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966 THE LEADE R. ^ [Saturday,
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JB ^5*c fpp flr jt £ y
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r*~ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1852.
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$tthlir Iffatra.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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A PEOPLE'S PARTY AND THE NEW PARLIAMENT....
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Til 10 TH.U 10 DEMOCRACY. At Arbroath, L...
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.
966 The Leade R. ^ [Saturday,
966 THE LEADE R . ^ [ Saturday ,
Jb ^5*C Fpp Flr Jt £ Y
JB ^ 5 * c fpp flr jt £ y
R*~ Saturday, October 9, 1852.
r *~ SATURDAY , OCTOBER 9 , 1852 .
$Tthlir Iffatra.
$ tthlir Iffatra .
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
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 . —De . Aenold .
A People's Party And The New Parliament....
A PEOPLE ' S PARTY AND THE NEW PARLIAMENT . Wanted a People ' s Party in . or out of Parliament ; and as there is a great people , one has some difficulty in understanding now it is that it cannot make a party . The view of the practicability , indeed , varies with the notion as to the process by which it should be formed . Casting aside journals like the Morning Herald , which declares that Lord Derby ' s mission is to oppose the progress or " encroachment" of the Democracy , that he is appointed by the country to estop the people , we find almost as many opinions as there are political sections ; but the distribution of hope and
suggestion among them is not exactly what we might expect . While Lord John Russell , recently so tame , stands forth as the volunteer champion of the British Democracy , confident in some victory not yet clearly defined , the old soldier of Parliamentary liberalism , Joseph Hume , confesses that his anxiety to form a people ' s party is losing itself in his despondency . The Morning Post lias excited much conversation by hinting at some new ministry which is to slip in between the unendurable Derby ministry and the impossible Russell ministry , the general idea being that this points to a ministry of Lord Palmerston ; if so , it was a mistake in that generally active nobleman to Avait until after Lord John ' s
Perth speech . The scion of the House of Bedford has taken the start of slower men ; and whatever he means to do , he has seized the right which the English people will be willing enough to concede him , of blowing his bubble first . Mr . Hume can see no materials for a , People ' s parly ; the most noisy Liberals desert on trivial grounds , and will not unite . Of Irish union he is not hopeful ; some extravagant proceeding being ever likely to upset such a possibility . The men who preceded Lord Derby in oflico are hollow in their professions . Mr . Hume , therefore , tan sec no method of forming a People ' s party , except by taking a nucleus from a few -Radical members of the House of Commons , and
then agreeing on one point , " say ballot , " to begin wi ( . h . Assuredly , thai , is noL the way . The ballot , a mere precautionary measure , is not one to rally any enthusiasm . ( Strikingly us many men have been converted to it by the scandals of the last election , many Liberals arc cool towards it , many dislike it . Jt has the advantage neither of being a principle , nor a positive measure . Lord . John . Russell ' s word Democracy is a better point for
ngreement , and , sanctioned by his aristocratic name , it , might really unite all sections of the popular party . If lie ¦ means anything by it ; for Lord John has often opened his mouth wider in opposition than in otlice . The Til tcrance of the Treasury Bench is a mincing utterance , if he only means to begin again the same tune that he went on thrumming through so many dreary sessions , the bubble will burst . On the other band , if he really means to place himself at the head of the ICnglish people , the post in vacant .
And the principle of Lord John . Russell ' s action is better for the purpose of h , people ' s movement than Mr . . Hume ' s . Wo nay this without any bias in favour of Lord John-- —indeed , without any faith in him . lie has so often hIkmvii himself unable to estimate the strength of his own position , that wo cannot , repel a warning doubt whether he may not do so again , Possibly ho limy have used the words with » ni after-dinner breadth of meaning , to which , in his more deliberate moments , he will not adhere ; and he may already bo astonished at the > large interpretation that has been put upon his phrases .
