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498 * THE L E A DEB. ,[Ho. 473, April 1 ...
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the electors must make this belief a pri...
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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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James Of Mapvylebone. What Shall Be Done...
campaign . The joy . at the '' return of the prodidigal" was nothing to the joy of the electors of Marylebone over the patriot "who had been lost , and now was found . The banquet was prepared , tlie guests were assembled , the fatted calf was killed with a vengeance ^—and , to complete the illusion , the character of the prodigal ' s elder brother was filled to pei'fection by Sir Benjamin
Hall . The Hall of Freemason's Tavern has witnessed many strsmge sig hts ere now ; but we doubt there ever having been gathered within those walls a more curious or unaccountable assemblage than met there this week to celebrate the great national triumph of Mr . Edwin " James' return for the borough of Marylebone . Great was the gathering , and goodly was the company . Our ruling classes were represented by tlie ex-President of the Board of Works , the proudest of [ Radicals—the most intolerant of Liberals . The
The whole scene is ludicrous enough , but the reflections that arise from it ai-e not equally ludicrous . We are not given to prognosticate evil , but yet we can scarcely refrain from fear for the future , when we find . what sort of man one of th largest of our London constituencies selects as its chosen representative . We can understand , too clearly , the state of feeling m America which keeps educated men from taking part in politics , because they are too proud to put themselves into rivalry with political adventurers ; and which precludes the respectable classes from any share in tlie elections , because they shrink from the dictation of a mob . What with Barnum lectures and " Lola Montez" disquisitions , and patriotic displays in behalf of Edwin James , humbug is decidedly in the ascendant . Cant reigns with James at Marylebone . - ¦ •¦
peerage was present— -in the spirit , if not in the flesh—fbr was tliere not there Shelley , the dandy democrat—the unsuccessful claimant of an extinct barony ? Commercial greatness and civic respectability were not wanting in the person of the ex-Lord Mayor , Sir James Duke , anxious , if it might be , to refresh his somewhat tainted popularity with a few reflected rays from the halo of James ' s glory . Who more fitting than Mr . Sleigh to conifer , by his presence , on the member for Marylebone the sanction of that profession -which they both alike adorn . The army was personified by
Colonel Dickson , the hero-martyr of military misrule and aristocratic jealousy . If there was ; neither bishop nor dean present to give the blessing of the Church's influence , there was something better than a bishop , something hig her than a dean . There was the churchwarden of St . Pancras parish . Indeed , the great power of the day—the vestry and pothouse interest— -was there in _ its glory . There was a perfect plethora of patriotic publicans . The names of Clement George and Mdrthnore Timpson , and TP . M . Hudson , may be unknown to public fame ; but these " mute , inglorious Hampdens" wield and direct the destiny of Marylebone . There were not wanting also , in the galleries , female admirers of Mr . James to grace and refine the scene . We looked in vain ,
however , for one illustrious guest . Where was that mysterious , ] iotcntatc of whom we have heard so much of late from the mouths of our metropolitan and Manchester patriots—the hard-headed , frugal , intellectual , and noble-minded mechanic ? Echo answers , Where ? Oh ! Edwin James , " Friend of the Working Man ? " Tell us why no seat was left for him at the banquet of his patron . Were your utterances of esteem and respect for the sons of labour words , and nothing but words ? Can it be that the working classes are like the toothpicks , only brought in when the cloth 13 removed ? Alas ! in the words of . a recent harangue <—the British workman was more conspicuous by his absence than his presence .
