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November 1,1856.] , THE LEADER. 1045
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Liberal Basis. If Earnest Men Arc As...
for a moment quitting their specialities to create a broad basis of reform . But it is not enough to lament this prodigality of per- sonaf exertion , raising small excitements on separate platforms , but giving no impetus to the great machine by which all political change , in this country , must be effected , " Wo want a foundation , we want a leading object , and that can be no other than an im- provemcnt of our parliamentary institutions , Will Mr . Miall calculate the ' work done ' during the last ten years in connexion with the Church Establishment ? Sir William Clay as to church-rates ? Mr . Berkeley as to the ballot ? "What better chance have tho Jews of entering Parliament than they had in 1850 ? "W"hat way is made by the prompters of public education ? Do we gain a step upon our ministers in the matter of foreign policy ? Are our legal reformers satisfied with the results of their collective exertions ? Do they who lament the declining efficacy of Parliament believe they have , at present , any chance of enforcing a remedy ? Can any liberal member , however influential , hope to ameliorate the Poor-Law ? No ; Mr . Miall may labour with his face to the East , and Sir "William Clay with Ms face to the "West . The annual debate on the ballot may dwindle down to an tin- answered speech from Mr . Berkeley , fol- lowed by a ministerial majority . Commit- tees may sit , and investigate our continental relations , but nothing will be altered ; because , while the reformers stray along diverging paths , each dwelling on his own . infinitesimal project , the Conservatives , including the "Whigs , bear down in compact masses . First , they "beat Mr . B-Erkelisy then they baffle Sir HEisifv : Clay . Next they turn their extended front against Mr GoBBETT , who , having retired , leaves them free to engage with Mr . Oliveira , -who ( may his shadow never diminish ) desires to cheapen wine . We know not what these gentlemen would say were it seriously proposed to defer for a time , the consideration of special topics , in order that the ground might be prepared by large measure of political reform . They must be aware that , if they make any progress with the several 'interests' they have taken in charge , it is so slow as to be all but hopeless Annually , they rally the same supporters tlieir minorities being smaller or greater ac cording to the number of independent Libe rals in the House . Thus , Sir " William Clay has his steady adherents in the cause of church-rate abolition ; Mr . MiajjL is sure of a particular set to vote with him on ' vo luntary' points , and these two reformers work together to a considerable extent ; "butwhere are they when other Richards are in t field ? Their subject is not ' on , ' so they are ' oft ' . ' It is to be doubted whether one member of the Liberal party could indicat the line of action that will be pursued by an other during the next session of Parliament A scheme of united action would take them by Burprise . Xet this , it seems to us , is necessary condition of success . It is the moral of our parliamentary history for the last twenty-five years . The lieform Bill was tho prolific parent of a hundred practical re forms ; another lloforni Bill might be parent of as many more . It would be vain , this moment , to consider the necessity of such a measure , the public ear bein g closed to all cussions of the kind ; "but it ia by no means wrong time topreBaupon Liberal members Parliament the adoption of general groun upon which they can work in "union , towards a general object . Political reforms are conquests , special reforms are pri / . es , be distributed after the victory . If wo desire to abolish church-rates , to introduce humanity into our poor-law , to amend our statutes
a : t < c : p h "w fi n n a r j < p I s r ^ \ affecting industry , to purify our corporations , ] to get the work of the public done in a creditable manner by the servants of the public , we must have a . parliament that is inclined to do these things , not a parliament which lias repeatedly and pertinaciously refused to do them . A great political union might at this time preserve the country from many dangers , and ensure it much prosperity , and much real glory . "Why should not this union include liberal reformers in and out of parliament , and journalists agreed to labour for a common purpose , that the machinery of reform might be renovated and improved ? It would be ^ a sign of political health and morality . ^ It is not altogether the public that is indifferent . The public gathers together upon invitation . Sound political leadership would not be long without a powerful following .
November 1,1856.] , The Leader. 1045
November 1 , 1856 . ] , THE LEADER . 1045
'' 1 < I 1 ' ' I I ¦ ,. , A . , - - - He...
