On this page
- Departments (1)
- Pictures (1)
-
Text (8)
-
* 132 ©ft* 3Le&tJiet* [Saturday,
-
/(Nitittfr ffPimttTt I lil/<UtU VIL/UUim-U _2_ , 4 4^.. v«+-u
-
There is no learri&d man but will confes...
-
THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE. Sib,— There ar...
-
LORD JOHN ItUSSELL. April 18. Sir,—The p...
-
RIGHTS OF ROYALTY April 28,1850. Sib,—In...
-
April 29, 1850. Dear Sib,—Royalty is, in...
-
THE GORHAM CASE. May 1,1850. Sib,—Mr. Be...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* 132 ©Ft* 3le&Tjiet* [Saturday,
* 132 © ft * 3 Le & tJiet * [ Saturday ,
/(Nitittfr Ffpimtttt I Lil/≪Utu Vil/Uuim-U _2_ , 4 4^.. V«+-U
dtynr CmrariL
Pc01207
There Is No Learri&D Man But Will Confes...
There is no learri & d man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his j udgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
The Rights Of The People. Sib,— There Ar...
THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE . Sib , — There are probably few of your readers who do not believe it both just and expedient to impart to the poorer classes of England a recognition in the English Constitution , from which they have long been excluded . Those who cannot wholly accede to the National Reform Association , and much less approve of Equal Universal Suffrage , feel , nevertheless , that the movement is not uncalled for , and hope for some good result by the agitation of the subject . At present men ' s minds are calm , and it is appropriate to invite them to the study of the first principles , by the rightfulness of which all future action will be effected .
We a ll desire Justice , —for ourselves and others . Justice is the establishment of all men ' s Rights . " What are men ' s Rights ? " is , therefore , a fundamental inquiry . Before attempting any positive reply , a negative reply is to be well considered . That which has been , or has seemed to be , my right , ceases to be my right when it is discovered to encroach on another ' s right . Hence , through ignorance of our neighbour ' s circumstances , we are often liable to assert as our "g what is a wrong to him . This error has been flagrantly committed by the rich against the poor ; but the poor need to be warned that they also are in danger of the like injustice towards the richer classes , and towards one another .
' A second negative reply is , perhaps , still more important , because more overlooked by radical reformers . No man , on the mere ground of his man ' hood , has any right to participate in government and legislation : he has merely a right to the wisest and justest government which is to be had , in the existing state of morality and knowledge . I do not expect this assertion to be admitted outright by your readers : on the contrary , I expect it to be warmly rejected ; for which reason I crave leave to develope the reasons on which it rests .
I . First let it be asked , — -What justified the first magistrate is assuming the Executive Government ? I reply , —Might to execute Right . To illustrate this , consider how we act towards children . If a man sees two boys quarrelling , and that one of them is about to do some deadly harm to the other , he will interfere with force and separate them . The strength of the man not only authorizes him , but makes it his duty , to stop oppressive vengeance . Might does not , indeed , make Right , but does indicate who it is that must become the champion of Right ; that is to say ,
who is to assume the office of magistrate . ^ Thus among wild men one of them is often made king by bodily prowess , or sometimes by other qualities which command respect , —as high lineage , ceremonial priesthood , age , or reputed wisdom . If by any of these causes I can concentrate at my call the highest physical force of the community , the fact constitutes me the natural and rightful magistrate of the community . I am then best able , perhaps alone able , to suppress crime from within and repel attack from without .
In a healthy moral state we desire justice to be done , but lire not eager to have the doing of it . The desire to participate in magistracy ought not to arise ( nml in the majority never would arise ) , if the magistrate himself were always just . But when the Executive Government has any where become so strong that the dreadful evils of Anarchy are out of sight and thought , the community gradually discovers that oppression from the Magistrate himself
is a hi riouB danger . And out of this rises a right of the community ( unthought of while Anarchy is to befmred ) to place some check upon the executive power . What that check is to be does not depend on my human equality with the Magistrate , but on the danger to which I nm exposed from him . He is like a cannon that has been loaded to shoot my enemy ; but , after I have discovered that many such cannons have blown up and have wounded their own people , I demand somo safeguard against a similar catastrophe . When all hope is lost that a particular
royal dynasty will act justly and execute the laws of which it is the professed guardian , a nation may be driven to overthrow royalty , and , indeed , all privileged orders , and lay the highest magistracy open to free election . But this , I apprehend , cannot be justified on the bare ground that , " all men being equal , ought , therefore , to be equally eligible to magistracy " ( a ? i argument which makes all royalty an essential injustice , and all government of most nations an impossibility ) ; but it may be justified , in some particular communities , on the ground , that in this way , alone or best , the end of justice , namely , the enforcement of right , is attained .