The oratory was worthy of the occasion . The great toast of the evening was proposed , by a Mr . Watson , who called upon his hearers to rally round the " eloquent defender of the oppressed . " If th , e speaker could have added , the unpaid advocate of justice , the sentiment would have been more intelligible . Why the gratitude of the country should bo due to a lawyer , because , having received a good fee , he defended with success an indifferent client , is one of those mysteries' which only the intellect " of a Marylebone vestryman can fathom . The doctor who cures a curate is as much or as little entitled to public gratitude as the physician who preserves a bishop ' s life . Both do ( he work well that they are paid to do . The grout James himself was hardly equal J o
the solemnity . A demagogue in Parliament is a very difl ' ercnt porsonago to a demagogue on the hustings—and the hopes of office " make cowards ! of us all . " So the " saviour of the exile" was taima and dull , and only gave vent to the expression , that in all tilings ho was for the greatest happiness of the greatest number—the same remark , by the way , that the schoolboys jna . de when they knocked down ^ tho old woman ' s apple stall . This remarkable sentiment excited such enthusiasm , that Sir James Duke expressed his conviction , that ore long Mr . James would bo seated on the "Vy oolsaolc . Mr . Clement George then proposed three cheers for " our noble solves "—the majority who returned Mr . James to Parliament ,
498 * The L E A Deb. ,[Ho. 473, April 1 ...
498 * THE L E A DEB . , [ Ho . 473 , April 1 6 , 1859
The Electors Must Make This Belief A Pri...
the electors must make this belief a prime consideration in deciding the great question of extending'the franchise . " This is the pivot of all reform . Vain will be a new distribution of seats—ram will be the ballotto make the multitude confide in the justice of the legislature as long as they are , on account of a weal th test , excluded from the fran chise . With an extended franchise , founded on acknowledging the right of each individual to share in the appropriation of property by the State , as he -must share in producing it , the distribution of seats becomes a matter of
course to be settled by . arithmetic , and the ballot will dwindle into an unimportant regulation , scarcely worth an argument . The one thing , therefore , which the electors are really called on to consider and decide , by the appeal iioav made to them , is , whether the bul ' k of the people—five at least out of six—shall continue to be disfranchised by a wealth-test , and so made the political opponents of the other classes and of the Government ; or whether they shall be as . their fellow-men , . bearing with them equally all the burdens of the State , admitted equally to share all its powers and all its advantages , including the power of disposing of the produce of industry ?
Our political leaders are , unfortunately , in favour of continuing a restricted franchise ;' but they invariably act from habit ; their minds arc formed by the routine of office , and the electors cannot now require-to learn that they must seek beyond the dicta of statesmen for the rules of justice . " As long as they , for their own purposes , kept parliamentary reform out of the domain- of daily discussion , the public , remarking the gradual progress of improvement in the condition of the people , and the gradual increase of political knowledge , was content to go on quietly , and aim only at procuring measures which were immediately and
prac-TIIE ELECTORS ON TllIAL . Our political leaders being unable to settle their differences , have referred them to the electors . These are now asked , when the country is in a very critical position ,, what is to be done ? They are the great council which is now to ^ decide as important a question as ever was submitted to public decision . The political leaders by their own acts are already condemned . They were empowered to govern , and because they are unable to fulfil their duties they have returned their power to the electors . For Government in future these will now be responsible , and as they decide so will they be
judged hereafter . If they are as inefficient ^ as their leaders , and cannot evoke harmony out of discordorder out ' of confusion—they will be as reprehensible as Lord Derby . They who have to decide the fate of Ministers are themselves on trial , and in the end they - are certain to be rewarded by prosperity or punished by disasters . The ppint at issue is not whether Lord Derby or Lord John Russell shall , be first . Lord of the Treasury . If they ' should . unfortunately take such a view , they had better settle how they shall vote by tossing up , and then , heads the Lords win , and tails the people lose . Nor is the issue , reform or no
reform . The leaders of all parties agree that reform must be , but what reform ? This is the point at issue . The electors are supposed to have an interest in preserving a restricted franchise , and have been appealed to to stand firm against revolution as a consequence of extended suffrage . If they allow themselves to be made the instruments of the aristocracy for maintaining the exclusion of the multitude for keeping out of the Constitution all below the occupiers of lOZ ., or even 51 ., houses , they will continue a conflict which has now lusted for a considerable period , and will not end with their lives .
