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1230 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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—4 SjB %c - JIe^ ?t it & y </ f(5 * K a ^ K ¦*• do
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__, SATURDAY, DECEMBEE 25, 1852.
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I^ttlilir Kffnira.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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sible. " Help yourself" is the grand rul...
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MR. DISRAELI AND HIS COLLEAGUES. If Mr. ...
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.
1230 The Leader. [Saturday,
1230 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
—4 Sjb %C - Jie^ ?T It & Y ≪/ F(5 * K A ^ K ¦*• Do
—4 SjB % c - JIe ^ ? t it & y f ( 5 * ^ ¦*• do
__, Saturday, Decembee 25, 1852.
__ , SATURDAY , DECEMBEE 25 , 1852 .
I^Ttlilir Kffnira.
I ^ ttlilir Kffnira .
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is no thins ? so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep tilings fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dit , Abnold .
Sible. " Help Yourself" Is The Grand Rul...
sible . " Help yourself" is the grand rule taught by the educated classes ; and it is vaunted as the method of obtaining divine aid without the trouble of loving or trusting in the source of that aid . On Sundays , indeed , the new commandments readnot always in the most animated or impressive manner ; but really in the practical business of life , especially in the coercive laws over pauper or bankrupt , nether parts of the tradesman and labouring classes , the other and opposite rule of piety to self is the one enforced .
CIIKISTMAS . Christmas comes round again , to find numbers in our own " privileged" island very mindful of roast beef and plum-pudding , but not very mindful of the two new commandments , of which the day ought to be so sacred a memento , — to love God with all their hearts , and to love one another . Possibly both might have been better observed , if those who specially make it their profession to enforce both , did not render obedience so
impos-Still we are moving , perhaps to better days . The most wonderful means of communication are bringing the families of man nearer together , and each is unloosing the more readily its own exclusive privileges . The discoveries of gold have displayed vast treasures providentially lodged in the most opposite regions of the globe , as great prizes and guarantee funds for human enterprise : on the strength of these natural treasures , immense numbers of our people are
leaving us for America and Australia ; end new means of transit are in process of formation . One company is projecting ships of 14 , 000 tons burden , ( MOft . long—to bridge the scawithfloating palaces . The continent of America is about to be bisected in its central neck by a ship canal , at last actually undertaken under the supervision of Sir Charles Fox , and under the sanction of the great Powers . California and Australia are becoming mere oil-lying gold beds for the commerce of London and New York .
Our domestic season will be marked by a startling amount of absences in the Christmas circle this year . One , we fear , will be that of the Chrisinas pudding in many a house ; for the crop of the Corinth grape runs short—dried " currants" arc two-pence a pound dearer , and many families resist the rise of price on principle . Thus do our most cherished institutions fall ; for is . not the Corinth grape one outpost of the nal onal church H
JJut there will be ; more serious absences . Scarcely a , family is there , that does not rccal familiar ( aces now " prospecting" in California or Australia . "Well , they arc gone to a fortune ' tolerably certain ; and they a \ ill return , lil < c the " Uncle IVoin Jndin , " in French novels , all wealth and welcome . And already we have a foretaste of the good luck in the happy " prosperity " Avhicli Law visited our own laud , and made ; the pro-Kent Christmas so uuieli more cheerful in many a home than it has heen for many u neason , with a bright prospect Cor the , opening year .
Unless those lovers of " order , " who enforce " pence on earth , " and tench " good-will amongst , men , "render the oppression ofKurope intolerable , and fall to fighting with each other for a , supremacy in tyranny . . Hut . peace on earth and good-will amongst men do not wholly depend on the sufferance of the Hourbons , Itoinanows , Ilapshurgers , or Louis Napoleons . And by the blessing of ( Hod , the next season of ' action will tint each the foremost nations that effeminate policy which has made men raise sell ' as the idol representative of heaven , ami trust the custody of peace to royal armies . Already we nee sunshine beyond that next storm of wickedness .
FORMATION OK TIIK NNW MINISTK . V : TI 1 K LMl'UDIMNNT . T iik orthodox and recognised o / licial class , thai class whose membors altcrnato in and out , of
office , finds it more easy to upset a Government than to construct one . The reproach came with a bad grace from Lord Derby , who could not even find a decent pretext for . remaining in office ; but it is levelled at the new Ministers whoever they may be , by force of the facts . Our official class has fallen to the level of the revolutionaries whom it would so much despise : it can overturn , but it is not facile at constructing . Throughout the week there have been endless
reports and rumours as to the difficulties of forming a Cabinet from the abundant materials that appeared to offer themselves . The abundance was part of the difficulty . There were two or three partids , each having enough to fill a Cabinet of its own ; therfc were , therefore , thirty or forty men to fill a dozen or so of places ; and the carpet-bag of the Cabinet could not possibly hold them all . But the men excluded , however unselfish and disinterested in their views , could not but recognise in their own exclusion a political offence ; for to himself each man embodies a political truth , and . to deny liira is to deny " the Truth . " "Why cannot they join us without reserve ? " asked the Liberals of the
Peelites . " How can we admit Tories ? " asked the Radicals , " when they are Liberals only in Free-trade ; they must adopt our principles , on the suffrage especially , or they have no right to come in . " " How can you expect to fill the posts , " cried the Peelites to the Whigs , " when you cannot keep them , and cannot agree amongst yourselves ? " So the Whigs complained that the Peelites intended to monopolize all the offices ; the Peelites complained that the Whigs wanted to
intrude everywhere ; and the ^ Radicals complained that they were sfcrgotten altogether . Humours corresponded with these ebullitions of feeling . The first idea of a Ministry picked from the prominent sections of all parties gradually melted away ; the next gloomy report was , that it was to be a Peelite Government , with Lord John Hussell in dignified closet office ; and lastly , we have the report of a Cabinet composed of the heads of many official sets .
