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1136 THE LEADER. • [Saturday ,
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* SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1852. ir
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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TJHE CONTEST OF THE WEEK. The question f...
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31OYAL .AND MINISTERIAL CERTIFICATE FOR ...
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.
1136 The Leader. • [Saturday ,
1136 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Jp , %R ,
Jp , % r ,
* Saturday, November 27, 1852. Ir
* SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 27 , 1852 . ir
^Ntlmatifi.
^ ntlMatifi .
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing" so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things rixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Da . Abnold .
Tjhe Contest Of The Week. The Question F...
TJHE CONTEST OF THE WEEK . The question formally propounded for the debate which commenced on Tuesday night , was but a very small part of the real and important question in issue , as to the establishment of Freetrade for the national policy . There was no doubt on either side . Of course it was not to be expected that Ministers would vote censure upon themselves ; nor was the mythological expectation that they would walk out of the house , and leave the majority to vote the censure unopposed , justified by any precedent or verisimilitude . That is not the way in which Ministers usually behave ; and if they had done so , it would have been regarded as one of Mr . Disraeli ' s coups dc theatre .
In truth , the contest may be regarded as a struggle of all parties for a position , without the possibility of any one attaining to it . The debate , and still more that irareported discussion which was going- on for the two days preceding its renewal on Thursday evening , betray the fact that no existing party has the right to a recognized position in Parliament , because it does not possess any master idea . It would bo impossible , without disclosing confidences right and left , to make the public understand the total confusion that has reigned behind the scenes . The confusion on the stage of Parliament is but a faint counterfeit of the hidden anarchy . The reports
current during the "Wednesday and the early part of Thursday , " Fictions founded on fact , " are also no adequate representation of the crosspurposes . At one time , even while Lord Palmerston was speaking , there were speculations as to the probability of his " going over to the Tories !" On Thursday morning it was reported , on an authority which the public regards as the best , that " Jjoru Pulmerston ' s resolution was in a form already approved by the general body of Free-traders ; " that it " had already obtained 1 he approbation of all parties . " The report was followed up by another , Unit he had anticipated Sir James ( Jraham ; is mediator . On the other
hand , it was averred that . Mr . Villicrs intended to press his motion with the approbation of the I'Yee-lrade party , as against Lord Palmers ton ' s not less than Mr . Disraeli ' s . Later , it was circulated on high authority , that Lord John had given his adhesion l <> Lord I ' aimers ! oii ' m amendment ; then , that Mr . Disraeli had done no ; then , that clivers independent Members had joined ; al ' lerwanls , mine out the old report , lhat A ! r . Villiers was indignant , with the mediating Vitieounl , who Avas already calculating on I he resignation of
Ministers , and their immediate return ( o olhce , Avith n modified Cabinet , including himself . Lord Derby ' s threat , that if Ministers were heal en they might resign , and I heir rivals might find themselves unable to form a , ( labiuet , had given colour to these reporl s of an unexpre . l ei I Ministerial crisis . The ( jitid intiu-x grew wilder , and reports more extravagant began to he circulated , . such as the probability that the m <> : tt ( ligmlicd of I he Whig ! - , and IVdites hail become implicated in the luaiio'iivres lor coalition .
These are fictions , we nay , founded on lact , in whielr it would be idle lo discriminate between I he truth and the falsehood , Their . solution has already been furnished in some part by the proceedings on Thursday night ; but ( lit . ! cause I hat produced ( . hem- the wnntoT any sell led purpose , ntill remains , and is not , lo be explained a . uay . This want , infects not only the professed statesman , but exists , with slill more mischievous force , amongst ( . lie constituents of those statesmen . In its confiiHion , the House ol' ( louiinonti is still the rcprescn l . utivc chamber , ntill I he people ' s house ; for it represents the con / union out of doors . It in the Wiint of settled purpose in the people that
sends men without a purpose to the House . It is the want of any definite object which precludes the formation of a party . The public fiuds itself unable to calculate th ' at this or that Minister must proceed in a certain course , as it could well do if Ministers vrere acting sincerely on known principles . The very words of the Ministers are repeated , both past and future ; pledges are recalled ; and yet the public arrives no nearer to a
conception of the intent . Does the " democracy ' in Lord John ' s mouth mean more than " Protection" in Mr . Disraeli ' s ? The Chancellor of the Exchequer says that Protection means only that zeal for the labourer which animates him more than ever , and it is possible that the democracy of which Lord John speaks , may mean only that zeal for the upper classes which has distinguished the House of Bedford .
