qualifications.

BURGE.  Personal abuse proves nothing.  Do you suppose the Tories are all angels because they are all members of the Church of England?

FRANKLYN.  No; but they stand together as members of the Church of England, whereas your people, in attacking the Church, are all over the shop.  The supporters of the Church are of one mind about religion:  its enemies are of a dozen minds.  The Churchmen are a phalanx:  your people are a mob in which atheists are jostled by Plymouth Brethren, and Positivists by Pillars of Fire.  You have with you all the crudest unbelievers and all the crudest fanatics.

BURGE.  We stand, as Cromwell did, for liberty of conscience, if that is what you mean.