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mankind . " ' " -Why this is a grammatical ellipsis , Sating hollow the famous one " Young man , God has gifted you with health and strengthinstead of which , you go about stealing poultry . Surely our contemporary is not founded tor so revolutionary a purpose as that declared , --namely , to urge on incautious innovators the necessity of risking , by unnecessary reforms , the very existence of the British constitution .
But we will not be hard on young Tory grammar . There are moments after dinner when the floor of grammar g ives way beneath the very best of us ; and , as the Presbyterian . parson said , when encouraging a . penitent , . - " Even-1 myself hare erred . " There are worse things than bad grammar in the foregoing passages . There is evidence , which we very much , regret to see , of a low theory of Tory journalism . Our contemporarywe thought , was to strike anew
, key , and make us famuiar with a new tone , in Tory politics . It was not the old stuff of the Protectionist era that the Press was to serve up to us , but a Toryism of a more enlightened and more vigorous species ; a Toryism fit to be the Toryism of the future ; a Toryism of high generality , absorbing and putting the Tory stamp upon all that is deepest in the speculation of the time ; a Toryism m the faith , and under the banner of which , a Disraeli , a young Stanley ,
and a host of other political young bloods of the Conservative party , were to dash on through the ranks of effete Whiggism , and through all the churldom of Manchester , conquering and to conquer . We had our doubts on this point , and they are beginning to be confirmed . Either sTicn sentences as we -have quoted from the Press do not contain the real young Tory spirit , or young Toryism is ihtellectually and morally a poor affair . What ! is this the real Disraeli-Stanley way of thinking , respecting such' phenomena of our time as a Mazzini and a roused
Italian nation P That the opinions of young Toryism respecting such phenomena would be very different from our own we were , of course , prepared to- * expect ; but such was our faith in the possibility of a movement among the young Tories that should have something of vivacity , and chivalry , and generosity in it , that we' confess to a feeling of disappointment at finding in
our aspiring young Tory contemporary such passages as those we have extracted . " This bad man , Mazzini ; " '" No one is more aware than he of the folly of what he utters ;" " his perfidy , his immorality , his blasphemies ;" " all property is with him robbery , all religion a degrading superstition . " Do these phrases actually represent the knowledge our best young Tories have of the character of Mazzini P are
they a . fair sample of the manner in which they are to conduct the warfare against him and his opinions P If so , there is nothing good , fair , or brave in young Toryism after all . This kind of writing may be yet a good deal in fashion ; but it will no longer do with the judicious . There is nobody , for example j possessing the least pretence to accurate information , to speak of nothing higher , on such points , that does not know that , whatever Mazzini ' s theories are , and however mischievous his activity may be considered by Borne , ho is himself a most sincere , true , enthusiastic , and honourable man . This idea respecting Mazzini personally may now be said to bo common to all well-informed circles — not to
know it is to confess being out of the world . Surely it ia not that Toryism , this fine , new , hearty , trenchant Toryism which our friend , the Press , is to represent , has not yet ldarnt that first lesBon in all good debating—to appreciate to the utmost , and to rate at its highest value , nil that can be said in favour of your opponent ! Were we opponents of Mazzini , jt would bo our delight , we think , first to render all justice to the man personally , and then , if we could , to
tear hia policy and his theories to pioces . Knowing that all who ever eume near him pronounce him to be a sincore , and all but morbidly truthful man , wo should not yiejd to the paltry temptation of calling him " bad" and M perfidious , " for tho sake of being very Tory , and seeming to speak with emphasis ; knowing that tho very fault ' . found' with him by many of his brother Revolutionists is , that he has attacked Communism , and has notions , too dngolic for this rough practical world , we should not . round a period by calling him an , enemy of property , and a blasphemer . It uaed to bo the pride of good kuightu in . tho days of chivalry Jo . do full justice
