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    OUR FUTURE CONSTITUENTS.

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    Still prouder are they when they stand up to their knees m emerald necks and" brazen plumes , and in mountains of rabbits and haves . For ourselves we confess the pule face of the lean , feverish tenamry lookin g-slavishly on , or toadying the insolent keepers , takes ofl all our appetite for * that sort of gunpowder fame . It still more vexes us that , with all his pride , Sir P > . BcazeaWat seems to us , alter all , little better than a large poulterer , ' for we always , the next day after a battue , see a brimming cartful of pheasants driven off to catch the first London train at Ilainstcwn . : . , . . ; . , ., lean vil

    Let it be said , to the credit of Blazjgaway , that the - lagers are not poachers . Now and then a mauvais sujet , who will eventually enlist , in a drunken fit of daring defies the keeper * , and has a bloody grapple with them amongst the young ash saplings ; leaviii" . perhaps , some keeper with broken arm or cracked skull amoix- the gory violet ? and the crimson primroses ,-in the centre ot a circle of trampled mire , with a wire noose or a shivered gun-stoc . c lvino- across his bleeding- limbs ; but this is quite the exception . The ^ better men ' all know that a rich man hua a right to preserve what he likes , and that to take it from him is thieving . But still it is hard for a hungry , ill-paid man to have those fat birds all day blundering about his head , and the corpulent hares actualy running ao-ainsfc him in the very stupidity of the crassest fat . It is hard to klep a sick wife and five children , and pay house-rent , oil six shillings a week , and never to see meat , and to rise early and work late in this poulterer ' s shop of Blazeaway ' s , and yet not to be allowed to touch anything-. We are afraid it would set our fingers itching-, and make c-uy appetite . irritably acute . ¦ ^ if -

    „ . _ , , ,... . ... Thc-= e people have poor ' houses—Sir B . B . does not dram them , thev are half under water . Death-ague is .-the . name of that water . The poor people bale it up from under their very chairs , yet so patient and conservative are they by long habit that they never think of cfriimb ' . ing—poor serfs . Now we do not say that bn-B II ha « not a . right to starve his . labourers and keep them en-Jovy wholesome diet ; we do not deny his right to stuff his woods sty u a of pho-i ^ uif s that t lioy can . hardly move their wings ; he may ,. 1 r _ he chooseturn the Blazeaavay coverts into over-crowded zoological

    , o-ardenV- but we do think in equity , if not injustice , that he should a little restrain this large-hearted wish for game preserving- , lie should not increase the temptations of the ill-fated , hard-fortuned poor- he m i ght at least feed them with occasional game dinners- ; lie xni » ht narrow the restrictions of his cruel laws : he might let tue rabbits go , and keep the hares and pheasants for himself . llie farmers would be no losers , an 1 Messrs . Dillv and Dally would have more chance of becoming good shots if the game were a little wilder Mini scarcer . But wo fear men of the Blazeaatay class are

    incorrigibly Hellish ; they look on the poor as dung , us-beasts ot burden- they acknowledge not the duties of landlords—whiit they want they pay for , and there is an end . They will go on boiling rabbits ' and-chopping eggs and nursing" pheasants with the hit ot the land till the family vault gapes for them , and the heavy bell summons them to a meeting of ga : iie-preserving ancestors . ' This is an old twist in the Norman blood , ever since tho _ cruel kin" * who 4 i loved the tall deer better than the poor Christians , " who and

    who lopped off the thumbs of deer-slayers , destroyed villages razqd churches to enlarge his . deer forests . The country gentleman lets the clergyman see that his poor man ' s children are educated , that his rich servants die not unleaded . He in the hall is for from them as the clouds , and about as inaccessible . What matters to him if every turnip on tho Blazuaway property is nourished with poacher ' s blood , if not a fiold on the property but has been tho scene of a death-strugyle . Tho Honourable Mr . Dilly tmd the Bight Honourable Mr . Dally must make a good bag < ifc tho autumn battue , and their prowoss , let what will come ,, must bo

