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merit and not on account of their family connexions . A . Wealthy and well-governed nation is always powerful ; its fleets secure its safety : its militia constitutes , in times of emergency , the materials of a regular army ; low estimates and economical administration are requisite to amplify the fund from which , on occasions of necessity , increased revenues may Redrawn .
But , though Lord Palmetiston has a battle to fight , and may meet with adverse votes , a change of Government is by no means among the prospects of the session . The question -whether a general election is to take place this year or the next depends on the spirit of the House of Commons . If the Cabinet can retain a working majority until the autumn , it is not improbable that Lord Pa-lhurstois- will defer his appeal to the country until the summer of 1858 . "We however
doubt his capacity in this respect , . Parliament has already exhibited some restlessness j the Tory leaders . have committed themselves to a systematic course of opposition ; Earl Grey and Lord BttOTjaHAM in the Peers , and Lord John Russeli , and Mr . Gladstone in . the Commons , seem disposed to aim at an active and hostile policy , and Lord PAiiMERSTON is in no way inclined to conciliate support by the adoption of a liberal programme .
We have gone back some steps since the session of 1853 , and it would be well if , besides Mr . G-xadstowe's Income-tax settlement , we could revive some other elements in the .. * situation' of that date . Then , Lord Aberdeen" promised an extension of freetrade principles , a great measure of education , and an amendment of the representative system . What are the promises of 1857 ? A new Bank Charter Act , a scheme of secondary punishments , some legal improvements , and a revised State Church for Norfolk Island . In . 1853 the Aberdeen
ministry was counted a gam to the Liberal cause . It was an official consolidation of all parties in the House of Commons , excepting the Tory Protectionists . It engaged to carry on the work of reform . Sir James G-kaham declared that he would not have accepted office had not the Government pledged itself to revise the representation , of the people . " What says now the Knight of Netlierby , and what say the electors of Carlisle ? "Unhappily , the Russian war intervened ; but now that the Russian war is over , why not resume in 1857 the policy
announced in 1853 and interrupted in 1854 ? Nothing is to be expected from the actual Administration , unless it be compelled to adopt ' Reform' as an election cry . Nothing is to be expected from the Tories , who only offer to goad the Treasury on questions of finance . And nothing can be done by the independent Liberals , unless they strain with all their power upon the Government , and force it to choose between concession and
defeat . ' It may he that Lord Johw Russet has a measure in reserve ; but the time for submitting such a proposal will be when Parliament iweetB under tho stimulus of a general election . Enervated , indifferent , and corrupt , tho existing Parliament is unfit for its duties ; and while it continues to sit , our political prospects can only be vague , nnrrow and paltry . '
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"CHURCH IN DANGER !"—FROM T&P CLERGY . Unless something be done to rescue the clergy from themselves , they will pUfc the finishing stroke to the Church of England ; They are committing slow suicide , and appear incapable of rescuing themselves from the rash aet . According to their own confession they cannot keep order , and they are obliged to seek the aid of the temporal power in . humiliating manner . In the House of Bishops
the Bishop of Chiciiester brings forward a painful case . Clergymen find themselves under the necessity of reading the burial service , making an almost indiscriminate use of the service , even over persons w ho are unbaptized , excommunicate , or felo de se ! The Bishop of Oxford stated the case of a person notoriously living in deadly sin , over whom , clergymen refused to perform the burial service , and they were threatened with action , at law . Proceedings for
excommunication axe not always successful ; but the Bishop of Okfokd thinks the Bishop lias a power to shelter his clergymen from the infliction of punishment . "At all evenis , " says Dr . Wilberfoece , "he has a strong moral power ; or if there be a doubt about the legality of the Bishop ' s power , the only remedy is to invest him -with , that power . '' It would be interesting to see a bill brought in for the better prevention of the burial service in certain cases . " Would it have effect
in rendering the Church popular ? Supposing the bill were carried , we should like to see the discriminating use which would be made of its enforcement . It is evident that the clergy in the diocese of Chiohester and Oxford would be refusing to bury right and left ; of course , to the great consolation of grieving relatives , and to the manifest extension of the Church ! But we should like to know
whether any clergy of either diocese , or even the Bishops thereof , would refuse to bury all persons " living in notorious sin ' or excommunicate . "VYould they , for example , decline to perform the service over a nobleman belonging to a Unitarian creed ? Would they object in the case of a Marquis living a ' last ' life ; or make a stand against the peribrmauco of the service in the case of a Royal prince , who , according to the technical reading of the Church code , might bo "living in
