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LORD DERBY'S TENURE OF OFFICE . Bt what right does * Lord Derby act as Prime Minister of the Crown P The question is more important to the Conservative section of the political world than to any other ; for anything more calculated to shake and discredit that shattered article , " the Constitution , " we do not remember , than his unwarranted occupation of office . By what right is he there P "We might recommend the question to the consideration of MrXHsraeli , the philosophic statesman of the
" We know that Lord Derby is in office by the appointment of the Crown ; but it must be remembered , that by the theory of our " glorious , " &c , it is not the Crown , but the Minister who is responsible for the acceptance ^ of office . The Crown acts without responsibility , but the Minister who accepts is bound to show that he has a warrant for doing so . J ^ Tow what is his warrants It is not that majority in the Representative House which is the most usual and direct warrant for the acceptance of such a post ; for Lord Derby himself admits that he has not a majority in the House of Commons , perhaps not in either House .
The next kind of warrant is , that a statesman impersonates a principle which he believes to coincide with the opinion held by the electoral majority of the country ; and in the principle of Protection , Lord Derby might find such a warrant . Not that we believe it to be held by the electoral majority of the country , still less by the majority of the country itself ; but the limited franchise prevents that distinct and absolute declaration of the national sentiment which would alone place such a question beyond all further discussion ; and there is no doubt that some presont movements among the working classes may
be mistaken for a recurrence to the principle of Protection . It is possible , therefore , that lord Derb y may find his warrant in that principle , and that , although he has not a present majority in the House of Commons , he may expect to make one by a general election . But if that be so , he is bound to make good his pretension without delay . Any prolonged interval between the acceptance of office and the fulfilment of such a duty is a violation of our constitution aforesaid —it is a violation
theoreticall y erroneous and practically hazardous . Ihe theory is , that the Sovereign is not responsible , but that the responsibility rests on the Minister ; and the usage is , that a statesman enters office to enforce that policy alone for winch ho can conscientiously be responsible . So Jong as that rule is observed , our system works with comparative smoothness — the Sovereign being unable to find any man to act as Minister , except such as possesses , constructively , at least , tuo concurrence of the Commons .
As soon as a statesman consents to enter office jis the instrument of a policy other than his own , ne disturbs that constitutional practice , and brmgs it into contempt . Ho familiarizes the pumic with the idea of Ministerial irresponsibility ; out an irresponsible Ministry could not exist . 10 « g without suggesting the inevitable idea of •« oyal responsibilit y ; and , passing over a statesman who consented . to bo tho mere clerk of a department , the country might once more think 10 make tho Sovereign personally answerable , jms is not a moro theorotical point . Whilo tho OOVOroiim is restricted hv thn nrv ^ sHifv of 4 \ r * A ; »
a man who will undertake a responsible agonoy , on ius own torinfl > tho count ] lfts ft ohock £ n J ! 5 p yftl P . owor ; but if onoo you admitted that ino toovcroign can employ any agent , without Hpooilic responsibility on the part of that agent ,
you would destroy the check , and would leave the country no other course but to deal directly with the Sovereign . Lord Derby says that he felt it his duty no longer to flinch , from the . responsibility of accepting office ; but he can only assume that duty honestly and really by taking it on the strength of putting his main principle immediately to the
test . The very words , however , which accompany his declaration of duty , are an evasion of responsibility : he confesses that he has no majority in the Commons , and perhaps not in the Lords , and lie throws himself on the indulgence of Parliament ; in other words , he begs Parliament to waive his responsibility . But somebody must be answerable j and if not Lord Derby , who isitP
He has mistaken his duty . If he felt that an opportunity had come for the advancement of his policy , and that he could accept office on that ground , then by all the reasons of patriotism , he was bound to accept ; but he was not bound to accept without being qualified to undertake a conscientious responsibility . Quite the contrary . We know well what he means , and give him every credit for good intent in lending himself to a device by which " her Majesty ' s government may be carried on ; " but statesmen can never safely
depart from what maybe called a defacto course . If the facts preclude him from acting on his convictions , he is precluded from accepting office . If the condition of his taking place is the postponement of his own . opinion , he is ipso facto disqualified . In such case , he cannot call himself unwilling , but incompetent . His acceptance does more harm than good . . If it were so to happen that all men were dis-Sualified , and that the Crown could not find a finister , thatanomalous condition of affairs would suererestits dwnremedv . We believe , however , that
there are statesmen who do not labour under Lord Derby's disqualification . We have been guilty of no adulation of the Manchester school , and we should sincerely grieve to see this country handed over to a supremacy of trade ; but we are bound to express our belief that Mr , Cobden labours under no such disqualification as Lord Derby does . We are still more confident that the statesman whose victory rendered office vacant for Lord Derby , could prove his practical and technical
qualification foromce . Lord . Derby , then , stands in the way of others who have a better rig ht than he has , and there was no necessity for his acceptance . Its intention was patriotic , its effect can only be mischievous . He has enabled her Majesty ' s government to be carried on , but he has incurred a risk of raising the question as to the position of the Crown itself . He has supplied another illustration of the great fact , that in our day ministerial responsibility is becoming a farce .
