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appeals to bigotry against the Liberal candidate , whom he backbites in the cottage and slanders in the street . These are pleasant glances at our English county elections in 1852 ! But-what shall we say of grey-headed magistrates , grinning w ith most unseemly gestures at the crowd before the hustings , or terrifying bedridden electors out of their promises ; of magistrates blockading the polling-books , and prompting bewildered electors to vote by the card ; of tradesmen menaced with loss of custom by ladies , or with writs by mortelectors their ill
gagee lawyers ; of voting against w , or afraid to vote at all—the franchise rendered nugatory or fatal to them P We might fill columns with scandals , of which we have proofs only too ample and too positive ; but these will suffice to awaken the public mind to the spectacle of our county elections under the existing system—a system which must be improved or destroyed . Yet what is the consequence of this tyranny ? the fatal and necessary one . Where there was no Liberal party , or if it existed , in a state of toroor . a spirit has been aroused , an instinct of
manhood , a sentiment of resistance to oppression , which Englishmen have not yet wholly lost . Admirable have been the exceptions to the herd of panic-driven electors : braving all losses , men nave stood forth and asserted their rights ; and the triumph of oppression bids fair to prove more fatal to Landlordism than many constitutional defeats . Extension of the suffrage , and the ballot , is now the cry of electors and non-electors alike ; and in the meanwhile , organization of resistance and registration of independence . Public opinion will denounce what it cannot prevent , and will point out the remedy where it cannot secure the punishment .
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THE EETRIBUTION OF CANT . " England expects no man to do his duty . " Englishmen in every class are adopting a habit of making a grand distinction between the public opinions which they maintain and the private opinions which they really hold , to such a degree , that no man expects any one of his neighbours to stand up for his opinions . Those who have been trading on pretences in the political market find that for their own use they can purchase nothing else , either for love or
money . Shadow-fighting is an old game ; but never was it carried to so extravagant a pitch as in the present election , especially by the party that calls itself Conservative . " Jacobinism , " we are told , is rampant , and Rome lias a conspiracy and accomplices in England . The Komish party in Ireland , writes the Herald , " are engaged in a systematic effort to overthrow the whole British system , civil and religious , in that island ; " and
the electors of Middlesex are told to remember that Mr . Osborne " is the open and undisguised champion of these men and of their principles . " Again , we aro threatened with Jacobinism and revolution—from Manchester ; a " Democracy , " of which . Richard Cobden is the " Dan ton , " and whose flag , unfurled by Sir James Graham , the Duke of Newcastle flaunts in the face of the Lords ! And while the British public is summoned to resist that Jacobinism and that conspiracy , the real dangers that are growing in the bosom of society aro unheeded .
" The vile rabble , " as Mr . Bercsford publicly calls it—meaning seven-eighths of this groat nation—lias been wholly disappointed by the general election . None of its candidates have been elected , unless wo consider Lord ( a ode rich to be a people ' s man . His knowledge would make him bo ; but the people has not had the opportunity of placing any one of its own class in " the people a
chamber . " The total exclusion of people ' s men , we conceive , causes none uneasiness to Conservatives : it is almost , too strong . The pretence of representation for the people begets m them the expectation of being represented ; and then , when they come to take part in the election of their representative , ami aro called " the vile rabble , " they are naturally irritated . They see- through the farce .
" Protectionists" are returned in greater force . What are they going to protect H Is it the labourer ? If ho , how P . There is no time to lose . Heaping machines , and hay-making machines , aro superseding the use of hand-labour in the agricultural districts . A hay-making machine can throw out a dozen men ; and the same of the reaping machine . The dozen men , standing idle ,
see the horse and wooden frame doing their work ; growinghungry , perchance also become angry ; and in Essex there is a movement to destroythe stacks of farmers who employ machinery . The development in machinery is necessary to place agriculture on an equality with manufactures ; but natural justice revolts against any improvement which destroys human beings . The indignation of the Essex labourers is a just indignation . It is quite possible , indeed , to develops machinery without destroying human beings . On the contrarythe welfare of every man in
, Essex should be promoted by that which tends to develope the productive powers of Essex ; and it would be so , if there were a right understanding between all classes of Englishmen in that county . The reason why the development of machinery destroys human beings in Essex is twofold : it is , proximately , the want of right understanding between the several classes of Englishmen ; primarily , it is the want of education which prevents labourers from being fitted for
skilled employment , or from knowing how to avail themselves of its opportunities , and which prevents farmers from knowing how to bring extended labour in operation upon the soil by the help of machinery . But while the farmers are beginning to understand that rent is their sole tie to the landlord ' s ground , the labourers are beginning to see that Protection only stopped their bread , and now leaves them at the mercy of machinery . They burn stacks .
