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Crowru During the last tvro or three years , Lord John has perhaps hardly heen equal to his position ; and evidences of his failing strength and confidence are too clear . But , in forming an opinion of him , we must remember the Lord John of 1830 as well as the Lord John of the Durham Letter , the Militia Bill , and the Villiers ' motion . When he was writing to Mr . Attwood , of Birmingham , approving of the intention of that gentleman , and other members of the Union , not to pay taxes till the Keform Bill was passed , and suggesting that the
" whisper of a faction " ( viz ., a large majority ' of the House of Lords , the Crown , and the Church ) could not prevail against the " voice of a nation " ( which abolished old Sarum and left Stamford ) , he must have been a magnificent young fellow , quite prepared for being Mirabeau , if there was to be a revolution . He was still a splendid and vigorous party leader when he backed out of the appropriation clause , and when he made the sudden discovery , one recess , that the Corn Laws were a cheat upon the people . We cannot forget these things . Sculptors and painters ,
in arranging to hand down heroes to posterity on canvas or in marble , do not depict the decaying hero—grey hairs and the palsy , but take the countenance and the costume of lusty manhood . When we think of Napoleon , we think of the man of Marengo , not of the man of St . Helena ; and we must remember , in considering Lord John Russell , the hero of the Reform Bill—not the martyr of the Durham Letter . We have also to bear in mind that there is to be another Reform Bill , and that the heroic may then re-appear .
As a statesman , Lord John Russell is to be regarded under two aspects ; and we have to inquire , first , what has he done for his country ? and next , what has he done for his party ? The answer is that he has passed his life in leading his country into quandaries ; and that he has finally landed his party in a cul-de-sac—a coalition . . Tested , in the first place , by what he has done on reform , this is so far only apparent that his work of ' 32 has to be done over again in ' 54 , not because * of the multiplication of population , redistribution of
property , or increase of intelligence , but because the Bill of' 32 failed in all that it pretended to dobeing a sham in Schedule A , and a still greater sham in Schedule B , while the aggregate representation of the nation remains" as completely delusive as in the days of Walpole . That Lord John has to reproduce himself in 1854 is discreditable ; but what is most discreditable , is that the necessity of the reproduction having been seen in the general election which brought Sir Robert Peel into the Premiership , Lord John has so long delayed an inevitable
work , more particularly as the delay destroyed the Whig party . For his mismanagement of Reform he has no excuse ^ . He studied the question , to the exclusion of nearly every other question , from 1821 to 1831 , having over and over again , in the interval , proposed various " cobbles , " as Cobbett called them ; and when ho was selected by Lord Grey ' s Cabinet , of which he was not a member , to arrange and propose the great Bill , he , whatever the ignorant errors of the Parliament and the people , could not but have been thoroughly aware of the exact nature of
what ho was doing . For party purposes he hoaxed a great nation , confidingly worshiping its possible Astyanax ; and though party purposes—if he could only have perceived them before it was too latehave since perpetually provoked a new hoax , and though , from irresolution and feebleness , he has never seized the opportunity , yet is ho not to be forgiven . It has been moro than a crime in him to distrust England—it has been a stupidity . Something near universal suffrage could have been safely conceded in 1832 . The people worshipped the
King and adored " the Whig Peers , to the detriment of democrats like Orator Hunt ; and all that Lord John KuhscH did was to ansAver a demand for n revolution by creating about half a million additional votee , 250 , 000 of which wore certainly left as votes : it tho disposal of great lords and landowners . Again , wheu Queen Victoria ascended tho throne , tho nation was fully entitled to a new charter , and , in passive loyalty and humble lovo of lords , was quito worthy of confidence !; and still Lord John Russell left the pcoplo unrepresented , —and so cleverly pluyedi tho game of tho Tories . At this
