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.PARLIAMENT AND / ITS .MASTER. ¦
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: ITALY AND HUNGARY.
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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.
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miEE personal ascendancy of Mi % Gladstone is the absorbing J _ topic of the parliamentary day . There has been nothing like it in the House of Commons since the death of . Mr . Caxxixg . Like that distinguished man , the present Chancellor of the Exchequer owes his pre-eminence solely and emphatically ' to his own great talents , and to his unwearied diligence in their cultivation .. Like him he owes little to fortune or family connection . Like him the opening of his public career was heralded by the eclat of university distinction , and marked by early success in debate . Like him his attachment to the Tory party was early suspected of -wavering , and his consequent
position was long doubt fid and disputable . Historic memories -and political idealisms jarred in the minds of both with the . dogmatism of modern democracy , and th-i political quakerism of thcV Utilitarian party . The large clement of benevolence , and the high ambition of-both , naturally lead them to espouse an industrial policy widely liberal and nationally popular ; but whenever questions , of political or ecclesiastical power were at stake , Mr . Canning relapsed into the old traditions of Conservatism , and up to the present tinie Mr . Gladstone lias shown no disposition to discard them . As a rare implement for the disintegration and damage of a rival faction , the Whigs in general have always been ; ready to praise and promote the
anticipating their wishes in finance ^ he has brought forward arid virtually . carried a marvellous Budget : this is the move forward . But the move backward is about to come , or rather it has came already . The new Reform Bill riot only retains iu existence every rotten borough in the kingdom , but Mr . Gladstone ' has actually persuaded Lord Jojix Kussell , who sentenced scores of them to execution in 1852 , to adopt his Conservative doctrines on the subject , avid- to try to rehabilitate the Tory principle of mere nominal representation . We have got a slice of financial improvement from Mr . Gladstone , and now lie is about to make us jiay the political price of it . And so also it will be , we fear , in other matters . On the Italian question he moves onwards dashiijgly with the popular . party ; but on Church Hate Abolition he is dead against us . The Manchester School sanguinely reckon , indeed , upon being able to count upon him hereafter as their leader in all things ; and the readiness with which Mi ; . Bu . roux has renounced his Birmingham programme of Reform betrays their eagerness to close a bargain , from which they hope for official ' in- ' exchange for demagogic power . It is hard to say , indeed , whether Mr . Gladstone has ' conceded more to Mr . . Hhioht , or Mr . Ruigiit more to Mr . (• r ,. \ i ) sroNJ : ; but tk wi ' M // r ronVidle seenis to be complete , and no doubt there is an understanding between the hig h contracting parties , that the veto hitherto exercised upon the admission of the member for . Birmingham . to the Cabinet shall he 'presently , withdrawn . AYhat .. effect the further infusion of calico principles into the Government will have oa its stability we sluill consider bv and bv .
niat-e . hless orator of our day , just as they were'to flatter and even to" follow the unrivalled rhetorician of the times of George IV . : but then ,, as now , the more fastidious and more exacting members of the congregation worshipping at Brook ' s , 'sullenly refused to acknowledge the orthodoxy of " the borrowed minister , and were ready •¦ whenever occasion served to dispute : his authority , and impugn ' . the . sincerity ' of his professions . The greedy and garrulous crottid of politicians of all kinds worship success ; and Mr . Canning ' s oratorical ascendancy in the House of Commons for many years was so indisputable , that the fine ladies of the Whigs , could no more resist the temptation of his society , than ' the coarser-minded men of the party could deny themselves the
benefits they hoped to derive from supporting Ins measures . A certain section of Conservatives , ehieily consisting of men . of rank . and refinement , adhered . to him with anxious but often embarrassed fidelity . They delighted in his popularity , and still more delighted in the ' delight he showed that lit' took in being . delightful . But they were never entirely free from the fear of his getting politically tipsy with the effervescence of the cup he continually filled afresh , He ruled over men by the power of fascination . Others were as wise and well informed on economic subjects , and more consistently liberal on political ones ; but nobody could make the ri » ht cause win as he could , when he took it up earnestly .
The earnestness might be temporary , ' but it was sure to bo triumphant . The Goweus and Cavendishes , Cahlisles and Lansdownes made him the idol of their adulation ; while the BtJitDETTs and Broughams boasted their readiness in parliament ? k to stick their knees into his back ; " but the Hahuowbys mid Buistols , the Bentjncks and the . Binntngs were as frequently afraid that he would turn , downright Whig , as the Gueys and II on houses were fond of prophesying his return to the old ways of Toryism . And so it is with ' Mr . Gladstone at the present hour , lie poises himself with inimitable dexterity on a alackrope swung between the Cnrlton arid the Reform . Ho holds in his own hand the wand of enchantment , and so long as he can dunce forward imposingly and then dance backward
gracefully , all the world will qlnp its hands ; and as none : can help him , few ' feel'disposed to . dispute his perilous pre-eminence , _ for few have the vanity to imagine themselves fitted to take 'his place . But if is impossible to dismiss the consciousness , that the position , however dazzling and exalted , is nuwssarily one of imminent instability .. Us exigencies nre inexorable ) : they forbid any long cessation from hazardous efforts ; the unequal dancer ' must donee or die . The French proverb of rccular pour Iu iiiirn . v muter has its converse , on the political slnekropo ; and accordingly , whenever the unrivalled artist has accomplished some splendid movement forward , wo know that ho must begin nconvapoiulmg movement in a retrograde direction , or , grasping ' one or other ol the poles behyeen which he has hitherto played his surprising port , ho must propane to descend .
