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Leader (1850-1860), 10th July 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 15, Till'. (.IIHAI'HNT MAKKKT. Tn 1. Quarter...

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      ? - Saturday, July 10, 1852

      ? - SATURDAY , JULY 10 , 1852

      ^Tt Lilir Mnits.

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      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing" so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Du . _Aenold .

      The Pollticail Doctrine Of Election " No...

      THE _POLlTICaiL DOCTRINE OF ELECTION " Nomination ' appears to be a ceremony retained in order to tantalize the great body of the people with the pretence of a right which they no longer possess . At a time when all the " freemen" of the country enjoyed an effective voice in public affairs , a " nomination" might have meant something practical ; election by show of hands was not a mere form available for a contested election ;

      but now , if there be an opposition , if the nonelectors feel a preference , and especially if the choice of the non-electors be very marked and decided , ifc often happens that the poll proves the show of hands to have been a farce . The great body of the people , to whom the appeal is made , are allowed to play at election without realizing the right . ; and the holders of the suffrage deliberately reverse the choice of the people .

      The right is retained for a particular class . We talk iu this country of possessing representative institutions , and , when Parliament is dissolved , the phrase is , that " an appeal is made to . the people . " "We laugh at Louis Napoleon for speaking of " freedom" for his own subjects or his own legislature , while at home we have phrases as palpably burlesque and as impudently false . No appeal is made to the people , but only to a fraction of the people ; that fraction , which is now engaged in the proeess of reconstructing the principal and theoretically '' popular" branch of the Parliament .

      Agitators who assert the rights of the people have been blamed for sowing dissension between the severed classes , and especially for holding up the middle class to opprobrium . The middle class , it has been averred , would be willing to consult the claims of the people , if that class were conciliated . The middle class holds the representation , so say constitutional theorists , like Lord John . "Russell , as a trust ; and il exercises that trust with honesty and intelligence . Were this

      eulogium true , we should lind the middle class , at least , occasionally electing some member of Parliament specially enjoying the trust of fhe nonelective body ; but the present election seems to do more than any efforts of agitators to stamp the middle class as alienated from the working class . . Public writers have observed the tendency of the electoral body al ; present is to prefer nobodies , to men of any mark in whatever party ; and such , indeed , appears to be the case .

      At Liverpool , for example , _Fovbex M'lv . _Mizic , the most miserable trimmer of the present day , who lias voted black and white on the Maynooth Grant , —who , when asked at fhe election how he voted on the Militia Hill . * ' did not know , "— -who is asked whether he would propose a , measure in Parliament , and replied that somebody else would do it , —a man who litis made his way with parties by evasion , —such a man is ' preferred , by the suffrage - holders to Cardwell , the intelligent and able apprentice of Peel , and fo Ewart , fhe cultivated and philosophical reformer . In the Tower Hamlets , if the electors were not prepared

      to continue their support fo fhe wandering abolitionist , ( jJ eorge Thompson , they hail an opportunity of Mending to Parliament a veritable member of the non-electoral class , a working man , able in rvery sense of the word fo speak for bis fellows , -fo state their claims , their necessi ties , their feelings , their com ' iefion . H . Ihif the middle-class electors of tho Tower Hamlets have thrown aside that opportunity ; they have not only neglected if , but fhe extremely small number of vote . s given to William Newton shows that fhe gi ' eal proportion of fhe electoral body have a H ( 'ft ! ed determination not fo extend their favour ' ° the non-electors , whose interests they tire Maid to hold iM trust . Klecfod hy fhe people , he ia _•^ -elected by the enfranchised class .

      The Pollticail Doctrine Of Election " No...

      Not less , but even more to be regretted , is the rejection of William Coningham in Westminster . Although not belonging to the working-class , but a gentleman in every sense of the word , he has both the understanding and the heart to sympathize with them in all their needs , and perhaps no man in the country is so thoroughly well informed on their relations with other classes , and with the laws of industry , as he is . Moreover ,

      if others may compete with , him , as unquestionably they may , in political knowledge , and knowledge of the relations of other countries with our own , there is not a man who has the courage so distinctly and unmistakeably to declare what he means . A social "Reformer , an earnest politician , he has shown to the electors that he views public action from a truly national point of view ; and as the readers of our own paper can attest , he is one of the newest school of Social . Reformers

      whose practical aim is to attain the improvement of the working classes by means which reconcile their interests with tliose of the employing classes . The employing classes , however , would not have him . He has been rejected in favour of a soldier who belongs to the past age of Reform , and still worships the idols of Reform antiquity , and of a Baronet whose desire for public service has made him relinquish his own public opinions . It is not only in questions of their own interest that the non-electors stand in excellent contrast

      with the electors . In Liverpool , the intelligent practical politician , Cardwell , who certainly belongs to no Democratic party , was the choice of the non-electors . It is the electors that prefer Forbes M'Kenzie . Cardwell , Coningham , Newton , Trelawney , have all been elected by those who do not hold the suffrage ; they are virtually the Members for the non-electors of Liverpool , tho Tower Hamlets , Westminster , and Brighton .

