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WHO'S TO BLAME? at for
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TTIRANCK can no longer sneer at England tor not having para-JO cipated in her war for a grand principle . England's vast talkingsand paltry doings in behalf of Italian freedom can no longer be thrown in her teeth . There is a flaw which admits of exact measurement in the escutcheon of the Empire of peace , and a rent in the banner of the " idea , " just such a vent as one sometimes finds it convenient to discover in the veil of a beauty or the mas-k of a hypocrite , We find that an idea , like Beukei-ey ' s ideas , can be , to all ordinary appreciation , a very solid thing" . We dislike this annexation of Savoy as much as any of our contemporaries , mid we doubt not that selfish policy , if pursued , will meet with its usual reckoning . It was a case for the ' united action , in the police point if ch union had been for th
of view , of the Great Powers , su possible , e pin-pose of absolute prohibition , at the risk even of war ; not a case for England to take up single-handed at the present juncture at all risks—Iho risk of vexing Sardinia , or appearing to hold out the hand of good fellowship to Austria . Therefore , a , strong governmental remonstrance ., unaccompanied with' irritating personal abuse , was the proper measure for England ; hereafter , should any similar performance be anticipated—whether of the legerjcmaiji or tour dejbroo kind—it is to be hoped that the other Powers may be inorb in a position to act in concert , and so to remonstrate with effect , and that England may not be found to have committed herself to . a-selfish , isolated , BniGiiT-dnib ; ami purely commercial policy . If so wo shall have , sooner or later , to shy of the Fronoh what Qjivroiuxl said in his angry prejudice of the Scotch : —
"A fatal race Whom Qoi > in wrath contrived to plaao To scourge our crimes and gall our pride , A constant thorn , in England ' s Bide ; Whom first our greatness tp oppoeo Gop in his vongeaiioe marked for foes ; « Then more to serve hlB wrathful ends , And more to curse ue , marked fov friends . However , in this particular case , England is certainly less ooncernod than others who havo chosen to flutter in comparative silence , whilst her own knnok of ncquiiiition , and hor empire , which even to make her
Uubkw long ago called * ' invidiously" largo , ought a little delieato in remonstrance . One , at least , of the dangers seems to bo diminished , which in another of his troatises Burner ; considered to bo consequent upon the French annexation of Savoy , indicated in the following' passngo , of which , with its context , wo very candidly make n present of to Mr , Kikoimkb and his suite , wondonug that it Wb not beon appropriated before : — " In its consequences , the surrender of Savoy was to make a surrender to France oi Switzerland and Italy , of both which countries Savoy , is the key , # o . ( Observations on tho Conduot (( f tho Minority . ) Ituly , with the
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Looking back now , we see that Tem , and Waxxace were not the murderers and atheists that contemporary historians would have represented them . When the Jacqueries had just roasted a country gentleman whole and distributed him in jomts among his Vround-down tenantry , we might have excused the alarmist tone that the Times has lately , with feigned fear , sometimes assurnecL Because some 300 , 000 more voters are proposed to be added to the election roll * is that any reason we should have the ^ imid old constable of the Press springing his rattle , and wakinjy all the old women in the neighbourhood with the clatter ? X Bristol going to be sacked a ^ ain by the potwallopers , as in the old Reform days P—or are the Chartists going to meet-at Kemiington ? Ai-e clumps of pikes moving about in Yorkshire ? ---or is anybody trying to put stout country gentlemen on the spit , as in Fboissakt s unhappy times ? No , cry the ultra-crepidarians , but we do not know what may come , if things go on . Reformers are weakening the ties of tradition , setting us loose on a sea of change ; it is impossible to know where we shall stop . Representation is being severed from property . This habituating of the mind to constant innovations must lead to changes not yet dreamt of , Democracy is like the grave , it neveV surrenders wfiat is once given to it — the more it is fed t > he more it grows . So shrieks the rattle—so frightened , or ¦ pretending 1 to be frightened , scream out the parliamentarycroakers . They are horrified to learn that the present scheme is calculated to be sufficient for only the next thirty years . This , they say , is heaping change on change , like economic and penurious fathers , these small statesmen , are angry that their boy grows so fast , and requires new clothes every quarter . These are the sort ; of people who , if they bad any voice in the world , would pass a law to stop the rotation of the seasons , and the ebb and flow of the tide . They areqniet people , who remind one , iw their timidand selfish acquiescence with existing things , of James L , who his enemies represented as hobbling down a flight of stairs with " Peace—peace !" written upon every step . They are like people who , having got a seat in a crowded room , shrug their shoulders , arid wonder people make such a fuss about standing . One class of these croakers draw all their terrible analogies from the state of America , which , regardless , of all reasoning , they will insist on tracing to democratic rule . There may not be a political evil there that we could not parallel in our aristocratic country , yet all American ^ imperfections they attribute to democracy—to that the unjust taxation , the unjiist voting , the trading for places , and the bidding for the voices of the niob . ^ Now all these alarms are as groundless as they can be , and many of : the alarmists know they are groundless , and use them merely as scarecrows to keep birds off their political seed-plots . The British constitution is too much of the broadr-wheeled . waggon to be easily run away with by modern phaetons . It is no " spider-wheeled