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IMPRACTICABILITY OF THE OLD " PROTECTION . " At the present moment it is of the utmost importance that those who have the welfare of the industrial classes at heart should note the curious relation between the doctrines of Protection , Free Trade , and Association . It is important to bear in mind , and to show to others whom we desire for allies , that Association would fulfil , what both the other ceconomic doctrines profess , although they are both in their nature impracticable , and are collectivel y incompatible . Protection is tho doctrine which the present Ministers will try to rointroduce . It professes to secure the welfare of tho labourer by excluding foreign rivals '; which it can scarcely do , since it cannot conquer the smuggler , except in tho import of articles most needful for life : those , being bulky , it can exclude , to tho extreme detriment of tho poor . Tho trial of free trade has made even tho agricultural labourer know what ho lost by a prohibitory or restrictive duty ; and the taste of cheap broad will provent his ovor rqjoininer tho exclusionists . In fact , they protect tho
pocket against tho mouth . Protection proceeds by putting a negative on production ; that is its sole pretension to tho regulation of industry . Froo trade has made tho most of that woak point , and has accomplished freedom of production abroad and at homo , priding itself on a total abstinence from the regulation of industry . But a yot shorter trial of froo trade has destroyed that boundless confidence in it which numbers had : we will not havo Protection any more , bocauso it prohibits production ; but mere liberty of exchange ia not sufficient for tho guidance of
those occupations that ought to supply us with necessaries . The evils which men endure under the absence of regulation , though they may be mistaken in ascribing it to free trade , are nofc to be denied or ignored . Landlords are suffering in deteriorated property—that cannot be denied . Labourer's are in a condition hopeless of improvement , except through expatriation : they have mnrA hrtwd . but there their improvement stops ,
and it will go no further . Shipowners are suffering large losses . One man sends his ships out under a Government contract to deliver timber , and finds that his anticipated return freights have gone by some other route ; another discovers a deficit of 80 , 000 Z . in his trade . These facts may be glibly denied , or " explained away " by theoretical writers , but they cut deep into the minds of those who suffer .
Meanwhile , the working classes are far in advance of the educated classes with regard to these questions , though there are men among the middle class also practically alive to some want which is grinding them all to the same principle . The men Of the iron trades find that it is destruction to go on without a better understanding between themselves and their employers ; that unless they have a voice in the regulation of their own industry , they shall enter into that process of gradual , but continual sinking , which
is yearly bringing larger numbers of working men to the level of starvation ^ Other classes discover the want in other ways . The omnibus conductors and drivers find that they have souls , and that they do but enjoy a half existence while life is divided between bed and box ; and they are asking for a species of " short time" suited to their business . The coalwhippers are again " on strike . " And the Amalgamated Engineers are proposing a general amalgamation of all trades in a protective union , with a view to the
regulation oi industry , jmumueraujL me wuuuug classes continually drifting down the stream are cast away—go to " the Union "— " freedom of industry" taking no account of them . Their destruction is the price of a freedom which is beneficial only to the employing class . It comes within our knowledge , that a manufacturer has been heard to declare , how much better it waa that sUch persons should die off , rather than be a burden on the rate-payers . Free trade does not cure the fault of Protection , which lets land go out of cultivation ; both are equally culpable . Surplus labour co-exists with surplus land and
surplus capital , a practical regulation of those doctrinaires who insist that " supply and demand " would always regulate all these elements of wealth , and keep them near the level . Meanwhile , certain practical administrators of the Poor Law perceive the necessity for rendering the surplus labour self-supporting , and they are setting the able-bodied to reproductive employment . In short , without any theoretical impulse ,
they are applying that great principle of concert in the division of emp loyments which is the fundamental idea of Socialist ceconomy . Protection takes care of the producer by excluding the consumer from any rival producer . Free trade frees the consumer , but takes no heed of the producer . Association teaches tho consumer and producer to act in concert for their mutual interest , encouraging the largest amount of production without uncertainty of consumption .
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THE UNITED REFORM IMPULSE . The majority of tho English people desires 41 Reform" with all its heart , or rather with all its reason—for the English heart appears to us to be in abeyance ; but it cannot compass its will , because it cannot agree upon its own resolve Thus the English people stands , wishing , avowing its wish , yet not accomplishing itB wisli , a Bpectacle to men and Protectionists ! Anything more humbling to a groat people never bofol . In consequence of that one weakness , which renders it unablo to make its own Parliament according to its mind , all its other resolves arc in a liko state of incompotoncy . It resolves to" have reform of finances , and yet yearly its expenditure , is increasing . It resolves to havo enough moans to defend itself from aggression from without ; but , though tho immense sums which it g ^ vea to ministers for that purpose are oxpondod , its defences arc bolow par . It resolves to havo froo trade , and really attains it j and now , in tho sixth year of free trade , tho question is again to bo referrod to Abingdon and Aylesbury , Buckinghamshire and Dorsetshire . The men . of Manchester , who havo
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Thpre * is nothing so revolutionary , because there is Tiothin £ so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to leeet > things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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— = T~— - * SATUBPAy , MABCH C , 1852 .
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Mabch 6 , 1852 , ] THE LEADER . 325
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1852, page 225, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1925/page/13/
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