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1223 T II E L.P A P E R. [No. 451, Novem...
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THOUGHTS, FACTS, AND SUGGESTIONS ON PARL...
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POLITICAL FOinSSlIABCrSYINGS. Privv Coun...
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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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Biographies Of German Fringes. No. I. Th...
four or five of such amnesties , still , at this moment ^ all the leading men of the movements of 1848 and 1 S 49 are in exile . No wonder that , under such rule , the population of Baden has actually decreased within the space of the last nine years in consequence of wholesale emigration . The violence of i-eaction may be guessed from the single fact , that even a man like the historian Gervinus has at last found the country too hot , and crossed its frontiers in order to avoid a sentence of imprisonment which
the Prince ' s judges had pronounced upon him . This is the more remarkable as , in 1848-9 , no leading politician had worked harder to " stem the democratic tide" than Gervinus ; for which very reason he was afraid , at the outbreak of the Baden revolution of 1849 , to remain in the country . Can we wonder that such a Government , and such Princes , should convert even men like Gervinus and Dahlmann- ^ -ibxmerly the pillars of constitutionalism in Germany—into professed republicans , as they have indeed both become ?
In the question of hierarchic arrogance versus secular power , -which a few years ago was pending in Baden , the GrancUDuke at first took the right side . With as little ceremony as he had shut up his own elder brother , he laid hands on the truculent Catholic priests , who had ventured to set up the supremacy of the Pope over the rights of the State . But , wonderful to relate , lie by-and-by entirely changed liis policy . From a resolute antagonist of the pretensions of Rome he subsided into a submissive vassal of the Papist Church . He entered into negotiations for concordats , and , in fact , declared all white that had been before black .
Whether this strange metamorphosis had been brought about by the influence of Louis Bonaparte , as some significant facts would appear to indicate , we do not pretend to affirm for certain . It is , however , very sure that the Grand-Duke Frederick has repeatedly exhibited a suspicious leaning towards the Tuileries—as in the case of the bridge at Kelil , when he set the rights of the Federal Diet at defiance , and granted of his own . free will the establishment of a standing communication which may yet prove fatal to the-military interests of Germany . In this respect , the Baden ruler is a very unsafe person to deal with , and his policy may one day turn out to be of the despicable pattern of the Hhinebund Princes to whom his ancestor belonged .
1223 T Ii E L.P A P E R. [No. 451, Novem...
1223 T II E L . P A P E R . [ No . 451 , November 13 , JL 858 .
Thoughts, Facts, And Suggestions On Parl...
THOUGHTS , FACTS , AND SUGGESTIONS ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM . No . 1 . We have , at length , the word of the Premier that measures of political progress , in keeping with the spirit of our national institutions , but calculated to mark their attainment of maturer growth , arc in preparation hy the Cabinet . It were an injustice to Lord Derby to entertain a doubt as to the meani ng of his guarded but significant words . Throughout the land they will be interpreted in the only
sense in which , -under the circumstances , they can honourably be supposed to have been spoken . Lord Derby , on talciu < r office ninq months ago , stipulated that he should have autumn ' s leisure to consider calmly and dispassionately whether , as head of the Conservative party , he ought to initiate any important change in our representative system . Parliament granted the condition , and public opinion acquiesced in the reasonableness of the request , and the expediency of its concession . Ou all hands it was folt that it would be a different thing , and , in some - respects , a more difficult thing , for a Conservative minister to propound a . comprehensive project of reform , than , for any of his Liberal competitors
for power to do bo . Lord John Russell had already introduced a bill proposing a 5 / . franchise in towns , a 10 / . franchise in counties , and a considerable transfer of sents from decayed to growing constituencies , and Lord Palmerston had consented , as one of his colleagues , to these propositions . Anything short of these would obviously lead only to failure if tried by the present Administration , and to their summary expulsion from power . The Whig chiefs ' need tlien but to revive ihoir previous proposals in ordor to- defoat the Tories in . the preeent House of Commons , and to discredit them with the country should tlwy venture to call for another . To bid higher for popular favour might be easy enough in tKe off-hand judgmont of irresponsible counsellors and sanguine friends ; but
candid and sober-minded pe rsons will probably think that , all things considered , Lord Derby was right in asking for time , during the long vacation , to consult with those in whom he places political confidence , and to consider well whether , in his peculiar position , he ought ' to undertake the task of framiug and carrying a comprehensive Reform
Bill . , „ . Having had , however , his three months for investigation and reflection iiniistracted by anxieties regarding war abroad , or the condition of trade or agriculture at home , he returns to town * reassembles his colleagues , unbosoms himself to them as to what can and ought to be done , receives , as we are bound to presume , their general assent to the basis he has confidentially submitted to them for a safe and efficient change in the representation , sets the ablest artificers among them to build upon that basis , and then , when challenged at the Mansion House dinner to say what next session
was likely to produce , replies in terms to the effect above stated , leaving all the world fairly to infer that , having counted -well the odds , so far from withdrawing from the greatest competition of his life , Lord Derby " has made his book , " as he himself would saj % and is " going in to win . " Before the notable race is run , and before we can even tell how many competitors will eventually start , let us look to the stakes , and weigh well the value of that which is to be lost and won .
