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ITei -the su } bordinja&ion in that xnul is certainly ao | r i ^ ireribr to fttty other in tte district . ' It is' ^^ ; Wftim that there are many men urionjg' tfie maiftew ( to their high honour , and not [ fieir ^ d ^ psiTi ^ g ieinent , be it remembered ) who have r ^ ktt ^ ppL . ih 6 i ' ripiks of the operatives themselves , ^ I fcie -J | Heeif force , of their industry arid ability . Taking all Lancashire through , the number of roca cases is immense , and affords very conclusive pifoaf that ^ Whatever it may be now , the cotton business was once a Gblconda for the sagacious
txeasure-seeker . ' The manner with which these men' bear thiar prosperity naturally varies , as mu (^ aa theWown moral natures . One man is indolent and overbearing ; another pushes bluntneas te affectation ; ajthirdia everything that can [ be ; desired . Hie rule is , that the hardest taskmaster is the , man who has . raised himself by his i otf £ exertions . Such men talk of " grinding the operatives , " of makin gj ; hem " glad . to eat the dust fe ^ iiiifflieir ' shoe ^ i' ** fearful of their new-bought f djj ^ it ; jr , they think to assert \ t by petty acts-of ' oppression , and by the assumption of an overbearing demeanour . Like the over ^ fagged schoolboy , f
1 fiey revenge tliemarelves upon the system under ^ whfch i ? i < ey once suffered , by making others Suffer in their turn . Impatient' of contradiction , Jfchey process to despise even the moral force of public opinion , and sheltering themselves behind the ^ belief" tBit all' not immediately connected with 'IKjbIi St&ancs ^ 'ijffiist hid utterly 5 ffln [ 6 rant of it , they ^ a ^ iai wi ^ vulgar invective all who attempt to ^ ri ^^ n or exppatulate with them . Su « h men as ^ p ^^ regaicd a compromise as the abandonment of % pVmciple , and hold that to give war to their Tiattda in the minutest particular would be to
~ ( Je&iN > y Meir o ^ pbsition as masters . Accustomed j | S # KeSriieinselves called masters , they conclude that ^<^ wibm they employ are servants , and loinft ; no op ^ r ^ nfty of treating them as such . 'En ^ o ^ ed ^ &" i peculiar apjtatude' for making 'to § o § yj |^ t i ^ dtroncsed in all other respects firoin ^ their pomM state , they rail about the ignorance of toewhands ^ they complain that the laws of polcticalecbnomyare neglected , whilst they them-^ selyes are sihning against its simplest principles ; ' + TlA' « f liamv wi > vf An *! -mnm ^ anA 4 i « aivmaaIwas w * l «* 1 a 4- aswy *^ | 0
VUVJ 1 AOW T fVAVUW MUIgU ( lg « VUQUlOGt f ^ DW UU U VVTUAjplawung of the intemperance of the workpeople ; they deprecate that in others which is worse , because less excusable , in themselves . It is deeply to be regretted that honourable and enlightened men should have been struck with such blindness , 'I mjght almost say madness , as to bind themselves to an uniform Course of action with such associates , ' audit is fervently to be hoped that the time is not far distant when each master will act -upon independent principles , doing right as his reason and " conscience may direct him , doing evil as his igno-Tance and folly may mislead . James Lowe .
ISrratwn in No . IV . of this Series , p . 182 , second column , 27 th line from the top , for "I too can wave my yed off , ' read " 3 o < x can wave , &o . "
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A " STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . In an age of no-principle and Coalition Government , an Opposition is a personal opposition : and hence , wh « n Mr . Disraeli , as leader of Opposition , is directing national attention to the faults of our Administration , he does not seize broad blunders of policy , but petty mistakes in taetigue . And hence the tendency of th « Tories , who take their tone from the author of their New Testament , to discover Coalition " indiscretions" —as Sir ^ ames Graham ' s at the Iteform Club . The Tories will have it that Sir
James is a Machiavel and not a mere sqiiire , slightly sharpened into second-rate attorneyisra by an excellent public-office training ; and the Tories Are always eager to fasten on Sir James—when Sir James blunders . Sir James is always blundering ; always blobbing plump into an astounding indiscretion . The man ' s life is a series of stupiditiesof wretched rattings , which have not always been
disastrous , because by accident he occasionally ratted at the right moment . He never made a speech in which he didn't say something , out of tlie fulness of his heart , astoundingly silly : he never lived a yeai ia which , out of the bewilderment of his mind , which could never grasp more than a month of politics , h « did not commit some stupendous folly . When las t at Carlisle he declared war against Louia Napoleon ; « n < l when next at Carlisle we should not feel astonished
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• An expression believed , upon reliable testimony , to hav « Deem actually uaelbj a manufacturer at the oommoncenicut the lock-out .