He may be either alarmed or amused at finding himself taken for so great a man . We do not know : we only know that Lord John ' s friends are strong in the assurances of still undeveloped greatness in him , if he have the opportunity . We cannot presume the negative of latent statesmanship in the face of expressions which seem to indicate its existence ; and , in the meanwhile , we cannot but perceive that the position is all the stronger for resting on a general principle rather than a specific
measure . The fashion of practical measures or specific points is rather out of date ; it has been overdone . Experience has shown , that the most practical of specific measures , from the appropriation cause to the Six Point Charter , may be frittered away in discussion until they lose all their prestige , becoming mere abstractions , pretexts , of which the very advocacy wearies its own friends . The specific measure , which was once a solid support , becomes a burden ; its abandonment a relief . In the present disintegrated
condition of the Liberal party , even the preliminary union on a specific measure would be difficult ; and if that union were effected , yet when ardour should be wanted , the supporters would drop off , and the organization would be added to the long list of failures which have become byewords . But all can agree upon a general principle , such as the principle that the whole body of the people should be admitted—nay , summoned , to co-operate for the interest of the whole . In the
conflict of parties which have torn each other to tatters , the interests of the nation have been forgotten ; but it is the nation whose interests now most especially demand vindication , when a menace lowers upon all quarters of the horizon abroad , when large masses of the people are yearly departing from their native land to seek a new allegiance in the most distant climes , and when the conduct of public affairs has been handed over to the most miserable faction within
the three kingdoms . We say the most miserable advisedly , for even the Orange faction in Ireland means something . There is not an Englishman , the life-blood of whose heart might not again warm at hearing the leading statesmen once more proclaim that they intended to act on behalf of the nation . If once a movement were commenced in that spirit , and with that object , by whomsoever the march should be begun , no class could restrain itself from falling in ; and woe betide the clique that should pretend to cross the path of its victory . If such a movement were to commence , most
certainly the Parliament could not stand in its way . Whether the Parliament were old or new , the popular move would have an inherent power superior to that of any mere combinations of persons or numbers . Who should have arranged beforehand to go into the lobby with Lord This or That would matter very little . Such arrangements or cliques would fall to pieces before the stronger party , unless they fell in with the march . The new Parliament would have to make
itself the instrument of such a power , or it would be broken to pieces before the progress . It is in tin ; spirit of leading men , and the public ; at largo , that the essential life of such a parly must be found . If it is not found there , it will not be discovered in Parliament . If it is found there , the Parliament must help , or it must give way to a people-made Parliament .
Til 10 Th.U 10 Democracy. At Arbroath, L...
Til 10 TH . U 10 DEMOCRACY . At Arbroath , Lord Panmuro copies his chief , Lord John Russell , at Perth ; only , taking up the ideas of another with the hand of a . copyist rather than a master , he enfeebles the excellencies and exaggerates the faults of his original , lie moralizes the recent history of l < Yance , as thus : — u During the 1 iih ( . lew yearn she Iisih undergone no fewer limn three ; revolutions , first , of nil she threw oil ' a Kiiitr who lived under ( he old sysl . oin , I lie old rule
of I'Yance , and placed another on the throne , with MMiiewhal , of ii . constitutional nliitdow of ^ overniiieut . Not content with that ., not many years afUirwardn , hIio nirft oil" that Kiii ^ and tlmt shadow of constitutional Kovemnient , and rustled into n hIsiI . o of the bloodiest anarchy , and all in tho wined name of Liberty ; and now she is pleased to yield herself up to the des ]> otinin of one person . Her press in ^ ii ^ ed , and every nifj of the ila ^ of liberty \ h torn from the polo to which it once Hcenicd milled . That in n Iohsoh for uh . Liberty docH not CoiiHiHt , in licentiouHUCHH , nor freedom in rovo ^
