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«A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT. Thb Senate o...
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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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Cabbee's Case. The Cab-Driver Leaves His...
nothing that there are hundreds of cabmen as irreproachable as yourself ; nothing that he has to endure both fatigues and temptations of which you have felt nothing . He is a cabman , —that is enough , — -you treat him accordingly ; and yet you wonder he is a bully and a cheat . You blunder on until your cabman is either bad in reality , or is treated as though he were . TTou are vexed , and so is he . You have the power of making laws ,
and you make them stronger . You can inflict punishments , and you make them heavier . Again you must add severity and weight ,- —again and again . You have entered on the fatal course of all who begin to xise force where voluntary concurrence is all that justice permits , —a course which always ends in a condition of which the awful repression of the slave states of America is but an extreme instance . The cabman subjected to a brutality of law reserved for him alone , fits himself to bear or to deserve it , —and yet you wonder he is a
bully and a cheat . What then is to be done ? Just begin at the beginning . Get rid of the notion that Cabbee ought to be set apart for special oppression , or what is the same thing , for a sort of special law . Treat Mm like a man : and try whether the ingenuity of imperial office cannot do that which any man of common business tact would easily accomplish : —viz ., devise a plan by which perfect freedom of enterprise may be made consistent with that certainty in the terms of a bargain which is all that the magistrate requires for the fulfilment of his office , and beyond which he ought not to be permitted to go . What has Government to do to find cabs more than corn for the public ? While it busies itself with the cab , it deludes the public and degrades the cabman . ¦¦ ¦ ¦ a
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«A Stranger" In Parliament. Thb Senate O...
« A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . Thb Senate of this enlightened country still contentedly continues in profound ignorance of the foreign policy of the British Government ; and while Russia is solving , without a reference to the West , the problem of the East , the great British House of Commons is legislating , with pretentious airs of omniscient power , oncabs , accidents in mines , the truck system , and a new Wesfcmiuster-bridge . That is the business week . There has been , indeed , a helpless talk about Succession Duty , about India ( the great question in regard to that being whether a Minister of State should have 3500 £ . a year or 50 O 0 Z . a year ) , and about a vast financial scheme to
affect the national debt infinitesimally ; but these are subsidiary conversations , not business . Parliament sits through July , not because Russia is menacing , but because points as to hackney carriages , mine accidents , dog-carts , and the new road to Lambeth , have to be settled . Russia crosses the Pruth—the British Government crosses Westminster-bridge . Turkey may bo destroyed—the House of Commons must nevertheless legislate upon the " back fares" of metropolitan cabs . Mr . Disraeli taunted Peel that ho was degrading the House of Commons into a vestry j ho might suggest to the Coalition that it leaves to the Senate topics less noble than those which are familiar to tap-rooms .
The conduct of the Government and of Parliament in relation to that question now raised by Russia ^ and on which the future of Europe so vitally depends , is alike unprecedented . From the beginning of tho negotiations to the ond , tho Government , which had Lord Redcliffe to supply facts and Lord Palmerston to supply comments , has been fully cognizant of tho real designs , and of the settled purpose of Russia . Tho lobby and the club talk of members of Parliament has been consistent from tho first ; and it indicates a profound disbelief that any one is in earnest but Russia , and a profound conviction that Itutwia will never resign tho
Principalities—thoroforo knowing that , England will not enter on a war , or ovon on the simulation of war . Henco a perfect agreement between tho Homo and the Ministry that silence should be preserved ; the condition of carrying tho farco of diplomacy to n successful termination being that no one should bo allowed to expose it . From the first to the lnst tho intention of Government and Parliamont wns to dishonour England by a treachery to Turkey ; and not until the perfidy is accomplished is tho noxt act in tho farco—a debate— - to bo permitted . Yot , if England is a consenting party
