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    THE Ij-IT-A-D EB. [No. 407, Jaaraaacr 9,...

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    BASIS OE A LIBERAL AGITATION. The demand...

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    POLITICAL PLANS FOR INDIA. The public mu...

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    Financial Prospects Oe 1858. We Have A G...

    his surplus capital in the St . Petersburg and sSastMwl Direct Railway . Canada is constantly issuing new bonds ; her railways are yet unfinished , and anybody may have 5 or 6 per cent , for some time to come from this dependency . Australia wants eight millions for railways , every penny of which is expected to come from the old country . And what shall we say of India , with its millions of acres of rich lands ; with its cotton and indigo fields ; with its railways , steam navigations , and banking establishments ? It is extremely probable that here will be the next great field of speculation , and that various associations will spring up to develop in a hundred ways the undoubted and enormous resources of that vast territory . Money will be wanted by the Government to meet the immediate expenses of the war ; and let it be arranged as it may , a great part will pass indirectly , if not directly , from this country . Brazil has also its railways to make , and Chili will soon be coming for a new loan ; while Brother Jonathan will , at the very earliest moment possible , again begin to play his very safe game of dealing with the old country . His own account of the matter is brief and accurate :. ' when our people fail it is the foreigners who suffer ; we keep the goods , they lose their money . ' Our years of commercial trial have come at decennial intervals : first 1837 , then 1847 , then 1857 , and each has been more momentous than its predecessor . In these days of rapid intercommunication , when electric telegraphs are too slow , and invention is busy in accelerating them—when the whole world is being girt by that magic chain which is binding together the most distant lands—when men that you shook hands with , it seems but yesterday , have been to India and back , and a merchant takes a return ticket to Australia as coolly as we should for Greenwich—when the world is travelling at such a rapid pace , we may fairly venture to predict , without forfeiting our non-prophetic character , that we shall not have again to wait ten years for the return of commercial difficulties—that we may expect before November , 1867 , a recurrence , in a still more fearful form , of the disasters and anxieties of the crisis from which we have just emerged . Committees of both Lords and Commons may sit for months , ample evidence may be collected , and welldigested reports be issued in orthodox blue covers , but it is only by the oft-repeated lessons of bitter experience men learn that well-directed industry is the only reliable source of wealth , and that , when gambling speculations take tlie place of honourable trading , the winnings of the early part of a career are pretty certain to be more than counterbalanced by the subsequent ill-luck of further ventures .

    The Ij-It-A-D Eb. [No. 407, Jaaraaacr 9,...

    THE Ij-IT-A-D EB . [ No . 407 , Jaaraaacr 9 , 18515 . 3 & ^ — " ~~~~ " ~ " ~* " *"""^""" ^^—¦¦——¦—¦ Ssss ^ gg . ference i ifestldefective and corrupt

    Basis Oe A Liberal Agitation. The Demand...

    BASIS OE A LIBERAL AGITATION . The demand for reform is no longer a clamour or an exaggeration . It is calm , rational , persuasive . The Liberal party throughout the United Kingdom is organizing itself ; political unions , as suggested by the Leader , are being established in the midland counties upon , an extensive scale ; a distinguished array of signatures supports the programme of the United Reformers , and ¦^ a ~ Btrong '' tide"r'has "' setTin 7 which 7 if-rnot ^ Black =-ened before the meeting of Parliament , must materially affect tho policy of the administration . It is to no purpose that Cabinet journalism pretends to gallop , in a few phrases of contempt , over tho basis laid by the parliamentary Liberals ; there is a . movement iu progress , the expansion of which does not depend upon the studied insincerity of organs which profess liberalism as tho beat !

