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^Zp Ott; that which been principal busi-...
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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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^Zp Ott; That Which Been Principal Busi-...
^ Zp Ott ; that which been principal busi-^ SB ; p £ t | be session , the war measures actually ^ CQJ # p ieied have , we conceive , constituted the "" jrffck smallest part of the results . We have " devoteji through our Commons something J J ^ e 0 t OOOl , to the war in the form of Bpublfi income-tax , and taxes on tea , coffee , f « iW , & c . ; a loan of 16 , 000 , 000 * . and gjXfaOOOl . in Exchequer Bills or Bonds , ^ be sides extras . We have screwed the
Exeeu-* Jaye , up to its duty where it was failing . We Jbjtve . had the Sebastopol Inquiry ; have " ^ earned the disorganised state of the army , jiave compelled a thorough improvement of Jtyo hospitals ; have secured a new organisat ion pf tho war department with branches for supplying the army with clothing , food , and . fltoer nffcterials , punctually and effectually . , W o have at last got our army and its managing ^ departments in a condition to go on with the
jjbusiness of war according to rule , and eredit-. fjjh ly . . But what does it import us to survey Juxese items of the account with which we have been familiarised week by week , wheu piieh , results are small in comparison to the ; great lesson that the session has afforded upon much larger subjects ? During the ( Session the Government has been schooled ! ia a manner that will make it an example for
JBucceediDg Governments ; the House of ^ CTommons itself haa undergone lessons which ioust he useful to its successors ; aud the Ration has learned something about its rulers £ nd itself which it will turn to account . We ^ Io no t say this with reference to any of the . set Wessons that individuals have attempted , pr , in reference to the organised agitations
, which the session has produced , and which liaye not been rendered successful , j ^ ltr . Roe-. buck , indeed , succeeded in upsetting Lord Abbboeek ' s administration , and making Xord Palmjsbston accept the Sebastopol enquiry , which some of his Aberdeen colleagues supposed him to resist . Mr . Layard and Mr . Lindsay have lectured Government
on the glaring mismanagement in the East ; J ^ ord Lyndhurst lms exposed the misdoings Jof * Prussia , and hinted at the claims of * Potand . Lord jVl . be majile lias usefully kept attention fixed upon tlie treacherous neutrality which enabled Prussia to profit by jLer illicit transit trade . Sir Edward Lytton proposed n general resolution on the subject fldtytydmiuistrative Reform , which was not resisted by Government , and-was carried . But all these it is that
^ ql cases quite evident the ££$ 4 , of the individual for the particular even-! #£ in Parliament had far less ofleet in influencing the conduct of tho Government , mid Dinging about tangible results , than the tapad necessities of tho case and that potent Jtpitjr which wo call public opinion . The war , id fact , has roused tht 3 whole country for the ffic ^ t time- since tho free-trade array ; or rather , JEfl miglit say , since the Reform Bill ; or yet J 90 TQ properly , perhaps , since the last war , ^ something ' like ft positive unity of fooling . rf & nd , both Government and Parliament , tho
t ^ Q jjtnmons having been elected while public WJUuion was asleep , have been taught to Hf ^ yf that t hey must obey . Tho o ifect has frfr ftW ** itself in great things and in trifles . Kwt year a sleepy Commons ponnittcd a few <^^ c . tie pietists to force a practical impediment bjpjop'tho weekly holiday oft lie humbler classes . ^ Jji | a ' year tho eamo House of Commons ^ Been the necessity of altering its mistake fad . pernutting tho people to have houseroom ( ua' auatenance on their weekly excursions .
Tefip , 'deference to public opinion ia not less Warfted in that instance than it ia in the gVftlty with which at laat Government and f W $ ian \ ent have submitted to the necessity ol CWT ^ infj on tho war with a single mind , and getting rid of every pedantic , prejudiced , or dishonest obstruction that clung to them .
