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Leader (1850-1860), 8th January 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 40, TO COHKKSPONDKNTS. A Radical.- IiiHtciid...

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      An Evening With A Propagandist * Address...

      modest , unassuming world : I say , then , that my theory would convert the hot-copper of some nobjtehearted men intothe molten gold of conviction . It would make their truth like unto a lodestar , attracting all eyea and ears unto it . I don't say that all men are to act as I would have them , because it would ruin some of the strongest even to try . You get deep utterances out of Maccall in his volcanic way . But you would hear his voice no more if you refused him the freedom of an occasional rant . The fiery heart of Kingsley , so eloquent with passion , would grow cold if you asked him to pause over his generous

      accents- The Purgatory of Suicides would collapse , if you abstracted the Chartist vehemence . I do not include Thomas Carlyle in this classification . He does more than stir men ' s blood , he stirs their brains . In him bnrns the furnace of genius , by which the mould of his thought , intensified , is cast into beauty and strength . The old rhetoricians Avere not like you . They denned rhetoric as the art of persuading the minds of men . You practice it as the art of irritating the minds of men . It is of very little use to have right upon our side , and you think it everything .

      " Of very little use that we have right upon our side ? My dear theorist , you are at sea . Why , what would you have upon our side ? " he demanded vehemently . " That also which would make the right victorious , " I replied . " We ought to know , with the wise Jansenist , ' that when we seek to move the minds of the people , it is a small thing to have the right on our side ,

      and it is a great evil to have only the right , and not to have also that which is necessary for making it relished . ' You have never thought of this . Out of all that may in truth be said , you have no business to say anything but that which will diminish the evil you hate . You and I , as good soldiers of the people , should weigh every word as a weapon , and use none but such as thin the ranks of the enemy . "

      " Well , there ' s something in that , I allow , " said my friend , lighting his second cigar . " Take a cup of coffee , Ion , and tell me , " added he , " do you mean to say that the Kingsleys , the Coopers , and the Maccalls , are of no value to us ?" " I have never said so . They fill the world with a noble shout , but is there any reason why the shout should not also be a power ? Is propagandism to be an

      accident or a design—an ebullition or an art ? Your friend , Lloyd Garrison , does well with his Vesuvian lava floods ; but the question is , could not he and his brave colleagues do better ? What you have done to-night is better than doing nothing , but your inquiry ought to be , have you done all you should ? The enthusiast is content with doing something—the propagandist aims at doing the best tiling . Why is the artist-spirit , which charms all men on the stage , for ever absent from the platform ? Why is not the propagandist an artist ?" " You will tell me , " I said , stopping my propagandist friend as he was about to reply— - " you will tell me that passion moves the world , and intellect only criticises it . " " Well , I should have told you so , " lie interposed ; " but go on . " " Paissioii doeH nothing of the kind , it Only inflames men—it does not save them . How is it that this Hilling . sgatc talent , of invective has crept into high advocacy ? To denounce , to vituperate , to execrate , is tho attribute of the ; mob . Indignation is brought to perfection at the corner of every alley . Passion is victorious in every stew . The fishfiig can confidently compete with the Member of Parliament at that , < j ; iune any day . Tho bate of one another is the easiest , the idlest , the vulgarCHt , the most impotent of all arts . Yet no noonor does Indignation mount the rostrum than tho applailHO of tho mob lifts it , into a profession ; and when a dictionary of fruitless superlatives fulln upon the head of an audieneo , and , worse than fruitless , dirtn . sf . roun invectives , which multiply tho popular eneinien , wo hail tho orator as a ' gonorous hoiiI , ' it ' noble nature , ' a ' larpfo-heartod man . ' " While this reudy-made and unthinking oloquonco is applauded to the echo , many a poor devil i « toiling in Hilenoo and olweurif . y , in training himnclf or training others to do tho real work . In tho hour of conflict ho holds back bin ntrong heart as with a bridle , lost , like an impatient courser , it should Ntart before tho race in open . Hta iron valour in huisbimded liko tlio vet ; enm'n - —not squandered like tile raw rorruif /« . Ho KourohoM for those . wordH your friend Lowell deHcribeis , where ho writes »«^ , Bettor far if . in to Hiioak *' i iVW / iP" ) 1 wimple word , which now and then - "Vs " ' &\\ t *» fftvru t . lioir free nature in tho weak . $ * : & " / ~ 7 " ttjf * i $ ™ llenn hoiis of men ; I ? iX \ % j i ^ JriU > )|* aiui eaniont verm or lino , « 1 . ' 4 > } y . ^'' faJvM'kiiig no t the . ( iraiwi of \ vci , »< i > Sji i ; SU ~* . M ** * f eloaror faith and manhood Bhino Yw— ** w-tfrtmtotrtl toavt . ^• -- ^¦ * * -. L : • ¦ ¦ ' / H : * i v ^ V '

