Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 26th May 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16

Page 16
Page 16
16 of 24

On this page

  • Text (2)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      The Chartists, Old And New. We Perceive ...

      fieldbefore dissensions exhausted part of its eixersr The Cobbett school of Democrats began ' virulently to attack the O'Connor section and dealt not in reasonings , but m accusations of treachery . And this gave the cue to every future Chartist fracas . When the Charter had been promulgated as a watchword of union , the men who agreed upon its principles were irreconcilably divided upon the means of giving effect to { hem . It was not enough that they harmonised in politics ; they quarrelled over the methods of agitation ; and from this point of departure engaged rancorously in mutual opposition . An accusation of treachery , we have said , gave the cue to the long series of Chartist recrimination . Suspicion and jealousy , the imputation of mean motives , and the discovery of invidious selfishness , form characteristics of those men who confused and misled the working-classes . O'Connor could not see ABBAif Duncan- for the first time at a public meeting without pointing him out as a-traitor , with the words , " Beware of that man- ^ -for he is not to be trusted . " This suspicion of individuals struck at parties as weu , and incited such persons as O'Connor and O'Brien to stigmatise the Free-trade movement as a hollow and selfish agitation . Habotsy was rebuked for assuming ridiculous badges , and he retorted by insinuations of treason . Some members of the " Convention" resigned when the language of that body was too violent for their opinions , and " treachery" the impeachment hurled after them . Thus the Chartist ranks were gradually thinned , until Chartism was occupied more by its own embroilments ^ than by the advancement of its political position . 1 Eiasperated against the "Whigs , the Chartists permanently injured their cause by supporting the Tories , though a minority resisted this improvident act of revenge , and , by their secession , again split the party asunder . A rival association was created , and had scarcely commenced its action , when disputes—not debates—arose , " upon a question of policy . " Because some of the members offered a plan of agitation which was not generally approved , others fell back upon the cheap resources of calumny , and denounced them as in treacherous collusion with the middle-classes . Next , a proposal was started to preach Chartism from the pulpit in England ' as it had already been successfully preached in Scotland . This , again , was abused , and scouted as a malevolent innovation—though it is fair to state that the Chartist majority was then directed , deluded , and intoxicated byFuARGUS O'Connob . The popularity of Feargfs O'Oonnob , however , proved to demonstration that Chartism was impracticable . An endeavour was made in 1842 , by Joseph Sttjrge , to combine the working with the middle-classes , and Conferences were assembled to arrange the preliminaries of that which might have been a favourable union . Brontjebbe O'Bbien , on this occasion , took part with the pacificators ; but he was accused of an attempt to sell his party . She mqyement failed , and then arose a battle of mutual abuse ; of coarse and savage satires , of vindications , of inuendos , of ferocious repartees , above which the invariable cry of treaapn sounded as fiercely as ever . In one quarter democracy fell into a " nest" of democratic " hornets ; " in another , " a tool " of the middle-classes was detected ; in another , a " renegade" was hissed—elsewhere a quarrel took place as to whether a speaker should stand a few steps higher or lower < at a public meeting . One fraternal agitator required his quondam associate to knetfi tb Kim ; and the entire strife was traceable , not to crimes or desertions on either

      side , but to intolerance , produced by egotism , by ignorance , by want of moral culture , of moral courage , and of faith in that political ustice , which these noisy spouters were assembled to obtain . The most conspicuous men of the Chartist body seem to have treated every dissent from their opinions as a personal offence . They did not argue—they accused ; they did not persuade—they suspected ; they did not debate—they bickered and bandied insulting expletives , until Chartism was frittered away to absurdity and insignificance . " Johnny Campbell is O'BaiEN-ising—he must be stopped "—such was the spirit of the agitators who talked of concord , of equality , peace and goodwill among men . The mass of people , swayed by their passions , but not sharing their selfishness , were unhappily confounded with them , and punished for their ofiences . Nothing , to all appearance , could persuade the Chartists * of their error . When an alliance with the middle-classes was proposed , at the end of 1842 , the jealousy and bigotry of the half-taught speakers produced , as we have said , a riot at the Conference , and a conspiracy was denounced , which was probably as unreal as the democratic plots to destroy " society" in France , and Julian Hainey , one of the most melodramatic of the old Chartist body , described one of his fellow-delegates as a " hell-fiend . " O'Connor plainly enough implied that his colleagues had the reputation of rogues , and Cooper was followed on his provincial tour by epithets from political sympathisers , too gross and abominable to be printed . It is " with loathing and disgust" that Mr . GAMatAGE , an advocate of Chartism , concludes his record of squabbles and taunts between its leaders . And it is with such feelings that we hope the majority of the working-classes will now look back upon their career . They have still to achieve their political position . But they have been kept from it , not by the power of the upper orders alone , but by the trickery , egotism , and mutual distrust of their own bawling incendiaries , who have tried , by turns , to seduce them into anarchy and disorder ; to deliver them bound hand and foot into the Tory camp ; to create a perpetual breach between them and the middle-classes , the first-born of English freedom , and the natural balance of the State . It has been seen that the Chartist leaders , through their personal jealousies , incapacitated themselves from forming a party . We shall proceed to show that the conduct of the majority was so mad and so blind , that it justified repugnance as well as alarm .

