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Leader (1850-1860), 1st January 1853, Edition Country of 3, Page 11, ^ . SATUBDAY, JANUAEY 1, 1853." ~~

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    • puhlit Mntm
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      Jakt Uaby I, 1853.] The Le A D E R. U

      _Jakt uaby I , 1853 . ] THE LE A D E R . U

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      ^ . Satubday, Januaey 1, 1853." ~~

      _^ . SATUBDAY , _JANUAEY 1 , 1853 . " ~~

      Puhlit Mntm

      _puhlit _Mntm

      7 — =Re Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Bec...

      7 — _= re is nothing so revolutionary , because there is othmg so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to eep things fixed when all the world i 3 by the very law fits creation in eternal progress . —De . Aenold .

      The New Ministry, Its Programme And Its ...

      THE NEW MINISTRY , ITS PROGRAMME AND ITS MEN . ce formation of the present Ministry appears us to constitute the greatest gain to the popucause that it has ever yet achieved . The -sent Ministry is drawn from all the parties _resented in the House of Commons except 9 , the party of the Tory Protectionists . But j very principle upon which the Government formed , that of deferring to the Liberal claims the great body of the people , while endeavourr to conserve our institutions , precludes the a that , when once formed , the Ministry can taken to represent any of the several parties . is a Government formed for a special purpose , I not for the purposes of those several parties . [ n that sense it appears to us to be the only vernment possible . There is no party in the use of Commons which possesses the _confitce of the majority , the technical qualification office . No party , therefore , can appoint a nistry . On the other hand , all Liberal parties re agreed that it is necessary to form a Ministry : ome kind . All parties have agreed on the main nciples that should guide such a Ministrynely , the principle that the Government of country must be carried on ; and the prinle that it can only be carried on in a Liberal se . Those two necessities , and the concurce of all the Liberal parties of the House upon se necessities , form three great public facts ; I by the force of those threo great public facts present Ministry has been brought into being . 3 y these means the very best administrators previous cabinets , the very best speakers of Commons , the very best statesmen to collect > lic opinion , are brought together in the fortion of a Cabinet made out ofthe strength of ny Cabinets , llesting , _tlierefore , upon the < 1 rock of fact , possessing an unprecedented mni ; of strength , the Ministry enters upon ie nt the close of an eventful year , and at the unoncement of a year not less so .

      lie programme which this Ministry has laid > re it is necessarily simple . In Foreign affairs , -interference in the internal concerns of other tea . In Finance , continuance of the Income-_ according to the principles of justice and ty . At Home , extension of national educa-! . law reform , and amendment of our _reprel-ativo system by safe and well-considered _isures . But tho character of the _administrai may depend less upon the names of tho mea-¦ s than tho spirit aud mode in which they are ' ed out .

      Is utilit y may be _increased or diminished by _amount of confidence which it may command ll ( ' public , or tho amount of obstruction which ; i . y _encounter . The obstruction is likely to ¦ from ji , misconception as to its real duty _, "need Liberals Will mistrust it , because tho position in great part forbids it from _aelopt-Hieasures such as advanced Liberals thom" wemlel put forward ; and we already see ( ji"M calling upon it to hasten , as other Minis' _ave elone , with a shoal of promises never , ' ! lPH . to be completed , it is to sign the ; y-nine ; articles of Liberalism before it can be ; ¦ heate d as . a national Ministry ; as if any such . _'' 'ipfion ever bound man or Ministry . Even ' /< » express doubts ; and tho purest ' organ of Party , regarding the Ministry as too strong s several parts , desires to busy it with many _^ in order that its conflicting powers may _'ceromo mischievous . All these ideas are _<> n the old party methods of working , whieh wo have at present nothing to do . () parties have been cut off from the future , ¦ he _existing Ministry must work according "' -hods proper to itself and for tho actual oc-» n .

      What , then , has it to do P Its course appears to us to be strictly defined by its origin . It has to collect the actual suffrages of the great body of the people on all the prominent subjects of public a 0 t _T ? J It ; kas ' for exam P le > to ascertain and to embody the opinion of the people in regard to the principles which shall regulate our commercial _^ affairs ; to establish -Free-trade , aid to finish the application of that doctrine in the revision of our tariff and in the framing , of those taxes which will have to be added for the purposes of increased expenditure . Again , in the approaching conflict which is likely to disturb the relations of foreign countries with each other and with our own , it is necessary that the Government of the day should invite , collect , and put into force the actual opinion of the country at that juncture . In our foreign affairs now all is confusion . We are without principles . Sympathizing with constitutional government , we have suffered it to fall to pieces . We have stimulated extreme movements on the Continent unduly , because we were not prepared to support them ; and we have actually played into the hands of despotical and tyrannical Governments , whose proceedings provoke our antipathy and alarm . When the movements that are now proceeding abroad , consequent upon the gathering of great forces ,

      shall call upon this country to take its decided course , it will be necessary for the Government of the day—and it will be no distant day—to take counsel with the country as to the position which shall be assumed , and bond fide to support that position in its conduct . In regard to our own constitution , there is much uncertain opinion as to the degree and the manner the classes now unenfranchised should be admitted to a share of political power . Many measures are proposed , and no one is carried out , because there is no _agreement . It is not the want of conviction that hinders , but the want of concurrence ; and if we could get a sufficient number of practical Liberals to agree upon a measure , that measure , whatever it might be , would be best of all ; for it would be the measure to be realized . The framing of that measure is especially the business of our present Government . To set our national defences in order ; to provide means with the least inconvenience to the paying classes ; to render all our public departments efficient in their duties , by improvements in their personal composition , their plans of working , and the honest y of their direction ; to fulfil long recognised , but long postponed , duties to our colonial dependencies , and thus to extinguish one source of embarrassment for the . Executive ; in short , to place the general conduct of public affairs in a ' state of order , clearness , and honesty , —such aro the duties of the Government for the time being ; and such , we apprehend , the new Ministers understand their duties to be . Tho Government for the time being is to realize the sum of floating opinion and conviction of the country . Lord Derby made an idle reproach that there had been a concert to displace him from office ; an accusation aB easily refuted as it is transparent ; but thero is a concert—a concert to do the necessary work of the day .

