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instant , and backed his contradiction by some excellent advice , which the guardians of the poor and ( parish officer * would do well to take to heart Jtfr . Arnold denied the good treatment of the poor at St . Margaret ' s : — " Indeed 1 I do . not find it lias . any fame for that . Com * plaints of persons in a most necessitous condition being refused admission , are of almost daily occurrence , and that doesnot look as though it was femotia for being good to the poor . I find , although persons are refused admission when . they apply themselves , that they obtain it if they are sent from toils court . If there he good reason for their admission then , . there could have Veen no good reason for the refusal to admit before . "
Mr . Arnold is right . Really this subject of refusing relief begins to wear a very serious aspect . We not only have the strikes in the North , with an increasing claim on the poor-rates , while great numbers of the working classes stand to watch the administration of the law by other classes from whom they axe alienated ; but we have bread riots in Devonshire . The bread riots are put down by the soldiery ; soldiery stand ready to maintain the peace in Lancashire ; and what is the-spectaele presented to the poor by this
contrast ? While they see dragoons and infantry ready to enforce the law upon their flesh and blood , with sword and bayonet , they see the guardians of the , poor refusing bread and shelter to ifiie . starving in cold and hunger . What does this contrast mean ., . save treason against law by its administrators : ? Of all inherent rights the right of ^ getting ^ bread is the . most commonly recognised ; constituted law and usage admit it as well as natural reason ; and those who deny tt
break a fundamental law of society . In other words , rthey nullify government for the poor . Haw ; , then , can they ^ enforce it against them ? Bread mots began the French , Revolution , which ended in results that statesmen and sacred princes do not like to contemplate even from a . distance ; and the undefKngs should be taught the danger of proclaiming , by the refusal of bread and shelter , that the fundamental law of society is abolished , and that government lies only with the strong or the desperate .
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the goy :: ^ . Ht > . xvin . SIR BENJAMIN HAXX , BART . "Whbjt yoti have an aristocracy you will have Tories and Whigs . Wherever ^ there bas ^ been an aristocracy there has been a Tory party and a Whig party . When Shakspeare presented his immortal and eternally true picture of a state of society , in which the mass of a people is ruled by a class of the people , he drew the . Tory and the Whig—Coriolanus , who addresses the mobs as " you dissensious rogues , that rubbing the poor itch of your opinion make
yourstand " gentlemen" and ** scholars * " wlio seek the sweet voices and exalt in the bad atmosphere of a democracy . You don't believe in a Feargus O'Connor , who would tell you "I am of a race of kings ; " or in an Orator Hunt , who could say to Peel , " I am the first tradesman in my family , while the Right Hon . Gentleman is the first gentleman in his ; " or in a G . W . M . Reynolds , who , well born and bred , takes to the mob merely because he abuts shut himself out from all other parties . You may suppose , there is the
respectability and the earnestness of theorists in a Colonel Cartwright , or in a Colonel Thompson : ; but you know that they had , or have , delicate tastes , and would not like a gTeat country to be governed in the marketplace . You admire Mr . Grote or MrlWarburtoij—their Greek or Italian point of view in politics is ^ at 4 east picturesque ; but you don't credit tiieir Radicalism , suspecting that they know they are just the men to go down before an avalanche of the " people . " Y < ra cannot consider that a •< gentleman" like Sir ^ Francis
Burdett could ever be ireally otherwise than To * y . ; and you take for . granted that a man who is both bora to a good estate , and cultivated to scholarly philosophy as SirWilliam Molesworth , is onlya Radical for the sake of taking an ajgstic position in the House . You wonder , and only wonder , at an Honourable Tom Buncombe . or an . Honourable Charles Villiers , affecting indifference to itheir class and their class ' s inteBesta : —you set down their eccentricities to the
influence of that sort of wretched ambition which makes no account of . material success . But what you don't understani is , the assumption of Radicalism by men like Sir Benjamin Hall ; creatures of the most villanous vanity ; who do possess material , verymaterial , ambition ; -who only live for "honours , "who only live to die peers , The sham in such a case is so grotesque that explanation is impossible , un * less at the expense of an enlightened metropolitan borough .
