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    fche Htiuse , gettingthrough and pushing throiagh •' business ; " all this while the . debating claps not turning up iftt all , except between six arid seven , to see if there's anything about Russia . Qreat should be the actnowledgiriehts of the nation to the "business men ; jad other country but England Could produce such senator ^ j a&d it happens that the national acknowledg-¦ Jk ' eiits of their virtues ar , e very insufficient . In tijat ' capital club , " the If quse oif Commons , every iriaaii knows every other man , and precise estimates sire taken of each by all : and the debaters genuinely appreciate and admire the men who could be debaters , too , if they

    liked ; but , who suppress all vanity and a good deal of ambition , and who take the quiet role of the " useful member , " simply because they know that character is the most respectable , risking with great moral courage this suspicion which invariably attaches to the useful joiember , that he is too lenient to , Government , for , of course , if this class did hot co-operate with the Government , whose special business it is to invent and carry forward business , nothing whatever would be done- See , they have worked this week , on an average , eighteen hours a-day , for it should be remembered that there is never a play without a rehearsal , and that to prepare

    for the work in the Efouse work outside is re quired . You always get a good deal of work out of a new Parliament in its first session ) firstly , because men are riot sick of the kind of work ; secondly , because constituents who have always a relay of uriappointed deputations in London , to look after the mein-Tjersj ^ variably find out the merit * , of industry , which always looks like integrity ; and a man ' s . ; performance | n his first session generally fixes or unfixes his position in " his seat . Notwithstanding t ^ c demirep conspiracies of Derbyism , it was said at the time that the last general election had returnedj on the whole , an improved class of members . It has not proved true with regard to debaters ; there is no new prominent name

    this session . But it has proved quite true with regard to the second rank of House of Commons heroes ; and true of all parties—even of the unbusiness-like parties —the Irish party and the Radical party ; the two day sittings this week oh the Landlord and Tenant Bills , showing that Irish members can be as sedate , practical , and rapid in committee as English members ; and the debates , in committee , on the Succession Tax , when Radicals had to defend the Government against the country gentlemen , being decidedly creditable for tem perate argument , and a tone of dignity , the result of complete knowledge being imparted by the elasticminded and ever-ready Chancellor of the Exchequer . The " Irish part /'—that party , par excellence— -has done much this week to counteract the disgustful

    impressions provoked by the conduct , earlier in the session , of the Irish members en masse : wisdom and tact , of the most remarkable kind , have been shown by such men as Mr . Duffy , Mr . Sergeant Shee , Mr . Lucas , Mr . Tristram Kennedy , and Dr . Brady , in fighting , not the Government , but the jealous landlord interest , on the Tenant Right question—a question now it appears confessedto be carried like other social reforms , not by

    , coups , but by instalments . And , as to the Radical members , it is not invidious to point out several whose personal characters and demeanours tone down the " flightiness" of the whole party : the great deficiency of the Radical party—a deficiency , because they have to deal with an aristocratic club—was in " gentlemen ; and Lambeth may be complimented on the choice of Mr W . A . Wilkinson , Newcastle-bn-Tyno on that , of

    Mr . Blackctt , and Bath on that of Mr . Phinn—all three Buccessea in their first session . The mere talkers , of all parties , have been unpopular in the House during ^ the whole session ; and only very crack talkers mdced would be endured in July . The session is now given up to the business men : they are masters of the House , and the House , at their dictation , puts debaters down , and forbids debates . Speeches have been inexorably forbidden ( until last night , when speeches conveyed nevvB ) all this week . The two imwt powerful classes in this country—the attorneyh and the newspaperswore competing i « the Ho . « o , on Wednesday for a cIomch largel

    remission of taxation ; and botli are y represented , and by debtors ; yot tho House , would hcuv Soitlior « ido ; but , having got Mr . Gladstone ' s < ec . s . on m favour of the newspapers , insisted on nn immediate division . Tho same , day , the Nunnoriea Infection Bill was on . A month ago , there w . w ufjitntfon , excitement , even passion , about tins bill . There was a debate aa . eager and earnest as him boon heard for years m the Houso of Commons . But tho adjourned debate on Wednesday was tlw languor of a pro fam& P « J ^ Mr Drummond wns , on . fc . of habit , eccentric ; ™* ™ a tumbling was tlw tumbling of a tired acrobat . Mr . WhitoHide wiis bigoted out of a . narrow nature ; but Ho limped in his declamation , and stumbled against cease-1 ( , h « crioa of "Divide . " Tho rest of tho speakers wore ot tho fifth-rate class , —tho first class saw tlmt there , was not nufflciwrt intorot left to mM » it worth thwr while

    to risk position byorittdry on such an equivocal theme . Oddly enough , however , the debate was again adjourned —as if the House wanted to hear more ! This was Lord Pahherston ' s cleverness ^—which is always the more conspicuous that he is always unscrupulous- —a great point in " management . " By inducing an adjournment he suspended the whole question till ; next session i and your Whig statesman always thinks he wins ' When ; he gams a session , ^ [ Next year , the difficulties will have accumulated ; Christian bigotry , rested in the recess , will be rampant in time for all uhcharitableness next session ; and we shall then have another struggle before we see this Protestant proposal put in the mild shape it had assumed on . Wednesday