American trotting-car / ' and for a drag it has all the country gentlemen of England and the leaders ? brains of all the Tories of the London press . The danger is not in giving , but in refusing the working class power . Christianity tells us in the sight of God { ill souls are equal . The Gra , ve cries out to us the same lesson ;* and Death is the greatest of all levellers , and democrat " to the backbone . , Nothing will more secure the love of the working man to his country ' than giving him an interest in that country . Better edncated , every day he begins to feel that , he is a political serf , a cypher in the State ; and when once he feels that , and questions tho right of those who keep him underfoot , the Tories will have no want of agitation to complain of . The more men get ( it to govern themselves , the litter they will become to govern others . TJhe greater the number of the men who learn to think , the greater must be the number of voters . It is not for us to invent claims for the working man ; but when he discovers his own rights , he must have his churns granted- —and ho will ; for wider and ' wider must grow the base of our English constitution ; and tho wider the base , the stronger will be that pyramid- ^ -tho wonder of the nations . It is in vnin for the Aristocruts to pretend that the presont is 9 . peculiarly unseasonable time to grant Reform , now that Franco is b uilding * up a colossal despotism , and no longer " conceals her thirst for general empire , " " Is this the timo , " cries tho Ishmael of the House , * ' when you should still further deviate from that old , that free , and that aristocratic institution , which has formed tho Empire of England , and framed the liberties of Englishmen ? " Yes , we answer to tho veteran Tory croaker—tlio best of all times . The roof is never eo grateful ns when the storm blows j n friend never bo useful as whew you are hounded by misfortunes . Men will never fight so well for a country as when they have stakes in that country , and feel that it is tho country that represents their wishes and thoir hopes . The working mnn is no longer , us one would think from these croaking speeches , a half * naked savage , smeared with blue war-paint , nnd eating his poor relations in eanuibnl pies ; he is no longer the horrid serf that followed Wat the Tyler , or Jack Oadh the bricklayer ^ He is no longer tho maniac rebel that raved among tho burning houses in Bristol , or was trodden underfoot by tho relentless yeomanry at Poterloo , any more than ho is tho handsome craft « man with glossy hair nnd piercing eye , that you fiee in Sunday ^ nt-home tracts . ISut he is every day getting more and nioro tho quiet , pertinacious assertor of hit * own rights—woiting patiently , and perhnpa somewhat as stolidly , till they doaomo , but still resolutoand determined not to bo staved off , or shelved , or waxod from his purpose by silly cries of alarm and old-woman denunciations . Why are six million
The Reform Bill will admit a few more voters of a mental calibre quite equal to those already forming an integral part of the constitution , and it willcreate no more disturbance in England than a stone / thrown into a stagnant pond does , wheii jt has once got to the bottom of the lazv mud .
are inclined from mere pugnacity to go on too fast ; knows that no country was ever yet destroyed by necessary Reform * but , on the contrary , by the obstinacy of favoured classes , by resistance to just claims , by insolent contempt for the masses , by blind antagonism to : secretly growing power , by intolerant assertions of obsolete and bygone rights , by ridiculous and unmaintainable assumptions . Let these croakers take warning , and take courage . The mechanic , we can assure the innocent Bucolie gentlemen , is a very quiet and good creature when properly treated . There is not the least danger of the clubs , being invaded by the factorymeu— -no bloody thumb will pollute the white satin of their drawing-rooms let them take great comfort , they-Will not have their laurels trod underfoot by . this Bill , nor will a single hob-nailed shoe trample up their gravel walks .
but he also well These alarmists do a most mischievous work . They tend to widen the gulf that rolls between classes—to make the man of property regard every mechanic as a concealed rebel with a revolver in his pocket ; and to make the mechanic consider the man of property a false , plausible , heartless , selfish defender of his own privileges and accidental wealth . It turns the two classes into enemies , and leads to a sort of verbal civil war . It is true that the calmer and more intelligent observers of political struggles know well , that the modern mechanic is no more inclined to rebellion , than the Tory gentleman is inclined to despotism . However indissolubly the historian xnay generally connect Toryism , high-chureh , and divine right , he knows well that if the one party hold / back a little too much , the other party often
families of working men to be excluded from all voice in the State ? Why should oiie million families only be admitted to the privilege of voting ? Are they criminals , or idiots , or in what has poverty incapacitated them , that they should bedebarred fromall political privileges ? And why , the moment they approach with their claims to enter the most out-lying door of the Parliament House , shduld these alarmists begin screaming and clattering like " a ship-load of monkeys in a gale of wind , " as if they were robbers , assassins , burglars , felons , rebels , and infidels , bent on robbing the political orchard , on defacing the political decalogue , on undermining the Constitutional pyramid- —on breaking down property , wealth , and all other Conservative agents , and beating them into the gory mire of universal anarchy- ^ of beheading privilege and monopoly wherever to be found P
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March 81 , 1860 . J The Leader andSatiirdmjAnah jsl . 301
Who's To Blame? At For
WHO'S TO BLAME ?
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1860, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2340/page/9/
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