moment the state of the representation of Great Britain is a mighty scandal in Europe ; and still Lord John will adhere to a petty " cobble , "—acquiescently creating sufficient capital for the Peelite Tories , but creating none at all for himself and his party . And all this maladroithess is the result either of gross ignorance of the character of the English people , or of criminal intention . to continue the reign of a stupid oligarchy and a rotten system ; and , in either l l ¦ i ,
case , Lord John Russell is deserving of contempt , — as a simpleton , or as a conspirator . It is unjust , however , to judge him for one lache ; and if we examine his career continuously , we shall find reason to suspect that he is not grandly criminal enough ever to have had a plan . Inheriting " Whig principles , " he has talked them eternally , and they have sounded very well ; and no doubt he ha 3 carried them out : but the only uniform result they appear to produce is confusion . Since the Reform Bill there have
been three difficulties for the English Government—Finance , the Colonies , Foreign Policy ; and , in each direction , Lord John , with the aid of his friends , has admirably broken down . In Finance , Lord Melbourne ' s Government succeeded so far , that it left power in " 1341 , ten years after a Whig Reform Bill , because it was yearly adding a deficit of a million . Whig principles , which were , in finance , founded on Adam Smith ' s , should have suggested a repeal of the Corn Laws . But the Whigs were Protectionists up to 1846 , then became Free-traders merely because a party
manoeuvre ( which failed ) required it , and to this day shake their heads , and say , " Pity the Tories wouldn't take our 8 s . fixed duty in ' 46 . " And their Chancellor of the Exchequer , who succeeded Baring , was more disastrous even than Baring ; though yearly , consequent upon the arrangements established by Sir Robert Peel , he had a surplus , and not a deficit , to deal with . Sir Charles Wood had no system , and none of his budgets grew out of the preceding ones ; and if there are sound principles of finance noAv fixed in the public mind and in the public
accounts , we are indebted to Sir Robert Peel and his Conservative pupil , Mr . Gladstone . And for the failures of Whig Finance , Lord John is accountable ; or , if his friends maintain he was above finance , then , manifestly , he Avas below his office . For the Colonial system of the Whigs , he is fully as responsible as Lord Grey , and clearly , in the colonies , Whig principles led to general insurrection—in Canada , at the Cape , in the Australias , in the Ionian Isles . In India the Whigs never succeeded ; and during all their rule they never sent a first-rate man or a
first-rate measure there , the Bill of last session which Whigs drew up being in the old Whig waya complicated , temporary cobble . Then , in Foreign Policy , Whig principles have led to the Russianising of Europe . One or two other questions have presented themselves during Whig rule for adjustment , and have been dismally dealt with . For instance , the question of Religion and the question of Education . Whig principles , Avhieh could permit the encampment of an Alien Church in Ireland , and tho maintenance of church-rates leviable on Dissenters in
England , have led to an Ecclesiastical Titles Bill , a dead letter as a statute , but a living insult as a protest ; and the solitary justification of which , as urged by Lord John Russell , was , that it was a measure rendered necessary by a continental conspiracy against England ; this conspiracy being , of course , the consequence of Whig foreign policy . Whig principles havo served but slightly to promote the cause of education . A revenue of a million and a half has been obtained by the taxation of tho press—an odd featuro in a Whig civil and religious system- —and not one-half that revenue has been proffered by the Whigs in aid of
national education . Shortcomings , such as these , are attributable to the deficient character of tho leader and chief of the party — to his want of grasp and to lack of courage . Weakness , contagious in a party , was to bo seen always in Whig manipulation of departments . They never did anything well—they nover did anything thoroughly . The most striking illustration of their style of business Avas thoir mismanagement of tho navy—of tho defences . It took the Duke of Wellington ton years to talk them into a militia which , in tho end , was so ludieroiiB an abortion , that they had to go out on it ; and there can bo very little
