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but ludicrously incapable of everything ...
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" THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT. [The resp...
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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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Intrigues. The Administrative Reformers ...
nothing about family influence . Perhaps if he would say Whig family influence it would do as well . The family influence which made the Duke of Nobthumbebland First Lord of the Admiralty , and put Lord Lonsdale at the head of national education , is purely beneficent . Lord Ellewbobotjgh mores in the Lords that the war has been mismanaged ; that is , that he ought to have managed it himself . He would have done some things vigorously and well ; but his good sense stands recorded in the Somnauth proclamation , and his programme of a campaign in Asia savours of the wild elephant . Lord Pa : l : m : ebston clearly tries to knock Mr . Latabd ' s head against Lord EiiJ , ETsrBOBOTjQn . Mr . Lataed cleverly evades the collision . The Ministry will have a hard week of it . Lord Eli / enbobough is said to be confident , but it will hardly be a recommendation with the Lords that he gets wind for his saijs from the quarter of Administrative Reform . However , the British aristoeracy , if it falls , will fall nobly , intriguing to the end .
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But Ludicrously Incapable Of Everything ...
but ludicrously incapable of everything b »* ' thf stupid rush aud the blind bite . Our fleets are sailing about in idle grandeur , and at an expense which proves that we are a great people : but they can dc nothing . Our army , foiled at Sebastopol , is about to take a tour in Asia : our War Department thinks , perhaps , that a Xenophon may turn up in the compelled retreat : and a man is so much wanted that it would be worth the sacrifice of any army to get at him . We have a summer before us , of enormous waste of life and wealth , doubtful glories , —and no results . And the winter before us is worse . The weather-wise augur badly from the spring ; and certain it is , that unless we have a very prodigious harvest , wheat will be at 150 s ,: —^ that , if we have a bad harvest , we shall have something like a famine . Agitation going on , our governing class more and more exposing their utter destitution of governing power , our nationality more and more disappearing as we subside into an imperial province under the French Lower Empire , there would come , in such a winter , a political spirit answering to the old Chartism that dates from the days of over-population ; and then—Insurrectionsperhaps Revolution . Not to mention several committees to inquire , & c . Parliament , already , is not leaving it altogether to t . lip riit . v mfin . -wlio snare an hour a dav from their ¦ ~~ -
resistance . With wheat at 150 s ., a . few orators and writers , of power and point , could then do a good deal with the English people . Woe be to the men who , conscious of this dark future ^ still cultivate their conceit and hold -back from guiding the present . In the political . position , with these prospects , the English nation has a right to the service of the men to whom she gave power for some higher purpose than the debate-of crotchets . There are two men in the House of Commons of pre-eminent genius and of lofty public virtue , who belong ¦ to the country and not to the caste , but who are still inactive . We want leaders in this movement to give it shape , to use its power , to make it patriotic . Why is it that Mr . Gladstone and Mr . Bright do not head us ? They wish to comtrol the war . Well : if they will lead us , w-e will give them power . Heading this agitation , they would be the Government in six months . But we fear the appeal is in vain . Then , the next best thing to a great man , is a great personage ; and we would say to the Queen , were we right honourable men , r-r-Your Majesty , your reign has been so calm in constitutional routine , that you forget your hereditary powers to save your subjects . Your nobles are ruining us , anarchy is impending , and we pray you * Majesty to nationalise the nation by anticipating , as your grandfather and your uncles on different occasions anticipated , the votes of the Commons and the Lords , and choosing a Ministry of your own . We prefer your Majesty to Louis Napoleon , as our ot to asiae nis
AGITATION . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —In our country , just now , everything is ready for the Revolution—except the Revolutionists . Dismay , despair , are the sensations of the class of men who feel some responsibility to the huge , helpless nation ; but the emotion does not suggest action .
