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Becembek 16,1854.] THE LEADER. !,$$&
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TO CORRESPONDENTS. All letters for the E...
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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO. « ©!)*: SUaber...
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SATUEDAY, [DECEMBER 16, 1854. it
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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THE PARLIAMENT. That the House of Common...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Becembek 16,1854.] The Leader. !,$$&
Becembek 16 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ! , $$ &
To Correspondents. All Letters For The E...
TO CORRESPONDENTS . All letters for the Editor should be addressed to T . Wellington-street . Strand , London . No _ notice can be taken of anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily Tot publication , but as a guarantee of bis good faith . Communications should always "be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Ft 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 of thecommuhica tion .
Terms Of Subscription To. « ©!)*: Suaber...
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO . « ©!)* : SUaber . " Foj ; a Half-Tear ... .. £ 0 13 0 To be remitted in advance-1 ST Honey Orders should be drawn upon the Stkaitd Branch Office , and be made , payable to Mr . Al-FitED E G 4 M . OWAT , at No . 7 , " Wellington Street . Strand .
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There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there ia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as tbe strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the verylaw of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . AJttfotD .
The Parliament. That The House Of Common...
THE PARLIAMENT . That the House of Commons is too much of an aristocratic club and too little of a popular assembly is an opinion entertained pretty generally . But even those who expected least of it in the present session , have , been astonished and perplexed by the singular contempt with which it has this week been treated by the Queen and her Ministers ; The notion of our governors seems to be that the House of Commons is as much of a formality as Convocation . "Worse : that also seems the notion of the House of Commons itself . Whatever popular representation has been found within the last few days , has been encountered in the Upper Chamber , where loyalty and patriotism have not prevented free and honest speech from Lord Grey , Lord Hardwicke , and Lord Ellenborough .
The Ministers , in reassembling Parliament , have obviously been impressed with the idea that their business was to make use of Parliament as a constitutional maehinex-y , which they could not very well dispense with , for the purpose of getting authority to do certain things about which they were strongly inclined not to consult Parliament . They ask votes , not opinions ; and they carefully withhold their own opinions of the war , of its present and its future , and of its politics- Now , when a demand was made for a Christmas Session , the belief was that Parliament would assist the
Government with something besides vote ? . In a Government which has ignominiously broken down , a tone of abrupt assumption that there is unlimited confidence in it appears to us to be a very singular insolence . No contrast can be greater than that between the apologetic minuteness of tho Dulie of Newcastle ' s defonce and the haughty reserve of Lords Aberdeen , Russell , and Palmerston , when questioned as to their policy . "Will the noble lord say when the Austrian treaty will be communicated to tho House ? aiekp a member . Lord John replies with alort imbecility , « Tho very moment that tho
ratification is telegraphed . " The House of Commons may talk about the treaty when it is all settled ! This answer was given on Thursday . On Tuesday two of the Ministers had spoken of the treaty . Lord Aberdeen , uncouthly reticent , said some negatives , —as that the treaty would not bind England to uphold the integrity of the Austrian dominions . Lord John Russell , —pressed by Mr . Disraeli , who reads history and remembers what are the traditional functions
of the House of Commons—was more explicit — -wasy indeed , disastrously communicative Hearing his indifferent references to the subject , one was bewildered to account for all the fuss which the Ministerial organs , followed by stockbrokers on every bourse in Europe , had been making about the treaty . Lord John said the treaty amounted to nothing ; it was
merely a treaty that , if all parties could agree some months hence , they would then , make a treaty . Familiar with the bathos of diplomacy , we were yet staggered at this treaty . The House of Commons . \ yas .. puzzled ; funds went down : there was a split at the Cabinet Council next day . But Thursday came : and not one member of the Nation ' s House had the
courage to ask for an explanation . The Foreigners Enlistment Bill is one of the most important measures of the half century . It was introduced to the House of Lords in a speech of five ' -minutes' duration , with an understanding with Lord Derby , which , of course , Lord Derby , the least chivalrous of mankind , did not fulfil , that the measure was
not to be debated . It happened that it was debated because Lord Ellenborough is an # centric man , who does not see the necessity of the conduct of Parliament being controlled by the secret understandings of two or three potent individuals . Because it was there debated , the House of Commons gained some information of the intentions of the Government to establish