But even this description does not reach the actual amount of moral anarchy , frail as the tenure of the conservative minister is in the public estimation . Those who have the run of the West End , know that the present Government is valued in most of the large houses . It is the Cabinet of good Society , and it has the sympathies of that good society , because it is held to be , perhaps falsely , antagonistic to the pretensions both of the working and of the trading classes . That a Government of such a kind , could maintain any permanent footing m thi 3 country , is not to be supposed by its genteel devotees . The political disasters that might flow from the attempt to uphold class
interests are not regarded , perhaps not known . A spirit runs in " the Squares , " nob unlike that which prevailed in the saloons of France , before the great revolution—a devotion to luxury and amusements : a disregard to people out of doors , or beneath the view of the polite , a feeling , iu short , which gives a new and sarcastic point to the prophecy , " after Lord Derby , the deluge . " In the public of that upjjer sphere , political feeling has ceased almost as much as it has amongst the professed statesmen ; and , thus it comes about , that avc see statesmen contending in parliament , and unable to shape a course for themselves , to raise a standard , or even a ' cry' that the public will follow .
31oyal .And Ministerial Certificate For ...
31 OYAL . AND MINISTERIAL CERTIFICATE FOR THE ENGLISH DEMOCRACY . In his excellent tribute to the conduct of the great body of the people , on Thursday , Lord Derby secins to have been unable to express his satisfaction and even his surprise at that conduct . The Queen has publicly recorded , through the Home Secretary , the same approval . 13 i . it Lord Derby ' s language is remarkable , and deserves tobe kept constantly in view ; for , coming as it does from the head of the party most opposed to popular freedom in this country , it is a great political certificate :
* ' When we consider how large 1 a proportion of the population ol" these united kingdoms vv : is for that . single day crowded together in 1 . he streets of the metropolis ; when you remember , as those at least renr'iuber lo whose lot it Cell to take part in the procession , and who saw it throughout , its whole length and breadth when yon remember that , on a line of route three miles -n length , ex . leniling from < Jro . sveiior-pluce Id St . Paul ' s Cathedral , there was not , a single unoccupied foot , of ground , and I lint you passed through a . living sea . offnee-i , all turned to look upon that ; . ; tcuI snectncle , " -when ymi saw every house , every window ,
every house ! op loaded with persons anxious to pay t heir la ^ t Iriliul . c of respect ( o ( . he memory of Midland ' s « . «; i-ca ! e d . i-on , - when you . saw those persons ( those , ill , lcas i , within the streets ) remaining with entire and un-Diiiehin ; . ! , - put ienee for many hours in a position in which movement wa .-i hardly possihle , and yet thai , . scarce n single accident , occurred to t . lio most , feeble woman or child amid that vast mass , when , throughout the who ' e of l , h : it length , not only was n perfect decorum preserved , ami a perfect and ready assistance ^ iven to the cil ' orts of the police anil the military , but there
was no unseemly desire to witness the nui ^ uiliccni ; spectacle , no li jj ^ ht and thoughtless applause sit t ho splendour of thill , spectacle , and Mint the people of lOnjijland , in fho awful silence of those vast crowds , t , entitled in the most emphatic , manner the sense in which every man ; mion ^ them tell , the public loss which Kn ^ lnnd had sustained , I know not , my lords , how you may have looked upon this manifestation of public feeling mid j ^ ood ncn lie , and order ; b ut I k now I his , that its I passed ulon ^ those lines if wan with pride and satisfaction 1 tell , that I wn . s it countryman of those who
knew so well how to regulate and control themselves and I could not help entertaining a hope that those foreign visitors who have done us and themselves the honour of assistin g at this great cerem onial might upon this occasion , as upon the 1 st of May , 1851 , bear witness back to their own country how safely and to what extent a people might be relied upon in whom the strongest hold of their Government was their own reverence and respect for the fre e institution s of their country , and the principles of popular self-government controlled and modified by constitutional monarchy . "