      In what we have said above , we have simply glanced at certain facts of the present moment ; but it would be a neglect of our duty if we were to abstain from glancing at the cause of the evil and at the possible remedy . The cause , although not without complication , appears to us to be very intelligible . Ik cannot be said that the people of this country is more "ignorant" than it was in old times—at least , in the modern sense of " ignorance . " Education , although not cultivated as it might be , is unquestionably extended and raised in quality within the last half

      century . It cannot be denied that certain reforms have been made in the machinery of representation , extending the privileges to larger classes , in these respects we are better off than we were . Nevertheless , tho student of history will have no great difficulty in observing that the immense body of the people—the mob , as it pleases polite writers to call it—was never treated with sueh absolute disregard and slight as it is at the present moment ; and the reason wo

      believe to be threefold . In the first place , after the settlement of great public questions , there commonly befals a degree of confusion , vacillation , and apathy , without concentrated idea ; and in that reaction tho working-classes share as largely as the middle or rich classes . " The disruption of parties " has taken effect throughout the whole of English society , and the political world , at the present moment , consists of miserable , fractions . Tbat is one cause .

      A second cause is , that the extremely artificial development of our industrial system , which assorts men into particular avocations , wholly absorbs their time , and reduces the . ni to parts of a machine . J t not only deprives them of the leisure and opportunity for political action , but also gives to Uie class of employers—a constituent part of the middle class—the power of controlling the actions of their subordinates . This is a

      feature ol the political system comparativel y unknown in former times . The quality of British cloth is infinitely superior lo what if was when fhe cloth yard was the familiar measure of the national weapon , the arrow . Cotton is a creation of modern days . The qualify of paper for printing is such that very ordinary publications would surprise the literary epicure of Elizabeth ' s days .

      J 11 tho finishing ol yen-knives and razors there is much fo admire ; and the progress of mankind is beyond calculation in buttons ! But wo very much question whether the rough and sturdy Morf of influence once exercised by fhe non-electoral class over those who aro said to hold tho franchise in trust , has at all improved . Wo doubt , indeed , whether it is so effective as it used to be -, whether it has not dwindled almost

      The Pollticail Doctrine Of Election " No...

      to nothing but a joke , a gibe , a taunt to be thrown out at ultra-popular candidates . " Say that to the non-electors , " cries your knowing election-monger , just as a sailor says , " Tell that to the Marines . " This second reason why the non-electors exercise not even a virtual influence on the elections is augmented by the third—which is , simply the fact that the British people is a , disarmed people . Possessing no substance , no right in the soil , no right of any positive kind , no franchise , no arms , the British , people is not a free people in

      any sense of the word . It enjoys certain negative immunities by the good will of the other classes : it is not forced to church ; certain manorial rights over brides are no longer exacted ; the working man is no longer bound to the soil or to any prescriptive employment . But to talk of self-government for him , or of the freedom that flows from self-government , or self-defence , is a farcical jargon . It means nothing . These three practical causes are the origin , and also in a great degree the reactive effect of a fourth auxiliary cause : the British people has lost its spirit .

      There was a time when it would not have been quite safe so wholly to disregard or slight the wish , even of the mob : but , such have been the improvements of peaceful industry , of police arrangements , and of the science of social duty , that now the body of the people may be totally disregarded without the slightest danger , and it is disregarded accordingly . Want of spirit , want of force , want of leisure , and want of positive recognised rights—those are the practical causes by which the English people retain no influence over the privileged elective class , which is said to hold the franchise as a trust .

      The remedy P Formerly we might have _anticipated a remedy after a rough fashion , in a revo' . ution ; but desiring , as we emphatically do , Eng' . ish remedies for English wrongs , and detesting all foreign political importations , we should gravely question the expediency , even if there existed the bare probability of such a resource . Besides , the very causes of the evil would tend to retard such a remedy—a people without force , leisure , or spirit , will take a long time before any fi . rmnntnl . inn would mnkei it rise tn more than a

      partial outbreak of sterile disorder . Ihe most striking improvement in political science has been to acquire the art of driving the people ' s patience to the very brink of insurrection ; and unquestionably the ruling classes have made very great progress in that science . Another and , wc think , safer and wiser plan is , for the wdiole body to join in the endeavour to persuade small sections of the privileged class to act in behalf of the unprivileged class . There are places where the sympathy of the middle class extends promontory-wise far into the feelings of the

      workingclass ; and with some judicious management , more active and judicious because more matured , than any bestowed upon the present election—it would bo possiblo to foster that sympathy for practical results . There is every prospect that the Parliament which tho electoral class is now electing will be so thoroughly bad , paltry , and purposeless , that it cannot last long ; its duration , therefore , will be chiefly useful in affording

      an opportunity of preparing for the next Parliament , ; and if the most advanced constituencies are duly cultivated , we believe that they will p lace in the Parliament after the one now forming a few men of the unenfranchised people . If that were done , in tho time after wo should get a few more ; and by the help of the few already in , we . should still more extend the influence ; until , at a time not too distant for contemplation , the working-class might really possess ji share of parliamentary power .

      The third plan , and the best of all , —not incompatible with any other , but helping every other good plan , —would be , for the great bulk of the people of this country , shaking oil'its _listlessness , casting aside its suspicions , recovering from its timidities or weaknesses of modem invention , to regain Home of its old spirit . The best thing that we can prescribe for Kngland in its debilitated state is a little old Knglish spirit .

      Till'. (.Iihai'hnt Makkkt. Tn 1. Quarter...

      Till' . ( . IIHAI'HNT MAKKKT . Tn 1 . Quarterly returns of the revenue are of the most , gratifying character : there is an increase on fhe quarter of 100 , 000 / . in Stamps , 80 , 000 / . in Property and Income , 23 , 000 / . in Excise , and 183 , 000 / . in Customs ; on the year ( hero is nn increase in the Customs of nearly 300 , 000 /; and the slight marks of decrease whicli appear to

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10071852/page/15/