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728 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1852.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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PARTY COMBINATIONS. As tlio time advance...
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H a* v 'a i i Philippe wji out !denoo th...
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PHYSICAL DEGENERACY AMONG THE PEOPLE. " ...
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.
728 The Leader. [Saturday,
728 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Saturday, July 31, 1852.
_SATURDAY , JULY 31 , 1852 .
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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 fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Db . Abnold .
Party Combinations. As Tlio Time Advance...
PARTY COMBINATIONS . As tlio time advances when the Chancellor of the Exchequer ought to disclose his great plan , for which he challenges " the enthusiastic approbation" of the country , hints as to the nature of this . _^ reat plan begin to come forth . Abolition of the uty on tea and malt , and a two per cent , tax on every species of property , with a centralization of all local rates—these are said to be the grand elements in the scheme . It would be a bold blow ; satisfactory to tea-drinkers and to beerdrinkers—to producers of barley and . of tea ; in other words , to the vast bulk of the English people , to the working landed interest , and to the Chinese ; so that Ministers may fairly reckon the Central Flowery Nation amongst their prospective supporters . The centralization , indeed , would be more Chinese than English . " We are unable to fill up the details of 'the scheme , though we see many an hiatus which economists and Protectionists will equally deplore ; and we cannot even vouch for its authenticity in any degree , since we do not know upon what authority it rests . " Enthusiastic approbation" is the standard challenged by the statesman who holds the inventive department of the present Ministry ; and we are far from feeling assured that the rumour does justice to his scheme , if , indeed , it describes it at all .
It is to be accompanied , so goes a second rumour , with a very wise preparatory sacrifice to English good taste . Mr . William Beresford is to be removed , not only from the office of Secretary at War to that of Paymaster of the Forces , but he is to be removed out of the country to " some foreign Government" or post . It is quite fit that he should be released from too close a proximity to the English " rabble , " inasmuch as his presence cannot cease to be offensive in the highest degree ; and the practical rejoinder of the crowd , in the shape of cabbage-stalks and s ' tones , cannot but prove highly inconvenient for himself ; while for his colleagues it cannot bo a very pleasing association that one amongst them in his own walking pillory . Poor Beresford , therefore , is to be _transported ; though why his being sent to Coventry should qualify him for undertaking international affairs , or why an y colony should be victimised in lieu of the British people—should , as it wore , be whipping-boy for the imperial English rabble , we cannot understand .
, " co ehor Aberdeen hints which would justify from tho " Great Powers " faffs _woll iato iho past , Rumour relating to the Whig interest comes to us upon testimony of more weight . Lord John is said to have hit upon a new combination . Waiving for himself both the Premiership and the leadernhip of the Commons , ho suffers the premiership to go to Aberdeen , the leadership to Craliani ; and Lord John contents himRclf by retiring to Ihe Home _Odice . The advantages of thin combination are considerable . "Co chor Aberdeen" in a man respected in every circle , and in every nation , aH a safe , quiet , honourable , well-intentioned man , without cither the Avill or the power to do much harm . He is not _mistruHtcd by Conservatives , he in not mistrusted by Liberals . He wiin , us it were , the shadow of _» Sir . Robert . Pool—the exactly corresponding negative to the- other ' s positive ; and the Liberals remember that association with pleasure . Although , on reflection , we may remember that ; the y lie in the living body negative which copies shadow of Peel is _wel-Himposed inclining !* at all liis professions , oorti- j to
Party Combinations. As Tlio Time Advance...
the present , and the future ; uniting , in short the powers that be , have been , and are to be , a sort of Holy Alliance of respectability . Sir James Graham would bring a more positive power of Peel policy into the Cabinet , and he one of the stalwart debaters : every one knows his value ; and the public w ill only be amused a his consenting to share Whig luck . In the Home Office Lord John Russell would be enabled to deal most conveniently with all the sections and shreds of the Liberal party ; and all his tra ditional influence may thus be brought to bear comfortably and quietly upon the veterans of club and lobby , and upon the unlaid sp irits o Whig-liberalism that still haunt the corridors of Whitehall and Downing Street . The project appears to contemplate an organized hypocrisy of a much more effective kind than that which Mr . Disraeli ' s colleagues have superseded by their own version of that species of governmenta organization .
