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Leader (1850-1860), 17th February 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, £0KD GODERXCH'S MOTION AND THE I?ITBIjI0...

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      Hefcesr And Convocatiokt. It Was To Be E...

      4 a it » c ** l * e & dft- Our Qpposition totlie Chn ? # i laflbfbe ; traced , to tfve feeing excited by H « ' . ' "BP * WfiU ^ 4 pretensions . SJi ' e- ' fa not what »^ be p *» tettds to be j thua , whatever ^^ uenee 'slie 'ifiay exercise over the spiritual Hfe of the ^ a ^ ipp ^ is so fa ? vitiated t ^ nd cor-¦^ fedY ' i ^ ^'^ fcPtiWte wrong like any othe ^ iproostare .

      — '. Jttbgte^117, 1855.] G!Hb ^Wbii. ,Jl...

      — ' . JttBgte ^ 117 , 1855 . ] g ! HB ^ WBII . , jl & 9

      £0kd Goderxch's Motion And The I?Itbiji0...

      £ 0 KD GODERXCH'S MOTION AND THE I ? ITBIjI 0 . No sign of popular , feeling is * iswe wholesome than the disposition shown to insist upon a Tadical reorganisation of our military departments , and that thorougU . reform of the ariny iwhioh wcwW , pla «& it in harmony equallv wifch common sense and with the constitution . There is scarcely a ,: place at ivnich the people have appeared jri . publicwhere they hare " not passed 3 Q * ne ; $$ tmcfc expression of opinion on these points ; notably at Ty nemouth and at Derby . But all these efforts , however universal , are

      Ukely to be void of effect for want of unity * f purpose . . J £ the people would concentrate their action upon one point , they would obtain far greater results . Questions even of foreign policy , however important , are scarcely so much within the grasp of the ¦ people -. as their own institutions ; and a sound foreign policy would flow from a sound State of our wstitutions at home . The . people require to be more completely represented in

      ihe House of Commons , they also require to be represented in other places—in the Government , and in the constitution of the army . It is quite practicable to obtain a junction in these matters , and the means of doing- it ^ are already prepared . . Lor 4 GoderioHj who has just proved his independence by declining office , has placed the following motion on the notice paper of the House of Commons :-

      —" That , in the opinion of the House , the present system of promotion in the army by purchase , under which a non-commissioned officer rarely attains to the rank of a commissioaed officer , and scarcely ever to that of a , field officer , is injurious to , the public service and unjust to the private soldiers . " If effect were given to this motion , we should have the master-key to all that we may desire . The English soldier who is now serving in the Crimea sees how totally different is . the organisation of . the French army j how

      much of its efficiency arises from the system of promotion . The possibility of passing through the ranks into commission assists the conscription in drawing into the ranks educated men , and this would be the case in our own country . We have several young men in our eye who would most likely have devoted themselves to the military profession , if by beginning with the working ranks they could have had a prospect of rising to its honours . The presence of gentlemen in the ranks

      is highly conducive to real discipline ; the presence of men . who have passed through the Tanks amongst the officers enables that class more perfectly to understand the dispositions of the men . The standard of moral fueling is raised in the ranks ; practical experience is greatly strengthened in the commission . By abolishing the governance of class in the army , its unconstitutional character would be disarmed . There is a disposition in almost every class of the people to assist in procuring a reform- —indeed , to place our army in true union with the people , ana to strengthen our military system .

      It would , we think , be fur better if all parts of the country were to concentrate their efforts upon i , he support of Lord Godeuich ' s motion . At present every town is " going upon its own hook , " and we shall move nothing . The same labour that is ' now wasted , if brought into union , would do much . There is too' little time to bring the public together upon the point between the present day and the 20

      th——;— : : — ' ., . . ' . . ' " — " ¦ r ""^^""^ " = " » " >« " ^ p ™ Bi the 'day named 'for lietd : GouraHoa ' amo toon . and , - considering the state of ihe public cm the subjeet , he may probably consider the 'expediency of postponing 1 it .

      The T^Piabboname. "Ce Sont Dea Trouble-4...

