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%vlWu Mans.
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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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THE CONTEST OF THE WEEK . The question formally propounded for the debate which , commenced on Tuesday night , was but a very small part of the real and important question in issue , as to the establishment of Ibreetrade for the national policy . There was no doubt on either side . Of course it was not to be expected that Ministers would vote censure upon themselves ; nor was the mythological expectation that they would walk out of the house , and leave the majority to vote the censure unopposed , justified by any precedent or verisimilitude . That is not the way in which Ministers usually behave ; and if they had done so , it would have been regarded as one of Mr . Disraeli ' s coups de tMatre .
In truth , the contest may be regarded as a struggle of all parties for a position , without the possibility of any one attaining to it . The debate , and still more that unreported discussioirwhich was going on for the two days preceding its renewal on Thursday evening , betray the fact that no existing party has the right to a recognized position in Parliament , because it does not possess any master idea . It would be impossible , without disclosing confidences right and left , to make the public understand the total confusion that has reigned behind the scenes . The confusion on the stage of Parliament is but a faint counterfeit of the hidden anarchy . The reports
current during the Wednesday and the early part of Thursday , " Fictions founded on fact , " are also no adequate representation of tlie crosspurposes . At one time , even while Lord Palmerston was speaking , there were speculations as to the probability of his " going over to the Tories !" On Thursday morning it was reported , on an authority which the public regards as the best , that "Lord Palmerston ' s resolution was in a form already approved by the general body of [ Free-traders ; " that it "had already obtained the approbation of all parlies . " The report was followed up by another , that lie had anticipated Sir James Graham as mediator . On the other
hand , it waa averred that Mr . Villiors intended to press his motion with the approbation of the Free-trade parly , as against Lord Palmerston ' s not less than Mr . Disraeli ' s . Later , it was circulated on higha . uthorif y , that Lord John had given Jii . s adhesion to Lord I ' aimers ! oil ' s amendment , ; then , that Mr . Disraeli had done so ; then , that divers independent Members had joined ; afterwards , came out the old report , that Mr . Villiors was indignant with the , mediating Viscount , who was already calculating on the resignation of
Ministers , and their immediate return to olliee , with a modified Cabinet , including himself . Lord Derby ' s threat , that if Ministers were beaten they might resign , and their rivals might , lind themselves unable to form a . Cabinet , had given colour to these reports of an unexpected . Ministerial crisis . The <[ ti ' nlmutes grew wilder , and reports more extravagant began to be circulated , Hiich as the probability that , the most dignified of the Whigs ; ui < l i'eelites had become implicated in the manoeuvres for coalition .
These are fictions , we say , founded on fact , in which it would bo idle to discriminate helween the ( ruth and ( he falsehood , Their solution has already been furnished in some part by the proceedings on Thursday ni ^ lil ; but Ihe cause that produced them- I ho ' want of any settled purpose , still remains , and is not to be explained away . This want infects not only the professed statesman , but exists , with still more mischievous force , amongst the constituents of those statesmen . In ils confusion , the . House of ( ! oiinnoiiH is still the representative clinniber , still the people ' s house ; for it-represents the confusion out of doors . It ia the want of Hcttlcd purpose in the people that
sends men without a purpose to the House . It is the want of any definite object which precludes the formation of a party . The public finds itself unable to calculate that this or that Minister must proceed in a certain course , as it could well do if Ministers were acting sincerely on known principles . The very words of the Ministers are repeated , both past and future ; pledges are recalled ; and yet the public , arrives no nearer to a
conception of the intent . Does the " democracy ' in Lord John's mouth mean more than " Protection" in Mr . Disraeli ' s ? The Chancellor of the Exchequer says that Protection means only that zeal for the labourer which animates him more than ever , and it is possible that the democracy of which Lord John speaks , may mean only that zeal for the upper classes which has distinguished the House of Bedford .
But even this description does not reach the actual amount of moral anarchy , frail as the tenure of the conservative minister is in the public estimation . Those who have the run . of the West End , know that the present Government is valued in most of the large houses . It is the Cabinet of good Society , and it has the sympathies of that good society , because it is held to be , perhaps falsely , antagonistic to the pretensions both of the working and of the trading classes . That a Government of such a kind , could maintain any permanent footing in this country , is not to be supposed by its genteel devotees . The political disasters that might flow from the attempt to uphold class
interests are not regarded , perhaps not known . A spirit runs in " the Squares , " not unlike that which prevailed in the saloons of France , before the great revolution—a devotion to luxury and amusements : a disregard to people out of doors , or beneath the view of the polite , a feeling , in short , which gives a new and sarcastic point to the prophecy , " after Lord Derby , the deluge . " In the public of that Tipper sphere , political feeling has ceased almost as much as it has amongst the professed statesmen ; and , thus it comes about , that we see statesmen contending in parliament , and unable to shape a course for themselves , to raise a standard , or even a ' cry' that the public will follow .
