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    REACTIONARY HOPES AND DESIGNS/

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    B EFQItti Parliament adjourned for the recess , we stated' 0111 conviction that hopes had begun to be entertained in certain influential quarters of the ' possibility of af resting , ere long , the present 3 Imistry in that course of liberal and enlightened policy they have shown their disposition to pursue ,. We had reason to believe that the parliamentary holidays would be employed by the various sections of Tory ' and Whig opposition , in maturing plans of concerted action against the friends of progress , abroad and at home . Symptoms had not been wanting of the establishment of a good understanding between the partisans of reaction

    on opposite sides of the House of Commons ; and in the House of Lords , Lords Grey , and Nokmax by had openly joined Lord jDerby and his friends in desultory but unceasing attacks on the administration . The few days that have elapsed since the two Houses reassembled have sufficed to show how industriously the interval has been used in promoting mutiny and desertion . Not content with the aid of irregular skirmishers , still affecting- to wear liberal uniform , the recruiting agents and under workers of the Court Party , as the Conservatives now wish to be called , appear to liavesucceeded in detaching from the cause of liberalism more than one of those who have received honour and emolument

    from . Ministers . As long as it is possible we shall forbear to . name names ; we are willing to leave opportunity for reconsideration and repentance ere it be too late ; but where overt acts of treason to party and to principles have been committed , we have no choice but to speak plainly . The notice of Mr . Massey to refer the Beform Bill to a Select Committee is one of those violations of good faith , decorum , and consistency , -winch it is impossible to pass over with ordinary comment : for if such acts can be ¦ ¦ p erpetrated with impunity , all political . cohesion among public men must come to an end , all sense of party honour must be lost , and with it all hope of constitutional government

    conducted in . any higher spirit than that which was prevalent in iFrance under Louis P hilipp e , or in Spain , under Qneen Isabella : If public men are to be suffered to combine together , and , under a . recognised flag , to seek the confidence and aid of the people in expelling a rival set of men from power because they will not absolutely and unconditionally acknowledge the ensign thus raised ; and if , when power has been gained , and their rivals supplanted , certain of them may suddenly attempt to haul down their flag , and at the bidding of their opponents turn round and fire in the faces of the chiefs who have led , fed , and promoted them , then all public pledges must go for nought , and all political ties between man and man must be irreparably

    loosened . Mr . Massey is one of those spoilt children of Whiggery who has been , through some unexplained influence , pushed on in his parliamentary career , without having ever rendered , or ever showing that he is able to raider , any important service either to his patrons or to the public . If the former are content with the consideration they have got in exchange for the patronage they have bestowed on him , that is their affair ; and as for the public , it is too conscious that it has neither part nor lot in the matter of aristocratic employments to waste its time discussing whether this eldest son or the other younger son ought to have the preference for any given place ; But the public has a right to inwhen the is

    terpose , mul ' it will assuredly do so indecency . committed of unfair play . We don't mind the exaction of jnillious a year to supply stakes for the aristocratic game of Gowrninr / " JHughud . But the political Rouge H Noir must bo played fair . People won't ! stand it else . Every lord and relative , or dependent of a lord , may go in to win on whichever colour ho pleases , but he must not double-back upon . those ho pretends to be playing with ; first , because the thing . is too scandalous to be endured ,, nml next because the extra expense to us of the delay and confusion it must cause would be too heavy to be borne . Tho member for Sulford was for some years au undor-secretary of Lord Palmkuston , and he ¦ is now his Chairman of Ways ond Menus : and it were mure

    shuffling and hypocrisy to pretend that ho could over have obtained either one situation or tho other save upon the implied understanding that ho would give on honourable support to the men and the measures of the Administration . Nobody asked < him to put his conscience ! unconditionally into the keeping of tho Whipper-in ; and- nobody over expected him to violate nnv exceptional or reserved pledge ho might have given on any particular subject , But as nn upright man ho was bound , when ho took office from tho present Cabinet , to give thorn notice it' ho dissented from tho loading principles on which tlioy came into power , or else to sustain . those principles to tho best of his abilities .. \\ hat lias Mr . Massey done ? Jlo know , as well as every other man in tho Jkingdom , that Lord Pauijsubton could not have resumed power last year without tho co-operation of Lord John Kl ' bsrllj

