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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    « The Stranger" In Parliament. [The Resp...

    to the left , mapping of the ways to heaven . And with a House of Commons , such as ours , this is the only plan : our Christianity—our Church of England —heing essentially Christianity by Act of Parliament—the New Testament being regarded merely as a " preamble' to clauses of salvation arranged by the not remarkably-insp ired clerks at the table . Now—or when a third reading has taken place ( and this is the only way in which you could get a practical assembly to read its Bible so often ) -you may marry your dead wife ' s sister : 100 members of your representative government say you will be damned j but 110 members say that Providence will not pay any particular attention to the matter ; majority in favour of eternal joys and temporal possession of Mary Anne , 10 . Why should not the path to Paradise be regulated by Parliament just in the method which governs its Turnpike Acts ? Where would you get a piouser man than gpooner ; better up in Leviticus , or more episcopal and awful in appearance ? You could not catch a Cardinal to talk more technical twaddle than bir Frederick Thesiger ' s—a smart barrister , of a profession peculiarly governed by the Gospel , who is always on the alert , as if Providence had retained him , to resist encroachments on the Church of England . Then there are the two Phillimores — gentlemen who , when there is a doubt , will oblige you with a quotation , in ' any language , to any effect . There ' s Mr . Walpole ^ too , loose Sn Militia franchises , but profound in ecclesiology and there ' s Mr . Henry Drummond , whoj has established a church of his ovrn , on a rock of which he has bought the fee simple , and to whieh his wealth and wit enable him to make a considerable number of converts , for whom he contracts by the dozen Thus , the House of Commons is a tolerable Council of Faith ; and though it is doubtless the case that great errors in saving doctrine are committed , yet the country has the consolation of knowing that it is not steadfast in its errors , and that if the Tories are damned in 1850-60 , the turn of the Whigs may come in 1860-70 . ' . ,

    Mr . Bowyer did not get up the debate he expected onCrim , cons .: he is so foolish a gentleman that he is generally laughed down ; and it appeared , m this Iase , ^ that his bill was preternaturally silly—as . miffht be expected from so learned a member . J- hus , for a little while longer , the Turksr in or about whose territory we are defending civilisation , mil have to endure their astonishment at ¦ finding it the custom of England to assess chastity after a pecuniary value ; while for so long , doubtless , the backparlour and tea-taking morality of Great Britain will continue to be shocked at our maintaining the integrity of a people whose Mahommedan religion sanctions what Mr . Bright calls " barbarous cus- toms "—which , of course , is a good deal worse than practising civilised vices which are not sanctioned ^ When ? t ' haT ' not [ WnlTcibnvehiiae - ofgentlemen connected with "The Gospel , " the House of Commons this week , has been a debating club . Take Locke King ' s anti-primogeniture notion protruded on Thursday . Here was a perversion of Radical power to an utterly impracticable object . After the experience of the last three months , it would be insanity to doubt that the country is essentially and intensely aristocratic in its partialities . An army annihilated —an empire endangered—government at home rendered all but impossible-by the imbecilities of our rulinff nobles , and of their class entrusted with all our affairs ; and yet , already , the cry that was raised and prevailed bo fiercely , against the oligarchical regime , is as purely a matter of history as the Gordon riots ,-is an affair of " vulgar declama tion . " And as the aristocratic regime rests upon the system of primogeniture—a system so apso lutely national , that the commercial classes do that without reason which the landed proprietors do in order to sustain the supremacy of the land In the state , is it not singularly unwise in a philosophical Radical party to select a moment of political sus pense to obtrude ideas which will be pronounced ror volutionary ? Mr . Locko King was put down—be cause , said Sir 11 . Bothell , who brings in three new bills a month , " nolumus leges'Angliaj mutari ! The debate was a debate of first principles , and after the fashion of the " Union" society ; every one knowing that it was chatter for chatter ' s sake , objectless and resultless . But Mr . King was no doubt satisfied that he had again " ventilated a great question . 1 ecu liar nation : which thinks it is free becauso it has machinery for ventilation . Mr . William Williams , onlna Probate Duty hobby was perhaps more practicable-after many years Mr . W . Williams carries liis points , —but was quite ns inappropriate to the session . Ho did some good eliciting something of the reserved and clumsy mind of the new Chancellor of the Exchoquer . bir Corno wall Lewis is a gentleman of great gravity of mind whose intellect has been almost entirely washed away by a prodigious ( stream of learning turned on from

