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    July 15, 1854] THE LEADER. $&>

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    THE | BRIBERY BILL. A vert stringent mea...

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    What Is The Duty Of The Liberal Party? T...

    arrangements are visible , it depends entirely * on the whims of Mr . Layard , who is exposed to much Ministerial politeness , whether or not before the session closes , we shall have a debate—with what are technically called explanations—on the position of the nation and the policy of our rulers in regard to RuBsia . As yet the Liberal parby would seem to have made only one condition as to the war ; that there shall be specially provided for this war a Minister of War . The

    concession having been made by a Court and Cabinet not indisposed to gratify public opinion , when public opinion insists on the creation of a new office with a new Secretary of State ' s salary at the disposal of aristocratic parties , the House will , on Monday , on the vote of supply of 17 , 0002 . for the new office , have to discuss the extent to-which they are satisfied with the new arrangements , It being observable that none of the several war-offices

    is abolished , and that no amalgamation of the various departments has taken place . - The opportunity will be provided for the [ Liberals to intimate if this is what they meant by their agitation to procure efficiency in the war ; not having at all agitated as to what the new minister was to be efficacious about . Couriers are flying between all the Courts of Europe ; negotiations are everywhere in progress amongst statesmen ; but the peoples are profoundly ignorant of what is being negotiated . The several publics , - \ ntfr more or less of free presses , indulge in suspicions of the tenour of this courtly and cabinet

    correspondence ; and where there is definite action ascertained , the public is found , absolutely in opposition to its Government . In Prussia , the 3 Cing is ostentatiously in antagonism with las people ; in England , Lord Aberdeen , by position the most powerful Member of the Government , is distinctly unpopular with the nation . A Camarilla opposes the wish of the Prussian people ; in ^ England the Cabinet , while refraining , in conformity with the traditional policy of the English aristocracy , from openly opposing the people , may be reasonably suspected of not intending a clear national policy—because it abstains from consultation with tlie House

    of Commons . It would be illogical to suggest the possibility of what is called treachery in the Government . Great faith may be placed in Mr . Gladstone ' s conception of what England expects , and in the Duke of Newcastle's energy in obtaining a successful war , if only for the credit of his department . But for the Government ' s own sake it is bound to be more explicit .

    There ia obviously a delay in pressing on with the war . Delay , on our part , not only in providing our troops in the East with adequate commissariat , and our sliips in the Baltic with sufficient troops in time- ; but also in " negotiation" at tho instigation of Russia , at Berlin and at Vienna ; and the House ol Commons will not overlook tho fact that the

    English recess ia contemporaneous with tho [ Russian winter . When wind , and rain , and ice have rendered further operations impossible , and when tho npn-oxiatenco of tho House of Commons renders a rapid treaty possible , it may be too much to expect that our praotieal statosmon should defer to tho vague Liboralisin of a nation that ia without

    an organisation of its will . Tho Duke ol Newcastle's letter to tho people of Sheffield , intimating the absolutism of her Majesty's propor notion of her real prerogative , should auggost some caution to that representative House which has come to regard the vote- of supplies as a form— -winch gives tho money and considers Avhat for- —aftorwarda .

    m Wo hnvo ventured repeatedly to suggest , m tho course of this session , and without joining in any of tho partisan inveotivo ngniust a Coalition whioh ia not merely tho only

    possible Government , but about the best Government England ever has enjoyed , that the Radical party , or the party which for want of a better name we must denominate the Radical , has abnegated its historical functions in becoming Ministerial—and Ministerial merely to spite the Opposition . The G-oyernment , with all its negative strength of position , is positively becoming weak in ° reputation ; and it still remains practicable for the Radical party so to develope and organise

    itself in the House of Commons as to insist upon the conditions on which this war should be continued . Aprofound , even though partisan writer , in the new number of the Quarterly , says , intending his aphorism as an insinuation against Lord Aberdeen , " What a people obeys as instinct , all true statesmen confirm as policy . " The instincts . of the people of

    England at this moment condemn the routine and technical conception formed by our Government of the method of treating Russia . It is therefore the duty of the Liberal party to make provision that the Secret Diplomacy which is rampant in every capital in Europe shall not be permitted to arrest the magnificent career of the united Erench and English nations , armed against the 3 ? ower whieh is out of place in the century .

    July 15, 1854] The Leader. $&>

    July 15 , 1854 ] THE LEADER . $ &>

    The | Bribery Bill. A Vert Stringent Mea...

