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Sweater ' s left hand is a gain to the Reformers ; not because it places them in opposition , but because it releases them from a false position , —has placed them nearer to power , nay , m power ; for surely we can look beyond the present Anti-Freetrade Anti-Liberal Ministry P The interregnum between the Whig dead-body Government and the next Liberal Government should be employed in securing the largest " possible augmentation to the popular power , and / its most direct influence in shaping the Government . /
On one point we are quite clear , and it is well to lay down the fact at starting , that the coming contest should not be a mere Free-trade fight . Free trade must be maintained , and will Tbe ; but the power which the Protectionist Cabinet can bring to bear against it is not nearly sufficient to cause any strong apprehension , nor will service in that fight be quittance to the Liberals for what they owe to their country . Free trade we have got , and we can keep ;¦ and we only want something beyond it . Indeed , if the Free-trade
party , after attaining there object , and parting from their Tory allies—always more notable in singularity of position than in numbers—had re-organized themselves to secure an effective extension of the franchise , there would be less trouble now to maintain the victory—most likely no trouble at all . To clench the hold of Free trade , once for all , we must obtain the franchise for the main body of the people . On that we are all agreed ; we differ on secondary points , which ought not to divide us . We
see one ' set demanding Universal fcsuiirage ; another , a rate-paying franchise ; a third , an educational franchise ; a fourth , a mixed franchise ; a fifth , a " domiciliary" franchise ; and by that separation , tie Reform party is converted , in detail , into a segregated series of minorities , instead of being , what it essentially is ? and ought to be in action ; a _ great national majority . Reformers who are in earnest , will do their best to amend that state of things ; and if there _ are enough men of sinceritv and sense in each section , they
will soon be able to consolidate the whole . We are asking for no'" concessions , "—enough concessions , and to spare , have been made to the Whigs ; and the Reform party has lost proportionately in self-esteem and mutual reliance . Concession , politically , is the giving up something which we have , or can have , to purchase something else ; and Reformers gave up the opportunity of obtaining extended franchise to Ttpat-i in -fl-io \ A / nirra VV « r \ n nnf . n . « V f . TiA wnrlrinor .
classes to give up Universal Suffrage , and be contented with a limited franchise ; we do not agree with Home Tooke ' s analogy , of accompanying a man who goes part way ; which is well enough in itself , but is not an adequate statement of the true policy . We do , however , perceive that a long journey may be made , and sometimes must bo made , in separate journeys ; we do perceive that , to embark in a steamer which goes no further than Alexandria , is really a quicker way of getting to India than to embark in one which
goes all the way without stopping . " I will not stir a step except to go to India , " cries the "consistent" man , invited to enter the Alexandria steamer ; " because the English people at Alexandria never let travellers go beyond—by that route no one ever reaches Bombay !" Among all the various schemes of Reform , there is some substantial portion common to the whole . Most Reformers desire to extend the franchise to every man that is fitted for it . The very advocates of « universal" suffrage would limit it to those-who aro saneand " untainted
grown up , , by crime . " » A limitation they admit , as well as others ; and then arises tho question—What is the Jit limitation P The Manchester men think that tho payment of poor-rates proves tho qualities desirable in an elector . Lord John Russoll thought that payment of 51 . sterling in rent aufhcient ovidonco of tho requisite moral and intellectual qualities . Tho Parliamentary Reformers assume a limitation scarcoly more restricted than universal
suffrage—a franchise to every man whoso name and address aro certified by being registered in tho rate-books us liable to" pay J'atos , diroctl y or indirectly , whether ho have paid iiicm or . not . Scarcoly any but prisoners , paupers , wanderers , and domestic servants , would be excluded by this last restriction , Now , whilo all l ' i ? ^ 'homos have one objoot—the extension of * ho f ranchise to ovory man of certified character r-thoy differ ; and the prosont duty of practical -iMMormors is , to extract from tho whole that upon
On the first reinstallation of Protection m office—on the first re-opening of the Refornv field for active movement , the whole party finds itself in some little confusion ; but we trust that we have indicated the clue to a consistent and a truly national policy—to a policy which would be powerful , and " not difficult . The Conference which will assemble on Tuesday next will have this question before it . There will probably be some who may stand aloof , because the majority at that Conference will not " go far enough ;" others , because the Conference will go too far , or will rouse personal jealousies . The majority of the Conference , if it adhere to the principles which we have indicated , will re-assure the timid , _ __ _ „„ ...... .
which all substantially agree ; because that common desire would , form the true will of the nation . It appears to us that the Parliamentary Reformers have come nearest to a common term ; but the urgent duty of Reformers is to ascertain whether they have so or not . The most important , section of dissidents appears to be that 01 the Manchester men ; but we doubt very much whether they really mean / to stand' by a rate-paying clause—that opprobrium of Whig reform ; and if they do not , there is no substantial difference between them and the mass of Reformers . It would be a very happy circumstance for the nation , if it were so to turn out , and so to be proclaimed .
by showing that its demands are fairly measured by the actual will of the Power under whose protection we all live—that of the nation itself ; it will vanquish the reluctance of the fastidious , by a dignified perseverance in its own course , without hostility to those who hold aloof—without reproaches for those who join it late in the day ; it will refer the impatient to the last political appeal—to the nation . Aiming to get at the will of the nation , to express , that will , to obey "it , and to accomplish it , the Conference would then be the first public body of our own day-to seek greatness and influence through a patriotic modesty and fidelity ; and we could not fear for its success while it should remain true to that
noble enterprise . There is , indeed , one function which such a body as the "Parliamentary Reform Association might fulfil most usefully and legitimately , to the immense enhancement of its influence and power . Its primary object is to obtain a share of Parliamentary representation for the majority of the nation , at present excluded—in other words , to give a Parliament to the People—the People
being meanwhile without a Parliament , and without the agency for the collective expression and enforcement of its suffrages which a Parliament affords . The want of such an agency aggravates the evil of disfranchisement , and tends to perpetuate the evil . Could the Association provisionally perform that species of agency—could it in such matters be a species of Administration for the People , it would make its convenience and importance felt by every class .
