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the Home Department , was anxious to retire . But let iis suppose that it was not . so , and that the Government says truly—where was the ^ difficuliy ? A sincere and vigorous War Minister is kept put by * the regulations . ' * -How can we trust in the courage or energy of a Government that can't even put its own men at their posts , because it stands in awe of " the regulations . " Does it not mean to fulfil its promises , or is it feeble even , to pitifulness ? of Control
A vacancy occurs in the Board , and the post is offered , to Lord Godebich , who declines it . But why was there a vacancy ? Because Mr . Robert Lowe has retired from the post in disgust—his colleagues glad enough to add him to the strength of their Government , but not giving him any real share in the Government . Oh ! no , " he was not in the Cabinet , " and a man outside must not know the secrets . So "to strengthen the Government , " Mr . Lowe is shelved ^ hood-winked , and gagged in a minor office . Very different
was his position , wheix younger by some years . He led an Opposition , made the power of his -vigorous eloquence felt right round the world , and controlled the councils of his Sovereign though he did not share them . But that was in a colony- —in New South Wales . ^ If a man of real power * one capable of leading country men through great -trials , into and through great reforms , — - < w he did , — -desires to serve his country , he must go to the Antipodes or to Canada . He will not be allowed at home , unless he has a handle to his name , or has been
long enough in office to be tamed unto subserviency to the clique of families ^ that surround the SovEBEiGN . Indignant at treatment which is > through him , an insult to all Engi iishmen , he retires from office , and we may once more see him at the real public ' service . " VFell may the ZVwes , note the * blighting influence exercised over this country by " the
cold shade of the aristocracy , " But the public is awake ; the leading journal has caught the popular feeling ; men of the class of Robert Lowe are no longer to be bound and gagged ; such of the aristocracy as wish to save their class must throw themselves on the side of the nation , in the civil contest which our benighted " governingclass " willpro voke .. _ __
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A NATIONAL PAR 1 ? Y . THE NEXT STEP IN THE ENQUIltY . " Whom would you have , then ? " asked a scion of " the Families , " who was told that the public would not much longer be content to see the Queen running the round of a score of names entitled "to be sent for . " There must be in this country numbers of men infinitely better qualified to conduct affairs than those elderly gentlemen who arrive at years of discretion senatorial after they have lost their power of action ; or who , while
still young enough for action , have not matured their experiences . For it takes as long to grow a statesman out of those ancient stocks in this country as it is ropnted to grow an oak , an elep * hant , or a parrot . Your British senator seems no longer to be mature , until , like " fine old port , " the flavour has gone . out of the body into crustiness . " The Queen " sends for" Lord John Russei ,: l , ¦ who breaks down through simple incapacity , before the assault of DEitBY-DisnAEii . Lord Bebdt cannot even establish himself on his
Beat , but sits long enough to be roasted for the misdeeds of , Admiralty and War Office , « ad then breaks down . The Quekn varies the round , by sending for- several gentlemen at once ; and we have the Coalition , which breaks down . This timo it is the Whig leader who has " drawn the linch-pin out of the carriage" on which he rides ; and then we have a new round of sendings-for .
LordBBBBxis the first grand champion of the British constitution against Coalition ; he begins his attempt to reconstruct a Cabinet by making a Coalition , and before he can add three recruits to his party , Tie breaks down . Gracious Majesty then begins again with Lortl John , who breaks down too ; and , finally , a little variety is thrown into the routine , by making Paimebston Premier , after he has been in a second place of almost every administration during the century . The
usage , therefore , is fairly established : it is E . ussei . 1 ,, Debbt , Abebdeen—Debby , Eus-SEiiii , Pai / mebston ; and we are told that it is to go on until the deluge—Debby , Gbey , ! Rus-SBLir—Gbey , RussEiii , Debby— "J >« capo . " Keally , there is a good deal of truth in the question of our young friend . Who is the Queen to send for ? There is nobody else ond the
that she knows ; no gentleman bey pale of this excellent society has ever been introduced to her ; and how is she to claim acquaintance with any common M . P . who ^ has never been to Court . By that rule she might send for Joseph Hume , but decidedly she must draw the line at Hume ; and as men of the Hume class are not usually so universal in their predeliction as to be habitues ' --at without
Court , we must soon expect to be Hume . Who is the Queen to send for then ? . If we were to make a popular subscription , and to purchase bag wigs , velvet coats , and court swords for the Manchester school , how are we sure that her Majesty would be better off ? Take the case as it stands now , ¦ wi th a- war on hand , and let us ask ourselves , as plain men of business , how her Majesty ^ ould form a Ministry out of that same Manchester school ? Let us try ;—
Mrs * Xord of the Treasury ... Mr . Cobden . Ghane ^ or of th £ Exchequer ; .. Mr . Milnbb Gibson . War Minister ,. ; ... ... ... Mr . Bbiohx . foreign Secretary ... ...... Mr . Stub qe . And now go on with the list . Having filled up the other offices , say how such an administration would work . Certainly , none could possibly be more unpopular . We all foresee the communications which the Bight Honour * able Joseph Stubge * would be making to Yienna .. and 3 b . J ^ eJlersbHg . _ In fact , it will not do to talk of a " Manchester Cabinet
except as a joke ; and yet nothing is more plain to common sense than that the great centres of our industry , if there is any worth in the industrial part in this country , should send up the national representatives from whom of all others a working Government might be formed . If it was the counties and county towns that gave us the CbomweiiLS or the Hampdens of a past time , we ought to look to the West Hiding aud to Lancashire , and to other great towns for the representatives of
England now;—representatives who would be able to act with the men sent up by the sturdy agricultural counties of Lincoln and Kent . The very idea of such a union suggests its impossibility at present . It is the fact that just now neither Manchester nor Leeds does send up men who represent any national feeling whatever . Either the men bave disqualified themselves by the strange things they have uttered , or the towns do not elect the men that really are their types .