    means of checking Deform . For some years , questions of this class have been in suspense ; but the conviction of most intelligent Englishmen is , that a new Bill for Amending the Representation of the People in Parliament has become a direct necessity of the times . This opinion , -working gradually from class to class , has at length assumed shape , and within a few weeks it is anticipated that the address signed by Mr , Roebuck , Mr . Bbiq-ht , Mr . Mixnbb Gibson , and other political leaders , will be adopted by the principal towns in all parts of Great Britain . It will then be seen whether the public regards all discussion of details as premature . The truth is , that the deprecation of impatience is a pretext- ! N " o journalists are more ready with their pleadings against triennial Parliaments , the Ballot , and other * details , ' than those who affect to discourage such considerations as premature . The Reform party understands its position , and has its own work to perform . It is not about to wait for a declaration of Lord Paxmebston ' s pleasure . If the Government Bill is unsatisfactory , attempts will be made to amend it , and it is perfectly right that the sentiments of the public should be elicited , not only on the general subject , but on . such points as the duration of Parliament , the Ballot , the rectification of electoral divisions , and the urban and rural suffrage . We have hints of a Ministerial measure that will lower the county as well as the borough qualification , admit new classes to the franchise , and merge some of the most rotten constituencies ; that , however , will not satisfy . The Ballot is indispensable ; but the Premier will not propose it . What then is the duty of active politicians , if not to invite a demonstration of popular opinion ? It is quite true that we can expect no cataclysm of agitation , no peals of party thunder . But political action has revived ; the millions that once mustered to a wild and random cry have made great intellectual advances since 1848 ; the natural habit of freedom has outgrown its turbulence ; but enormous influences are in existence which may be gathered and united for a definite purpose , as effectually , if not as violently , as in 1832 . Our strength is , that we rely no longer on fitful efforts of violence . We appeal to no passionate mob —the materials of mobs are rapidly diminishing in England ; we stand apart from continental formulas . The motive of the true Reform party is not hate or envy ; their object is not a chimera . Therefore are they powerful and confident . They lead the Liberals of the nation , but not so far ahead as to lose sight of realities , exigencies , and possibilities . Here is a basis which neither Toryism nor Whiggery can ridicule . The policy of moderation extorts a reply , and destroys a sneer . Honest and wholesome Reform—these words are not cabalistic . The agitation now originated does not s p ring from working-class distress , or middleclass exasperation , but from a conviction that our parliamentary institutions do not secure ministerial responsibility , or fairly represent the interests or the intellect oi the nation . Without this conviction animating the body of the people , journalism could effect nothing ; it i » the exponent and auxiliary , not the substitute , of public opinion . -Tlre ^ inere ^ f ^ ctp"tlren 7 ~ that' ~ joiiirnals ~* of ~ all ' classes are now engaged in discussing the Reform to come , is proof that the apathy of tho last ten years exists no longer . The Reform Bill of 1832 stands condemned , and we aak for another which shall be less imporfect . Tho logic of tho position is impregnable . A . system of general election that gives five per cent , of the candidates returned to be convicted of bribery or unconstitutional

    inters man y and it is utterly untrue that the law has rel medied the evil . The House of Commons has not the will , if it had the power , to xq . move this taint from its constitution . Bnt the country can do it , without burning ric & s > threatening landlords , calling husky voices out of the asylums or exile , or vituperating the throne . The unrepresented classes have formed positive opinions ; they mean to proceed by argument instead of outcry . They say that there are important classes and interests shut out of the representation ; that the electoral system is exposed to pernicious and debasing influences ; that vast numbers of Englishmen are affected by legislation in which they are allowed no voice ; that while capitalists sit bodily in Parliament , there is scarcely a member , in either House , who has really at henrt the welfare or the wishes of the " laborious ; that Oxford and Cambridge enjoy a monopoly of University representation ; and that territory and rank enjoy more than a just share of power in the Legislature . Upon these grounds the United Reformers have addressed the nation , and we believe the result will prove that the nation is not indifferent to the appeal .

    Political Plans For India. The Public Mu...

    POLITICAL PLANS FOR INDIA . The public must be on its guard against any attempt on the part of Ministers to convert their Indian Reform into a colossal job . If ever Parliament had a duty to perform worthy of an imperial senate , it is that of protecting British India against a Whig surprise . Lord PaIiMERSTon ' s scheme , if anything be really known of it , will be nothing less than a plot for grasping at new patronage upon an enormous scale . Whig prints satirize the alarms of liberal politicians , and ask whence the patronage is to come . From the army . From fifty to eighty thousand men , probably , will be kept up as a permanent establishment in India , distinct , perhaps , from the native forces . And what will the nation say if it bo proposed to hand over the military government of the East to the Duke of Cambbimu ? When the Horse Guards are referred to , it must be remembered that the Royal Duke is the Horse Guards ; but there is more than a suspicion afloat that his policy as Commanderin-Chief is an affair of constant consultation with one of those ambiguous back-stairs statesmen commonly called personages . If , then , it be contemplated to augment the European army in India , to separate it from the natir * army , and to assign to the Horse Guards the sole power of issuing orders and regulations , and distributing patronage , we say the project ia alarming , and one that Parliament should never sanction . A native army under a local government , and a European army under Horse Guards government , would be an innovation but no reform , especially as of late years the practice has crept in . of treating the office of Com mander-in-Chief as permanent . Responsibility ia thus evaded , and constitutional checks become nullities . Such a scheme would include more than the vices of the existing system , besides being positively dangerous to the independence and purity of the House of Commons . Lord PalmjmisWW may go too far in his conspiracy to avail himself of the Sepoy rebellion to convert Indm intO "" a ~ basis' ~ o £ -parlianientary—action . —The—East India Company will not fall without tt conflict ; and the one thing necessary to invest it with popularity would be an impression in the public mind that the enormous interests of our Eastern dominions wore about to bo snatched as perquisites of the Crown . The Court of Directors will not bo wi thout its friends ; it is no easy matter to shnl ^ down tho abuses of a City corpor ation ; but

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09011858/page/10/