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ftfefe TH B LE A D E B . [ No . 415 , March 6 , 1858
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believed by many that Mr . "Wise would have breached the ministerial position by his motion on the office of Iiord Privy Seal . The truth iSj that Lord Palmerston had become insufferable to his own House of Commons . With Lord John RttsseIjTj the case is altogether different . He had been winning golden opinions during the last year . Men who derided him in 1852 began to speak of him -with something like respect . As an example , selected from among our younger
politicians , we may name that enfant terrible , Sir Robert Pee : l . Six years ago Tamworth inarched in the train of Tiverton , and Lord John RttssexIi was denounced as a feeble and vacillating Minister . On the night of Lord Paxmebston ' s fall , however , this incorrigibly outspoken successor to the name of Pjbei pointed to the Whig leader as the natural chief of the Liberal party , and many went with him on that occasion . We think there is no doubt but that Lord John
RtrsffEiij , , with Mr . Gladstone , Sir James &baham , Mr . Sidney Heebebt , Mr . Cardvn&itji , and Mr . Milker Gibson , among his ^ colleagues , could form a durable and progressive Government , working at the head of a Parliamentary majority . Can Lord Derbt , however , govern with a minority ? For a few months he may , upon
sufferance , but , in the meantime , party principles must remain in abeyance . That is to Bay , legislation on all important subjects must be interrupted , since , even if the majority refrain from overthrowing his Cabinet , it will not permit him to stamp his policy upon the ' great questions of the day . ' Is this , however , a dignified or a creditable position for a British Minister ? Can Lord Derby
bjj&bA at the head of affairs without standing at the head of Parliament ? The example of his former Chief might well deter him . That statesman carried on an unequal contest in 1835 against a desultory majority ; but the first time he was positively obstructed in an act of legislation , he withdrew from office . A majority of four drove Lord TiivkujpooIj from Dover : even Lord Sid-IiiVERPOOii from power ; even Lord
Sid-MOTJTH declared that a majority of thirtyseven was insufficient to maintain a Premier honourably in his position . No one believes that Lord Debbt commands the general confidence of Parliament ; nor is it imagined that his tenure of the Treasury bench will be protracted . What we fear is a shuffle of the cards that will enable Lord PaIiMerflTON to reinstate himself with his band of
personal friends and followers in a domination more insolent and uncontrolled than ever . Assuredly , public opinion points in another direction . "We do not treat Lord Debby merely as a representative of Toryism . Toryism , pure and simple , no longer exists except on a few back benches in either House of Parliament , and in scattered mo-nor-housea where
ancestral portraits and ancestral prejudices decay together . It is even possible that a Conservative Ministry might propose to legislate upon a larger baisis than that of the "Whiga . At all events , a majority of Conservative politicians are thorough Englishmen , with our national merits and jdefeots , and enjoying the advantage of being free from the cretaceous corruption accruing during a long TOonopoly-of-, office , ^ ,,. ButT , the ^ qMes 1 ij . ojaJsone
of Parliamentary dynamics . Is it probable that the House of Commons , if it acts according to the principles declared upon the hustings in 1857 , will practically support Lord Debbt P la it necessary that it should refrain from independent action ? The first supposition woulu imply a total change of views on the part : of at least a hundred members ; the second involves a ,. belief that legislation may wisely be suspended in order
that every party may take its turn . The Premier , however , has one powerful means of influencing Parliament . He may threaten a dissolution . This will undoubtedly gain for him the sufferance of many quasi Liberals who dread the appeal to their pockets , and a reckoning with disappointed constituencies ; but the Government of the country cannot belong for more than one session to the leader
of a minority . We have already been asked to make a great sacrifice . Parliamentary Reform will be postponed until 1859 , if Lord Debst has his way . It was mooted in 1848 , when the " Whigs talked of considering it . It is mooted in 1858 , and the considering cap is placed on a Tory head . Impatient and unpopular assemblies are traditionally said to be capricious ; they have been docile enough in this matter . Lord John had a bill in view in
1851 , it was postponed ; Lord Dekbt hi 1852 , although sworn to resist the Deluge , was prepared to go into the question , though not just then ; Lord Aberdeen , in 1853 , actually presided over the introduction , of a measure , but the Russian war intervened ; Lord PAtMERSTON , obtaining delay until 1857 , promised to propose something next year ; , next year he is overthrown , and Lord Debbt begs that the discussion may be deferred until 1859 ; early in 1859 , in all
human probability , he will return to opposition , if not earlier . Then , is a new Premier to come in , ' totally unprepared , ' and ask for a year in which to mature his project ? Upon this calculation we may have a Reform Bill in I 860 , that is , if the Liberal party responds placet . But there is a Liberal chief who might , with a Cabinet of statesmen , lead a Liberal majority . Parliament will summon him to power when it is weary of Ministers on sufferance , and of Ministers upon false pretences . For the present , at least , it has consigned a Dictator to intrigue in a corner , if not to repose .
