On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
& ifc Hot 4 fce fact ? Our opposition to the Chapsh . Baay fce traced to the feeling excited W be * ' wsffialJBlled pretension * . She is not ¦ What she pretends to be j thus , urhafcever influence she xnay exercise over the spiritual life of tfce wafcioo * is so far vitiated and corrupted ; an ^ « & » iB * puMc wrong like auy other imposture ! .
Untitled Article
LORD GGDEBICH'S MOTION AKD THE PUBLIC . No sign of popular feeling is more wholesome than the disp osition shown to insist upon a radical reorganisation of our military departments , and wstaA thorough reform of the army which would place it in harmony equall y with epmmon sense and with the constitution . There is scarcely a place at which the people have appeared in public where they have not passed some distinct expression of opinioni on these points ; notably at Tynemouth and at Derby . But aH these efforts , however universal , are
likely to be void of effect for want of unity of purpose . If the people would eoneeatrate their action upon one point , they would obtain far greater results . Questions even of foreign policy , however important , are scarcely so- much within the grasp of the people as their own institutions ; and a sound foreign policy would flow from a sound state of our institutions at home . The people
require : to be more completely represented in the House of Commons , they also require to be represented in other places— -in the Government , and in the constitution of the army . It is quite practicable to obtain a junction in these matters , and the means of doing it are already prepared . Lord Goderich , who has just proved his independence by declining office , has placed the following motion on the notice paper of the House of Commons : ¦—
" That , in the opinion of the House , the present system of promotion in the army by purchase , under which a non-commissioned officer rarely attains to the rank of acommissioned officer , and scarcely ever to that of a field officer , is injurious to the public service and unjust to the private soldiers . " If effect were given to this motion , we should have the master-key to all that we may desire . The English soldier who is now serving in the Crimea sees how totally different isthe organisation of the -French- army ^; how
much of its efficiency arises from the system of promotion . The possibility of passing through the ranks into commission assists the conscription in drawing into the ranks educated men , and this would be the case in our own country . We have several young men in our eye who would most likely have devoted themselves to the military profession , if by beginning with the working ranks they could have had a prospect of rising to its honours .
The presence of gentlemen in the ranks is highly conducive to real discipline ; the presence of men who have passed through the ranks amongst the officers enables that class more perfectly to understand the dispositions of the men . The standard of moral feeling is raised in the ranks ; practical experience is greatly strengthened in the commission . By abolishing the governance of class in the army , its unconstitutional character would be
disarmed . There is a disposition in almost every class of the people to assist in procuring a reform— "indeed , to place our army in true union with tHe people , and to strengthen our military system . It would , we think , be far better if all parts of the country were to concentrate their efforts upon the support of Lord Goderich ' s motion . At present every town is " going upon its own hook , " and we shall move nothing . The same labour that is now wasted , if brought into union , would do much . There is too little time to bring the p ublic together upon the point between the present day and the 20
ththe day named for Lord Go © EBtc » s motioo ; and , considering the state of the publicon the subject , he may probably consider the expediency of postponing it .
Untitled Article
THE UNTPARI ^ airABLE . " Ce sont des trauble-fSSte , auxqnelson nepardotme pas d ' avoir raisoa trap tot , et d"appeler las ehoses par tear nanu "—Z < a -Presw , February « , 1855 . ( The liEADEB , September 17 , 1853 . ) ** ¦ There is an average of intellect in trades and" professions ; but some professions require * training to be clever—a knack ; and the unphflosophie world always thinks the men who nave caught the knack are very able men . Young- men are sent to the bar by accident ; - but middle-aged , barristers- are considered , by society ,, cleverer , and abler than , middleaged stationers , or grocers , or merchants ; whereas the difference is simply the difference of calling and training . In the same way- in the Governing Classes : a dull boy is put to the trade of governing ,
and . in course of time , as the effect of training ,, and acquired skill and caution , he- ' rises , ' and becofaes * a very able man , Sir / This- seasoning is as to the average men : as there are Wellingtons born among peers , so there are great journalists , great merchants , —in a word , first men , everywhere * But this reasoning is to show that an average EarJ , becoming Secretary of State , and writing deeent despatches , and making decorous speeches , is not one whit a greater man , or more ' able man , Sir , ' than the average grocer , tailor , barrister , or editor . It is like talking a truism ; but does the world not act upon a very different theory—believing that Earls are not only born into governing , but are born ' very able men , Sir ? " *
- _ — -XTbb Lkadeb , October 22 , 1853 . ) " The House of Lords , said Lord Derby , whom we may take as the shrewd exponent of most thoughtless British cants , —the House of Lords is open to all men . The answer is , — -as the London Tavern is open : to all men ,- — -who can pay . The price of entrance among the governing classes is , —subjection to the governing classes . Excepting Lord Brougham , in respect to whom the circumstances were peculiar , no man ever got into the Peerage who did not go to the House of Lords as the agent of the Peerage . There are only two classes who get out of the mire into the
ermine , —soldiers and lawyers . Soldiers are always Tories ; or when they are not , as Napier was not , they are put down . Lawyers are always intense Conservatives , for obvious ¦ -. reascnsj _ anjd ^^ e ^_ naoat Tory lawyers who have reached the Woolsack , ' have been Whigs , —like Lord Cottenham . Occasionally a millionnaire gets in , like Jones Loyd : and , notoriously , the most conscious of aristocrats is the parvenu Peer . Just as borough owners did and do send their servants , their toadies , their ' agents , ' or their sons , into the * Contmonsy House , so the flatterers , the tools , and the orators , of the governing