    —that it be referred to a committee of inquiry ,- — meanwhile government in Ireland being rendered more and hiore difficult , and pious society in England more and more ridiculous . The Chancellor of the Exchequer profits by this legislative weariness . Perhaps he will not quite escape an exposition from Mr . Disraeli ( who is said , also , to threaten against the Cabinet generally a Lyndhurst-Hke history of the session ) of the collapse in the city of his Commutation scheme . But , ad interim , he travels rapidly through his Budget . . He puts people down with great force ; and is it not excusable that after

    such a session , of the epic of which he has been the hero , and the work of which he has got through with unparalleled success , he should now and then lose his temper ? He was answering Sir John Pakington on Monday on the Succession duty ; Sir John wished to explain ,, and removed his hat , th ^ Vjgnal that he was going to rise . "iNo , no , " exclaimed Mr . Gladstone , gesturing at Sir John with mesmeric passes , " don'tr don't ; it ' s quite unnecessary ; you are wasting the time of the House . " Sir John stared , but kept still ; the country gentlemen murmurea indignantly ; the House smiled and wondered . , It is not . usual , that sort of

    treatment of an Opposition " leader / ' but it ' s very natural—Mr . Gladstone is wearied of Sir John , and his intellect revolts at the dulness of these squires , and at the glaring political selfishness which they shamefully attempt to perpetuate , in resisting a tax when it touches themselves , which for years they have sedulously and contentedly imposed on personal property . At any rate the broken and scattered Tory cohorts have to endure this scorn from the man whom they attempted to thrust out of the Carlton , and whom

    they hate with a concentrated hate—more malignant even than the hatred they bore to Peel when they were baffled by that glorious renegade ; and it is also clear that tho House , which notices the irritation of Mr . Gladstone ' s manners , is daily more and more content with and indulgent to the Finance Minister . The debaters , because he is in the first rank of their class—equal to Disraeli and Palmerston ; the business m 3 n because he is unweariedly laborious , conscientiously minute , and miraculously quick ; all , because intense earnestness , which is his forte , carries

    all before it . Not content with the weight of his budget , Jhe has superadded other work , which other men would have left to subordinates . It was , no doubt , Y iolent pressure on the part of his colleagues which induced him to give up his Savings Bank bill on Thursday ; and his undertaking it at all testifies to a conscientiousness which Sir Charles Wood would find it difficult to understand—Sir Charles having , been chosen Finance Minister when the plundorings of these banks occurred , and having remained Finance Minister several years afterwards , without stirring an inch to protect the classes interested . The different morale of Sir Charles Wood

    is amply illustrated in his conduct of tho India Bill , as , indeed , is also , in tho committee dobates , his inferior character , far it is painfully plain that he talks without influence , and leads without control—the conversationalists on both sides treating him with unaffected and perhaps unconscious contempt . As indicated hero last week , Lord John Russell gave Sir Charles no aid to useful position in conducting tho bill ; when Sir Charles ' s own chief snubbed him , it was not lilfoly that great delicacy would bo shown by Mr . Bright , or that tho nabobs , who have como out in tho committee , and are lively in the Dog-days , would bo deferential to a man whose palpable moagrcness of Indian knowledge they in fact

    dotect and despise . Tho Government , , lms been represented moro by Mr . Lowo than by Sir Charles ; Lord John , not Sir Charles , luis boon talked at on the great points ; and Mr . Bright has been kept oil" chiefly by Sir James Hogg , whd is ' tho dignified and declamatory champion of the Company , and who is always discovering with " deop regret and « Htoniflhmont /'—Sir James Weir Hogg , with the traditions of tho India bar , is given to . expansive phrases thai ; Mr . Bright ' B tondqney in committee discussions 5 h to bo personal . Mr . Bright is so , and has always been ; and his power in the * House and in tho country in the consequence . His life has beon jwd m a kuotUIrwarfare—would ith » d been at th . 4 iwaaof a mor ©

    organizedcorps I—against infamous political systems arid the condition of success , as in other guerilla warfare , was the constant capture of chiefs . He was wrong not , to give up the name he alluded to on Thursday nig ht ; hie is wrong not to tell all he knows of individual and private influence in connexion with the Indian question ; for Sir James would be more grieved and more astonished than ever , to learn that Mr . Bright ' s fault in the India Bill . agitation was , that he bad hot spoken out sufficiently . Both he and Mry Wilkinson—Mr . Brigtitfs authority— should at once have declared their facts for this strong assertion of the

