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454 THE ;;E ; | ^ |ji^ [Satu^ ay >
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THE WESEKtM SABtlAMENT. Moot)at was sigi...
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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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Political Adulteration Almost Keeps Pace...
of Eng ineers , Mi * . Disraeli admitted that in the late contest the masters had violated the law , and all but promised official support for the working classes ! Should this intimatiott be followed up in practice , the " Tory" Minfe * f * . « W # fe * augur ««« a new aera in the history of labour . Another field of labour invites , ai » S indeed receives , attention—Australia . The gold beds at once draw increasing numbers froi ^ it & ef established branches of industry , and present frightful scenes of social anarchy . The colonists call for more labour ;
the Times counsels the sending of troops to keep order . But any small number of troops would be as playthings in the hands of mischievous boys j and where is any large number to be found ? Our little Cape war is not over yet ; our Burmese war is hardly begun ; and no troops can be spared for Australia . Meanwhile , it is remarkable that a Yankee clipper has suddenly and " mysteriously" appeared in Sydney—in the land of the Anti-C nvict League , where people already talk about " independence . " Among other circumstances , let us not omit to note that the Americans are in the Indian Gulf ,
and are going to Japan ; and that even the Sandwich Islands have been " annexed , " at least to the idea of a republic . The American Commodore goes to Japan to ask a supply of coals for American steamers between California and China , and he is instructed to be very courteous and forbearing , if the Japanese Government concedes facilities for that one trade . But if not ? The instructions do not appear to make any provision for that contingency .
Cork affords a striking instance of Irish explosiveness . Two men smuggle a bottle of whiskey into the Cork workhouse ; the authorities demand its surrender , and forthwith the whole of the inmates , chiefly of the Amazonian sex , rush to arms : storming the place , and keeping up the contest for four mortal hours ; until , in fact , a detachment of infantry , with fixed bayonets , and a piquet of cavalry , with drawn sabres , come upon these infuriated viragos . A kind of combustible sympathy seems to be a fundamental quality of the Irish specimen of Celthood .
Captain Coward of the Renovation has turned up in an official interrogatory at Venice . His statement , which is necessarily meagre , accords with the report already furnished by Mr . Simpson . He alleges his own severe illness and prostration at the time , and the instant necessity of getting free of the ice-field , as his reasons for not bearing up to search the abandoned ships . So the matter is still a mystery . The Fete of the Eagles , and the Military Ball , are the events of the week in Paris . The 10 th
of May has passed : and the Empire is still a menace unfulfilled . Through the confused clamour of reports , all rapturously exalting the magnificence of the military spectacle , one fact at least pierces—the impression of a vague but profound disappointment . Enthusiasm evidently there was none : the Nation was absent : the sense of the parody was oppressive , even to the soldiery ; and the very fatality of that Field of Mars , converted a souvenir into a warning , and shook , the new
glory to its roots . No doubt , to mere gaping sight-seers the general effect was stupendous ; but the ghosts of Talleyrand , of poor Bailly , of Robespierre , of the great Napoleon himself , if they could have been present , with what a bitter irony their teeth would have chattered ! How pitiable the degradation of that despised tool of a church , which , on a pasteboard altar , lifts its palsied hands to some imaginary heaven , and sanctifies—the Eagles . There is but one God left for France to worship , " and that is—Irony !
Meanwhile Austria and Prussia arc marshalling their squadrons under the cyo of the approving Czar , who blesses their Eagles , not unmindful of tlie Champ dc Mars . From Italy we hear of nothing but British subjects outraged , bastinadoed , condemned to death by secret tribunals . Under Austrian patronage ;—Lord Malmesbury being out Foreign Minister .
454 The ;;E ; | ^ |Ji^ [Satu^ Ay >
454 THE ;; E ; | ^ | ji ^ [ Satu ^ >
The Wesektm Sabtlament. Moot)At Was Sigi...
