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purify the land ; something which should be to the immorality of the nation what the great London Tunnel Sewers will be to the filth of London ( a measure , bythe-bye , which the Waterloo-bridge toll-keepers should foe heard by counsel against , for to clean the Thames is to encourage suicides)—very deep draining , so as to clear away out to the Pacific that electoral sediment , from the bribed to the briber—the Brown and the Coppock—in which' so many English gentlemen who despise the French nation , have soiled their fingers . Ton would think—to continue your wondermentthat there would be no more talk of a new Reform
bill , but rather that there would be a universal demand for a return to the era before 1832 , when there were pocket boroughs indeed , but which may be said to be to the Canterburys ( moral Canterbury , which ruined G . S . Smythe because he fought a duel !] and the Norwiches , what a monopolised lotette is to a wholly lost and unhappy woman . You would think Lord John would go on his knees and ask pardon of Sir Robert Inglis and Mr . Herries—old Reform bill opponents—for having led the nation into such disgrace . You would think Sir William Molesworth would recant faith in humanity , and that Mr . Roebuck would rise from his sick bed to urge on the Senate the expediency of a monocracy , and such a coup d ' etat as would make the Earl of Cardigan first minister , with
Prince Albert at the Mint . You would think anything but what is done—much weeping at the frailty of an enlightened nation , but grant of the new writ nevertheless—and the orders of the day . You hope it is all right ; only you are glad Lord Brougham had the courage to present that petition to the Peers from Robert Owen ; and you are sure that as the committees prove the established system to be a dead failure , Robert Owen ' s might be worth the trial . This you are satisfied about , that while Coppock is so heartily greeted in the lobby , and Lord Palmerston so heartily laughed with when he humorously sketches the process of robbing by prostitutes in lone places , Mr . Spooner ' s mind may he more easy aboxit the admission of one not astute Jew among 654 new Testament
devotees . But , however determined not to act , in these corruption matters , consistently with words and factshowever weakly shirking the laying down of broad principles , legislation according to which would be the Reform Bill , by revolutionizing the whole electoral system—it is still evident that the shadows of the committees are over the House , that there is sorrow and regret , and that if Lord John had the boldness and the honour to become worthy of the occasion , he would carry all before him . It would not do for the irresponsible but the conscientious to propose a resolution ,
such as is wanted , such as the people ( that ts pure and honest ) would rejoice at ; and , accordingly , the orders of the day are read , and the thoughtless , and the careless , and the cynical , are allowed to carry on " business "—which must be attended to , whatever the disgust of Providence at national sin . Hence a weary night of an Irish debate ( an Irish row , as Lord Clarendon said , in honour of St . Patrick ' s day ) , which was on a quest ion whether Celtic savages or Saxon ruffians were most in the wrong in a reciprocal massacre ; about which no one , out of the miserable circle of Irish partisan barristers , with Four Courts' powers of misleading and mispronunciation , could possibly care one curse : but which , in the subdued tone t hat has come
over the conscious House , was permitted patiently to whirl and worry through a long night ; tho only result being a demonstration that tho Irish liar , of whom tho best . specimens oratorized on Thursday , is a confederation not moro intellectual , and less grammatical , than tho greasy class who sustain tho fame of British mind and eloquence , under tho influence of turpentine and water , at the Temple Forum , Fleet-street . Hence , too , the very complex debute on exhausted topics , treated by used-up speakers , lust night ; and you could detect in tho languor of the talking , and still more in the languor of the hearing—a climax of that desultory weariness and want of earnestness about everything which not in with tho committees— -profound gratification thai , lifter the division there was to come tho Kuster
holidays—a respite from Spoonor , I ' ukiiigton , and the striking of new committees , and virtuous Chairmen appearing at the bar with a " Tekel Upliarsin , " to bo put on the journals , for the benefit of sitting and perspiring members . For very many years , since 1 took to a taste for studying contemporary history , as it is manufactured in Westminster , 1 Imvo always been in tho habit of asking why there were holidays at Easter ; and nobody could ever satisfy me that the custom had a justification . To oat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday , or plum-pudding on the H 5 th of DeoftHilxjr , becauso you always did so , ami your fathers before you , is to make yourself ill with good und bound reasons j but if Parliament has no bettor reunion for adjourning for » w «« k
