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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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directly refuses to give power to the people . It is a system of counteractions and compromises , and such it must remain . He is content . He knows nothing beyond . He holds it the acme of statesmanship to treat the United Empire as street posture-masters treat the donkey , balanced on a ladder resting on the posture-master ' s nose ; and the perfection of the art is , to keep up a perpetual oscillation which shall amount to standing still . Such is Lord John ' s view of national progress . Now we do not ascribe his repudiated " finality" to any do not ascribe his repudiated " finality" to any
malignant intention . If he does not move on voluntarily or steadily , it is not for want of good intentions , but for want of seeing his way . He has not clear foresight nor inventive faculty , and therefore cannot have either settled purpose or matured plan . Hence his avowed practice of rubbing on with " measures from time to time suited to the occasion "—and . inspired by "the occasion . " He is like a man driving in a fog , who is willing enough to get on , if he could only see his way , since he dreads the collision of some heavy bodies
which he hears lumbering in his rear ; but he does not see his way ; so he is perpetually pulling now this side , now that , as omnibuses and posts loom into sight ; now whipping at the rumble behind ; now pulling up short at something dark in frontperhaps only the shadow of a lamp-post stretching across the mist ; never still , scarcely moving , teasing the bewildered and jaded horse ; and only tugging more lustily at the inconsistent rein as the conflicting frights grow upon his own benighted soul .
Now , Lord John is the archetypal Whig—the beau ideal of the party . He undertook to restore the county franchise of Ireland ; baulked by the great House of Lords suddenly trotting out upon his befogged vision , he pulls up , and is content to add 170 , 000 electors to the constituency of Ireland , with its population of seven millions . And he thinks that perhaps they may stop there ; or perhaps go on ; he does not know which ! That is the position of the Whig leader on the measure of the session .
The position of the Tories is not quite so well marked ; but Mr . Disraeli is seen upholding the decision of the Lorda , which virtually denies a restoration of the Irish constituency . Mr . Disraeli wouid rather wait till a constituency should " grow " there ; which is as much as to say that he would have it grow less until it disappear , leaving his party to vouchsafe government and legislation in the paternal sense . This is mere Toryism or Absolutism modernized and minced , to suit the polite language of the times .
The position of the Radical party , enfeebled as that is in purpose and organization , is indicated by Mr . Bright at the close of his speech , in a manner which suggests hopes of reviving freedom and strength : — " If the noble lord would take up , one by one , the great questions relating to Ireland , and settle them wisely and gently , he would do much to assuage her feelings against us , and he would have ample time in succeeding sessions to adjust those questions of a social character and ecclesiastical description which must come
on before long for the noble lord , or some one who succeeded him , to settle . If the noble lord felt that he must take this £ 12 franchise , they must do the best they could under the unfortunate dilemma into which the noble lord had allowed them to be brought ; but if the noble lord said he took this £ 12 on the same terms as he intended the £ 8—as a settlement of the Irish franchise—then he ( Mr . Bright ) hoped that in a session or two the noble lord would find a vast number of those who now supported him would be disposed to go further , and restore this bill to what it was when it passed that House . "
We pardon the wildly lingering fondness implied in the " if" for the growing purpose implied in the warning . Surely we have seen all that Lord John can do : his days are numbered . Stanley is set down for his turn of office , and the Radical party is no longer terrified at that necessity of constitutional routine . At last the Radicals are beginning
to look beyond the unavoidable Stanley interregnum , and are shaking themselves free from their humble position as a body of serving-men to Lord John , who follow him but do not share the honours of his campaign ; they arc looking out for the means to fortify his real successor . For the Stanley regime , going upon the past , cannot live lonir .
Meanwhile the People is quiescent ; the Charter is shelved ; thoughts are turned on Social Reform ; the mass of the nation is awaiting the development of a policy and the advance of leaders . Those will bo accented as leaders who can offer a policy constructed out of existing elements , and not out of the jmst . If the Radicals can strike out a programmo beyond the worn out gossip of " Reform , "
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THE MARLBOROUGH HOUSE AFFAIR . Considering how much of a laggard Lord John Russell has always been about doing anything for the people , it is marvellous to see the alacrity with which he despatches any piece of Court business . Compare his shameful procrastination of the Jew Bill with his promptitude in obtaining £ 12 , 000 a-year for the Duke of Cambridge ; his delaying that measure of Parliamentary Reform which he knows to be inevitable with his preposterous anticipation of the future wants of the Prince of Wales , by asking the House of Commons to vote that
Marlborough House shall become the residence of the young Prince in 1859 . People wonder in what quarter this notion of voting Marlborough House to the Prince of Wales first originated . The annals of Whiggery might furnish an answer . With all their pretensions to economy and retrenchment , the Whigs of the last century were the foremost in voting away the public money in the most lavish manner to supply the wants of the Prince of Wales of that day , and we fear that the same wretched propensity to worship the rising sun would explain the conduct of many an austere Cato in 1850 .
Looking backward , nine years are but a short period . Forward , they seem an age . Can any one foretell what manner of man the Prince of Wales will be nine years hence—nay , who will enjoy that title . By the time he was eighteen the last Prince of Wales had begun to lead a very disorderly life . But we are not much alarmed on that score . There is little danger of Prince Edward ' s ever coming to Parliament , as his granduncle did at one time , for the small sum of £ 700 , 000 to clear off certain debts which he had
contracted , in spite of his very liberal income of £ 50 , 000 per annum . Only think ' of an item of that kind being proposed among the miscellaneous votes for 1859 . What would Joseph Hume say ? Advisers of princes in that day will know better than to risk such a proposal ; indeed , we imagine that princes will know better than to need itsuch has been the progress of education since George the Fourth was King . Only fancy what a speech John Bright would make on such a topic , or Colonel Sibthorp , especially if the Whigs should happen to be in office !