THE WESEKtM SABtlAMENT . Moot ) at was sigiwfized by ar complete and expected defeat of Ministersin the House of Commons . Stepping beyond tfiitf limits prescribed for a provisioaA GovernmentineCBEAKCEiiXOB of the Exchbq # B £ nuftred for leave to bring in a bill to assign the four seats in Parliament in lien of Sk AlbaM ' s and Sudbury . Hie ; . observed' that , dfcfclaough he had not ctefined all the ineafittres wbieh her Majesty ' s QovernBaient had pro * posed , as being of paramount importance to feraBJpj before the house prior to the dissolution of Pafliameni ,
and the House had been too generous to demand more precise information , he did , in the middle of March , voluntarily express-tbeir intentions with regard t » some of those measures . He had then said that one of those measures which they deemed of paramount importance was , in the event of the bill for the disfranchisement of the borough of St . AlbanV receiving the sanction of Parliament , the completion , of the constitutional number of the aggregate members of the House of Commons , which , in the opinion of her Majesty ' s Government , was highly expedient before the dissolution of
Parliament . He was aware that if -he . were asked what magic or cabalistic virtue resided in the number 6 ^ 8 , he should be extremely perplexed , and he should be equally so if he were asked why the number of a jury should be fixed at twelve . But the foundation of all these arrangements was prescription—ra rule created by experience and sanctioned by custom , and the time had not arrived when prescription could be lightly treated by the House . , The violation of prescription was an element of disturbance , and , if for no other reason , he felt it to be his duty to warn the House against a
continuous and systematic deficiency in the aggregate number of the House of Commons . If the present Government had followed their own inclination and consulted their convenience , there was hardly any subject they would have more studiously avoided than one calculated to exasperate that jealousy which already existed between the towns and the country , and which he hoped hereafter to allay . This jealousy had given rise to a desire in large portions of the community to see whether the elements of the electoral body might not be combined in some other forms . It had been
suggested that the learned societies in the metropolis should famish members to that House ; but these societies in the nineteenth century did not necessarily consist of learned men , and it would be difficult to draw the line ; for if the Royal Society should be entitled to send a representative to that House , upon what principle should the Geographical , the Zoological , the Astronomical , or any new societies or scientific clubs be excluded ? ' Then it had been said that the Royal Colleges and Academies might be endowed with the franchise : but if their constitutions were examined , it
would be found that , generally speaking , they were self-elected . The non-represented universities constituted another class of claimants ; but though their claims were extremely plausible , in the Scotch universities the elements olc a constituency were totally wanting , and in those of London he did not find the conditions indispensable to such a concession . Another proposition had been urged with great force , namely , to concede one member at least to the four Inns of Court , which could supply a large and respectable constituency ; but ho thought it would be a hopeless task to propose to allocate a member to such a constituency whilst other large constituencies were denied the
franchise ; and ho knew , moreover , that thero existed a prejudice in which ho did not share , against a larger infusion of lawyers into that house . He , therefore , renounced reluctantly any attempt to form a constituency from those elements . XTndor these circumstances , the course which the Government had thought was , upon the whole , the best wna thw : they had considered that the claims of different portions of the constituency depended very much upon the relative degrees of representation they now possessed ; and , in this view , tho claim of ono constituency seemed to bo paramount , namely , tho West Riding of Yorkshire . They proposed , thoroforo , that two of tho vacant seats should bo awarded to that
county ; that tho West Ruling Bhould bo divided into two portions defined by tho boundary of tho Midland Railway , the portion Houth and west of tho lino to be colled the South Division of the West Riding ? tho portion north and cant of tho lino to bo called tho Northern Division ; tlio constituency of tho latter division would bo 17 , 965 ; that of tho former , 18 , 785 . With regard to tho two other seats , tho Government had thought they could not bo guided by a better prinoiplo than in tho othor caso . Tho question under connidoration was not ono of a largo parliamentary reform , but of apportioning members with due deference to existing Parliamentary arrangements . Taking , thoroforo , oh a tost , tho degrees of representation which certain counties , cities , and boroughs poBBOBseu , Heb Majesty ' s
