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    could not possibly know anything about " politics . ' * Perhaps , however , it will be difficult to persuade the vast audience who rose * like one man at that solemn peroration last "Wednesday , that a speaker who delivers more pertinent common sense in fewer words than any member of the House of Commons now extant , is inadequate to the public expression of opinions on the maladministration of public affairs . We do not here speak of the exquisitely finished elocutionthe compact fulness of the matter , the

    , sustained richness of illustration , the prodigal variety of humour—these graces of style may be stigmatised by severely independent critics as mere literary " business ; " but we have a right to dwell emp hatically upon the strong English sense and the sound English feeling , so temperate and yet so firm , which held that audience suspended on the speaker ' s lips . It may be unpalatable to the optimists who derive their inspirations from the purlieus of Downing-street , but it is nevertheless a certainty that the conspicuous

    accession of Mr . Chains Dickens to the ranks of the Administrative Reformers is as good as a host , and that his Tvise and penetrating words , in which there was nothing that bespoke the agitator or belied the patriot , will carry conviction to the minds of thousands of loyal and soberminded men who desire nothing more revolutionary than order where there is now disorder , and honesty where there is now corruption—in the Government itself . in

    Perhaps there was a certain cruelty ¦ bringing forward the heavy metal of the Association after Mr . Dick-ens . To listen to Mr . Tobbens M'Ctti / lagh ' s bewildering platitudes , or to Mr . Bennoch ' s sturdy , tut dull , statistics and details , was like a lapsing from champagne to table-beer . The Administrative Reform Association has not as yet been happy in its figures and its facts , but , as Mr . Dickens suggested , no sane man denies that it has a very strong general case . It may be that what the French are fond of

    calling the " unforeseen" may some day impart an unexpected animation to its councils . But -without joining in the apprehension that Mr . Samtjei * Mobley is the unconscious president of a Convention in disguise , it is easy to perceive that as the strength of the Association increases its objects will extend , and the " Pour Points" will have to make way for larger conquests . Meanwhile , let it take heart of grace under the inspiration of Mr . CHAJiiiES Dickens ( whose programme of reform includes a Government that will have

    lieart and brain enough to bridge the tremendous social chasms of our society , and to gTapple with the problems of an industrial epoch so far transcending House of Commons " politics" ) ; let it throw open its committee to intelligent representatives of the toiling millions , and convert a middle-class movement into a national restoration .

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    DRIFTING . The Administrative Reform movement holds on its course : and wo muat hold on ours , of calling the serious attention of our countrymen to the real direction in which that movement points , and tho real nature of tho crisis at which we have arrived . We did not help to make that crisis , nor do we desire to precipitate

    its result ; much less do we wish to pander to class hatred , or to goncl on that of which thoro are some ugly symptoms—a violent revohx-Hon . Our aim iB as much the contrary of all this as possible . Wo wish to present tho great political question now definitively raised aa one which must receive a timely solution fi ? om the united intellect and virtue of all

    classes . We wish to rid- it of that ' narrow , rancorous , envenomed form * which ; under the treatment of short-sighted agitators , it is too rapidly assuming . We wish to place it , ere it is too late , in its true magnitude before the manly mind of the nation . Solve it whichever way reason may bid , but solve it . Say whether you will have hereditary government or not ; and rest henceforth on conviction , not on blind precarious sentiment , which may give way in a moment if we lose another the

    army , or have anothef Geoege IT . on throne . Here are men assiduously undermining an edifice which they profess to hold sacred—putting the torch to a mine to the explosion of which they call it treason to allude . Is it a great crime against societydoes it manifest a love of anarchy and confusion—to tell them what their professions are really worth , and to bid them perform the proper function of humanity by looking before them instead of rushing on with tbeir eyes shut and their ears full of each other's

    protestations ? We want words to describe the inconsistency and hypocrisy that are resounding all round us . Of all those professing friends of aristocracy who must know that they are trenching so closely on its existence with their crusade against family influence , not one has shown that he has thought for five minutes on the position of the aristocracy in our political system , or the basis on which it rests . Not one has tried to explain why family

    government is absurd and detestable , and family legislation reasonable and right . Everything is said—many things are falsely said—which can rouse the suspicion and hatred of the people against the governing class , and yet the governing class is encouraged to stand its ground , and every effort is used to prevent men from reflecting on the result of the agitation . Radical journalists—we must once more recal the fact—have called upon the Crown for its direct interference , in language such as might have been addressed by a French courtier to Louis XV . The

