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his misfortune from 1841 to 1845 to preside over a Cabinet in which the narrowest doctrines -were uiged in a spirit of the narrowest pedantry ; he was frequently in a minority among his own colleagues ; he was continually applied to for pledges , which he refused to give ; he foresaw the great politusal necessities of the future , but explained them in vain to the sightless mediocrity of the old family peers and rural representatives . They afterwards charged him with treachery , and being little more than barely articulate themselves , employed a rhetorical adventurer to vilify Peel in human language , while they assented in shouts and cries—the language of the Eastern forest and the Western prairie . The statesman , however , lias
avenged himself from his tomb upon Benjamin Disraeli , who fancied , in former days , that he had helped to break Peel ' s heart . Why , Peel never once alludes to him , treats him as altogether insignificant , does not think it worth -while to bestow so much as a passing mention upon the studious elocutionist , ¦ who imagined , while he committed hard phrases to memory , that he was about to blister the parliamentary middleman ' s mind , and burn a stigma into his memory . It must be a real pleasure to Mr . Disraeli's friends to find him thus ignored . On no occasion did Peel defer to the egotism of his once obsequious follower , who had played in every political part , except that of a leader , and who illustrated the proverb which describes what sort of a cart may so down the street after the chariot of Augustus . Sir Robert Peel avoided coalitions ; he would not combine with Viscount
filled with addresses to constituents—and considerable expense in the prosecution of electioneering -warfare had been already incurred . I have little doubt , however , that supposing on my arrival the question of dis nlution had been res integra , and that a perfectly free and unfettered judgment conTrf have been formed upon it by me , I should have decided to dissolve without del < T I was , indeed , no advocate for frequent or abrupt dissolutions . I had more than onf ' had occasion in council to express my distrust iii them as remedies for the weakne ^ of a Government , constantly bearing in mind the remark of Lord Clarendon at th commencement of his History- of the Rebellion , upon the evil effects of an ' ill-con sidered exercise of this branch of the prerogative . "No man , " says he , * ' can suo me a source from whence these waters of bitterness we now taste have more probabl " " flowed than from those unreasonable and precipitate dissolutions of Parliament " And again , " The passion and distemper gotten and received into Parliament cannot be removed and reformed by the more passionate breaking and dissolving of it . "
However , he did dissolve ; the majority was hostile ; the Whigs defeated him again and again ; and he retired , having gained immense accession of popularity , as well as increased respect among the rival political leaders . In his statement on the repeal of the Corn Laws , illustrated by quotations from correspondence , Peel demonstrates clearly enough , that he never had pledged himself to protection , that he was in no way committed to the rabid Toryism of his supporters and his colleagues . Nor did he take his colleagues by surprise ; he communicated his opinions to them at an early period . ° As to the general body of Conservatives he writes : — In the particular case , when was this communication , to have been made by me ? Was it to have been made during that interval after the 1 st of November 1845 when you . and two other members < af the Cabinet were the only ones who agreed with me ? There is not one of Lord - —— 's fourteen or fifteen who would not have sided with Lord Stanley and the dissentients .
There is not time for a Minister to hold separate communications with lord This and Mr . That , and go through the ¦ whole series of facts and arguments , the combination , the general result of whkh has led him to form a settled but still debatable conclusion . Nothing but that mil and ample detail which can be made once for all in Parliament will do justice to the case , and gain the assent of reluctant supporters . I am perfectly satisfied that if at any time between the 1 st of November and the day on which ( having resumed the Government , on which neither Lord John Russell nor Lord Stanley would venture ) I announced in the House of Commons the intended repeal of the Corn Laws , 1 had tried to gain acquiescence , either by belabouring individuals separately , or by summoning the party generally ; I should have received scarcely one promise of support . I should have had , on the part of the most moderate , a formal protest against the course I intended to pursue ; to the most violent I should have given facilities for organized opposition ; I should have appeared to be flying in the face of a whole party , and contumaciously disregarding their opinion and advice after I had professed to consult them ; but ( what is of infinitely more importance ) / should have failed in carwing therepeal of the Corn Laws .