There are some cpnsiderations connected with a sound and wise revision of our electoral laws to which all parties would do well to give heed , before the contention begins between rival projects , and the passions of men are stirred by - the hopes and fears of party strife . The first of these may be said to be the wisdom and policy of simplifying our electoral system , and relegating every new provision of the new enactment to somer plain and palpable principle which everybody can appreciate and understand . What have we now ? A bundle of
effete privileges tied up along with a score or two of modem concessions , utterly irreducible to any one , two , or three intelligible maxims of state , or to any definite theory of public justice whatsoever . In every county of England , for example , a man is entitled to vote out of a forty-shilling freehold : in Scotch and Irish counties no man is permitted to do so . On the other hand , under the present law , every occupier of a house , or of land rated at 12 / . a year , in any Irish cqunty , has a vote , while nothing less than an occupation worth 50 / . a year entitles him in any county of England . In every large town on this side of the Channel there are numerous fortv-shilliner freeholds , out of which their
owners are permitted to vote for the circumjacent county , in whichthey are not situated , but are ? wt permitted to vote for the city or borough in which they actually lie , and with whose interests their owners are really concerned . Again , we have the freemen voting ill right of birth , apprenticeship , or marriage , in certain towns , while no such rights belong to the same class in other towns . We have the 10 / . occupier in every rotten borough in the kingdom invested with the . sham privilege of voting for Jhe proprietor ' s nominee , while hundreds of thousands of honest and independent 10 / . housoholdcrs in the growing country towns of the empire have no
more voice , right , or suffrage , than if they were so many Kalmucks or negroes . Now i' ; does seem to any impartial mind sufficiently clear that , before Parliament goes into committee on schedule A or schedule B , thereby to dotermine tUo balance between cotton lords and corn lords , shipowners , and sheep farmers , it ought , in common justice , to settle accounts with the community at largo , and to put an end once and for all to the monstrous jumble of anomalies and preferences which now constitute a franchise system , Better and fairer by much would it bo to declare by statute that every man should have a
vote who stood five foot ten without his shoes , or whose noso was three inches long , or whoso eves were brown and not grey , than to kcop up the present egregious tissue of folly and fraud , or any cobbled or patched amendment of it . Let some simple and honest test of citizenship bo first laid down , bo it the possession of intelligence , or the liability to public burdens , or flxod rbsidonco in ft given place , or tho pursuit of some lawful and recognised callingwhat you will—only let it be plain , unmistakable , and without any swindle or jugglery in it , requiring lawyer skill to unravel . And lot us , by all moans , have an end to tho antiquated and impudent distinction between tho political rights of a man who lives in tho county and those of a man
who lives in the town . If he is fit to vote so W as he lives on this side of the bridge , lie is assuredlv fit to vote when he goes to live on the other Let there be , therefore , one and the same tiling , country and town . Then , carrying out the niin . ci p le to its legitimate sequence , let us have one Bill , and but one Bill , for the whole of the l ?» ited Kingdom . There cannot be a greater specimen of Parliamentary charlatanism than that which is repeatedly , presented in the solemn foolery of intm
ducing three separate bills for the three united kingdoms . What is the meaning of legislative union , or what is the honesty of keeping up a pompous chatter about the fusion of races and the indissolubility of the empire , if , sixty years after the tripartite union of England , Scotland , and Ireland , the fundamental rights and privile g es of their respective inhabitants , arc to remain dissimilar , contrary , and repugnant ?