Never was political tutelage more distinctly exhibited than in the training of the Government—its training under adversity . Never was the revived strength of public opinion more gloriously shown in this country . Let us recite the story of the Cabinet , its extinction , its purification , and its regeneration . Lord Aberdeen ' s Cabinet was constructed for the single purpose of redeeming the Executive , which — utterly discredited by the incapacity of the Russell
Government—had descended into the keeping of a cast-off Stanley , a knight-errant Disraeli , and a Quarter Sessions chorus of Ministers . They were kept together by idolatrous worship for the old heathen god of Parliamentary Toryism — a worship which supplied the place of community of feeling , completely destroyed in the Liberal party ; and thus the Tories held the Government simply because the public men really representing the country could not act together , to hold it for themselves . There seemed almost
a chance that the British consfcitutionhad come to an end , incapable of producing that Executive which maintains our organism by fulfilling the idea of monarchical Government through responsible Ministers . It was Lord Aberdeen ' s function to use his personal influence in order to bring the men together , and he did it . When he had formed a Government , and still held it for that single purpose , the war began , and , a Peace man , he had a war upon his hands . His known predilections , a vague tradition that unjustly confounded him with Austrian associations in the former
war , and a rumour that there were some traitors in the Cabinet , raised public suspicion against the Aberdeen" Ministry ; and here we see , iu its first blind effects , tlie consequences of reawakened public opinion . It became impossible * for "the Aberdeen Cabinet to stand against tEe popular suspicion ,
and Lord Aberdeen , a conscientious though reluctant upholder of the war , the Duke of Newcastle , an earnest and active employer of the warlike instruments impaired by peace , resigned , in order that the efficiency of the Executive might not be damaged by the appearance of disunion in it . For some reason or other the Aberdeen Cabinet had
resolved to resist Mr . . Roebuck s motion tor inquiry , and afterwards we had the real reason why the Cabinet so resolved , though Aberdeen might well have undergone investigation , and Newcastle could only have been advantaged by it . Gladstone and his immediate friends desired to prevent inquiry , because they wished to avoid any pledge to continue the war . They agreed by anticipation to that " equipoise" trick which afterwards entrapped Lord John Uussell . They were even then working within the Cabinet for the equipoise ; but Eoebuck ,
who happened to coincide with public opinion for the day , persevered ; public opinion was too strong for the Government ; aud here came the second grand tribute of office to the nation : Palmerston concurred , and in agreeing to tho inquiry , agreed also to make common cause with the people , and throw open the conduct of the war . For him to join the nation was for Gladstone to separate from Palmehston ; and the four statesmen , whom it is nn injustice to the memory of a really groat man ' to call Peelitoa , -were eliminated from tho Cabinet . Ever since , month
after mouth , with increasing pertinacity , Gladstone has endeavoured to ombarrasa the country in the war—to magnify our " reverses "—hie own phrase- ; to exult our enemies ; to assist combinations against us ; to impair our credit in the money market .-all in vain , except , aa distinctly proving the spirit that permanently animates the man who remained lurking * in tho Cabinet after
honest Aberdeen had left it , and patriotic Newcastle had been driven out . The country then asked , "Save we exhausted the list of traitors ? Is there no other equivocator in the Cabinet ? " There was , we believe , no other traitor ; but there wa 3 something -which is sometimes worse . Thero was a person , who had been in the pursuit of one idea . Great men fall , and because he had fallen , Lord John Russeli . was convinced that he was a great man . He wa 3 young enough to rehabilitate himself ; and , like a knight of old , he entered upon a quest . St . John of Bedford set out in quest of Russell ' s lost greatness . The quest led him , far wandering , into Lord Aberdeen ' s Cabinet ; into the Presidency of the Council ; into a seat without office ; into the back seat out of the Cabinet ; into the Plenlpotentiaryship at Vienna ; into the Colonial Office ; and back out of the Cabinet to uphold the " equipoise" plan . Anywhere , so that poor Lord John could make the public remember him , and could seem to have the settling of it all . This was not
treachery of malice prepense , but it was equivocating and trifling with public interests . Sir Edward Lytton became tho instrument for declaring the public conclusion , that while a man who had so "behaved remained in office , the country could not trust the Cabinet . " Whether the mouth be that of Eoebuck , LrrioN , LArAED , Lyndhurst , Moleswoetit , Pakixgton , or Palmebston , whenever a man stands up ia Parliament and declares that tlie Government
of the present day , without reference to party , must , in -word , act , and person , lead on the war energetically and unequivocally , tho speaker declares the manifest will of the country , and nothing can stand against hirr .. Sir Edward Lytton gave notice of his metion , and Lord John Russell lefc the Cabinet . On the other hand , any man who endeavours to embarrass tlie Government by
retrospective motions based on Mr . Roebuck ' s committee , as Mr . Layabd did , — by impromptu combinations , as in the attempt to stop the Turkish loan , —by teasing for papers , as Mr . Laixg did , without a definite object , —that man is powerless against the Government , because he is not furthering the will of the people . Sir Edward Lytton or Mr . Eoebuck could drive from the Cabinet men who are not with the country ; but
when Mr . Laing or Mr . Gladstone attempts to bar the march of the war , the Ministers trample over him like soldiers marching down a flock of geese . By the same means which has invested the ' Government with absolute power when it proceeds in a certain direction , the public has also discovered its power , and it is likely to develop a long-forgotten reliah for that enjoyment . A season of war has recalled some of the most stirring emotions of our nature .
The death of our countrymen , and tho . hope of victory for our flag , have excited the feeling of living patriotism . Tho coercion of the-Government by the public when the Government haa thwarted us , the sharing of imperial power when the Government has gone with us , have made us know again the pleasures of power . " We have upheld a feeble nation—Turkey ; we have defied that state which wan in tin
supposed to be the most powerful ; world — Russia ; we have bargained with Austria and Prussia ; we * hnvo disposed of the fnto of peoples on a cjrent sonic ; ana still larger principles remained to bo influenced by our actions as a nation . Hurt jn our very flesh by tho treacheries and cruelties ot Russia , we have once more learned what it is to hate our foe ; ami in haling our foe , we have once more a renewed consciousness ot a ieeling which we had almost forgotten—tho lovo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 11, 1855, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11081855/page/9/
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