H ^ ^ ^^ — — ^ ^ J ^ # ^^^^^ **— — y » — — " ^^ — — — — ^ avocations to save the country , to avert the Fate whose shadow is over us . Lord Ellenborough , a nobleman of Roman behaviour , is to move a vote of censure on the Government ; and such a thing is possible as the House of Lords , not less demented than the rest of us , aiding in a movement against their own order . If Lord Ellenborough succeed , and Mr . Layard , a gentleman of Greek acuteness , obtain subsequently , in the Commons , a partial success for n Aimiloi * i ¥ irt + mn T . r \ T > c \ Paimorcfnn xirnnlfl rooiori
own Sovereign ; and we pray you pux Proconsuls , the Palmerstons , Malmesburys , and Russells ; and bring into your councils honest , independent , intellectual Englishmen , who will serve you and England as your Majesty may determine . That appeal cannot be heard . Therefore , without consternation , we await the winter . It is not the particular business of the Leader to avert revolution . Non-Ei-ectok .
We are drifting , as a people : or , if we act at all , it is , while crying for a Revolution , to attempt a change . We want certain things done on the instant , and , therefore , we enter on an agitation : and that is our old national plan—so traditional that we do not observe that we have a House of Commons constructed by the constitution specially to anticipate agitation , —to be the' agitator ^ We know , by experience , that agitation in England is a seven years ' business ; but we can't help that . It relieves ojr feelings to enter on an agitation ; and not the less that we don ' t very well know what we are agitating for . We don't know in the least what administrative reform means : but it relieves our feelings . " Eheu !" is a ridiculous exclamation : but it calms the tragic sensations of an oppressed heart . If we do not see the way to remedy , we recognise the difficulty ; and that is something . We are in a great war , of which we are sick , but of which we cannot get rid : we are sick of it because we find that our rulers have made it a war , not for human freedom , as we desired , but against Russia , and for decannot ui
and then ? We should get , plus Ellenborough , the same Derby Government which we laughed out of office , in a quiet era , two years ago . They would do a little at administrative reform : but they could not alter the circumstances of the world—they would continue a statesman ' s war , and be beaten by the Russians , who are the cleverest statesmen . The nobleman of Roman behaviour might take a Roman view , and lift us into sight of a future worth fighting for . Forcing the small minds of the French Emperor and of his own chief into a grand conception , he might say , Let France and England go forth and conquer : he might revolutionise Germany , unite Italy , restore Poland , convulse Asia , annihilate Czardom , and insist on there being but two powers in Europe—London and Paris . A few words , and a few more millions , would suffice to arm mankind against the despotisms that are diplomatising us . Then , if we were still to have a long war , we might be content : this generation would have done something . But a nobleman of Roman behaviour—who is sixty-six years of age—will soon be red-taped round about him : and under the despairing influences of a governing caste , which is likewise worn out , he will conduct the war with the impotent politeness expected ia these days from a Minister . When he minister ntue
lusive treaties merely ; ana wo get nu u , because the enemy , comprehending our statesmen , feels sure of baulking them , and , accordingly , laughs at our pacificating diplomacy . In this war we are isolated in the world ; France disdains us for having become the vassals of the Emperor of the French ; and that Emperor assassinated , England would have either to carry on war single-handed against Russia , or to join the French nation in an armed Propaganda of republican opinions—an unpleasant prospect to the English aristocracy . Our brethren of America arc not with us \ n the war ; we lose their alliance in caressing the bloodstained hands of Louis Napoleon . Austria , " master of the situation , " can be contemptuously neutral or safely defiant of us : a ( probable ) junction of Austria and Prussia—all Germany—against Louia Napoleon , rendering his alliance something worse than worthless to us . Meanwhile , carrying on this vast war , from which wo expect no territorial advantages for ourselves , and no better readjustment of tho map of Europe for purposes of permanent peace , wo find our prestige as a potent people disappearing . Our aristocracy , worn out , arc deridod by ourselves : and we , ourselves , arc in turn tho jest of Europe , for our delusions about tho war , our faith in an imbecile Parliament , our reliance on changes of old Ministers , our affectionate reception of tho hero of the coup d ' iftut , and , generally , for our chaotic conduct in dealing with political confusion . We aro a failures iu tho war , in everything but fighting , which is but a part of military , work : and wo arc compared to the bull-dog—a highly admirable aniinnl , in sticking to tho cnomy ,