" Whoever may have the honour eventually of sup . plying the mould in which our enlarged political privileges are to be cast , it is devoutly to be hoped that the need of assimilation will not be lost sHit of . We hear much . now-a-dnys of codification , aud of the dut y of simplifying ' the laws regarding property and life . Docs not the same reasoning apply , m all essential particulars , to the laws which re"iilate our liberty ? Not one man in ten has occasion to appeal to the criminal , or commercial law in ( lie course of ten years ; whereas ,. tinder a justly widened suffrage , three-fourths of men having' houses aud families , will have occasion to look into the law of
the franchise , and to incur penalties if lie violates it . In the name of common sense and common justicr , then , let us . have no more electoral Chinese puzzles , but ; one broad , simple , and . comprehensive law for high and low , rich and poor , couiiiy and town , and for every part alike of the United Kintriloin .
Political Foinssliabcrsyings. Privv Coun...
POLITICAL FOinSSlIABCrSYINGS . Privv Council . —Her Majesty will hold a Privy Council this day , at Windsor Castle , at which Parliament will be further prorogued . Tim Mi . nistkiis at Gi * ir . miAi . T .. —At the Lord Mayor ' s feast on Tuesday her Majesty ' s Ministers were extremely well received . " The Karl of Derby met with what is styled " a complele ovation . " After the banquet , in proposing the health of the Ministry , tho Lord Mayor said that the members of the present Cabinet had it in their power to bring in measures all tin . ir own , and if thev chose might commence a brilliant and important career . They could modify the institutions of the eountrv so as to make them in accordance with the trenchment
¦ wishes of the people ; they could introduce re , economy , and reform in the administration of the national finances ; they might cheapen the administration of tho law , and introduce such measures of rHorm as would conduce to the moral , social , and political welfare of tho kingdom . In returning thanks , Lord Ilerty flaid : — " On occasions of this kind nothing «« " ( l . u ^ . ble which in the ordinary sense could be regarded as ot a party political character ; but , on the contrary , al party considerations and partisan feelings on political questions should be merged in a peaceful ami * : x \ mVf oblivion . It may bo permitted to one holding tho . si u - tion I do , and having tho deep interest which 1 nu t have in tlie welfare of tho country , to compare in ace s of congratulation tho state of tho country at tin- ; annversary und that in which it was placed when -in uus hall wo were celebrating the inauguration ol youi pni deccssor . I need only remind you of the state ot tf loon .
uncertainty , and distress which hung over the «¦"'» the commercial world ; and of tho apprehension , . louW , and uncertainty which existed with regard to the aieun j of our empire in India . At this moment 1 ivjo » think that wo have a much brighter p icture tor . conlem plation , and that nil our surrounding " 7 \ V ilion those of returning prosperity . " 11 U Lonlsh | - ' «« alluded io the favourable aspect of tho iv onu , of coinmorco , and of tho demand for 1 " ' <» ' Ho had every reason to hope for a contmuanro o i blessings of peace . With regard to India ho ' ° doubt but that tho energy of Lord Clyde , with t ' crotion mid judgment of tho Govornor-tioncral , ••<« ii »» with her Majesty ' s gracious message , woiiM nom ¦ matters to thoir normal Htnto of tranquil ity . j tion to tho treaty with China , for tho » h «<•* which England ia deeply indebted to tho niyi .. t . hn iniHilnTr « ni * i . the determination and . onoW «¦
Karl of Elgin , that distinguished nobleman . « j fl a most unexpected oxtqnsion to our coinmoroia ui » by tho treaty with tho hltho ' rto booIiu ] od but i >} moana unimportant , omplro of Japan . llw n < " '• r ] y wo havoontorod into with that country , will , ii | I / mode uso of , tend greatly to tho dovolopmont oi ¦¦ ; , morolal interests of this country . " I . epo « l "' - Lord Derby , "for tho purpose of glorifying tho C n moiit of which I am a mombor , but I Hponk n » n " £ Isuinnn , in nri assemblage of Engllahmon , of t" ° I
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111858/page/20/
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