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    June 27, 1857. J THE LEADED 618

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    MR. ROEBUCK'S CIRCULAR. Mb. RpEBUCK rece...

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    THE EDUCATION CONFERENCE. On Monday afte...

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    The French Elections. Pakis Has Declared...

    hold , of the Senate , the Legislative Corps , the religious body , the officers of public institutions—a compact mass of thirty thousand paid officials— -the Court tradesmen and the persons engaged on public works , account for at leastfifty thousand votes . Even by Imperial sympathizers , that supposition is allowed . But what influenced the hostile electors ? An intense and deep-seated antipathy to Bonapartism and arbitrary government . Louis Napoleon has built a throne upon a revolution ; it is the revolution , not of 1793 , but 18- - ; it underlies Paris , and who

    knows when it will emerge ? The only certain element in the calculation is , that no Government can be durable in France against which is arrayed the intelligence of the capital and its sister cities , and that the movement of opinion to which we know the most distinguished French politicians have looked forward with eager hope has already begun . Not but that the Government has secured an immense legislative majority . The provinces , cut up into petty sections , are altogether at its disposal , and we pledge ourselves to the truth of the statement that

    in the Doubs the Mayors of villages perambulated the country for weeks previous to the elections , and told the peasants that if they voted for M . de Montaiembbet their property would be burned , and themselves involved in ruin . Of what avail is political intelligence in the capital , when the mind of the rural population , gifted with universal abused ? The

    suffrage , is thus flagitiously Empire , defeated in Paris , triumphs in the Doubs and the Dordogne ; but the point for ultimate solution is , how long will a regime of beadles , spies , and Zouaves extort a compulsory ' yes / when the intellect and the honesty of an entire nation say ' no ; ' when the capital of France reverts by its vote to the political principles of 1848 ?

    June 27, 1857. J The Leaded 618

    June 27 , 1857 . J THE LEADED 618

    Mr. Roebuck's Circular. Mb. Rpebuck Rece...

    MR . ROEBUCK ' S CIRCULAR . Mb . RpEBUCK recently addressed a circular to the Liberal members of Parliament , inviting them to assemble at the King ' s Arms , in New Palace-yard , to concert Reform plans for 1858 . We quote his words : " The Prime Minister having pledged himself to bring in a bill next session which shall provide for a Reform

    in Parliament , some friends of reform , have asked me to invite you to a meeting to be held for the purpose of determining wnether any , and what steps , shall be taken to ascertain the feelings of the country on the subject of Parliamentary Beform ; to decide whether the people generally sliall be asked to petition Parliament for uuoh alterations in the

    existing law as they may deem requisite to make the proposed measure an effective and beneficial change . " This is laying a bold hand on political leadership ; Mr . Boeduck would be the PaIiMiSkbton of his party . He offers to take the undrawn balances of the reformers into his own custody ; but we should prefer to have some security that he would not pay them over to the account of any noble lord . Personal objection we have none against Mr . Boebuok , yet if he is to be a chief elected by a connstead

    stituency of politicians i or remaining merely self-nomiuated , it would surely be decent to explain the transactions which have rendered him among numerous Liberals a mark of antipath y and suspicion . Perhaps the antipathy is due only to an involuntary failing , since weak men , in spite of charity , resent a display of overbearing arrogance even on the part of so distinguishea a gentleman as the chosen of Sheffield . We will not be so ungracious as to mock a moral infirmity ; bub we Gave a right to complain if iteutioes a patriot away from Ma honesty , and puts his influence

    and his dexterity at the disposal of an adroit Cabinet Minister . It -would be gratifying to witness any act of public confidence that would assuage the disappointments of Mr . Boebuck : ' s desolate vanity ; but unless the confidence be complete , it is worse than a public impeachment . Mr . Boebuck , then , lies under serious charges ; he is summoned to take his trial , and if he challenges our jurisdiction , we appeal to the electors of Sheffield , and ask them to put a few questions to their aspiring representative . Was the Sebastopol Committee so managed as to leave half the truth in the dark ? Had Mr .

    Eoebtjck consulted his Liberal colleagues in the House of Commons when he encouraged the Premier , on the first night of the session , in putting a gag for twelve months between the teeth of the Parliamentary Beformers f When he made a false start in his opposition to the annuity of the Princess Boyal , was it by plan or by accident ? He Bhall have his alternative . He proyed his want of competence , or his want of integrity ; and we think that upon neither ground will he be appointed Captain of the Liberal vanguard , If he can obliterate the doubts that stain his character in connexion with those events , he will of course be anxious to show that when

    a case of gross administrative injustice , implying unknown depths of jobbery and corruption , was laid before him as Chairman of the Administrative Beform . Association , he did not affect to take it up enthusiastically , dally with it for several months , and then abandon it without any justification whatever . There was an allegation made by a public servant , that a certain Peer and Minister of the Crown had entered upon a high office at a time when he was largely

