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^gg THE "LEA DEI ^Saturday,
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THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND THE PEOPLE. We ar...
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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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The House Of Peeresses. By What Right Do...
one of the rights which , they acquired by privilege ; their own conduct has induced them gradually to part with the grip over the land , for many of them are defaulters under mortgage , and no longer retain any real possession of the soil . Earl Gbanville tells us that " all the Howards " are become " as numerous as all the Smiths ; " that numbers of the aristocracy , invited to take their share in commercial business , are mingling with railway directors , tradesmen , and the other
classes in commerce . And all the Peers on Tuesday night , discussing Lord Ellenbokotjghs ' s views upon a plan for the war of last year , and a probable change of Government in reference to that plan , advanced their opinions only as individuals ; while Lord EiiiiEiTBOBOirGH invited the House to put itself at the head of a public opinion already formed , because he believes that Parliament ought to " direct" public opinion . The Peers therefore profess to give us their
sentiments as individuals who happen to be in one of the Houses of Parliament . When the Reform Bill extended political power to the middle classes , Earl G-bey , refusing some of the Hadical amendments upon the Government Bill , declared that he should " stand by his order . " But where is his order ? What privileges does it claim , what powers exercise , except that of rejecting the bills of the Commons for a time ? As an order , it seems to us the Peers have almost left the scene ,
and we have to consider them as individuals . Lord Ellenboeough indeed has another title for them . The Peers , he said , sit in the House of Lords because of the fitness of their ancestors . Lord Malmesbttry is there , because the first Harris was a great diplomatist ; Viscount Canning , because his father was an able public servant ; and Lord Ei < lenborotjgh . himself , . because his father was a great lawyer . Unfortunately , however , the fitness of the father does not prove the fitness
of the son ; and three out of the two examples cited by Lord Ellenbobotjgh are of no effect . The Earl himself may be great as a military Premier unrecognised , a Chatham out of office ; but where is his law ? Lord Maimesbtjrt sits in the House of Peers , because the first Mr . Harris was an able manager , not in the highest class of diplomacy ; but where is Lord MaiiMESBtjry's diplomacy ? Admit the same rule , and because the late Duke of Wellington commanded at Waterloo , the
present Duke should' command iu the Crimea , although we have no evidence that he has inherited anything from his father but his titles , , his wealth , his homeliness , and his foolish face . In fact , in most families there is an alternate run of ability or of imbecility . The Imperial family of Austria lias occasionally thrown up a genius , and occasionally descended to idiotcy . The privilege of inheritance , considered from Lord Ellenbobottgii ' s point of view is , that a man great in one
business can procure a perpetual success for bis descendants , be they great or little , in any kind of business ; but the facts are against the presumption . Before Lord Ellenborough can put forward the claim of fitness on behalf of the Peers , he is bound to give us those identical ancestors whose merits were tested , and possibly we might be content to acknowledge the diplomacy of a Harris , the law of Ellenbojrougii , or the
Generalship of Wellington—meaning the llrst of each of those ennobled families . Come to their individual character , and really the Peers have no right to stand above ather men . Look to the records of the Criminal Courts : whether we take' ordinary acandal or police-cases—the case of Alice Lowe or of AjjIOM Leroy—it is notorious bhat the incidents and the offences of the Peerage are in a proportion exceeding that
of most families in respectable life—or below it . Even when a Peer is acquitted , we do not know that he establishes his character as an hereditary statesman . Lord Clanbicabde , for instance , was lately accused of conniving with Mrs . Handcook to place her daughters under coercion , in order that their property should be concentrated at their death upon John Delacoitb—the
illegitimate child of Marquis and mother . Lord Clanricarde has since published a pamphlet , which shows that this entire story is a romantic fiction , invented by the Dublin bar ; that the young ladies were gay and independent girls , who divided their attention between polite society and piety ; that their mother was a gossiping nobody , whom they set aside rather than otherwise , but treated
with kindness ; that Lord Clanricabde was more intimate with the daughters than the mother , with the husband than the wife ; and that the presumed parentage—still a mystery—has probably no relation at all to Lord Clanricarde . A strong corroboration of this exculpation is the letter from Mr . EiiiAS Handcock , brother of the husband in the story , who is the author of the tale against Mrs . Handcok ' s fidelity , but who , after he professes to have
learned her criminal conduct , wrote friendly letters to her , suggesting manoeuvres by "which she should influence her husband ' s will . Lord Clanrtcarde , therefore , is not the melodramatic hero that the Dublin bar painted him ; but is he a hero at all ? Because he is acquitted of criminal complicity in family intrigues , is he a great statesman ? The Handcocks were amongst the chosen friends of his household ; and the glimpse into Portumna Castle does not make us conceive a very high opinion of the statesman
seen in retirement . In short , Lord Clanricarde is not worse than other men ; but is he better , wiser , abler ? Out of all the hundreds of Peers who have a right to sit in Parliament , besides those that have not , and the brothers who have to be provided for out of land which Peers withhold from the State , how many out of that crowd are really picked men , of known ability for official or legislative purposes ? The House of Lords has degenerated to a debating club , dealing with important questions in dilettante fashion .
