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JB %c wp i* rrpv - *.
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^tt liiit Mat ta.
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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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A PEOPLE'S PARTY AND THE NEW PARLIAMENT . Wanted a People ' s Party in or out of Parliament ; and as there is a great people , one has some difficulty in understanding how it is that it cannot make a party . The view of the practicability , indeed , varies with the notion as to the process by which ^ it should be formed . Casting aside journals . like the Morning Herald , which declares that Lord Derby ' s mission is to oppose the progress or " encroachment" of the Democracy , that he is
appointed by the country to estop the people , we find almost as many opinions as there are political sections ; but the distribution of hope and suggestion among them is not exactly what we might expect . While Lord John Russell , recently so tame , stands forth as the volunteer champion of the British Democracy , confident in some victory not yet clearly defined , the old soldier of Parliamentary liberalism , Joseph Hume , confesses that his anxiety to form a people ' s party is losing itself in his despondency . The Morning Post
has excited much conversation by hintmg at some new ministry which is to slip in between the unendurable Derby ministry and the impossible Russell ministry , the general idea being that this points to a ministry of Lord Palmerston ; if so , it was a mistake in that generally active nobleman to wait until after Lord John ' s Perth speech . The scion of the House of Bedford lias taken the start of slower men ; and whatever he means to do , he has seized the right which the- English people will be willing enough to concede him , of blowing bis bubble first .
Mr . JIume can see no materials for a People ' s parly ; ihe most noisy Liberals desert on trivial grounds , and will not unite . Of Irish union he is not hopeful ; sonic extravagant proceeding being ever likely to upset such a possibility . The men who preceded Lord Derb y in oflicc are hollow in their professions . Mr . Hume , therefore , can see no melliod of forming a People ' s party , except by talcing a nucleus from a few Radical ineinberH of the House of Commons , and then agreeing on one point , " say ballot , " to be . ^ in with .
Assuredly , that hi not I lie May . The ballot , a mere precautionary measure , is not one to rally any enthusiasm . Strikingly as many men have been converted to it by the . scandals of the lant election , many . Liberals arc cool towards it , many dislike it . it has the advantage neither of being a principle , nor a positive measure . Lord John Russell ' s word Democracy is : i better point for agreement , and , sanctioned by his aristocratic
name , it might , really unite all sections of the popular party . Tf ho menus anything by if ; for Lord John has often opened his mouth wider in opposition than in oilicc . The utterance of Ihe 'I rensury Bench is a mincing utterance . If be only means to begin ngain the same tune that he went on thrumming through so many dreary sessions , the bubble will burst . On the oilier hand , if he really means to place himself at flic head of flu * Knglish people , the post is vacant .
And the principle of Lord John RuhscII ' m action is better for ilio . purpose of a people ' s movement than Mr . Hume ' . We say this without any bias in favour of Lord John—indeed , without any faith in him . He has so often shown himself unable to estimate the strength of Jtin own position , that we cannot repel a warning doubt whether lie may not do so again , Posnibly lie may have used the words with an after-dinner breadth of meaning , to which , in bin moredeliberate moments , he will not adhere , ; and lie may already be astonished at the large inttirpi-etut ion that has been put upon his phrases .
He may be either alarmed or amused at finding himself taken for so great a man . We do not know : we only know that Lord John ' s friends are strong in the assurances of still undeveloped greatness in him , if he have the opportunity . We cannot presume the negative of la *? * statesmanship in the face of expressions which seem to indicate its existence ; and , in the meanwhile , we cannot but perceive that the position is all the stronger for resting on a general principle rather than a specific
measure . The fashion of practical measures or specific points is rather out of date ; it has been overdone . Experience lias shown , that the most practical of specific measures , from the appropriation cause to the Six Point Charter , may be frittered away in discussion until they lose all their prestige , becoming mere abstractions , pretexts , of which the very advocacy wearies its own friends . The specific measure , which was once a solid support , becomes a burden ; its abandonment a relief . In the present disintegrated
condition of the Liberal party , even the preliminary union on a specific measure would be difficult ; and if that union were effected , yet when ardour should be wanted , the supporters would drop off , and the organization would be added to the long list of failures which have become byewords . But all can agree upon a general principle , such as the principle that the whole body of the people should be admitted—nay , summoned , to co-operate for the interest of the whole . In the
conflict of parties which have torn each other to tatters , the interests of the nation have been forgotten ; but it is the nation whose interests now most especially demand vindication , when a menace lowers upon all quarters of the horizon abroad , when large masses of the people are yearly departing from their native land to seek a new allegiance in the most distant climes , and when the conduct of public affairs has been handed over to the most miserable faction within
the three kingdoms . We say the most miserable advisedly , for even the Orange faction in Ireland means something . There is not an Englishman , the life-blood of whose heart might not again warm at hearing the leading statesmen once more proclaim that they intended to act on behalf of the nation . If once a movement were commenced in that spirit , and with that object , by whomsoever the march should be begun , no class could restrain itself from falling in ; and woe betide the clique that should pretend to cross the path of its victory . If such a movement were to commence , most
certainly the Parliament could not stand in its wa . 3 ^ . Whether the Parliament were old or now , the popular move would have an inherent power superior to that of any mere combinations of persons or numbers . Who should have arranged beforehand to go into the lobby with Lord This or That would matter very little . Such arrangements or cliques would fall to pieces before the stronger party , unless they fell in with the march . The new Parliament would have to make
itself the instrument of such a power , or it would be broken to pieces before the progress . It is in the spirit , of leading men , and the public at large , that the essential life of such a party must be found . If it is not found then ; , it will not be discovered in Parliament . If it is found there , the Parliament must help , or it must give way to a people-made Parliament .