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ROYAL AND MINISTERIAL CERTIFICATE FOR THE ENGLISH DEMOCRACY . In his excellent tribute to the conduct of the great body of the people , on Thursday , Lord Derby seems to have been unable to express his satisfaction and even bis surprise at that conduct . The Queen has publicly recorded , through the Home Secretary , the same approval . But Lord Derby ' s language is re mark able , and deserves to bo kept constantly in view ; for , coming as it does from the head of the party most opposed to popular freedom in this country , it is a great political certificate : —
"When wo consider bow largo , a proportion of the population of these united kingdoms was for that single ( lay crowded together in the streets of the metropolis ; when you remember , as those sit least reiiiciuhcr to whoso lot it fell to take part in the procession , and who saw it throughout its whole ; length and breadth --when you remember that on si line of route three miles ii » . length , extending from ( Jrosvenor-place to St . 1 ' still ' s Csithedrul , there w : is not si single unoccupied foot of ground , and that you passed through si . living sea of faces , sdl turned to look upon that grent spectacle , —when you saw every house , every window ,
every housetop loaded with persons anxious to pay their lust tribute of respect , to the memory of Knglund ' s gresitost son , —when you saw those persons ( those , sit least , withjn the streets ) remaining with entire and unliinching patience / or many hours in a position in which movement , was hardly possible ! , suxl yet that scarce a single accident- occurred to the most , feeble woman or child amid thai , vsist mass , when , throughout the whole of that length , not , only wsis a perfect , decorum preserved , and si perfect , and ready assist since given to the ellbrts of the police and the military , hut Micro
was no unseemly desire to witiutss the niiignilieenl spectacle , no light and thoughtless stpplsuise at the splendour of that spectacle , and that the people of lOngland , ii \ the awful silence of those vast crowds , testified in the most emphatic manner the sense in which every man siniong them felt the public loss which Kngland had sustained , I know not , my lords , how you may have looked upon this manifestation of public feeling and good sense and order ; but I know thin , that sih I passed along those lines it , was with pride and satisfaction I felt that 1 was a countryman of thono who
knew so well how to regulate and control themselves and I could not help entertaining a hope that these foreign visitors who have done us and themselves the honour of assisting at this great ceremonial mi ght , upon this occasion , as upon the 1 st of May , 1851 , hear witness back to their own country how safely and to what extent a people might be relied upon in whom the strongest hold of their Government was their own reverence and respect for the free institutions of their country , and the principles of popular self-government controlled and modified by constitutional monarchy . "
It is evident from this passage , that Lord Derby was previously unacquainted with tke people of England , or he never could have been astonished at that conduct which would be expected by every one who knew them . Reading this passage , one can imagine Lord Derby ' s condition . ! N " ot well acquainted with the English people , lie may have been—we will not say in trepidation , for we believe him to be a thoroughly brave man , —but in a state of preparation . Having girt up his loins , however , to face a savage and a dangerous multitud e , he set forth , expecting on
various points of the route to see disturbances , aggressions , riots — possibly bloodshed ; and rather comforting himself with the idea that there were plenty of police and soldiers " to put down" the people . Ope can imagine him , an enterprising man , feeling in some degree disappointment like that of Lydia Languish , when there was to be " no elopement . A vast concourse and no row ! Not only in Piccadilly , not only in St . James ' s-street , or Pall-Mall—aristocratic
abodes—was it all tranquil , but also in Trafalgarsquare ; where the ground was broken up with fountains and parapets , when it was improved , lest the people , gathering in great numbers , should become too strong for " order . " Then again in the Strand ; and so on even into the Cathedral , all was quiet . We , who know something of the people , were not surprised ; but Lord Derby was astonished . Very naturally : he must have judged of the English people by the crush at the Opera house on crowded nights !
Undoubtedly it was a great exploit to draw together such vast numbers without the slightest accident arising from the multitudinousness ; for the very few accidents which are reported arose solely from the individual carelessness of the persons injured , and have nothing whatever to do with the crowding . One reason of this safety , no doubt , was , that the police arrangements were very good . They prevented the stopping up of passages in detail , and the barriers broke the halt involuntary sway of the masses . For the disorder of a crowd often arises from the impossibility which untrained numbers have to regulate their own movements . People pushing atone point occasion disorder at another ; those who arc conscious of the disorder being
unable to check it , and those who cause it not knowing what they do . Under such circumstances the crowd gets irritated by its own members ; and ruffled temper deviates into excess . There is a . proper respect for the crowd—that is , for the . English people — in malting ¦ sufficient arrangements to secure order ; which is as valuable to the humblest member of the crowd an it in to the nobleltum in his carriage , or more ho ;
for the nobleman in hi . s carriage is protected > y the box in which ho rides ; but the artisan on the foot pavement , will be hustled and trampled upon by men as unwillingto do it us he is himself- 1 ' crowd appreciates these arrangements ; and " hen public ; ofliccrs conduct themselves as ( hey did , with few exceptions , ou that Thursday , the machinery lor the maintenance of order will always be popular rather than otherwise .
Lord Derby , we seo , ascribes the good conduct of the people ' to " popular self-government , eontrolled and modified by constitutional monarchy , " Jirul to these causes , of course , avc nius . race " the fact that . " wenrce a single neridenoccurred to the most , feeble woni : m or cl | " < amidst Hint vast huinm . " Still we realize nothing but very great ignonmco in Lord Derby ; <> x " disable / if may be , lion , the peculiar cin'juiikUmu-ch of bis position and bis long sepnrauoi
from the English people . It , was not the monarchy Mint protected Mio feeble woman or tho rliihl : the thing tbnt |> i - tected both wuh , that the bulk of the people th < congregated bad no desire , to destroy women an chiUlmi , but the reverse . The vast > u fc them , indeed , Hacrilioo whole liven of <¦<> " ' m . xioty to HUHtain mid pmlucfc won "'" »' children . They know ho well what mulerintf «*
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1136 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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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 very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Aenoi . d .
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? SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 27 , 1852 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 1136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1962/page/12/
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