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    June 0, 1S60.] The Leader and Saturday A...

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    DISTliUST AND REFOfiM. LORD JOHN RUSSELL...

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    June 0, 1s60.] The Leader And Saturday A...

    June 0 , 1 S 60 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 535

    Distliust And Refofim. Lord John Russell...

    DISTliUST AND REFOfiM . LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S Reform Bill cannot be pronounced a prosperous bantling . It creates a commotion in its nursery , the House of Commons , but its cries scarcely attract the sympathies of the country ,, nor are . the sorrows of its political ' mamina either sootiied or relieved by the performances of its rough and clumsy nurse , the honourable member for Birniinglmm . From its highly conservative cast of cotmtenance it might be taken for a Tory offspring , and it is ludicrous to witness the consternation it has excited among the -reactionary ranks . Mr . Bright recommends it on the ground of its moderation , and adduces statistics to show how few of the working-classes it will bring within its pale . Tn the better days of Birmingham so . small a measure would have been treated with contempt , and the men who praised it might have looked somewhere else for a parliamentary seat . Now , the industrious masses who wield the files and'hammers of that busy town do not take the trouble to manifest their convictions . It is not their Reform Bill , for it -will leave them unenfranchised ; nor is it their House of Commons that it pretends to mend , for they have long since lost confidence and interest in the proceedings of a body which is behind the average intellect and morals of the time , and which exhibits the paltry wrangles of sordid interests and selfish factions . At tire very moment when Whig and Tory speakers join , to point out the imaginary dangers of extensive political union among the working-classes , " these very classes exhibit an indifference to political movements which , when rationally considered , is far more alarming than any outburst of enthusiasm or zeal . . TV hen the institutions of a country become matters of indifference to laro-e multitudes'of the people , it is a convincing proof that they are iiot in accordance with the wants of the age , and the boundary is a narrow one that divides the stagnation of indifference from the putrefaction of contempt . The philosophical thinker has no respect for a Legislature that is only actuated by motives of temporary and half-witted expediency , and that in . no one direction of home or foreign affairs exhibits a statesmanlike pre-- vision and preparation for events that are _ to come . The thriving middle-class man , imperviously wrapped up in his cloak of painful respectability , consigns politics to the tap-room of the " Pig and Whistle" "©/ the '' Blue Boar , " and * members . representing tlie " large constituencies of the metropolis are as attentive to the admonitions of thepot-boy as to the summons of the whipper-m . The Legislature , as at present constituted , has no place ui the intellect or in the heart of the country , and it makes no place for England in the assembly of nations at a time when her voice of freedom should be heard reverberating tram the shores of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Danube . The advisers of the Crown have no fear and no respect for the House of Commons ,, and Mr . Sidney Hkiujeut can shamelessly defend an army job m which the Prince Consort is interested , while the machinery of - ~ - ^ ie ~ WTu ^ lepru 'tmcmt ^^ blunders that distinguished the Crimean war . . Tho Reform Bill debates offered an occasion for providing a safe and gradual introduction of the / popular element , and for lay in " the foundation of a permanent good understanding between the different ranks of the community ; but the opportunity has been used to sow the seeds of dissension , and scatter insults among the working-classes that they will not easily forgive . Those classes are studiously left out from the volunteer arrangements for the defence of their country , and arc told ( lay by day that -they ought not . to be trusted with the franchise , because they would readjust the taxation so as to throw more of its burdens upon the rich . The effects of . such teaching may not be immediately obvious , but far more than the exaggerations and denunciations of the demagogue will it lead them to believe that there is something rotten in our system which the aristocracy are over-zealous to ¦ defend . The problem which the philosophical statesman sees has to be solved , appears altogether beyond the conception of the used-up notabilities who form the mnterinlfl of cabinets , or of the multitudinous and miscellaneous conglomeration of intellectual nonentities who fill the benches of the Lower House , The student of social science ; perceives that the growth of democracy is a necessary and inevitable fact , and that it depends upon surrounding cimiuiHtonccs , many of which nre amenable to human control , whether the evolution is to take the form of constitutional -uiul \ v «| l-ordored liberty , or to ally itself with a despotic ... power like that Which dominates over Imperial l- ' ranw . In 1 England there is nothing which good and -wise men have to fear from ' a reign of opinion ; - —our dangers are lest a continuance of electoral corruption and mi obstinate refusal to recognise the legitimate power of ideas should lower the character of our institutions , and end in viplunt collisions that might destroy them . The way in which the affairs of the nation have been conducted for many years has tended to lower confidence in public men . Sir