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ANOTHER LEAP FROM : MALMESBURY . Theke were several peculiar episodes in Lord Malmesbuet ' s administration of foreign affairs in 1852 , but we have not quite done with the Surrender of Criminals Bill , which tells us exactly what sort of * national honour ' policy we are to expect from Lord Derby ' s Cabinet . The preamble of the convention upon which the measure was based , recites that the convention of 1848 having failed to answer its object , a new treaty had become necessary . Wherefore , the Right Honourable James Howard ( ' le tres honorable Jacques Howard *) Earl of Malmesbury , Viscount Fitzhabris , Baron Mai < mbsbuby , on the part of her Britannic Majesty , and the Sieur Ai-bxandbb Gchl-onna , Count "Waiewskj :, on the part of * the Prince President of the French Republic , ' agreed upon certain articles . Firstly , it was stipulated that persons should be surrendered ' for an attempt to commit murder , ' whatever ' the means , the instrument , or the substance employed ; ' for example , M . Simoit Bernard would have been claimed had this
treaty been ratified . It would not have been necessary that he should have been convicted , but that he should be ' lawfully accused ; ' a warrant of apprehension would havo sufficed . Thia , however , ' wasndTth ^ nToatiguominious point in the Mai ^ oisbury capitulation . The fourth article of the convention set forth : —
" If , m those cases where there may be no direct proof , it should happen that , after an attentive examination ou the part of the magistrate , the circumstantial proof shall be found insufficient , notice thereof shall immediately be given to the ambassador or other
diplomatic agent of France ; and the individual claimed Bhall be detained in custody a sufficient time for the . French Government to furnish to the Government of her Uritannic Majesty any further proof which it may he able to produce in order to identify such individual , " It is not too much to say that , had Lord Maimesbuet ' s bill passed into law . the British right of asylum would no longer have existed .
Then , appealing sublimely to the public confidence , the convention stipulated that no person charged with any of the felonies set forth in Article II . " shall in any ease be proceeded against or punished on account of any political offence committed prior to his being surrendered . " As if that were necessary . As if , when a refugee charged with counterfeiting a puncheon had been hauded over to the Paris police , Lord Malmesbubt would have inquired after his fate , and insisted that he should be punished simply for his puncheon forgery , and not for the offence
of being hostile to the Empire . As the law peers said , in 1852 , a man might be delivered up , and we should have to take the word of the French Government that he would not be persecuted on account of his opinions . Lor d Maimcesbttry ' consented to abandon the right of asylum six years ago ; he may not propose to renew the attempt , but it is as well to remember what he was as Foreign Secretary in 1852 . " When ' national honour ' is the question of the day , 'le tres honorable Jacques' is out of his element in Downing-street .
We have another leaf from the Mai-mesbuet literature . It is a Cabinet declaration completely exonerating , so far as Tory authority goes , the neglect of Lord Pai / merstoit to answer the " Walewski despatch . Lord Derby ' s Government was of opinion , in April , 1852 , that such despatches ought not to be answered . For Lord Mai / mesburt said , in April , 1852—referring to the British laws relating
to foreigners— " From no country in Europe , or in any other part of the globe , shall I consent to receive a demand that would change those laws . I would not answer such a demand by any argumentative writing , or by any di plomatic despatch ; because I do not think the province of diplomacy extends to anything further than negotiation and conciliation . "
So Lord Mai * mesbury , who answers M . Wajlewski in 1858 , would not have answered him six years ago . The noble Lord had a French cook who , appearing to be , as Lord Granvii / le said , ' a suspicious character , was arrested soinewhere in Scotland , and detained for a few years . That amusing circumstance , was enough to convince the noble owner of the French cook that a British subject travelling in Austria with a Foreign Oflice passport , had no right to complain if Austrian soldiers brutally maltreated him .
Another British subject was arrested m Leghorn , innocent of any offence against the law , chained on his back to a table , ana carried through the city by gendarmes , and Lord MAiiMESBURT had nothing to say . It is true that Lord Malmesbury declared that Mr . Mather had suffered an unwarranted and brutal outrage ; but no advised ^ an ^ Engliahmfta ^ tpw cj > n 3 p . romise an affair of this sort for a small sum of money .
But we will not prejudge Lord Malmksbitry . He may have changed , as statesmen sometimes do . For instance , Xord Granvim-e has changed since he declared , in 1852—" Her Majesty ' s Government cannot consent ; at the request of Foreign Governments , to propose any change in the laws ot England ? '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1858, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2233/page/12/
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