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    popular notions founded upon that picturesque sketch of the Chinese Empire to which . we areso accustomed in the domestic willow-pattarn . We may expect a good model of a " Yamun , " with cane tapestry , and crazy pottery , ad lib ., rand perhaps a Snail-footed , line-eyebrowed young . Chmawoinan ; eating perpetual fricasee of dog , and chewing infant tepWixls ^ es ts-all for the amusemen of the ladies who are tired of Swiss landscapes and tlie St . Bernard quadruped , but who must go to tlie Egyptian Hall as they must go to the milliner ' s and to church . And there is no doubt plenty to satirise and to sneer at among the British m China .

    The opium trade , and what that Christian traffic leads to , will bear a sketch ; and so perhaps may Mr . Anstey . All this will be noveh treated by a clever man who can occasionally be in earnest . We can faucy statesmen and politicians , those who forced the war , and those who risked a general election in resisting it , will rush to reserved seats to get the original conception likely to be offered of this last acquisition to commerce and most recent proof of our national energy . It is yet strange that it should be left to a farceur to " open up" China in this method . Of course we could not get a

    complete notion of our new eccentric friends , and ot our chances of succeeding with them in trading and other respects , unless-we saw them under cveiy aspect , and Mr .. Smith may give us information quite as important of its kind as that for which we are to look to Consuls and Ministers Extraordinary . But if the " Entertainment" is to discharge these considerable functions in public affairs ;—if tlie jester is to be a teacher , and is to do for us what the whole corps of consular and ambassadorial service fails in doing , from a defect in the appreciation of the partiality at home for the funny element in our imperial progress — -the Albert Smiths must be considered from a

    new and very different point of view ; and it will be well if they themselves arc not crushed out of all capacity for the comic by an unexpected sense of responsibility . _ The facetious class have a good deal of work on hand . No one has yet undertaken to give us a ludicrous " evening" about Siam , though there is a treaty with the potentates of that State of two years' standing . Japan is virgin soil , even as yet untrodden by the "Special Correspondent . " It will , perhaps ,, be-Mr . Albert Smith ' s fate to take these in jturu , and by degrees we shall make a jocose acquaintance with all the new

    sections of mankind we arc trying trade with and are expected to laugh at . The national foible , the despising and deriding all that we do not understand of these strange Easterns , may in one sense be quite safely indulged in , for our laughter is never likel y to reach them , so as to hurt their possible sensitiveness . So far , then , we may at home get something out of the extension of the empire , — much more than the citizens of Rome got— - we may got some fun . It is a question , however , which we cannot help treating seriously , whether this is the right spirit in which a Christian nnd commercial nation should make its imperial progress .

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    BIOGRAPHIES OF GERMAN" PRINCES . No . II . THE KING OF WURTEMBERG . The founder of the Wurtemberg dynasty is alleged to have been a certain " Ulrich . with the strong thumb "—so called from the extraordinary size of that particular finger of his hand . It would seeia that the descendants of this doughty baron have inherited something of that quality ot their ancestor , for they have generally been noted for the vigour with which they set to work to thuntp their subjects . The present Icing has not degenerated in that respect . His obstinate propensities of arbitrary

    rule are most amply developed . Altogether , his notions of government would appear more appropriate to the latitude of Russia , where he spent a portion of his youth , than to that of the kingdom over which lie holds sway . We should here remark that in no country of Germany , if we except Baden , perhaps , and Schleswig-liolstein , are the ideas of self-government so strongly rooted as among the people of Wurtemberg . For centuries they have waged war against their despotio dukes , maintaining ancient liberties , not unfrequently with the sword ; at other times by parliamentary struggles . TUe present king himself , ever sinco the lie tne uironehub

    year JoJLo , wuen asccnaea , uwa involved in continual quarrels with liis estates , and at tin ' s very moment the Crown and Diet again stand opposed to eaoh other in hostile array . It is a fortunatociroumstanoe that the royal power should thus have been kept in cheok , at least , to some oxtont . Otherwise the Russian colonels of the race of Ulrich would long ago have debased the country to the level of Nijiu-Novgorod or Irkutsk . Some sycophant , in search of a ribbon / ° / 'us button-holo , lias called the King William ot TV urtemberg a ffi ' ciut dans wi entresol , a giant lor me display of whoso energies his small imncipality otfor&s no scope . Wo know not what arc the colossal qualities to which the Court , flatterer 1 ms alluded unless thoy " are the superhuman onorgy tho king as " way ? » ho « n in gating he progress , ol freedom , or his onormous strength m performing

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    that as long an interval may probably elapse before the proposed readjustment of 1859 will have to be readjusted . But calmly considered this is a most absurd and delusive way of regarding the matter . The best friends of the people cannot desire that an incessant hue-and-cry should be kept up about organic change . They have . buried finality long ago , but they have no mind to set up an Altar to the Winds over its grave . They know very well

    that beyond a certain point no Minister , however popular or powerful , can induce Parliament , as now constituted , to § o ; they know very well that shape his bill as he may , the expanding wants and capacities of the nation will , before five years , render it to some extent a misfit ; and yet there are few amongst them who would seriously encourage the hope in others , or who sincerely cherish the hope in themselves of seeing the work of general revision and reconstruction undertaken again after so brief

    contain not onl y adequate provisions for a fair rep ' re sentation . of all agricultural and urban commnni ties as they now stand , but further , that suitable machinery may be devised to meet their representative vfaiits hereafter in a just and appropriate manner . It is by no means necessary for this that the total number of members in the House oi Commons should be changed . A dozen arithmetical calculations might be offered , any one of which would show the feasibility of gradual readjustment and local re-distribation from time to time , without deviating from the magic numerals of 658 which now denote the present House of

