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[ ARISTOCRACY l&fc JHI LEAPEI, Satobpat,...
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REVOLUTION BY THE ARISTOCRACY. How the 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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Examples To England. With All Our Improv...
tipm and as a result , he says : — " I return to this country with a stronger conviction rthan I had even before I left , on one or two points . In the first p lace , I have a stronger faith in the good sense and in the powers for self-government of my fellow-countrymen . " That is , he , a leading member , of the governing class , has learned a stronger confidence in the governed than he had before lie knew them ; and , what is quite as important , they have learned a stronger confidence in him . Before he went , we sent out ;
soldiers to keep down the Canadians ; and when he comes away they send back money , « nd assurances , and an offer of men to put down our enemy . Is it possible to relate a more striking history of happy government than / is conveyed in those few words ? Can any theory of divine right , of government by the " best , or of democracy , give us a more complete result ? The same elements of discord that exist in the American republic , and the same ele- i i ; l > l .
ments of rebellion that formerly existed in Canada or in the Cape , are dormant amongst ourselves . They are temporarily suspended by that which alone unites a free people . " ' There is only one way , " says Lord Elgin , " in a republic , in which you can get absolute unity of sentiment , and that is effecting hostilities against a foreign country . A successful General unites the suffrages of the whole of the patriotic people . " Probably if we had a ~ successful General now , internal 1 t I . , j r - j f 1
questions would be suspended ; but they would not be superseded . They would not have arrived at a settlement , as they have in Canada , or the Cape and Australia ; and the first reason is , because the different classes which are brought together in the colonies , which know : each other personally , which learn to confide in each other , to trust in each other , to promote each other ' s material interests , to sympathise in each other ' s feelings , and aid in each other ' s elevation of r i i j 3 , [ i L - f
feeling , and even of station , are still divided in this country . Instead of that kind of union which we observe in the colonies , we have all the different classes separated from each other , and -intent either upon pulling each other , or keeping each other , down . The aristocracy would keep down the other two ; the middle class would pull down the aristocrac 3 , but would keep down the democracy , for the fear of factory burnings and inconvenient votes : and the " lower orders " I :
would pull down the two above them . The great cause of this hostile feeling is want of personal knowledge , and particularly between the two extremes . If our gentlemen mingled with our working-classes , they would find among those humbler orders exactly the same feelings , that move their own bosoms ; and instead of fear and dislike , they would , as Lord Elgin has found in Canada , learn nothing but respect , affection , and sympathy . Vice versd , when working-men acquire a '
personal knowledge of gentlemen—supposing the gentlemen are fair types of their orderinvariably those working-men become greatly conciliated towards the gentlemen , and even towards the political objects for which gentlemen move . And why ? Because the same feelings , instincts , and powers , which reside in the boat of tho working-people , exist also in the gentleman , only cultivated to a better
utterance , arid therefore enlarged to a stronger and more extensive influence . Tho substance , the stuff of humanity ^ is exactly the same in both , cases . You have" only to bring the two classes together to make th ' cm awa ' ro of this , and to make them feel that each possesses an' influence over tho other . Such things happen in colonies ; and therefore our first moral from Lord Elgin ' s speech is , that colonies , where public affairs are more
rough and ready , where the governors may know the governed , are better schools for public men than their own country is , ^ Lord Elgin wants to ; show how far the school he has been studying in , and- the discipline to which he has been subjected , are likely to make him a proper and useful servant amongst us . Time will show this . His speech to the inhabitants of Dunfermline goes far to make us believe that he will be useful , because he understands . But we want something more in this country than mere understanding and government by force of reason . In some continental states the whole of the people are g overned from one centre ; the Crown becomes " the fountain of all honour , " and the aristocracy is endowed with great power . Its influence * carries its ramifications into the body of the people throughout the empire ; and thus , although popular feeling is " kept down , " there is a certain national unity . The nation exists as dne , although the Commonwea lth is in a feeble state . In the American . Republic the Commonwealth exists in its fullest force . The multitude is supreme , the sovereign power is literally divided between thirty 01 forty States . There is no unity , though there may be coincidence of feeling . Thig perhaps contributes , as a somewhat similai influence contributes amongst ourselves , tc enfeeble national feelings , and to set up inferior feelings . Local interests are greatei than imperial . Ambition to take a high rank in statemanship is destroyed by the necessity of trucklingtoTbciir connexions . " Energy , denied that path towards distinction , turns to th e main chance in trade , to individual wealth or satiates itself by ruling a united multitude—for the