      We understand that Ministers aro impelled to this eluty by strong feeling . There were but two courses open to them—to surrender the Government te _> the largest of the minorities ; or , breaking away from party altogether , to form an administration for the country as the country is now actually situated , with the materials that the whole country can provide . The first course would have been to let the Government and the _institutions of the _country fall into contempt , with _consequences not difficult to foresee . It does not at all follow that such a Ministry as the present , however , does nothing for " progress , "oven in _theordinarysenseof tho word ; quito the reverse . It will now realize and fix feir ever in practical application the progressive principles which we have long maintained by continuous eUort . It will marlc the highest tide to which progress has yet risen ; it will fix the past beyond retractation , and will furnish a new start for the p ioneers not yet appointed iu the further progress of political freedom .

      Sir William Molkswortii For Sout1iwark. ...

      SIR WILLIAM MOLKSWORTII FOR SOUT 1 IWARK . _'Kkw appointments have promised to be more _impeirlant in their effects , than that of Hir William Molesworth to be Chief Commissioner of Works . Wo have differed from fc . ii- William ou important

      subjects , and are likely to differ again from a man whose view of politics appears to ijs to bp taken too much from the side of science , and tpo little from the side of affection . But he is a man of a bold understanding ; he has not only declared in favour of the most _liborf policy for our own Commonwealth , but has jM p twenty years supported his convictions wffl _& great effect befdrp the public , and before Parliament . Accomplished as a student of standard authors that have imparted a colour to the intellect of our own day ; drawing ideas from their original sources , he has himself treated many subjects of public interest with masterly comprehension and much originality . He has done more—he has done that which many men , proud of their own attainments and originality , flinch from doing : he has accepted the aid of others , his equals , if not his superiors , in his own most distinguished enterprises . He has , for example , been a disciple and coadjutor of Edward Gibbon Wakefield , in Colonial matters ; always , indeed , with the independence which distinguishes him , but also with the frank avowal of the companionhood which reflected the highest credit upon his understanding , no less than his moral feeling . In that he may be compared with Charles _Buller , whose courageous disregard of petty innuendoes , whose frank avowal of a second , or even a third , place in the important Canada mission , marked out that young statesman as possessing an originality and generosity above all paltry competition for' the " exclusive" possession of ideas—that bane of small and servile minds . There have been many reasons which might have made it comparatively easy to borrow the ideas of Mr . Wakefield , and to disavow the authorship ; and a man conscious of deficient power of originality in his own mind , might have been tempted to do so . Buller and Molesworth are good samples of modern chivalry , and we might point them out as the best types of the gentleman in our day ; both members , be it observed in passing , of old Cornish families . Both approached public affairs with a disregard of party , and with a desire to accomplish the thing upon which they set their hearts , when that was good , wise , and for the benefit of their country .

      Sir William has been able to accomplish some of the most important enterprises that he has undertaken . It was he who , with Charles Buller , Francis Baring , brother of tho present Lord Ashburton , and a comparatively small knot of active and independent intellects , enforced upon the Government a more systematic conduct of Colonial affairs . To Sir Henry George Ward may be given all credit for the committee of 183 (> , whieh put forth , in the form of a blue book , an intelligent manual of Colonial settlement ; but Sir Henry was tho instrument , and was moved by intellects moro powerful than his own . How much his mind belonged to the adjective rather than the substantive class , is shewn by the general tone of his administration in the Ionian Islands , where ho hael no such counsel to direct him . In the enforcement of ¦ " responsible government" for Canada—a principle subsequently acknowledged in other colonies , anel largely influencing the concessions which have since ; been made—Lord Durham , guided by Mr . Wakefield , was faithfully supported by Sir William Molesworth . Sir William was himself chairman and manager of that committee in 18 ; f 7 which effectually demolished the practice of convict slavery iu Australia . No man was more opposed by the e ; olonists than he was ; anel he has lived to see tho colonists who were deprived of convict labour through his means , accept his conclusion as ono vital to the welfare of their own colony , and resent a proposal to re-establish convictism in Australia , even to tfie ver _^ e of rebellion . A moro remarkable ease ofthe successful exorcise of moral anel intellectual force upon the practical conduct of an important branch of . public affairs oannot'bo adduced .

      Tho accession of a man like Sir William Molesworth , marks the character of tho now Ministry . When Lord Aberdeen throws _oyerbeiarel " tho old phrases "Conservative" and . " Liberal" as party distinctions , though ho retains them jointly , as designating very proper qualities in a publio _adtmuiietrator , ho ox presses a truth which all feel , and which _xxc all admit to be just enough in hia mouth ; but when he accompanies that declaration with Uio admission of a man liko Sir William _Molea-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 1, 1853, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01011853/page/11/