Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 17th September 1859, Edition 1 of 3, Page 1059, Untitled Article

Page 1059
Page 15
15 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)

      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

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • 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

      ™ se and an Emp loyment Act was passed to set Fw to work and feed them . An immense num .-Kslhen taken care of , and in 1849 , after the WrsT was passed , there were no less than 620 , 747 papers in Ireland-two-thirds as many as m Hand , while the population was only one-third S t . This could not continue , and Ireland gradually returned to her normal condition . By fhe last return the number of paupers was 44 , 866 . The great number of paupers in England ^ deeply to be regretted : it will not be lessened , though might become as badly offas the Irish , were

      we ^ we to do as they do . in Ireland Contrasting the number of the labouring multitude here and there and contrasting the continual turbulence there with the peace here , our habitual pauperism , it is plain , is better than their habitual starvation . If the Times be now an advocate for abolishing the provision for the poor in England , its conversion is miraculous . Blunders like the one exposed are for it an every-day occurrence .

      Untitled Article

      WHO GOVERNS?—THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PEOPLE . Those who are not so deeply immersed in the stream of events as to be unable to see whither it runs , must have remarked how much the responsibilities of the people have increased with their freedom . That the press , representing the public sentiments , was very instrumental in lashing the lagg ing Aberdeen ministry into the war with Russia is certain . That it also in the same manner supported and promoted the war against Canton is could

      equally certain . Neither of these wars have been waged had not the multitude given to both a general and a cordial support . They now find themselves hampered by another Chinese war , and when they are about t 6 combine to secure financial reform they will have to incur greater expense and submit to heavier taxation . They have taken on themselves the government of Hindostan , even to guaranteeing its debtsj and _ the last loan bears a high premium in the market because the lenders hold the British people bound to pay it . They are so much the masters of the Government that the

      best excuse which can be made for ships dismantled and sailors turned adrift when both are needed for the national defence , and must be , if possible , restored at a great cost , is , that the impatient people would not bear the expense . By ministerial advocates they' are said to have forced the mighty Pahnerston and the powerful Derby against their inclinations , from a miserable-spirit of parsimony , to reduce the Income Tax and wither the right arm of the public force . Of the justice

      of the charge we speak not—we only refer to it as a proof that the multitude , and not the ministers , already administer the government ^ and cannot escape from the responsibility of their acts . This new position , in which , not the Russell ' s and the Gladstone's and the Disraeli ' s—the great national talkers and soi disant wise men , who are well paid for their services—but the unpaid and unknown writers of the press , and the multifarious mob , are the real guides and governors of society , deserves much consideration . It * is , in truth ,

      entirely at variance with all notions of government which implies coercion ; as it is founded on force" Force first made conquest , and-then , conquest law . " It still carries with it the idea of coercion , and can only exist by force . But now that the multitude governs , there is nothing distinct from the Government to coerce . The multitude coerces itself . The very condition of society which antireformers dread—to avoid which they , on all lands of pretexts , refuse to extend the franchise—already exists . The multitude , by old

      custom or foolish theory denied a voice in the elections , exercises its influence otherwise , and hurries peaceful ministers like Lord Aberdeen into war , and dashing ministers like Lords ¦ Pahnerston and Derby into parsimoniously crippling the naval defences . Political theories are put to the route by such facts . Society cannot go back to despotism and slavery ; the demand is to go forward to more freedom , which carries with

      ™ more deference to the multitude , a inore open acknowledgment of its supremacy , and a more complete identity of the thing coerced with the coercing power . * W the people this new position actually reached is more worthy of consideration than for avowed" politicians . Justly are the inhabitants ° * the United States accused of continuing to act

      on the old principles and prejudices of Europe , in regard to government and diplomacy , after they have professedly discarded them and established a government of and by the people . Now the people of England find themselves , without professedly designing it , in a situation ' similar to that of the Americans . The power exercised by old despotism and old kingcraft lias actually fallen into their hands , and they continue to carry out against themselves the old practices which were intended to confirm and . secure despotism . Both

      in the United States and in England democracy has walked into the place of old coercion , and , as if suitable to itself , " occupies it with apparent delight . . . . Democracy , acting on despotic principles , is , however , unbearable . Democracy enforcing a great system of coercion on itself is suicidal . Its power goes where that of the despot cannot reach , into every house and every family ; and the coercive principles of a despotism enforced by democracy must be the worst of all political and social conditions . " We would make shift , " says

      Lord Macaulay , " to live under a debauchee or a tyrant , but to be ruled by a busybody is more than human nature can bear . " Obviously , the busybody rule of journalists and the multitude is infinitely more penetrating than any other possible rule , and if the all-powerful democracy here * as in the United States , is to maintain the old principle of coercionwe and our children may

      , bid a long adieu to ease and comfort . The enormous number of punishments for trivial acts , to -which we adverted a fortnight ago , is democratic interferences on despotic principle carried out against one portion of society . There are numerous indications of- its gradual extension ; and the resistance to it of the master builders tells us how little the other classes will like to be

      governed by the multitude , on the coercive principle" of depotism . A legislator was originally a man much more wise and enlightened than others . Perhaps he was supposed to be inspired , and was honoured as a prophet . But now the legislator of England is the House of Commons * and the House of Commons is the creature of the 101 . householder . Amongst them are numbered grocers who manuout of

      facture cofiee out of rotten coffins and sugar sand ; publicans who doctor their beer with just enough poison to stimulate thirst and not immediately kill the toper ; manufacturers of shoddy out of devil ' s dust and paste , which they sell for cloth ; concoctors of companies to plunder the credulous within the bounds of law ; discount brokers , who have no objection to deal in forged warrants ; railway directors who cook accounts ; : and bank directors who appropriate the deposits

      of their customers and the capital of their constituents ; and this great body cannot possibly be corrupted , though it may be purified , by any extension of the franchise . The legislator which it calls into existence is the mere representative of classes neither exclusively worthy nor exclusively honest . He has no more authority than they have , and is no more deserving of respect than they are .

