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SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1859.
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%fi There is nothing-so revolutionary;, ...
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THE UUSSO-FItfSNCII ALLIANCE. Wuatkvkr m...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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Ad01707
SUBSCmPTIQN TO " THE DEADER . " O N E GUI N E A PE R YEAR ' , UNSTAMPED , PREPAID . ( Delivered Gratis ) . No . HI . MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETIES WILL APPEAR IU OUK NEXT . NOTICES TO CORRESPOND ENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous . correspM » dence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer r not necestmrily for publication , but as a guarantee of Jus good laitii .-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 ot the communication . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . OFFICE , NO . 18 , CATHERINE-STREET , .. STRAND , W . C ., The commodious premises formerly occupied by the Mobsixg Heralt > .
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Saturday, April 2, 1859.
SATURDAY , APRIL 2 , 1859 .
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%Fi There Is Nothing-So Revolutionary;, ...
% fi There is nothing-so revolutionary ; , because-there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Absoid .
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The opinion we have expressed regarding the temper and the ' character of the present House of Commons , has been painfully verified by the debate which has been prolongedto an extent so unusual . iNobody can regard it as wanting in ability . There have been many clever speeches made on either side ; and some have been preeminently distinguished by logical and rhetorical power . But throughout there has been manifested an utter absence of faith in great principles , loyalty to hio-h traditions , or generous confidence in the peopli . From first to last it has been obviously a
cold and selfish game of parties and individuals , calculating '¦ the' odds and playing for power . Lord John Russell set a bad example at the outset , and too closely has it been followed . Sitting below the gangway , and surrounded by the only men in the Liberal party who command , to any extent , the confidence of the many out of doors , he might have talcen up a position which would have placed him at the head , for the rest of his life , of the temperate but earnest friends of progress . He ought to have known , that front the moment he made himself inevitable as a Liberal minister , every
intriguing and reactionary Whig of the Grey and Clar-endon school would be at his beck , and ready to do his bidding . But instead of saying out plainly what he deemed essential to any satisfactory Reform Bill , either as regards the suffrage or redistribution of seats , Lord John'contented himself with making a speech which , if the printers had prefixed to it the name of Sir Charles Wood , or Sir Cornewall Lewis , nobody would have read with surprise . There may have been some degree of policy , though we confess we doubt it , in . ¦ framing his resolution vaguely as to the franchise : but there could be nothing but
imprudence and impolicy in bringing it forward without one hearty or thorough-going phrase in favour of expanded privileges , and rights too long withheld . A chill caught in the morning is seldom shaken off during the day ; and the benumbing effects of Lord John ' s temporising prologue have been felt throughout the wliole of the drama subsequently enacted . Out of doors the . consequences have been still more palpal ) Ie . There has not been a sentence of cordial or genial sympathy in
in the aim of the amendment , any public journal of weight or influence . Iii terms , more or less sarcastic , it has been treated as a well-manufactured drag-net to catch votes , in order that by the weight of the cargo the wily steersman might be enabled to run down a lighter boat . But the personal game to be achieved has been far more obvious thau any certainty of advantage to the popular cause ; the people have looked on , during the struggle , with indifference , and learnt its result without emotion .
It was not until after a week ' s experience of the consequences of this mode of proceeding , nor until after it had been turned to damaging account by Lord Palmerston that Lord John ' s co-laborateur in the production of the resolution attempted to repair the mischief . But Sir James Graham , though a marvellously clever administrator and political critic , is not the man to infuse confidence into a party . Every Government would be glad to have the use of his pen and liis tongue ; but who , either in or out of office , cares a farthing for what Sir James Graham calls his opinion ? Like the woman of Samaria , he has bad many of them , and that , in such quick succession that nobody can tell if tho one that he now
pro-Lord Palmerston and his friends , as ¦ well as Mi \ Gladstone and those who follow his lead , Were all long since committed to a 6 L franchise by the bill of 1854 . Finally , it is apparent , from the speeches made by Sir Bulwer Lytton , Sir Stafford JNorthcote , and Sir Jblin Pakington , that an influential section of the Cabinet would have no insuperable qualm about going thus far , provided only they had been driven into it quietly in Committee , and not
kicked intb it before the second reading . The unanimity , in fact , which prevails in the present House in favour of doing as little as possible , is quite edifying ; and so little scope do the ascertainable differences between rival parties , on the score of the suffrage , afford for argument or display , that iii the speech of Mr . Horsman , as in those of several other members , no allusion whatever was made to the subject .