The English Government in India , by the mere fact of its strength , is under duty to execute the part of magistrate . It could not abdicate without inducing a calamitous series of internal wars , the result of which would alone show what were the remaining strongest powers of the community . It is not , therefore , now to be blamed for holding power , but ( after our immense experience of the tendencies of foreign empire ) for not taking measures either to attach the natives to its sway or to provide for a future peaceful abdication . This example is adduced as an extreme case of mere superior force constituting and marking out the magistrate .
From the principle above exhibited it would follow that if in a certain state one class of persons were especially liable to oppression from the Executive government , that class would have a right to especial safeguards . But where all are supposed equally open to its attacks , all have equal defensive rights ; and this is the theory of English Law . II . When not only Anarchy has been overcome , but Magistracy has been duly subjected to the restraints of Law , a new danger is discerned to the community from the Law itself becoming in turn the to
oppressor ; and out of this arises the desire participate in lawmaking . Again it is clear that in a healthy morality I shall desire solely that the Law may be just , not that I may have a hand or voice in enacting it : nor , because I am a man ( a fullgrown male ) , have I , therefore , a right to take part in legislation ; any right which I have rises out of the fact that such or such arrangements best conduce towards ( or are essential to ) wise and just legislation So also our right of checking legislation , being essentially defensive , is limited by the nature of the danger to which we are exposed .
The danger is that of unjust class-legislation , for this is the only possible injustice which a Parliament or other purely legislative body can perpetrate . If my class be protected I am protected , even if I have no vote or influence individually . Hence it is Classes and Interests which alone have need of defence , and therefore alone have any right of representation in Parliament . Nay , to concede equal votes to all the individuals of a nation would be to invest the most numerous class with power to oppress the rest , and might perpetuate unjust class-legislation in its most intense form . The poor ought to have defenders in
the Legislature , —chiefly the peasants , for they have suffered great oppressions through the want of spokesmen there ; but it is not to be inferred that they ought to have representations numerous in direct proportion to their numbers . III . It is an enormous practical error to imagine that all the cardinal questions of practical politics can be solved by moral reasonings . There are arbitrary elements of immense magnitude , depending on public opinion . Of these the most obvious is that which
concerns the Limits of States . When Louis Philippe was driven from his throne by violence , and the connection of the new with the old state of things was cut apart , there was no moral right remaining to dictate whether France should become one sovereign Republic or . ten . In South America , when the Spanish power was overthrown , a series of civil wars took place , to decide how many States should grow out of the ruin of empire . The intense danger of prolonged suffering and demoralization from this
cause is that which makes it so criminal an act to precipitate a revolution . When once the precedents of the past are annulled by violence , no one can foresee now lingering and atrocious a struggle may supervene , in order to establish those elements of practical politics which no philosophy can ever settle . Fbancis W . Newman .
Lord John Itussell. April 18. Sir,—The P...