The electors must remember that Government , using the word in the largest sense , is held responsible for national'welfare : it is continually appealed to by all classes and ail conditions of men to regulate and improve society ; it is thought to make , and in many cases it does make , some men rich and some men poor : it disposes of an immense amount of the produce of industry and of the property ofinclividuala . The public tuxes , large though they be , now yielding 66 , 000 , 000 ? ., is but a part of the annual produce which Government appropriates and disposes of . Whatever , in addition to this , such as the tithe rent-charge , any increase in the rent of land caused by legislation past or
present , such as all kinds of rates , is appropriated by it or by constraining laws so that , in fuct , the Government actually determines the property of individuals , though in theory it is represented as establish ed to protect , not determine the right of property . Accordingly , the Government is held , and not unjustly hold , to bo the parent of the inequalities of condition , as to wealth , which prevail amongst classes . In all classes there are numerous individual examples of unthriit recklessness and extravagance . JJut only some classes , however
industrious and honest , are always doomed to poverty and misery . From a constrained alteration m the habitual action ot Government , wo have soon in our times that the condition of the lower classes lias been greatly improved . Such facts , and they are now very numerous and very palpablo , have confirmed the old Und general opinion that the Government is responsible ibr tho welfare , including the wodllh or poverty , of the multitude . The pooplo nt least boliove this , they have good ground tobeliovc it , when they roekon \\ p the mass of their produce , whioh the Government annually disposes of 5 ana
tically useful . The cyer-incrcasnig and wonderful power of the'press , ' really bringing all things under the dominion of popular sentiment and general opinion was noticed , and relied , on to accomplish all the great changes which continually become necessary to adapt the constitution to the inevitable progress of society . The public did not , therefore ,, vociferously demand reform . But now , when our political leaders have . announced a necessity to begin reform , when they have one and all become eager reformers , the electors must closely examine their measures ; and finding them inadequate and unjust , are bound to prefer their their conclusion
own principles and carry out own s , to those of their political lenders . Because these are opposed to a just franchise , will the electors support them in continuing to exclude the multitude , and expose themselves , fbr the sake of Lord Derby and Lord John Russell , to a continual conflict of classes ? Wealth has groat natural advantages pver poverty , without adding to it exclusive political privileges ; and to add those , in order to preserve the natural advantages , is a fatal mistake . It turns admiration and love of wealth into envy and hatred , and makes the multitude , t <> n great extent , the enemy of the common enjoyment ana
the common welfare . All the parties who oppose an extension of the franchise on the just principle of every man being entitled to an equal share of ' tlio politicnl advantages and pottor of the State , allege that the multitude are unfit to exorcise it . They know nothing of statesmanship . A century ngo such n reason had boiuu validity ; but within a century » ' « tcsmanship has committed so many l > luinJi'w , ice society into such erring path * , nnd brought on such great disasters , that the most ignoniut ul uw multitude could have done no worse ,, Nxiuty m-
prospered in spite of statesmans hip . Another P *;" text for withholding the fhincliino from the inult tude is , that they arc not trustworthy . Jt ls .. ' ., bestowed , according to statesmen , 011 mi o ni , saving , honotft workmen . By nil the . ,, . ] i | cc-to » a to a great ; extension of the suilrngv , the Innirliwo described as a reward for somo merit , mul the wiuiholding it as n punishment fbr some dt'inenl . v this theory the multitude , arc treated not only iw untrustworthbut ns vicious . They ur « »> «• » ° . tnnit
y way criminal , nnd do not deserve to bu . liko other men . Will the clcotoro oulorco " 7 their decision this Mm thoory P A \ il they 0011 tinuo to brand all the unoulrMueliiHuU ° » *! '' , oriminal P And if they do , will the iinonlr »» uu « ii 0 I 1 M 808 continue to beur UP Wo behove not ; nil wo baliove , therefore , that if tho uloctora now , ° » lowing our aristocratic Isadora , ftul to osort . Uicni solves and fail to vote so As to soouro tlint ™
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 16, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16041859/page/18/
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