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DRIFTING. The Administrative [Reform mov...
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THE AUSTRIAN DEBATE. ¦Lo ud Ciaeendon's ...
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Me,. Chables Dickens A Reformer. There I...
eenld not possibly know anything- abou ? t Perhaps , however , ' it mil be difficult to persuade the vast audience who rose like one man at that solemn peroration last Wednesday , that a speaker who delivers more pertinent common sense in fewer words than any member of the House of Commons now extant , is inadequate to the public expression of opinions on the maladministration of public affairs . We do not finished elocu
here speak of the exquisitely - tion , the compact fulness of the matter , the sustained richness of illustration , the prodigal variety of humour—tliese graces of style may be stigmatised by severely independent critics as mere literary " business ; " but we have a right to dwell emphatically upon the strong English sense and the sound English feeling , so temperate and yet so firm , which held that audience suspended on the speaker ' s lips . It may be unpalatable to the optimists who derive their inspirations from the purlieus of Downing-street , but it is
nevertheless a certainty that the conspicuous accession of Mr . ChaeIiES Dickens to the ranks of the Administrative ^ Reformers as as good as a host , and that his wise and penetrating words , in which there was nothing that bespoke the agitates ? or belied the patriot , will carry conviction to the minds of thousands of loyal and soberminded men who desire nothing more revolutionary than order where there is now disorder , and honesty where there is now corruption—in the Government itself .
Perhaps there was a certain cruelty in bringing forward the heavy metal of the Association after Mr . Dickens . To listen . to , Mr . Tobbens M'Ouixagh ' s bewildering platitudes , or to Mr . Bennoch ' s sturdy , but dull , statistics and details , was like a lapsing from champagne to table-beer . The Administrative [ Reform Association has not as yet been , happy in its figures and its facts , but , as Mr . Dickens suggested , no sane man denies that it has a very strong general case .
It may be that what the French are fond of calling the * ' unforeseen" may some day impart an unexpected animation to ita councils . But without joining in the apprehension that Mr . Samuel Moblet is the unconscious president of a Convention in disguise , it is easy to perceive that as the strength of the Association increases its objects will extend , and the " Four Points" will have to make way for larger conquests . Meanwhile , let it take heart of grace under the inspiration of Mr . Charlies Dickens , ( whose programme of reform includes a Government that will have
heart and brain enough to bridge the tremendous social chasms of our society , and to grapple with the problems of an industrial epoch so far transcending House of Commons '' politics" ) ; let it throw open its committee to intelligent representatives of the toiling millions , and convert a middle-class movement into a national restoration .
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Drifting. The Administrative [Reform Mov...
DRIFTING . The Administrative [ Reform movement holds on its course : and we must hold on ours , of calling the serious attention of our countrymen to the real direction in which that movement points , and the real nature of the crisis at which we have arrived . Wo did not help to make that crisis , nor do we desire to precipitate
its result ; much less do wo wish to pander to class hatred , or to goad on . that of which there are some ugly symptoms—a violent revolution . Our aim is as rnucli the contrary of all this as possible . Wo wish to present the great political question now definitively raised n » one -which must receive a timely solution feom t 1 * e united intellect and virtue of all
classes . We wish to rid it of tbnrt narrow , rarkCQECxus , envenamed form Wihich , under the treatment of short-sighted agitators , it is too rapidly assuming . We wish to place it , ere it is too late , in its true magnitude before the manly mind of the nation . Solve it whichever way reason may bid , but solve it . Say whether you will have hereditary government or not ; and rest henceforth on conviction , not on blind precarious sentiment , which may give way in a moment if we lose another the
army , or have another George IV . on throne . Here are men assiduously undermining an edifice whicja they profess to hold sacred—putting the torch to a mine to the explosion of which they call it treason to allude . Is it a great crime against societydoes it manifest a love of anarchy and confusion—to tell them what their professions are really worth , and to bid them perform the proper function of humanity by looking before them instead of rushing on with their eyes shut and their ears full of each other ' s
protestations ? We want words to describe the inconsistency and hypocrisy that are resounding all round us . Of all those professing friends of aristocracy who must know that they are trenching so closely on its existence with their crusade against family influence , not one has shown that he has thought for five minutes on the position of the aristocracy in our political system , or the basis on which it rests . Not one has tried to explain why family government is absurd and detestable , and family
legislation reasonable and right . Everything is said—many things are falsely said—which can rouse the suspicion and hatred of the people against the governing class , and yet the governing class is encouraged to stand its ground , and every effort is used to prevent men from reflecting on the result of the agitation . [ Radical journalists—we must once more recal the fact—have called upon
the Crown for its direct interference , in language such as might have been addressed by a [ French courtier to Louis XV . The Crown does interfere with a speech , savouring , of course , strongly enoug h of a readiness to increase monarchical influence , and perhaps of a certain community of sentiment with that august object of Radical admiration ,
who not long since celebrated his triumph over Parliamentary government in our shouting streets . Instantly there pours forth a torrent of abuse , rendered more odious by the pretence of not believing the truth of a report notoriously true , and all the other Judas' devices of loyal insurrection . This is the way in which nations drift into revolutions .