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THE CRUEL SECT . Thomas Caklyle has offended the journal which has volunteered as the organ of the tradingclasses against the working-classes . A now spirit has come over that journal . Some year or so since , it was for a novel and more popular tenure of land ; but we are now bound to conclude that it wished to sot the land free from its present holders , in order to make it tho object of more trading laws : a change which God forbid ! Tho Weehly Dispatch at presont dovotos itsolf to tho interests of employers , not as identical with tho workers , but as antagonistic ; it sots itsolf to promote social division—a shocking labour , to which journalism , with all its antagonism , has rarely ' descended ; it strives to strongthon the prejudices of the- employer , to harden their selfishness , and to hound on tho tyranny of those who aro already imperious enough . We boliovo , indeed , that it has gone far ahead of those to whoso selfish passions it . has pandered . Tho writor that advocates tho tyrannies of trado in thoir most barefaced form is naturally exasperated at the Hoaokiah who donouncos tho idols of tho market—and is helping to topple thorn
over . Wo can leave tho dofonco of Carlylo to tho active Secretary of tho Association which is implicated in tho attack , mojmwhile only noticing tho journalism of tho mattor . Tho attack is subscribed with tho woll-known name of " Publicola , "
people m the Legislature . He has recently Deen identified with that Roman appellative ; and our present object is to express our belief that the attack in question is not by him . We do not rest that belief on its literary faults—on its ascribing to O'Connell an anecdote to be found in many an " Ana , " and identified with a more illustrious Irishman , before Daniel ' s time ; or on the use of the phrase " running amuck , " as if the Malay who runs amuck always had a tilt at the manure-heap ; or on the unhandy use of prepositions—but we are struck by the bitter sneering at the poor , the coarse allusion even to the odour of the destitute , and the ignorant cant about
—originally the pseudonym of a gentleman who earned for it the reputation of vigour , and for himself a reputation as a fighting Atheist , with polemics carried to the most obtrusive and offensive lengths . We respected his outspeaking , but not his rudeness , nor his blindness to ideas above him , nor his insolent refusal of all belief m tho sincerity of opponents . " The king never dies , nor does " Publicola : " the- first writer of that name died , but the immortal name stirvived , and descended to a writer more refined , an eloquent preacher of " the religion of humanity , " a gentleman , and a popular representative of the
" Socialism . " Even from the utility pen of the Dispatch one might have expected to obtain better p hilosophy . Carlyle offends by not valuing statistics ; which are indeed worthless , unless the text gives soundness and true limitation to the figures . The writer in the Dispatch supplies an example . He boasts of the decline in the number of Irish paupers , although the workhouses had been rendered more habitable : he does not state how
much of that was due to the relief of the labour market byjthe immense emigration in the years cited—an emigration which exceeded the whole number of paupers ; and he does not mention that direct emigration of paupers , which relieving Ireland , has deluged Liverpool and Manchester with beggary . Of what worth are statistics such as these P Cruel to the poor , insolent to genius , the writer cannot even handle the figures to which his journeyman mind devotes itself .
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THINGS AND THINKINGS . A swoed—it is a beautiful object , symmetrical , bright , the type of power , direct , sharp , and swift . It cuts into the flesh , and open forth the sluices of life . Well , there are worse things than pain or death . On the whole , the sword is the instrument of healthy , vigorous , keen-sighted , self-possessed , master-handed humanity ; meanness , cowardice , disease , dull wit , maladroitclumsy-fistedness cannot stand against the edge of the brave man's favourite weapon . In our refinement , we have somewhat lost count with such simple truths and plain facts . Our humanitarians have learned to think that there is nothing worse than pain and death . They deprecate tho cruelties of tho sword , and " peaceful" commerce is their faith . Leonard Horner , Inspector of Factories , relates in his last report how a little girl has perished through neglect to guard dangerous machinery ; ho records his complaint that self-acting mules still imperil the lives of children . Holmfirth reservoir is allowed to deluge a whole valley , swooping numbers to destruction ; but tho Holmfirth commissioners were insolvent ; and with no " profit " to secure , what duty remained P Peace , which
turns palo at the deadly odgo of tho sword , permits those things ; has , indeod , no veneration for life , unless it can pay its way . Louis Napoleon establishes a piratical govornment in the noxt capital , and calls it " order . " Tho thing order , men do not much esteem-, for although it was secured by moral influence in Rome under Mazzini ' s government , legitimate
politicians rojoico that tho JLtornal City was " rescued" from him , and restored to an old Popo who is impotent , to an alien army , and to brigands . Louis Napoleon seizes Paris by night , deluges it in tho blood of its citizens , and ^ Eng lish statesmen " rocbgniflo" that as " order . " In its ignorance , tho English pooplo dislikes tho idea that such order may bq imported hero , and resolves to keep it out . Whoroupon tho friends of Ponco moot at tho London Tavern , and
deprecato any preparations for military resistance , an they hold fighting to bo unchristian . They would rather incur tho risk of Louis JNapoloon , than commit tho sin of resisting him , Meanwhilo , there is a talk about rifles j on
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Feb . , 1852 , ] THE LEADEB . 203
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 203, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/15/
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