lution . I believe we live under the best system of government that human means have ever devised where the Crown cannot trample on the rights of the people , and where I trust the people will not attempt to trample on the just privileges of the Crown ; for be assured that under the constitutional machinery of the country in which we have , the happiness to live , all the just claims , all the fair rights and proper demands of the people—though from this circumstance or that they may be checked—must ultimately be conceded and with the rising intelligence of the great mass of the people of this country , the political privileges enjoyed by a certain number of the inhabitants must soon and speedily be considerably developed . "
He does not do it so well as Lord John . With uncertain hand he dashes off the Democratic phrases in a style of much less zest and fire in the language . Let the rights of the people be just and proper , and then , though they may be checked , yet the political privileges—not of the people but—those enjoyed by a certain number of the inhabitants , mustsoonandspeedilybe—" enjoyed by all , " would appear to have been on the speaker ' s lips , but , with a sudden recollection of X 3 owning-street , he rounds the sentence off with this lame and
impotent conclusion— " must be considerably developed . " The political privileges of a certain number shall be developed . This is poor promising , but evidently Lord Panmure does not know what he is talking about . His allusion to France proves as much . According to his account , France , not content with a constitutional shadow of government , or shadow of constitutional government—for Lord Panmure uses the two expressions—rushed into a state of the bloodiest anarchy . When ? Not certainly in February , when the insurgents set an example
of moderation and clemency , which shames the subsequent horrors of reactionary triumphs ; nor yet in June , when the mass of the people came out to support the real Republic , united under the national mono-coloured flag against the moderate Republicans , who appeared to be compromising with the anti-republican and antinational factions , and under whose timorous incompetency the reaction had first taken shelter . It was the vacillating and anti-popular conduct of that so-called " moderate" party which had
balked the people with negations instead of positive acquisitions . So far as the two speeches go , there is the same distinction between Lord John and Lord Panmure that there avus between the moderate Republicans of Paris and the " Red" Republicans . By the " Red" Republicans , we mean the great body of the popular party in France which was prepared to stand up for the Republic , with all the legitimate and necessary consequences of that most national form of government , and not that small section of terrorists , who distorted the tenets of
their own side , earned for themselves a sanguinary distinction , and have too commonly monopolised , amongst undiscriminating writers in . this country , the title of Red , as if red ( the colour of our English ensign ) were essentially the banner of anarchy and blood . For that section wo have no qualification to recent
the censure which we passed upon it in a number : we know the men by their works , as the tree by its fruit . We have watched their antics before and behind the curtain of the revolutionary drama ; for to them the Revolution is a dmniH , and nothing more ; for thorn ' 1 W was the apogee of humanity ; for them the terrible convulsions of that epoch arc political institutions , to bo revered and restored . It is all a mi so en scene .
One stage-struck fanatic thinks himself a ¦ llllur ° Robespierre ; a second would » . po St . •'"" ' ., third undertakes the part of Dnnton ; a Jourm enamoured of the memory of Mural ,, styles imnself , IJAml dit . . Pcuplv ( Ileaveii save the I "' " !"" from such friends !); and a fifth bespatters you wiMi the savage blasphemies of Phre . JJiw / i ^ - These are the men who disgrace the Kovoition , retard the popular victory , and do u » work of the reaction . Are honest working » " - < . Tl « ' > J > V /» 1 > I l \ ' J Wl «\ (| i |« fill _•¦¦» -
. . . 1 I JJ (* who desire the triumph of the democratic cau - for the sake of all its just and necessary iru 11 / 1 enfranchisement , to be confounded with a en l of fanatics in Phrygian caps , with daggers in i » belts ? Hut in speaking of this section as » lm . ipl . iblo minority , wo sidliciently ^ tinKi » "J . them from the mass of the " Jt « d 'W mbl , 'l party , If tho French democracy hud not , « grown thin plagiarism , hoAvcouldit o ° ndomnJ' ° Bonnparto for committing tho oxccbbcs it o *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09101852/page/10/
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