Mr . Gladstone is undisputed master of the position in parliament nt the present moment , lie lms mndo that position for lumsclf by' his own unaided goniua ami indefatigable industry ; and as u man of tho people we rejoice heartily in his success , and look not without wonder nt , his singular position . But let us not inistuko what that position is . It is riot that of tho loader of n grout party , for tho only party to wliom ho ever pvofossed to bolong-distrust and dofnmo him , while tho-party whom ho nt present serves rnthcir than leads , doily refuse to follow his bidding or obov his call . Adopting their views , and
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¦ fflU-lJi inhabitants ol i e . ntrai itaiy -nave not ( usappoiuLeu X expectations ibrmed . of their prudence and . patriotism , and by deciding ipr annexation to Sardinia they have , immensely advanced their-national cause ., and ' the-respect in . which they will be held in every country where liberty js . loved- and huniau progress desired . ' In a few days the Sardinian . ( j o \ vruiiio . nt will officially declare , its intentions * and assume the-. sovereignty which has been so honourably obtained ; and it will be sccu wliet-liev the Austrian-Court will -abandon its pretensions , or venture upon fresh acts of aggression , either in its oWii name or through i ( s puppets , the l ) uke of Modkna juhI the Pope . How much the Ho ly ' Father is beloved in his own territories may bi ; seen from the votes taken at Bologna , which . was- of late the second city in the Papal States . It appears that 2 ' 1 , 6 ' 9-i electors voted for annexation , and the important number of iico on the other side . The . mighty two ought at least to be canonized during their lifetime in order to make the most of such a splendid example of ¦ fidelity and folly , in which mixed condition alone can 1 ' ius IX . expect to find ' faithfulness ¦ in followers not actuated by selfish
views . It is belicvecl in Italy and Austria that a collision is -impending , and the matter will probably turn upon whether the Emperor of the French appears inclined to leave , the Italians to bear the first , brunt of tho struggle . The 1 , ' ope is reported to linvo 20 , 0 : 00 men ; the -Duke of Modena ' s little army can at any moment be surreptitiously increased by additions from the Austrian ranks , and Count IUcchbero has prepared for a course of military diiplieily by pretending thai , men wearing the Austrian . uniform , and specially scut to the Pope by his Jmperhil mn . ster ' s orders , are not Austrian soldiers at all . On the : 30 | h January this worthy minister of the Haps in : itn crown declared in thc ' i-npst tornuvl " way , as may be seen by tho papers recently published , " AYc shall ' begin by establishing the fact , thai , at the present hour there is not in the whole of tlie Italian peninsula a single Austrian soldier outside tho boun ' duru . 's of . tho monarchy . " At that very timo n . n Austrian general uonnuumled tho Po . pii ' s forces , and a fortnight before , our vice-consul at Aueoiin wrote to Mr . Co ' kmk'i ' t at Kloniuee , to say that the number of
recruits landed at Ancona , " most of them Wearing Austrian uniforms of th « rcspoctivo roginusnts tlmy bolougtxl to , is , u ]) to this date , three hundred and eighty-three , including oleveii ollieers , whose names aro iiniioxod . " Tho clny hesforo Count Iticoii bbiih w . 'I his name to the statement wo liimi ( motiul —• " scsvouty-ii-inu men and one oflieer , Austrian reeriiit . s for tho J ' apnl suryio-, arriv , e ( at Aueona on bqnrd a small Pupal stnnuier from Trii-stf , and after landing , marched qll to Mmvrata as usunl . " On tho 38 ! h , when our vico-cousul . gave this information , ho described tlie district as in the (< deepest imxiuly and ( jonsternation . " I ' oophwere taken from thoir bodrt nt night , and niarohed oil" louukuoivn prisons ; and hoadxlrf , (< tho uuiiibcrof porSons who hnvu emigrated from Anconii and distriot , sint' < i tho ooinnionoomcnt of the Itiilian war , is reckoned to bo about sJOOO ; " a nuinbor wliieh i » in itself considerably but which uppoarn euurnwxifj n ' ""' " !! "( , that tlu > whole population of tins province w iih only J / U , oi . \
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March 17 , 1860 J . The Leader and Satti ? day Analyst . 247
.Parliament And / Its .Master. ¦
PAKLIAMENT AND ITS MASTER .
: Italy And Hungary.
: ITALY AND HUNGARY .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2338/page/3/
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