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gone over by Mr . Layard and Mr . Disraelithese , again , having a few nights before beeta anticipated by Lord Clanricarde " ia another place . " It is not very sagacious in the Commons to persist in twaddling icnpoteiitly about the war , to which they have assented , and for which they have liberally declared , because they cannot help it , that they will vote the required forces , but as to which the Ministers have intimated that they will tell the House nothing , —of its present character or ultimate
purpose , —such an intimation being evidence that England has no hold of England ia the struggle now being entered into . But it is simply silly in the Lords to go on grinding about the negotiations and the war ; for the House of Lords has nothing to do with the war , having nothing to do with voting the supplies , which , of course , is a great privilege possessed by the People's Houses Why , then , do the House of lords so pertinaciously debate the matter ? The interest , national and Parliamentary , of the whole aflkir was over when lord John concluded his declaration of war on the night of yesterday week : —Mr . Disraeli totally failed to re-arouse the interest : Lord Palmerston made a supererogatory appeal to a well-ascertained enthusiasm : the Government has got carte blanche . But the Lords have nothing to do , and they will talk from five to seven , from the hour when their constitutional rides are over to the hour when their dinner parties begin ; and the Beaumonts , if they but get practice in this reported debating society , are careless as to -what
they may suggest of the inutility of the Chamber to " affairs . " We all recognise the function of the House of Lords ^ it is to provide that " representation of the minority" which Lord John Russell pedagolically attempts in his Reform Bill by a third member , who will get up a " triangular duel" in every county or borough he may happen to be inflicted on . But if we are to enjoy the great advantages of a double senate , should there not be an arrangement for such a division of talk as would preclude them overlaying one another , as last night ?
There is the more reason that the Lords should be careful in choosing their opportunities for display , that , when the opportunity ia badly chosen , there is no audience , as last night , when at the moment Lord Fitzwilliam was declaring , with pTiblichouse Britishism , that England could combat the world in arms , there -were only nineteen peers present , —the Lord Chancellor , asleep , included . It will be admitted that , under the circumstances , so thin an audience was a somewhat funny spectacle .
Sir James Graham ' s phrase about ( pottering over blue-books ) has been a very unfortunate one for him : for it has offended the constitutional , national theory which absurdly ascribes to the Parliament some influence over the Government , and some control over a question of war ; and , accordingly , Sir James's rash common sense in advising a Parliament not to debate , if it could not act , has thrown that right honourable man very seriously back in his preparations to succeed Lord Aberdeen in Court and country . On the * night of his infelicitous counsel he
sauk , and Lord John , who took the opposite tone , rose in public estimation : for Lord John was national , and Sir James , who is fam ous for vigorous indiscretions , was only rational . Accordingly , " pottering" over blue-books is the oider of the day : all the talk being altogether resuitless . Mr . Disraeli talked on Monday for three weary hours of extracts from comments on the blue-books ; ending with the magnanimons notification that , notwithstanding that the Government was either idiotic or scoundrel , —he left it tlie alternative , —he would make no opposition to their continuing their
a cigar-shop doing a moderate business . Bat , then , nobody ever attempted to affirm that Lord Clarendon was a sage , —not even Lord Clarendon himself : and the Government has accepted , as something creditable to it , the charge of credulity . Sir James Graham is proud of his " generous mind , slow to suspect . " Lord Palmerston is not ashamed , that after considerable experience , he has only just found that Russian agents occasionally exhaust " every modification of untruth ; " and Mr . Disraeli , therefore , laboured at the unnecessary generalisations of charges which were admitted in detail . Mr . Disraeli ' s was , in short , a bad speech ; and it did
not tell on the House , —it unmistakably bored the House , —and it was too long to be read by the u country . " Mr . Disraeli , in fact , was not up to the occasion ^/ His business this session , if he have any business , is to re-create a party , which implies the discovery of a policy ; and Mr . Disraeli is presenting himseLf merely as a smart critic In the European position on this Eastern question the great English Tory party is nowhere ; of no influence ; and the reason would appear to be that the Tory party is lost in an examination of Lord Clarendon's feebleness , and does not dictate at all what should be the direction of Admirals Dundas ' s
and Napier ' s force . The Tory party has no policy at home or abroad ; and hence the illogicality of Mr . Disraeli ' s complacency ia the perorating comparisons , on Monday , between himself and certain great Whigs in the roll of Opposition leaders at the opening of the war . But it isn't the Tories whose futility has the tendency to give a Government too strong—as Sir James Graham ' s insolence suggests— -too chaste a carte blanche . The Tories at least criticise ,. if they do not propound a policy ; but the Radicals only cheer I
Mr . Hume , on Wednesday , made a speech of which I predict that it will be historically disastrous . Mr . Hume came down to the House at noon with all the solemn preparation of a great man when he is about to give a great vote . Mr . Hume got . up with solemnity and spoke with solemnity , and was cheered by the thin House of early risers with solemnity . Mr ; Hume approved of the " negotiations" of the Government on the Eastern question ; Mr . Hume condemned the attacks on Lord Aberdeen , who- happens to "be the first Scotch Premier Mr . Hume has
ever known , and , oddly enough , the first Premier Mr . Hume has ever supported ; and , in conclusion , Mr . Hume declared that he would offer no opposition to the Government doing what they liked , as to supplies , iu the war . Observe that the Government has admitted that it has been credulous in believing Russians , whom Lord Palmerston at least , with suspicious vehemence , denounces as liars ; and that the Government allows of the argument that had their foreign policy been conducted with a knowledge , which they should have possessed , that
The Radical party is just now being false to its policy , and to its principles in every way . If the Fox and Grey Liberals had been offered , by Pitt or Jenkinson , a Schedule A and a Chandos clause as a condition of their approving of war with Bonaparte , they would not have accepted the bribe : but Mr . Hume is bribed by a Schedule A and a Minority Representation clause to set all the Iladicals wrong . Just as he grabbed at the Chandos clause , he is rushing at the Minority Representation clause ; and still there are politicians who
would follow Mr . Hume ! What an era for England opens , as a long war begins under the auspices of a Coalition Government , which includes the Opposi tion , and with no Mr . Hume to suggest econooayvwith no Liberals to ask what we are at war for ! The Radical party is attempting to get up a fallacious enthusiasm for a Bill iu which they do not believe , and which the country does not care about , and tecause they get that bill , they arc assenting ; to the worst form of secret diplomacy—secret diplomacy in time of war : i . e ., altogether abnegating whatever
chance they have by their watchfulness of procuring for us self-government . The fact would seem to be that the Radicals , who do hot identify themselves with Mr . Hume , are afraid of be ^ g mista&cn for adherents of Mr . Co"bden , at this moment a very Unpopular man : —they see no option between applaud- * ing the war and opposing the war . The result will "
be that an English Government will fight as ithe _ aliy of the hero of the coup d ' etat to suppress European * liberalism ; and they will be successful , because the Radical members of the English House of Commons have consented to lay down their functions in order to get a Reform Bill which would really increase , ja that House , the territorial and middle-class strength , and which would , therefore , render the House of Commons less Radical than eYer . ?