dies , we shall have some other w ar , a older ; or , if Lord Derby is thrown out , we shall have Russell , or perhaps Palmerston again ;—still wanting revolution , still we shall but beseech the Queen for a change . Layard may get in ; Lowe , too ; nay , Laing ; even Lindsay : —and when we have got for them 5000 / . a year each , our changes will be completed . That is our revolution ; leave the system ; House of Peers ; aristocratic House of Commons ; governing class ; and put in a man after our heart , who is sure to be put down when he is caught in . And no greater change seems possible , if we are to confine ourselves to change , for , however we may abuse the old lords , there are no young lords of any ability coming up , and our new agitation as yet supplies no great man to wield it—no Cobdcn , no Bright . Tho best hope that springs out of the administrative reform movement is , that it will gradually and , best , imperceptibly become a parliamentary reform movement . Certainly , it is not our conclusion that the country is to be put upright again in Europe by infusing more into tho House of Commons of the hapless metropolitan member clement : —the coming man will not come out of a pot-house . But were a cry now raised for large extension of the suffrage , it would have more meaning and more philosophy than that too often imbecile cry has previously had . As these middle-class meetings go on , it will be seen that our Government is not to bo nationalised but by an utter sweep of tho aristocratic system , and that the iniddlo-class will seek in vain to get power from the aristocracy , except upon tho condition of sharing it with tho people , and with those men who would depend upon tho people—tho adventurers , landless but brainful , who thrive in revolution . And that cry of Reform the Parliament , so raised , would mean Revolution , —the Whigs then would gather in among tho Tories—tho " order" would stand by itself , in
" The Stranger" In Parliament. [The Resp...
" THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions is limited to the act of giving them publicity . The opinions expressed are those of the writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by the freedom which is left to his pen and discretion . ] Why was Mr . Disraeli in so rapacious a . hurry foe " papers ? " You would have thought , on Monday , when he was in such a fuss about them that he asked his question before Lord Palmerston had got into the House , and so brought up Sir George Grey , who naturally knew nothing about the matter , that human affairs were to turn upon these precious protocols : —and the House thought so too , for when Mr . Disraeli , on Sir George ' s helpless answer , intimated that if he didn't hear of them next day he'd take the sense of the House on the subject , the poor , dull , honourable members cheered . Well * there the papers are now—one of the customary ( gratis ) Government contributions to the Retrospective Review—capitally cooked , admirably unsignificant , carefully inconclusive , and not telling us of irnvthins- that has happened within the last
twenty days : and what is Mr . Disraeli the better for them ? We are in the same position as before : there are what Mr . Bright calls '' strong rumours" from Paris ; as strong rumours from Vienna : diplomacy is undoubtedly still in the ascendant : hut Parliament is not in the least aware of what is to become of us under the auspices of the couple of desperadoes , Napoleon and his Viceroy Palmerston , who have now taken Europe in hand . The two views taken of the facts confirmed by the papers , one view being that there ought never to have been any Conference , and the other that the Conference ought not to have been broken up , could have been taken , and were taken , before the Foreign . Office ' s translator sufficiently recovered from his dyspepsia to oblige the British Empire with these protocols ; and though Lord Grey ( followed by Mr . Milner Gibson , as honorary member of tho Peace Society ) has heroin obtained some official basis for the speech ho is going to make on tho 21 st for the purpose of convincing tho growing Pcace-at-any-prico party that he is the man for Premier , yet tho country gains nothing by tho long postponement of tho amusement derivable from a discussion of tho Vienna business . Mr . Bright is sensitively anxious , with all his eagerness for a say on tho new aspect of allairs , not to risk tho possible p-uco by inducing any premature Parliamentary rhetoric —patriotically ho consents to adopt Palmerstoii ' s suggestion that the interests of the publib service require that tho House of Commons should not interfere until its intcrforenco is palpably of no
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051855/page/15/
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