It is evident from this passage , that Lord Derby was previously unacquainted witk tie people of England , or he never could Lave been astonished at that conduct which , would be expected by every one who knew them . Reading this passage , one can imagine Lord Derby ' s con ! dition . Not well acquainted with the English people , he may have been—we will not say in trepidation , for we believe him to be a thoroughly brave man , —but in a state of preparation . Having girt up his loins , however , to face a savage and a
dangerous multitude , he set forth , expecting on various points of the route to see disturbances , aggressions , riots — possibly bloodshed ; and rather comforting himself with . the idea that there were plenty of police and soldiers " to put down" the people . One can imagine him , an enterprising man , feeling in some degree disappointment like that of Lydia Languish , when there was to be " no elopement . " A vast concourse and no row ! Not only in Piccadilly , not only in St . James ' s-street , or Pall-Mall—aristocratic
abodes—was it all tranquil , but also in Trafalgarsquare ; where the ground was broken up with fountains and parapets , when it was improved , lest the people , gathering in great numbers , should become too strong for " order . " Then again in the Strand ; and . so on even into the Cathedral , all was quiet . We , who know something of the people , were not surprised ; but Lord Derby was astonished . Very naturally : he must have judged of the English people by the crush at the Opera house on crowded nights ! Undoubtedly it was a great exploit to draw together such vast numbers without the slightest accident arising from the multitudinousness ;
for the very few accidents which are reported arose solely from the individual carelessness of the persons injured , and have nothing whatever to do with the crowding . One reason of this safety , no doubt , was , that the police arrangements were very good . They prevented the stopping up of passages in detail , and the barriers broke the half involuntary sway of the masses . For the disorder of a crowd often arises from the impossibility which untrained numbers have to regulate their own movements . People pushing atone point occasion disorder at another ; those who are conscious of the disorder being unable to check it , and those who cause it not
knowing what they do . Under such circumstances the crowd gets irritated by its own members ; and milled ' temper deviates into oxcchh . There is a proper respect for the crowd—that is , for the English people —in malting suflicient arrangements to secure order ; which in a « valua bio to the humblest member of the crowd us it in to the nobleman in his carriage , or more so ; for the nobleman in his carriage is protected by the box in which he rides ; but , the artisan on tl . o foot , pavement , will be hustled and trampled up on by men as unwilling to do it as he is hiin . sell- I ¦>«
ci-owil appreciates these arrangemenls ; and when public otlicei-H conduct themselves « s they **¦«¦» with few exceptions , on ( hat Thursday , the machinery for the maintenance of order will ahuiyH lie popular rather than otherwise ; . Lord Derby , we nee , ascribes the good conduct
of ( he people " to " popular tself-governiu"iit , controlled ii . ii ( l modified by constitutional i" ° " iinrchy , " and to these c . iuhoh , of course , "e i ' lllH < race " tho fact that " Ncarce a ningle accideii occurred to the most feeble woman or < j " . amidst that vast inass . " Still we realise noting l ) iit very great , ignorance in Lord Derby ; < x " disable / it may be , from the peculiar ( ' in' |""~ ( stances- of bin position and his lontf s < 'I > ul' 111
from , ( he English people . It was -uaf- the monarchy that protected «¦ »' feeble woman or the child : the ( . lung that |> i tooted both was , that the bulk of the i >< h >| H <> " . con , "rela ted had no desire <<> destroy uonicn »< Hnhlren , but , the reverne . The viwt bulk them , indeed , sacrifice whole lives ol •"" " nnxioty to Hiiatuin and protect w <«' " - children . They know ho well what Hiilleiinf , i »»
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111852/page/12/
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