It . would be invidious to mention other men of less prominence than those we have named ; but , generally speaking , we ask whether the average Member of Parliament —that is , the man who has sufficient money , leisure , connexion with election agents , and a love of such amusements—really comes up to the highest ' state of intelligence amongst the great body of the people P We will not give instances ourselves ; let the reader take the list of members from his own part of the country , and see whether they are the cleverest , the most unsuspected in integrity , the highest in
character for moral elevation m their neighbourhood ? On the contrary , he knows that there is many a quiet gentleman , many a professional man - —many a sensible man of large views and generous heart , laboriously working in the lower stages of his business , perhaps a shopkeeper—and many a well-informed working man of incorruptible integrity , who understands the condition of the country , its powers and its wants , far better than the money-balloted members in the club called : . . _ . V- _ i j * _^_ . •__ jji _"_ , 2 ¦ i
the House of Commons . But these men are not selected as the representatives of town Or county ; they are not sent up ; and it is not only the ridiculous usage of periwig and rapier that prevents her Majesty from sending for men of the sort . The enfranchised part of the people does not perform its duty , and does not present national materials out of which the Crown can construct a Cabinet . If , then , the inhabitants who enjoy the franchise do not choose men representing
the community , what is the natural remedy ? A . national franchise , of course ! But the members of the law-making club in Westminster do not like to be passed over for better men ; they will resist any extension of the the franchise ; and it may be doubted whether some of the men in that assemblage who have professed the most popular opinions would assist them in extending the suffrage until it should become in accordance with the nation at large . In the mean time , the disfranchised classes , and those portions of the
enfranchised classes - that share the patriotic sentiments of the great bulk of the people , and those- , cireles also amongst the gentry whose feelings and aspirations are still national , remain entirely without any nexus or any means of communication . The eoun- _ try gentleman can communicate with the labourers on his estate— -no longer the staple of the English people ; with the parish officers—^ -essentially wedded to . the ; present incorporation of electors ; or with the House of Commons- —non-representing the English people . But he has no habitual means of intercourse with his countrymen .
He knows well enough that they exist ; perhaps he knows by name some dozen or score of intelligent men in this manufactufiSgtown , ™ or that country tp * vna , "T , vho are well-informed , are perfectly independent , and really represent that class of opinions which has the widest extension over the country ; but there is no solidarity between these circles . They remain in that separate condition which makes them liable to be called cliques , and while thev are so separated they
cannot repudiate the name . They are looked at askance by the local election agent , — by the Whig or Tory party of the place , — in sbort , by the incorporated election interests . They are powerless . Tou may know them ; but you can only communicate with them by letter . They are nothing but Mr . So-and-So , and Mr . So-and-So , in this or that town ; and being without any associated strength , they are utterly impotent to contend against the consolidated interests which defend the status quo , and which , keeping the nation out of its rights , deprive the Parliament of the materials for a national legislature , and
the Queen of the materials for a national Government . You cannot get a national extension of the franchise , because you cannot get men of this national feeling and stamp iato Parliament ; , and so you go round the vicious circle . Possibly , as wo said lust week , wo shall remain in this disorganised aud severed condition , until some great national calamity—some war brought homo to our very shores—r-shallonce more make us ] a nation . If a more prompt remedy be sought , it would perhaps be found in giving an organic power to the scattered sympathy and the speechless discontent .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 17, 1855, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2078/page/12/
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