' ' 1 < i 1 ' ' i i ¦ , . , a . , - - - he e - . a - the at distho of ds , and to ¦• :-.. ¦ ¦ . ' ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ " ¦ ; ¦ . - ¦ ¦ ¦ " ¦ : > ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ; : ,. ¦ b GUll FORMGN ACCOUNT BOOK . t < The Paris Union , does not share the appre- a hensions of the Moniteur that the calumnies e of the English press will trouble the friendly b relations of the two states , but it entertains o the opposite fear , that " the two countries c will be brought into an accordance of ideas t Which would place them beyond the ban of £ social instincts , and of all Europe . " This y indeed would be a frightful destiny . Imagine i : the two chief countries in Europe placed v without the pale , not only of European civili- 1 zatiori , but of the instincts of mankind ! We look , then , to see the reason of this fear , and t ¦ we find it thus stated : " France is the central r ; point of the political world , England is per- 1 , haps the central point of the commercial i ; world : these two contrary positions cannot 1 . give rise to the same tendencies , ideas , or t i passions , and if they become assimilated -i >¦ France must lose her genius . " If we were £ l conjuring up apprehensions we might anti- l cipate the opposite results—that England was s , losing her genius ; or , we might say , that ] l England 7 * ad lost her genius , some time since , 1 i when she abandoned Cromwell ' s principle b of sturdy self-government and went into i i trade , leaving government to the upper 1 l classes . Prince Albert warned us the ... other day that " constitutional government i , was on its trial . " He stated these things . ; - in his capacity as a guest of the Merchant - Tailors : if he had consulted the English i people , they might have told him that they e had begun to give up constitutional governe ment , as they found it interrupt them in > - trade . There can be no other reason why k those who are nominally the * servants' of the e crown , and of the country , are at present e carrying on the most important national ¦ e affairs without letting the country know a ie word about it or have any clue to their ; e actual position . What we are afraid of is , l- that our Government will ultimately be found t . accomplishing some betrayal of constitutional m . principles without any opportunity of prea ventiug it . At present their position is perio fectly unintelligible , and the guesses which le we make only tend to sharpen our apprehends sions . e- Some difficulty has occurred on the Danube , ie This is intelligible enough in its nature , but at not in its predisposing causes . Having let eli llussia outwit them in the Paris Conference , ia- tho "Western Powers find they cannot settle ho the new boundary . Turkey does not wish of Austria to remove her troops from the fronls , tier before the boundary be settled , but nd Xfcussia has won over France to demand tho ins withdrawal of the Austrian troopa " as soon to as possible , " in the letter of the Paris Treaty , ire Here , then , there is a difference between the ity I Allies , which on the xeassombling of the Paris bea Congress may frustrate the very objects -with to . . i ; » ? s ; 3 b i 7 - i v e t il a ir s , d il 3- c- h . i- e . it et : e , le ah n- ut ho m sy . he ris ith
! | . whicli the late war was commenced ; and our Government has drifted into such a position , that it finds itself relying upon Austria ! "We have withdrawn our Ambassador from Naples , but not the more does King Bomba give in . What next are we to do ? Are we to occupy some point of the King ' s territories ? And if we do , what are we to do with it ? For it is resolved , or supposed to be resolved , in deference to France , that we shall not run the risk of promoting an insurrection in Italy , so that we threaten the King ^ and keep at a distance from him— -a mode of treatment not likely to operate on his fears . _ There is , however , a risk to whieh this country is exposed that would in no degree surprise the students of Napoleonic history and ' Ideas . ' Count Walewski at present is allowed to coquet with Austria and Russia in turn , and to put into the Mbniteur those silly notifications which can Lave no effect but to offend the people of this country and make the French people believe that we are hostile to them . It does not follow , however , that the Emperor intends always to let his agent have his own way ; and it would occasion no surprise if lie were to sanction a coup d ' etat on Italian ground , in the constitutional sense . He would then be the great patron and liberator of Italy ; and England would be exhibited in the light of skulking in Italy for the fourth time—of skulking when the work which she had put the Italians up to just awaited its finishing stroke . Count Walewski ' s circular in the Moniteur makes some other reports which have not been contradicted by our Government . He implies that something has been settled in Greece . Now , what is that ? That the BelgianGovernment has given some satisfaction on the score of the "beggarly anti-Gallican newspapers which were published in Brussels . But what does this mean ? Lord Clakendon protested , in terms , against the allusions to the Belgian journals ; and is it possible that the uncle of the Queen has been made to submit to the indignity of giving explanations on this point ? If so , it is not the genius of France which is in bondage to the alliance , but the genius of England . Some time since the English Government was braving every difficulty with America ; then insolently refusing satisfaction on the enlistment question ; insisting upon the right of appropriating Buatan without any Legislative sanction in , this country , and so proclaiming its resolve to stand by the beggarly Mosquito Indians to the last man . What do we hear now ? That the Mosquito Indians have been taken under the joint protectorate of England and the United States , with power reserved for the state of Nicaragua to extinguish the titles of the Indians , while Buatan—English territory—has been aurrendered to the state of Honduras without the slightest authority from the Bepresentatives of this country—indeed , without the slightest explanation . The taxes of our people were raised for the purpose of the war . It seems probable that wo shall be defrauded of the advantages of the war by the caprices or iucompetency of our managers . We are still in close alliance with a country whose ' genius' insults our allies , including tho near relative of our Queek , and insults our people through its press . We have been making some settlement in Greece agreeable to Count Walewskt . We have been giving up the territory of this country without the leave of Parliament . Sir Hobebt Peel tolls us that we are on tho verge of a war—commencing somewhere , perhapB at tho foot of Mount Vesuvius—without the slightest guarantee that the war will "bo consistent with the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 1, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01111856/page/13/
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