to the diahonour , which fiho obviously is , why not r The governing classes are" never ushumed to acknowledge that their tendencies aro Ru . sriian . And tho commercial classes , as usual , see only tho hnm ' ediiite balance sheet , and lot Lord Aberdeen understand they will not have war . Thoy do not bog that there is war . England commenced war when who advanced her fleet to Besika Bay . Another two days' sail would hawo cost not a farthing more . The coet of destroying tho Russian fleet und Russian prestige in tho East would juat havo boon 1000 ? . for gunpowdor — or cay Sir Charlou Wood'a salary for one your ! Pity it h
tkat the Coalition did not include a MAN—who could have taken and forced on Government , on Parliament , atd on governing classes , some such view . Who could have shown that Lord Aberdeen talked to the citizens oh Saturday like a courteous old lady , hating quarrels , atid not like a First Minister who holds the thunderbolts of a great nation in his hand . Who could have suggested to a timid people , making ; top . much money and getting tod high wages , that Lord Aberdeen does not preserve peace : that we are always at war : and that we should feel a distant war with Russia as little
as we feel a war with the King of Ava . Who could have reminded Parliament that senates lost in questions as to cabs and dog-carts are losing every pretension to the fear or respect of every potentate but cab-drivers and dog-fanciers . Elephants are , no doubt , the more admirable animals that they can rend trees and pick up pins—but if they prefer the picking up pins ? Lord Aberdeen , unconscious enthusiast for peace , does not mind , he likes being despised ; and the Mansion House cheers him for it . This is , unquestionably , a Christian attitude : — -Russia has entered within the barriers for the tournament : and Lord
Aberdeen pitches a tract after Nicholas . Lord Aberdeen revealed too much of his nature in the debate , in the Lords , on the Succession Duty Bill . He sneered at the " bold barons" just enough to intimate his preference for barons who are not bold . The genius and the merit of the bold barons he cannot understand ; and in borrowing a sneer from Mr . Bright , which did not acclimate in the House of Lords , his somewhat lethargic lordship was evidently convinced that he was saying a good thing : from him a scarce coruscation , and which his peers , perhaps from their surprise , did not seem to appreciate . Lord Derby , indeed ,
might have fairly expected , even if he could not get a majority , that he should get a hearing ; but it is a significant circumstance that he got neither ; and the fact should be accepted , as intimating the final verdict of the governing classes on this noisy statesman . And that his party should have repudiated his lead will be less galling to the ambitious but placid orator than the still more cruel sentence— -that he is , as a debater , a bore . This was signified to him sufficiently on Monday ; the Lords would no longer even affect to listen to his tortuous commonplaces and rotund truisms . They yawned , they walked about , they chatted , they slept .
Listen to this enlightened and chivalrous English Peer shamefully attempting to make them " hear-hear" argument that land should not pay the tax which personal property has long paid , they clearly would not ; and they didn't care for his knowing their obstinacy . They were , indeed , as indifferent to Lord Derby talking as they are to Lord Monteagle talking ; and comparison can no further go : Stung by that indifference , what could Lord Dorby have thought of the division , which told him that his day was over even with hia own order ? Tories , to account for the destruction of the Tory party , have been assiduously saying and writing that " its all Disraeli . " But now we see that in the
stronghold of Toryism , on the question on which of all questions the landlords would appear to be disposed to take the selfish , and therefore party side , Lord Derby doesn't lead a hundred followers . An exploded politician—what then is to become of him ? He has a refuge in tho press . Groat journalists , who write of statesmen without even visiting the scone of statesmanship—which is oa clever as criticising theatrical performances without over going to the theatre- —sustain the old cant which was got up when Lord Derby had not yot been tried , and go through the old
formulas of respectful puffing of pretentious peers—talking of thia " ablo man , " who has broken down in every function ho ever assumed , and of the " brilliant speeches " which even tho Houso of Lords will not listen to . And while the press maunders on in bolstering up his reputation among his countrymen . Lord Derby may still havo hoart enough lof t to face tho Bneei'B and tho smiles of the club—viz ., Parliament . In the same way Charles Kean , having manipulated the free list , and mado sure that thoro is not n connaisseur in tho house , can afford to be indifferent to the stares of his brother nctors .
