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    Untitled Article

    hold , of the Senate , the { Legislative Corps , the religious body , the officers of public institutions—a compact mass of thirty thousand paid officials—the Court , tradesmen and the persons engaged on public works , account for at least fifty thousand vote : ? . Even by Imperial sympathizers , that supposition is allowed . But what influenced the' hostile electors ? An intense and deep-seated antipathy to "Bonapartism and arbitrary government . Louis Napoleon has built a throne upon a revolution ; it is the revolution , not of 1793 , but 18—; it underlies Paris , and who knows when it will emerge ? The only certain element in the calculation is , that no

    Government can be durable in Prance against which is arrayed the intelligence of the capital and its sister cities , and that the movement of opinion to which we know the most distinguished French politicians have looked forward with eager hope has already begun . Kot but that the Government has secured an immense legislative majority . The provinces , cut up into petty sections , are altogether at its disposal , and we pledge ourselves to the truth of the statement that

    in the Doubs the Mayors of villages perambulated the country for weeks previous to the elections , and told the peasants that if they voted for M . de Montaibmbeet their property would be burned , and themselves involved in , ruin - Of wiaat avail is po litical intelligence'in the capital , when the mind of the rural population , gifted with universal The

    suffrage , is thus flagitiously abused ? Empire , defeated in Paris , triumphs in the Doubs and the Dordogne ; but the ' point for ultimate solution is , how long will a regime of beadles , spies , and Zouaves extort a compulsory ' , ' when the intellect and the honesty of an entire nation say ' no ; ' when the capital of France reverts by ita vote to the political principles of 1848 ?

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    MR . ROEBUCK'S CIRCULAR . Mb . Roebuck recently addressed a circular to the Liberal members of Parliament , inviting them to assemble at the King ' s Arms , in New Palace-yard , to concert Beform plans for 1858 . We quote his words : " The Prime Minister having pledged himself , to bring in a bill next session which shall provide for a Beform in Parliament , some friends of reform have asked me to invite you to a meeting to be held for the purpose of determining wnether

    any , and what steps , shall be takeu to ascertain the feelings of the country on the subject of Parliamentary Be Form ; to decide whether the people generally shall be asked to petition Parliament for such alterations in the existing law as they may deem requisite to make the proposed measure an effective and beneficial change . " This is laying a bold hand on political leadership ; Mr . Boejbuck would be the Palmkbbton of his party . He offers to take the undrawn

    balances of the reformers into his own custody ; but we should prefer to have some security that he would not pay them over to the account of any noble lord . Personal objection we have none against Mr , Boebuok , yet if he is to be a chief elected by a constituency of politicians instead of remaining merely self-nominated , it would surely be decent to explain the transactions which have Liberals

    rendered him among numerous a mark of antipathy and suspicion . Perhaps the antipathy is duo only to an involuntary failing , since weak men , in spite of charity , resent a display of overbearing arrogance even on . the part of eo distinguished a gentleman as the chosen of Sheffield . We will not bo bo ungracious as to mock a moral infirmity ; but we Have a right to complain if it entices a patriot away from his honesty , and puts his influence

    and his dexterity at the disposal of an adroit Cabinet Minister . It would be gratifying to witness any act of public confidence that would assuage the disappointments of Mr . Boebuok ' s desolate vanity ; but unless the confidence be complete , it is worse than a public impeachment . Mr . Boebuck , then , lies under serious charges ; he is summoned to take his trial , and if he challenges our jurisdiction , we appeal to the electors of Sheffield , and ask them to put a few questions to their aspiring representative . Was the Sebastopol Committee so managed as to leave half the truth in the dark ? Had Mr .

    Boebuck consulted his Liberal colleagues m the House of Commons when he encouraged the Premier , on the first night of the session , in putting a gag for twelve months between the teeth of the Parliamentary Beformers ? When he made a false start in his opposition to the annuity of the Princess Boyal , was it by plan or by accident ? He shall have his alternative . He proved his want of

    competence , or his want of integrity ; and we think that upon neither ground will he be appointed Captain of the Liberal vanguard . If he can obliterate the doubts that stain his character in connexion with , those events , he will of course be anxious to show ; that when a case of gross administrative injustice , implying unknown depths of jobbery and corruption , was laid before him as Chairman of tlie Administrative Beform

