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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communica' tion .
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THE REEOB . M TO COME . It is scarcely to be doubted that , if England be not diverted from , national objects by foreign wars—like theUussian war , essentially linixational — the question of Reform will shortly become prominent . The leaven is forking . In the North of England , and in Scotland , a stir is perceptible in the public mind which seems to indicate that , if an effective organization were prepared , it would
carry with it the great body of the people . And this suggests the remark , by way of reminder , that a formidable liberal union was in course of construction when we were dragged into the quarrel with Russia . That quarrel disengaged the popular attention from home politics ; political objects were abandoned ; political opinions grew faint ; parties were confused ; we had a war upon our hands , and we wanted a War Government .
But it is not to be forgotten that the subject of a renovation of Parliament had been forced upon the Whig leaders . The country , recovered from the Chartist collapse and the Corn-law crisis , was prepared to resume the debate between Finality and Reform . So far had the manifestation gone , that Iiord John Russell himself rescinded his notorious declaration , and admitted that the Act of 1832 represented no longer the political necessities of the nation . Here was the basis of a
movement , and a movement was in progress , when French diplomacy involved the Ottoman Empire in its fatal dispute with HusBia . Conferences tooK . place at the Iiondon Tavern , in April , 1850 . It is not too muc h to say that they represented an intense solicitude on the part of the population of th e great towns throughout the country . Gr eat meetings had been held . The delegates were urged to be firm , energetic , united . The working classes seemed to feel that they were
not deficient in positive strength ; they were , and for several years had been strong ; but their strength had been improperly directed The anxiety displayed from 1850 to 1853 was , therefore , a new circumstance in the politic al history of the English people . They were not clamorous , fierce , quarrelsome , as during the Chartist agitation ; but , unhappily , their solicitude took a false direction , and , instead of being only cautious , they became irresolute and faint-hearted . The body of the people' waa not roused : the agitation
continued to be sectional , and ultimately proved a failure—mainlyy no doubt , on account of th © Russian war , but partially , also , because ita leaders committed the mistake which was at first committed by the . Anti-Corn-Ivaw IJeague . The League wanted a simple , complete , and definite object , and it was powerlees ; the Xeaguo said " total repeal / ' and it was irresistible . Immense claeriea of the nat ion thr < ow themselves into it heart ' and soul .-,. ' . ¦ .. . . , s . io ¦ ¦ ! .,
We do not ; infer from , this undoubted truth that moderation is not a political virtue . Moderation is at once a virtue and a power ; but not even moderate objects are attained by moderated zeal , by moderated faith , by moderated exertion . Let us hare moderate purposes , resolutely carried out . If the case of Reform seems hopeless now , it seemed more hopeless in 1828 , and yet more hopeless nine years later , before the working classes began that tremendous agitation , which resulted in a farce , through the ignorance and incapacity of its promoters . Nothing has happened to
diminish the necessity or the chance of a New Reform Act , unless the interruption caused by the Russian war has congealed the blood of the English people . In 1850 , we heard the Tories prophesying that , if Reform were not initiated by the country party , the Liberal party would remodel the House of Commons . Indeed , a strong current had set in . Vigorous though irregular and capricious influences were at work . The Associated Trades in the provinces were operating with signal effect upon the public mind in London .
The sudden and astonishing success of the Freehold Land Movement , which , as the future may show , has not in a political sense , been , altogether abortive , demonstrated the presence of political resolution and energy . We believe that not less than half a million of persons enrolled themselves in these Societies in the course of one yearmany , no doubt , from purely speculative motives ; but others because they had hope , and confidence ) and courage .
The mistake—of the popular party since 1832 has been its support of the Whigs . We have never urged the recognition of the Tories in preference to their hereditary opponents ; but the Liberals ought to have formed a separate , solid , and independent party , instead of trusting to the Whigs ,
expecting assistance from them , and looking to them for the practical application of their principles . This has been , for years , the hopeless , unintelligible , infatuated policy of a number of Liberals , in and out of Parliament . Ever since the passing of the Reform Act they have had more to complain of Lord John Russell and his adherents , than
of any other party in the House of Commons . Who have excluded them from power , stolen a part of their ideas without acknowledgment , and repudiated them without courtesy ? The Whigs . Who have used them as their proxies on the popular platforms , employed them to defend Downing-street against the Tories , benefited by their votes , and discarded their principles ? The Whigs . A parliamentary Liberal is often a . Whig in his minority , a political fag , who may gain something for himself , but gains nothing for his party .