    he knew , as every )) od y knew , that Loud Joiix would not join unless a £ 10 county franchise , a £ 6 borough franchise " , and a transfer , of sonic five-and-twenty seats were elements of a lleform Bill , which should be a Cabinet question , lie raised no objection , .-he- "muttered . no-dissent , -but he took one of the fV-yv , offices of distinction and profit whose tenure does not depend nil the con- , tinuancc of the , Ministry ; and after having-thus obtained position and pay , he suddenly starts up and announces his intention of moving that the lleform Bill should be taken out of the incompetent hands of its authors , and scut to a select committee , to amuse themselves with it as a football for the remainder of tho session . When Mr . T ) Israeli recommended Lord John Russell to withdraw the Bill because it lacked / the fantastic , embroideries of that which he had himself introduced in IS 5 ! . ) , we . thought the suggestion sufficiently offensive ; but , as a specimen of parliamentary arrogance , it fails before the performance of 'Mr . Massky ; indeed , we arc not aware that any precedent or parallel can be found for an outrage so wanton and so gross on all the ordinary rules of political life . If the motion be persisted ¦ in , it-must be ' met with a direct negative , ami . defeated by a substantial majority , or Ministers must' resign " . No middle course , iii such a case , is possible . It is not a question of detail or of degree ; it is a . question of competency to legislate and to govern . A Cabinet which is not fit to frame a llefqrm Bill is an ¦ im-posturc and a cheat , which . '' . ought ' not . to by allowed to exist for an hour ; and a Cabinet which , having ' proposed such a measure , and is unable to ' -carry it , cannot , without incurring the basest of 'imputations , retain office for a single day . To refer such a Bill to a select committee would he highly objectionable on other grounds . It would be to subvert the essential principle hitherto recognised in . our constitutional system , that the responsibility , of originating all essential changes in the- representative , or executive policy of the country , must rest with the Ministers of the Crown . Private members may introduce bills for these or other purposes , in order to be able to develop in detail the- views . ' they commend to the notice , of Parliament ; and the customary mode of ensuring them a dispassionate examination , without committing the House in any way to cither their principles or their provisions , is to refer them to a select committee . This tribunal is chosen invariably from both sides of the House ; it contains , consequently , both friends and foes of the proposed measure ; it sits twice a week in a room upstairs , from which it has the power to exclude the public if it will ; its members may or may not attend as they individually please ; it may occupy weeks or months in hearing evidence and examining documents ; and finally , it may , before'grbuse shooting begins , recommend such evidence to be printed without , making any other report . This is the tribunal and mode of investigation to which new and unsifted projects arc referred for want of u better , and very unsatisfactory its working often proves to be . But , to refer a bill like that introduced by Ministers on tin ; subject of Parliamentary lieforin to such an inquisition , would be merely a roundabout " way of declaring them unfit for the post they iill , ' without indicating what other sot of men were better entitled . And this is , in point offnet , that which constitutes the most shabby nnd sinister feature of Mr . Massey ' s proposition . The Anti-lteform AVhigs wish to make use of the Aiiti-Kclbrm Tones , to overthrow the Liberal ( lovernnient , amltlie . Austrian Tories arc content to use the Austrian . Whigs for tho suuus object , speculating that in tin ; . scramble that must ensue on the expulsion of . the present mou from power , they will bo able to secure the Government for themselves . Will the House of Commons Jend itself to ' these designs ? "Will . it encourage the evil counsellors of the Court in hopes of reaction in foreign and domestic policy ? Is it prepared for open alienation from France , renewed intrigues witli Austria , a gradual undoing of all that has boen done in support of Italian liberty , and the resuscitation of u . dynastic policy throughout Europe at the cost and to the sliamo of England ? Is it prepared to refuse all moderate ! demands of Keform at . home , and thereby to set a premium on the arts of demagoguism , and the eloquence of fneUous discontent ? Fs itprepared to have tho nmnu of the Palace identified in the popular mind with tin ? expulsion of -Liberalism from power , and the installation therein of men devoted to reactionary views ? 'I he Ukkys and CJlakjsnuons , MoitaiANiivs nnd IIoiwmanm may be forward with their reekloss flattery of what they believe to ho the leaning of thn Court in homo and foreign affairs ; and they may perchance find among the members } of tho present administration mon not indisposed to intrigue against , their chiefs imd colleagues , whose fidelity to principle they have neither the courage to gainsay nor tho spirit to appreciate or sympathise with , lint it- will bu an evil duy for erowu and country if , hy tergiversation or I miehery , the rolioy of protn'osa heretofore pin-sued shall bu baflled or , undermined , Mont than oaee in our history has the attempt buou ttiado , but never has it , ended otherwise than in clisuHtrous .

    Untitled Article

    April 21 , 1860 . J The ^ Leader and ' Saturday' ¦ -Analyst . \ ' 367

    Reactionary Hopes And Designs/

    REACTIONARY HOPES AND DESIGNS ;

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 367, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2344/page/3/