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THE CO-OPERATIVE MO YEMEN I III. " Templ...
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Hints To New M.P.'S. By An Expebienced "...
Composed , as the lower House is , largely of an aristocratic element , there is nothing of the " snob " about it in the aggregate . Mr . Anstey goes about saying , " I was counted out because I was poor ;" but Mr . Disraeli was always poorer than Mr . Anstey , and is , de facto , Premier of England . London society suffered Mr . Hudson ; but the House of Commons , from , the first , laughed at him , and at last howled him down . The House of Commons would not listen to Mr . Stanley ( the present Lord ) when , with all the prestige of his name and lineage , he attempted to teach it about sugar but the House of Commons cheered the first
great sugar speech of Mr . Economist Wilson , although Mr . Wilson was fresh from a hatter ' s shop , and smelt of " the Borough . " The House of Commons hates Manchester ; but it jeered Baillie Cochrane ' s aristocratic attacks on Cottonopolis to that extent that Baillie Cochrane gave up being Pitt , and took to idiotic novels , while it burst into an honest and hearty sympathetic shout when Mr . Erotherton , pleading for the Ten Hours ' Act , said , with the tears in his eyes , " Sir , I am now a Member of Parliament , but I was once a
poor , wretched , half-starved factory boy . ' Again , the House of Commons detested Feargus O'Connor ; but not because he was a Chartist . Indeed , from what I know of it , the House would rather like , and would certainly carefully listen to , a genuine working-man Chartist . It is odd ; but the clever men always blunder , at first , with the House ot Commons . The men
of genius always attempt , as green genius attempts in other directions , to take it by storm . Disraeli went at the Senate with a rush , to talk Aeroyisms ; and the yelling laughter which greeted him made him a great man—it gave him so much to obliterate ! That was a spasmodic saying— " The time will come when you shall hear me ; " but to redeem the boast a system was necessary , and Disraeli _^ a man essentially of an Italian and intriguing genius , soon found that the House was not to be bullied out of applause . There were no more
tours de force in his career ; he has got on by sheer hard work , on an exact system , biding his time , ever at hand , and never missing an opportunity . He baa never been guilty of an impulse since impulse plunged mm iiflv _iuc greatest ? _parliamentary failure on record ; and that his system is worth studying is suggested in the fact that it has been successful—successful despite drawbacks—to say nothing of his race and creedwhich would have crushed most other men . He knew what he had to overcome , and calculated thc cost ; invested , waited , and got the profits . And the parliamentary system essential to triumph is so invariable , that Mr . Disraeli , because he does what Sir Bobert Peel did , is accused of being an
imitator of Sir . Bobert Peel . The imitation is said to consist in thc assiduous complimenting of everybody . That was poor Sir Boberfc ' _s fortea trick coming natural to him , as a parvenu , and as never certain of what party he would be among in a month . As a parvenu , too , Mr . Disraeli finds it indispensable ; despises the meanness of the sycophancy , but is constrained to resort to it because he knows its results aro desirable . Men , secure and safe in their own positions—cither Lords J . _ltussell or Derby—may indulge haughtiness , and be costive in laudations ; but Mr . Disraeli bows lo the statue of Jove , while worshipping Jehovah , because ho docs not know if his turn wont come again !
Another instance of a man of genius endeavouring to take tho House of Commons by assault ,, and being conspicuously rebuffed , is supplied by Sir Edward Lytton , of whom it now remains to bo seen whether ho appreciates the sagacity of undermining . Sir Edward entered parliament for tho express purpose of making a sensation , and of malting use of tho House of Commons p latform for his own intellectual glorification . The intention , always quickly detected , implies
a conceited contempt for the House itself , and is always punished by vigorous snubbing . Sir Edward soared wonderfully , but he couldn't got the House to look up . Ho made undoubtedly fine , rattling , sound , witt speeches ; and there was no doubt whatever that ho was an acquisition , a suitable representative man , and a possible popular minister . But the pretenco offendedthe incessant evident desire to render the House
subordinate to Sir . Edward Bulwer—tbo prominence given to the individuality , which would not identif y itself with the whole body—disgusted ; and Sir Edward never became a great " parliament man . " Ho would not work i that in , ho
Hints To New M.P.'S. By An Expebienced "...
