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Leader (1850-1860), 29th November 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 10, 1188 THE LEADER. [•**<>• 349, Sattoday.

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      The Lull. A Litlii Has Settled Down Upon...

      questions wMch stand over until a variety of provisional points are adjusted . ^ Bedschid PIcha , we are informed , awaits the reply of Unffland , Trance , and Austria to his proposal fora Congress including only the plenipot en- tiaries of thosePowers . It is here that Turkey and Bussia are at issue , Russia declining the decision of a Congress in which Austria and Eng land might carry a vote against Prance , They may be misinformed , in England , who impeach M . "VVaxewski ' s policy as anti- English and pro-Bussian , but whether M . be Mobny was bribed for it or not , he has sue- ceeded in persuading the Emperor Axex- andeb , that Trance stands aloof from the diplomacy of England . In IFrance > itself the lull is not that of foreign politics alone . It hangs over the Coiirt , the capital , the provinces . While the Cabinet is pressing Lord Paiaieeston to reopen the debate on "thefrontier difficulty and the Serpents' Island dispute , and putting forward a variety of propositions all tending to the release of [ Russia from the conditions of the Paris Treaty , the Emperorhimself ap- pears half-bewildered . He knows that his policy is tostand well with England ; but ^ his supporters are of a diiferent mind . He lives for power , they for money ; and it is the natural consequence of his position that none but vile agents will serve him . 31 eamvhile , the sufferings of the working classes are in no way mitigated ; discontent is more rife than ever ; at one moment the public works are suspended to ease the Exchequer , at an- " other they are resumed to conciliate the fretful artizans . And the winter approaches rapidly to test tke endurance of the people and the precautions of the Grovernment . In Austria , Sir Hamilton Sjetmotjb is represented as Laving assured the Imperial Government that England would encoiirage no movement of the disaffected population in Italy . As if such an assurance liad not / been given long ago ! As if it were not as indis pensable in Paris as in Yienna ! Whatever has been said , means , probably , as much as the explanations of the JFrench Government on the subject of Muratism . in Naples . In the meantime , Lornbardy and Venice ob serve in silence the passage of the Austrian Emperor ; the Sardinian liberals continue to organize their great plan of a war national independence ; dynastic pretensions are rejected on every side ; thirteen subscrip tion lists for the ten thousand inuskets have been closed , but the party moves in secret conscious of its moral power and of the ne cessity of caution . The same comparative quietude prevails throughout the Spanish peninsula . Affairs at the capital are sta tionary . ! No one expects the actual state things to last ; tut the intermittent outbreaks in the provinces are evidences , simply , of disorganized condition of society . They not politically serious . Parties at home are engaged in watching the progress , or no-progress of events abroad ¦• " *™ — ' ^ fhe Conservatives , having no respectaoie representation through the press , have all bu disappeared from the scene of public affairs There is a general concurrence in the idea that Lord Derb y inspired the recent Essay on the declining efficiency of Parliament which , if true , may be accepted as a proof that he himself is declining in sincerity or in intellect . The lower organs of TorieB chatter feebly ; in one direction about Lord PAiiMEitSTON ' s treachery , and another betray a bitter sense of inferiority by perpetual cavils on the exclusion of Beet from office . Lord pALMEit 8 TON , in the senco of an opposition so destitute of charac ter and talent , affeots a monarchical disre gard of official responsibility , and carries great diplomatic dealings with the leadin

      Jo dil uti J ± < m < se < to na ah sii « p tii w . re ^ 1 oi m ui & " Powers of the world—in addition to an undiplomatic transaction with Persia—without uttering more at Manchester or the Mansion House than a few vague sentences , which may mean anything or nothing . Under these circumstances , with peace insecure , with vast changes possible from day to day on the Continent , with new combinations forming abroad , and old principles in abeyance at home , why are our tribunes silent ? where are those men who form the conscience of the House of Commons ? Setting aside , momentarily , the trusted Liberals , where is Mr . GiiA-DSTOitfE ? He is , in part , responsible for the pressure that has been applied to Naples ; is he satisfied with the policy of intervention concerted between Lord Pax-MEESTOH and the French Emperor ? Let us repeat : the lull may be the prelude to tb . European settlement ; but it may be , on the other hand , the beginning of trouble .

      1188 The Leader. [•**<>• 349, Sattoday.

      1188 THE LEADER . [•**<>• 349 , Sattoday .

      S V H C Y E H A V N A F O P F C 1 A C ] ...