if he were tempted to declare his confidence in the Emperor of All the Russias . This session he has offended the House of Commons by advising that in--telligent bat uninformed assembly not to potter over blue books , and disgusted his colleagues by a double blunder , at the Heform Club , in letting the public know who got " Charley * the berth Charley is sure to mismanage ; and , with a similar vulgarity of mind , bidding for a dinner cheer by
infelicitously assuming the prerogatives of the Sovereign . But Sir James is " a first-rate man , sir , " in the House of Commons ; and as your dull dogs delight in catching a clever fellow in a mess , one can understand how the Walpoles and Pakingtous -would enjoy Mr . French's and Mr . Blight ' s interpellations as to what the right hon . gentleman , the 3 Tirst Lord of Admiralty , had meant by—making a foal of himself at the Reform Club banquet ?
Mr . Walpole doesn't forget what the Coalition said , one after another , about the Militia Franchise proposed by the Derby Government : and Mr . Walpole is entitled to laugh now that Lord John Bussell has had his Militia Franchise—to be dropped , also , as a "good joke by a Premier misunderstood by a liberal subordinate . Earl Grey , too , is gloating over that indiscretion . Lord Grey is reported to have looked , for once , positively happy when , on Thursday , he was with keen irony complimenting his noble friend in another House upon bis " judgment "
in withdrawing the Reform Bill . That is all quite fair in a country which permits of a caste of governing classes : the great Lords will quarrel among themselves . The Coalition Government was formed , really , because a certain number of great personages couldfi't get office , and office's delights , without coalescing , but ostensibly because Lord Derby . wouldn't ,, And Lord Aberdeen would , propose a Reform Bill . There happened only to be one real
Ministers is "beyond all doubt . For every Radical not utterly imbecile by dining with Ministers , knows that even if the Bill were gone on with on the 27 th of April , and kept on with honour , there could be no probability of its passing this session—either in its present shape or in any other shape : and when that fact is looked at , and ascertained , does it not suggest itself to impartial observers , that our House of Commons is a somewhat ridiculous assembly , and "that our enlightened country is governed , even -though by indiscreet squires , with great ease ?
What is said to be the private answer of Ministers io all colloquialisms about Reform— " Why you see the country doesn't respond to us , —yon see the country believes the House of Commons thoroughly represents it already" —is no doubt very just ; and this extraordinary state of things supplies a bint to the Reformers who are in earnest , —that is , to those bold men who would ride into power on * tie crest of a , democratic wave , to be raised by a real "bill , —that their mission is with the public , and not with the governing classes . The country has to be convinced that the House of Commons is really not a representative assembly in a national sense ; and out of the materials of such a debate as that which took
place on Wednesday something might be done towards the establishment of such a belief . There is not another popular assembly in the world which would have given such a vote as that which on Wednesday threw out Mr . Locke King ' s motion for the equal distribution of real property in cases of intestacy . It was a vote of startling significance , as indicating that our House of Commons is , after all , a House representing only , in collective decisions , the land and the aristocracy . Sir John Pakington opposed the bill as a democratic encroachment ; and Lord John Russell threw out the bill , not because it vras in itself a bad bill , but because it would lead to something else , —to the erection of a
platform whence the House of Lords might be attacked . In fact , 203 members voted against the bill because they would hear of nothing which would alter , directly or indirectly , our ^ " territorial constitution , "—that constitution which provides us with a caste of governing classes , and which Tenders the nation a nation of snobs : —the latter being a circumstance to be indignant at , not because a nation is to be condemned for being natural , but because the nation pretends to be self-governed , and despises the " continental system , " in which more honest nations don't make any pretence to govern themselves . "
