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Leader (1850-1860), 9th January 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 34, Untitled Article

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      his surtHua capital in . the St . Petersburg and Sebastopol Direct Railway . Canada is constantly issuing new bonds ; her railways are vet unfinished , and anybody may have 5 or . 6 per cent , for some time to come from this dependency . Australia wants eight millions for railways , every penny of which is expected to come from the old country . And what shall we say of India , with its millions of acres of rich lands ; with its cotton and indigo

      fields ; with its railways , steam navigations , and banking establishments ? It is extremely probable that here will be the next great field of speculation ; and that various associations will spring up to develop in a hundred ways the undoubted and enormous resources of that vast territory . Money will be wanted by the Government to meet the immediate expenses of the war ; and let it be arranged as it may , a great part will pass indirectly , if not directlyfrom this country .

      , Brazil has also its railways to make , and Chili will soon be coming for a new loan ; while Brother Jonathan will , at the very earliest moment possible , again begin to play his very safe game of dealing with the old country . His own account of the matter is brief and accurate :. ' when our people fail it is the foreigners who suffer ; we keep the goods , they lose their money . ' Our years of commercial trial have come at decennial intervals : first 1837 , then 1847 ,

      then 1857 , and each has been more momentous than its predecessor . In these days of rapid intercommunication , when electric telegraphs are too slow , and invention is busy in accelerating them—when the whole world is being girt by that magic chain which is binding together the most distant lands—when men that you shook hands with , it seems but yesterday , have been to India and back , and a merchant takes a return ticket to Australia

      as coolly as we should for Greenwich—when the world is travelling at such a rapid pace , we may fairly venture to predict , without forfeiting our non-prophetic character , that we shall not have again to wait ten years for the return of commercial difficulties—that we may expect before November , 1867 , a recurrence , in a still more fearful form , of the disasters and anxieties of the crisis from which we have just emerged . Committees of both Lords and Commons may sit for months ,

      ample evidence may be collected , and welldigested reports be issued in orthodox blue covers , but it is only by the oft-repeated lessons of bitter experience men learn that well-directed industry is the only reliable source of wealth , and that , when gambliug speculations take tlie place of honourable trading , the winnings of the early part of a career are pretty certain to be more than counterbalanced by the subsequent ill-luck of further ventures .

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      BASIS OE A LIBERAL AGITATION . The demand for reform is no longer a clamour or an exaggeration . It is calm , rational , persuasive . The Liberal party throughout the United Kingdom is organizing itself ; political unions , as suggested by the Leader , are being established in the midland counties upon , an extensive scale ; a distinguished array of signatures supports the programme of the United Reformers , and

      " ^~ a ~ stroTig '' tide"r'has "' set ~ in 7-which 7 if-rnot ^ slack = ened before the meeting of Parliament , must materially affect the policy of the administration . It is to no purpose that Cabinet journalism pretends to gallop , in a few phrases of Contempt , over the basis laid by the parliamentary Liberals ; there is a . movement iu progress , the expansion of which does not depend upon the studied insincerity of organs which profess liberalism as the best

      means of checking r . For some years , questions of this class have been in suspense ; but the conviction of most intelligent Englishmen is , that a new Bill for Amending the Representation of the People in Parliament has become a direct necessity of the times . This opinion , -working gradually from class to class , has at length assumed shape , and within a few weeks it is anticipated that the address signed by Mr . Roebuck , Mr . BsiaHT , Mr . Mixnbb Gibson , and other political leaders , will be adopted by the principal towns in all parts of Great Britain . It will then be seen whether

      the public regards all discussion of details as premature . The truth is , that the deprecation of impatience is a pretext- ! N " o journalists are more ready with their pleadings against triennial Parliaments , the Ballot , and other * details , ' than those who affect to discourage such considerations as premature The Reform party understands its position , and has its own work to perform . It is not

      about to wait for a declaration of Lord Paxmebston ' s pleasure . If the Government Bill is unsatisfactory , attempts will be made to amend it , and it is perfectly right that the sentiments of the public should be elicited , not only on the general subject , but on . such points as the duration of Parliament , the Ballot , the rectification of electoral divisions , and the urban and rural suffrage .

      " We have hints of a Ministerial measure that will lower the county as well as the borough qualification , admit new classes to the franchise , and merge some of the most rotten constituencies ; that , however , will not satisfy . The Ballot is indispensable ; but the Premier will not propose it . What then is the duty of active politicians , if not to invite a demonstration of popular opinion ? It is quite true that we can expect no cataclysm of agitation , no peals of party thunder . But political action has revived ; the millions that

      once mustered to a wild and random cry have made great intellectual advances since 1848 ; the natural habit of freedom has outgrown its turbulence ; but enormous influences are in existence which may be gathered and united for a definite purpose , as effectually , if not as violently , as in 1832 . Our strength is , that we rely no longer on fitful efforts of violence . We appeal to no passionate mob —the materials of mobs are rapidly diminishing in England ; we stand apart from continental formulas . The motive of the true

      Reform party is not hate or envy ; their object is not a chimera . Therefore are they powerful and confident . They lead the Liberals of the nation , but not so far ahead as to lose sight of realities , exigencies , and possibilities . Here is a basis which neither Toryism nor Whiggery can ridicule . The policy of moderation extorts a reply , and destroys a sneer . Honest and wholesome Reform—these words are not cabalistic .

