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    A " STRANGEE" IN PARLIAMENT . A coN 8 n > BHABLE portion of the sitting of the Rouse of Coinmons on Thursday night was occupied , on the fussy entreaty- of Sir John Pakington , in considering how far the forms of the House could be altered bo as to admit of a more rapid despatch of business . And the appropriateness of that debate , at this particular period , was illustrated last evening when the House of Commons , for no particular reason , but remembering the traditional Whitsun

    holidays , adjourned for » a week ! In an ordinary session Biich an adjournnxent , in tlxe very thick of work , is ridiculed : the Easter holidays are laughed at ; and , on the . prorogation , one inquires how it is that representative , institutions are only made to keep going for six months ia the . year , —absolute and irresponsible despotism setting in during the remaining ; six ? But all such comments are , this year , out of place , and hence the pleasantry of considering , in a Btretch of three hoars' debate , how to expedite

    business , — -there being no business 'whatever eren to retard . - " Infect , why is the House of Commons to re-meet ne ^ t Thursday , and the House of Xords next Fri ^ flay ? Not because there is war going on ; for the 2 ' interests of the public service " require that the public should be told nothing about their popular VaBy-tfce only question about the war being whether w % 6 t % e shall appoint a Dictator—a Minister of ^ RTat- ^ whQ would not only ignore the country , but fe ully the Cabinet—as Maire du Palais . Not because

    there are any important measures to be dealt with ; ^ ey 3 iave all been beaten off or abandoned . Not . bemuse tnenatlpnwants its national institutions ; the nation ; is quite tired of Parliament , and having ^ ot 8 Uf | 9 ciently ta ^ ed ^ to- an amount worthy of so ' 01 ** % '' $ . people * is anxious for tlie recess , when 4 ibe , great country will depend on the private enterprise of commercial journals for all its knowledge , of what its army and navy may be doings In short , there is nothing whatever to delay Parliament , ' except the Oxford University BilL Thiiflk of our magnificent constitutional machinery being : , kept in motion only to arrange the internal

    stiles of a large school—just as if tie people ' s repre-Mn' j ^ tives wej ^ palled together for the purpose of decreeiDga Captain of the JBoats to Eton , or an alteration in the Monitor system of Harrow 1 But Kreatireverence is due to youth—and particularly in JBngland to the youth of the English governing classes . An adjournment over the " Derby day "less justifiable than would have been an adjournment f > ver Griisi ' s farewells- —illustrates the spirit of our Constitution—a spirit in direct antagonism with the Resins of a trading and solid people . But the continuance of the . sessron into the dog-days merely because the Lords -want to criticise the pedagogic conceptionaof the " liberal" members of the House of

    Commons as to the Oatford course of youngTories , indicates how largely our Parliament is but the Senate of a class . It is , however , tbe most extraordinary circumstance in connexion with , this Oxford Bill , that it is a bill forced down the throats of the class interested—they being about equally divided on its meritd—by a majority obtained out of the votes of Radical members . Night after night hare the Radicals clustered behind the Treasury benches to cheer on , and pass through , a bill , with which they have no concern , seeing that Oxford is not to he made more "

    national" than before , Dissenters being still excluded , —which affects merely the internal organisation of Oxford—and -which , consequently , the Radicals don't in the least understand . Indeed any suggestion , as to the bill , offered by a Kadical , is considered so complete an impertinence , that eren Mr . Gladstone stares . On Thursday , for instance , Mr . Ewart , as delegate of the lodging-housekeeper interest , ventured , in the mildest way , to insinuate an amendment which would provide for poor

    students , by enabling- them to board and lodge away from tlieir colleges , with their greengrocers or milkmen ; -whereupon Mr . J . Phillimore came down upon the Dumfries * dillcttante member with three terrible Latin quotations—Mr . Phinn , with a Ministerial hint that the House had better get on to business—Mr . Phinn can stand no nonsense now—and Mr . Gladstone , with same sternly facetious rebukes of incoherent meddling : —Mr . Evurt , accordingly , replying -with trembling rapidity , and

    getting through his division with nervous alacrity The Radical finds that' if he becomes a mere Minis - terial hanger-on , why he must expect the treatment traditionally accorded to that class . I have no doubt Mr . Bwart was quite nervous as he went home that night , lest Hayter or Berkeley should write " unkindly" to him . You may trace all the disasters of the session , and the scene of MIonday night , to the policy adopted by the Radicals in regard to the Coalition Government .