    : . the reservoir in Bloonwbury ; who has read so that he has never had time to ook about him ; and who has as much notion of the British House of i Commons as Mr . Wm . Williams has , of the Areopa- , gus . As a speaker , he rather soliloquises ; a " * ° * gj he knows several languages , is tremendously bothered with a sentence of English . Shy ,-suspicio ^ nd awkward , he cannot be popular with a popular assembly and , so far , he has not gone on very welL In throwing over Mr . Gladstone's Newspaper Stamp Bill , he has been guilty of the offence of timidity before the clamour of an interested class , found to be as selfish and as sillytes the classes it is perpetually lecturing about the Public good . In his Slswer to Mr . Williams , on Thursday , he ideated a curious conception of his functions as Finance MmisteTof a " popular , " not to say "liberal , " Government . ' &« was a ' proposition that this one of the last fiscal privileges of the land ^ should . be abolished : not an argument against it , though three-fourths of the Commons' House would be opposed to it . But Sir Cornewall Lewis , the scholarly squire , who has gone into office to . do Lord Palmerston ' s bidding as abjectly as Mr ¦ Goulburn did Sir RobertPeel ' s bidding , ™ aetudfr ¦ shocked at Mr . Williams' attempting to interfere . with the arrangements of the Governmenta l he I superciliously advised that abashed gentlemanto > w 1 ? hdrawhis motion . Mr . Gladstone managed Mr . . Williams better ; Mr . Gladstone always put ham l down , but always left him under the impression that his plans were taken up . » Was the House of Commons exercising its proper : functions in encouraging Mr . Cobbett ' s Ten-Hours Bill ? Having nothing else to do , how P ™^ J ° i foment class discord ! . But even from this ^ debate t the reflecting Turk may gather materials forth ° ught . For he may see that , even in Mr . . Bright s own . district , peace is not synonymous with yaraaise . I and he may ponder over the circumstance that even t in civilised England there is a war between those who i toil and those who pay for toil fiercer and more fatal t than that raging before Sebastopol . ¦ „„»>¦ } SaturdayMorning ^ "AS ibasoer . } _ - ; ;

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    ! . . , , - - . - - - I a , in - , WHAT WE WANT . i ( To the Editor of tfie Leader . ') i SlB _ We have two things to reform , it is evident , t ere the business of this country in its present crisis i can be done . Neither Parliament nor the army do their duty ; and , to my mind , the one body is just as i ; We want active , and able , and fearless administrators and Parliament does not furnish them . The 1 i constituencies think they have done enough if they : - fuSh agood kind of a well-to-do gentleman , representing wealth and respectability , but a man who ¦ probably never thought of politics till late in Me , - Ind who then looked at them from over his ledger in L hfasffily , or through the spectacles of his ? o . uiexion . Continental empires have a horrid , slavish , mtole-• rable and unpopular institution , called the burcau-L cmcy . Men attain to . authority by rising through , the gradations of an administrative career . I agree with all that can be said against the ^ eaucraUc of - France , of Prussia , and of Russia . It is a huge I mushroom bed of insolence , tyranny , and servility , i But it produces capable administrators . Any chefde bureau makes an excellent minister , witness . V Drouvn de Lhuys . or Manteuffel . All our freedim cannot procfuce the like . Why ? Because our e frSdSn audits electors will not tako the trouble 1 or practise tho discernment ; and because it is nqt - worth clever men ' s while to come forward into , politics as a profession . A duke ' s son may turn - ? oiu ! cian as ho may enter the Guards , for h . s conv nexion enables him to turn what is on the face of it o a bad speculation into a good one . But no ab , o man o of tho middle class can over enter politics till ho is c enriched and old , his life half done , his ideas fixed , d his opinions for acquiring and originating knowledge tt worn out . But this is the result of the English i- notion , that the duties of politics , at least all the a preliminary and inferior ones , ought to bo done for nothing . The consequence is , that what w done ib it , worth nothing , and that tho profession of politics is : s merely an amateur calling . to Henco tho incapacities we obtain , or are put oil n with in tho way of ministers ; henco the insolence d with which tho public are treated . Nothing can bo a . plainer than that the Duke of Newcastle and his d \ friends are to blame for tho inefficiencies of the rciy I cent management of tho war . Parliament holds m back for months , threatens to inquire , and finding ¦ ¦ 3 ir - 0 ? a ' 1 -. J , li e > f e r ! ! e $ - ir i s - o- <** IB

