On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    castle-upon-Tyne , has recently given a certain prominence in public discussion to this proposal . Large meetings , chiefly , but not exclusively composed of the working classes , have been held in several northern towns to petition for its adoption , and it cannot be doubted that in every portion of the kingdom it has many advocates . Tbi 3 may be called Bidding No . 2 . : , ¦ ' c \ A third proposition is that whieli amounts m lact to a revival under another name of household suffrage . Why the original term has been abandoned" and that of a ratepaying suffrage substituted

    in its place , it is not very easy to say . There was great merit and meaning in the older phrase . It contained in itself the strongest of all argumentsone that spoke to the common sense and universal feeling of the community . No idea is more thoroughly identified in national sentiment with the whole train of associations that make up the notion of responsibility and respectability , iu the plain , every-day sense of those terms , than that of "householder . " It may be natural and reasonable

    enough that some legal incidents should be specified , In order to determine , iu case of dispute , who is a householder and who is not ; and liability to the payment of rates is one of the easiest and fairest , no doubt , which could be applied . But a name is ^ a name for all . that ; and " household suffrage , " when inscribed , as it was in 1 S 3 G , on the standard of further llefqrih raised by Lord 'Durham and his friends , evoked a response throughout the hives of English industry such as we have not heard since then . Before the death of the late Mr . Hume , Ire

    more than once endeavoured to impress the justice and expediency of adopting Vie ratepaying franchise , as he termed it , on the House of Commons . Still more recently it has been adopted as the basis of organisation by the Reform Committee , of which Mr . Jtoebuek , Mr . S . Morlcy , Mr . Bright , Mr . Clay , and other well known Reformers , are prominent members . This may be called Bidding No . 3 . Of the comparative merits of these three Biddings there is little need to speak . Coxild the present House of Commons come to a decision by """ay of ballot reffardinsr them , it is certain that its decision

    would be by a great preponderance of opinion in favour of the first , simply because the present House of Commons is at heart intensely Conservative , and thoroughly averse 1 o any material change whatever . Nothing but the conviction that some change is now inevitable , and that it would fare ill at the hustings -with any man who openly opposed all reform , would in reality induce two-thirds of the present Parliament to entertain the question at all . In this mood it is obvious , therefore , that without the application of considerable moral pressure from without , a majority both of Whigs and Tories will

    eagerly seize the opportunity ot what they call settling the account on the easiest terms . But ¦ will the account be settled by the enactment of a Cl . rating franchise ? In London and its immediate vicinity , and in some half-dozen largo towns like Brighton , Cheltenham , and the like , there may not , indeed , be any great number of householders excluded from electoral rights thereby . But in < hc greater number of country towns , and in several of the older cities , a very considerable body would still remain unenfranchised , quite enough to keep alive a jealous and angry feeling of disaffection to the modified ordef of things . Is it wise , when

    we are about to make a change in the greatest and noblest of our institutions , to spoil the moral effect of it in this way ? Were Lord Derby und his colleagues fully alive to the consequences of leaving auoha controversy open in a country like ours , they ¦ would , in a true spirit of conservatism , nuiko xip their minds to go a stop further Hum their Wlrig and JPcelite rivals did in 1851 , and they would thereby cfl ' nco much of the distrust which still attaches to them us a party and an administration . The nbstract reasoning on which the claim of manhood suffrage rests has seemed to many wise

    and benevolent men irrefragable . Jiut ns a practical question , it wcro waste of time to cutor on its discussion . No Minister in the present condition of things could obtain tho permission of the Crown to submit a bill embodying such n proposal to Parliament . No Minister would havo Iho support of twenty peers in tlio Upper Houso who did so . And , finally , no Minister would bo able to obtain u serious or uoliboralcr hearing from tho House of Commons , as now constituted , who hinted at such a proposal . Manhood suffrage is tho universal sullrftgo of America and of Franco . In Amorioa it grow u |> in most of tho stutos spontaneously , booiuiso thorp was neither a court nor an aristocracy to opposp it : iu