The press would appear to blunder in other ways . Liberal journalists on Tuesday congratxilated tho country on Lord Derby ' s defeat on Monday ; nnd , as a matter of taste , it is no doubt gratifying that that nobleman should have been found out and « pufc down . But thoro aro -circumstancos in connexion with tho occasion on which liberal journalists should pause beforo they rejoice . A closo investigation would show , that though tho Tory party ia broken up , it has not disappeared . Lord Derby was in a minority— -ra minority ovon more contemptible than tho minority of that man of many minorities—Sir John Pakington . But of whom wan tho majority composed P Of that principal portion of tho Tory purty which will not follow Lord
! perby . And that is suspicious . "Viewingthe division i $ that light , the vote of the Lords on Monday was to be accepted as a compliment to Lord Aberdeen , to the effect , that he is , on the whole , a safer > T 6 ry than Lord l ) erby ; and of such a compliment what can Lord John I ^ usseU think P Veneer Liberal of the Cabinet , is he njot coming to the conclusion , that there is Blightly too much Toryism for him to cover ? Praotjcally , Lotd John ' s personal following in the House of Com mons is numerically less than that of Mr . Gladstone ; and it
i $ also perceptible , that they lead , in the Ministry , two different parties , —who , in the House , sit opposite one another . By a careful avoidance of all mai n questio ns and by a careful " open ' Mng of all secondary questions ^ of principle , the Whigs continue for the present to get along with the Conservatives : and you can see at any moment , that Mr . Gladstone and Lord John are wonderfully cordial . But as , if you throw a cake into the middle of the happiest " Happy Family , " there is immediate anarchy , so the next session ' s Reform Bill is likely to scatter the Coalition .
Mr . Disraeli has done . a good deal this week in the endeavour to damage Mr . GladstoneV reputation , po-U tical and financial . He was politely savage , on Thursday , in his opening attack ; and he really seemed as if he had at last mastered the Commutation scheme , about which he was so painfully puzzled when it first appeared . But Mr . Gladstone ' s reply , yesterday , wag conclusive—winning for its candour ; and he disarmed all further criticism by admitting the full extent of his failure , so far as the experiment has yet gone , while legitimately taking credit for a fair probability— -that if Russia had not unsettled Europe ( how the Chancellor must curse the Coalition foreign policy !) he would very likely have got the settlement he wanted on the Stock Exchange . What had Mr . Disraeli to say after
that ? Why , nothing ; and his small interjectionary protest when the House was weary of the subject against the reference to European disturbances , was a weakness and a piece of ill humour , visible in his bad manner , quite unworthy of Mr . Disraeli . Why Disraeli , who has been studiously idle during the Sesgion , and who has passed all his legislative time in lolling on the Opposition benches , cracking jokes with Lord Henry Lennox , or in lounging about the lobbies , astonishing the inhabitants of the refreshment stands by his weird apparition , should so suddenly brisken up into malignant activity on a question on which it was impossible , however he might injure Mr . Gladstone , that he could make a reputation for himself , is a perfectly inexplicable matter . There is an immemorial right in authors who have failed to convert themselves into
Critics ; and a Chancellor of the Exchequer who brought a Ministry down with his Budget—at a season of dead principles and profound political apathy , and when a good financial scheme would even have kept the friends of Louis Napoleon , of Stafford , and of Beresford in power—may deem himself fully entitled to carp at a partial mistake in his too felicitous successor . But Mr . Disraeli forgets his own dignity in accepting the role of Sir Fitzroy Kelly , who has " suggested "—the great statesman—with much assiduity in connexion with the Bcheme ; and he looked , on Thursday , less than ever h 9 looked before , in making an elaborate speech of tho " I told-you-so class , " and of secondhand figures , ab the inspiration of some city calculating boy , who is angry with the rival James Wilson , in order to induce a commercial faith in his own future finance , because ho onco
happened , when , his intellect was suffering from a combination of ill humour and ignorance , to make a similar guess . In this instance his assault has failed . ^ Mr . Gladstone , yesterday , won the personal sympa thies ot the Houso , and developed ( which was desirable , f ° ' has latterly been tediously lost in details ) , a perfect mastery of all tho features of European finance ; nnd n « for tho public—that outside tho Stock Exchange-i * takes men and things , in Mr . Gladstone ' s favourite way . " ns a whole , " and judging him by his entire Budget , of which this scheme was a part , his countrymen hftV < j assigned to him the position they formerly gave to Peel —in a commercial nation the best financier being necessarily the first statesman .
Sir John Pakington ha » been more , fortunate than Mr . Disraeli in an opposition function—annoy ing tlw Government . For the first time in his life ( on Thursday—on the East India Company ' s Bftlt monopoly ) h ° happened to bo right ; and he established another pi " ' cedent—for tho first time in his life ho happened on that day to be in a majority—two circumstances which wero evidently great sources of astonishm " to himself and the House , but particularly to p » Charles Wood , who perhaps had not quite recover ^ by that timo from his porplexlty at a uago ecvW agreeing to raise hi * salary . Sir Charles ha « g ° bo well through his India bill , nobody evon toKing any notice of his marvollouu introductory five IjO ° poecb , and tho celebrated enub he received * r 0 P
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30071853/page/16/
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