      At present this legislator acts on precedent—runs in the tracts of the Plantagenets , the Tudors , and the Stuarts . Proceeding from the 101 . householders , it acts in the spirit of all that was despotic in the frame of our government . The upper classes , and their enlightened organs , already complain of the caprice and sometimes of the folly of" this instrument of the 10 / . householders , and are , in consequence , generally

      opposed to any enlargement of the constituency . Every extension of the franchise implies a greater ascendancy of the multitude , and makes legislation , on the principle of coercion , utterly unbearable for all . Now , then , the principle of legislation is of infinite more importance than its form ; and it is now the duty of the multitude to impede and prevent despotic legislation , and all despotic and coercive proceedings , in the name of freedom .

      Untitled Article

      LECTURES AND LECTURERS . Twh month of September is the opening of the autumn * season . There are . certain to be falling stars in August \ gales are sure to awse at sea about thetimeof the equinox . As certainly will the doors of Mechanics * institutes ana provincial Athenaeums be open during the- present month to evening lecturers . Local committees

      are drawing up their programmes ; local lecturers are puzzling tneir own or somebody else ' s brains for something to lecture about ; - ^ -and , strangest of all , local subscribers are taking out tickets for the coming season . The lecture is an institution peculiar to England . Nobody but an Englishman would have the courage to deliver an evening lecture , or the patience to listen to one . Take the prospectus of any provincial institute , and the chances are

      you will find amongst the entertainments provided for the season a lecture on the " Study of Conchology , " by the parish doctor ; a discourse on the" Geography of the Holy Land , " by the curate ; an essay on the " Wars of the Roses , " by the intellectual squire , and a recitation of " Romeo and Juliet , " by the poet of the place , " interspersed with original comments on the modern stage . " The chances are , we reneat , that in any given prospectus you find the

      above lectures . If you do not , you are certain to find something equally uninteresting . What —we speak in the name of the patient public—do we care for any of these things ? Prawns and periwinkles are the only species of " Crustacea " in which we feel the slightest interest . Whether the Jordan runs into the Red Sea , or the Dead Sea , or neither , is a matter on which otir ignorance is only surpassed by our indifference . It is so long since our school-days that we have forgotten , and don't care to remember , which was the white rose and which was the red—and , as to

      Shakespeare , of course we appreciate his genius , but still we prefer to read him by ourselves after dinner , when we can go to sleep in . an easy chair , instead of on a . hard bench without a back . These sentiments may be those of gross ignorance * butthey are , doubtless those of nine .-tenths of the audiences at local lectures . Perhaps some candid and ingenious inquirer may ask , If this is the case , why do people go to lectures at all ? The question is doubtless a difficult one , and will only be answered when we are able to tell why it is that oratorios are admired by people who cannot tell

      a note of music , and who in their hearts prefer the "Trab Trab" polka to the symphonies of Mendelssohn ; why Madame Ristori was voted the greatest of actresses hy audiences who did not understand a single word of Italian ; why thousands of persons went miles at night to hear , some one preach at St . Paul's , whom they would not have gone as many yards to hear , at their parish church in the day-time ; why subscribers go on year after year biiying the Edinburgh Review , and never cut the pages ; and why Mr . Martin Tupper has the greatest circulation amonest living poets . When these , and a

      thousand other similar mysteries are solved , we shall be able to tell why people go to Mechanics ' Institute lectures , but not before . The reasons why people are found willing and anxious to lecture are more intelligible . We are not speaking now of paid lecturers , or of men who , like Mr . Gough or Mr . Vincent , deliver lectures in order to promote some specific purpose ; but of lecturers who

      that numerous class of volunteer have , doubtless at this moment , undertaken to deliver a lecture somewhere on some subject or other . There is « a decided pleasure m laying down the law—in being a man of importance for the time—in having an audience to listen to you—in hearing the sound of your own voice—m tact , m lecturing . It is pleasant , too , to bore your friends with the perusal of your composition , ^ d to nourish a vague _ and generaUy ; jam hope ^

      gSSSKeirss : ^ of preacSng . No clerical reformer ever prepared to SdZ the length or number of sermons ; and a lecture is , in snort , nothing more nor less ^ iriicTurer ^ would only lecture on something they care to speak about , and their audiences core to hear about , we should have much fewer lectures . PoBrfSy ? however , we should have larger audiences . We £ o not sanguine , however , as to any deyia * tion occurring from the beaten track , and enter , tain but little doubt that in the course of next weekiZegentleman m black , with a etifTwlute > aeckfce and blue spectacles , will be tracing on ft board , mfr umt v *«* w p ^ / , ,. g iitttrvnm nf the rnrerr vHt © —— - ¦ -

      apiece or « njww »* B « n *• ¦—— -- " >— — ~ - Jordan before a- sleepy and a weary audience ; May their slumbers be sound ! is our parting prayer . '

      Untitled Article

      «_ -.-a ^ k : S * . pt . 17 . 1859 . 1 THE 1 , E A D E B . . .. : 1059

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1859, page 1059, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2312/page/15/