Government bad « s «* to 4 to recommend the apnortW ment of ti ^ tWrp > fltber yAcant seat s to the louthe Division tfyffie WJOtrty of Lancaster . There were dT tails relative tortfceie arrangements which he would not dwell uibba ; and , Itt conclusion , he expressed a hope that the j ^ ptfsrikais he had offered would be adopted * ax & pa & tb ; ey would contribute to the welfare of the cmnmitmijyyaiid increase the strength and lmf ™ of theHouse dfCfeaunoris . " Ulu ? tre
Mr . GtJl >« TONE said he should confine himself to the quewKon whether this subject iyas one into which the House at the present moment should consent to enter , and it was h » intention to move that the House pass to the order of the day . If Mr . Disbae & i had shown that there was a constitutional urgency for the settlement of this question , the House should grant him leave to introduce his bill ; but if he had failed to show a constitutional necessity , he ( Mr . Gladstone ) contended that this was no trivial or optional matter
and that a strong constitutional principle called upon the House to refuse such permission . Mr . Bisbaeli had said there was no magical virtue in the number 658 ; but was there any virtue in law , or principle in the Constitution , or anything beyond accident , which recommended that number ? Since 1844 no members had sat for Sudbury , although three Ministries had been in power in the interval , and no member of the Government or of the Opposition had called upon the House to vindicate what Mr . Disbaeli considered a
sacred prescription . It Was a pure question of convenience and policy what the number of the members of that House should be . There had been an understand ing , the substance of which was clear , that no measure not of immediate urgency should be submitted to the House before a dissolution of Parliament . Great inconvenience attended the introduction of such a measure as this . It was a sound canon , that for all measures , except those of immediate urgency * the eve of a dissolution of Parliament was the very worst moment .
With respect to this measure , although the scale of the subject was small , it was one that deserved the most serious consideration , and which shonld be approached and settled once for all when the Administration was in full posjtession of political power . Did the Govern ment think that the House was in a coiidition to give a fair hearing and full consideration to all claimants ? If not , it would be impossible to give satisfaction to them or to the public at large . He moved the order of the day . No other speaker intervened , and , on a division , there were—For the motion , 148 ; against it , 234 . Majority against Ministers , 86 . The House then went into Committee on THE MILITIA BILL There was some talk about the preceding having been a " snap" division ; an assertion demolished by Mr . Roebuck , who showed that with the " pairs , " 80 in number , and those who were " shut out , " nearly 500 members were engaged in the division . It was well known , he said , that Ministers expected to be beaten , so let them have no more talk about a snap division .
As we anticipated , the speech of Lord Derby at the Mansion House , on Saturday , was used by the opponents of the Militia Bill—Mr . Bbi & ht calling it a peace speech . The whole of the opposition was pitched in that key . Soon after the debate began , Mr . Wakiey moved that the Chairman do report progress , and ask leave to eit again— -a motion negatived , after a deal oi talk , by 156 to 85 . . , , There was so much noise after the division , tuas Mr . Hume could not be heard , and ho resented that and some imputations cast on him T > y dividing « m Committee against tho clause ( 7 th ) . He was beaten tor
by 169 to 82 . On the next clause , which provides tho quotas of counties being fixed l > y an Order in Council , Mr . Milner Gibson moved that it ^ FT poncd , on the ground that it would be imposbiWo to ascertain the number of men « fit and liable , ' without calling on each housoholdor to prepare a hst—a teaw and expensive procesB . Subsequently , at the BUgg tion of Sir Georgo Groy and Sir Charles Wood , tliew words were omitted ; the Committee divided oni amendment , which was rejected by 216 to 99 , ««» clause agreed to , us amended . Mr . CoWJM « moved that tho Chairman report progress , as »
after 12 o ' clock . Agreed to . MAYNOOTH . Determined upon soeming to test Ministerial mdoxy upon tho Catholic question , and try tne « fV » of the convictions of the Chancellor of the E" » ° * and Lord Derby , Mr . Spooneb brought on *» y threatened motion for a solect committee to m ™* tho working of tho syfltom of education carrjoa tho college of Maynoofli . The real object ot tn » tlon W * not inquiry a * all , but to maico a prd" "" " *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1852, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15051852/page/2/
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