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Wpitu &ir
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pnbl' u Maim
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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.
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Wpitu &Ir
Wpitu &ir
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THE POLITICAL DOCTRINE OP ELECTION . " Nomination" appears to be a ceremonyretained in order to tantalize the great body of the people with the pretence of a right which they no longer possess . At a time when all the " freemen" of the country enjoyed an effective voice in public affairs , a " nomination" might have meant something practical ; election by show of hands was not a mere form available for a contested election ; but now , if there be an opposition , if the nonelectors feel a preference , and especially if the choice of the non-electors be very marked and decided , it often happens that the poll proves the show of hands to have been a farce . The great body of the people , to whom the appeal is made , are allowed to play at election without realizing the right ; and the holders of the suffrage deliberately reverse the choice of the people . The right is retained for a particular class . We talk in this country of possessing representative institutions , and , when Parliament is dissolved , the phrase is , that " an appeal is made to the people . " We laugh at Louis Napoleon for speaking of " freedom" for his own subjects or his own legislature , while at home we have phrases as palpably burlesque and as impudently false . No appeal is made to the people , but only to a fraction of the people ; that fraction , which is now engaged in the process of reconstructing the principal and theoretically " popular" branch of the Parliament .
Agitators who assert the rights of the people have been blamed for sowing dissension between the scvci'cd classes , and especially for holding up the middle class to opprobrium . The middle class , it has been averred , would bo willing to consult the claims of the people , if that class wore conciliated . The middle class holds the representation , so say constitutional theorists , like Lord J olm llusscll , as a trust ; and it exercises that trust with honesty and intelligence . Were this
eulogium true , wo should find the middle class , at least , occasionally electing some member of Parliament specially-enjoying the trust of the nonelective body ; but the present election seems to do more than any efforts of agitators to stamp the middle class as alienated from the working class . Public Avritcrs have observed the tendency of the electoral body at present is to prefer nobodies , to men of any mark in whatever party ; and such , indeed , appears to bo the cane .
At Liverpool , for example , Forbes M Ivenzie , the most miserable trimmer of tlio prosonfc < l « iy , who has voted black and white on the Maynooth Grant , —who , when asked afc the election how ho voted on the Militia . Bill , " did not know , "—who is asked whether ho would propose a measure in Parliament , and replied that somebody else would do \{ ly —a , man who has made his way with parties by evasion , —such a man is preferred by the suffrage - holders to Cardwell , the intelligent
and able apprentice of Peel , and to Ewart , the cultivated and philosophical reformer . In the Tower Hamlets , if the electors were not prepared to continue their support to the wandering abolitionist , ( Jcorge Thompson , they had an . opportunity of Mending to Parliament u veritable member of the non-electoral class , a working man , ablo in every sense of the word to speak lor his fellows , —to state their claims , their necessities , their feelings , their convictions . Hut the middle-class electors of the Tower Hamlets have
thrown aside that opportunity ; they have not only neglected it , but the extremely small number of votes given to William Newton sIiovvh that the great proportion of the electoral body have a Bottled determination not , to extend their favour to the non-electors , whose interests they are said to hold in trust . Elected by the people , ko is ^¦ -elected by the erifrajudUiwod clans .
Not less , but even more to be regretted , is the rejection of William Coningham in Westminster . Although not belonging to the working-class , but a gentleman in every sense of the word , he has both the understanding and the heart to sympathize with them in all their needs , and perhaps no man in the country is so thoroughly well informed on their relations with other classes , and with the laws of industry , as he- is . Moreover , if others may compete with him , as unquestionably they may , in political knowledge , and knowledge of the relations of other countries with our own , there is not a man who has the courage so distinctly and unmistakeably to declare what he means . A social Reformer , an earnest politician ,
he has shown to the electors that he views public action from a truly national point of view ; and as the readers of our own paper can attest , he is one of the newest school of Social Reformers whose practical aim is to attain the improvement o ( the working classes by means which reconcile their interests with tliose of the employing classes . The employing classes , however , would not have him . He has been rejected in favour of a soldier who belongs to the past age of Reform , and still worships the idols of Reform antiquity , and of a Baronet whose desire for public service has made him relinquish his own public opinions .
It is not only in questions of their own interest that the non-electors stand in excellent contrast with the electors . In Liverpool , the intelligent practical politician , Cardwell , who certainly belongs to no Democratic party , was the choice of the non-electors . It is the electors that prefer Forbes M'Kenzie . Cardwell , Coningham , Newton , Trelawney , have all been elected by those who do not hold the suffrage ; they are virtually the Members for the non-electors of Liverpool , the Tower Hamlets , Westminster , and Brighton .
In what we have said above , we have simply glanced at certain facts of the present moment ; but it would be a neglect of our duty if we were to abstain from glancing at the cause of the evil and at the possible remedy . The cause , although not without complication , appears to us to be very intelligible . It cannot be said that the people of this country is more "ignorant" than it was in old times—at least , in the modern sense of " ignorance . " Education , although not cultivated as it might be , is unquestionably
extended and raised in quality within the last half century . It cannot be denied that certain reforms have been made in the machinery of representation , extending the privileges to larger classes . In these respects we are better off than we were . Nevertheless , the student of history will have no great difficulty in observing that the immense body of the people—the mob , as it pleases polite writers to call it—Avas never treated with such absolute disregard and slight as it is
at the present moment ; and the reason we believe to be threefold . In the first place , after the settlement of great public questions , there commonly bcfals a degree of confusion , vacillation , and apathy , without concentrated idea ; and in that reaction tho working-classes share as largely as the middle or rich classes . " The disruption of parties " has taken effect throughout the whole of English society , and tho political world , at tho present moment , consists of miserable fractions . " That is one cause .
