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TO COBEESPONKEim . All letters for the Editor should bo addressed to 7 , "Wellington-street , Strand , London . ^ T « r 5 ? ce can be * ^ » ot anonymous communications , wn ^ tever is intended for insertion must bo authenticated by the name and address of the -writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them . We cannot undertake to return rejected coinmunlca . "tions . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communica tion .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because -there is nothing 39 -unnatural and convulsive , a 3 the atrain to keep things fixed when all fcke world 13 by the very l&vr of its creation in eternal progress . —Db . Arnold .
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THE PARLIAMENT . That the House of Commons is too much of an aristocratic club and too little of a popular assembly is an opinion entertained pretty generally . But even those who expected least of it in the present session , have been astonished ajid perplexed by the singular contempt with which it has this week fceen treated by the Queen and her Ministers . The notion of our governors seems to be that the House of Commons is as much of a formality as Convocation . Worse r that also seems the notion of the
House cf Commons itself . Whatever popular representation has been found within the last few days , has been encountered in the Upper Chamber , where loyalty and patriotism have not prevented free and honest speech from Lord Grey , Lord Hardwicke , and Lord Ellenborough . The Ministers , in reassembling Parliament , have obviously been impressed with the idea that their business was to make use of
Parliament as a constitutional machinery , which they could not very well dispense with , for the purpose of getting authority to do certain things about which they were strongly inclined not to consult Parliament . They ask -votes , not opinions ; and they carefully withhold their own opinions of the war , of ita present and its future , and of its politics . Now , when a demand was made for a Christmas Session , the belief was that Parliament would assist the
Government with something besides votes . In a Government which has ignominiously broken down , atone of abrupt assumption that there is unlimited confidence in it appears to us to bo a very singular insolence . No contrast can be greater than that between the apologetic miuuteness of the Duke of Newcastle ' defence and the haughty reserve of Lords Aberdeen , Russell , and Palmeraton , when ( juoationed as to their policy .
Will the noble lord say when the Austrian treaty will bo communicated to tho House ? aska a member . Lord John replica with alert imbecility , " The very moment that the
ratification is telegraphed . " The House of Commons may talk about the treaty when it is all settled ! This answer was given , on Thursday . On Tuesday two of the Ministers had spoken of the treaty . Lord Aberdeen , uncouthly reticent , said some negatives , —as that the treat y would not bind England to uphold the integrity of the Austrian dominions . Lord John , Russell , —pressed by Mr . Disraeli , who reads history and remembers what are the traditional functions of the House of Commons—was more explicit —was , indeed , disastrously communicative .
Hearing his indifferent references to the subject , one was bewildered to account for all the fuss which the Ministerial organs , followed by stockbrokers on every bourse in Europe , had been making about the treaty . Lord John said the treaty amounted to nothing ; it was merely a treaty that , if all parties could agree some months hence , they would then make a treaty . Familiar with the bathos of diplomacy , we were yet staggered at this treaty . The House of Commons was puzzled : funds went down : there was a split at the Cabinet Council next day . But Thursday came : and hot one member of the Nation ' s House had the
courage to ask for an explanation . The Foreigners Enlistment Bill is one of the ' most important measures of the half century . It was introduced to the House of Lords in a speech of five minutes * duration , with an understanding with Lord Derby , which , of course , Lord I > erby , the least chivalrous of mankind , did not fulfil , that the measure was not to be debated . It happened that it was debated because Lord Ellenborough is an eccentric man , who does not see the necessity of
the conduct 01 Parliament being controlled by the secret understandings of two or three potent individuals . Because it was there debated , the House of Commons gained some information of the intentions of the Government to establish a system boldly at variance with the tendencies of the time in England . Ministers never thought of the decency of making a statement to the House of Commons of these intentions : the bill was to have come down , in clue course , like a railway bill . The humble House of Commons is not in the least offended .
