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    admission of thefar too to commit himsel...

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    SATURDAY, MARCH 5, - 1859.

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    There is nothing- so<revolutionary, beca...

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    feeling. In the political condition of t...

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  • 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.

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    Admission Of Thefar Too To Commit Himsel...

    ^ ¦ ¦ *» . March 5 . 1859-1 THE LEADER . 305 " ^ ¦ __ J— : _ ^ ^ —— ^ i ^ W ^ — i ^**^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ¦ — ' — ' " "" ' " " '" ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ - - ' ^^^^^^^^—^^^ O ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ M ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ _ _ >_^^^^^™ " ¦ ' ¦ ' ¦

    Ad01706

    PRICES OF " THE IiEADER . " Unstamped . FivEPENOE . Stamped / Sixpence . . Quarterly , unstamped - - SO o o Do ., stamped - - - 0 b JJ Yearly ( prepaid ) , stamped - 16 0 ONE GUINEA > £ R VEAR-, UNSTAMPED , PREPAID . NOTICES TO GORRiSSPpNDEJrTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated bv the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his grood faith . Tt is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communica-We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . OFFICE , NO . 18 , CATHERINE-STREET , STRAND , W . C ., The commodious premises formerly occupied by the Morning Herald .

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    Saturday, March 5, - 1859.

    SATURDAY , MARCH 5 , - 1859 .

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    There Is Nothing- So<Revolutionary, Beca...

    There is nothing- so < revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the straia to keep- things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . — ¦ T > ii , Aiinold .

    Feeling. In The Political Condition Of T...

    feeling . In the political condition of the outer millions , whom neither of the great aristocratic parties in the State are prepared to admit within the palisades of privilege , the p assing or the rejection of the bill can make no difference . The parliamentary opponents of the Government may truly complain that neither the savings-bank franchise , pr that which it is proposed to confer on weekly tenants of 20 / . a year , alters appreciably the relative position of the wealthy , and the working olass ; but the sarcastic tu quoque of Mr . JDisraoU is unanswerable , when he asks the Whigs , what they have ever done in that direction ? Let

    • * w THE . ^ EW REFORM BILL . Although a week has not elapsed since the public have been put in possession of the Ministerial project of Reform , considerable way seems to ^ already made towards the formation of opinion regarding it . We should rather say , perhaps , towards the formation of opinions , for it can serve no purpose to overlook the indisputtible fact that , for the same reasons ,, opposite parties will look upon the measure with different eyes , while upon the great bulk of the community it is hardly to be expected that it will produce any very serious impression at all . To talk about the general feeling on the subject would be idle . There is no general

    us be candid , however , in this matter , and own frankly that , constituted as Parliament now is , it ia really not in the power of either party in oflice to * carry any great or substantial measure of Reform , in the absence of great and substantial pressure from without . The selfinterest of those who monopolise political power , is too intelligent and too . strong . The Government of the greatest empire in the world is not a thing to bo given up , or even shared , in

    obedience to any sentiment of mere political justice . Reasoning and argument , Parliamentary eloquence and statistical logic , ar < o all very well in their way ; they havo accomplished many minor reforms , and will , no doubt , obtain for us a good many more ; but they will never by themselves induce the oligai'chy of wealth and rank , who live by administering the affairs of the United Kingdom and its dependencies , to forego' any material portion of so pleasant' and profitable n business . We all know that oleotoral reform , in the sense Mr , Roebuck andi Mr . Bright dosho it , implies a

    revision of class accounts , and the admission of the hard-handed and hard-headed industry of the nation into partnership with the profits as well as the losses of empire $ and some day or other , when the excluded many make up their minds to insist upon being admitted , admitted they will be . It need not , and , we trust , it will not be by what Mr . Henley has thought fit to call " an ugly rush . " But it is useless to attempt to conceal from ourselves or others that , in the sense we have been speaking of , Parliamentary Reform can never become a practical question until the people themselves energetically and systematically take , , . » ^ » . A . ^

    it in hand . We have had Whig biddings , Coalition biddings , and now we . have Tory biddings on the subject ; but all of them have been accompanied with the express or implied condition that they must not be understood as attempts to settle the question . They are rival plans for cutting down the thorn hedges , easing the swing-gates , darning the broken bye-roads here and there , widening some of the stiles , and erecting a moderate-sized bridge or two ; but none of them has even professed to create for the public new rights of way , to open the preserves or the enclosures for the benefit of the neighbourhood , or in

    any way to modify permanently the ownership and control of the estate . When taken to task on this head , successive Ministers always alleged that where there was neither general excitement nor expectation on the subject , they had no power , even if they had the will , to accomplish any very material change . All the best men in the country , and even in Parliament itself , were convinced of the expediency of Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the corn-laws long before either of them had a chance of being carried . The danger of a civil war in Ireland was necessary to obtain the one , and the terror of famine was the only motive by which Sir Robert Peel could induce Pai-liamcnt to concede the other .. Most of us remember , in like manner , how the Reform Bill of 1832- ^ short as it has fallen

    of what was required— -was exacted from a reluctant court and aristocracy . The people were then thoroughly wound up to the point of insisting on what was at first refused ; and if they were half as resolved or energetic to-morrow , Ministers , whether Whig or Tory , would instantly raise their biddings for popularity—If not to the full point required , at least to something greatly in' advance of anything we have lately seen . But , until that day comes ,, it is useless to expect either of the hereditary parties who , from father to son , and from year to year , play against each other fol the possession of power , to volunteer offers of concession which , amid apathy out of doors , and intense selfishness within , could have only one certain and summary result ; namely , the eviction of their authors from office .