to the knightly qualities of their antagonists . Have our young Tories noremembrance of this P "For shamej young Stanley ! Any crusading ancestor of yours , m fighting with the most terrible Saracen that ever followed the false prophet , and swore by the Koran , would have accounted it untrue to his knighthood to have said or thought anything worse ; of the man he meant to slay than that he ; was a Saracen and a follower of the false Prophet . Had the man bfeen a brave aild bold man , it would have been you ? ancestors' pride to bow to him in courteous
acknowledgment of his heathen virtues before levelling the lance at him ; and to have hinted out Of mere hatred and ill-will that the Saracen only pretended to be a Saraceni and that he did not believe in the Koran after all , would have befen a method of attack which his knightly soul would have scorned . And are not our young Tories crusaders yet P Are they not engaged in a crusade against what > they account a false liberalism and a miserable tendency to social change and revolution ? Wh y abandon the
rules of knightly combat , even in this modern species of crusade P Would it not be possible for the young English Stanley , for instance , to recognise in the Italian revolutionary leader a kind of splendid political Saraden , a noble misled heathen , to be attacked and slain , certainly , for the general behoof of truth and the world , but to be attacked fairl y * chivalrously , and with is , full appreciation of all that is known to his honour P When young Toryism learns to do this , we shall respect it more than we can do at
present . \ '" . ¦ ¦¦ " ¦ ¦ : - : " ¦ ¦ ¦/• ¦ . '"¦ ; / : ' :: -. ' ¦ ¦ . ' . " ' ¦ v But what can we expect of chivalry towards persons from men who have no fountain of chivalry in the depth and greatness of their own cause and principles P Young Toryism , through its organ , condemns alike Mazzini , Gioberti , D'Azeglioy Farini—also , We believe , Mr . Gladstone , so far as he has figured in connexion with Italy . Every shade of Italian Liberalism , from the most moderate to the most extreme , from the Constitutionalist to the Republican , stands
condemned by Young Toryism . What , then , is our contemporary's view as to Italian politics in particular and foreign politics in general P What fine , hearty , new programme has Young Toryism put forward on this subject to show its generosity of thought , and to win the heart of the British people P None—absolutely none . Bead the extract we have given ; and what does it amount to on this head P That all Italian Liberals and patriots—not Mazzini alone : but all- *—are to be discountenanced by good citizens of Great Britain , out of a regard for the safety of the British Constitution . In other words , to preserve the
British Constitution , we must scowl on the attempts even of those who urge other nations to get similar constitutions . Is this the miserable kind of doctrine as to foreign politics , on which Young Toryism appeals to the British people P We should hardly believe it , had we , not read in tfaie Press of last week a full exposition of the views of Young Toryism on the whole Italian question . There , too , we found the same wretched want of any doctrine on which either a statesman or a journal could hope to live honestly and powerfully in this country . All the Italian Satriots and reformers are rascals or firebrands ; Ir . Gladstone ' s interference was mischievous and
impertinent ; the King of Naples and the Duko of Tuscany are , on the whole , gentlemanly potentates ; , and the Austrian Government deserves all our sympathy and all our support;—such—literally such—is a summary of what was advanced in tho article in question . In short , partisanship out and out with Austria seems to be tho creed of Young Toryism in the matter of foreign politics . What a mean , and ppor confession of faitfrfor any English journal to come before tho world with ! Is this the Disraeli-Stanley improvement in Toryism that was to take tho public by surprise P Contrast the promise with the performance ;' -and what a heaving of tho , mountain—what a parturition , of mice ! We could invent a cleverer Toryism ourselves any Saturday night .