    " Robert PeeIi undoubtedly betrayed and cheated the Conservative party , and the fact that the nation were gainers did not improve the morality of the proceeding . That eminent political Pecksniff also introduced the demoralizing practice of using arguments merely as weapons of warfare , and without the slightest regard to their accuracy or truth , lie and his followers did not scruple to advance contradictory reasons in . support of their propositions , if by so doing they saw any chance of securing converts from opposite sides . Lord Palmeustox lived for years upon a liberal reputation , which he made a screen for illiberal actions and ideas . Mr . Gladstone is a pseudo-Liberal , because the Tories accepted the leadership of a renegade radical , whom no one ever suspected of believing the programme of the party be espoused ; and Lord John Russell sent his cousin to the City , to intimate a possibility of his supporting the ballot , when electoral difficulties made it possible that advantage might be gained by such a disgraceful trick . We have recapitulated these facts for the sake of showing the necessity of measures that shall raise the moral standing of the ' Legislature , and prevent its sinking deeper and deeper into the slough of contempt ; and those who desire to maintain the dignity of the House of Commons cannot fail to lament the way iiAvhich the Reform debates were reopened on Monday last . . The various members who moved "instructions" to the Committee must have known that they were simply wasting time ; and Mr . Mackinxon would not have ventured to propose his dodge to shelve the question on the pretence that it could not be satisfactorily dealt with until the new census had been taken , if he had not reckoned upon an absence of honourable feeling even " reater than he found . Lord John Eissellwas wise in urging the fair consideration of his measure , now that no excited passions disturbed the general calm ; and it-was well for him to remind the House that " language had been used towards the £ 0 householders which in a time of prosperity wight be allowed to pass , but if it came back to them in times of commercial distress mio-ht well occasion alarm . " Mr . Disuaeli , who , despite the ~ ~ Quarterly Review , is still the accepted representative of his ¦ party , began by ' professing ' a willingness to admit the working classes to " the " suffrage , and ended with the _ customary plea of - delay . It was not the right time , because Europe was disturbed and-wars might arise . Such an argument may look very clever to purblind eyes , but a real statesman , whether .-Conservative or Liberal , " would turn it precisely the other way , and call . upon the Parliament to give a Reform Bill now , on account of the obvious and urgent danger of passing through a period of convulsion without an honest representation of the people . No one can tell from hour to hour what part our country may be called upon to perform when the political foundations of Europe are once more shattered by the earthemakes of revolution and war ; and if the maintenance of our position or the support of our allies should involve large pecuniary sacrifices , as well as a severe temporary distm-bance of trade , " what will be the consequence -Trf " having saddled the nation with another load of taxation and debt through the instrumentality of a House of Commons which has condemned itself by assenting to the principle of a kefonu . lull , and for purposes which the people may disapprove or Wv \ to be incommensurate with the results that are obtained ? If the 1 louse of Commons represented the intelligence of the country , it might claim to be the virtual representative of the entire people ; but it is so obviously merely the exponent of the . interests oi a section of the community , that * it should hesitate before it accepts a responsibility which it is unfit to discharge . The working-classes would be content to be admitted by steps or instalments , but if they are to be conciliated each step must be satisfactory as far as it goes , which is obviously , not . the case if any sort of household suffrage is based upon a rate-paying clause . There must also be an absence of all pretensions to finality . Intelligence and wealth are growing powers , and institutions must accommodate themselves to circumstances as they change . A bill like that of Lord John JIussbi . l s could only be an experiment , or temporary expedient ; and it is to be rcVettcd that the House of Commons is incapable of providing n " elf-expanding measure , that would gradually take in all who could show any just claim to consideration . Uneducated masses may be lumped together , and impelled towards some unreasonable purpose , but this danger ceases when the habit oi forming opinions has liecn acquired , and it is remarkable that those who profess most fear of the action of numbers , arc" the -- bitterest opponents of measures that would enable them to think . 1 hw llov . Mr . AUyitU ' K is right in attributing the weakness ol the Kulbrm movement to its Want' of moral principle . It is not < m appeal to conscience on behalf of justice , but an advic' o interests to concede n little to-day , lest they should be compelled to paymoreto . morrow ;( md . \ tr .. niuonT , the s (! ll-C ( mst . tute ( l |)<) pulai lender , contributes to the distrust that attaches to public iiwn when

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/3/