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ELECTION MANUFACTURES Mr. Baron Platt ha...
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HINTS TO NEW M.P.'S. BY AN EXPEBIENCED "...
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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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Rebellion And Treason. If Statesmen Do B...
dence , trusting , to the loyalty of an ultra-loyal people they would have been in all classes the ardent defenders of the Queen , her crown , and dignity . As it is , they sulk , or go to join the United States in search of subsistence , and sometimes of revenge ; or the more ardent of them speak out roughly at home . The Nation , looking to rumours of war with the United States , anticipates " the third time when the young Western _giant (' this younger scion of tiie Anglo-Saxon race' ) strips to whip the old beldame of the seas " England ; when "the mangy old lion" shall
" run away with his tail between his legs , and the mark of the eagle ' s talons on his mane . " And then the writer proceeds to reckon , up , as discreeter journalists have done , the troubles at the Cape , in India , the Canadas , and West Indies , which , coming with a French invasion of England , and a war with America , might result in the loss of our dependencies . In another paper , the writer hopes that the " final triumph of the natives" at the Cape of Good Hope "is not far _oflT . " The ministerial Herald is shocked at this
flat treason— " adhering to the Queen ' s enemies in time of war , "—but as it exists in Parliament , is glad to know as much . Why , unless some use he made of the knowledge P It is hardly worth knowing , if it be merely to array a fleet of war ships against Mr . Gavan Duffy , editor of the paper , and member for New Ross ; if Government is to continue the plan of exasperating Roman Catholics , cultivating Orangemen , and passing over the Lrisk Irish . Lord Eglinton can tell his colleagues . that language of this kind is but the rating of disappointed affection ; and that the way to counteract it is to
cease to disappoint that affection . Lord Eglinton ' s success , so far as he went at Cork , shows that Ireland only wants a leader to rule the country according to its genius , and these formalistic boasts of " treason" would be forgotten . In a more distant quarter , the signs of contumacy are more unpleasant . The Legislative Council of Van Diemen ' s Land has declared , that if transportation of convicts be continued , the money allowed for the maintenance of the establishments will be refused ; and while the local Parliament is thus threatening to stop the supplies , certain of the colonists send home a memorial to the Queen , roundly accusing the late Ministers of broken faith—a broken faith to
which the present Ministry has adhered . The maintenance of the great prison establishments , wholly beyond the wants of an ordinary colony , had already been a grievance ; the convicts are a species of importation in themselves , more objectionable than tea ; and thus the reader will sec that tho question really at issue is very like that at Boston ; only under circumstances of
infinitely greater provocation . But the very motives which make the Tasmanians so bitterly resentful—the caro for the morality of their colony , and for justice , —are motives that would make them cling fondly to practical good government—would make them , so to speak , sit at tho feet of any statesman who could appeal to thoso feelings of sterling loyalty .
The Nation is right in saying that England cannot afford to brave powerful enemies while her dependencies ape so discontented . But if wo had a statesman like Peel , who could extract a policy out of the great facts of tho day , how easy it would bo to attach both Ireland and Van Diemen ' s Land to tho metropolitan state , more firmly than ever , by now bonds of mutual interest and affection .
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Election Manufactures Mr. Baron Platt Ha...
ELECTION MANUFACTURES Mr . Baron Platt has made a speech from which almost all parties may quoto something for their purpose . Tho abuses of freo-trado oratory ; ( ho clanger of losing a good character ; the want of defence for prisoners , and somo othor filings , are all glanced at in a sort of peroration , or appendix parenthesis to tho sentence on somo men convicted at Bristol Assizes of rioting at tho East Somerset election : —
" It is painful to see nino industrious fello \ _v « like yourselves , who liavo hitherto earned your livelihood by honcHt industry , as I unelorHtiind you have done , " _» _mich a position ; because , whatever compassion J . ' my lcel ibr y m H 3 a mini , it in my duty , as a juelgo , to pans a severe sentence upon you . Many of you havo received good characters , as being peaceable and orderl y up to this transaction , ami it is much to he regretted that you did not _preservo thoso characters . " The Court _ulso takes into consideration tho topic
Election Manufactures Mr. Baron Platt Ha...
