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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 unaMe 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 avc 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 " sonic foreign Government" or post . It is quite Jit that he should be released from too close a
PARTY COMBINATIONS . As the 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 j ^ 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 ;
proximity to the English " rabble , " inasmuch as tiis presence cannot cease to be offensive in the highest degree ; and the practical rejoinder of the crowd , in the shape of cabbage-stalks and stones , cannot but prove highly inconvenient for himself ; while for his colleagues it cannot be a very pleasing association that one amongst them is liis own walking pillory . Poor Beresford , therefore , is to bo transported ; though why his being sent to Coventry should qualify him for undertaking- international aflairs , or why any colony should be victimized in lieu of the British people—should , a . s it were , be whipping-boy for the imperial . English rabble , wo cannot underk I .-lm I .
Ivuinour relating to the Whig interest comes to us upon testimony of more weight . Lord . John is nuid to have hit upon a now combination . Waiving for liiinselfbot . il the . Premiership and the leadership of the Commons , he suffers the premiership to go to Aberdeen , the leadership to ( jrahani ; and . Lord John contents himself by retiring to the Home Ollice . The advantages of this combination are considerable . "Co cher Aberdeen" is a , man respected in every circle , and in every nation , as a , sale , quiet , honourable , well-intentioned man , without either the will or the power to do much harm . He is not mistrusted l > y ( Conservatives , he is not mistrusted by Liberals . He was , as it were , the shadow of
? Sir Ivobort Peel I he exactly corresponding negative'to ( he other ' s / positive ; and the . Liberals . remember thai association with pleasure . Although , on reflection , we . may remember that the virtues of action usually lie in the living body mther than in that obscure negative which copies all its altitudes , the very shadow of Peel is welcome . Liberal in his supposed inclinings nt home , constitutional in all liis professions , certificated by Louis Philippe , " co cher Aberdeen " has recently thrown out hints which would justify the utmost confidence from the " ( ireat Powers " of Europe : h . e therefore fulls well into the past ,
the present , and the future ; uniting , in short , the powers that be , have been , and are to be , in a sort of Holy Alliance of respectability . Sir James Graham would bring a more positive power of Peel policy into the Cabinet , and he is one of the stalwart debaters : every one knows Ids value ; and the public will only be amused at his consenting to share Whig luck . In the Home Office £ ord John Russell would be enabled to deal most conveniently with all the sections
and shreds of the Liberal party ; and all his traditional influence may thus be brought to bear comfortably and quietly upon the veterans of club and lobby , and upon the unlaid sp irits of 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 governmental
organization . One advantage manifestly belonging to this 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 we receive at present , especially the Conservative 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 pi-oject 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 Whiggery ; 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 and boundaries at pleasure—a highday and holiday for whippors-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 Pcelites , might have a chance of maintaining itself for a time on the traditions and hopes of tame 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 sorao now combinations of Derbys and Bcresfords to take their turn ; the nation passing a life like that of the greenhorn , between the courtesan and the bully . Tlie 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 who at least is not committed to these anti-national juggleries . Even if his recent speeches did not show that he is thinking more at present of great substantial insterests 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 Morn ' uuj Chronicle admits it as undeniable thai-Lord . Palmerston . is looked upon with favour throughout the country , and that he has very great influence in Parliament . " IOvcn without aniline profesMcd adherent , Lord I'almerston will not . ( nil to wield grcut [ tower in Hie new I ' arliiinicnt , though it in fur IVoin certain for wIiohc advantage , except , hi . s own , he niuy choose to make iiho ol'it . Personally , he possesses great influence with the IIoti . se of ( Commons , although it would l > o extremely dilli <; iilt to say what principle or interest he repreflcntn . He
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 hag entered is a purely negative one , and his-fidelit y 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 . No 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 reputation , 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 ?
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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 b y 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 when wo say , that the principles on wnieli the economists of the day roly , are literally destroying the sources of life and strength in the nation . We 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 we pretend to fight for party purposes at home , witnoirt any substantial results , —we have taken part in depriving Schleswig-ILolstein of the national independence by right belonging to that joint province—and throughout these great public wrongs , wo boast that we have "
preserved peace . " We have often said that the long duration of effeminate repose has induced grievous physical elfeets upon the condition of the people ; ami 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 create uctive uneasiness amongst Englishmen . " We liuve complaints from Paisley that ai very limited number of men havo been accepted an emigrants ; and the weavers are not . reconciled l » y hints that tin ; men of KtiiiVewshirc do not come up to the ( standard in point of health , or hone and muscle , or something of that nort . It in evident that the weaver *
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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 veiy law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold .
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SATURDAY , JULY 31 , 1852 .
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728 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 728, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1945/page/12/
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