This Foreigner ' s Enlistment Bill and the new Militia Bill are the two measures for the passing—not for the consideration of which Parliament is reassembled . Lord Palmerston introduced the latter in a speech of careful brevity . Sir , said he , what . do we want with a reserve—we rely on the English nation for a reserve . That is a fine phrase for quotation in the French papers , and is comfort to the timid in the Crimea . But Lord Palmerston
might have taken the opportunity to state what these grand nobles mean when they say " We rely on the English nation . " What for ? The English nation would like to know : and the House of Commons ought to find out . Surely we are at a point in the history of tho war when we ought to be told by our governors what are the objects of the war . It is with groat reluctance that we refer to a speech by the Duke of Argyll : his grace being a personage of conspicuous no importance , whoso position in tho Cabinet is as perplexing as that of the
fly in amber . let the Duke of Argyll is a Minister , and the only Minister who has spoken of the objects of the war . The Duke of Argyll ridicules English sympathies with " nationalities , " and speaks as if it wore a Cabinet determination to limit tho war to the east of Europe . Now those rumours which are always right speak of a very different opinion being entertained by those members of tho Cabinet who do not regard tho Duke of Argyll as a sound political leader . Thus : publicly the Government does not speak of ita policy ; privately its policy is spoken of as divided . Aa a >
selfgoverned people , can we appreciate this poai tion ? For our own part , we regard the future of the war with apprehensions . In the first place , the war will not be well conducted , because , as has been fully shown so far , the Ministers are without the intellect and the energy required in a great war . In the riej $ t place , the war will not be vigorously conducted , because the Ministers have not yet made tip their minds what the war is about , and what are to be the conditions of peace . Perhaps , however , it may contribute to the entirety of the alliance between France and England that the English people shall not make pretensions to do anything more in the war than—bleed and
pay . Profound is the mystery in which the Ministers hide their views on * ' Public Business ?' Mr . Disraeli asks as to the plans for the Session . Lord John Russell answers , " We have met this month to do special work : when we meet again in February it will be time enough to let the House know what we are going to
do with Great British affairs . " Thus , when , a special question is asked , the Minister is dril y evasive . The question put by Mr . Scully as to Irish Tenant Right was suggested , we have no doubt , by considerations deeply important to farmers in Ireland . The Government's intentions could as well be stated now as two months hence—there could be no public inconvenience , there would be much Irish
satisfaction . Again , in regard , to the newspaper stamp , vast interests would be relieved from great anxiety if Mr . Gladstone were explicit ; he prefers , and . on no public ground , to be ingeniously reserved . These , however , are minor points . The great fact is that Parliament is to adjourn in a few days without the slightest intimation of the views of the Ministry with tespect to Finance . It will be said that a Budget is an affair of the Funds , and a Government must hide its projects until they are ripe for action . Upon that objection we would retort—Why is Parliament to separate
from December till February ? Why , now tliat we have Parliament again , are we to endure another recess ? The Christmas holidays might be limited to the Saturday , Sunday , and Monday- —at most , to a week ; and an arrangement of that sort would permit of the business that has to be done this year being 1 at once commenced . But there is to be a long Christmas recess , because Cabinets composed of the governing classes have a prejudice against Parliament , and because the House of Commons is of late years becoming content with its functions as a Court of Registration .
The Coalition Government is not strong - it has lost most of its prestige for great individual capacities : and in that prestige was its onl y strength . It is a convenience , however , that tins Government should be kept in ; and vie would most earnestly warn ardent Liberals no % to be misled by the bid for their support made by Mr , Disraeli , whose tactics in the matter of the Austrian alliance arc only surpassed in clumsiness by his proffered championship of the No-Popery mania . But we would , assuredly , ask the Liberal party in the House of Commons to dictate to that Government , winch , without
their votes , would disappear in a weok . We ventured to say last session that that party would bo deluded in this war , if it did not take caro to make conditions with the Government . We repeat : this session—Pass no bills , vote n /) money , until you liave extracted a rovelation of tho secret history which is now boing- actbd in all tho capitals of Europe . If a Liberal party reappeared with party organisation mj tho House of Commous , the Government would bo tested : it would bo broken up ; and the true honest portions of it would remain—< 5 ( 6 ritinuing- a " Coalition" by bringing , in mow Liberals .
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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO "® le &eat > er . " For a Half-Year ... £ 0 13 0 To be remitted in advance . fiil" Money Orders sliould be drawn upon the Strand Branca Office , and l > o made payable to Mr . AiKRBD E . Gaxlowat , at No . 7 . Wellington StTeet , Strand .
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SATURDAY , DECEMBER 16 , 1854
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December 16 , 1854 . ] THE LEADEB ; ~? kl 89
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 16, 1854, page 1189, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2069/page/13/
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