    Commons . It cannot be expected that any one of such calculations should be introduced here . It is enough if the principle be clearly indicated and the duty of its adoption shown . But this much may be said to prevent misapprehension , and to point out , rather by way of illustration than otherwise , how the rule would work . Suppose , for example , that the number of towns returning two or more members to Parliament be taken at one hundred , and that the number of towns or groups of towns returning one member , each be one hundred and fifty , nothing would be easier than to provide a Parliamentary tribunal

    before which any new town subsequently springing up might make its claim to a preference over the least considerable of those named in the lastmentioned list , on the score of population , number of rated dwelling-houses , or value of ratable property . What would , perhaps , be still better , would be to enable a new town to claim before such tribunal to be included within the electoral confines of some contiguous borough . Upon the finding of the tribunal suggested , a short bill might be passed , authorising the legal enfranchisement thus

    awarded ; and in this way the recurrence and regrowth of representative anomalies would be held in check . Towns now entitled to but one member , might , in like manner , be enabled to assert their preference to a place in the list of cities and boroughs returning by reason of their increased property and population . In all eases provision mig ht be made against the raising of questions tpo frequently in any particular instance , or upon narrow grounds of comparison ; but oiice admit the principle , and minor difficulties of this kind could not long stand in the way .

    an interval . What then can be done to obviate the alternative evil thus palpably presenting itself—or how can we , on the one baud , sow the seeds of new anomalies ^ grievances , and discontent , and upon the other hand , the germs of incessant and interminable change ? It may not be possible completely to accomplish either ; but assuredly every wise and impartial man ought diligently to seek the means of effecting the former , as he must thoroughly despair , should that fail , of securing the latter . Let us then look things clearly in the lace , and see whether , very near the surface , there does not lie an element of salutary

    nature , which duly and dexterously applied , may impart to the contemplated measure of Reform the inestimable power of gradual self-adaptation . We talk of America and Australia as growing countries , and we read without wonder a remark that their institutions contain within them carefully framed provisions for the rapid expansion of society that is constantly taking place with them . The Federal Constitution of the United States is now seventy years old . Nothing can be more unlike what the thirteen emancipated colonies were in 1789 than that prodigious aggregate of diverse and remote communities , twenty-eight in number , which now

    make up the great . Transatlantic commonwealth . Yet the organic laws which Jefferson and Hamilton and Adams framed remain unchanged in all their essential features . And why ? Because they had the wisdom and forethought not only to make them suitable to the immediate wants of their own political time , but to make them self-adaptable to the growing wants of the time to come . Australia has hardly ueen long enough in existence as a political state to furnish forth similar illustrations , but the unfettered common-sense of our kinsfolk there has led them to adopt like causes , and t here is no reasou to doubt that , as they increase and multiply , the

    THOUGHTS , FACTS , AND SUGGESTIONS ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM . No . II . Before entering on the del nils which must goto make up a comprehensive measure of Parliamentary Reform , there are some things to be considered of great importance , if the measure is to have any chaiico ot being regarded as permanent . Tlie idea of finality has , indeed , been renounced on all hands . The most cautious Conservatives have for somo time

    been busily engoged in fill ing on , and learning how to wear , tho uniform of progress . Nobody any longer affected to fear tho principle of political amelioration ; and nobody any longer professes to believe that tho concessions which arc intended to be made ucxtyoar willhavetho ' effeotof put-ting the nation politicall y to sleep for the rest of its life , or oven lor tho life of the present generation . XJevcrthcior tJio mo oi tlie present generation .

    Nevertheless , it is felt vory generally , that it was hardly worth while dovoting so much trouble and time to tho passing of an Amcndocl Reform Bill , if its frame be so rigid , and its provisions so little in keeping with tho growing wants of the ac * o , thai ; ero long the amendment will want f , o be itself amended . It is all very well for humdrum , unreasoning , hand-to-mouth politicians , to comfort themselves with tho recollection that moro thai * a quarter of a century has elapsed ainco the passing 1 of tho Act of 1 S 3 & , and to try to persuade ouo anothor

    benefit will be found of having done so . Let no one say because England is an old historic country that its legislators may fitly treat its political configuration as fixed , or the aggregate of its political wants as a sum certain , Not even in the United States of America have more signal changes of population and property taken place in the course of the last thirty years than within the confines of tho United Kingdom . Not to speak of Highland glens depopulated and manufacturing hamlets stimulated into towns , it is enough to ppint to t \ yo gigantic facts unprecedented in the history of civilised man , and unparalleled by anything in

    the world around us : London has added a million and a half to its inhabitants within our own recollection , and two millions of human beings have disappeared from Ireland within the same time . Is it possible for the freakish fancy of satire or caricature to imagine anything more preposterous than the rigidity of an electoral law which flatly refuses to recognise cither of theso notorious facts P Talk of going into committee to determine whether country towns of three thousand inhabitants , or of five hundred 10 / . householders , should return members to Parliament , imd , if not , whether towns of four

    thousand inhabitants and six hundred 10 / . housoholders should ho allowed to do so ; why , it is like a man taking tho measure of tho buttons he is to put on some coat whilo he omits to measure you for the coat itself . So far is it from boing true that ours is a stationnry or fixed community , it might , with much greater accuracy , bo said that we are singularly tho reverse . It suits nristoorutio habits of thought , indeed , to n fleet the belief in popular stagnation ; but tlio ofleotation is a perilous one , and fraught with tho worst ; follies of injustioo . When tho forthcoming lloforin lilU sees the light , it is greatly to bo hoped that it will be found to

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    No . 452 , November 20 , 1858-1 THE LEASER . ' 125 &

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1858, page 1259, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2269/page/19/