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A POST-MORTJ ^ DUJCE . .. ' , Tiib incidents of the day a * o developing a con-Biderablo amount of subversive propensity in our awstooratio clasBos . Oonaervativo country gentlemen , who ace thomselvoa ( threatened- with a SuccesBion Tax in which tho Bishops concur , retivo tho question , What right have Biahopa to
sit and vote in the House of Lords P And the proceedings before " the highest court of judicature in the kingdom" exhibit a member of the highest rank in the peerage deliberately making a posthumous arrangement which could scarcely fan to bring his order into contempt . Kie last Duke of Bridgewater left a fortune to an off-lying member of the faniily ; on a condition that that
person should obtwn a Dukedom or Marquisate of Bridgewater by the royal creation ; without which the property should depart to another member of the family on the like conditions . Thus , after the Duke's deaith a large piece of his property was sent wandering ; to find a Dukedom for his name j and the question before the House of Lords is , whether that condition shall be
ratifiedornot . .. . . , . The technical reasons against it are , that-the condition is a ' ^ condition subsequent , " and therefore illegal ; and that it is against jpublic policy to embarrass the Crown in the distribution of honours . The latter argument might have prevailed at some previous occasions , when Peers have been createa even for reasons less commendable than those now in question . But there appear to us to be reasons of a more
practical and substantial kind . If there is any value ma Dukedom it is impolitic thus to make it the mere appendage to a beqiiest . Upon what plea could the possessor pf . jfcue fortune seek the royal favour , except by say ijag / " I am so rich , and therefore deserve to be a Duke , " or , " my relative has put upon you , O gracious Sovereign , a moral compulsion to clench myproperty—nail the Dukedom to me , or the estate ^ will go its rounds for ever—incessantly begging for the Duchy—unsettling property amongst the whple famDy , of Egerton , creating doubt and discontent . " .: ¦ ; ¦ ¦ . : ¦ :: ¦)¦¦ -. . r ¦¦ : ^' ' '¦ ¦
, The attempt is not without precedent , "but it belongs to a class of vanity very common and very despicable . The miser in Pope ' s Satire who dies telling the lawyer making his will that he cannot give up bis land ; the coquette rougeing her cheeks ; the great speculator leaving a fortune to accumulate for a future descendant until it shall grow of a gigantic size—these are but different forms of the Bridgewater essay at posthumous Duke making . The creature seems by it to elude death , and to enjoy a certain power . A Duke is greater than a man ; in society the
ducal heart is of more importance than the human heart ; the man is but the vehicle for the greater accessory Convert , a man into a Duke , and then , abstract the man , and you leave something greater than the raw material abstracted . To create a Duke , therefore , is to create something greater than a man . The expiring Bridgewater was ambitious of being a Prometheus after death , but on a higher scale . He might chance to be a Frankenstein instead , and on a smaller scale . The principle of hereditary
honours is liable to fall into strange and practical burlesques , when the representative of a Baron , for instance , who brought John to reason on the field of Bunnymede , is " a puny insect , shivering at a breeze "—? -a " gent , " whose aristocratic aualifications consist in his knowing how to use io tab | e utensils of high life , or to pass without observation in the drawing room . But to begin the series with a bad specimen ; to create a Duke that you have never seen—that would be the , great practical blunder . The- Duke who left this
embarrassing bequest was a worthy man ; but the consequences of his Promethean act might be so disastrous that one would desire to pursue him with vengeance , to send after him , tor example , the product of his own bequests—the Duko , perchance , puny , stunted , ugly , moan . That would be an awful creation to dog a man ' s footsteps even in the Hall of Odin . Imagine tho Ducal Schlemihl in Hades , who had sold his princely soul to gain a . shadow like that !
This kind of creation , violates tho very pr inciple of an aristocracy . If there is any value in such an institution as a recognised aristocracy , it consists in preserving to a class , and therefore rendering more distinct and visible palpably to living generations , the accumulated honours , not only inherited in a family with tho name , but kept together for a , whole class . The honours of such an aristocracy must , in tne herald ' s language , typify its " achievements . " To create a Duko because ho has had a legaoy , is indeed to bring the modern abuses of creation to a burlesque ; it is to poison " tho fountain of honour . " Tho whole system scandalijses itself when wo seo
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««« THE LEADER . [ Satprpa * , ' mjfcjvj . . ¦ , ¦ ¦ " . "¦¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ - - ' :. ¦ . '„ ¦ i - .. " . ' . - . ; i .. ' - ' ¦¦ - ¦ ¦ - ¦ M ^ i ^^^^^^ l ^^^^ JiSSSw ^ MMaaSSSMMMWW ^ WWMMM ^* ' ** *^^ - ¦ ¦ - . - ¦ —¦—— " ' ¦ " " ' I ' ¦ .- —"' - " - ' - *¦ LI —^—^__ j- — —¦*———¦¦———¦ —¦ —^—^^^^^^^^^ ¦ ~ ¦ ¦ ¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 2, 1853, page 636, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1993/page/12/
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