the Friday but one before Easter Sunday , than that Parliament never did otherwise since Parliament was , — agents , solicitors , municipal corporations , cabmen , Bridgestreet hotel-keepers , the news agents , and the people who have given up theatres and taken to the debates , are entitled to remonstrate . That is to say , they usually are ; but not this year . This Easter holiday is a needed breathing » time after the dredging work we have had since the 2 nd February . Human nature could not have gone on with new committees without
a pause . In the confusion , the shame , the repentance , no one has been able to make up his mind as to what should be done ; and a pause may permit some good resolutions . Great blame is thrown on Sir J . Shelley for his indecision on Tuesday about the new writs—proposing and then withdrawing a preclusory amendment . But why censure that good-natured , not large-minded , and anxious-to-be-busy baronet , who was only puzzled , as the ~ House was puzzled , between conscience and expediency—who was in doubt , because he could not feel his way in a House in doubt . It is absurd to appoint
a commission here , and to renew the writ there , —to lament bribery , and yet not punish the corrupt—to declaim against Brown and Coppock , and yet leave Brown and Coppock to make their fortunes : and the House of Commons is behaving very foolishly and recklessly , and irregularly . But whose business is it to be wise and bold in such a crisis ? No one ' s if not Lord John ' s ; and Lord John is mild and unconcerned ; and begs to tell Lord A . Vane ( that the son of the owner of the " treasure" should affect such inquiring virtue !) that he contemplates , in regard to proved cases of bribery , why—ah , —I believe , — ah—nothing . Lord
Aberdeen , in the Lords , says , the day before , that he has reason to believe his noble friend is thinking over the matter ; and that , ah , no doubt , as , ah , the noble lord opposite observes , it is , ah , undoubtedly shocking . Were Mr . Roebuck strong and well we should have some pluck and vigour : the little man would force that House , as he did in the committee cases of the election of ' 41 , into honest and straight-forward dealing , at whatever risks . But he is ill—dying ; and there is no other man who has such integrity , and such illtemper—the great qualities pre-eminently required .
We could , therefore , only expect—whatever we may anticipate from a Cabinet Council in the short recessthe maundering and variant doings of the week—and , worse still , the dangerous speeches in which Radicals have admitted much too much . We heard from Mr . Cobden and Mr . Duncombe , on Tuesday , two astonishingly novel arguments , for " people ' s party" , for the ballot and equal electoral districts . Adopt the ballot , says one Radical , and then there will be no bribery—the purchaser would not be safe of his bargain . Says Mr . Dnncombe , who deals with his own constitution as he would with the British—he is
perpetually reforming it—so that now at the alleged age of 100 , he looks as lively as he did when he first spited the aristocracy by turning people ' s evidence against them—says the member for Fingbury , Let us have constituencies in which there shall not be less than 20 , 00 . 0 voters , and then who'll be able to afford corruption ? What faith in an enlightened nation does this show ? According to the people ' s advocates , tho people are so inherently corrupt that they cannot bo trusted ; and yet Mr . Cobden consents to , and Mr . Duncombe insists on , a cry for an extension of tho suffrage . Argument : the few to whom we give the suffrage are such scamps ,
that we must multiply them : we cannot prevent the people being bribable—let us make the people too dear . Is not that naive in aliberal ? This is the way toencourage and Bustain Lord John in next year ' s problematical Reform Bill— as if Mr . Disraeli , who remains a great individuality , though deposed from leadership in favour of Paldngton , were not warily watching all these hysterical " asides , " hardly intended for the public , and arranging the capital he will mako of them in proper time ; when , a policy having been
discovered , there will bo deinnnd for a man , to bo again elected to tinkle tho bells on tho road to tho Treasury benches . There is , of course , ono aspect in which the committee revelations are to be regarded as favourable to argumentation for moro voters in Great Britain ; but very singularly tho Radicals , ns a party , are completely ilcgligent of tho materials far too abundantly presented . Those wiio ure talking at all about the committees are canting h » the wrong key : the mass of Liberals aro not talking of them at nil .
