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    classes of England ; but would Lord John Russell trust more to the French or German than to the English people for political accuracy P Our adult education , however accidentally favourable , because it goes on in a tolerably free atmosphere , is . no doubt bad ; and that is what we should like to see Lord John Russell more honestly eager about . The men of England , for political purposes , must be educated by their newspapers and their books ; and until knowledge is untaxed , we decline to believe in the lamentations of the " higher classes" over popular ignorance . In that light , Ministers , on Thursday , performed a contemptible farce , in opposing

    Mr . Gibson ; and we do not assnme that Mr . Disraeli has any more faith in the people , than Mr . Gladstone , or Lord John Kussell , because he voted for the abolition of the advertisement duty . Let us remember , for another year , when we canvass the earnestness of the Commons ' House about education , that not 100 members , in a full House , could be got to vote against the paper duties or the newspaper stamp . Let us , also , remember , as another curious fact , that the Tory and Protestant gentlemen voted against enfranchising the press , and that the Irish brigade , those dangerous ultramontane Uoman-Catholic gentlemen , voted , almost to a man , with the member for Manchester . The division was on the

    question , " That this House has faith m the people ; " and not 100 said " aye . " The educated and enlightened classes are homoeopathists in their doses of knowledge and thought to the masses ; and if the masses are humble and content , why there is nothing to do but protest in the abstract , and await , in humble hope , the action of the corporations , to whom a coalition Government consigns the teaching of the people . If we could carefully distinguish between intelligence and education , we might make some curious comparisons . A fortnight ago , we pointed briefly the moral of the Northumberland banquet to Sir George Grey ; the testimony to Freetrade in that case came from the unenfranchised ,

    to the man who , because he was a Free-trader , had been rejected by the enfranchised . Who carried Free-trade P The educated classes P The House of Lords is better' 'educated '' than the House of Commons ; yet there were only two Peers , in the long contest , until the Whigs joined , for party reasons , who were not Protectionists . The Commons themselves struggled thirty years against the demands of the ignorant for cheap food . The country gentlemen are all University men ; yet the country gentlemen were obtusely incapable of discerning the career of the Anti

    Corn-Law League . The House of Lords is led by Lord Derby , sub-led by Lord Malmesbury , and the House of Lords are all severely educated men—scarcely one of them but has taken ( or tried to take ) his degree—and yet Lord Derby and Lord Malmesbury were the derision of the nation in a conspicuous political collapse . The " Protectionist Administration" represented in an intense degree the aristocracy , the Church , and the squirearchy , —the par excellence educated , or higher classes ; and that Administration fell—first , from personal incapacity ; next , because at every turn , on nearly every principle , it found itself in opposition to " public opinion . " But let the comparison be continued

    beyond the Frce-trado episode in our national history . What is the " Tory party ? " The party of the " higher classes , " of tlio aristocracy , the Church , and the squirearchy , —the educated inner circle of the British world ; and the history of that party is the history of opposition to human progress and human happiness . It is the party , to take the facts and dates of our own generation , which in 1832 opposed that suffrago reform which in 1853 is still found insufferably and disgracefully inefficient ; which in 1820 resisted the extension of civil rights to those citizens who hold the faith of" tho majority of Christendom , and which in 1853 , in tho face of an unanimous confession of " corruption , " will not " unchristianiso" tho House of Commons

    by tho admission of a single . Jew gentleman . Recount every Htep in enlightened political and social advance during tho last fifty years ; and tho educated Tory party will bo found in a strugglo of resistance Who is tho distinguished member for the obstructive interest P—the time-honoured representative of tho aristocracy'h Alma Mater , Oxford . Ho ia the best educated man in Parliament—according to University tosts ; and wo nood not enlarge upon

    the human results of his political apostleship . It would interest us to hear of an instance of a member of that Tory party which objects to the democracy for its ignorance , having done one legislative act for the greater enlightenment or increased happiness of his country or mankind . The suggestion need not be pushed : its value , in the controversy of the moment , is palpable . The educated classes of England , it is the news of the day , are in league with the Powers of the continent against human freedom ; and the value of that test for the British franchise is not quite apparent . Could 4000 working men have

    been got to sign an address of amity to Louis Napoleon P The ' Change is enlightened in its way ; but its enlightenment is not so good as that of the market-place and the workshop : and for the simple reason that the sympathetic nature is the most intellectual nature . The enlightenment of Mayfair is reflected in the Carlton Club cellar , politically ; and , socially , in such machineries as had better not be examined , if we would not altogether throw discredit upon the profession of university tutor and accomplished governess .

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    DIPLOMACY A PROFESSION . Yaeious reforms of the public service at home and abroad are in agitation , and more than one of- our contemporaries has grappled with the subject . It is also discussed by men who have , or have had , and may again have , a share of power , and it is agreeable to see that sound ideas on the subject are decidedly making progress . The debate in the House of Commons on Friday night last week is an example , notwithstanding Lord Palmerston ' s speech , for if he insinuated antagonistic fallacies he contrived also not only to controvert other speakers , but to refute himself . This feat was admirably performed . First of all he turned his sarcasm upon the valid arguments of Lord Stanley , treating them as i f he had refuted them , and then turning round upon the arguments which he had himself advanced , he showed how absurd they were ; thus standing before the admiring House in ^ the attitude of a man who has a fortiori doubly refuted the original speaker , on whose very ground he was standing . Lord Stanley had said , that the persons employed in the diplomatic service at present , had not gone through any sufficient training to