notorious sin . " Of course we know better ; the act Avhich the Bishop of Oxford desires to obtain would be enforced against the j ) oor , who already are excluded from church by the want of room , tho supercilious classification of tho richer orders , and the sense of their own degraded condition . In short , such an act would introduce into the graveyard , tho same discrimination between the ' respectables ' classes and the poor ¦ which is enforced in . the church . The burial-ground would bo limited to good society . ¦
Another bishop , the Bishop of Exeteband ho does not stand alono—has been objecting to a wall in a cemetery , because it is no higher than eighteen inches , and not , therefore , bo thinks , sufficient to divide the consecrated port from the Dissenting part . Evidently the Bishop of Exetisii , who ought to know , thinks that there would be a practical difference bctwoen a wall of cig htccm inches mid one throe feet high or more . A . Dissenting soul might bo capable , ho thinks , of jumping over eighteen inches , but could bo kept out by the height of a five-burred gate ; souls being inferior to hunters in
leaping , according to the episcopal estimate . A greater danger threatens the Church councils , in tho endeavour of some simple
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the head of pubficaiaons which may excite td ; hatred and eontempt of 13 he Grovernment , and therefore may not be distributed without perrmisssion from the prefects of depart - ments . That is to say , eighty-six departmental prefects are to take universal suffrage under their control , to nominate every candidate , to expunge the names of obnoxious persons , and virtually to elect the Legislative Chamber . This insolent mockery of representation must have the effect of
un-Liberatej we trust , will repudiate the polfe * of paralysis , and fulfil their duty to tfrmm and : to themselves .
deceiving even those complacent dupes of success , who hold that France " enjoys more real freedom . " under the Empire than under the constitutional government of Louis Philippe or the Republic of 1848 . What becomes , we demand , of the notion that Louis Napoxeok is really the elect of the French people ? "Why , he declines to trust to
universal suffrage ; he objects to put his own nominees in competition with those of the Liberal , Bourbon , or Orleanist parties ; with all the facilities-of pressure and falsification at his disposal , he confessedly apprehends that certain citizens of Paris will print the one word " Cavaignac" upon a card and distribute it to the electors . This is Imperial popularity , this is to be the representative of
1789 . ! For the moment , it appeared , after the judgment of the Coxirt of Cassation , that the advocates of abstention had been supplied with a new argument . After two Courts of Appeal had displayed the courage and the justice to decide against the pretensions-of the local prefects to control the distribution of electoral bulletins , it was , indeed , astounding to discover that the sources of equity in Paris had been so poisoned by official interest , that a
card bearing only the name of a candidate was declared to rank among political pamphlets , manifestoes , addresses , and other publications amenable to police regulation . What is it to the purpose tliat twenty days before the election candidates may circulate their professions of political faith , and bulletins , inscribed with their names ? These professions and bulletins , signed by themselves , must have been previously deposited at the office
of the Procureur Imperial , whose function it is to prosecute all offenders under the law applying to political professions of faith . The Government thus obtains a grasp over the candidate , may condemn his manifesto , prohibit his "bulletin , and prosecute him personally for employing language of a kind tending to excite to ' hatred and contempt ' of the Empire . Besides , the electors may desire to nominate men who have not avowed
their candidature , and whose names are principles . The Court of Cassation professes to base its decision upon the purity of the suffrage —a purity which annuls , from every point of view , the very essence of political election . Morality , equity , common sense , alike declare that a public vote obtained -under such influences is an imposture , a
PURITY OF THE SUFFRAGE IN FRANCE . We have scon another illustration of 'judicial' justico in France . Tho highest court of the Empiro has decided that tho unlimited distribution of electoral bulletins is not permissible ) by law . By a monstrous interpretation of a legislative enactmonfc , it ia declared that a card , or slip of paper , hearing surely the name of a candidate , conies under
delusion , and a forgery . The advocates of abstention argue , then , that tho Liberal party should not participate in an election thus radically vitiated , arbitrary , and illegal . But the party of action replies that , under all circumstances , abstention is a fatal policy ; that a conflict , without immediate results , is preferable to that immobility which may bo ascribed to acquiescence or to despair ; that tho inortness of tho raass is tho coTmmto
basis of despotism ; that timidity shelters itaolf under tho pretence of reserve ; and that corruption skulks in tho disguise of scruple . It may be thnfc some honourable and ablo men Avill bo detorred from joining in the electoral movement by tho flagitious judgment of tho Court o " f Cassation ; but tho fact i « to be deplored . Tho main body of
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1857, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2179/page/10/
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