Both by position and by nature , Sir Benjamin Hall is essentially of the class of Pharisee in modern times denominated "Snob . " His profound complacency , visible in the perpendicularity orchis strut , Breathing in a face of polished lead , which is cleft with an august smile , is precisely of that character which includes contempt for all mankind—except that portion of it which he can see only by turning his serene gaze upwards . A personal appearance was never so little "liberal : " and the facts of the
career correspond with appearances ; and a study of the man induces astonishment at his conversion into a Radical metropolitan member . He is a well-acred gentleman , so squireaxehical in his tendencies that it is reported his tenants are getting up a petition to the House of Commons praying it to sit all the year round . And his exertions , social and political , in the metropolis , are solely with a view to obtaining greater consideration when he returns to his Welch estate to awe the Joneses and Lloyds , who venerate
Parliament men—and especially Parliamentary men , who get peerages by bullying the aristocracy . It is not very well known how Sir Benjamin got his baronetcy ; but it dates from 1838 , and it is supposed that he was caught at that period when , according to Mr . Bernal Osborne , the " whip" was used as a fishing-rod , and the Whig Government made amiraculous draught of baronets . How he got Marylebone is better known . The weakness of that borough , which excels in small meeting-houses , is an aversion to
bishops ; and Sir Benjamin Hall obtained political fame by arithmetical demonstration that episcopacy was not apostolical . He insulted the Church for several successive sessions with such safe eclat that Hiphurrah , the farrier , Poison , the chemist , and Itchhard , the doctor , who manage these things for the great borough of Marylebone , took for granted Sir Benjamin Hall must be a Radical ; took also a cab between them one morning , aud drove up to Sir
Benjamin s door in a great square , and requested of the porter , by whom they affected not to feel intimidated , to see the baronet . " Them ere sentiments of his about them there black slugs had , " they stated , " impressed them with such respect for his vc-ews that they were willing to offer him Marrybonnsupposing all right in other respects . " Sir Benjamin , satisfied them that he thought a plentiful supply of water a good thing , graveyards unpleasant ,
centraliselves scabs" —and Menenius Agrippa , of whom the tnobs say he is " one that hath always loved the people "—being nevertheless privately more Tory than Coriolanus . 3 nt our English aristocracy has furnished a third species of aristocratic politician , — the aristocrat who repudiates his class altogether and affects more democracy than the democrat . The titled Radicals are an important section of the Governing Classes ; and _ Sir Benjamin Hall may be regarded as an exquisite specimen of the species . He is a very remarkable man , Sir Benjamin Hall .
There is nothing more easily comprehended than democracy : that is based on an idea , unsound no doubt , for the mass of mankind will certainly always be in " need of masters , but precise and tangible . And you can consequently understand the reality and the earnestness of a democratic leader — when he happens to be a democrat . You can understand ( let us , that we may not attempt the profound , confine ourselves to our own . history ) a Wat Tyler , or a Captain Rock , or a Jack Cdde , or a W illiam Newton . * Such men agitate to gain not by the
agitation itself , but 'by the result of agitation . You can understand , also , a Sir Joshua Walmsley , who springs from the people , and who consecrates his life to the cause of the class witli which he never ceasea to identify himself . "For the same reasons you can comprehend Cufly , tailor , and champion of journeymen , and can respect the motives of Mr . William Williams , who makes no disguise of his in-Btinctive abhorrence of young noblemen . But you cannot comprehend , and you cannot esteem , men who make sacrifices of natural position in order to head a clamorous mob-public . You cannot well under-
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* Not a mythical name , but the leaaer in the " Amalgamated Engineer" movement—a man with a future , also .
Mtion an impropriety , as long as the Home-office rejected Itchha ^ s application for place , and that ^ orm » -ye ,-decidedl y ~ -Ref 0 rm wa 7 required . There was a lot of small voters in Marrybonn , and Sir Benjy can't get on no how unless * e wwiH start that there dodge . " Sir Benjy fomented . What extent of Reform ? Oh ! he should say—on the whole— -adequate Reform—^ a full and : ffcii . ~ w » wl yes , decidedly—a full and fair measure ! j £ y-theby , would these gentlemen iave a gUss , ofwia& ? >!* was all settled . £ ir Benjy borrowed an eild , * o « t from his valet , lefthia leaden face unpolished for once