      He pauses for the hour when" he may strike the blow from which tyranny will never recover . He lies in wait through weary years to do the work of the people . Like the soldier , he stands at his silent post , as faithfully at midnight as at noon day- Every effort of his patient life is steady gain to freedom . Here one i ' p awakened , there one is taught , elsewhere another is w * over from the enemy , and thus the ranks of oppre * si ° are . thinned . But for this man we have no word of

      encouragement : we contemptuously dismiss him , as " cold , " as " unimaginative , " as " all calculation , " if we do not honour him with imputations of which the disgrace recoils on ourselves . Whtfo , for the ready artificer of stale hate , the loud-mouthed retailer of denunciations that seal the doom of the oppressed for years to come , the newspaper awards its first praise . The shout of the blatant philanthropist rings the knell of hope to the wretched . He has gratified the " indignation of his soul , " and placed deliverance farther from the captive than ever . At this hour , men are dragging out weary years hi penal settlements who would have

      been liberated long since had it not been for the sympathy of " large-hearted" men at home . The same kind of advocacy has adjourned the day of popular redress all Europe over . There are shouts of applause at some public meetings which have a cry of Murder in them . Some of the most vaunted popularity of the day is dashed with blood . How far these orators are from appreciating the heroic declaration of Mazzini!—a declaration which none but natures of the highest generosity could make : "I have never in my life yielded to an impulse . " Duty is higher than impulse . " It * was now my friend ' s turn to talk . Exhausted

      by his own speech , and disgusted at my dubbing him a " Magnificent Blockhead , " he had borne but a small part in the conversation up to this point , and I had , as the reader will think , snatched an unmerciful advantage from his taciturnity ; but he took eloquent revenge upon me before we parted . Here ends my report . There are subjects which expose one to great misunderstanding . The public will discuss " national defences" to satiety , but the defence of truth , which , if properly managed , would in the end render our national defences less imperative than now , the public cannot tolerate . It js lawful to train soldiers for the Crown , but not advocates f , r the people . The

      discipline of a moral militia is a subject that few would pardon , if properly undertaken . But in those golden student-days , which pass away , alas ! too soonfor allof us , we debated all these topics for their own sakes . After the night here spoken of , we never met again ; and I have no means of knowing whether this conversation was remembered by him the next time the intoxicating clamours of public applause greeted his appearance upon a platform . But that my friend was a real personage , they know well enough " down Massachusetts , " and that is my reason for inscribing this conversation to the zealous and impetuous friends of the negro in those parts . Ion .

      E R [ Her That 40 The Lead . Saturday,

      40 THE LEAD E R . [ Saturday ,

      "Dkskktkks" Ov Tltk Ilusir Brigade. Tur ...

      " DKSKKTKKS" OV TltK IlUSir BRIGADE . Tur tlio Irish elections there is not only tho public interest , arising from tho delay in ascertaining how far public opinion in that country accepts the new Government , but there is—what always accompanies , and often overshadows the public interest in tho sister country- —the personal interest . Messrs . Keogh and Kadleir , tlio first tho Solicitor-Gerieral for Ireland , and tho yecond a Lord of the Treasury , wore the leaders of that " Brigade" which originated in tho ferment of the Kec . IesiaHtical Titles . Bill , and which grew into the Parliamentary strength of from sixty to

      seventy mo ^ i , out of tlio general election . This Brigade had one principle and one plan of action- —opposition to every Knglish Government which would not repeal tho JOeelesiaHtioal Titles Bill , and adopt . J \ 1 r . Sharnutn (' rawi ' ord'M Tenant Right Bill . Tlio sixty or seventy forming the Brigade acknowledged and boasted of I Ins programme ; wore elected , in tho counties , at enormous nacriliccs on tho part of the pior farmers , distinctly on these grounds ; and at . a Herios of banquets following the general election there were great congratulations at the now national prospects opened up by this creation of im " Irish party , " which was to act together to ignore Iinperiul interests ,

      and to look solely and nmgly In the chances proffered by ( he tactics and combinations of Kngli . sh parlies , to eoorco oflicial ICiiglund into tlio required coiicowiioiiH . In tho entliuniiiHiii of the period , Mr . Keogh , an impulsive man , made rash and foolish pledgoti - perhaps suspiciously protesting too much for pcrinanont intention undertaking thai / at no time , under no cireuinstaneeH , would he form part of any Government which would not accept tho Brigade formula of Irinh policy . \\ r _ Siulleir made niirnliuvowh , which , lil < o a keen mini of lint world , he subsequently Haw tho noeoMNity of modifying iui <| explaining away . But in tho caflos of both gentlomon , tho Nation and tho Tablut jurist , that they kivu not ko |> l faith with the people ; and

      that ? gain Ireland has been " sold" by her patriots ; that the Brigade" is , after all , but a new shape of tho old « j ? ish party "—braggarts at the hustings , seekers of rlace in Westminster . Naturally , Mr . Duffy and Mr . Lucas , who had faith in the possibility of coercing Parliament by Irish isolation , and who did not go into the House of Commons to take advantage of its party accidents , and , like other parties , to get the most they could of the measures they wanted , are indignant with Mr . Sadleir , and scornfully furious with Mr . Keogh . But why should the Irish ultra Liberals not look at this matter

