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Mat 12, I860.] The Leader and Saturday A...
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THE VOLUNTEERS. 7T1HE Volunteers are "a ...
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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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Educational Franchise. What Persons And ...
this would be a sufficient proof of education , and the individual exhibiting his diploma , or evidence of his degree , should at once be entered on the register . Again , the difficulty in cases of foreign degrees or diplomas might be very speedily overcome by treating the matter as one of evidence . The trouble and expense would be on the claimant ; but if he made out his case we most assuredly would not refuse him his vote . A man is not the less an English subject because he has graduated in a German university , and few in the present day will deny the excellence of an education obtained from such a source . A clergyman usually has a vote from other qualifications , but in ease of his not being so placed there can surely be no harm in entering his name on the register , by reason of his intellectual as well as his social position . No one will dispute his educational fitness , and his presence at the poll will serve , if for nothing better , at least as a practical protest against the stupid delusion that " a clergyman has nothing to do with politics ;" an axiom which , so far as it has any meaning at all , means that when a man is especially called to the service of God , he must leave off , in the most important particular , the being serviceable to the men of his own generation ! If a vote be given ex officio to every clergyman of the Established Church , and the production of his letters of Orders be sufficient to ensure
registration for his name , it will be at once evident that the privilege cannot be refused to the recognised dissenting minister . Dissenters themselves would be best able to show how the qualification could be proved ; but certainl y there would be no difficulty of an insurmountable nature in this matter . Physicians and surgeons , apothecaries andgeneral practitioners , barristers , attorneys and solicitors , would claim as certificated members of professions pre-eminently learned ; and we are by no means sure whether pharmaceutical chemists should not be included in the same category . At all events ^ the interests of science require that Fellows of learned societies incorporated by royal charter should be placed on a par with ten-pound or sixpound householders , as the case may be .
Another class of persons who ought to be enfranchised are the professors and cultivators of the fine arts . Royal Academicians , Associates , and Associated Engravers ought to have votes ; and it would , hardly be going too far if it Avere bestowed on all who had publicly exhibited works of art at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy . Music , too , has claims , and might be represcuti-d by the Royal Academy of 'Music . And now we come to a question on which there ought not to be the slightest hesitation . In an educational franchise the educational profession ought not be omitted . It is clear that the National or the British and Foreign schoolmaster must stand higher than the majority of electors , in intellectual qualifications * IX-thc-jaeAKi-Jlgforni . Bill should be so far carried as
considerably to extend the franchise , then this comparative superiority will be still higher than it is now . And we see no objection * whatever to a vote being given to the masters of National and British and Foreign schools , always supposing them to have the requisite certificates . 'Phis will necessarily involve the right of teachers of a higher class ; the masters of all endowed , all proprietory schools and colleges ; and the conferring the franchise on the members of the College of Preceptors will include all the most important of the middle class instructors .
Examined and passed members of the Civil Service would form another class of educated voters ; and so far from , looking on them as disqualified by reason of their being paid by the State , we would give the franchise on the same ground to all officers of the regular army and navy , to all militia , and even to all volunteer officers ; and this simply on the ground of their being men educationally qualified for the franchise . The first comment we would make on this plim is , tlint it would he final , it would never require adjusting . It would add very few new voters to the lists , and this , in immy minds , would
be an espccinl recommendation . Most of those to whom it would apply are already on the register , or at all events have the right to be there . But it would make a very great difference in feeling , and in the value attached to the franchise , whether a voter tendered his suffrngo as a small freeholder or householder , or as a Master of Arts , a member of the College of Physicians , a Royal Academician , or ft Fellow of tho Eoynl Society . It would be' acceptable to all the educated classes ; would render the Ministry which carried , such u measure popular with all literary men , and would give an effective answer to those who say tjiat art , science , and literature have no political value in England .
The next point to bo noticed is , that it is absolutely -free -from objections . It entails no expense on those whom it professes to benefit ; it does not take them from their families or their pursuits ; it does not add to tho expense of elections , either on tho part of voters or candidates ; it does not give a local
representation to a scattered constituency ; it does not reproduce a system fit only for the earliest ages of a constitution ; it occasions no jealousy among various bodies , but tends decidedly to harmonize all . All these objections apply in full force to Lord JojrN Russell ' s scheme of enlarging the educational franchise by giving members to the Scottish and the metropolitan universities . Finally , it seems much preferable to diffuse the educacational element through the whole mass than to separate it into a i & vt exceptional constituencies . The one recognises the intelligence , the other tlie non-intelligence , of the nation at large .