hour . In America the township is supreme , in Europe the capital ; in America the Commonwealth is strong , but threatened with the decay - of nationality . which would separate it into feeble communities , such as we saw in the earlier Roman Empire , and in Italy . In Europe the Commonwealth is almost extinguished ; the national feeling is gradually absorbed by the organised administration ; which , forgetting its origin . andits safety , becomes an incorporation , regardSsT ^^ iratiolial ^ lshreigllsruel to its subjects , hated , intolerable , provocative of revolution . In our own country we may be said to unite the two states of Europe and America , but not to combine them . We have governing classes , profiting by the government , and ignoring the governed ; and we have a commonwealth gradually drawing local power to itself , hating aristocracy , but not cultivating any national unity for the subject . We are at once threatened with both kinds of extinction—a revolution against the oppressing class—a dissolution of national unit y througli sheer national indifference . In all classes , we conceive , the want is the same : it is a want peculiar to the polity of modern daysthe want of that personal feeling which is after all the true national nexus between all parts of society . On the Continent military feeling overrules national feeling ; in America local feeling has the same mortal effect . With us , bureaucracy at top , and local or private interests at bottom , have split up tho country into cliques and connexions . Perhaps we must wait for some great calamity to restore , in each member of the entire community , a common sympathy and personal feeling for his countrymen and his country ; but if tho real nature of this particular evil were rightly understood , and if tho spirit of patriotism and chivalry bo not dead amongst us , means might be found for reviving the life of tho nation . Wo believe that it only wants a spark to bo lighted in the right [) lace .
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Revolution By The Aristocracy. How The T...
REVOLUTION BY THE . How the times alter ! In 1848 the Government feared a revolution—a petty , cabalistic , imaginary revolution of a few artisans . In 1855 the Government itself makes half-adozen revolutions—radical , subversive , universal . On the 10 th of April , seven yeara ago , Chelsea Pensioners and special con - stables rushed to the rescue of the Constitution . In January 1855 , the Cabinet explodes—the Horse Guards is blown up , and the Aristocracy are the insurgents ! ] STo Reform Bui , no Charter , no Repeal of the Corn Laws ever threatened , ever could or
would create half the revolution which the Aberdeen Ministry have produced in England . The Lancaster Battery has never pounded Sebastopol as the late Cabinet has pounded our British Institutions . In one week we have had an explosion of all the political orthodoxies together . Whig , Tory , and that inexplicable mixture called " Coalition" politics have submerged amid the general thanksgiving . When heretofore Ministers have been abolished , they have plunged at their successors ! In this instance , one
especially , Raxph Osborne , gave a parting kick at the system he had served . Men feel relief that the Whigs are gone for a week at least ; and certainly no man will even acquiesce in a Tory substitute . They who cheered as a party triumph the disasters of the noble wreck of the Crimean Army are as heartless as they are incompetent . There is no error of aristocratic administration by . precedent , patronage , and family exclusivism , which they have not always supported . The system -which has now ' broken down they have ever cherished . It is a motto of the Leader that
they who resist progress , when progress is the law of all things around , stimulate violent revolution , and no profession of Conservatism , can disguise the destructiveness of routine . What has been so long foretold and so furiously denied , has happened . Your aristocratic Conservative has proved the incendiary of the State . It begins to be perceived that the solid and progressive element in the nation , its practical business capacity , is the true safeguard of the State , and is the
only element-towhieh-future statesmen may look for the maintenance of our renown . Wow there is opportunity for the party of the unrepresented to assert itself in Parliament and in the nation . Say what you will of the democratic sentiment of the populace , it is evident John Bull loves his lords—but loi'ds will find that he loves beating his enemy more . Sturdy , incommunicative , and
selfwilled as John Bull is , he will yet doff his hat to the aristocracy—but they will find that John Bull must thrash his assailant ; he is patient , he is gefierous , he will endure a great deal , and he will pay anything—but he must knock his man down if he is challenged . If the system at the Horse Guards will not do ib , he will abolish the system . If Coalition Cabinets cannot do it—he will smash
Coalition Cabinets . If the war wants administrative ability , and the aristocracy have not that ability , they must make way for those who have . John Bull has sent out his navvies , and lie will send out his dustmen if need bo . Tho soul of the nation is not stufl ' od with cotton—tho brain of the nation is not muddy with precedents—its eye is clear , its pulso lias the throb of a cannon yet . There is a national spirit—and such as will not bo appeased by the timid and the incompetent , and such aa has not been invoked in the same way nor to tho same purpose before .
During tho long interval of peace no searching opportunity has occurred of comparing the vitality of class with class . Suddenly , however , a strife of nations has occurred , and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10021855/page/12/
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