One advantage manifestly belonging to new combination would be , that it would array in office against the one statesman who is formidable to the ex-officials of the Whig party , a " splendid galaxy of talent , " as the saying is , and would thus block him out of office . Indeed keen politicians surmise that the intention is not only to block Lord Palmerston out of office by stationing at all its entrances some veteran invalid of the Old Guard of Liberalism , but by such exclusion to drive him into the ranks of that party whose doom—deferred it may be , but fixed as doom—is hopeless defeat , the Derby party . It used to be one mode of disposing of dangerous spirits , to drive them into the bodies of pigs , and in like manner the Whig conjurors hope to drive Lord Palmerston into the Protectionist carcase , and thus to send him galloping to perdition . Thus , if we may trust these rumours—which . receive at especiallthe Conservative
we , y part , with hesitation—" the two great parties in the state" are getting up grand manoeuvres to befool the country : the one by bribing it with untaxed tea and untaxed beer , most popular sops ; and the other by a grand combination of " Old Fogies . " That the nation would benefit by the Russell project nobody will believe . The grand results which we foresee are , first , a break-down of Sir James Graham ' s reputation to the level of effete Whiggcry ; next , a polite cession of English power by " ce cher Aberdeen" to the rampant designs of Absolutism abroad ; and thirdly , a kind of backstairs alliance between the invalids of the Russell clique and all the liberal associations for safe agitation which may be open to Treasury aggrandizement . In short , it will be a highday and holiday for diplomatists at London conventions to dispose of nations aud boundaries at pleasure—a highday and holiday for whippers-in , election-mongers , and professional agitators , with swaggering tongues and fortunes to make . Should the Derby Government be very foolish in the next session , such a project as that now ascribed by rumour to the Whigs and Peelites , might have a chanco of maintaining itself for a time on the traditions and hopes of tamo mediocre Liberalism : during which time considerable profits will be made by trading Liberals ; and then the organized hypocrisy will bo handed over once more to some new combinations of Derbys and _Berusfords to take their turn ; the nation passing a life like that of the greenhorn , between the courtesan and the bully . The grand advantage foreseen for the Whig alliance is the exclusion of a particular man . That it should be necessary thus to combine against him , marks him out as a man w ho at least is not committed to these anti-national uggleries . Even if his recent speeches did not show that he is thinking more at present of great substantial _instercsts than of party combinations , these hostile conspiracies of cliques would suggest the idea ,. In a curious article of much pleasantry and some truth , but of inscrutable purpose , the Mornhuf Chronicle admits it as undeniable that Lord Palmerston is looked upon with favour _throughout the country , and that ho has very great influence in Parliament . " Kven without a _single professed adherent , Lord I ' uluicr . _Mtoii will not fail to wield great ]> ower in tho new Parliament , though it in far from curtain for whoso advantage , except Inn own , ho may cIiooho to _niako who of it . Personally , ho possesses great influence with tlio House Commons , _although it would bo extremely diflicult say what principle or intercut ho represents . Ho
Party Combinations. As Tlio Time Advance...
, in is t - f l was strong enough to turn out Lord John Russell , and his alliance was eagerly solicited by Lord Derby . He now returns to Parliament more unfettered by pledges or party connexions than almost any other member of the House . The only engagement into which he has entered is a purely negative one , and his fidelity to it is not likely to be put to the proof . Whatever may happen , he will not join a Rowcliffe administration but he is free to do anything else—to enter into any new combination , and to take advantage of opportunities as they may arise . This is a singular position for one who has passed more of his life in office than any other public man of the day . With a vast amount of political experience , and at a mature age , the noble member for Tiverton is about to recommence his career . He starts afresh as a promising young man , having , it is to be hoped , got rid of the indiscretions of youth . _JSTo one can predict in what part of the House he will take his seat—though there is a strong antecedent probability that it will not be next to Lord John Russell . "
Next to none , we should think . If Lord Palmerston knows his own interest , and consults his own _refutation , he will think of combining , not with this coterie or with that , but with the great body of the nation , of which he may be said to be the statesman elect . Sick of mere party cant and intrigues , who would not welcome , if it were only for novelty , a statesman going straight at great public objects , and appealing for support to the great body of the nation ?
H A* V 'A I I Philippe Wji Out !Denoo Th...
_H v 'a i i Philippe _wji out ! denoo therefore virtues of action usuall < ir than in that obscure the very in his lion ill in ; i q
Physical Degeneracy Among The People. " ...
PHYSICAL DEGENERACY AMONG THE PEOPLE . " Let alone , " cries Political Economy , " and selfinterest will regulate society . " The precept is a violation of the first principles of human nature , and of every moral doctrine to which , cultivated nations have adhered . It is , however , a received present doctrine for the conduct of us English , people in our collective capacity ; and being opposed to the laws of God and nature , it has , as all national sins do , entailed upon us a judgment , a multiform judgment . By " Let alone , " except through the influence of the selfish interest , we have suffered railways to grow up into an instrument of destruction , and the greed for lucre receives a frequent sacrifice to that national Juggernaut ; as we perceive by the number of railway accidents within this last few days . " Let alone , " in retail trade , and we have suffered to grow up a custom of adulteration universally defrauding the consumer of his rights , or poisoning him . " Let alone , " and leave the principle of saving to create provident clubs for illnesses and burials ; and lucre turns with fiendish avidity upon the prospects of the living , to convert them by death into present property for the survivor , even for the parent . The murder of children for the sake of burial fees , is an English custom . Left to itself , without moral guidance , the principle of self-interest converts the means of transit , of trade in food , of saving for periods of difficulty , into the means of death and robbery .
But that is not the worst . We mean no metaphor nor exaggeration w hen we say , that the principles on which the economists of the day rely , are literally destroying the sources of life and strength in the nation . Wo have preserved peace at the expense of English honour abroad , —we have betrayed Sicily , by whom wo have promised to stand , and whom we had induced to abandon her old constitution , —we have left Italy to her fate , though we might have fought on Italian grounds the principles of Protestantism , which wo pretend to fight for party purposes at home , without any substantial results , —we have taken part in depriving Schleswig-IIoktein of the national independence by right belonging to that joint province—and throughout these great public wrongs , wo boast that wo have ' * preserved peace . " Wo have often said that the long duration of effeminate repose has induced grievous physical effects upon the condition of tlio people ; and a proof of this comes upon us from a quarter beyond suspicion . The South Australian Chronicle and Colonial Record , a paper devoted entirely to subjects of colonization and emigration , mentions a fact which ought to crcato active uneasiness amongst Englishmen . " Wo have complaints from Paisley that n very _limited number of men have boon accepted as eniigrunts ; and tho _woavorn are not _reconciled by hints that tho men of Renfrewshire do not coino up to tho standard in point of health , or bone and miiHclo , or ( something of that sort . It is evident that tho _woavora
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/12/
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