    The best , the strongest , and the honestest Government which England ever possessed—the most national Government—theBadicals were bound to accord it their support , and to sustain it heartily against the pretensions of the faction of Derby-Disraeli rouge-et-noir politicians . Bat for a Radical to give unconditional support to a . Government which must , necessarily , in a great measure , govern , like all other English Governments , in the interests of a class , the aristocracy , was to cease to be a Radical : —and the

    Radicals did disappear . They had many excuses last session : Mr . Gladstone ' s was a grand Budget , based upon the people ' s interests , and boldly defiant of the governing class , as in the succession-duty scheme . The whole tone of the Ministry -was the tone of earnest men meaning work—meaning , in short , that series of attacks on " institutions" which Mr . Disraeli now so conservatively deprecates . There was a Beform Bill promised : there were other promises of as large remedies : and , on the whole , the Government were fairly entitled to the

    hope and confidence expressed in them by the mem hers of the large towns . Bat none of the circumstances justified the [ Radicals in sinking their party into the Ministerial party ; and the events of the two first months of this session should have suggested , even On the most charitable view , some wariness . The Radicals , however , tempted into indifference by the apathy of the people , and utterly unrepresented in the press ( which is a very singular circumstance ) , fell into a lounging habit" of oh-oh-ing every

    criticism upon the Government : and we have marked how Mr . Bright was denounced by his ovrn friends for his warnings about the war , and ids reticence about the Reform Bill , and how Sir John Shelley only just escaped with his life for suggesting a sham in connexion with the Beform Bill . And what has been the result of this ? Why , th « strong Government has been induced , into weakness , and the honest Government into playing fast and loose with grefctt principles . The Coalition

    were contemptuous towards the Opposition ; Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli were exploded statesmen ; and the Opposition consisted only of those two clever men . Having , then , gained the quiescence of the Radicals , the Coalition could afford to do anythingthat is nothing . And this has brought an excellent Government into the contemptible position so malignantly yet so truly sketched by Mr . Disraeli on Monday . Not fearing the Radicals , they had no one to fear , evidently underrating the power of Mr .

    Disraeli , whose character does not diminish the force of his criticism , if it happens to be just ; and , accordingly , they have been led into alL sorts of fellies and dilemmas . In the first place , they have been tempted into too much indifference to the country ' s anxieties in regard to the war . But for an accident , which compelled a revelation , they would have withheld from the country that " secret" correspondence which , once published , gave a new aspect to the whol « Eastern

    question . They have refused all information and snubbed all inquiries = and they are actually carrjing on a war without communicating to the self-governed country what is the object of the war . All this secretiveness , quite unnecessary to so popular —in the sense of so trusted—a Government , will tell against them in tho end . In the " next place , they have conducted themselves undexterousHy , if not rashly , in regard to all their measures . They have

    introduced , them without care , and they luive abandoned them without conscience : and , in regard to the Reform Bill , they had to give the lie to their own wisdom—or Lord John ' s , who , with felicitous conceit , not only denied that a time of war was a time unfavourable to a Reform Bill , but insisted that it was the very time ho would prefer far introducing such a measure . The Oaths Bill was a bungle ; the Bribery Billa were a botch : tho Poor-law Bill was an

