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    1092 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,

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    THE PUBLIC HOUSE BLUE BOOK. The Parliame...

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    THE GOVERNING CLASSES. No. IX. THE RIGHT...

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    Aristocracy In Australia. There Is No Co...

    In Vice-Chancellor Page Wood ' s court tlie other day an illustration was given of the base use to which Australia has been put . The master of a ship which returned from Australia to England , sued a passenger for 43 £ ., the balance of an account due for the conveyance of the man ' s wife and family . The passenger had landed at the Cape of Good Hope , against the rules of the ship and the leave of the master , and had been left Tt > ehind , and he therefore declined to pay the passage-money . The master , however ,

    insisted that the man had been troublesome , and had lost his passage by his own fault ; and he sued him in the County Court . There were not enough goods and chattels to pay the demand ; but the man had house property in JJondon , and proceedings were taken in Chancery in order to take that real property . This raised an important question for " the first time—whether the Vice-Chancellor ' s Court could entertain a question of debt so far settled in a County Court ; and the Vice-Chancellor took time to consider of it . It is

    not our purpose , however , to pursue the point of law ; it is with the personal circumstance of the case that we have to deal . Sometime since , in . 1848 , some Chartists were convicted of sedition and conspiracy , and one of their own body turned informant against them ; this was Powell , the defendant in the present case . It appears that he had received from Government 300 ^ ., on condition that he should go to Australia ; where , it is said , he also had a grant of land . But after he had got to the colony he had a desire to return home ; and hence the case . Now , it is persons of the class of Powell and his victims , besides ordinary offenders against the penal laws , that the Government has forced upon

    Australia ; and thus the same process that has excited disaffection of the mother country , has also provoked a reaction against "low" society . It is partly to mark the distinction between the Powells of the colony and its Wentworths , that the committee of the Legislative Council propose to establish a local Peerage . Whether the project will be sanctioned by the Legislative Council or the Crown , we know not ; but at all events it indicates a strong desire on the part of the upper classes of the colony to have amongst them an institution which has been too unreasonably thought incompatible with self-government and democracy , and which would bind the superior classes of the colony to the empire .

    1092 The Leader. [Saturday ,

    1092 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    The Public House Blue Book. The Parliame...

    THE PUBLIC HOUSE BLUE BOOK . The Parliamentary literature of this country Las lately been enriched by the addition of a ponderous blue book on the subject of public houses . The sources of information are various , and the evidence embraces all the subjects which demand the interference of the Legislature . More than sixty witnesses have been examined , and the facts are furnished by a fair proportion of magistrates , town clerks , brewers , and publicans . The question has been sifted from every conceivable point of view . Statistics and arguments have been produced in favour of and against the existing system ; and the public is now in a fair position to form an impartial judgment . Monopoly diea hard . The great victory of 1840 was only the commencement of a long struggle , in which the advocates of a restrictive system will fight the battle , inch by inch . The kings of Burton , and their royal brethren , exhibit no signs of flinching . They voted for free trade in corn : they are liberal—very liberal , up to their own notions of liberality ; but they maintain the licensing system , as if it were the key-ntone of our national prosperity , ! For our own parts , wo believe that the kings of Burton might bo defeated , and that Britannia would continue to rule

    the waves . Wo do not think that tho licensing system lias tho remotest connexion with the empire of the sea , or tho personal safety o £ Queen Victoria . Let UH look at the facts . Tho licenced victualler m dependent on the magistrate . Ho receives his license on certain conditions . He hindw hiin-Helf * J TP ^ ^ ' yi bwi-iJ ^ o purest , liquors , to uao no vvoij ^ n xs ot iminRUteaffini thone of the legal stjmdM ^^' k ^ tJpj ^ der in . h ; s house , and to rAono his vifoffc jtfopJdxffiTif * . $ >*? ¦¦ k pi \ rH of tho morning and ilj ^ i r ^ parish church on Sn ^^ aya ^ - ' ^ i ^ fc mas J ) a ¥ , and Good Prkluy . Hoj ^) il ^' ' ^^ , poixL 6 a / i i ( y ^ o cons idered—tho rea-NO ^ B \^ i > fy ^ ji idiyMdp nJAgistratc in granting tho liojuljijf , ' qndHhft' riotier which ho pohhcbbob for luuVwwhg 4 Wc < MailMiB . Wjth reference to the