scorned the rehearsals ; he was always on the stage , stagy—and always insisting on being brilliant . He was , in short , an outsider in the club ; he wouldn ' t join the rest , think , or affect to think , like the rest ; and—he talked to the " gallery , not to the " honourable gentlemen opposite , " and grievously offended the House by indicating indirectly that he thought less of them than of " the great public . " Sir Edward ' s parliamentary failure is often stupidly adduced as a proof of literary men being unfit for the House of
Commons . The theory arises in forgetfulness of the fact that most of the literary men who go into the House of Commons , do not go _thez'e to _bei-ome House of Commons personages . What they do not aim at , they do not attain ; and , of course , episodical appearances in debate , straggling speeches , an d . lounges about committee rooms , do not produce that effect which induces competitors to make way for them . The Penates of St . Stephen ' s are jealous gods , and require an exclusive devotion . A great author who wont work for House of Commons position and fame , is no more entitled to be a leader there than a
great lawyer who doesn't give up the law can expect to head lobbies . The House of Commons heroes—the Pitts , Grahams , Peels , _Kussells—are the men who live for the House of Commons , and are ambitious of its honours only . Even Disraeli wrote Coningsby in a recess : and since he saw power looming in the future , he has not written at all , except with an aini at House of Commons ends , as in the Political Life of Bentinck , which was an appeal to a party .
The House of Commons insists upon its own style ; and will not " hear , hear , " the literary style , and got-up brilliancies of the literary member ; and it will not intrust a literary man with any sort of leadership , because it distrusts all but those who look at the public and at the government from its own point of view , and in whose chieftainship , therefore , for its own purposes , it can confide . It , therefore , puts down a Bulwer just as it puts down a Bright ( as a man of commerce , and member for Manchester ) , or a Cockburn ( as a lawyer ) , as a man not identifying himself with
itas a man who moves out of the Commons' circle , ana nas _v _, a _^ .. " _.-.-.-. o _^ _p-ss . which is not Commons ' business . These aggregate instincts do _« nt correspond with the individual influences , since most members are , sometimes , in some occupation , portions of the public ; but they are unmistakeable in their operation : and this need not be wondered , since all large bodies are possessed of a collective tone , so to speak , on all matters applying to their collective interest . But though the House wont place the literary members in
the first rank , it is an error to suppose they are such failures as to be disliked . If they are pretensions , mere literary men , they are snubbed — but for the _pretensiousneas , not for the literature . If they , in their degree , and at their leisure , appear in a Parliamentary melee , and make a good speech , adopting as nearly as they can the cue of the place , they are listened to deferentially , and applauded . Mr . Macaulay was , surely , no failure P Even Peel did not draw such audiences . When it was known
Macaulay would speak , and it always was known , clubs would empty and drawing-rooms would give up their males ; and at eleven o ' clock—for Macaulay would never deign to speak until tho audience was a large one—there would be no seat vacant . He was watched , listened to , and cheered , by a rapt audionee , who were enjoying , with cultivated taste , a finished essay . Its polish , its completeness , and its exhaustion of tho topic in band , excited universal admiration . But then
the Jlouse saw moro than a mere literary manthey saw sm accomplished scholar , a man of learning , of judgment—a man who served a direct and useful purpose in pouring out his mind . They saw a man whose intellectual qualities were greater than those of thoir own Sir llobert Peel—for Sir Robert Peel could not have , spoken such an essay . But which would Ihey follow , in a political crisis ? Sir Bobert , ; because they did not want in their leader a
brilliant man only—because Sir . Robert bad passed his life in studying the relations between them and Ihe world—because Sir Bobori , was a man of the world , understanding them , men of the world ; and because , having studied the trade of governing , and studied nothing else , they could havo confidence in his advice in a political emergency . Instinct—the instinct of masses—dictates their choice ; and whil _6 thoy admire a
Hints To New M.P.'S. By An Expebienced "...