a system boldly at variance with the tendencies of the time in England . Ministers never thought of the decency of making a statement to the House of Commons , of these intentions : the bill was to have come down , in due course , like a railway bill . The humble House of Commons is not in the least offended . This Foreigner ' s Enlistment Bill and the Dew Militia Bill are the two measures for the passing—not for the consideration of which Parliament is reassembled . Lord Palmerston
introduced the latter in a speech of careful brevity . Sir , said he , what do we want with a reserve—we rely on the English nation for a reserve . That is a fine phrase for quotation in the French papers , and is comfort to the timid in the Crimea . But Lord Palmerston might hav « taken the opportunity to state what these grand nobles mean when they say " YYe rely on the English nation . " What for ? The English nation would like to know : and the House of Commons ought to find out . Surely we are at a point in the history of the
war when we ought to be told by our governors what are tho objects of tho war . It is with great reluctance that wo refer to a speech by the Duke of Argyll : his grace being a personage of conspicuous no importance , whose position in the Cabinet is as perplexing as that of the fly in amber . Yet the Duke of Argyll is a Minister , and the only Minister . who has spoken of the objects of tho war . Tho Duke of Argyll
ridicules English sympathies with " nationalities , " and speaks as if it were a Cabinet determination to limit tho war to the oast of Europe . Now those rumours which are always right speak of a very different opinion being entertained by those members of the Cabinet who do not regard the Duke of Argyll as a sound political leader . Thus : publicly the Government does not speak of its policy ; privately its policy is spoken of as divided . As a
selfgoverned people , can we appreciate this ppsi-r tion ? For our own part , we regard the-future of the war with apprehensions . In the first place , the war will not be well conducted , b . © r cause , as has been fully shown ao far , the Ministers are without the intellect and the energy required in a great war . In the next place , the war will not be vigorously conducted ^ because the Ministers have not yet made up their minds what the war is about , and what are to be the conditions of peace . Perhaps , however , it may contribute to the entirety of the alliance between France and England that the English people shall not make pretensions to do anything more in the war than—bleed and
P ^ ¦ ,,..- . . .. .. . . P / rofpurul is the mystery in which the ,-Mir-. . uisters hide their views on " Public Business *" Mr . Disraeli asks as to the plans for the Session . Lord John Russell answers , " We havjd met this month to do special work : when we meet again in February it will be time enough to let the House know what we are going-tb do -with Great British affairs . " Thus , when , a special question is asked , the Minister is drily evasive . The question put by Mr . Scully as to Irish Tenant Right was suggested , we have no dbubt by considerations deeply important to fafniers in Ireland . The | Govemment ' s intentions could as well be stated now as
two months hence—there could be no public inconvenience , there would be much Irish satisfaction . Again , in regard to the newspaper stamp , vast interests would be relieved from great anxiety if Mr . Gladstone were explicit ¦ j he prefers , and on no public ground ^ to be ingeniously reserved . These , however , are minor points . The great fact is that Parliament is to adjourn in a few days without the slightest intimation of the views of the Ministry with respect to Finance . It will be said that a Budget is an affair of the Funds , and a Government must hide its projects until they are ripe for action . Upon that objection we
would retort—Why is Parliament to separate from December till February ? . Why , now that we have Parliament again , are we to endure another recess ? The Christmas holidays might be limited to the Saturday , Sunday , and Monday—at most , to a week ; and an arrangement of that sort would permit of the business that has to be done this year being ; at once commenced . But there is to be a long-Christmas recess , because Cabinets composed of the governing classes have a prejudice against Parliament , and because the House of Commons is of late years becoming content with its functions as a Court of Registration .
The Coalition Government is not strong : it has lost most of its prestige for great individual capacities : and in that prestige was its only strength . It is a convenience , however , that ' this Government should be kept in ; and we would most earnestly warn ardent Liberals not to be misled by the bid for their support made by Mr . Disraeli , whose tactics in the matter of the Austrian alliance arc only surpassed in clumsiness by his proffered championship of tho No * Popery mania . But we would , assuredly , ask the Liberal party in the House of Commons
to dictate to that Government , which , without their votes , would disappear in a week . We ventured to say last session that that party would bo deluded in this war , if it < lid not take care to make conditions with tho Government , Wo repoat : this session—Pass no bills , vote no money , until you have extracted a rovelation of the secret history which is now being acted in all tho capitals of Europe . If a Liberal party reappeared with party organisation in the House of Commons , tho Government would , be tested ; it would bo broken up ; and the true , honest portions of it would
remain—continuing a " Coalition" by bringing in . more Liberals . ¦ -
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 16, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16121854/page/13/
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