    Crown does interfere with a speech , savouring , of course , strongly enough of a readiness to increase monarchical influence , and perhaps of a certain c ommunity of sentiment with that august object of Radical admiration , who not long since celebrated his triumph over Parliamentary government in our shouting streets . Instantly there pours forth a torrent of abuse , rendered more odious by the pretence of not believing the truth of a report notoriously true , and all the other Judas' devices of loyal insurrection . This is the way in which nations drift into

    revolutions . We have proposed a problem , not dictated a solution : we have not shrunk from giving our own conviction on the subject . We believe the period is not very distant , though we do not wish it more near than it ia , when the last relics of the monarchical and feudal system will give way under the general sense of anomalies and hypocrisies too great even for the most illogical of nations ; and when we shall have to choose our rulers by the faculties God has given us for that purpose , and honour and obey them as the objects of

    our own deliberate choice . People , foreigners especially , cannot separate the idea of an English Commonwealth from that of a French Republic , but tho two nro very separable and separate in our minds . Wo appreciate the results of the French Revolution . We in ale o largo allowances for tho difficult potation of the actors in it , and extend our ( sympathies oven to somo who erred moat deoply . But tho extravagant and sanguinary puerilities of tho French Republicans having been can never be again . Federations of Humanity , worships of Reason , clockwork Siey ^ a

    constitutions ; Spartan banquets , and Athenian Tt ) urles € fuesy were- possible only once in the history of humanity * . Nobody need fear that in England of all countries in ; the world we shall raze the whole edifice of politics ^ re ligion , and society , and begin again on clear ground with the year of the world One . And therefore , it is not fantastic fears of that kind that should make us shut our eyes to the possibility of a change till the rolling snow becomes an avalanche , and all power of guiding , events is gone .

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    THE AUSTRIAN DEBATE . Loud Clarendon ' s feint reply to Lord LYNDnunST ' s masterly exposition explicitly confirms the interpretation we have put u pon the conduct of Austria . The Foreign . Minister condescends to inform us that Austria will continue in possession of the Principalitiesand no more . She has played her game , has won , and retires from the table . This policy is commendable for its discretion , but Great Britain and France are its dupes , and Turkey is its victim .

    Austria , then , ia to occupy the disputed Principalities until peace is obtained between the Western Allies and Russia . Such is the sum of Lord Clarendon ' s explanation . He stated nothing in reply to Lord Ltndhtjbst ' s inquiries as to the reduction of her armaments , or as to the spirit of her intercourse with the people of the Danubian Provinces . All this was eluded ; but the Minister threw out an idle and wanton insinuation against the English press when he ascribed to it , in conjunction with a certain class of politicians , the practical estrangement of " Germany . "

    The heads of the German States , he affirmed , were _ friendly to England and to its policy , until the tone of our public discussions offended and estranged them . A more impertinent fallacy was never breathed even by official lips . The ground on which Lord Clarendon said the German Governments based their concurrence in the cause pursued by France and England was , that it tended to diminish the injurious influence of Russia in Germany . Either this conviction did not exist , or it could not have been dispelled in the way described b y the Foreign Minister . Lord Clarendon is but a clumsy

    apologist for the ruling minds of Northern Europe if he wishes to persuade us that they would be moved from their purposes , or induced to sacrifice their interests by the clamours of irresponsible sympathisers , or tho criticisma of a free press . The statement is even in absolute contradiction to that which follows it , to the effect that Austria is consulting her own views , which she has uniformly pursued from the beginning . But let us mark tho course ot mystification . When Russia invaded the Principalities , Austria joined in a protest against that aggression , expressed her discontent with the conduct of her neighbour , and

    placed her military establishments on a war footing . Her armies hung upon tho rear ot the Russians on tho Danube . It was then--while those armies hovered upon tho Turkish horizon—that an outburst of impatience took place in this country , and the Vienna government was alternately wheedled and bullied by blandishments and taunts , in Parliament anil in tho official journals . But Austria did not display any petulant resentment at tneso

    expressions oi public feeling us Lord ClaiiisNdon would have us believe . On tho contrary ; Count Coronini , with or without a secret understanding with tho defeated KusBiuns , descended into tho valley of tho Danube , throw hiu columns between Omaji PAOiiAanU GoitTBCHAKOiTF , an ( I permitted tho Czab to accumulate new force-a in tho Crimea . At this point Lord Oi-aiucn » on skips vita

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    efl # TEEB LEAB ^ IL LBATOgpA ^ .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 622, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2097/page/10/