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    Aevce , trusting to the loyalty of an ultra-loyal Z q \ q they would have been in all classes the Irient defenders of the Queen , her crown , and Xmitv Ab it is , they sulk , or go to join the rnited States in search of subsistence , and somefmes of revenge ; or the more ardent of them sneak out roughly at home . The Nation , looking to rumours of war with the United States , anticipates ' the third time when the young Western iant (' this younger scion of the Anglo-Saxon race' ) strips to whip the old beldame of the seas " —England ; when " the mangy old lion" shall " run away with his tail between his legs , and the mark of the eagle ' s talons on his mane . " And then the writer proceeds to reckon up , as

    discreeter journalists have done , the troubles at the Cape , in India , the Canadas , and West Indies , which , coming with a French invasion of England , and a war with America , might result in the loss of our dependencies . In another paper , the writer hopes that the " final triumph of the natives" at the Cape of Good Hope "is not far off . " The ministerial Herald is shocked at this flat treason— " adhering to the Queen ' s enemies in time of war , "—but as it exists in Parliament , is glad to know as much . Why , unless some use be made of the knowledge P It is hardly worth knowing , if it be merely to array a fleet of war

    ships against Mr . Gavan Duffy , editor oi the paper , and member for New Ross ; if Government is to continue the plan of exasperating Roman Catholics , cultivating Orangemen , and passing over the Iris A Irish . Lord Eglinton can tell his colleagues that language of this kind is but the rating of disappointed affection ; and that the way to counteract it is to cease to disappoint that affection . Lord Eglinton's success , so far as he went at Cork , shows that Ireland only wants a leader to rule the country according to its genius , and these formalistic boasts of " treason" would be forgotten .

    In a more distant quarter , the signs of contumacy are more unpleasant . The legislative Council of Van Diemen ' s Land has declared , that if transportation of convicts be continued , the money allowed for the maintenance of the establishments will be refused ; and while the local Parliament is thus threatening to stop the supplies , certain of the colonists send home a memorial to the Queen , roundly accusing the late Ministers of broken faith—a broken faith to

    which the present Ministry has adhered . The maintenance of the great prison establishments , wholly beyond the wants of an ordinary colony , had atreadv been a grievance ; the convicts are a species of importation in themselves , more objectionable than tea ; and thus the reader will sec that the question really at issue is very like that at Boston , only under circumstances of infinitely greater provocation . But the very motives which mako the Tasmanians so bitterly

    resentful—the care for the morality of their colony , and for justice , —arc motives that would make them cling fondly to practical good government—would mako them , so to speak , sit at the feet of any statesman who could appeal to those feelings of sterling loyalty . The Nation is right in saying that England cannot afford to bravo powerful enemies while her dependencies arc so discontented . But if we luid a statesman like Poel , who could extract a

    policy out of the great facts of the day , how easy it would bo to attach both Ireland and Van Diemen's Land to the metropolitan state , morp iirmly than ever , by new bonds of mutual interest and affection .

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    ELECTION MANUFACTURES . Mh . Baron Platt has made a speech from which almost all parties may quote something for their purpose . The abuses of frco-trado oratory ; the danger of losing a good character ; tho want of defence- for prisoners , and some other things , are all glanced at in a sort of peroration , or appendix parenthesis to the sentence on somo » nen convicted at Bristol Assizes of rioting at tho . hast ( Somerset election : —

    " It iH painful to hco nino industrious fellows like yourHolvcH , who have hitherto darned your livelihood by holieHt induHtry , an I understand you have done , n » Much a powition ; because , whatever compatuiiou I may feol for you as a man , it in iny duty , as a judge , to pawn a Hevere Hontence upon you . Many of you have received good eharaeterH , iih being peaceable and orderly up to this triuiHitction , and it \ h much to be regretted that you did not prosorvo thoHo characters . " Tho Court uIho tokos into conaidoration tho topic

    upon which you were moved , which is one which has excited rich as well as poor . It would have been well , however , if those by whom such men as you were excited had looked before they endeavoured to rouse the passions of an ungovernable mob ; for when the waters of discord are let out , who shall stop them ? You have been the victims of these mob-orators , who ought to have found the means for your defence ; and I am ashamed of my countrymen , when I find that some of you were without any defence . It may , however , serve to show that these persons only use you to promote their private ends , and , having done so , they leave you to your fate . "

    Mr . Baron Platt seems to have made these remarks on the strength of an assertion by Counsel , that "the contest was a fierce one between { jrotectionists and freetraders , " and that "the ower orders had been led to some violent expression of their sentiments . " It was shown in the evidence thatthe onlypolitical speech madeduring the day was one by Mr . Hayter ; and indeed throughout the time , the political speeches addressed to the " vile rabble" were comparatively few ; the principal speakers being Captain Scobell and Mr . Elton . It was not shown that any attempt had been made "to excite the passions " of the mob by those speakers , or by any other persons properly to be called " free-trade orators ; " and we believe that in point of fact no such speeches were delivered . It may happen ,

    indeed , that the question of cheap food * s one in itself exciting to the working classes ; but so are all questions that touch them nearly : and if Baron Platt ' s strictures on what he is pleased to call " mob oratory" are of any force , they must be taken to imply that the people ought to feel no keen interest in questions invoked at the elections , or that , per contra , the selection of questions to be laid before the public must be such as do not really concern them very deeply . There is a great deal of nonsense going forward on this subject of " exciting the passions , " &c .