    flt them for the work ; and while proposing systematic examinations at stated periods , somewhat like those for " mates" in the navy , he also recommended that the service should no longer be so much a reserve of patronage , but should be thrown open to the public , nevertheless retaining to the State a right of employing distinguished political persons in the upper ranks , even though they had not gone through the successive grades . In his gay manner Lord Palmerston controverted this last position . Men , he said , who were engaged in any business , would find it convenient

    to understand something of the business they had to execute . It would bo very awkward if a distinguished Diplomatist , meeting a foreign Minister , were to say that he could not understand his interlocutor , " but that he only performed the ornamental part of the mission , and must send for his secretary to know what to say . You cannot , argued Lord Pulmcrston , make the diplomatic service anything but a profession . Yet he said , turning round \ ipon himself , how

    absurd it would be if you were to refuse to em-K ' distinguished politicians like Sir Henry ulwer , or Lord Ashburton , because they had not risen through successive grades . Haying beaten Lord Stanley after a fashion , Lord Palmerston finished tho task by beating himself , which gave him a sort of double victory . Yet wo doubt whether be can quite realize his triumph . It is like a very ingenious invention which wan devised for the use of travellers ,

    which cousin-ted of a pocket vessel formed out of a solid piece somewhat like an hour-glass : stand one end up and it was a bottle , set up tho other end and you had a wine-glass ; but tho difficulty was to get them both to p < u- / bi-m their oilicc at the same moment , or to make both ends meet so as to pour the good liquor out of the bottle into tho glass . Lord Palmerston , in short , performed tho ornamental part of the debate , and enlivened it by showing tho llouso how tho subject would look when it was upside down .

    In spite , however , of this pleasantry , the in-Htruetivo fact was , that Lord Stanley appeared as a young reformer , fully master of Ins subject

    in its main principles and its details ; that Lord Palmerston could meet him with no better argument ; and that Mr . Disraeli was really at one with both the previous speakers . Nay , they have all been practically at work upon the subject . Lord Stanley tells us that the late Government , of which Mr . Disraeli was the head , had been considering the reorganization of the diplomatic service in the sense that he described ; and Lord Palmerston disclosed the fact , that he also had been endeavouring to make a very systematic arrangement for a professional introduction to diplomacy . " When he was in the Foreign

    Office he entered into a negotiation with the authorities of the London University to take considerable steps towards effecting an arrangement for the examination which was to take place . " One would like to know something more of that negotiation and . its sequel . If Lord Palmerston is no longer in the Foreign Office , he is in the Home Office and the Cabinet ; and his great knowledge of diplomatic affairs , could not be turned to better account than in promoting that official reorganization in his former department which is so desirable .

    One of the reasons why British influence is declining abroad , unquestionably lies in the inferior instruments which this country is obliged to ¦ use . Hussian servants we all know are better trained ; and Austria , says Lord Palmerston , employs only those who understand their business ; not placing diplomatic appointments at the service of young gentlemen who desire to travel . Such , he implies , is the practice of Great Britain alone . If the influence of the United States is

    rising , it may be ascribed to the converse cause ; the promotion is so regular , that the heads of the departments abroad generally" rise to that rank by promotion . It is not only the diplomatic service that invites revision and amendment . It has been announced that the Customs departments will undergo a remodelling , though it is understood that the reconstruction will chiefly relate to the superior offices . The Civil Service of India is most likely to be handled after the reconstruction of the central Government ; and there is no reason

    to sxippose that other departments , which need reform not less , -will be spared . It is quite evident that something like the right idea has seized hold of the minds of leading Statesmen ; and there is no doubt that if the public were alive to the subject , it might obtain for itself two distinct and important advantages . One advantage , and not the least of tke two , would be , that public business would be put in train to be much better performed . Another advantage would be , tho

    throwing open of numerous classes of employment to the public at large . Indeed , when we regard tho political and social consequences likely to flow from that second fact , we regard it as scarcely less important than the former . It would tend more than anything to remove tho distinction that now prevails between heaven-born attaches or politically selected Customs' officers , and the great body of the public seeking such employment through tho usual professional studies .

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    MARRIAGE LAW NON-REFORM . The " First Keport of the Commissioners appointed by her Majesty , of Enquiry into tho Law of Divorce , and more particularly into the mode of obtaining divorce , a vinculu matrimonii , " does not propose any alteration of the general law , except in the method of administering it . Tho only grounds whicli the Commission recommends ibrdivoroe a mensd tit thoro ( from bed and board ) are , conjugal infidelity and gross cruelty on the part of the husband ; for divorce a vitwulo matrimonii ( from the marriage bond ) for adultery only , and only on tho suit of the husband ; except that the wife may apply lor a divorce a vinculo in the eases of aggravated enormity , such as incest or bigamy . Tlie canes are to be brought before a tribunal consisting of a Vice Chancellor , a Common Law . Judges and a . Judge of tho Ecclesiastical Courts . The new tribunal will ho an improvement ; in other respects tho Commission suggests no improvement ; on the contrary , tho very effect of an enquiry , resulting in the express abstinence from any improvement or relaxation , is tantamount to a r ' rfastoning of the law in all its monstrosity ; and wo are , therefore , to consider that the practical grievances under which many Knglish people now labour , are to remain somo considerable time longer without any redrew

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    April 16 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 373

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 16, 1853, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1982/page/13/