Education would make them know better most intelligent men think , in private , that there ought to be education , without waiting for sects to reconcile their differences first ; but , publicly , they defer to the sects , and there is no education . So burning hay-stacks remain the beacon to mark the progress of agricultural improvement . Free-trade has abolished protection for a particular kind of industry ; but the demand for protection to other kinds is rising rather then declining . In all directions Englishmen are asking hts
for help to stand up for their own rig . Necessary as the ballot is , it is liable to the grand objection—that it is to enable an Englishman to do under shelter that which he ought to be able to do without any shelter at all . The meeting at the Oddfellows Hall at Halifax last week exemplifies the way in which the working classes fail to rely upon themselves . They obtained a Ten-hours' 1501 in 1847 ; they now complain that they are defrauded of its benefit , and they intend petitioning the new Parliament for supplemental legislation of the same kind . The working men think that the time ought to be limited to ten hours—that is
their opinion , or it is not : and yet we find them habitually submitting to longer periods of work . They obtain an Act to restrict it ; the Act is not sufficient for its purpose ; and they want some ¦ more statute ; with what hope of complete benefit we do not know . Some of those who think that labour ought to be restricted to ten hours have been promoting the election of Sir Charles Wood , the great opponent of the Ten Hours' Bill . It appears to us , that whilo the great body of the
people submit to exist without the franchise ; submit to accept from Parliament made by other classes ; submit to the systematic evasion of those statutes , there can be no expectation of more respectful or honest treatment . And most especially while a whole people , thinking one way , contracts a habit of Buffering all its acts to fait short of its thoughts , no substitutes for deci-Hion in the shape of " resolutions" at public meetings , of " associations to promote , " or
" statutes for the bettor regulation , can secure its real wishes . A nation realizes , not what it thinks , but what it < 1 och ; and as individuals make up the nation , the . shortcomings of each are the shortcomings of all . We have just been electing a Parliament to < lo that which jione of us wishes , and not to do that which wo do wish ; and while we consent thus to forego our own purpose , all Parliaments aro vain .
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EN ( JIiANI ) AND AMKRICA AT TII'TKKK MALI-. Owtsidk of the dull routine of party polities , progress in made every day in the public approliension of truly national objects . . If we want to see how the country is really advancing from its present disagreeable and anxioun position , towards an active prosperity , we may seek the evidence in btrange plucea—such , for instance , as
amidst the waving harvest of Mr . Mechi ' s farm , and around his hospitable board , at Tiptree Hall , in Essex . At the elections they are still wrangling over the decomposed corpse of Protection . In the newspapers they are still discussing the European settlement of 1815 , or the exploded American agitations of 1835 or 1845 , which , across the water , are almost as ancient dates as 1815 on this side . It is at the Tiptree Hall dinner-table that the future of farming is found ; it is on the reclaimed heath of the city Cincinnatus that the American Alliance takes an airing amid the representatives _ of every class of the country , and of many foreign
ministers . The object of Protection , we have often said , was a just one , and ought not to be abandoned because an iniquitous or a dishonest means of securing that object is abandoned ; the less since it is perfectly attainable . The object of Freetrade is a pre-eminently just one , and must be permanently secured in full . But the two are tnde aimat
not at all incompatible . Free- * s promoting the largest amount of production by facilitating exchanges between those who are reciprocally producers and consumers . The object of Protection was to secure that the industry of the producer should not be disappointed in return . If there were a right understanding between the several classes and sections of the country , the simple fact would secure the object
of Protection . Every town contains the raw materials of agriculture in a forin more precious than tha > which certain enterprising citizens have talked / of bringing from Peru , on the shores of the Pacific , by the force of imperial fleets . EveryIfield supplies the raw material of humanity . The farmer does but grow the British nation in its vegetable state , and the British nation can supply the farmer from the mine which science has begun to appreciate , with wealth ly apportioned to his requirements . Each
amp possessing exactly what the other wants , nothing but a complete understanding can be needed . The idea is by no means a new one : the novelty is to see the constantly increasing assemblage of inquirers drawn from the most influential , intelligent , and practical classes of society , assembling to see the truth experimentally illustrated on Mr . Mechi ' s farm : it is not only in the flourishing state of his crops—it is not only in the after-dinner Bpeoches that this progress is illusfree
trated ; still more is it shown in that and friendly intercourse and conversation , where Free-traders and Protectionists find , to their mutual astonishment , that they arc approaching a common ground — are , indeed , already beginning to shake hands in mutual congratulation at finding a broader truth which includes both their half-truths . The spirit which reigned over the delightful meeting at Tiptree Hall was the master-spirit of tho Agriculture of the
If uture . Yes , the principle o [ a common understandingis so sound and powerful that it can teach Free-traders and Protectionists , whose oyca are turned to the future instead of the past , to seek a common object , and to labour for it in concert . But the great truths which Hashed upon tho meeting were not confined to the field of agriculture " : international politics had their share . Tho host had already shown that neither his merchandize nor his field labour had kept his eyes away from the influences which are rising in tho world , and ho had more than once glanced at that great power which may be evoked if statesmen on both Hides of the Atlantic have
sufficient foresight and honesty—the Anglo-American alliance . And the cloning speech of the day was a new manifesto in favour of that alliance from one of the American commissioners , tho Hon . J . J . j . While . He gave voice to the boast , in which bin English auditors must have shared , that the two great countries have n community in their ancestry , in their laws , in their institutions , and their ' sympathies . " If any attempt of
wore made , " he Hiiid , " on the liberties Kngland by the combined despotisms of tho continent , that sympathy would noon he shown . ^ If uny attempt were made on tlie liberties of England , that last home of free institutions in lOurope , five hundred thousand American rifles would leap to the shoulder in defence of England . " Tho eloquent American legislator spoke with the unstinted heart and lire of his country . We haveu right to claim hia teatimony in support of our
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Jtrr , Y 24 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER ™
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 707, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1944/page/15/
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