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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 . You are vexed , and bo 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 use 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 , —rand 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 him 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 .
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"A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . The 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 , on- —¦ cabs , accidents in mines , the truck system , and a new Westminster-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 35001 . a year or 6000 Z . a year ) , arid 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 be destroyed—the House of Commons must nevertheless legislate upon the " back fares" of metropolitan cabs . Mr . Disraeli taunted Peel that he was degrading the House of Commons into a vestry ; he 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 nnprecedented . From the beginning of the negotiations to the end , the Government , which had Lord Redcliflb to supply facta and Lord Palmerston to supply comments , has been fully cognizant of the real designs , and of the settled purpose of Russia . The lobby and the club talk of members of Parliament has been
consistent from the first ; und it indicates a profound disbelief that any one is in earnest but Russia , and a profound conviction that Russia will never resign the Principalities—therefore knowing that , England will not enter on a war , or even on the simulation of wnr . Hence a perfect agreement between tho House and tho Ministry that silence should b e preserved ; tho condition of carrying tho farco of diplomacy to a successful termination being- that no one should bo allowed to expose it . From the first to tho last tho intention of Government and Parliament was to dishonour England by a treachery to Turkey ; and not until tho perfidy is
accomplished is the next act in the farce—a debateto bo permitted . Yot , if England is a consenting party to tho dishonour , which sho obviously is , why not P The governing classes aro never ashamed to acknowledge that thoir tendencies aro Rusnian . And the commercial classos , oh usual , see only tho . immediate balance sheet , and lot Lord Abordeen understand they will not have war . They do not sco ijhut there is war . England commenced war when sho advanced her fleet to Bosika Bay . Another two days' sail would have cost not a farthing more . The cost of destroying tho Russian fleet and Russian prestige iu tho Eaut would just lmve been 1000 / . for gunpowder — or eny Sir Chnrlw Wood ' * « alary for one year ! Pity it U
that the Coalition did not include a MAU—who could have taken and forced on Government , on Parliament , and on governing classes , some such view . Who could have shown that Lord Aberdeen talked to the citizens on Saturday like a courteous old lady , hating quarrels , and 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 too much money and getting too 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 preler 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 HouBe 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 leadjwill 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" an 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 Monteogle talking ; and comparison can no further go . Stung by that indifference , what could Lord . Derby have thought of the division , which told him that his day was over even with his 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 bo 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 the press . Great journalists , who write of statesmen without even visiting the scene of statesmanship—which is as clever as criticising theatrical performances without ever going to the theatre—sustain tho old cant which was got up when Lord Derby had not yet been tried , and go through the old formulas of respectful puffing of pretontious peers—talking of this " able man , " who has broken down in every function ho ever assumed , and of tho " brilliant speeches " which ovon tho House of Lords will not listen to .
And while tho press maunders on in bolstering up hia reputation among his countrymen , Lord Derby may Btill have heart enough left to face tho sneers and tho smiles of tho club—viz ., Parliament . In tho namo way Charles Kean , having manipulated the free list , and made sure that thoro is not a connaisseur in tho house , can afford to be indifferent to tho stares of his brother actora . Tho press would appear to blunder in other ways . Liberal journalists on Tuesday congratulated tho country on Lord Derby's defeat on Monday ; and , as n
matter pf tasto , it is no doubt gratifying that thqt nobleman should have been found out and put down . But there are circumstances in connexion with tho occasion on which liberal journalists should pause before they rejoice . A close investigation would show , that though tho Tory party ia broken up , it has not disappoarod . Lord Derby was in a minority—a minority ovon more contemptible than tho minority of that man of many minorities—Sir John Pakington . But of whom was tho majority composod P Of that principal portion of the Tory party which will not follow Iiord
Derby . And that is suspicious . Viewing the divisio in that light , the vote of the Lords on Monday was to be accepted as a compliment to Lord Aberdeen , to th effect , that he is , on the whole , a safer Tory than Lord Derby ; and of such a compliment what can Lord John Russell think ? Veneer Liberal of the Cabinet , is h not coming to the conclusion , that there is slightly too much Toryism for him to cover ? Practicall y , Lord John ' s personal following in the House of Commons is numerically less than that of Mr . Gladstone ; and it
is 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 main questions and by a careful " open " -ing 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 wonderfutty cordial . But as , if you throw a cake into the middle of the happiest " Happy Family , " there is itnmediate anarchy , so the next session's Reform Bill ig likely to scatter the Coalition .
Mr . Disraeli has done a good deal this week in the endeavour to damage Mr . Gladstone ' s reputation , po . litical 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 repty yesterday , was 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
Session , and who has passed all bis 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 lie could make a reputation for himself , is a perfectly inexplicable matter . There is an immemorial rig ht 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 mistako in his too felicitous successor . But Mr . Disraeli forgets his own dignity in accepting the rolo of Sir Fitzroy Kelly , who has " suggested "—the great statesman—with much assiduity in connexion with tho scheme ; and he looked , on Thursday , less than ever ho looked before , in making an elaborate speech of the "I told-you-so class , " and of secondhand figures , at tho 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 he onco
happened , when his intellect was suffering from a combination of ill humour and ignornnce , to make a similar guess . In this instance bis assault has foiled . Mr . Gladstone , yesterday , won the personal sympathies ° f tho House , and developed ( which was desirable , for lie has latterly been tediously lost in details ) , a perfect mastery of all the features of European finance j and as for the public—that outside tho Stock Exchange- !* takes men and things , in Mr . Gladstone ' s favourite way , " ns a whole , " and judging him by his entire Budgot , of which this schema was a part , his country men l |» ° assigned to him tho position they formerly gavo to 1 co —in a commercial nation the best financier being necessarily tho first statesman .
Sir John Pakington has been more fortunate than Mr . Disraeli in an opposition function—annoy ing « i Government . For tho first time in his life ( on l » a J " day—on the East India Company ' s salt monopoly ) t happened to bo right ; and he established another I > r " cedent—for the first timo in his life ho happened o that day to be in a majority—two oircuinBtan ^ which wore evidently great sources of nstonifll ""^ to himself and tho House , but particularly to ? Charles Wood , who perhaps had not quite recover by that tlmo ft-om his perplexity at a sago * ona agreeing to raine his salary . Sir Charles liw » B \ bo woll through his India bill , nobody even t » K » b any notice of his marvellous introductory » v « n pooch , nnd tho celebrated « nub ho received v
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736 THE LEADER , [ Saturday , I
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1997/page/16/
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