    recorded in the Morning Post . Let ii . s repeat our argument : wo do not deny that poaching is theft , and should be punished ; but we do regret that landlords should allow game to increase to that baleful degree , that it ia an unceasing anil alniost inesisliblo temptation to ai poor mid often ignorant agricultural population , who , whiletormented by soJ / h * h restriction *! and arbitrary restraints , are too often neglected by their landlords , who exuet work from them at insuilioiont wuges , and let them end their miserable life unniiied in a workhouse .

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    MANY of our venders doubtless remember tho opening sentence in which Johnson invitus a very extensive section of mankind to " attend to tho history of Rasselas , Prince of Abyjwhui ) . " Hoping that thin sulvico may have been followed , wo now invite tho reader to turn from JortNSO ^ r ' s imaginary prinoo to tlio requests of a renl flesh and blood Abyssinian monarch , nuule to Major Harris , tho bead of tho English Klnibnssy . " You must give mo , " fluid lias Saheln SetasMu , " tho wodicino which disarms vonomous snakes , aud that which turns grey hair black * ** * ami , above all , tho medicine of tho seven coIouvh , which so sharpens tho intellect

    ons , rather than to see truth through the colourless and transparent ' " -lass of simple fact . The effect of this has been , among the niore intelligent learners , that the blending and mixture of various colours has produced a-medium colourless light , and wiads blowino- from opposing points of the compass have tended to keep the ediTice of the judgment upright ; however , it would be well if the same ends couldbe obtained by a somewhat . honcster process , that is if political and religious writers could be induced to avoid alike concealment and misrepresentation . These remarks are made on the presumption , expressed ' in some of our former articles on this subject , that Gov ernment ought to proceed on an intelligent assertion and protection of interests ; and that the demand for educations in voters is not a . merely farcical excuse for giving the upper classes a clear field fi . r a mere struggle of their own component parts for their , own special interests—landlords and cotton-lords , lawyers and churchmen , or what not . . , . , r n We are "lad to express our opinion in . the words ot Ohattax , who though a . liberal , was , be it . observed , no " annual parliament and tihiversii 1 suffrage" man , against both of which he warm-ly protesH though he observes , m words ever to be remembered , that " Politics should be the study of all , i n every free state ; a mystery to the people , they become the trade of the groat : the political monopolist is a hardened jobber . " We would only add , not merely of the " -Teat , but of the would-be great —of the selfi-ihj who would make . the people the mere rounds of the ladder on which they-are mounting- to personal power , —of every ranting agitator , wiio is conceived to * l ) e , as was said long ago , .. ' ¦ •' ¦ " By his noise Tlie fittest for his country ' s choice . " This is the great danger of the pecplo , as Macaulay , another of their friends , or perhaps halt' friends ,., has told , them : ' - ' The multitude is-mores interested for the most unmeaning bauble .. or the most insiVnificmit ¦ » £ *//« vfch . nu the most important principk . ' ' . It is , we are sorw to say , still proved to be true that the mass of tho lower orders still love personification , like women and children , Und any man who has t he opportunity of put ting iiiinself on a plat form has an immense advantage ; . they are cayti vated by the stroiig cxjjressions ' whleh sucii men never spare , and by their boundless professions ; nor does this by any means apply to the lower classes only . A few weeks a »? o the ' Saturday Review ottered a very good suggestion to the publishers , of a series of popular and well-cotusidercd biographies ofthe G ' reut 3-Iiv . i of Kiiglaud . We have often thought we Cuuld ' surest a . still more useful series—a very c " : cap , plain , and unvarnished account ' of iniporfant eras , such as the ltebel-liun , . the change , of dynasty of IGSS , the circumsitanced- under which Magmi Cliarta \ vas . exacted from King