LORD JOHN ItUSSELL . April 18 . Sir , —The press is heaving and groaning under the invectives of Lord John Russell . I would be the monitor and examining master of this elevated tuft , who ( I am told ) has evinced some ambition to graduate in letters . May I be allowed to premise that no fortune or prosperity is so worthily or so
arduously acquired as by those who watch the movements and correct the errors of public men . The journalists of England hold the highest rank in her literature . Safely and conscientiously may I declare it , who have contributed but little to any journal , and who have derived no benefit from any . Lord John Russell , in the multiplicity and confusion of business , seems to have forgotten that the most elevated personages of his party , two Lord Chancellors , are public writers of much celebrity , and
connected with journalism ! Equally does he seem to be unaware that the march of intelle ct and of polity is guided by others of an education as liberal a family as ancient , and a fortune as independent as his own . It would be well , then , in his lordship to lower this superciliousness and abate this arrogance . He maintains his position in the state by no merit , real or imputed ; but solely by the popular apprehension that abler men would strip the nation to protect themselves . Such apprehension is indeed irrational ; but the most irrational is often the most
sensitive . The clamour against Sir Robert Peel is beginning to subside . Children , when they have had their cry out , sleep upon it . I never saw the man , and never wish to see him ; but I avow my opinion that he is the ablest Minister since Lord Chatham , though bearing a nearer resemblance to the wiliness of Walpole . He did not begin his career by urging to progress , with an iron checkshoe in his pocket , bearing the word finality . He may have shuffled his caids with a somewhat of suspicious dexterity ; but he never was detected in pulling a hidden one from his sleeve .
There is a danger that the gentlemen of the press may retaliate , not only on Lord John Russell , but also on some others about him , who countenanced him in his lordly vituperation . Suppose they should engage a bookseller to publish a cheap edition of their collected right honourable writings , prose and poetry . There are booksellers who ( being previously paid ) would undertake it . Such an enterprise must overturn the Ministerial benches , and every boy from Westminster-market to Smithfield-market would be a vociferous hawker of derisory quotations . Walter Savage Landob .
Rights Of Royalty April 28,1850. Sib,—In...
RIGHTS OF ROYALTY April 28 , 1850 . Sib , —In last week ' s Leader , in reply to " A Democratic Friend , " you remark : — " Royalty is a fact not to be overlooked by any complete newspaper . Moreover , the royal classes have their rights and claims , as well as any other class ; and we cannot but assert their equality . " Concerning this first sentence I think there cannot be two opinions ; but to your " moreover " I demur .
May I ask you to state what are these " rights ' of the royal classes ? Only their " rights : " of their claims I am by no means unaware . For my own part , since I believe a royal class , or royalty—any such , royal class or royalty as now exists—to be a wrong , I do not understand how it can have any rights . Unless , indeed , it be what ThomaaiCarlyle might call the right to be put out of the way , and the right to he extirpated , to be extinguished , as speedily as possible . Yours , sir , A Democrat and a Republican .
April 29, 1850. Dear Sib,—Royalty Is, In...
April 29 , 1850 . Dear Sib , —Royalty is , indeed , a fact not to be overlooked by any complete newspaper . That is admitted . But the question of right and equality due to them in their individual capacity cannot be fairly claimed , when it is considered they have usurped , in their sovereign authority , all right and equality from the rest of the community . As well might we contend for the right and equality of Italian brigands or Spanish freebooters , who have equal claim to our sympathy with Kings ; whose rule has been , from time immemorial , a system of prostrated slavery , wretchedness , and misery to the masses . Divested of the kingly office and usurped power and privilege , they are unquestionably entitled to the same rights as other men .
With much admiration and desire for your success , I am sorry to see you inclined to pander to the vices of the age by giving currency to this sickly , mawkish trash about royalty , which will never tend to elevate or benefit mankind . Kingcraft and priestcraft have outlived the age of their existence . Nature abhors them , reason and philosophy disown them , and they only wait the consummated intelligence of an enlightened people to abolish them for ever . Yours sincerely , H . B .
The Gorham Case. May 1,1850. Sib,—Mr. Be...
THE GORHAM CASE . May 1 , 1850 . Sib , —Mr . Beresford Hope has published in the Times of Tuesday last a letter addressed to him by the Bishop ot London , and which is evidently intended as a manifesto for the guidance of the Tractarian clergy . The main purpose of this letter is to supply a * ' locus standi" to that section of the
clergy who are halting between a logical consistency in their opinions and a somewhat suspicious attachment to the secular interests of the Church . The Bishop is clearly anxious to escape , if possible , with a decent reputation from the martyrdom in ^ which the most ordinary consistency seems likely to involve his party . The secular interests of the Church , however , are doubtless far dearer to the rich and powerful nrelate than thev will be found to be to those he
addresses ; and the kind of zeal ho would inspire into the clergy will , no doubt , be in an inverse ratio to their wealth . The possessor of £ 20 , 000 a year
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 4, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04051850/page/12/
-