    involved in debt to that very department . Did [ not Mr . Boebuck cause this charge to be separated from the body of a petition , and entered upon the first paragraph as the point and essence of the whole ? Did he not suggest other amendments , cause the accusation to be epitomised , declare that there was reason to go before the Commons of England , warn the petitioner that he must stand by his guns , and then retreat from the subject altogether i We think this is a matter worth inquiring

    into , especially when the person implicated is applying for new trusts , and assuming new responsibilities . The essential point is , to know whether Mr , Bojbbuok can be relied upon ; arid he cannot be relied upon unless the whole story we allude to is false . For in what light does it exhibit . him ? First talking largely about the Commons of England ; then , in the style of a Parliamentary Nelson , adjuring his coadjutor to stand to his guns ; thirdlyassisting to frame a charge

    , against a Minister of the Crown ; fourthly , postponing his motion in the House ; and , finally , skulking out by a side door . We hope , for the credit of politics , that he will be able to deny the entire transaction ; but , he does not , and offers no apology for himself , we can tell him that the public tongue will not be silent—it will rifle his reputation , and leave him an empty notoriety . If Mr .

    Bobbuck ' s name be as great as ho believes , it surely worth rescuing from the mire ; at all events , should the menVber for Sheffield have lost his self-respect , the constituency will not shrink from pushing the investigation . The proverb , * Who excuses himself accuses himself , ' does not apply to this case . Mr . Eoebuok is at the bar , and silence now will be interpreted as the sullennqsa of an offender . The Roebuck circular to the Liberal members did not meet with that response to which

    it would have beeu entitled had not ita author stood in the shade of a disgraceful accusation . Only from fo rty to fifty members attended at * the King's Arm . 9 } tho

    proceedings were marked by coldness and caution , and nothing was attempted except the nomination of a committee . It is no secret that Mr . Boebuok is looked upon in the House of Commons as a pretender , who does the work of the Whigs in the disguiso of a Beformer . Trust him with the lead of the party when Lord PAiiMERSTON brings forward his promised bill next session , and who knows what amicable arrangements may be made in the library , what amendments may stop the way until the convenient moment

    arrives for withdrawing them amid the cheers of the House and the smiles of the Treasury bench ? But will not such a degradation affect the Liberal members as a body as well as Mr . Boebxtck ? Members of Parliament , therefore , who prize their own characters and the interests of their constituents , will not place themselves in the power of a lion ' s provider , but will concert a Beforcn policy exempt from the risk of a corrupt surrender .

    We repeat , the section in the House of Commons and the country that impeaches Mr . Boebuck does not desire his disgrace ; but can it be denied that when an unsuccessful politician claims the lead of a party , he should at least show that his hands are clean , that he is more than a mere decoy to the Whigs and a scarecrow to the Tories , and that he is not liable to be frightened or befooled either by a Government or a dinner party ?

    The Education Conference. On Monday Afte...

    THE EDUCATION CONFERENCE . On Monday afternoon the upper saloon at Willis ' s was ' filled to suffocation , ' as the phrase goes , though we are happy to say nobody in particular was suffocated on this memorable occasion , only a few were slightly parboiled . Soon after three o ' clock there was a murmur in the crowded assembly , which kept on increasing , till suddenly a side door was opened , through which entered the well-known figure of Prince Albert , The

    whole assembly standing , he took his ^ seat in a gilded chair on the platform ; on his right , Earl GrBANviLLE , Lord Bbougham , conspicuous in his yellow waistcoat and his dignified demeanour , the Lord Bishop of Oxfobd , and numerous others ; on his left , Lord Wabd , Lord Calthobpe , Sir John Pakington , the Bishop of liOETDOir , and last—not least—BoBEiiT Owen . The Prince opened the meeting with a very remarkable speech , ereand to the

    ditable both to the speaker country to wliich it was directed . It was delivered in a frank , unassuming , quiet , yet evidently hearty manner . All England by this time will have read it ; but we may draw attention to the last part of it , in which he points put the duty of those * whom Providence has removed from the awful struggle . ' In our philanthrop ic laissei- alter , laisserfaire time such a stress laid upon duty ought to

    find more than a response . Except this royal speech , there was nothing remarkable said on the first day of the meeting . On the second day , the Conference divided itself iuto five sections , -which assembled in five rooms at the Thatched-house Tavern . A large number of speeches were read , and it appeared almost as if every member of the Conference had his , or her , own specific remedy for the cure of nehoweve

    glected , education . Two parties , r , might easily be traced among this 33 abel of projects—i \ party demanding legislative interference , and a party rejecting it altogether , and trying to proceed , as hitherto , by voluntary means . The latter party formed the great majority of the Conference , and managed to coerce the other into nearly perfect silence . Ab the wisdom of our age seeka to find tho philosopher s stone by « voting , ' the volui \ tar \^ s of eouraG ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27061857/page/13/