    Association , he did not affect to take ifc up enthusiastically , dally with it for several months , and then abandon it without any justification whatever . There was an allegation . made by a public servant , that a certain Peer and Minister of the Crown had entered upon a high office at a time when he was largely involved in debt to that very department . Did not Mr . Boebuck cause this charge to be separated from the body of a petition , and entered upon the first paragraph as the point and essence of the whole ? Did he not suggest

    other amendments , cause the accusation to be epitomised , declare that there was reason to go before the Commons of England , warn the petitioner that he must stand by his guns , and then retreat from the subject altogether ? We think this is a matter worth inquiring into , especially when the person implicated is applying for new trusts , and assuming new responsibilities . The essential poiut is , to know whether Mr . Boebuok can be relied

    upon ; and he cannot be relied upon unless the whole story we allude to ia false . For in what light does it exhibit him ? First talking largely about the Commons of England ; then , in the style of a Parliamentary Nelson , adjuring his coadjutor to stand to his guns ; thirdly , assisting to frame a charge against a Minister of the Crown ; fourthly , Eostponing his motion in the House ; and , nally , skulking out by a side door . We hope , for the credit of politics , that he will be able to deny the entire transaction ; but , if he does not , and offers no apology for himself , we can tell him that the public tongue will

    not be silent—it will rifle his reputation , and leave him an empty notoriety . If Mr . Boebuck ' b name be as great as he believes , it is surely worth rescuing from -the mire ; at all events , should the member for Sheffield have lost his self-respect , the constituency will not shrink from pushing the investigation . The proverb , ' Who excuses himself acouses himself , ' does not apply to this case . Mr . Boebuok : is at the bar , and silence now will be interpreted as the sullenness of an offender . The Roebuck circular to the Liberal members did not meet with that response to which

    it would have been entitled had not its author stood in the sha 4 o of a disgraceful accusation . Only from forty , to fifty members attended at the King's Anna ; the

    proceedings were marked by coldness and caution , and nothing was attempted except the nomination of a committee . It is no secret that Mr . Boebuck is looked upon in the House of Commons as a pretender , who does the work of the Whigs in the disguise of a Befortner . Trust him with the lead of the party when Lord PAiiMEitSTON brings

    forward his promised bill next session , and who knows what amicable arrangements may be made in the library , what amendments may stop the way until the convenient moment arrives for withdrawing them amid the cheers of the House and the smiles of the Treasury bench ? But will not such a degradation affect the Liberal members as a body as well as Mr . Boebuok ? Members of Parliament ,

    therefore , who prize their own characters and the interests of their constituents , will not place themselves in the power of a lion ' s provider , but will concert a Beform policy exempt from the risk of a corrupt surrender . We repeat , the section in the House of Commons and the country that impeaches Mr . Boebuck does not desire his disgrace ; but can it be denied that when an unsuccessful politician claims the lead of a party , he should at least show that his hands are clean , that he is more than a mere decoy to the Whigs and a scarecrow to the Tories , and that he is not liable to be frightened or befooled either by a Government or a dinner party ?

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    THE EDUCATION CONFERENCE . On Monday afternoon the upper saloon at WiLiiis ' s was * filled to suffocation , ' as the phrase goes , though we are happy to say nobody in particular was Buffocated on this memorable occasion , only a few were slightly parboiled . Soon after three o ' clock there was a murmur in the crowded assembly , which kept on increasing , till suddenly a side door was opened , through which entered the well-known figure of Prince Albert . The whole assembly standing , he took his seat in a gilded chair on the platform ; on his right ,

    Earl Gbanvi . i . i . e , Lord Brougham , conspicuous in his yellow waistcoat and his dignified demeanour , the Lord Bishop of Oxrosu , and numerous others ; on his left , Lord Wabd , Lord Calthobpe , Sir John Pakington , the Bishop of London , and last—not least—Bobebt Owen . The Prince opened the meeting with a very remarkable speech , creditable both to the speaker and to the country to which it was directed . It was delivered in a frank , unassuming , quiet , yet evidently hearty manner . All England by this time will have read it ; but we may draw

    attention to the last part of it , in which he points out the duty of those * whom Providence has removed from the awful struggle . ' In our philanthropic laisser aller , laisserfaire time such a stress laid upon duty , ought to find more than a response . Except this royal speech , there was nothing remarkable said on the first day of the meeting . On the second day , the Conference divided itself into five sections , which assembled in five rooms at the Thatched-house Tavern . A large number of speeches were read , and it appeared almost as if every member of the Conference had his , or her

    own specific remedy for the cure ot neglected education . Two parties , however , might easily be traced among this ^ Babel of projects—a party demanding legislative interference , and a party rejecting it altogether , and trying to proceed , as hitherto , y voluntary means . The latter party formed the great majority of the Conference , and managed to coerce the other into nearly perfect silonce . As the wisdom of our age seeks , to find the philosopher ' s atone by ' voting , ' the votontantt i of course ,

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    June 27 , 1857 . ] ¦ ¦ THJi : L'EADEB . 618

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 27, 1857, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2199/page/13/