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

      " THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to those contributions is limited to the act of giving them publicity . The opinions expressed are those of the writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by tho freedom which is left to his pen and discretion . ] " Our facetious contemporary" might illustrate the division of last night by a drawing of the Premier as clown , being pulled down t he tide by a team o geese , for his lordship is the buffoon to the last , and makes not the least effort to disguise the character of tho cattle attached to his car . In the course of his argument on Monday evening , summing up some logic , ho exclaimed , " Well , here wo are , then ; " one can fancy how triumphantly jaunty he will bo in his place next Monday week , twirling his venerable head at the Opposition , putting his flexible tongue in his illustrious cheek , and doing the whole ' Here wo are" process to which he is accustoming those members , who never croas tho bridge to Astldy ' s No doubt we have to reflect in tho Whitsun holidays that he has had a great victory over all his competitors — Lord EUonborough , Lord Grey , Lord Derby , Mr . Dlgraeli . Mr . Gladstone has made a false etep , and Lord Joha bos been awfully eliown

      up—having , indeed , assisted in the exhibition ; and these are the only five men with pretensions inconvenient to a Premier who knows very well that though he has got the heroic business to do , he is but a very low comedy man , and that the court is finding out that the court jester is an abolished institution . But the humiliation of Lord Derby is the most complete . De Clare , Ellenborough , and Disraeli have alike broken down this Epsom week , and th e betting in the party is all astray . It is true that the House of Commons has not voted that ithas confidence in Lord Palmerston : but it has voted " that though we have no confidence whatever in Lord Palmerston , we have a good deal less confidence in Lord Derby "—a very logical vote , and highly practical in the eyes of M . P . ' s with objections to dissolution . The Country is , o course , disgusted : but if the country selects and sustains such a wretched assembly as this House o Commons , why object to a government which accurately represents the House—its want of object , want of earnestness , want of intellect ? There was some hope of a Mountain in the House—an administrative Reform party , but here , on the first trial , the administrative Reformers , acting on the old principle of Radical incoherency that you must keep the Whigs in that the Tories may be kept out , plump for the old Lords—plump with passionate eagerness to show that they are not to be taken in by the Tories . It would seem as if the administrative Reformers , having had private communications with Lord Palmerston , calculate on being taken in by the Whigs . There is Mr . Phinn has got a good permanent place . : and we are bound to be delighted , for what are we all demanding but that our merits should not be overlooked ? So intensely are administrative re formers for the right man that they would not altogether insist on the right place . The wrong place will do very well . Mr . Disraeli ' s errors , amounting together to a failure , were great on Thursday . To beg in with , he seems to have made the move with the reckless impatience for prominence of a fussy member , as if merely for the sake of the fuss , without counting the consequences to his party or to the country . He may have consulted Lord Derby and one or two more , but the bulk of his paxty were taken by surprise by his notice , and the bulk of his party , restless about him , discontented and disgusted , are not put into good-humour by being thus insultingly led . Sir William Heathcote ' s amendment , Lord Granby ' s speech , Mr . Rer Seymer ' s speech , showed at once that Mr . Disraeli was being guilty of individuality , in this matter , and the absence of the prestige of party power damaged his oration . The oration was a mistake . It was a criticism on secondary points , and of annihilated personages like Lord John : and the want felt now , from all our statesmen , is not of debatey finessing , but of straightforward definitions of the conditions of peace and the character of the war . Mr . Disraeli ' s resolution condemned the ambiguous language of Lord Palmerston ; but Mr . Disraeli ' s speech seta no example of clear statement . Mr . Disraeli had come down to s how that he was a clever fellow , and did show that , but he disappointed those , and they were the whole of the thinking part of his audience , who asked from Mr . Disraeli , at the moment he was bidding for leadership , to declare where he would lead us to . Then the style and manner of his speech were bad . Ho spoke for nearly three hours , to a grand audience , crammed House , distinguishe d strangers , including the clever c orps diplomatique , and crowds of peers ; and yet , during tho greater part of the time he treated this Assembly with contempt by a button-holding style of conversational tediousnoss , —talking with conceited slowness , tho most sprawling ' sentences , which were damnably iterated until it is no exaggeration to say he—bored . He loaned sideways against the table , and he loitered with his subject like a man reposing against a ship ' s bulwarks in a smoo » v summer sea on a long voyage . Ho was lazj'y clever , and got out his sneers at Lord Joim and Lord Palmorston eleepily — bo that w he fell back tranquilly into his place and tno » strolled out to drink his seltzer water , ttoo brilliant House was glad of it , for though they had consciontiouBly sat through tho lymp hatic

      4m The Leade R. " [Saturday,

      4 M THE LEADE R . " [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26051855/page/16/