upon which you were moved , which is one which has excited rich as well as poor . It would have been well , however , if those by whom such men as you were excited had looked before they endeavoured to rouse the passions of an ungovernahle mob ; for when the waters of discord are let out , who shall stop them ? You have been the victims of these mob-orators , who ought to have found the means for your defence ; and I am ashamed of my countrymen , when I find that some of you were without any defence . It may , however , serve to show that these persons only ipse you to promote their private ends , and , having don _£ so , they leave you to your fete . "
[ Mr . Baron Platfc seems to have made these remarks on the strength of an assertion by Counsel , that " the contest was a fierce one between protectionists and freetraders , " and that "the lower orders had been led _£ o some violent expression of their sentiments . " It was shown in the evidence thatthe onlypolitieal speech madeduring the day was one by Mr . Hayter ; and indeed throughout the time , the political speeches addressed to the " vile rabble" were comparatively few ; the principal speakers being Captain Scobell and Mr . Elton . It was not shown that any
attempt had been made "to excite the passions ' of the mob by those speakers , or by any other persons properly to be caBfed "free-trade orators ; " and we believe that in point of fact no such speeches were delivered . It may happen , indeed , that the question of cheap food is one in itself exciting to the working classes ; but so are all questions that touch them nearly : and if Baron Piatt's strictures on what he is pleased to
call " mob oratory" are of any force , they must be taken to imply that the _people ought to feel no keen interest in questions invoked at the elections , or that , per _contra , the selection of questions to be laid before the public must be such as do not really concern them very deeply . There is a great dead of nonsense going forward on . this subject of "exciting the passions , " & c . "Least said soonest mended" seems to be the
rule , not only with reference to the conscience of the candidate , but also with reference to the non-excitement of the people . If their bread is at stake , nothing is to be said about it , lest their feelings should be roused . Jf + _^ _° - t , yjUvlx _^ 1 rights are i" _i «» _hv _" j _^ ixe subject must not be + _^ ucned up on , because it excites feelings in the people . If the state of employment , and the tenure of land on the dog-in-the-manger principle , without full use of it , occurs to the mind of the
politician , he must not mention it , because it may go home to the feelings of his hearers . The subjects which he should discuss ought to be abstract ideas of statesmanship ; critical discussions on the characters of public men ; theological allusions in very general terms , not of course coming home to Dissenters ; and generally such subjects as would not disturb the politest dinnertable .
This _squeamishness of political discussion is advancing pari passu , with another arrangement in reference to election affairs . Tho general tendency is to transfer the practical working of elections from tho great body of tho electors to certain agents , who manage tho matter by calculations in thoir own offices , and who profess bo accurate a system of registration that , if it were carried out completely , they might probably do away altogether with public , elections . The gain in quietness would be considerable . It has been said , that if warlike weapons bo brought to great
perfection , they would be so destructive , and their destructive powers might bo so distinctly calculated , that generals might altogether waive tho battle , and exchanging the arithmetic equations of tho destructive power at their disposals , thoy might work out tho ultimate result upon tho slate , and allot tho victory by an algebraic process . Tho substantial part of " glory" would ovaporato in such a plan , but it would bo convenient both to generals and common soldiers . In liko manner , the general officers of election matters desire to economi / . o the interference of
electors in tho aflair ; and if thoy carry their plans to perfection , wo mi ght ascertain tbo result of tho poll beforehand , at a joint mooting of tho managing men . Tbis would not only bo highly conducive to public quiet , but ) it would also con . centrato tho ground upon which wealth and inlluenco can exert their legitimate power . Station and property would then find their duo places in Parliament without any of tho _wtiBto that is now incurred in tho grosser and ruder species of bribery . It would also do away with the farce
Election Manufactures Mr. Baron Platt Ha...