doubt that if a general war , as was a probability had broken out in 1847-1850 , the English navy would have been beaten by the French navy . Lord JJohn's crime to his party is identical with his crime to the country ; for , as he governed badly , feebly , and foolishly , he destroyed the reputation of the Whigs , and sank them in their competition with the Tories . The Whigs have disappeared in the coalition ; but they entered the coalition simply , because they could not stand alone . To maintain an appearance of equality with the Tories in the Cabinet , the two leading Whigs , Lord Lansdowne and Lord John Russell , occupy seats without holding offices ; and Lord John is supposed to sustain his position by not taking a subordinate post under Lord Aberdeen ; and , in pursuance of this petty policy , Lord John has now refused to resign his nominal rank , taking the Home-office , which Lord Aberdeen astutely offered him . But the country does not comprehend these refinements , and does not forget recent Whig history . The confusion of party politics compelled by Sir Robert Peel ' s Free-trade conversion , forced an endurance of the Whig Ministry of 1846-1850 ; but it was , undoubtedly , one of the most unpopular Ministries which ever held power in England . England , in that time , was governed not merely by an oligarchy , but by one family—the clan of Russells , Elliotts , and Greys ; and as this offensive nepotism was not redeemed by any display of intellect or energy , either in general policy , " or in particular departments , the national loathing was indulged without disguise . Without national support , without a policy of any sort , and pressed in the House by Mr . Disraeli , who , in four years organised an Opposition more formidable than that organised by Sir Robert Peel between 1832 and 1841 , this Whig " family party" could not stand—and fell , out of utter rottenness , impotence , and idiotcy , amid the rejoicings of the country , which even preferred Lord Derby , and amid the contempt of mankind . In the extremity of his bewilderment and despair , Lord John Russell , in a party perplexity , has attempted to play over again the game of 1832 ; and , with a Reform Bill , now seeks to revivify a dying faction . But there are tAvo obstacles in his path likely to defeat his scheme . There are two classes who have found out the trick—the country and the Tories . If the country be again induced to believe that an oligarchy can be desirous of enfranchising a people , the country will deserve an eternity of Russells and Greys . If the Tories be induced to believe that there is danger to property or religion , by abolishing tho Stamfords and making boroughs of the Burnleys and Birkenheads , the Tories Avill deserve the degradation Avhieh they endured from 1820 to 1840—unpopularity . But there is , now , ns little chance of the one being deluded as of the other being misled ; and we see , according ly , that the people are suspiciously apathetic , and that the Tories are suspiciously liberal . In mid career , about to open up a neAV chapter in our history , Lord John Russell cannot yet challenge a definitive verdict upon his character or u services . And if—Whiggism being for tho future impossible —he should be enabled , f « ° . ™ to party , to be simply an Englishman , and to cit > himself exclusively to his country , the historian niaj , after all , have to count him among tho gieau . British worthies . Vast , even yet , » r 0 '" iUv are tunitics ; and great will be the sin it ww misused . _^______ - — -=== :: =
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1238 THE LEADER [ Saturday ,
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[ IN THIS Dltl-AIITUKNT , AS AIX OMNIONS , " »« ' * . " JfjwIJW »""' Al . I . OWHO A . V ICXI'ltlCNSION , THIS KDIXO 1 C NK 0 KS 3 A "" hki . 1 i Ki ; yroNttHHi . ic iron nonh . j
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Thoro ia no learned mnn Imt will co ££ CS j i 3 seiiec * mUch profited by reading controversies , ^^ uvvukened , and his judgment aharponoa . i , iiofc ) at be ¦ profitable for him to read , why ^ o ^^^ a ^ least , bo tolerable for hia adversary to wi itQ-
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LORD PALMEBSTON . Komp town , l > co . * ' ' ( To the Editor of the Lender . ') Sin , —It has been asserted that tho real c *" j | ) lu , Lord PulmcrBton ' 8 midden dismissal by * ft ) 1 ( i Russell in December , 1851 , was tho mdisc
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1853, page 1238, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2018/page/14/
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