That might be an advantage ; but it is not ostensibly what the enlightened Radicals and their surprising newspapers are aiming at ; and such a policy accordingly perplexes impartial observers . Speaking generally , there is nothing less Clear than the Radical policy . They are treating the war as quite s subordinate affair , which Prince Albert and-Sir James Graham maybe left to look after ; and they
the Czar is a liar and a butcher ( these are not my phrases ) , they might have prevented a war . And observe , further , that the Government has not admitted to the supplying Parliament what is to be done with the money , and has not intimated to a self-governed people what are the ultimate objects of the war . Yet Mr . Hume takes his place on the Treasury bench as amicua curiae ! Now , Mr . Hume is a great man , with a character , veil earned in glorious services , for considerable political acuteness and extraordinary political honesty . And , at such a
moare intent on presenting that " proud spectacle" to the-world , of which innocent French journals , who know nothing about the election committees , speak so exultingly—the spectacle of an enlightened Parliament looking after " internal reforms /' ' while Europe is in convulsions . They are not content merely with a Reform Bill , which they advocate ! because it would return a House of Commons to check
aristocratic Governments !—say on , foreign policy !—but they are for going on 'with all the other routine panaceas . There's education ; « f course they won't drop education ; and hence two debates this week , one on the ignorance of Manchester , the other on the ignorance of Scotland ; the enlightened House shirking both propositions , because they are so anxious there should be no education imparted to childreu apart from the inculcation of that
Christianity which , after about 180 © years of work , Is bo very manifest in the doings of European States at the present moment . And the Radicals will air all their other hobbies in succession : they are only waiting till " after Easter ; " and thus , whatever goes on on the Danube , in the Black Sea , or in the Baltic , or whatever English money and alliance may be doing to keep down struggling nationalities , simply attempting to turn a crisis to account in their movement towards that constitutional liberty
ment , when the coun try is apathetic , and when there is a large class of loosoly-elected Liberals eager to do anything to keep off" dissolution , and get behind Hayter without compromising themselves , Mr . Hume is leader of tlie Radical party . Mr . Hume , then , on Wednesday , handed over the Radical party to the Ministry . It is the honestest , moat national , and mosb capable Ministry which has ever held power in England : but it is , nevertheless , odd
which is our blessing , and which we so very much wish to see extended to the men . and brothers of our common Christianity , &c . We shall have a « busy a session as any other session : the Government , with Radical assistance , will derive a great advantage from keeping the people amused . If the Tories were acute they would apply the same reasoning to 41 Education" and analogous propositions which they apply to the proffer of a lieform Bill , and insist that &cit is to with
to sco the Radical party clinging to any Ministry aa partisans , and the Kadical party are becoming partisans . They cheered Mr . Hume oji Wednesday ; and simultaneously the Treasury benches took off" tUeir hata to Mr . Hume ; and simultaneously that amiable but amicable bard , Mr . Milnes , complimented " veteran friend" on his wise and patriotic speech . Tlie scene was very significant : and tlie Radical party will remember it .
" at this period , " ., inexpedient go on any one of that long liat of ameliorations which turns up in every session , and which so singularly illustrates our faith that we are frightfully civilised already- In tltgt way the Tories might fix attention on tlie war ; and so , in time , the Radicals might begin to comprehend what the Coalition Government ia doing with England in Europe . Saturday Morning . A STH . A . NQEir .
policy of either stupidity or viliany . Well , this wasn't dignified : and , as the House of Commons is always in too much of a hurry to care for mere speech-making , Mr . Disraeli was generally -voted a bore . And what is still more remarkable is , that Mr . Disraeli was a bore . Of course ho mad « out a crushing case against Lord Clarendon : it would be surprising , if with all the advantages of private information whicli ia always well supplied to such a man , so placed , not only by foreign embassies who have grudges , but by tho Colonel Koses , who have HpitcH , he could not satisfactorily make out that Lord Clarendon had very little , business out of
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February 25 , 1854 . ] T H E L E A D E R . 185
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1854, page 185, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2027/page/17/
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