oUrtieu'bis fingernails , and , walking onto Che hustings at XaogfaaoA'place , -wascheered uproariously tm % k crack Radical by the butcher-boys and > -scorengets assembled to perform those functions a £ feee m ™ fi independent election , which are peculiar to our noble constitution . 'When the session opened , ant Tteh hard , who has no practice , and is thBre&x&mtfotifk of public affairs , went down to the House 4 » 4 al | over that tftere Sewage Bill with Sir Benjv , (* e actually let Sir Benjy-pas 8 in ^ without recojnlslrig hint ! J ? or Sir BeDJy had covered the 'mrty ^ hands with straw-coloured kids , had the polish « n ihis
countenance , and the strut in his Tnanngr . ; oacLhaiu ing been accosted at the Charing-cross crossing ' by Hiphurrah , more knowing-than Itchhard , Sir'Benjy had waved his glove , and said , - * &I ihav&mo coppers , my man . " He was somewhat , abstracted , it liMcae : 'for he was conning over the celebrated speech 3 ik ^ which'he proved , vrtth complete statistics eupjl&ft by his -new- constituent , Bulyhains , fhe selfing-off draper , that tke original Apostolic aprons only ?« Wt twopence a yard , and that the country ought to make the Church contract for lawn . The Dispatch reported that speech very full : and Sir Benjy » -
-rited the ^ Editor ** the Morning Advertiser tc dinner , inconsequence of < which . a ^ leadingm * ticLewpp ** t in that organ , comparing : . the member . for , Mar ^ - bonn to Luther , and insinuating , in italic * , 4 h ? t such a man should be placed in a position wfcirelie could meet -the Bishops face ito- face . "The Jauub / footman was said'to have posted a copy ^ i ^ jraper to the Prime Minister—with what -Jesuits )! re ^ fpiSot yet know * but it is Jcnown tliat a new W / eleb _ 3 pap « r —the : Orb of Wales ( the frontifg ^ ece ^ n , th « r J ^ le ^^ iis a portrait of theSun , ^ said , byi ^ tenaBte , to betlxkfer . the landlord )—was imma ^ tely < started . auid scopiea
that . paragrspht > with the . lame fliawtaity yith ^ ffftich it inserted certain j > Ul advertisementa . Certainly ., 4 t mustTbe admitted that ttie-way'iri which 5 ir 3 enjanpn > dragged to light the doings of tte © e * by-B 6 ard « f Admiralty demand * ome acknowledgmeot tatstte hands , of the Coalition . Sir JBei ^ ainhx . has > a . great knack in seizing that sort of case : —for instance , ^ e is sure to rash at the notiee ^ paper on tb » Tftst ^ fib questions « xtd returns -about Sir ITJeefeKoailUPeBem . In this way he . manages to please Governments , and , convince Marrybonn that he is a ruthless Radical : » -r-In fact , beirig ^ merely ill-nattured . Doubtless the titled Radicals -do » -vast * eal df
good : they are-actors , : but they get tthe authoar !» meaning put before the 'world , ; and vthey xnake ra greater sensation , with , the principles of "Radicals , than themere untitledRadical , intfieeiisttngHouse of Gommom . They do .-run ; a certain rbfc ) to > tittfer class in stepping out of the jranks of theic < clas 8 ; « n ^ that ensures them attention . Why -was the Hon , Tom 3 > unc ( nrfbe the most effective speaker in ; tbi& Reform debates of " 80 and * 32 ? ^ Because * e 'represented a family whichhad much to lose by Refiirn and because , in deserting . his family to [ gain jwrou laVity , he indicated how strong was thepopulatswl uits approval "being so tempting . Hor a fiimUar reason , Mr . "Villiera , with a Whig clan to ^ p ^ tod ^ uaif in the House of Comoiona , for thecauSB of Free
Trade , wltat an unaristocratic Mr . Cobdan . could never have done . And , instead of being re * 41 ed .- -am deserters by tlie aristocracy , csuch ^ menisho ' iild be encouraged : they "are not deaerters to the democracy —they are spies in the camp of the democracy . If the Charter must be agitated , is it not better that a young lord : should lie seat' among the T 3 hsrtists to lead them t Socialism is a dangerous thing . ; but it is surely safest to have a Lord ShaftesTniry as its champion ? •> Sir Benjamin Hall is said to be always smashing the Church : "but ae it is quite certain that the ChuTcm must be smashed by some one , Jiritf ^ dlJ * - viously discreet in the governing classes ^ to jha ^ Bim genteel Radical to do the work . In our ^ political system , & tirai'leur thrown out like Sir Tlenjattni ^ Hall is a security to the line of the ^ oirenihqf ¦
classes . ' The moral of such a career as Sir JBenjanlin HalBi is twofold . In the first place , it suggests to the aristocracy that as popularity * is so easily gained they are very unwise ever to be unpopular—or Tory In the next place , it suggest * that our mctrppolitaa boroughs have a good deal to learn—in self-respect * It is despicable , perhaps , in a politician who is aQ > aristocrat to nffect the democrat . But "what is more
contemptible , is the faith of the . democrats "rho be * lieve in the aristocrat . Menenius Agrippa , is only , # man of the world ; and we laugh not at him , but at the people who cheer him .
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Ianuaky 14 , 1854 . ] THE JU-E A J > E & . ^
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1854, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2021/page/15/
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