JonN , a candid account of the French Re volution ,, ail abbreviation of IJe ' Loi / mk , and other subjects of the same kind . Readers would not fail ; the . difficulty would be as to tho writers . Any man who might undertake this , should be able to lay his hand upon his heart mid swear solemnly to the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth , —simple and unvarnished facts , witli ^ s few deductions as possible . Who would be lit for such a tasic .. Certainly not a living Southky , certainly not an Alison , certainly not a Macaulay ; a Mackintosh would do , who , with a camuu mind had gone through two phases of opinion ,- still boftern Smyth , who had only , we believe , known one , and was fair to the backbone ., seeking truth wherever he could find it , more candid , if possible , than i ' iIaiiam , and most thoroughly liberal . , , We believe , and we are sorry to sstiy ifc , that nothing keeps newspapers honest ; newspapers which , in tho words of Cuaubk , borrowed nearly word for word from his patron and admirer Buhki :, are unfortunately " Something to all men , ami to some man nil , " but their dread of tho Knowledge of their readers . They give no name ; they too seldom give even a reference for their iiicts . 2 Vo irresponsible power is to be trustotl ; let them court the light , ixa well as pruoumo to create it . We lire- no enemies , of course , to a free press , or to anonymous writing , but wo aro most anxious that the now . spJtper wrens ' . should hftvo its correctives , as well as ( he powers which it assumes to-displace , in » d sonic other , mode ot producing the spark of truth than that which i » produced by mutual collision ciid oontrmliction— the concussion of clouds , often thomhoIvos di . rk , which yives . its birth to tho lightning , which often scoreheu whilst it illuminates . If the people—people who have but an hour or two u day for reading—received und imbibed such instruction as that wo have boon hinting at , wo should hooii see whether they or many of their would-be superiors wuru tho really intelligent pooplo of ' England . It is all up with the nupproiwion policy ; hit uu all do our utmost to let tho light flow in freely . Wo wish that * omo of tho nobility and clergy who undertakei to give popuhir lectures would consider this subject , and give tho pooplo truth , rather than lot thorn steal it by fragments . Of this lecturing Lord Caiu . islk was one of fcho best mid tho earliest examples ; bub what was noble as an exnniplo , will bo merely ridiculous na a transient fashion , and admirable if it were to puss from tlie trausi torinofiH of fashion to tho permanence of custom , by giving truth inul nothing but truth to tho people . The groat men of our country might thus assort honourably , their proper advantages , and gut » i curroboration and a now Ioiibo of influence nml power . It may bo read in Gmncw thnt tho . Homan Bmporor Antomncs was one of tho first ( probably tho first ) of governors who gave RTUtuiloufl loot urea to tho governed . They were on Pluh >« o | i » . v , und histod for three- days ; ho ' gave thorn , probably , tho bust « l y me ho knew . Pope Griiciouy the Fifth bad gainod tho rwpuot « t i » o wooulo bofovo ho was elected to tho lunacy by yiving tliem

    instvucas to enable him who swallows enough of it to acquiro every snrh of knowledge with the filiglitest troublef furthormoro , you will bo cartful to f / ivo my pooplo none of this . ' Wo give tho passive as a curiously imXvo and uniliaguiwod osprtHsion of whut wna formerly tho feeling of tho ruling 1 towat'ds the serving clhss in Kngland , as we could " easily prove by si citation from llxhuxM . Tho serving classes cun at any rato no longer complain of nny dclihorat ' o iniontion on the port of the KTOnt mass of their social superiors to kuup thorn in the dark , thou | j ; l > tho edocutors in their various Uimls may wish tl » eir pupils to viow . questions , both politico ! tmd religious , through gpoctHclos slightly tinged with their own pmlioulm- oyiu-

    Untitled Article

    S 74 The Leader mid Saturdayi Analyst * . [ April 21 , 1 SGO .

    Our Future Constituents.

    OUR PUTURB CONSTITUENTS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 374, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2344/page/10/