A second causo is , that the extremely artificial development of our industrial system , which assorts men into particular avocations , wholly absorbs their time , and reduces them to parts of a machine . It not only deprives them of the leisure and opportunity for political action , but also gives to tho class of employers—a constituent part of tho middle class—the power of controlling tlim iif-fionst of their subordinates . This is a
feature of tho political system comparatively unknown in former times . The quality of British cloth is infinitely superior to what it was when , the cloth yard was the familiar measure of the national weapon , the arrow . Cotton is a creation of modern days . Tho quality of paper for printing is such that very ordinary publications would surprise the literary epicure of Elizabeth ' s days . and thero
In tho finishing of pen-knives razors is much to admire ; and the progress of mankind is beyond calculation in buttons ! Hut we very much ( mention whether tho rough and sturdy sort of miluenco once exercised by the non-electoral class over those who are said to hold tho franchise in trust , lias at all improved . Wo doubt , indeed , whether it is bo effective as it used to be : whether it has not dwindled almost
to nothing but a joke , a gibe , a taunt to be thrown out at ultra-popular candidates . "Say that to the non-electors , " cries your knowing election-monger , just as a sailor says , " Tell that to the Marines . " This second reason why the non-electors exercise not even a virtual influence on the elections is augmented by the third—which is , simply the fact that the British people is a disarmed people Possessing no substance , no right in the soil , no right of any positive kind , no franchise , no
arms , the British people is not a free people in any sense of the word . It enjoys certain negative immunities by the good will of the other classes : it is not forced to church ; certain manorial rights over brides are no longer exacted ; the working man is no longer bound to the soil or to any prescriptive employment . But to talk of self-government for him , or of the freedom that flows from self-government , or self-defence , is a farcical jargon . It means nothing . These three practical causes are the origin , and also in a great degree the reactive effect of a fourth
auxiliary cause : the British people has lost its spirit . There was a time when it would not have oeen quite safe so wholly to disregard or slight the wish , even of the mob : but , such have been the improvements of peaceful industry , of police arrangements , and of" the science of social duty , that now the body of the people may be totally disregarded without the slightest danger , and it is disregarded accordingly . Want of spirit , want of force , want of leisure , and -want of positive recognised rights—those are the practical causes by which the English people retain no influence elective classwhich is said
over the pr ivileged , to hold the franchise as a trust . The remedy ? Formerly we might have anticipated a remedy after a rough fashion , in a revolution ; but desiring , as we emphatically do , English remedies for English wrongs , and detesting all foreign political importations , we should gravely question the expediency , even if there existed the bare probability of such a resource . Besides , the very causes of the evil would tend to retard such a remedy—a people without force , leisure , or spirit , will take a long time before any than
fermentation would make it rise to more a partial outbreak of sterile disorder . The most striking improvement in political science has been to acquire the art of driving the people's patience to the very brink of insurrection ; and unquestionably the ruling classes have made very great progress in that science . Another and , we think , safer and wiser plan is , for the whole body to join in the endeavour to persuade small sections ' of the privileged class to act in behalf of the unprivileged class . There are places where tho sympathy of the middle class extends promontory-wise far into the feelings of the workingclass ; and with some judicious management , more active and judicious because more matured ,
than any bestowed upon the present election—it would be possible to foster that sympathy for practical results . There is every prospect that tho Parliament which tho electoral class is now electing will be so thoroughly bad , paltry , and purposeless , that it cannot last long ; its duration , therefore , will be chiefly useful in affording ; un opportunity of preparing for the next Parliament ; and i the most advanced constituencies are duly cultivated , we believe that they will place in the Parliament after the one now forming a few men of the unenfranchised people . If that were done , in tho time after wo should get a few more ; and by the help of tho hw already in , wo should still more extend the influence ; until ,
at a time not too distant for contemplation , tho working-class might really possess a share of parliamentary power . The third plan , and the best of all , —not incompatible with any other , but helping' every other good plan , —would be , for the great bulk of tho people of this country , shaking off" its listlessness , easting aside its suspicions , recovering from its timidities or weaknesses of modern invention , to regain some of its old spirit . The best tiling that we can prescribe for England in its debilitated Htate is a little old English spirit .
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T 1 IK <; iIKAl'KST MAJtKKT . Thk Quarterly returns of tho revenue nro of the most gratifying character : there is an increase on the quarter of 100 , 000 / . in StampH , 80 , 000 / . in Property and Income , 23 , 000 / . in Excise , and 183 , 000 / . •» Customs ; on tho year there is an increase in the Customs of nearl y , 000 / ; and the slight marka of decrease which appear to
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Thpre is nothing so revolutionary , because there is vfnthine 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 . Aekoi-d .
Pnbl' U Maim
pnbl ' u Maim
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~ ¦ T ~ SATURDAY , JULY 10 , 1852 .
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July 10 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , 659
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Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1852, page 659, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1942/page/15/
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