      S v h c y e v n a f o p c a c ] ] - 1 < < < ] - i 1 < of : , - - of are , I ill t . , new the in their pro-- - on g LOUD JOHN . c Shottid Lord John Russeli , accept the in- I vitation conveyed him by such general acclaim , *< he ought to expect his own terms for the ac- * ceptamce . He certainly stands on a high lf ; vantage ground . "We have refrained from ^ : ' entering Upon this subject hitherto , in the J > hope that we should see some answer to the v appeal , some settlement of the question ¦» . whether he accepts or not . We rather sur- t i mised , indeed , that some arrangement was P i actually proceeding , and that the public calls t ¦ for Lord John , which came from different parts ' * I of the community , were the result of some - » i predetermined plan . We do not Imow how s > far this may be the case with particular ' % circles , but we do believe that Lord JonN I i himself has no part in the matter . If any t L arrangements hare been designed , it is with- \ 5 out consulting him . There is a belief that t l Lord John will come tack , resume an active 1 i part in politics , accept a peerage , re-enter 1 - the Government , and take up measures which ] v other men find too much for them ; the \ yholo i s calculation being based on the one single ] t datura , that a want is felt . The public and ] i public men cry , ¦ ' Lord John , you are wanted ; ' ] - and they expect that Lord John will come at i the call , opening his mouth and shutting his e eyes to take what his friends may please to f have provided for him . a . No man has been more severely criticized - than that same member of the house of Bede ford . A year or two ago , one might have b , supposed , from the tone of the liberal press , ! - ¦ that ho had done worso than fcetray his e country—that he had stultified his country , h A year or two ago we were assured , on the i- one side , that Lord Palme bsto : n was the > f man of the day ; on tho other , that Lord ca Derby was , after all , the coming man ; ' and a in tlic middle , among the unclassified liberals , re we were told that there was soino national party to turn up ; but at last it is di scovered ig that no better statesman can . at present be d , invented than Lord Jou * T Ituss jsll . Candidly ie we are not prepared to deny the statement . it Wo look round us to see if a better man can s . bo found , one more suited to bo tho loader of ea the Liberal party , one on whose conduct a / y those who aro anxious for further reform it , could more confidently and justly rely , rvv There is no other individual man answering ty to the description . We aro quito willing to ho accept Sir IUoiiakd Bet-hell ' s assurance ut that he will bring bills for law icform into in Parliament ; we believe that Lord Pax . merty 8 TON- will endorse any billa that aro presented eir for acceptance by good customers out of ro- doors ; but we think tho public can jDretty xc- well guess tho result of debates on bills in the re- House of Commons . There ai-o oxcollent on lawyers in both Houses , anxious to improve bag the body of tho law ; but it never has beon If > . . ; > - i 3 . $ \ ' fc 3 3 i . c r . c e d d s ' 1 Id ) e [ y t m rf cfc , n V U tS cc to a- ed of ty he nt vo on

      | the lawyers who supplied the political steam who expressed all the demands of the people or would compel the Government for the tune being to concede those demands . The most likely and popular member at the present dav is Sir John Pakington , who is devoting himself , heart and soul , to promote o « e general measiire for the whole body of the people . He is at this moment the single example . There is an association bent upon 1 bringing about a better administration of tho I public offices , but it has as yet presented to I Parliament no measure which , affects the ¦ whole body of the people ; and it stands be- I fore the public just at present only in the I light of a plan- —a truly magnificent plan no I doubt—for a . great movement . Its leaders I cannot as yet point to their accomplished ¦ deeds . Now of Lord John Kussull we - \ know something more . If there is any man I who has done good , service in breaking down I the remains of religious intolerance in this I country , that man is Lord JonN Etjssell . there is any manat the present day who ia identified with the extension of tho national franchise , it is Lord Johb " . If any man has laboured longer and with more practical results in the cause of public education than Sir John PAKiNaTOisr , it is Lord John . If there is any man-who at the present moment actually contemplates a genuine extension of the franchise to a much larger number of the people ^ something like a national franchise , that man , again , is Lord John " . Take his life , from first to last , it is consistent , intelligible , He has always been a Whig , and has never satisfied us , thouglL he has , indeed , advanced in his views since he put his hand to a pure middle-class Heforin Bill . "We think that he ought to restore that franchise , which we h elieve to be the inherent right of every freebom Englishman . But no man of thd present day has actually accomjjlished more progress towards that restoration ; and no man amongst us now is actively contemplating so large a further progress in the same path . There is , therefore , none who , on the ' return of peace , with the return of public attention to domestic alfairs , is more fitted to be tho leader for tlie nation in Parliament . AVo know tlie confession which this tribute to Lord John ' s consistency implies . We would have gone much farther , and certainly with much more speed than Lord JonK ; and wo are well aware that to pronounce him the foremost man of this day is a censure upon all the public men who ought to bo in advance of him . It is something hie the same tiling as dragging forth poor Lord Raqlan from his veteran repose to take the head of the army which ought to have had some young "Welxtssley at its head ; hut to have no young Wellesley in the army , to have no young Lord John Busselj , ancl must in 1856 fall back upon the man ot 18 dU . The arrangement which we have mcntionett lias been ascribed to some otLoiaJOHJB admirers in this country ; it appears to have been countenanced by those who are socially high ia the Liberal party . It was felt , perhaps , that tho Ministry does not possess a hold on . tho public confidence , for want of any dfl- | tinct pledges of a political character irom those members . Tho Cabinet would uc strongtlioned by the addition of Lord John , tho House of Lords wniita an . inhiaiou oj good constitutional principle , tho Uwciu party wants a political leader , and hord Jon « L roqucBted to return homo for the pnrpoM of accepting tho part of jmmo Fremi « MJ tho Liberal party . Nobody appears to Jcbow whether he will uecopt , or aiot . Jt " ° « jV wo say ho lias a right to his terms . VI « ' not mean from Ministers , —they arc > ot ^ ry secondary importance . AVe mean iron £ Liberal party . We do not mean that no nw

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1856, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29111856/page/10/