Mat 12, I860.] The Leader And Saturday A...
Mat 12 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . . 441
The Volunteers. 7t1he Volunteers Are "A ...
THE VOLUNTEERS . 7 T 1 HE Volunteers are " a great fact : " some people will say too JL noisy and visible a fact . Certainly , it is rather a nuisance to be constantly stumbling on the crowded pavements against two or three gawky young or pursy old gentlemen masquerading in some new and wondrous costume invented by an ingenious tailor , or the more pristine garb of old Gael , their faces presenting a singular mixture of proud self-satisfaction and conscious
awkwardness , and their rifles presenting great dangers for the shins of Her Majesty ' s peaceable subjects . It is disagreeable , too , for philosophers like ourselves to be disturbed in the highspeculationswhich . must be supposed to engross us as we pass along the streets by the sudden irruption of a corps on its way to parade , heralded and supported by a troop of dirty noisy little boys ; and it is still more disagreeable to have the steady flow of our lucubrations hindered bvthe strains of one of the " military " bands which bid
fair to take the places of the poor organ-grinders as public nuisances . It is not pleasant for those who wish to see in the movement an earnest , sober display of patriotic feeling to meet young fellows strutting about in their new uniforms on Sundays and holidays , like so many turkeyeqeks with their liens around them ; and Volunteer balls and Volunteer bespeaks at theatres seem to be encouragements of an expenditure which some of the members can ill -afford . We hear , moreover , of a-great deal-too much squabbling amongst the officers , and of some very absurd pretensions put ^ forward by them . Indeed , it seems as if most of the officers had only volunteered ' for the purpose of acquiring
the right to a few hows , and the privilege ot putting some : kind , of . handle to their , names . In the first place , quite for-¦ ¦ •' getting . ' tlwit -the . privates-are upon a perfect equality with thenv ' they want to be saluted by . them at all times , as are the officers of the regular army by their men—a most absurd and mischievous pretension . Then they want to be put upon the same footing as officers of the militia , and be styled on all occasions by their respective ranks ; and a large meeting of Lancashire officers has gone into paroxysms of" wrath > because it Was reported that—poor injured innocents!—they could not go to """ Court iii fneiFuTnfOTmsT—Tcri-etidH > ht ; i i > -elo ( iiient-outbui ^ ts-abiiut
the . ingratitude with which their great services and sacrifices had been requited , one would , never suppose that their patriotic devotion had only extended to the purchase of an expensive suit of clothes , and a great many public " fittings on " of . them . These gentlemen quite mistake the object and character of the Volunteer movement . It was not originated that wo might be flooded , as in America , with a shoal of bastard captains and colonels , owing here their rank merely to their influence with some Lord Lieutenant , but that the youth of the country might be exercised in arms , and its safety from invasiou thereby secured .
In the main , these objects have been effected . If the young men who have enrolled themselves arc at present wither too fond of showing their uniforms , the fever will soon pass away . They will think more of displaying their skill at the target than their clothes on the . parade . " ' The mere fops and snobs will give the fourteen days' notice , and retire from iv service which necessitates some labour . So will tho majority of the officers—the poor creatures , who want to be saluted and be-captained , and entertain strange notions of astonishing Her Majesty and the Court beauties by their graceful figures in uniform ; their places will be taken by men who are really interested in the work ; and although the number of volunteers may be diminished , their real strength will be increased . ' Even now it is surprising how much the men
have accomplished . Looking at the twelve hundred young men who were inspected in Hyde Park by the Duke of Cambridge last Saturday , ono could scarcely think that \}} W wcre » lfirt ! l . Y clerks nnd " . warehousemen , ' whose , training hud all ' been donb iii the hours they could-steal from business . Their efficiency proved tho natural adaptability of tho men , and the zeal with which they had devoted themselves to tho work . It is tho same in other parts of the metropolis , and all over the country . ' With all tho foppery and folly which attach themselves as excrescences , to tho movement , it ' has given Englond an army of volunteers , upon which she moy safely rely in the hour of danger . A year ago wo were comparatively defenceless ; an enemy who should navo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051860/page/5/
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