    THE | BRIBERY BILL . A vert stringent measure for the prevention and punishment of bribery and intimidation - —a measure so acute in dealing with , electioneering evasions of the law , that there is a general suspicion Mr . Coppock was consulted in the details—is now being passed through the House of Commons- and the House expects that the country will admire the House because of these inexorable arrangements for " purity . " Yet , apparently , to not one of the current " bills" in progress , or abandoned , is the country more indiiferent than to this Bribery Bill ; and is the reason this —that the country believes just as little as the House believes in the efficacy of the bill ? This last is the most earnest anti-bribery bill that the House of Commons has yet ventured on : and it would be admitted , if it could be taken for granted that the defeated candidate would always petition , that , tinder this bill , abuses of the franchise would , always at least

    be punished . Still the country is calm at the assured prospect of its purification : and thus Ave have a double highly curious phenomenon . We have a great country proclaiming , in its senate , that its picked political constituency , supposed to govern the governors , ia rotten and immoral ; and , further , ve have a great country not minding in the least so astounding a proclamation . Thus , while tho sin of the sinners ia great , there may be a deeper national crime committed in the indifference

    of tho virtuous to the sin . However , it anight be ask ^ d—Can we bo expected to care about our political corruption at a moment when we are engagod in defending civilisation by repressing Russia ? Perhaps this apathy ia explicable in a more logical way , and in a sense more honourable to us . It might be shown that thero is a sad amount of exaggerated nonsenso talked about " electoral corruption . " Tho million , ox *

    thereabout , oi electors , who best know themselves , know that a man doesn't neeesanrily tsiko a bribe aa soon aa he ia onlVanclusod ; and wo may fairly interpret tho coolness of this body to menu—tlmb thoy do uot believe the rogues among them preponderate over the really independent and Inmost . Then , with regard to tho " national" indilleronco , we uiuwt remember that tho nation ia composed of several lnillionw of the unenfranchised , so that it ia not thoir business to attend to what Parliament ia doimr in the moral murmscoment

    of a selected class of the reputed qualified political critics . Further , we must not forget the very general conviction among the " men of the world , " that though taking a bribe for a vote may be a censurable eccentricity , very properly to be put down , yet that , even assuming there is as great corruption as " friends of the people" in the House , assert , the

    electoral corruption is practically nugatory in its results on the national policy and progress . This class , who directly influence the mass of tangible opinion , regard constituencies as an endurable machinery , which appeases popular prejudices , and gives the appearance of selfgovernment , bat which does not influence the movement of actual " Government . " Thus

    we are to be comforted with , the belief ; that if the electors are caitiffs the elected are pure ; an analogous process , somewhat vindicating the theory , being the extraction of purest perfume from the most villanous refuse substances . " The system works weE " is the phrase of a practical nation ; which is thus reconciled to the existence of horrible anomalies ; and which , therefore , regards a bill to suppress bribery with the same languid enthusiasm whieh would "be excited if Mr .

    ''• - ¦ —— or Lord —— were induced to ask the respective Houses of Parliament , to whick they belong , to debate a resolution emmciatory that virtue is a good thing . Nevertheless to that other large class , who , as Englishmen , are somewhat proud of England ' s history and position , and who object to the defilement of a great nation by corruption—and , still more , to the insult to the nation offered in the cool aristocratic cant

    which concludes that there is a universality of political corruption—it would be more pleasant if the facts were faced about bribery bills , and if the trutlis were honestly talked out . This class , assuredly , does not place great faith in the professed anxiety of a House of Commons which exists , as now constituted , under a false and vicious political system—being radically untrue to its pretensions as a People ' s House—to coerce the stray poor elector into such honour as will enable him to resist the

    vulgar wiles of the rich candidate's agent . The class of politicians who happen to be in , earnest in polities , and have a faith rather than a party , can only regard a Bribery Bill as a measure to obtain a true election of a House of Commons by the country ; and they comment on this particular bill by saying , " This is not ; tho way—you must pass out of the foetid atmosphere of corrupt little boroughs into the air breathed by the nation —you must appeal over constituences to the

    country . Some men , as'inthe debate in . the Commons did several Radicals , ask for the ballot as a means of tricking even the existing- electoral body into independence both of bribes and of intimidation . But—tho question not at all being whether the ballot is not good for itself—this is only another method of libelling the nation . The existing constituency , despite all its taints , is strong and pure enough to get us the Ballot and " Reform" proper—in timo ; all tho sooner , if the Radicals would not porpotually talk as if the existing constituency was not , on the whole ,

    thoroughly English , and thoroughly national , Viewed from any point of view , tho Bribery Bill does not obtain great attention . Historically it will bo utterly resultloBS j and the moral of the matter is this ;—when Parlinment legislates on such a matter for a nation whieh ia not attending to that legislation , thero must bo something wrong ia the ruhitiona between representatives and ropre-Houted—ho called . AVhen tho People ' s House consents to bo a reality , ceasing to be a . ahara , tho proaont " People" will generally consider whether their votes ought not to bo always given for principle , and not sometimes for money .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15071854/page/11/