      from the same point of view as the Eng lish Radicals ? The question with Mr . Sadleir ( whose political honesty we may assume for the present ) was simply the question which would present itself at the same time to Mr . Osborne—would he serve his country and promote his party views by joining Lord Aberdeen ? Perhaps Mr . Keogh ' s antecedent gratuitous declarations against place disqualified him from taking advantage of the sound general argument which justifies Sir W . Molesworfch , Mr . Osovemmont headed

      borne , and Mr . Sadleir in adhering to a Gby a Conservative Earl , and to which the chief author of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill belongs ; but these questions of " honour" and " consistency" in politics must be determined by practical results . Mr . Keogh , no doubt , in tho presence of the new and utterly unexpected circumstances , with an opportunity before him of rendering direct benefit to his country , repented his premature repudiations of office at Carlow and Athlone Banquets , where priests , who knew little of the House of Commons , or of the

      complicated worldly ways of serving Ireland , were his auditors ; and if he , like Mr . Sadleir , could answer in the affirmative the query which his conscience suggested , the really lionest course to take was that which he did take . And if —as " a member of the Brigade" tells a newspaper—he only took office after submitting Lord Aberdeen ' s office to his friends of his party , and gaming their approval , what spot is really left upon his political honour ? We should

      be sorry to see an able , eloquent man , as Mr . Keogh is , withheld from giving the surety which , his presence in the Government is to Ireland that the policy of Ministers shall be a generous , equal policy to both countries . Tho pure and high-minded motives of Mr . Duffy in creating the Brigade , and in now denouncing this " desertion , " are obvious : but he may rely upon it Parliament is not yet ripe for the " points" of the Brigade .

      How Juries Convict In The Ieish Fashion....

      HOW JURIES CONVICT IN THE IEISH FASHION . Ausurd verdicts , liko misfortunes , never come alone . Mr . Kirwan ' s friends have now " the consolation of knowing that we have a case on this side tho channel , similar to his . " JEcce signum . Tho trial took place on Monday last , at tho Central Criminal Court , John Paxton and Augustus Wynri tho prisoners . " Tho jury , after deliberating for about half an hour roturned a verdict of ' Guilty' against both tho defendants , but recommended them to morcy . " Tlio -Recorder inquired upon what ground . " The jury said thoy were of opinion that more cvidenco might have been produced in support of tho prosecution . " Tho Recorder said , that this was rather the ground for an acquittal than a recommendation to mercy , and the jury had better reconsider tho matter . „ : " The jury accordingly again deliberated in tho box : a fihort time , and eventually retired , and after being absent nearly an hour , they again came into court with a verdict of < Guilty ! ' " Is not this uncommonly liko O'Connoll ' s story of tho Tipperary verdict— "Guilty , but recommended to morcy , on tho ground that tho jury are not sure P" By tho way , a meeting , in reference to Kirwan ' n case , is to bo hold at Anderton's I fotel , Fleet-street , on Monday .

      To Cohkkspondknts. A Radical.- Iiihtciid...

      TO COHKKSPONDKNTS . A Radical .- IiiHtciid of tho " Italiigo , " wo lmvo tlio " Coalition . ' Im UiiH wormi or bettor tjiaii Lord Derby , mid what clno ih open to im lor tho day P 'Dial , is tho whole , question . PlIM . AI . KTHKH . WCIO Hot that topic cloHC . I WO hIiouI . I l . UVO Ifoon nappy to Inivo inHert »< l Imh communication .

      Tiiio Voioii Into In This Hkttkk Woitt.N...

      Tiiio Voioii into in this Hkttkk WoitT . n . —A portrait of my mother hung over tho firopluco : my eyes turned towards it , and for tho first time I cumo ' to a lon ^ pause . Tho picture had an influonoo thuf , <| uioted mo - but what influence I hardly knew . I ' orhups , it lod my « jn nt u , » to the npirif , thai , bad Kone from IW _ . porhmw those secret voices from ( ho unknown world which only tho hoiiI mu listen to , wo .-o loosed , U , that nicn , « ,, it , and spoko within n . o . While I NH | , I ()() kinK m ) a < , ,, ho portnut , 1 grow strangel y and suddenl y cul . n boforo it . My memory flow back to a long illness " that I hud huIfered from , as a child , when my little crudlo-couch w , m I » l . imll , y my mother ' s b (! d , id (/ und B | M , UKUd to sit , by mo m ( ho dull oveningM and hush mo to Bleep . Tho remembranee of ( hi ,, I ,,,,,,.,,,, w ;| h - ,, „ ( , mi < 1 j ,, ; Hint . h \ w . . mght , now bo | , iishiii my spirit , from her pluoo among U ,,, ail {?( ,, <) f ( . , A * HLill | M . UU ( l uwo erupt , over n . o ; and 1 hid my IUco in my hand * . — CoLLwre ' s Jliuil .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 40, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/16/