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    <!f>imt Cnmiril

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    [IN THIS DEFABTMENT, AS AM. OPINIONS, HO...

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    There is no learned man but will confess...

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    T II E T EMPERANCE CAUS1 (To the Editor ...

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    Hints To New M.Ivs. My An Kxl'liriencko ...

    party organization . The lories and Whigsaristocracies , and the nominees of aristocracies— - are , as parties , composed necessarily of a mass of mediocrities , and the crowd comes naturally under the protection of two or three " _leaders , " conspicuous among the many for reliableness and Parliamentary aptitude . But the Radicals are all clever or crqtche . tty—and they are , therefore , an army of captains—a squadron of field-marshals—a " clump of speiars , " each spear wielded by an independent knight , which , when the battle begins , is certain to radiate into

    adventurous isolations . Well , what is the avail of a battalion of Brights—a corps of . Co . bdensriding separately at the closed squares of the compact oligarchies , who , though they make the mistalce which the Marquis of Rockingham pointed out , of fighting one another for a monopoly of that which wouid suffice for them both , if they had but the sense to unite , have always the discretion to conjoin when a ri . _skful Radical foray is really meant ? The

    individual distinction is apparently great . A Su * William Molesworth reads his speeches and unfurls his cambrics with great _iclat ; and _archteological members speculate , as he talks Benthamism in italics , whether it isn't a pity Manchester has displaced philosophical Radicalism . The strangers ' gallery , when Mr . Roebuck sits down , says , "Gad , he did give it ' em , didn ' t he ? " Manchester , when crushed into the Free Trade Hall . is convinced that Mr . _^ Bright carries all before him at Westminster , and sees in neat Mr . Milner

    Gibson the personification of a hero of debate . The smoking-room receives Bernal Osborne after a speech with a shout , and declares that that last " mot " will liye for ever . Bristol Berkeley does Thersites to the admiration of a placid ten o ' clock house ; and even the Marquis of Blandford might long to have seen such an orator over nuts with Windham , a looser model Whig of the revolutionary epoch . When Sir Joshua Walmesley delivers his elaborate and gentlemanly protest against the British Constitution , there is not one who does not admire the sad earnestness of the

    man ; and Squires like Lyrrel would confess that this was an improvement upon the vehemencies of Orator Hunt . But , in the long run , cui bono ? Each Knight has his own banner , and cries his own cry ; and the party is sneered at , and the principle does not get on , for the fire is insufficient for all the irons thrust in . Party completeness is sacrificed to personal glory , and the result is that the Radicals have not carried a single point ( for Free-trade was not a Radical test ) in their whole history . Owing their advent to Parliament to tho Whigs , the Radicals have

    lived in the traditional supposition that , crowded as their ranks always have been with abilities , and really heading a popular movement , their only function was to oppose . Radicals opposing and Whigs proposing ; and so leaving to the _RusseJls and Greys the merit and the honour of whatever instalmentof advance was accomplished . Take for instance the records of the "Reform " attempts from the date of the "Charter" to the last " Hume ' s motion , " and candour must admit that whatever the faults of the people , the sorrows of the suffrage question aro mainl y attributable

    to the bad " leading m Parliament . Mr . Cobden , in his letter this week to Sharman Crawford , suggests an organization and a party to get tho ballot . Will Mr . Cobden begin the sacrifices necessary to such an organization , and forego _idiosyncracies—say for live years ? Supposing the Radicals agreed together to attend to but this one question for the whole of next Session ? Probably they would drive Lord Derb y from power , and the Whigs into conviction , in three months ; and in three years after they had got the ballot , they would have attained most other things they now vaguejy aim at .