    France it was the offspring of revolution . Neither precedent , therefore , is in point . As things now stand , manhood suffrage is as wholly unattainable as it would be to impose sufficient taxes to pay off the nationaldebt . But what is safely and peacefully attainable , and what would secure the enfranchisement of the great bulk of those who now lack the rights of citizenship , is household or ratepaying suffrage . There were in England and Wales , when the last census was taken , 3 , 278 , 039 inhabited houses . More than one family occupy many of these houses ; and where the occupations are so distinct as to enable the oceach

    cupants to be separately rated , the head of family would of course be entitled to claim as a bo 7 idfide householder . If on account of the class thus indicated we add 350 , 000 , we ' shall probably be above the mark . This , however , would give the gross total of 3 , G 2 S , 039 ; and if from these be deducted onesixth for tenements occupied by women , we shall in round numbers have three millions of electors in England and Wales . Auxiliary franchises , founded upon the possession of property , or of educated skill in some particular avocation , would , of course , materially add to this number . But when it is considered that the total number of families is but 3 , 712 , 290 , and that the total number of adult males b

    does not much exceed 5 , 000 , 000 , it is obvious that y the method proposed a great and beneficial change in the right direction would be accomplished , and that , for all practical purposes the labour , skill , and industry of the country would be brought within the pale of active citizenship . This is , then , the thing to go for while yet there is time . That which falls short of this will fail to bridge the chasm which is daily widening between wealth and poverty , capital and labour , privilege and moody , discontent . On the other hand , theories , however fair in seeming , if pressed beyond prudential bounds , can only serve the ends of those reactionaries who are watching for pretexts to create social and political alarm .

    Untitled Article

    BIOGRAPHIES OF GERMAN PRINCES ] N o , III . MAXIMILIAN , KING , AND LOUIS , EX-KING ,

    OF BAVARIA . In speaking of the " King of Bavaria" we are involved in the necessity ot giving the biography of tioo royal personages , viz . of the ruler de facto , Maximilian Joseph , and of the ex-King Louis , who , though forced to abdicate in 184 S , still considers himself a de jure sovereign . The two Kings stand in the close relation of father and son . However , the mutual affection they entertain for each other is very much of the cat-and-dog order . The one—the ex-sovereign—has not yet been able to reconcile himself to his abrupt removal from the

    head of governmental affairs , which he cannot be brought to believe was accomplished by any other means than a pure palace intrigue on the part of his son . Eccentric , and almost demented as he is , tho ex-King Louis appears still to cherish the hope of being one day able to punish and overthrow the faithless Absolom of las house . In this expectation he holds aloof from the Royal Court of Munich , brooding over , in company with a few dilettante as hnirbrnined as himself , the probabilities of a turn in the political wheel . To many of our readers , no doubt , old King Louis is known as the man of taste , tho originator of the

    Walhalla , nnd the founder of those numerous museums of art , rejoicing in the names of Glyptothek , Pinnkothek , Odcou , and so forth . The character of the crazy old Prince would , however , remain a long way from being properly understood , if his predilections for . Hellenic antiquity were the sole traits taken into consideration . A more varied mh'tum composition than that which constitutes the nature of that ex-sovcreign who has so long riveted the attention of all Germany could scarcely bo conceived . In him every cpooli of history , every characteristic ago of literature , lias found a

    sympathetic chord—albeit , tho sound issuing therefrom may have been inoro a burlesque than a , faithful rendering of tho original strain . By turns , King Louis has figured on tho stngp as an enthusiast for Athenian art j -a zoalot for tho monkish darknoss of middle ages ; a Maecenas of roooco and renaissance in tho approved fashion of any Bourbon of tho days preceding tho great Revolution ; then , again , ho lias been found capering 1 as tho friend of froo soionco , ami—hoy , pros to !—a persecutor of any expressions savouring of liberal ideas ; acain ,

