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    ecclesiastical courts . The courts , therefore , stand utterly condemned ; but what is that Mr . PjaiiiTiiMOBB proposes ? Only to transfer the appointment of certain judges i n those courts from the Bishops to the Lobd ChanceIjXjOB ,. " He proposes to thrust temporal judges into ecclesiastical courts , " says Mr . " G-iADSXOi « rE , " making confusion worse confounded , " The only reason why Government has not succeeded in correcting the evil , said Mr . Wigbam , is . that Government has thrown

    over the excellent report that the Commissioners made who were appointed to inquire into the matter . " The courts , " says Mr . Watson , " are not courts of justice , but of injustice . " " The root of the evil , " says Mr . John Geobge Phillimobe , " is the nepotism of the Bishops , " and he did not believe that Mr . Giadstoste was hostile to that system of nepotism . So Mr . Phiilimoee introduces an excessively small measure to correct an

    enormous evil , and keeps the House debating upon a bill which will never be carried ; and all the members admit the wrong , while they charge each other and the Government with obstructing the remedy . Now these ecclesiastical courts are continually inflicting great injury , inconvenience , domestic wretchedness , and money loss upon the public , and tliis is the way that the Government and the members of the popular House set about the work of correcting the evil !

    It is only an example of misconduct which appears in every branch of Parliamentary business . Mr . Gladstone calls for " something to be done to prevent this incessant introduction of bills without any adequate sense of their importance , " a laxity which "has the effect of deluding the country and of raising hopes which are doomed to be disappointed . " The SoiiiciTOB-GEiTEBAL says that the useful measures are delayed because " the House does not devote itself to the proper charge of its functions , instead of spending so much of its time in what he would venture to

    designate unprofitable talk . " "Why , then , asked Mr . Gladstone , do you encourage the form of bills which lead to no result , and still accuse the House of wasting its time in " idle talk ? " He did not say " idle talk , " interposed Lord Palmebston , he said " unprofitable talk , " "in which opinion I certainly beg tp concur . But , " continues the Viscount , " there is nothing offensive to the House or unduly severe in the statement that a great deal of time is passed unprofitably in the discussions of the House . " We shall never get

    on , says Lord John Russell , until we adopt some such measure as that introduced by liord Debbt , allowing a bill to be taken up in a subsequent session at a stage which it has reached in a previous session . But members cannot be Drought to agree even upon that ; for Lord John says that he was almost the only person who supported Lord Djsbby in the measure , " which waa generally unpopular . Members waste the time which they ought to employ in the business of the public who sent them there , in unprofitable talk ; they introduce bills which prevent the reforms they profess to carry out ; they leave

    " Augean stables , " like the ecclesiastical courts , unpurified , because they consume the time in misleading each other , or in deceiving each other in sophistries ; and they do all this to prevent attacks upon nepotism . That is the portrait of the House of Commons painted by its own members ! But of all the delusions that are put forward in tko shape of bills , those which are most discreditable are the " annual motions . " The Ballot is a measure upon which there may be a variety of opinions . As a temporary protection against intimidation of a limited constituency , it may bo useful . Wo do not propose to discuss it now : but the public ia

    perfectly informed on the amount of support which such a measure will get in the House of Commons . We have no doubt that the division of Tuesday nig ht could have been counted within a very small fraction ; and Mr . Bebkeley could have as distinctly told us that he should , have 111 votes , besides the tellers , on the Monday , as he could on the Wednesday . The arguments which he brought forward respecting the degree of intimidation in Massachusetts , where the voters

    sometimes go to the ballot with banners flying to show their party , is as familiar to us as the battle of Bunker ' s Hill or the transactions of Peterloo . The question of the ballot has not been in the slightest degree advanced by what passed in the debate ; but the time of the House ivas consumed ; and a process of demoralizing the political feeling of this country was carried forward by this manufacture of cant out of settled opinions . If the ballot is necessary , it is because the English people are not allowed to elect members of

    Parliament , but one-seventh of the people is by statute made the privileged class to elect the members for representing themselves . Some of that privileged class are so timid , or so pliant , that they will not select members according to their own choice , because they stand in fear of their landlords , their customers , or their creditors . There is no sufficient number of that class desiring the ballot to render the carrying it in the House of Commons probable : but to " briug it forward" is supposed to be a test of " Liberal

    opinions . " The member who can take to himself half an evening for the discussion , stamps himself for that year a " Liberal member , " and secures to himself a return for a Liberal constituency . Now , if he really desired to prevent the misrepresentation of the public , he would at once demand for the whole bodyof the English people the right of voting for their own members . Then the ballot would not be quite so necessary as it is now ; but it would be carried , we all know ; and we should have no more " annual motions" on the subject .