    Restricting our inquiries , therefore , to the smaller aspect of the question , let us see how far the Dei-byite proposals of Reform are likely to affect the condition or prospects of those sections of the community that seem to take an interest in their success or failure . And first of all , with regard to the Conservatives as a party . Ever since , ; thcir accession to office last ' -year , the opponents of ministers have counted confidently , that if even the Cabinet should , agree to a measure of Reform , its production would infallibly cause the break up of their party . And in a certain literal signification the prophecy has so far come true ,

    inasmuch as two of the Onbinet colleagues of Lord Derby have actually seceded , rather than share the responsibility of his extremely moderate bill . But , without any disparagement or the ability of Mr . Henlgy , or the amiability of Mr . Walpole , we may confidently say that the retirement or neither , or both , can materially weaken the stability of the administration . Mr . WuJpole ' s manner , aa deputy leader of the House , was never peculiarly felicitous . His earnest timidity and gloomy good , humour did not rally support when needed , or ward off' attack when threatened . As a legislator , his exploits

    were peculiarly ill-fated , IIis suggestion of a Militia Franchise lias never been forgotten ; hin portinaoious and temporarily-successful advocacy of ) ayinents to votorH for coining up to the poll has been already actually branded with censure by one of the clauses in the new Reform Bill , undoing the misohief ho did last year ; ami hit * latest efTbrfc at statute-waking on tho Church Rate question is regarded on all hands as so unsotisp factory , ' that Government have boon strongly advised to withdraw the bill . As ibr the right honourable member for Oxfordshire , he has been

    far too knowing to commit himself to anything contestible during the twelve months he has filled the office of President of the Board of Trade . His habitual astuteness , enables him to see further and more clearly than others the eventual consequences that may flow from even the qualified changes now proposed in the electoral system ; and af ter the speech lie made oh Tuesday night , wherein he did not . apparently try to mince matters , there were flutter-ings of hope at Cambridge House that the right honourable seceders might head a mutiny at the Carltph . But the unanimity with which the two hundred . gentlemen met Lord Derby at . -. - . H * ¦ _ . '' A . 4 K '**» .. . , « ' A

    DowTung-rstreet , and the enthusiasm with which they cheered his acceptance of battle on the main points of the bill , convince us that the premier understands his men , and what they are up to , better than his right honourable obstacles , who have relieved him of their presence . In a word , the Tory Reform . Bill will not break up the Tory party ; on the contrary , it is very likely to keep them , together . After giving up Jewish Disabilities , Property Qualifications , Occasional Services , the compulsory principle of Church Rates , Imprisonment for Debt , and we know , not what beside ,

    sometliing definite was really wanting to rally round , and battle for ; and this , the project , propounded by Mr . Disraeli on Monday last , is well * calculated to afford . The conferring the suffrage on all professional men in right of their callings , the reprieve given to nomination boroughs , and the proposal to adopt a system of voting papers in counties , along with multiplied polling places ^—but , above all , the resolution to make a stand on 101 . occupancy , for the sake of establishing a uniform franchise in county and towrv—all this cominendg the bill to the support of the Conservative ' party .

    The Whigs , on the other hand , naturally recur to their own biddings in 1852 and 1854 . They demur altogether to the principle of uniformity now for the first time sought to be established , but on what ground , save that it is proposed by their opponents , does not very distinctly appear . They are fairly entitled to argiie , indeed , that a . 5 T . occupation franchise in towns , and the transfer of fifty or sixty seats from obscure or decayed villages to populous counties and . towns , was a more democratic offer than that made by Lord Derby . The present occupants of the Treasury Bench

    remember , however , with what little enthusiasm the bill of 18 £ 2 was received , and persuade themselves no doubt that they need not go so far , and yet fare no \ vorsc . There is among Conservatives a fixed belief that the 10 ? . constituencies in towns do not at heiu-t desire any further expansion of the suffrage , and that if a dissolution , ( as we think it will , ) become necessary upon the bill , the boroughs they liave respited , and the constituencies whoso electoral limits they have sought to preserve , will sliow their gratitude by returning Government men next time . In this calculation we confess

    we bel ieve -them to be to some extent in error . Men do not act at a general election precisely as they talk when nothing particular is astir , and the squire or his lawyer takes it into his head to have a talk with him . If every one could act and vote individually , unswayed by sympathy , conference or example , a good many 10 / . householders would probably be found voting for the continuance of their present electoral monopoly . But men do not live by calculation alone , and if anything like a counter project be put forward . in a tangible , practical shape by the Whigs , the Tories will have to amend their present offer , or prepare to fight at considerable disadvantage . As yet , they insist that theirs is tho only proposition which there is the slightest chance of carrying . Confessedly , it would add about half-a-niillion voters to the constituencies of

    Enuhind and Wales , and jf tho forfeited once belonging to Sudbury and St . Alban ' u bo given , as they ought to bo , to metropolitan or other populous towns , there would , added to those named in the bill , bo an addition of nineteen real representatives to the Houso of Commons , instead of nineteen sliam or corrupt ones . Should tho Houso resolve to go into coinnn ' ttoo on tho bill , thoro is one amendment whiob . might usefully bo made , and which , without infringing the arbitrary limit laid down as tho basis 5 f tho occupation , franchise , would add considerably to tho nmnbor of voters in towns . Wo allude to the case of lodgers , who , if they pay IQli a year in woekly or monthly sums , ought to bo permitted to share in the privileges of electors . Eight shillings a week is , in reality , a much higher

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 5, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05031859/page/17/