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    ^ulilir Maixs.

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    THE MINISTRY DEFYING THE PEOPLE . " I appeal to the freeholders , to the landowners , and to the clergy of North Essex , " cried Mr . Bercsford , on the hustings at Braintree , " who 1 am sure will return me in spite of your brawls . So spoke one of her Majesty ' s Ministers to the assembled people , in reply to signs of his unpopularity ; and the reiteration of opprobrious terms towards the non-electors exciting increased uproar , he added— " I despise you from my heart , as the vilest rabble I ever saw . ' Major Beresford avows that he is " still a Protectionist ; his language proclaims that he is still a Tory ; and the people may see , by favour of his candour , how the Tories still regard the bulk of the peoplehow they regard all below " freeholders , landowners , and clergy . ' * We are not so unjust as to suppose that all ner Majesty ' s Ministers would disgrace themselves by this sort of pseudo-aristocratic Billingsgate . One at least / we are sure , would not so violate decorum in the face of History , would not so violate the spirit of the constitution , as to recognise on the hustings the merely statutable distinction between electors and non electors ; but Mr . Disraeli , who would certainly know better , does not enjoy the full confidence of his party . Mr . Walpole , who has been mystifying the electors of Midhurst by the most fanciful version of Free-trade history , is more trusted by the Premier in party questions ; and Lord Derby , m his lace at the Mansion-house dinner table , has

    p spoken against his own . Chancellor of the Exchequer in his place in the House of Commons . However indiscreet Mr . Beresford may be , we believe that in his ingenuousness he does but avow the true feelings of the Tory party , of which Lord Derby is the acknowledged head . " The vile rabble" !—the phrase is opportunely revived , just before the Derby Cabinet opens its career in the Parliament elected under its own influence . The " vile rabble" thus " despised ' by Mr . Beresford , avowedly consists of the nonelectors ; who are not less avowedly disliked and alighted by her Majesty's Minister . Six-sevenths of the population are non-electors . Of course there o .-A . n he no extension of the suffrage under

    Mr . ' Bcresford and his colleagues . What else may Ministers do for the people at larger " The vi ' lo nibble" also must include the three millions of paupers ; for they aye nonelectorn ; and we may ask what is to be done lor them . ' * Nothing , wo ' suppose . Public afl ' airH are a matter between the Homsfonls of high life and the ( VeeliolderH , landowners , and clergy ; and the three millions have nothing to do with public affairs . Nor can they expect any thing from a Minister who dislikes and despises tho nonelectoral elans . What will Mr . Bercsford and his eolleagues < lo for them ? Beresford adheres in

    Protection , to which Mr . terms , and to which , ho many of bin colleagues evidentlyadhere in their hearts , will do nothing for the rabble . Under 1 'Yee-trade , they have found more to eat and drink , " and they know the reason why . " There is , indeed , something that can be done for the great body of tho people , and that might be done by the Protectionists without any breach of their principle . Philip Pusey has pointed out one part of it , in improved farming . We cannot go back to Protection , ho hjivh , and therefore we rnuHt go onward to bettor farming if a ( Jovernnuiiit , coiiHulting alike the true

    intercsts of landowners , farmei'N , and labourers , were to take a lead in tho encouragement of bettor agriculture—if they would give reproductive employment to tho able bodied poor , malting it thus the intercut of fanner arid landowner to employ rather than to chase those poor oil" tin ; land ; if they wore to land their oflicial countenance to

    oxtended and improved culture , rather than to the phantom of condemned Protection ; if they were to improve the tenure and facilitate the transfer of land , provide agricultural statistics , enable and encourage such associations both of landowners and of working people , as are indicated by George Pelsant Dawson , the influential Yorkshire landowner , and also by many of the working-classes —then they might really effect something to reduce the mass of paupers , to better the

    condition of the people . But why should they ? The mass of the people is only " vile rabble ; " and the electors , to whom exclusively such Ministers as Mr . Beresford look , reject men like Philip Pusey , because they will not longer profess the transparent humbug called Protection . Philip Pusey , who sets a practical example to the farmers in the inevitable task , is obliged to give up the contest for Berkshire , while Protectionist Beresford , despising the " vile rabble , " is elected . It cannot , indeed , be very consoling for the six millions of disfranchised men , for the three millions of paupers disfranchised in the republic of

    industry , to be thus openly vilified and despised by one of her Majesty ' s Ministers ; and if there were any remains of generous English spirit , it seems to us that it would have been scarcely safe , for Ministers officially , or for their colleague personally , to avow such monstrous dislike and contempt towards the people of this country . But the non-electors and paupers , who form the bulk of the English nation , are getting used to be disliked and despised , and they take it as tamely as a chivalrous Beresford could desire .

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    PALMERSTON AND THE FUTURE . The Times is turning its great influence and the best ability which it can command in columns so often adorned by powerful writing , to combat the position recently taken up by Lord Palmerston in foreign affairs , and it is making a dead set to counteract the last speech that he made in Parliament . That speech recognised the necessity of revising the political map of Europe , and especially of taking the next opportunity to release northern Italy from its subjection to Austria . To meet the policy thus delicately indicated , the Times advances two arguments , and cites oflicial documents in support of those articles . The first argument is illustrated by an extract from a despatch by Count Ficquelmont , the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs in March 1848 , in which the Count mentions the ambiguous conduct of England towards Austria as the reason for seeking the assistance of Russia in order to drive the Picdmontesc army out ot Lombardy . Tho second is the recognition of the Austrian power by the treaties of 1815 , supported by an extract from a despatch by Lord Palmerston in March 1849 , to this effect :