    The moral of this argument about the Radicals is , that , no member can be a parliamentary personage unless ho combine with his individual impressivenoss the prestige of distinct party power and position . By-and-byo , when tho House of Commons consists of men all equally amenable to tiie rigid public judgment of _tjxtensive constituencies—that is to say , when votes begin to be given , not for classes , but for the nation—the consideration of the _tactiquo essentia ) to the senate may bo of a very different character . But , in these days , it is the ambition of utter ignorance to desire an " independent" seat in tho House of Commons ; and when the loading journal was tolling Mr . Cardwell and Sir

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    James Graham , the other day , that they ought to $ oar above _sectional politics , and aim at _<>&& lofty functions , of parliamentary arbitrament between contending factions , th _^ Jeading journal wag advising precisely . that course which has made the Radicals impotent , and whieh , adopted , _siqce the break-up of 18 _&& by the Peelites ( Wil . keii . es sans the two young _Wilkes ) , has relieved Mr . Disraeli from all envious

    apprehensions of Mr . Gladstone . The hon . gentleman who rises to tell what he individually thinks of a submitted motion is talking mere abstractions . If he be a Mr . Bright , speaking for vast middleclass Manchester , he speaks with a certain effect ; but what those thousands may do if their will is not obeyed , is a vague , distant , apprehension that does not tell ; and meanwhile _Manchester is only one man . What the House of Commons needs

    is not to be told by wise men what is best , or by democratic men what is j ; us t ; but what , the balance of parties being so and so , can be done , acted upon , ' resolved by the impending division . Lord John Russell is listened to , not for his individual opinion , but because the House knows he is a man who has calculated what is possible and practicable under certain circumstances—because it knows there are a hundred or two at his back whom he may not have verbally consulted , but whose prejudices and passions he has accurately estimated , and who are , therefore , certain to follow him into the lobby .

    Nobody supposes , when Mr . Disraeli suggests an argument , that he is hinting at his own convictions . His merit as a IJouse of Commons leader is , that he abnegates all convictions of his own ; his genius , as a tactician , consists in compromising with the convictions of others . Lord John Russell would be of no account , as an individual , on the 11 th of November next , if he wrote to the electors of the city of London that henceforth he would be "independent , " and talk what he believed . Mr . Disraeli would disappear as a politician if he ceased to be the manager of his party . The weight of Sir James Graham in a debate arises , not from a general belief that Sir James Graham is at all as clever a man as the

    newspaper writer the morning before on the same topic , but from a knowledge that circumstances may arise to hand power to Sir James , and that he , anticipating and providing for this , is not speaking lax truisms , but sentences to be practically applied hereafter to the official working of the empire . Here is all the difference between the position of statesmen like Sir James and moralists—say , as Mr . Cobden . Mr . Cobden talks out his beliefs in the sharp , clear , crisp sentences that delight a public meeting ; and in talking these , he trusts to accident for a following—for the response , which response he does not expect in the House itself . Very likely the House reels that the response will be beard somo years hence ; but tho House has as little to do with tho men

    before thc ago as with the men behind the age . The House , as I said in a former paper , admires intensely Mr . Macaulay delivering an essay ; but they admire more , because it is " business , " a Mr . Walpole delivering a plan . There is only ono instance in late history of a statesman standing alone in the House of Commons , and that is in the case of Sir Robert Peel , who did not leave , but was left by his party ; and even his vast individuality nnd personal potency did not enable him to sustain his _prestige and his prominence . With the minor gods , individuality is idiotcy—Sibthorpeism . A mediocrity not speaking by

    party lights is au insufferable spectacle ; and unhappily it is a spectacle distinctive of radicalism , all the Radicals who aro not clever being crotchetty . Our Ewarts and A gJionb ys and Ansteys insist upon their separate commandsand there is the catastrophe of a count-out . The British empire has no time to give itself up to Aglionbys and Ansteys . Tho sheerest vanity alone explains this non-subsidence into a practical party . Certainly there are motions which must bo brought forward , though they may not bo ' carried ; but the selection should depend on the decision of a part y "caucus . " An honest Radical member would consider first how the

    wishes of his constituents could lie practically forwarded ; and his own distinction would be conditional upon the success of tho whole party . Sheffield can have no pride hi seeing Mr . Roebuck abhorred ; bu ( , it could have no objection to being successful in its politics . And even Mr . Roebuck has of late confined his enorgies to critioism-r-he never proposes . Ho has given up _Ijis

