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*8 ——?
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SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1852.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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THE MINISTRY DEFYING THE PEOPLE "I appea...
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PALMERSTON AND THE FUTURE The Times is 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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Ar01308
*8 ——?
_* 8 ——?
Saturday, July 17, 1852.
SATURDAY , JULY 17 , 1852 .
Ar01307
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is bjr the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Da . _Abhold .
The Ministry Defying The People "I Appea...
THE MINISTRY DEFYING THE PEOPLE "I appeal to the freeholders , to the landowners , and to the clergy of . North Essex , " cried Mr . Beresford , on the hustings at Braintree , " who I am sure will return me in spite of your brawls . " So spoke one of her Majesty ' s Ministers to the assembled people , in reply to signs of his unpopularity ; and the reiteration of opprobrious terms towards the non-electors exciting increased uproar , he added— " I despise you from my heart , as the vilest rabble I ever saw . " Major Beresford avows that he is " still a Protectionist" ; his language proclaims that he is still a Tory ; and the people may see , by favour of his candour , how the Tories still regard the bulk of the peoplehow they regard all below " freeholders , landowners , and clergy . "
We are not so unjust as to suppose that all her Majesty ' s Ministers would disgrace themselves by this sort of pseudo-aristocratic Billingsgate . One at least , we are sure , would not so violate decorum in the face of History , would not so violate the spirit of the constitution , as to recognise on the hustings the merely statutable distinction between electors and non electors j but Mr . Disraeli , who would certainly know better , does not enjoy the full confidence of his party . Mr . Walpole , "who has been mystifying the
electors of Midhurst by the most fanciful version of Eree-trade history , is more trusted by the Premier in party questions ; and Lord Derby , in his place at the Mansion-house dinner table , has spoken against his own Chancellor of the Exchequer in his place in the House of Commons . However indiscreet Mr . Beresford may be , we believe that in his ingenuousness ho does but avow the true feelings of tho Tory party , of which Lord Derby is the acknowledged head . "The vile rabble "!—the phrase is opportunely revived , just before the Derby Cabinet opens its career in the Parliament elected under its own
influence . The " vile rabble" thus " despised " by Mr . Beresford , avowedly consists of the nonelectors ; who are not less avowedly disliked and slighted by her Majesty ' s Minister . Six-sevenths of the population are non-electors . Of course there can bo no extension of the suffrage under Mr . Beresford aad his colleagues . What else may Ministers do for the people at large P " The vile rabble" also must include tho
three millions of paupers ; for thoy are nonelectors ; and wo may ask what ia to be done for them ? Nothing , wc suppose . Public affairs are a matter between the Beresford .. of high life aud iho freeholders , landowners , and clergy ; and the three millions havo nothing to do with public affairs . Nor can they expect anything from a Minister who dislikes and despises the noneleetoral class . What will Mr . Beresford and
his colleagues do for them ? Protection , to which Mr . Beresford adheres in terms , and to which ho many of his colleagues evidently adhere in their hearts , will do nothing for tho rabble . Under "Free-trade , they have found more to cat and drink , " and they know the reason why . " There is , indeed , something that can bo dono for tiie groat body of the people , and that might be done by the Protectionists without any breach of their principle . Philip Pusey has
pointed out one part of it , in improved farming . Wo cannot go buck to Protection , he Hays , and therefore we must go onward to better farming ! Il a Government , consulting alike the true interests of landowners , farmers , and labourers , were to take a lead in tho encouragement of bettor agriculture—if they would give reproductive employment to tho able bodieilpoor , making if , thus the interest of farmer and _landowner to employ rather than to chase those poor off the land ; if thoy were to lend thoir official countenance to ex-
The Ministry Defying The People "I Appea...
tended and improved culture , rather than to the phantom of condemned Protection j if they were to improve the tenure and facilitate the transfer of land , provide agricultural statistics , enable and encourage such associations both of landowners and of working people , as are indicated by George Pelsant Dawson , the influential Yorkshire landowner , and also b y many of the working-classes —then they might really effect something to reduce the mass bf paupers , to better the
condition of the people . But why should they P The mass of the people is onl y " vile rabble ,- " and the electors , to whom exclusively such Ministers as Mr . Beresford look , reject men like Philip Pusey , because they will not longer profess the transparent humbug called Protection . Philip Pusey , who sets a practical example to the farmers in the inevitable task , is obliged to give up the contest for Berkshire , while Protectionist Beresford , despising the " vile rabble , " is elected .
It cannot , indeed , be very consoling for the six millions of disfranchised men , for the three millions of paupers disfranchised in the republic of industry , to be thus openly vilified . and despised by one of her Majesty ' s Ministers ; and if there were any remains of generous English spirit , it seems to us that it would have been scarcely safe , for Ministers officially , or for their colleague personally , to avow such monstrous dislike and contempt towards the people of this country . But the non-electors and paupers , who form the bulk of the English nation , are getting used to be disliked and despised , and they take it as tamely as a chivalrous Beresford could desire .
Palmerston And The Future The Times Is T...