Perhaps if we look to the demonstration on Monday , we shall learn the true claim that the Peers put forward . The aspect of the House was indeed peculiar . Lord Redesdale—odious man!—likened it to " a Casino , " because there were more Peeresses present than Peers ; and the brilliant aspect of the House revived certain associations in the mind of the noble Baron . Clearly he has insulted the Peeresses . They have had a practice in some countries of putting an impertinent fellow to death by beating him with roses ; and Eedesdale should be handed over to the Peeresses . But the
nature of the demonstration to which he referred was a fact . The House of Lords was lined with Peeresses ; and the presence of the ladies told powerfully on the debates . The Lords rose to chivalrous daring in their eloquence . If any demagogue had been brought into that presence , ho must have been subdued . It was there that the strength of the order lay—in that array of loveliness
and taste . After all the Peerage has its merits ; but its forte lies in its daughters . Lord Granyille boasted of the daughters of the Peerage who had not died maids ; and it is through its fairer half that the order possesses tho most benignant and salutary influence over society . Tho Peer must henceforward put forward his best claim in an escocheon or pretence . Ho survives and rules in right of his wife !
^Gg The "Lea Dei ^Saturday,
^ gg THE "LEA DEI ^ Saturday ,
The Middle Classes And The People. We Ar...
THE MIDDLE CLASSES AND THE PEOPLE . We are very sorry to find that some of the lower classes are disposed to separate themselves at this crisis from the middle classes and to talk as if middle-class men were op ' ponents of the people . We are sorry , but not surprised , for this unhappy jealousy has too often broken out before ; and the common enemy , the feudalist aristocrat , has known too well how to take advantage of it .
The middle classes make then' bread by labour , whether it be the labour of the brain or of the hand . Their sympathies and interests are , and always have been , on the side of those who labour . They are a part of the people , the flower of the people , the natural leaders of the people . They and their representatives have always fought the battle of the people . The history of social progress is a record of the struggles of the middle classes in the cause of the people . To the efforts of the middle classes every labouring man owes it that he receives wages for his labour , instead of being compelled to work at the bidding of a lord . It was in the boroughs of the middle classes that the banner was first
raised of resistance to feudal tyranny , and of hope to the slave . In those boroughs the serf , flying from his lord , first found shelter and enfranchisement . Prom those boroughs came the men who were finally to overthrow the system of feudal iniquity ; to rescue the peasant from grinding oppression , from legalised plunder , from privileged insult ; and to make all free before the law . It was a triumph of the middle classes of France when , in 1789 , the French aristocracy were compelled tQ surrender their privilege of taxing their peasantry at will , when the French serf was converted into the peasant freeholder , and called from the state of a beast of burden
to the state of a citizen and a man . The lower classes could not have done it for themselves . They tried repeatedly , and always failed . The peasants' war in Germany , the Jacquerie in France , the insurrection of Wat Tyler in England , all proved abortive —all were extinguished in the blood of the serf ; and the condition of the peasantry after then was worse than it was before . Neither in England nor on the Continent did the serfs ever , by their own efforts , gain a single step towards their own emancipation . The worst laws of feudalism were in force against thorn
in France , when the bourgeoisie rose and achieved the revolution . Political intelligence and poltical organisation are required to carry on any great political or social movement . Discernment is required in the choice of leaders , and combination to support them . These qualifications the middle classes have , because they live together in towns , and enjoy some leisure for political education ; while the dispersed peasantry and the uneducated operatives have them not , and cannot have them . The middle classes , then , are the natural trustees of tho cause of the people ; and ,
though we arc not blind to their shortcomings , wo must say that , on the whole , they have fulfilled their trust generously , courageously , and well . It is tho hig hest prool ol their fidelity and success that tho aristocracy , instead of opposing the middle clasHca on questions of social progress , as they didwlnW thoro was any hope of defeating them , are now pretending to outbid them ; ami that tno lord of tho middle ages , in tho modern kiiihc of a bread-taxcr , is driven to court an uUiunce
with tho seri . Tho game of aristocrats is an oasy ono w play . It costs them only a little condescension and a few false words to win away tue hearts of tho people from their real dofendors and true friends . How often in history has social tyranny boon able to say to ita victims
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051855/page/12/
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