Macaulay , they follow Peel . Had Mr . Macaulav f iven up to the House what was meant for the louse ' s constituents , he would have been a Peel too ; and , who can tell , perhaps vice versd ? ' " Literary men , " in short , must cease to be literary men ( it is a wonder men of literature do not put down the horrible phrase ) before thev can lead political parties . In other words , thev must become ordinary men of the world—worldly —or , in other words , must learn how to manage ordinary men , which is not learned in closets Burke carried all before him while he remained a politician ; but he got sublimated into the philosopher , and degenerated into a " dinner bell . " Sheridan observed this , and gaine d bv the fact . Kelly , in his memoirs , states that he
one day told Sheridan that he ( Sheridan ) daren ' t write another comedy , because he was afraid of the author of The School for Scandal . But clearly , Sheridan , who was ambitious of political distinction and whose _managership was regarded as an amusement , avoided writing simply in order to talk with the more effect . Gibbon in his remarks about Sheridan ' s Warren Hastings' oration , confesses that the powers then developed would require a life of practice ; and Gibbon , when an M . P ., was a back bencher , from his consciousness that his great intellect was in a world where it was but as a child ' s . Sir James
Mackintosh is always referred to as among the authors who failed in Parliament , and it is supposed he failed because he was not a leader . As a man of the world , as a politician , he was without influence in the House ; but he was admired and cheered as a wise , thoughtful , honest man . The same is to be said of Jeffrey , who had no business ( though a good deal of practice ) at the bar , much less in the House of Commons . As I said in the last paper , the great " public man " niust have defects of character to suit him to his
position . What could the Whigs do with Burke when they found he was a man who would talk " eternal justice" about Marie Antoinette , forgetful of the use the revolution was to the party P What could Brougham do with the Sir James Mackintosh , whose every oration commenced with an apology for his " hot youth ' s" ( and he a Scotchman . ' ) " _Vindiciae P" the "literaryman " talks abstractions , and is , therefore , dangerous . TLna + Vm Houbo of Commons condemned Peel for making George Smythe an Under Foreign Secretary , because the House has a nervous
horror , whatever its admiration , of a young man who used to rise in a foreign debate , stand bolt upright , shut his eyes , and pour forth epigrammatic eloquence , sounding lilce a translation from the French of Vcrgniaud . The " practical" commonplace man for the House , which thinks well of Forbes Mackenzie for helping Lord Derby on with his coat , and cheered Lord Henry Lennox ( he of thc police-court , and Lord of the Treasury ) for bringing in a glass of water—a son of a , duke , too ! - —to Mr . Disraeli , while that exhausted statesman was dealing with Direct Taxation in his immortal budet .
g All these aro general viows , leading to rules of detail ; and these details you shall have next week .
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The Co-Operative Mo Yemen I Iii. " Templ...
THE CO-OPERATIVE MO YEMEN I III . " Temples havo their filtered images , antl wo boo wliftt 1 IJ _J" _" _?" they have always had over a great part of mankind . . " . '• , truth , the ? _ieloaa and _imageis in _men'n _ininelu are tho 1 "v """ , j _ptiwe > rn that , _ceiiiMtaiitly _geivern thorn , and te > these _tney _^ _iinivornally pay a ready submission . It is , therefore , ei _^ _highest . ( .- !> nee > riime > nl , Unit great euro should bo tiuceu <> uiielerHt . u . _iieling . " -- Look h . ( To the Editor of the Leader . )
Sin , —No philosophical history of Socialism has . as far as I know , been written . Hitherto the great social revolutions of the world have been generally treated by historians as partial aw isolated movements , produced by excep tional aw often Limes trivial causes , and not as inovita w p hases in the progressive development ol _liuman race , subject to laws as stable tliose of the physical world , and as liable to »" disturbed by storms and convulsions . M _»» _™ _¦> nature asocial _beintr . and society an assoniu af ,
, of individuals bound together by natural _syu'l j tbics , or from motives of self-interest , for " _^" , assistance , security , or entertainment . _* ' o 1 in society , we lind two counteracting V > rccH _| in ( motive principles—namely , individualism socialism , in constant operation . They ar 0 - _t j ( . ' however , necessarily hostile and _auiA _^ oll y . Z but , ou the contrary , friendly aud ftUXiu «** J powers .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21081852/page/14/
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