    : instead of another to manage the war-department , it insists on inquiry—when lo ! up get the whole coterie of the Peelites , express the extreme ol indignation against that most patient Mr . sull , aaa declare they will not serve him . What wo « ld have been the fate of the Duke of Newcastle in Englanosome hundred and fifty years ago ? MemoakA . ^ are been impeached , and run some risk of his neatt . What would be his reward in Russia at the present day ? Siberia , no one can doubt . But the Enghsn system at present is that of the most complete in » - punity for error and incapacity , and the most utter absence of encouragement or reward for administrative merit . If this system continue , I dare to prophesy that England and her constitution will go , where they deserve—to the depths of Venetian annihilation . , .... a —< ¦ What is wanting in legislation and politics ? Fair play , opportunity , and employ for ™ ddle-class talent ; and middle-class talent is above all a talentfor busing What is wanting in the army ? Fa » play , opportunities , and employ for middle-class enereies The army is an amalgam of superfine gentryand working-class endurance . There . " Ioura | e in both , but from neither , noi : from both of thlm conjoined , has been de ^ oped that spirit of military self-management and self-subsistence which Sles an army not merely to fight , but to hold j » - cSd ^ from t £ e British army of the present day as thev were in the year 1625 . ¦ - « - _ AUoWme here to narrate a true anecdote , illustrate of things current . A rare occurrence happ ? oS wUhSmy knowledge . Z . respectable ^ farmer's ion declared ( it was before the war ) that he would Inter the army The farmer was surprised at the f 6 ly of the speculation . He was ready to stocky fa £ n ? ot hia sdnV on which he might live ^ d make moSeyf but to buy a commisBion for him , and ^ to Slow him a smart annuity in order to « suable him to ^ m £ 3 rS Th ?^ 1 n ; p ^ £ ^ ^^^^^ n ^^^ r for hfs son , which , as the authorities of the regiment _ backed the Horse Guards graciously allowed . And loWVunTcXr was an ensign when tibe war broke Xft ? The young officer flashed his maiden sword ^ t - the Alma , Jnd ^ e Russians returned him the com - grvtJ ? S Sut ^ Sr ^ aora ^^^ they would promote him only on the condition of his fc ^ ffi'aS !? Q !^ cr 1 I-BI ^ P ^ t l ^ money ? No ; it is deposited merely for the sake of SSSSng that officers shall he the sons of rich and poiperous I ^ Pte ^^* ^^^^^^ ^^ be democratic , discontented , and , in days of ^^ twn and disaffection , might not be to be depended on . Such is the calculation , when absurd Admiralty and War Offices exclude the sons of the middte classes from the army and navy . They are excluded bv a similarly stem fr ? m the church , which requires an Spen ^ edlcation , and bishop 8 we know requ ^ e some fortune in those they ordain . Ihe Bar , we know , erects the same obstacles and condition ^ for itself . So that professions in England , instead ot performing the natural duty of professions , that is , Sing as channels for the talent of the under classes ? o risS toeminence , have become simply modes of providing a position in society for the man who can pay for it All this system of doing everything by Soney , and nothing ^ ithout it , is not fifty years old . In the late war , men got ensigncies and livings , and cadetships , without money ; ^^^^ . ^^[^ 3 Sf W ^^ SmSSS ^ tLH mmm ^ i ^ i ^^ SH ^ eeo the results . crusade against tho ariau ^ fd ^& f & JrsrJz ¦ are called to make , but a cruso « o b ariflto-* "s = £ S : k ? SfaUhou g . S " u bc ? I . b « r , the Uu , t thing 1 . riiaU attempt . ¦ j om &„ ., AFlUBUMiN .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17031855/page/15/