PALMERSTON AND THE FUTURE The Times is turning its great influence and the best ability which it can command in columns so often adorned by powerful writing , to combat the position recently taken up by Lord Palmerston in foreign affairs , and it is making a dead set to counteract the last speech that he made in Parliament . That speech recognised the necessity of revising the political map of Europe , and especially of taking the next opportunity to release northern Italy from its subjection to Austria . To meet the policy thus delicately
indicated , the Times advances two arguments , and cites offieial documents in support of those articles . The first argument is illustrated by an extract from a despatch by Count Eicquelmont , the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs in March 1848 , in which the Count mentions the ambiguous conduct of England towards Austria as the reason for seeking the assistance of Russia in order to drive the Piedmontese army out of Lombardy . The second is the recognition of the Austrian power by the treaties of 1815 , supported by an extract from a despatch by Lord Palmerston in March 1849 , to this effect :
" Her Majesty's Government have ao often declared that they considered existing treaties—and more especially tho treaty of Vienna of 1815—as determining tho territorial rights oi' the states of Europe , that they could scarcely have expected that it could be necessary for them again to renew such a declaration ; and certainly it is not t , he * 15 ritish Government that can he charged with having forgotten or infringed the stipulations of these treaties . Her Majesty ' s Government , however , can have no hesitation in saying that they consider those treaties applicable to Austria , Parma , and Modena , as well as to those other territories in Europe to which the provisions of those treaties relate . "
The force of these arguments must bo considered as directed less against the possible future policy of Lord Palmerston , which is , indeed , not discussed , than against Lord Palmerston himself ; and while they prove nothing ho little as the objections to the surmised policy of the most able statesman of the day , the arguments prove nothing more distinctly than the disquiet aronscd in other coteries , probably clients of the Times , by the independent position of Lord Palmerston .
"Of what advantage is if , now to remind the world that Lord _Paliiierston had been employed for the preceding twelve months in acting as if tliose treaties no longer existed , and as if it , were physically impossible thaj . their territorial provisions could ho restored Y To what purpose does Lord I _' nlnierston continue to amuse himself , at tbe close of the session of IHr . lS , in mapping out his kingdom of Northern Italy on an imaginary chart of Europe , when the only certain and positive result of his exertions was that this country forfeited ior u timo tho confidence and goodwill of ono of _Hh
Palmerston And The Future The Times Is T...
most constant allies , and that hopes of independence have been roused , and are thus kept alive , in Italy , which it is wholly out of the power of this country to realize ? We are at a loss to discover any political object whatever in this singular proceeding . It is perhaps as well that the spirit and effects of the policy pursued in Italy in 1848 should not be forgotten , for its consequences still affect our national character aud influence in many parts of Europe ; but we are more surprised that Lord Palmerston should seek to attract public attention to this subject than we are to find that his late colleagues are anxious to repudiate their share in such transactions . "
"We are at a loss to discover any political object whatever in this singular proceeding -. " here peeps out the uneasiness of the writer . Eor if a person so well informed were to take the trouble of looking only skin-deep beneath the surface , he would find no difficulty in discovering the motive . Let us bear in mind two facts ; first , that throughout
1848 Lord Palmerston evidently inclined to the constitutional independence of northern Italy ; secondly , that although Lord Palmerston could command for himself a position of great freedom and authority in the cabinet , there necessarily were occasions on which the official manifestoes would be those , not of Lord Palmerston , but of the Cabinet which shook him off .
Another class of facts should be noted . Lord Palmerston might have abandoned that Ministry if he had chosen to adopt a self-seeking policy ; and there is no doubt that his abandonment of the Ministry would have been for them a far more damaging form of separation , than his deliberate awaiting of the sudden but long planned expulsion which Lord John Hussell ellected under the highest sanction . The contrast -of the spirit moving the two men might be brought down to this very day . Where was the cordial union to be expected in London election between the mover of the Jew Bill and the
representative of the Jewish question ? There may be a question as to the policy of sending into the British parliament a leading member of the house which , all things to all men , governments and peoples , subsidizes the party of order at Paris , and at v ienna supplies the sinews of despotism : which , through one of its members , lends fuel to the ravages of Austro-Bussian armies , while it deputes another , turned English landholder , to represent the principles of " civil and religious liberty" in the English House of Commous . But there can be no question as to the spirit in which the professed advocate of Jewish claims evades the recognition of the advocate of those claims on the common _hustings . On tho other hand
the city election might have presented Lord Palmerston as tho rival of Lord John : Lord Palmerston waa invited to stand , and he declined . The one political object , which is very apparent in the discussion to which we have adverted , is tho recognition of tho broad palpable fact , that although the treaties of 1815 are the admitted basis of the political geography of Europe , there is not only no immutability in international laws , but there is an inevitable necessity to revise that political geography . We do not outer into
the Lombard question in this place , because wo reserve that for separate treatment , as part of that great wholo wnich we are now discussing . The political geography of 1815 must inovitably bo revised , because the circumstances of the world are wholly different from those in 1815 ; and any statesman who has the maintenance of constitutional government at heart , must contemplate active measures , unless ho ia prepared to abandon his principles . We will mention only three of the great facts which crowd upon us to
establish this necessity . Under fhe treaties of 1815 , during a uuarfer of a century , it became possible to extend fhe principle of constitutional government to several states of Europe , and notably to Greece , Spain , Belgium , and Portugal ; tho principle also being greatly fortified in France . With tho exception of this _lasteouidry the progress was effected mainly through the influence of England ; if , was sometimes supported by her active co-operation in arms ; and there is ao doubt that her influence , even in its most
Bpoeifie form , derived much of its strength from . Iho memories of Aboukir and Trafalgar , of Torres _Vedraa and Waterloo . In short , constitutional government advanced under the shield of England , so long as she was felt to bo formidable in lieiHtrongth , in her resolution of purpose , nnd in her energetic freedom . Of tho three principles , Absolutism , Constitutionalism , and
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17071852/page/13/
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