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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd April 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 433, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      No . 471 , Afrnt 3 , 18591 THE LEADER . 433

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      THE REFORM DEBATE . The majority of thirty-nine against Ministers has proved to be larger than anyone perhaps expected .. On all hands it is felt to be conclusive of the fate of the ' measure , and of the Cabinet , at least as it has been hitherto constituted . At the end of a seven nights' debate , Mr . Disraeli gravely reiterated his opinion that the town franchise could not , with safety , be lowered . A majority , in the fullest House there has been for many years , has emphatically declared that some change in that direction must be made . False as the promise

      may prove to popular hope , it is fatal to Mr . Disraeli as an official leader . He must , for the present , retire from the post he has filled with so much credit and courage during the last twelve months . If that were all , the vacancy might easily , bo filled up , as we have already hinted , were Mr . Gladstone disposed to undertake the task of preparing a new bill General Peol and Lord Salisbury are , as ie well known , anxious to resign ; and their places might without much difficulty be filled by more acceptable and useful men . We doubt ,, however , if any attempt of the sort will be made , Unless in the event of a failure to form a Government , by one

      or other of the Whig Oppositions . JJ \) to the present hour the gangway between them lias certainly not been bridged , and we have no reason to think that at present it will be . The difficulty does not consist , as is commonly imagined , in the personal rivalry of Lords Palmerston . and J . Russell , but in the mutual repugnance of their respective adherence to one another , and in the incompatibility of their political views . Assuming that Lord Derby will not , without some further justification , advise tho Queen to dissolve Parliament , he must ,

      we think , inform tho House of Lords on Monday night , that he 1 ms tendered his x'osigimtion , and that ho has advised tho Queen to confide tho tunic of . forming a new Administration to Lord John Russell . But how that veteran cabinet maker is to secure a sufficient amount of siippovt in tho present Parliament , wo own ourselves at a loss to oonjeoturo . Sooner or later , the other two sections will infallibly unite to crush him 5 and crush him they onsily will , unless ho makes up his mind promptly and umntetnlconbly to play out for tho support of tho people .

      The opinion we have expressed regarding the temper and the character of the present House of Commons , has been painfully verified by the debate which has been prolonged to an extent so unusual . Nobody can regard it as wanting in ability . There have been many clever speeches made on either side ; and some have been preeminently distinguished by logical and rhetorical power . But throughout there has been manifested an utter absence of faith in great principles , loyalty to high traditions , or generous confidence in the people . From first to last it has ; been obviously a

      cold and selfish game of parties and individuals , calculating the odds and playing for power . Lord John Russell set a bad example at the outset , and too closely has it been , followed . Sitting below the gangway , and surrounded by the only men in the Liberal party who command , to any extent , the confidence of the many out of doors , he might have taken up a position which would have placed him at the head , for the rest of his life , of the temperate but earnest friends of progress . He ought to have known , that from the moment he made himself inevitable as a Liberal minister , every

      intrigiiiii" - and reactionary ' Whig . 01 the Grey and Clarendon school would be at his beck , and ready to . do his bidding . But instead of saying out plainly what he deemed essential to any satisfactory Reform Bill , either as regards the suffrage or redistribution of seats , Lord John contented hunself with making a speech which ,, if the printers had prefixed to it the name of-Sir Charles Wood , or Sir Cornewall Lewis , nobody would have read with " -surprise . There may have been some degree of policy , though we confess we doubt it , in framing his resolution vaguely as to the franchise : but there could , be nothing / - but imprudence and impolicy in bringing it forward without one hearty or thorough-going phrase in favour of expanded . privileges , and rights too long withheld . A chill caught in the morning is

      seldom shaken off during the day ; and the benumbing effects of Lord John ' s temporising prologue have been felt throughout the whole of the drama subsequently enacted . Out of doors the consequences have been still more palpable . There has not been a sentence of cordial or genial sympathy in the aim of the amendment , in any public journal of weight or influence . In terms , more or less sarcastic , it has been treated as a well-manufactured drag-net to catch votes , in order that by the weWit of-the cargo the wily steersman might be enabled to run down a lighter boat . But the personal game to be achieved has been far more obvious than any certainty of advantage to the popular cause ; the people have looked on , during the struggle , with indifference , and learnt its result ¦ without emotion .

      It was not until after a week ' s experience of the consequences of this mode of proceeding , nor until after it had been turned to damaging account by Lord Palmerston that Lord John ' s co-laborateur in the production of the resolution attempted to repair the mischief . But Sir James Graham , though a marvellously clever administrator and political critic , is not the man to infuse confidence into a party . Every Government would be glad to have the use of his pen and his tongue ; out who , either in or out of oflice , oares a farthing for what Sir James Graham calls his opinion ? Like tho woman of Saiuaria , he has had many

      of thorn , ou < l that in such ' quick succession that nobody can toll if the one that ho now professes to have is really liis or not . For want of a better , however , the weathercock member for Carlisle was put up to declare , that by a further extension of suffrage in towns ho and his noble friend meant the present municipal franchise , which comes pretty nearly to the same thing , in most places , as a Gl . rating ; for , under tho Small Tenements A-et the greater proportion of Si . and Al . tenements are rated in the name of the landlord , and their occupants , therefore , could not bo counted , in general ,

      as an element of inoroasc . What is worse is the condition of three years' continuous residence , and two years and a half paymont of rates . Wo veiy much dotibt if ; in country towns , this supplementary suiThvgo would add 20 per cont , ^ on an averago , to tho constituencies : in London , and other largo cities , it would ¦ ¦ virtually amount to no addition at all . This , aftov a week ' s cogitation , is tho upshot of the grand move , for sake of whioh the Cabinet , if not tho country , is to be turned upside down . Mr . Walpolo had already intimated that ho would have no objection to go thus far } and