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    old Radical rule , derived from Diogenes—of _nrav ing to statues in order to accustom himself tn £ ' refused ! WDe Gentlemen , newly elected by trusting hundr ed * and rehearsing in your studies the great oratS with which you will astound the senate tat these hints to heart ; select your leader , ap point your whipper-in , and then cultivate taciturnitv and cease to have a will . Believe me , that von will not be less than you expected ; and vour cause will become mnch greater . You would not go into court , because you know a certain pro verb , to plead your own suit ; and you ought not to go into the House of Commons to do that for 3 _'our exclusive self , which a Disraeli or a _ljussell or an Osborne , or a Bright , or , ( if Vou aro _»«

    Irishman ) , a Jleogh , or Duffy , ( all men built for leadership , ) may be found , upon conditions to say with effect for you . If you are clever , vour cleverness will tell twice as well if you speak as one of many , for then your cleverness is not an abstraction , but a power ; and if you are only a plain , passable , week-day man , you will , if you are a partisan , find yourself respected , whereas if yx > u are so impertinent as to come forward as an individuality , you wi _£ l be despised , and , if it ' s late , hooted into an ignominy your wife will never forget , if you do . Let the new _Radicals , then .

    ( as other polities take care oi themselves ) ascertain , before November , if Radicalism he incapable of an _oreanization . Some of the new men are , is is _saidT investigating this curious philosophical point ; and a correspondence is reputed to be going on between advanced Englishmen and progressing Irishmen , which may lead to the creation

    of a powerful body in Parliament pledged to do popular work . The Manchester banquet , announced for the penultimate week in October , may mean a Conference . The hero of the feast will be he who has most crotchets to give up , and let us anticipate a strife in denudition between Mr . Hume and Mr . Cobden ! The apple to him -who is _Ifinst _ladon .

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    [In This Defabtment, As Am. Opinions, Ho...

    [ IN THIS DEFABTMENT , AS AM . OPINIONS , HOWBVBB KXTRBMH AUK AHOWpD AN _KXPEESSION , THB KDITOB _NBCESSABIfclf nOLDB _HIMHBLtt BE 8 FONBIDI . K BOB NOKH . ]

    There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...

    There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , hia senses awakened . and nis judgment sharpened , li , then , it be profitable for him Lo read , why should it not , at least , he tolerable for his adversary to write . _—Miivton .

    T Ii E T Emperance Caus1 (To The Editor ...

    T II E T EMPERANCE CAUS 1 ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Edinburgh , August 19 , 1852 . Sib , —In your paper of the 14 th instant , I have jiwt rend a very able article on " Tho dangers of the ' 1 emperanco cause , " hy " Ion ; " and while acknowled ging the ability of tho writer , I most distinctly ( li . ' _f fx 0 , . him in tiio opinion which lie clearly nnd exp licitly _«< _lvociites . I was not prepared to seo such _sentiment enunciated iu what may justly he . called the " Journal of Progress . " .. i ... » j i _* . mi :., .. / M > niurlltlVeIV " Jon" vory truly says , " Theory is comparatively useless unless practice applies it to life . " » his 1 H truism acknowledged hy all , although rarely acted up <>» hy any . Hut how such a tvut h can he app lied to total abstinence , or moderation either , is more than M * J make out . It is _wjrtiuiily quite true that total _abstinenco lias Buffered lpuch from designing false _h"" _^* nnd ignorant real friends : this , however , _caujiot attec , the principle in tho slightest degree in the eyes ol _rigu thinking men ; and because such has unfort unutely l > _w tho _cuso , it certainly does not become thoso who _«* themselves " reformers , " " Ion" does , to use eiUio _knaverioH or _foflies as arguments against u l 11 ' 111 _^ which , oven its nlost _invptcruto _cricmlCB cannot but ac-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 4, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04091852/page/16/