Wo have " now ono suggestion to offer . We believe the majority of the * intelligent English people are liberal in opinion , and would favour a measure of political reform . It is said that parties arc in abeyance . Neither the Whigs nor the Tories have a policy , only the Tories protend that they can manage things as they are bettor than the Whigs . The class that has a policy must conquer . Let the reformers show that they nave opinions and resolves , and the way is clear for a new political reformation .
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WHY IS BREAD SO DEAR ? Why is bread so dear ? Because those who have stocks of corn on hand think that thoy shall be able to make exorbitant profits out of those stocks , and hold them back from the people . That is the reason why broad is so dear . The practice is customary at this season of the year ; but this time it is aggravated by accidental causes . '
Last week we ascribed a similar reasonthe jobbing amongst graziers and even drovers —for the high price of meat , and we see that exception has been taken to our remarks . The Mark-lane Express' points- to the high price of the fodder for cattle and sheep as the true cause of the dearness of meat ; but that is applying to the question one of the figures of poetry , Bynecdoche , —taking a part for the whole . It has also been stated that the exportation of meat for the troops , and the
check upon importations from France and Belgium , have contributed to the dearness ; we see it observed that the wealthy classes , who are making immense gains out of the gigantic expansion which our commerce has attained , also cause a large consumption for their own tables , and for their numerous retainers who share their prosperity . There is truth in all these statements ; all these causes help to make meat dearer than it would be if the people , like the Americans , lived on their own land and enjoyed a larger
proportion of direct supply with a less share of the indirect commerce that engenders jobbing . They are all causes why meat is dear , but not the causes why meat is so dear . It is the jobbing in the meat-market which screws the last halfpenny or penny out of the pocket of the poor consumer ; while for the very poorest , it puts a prohibitory fine upon meat , and tells the hungry man that food of that kind is for his betters . Tea tons of meat were * thrown away the other day , to keep up prices .
In like manner the organ of the corn trade is disclaiming for its clients their true share of the dearness of bread . Economists tell us , too , that merchants , who buy up stocks and make a profit by holding them in prospect of better prices , really equalize the supplies and prevent the alternations of abundance and dearth which in former times have taught the greatest nations to be as fearless of waste as insects in the sunshine , and as helpless in the
winter of starvation . This also is true , and it is no contradiction of the fact that speculators carry their speculations too far , holding back corn when the people want it , in the hopes of getting an exorbitant profit . It is no satisfaction to us to tell us that speculators will overreach themselves and be punished by their own ruin . They do something worse than delay our supplies or raise the price for a few weeks . We are told by the same organ that one cause of the dearness of bread is
the dearth in France . There is wo dearth in France . People have talked about the inundations which have destroyed the crops in the South . The inundations have not destroyed the crops , for the corn proves to be as healthy as if no waters had submerged it . But even if the floods had entirely swept away the , corn around Tours and in the neighbouring districts , that defalcation from the general stock of the world would have been unworthy of notice . The speculators have no doubt been at work in France ,
asking larger prices in the name of inundation and dearth ; but the fact is , that tlie crops throughout Franco arc in a splendid state . The harvest has commenced , and the holders of stocks , foreseeing what is about to come upon them , already begin to give way in their demands . Yet our speculators aro still talking about " dearth in Frajaco ! " This is ono tangible and positive proof of the species of
delusion which they attempt to pass upon the public . Here is every prospect of immense abundance . For two years and more America has been growing corn for a market out of which Russia has been excluded by the war . Now it happens that adverse seasons had materially checked the produce in America ,. and the consoquonce has been , that prices have been kept
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SATURDAY , JULY 5 , 1856 .
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~ There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive as the strain o keep . things fixed when all the world is by ^ the very law of its creation r-n eternal progress . —Db . Abuoi / d . ?
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QSG THE LEADEB , ^ No . 328 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 5, 1856, page 636, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2148/page/12/
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