      THE t ^ PiaBBONAME . "Ce sont dea trouble-4 & te , auxqaelaen aepaMbnrae pas d ' avein raiaan ta > p ; 4 c 4 , et .-d & ppeler Jke ches « s par lear »© Ba , "~ r-j ^ z -Py ^^ , . yefeHMvry . fi , 1855 . ( T & a lajAanrcn , September 17 , 185 a . ) " There is an average of intellect is Evades and professions ; but some professioas regxiirea traming to be clever—a knaefe ; and ^ heu » pbil © 6 ophic world always thinks theTOen who bare eanght the knack are very able men . 'YowHgf men -are sent to the bar by accident ; but middle-aged'barristers are considered , by society , cleverer and . abler than middleaged atationess , or . grocera , w : merchants ; whereas the difference is shandy iheidifffeuence « f ; calling sad training . In the 'game way- in the Governing

      Classes : a dull boy is put to the trade of governing and in course of time , as the effect of training , and acquired skill and caution , he ? rises , 'and , becomes * a very able man , ¦ Sir . ' Thia reasoning fia aa * o the average men : as there are Wellingtons bora among peers , so there are great journalists , great merchants ,-T-in a word , first . men , everywhere . But this reasoning is to show that an average Earl , becoming Secretary of State ,, and writing decent despatches , and making decorous speeches , is not one whit a greater man , or more ^ ableinan , Sir , * than the average grocer , tailor , barrister ,, or editpr . It is like talking a truism . ; but does the world . not act upon a very different theory—Believingthat Earls are not only born- into governing , but are bom ? very able men , Sir ?***

      ( The Leabeb , October 22 , 1853 , ) _ .. .-" TheJHoBse of Lords , said Lord Derby , -whom we may take as the shrewd exponent of most thoughtless British cants , —the House of Lords is open to all men . The answer is , —^ as the ^ LondoEfTavern is open to all men , —who . can pay . The price of entrance among the governing classes is , —subjection to . the governing classes . Excepting Lord Brougham , in respect to whom the circumstances were peculiar , noman ever got into the Peerage who did not go to the ; House of "Lords as the agent of the Peerage . There are only two classes who get out of the mire into the ,

      ermine , —soldiers and lawyers . Soldiers are always Tories ; or when they are not , as Napier was not , they are put down . Lawyers are always intense . Conservatives , for obvious reasons : and the most Tory lawyers who haVe reacted'theWoolsack , have been Whigs , —like Lord Cottenham . Occasionally a millionnaire gets in , like Jones Loyd : and , noto ^ riously , the most conscious of aristocrats is the parvenu Peer . Just as boroug h , owners did and do , send their servants , their toadies , their ' agents , ' or their sons , into the * Commons ' , ' House , so the flatterers , the tools , and the orators , of the governing

      classes are permitted to get into the Lords' House , Every new creation which is a concession to the cleverness and worth of the basely-born ambitious , is a new coat of paint to the old House of Lords , — freshening it up in the eyes of the prone and gaping multitude : and the exceptions , which only prove the rule of exolufiiveness , arc loudly made use of to demonstrate the theory of the open Constitution . The Governing Classes have a distinct policy , —to perpetuate their class : and the governed classes are always applauding when they see the governing classes make use of mean men ! Every able man , can reach the highest place in this free country ,

      said the enlightened journals of the governed classes when the governing classes ( in each ease with sensible distrust ) made Canning Premier : made Peel Premier ; gave Disraeli the Finance Office ; a seat in the Cabinet to Macaulny ; and Treasury work to Qx-chapelier and able but complaisant James Wilson . But did any mnn ever get into the Cabinet who was pledged to realising the theories of the Constitution ? Did any man ever get a Peerage who was averse to Spiritual Peers , and indisposed to the Conservation of the Commons as an ante-room of the Peers ? In fact only very few of the astute sycophants themselves get tho reward of admission within the adytum of . the British Temple . There waa Burke , who did

      good Conservative work at a lisE y perToatr afiaTfcSt amiable anS ' brilliant - Charles"Stox ' i ^ o ^ M so fewgood and . said so fevr * : lewtifa & i > n 9 **& magg 0 & fd a Peeragefor theincqmp ^ atte Irfthpi ^ a . fhat mew * ecent Wb * g <& SeT < -L ^ d J , # mi ^ s ^ ioiHrand $ &!) $ hilated a party by i 4 a , uflge ^ e ^^ - Qa ^ els , Jfrifc-\ jftrdjng „; useful brains . Beyond the discovery of Mr . James Wilson he , never helped a ; prebeiari in t ! $ e path , qf anihition , Oh ,, yes . We b § g his pardon . ^ Bfo actually made Charles Buller , who had the genius Of a ; dosen CharlesJFoxes , a President t > f-a Poor-law