    first point , it is obvious that the only reasons which ought to guide the magistrate are the wants of the neighbourhood and the fitness of the applicant . On the other hand , Mr . Wyburgh tells us ( and his evidence is abundantly confirmed ) that the decisions of the magistrates are frequently ' irregular , arbitrary , and capricious . How could it be otherwise ? How can a magistrate decide on the exact number of public-houses that are required for a neighbourhood P We do not find that bakers , grocers , and other tradesmen , depend inau ixiose oi de

    on any owner xsuws supply ana .-mand . Why should people be hindered from trading in beer ? There is no proof that the number of public-houses falls short of the demand , but the prevalence of a restrictive law occasions an enormous amount of dissatisfaction , and holds out numerous temptations , which it would be infinitely wiser to prevent . It is needless to enumerate the motives which may influence a bench of magistrates in deciding upon the claims of candidates of whose personal fitness no doubt exists .

    But it is maintained that the licensing system is the guardian of sound morality , ^ ay , is not the very publican enlisted on the side of virtue ? Does he not hold his licence on the understanding that he will check disorder P This argument would be all the stronger if it were supported by facts . The police have power to enter a public-house— - " subject to the restriction that it would be improper to enter unless there was reason to suppose that there was an offence or disorder committed at the time . But no reason

    can be discerned why the same power should not be entrusted to the police if'the licensing system were abolished . Supposing the only condition of obtaining a license were fitness of character , there is surely nothing to prevent the maintenance of police restrictions , which , apply even to private Houses . Mr . Alderman Wire believes that the licensing system is an effectual check upon drunkenness , and brings forward the instance of Scotland , where , he . tells us , the evil is of a twofold character—the increase of drunkenness , and the encouragement of illicit distillation . Again— "in

    tlie State of Maine , so great were the evils resulting from the sale of spirits , that they had enacted a law that there shall be no spirituous liquors or intoxicating liquors sold in the State . " All this may be very true , and we are mortified to find that morality is so ill able to protect herself . Society has always been infested with a good sprinkling of reprobates and monsters , whom it is necessary to treat as wild beasts or madmen . But no licensing system in the world will prevent occasional outbreaks ; and if English society is still infantine or brutish , tho more restrictions wo enforce tlie better .

    Nothing , indeed , is more evident than the whole system provokes much greater evils than those it was intended to cure . Wo maintain it , because it has existed since tho reign of Edward III ., and because the kings of 33 urton delude tho public into the belief that it tends to sound morality . It is established beyond a doubt , that tho people who gain by tho system are tho brewers and wealthy pubiicans , while tho public suffer .

    The Governing Classes. No. Ix. The Right...

    THE GOVERNING CLASSES . No . IX . THE RIGHT H 0 NOUBABLE Silt JAMES GltAHAM , BART . But that it is considered , in England , extremely indocorouH to put into print wJiat every one of those who would road tho print way perpetually in private , a very interesting chapter might bo written to « how how curioufily personal appearance affects public life . There are men who owe everything to their "looks : " and there are men who never got over their " IooIch . " It luiH alwayH boon iny opinion that tho regime of tho Tliruo Days foil in Franco because Louis Philippe-, an ho ^ rew old , grew ho ridiculously liko a Posit ; and many iiiHtancuH might bo mentioned , only that it would bo impertinence , of eminent Groat Britons who have riHou or declined because of a mouth , or because of a none . Thin in tho result of a political system which permits of caricatures ; no constitution can ntand an H . B ., or a John Leech , who bring all political heroes into contempt . Tim mischief in very serious when the populace judges of a charactor by a contortion : —as , for iiifltance , in Ireland , whoro Foci could never inako way bocauHo O'ConnoU gave this picture of him to tho

    multitude , — "A big-bellied man , with two left . legs . " Mr . Disraeli , a man with a splendid countenance and a graceful figure , was kept down for years in this country because of the cruel caricatures of Punch and Xiord Jocelyn , one of the handsomest men of the age , has failed in life because he never had the courage to cut ofi his moustache . These are instances which may be referred to without offence , even to the individuals ; and the cases serve to suggest what is meant .