Although we may not have the final relation till Monday , it may be gathered that a Ministry representing a soiid majority in Parliament is not easy to form . AVe can only have a Ministry representing the party minorities into which Parliament is divided . But there is not only a theoretical violation of . constitutional doctrinethere is a practical inconvenience both for Public
and Ministry . In such a state of affairs , it seems that the Ministry for the time being may have to encounter an Opposition which could always put a veto upon its proceedings . Thus no party is able to give effect to its own views . But for the public , the case has been still worse : it could not attain fulfilment of its own wishes , because it must act through a party ; and even that instrument is frustrated whenever it reaches to
any vigorous action . This impracticable position—so inconvenient , so painful , so humbling to official men—wo trace to tho diminished communication between tho ruling class and the people . That communication has been diminishing steadily for some generations , while society has broken up more into cliques . The official class has carried that disruption still further ; and each party , as it is called in Parliament , is not only a minority
within the Malls , but is m more than a minority out of doors . On the simplest view , it represents only a fraction of the enfranchised class ; that is to say , only a fraction of tho minority of the whole people—one-third , or less , of one-seventh of the male population of the United Kingdom . But , in point of fact , the fractional nature . of the representation is still more minute . The representative-parly at , head-quartern does not , in most cases , actually reach that section , of 1 , 1 k ;
country , —meaning that section of the enfranchised class in whose name it professes to act . The olficial gentlemen at head-quarters communicate with certain election agents and " influential persons , " — that is , bunyuodios and trading politicians , —and these busybodies and trading politicians deal with load liusybodies ; and they arrange matters . The constituency of any borough or eounty ban no opportunity of choosing a representative , that is , of selecting a person who can really convey its wants and sentiments in tho legislature ; ' but , it only has a choice out of people belonging to a , dans different from itself- tho official or Henii-oflicial class at , head-quarters ; and it has no means of
communicating with the man thus imperfectl y chosen save through the mute channel of the poll , or the untrustworthy medium of the busybodies . ' The zeal with which parliamentary politicians have devoted themselves to special interests—^ Railway interests , Agricultural interests , Citv interests , and the like , —has tended still more to limit their sympathies with , the nation itself They are surrounded by connexions who concea l from them the view of the real people ; and whereas the theory of our constitution contemplates a Ministry nominated by the majority
of the people as represented in Parliament , the fact is , that Ministries are alternately nominate d by small sections of wealthy and active classes unknown to the people , and knowing very little about the people . Hence , we verily believe , the conflict of minorities , which can never end in total defeat or thorough , victory of any one . Each one attaining to the envied opportunities of office , will find arrayed against it a majority composed of the rest , which , can prohibit its enjoyment .
Amongst these official and parliamentary classes at head-quarters , we might as readily seek a Cromwell as we might in a parish vestry . -Nay , there may be some blessed vestry , in which a mute inglorious Cromwell is now hidden ; but assuredly there is no such person amid the parliamentary rabble at head-quarters . There is no man that can appeal to the sympathies of more than a class , because he has no sympathies beyond . One statesman may speak to certain lords and some agriculturists ; another may speak to the middle class in certain boroughs of tho
United Kingdom ; and a third may speak to a traditional circle of liberally inclined old families ; but these circles are not the nation . To the working classes , but one or two can speak at all ; and we are not sure that there is even one man hardy or hearty enough to address the whole body of the people for action . If we were to seek for national feeling , we might perhaps find most of it in the sister services of arms , ashore and afloat ; where there is much , of caste , much of absolute power , but much also of constant intercourse between highest and lowest .
If any Statesman , with sagacity and boldness enough , desired to over - ride the combined minorities rivalling his own , there is one course that would be infallible . It would be to make a direct appeal to the people—in short , to add the people to his minority . The new Ministry might try it .
Mr. Disraeli And His Colleagues. If Mr. ...
MR . DISRAELI AND HIS COLLEAGUES . If Mr . Disraeli is a lost man , it is by his own choice . Displaying many talents , he has displayed also many weaknesses ; but among the latter list appears to bo his incapacity for appreciating political forces , both in their relative power and in the nature of their origin . It is his ambition to treat polities scientifically , to make his calculations by rule ; and he brings to bear upon that art not only much cultivation oi mind , but much information also , collected from history and the observation of different countries . IT ( i has collected tho materials for making an
artist in statesmanship . That he must have some sympathy with the feelings that stir human nature at large is to be presumed from tho very fact of his selecting an artistic method . Perhaps the grand origin of Mr . Disraeli ' s error has heen in viewing statesmanship too much from a distance—in drawing back from the canvas , as it were , instead of mingling amongst the real people whom ho was studying . Heneo his policies have been pictures , not actions ; and lie has mistaken groupings in the view for -rdistinctions that bad no reality , lie has surveyed ICnglish history from tho liialto ; and , qualifying it rather as a traveller than an a resident , liM
guided his public course by literary id <* aa . Hence his exaggerated conceptions as to the antiquity and present , virtue of our " territorial aristocracy , " mid as to the Imlam-e of classes amongst us ; hence his scientific adjustments of our public affairs according to theories iu books . England , however , has long declined to conform itself to any philosophical rules in its public liAs , and luis most , expressly reduced its every classification to confusion . The growth of wealth hns confounded our territorial aristocracy . There J » scarcely a . family that can boast tim antiquity with which Mr . JDisraoli is familiur in the podigreo of every house in Venice . TUo classes oi society meet and minglo at oyory tuxn ; and tho grand distinctions which still remain , those be-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 25, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25121852/page/10/
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