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ASSASSINS GREAT AND SMALL . Cant is the profession of a sentiment , not for the sake of the truth in it , but for the sake of the credit which it enjoys ; and , therefore , cant may as easily pass current on true principles as on false ; but it has this fatal tendency—always to deviate into absurdity . In our day cant is peculiarly busy with conclusions of common sense and common humanity ; and we must distinguish between the
sentence of conscience and that of cant , even on the same point , or we run the risk of lending ourselves , not to follow out the dictates of virtue , but those of vice disguising its tongue in the language of its adversary . Conscience condemns the knife of the assassin : do you not know that cant does the same ? Yet the hired assassin may not be worse than others whom we applaud . Do not let us be frightened with words .
The assassin reappears in Italy . We often say that Italy is the land of the assassin ; but have not we our domestic poisonings ? Does the motive of sensuality or unnatural lucre , which assassinates the husband or the child , make that crime more tolerable , less ignominious to the community , than the knife which executes " the wild justice of revenge " under the systematic injustice of
corruptions , or which makes tyranny know the only form of responsibility that can reach it ? An assassin has just been seized at Rome , flagrante delicto ; he is said to have disclosed avast conspiracy ; and the English mind is horrified . And it is horrible . But why do we denounce this horror , and leave other horrors in peace , in authority , in so-called "sacred " immunity ? Let us not shrink in coward bigotry , and condiemn the one wretch while his true creators
escape . What is the state of things in which we note this hideous event ? Truly the accredited and authorized state of things is more hideous . The crime has appeared in Rome . That ancient city was the centre of a movement in which the Italians , following the example of France , were trying to recover Italy for its own sons . They
have been put down by the once reforming Pope , allied to despotic and perjured Naples , to the hated alien Austria , and aided by the Republican France . Rome has been betrayed , bombarded , crushed ; the official accounts declare that there are not ten thousand political prisoners in the gaols , but only eight thousand and some odd hundreds ; confiscation of goods has begun ; and decorous statesmen of Europe view these things with polite sufferance . One man raises his hand treacherously against a suspected agent of these horrors , and England is horrified .
Thrice , in 1812 , 1820 , and 1848 , England has , by innuendo , instigated Sicily to rebel , has affected to aid her , and has left her to her fate against the organized power of the Neapolitan throne . The assassin makes a wild attempt to interpose the check of terror , and England shudders . Is this virtue , or is it nonsensical inconsistenc y ? Do not say you abhor the dishonesty of the assassin , for then you must recall your friendly Ambassador from perjured Naples ; nor cruelty , for then you must chastise all the established governments of Ital y- You suffer these things in the bulk ; why be aghast at seeing their counterpart in detail ?
Look at the question in a more purely political view . The royal classes of Europe , however they may bicker among themselves , know that upon the whole they must stand or fall together . They formed a " Holy Alliance" to maintain a fat helpless member of their body against the nations ; they bought up a Napoleon with offers of legitimate alliances . If a people rebels , the combined royal classes can always join forces , and turn upon the revolted people a united army gathered from many dominions . The " peaceful" advocate of
progress no doubt says to the oppressed peoples" Suffer patiently for a while ; endure Sant' Angelo and Spielberg with fortitude : reason will advance until even Emperors and gaolers are convinced . " When ? In fact , the royal classes , perfectly hedged in by attendants who take their colour from themselves , and so far as they can see successful in their policy , know no reason for change : they are converted already from the natural instincts to the
feelings and maxims of established royalty . Their statesmen , who lead their councils , are likewise convinced that the actual regime should last . Their armies are paid to uphold that conviction , and the soldiers associate the idea of dynastic overturn with military disbanding—pauperism of soldiery . There is no hope for conversion to " progress " in such quarters , unless it be such slow progress as that which accumulated the Delta of the Nile . But
human action lias not the patience to spend itself on the produce of ages unborn , unconceived even in the womb of time . These armies are too much for any one people : the surrounding is complete : there is no appeal . It is under these circumstances that the assassin cuts through the circling band , and , with his blood-stained knife and desperate immunity , carries to the tyrant the one inextinguishable form of administrative responsibility .
It is shocking ; but see what Legitimate violence has done in the last two years . See how Hungary is placed . Riissia and Austria combine to bring upon that land an army drawn from territories equal to ten Hungaries ; the valiant people is overwhelmed by organized arms ; their old constitution is shattered to pieces ; Hungarians are driven abroad ,
shot without trial ; their patriots are bought with gold ; women are violated , children are massacred , and vanquished ladies are publicly flogged by unpunished officers . Hungary has no escape . Meanwhile the sole power that makes imperial Russia quail , that daunts the Czar , turns him in his path , and carries the impulse of doubt to his soul , is that same odious knife of the assassin . It is the
sole appeal of the hopelessly oppressed . Legitimacy dominant drives democracy into conspiracy : the organized military system of the royal class throughout Europe , which can surround every insurgent nation , finds its correlative in the institution of the stiletto . When the royal directors of this multitudinous assassination seek our shores , we salute them with the echo of their own wholesale weapon , the many-slaying cannon ; and , while we do that , we perpetrate a piece of cowardly cant in hysterical abominations of that one weapon which can alone cope with the gigantic armoury of despotism .
If we would denounce and brand the assassin , we must earn the right and the power to do so by denouncing and branding tbe organized Absolutism that calls him into being .
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they may take an early possession of power . It is for themselves to say whether they are still unable to do better than stand behind the chairs of the well-born Whigs .
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444 ©!) * ULt&ittt * [ Saturday , I
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 3, 1850, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1849/page/12/
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