If England , were to accept Mr . Disraeli ' s speech on Wednesday as a just account of its political condition , —as a nation which possessed " public . liberty " ( Mem . —A Reform Bill is being withdrawn , and a Corruption-Cure Bill is to go on ) because it possessed " great properties " to " rally round , " what further justification could Englishmen have for their immemorial belief , that England is more civilised and more free than AusUrians or Asiatics ? Mr . Disraeli suggested—with great indiscretion or much malignancy—that it might be that France owed the wise and good government she enjoyed to her
landed system , which destroyed the class of great proprietors : and that is an argument which would no doubt tell in England , where it might not be observed that a Republic preceded , and a Republic will follow , Louis Napoleon , the military despot . And Englishmen will despise the French accordingly . But it should have occurred to Mr . Disraeli that his frank admission that we ove our humourous political institutions to the class of great landed proprietors , may be somewhat damaging to him . Take the v 6 te of Wednesday as a representative vote , and it is a
falsehood : ninety Englishmen out of every hundred Englishmen would to-nnorrow vote against our landed system—though by no means against the Peers and powers arising out of that landed system . But the vote indicated exactly what our House of Commons is : —a committee of the House of Lords , before which , such counsel for the people as Mr . Bright may now and then be permitted to speak . And , accordingly , the deiate and division on Wednesday are to be regarded as conclusive evidence of the immediate necessity of Parliamentary Reform .
On Wednesday the House of Commons was years behind the nation . It was a House of Commons in which the land was predominant : in which commercial , aspiring , intellectual , trading , Englandthe England of the century—was only faintly discernible . And the land had it all its own way : Lord John Kussell was more aristocratic than the leaders of the Tory aristocracy . But why did tho aristocracy have it all its own way ? Because , the Radicals becoming Ministerialists , tho House ot Commons permits itself to become reactionary . Saturday Morning . A STttANOKU .
Reformer among the governing classes , —Lord Grey : and the Coalition which vfas to pass a Reform Bill left that man out . Accordingly he assaults them , and strips them of their reputation ss Reformers : lie proves that they are cheats . It is not the fashion to think highly of Lord Grey ; and it would be very absurd to attribute any grand patriotic motives to Lord Grey ' s criticisms on the Coalition . But Lord Grey has stopped the Reform Bill ; and it wou . ld be very foolish not to admit that !
Lord Grey gave the cue to the Liberals , that this was not th « time 5 and the Government were too glad to take advantage of Lord Grey's malevolence and not to be taken at their word . They don't mind his convincing himself and some others that they are cheats in tie Reform game ; they hav « " managed " Mr . Hume , and Mr . Hume and the Radicals have become Ministerialists . Lord Grey tried on Thursday to detach the Radicals from the Coalition : he gave a lecture upon the identity of public " honour "
and public " duty , " which must have b « en excessively interesting to Lord Derby and the Protectionist Peers ; and Lord Grey thus provides , jf his advice be taken—and to offer his advice is to offer a sneerthat Mr . Hume shall be disgusted , and that if the bill be persevered in the Government shall be beaten . In either case he revenges himself for being left out ; and the moral is to be observed , viz ., that a Coalition should include everybody—an easy arrangement at a period when it astonishes nolody that the Cabinet Bbould include men without pay or place .
Lord Grey ' s notion of the honour of public men seems to amount to this : a war means that a Minister shall mean nothing that he says—an . excellent idea for Sir James Graham to act upon . Lord Aberdeen availed lumself with promptitude of the suggestion ; he pledged himself , he said , to have the second reading of tlie Reform Bill on a certain day ; but he begged it to be understood that he did not pledge himself that on a certain dky the
Government would propose the second reading of a Reform Bill . Jor , he inquired , \ i \ t \\ a sagacity which should make us proud of so great a statesman , how did he know what might happen between this and then ? ( Hear , hear , from Lord Grey . ) Arul it is thus tlie nation is beguiled- ? thus the Radicals are retained as Ministerialists—fully believing , with exquisito faith , in the bona fides of old lords affecting to be revolutionists ! That there are two or threo Radicals in earnest in this innocence ia obvious : but that tho mass of the Radicals are shamming as well as th «
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S £ & THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 11, 1854, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2029/page/16/
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