Unquestionably , the two most remarkable exhibitions of intellectual courage and adroitness , were those of Lord Palmerston and Mr . Gladstone . Both are evidently playing against Lord John Russell for the leadership of the House of Commons . The former could hardly have found a decent excuse for refusing to follow " his noble friend , the member for the City of London , " in a general demonstration in favour of reform . But having agreed to vote for the motion , in order to save the mark with the Woburn Whigs , and the wavering Radical , the next thing to be done was to damage the proceeding as much as possible ; with a view to conciliate The nt and insolent
the bulk of the Tories . arroga tone in which Lord Palmerston addressed those who happen to sit on the Treasury bench , did not provoke the same resentment from the mass of the country gentlemen who sit behind them . Nor was it intended to do so ; on the contrary , the whole drift of liis lordship ' s speech was more conservative by some degrees than Lord John ' s ; and as it was a great deal better conceived and delivered , it was far more acceptable'to- them .. ' They could not fail to remember , that it was he , after all , who had broken up the Cabinet of 18 p 2 , on the morrow of its producing something like a good bill ; that he had quitted the Cabinet of 1854 , sooner than consent had himself been the
to a better one ; and that he head of a Cabinet subsequently for tlirce years , which had contrived to exist without having any bill at all . No one except Mr . Gladstone could have a chance for the lead of such a House as the present , after such a speech from Lord Palmerston , The member for the University felt that he must bid something still higher iu the way of resistance to change , and he resolved , accordingly , to become the champion of nomination boroughs . It is all very well for people to say , how could so clever a man think of taking up with such antiquated notions ? For our part , we see nothing strange whatever in it . Mr . Gladstone sees , that after the courses of bleeding and purging it has gone t . livnunrli—firstunder the hands of Sir Robert Peel ,
and more lately under those of Doctor Disraeli and his assistants—Toryism , if it is to live at all , must have some . marrow , put into its bones . It has gone on conforming and conceding , throwing up and giving out , until it has hardly a leg to stand upon . Any amount of unpopularity with the unenfranchised many , or of antagonism with another sect of tho privileged few , would be better than this . There arc besides , as Mr . Gladstone well influences ni
knows , great and powemu ^ nurcu and State , in country and town , in camp and Court , which only need a resolute and eloquent champion to rally them around the old Hag of Toryism . WO believe this to be Mr . Gladstone ' s purpose , and it ho adheres to it we believe he will succeed . But as for Reform , let the people be assured that nothing worth having will bo granted by the present House of Commons . If llolbrin there is : o be , it must bo earned out of doors .
leases to have is really his or not . For want of a better , however , the weathercock member for Carlisle was put up ito declare that by a further extension of suffrage in towns he and his noble friend meant tho present municipal franchise , which oomos pretty nearly to the same thing , in most places , as 0 . 61 . rating ; for , under the Small Tenements Act tho greater proportion of 3 J . and 41 , tenements are ratcu in the name of the landlord , and their occupants , thereforo , could not be counted , in general , as nn clement of increase . What is worse is tho condition of three years' continuous residence , and two yoars and a half , payment of rates * Wo very much doubt if , in country towns , this
supplcmen-TIIE REFORM DEBATE . The majority ' of thirty-nine against Ministers has proved to be larger than anyone perhaps expected . On all hands it is felt to be conclusive of the fate of the measure , and of the Cabinet , at least as it has been hitherto constituted . At the end of a seven nights' debate , Mr . Disraeli gravely reiterated his opinion that the town franchise could hot , with safety , be lowered . A majority , in the fullest House there has been for many years , lias emphatically declared that some change in that direction must be made . False as the promise may prove to popular hope , it is fatal to Mr . Disraeli as an official leader . lie must ,
for the present , y retire from the post lie has filled with so much credit and courage during the last twelve months . If that were all , the vacancy might easily be filled up , as we have already hinted , were Mr . Gladstone disposed to undertake the task of preparing a new bill General Peel and Lord Salisbury are , as is well known , anxious to resign ; and their places might without much difficulty be filled by more acceptable and useful wen . We doubt , however , if any attempt of tlio sort will bo made , unless in the event of a failure to form a Government , by one or other of tho Whig Oppositions , . Up to the px'esent hour the'gangway between them has cprr
tainly not been bridged , and we have no reason to think that at present it will be . The difficulty does not consist , as is commonly imagined , in tho personal rivalry of Lords Piilmcx'ston and J , Russell , but in the mutual repugnance of their respective adherence to one another , and in the incompatibility of their political views . Assuming that Lord Derby will not , without some further justification , advise the Queen to dissolve Parliament , ho must , we think , inform tho l'louso of Lords on Monday
night , that ho hart tendered his x'osignation , and that ho has advised tho Queen to confide tho task of forming a iioav Administration to Lord John Russell . But how that veteran cabinet maker is to secure a sufficient nmonnt of support in the present Pavliajpnont , we own ourselves at a loss to bonjoeturo . Sooner or Inter , the other two sections will infallibly unite to crush him ; and crush him they easily will , unless ho , makes up his mind promptly and nnmistakenbly to play out fbi' tho support of tho people
tary suffrage would add 20 per cent ., on an average , to tho constituencies : in London , and othor lm'ge cities , it would vh'tually amount to no addition at all . This , aflcr a weok ' s cogitation , is the upshot of tho grand move , for sake of which the Cabinet , if not tho country * is to bo turned upside down . Mr . Walpolo had already intimated that ho would have no objection to go thus far 5 and
The Uusso-Fitfsncii Alliance. Wuatkvkr M...
THE UUSSO-FItfSNCII ALLIANCE . Wuatkvkr may bo thought of Kmwiun strategy , it is impJsBiblo to depute the d ip lomatic Ml . During \ li « latter portion ul Ia * t vowrthe influonco . of the Czar was used « ueoos » lully to stimulate Frunqh and Surdinuin ambition at the expense of Austria . . General encouragement was ho a out to both with a lavish hand , and when so . no diffloulty ip » uwj lo about tho matrimonial alliance between tho Houbq of Buonaparte and that of ISftvoy , the Grand Dufco Constantino did not disdain to become special attorney m tho matrimonial suit , which , under his auspices , was
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02041859/page/17/
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