    " Her Majesty ' s Government have bo often declared that they considered existing treaties—and more especially tho treaty of Vienna of 1815—as determining tho territorial Visits of the states of Europe , that they could scarcely havo expected that it could be necessary for them again to renew . such a declaration ; and certainly it is not tho British CJovermnent that can bo chained with having- forgotten or infringed the stipulation * of tlie . se treaties . Her Majesty ' s ( lovernnienfc , however , can have m > hesitation in saying that they consider those treaties applicable to Austria , Minna , and Modena , as well as to those other territories in Europe to which the provisions of those treaties relate ; . "

    Tho force of these arguments must be considered as directed less against the possible future policy of Lord Palmerston , which is , indeed , not discussed , than against Lord Palmerston himself ; and while they prove- nothing ho little a . s the objections to the Kurmisod policy of the most able Htiitesman of tho day , the arguments prove nothing more distinctl y than the disquiet aroused in other coteries , probably clients of the Times , by the independent position of Lord Palmerwton .

    "Of what advantage is it now to remind tho world that Lord 1 ' almer . ston had been employed for the preceding twelve months in acting an if those treaties no longer existed , and as if it were physically impossible that their territorial provisions could be restored ? To what purpose does Lord I ' abnerston continue to amuse himself , at , the close of the Hussion of INftii , in mapping out bis kingdom of Northern Italy on am imaginary chart of Europe , when tho only certain and positive result of his exertions was that this country forfeited for a time tho confidence imd goodwill of ono of its

    most constant allies , and that hopes of independence have been roused , and are thus kept alive , in Italy , which it is wholly out of the power of this country to realize ? We are at a Ios 3 to discover any political object whatever in this singular proceeding . It is perhaps as well that the spirit and effects of the policy pursued in Italy in 1848 should not be forgotten , for its consequences still affect our national character and influence in many parts of Europe ; but we are more surprised that Lord Palmerston should seek to attract public attention to this subject than we are to find that his late colleagues are anxious to repudiate their share in such transactions . "

    " We are at a loss to discover any political object whatever in this singular proceeding : " here peeps out the uneasiness of the writer . For if a person so well informed were to take the trouble of looking only skin-deep beneath the surface , he would find no difficulty in discovering the motive . Let us bear in mind two facts ; first , that throughout 1848 Lord Palmerston evidently inclined to the constitutional independence of northern Italy ; secondly , that although Lord Palmerston could command for himself a position of great freedom and authority in the cabinet , there necessarily were occasions on which the official manifestoes would be those , not of Lord Palmerston , but of the Cabinet which shook him off . _ _ ,

    Another class of facts should be noted . ^ Lord Palmerston might have abandoned that Ministry if he had chosen to adopt a self-seeking policy ; and there is no doubt that his abandonment ot the Ministry would have been for them a far more damaging form of separation , than his deliberate awaiting of the sudden but long planned expulsion which Lord John Russell effected under tho

    highest sanction . The contrast of the spirit moving the two men might be brought down to this very day . Where was the cordial union to be expected in London election between the mover of the Jew Bill and the representative of the Jewish question ? There may be a question as to the policy of sending into the British parliament a leading member of the house whichall thines to all men , governments and

    , peoples , subsidizes the partyof order at Paris , and at Vienna supplies the sinews of despotism : which , through one of its members , lends fuel to the ravages of Austro-Hussian armies , while it deputes another , turned English landholder , to represent the principles of " civil and religious liberty" in the English House of Commous . But there can be no question as to the spirit in which the professed advocate of Jewish claims evades the recognition of the advocate of those claims + i / the other tnc otuer

    ^^ . r > . nmmnn luiatinfrs . On handon tho common hustings . On nana , the city election might have presented Lord Palmerston as tho rival of Lord John : Lord Palmerston was invited to stand , and he declined . Tho one political object , which is very apparent in the discussion to which we have adverted , is tho recognition of the broad palpable fact , that although tho treaties of 1815 are the admitted basis of tho political geography of Europe , there is not only no immutability in international laws , but there is an inevitable necessity to revise that

    political geography . We do not enter into tho Lombard question in this place , because wo reserve that for separate treatment , as part of that great wholo which we are now discussing . The political geography of 1815 must inevitably be revised , because the circumstances of the world are wholly different from those in 1815 ; and any statesman who has the maintenance of constitutional government at heart , must contemplate active measures , unless he is prepared to

    abandon his principles . We will mention only three of tho great facts which crowd upon uh to establish thin necessity . Under the treaties of 1815 , during a quarter of a century , it became possible to extend tho principle of constitutional , government to several , states of . Europe , and notably to Oeece , Spain , Belgium , and Portugal ; the principle also being greatly fortified in France . With the exception of this last country

    the progress was ejlected mainly through the influence of England ; it was sometimes mipported by her active co-operation in arms ; and there is no doubt that her influence , even in its most Hnecific form , derived much of its strength from the memories of Aboukir and Tralalgar , of TorreH Vedrafl and Waterloo . In short , constitutional government advanced under tho nhiold of England , ho long as nh <> wan felt to bo formidable in hei -strength , in her resolution of purpose , and in her energetic freedom . Of the three principles , Absolutism , Constitutionalism , and

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    n , u r , -id nothing so revolutionary , because there is Thei ? h ^ p ^ o unnltural and convulsive , as the strain to v ° p £ SfmSs " fixed when all the world is by the very law ofits cSon in eternal progress .-Ps . Abnolp .

    ^Ulilir Maixs.

    ^ ulilir Maixs .

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    SATUKg AY , JULY 17 , 1852 .

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    Jciy 17 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . Ml

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 681, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1943/page/13/