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T 1 IK TlllJK DEMOCRACY . At Arbroalh , Lord Panmure copies his chief , Lord John Russell , at Perth ; only , talcing up the ideas of another with the band of a copyist rait her than a master , he enfeebles the excellencies and exaggerates the faults of his original . Ho moralizes the recent history of l < Yance , as tluiH : — " During I lie last few years who him undergone no fewer than three revolutions . Kin , ! , of nil ^ lu ) throw o / l' 11 , Kiiifjf who lived under 1 , 1 m old HyHtoin , tins old rule
of l'Yaiue . mid nluccd another On llio throne , with of l'Vance , mid placed another On llio throue , with Koiuewlint of a constitutional tsliudow of government . Not content with that , not many yearn afleiwardH , kIic caril , oil' tlutt King and tlmt shadow of coj » nti | , utionu ] government , and ruwhed info u tit ate of flm bloodiest unareliy , and all in tlio Kiicred name <> i" Liberty ; and now ulie is pleased to yield herself up to the denjiotisni ol ' one ] ieiH (> n . Her j > ren , 4 in gagged , and every rug oi fho Hag of liberty is torn from tlio pole to which it onco weeined nailed . 'That in a lenHOn for uh . Liberty douu not ooriBtat in HcuntiouHhcun , nor freedom in rovo '
w lution . I believe we live under the best system of government that human means hare ever devised where the Crown cannot trample on the rights of the people , and where I trust the people will not attempt to trample on the just privileges of the Crown ; for be assured that under the constitutional machinery of the country in which we have the happiness to live , all the just claims , all the fair rights and proper demands of the people—though from this circumstance or that they may be checked—must ultimately be conceded and with the rising intelligence of the great mass of the people of this country , the political privileges enjoyed , by a certain number of the inhabitants must soon and speedily be considerably developed . "
He does not do it so well as Lord John . With uncertain hand he dashes off the Democratic phrases in a style of much less zest and fire in the language . Let the rights of the people be just and proper , and then , though they may be checked , yet the political privileges—not of the people but—those enjoyed oy a certain number of the inhabitants , mustsoonandspeedilybe—" enjoyed by all , " would
appear to have been on the speaker s hps , but , with a sudden recollection of Powning-street , he rounds the sentence off with this lame and impotent conclusion—" must be considerably developed . " The political privileges of a certain number shall be developed . This is pqor promising , but evidently Lord Panmure does not know what he is talking about .
His allusion to France proves as much . According to his account , France , not content with a constitutional shadow of government , or shadow of constitutional government—for Lord Panmure uses the two expressions—rushed into a state of the bloodiest anarchy . When P Not certainly in February , when the insurgents set an example of moderation and clemency , which shames the subsequent horrors of reactionary triumphs ; nor yet in June , when the mass of the people came out to support the real Republic , united under
the national mono-coloured flag against the moderate Republicans , who appeared to be compromising with the anti-republican and antinational factions , and under whose , timorous incompetency the reaction had first taken shelter . It was the vacillating and anti-popular conduct of that so-called " moderate" party which had balked the people with negations instead of positive acquisitions . So far as the two speeches go , there is the same distinction between Lord John and Lord Panmure that there was between the moderate Republicans of
Paris and the " Bed" Republicans . By the " lied" Republicans , we mean the great body of the popular party in France which was prepared to stand up for the Republic , with all the legitimate and necessary consequences of that most national form of government , and not that small section of terrorists , who distorted the tenets ot their own aide , earned for themselves a sanguinary distinction , and have too commonly monopolised , amongst undiscriminating writers m this country , the title of Red , as if red ( the colour of our English ensign ) were essentially the banner
of anarchy and blood . For that section wo have no quahiication 10 the censure Avhich wo passed upon it in a recent number : we know the men by thoir works , as tlio tree by its fruit . Wo have watched their antics before and behind the curtain of the revolutionary drama ; for to them the . Revolution is 111 drama , and nothing more ; for thorn ' 93 was the apoge « of humanity ; for them the terrible convulsion * of that epoch are political institutions , to be revered and restored . It ia . all a _ nusc en sect * . f futue
Ono stage-struck fanatic thinks lnmHC a RobcHpierre ; a second would apo bt . Jy si j third undertakes the part of Dimton ; a fourth , enamoured of the memory of Marat , styles hiin-Helf , JJAmi du J ' euple ( Heaven navo the peop le from Buck friends I ); and a fifth bespatters you with ihe savage blasphemies of ^ 4 ^ ™ cl"t These are the men who disgrace ll 'Vi / lm tion , retard the popular victory , and do tno work of the reaction . Are lionoBt working men , ivlm , l ,. Hir « ibn triumph of the democratic tau «)
for the hoSco of all its just and necessary iruus enfranchisement , to bo confounded with a < -gj of fanatic in Phrygian caps , with daggers m tiiu bcltH P 13 ut in speaking of thin Heetion a * a con ternpfible minority , we BufflcionMv d'HtinguiH t them from the muss of the " Jfcd Ji « P"l >» " party . If the French democracy had not owgrown this plugiariem , howcouldit c ° n ™ nJjO nitlj Bonaparte for committing the WCCBeefl it ox » "
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep thing's fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Aenold .
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__ SATURDAY , OCTOBER 9 , 1852 .
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966 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1852, page 966, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1955/page/10/
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