at present carried on , by which it is pretended that the people elects the Parliament ; whereas the wildest of poets could only bring a seventh of the people into the field , and the actual practice is to determine the result by the operation of a comparatively small clique ; so that , under the new plan , the profession would more properly conform to the facts . Some progress has already been made towards this great improvement ; and the East Somerset
election is a case in point . The machinery of the Eree-trade or Liberal side was very imperfect , but the Tories worked with thoroughly organized forces . Landlord influence , trading influence , personal influence , party influence , were all organized into a very exact method of producing the result desired by the feudal chiefs ; who , no doubt , devoutly and sincerely believed that the safety of Crown , Church , Corn , and Constitution , trembled in the balance of the contest . If the Free-traders and Liberals
had not interfered , the election might have passed off without a word of opposition , or even of question ; and probably as a man , though not as a judge—for he drew the distinction himself—Mr . Baron Platt may have had that more perfect process in view , when he so strongly reprobated the " mob orators" that had disturbed it .
Hints To New M.P.'S. By An Expebienced "...
HINTS TO NEW M . P . 'S . BY AN _EXPEBIENCED " STBAI ? GEB . " II . Gentlemen , — Perhaps my definition of a " Member of Parliament" may have struck you , last week , as being about as complex as Imlac ' _s definition of a poet ; and a stray _Jiasselas might have put his Leader of the 14 th on the file with the exclamation , " Enough ! thou hast convinced me no man can ever be an M . P . " But definitions such as these are like Sam Slick's rule for shooting coons—they only amount to a
suggestion to " aim high . " Nobody ever reaches his standard ; but that is no reason why we should not have a standard . If we did not aim high above the practical coon , we should never even bring it down . T tnlro W tho . _\** vy A _+ _1 ~ - _~~ _jvU , 1 I . X . _IT . I _ll'dVe sketched—the man who has not only a head to think , but a body fit for working out the thought —and I will tell him how to succeed and to satisfy himself in Parliament . The hints apply to him whether he aims at a peerage or at the membership for Finsbury—the two extremes of
_political ambition ; whether he thinks he can be a Disraeli or only a Forbes Mackenzie ; whether Premier or whipper-in ; whether a debater like Osborne , or a steady committee-man liko Sir John Buller ; whether he is a man of genius , or only a keen man of tho world ; whether ho is honest or dishonest , —is bound to a party , or pledged to mankind . The House of Commons is onl y to be approached , wooed , and won , in ono way , by all sorts of persons . It is a body without any principles or any prejudices—except against bores . It is utterly indifferent to tno creed , and country , and character , of tho new
man . Ho who comes to it with a good reputation has no bettor chance than ho who besieges it with a bad one . It rejects all pretensions it has not of itself justified , and all fame it has hot itself conferred ; judging most severely and critically of thoso who have attained position independent of it , and of whom it consequently expects and exacts much , in justification . It has no principles , because , as a corporation , it has no conscience ; and hence it not onl y endures , but , if they are presentable and useful , applauds notorious rogues—rogues political and rogues social . It blackballs and sends to Coventry many ; but they aro men who havo offended on large or small pretexts against its own morale—which
means its own comfort and pleasure . Therefore , ho who enters newly tho House of Commons may consider that ho is taking Iuh first stop in his career . To what , ho may have been , or may havo done , beforo , the House is iiidill ' erent . Iio may havo boon a scamp or a saint , it matters not : tho club deals only with sins against il , and tho merit that is useful ' to it . Ho may bo very rich or very poor—a millionaire or an adventurer—his chancer _, are _preoisoly equal . This is not the common notion , but observation shows that it is the correct ono ; and that , indeed , in all its judgments , tho House of Commons is governed by tho utmost impartialit y and republican enlightenment . _. Intense philosophic selfishness _xiaa no small _woakneesos or petty prejudices .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081852/page/13/
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