    prevalence of peculation in the Indian system ; and though very little was lost by the delay of a day . ( till last uight ) , when both honourable gentlemen behaved we ll __ Mr . Wilkinson , for a not well known and not practised member , and in a very painful position , with wonderful tact and temper— -the objection remains to their behaviour—that on the second day they practically left the matter where it was on the first- — -that is they left the House without the . " name , " and still enabled the virtuously indignant Directors and their sycophants , waiting presidential governments ( as , for

    instance , Lord Jocelyn ) , to ride off upon a general denial to a general charge—the one , for the ignorant public , being just as trustworthy as the other . Messrs . Bright and Wilkinson will perhaps have succeeded in deepening the universal but vague impression that India is plundered and marketed by Indian " authorities ; " but when they had an opportunity of pressing such an accusation home , to the complete explosion of a disgraceful accusation , it was a mistake in tactics riot to have the original accuser ( Mr . Wilkinson ' s brother ) brought to the bar , and therequestioned * whether it were more honourable to continue to withhold a name to the

    concealment of which his " personal honour" was pledged , or to succumb to the command , if it should be issued , of a House composed of honourable men , and able to judge whether the rule as to " personal honour" was not susceptible of exceptions ? At any rate , Mr . Bright should have managed better than to let Lord John , who was terrified at the consequences of an earnest inquiry , shelve the accusation on the plea that

    it was too " general" to be entertained against a body £ 0 renowned for honour as the East India Directors I The House didn't believe the denial—did not rely on Lord John ' s plea—had , in short , a strong tendency to believe unreservedly the obviously veracious Mr . Wilkinson— -yet the House allowed this grave business to be thus immorally shirked ; and that would not have been the result if Mr . Bright had been in his average defiant mental condition .

    Fix the responsibility of a system on individuals , and you reform the system ; to attack a corporation or a Wehvngericht , is to attack an abstraction — for more than Thurlow ' s excellent reasons . " Name , name , " should be the Radical cry , while Radicalism has work to do ; and Mr . Bright is in error to be considerate . It will be curious to observe the results of the appointment of the committee , obtained by Mr . Bright himself , to enquire into the conduct of the Earl Fitzwilliam in tho Peterborough

    election . If the committee report that this peer did violate a principle of tho constitution , —what then ? Even if tho report bo mild and forgiving , a great gain is still secured ; a precedent at which every peer may tremble . If Earl Fitscwilliani , a Whig lord , be checked in doing what , ho likes With his own , can Tory lords escape P Lord John , who has a nephew returning threo members to thellonso qf Commons , assented to the committee ; but did Lord Vahnerston ? Lord Palmerston , who contestedSligo tho otherday witha Lord of theTreasnry ? Mr . Bright , in fastening on an individual to illu ^ trato a system , advanced incalculably tho cause of Reform . But he should follow up that bold stroke ; he should arrange for Radical claqueurs to cry ceaselessly , " JSTamo ,

    name ; " and when 1 > 1 *> wholo pecrago haa been trotted through tho committee corridors of the Commons— 'the ago of rotten boroughs will have ceased . A Stranger . Saturday Morning .

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    Mil . 8 JEHJJ 5 ANT ADAMS . Thnur are groat differences , adequately roproaentod in tho IX ' ouho of , Commons' Into division , with respect to the propriety of increasing fch <} salary of Mr . Sorjeant Adams . Wo havo to suggest , us tho opinion should bo practical , nnd not abstract , that all thoso wh , o think tliie celebrated judge has been ill-fcroatcd , should attend , for a fow houra any day , the Westminster Sessions . Wo happened to bo ther , o , recently , and . wo coriwiiily arrived -at tho diatinefc conclusion , that tho learned Sorjoilht was immediately entitled to a handsome retiring pension . Wo may add that a bad bench makes a bad bar , and that wo woro shocked and disgusted at tho tone and demeanour of tho gentlemen , " by profession , " practising in the loomed and facetious Sorjoant ' s court .

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    VJ ^|| , l |^ l _^_ _ _ .. _ iHj'fejfeEAbll ^^;^ . . ;_ ;_; . 715 ¦ ¦¦¦

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    NOTICES TO CORHESPONDT 5 NT 8 . " Tho BuHflian- Incorporation of the Banubian ProvincpB , " « " ^ Ue G reek Jiinpiro JSTotiow , " " Barcjiiiapivlutj » t tho Adulphi , " nd othitr paper * , uu » Toid » bly omitted tain r / anki

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 23, 1853, page 713, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1996/page/17/