Now I was resolved not to Jail . I did not fail ; and if I had to fight the battle over again , I would jight it in the same way . Lord John Russell , he here says , would not venture to form a government . We are afraid it must be admitted that the ambitious strategy of Sir Robert Peel was employed to baffle the ambitious caution of Lord John Russell . Lord Stanley ' s pretentions were at that moment ridiculous ; had he accepted office there must have been civil conflict in England ; but had Sir Robert Peel chosen to explain himself , the Whig statesman could have entered Downing-street in triumph , proposed and carried Corn Law Repeal ,
and not have left the policy of the new Whigs to be developed into practice by the leader of the old Tories . However , it was Peel ' s desire to sweeten with a sense of justice the bread of the poor ; and his tactics did not , perhaps , exceed the limits of justifiable parliamentary emulation . On one point there can be no doubt : Peel was convinced in favour of free trade . He kept for months an almost daily record of the fearful menaces of famine and of national trouble , forcing upon the Government a policy of remission and relief . He did ^ vhat he could to persuade his party ; but failing , he did what he was bound to do to mitigate the sufferings of the country .
This volume is full of interesting matter—cabinet memoranda , confidential correspondence , and personal remarks on men and on events , addressed to posterity by the late Sir Robert Peel .
Melbourne , Lord Stanley , and the other scattered leaders in . 1834 , and refused , upon other occasions , to promote the official union of men divided upon questions of permanent principle . Nor was he disposed , as a minister , to sustain himself in power in the presence of an unfriendly majority ; though often urged by the Duke of Wellington to overlook repeated defeats , he invariably declined ,, and laid it down as a maxim that the government could not be constitutionably or creditably carried on by a minister m a minority . At the same time , however ,- he by no means believed , it necessary that one questionable success on the part of an opposition rendered it necessary for an administration either to retire from office or to cast itself upon the chances of a general election . £
The first Memoir in this volume-contains c a short account of a short administration "—that which was headed by Sir Robert Peel from November , 1834 , to March , 1885 . The history of that administration was riot a little remarkable . In July , 1835 , Earl Grey and Viscount Althorp resigned , and the King invited Lord Melbourne to calculate the probabilities of a ministry formed of the coalesced leaders of all parties . Such a project involved an abandonment of / the traditional methods , of parliamentary govei'nment , to which an important organized opposition is necessary . The
politicians applied to , in the first instance , were Sir Robert Peel , the Duke of \ Wellington , and Lord Stanley , who concurrently declared against the King's idea . They -were opposed to the government of the day on vital questions of policy ; they could not destroy their objections to the measures by joining the men ; the King was disappointed ; Lord Melbourne was not surprised , and Sir Robert Peel went to Rome . At Rome , it has been said , he counted the hours while awaiting a summons to London . The insinuation is wholly unfounded . He received tw * b letters on the 25 th of November , from William Rex and the Duke of Wellington ; —
On my return , on the night of Tuesday , the 25 th of November , from a hall at the Duchess of Torlonia's , those letters were delivered to me at my residence in Home , the Hotel de l'Europe . I had seen in the public papers the intelligence of the death of Earl Spencer ( Lord Althorp's father ) one or two days before Mr . Hudson ' s arrival ; and although I thought it probable that the necessary removal of Lord Althiorp front the House of Commons would have a material "bearing on the position and the interests of tl » e Government , I did not contemplate the sudden dissolution of it . I was about to leave Borne for Naples on the day or day but one after Mr . Hudson ' s arrival , and had made arrangements for my return from Naples , after staying there a short time , by the steamboat -which , plied between Naples and Genoa . I had actually taken the passage for our return to Civita Vecchia for myself , Lady Peel , and our travelling companions . Cobbett ' s " Baronet and cotton-weaver" was now on his way to London to become Prime Minister of Great Britain : —
By dint of considerable exertion my preparations wore completed tlie following day , and we left Koine about three o ' clock on Wednesday , the 26 th of November . I had taken the precaution of providing myself with a separate passport , in case Lady Peel should be unable to bear the fatigue of rapid and continued travelling . She accompanied mo , however , the whole way to Dover , where wo landed on tlie evening of the 8 th of December . We travelled eight nights out of tho twelve wo -were on the road , having no choice but to halt on four of them . Wo stayed one night at Masaa ( at least a few hours of the night ) iu consequence of a rapid torrent , which could not bo safely ferried over by dark ; one night « t Susa , previously to crossing Mont Cenis ;