      Lord Palmerston and his friends , as well as Mr . Gladstone and those who follow his lead , were all long since committed to a 61 . franchise by the bill of 1854 . Finally , it is apparent , . from the speeches made by Sir Biilwer Lytton , Sir : Stafford Northcote , and Sir John Pakingtoii , that art influential section of the Cabinet would have no insuperable qualm about going thus far , provided only they had been driven into it quietly in Committee , and not kicked into it before the second reading . The

      unanimity , in fact , which prevails in the present House in favour of doing as little as possible , is quite edifying ; and so little scope do the ascertainable differences between rival parties , on the score of the suffrage , afford for argument or display , that in the speech of Mr . Horsman , as in those of several other niembersj no allusion whatever was made to the subject . . Unquestionably , the two most remarkable exhibitions of intellectual courage and adroitness , were those of Lord Palmerston and Mr . Gladstone . Both are evidently playing against Lord John Russell for the leadership of the House of Commons . The

      former could hardly have found a decent excuse for refusing to follow " his noble friend , the member for the City of London , " in a general demonstration in favour of reform . But having agreed ^ to vote for the motion , in order to save the mark with the Wobum Whigs , and the wavering Radical , the next thing to be done was to damage the proceeding as much as possible , with a view to conciliate the bulk of the Tories . T . hfe arrogant and insolent tone in which Lord Palmerston addressed those Avho happen to sit on the Treasury bench , did not provoke the same resentment from the mass of the country gentlemen- who sit behind them . Nor was

      it intended to do so ; on the contrary , the whole drift of his -lordship ' s 1 speech -was more conservative by some degrees than Lord John ' s ; , and as it was a great deal better conceived and delivered , it was far more acceptable to them . They could not fail to remember , that it was he , af ter all , who had broken up the Cabinet of 1852 , on the morrow of its producing something like a good bill ; that he had quitted the Cabinet of 1854 , sooner than consent to a better one ; and that he had himself been the head of a Cabinet subsequently for three years , ¦

      which had contrived to exist without . having any bill at ¦ . all . No one except Mr . Gladstone could have a chance for the lead of such a House as the present , after such a speech from Lord Palmerston . The meniber for the University felt that ho must bid something still higher in the way of resistance to change , and he resolved , accordingly , to become the champion of nomination boroughs . It is all very well for people to say , how could so clever a man think of taking tip with such antiquated notions ? For our part , we see nothing strange whatever in it . Mr . Gladstone * sees , that after the

      courses of bleeding and purging it lias « vmc through—first under the hands of Sir Robert Peel , and ' more lately under those of Doctor Disraeli , and his assistants—Toryism , if ifc is to live at all , must have some marrow put into its bones , It has gone on conforming and conceding ,. throwing up and giving out , until it has hardly a leg to stand upon . Any amount of unpopularity with the unenfranchised many ., or of antagonism with another sect of the privileged few , would be better than Gladstone well

      this . There arc besides * as Mr . knows , great and powerful ' influences in Church and State , in country and town , in camp and Court , which only need a resolute and eloquent champion to rally thorn around the old flag of Toryism . We bclievo this to be Mr . Gladstone ' s purpose , and if ho adheres to it we believe he will succeed . But as for Reform , let the people bo assured that nothing worjth having will bo granted I » y tho present House of ' Commons . If Reform there is to bo , it must be carried out of doors .

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      THE RUSSO-FBKNCH ALLIANCE . AVmathvisk . may bo thoug ht of ltuajiiiu strategy , it is impossible to dftputo tho diplomatic sktli During the latter portion of lust year the influcnco of tho Gsar was iwotl successfully _ to stimulate French and Sardinian ambition at the expense of Austria . Genera encouragement was hold out to both with a lavish hand , iuMlvrh . cn some difficulty was made , about the matrimonial alliance between tho House of Buonaparte and that of Savoy , tho Grand Duke Constantino did not diaduUi to become special attorney in the matrimonial suit , which , xindor his auspices , was

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      There is nothing" so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arkold . . a— —_ . ¦ . ¦ '

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      fflubtiq glfairs .

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      OFFICE , NO . , CATHERINE-STREET , STRAND , W . C ., The commodious premises formerly occupied by the Morning Herald .

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      NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated foVthe name and address , of-the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good laith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we rereive Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits oi the communication . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

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      No 1 H . MUTUAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETIES WIIX APPEAR IU OUR NEXT . ;

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      SUBSCRIPTION TO " THE LEADER . " ONE GUINEA PER YEAR ' , UNSTAMPED , TREPAID . ( Delivered Gratis ) .

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      SATURDAY , APRIL 2 , 1859 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 2, 1859, page 433, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2288/page/17/