If we want to ascertain how the dependence on the side of Lord Aberdeen , and dread ( of Lord Aherdeon ) on tho side of Lord John Eussell , ia likely to <> i > erate on tho Reform Bill when it does come , and on the general character of this year ' s indiscriminate legislation , we can refer to last night ' s work in the House of Commons on the Canada clergy reserves . Lord John , who had got and taken much credit for his boldness in this
business , and who had not intrepidly obstinate Lord Grey at his elbow to make him ashamed of a wavering , seems to have found at the last moment that the Argyll and Newcastle section of the Cabinet did not like this complete desertion of the Church of England in Canada , that Lord Derby was strong on this point , and that , in such a matter , it was hardl y worth while to expose Government weakness in the Lords : and in throwing over , in committee last night , the third clause , which excused the people of England from becoming paymasters of Canadian bishops , in the event of those right reverend persons being pauperised by the
local legislature , the Government literally turned round on their own bill , took out its sting—the new principle of colonial policy—and confessed a blunder in its introduction . Now , a Government however strong , cannot afford such blunders ; the debate , consequently , did great harm to the Cabinet ; and if Mr . Disraeli had not withdrawn his delaying motion to report progress , for which all the Conservatives , and all the Dissenters , and most of the Radicals would have voted , the Cabinet would have been placed in a minority . Mr . Disraeli , not sure of a concrete party to back him , may have been afraid of being
called factious , or that the Government would resign , and leave him to be " sent for , " ignoniiniously to be not at home to the royal messenger;—what his object was in backing out of a chance of mischief it is not easy to say;—but , clearly , Government had a narrow escape . Two facts remain : —there is a very strong Church party in ttie Ministry ; and Lord John gives way to it . Perhaps one satisfactory personal inference from this toilsome debate is—that Mr . Edward Miall may still succeed in the House of Commons . The Dissenters , it is known , had made during the week great efforts to arouse vexation against Lord John's compromising cunning ; and Mr . Miall was therefore last night in his proper
position—representative of the Dissenters , —what may be called , without offence , the professional Dissenters ; and attacking , not an abstract point ( as in his failure on the Maynooth motion ) , but a tangible grievance . He availed himself of the advantiige of a locus standi , and improved in his manner—at least , in his confidence ; and though exhibiting again that class manner—something of the chapel , something of the school , purr in gesture , sfogato in voice—which offends in the House , because so obviously irreconcilable with the climate—he was still clear , terse , and instructive—he did not lecture this time , but suggested , and he was listened to , if coldly and quietly , at least with that amount of respect which consists in the absence of fidgety sneering . There were a halfdozen friends and admirers—who is not a friend to , and
admirer of , Mr . Miall?—above and below his bench , and they " Hear , beared , " the diffident journalist with a generosity — Mr . Bright ' s barytone was pre-eminent —which made you like the voices . But Mr . Miall has not succeeeded yet ; and if he was anxious when be sat down , to know why there had been no general applause , he could not fail to have discerned the reason when Mr . Bright got up ( he spared ten minutes from India , such was the dissenting pressure on him in the lobby ) and said precisely what Mr . Miall
had said , only in less elegant and careful language , added no new idea , and was yet loudly cheered—the whole House being eager and attentive to his every syllable . But why ? Because Mr . Bright lias a . great , massive head and deep chest , while Mr . Miall is a slender , slight-necked , small , round-headed man—all intellect—but not built for notion . In other words , vigour und vehemence—strong manifest volition—are necessary to impress spoken thought on an independent assembly . A " Stranger . " Saturday Morning , March lOtli .
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8 TIOKMAKBRS HTRIKK AT BTAFBORI ) . The ancient town of Stafford i « famous for tho making o shoes , carried on , as most trades are , by tho co-operation of masters and inon . Tho masters and nion cannot agreo ; and , as usually happens in such eusos , tho trade is at leant partially suspended . From tho accounts which havo reached us , tho commonphieo presumption , that "there aro fauUfl on both sides , " which is ho often false , appears in this < : uh <> to bo true . Tho nuts tors aro trying- to keep down wa ^ os , and tho men aro
trying to foreo upon tho musters conditions of n very voxatious kind , such us tho colour of tho binding ! To demand what irutn will only grant ut < ' lust extremity , is to cour fc refusal ; and the men who mix up such exactions with their juster claims aro doing no sorvico to tho causo of jfls ^ tico for their order . On Ui <> other hand , to nttompkjfc ] tm , lovel of wages in Staffordshire alone would bo as abfl ^ rd ^ to attempt to dig a hole in Hit ! surface of a lake . f £ W 0 rk- ^ nifiii cannot get thoir just duo in Stafford they wijl * 4 ||| jlt olmm'horo and then a limited labour-market in StflJEaKA will bring tho masters to thoir senses . ., But it ia evident to uh that both parties aro contributing *
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MAftfetf 10 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 281
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Leader (1850-1860), March 19, 1853, page 281, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1978/page/17/
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