      The agitation now originated does not spring from working-class distress , or middleclass exasperation , but from a conviction that our parliamentary institutions do not secure ministerial responsibility , or fairly represent the interests or the intellect oi' the nation . Without this conviction animating the body of the people , journalism could effect nothing ; it i « the exponent and auxiliary , not the substitute , of public opinion .

      T ! re ^ iYjere- " factp-tlren 7 ~ th'nit' ~ joiiirnals ~* of all classes arc now engaged in discussing the Reform to come , is proof that the apnthy of the last ten years exists no longer . The Reform Bill of 1832 stands condemned , and we nsk for another which shall bo leas imporfect . The logic of the position is impregnable . A . system of general election that gives fivo per cent , of the candidates returned to be convicted of bribery or unconstitutional

      inters man y corru ] and it is utterly untrue that the law ha& ] medied the evil . The House of Commo has not the will , if it had the power , to ] move this taint from its constitution . I the country can do it , without burning ric threatening landlords , calling husky vole out of the asylums or exile , or vituperating t throne . The unrepresented classes have form positive opinions ; they mean to proce by argument instead of outcry . They s that there are important classes and intero * shut out of the representation ; that the el < toral system is exposed to pernicious and < basing influences ; that vast numbers of Ee

      lishmen are affected by legislation in whi they are allowed no voice ; that while caj talists sit bodily in Parliament , there scarcely a member , in either House , who li really at heart the welfare or the wishes the " laborious ; that Oxford and Cambrid , enjoy a monopoly of University represent tion ; and that territory and rank enjoy mo than a just share of power in the Legist ture . Upon these grounds the United E formers have addressed the nation , and \ believe the result will prove that the natic is not indifferent to the appeal .

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      POLITICAL PLANS FOR INDIA . The public must be on its guard against ai attempt on the part of Ministers to conve their Indian Reform into a colossal job . ever Parliament had a duty to perform wort ! of an imperial senate , it is that of protects British India against a Whig surprise . Iitx PaIiMKRSTon ' s scheme , if anything be real known of it , will be nothing less than a plot i

      grasping at new patronage upon an enormo scale . Whig prints satirize the alarms liberal politicians , and ask whence the ^ tronage is to come . From the army . Frc fifty to eighty thousand men , probably , ¦« be kept up as a permanent establishment India , distinct , perhaps , from the nati forces . And what will the nation say if it proposed to hand over the military gover ment of the East to the Duke of Cambbiixh

      When the Horse Guards are referred to , must be remembered that the Royal Duke the Horse Guards ; but there is more than suspicion afloat that his policy as Commands in-Chief is an affair of constant consultatic with one of those ambiguous back-stairs state men commonly called personages . If , then , be contemplated to augment the Europea army in India , to separate it from the nafch army , and to assign to the Horse Guards tl sole power of issuing orders and regulation

      and distributing patronage , we say the proje < is alarming , and one that Parliament shoul never sanction . A native army under a loo government , and a European army uud « Horse Guards government , would be an him vation but no reform , especially as of l « t years the practice has crept in of treating th office of Com mander-in-Chief as permanen Responsibility is thus evaded , and consti ti ) tional checks become nullities . Such a schero would include more than the vices of th existing system , besides being positively dat cerous to the indenendence and wuritv ot th

      House of Commons . Lord PalmjmisWK may go too far in his conspiracy to avail hini self of the Sepoy rebellion to convert Indi into " -a—basis' -ot -parliamentary-aotionr . —Ti » East India Company will not fall without conflict ; and the one thing necessary to in vest it with popularity would be an impreesio ; in the p ublic mind that the enor mous in terests of our Eastern dominions wore abou to be snatched as perquisites of the Growl The Court of Directors will not bq withou its friends ; it is no easy matter to shflk down tho abuses of a City corporation ; bu

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      E I A D B B P < eform ference i ifestldefective and TH * IT- ¦ . *» - 407 , teminsax . 9 , 18515 . 1 « B * il— -ii — ^ ¦ ¦ ¦ ^^¦^^^^^ J ^^ . ^ . ^^^^^^^ SMMl ^ S ^^ S ^^ MMBJMMMMM ^ WMMBMiW ^^ MMiMiMWMMWBiMMMMM ^^ MWWWW ^^^ M ^^ M ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ MWl ^ MWBMW ^^

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2225/page/10/