    In regard to many statesmen , living and dead , you think of their policy and not at all of their persons But Sir James Graham is so intensely associated with Sir James Graham , to the exclusion of any other association , that , in turning attention to him , you consider only the statesman—there being indeed little statesmanship to consider . The impression he has made on his time is altogether an impression of physique : and the epitaph which one of his present colleagues proposed Bhould be written on him , in due season- — "He had the largest appetite of any man of

    his da /'—explains to the philosophical , nearl y all his celebrity . As John Kemble said , when asked his opinion of the new Hamlet , "Why , sir , he seems a remarkably tall young man "—so the usual enquiry made about Sir James Graham , when an habitue" of the House of Commons goes down to his cousins or his constituents is , " a very big man , isn't he ? " Sir James Graham is a very big man ; and he has got to a first place in politics , just as he would get to the first place in a crowd—by weight and breadth : becoming Peel ' s lieutenant , as Little John became BoMn Hood ' s

    That is to say , born into the Governing Classes , and having only mediocrities to compete with , he got first among the mediocrities—in other words , next to the champion Peel — merely by the greater force and stronger endurance derived from a massive chest and an animal head . That is , by work : for a great administrator is only a great worker ; and the great workers are only found among the strong men . " Perseverance" is the virtue recommended to young men by their friends ; but perseverance means simply endurance : and it would consequently be as rational to recommend , "Large lungs , my boy . "

    That Sir James Graham ' s chest without Sir James Graham ' s acres would not have sufficed to make him a right honourable and a ruler , is evidenced in the different career of Mr . Ford , of Doncaster , Sir James ' s image , as Sir James knows to his cost ; and it is said even a cleverer man—the Dromio of tho Antipholus . But with such acres and such a cheat , a good name and a smooth voice , the success of Sir Jamea Graham in public life was assured ; and the success would have been more complete , had Sir James learned soon enough to roly simply on those natural

    advantages , instead of endeavouring to become a man of genius . Not content with tho reputation of being a great administrator , ho has ever aimed at tho position of a great statesman ; and though She knows tho tendency of tho multitude to confound tho one character with tho other , he has ever been discontented that not one of tho many parties whom he has joined would accord him chieftainship . In public lifo in England , an investment of labour is always certain of its results . Government is a profession—; i guild , monopolized almost entirely by tho land—and when a man with a

    title and an estate gives himself up to tho House of Commons , tho IIouso of Commons gradually gives itself up to him , sooner or later . No mn . ii has worked harder than Sir James Graham in legislating ; and lot tho governed ho grateful . In this country , every heir to a largo estate goes to Parliament , as ho goes to ft good club ; and all tho best of tho heirs , after a season or two , in which they destroy tlioir stomachs , and dincovcr that Society is a doluiion , stick to thoir sontn , and tako to governing tho self-governed country ah tho host-going excitement , —more gentlemanly than tho turf , Hafur than the table , earner than the sesmoiis .

    Sir JamoH Graham , born in 1702 , roach < id » 1 B majority and his property , in < luo course , and by «> o Bfiino system which suggested boof and bonfires , a borough returned him in celebration of the important event , and from 1820 to 18 / 53 Sir jTunos Graham him incoHsantly devoted himself to bis country . H <> must in hin thirty ycarw of government have sat about 100 , 000 hours in tho bad utmoHphoro of tho . Uouso of Commons , havo « at twenty years in Government bureaux , soon 1000 deputations , written many miUionH of letters , and mado speeches ho numerous , thut if col-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 12, 1853, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12111853/page/12/