    abortion ; and this was all because the A-dministr ation saw-no reason to be careful—in the hast case because one Minister never thought it worth his while to consult another Minister . Recklessness was the characteristic of the Coalition from the first week of its formation—from the day when Sir James Graham drunk with success , and exulting in . his strength ' , attacked Louis Napoleon , to the day wlien Lord John Russell insulted , the German Powers . Perhaps the Coalition took altogether a wrong view of their functions in not cojvflmng themselves exclusively to carrying on the Government , —in not doing generally

    what Mr . Gladstone has done in finance—made mere provisional arrangements for current necessities . But , on a fair retrospect , every observer must admit that if the Radicals had watched warily on their flank the movements of the Government would have been more dignified as well as more effective . Even had the Radicals not succeeded 3 n getting good progressive measures , they would at least have afforded the country some guarantee that if we must have a war , it should be a war worth the money , as -we are to pay for it : —that is , a war so thoroughly against Russia as to be for human freedom .

    Much of the absurd position which the Government occupied on Monday night may be attributed to the imbecile leading of ! Lord John Russell . Statesmen have not the sagacity of opera singers and actors : Lord John , with all his lore , has not the prophetic sense of a Grisi or a Macqready : and if a public man maunders in politics until he becomes incapable , why should the public hesitate to tell him so ? It isn't pleasant -, but can a nation , like England afford to be" polite ? Lord John Russell ruined the Whig paTty ; and he is ruining the Coalition . Say

    he is only unlucky—smart crews throw unlucky men overboard * I » ord John ' s whole life is a continuous disaster ; what : he has been doing this session he has always been doing—nothing : and to express sympathy with him , because he excited no enthusiasm for a Reform Bill which was a blunder , and because he is beaten on an Oaths Bill , so framed as to ruin the Jew came and endanger the Catholic cause , is most hilariously to throw away political charity . It is for Lord John Russell , however , we are now undergoing a new Ministerial crisis : for Mr .

    Disraeli's unexpected raid on Monday would be inexplicable except on tie presumption that that alert personage had got at some " secret history , " which suggested that dissensions were going on in the Cabinet , and that an occasion had arrived to be " improved" after his peculiar manner . Mr . Disraeli ' s speeches , that evening only amounted to an artful appeal to Lord John not to let the Peelites too largely overshadow the Whigs ; and Lord John ' s speech , confused , hesitating , and bungling , was a puzzled attempt to assure the Whigs that he

    had not sacrificed them in entering the Coalition , and that he did not mean to forget his party while remaining there . Mr . Disraeli wanted to breed distrust among the Coalitioa supporters , and Lord John granted to guarantee his personal supporters that the Peelites should not have too much of their own way : the whole secret of the passage of arms being that the Cabinet was perplexed as to which member of it should get the great new office , —the virtual Premiership , — the Ministry of War . Incidentally there was a talk about Government failures and Mr . Disraeli's

    consistency on the Jew cause ( Lord John T ) eing very silly in his sneera on that head ); but the point was—was Lord John about to consent to go lower down in the ranks of the Coalition ? Sir George Grey volunteered a declaration that Lord John had tho perfect confidence of Ins old party , and it is very likely that Lord Lansdowne and Mr . Macaxilay spoke the general sentiments of the Whigs , nfc the moment , in advising Lord John to act with Lord Aberdeen , and no ~ ono will doubt that Lord John would have been guilty of a great political sin if he had allowed any notion of hia petty personal importance to imptdo tho

    formation of so good a Government as Lor < l Aberdeen proposed to establish . I Jut that Lord John is losing the confidence of all but those shallow Whigs , who , like Sir George ( Jrey , are eager for n vacancy in the Coalition , is beyond question—we have only to examine the attitude , during tlie session , of such men as Lord Clanricarde , Lord Grey , Mr . Layard , and Mr . Vermin Smith—men who have the best of the Whigs at their backs . We have now to see whether Lord John Russell is strong enough to do without the Whigs , l ' erhups , us he has become the leader ol the Kadieals , he may think hia path is clear . Saturday Morning . "A Sxhaw cjbk . "

    Untitled Article

    520 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 3, 1854, page 520, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2041/page/16/