      Board . , And bow , as a European war reopens , Lord Hardinge is Cx > m . TOander-m- ^ hief : Cqmniarider-fciehief of that army which dare lose none of its prestige : firgtflaan , ia a military crisis , df a nation , which must go forward or disappear . And he is sixty-ei ^ Hfc years of age . That is ^ Berious , fac $ . "When forty , in the full swing of his energy arid his intellect , no one would have dreamed of him for such a post ; even had , there been no WeUingtonTMs contemporary ; buip ,, in peace , he got his ,: nost , by seniority : and thejre he is-rin that post , as war opens , at" sixty-eight years of age , as inferior to himself at forty as at . forty he was inferior to Wellington . However this

      enlightened country endured a Duke of York till a Wellington and a Nelson turned up ; and must rejoice in a Hardinge till a Iffapier be found , or be ewployed . In truth , the selection , is limited ; tlie governing classes 4 eject brains so emphatically , that most of the able men go into commerce , finding money to compensate for fame ; and the unhappy question is—whom would ryon substitute for Lord Hardinge ? Successful men : in ttoi ^ ooiontry have to reach second childhood before they get peerages and crosses , and the governing classes would not dream of giving the Horse Guards to mere manhood and brains without a title and a ewws . In that respect

      England is far behind the rest of Ewropa > Jaerit travels faster even 4 n the Bussia * ; and certainly faster in . the Turkish sesyice than in th . e British . < ' A war now is toJEnglatid far more serious than to Prance or Russia . England will be ruined by war if she does not win in it . And there are bo evidences that her present rulers are the men to carry her through thejwar . In the last ^ srar Pitt and Welling ton were both young ; but now , not only ? her leading statesmen in office , but all her generals and admirals , are dangerously old men , and the chances are that before she begins to wiBF she will have * o kill off all the old statesmen and all the old commanders .

      ' *« Touth is genius ; it is energy . Age in action is a blunder , because it as not active . The influence of age is visible in the negotiations which have caused the now inevitable war ; could such an influence be trusted in the conduct of a campaign ! - To suggest that sexagenarians and octogenariana are teas capable than men of thirty and forty to conduct and Boanage a great war is no more to insult old age than it is insulted by the remark that beards grow grey . The men who would have to conduct a- war now . on behajf

      of England—Lord Aberdeen , Lord Hardinge , Sir James Graham , Lord John Russell , and Lord Palmeraton-rwould break down simpjy beoause a eouncil of war , in which every councillor is seventy , cannot possibly achieve a victory . Experience has its advantages—but only when action is routine . "Nestor talked more wisely than anybody else in the debates before Troy ; but Achilles , a rash young fool , took the city . Auarria , it may be said , was saved the other day by the octogenarian Radetzky ; but she was

      also , before , lost by Wurmser , fighting against a general of thirty , and against soldiers who had noshoes and no brandy . And if England gives way , first , as Radetssky did , her Iiadetzkys will never bring her to the front again . For Jfrjissia is not Lonabardy and wo are not , like Austria , accustomed to be losers . " Gentlemen of from sixty to seventy years of age are so wise that they cannot be original ; and if England ' s rulers and generals cannot now lift themselves , out of routine into a conception of a great evidenco

      campaign , England is lost . And there w no that our Cabinet or our Commander-m-cluef have got vigorous ideas about tho war . They already talk through a leading journal , to the effbet lh » tM » war only brings the belligerents to a treaty , all ^ the bloodshed had better be ' afcipped' and we had : Uejfcr begin with the treaty ! And this is said the same day on which the Czar ' s challenge is bruited forth to Eurono-war to extermination J StartingJrom such different points of view-tho Russian seeking the extermination of his opponent , an }^ ^^ i Government aiming only at the truce of a Conferewe which is likely to win ? " ___ ¦ _•

      We refer our readers to tax article in < th . o Times of Wednesday , February 14 ^ 1855 , which we have reprinted in . another part ot our paper . Verily , the Letter is « unpardonable . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 17, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17021855/page/15/