    There is one excuse for members in thus trifling with ptiblic interests . It is , that the people are just now not disposed to take up their own interests seriously . If they were , is it possible that we should have great constitutional questions left as a kind of joke or plaything for private members like Mr . Beekeley ? Is it possible , if the English people really resolve to settle these questions , that the representatives of the English x ^ eop le would be able to give each other such a character as they did on Tuesday night , and still ?

    remain members of " the People ' s House ' The People ' House , in fact , is itself a dull joke , an established waste of time ; and it will continue to be so until the people think fit to take up the matter in earnest . When that day comes , the members of the House of Commons , to say nothing of some other houses , may , perhaps , bo glad enough if they are permitted to pass Sir Joshua Walmslev ' s Suffrage Bill , the Household Suffrage Bill , or any other bill ; but then it will bo to pass the bill , for the day of bill discounting will have gone by .

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    THE CARLTON PARTY . Toryism ia henceforth to have its creed , oath , and articles . There ia to bo orthodoxy at the Carlton . But how to secure it ? Lord Ranelaoh , onco a Carlist sympathizer , has become an analytical politician , and has detected poisonous opinions in the body of the Tory party . His testia—the government of Lord Palme rston . Every member of the Carlton who has at any time joined Lord Palmicbston is to bo expelled . Considering that the leaders of tho Curlton , in 1855 , invitod Lord Pa-LMEbston to join them , it

    seems hardly logical that all this fus s shou ld be made about bad company . The Carlton was established , says the Chairman of Assurance tind Land Societies , for the furtherance of particular views ! What views ? The views of Mr . Disbaeli , or Lord Stanley ? Mr . SrooNEB , or Sir John Pakington ? Mr . Whiteside , or the Earl of Deebt ? W e have asked , Where is the Conservative party ? We are now forced to look for the Conservative creed . If Mr .

    Spooler be a true Tory , Mr . Disbaeli is not . Let Lord Eattela&h draw up an Act of Conservative Uniformity , specifying what may be believed , and what must be abjured by a sound Tory . It would be torn to shreds at the Carlton . Observe , that not only the Peelites w ho associated themselves with Lord Palmebston when heTormed his Cabinet—Mr . Gladstone , Mr . SidVd y Hebbeet , and Sir James

    Gbaham , with the Duke of Abgyll , the Duke of Wellington , the Marquis of Abebcobn , Lord Moires , Lord Ebnest Bbtjce , and Sir Robebt Peel , are to be disqualified for ever from being members of the Carlton ; but the proscription is to extend to those " , either by writing , voting , or stronger adhesion , " adhere to " the party to which the Club is opposed . " ism into

    We have long seen Tory withering cant ; but this foolish notion , which puzzles the leaders of the party , is a sign of weakness and irritability that proves , with extraordinary emphasis , what is the real state of things behind that new facade in Pall-mall . The King of Naples , in 1850 , said that the Lazzaronis were so disreputable in appearance that they should be walled-in in their particular quarter . Lord Ranelagh , for thesame reason , proposes to wall-in the Tories , who possess a sort of pride that hurts them liberal Lord Stanle

    in the presence of men . y they must endure , for he is Lord Debby ' s son ; but for half his sins they would turn a political commoner into the desert . The ridiculous aspect of their position is , that , wit h out a known set of principles or opinions , without party cohesion , or defined political objects , they are beginning , at the loose end of their career , to insist upon uniformity . What will be the success of the Ranelagh move , it is difficult to foresee . On that topic , as on most others , the party is divided . All we can say is , that unless the Carlton is

    become the home of a sect , with distinct dogmas , to expel the Peelite members will be to exhibit the Tory party in an attitude ot ludicrous spite . If there is to be a creed , let it be published , and let us see whether Disbaelt , Stanley , Pakington , JNewdegate , Spooneb , Whiteside , Thesigeb , and St Leonabds , can sign the same articles , and swear by the Shibboleth of the Carlton . Who does not remember Lord Derby talking sedition on a mantelpiece , and who expects the third Sir Robert Peel to upset the Constitution ?

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    PRATT ON PALMER . One of tho witnesses in tho monster caso at the Central Criminal Court describes how a gentleman in difficulties can bo " accommodated" into tho most frightful position to winch a man can ever bo driven by money troubles . Tho story is so diutinct from tho great question before the jury , that it may be considered quite apart ; and oven if these sentences should be before the jwy uuiuiu j—j

    published uences suouiu ue puunauou «««~ should have decided upon their verdict , oui notice could scarcely aflbct them one way or tho other , so that we do not ily in the luce oi Lord Campbell . Tho evidence is ayailauu . for ua as well as for tho prosecution . Wheiuoi or not it eatablisheB tho charge , in cither east it haw established another kind of charge ; auu

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    4 && THE LEADEH [ No . 322 , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1856, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2142/page/14/