one night at Lyons , which had been lately declared en 6 tat de siege , and where it was necessary to have the passports vise "; ono night at Paris , where 1 expected letters that it might bo useful for me to receive previously to my arrival in England . Wellington wrote confidentially to his friend and future colleague to ( describe the incidents of the Melbourne abdication . " The former ministers , " Ivo said , | were Bulky enough . " They even hesitated to give up their seals , * ' The King had expected it , and had desired me to have members of council in readiness . They were called in that I might bo sworn , " In another letter he wrote : —
* k £ C <> King ] mentioned that had threatened that ho would not put toe Careat Seal to a Commission , to prorogue tho Parliament . This ia the only name suppressed in the second Memoir . Lord Brougham , we believe , insisted upon its omission ; but whom could he expect to mystify ? lie was Lovd Chancellor ; and who but he could have had anything to do with refusing to affix tho great seal to a public document ? Peel undertook to form a government . Neither Lord Stanley nor . Sir Jtimes Graham would then act with him , although they gladly accepted his appointments m 1841 . They foresaw , probably , that his would be a shortlived administration ; he himself , also , counted innumerable difficulties ahead -. ——berbr ^ n ^ rH ™ ! ^ tio i ^ ' / ouud practically , and perhaps unavoidably , decided afm « dLE * ^ - « amely tlxodi 88 olutionof t , oxiating Parliament , ivory one ™™™ h ™ IT \ " }} ' for granted that tho Parliament must be dissolved ? and 2 ^ 2 h « d accordingly been nmdo almost universally for tho coming contest , tfew candidates had doolatwl thcmaelvea for many piftCOa _ cvorv novvBp » pcr wa 8
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NATURE AND ART IN DISEASE . Of Nature and Art in the Cure of Disease . By Sir John Forbes , M . D . Churchill . Sir John Forbes leaves as a legacy to his younger brethren this result of a long medical career : Put not your trust in Medicine ! He has the smallest faith in drugs which it is possible for a wise physician to get on with . He has the profoundest conviction that Nature is capable of curing herself in all curable cases . The Art of Medicine will do much to alleviate and to prevent , but cures are the work of Nature and not of Medicine . How to discriminate the precise influence of Art , and how to know when Nature had better be left to herself , is the great problem of Medicine , and Sir John Forbes directs attention to it . His book addresses itself to tho intelligent reader quite as emphatically as to the young physician , for the reader , be he never so intelligent in general matters , is apt to be a considerable blockhead in matters of medical treatment : —
Tho following are a few of tho many ways in which tho ignorance of tho public , m regard to several parts of medicine which they aro competent to understand , influencoa injuriously the conduct of physicians : 1 . Ignorance of tho natural course and progress of diseases which arc essentially slow and not to bo altered by any artificial means , often loads tho friends of tu& patient to bo urgent with tho medical attendant to employ more powerful measures , or at least to change tho means used , to give more frequent or more powerful doses , &c . &c . 2 . Ignorance of the power of Nature to cure diseases , and an undue estimate of the power of medicines to do so , sometimes almost compel practitioners to prescribe rcmadics when they are cither useless or injurious .
8 . The same ignorance not seldom occasions dissatisfaction with , nnd loss of confidence in , those practitioners who , from conscientious motives , and on tuo justost grounds of Art , refrain from having recourse to measures of undue activity , or from prescribing medicines unnecessarily ; and leads to tho countennnco and employment of men who have obtained tlio reputation of greater activity and boldness , through their very ignorance oftlvo true character nnd requirements of their art . 4 . It ia tho same state of mind that leads the public generally to give ear to tho most ridiculous promises of charlatans ; also to run after tho professors anil practisera of doctrines utterly absurd and useless , as in tho instance of Homoeopathy and Mc . 9-meriam , or dangerous , except in tuo proper cases , aa in the instance » f Hydropathy-
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232 THE LEADER , [ No . 363 , Saturday .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 7, 1857, page 232, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2183/page/16/
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