We have proposed a problem , not dictated a solution : we have not shrunk from giving our own conviction on the subject . We believe the period is not very distant , though we do not wish it more near than it is , when the last relics of the monarchical and feudal system will give way under the general sense of anomalies and hypocrisies too great oven for the most illogical of nations ; and when
we shall have to choose our rulers by the faculties God has given us for that purpose , and honour and obey them as the objects of our own deliberate choice . People , foreigners especially , cannot separate the idea of an English Commonwealth from that of a French Republic , but the two are very separable and separate in our minds . Wo appreciate the results of the French Revolution . Wo make
large allowances for the difficult position of the actors iii it , and extend our aynipathica oven to some who orrod moat deeply . But tho extravagant and sanguinary puerilities of tho French Republicans having been can never be again . Federations of Humanity , worships of Reason , clockwork Sioyds
conatitutions , Spartan banquets , and Athenian burlesques ^ wene . possible only once in the history of humanity . [ Nobody need fear that in jEkigland of all countries in the world we shall raze the whole edifice of political , religion , and society , and begin again on clear ground with the year of the world One . And therefore , it is not fantastic fears of that kind that should make us shut our eyes to the possibility of a change till the rolling snow becomes an avalanche , , and all power of guiding events is gone .
The Austrian Debate. ¦Lo Ud Ciaeendon's ...
THE AUSTRIAN DEBATE . ¦ Lo ud Ciaeendon ' s feint reply to Lord IiYNDHTJUST ' s masterly exposition explicitly confirms the interpretation we have put upon the conduct of Austria . The Foreign Minister condescends to inform us that Austria will continue in possession of the Principalitiesand no more . She has played her game , has won , and retires from the table . This policy is commendable for its discretion , but Great Britain and France are its dupes , and Turkey is its victim .
Austria , then , is to occupy the disputed Principalities until peace is obtained between the Western Allies and Russia . Such is the sum of [ Lord Claeendon ' s explanation . He stated nothing in reply to [ Lord Ltndhitest ' s inquiries as to the reduction of her armaments , or as to the spirit of her intercourse with the people of the Danubian Provinces . All this was eluded ; but the Minister threw out an idle and wanton insinuation against the English press when he ascribed to j , t , in conjunction with a certain class of politicians , the practical estrangement of " Germany . " he affirmed
The heads of the German States , , were friendly to England and to its policy , until the tone of our public discussions offended and estranged them . A more impertinent fallacy was never breathed even by official lips . The ground on winch Lord CiiAitENDON said the German Governments based their concurrence in the cause pursued by France and England was , that it tended to diminish the injurious influence of Russia in Germany . Either this conviction did not exist , or it could not have been dispelled in the way described by the foreign Minister . Lord Clarendon is but a clumsy
apologist for the ruling minds of Northern Europe if he wishes to persuade us that they would be moved from their purposes , or induced to sacrifice their interests by the clamours of irresponsible sympathisers , or tho criticisms of a free press . The statement is even in absolute
contradiction to that which follows it , to tho effect that Austria is consulting her own views , which she has uniformly pursued from the beginning . But let us mark tho course ot mystification . When Russia invaded the Principalities , Austria joined in a protest against that aggression , expressed her discontent with the conduct of her neighbour , and
placed her military establishments on a war footing . Her armies hung upon tho rear ot the Russians on the Danube . It was thon---while those armies hovered upon the Turkish horizon—that an outburst of impatience took place in this country , and the Vienna government was alternately wheedled and bullied by blandishments and taunts , in Parliament and in tho official journals . But Austria did not display any petulant resentment at thcpo expressions ot public fooling as Lord Ci .
AUKtfdon would have us boliovo . On tho contrary , Count Cokonini , with or without a hihtcc understanding with tho defeated Riihhuuib , descended into tho valley of tho JJaiuiuo , throw hit * columns between Omah Pacha ana G-oiiTSOHAKOifJ ! , and permitted the CzAJt to accumulate new forces in the Crimea . At this point Lord Cjlakknjjon skips wiu »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061855/page/10/
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