    fondling the idea of German unity , and , at the next moment , stickling most pertinaciously for every inch of prerogative of his own petty dynastic sovereignty ; an upholder of national glory , seeking to invoke the shades of all the departed heroes of the fatherland in one great Walhallaj and anOn the trembling slave of the priests , who even shuts the doors of that Pan-Hellenium of Germany to the statue of Luther ; a King who bpasted of having initiated an era of freedom , and who all the while

    filled the prisons with political captives , forcing his opponents to do penance on their knees before his image ; a ruler whose first principle in government was not simply economy , but downright parsimony—nevertheless spending Bullions to carry out his artistic cravings , or to gratify those more objectionable amatory predilections of which the Lola Montes affair was such a notorious example . Who has not heard of the pseudo-Andalusian , the lady of the castanets and the horsewhip ,

    whose liberal display of ankles and pugnacious habits gained for her at Munich the dignity of a Countess of Landsfeld ? It was a pleasant time , truly , for the citizens of Bavaria when Herodias swayed the councils of the kingdom , and ministers held office by favour of her historical horsewhip . Europe had seen nothing like such gay and lively times since the days of the Pompadour and the other bouris of Versailles ; and it was all the more droll , being , as such things were , so utterly at variance with the sedate habits of the Bavarian

    people . It is true , in the . end , the sprightly game canie to a sudden conclusion ; for although the " Bavarians" may not be very quick in perceiving when affairs are going wrong , still they have only to be once thoroughly convinced of where lies the fault to be dealt with , and their anger is as difficult to restrain as the foam from their own famous / beer when uncorked . Thus , one fine morning , befor e the outbreak of the Paris movement of February , 184 S , there was a sudden stir at Munich that seemed to brood real danger to the King . The cry went abroad that the country was sick to loathing of the shameless life of the old rotte j that the fortunes of Bavaria were no longer to be in a

    harlot ' s keeping . All parties joined in this outcry The Liberals took it up from hatred to the despot who had destroyed the liberty of the press ; extended the principles of priestcraft ; covered the country with cloisters peopled with brothers and sisters , " black , brown , and grey ; emasculated the rights of the Legislature ; and , in short , undermined the foundation of constitutional government . A portion of the ultra-Conservatives even made common cause with the people , some of their leaders having been mortally offended by the incredible audacity of the Spanish courtesan . This was the first sound that announced to King Louis

    his approaching downfal . When the revolutionary movement spread through Germany , after the establishment of the French Republic , a new attack Mas made against King Louis ' s throne . Barrioades sprang up in his capital—an armed struggle for- his overthrow seemed imminent—the whole population rose iu fury against him . In this momentous crisis some Conservative-Liberals , who feared the entire destruction of royalty , hastened , fresh from the scene of the popular turmoil , to the Castle , and made their way through the craven crowd of courtiers to * tho King , entreating him to save the monarchy by

    nn abdication . They entered tho royal closet , as may be conceived , in no drawing-room attire , coming , as they did , from streets filled with an angry and excited multitude . On seeing the messengers of evil tidings , the first exclamation of the petulant tyrant was : " Dirty boots ! dirty boots ! how dare you present yourselves before your King in such a condition ? " " Your Majesty ! " replied tho deputation , " tho dirty boots are in possession of the city , and we pray you not to deliberate too long about an abdication , or the crown of the House of Wittelsbaoh may be in the mud before our boots aro cleaned . "

    With a sorrowing licart and unwilling hand did tho King sign that act of abdication . His son Maximilian Joseph thorcxipon assumed tJio roms ok government . i . , Tho tastes of the latter nro loss eccentric j loss given to squander tho publio property oi JSavana tor artistic purposes—purposes for which the population nt largo havo but little , inclination j loss open to rcproacn in his private Jifo , but , na regards his policy , equally an enemy to popular freedom . No winder , therefore , that under him , in 18-19 , tho

    Untitled Article

    No . 453 , November 27 , 1858 . ] T H E LEADER . 1291

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1858, page 1291, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2270/page/19/