    " Least said soonest mended" seems to be the rule , not only with reference to the conscience of the candidate , but also with reference to the non-excitement of the people . If their bread is at stake , nothing is to be said about it , lest their feelings should be roused . If their political rights are in question , the subject must not be touched upon , because it excites feelings in the people . If the state of employment , and the tenure of land on the dog-in-the-manger principle ,

    without full use of it , occurs to the mind of the politician , he must not mention it , because it may go home to the feelings of his hearers . The subjects which ho should discuss ought to be abstract ideas of statesmanship ; critical discussions on the characters of public men ; theological allusions in very general terms , not of course coming homo to Dissenters ; and generally such subjects as would not disturb the politest dinnertable .

    This squeamishness of political discussion ia advancing pari passw , with another arrangement in reference to election affairs . Tho general tendency is to transfer tho practical working of elections from tho great body of the electors to certain agents , who manage tho matter by calculations in their own offices , and who profess so accurate a system of registration that , if it were cai-ried out completely , they might probably do away altogether with public elections . The gain in quietness would bo considerable . It has been said , that if warlike weapons be brought to great

    perfection , thoy would bo so destructive , and their destructive powers might bo so distinctly calculated , that generals might altogether waive tho battle , and exchanging tho arithmetic ; equations of the destructive power at their disposals , they might work out tho ultimate result upon tho slato , and allot tho victory by an algebraic process . Tho substantial part of ' * glory" would evaporate in such a plan , but it would bo convenient both to generals and common soldiers . In like mannor , tho general oflicers of election matters desire to economize tho interference of

    electors in tho affair ; and if thoy carry tlioir plans to perfection , wo might ascertain tho result of tho poll beforehand , at a joint mooting of tho managing men . This would not only bo highly conducive to public quiet , but it would also concentrate tho ground upon Avhioli wealth and influence can oxort their legitimate power . Station and property would then find their duo p hicoa in Parliament without any of tho waste that is now incurred in tho ' grosser and ruder epooios of bribery . It would alao do away with tho forco

    at present carried on , b y which it is pretended that the people elects the Parliament ; whereas the wildest of poets could only bring a seventh of the people into the field , and the actual practice is to determine the result by the operation of a comparatively small clique ; so that , under the new plan , the profession would more properly conform to the facts . Some progress has already been made towards this great improvement ; and the East Somerset election is a case in point . The machinery of the Free-trade or Liberal side was very imperfect , but the Tories worked with thoroughly organized forces . Landlord influence , trading

    influence , personal influence , party influence , were all organized into a very exact method of producing the result desired by the feudal chiefs ; who , no doubt , devoutly and sincerely believed that the safety of Crown , Church , Corn , and Constitution , trembled in the balance of the contest . If the Free-traders and Liberals had not interfered , the election might have passed off without a word of opposition , or even of question ; and probably as a man , though not as a judge—for he drew the distinction himself—Mr . Baron Platt may have had that more perfect process in view , when he so strongly reprobated the " mob orators" that had disturbed it .

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    HINTS TO NEW M . P . 'S . BY AN EXPEBIENCED " STBANGEB . ' * II . Gentlemen , — Perhaps my definition of a " Member of Parliament" may have struck you , last week , as being about as complex as Imlac ' s definition of a poet ; and a stray Rasselas might have put his Leader of the 14 th on the file with

    the exclamation , " Enough ! thou hast convinced me no man can ever be an M . P . " But definitions such as these are like Sam Slick ' s rule for shooting coons—they only amount to a suggestion to " aim high . " Nobody ever reaches his standard ; but that is no reason why we should not have a standard . If we did not aim high above the practical coon , we should never even bring it down .

    I take by the hand the model M . P . I have sketched—the man who has not only a head to think , but a body fit for working out the thought —and I will tell him how to succeed and to satisfy himself in Parliament . The hints apply to him whether lie aims at a peerage or at the membership for Finsbury—the two extremes of political ambition ; whether he thinks he can be a Disraeli or © nl y a Forbes Mackenzie ; whether Premier or whipper-in ; whether a debater like Osborno , or a steady committee-man like Sir John Bullor : whether he is a man of genius , or

    only a keen man of the world ; whether lie is honest or dishonest , —is bound to a party , or pledged to mankind . The House of Commons is onl y to be approached , wooed , and won , in ono way , by all sorts of persons . It is a body without any principles or any prejudices—except against bores . It is utterly indifferent to tho creed , and country , and character , of tho now man . He who comes to it with a good reputation has no better chance than ho who besieges it with a bad one . It rejects all pretensions it has not of itself justified , and all fame it has not

    itself conferred ; judging most severely and critically of those who have attained position independent of it , and of whom it consequently expects and exacts much , in justification . It has no principles , because , as a corporation , it has no conscience ; and hence it not onl y endures , but , if thoy are presentable and useful , applauds notorious rogues—rogues political and rogues social . It blackballs and sends to Coventry many ; but thoy aro inon who have offended on largo or small pretexts against its own morale—which means its own comfort and pleasure . Therefore , ho who enters nowly tho House of Commons may

    consider that ho in taking his first . step in Jiks career . To what ho may have been , or may havo done , before , tho House is indifferent . IJo may have boon a scamp or a saint , it matters not : tho club doalsonly with wins against it , and tho merit that is useful to it . Ho may bo very rich or vory poor—a millionaire or an adventurer—his chances art ; precisely equal . This is not tho common notion , but observation shows that it is tho correct ono ; and that , indood , in all its judgments , tho House of Commons is governed by tho utmost impartiality and republican enlightenment . Intonso philosophic selfishness has no email weaknesses or petty prejudices .

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    AtreiTST 21 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 801

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1852, page 801, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1948/page/13/