classes are permitted to get into the Lords' House . Every new creation which is a concession to the cleverness and worth of the basely-born ambitious , is a new coat of paint to the old House of Lords , — freshening it up in the eyes of the prone and gaping multitude : and the exceptions , which only prove the rule of exclusiveness , are loudly made use of to demonstrate the theory of the open Constitution . The Governing Classes have a distinct policy , —to perpetuate their class : and the governed classes are always applauding when they see the governing classes make use of mean men ! Every able man
can reach the highest place , in this free country , said the enlightened journals of the governed classes when the governing classes ( in each case with sensible distrust ) made Canning Premier : made Peel Premier ; gavo Disraeli the Finance Office ; a seat in the Cabinet to Macnulny ; and Treasury work to QK-chapelier and able but complaisant James Wilson . But did any man ever get into the Cabinet who was pledged to realising the theories of the Constitution ? Did any man ever get a Poorage who was averse * to Spiritual Peers , and Indisposed to the Conservation of tho Commons as an ante-room of the Peers ? In fact only very few of- tho astute sycophants themselves get the reward of admiwion within the adytum of tho British Temple . There was Burke , who did
good CoaBcrvative work at a . risky period- * - and that amiable and brilliant CharTes Fox , wild dM so few good and said so few clereriihangfr verrer euggeated a Peerage for the incomparable Irishman . That mote recent Whig chief ; Lord . John Buasell , loa £ and annihilated a party by his uageafiroua ooldaes * in . rewarding useful hraina . Beyond the discovery of Mr . James . Wilson he never helped a plebeian in the path of ambttioxu . Oh , yea . We beg his pardon . He actually made Charles Bullex , who had the genius of a . dozen . Charles Foxes , a President of a Poor-law Board . And nowv as a European war reopens , Lord
Hafdinge is Commander-in-chief ; Commander-uichief of that army which dare lose none of its prestige ' : first man , in & military crisis * of a nation which must g » forward or disappear ? And he is sixty-eight years of age . That is a serious £ aot . When forty , ioi the full swing of his energy and his intellect , no one would have dreamed of him . for such a ppst , even had there boeano Wellington his contemporary ; twit ,, in peace , h&gofc his post , by seniority : and there he is-nin that post , as war opens , at sixty-eight years « f age , aa inferior to himself at forty as at forty he was inferior , to Wellington . However this enlightened country , endured a Duke of Tork till a Wellington- and a Nelson turned up j and must
rejoice in a Hardinge till » Napier be found , or be employed . In truth , the selection is limited ; the governing classes reject brains so emphatically , that most of the able men go into commerce , ttnding money to compensate for fame j and the unhappy question is—whom would you substitute for Lord Hardinge ? Successful men in this country have to Teach 8 econd childhood before they get peerages and crosses , and the governing classes would not dream of giving the Horse Guards to mere manhood and brains without a title and a cross . Itr that respect England is far behind the res * of Europe ; merit travel * faster even in the JEtassias ; aad certainly faster in the Turkish service than in the British .
" A war now is to England far more serious than to France or Russia . England will be ruined by war if she does not win in it . And ; there are no evidences that her present rulers are the men to carry her through the war . In the last war Pitt and Wellington were both young ; but now , not only her leading statesmen in office , but all her generals aad admirals are dangerously old men , and the chances are that before she begins to win she will have to kill off all the old statesmen and all the old commanders .
« Youth is genius j it iis energy . Age in action is a blunder , because it is not active .. The influence of age is visible in the negotiations which have caused the now inevitable war ; could such an influence be > trusted in the conduct of a campaign ! To suggest that sexagenarians and octogenarians are leas capable than men of thirty and forty to conduct and manage a great war is no more to insult old age than it isiasultedby the ^ remarkjbuftt beards grow grey . The men who would have to conduct' a ~ waroow on-behalf of England—Lord Aberdeen , Lord Hardinge , Sir James Graham , Lord John Russell , and Lord Palmerston—would break down simply because a council
of war , in which every councillor is seventy , cannot possibly achieve a victory . Experience has ita advantages—but only when action is routine . Nestor talked more wisely than anybody else in the debatesbefore Troy ; but Achilles , a rash young fool , took the city . Austria , it may be said , was saved the other day by the octogenarian Radetzky ; but she waa also , before , lost by Wurmser , fighting against a general of thirty , and against soldiers who had no shoes and no brandy . And if England gives wayy first , aa Radetzky did , her Radetzkys will never bring her to tho front again . For Russia ia not Lombardy j and we are not , like Austria , accustomed to bo
losers . " Gentlemen of from sixty to seventy years of age are so wise that they cannot be original ; and if England ' s rulers and generals cannot now lift themselves out of routine into a conception of a great campaign , England is lost . And there ia no evidence that our Cabinet or our Commander-in-chiel have got vigorous ideas about tho war . They already tallc through a leading journal , to the effect that as a war i . _ »_'• ii . _ t . ,. 11 £ * . «**«*** 4-r \ tx IvAnftr . nil t , flO DlOOQ . ™ the belligerents to a treatyall . the
blood-_ , only brings , shed had better be ' skipped , ' and we had better begin with the treaty ! And this is said the same day on which tho Czar ' fl challenge is brui ed forth to Europe-war to extermination ! Starting from such different points of vicw-tho Russian seeking the extermination of his opponent , » n * *« EngUdj Government aiming only at tho truce of a Conference which is likely to win ? " > We refer our readers to an article in the Times of Wednesday , February 14 , 1855 which we have reprinted in another part o our paper . Verily , the Leader i * " unpar donaole . "
Untitled Article
Vmss **** 17 , 1855 . ] / EBTB LBABBU * 50
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 17, 1855, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2078/page/15/
-