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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    « WON BY TRICKS."

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    Untitled Article

    HPHERE is in London and other large towns a jovial and -L restless class of vagrants , known in the natural history of rascaldom . under the scientific designation of " Cadgers . " Their peculiar distinction arises from the facility with which they assume various disguises , a nd all sorts of characters , calculated to rob mankind , first of their pity , and then of their cash . Popular imagination , with its fictions founded on fact , represents the members of this industrial fraternity as making handsome profits by their exertions , and sitting , when the day is done , round a festal board , where sirloins and turkeys give place to pipes and punch , and the roguery of the morning is

    celebrated by all parties singing in full chorus , "A jolly old cadger ami" We do not know whether these gentry are monarchical in their government , but they have an aristocracy proud of its plunder ; if they do not possess an hereditary peerage , it is because they have not , like their betters , discovered the means of making their wisdom descend with the property they leave behind . Should they be looking out for a sovereign , we recommend them to consider the career of

    a noble lord who has throughout life acted upon their principles , and who would be worthy of their crown , if he has enough virtue to provide that " honour" which is proverbially said to be necessary " among thieves . " It would be something to serve under a potentate who was , like Scapin and Mr . Jenkinson , rolled into one : and , if , like the last celebrated character , he should one day be brought to acknowledge that " the knowing one is the silliest fellow under the sun . " His followers need not fear that he will humiliate

    them by confessing , " I was obliged to turn sharper in my own defence , and have lived ever since , my head throbbing with schemes to deceive , and my heart palpitating with fears of detection . " The prince of political cadgers will never come to this . - " His schemes to deceive" were too spontaneous a growth to cause " his head to throb ; " and as " detect tion" has never injured him , hisheart-has had no occasion to ' " ¦ . palpitate'" : for fear it should take place . The amiability of the Saturday Analyst , and the mild manners of our time , forbid the mention of the noble individual ' s name ; and as we are riot quite sure the cadger electors would give him theii sweet suffrages , there- mig ht be an indelicacy in bringing it forward before he has issued an election placard .

    There are few who'have' been unmindful of the career of one whose early reputation was made by assisting the Government of the day to refuse any explanations of the facts and reasons that led to the bombardment of Copenhagen" , and who from that day to this has lost no opportunity of shrouding the foreign policy of this country in the fogs of diplomatic mystery , which have seldom been cleared away without revealin ^ b 7 £ SB ~ de-eaVaf ^ pretention to liberal ideas . Having early shown the right stuff to be of service to aristocratic Governments , that could only exist by deluding thepeople—he was nearly always in office . Premiers and avowed principles were changed , but one man

    was ready to work with all , gaining a disreputable popularity by a pretended zeal for continental freedom , and invariably betraying evexy party or nationality that was foolish enough to take him at his word . " When the French Government would have helped Poland , he found reasons to object , and when Russia trampled upon Hungary , his congratulations were ready for the perjured and usurping tyrant , who had Haynau and Windisgratz for his tools . When French liberty was lost in the coup d ' etat , compliments and approbation were heaped upon the successful hero of the scene , and at a later period the honour of England was offered up in a Conspiracy Bill , that fortunately did not become law .

    It was quite in harmony with the career thus lightly sketched , that the English Talleyrand should be the instrument for betraying the rights of the people , and the privileges of the Commons i nto the hands of the usurping Lords . Had this px * ocess been carried on openly , it might have incurred more hatred , but would have been worthy of loss contempt . It was , however , like the rest of the noble individual's career , accomplished by a trick , of which the honest portion of his own cabinet were the victims , as well as the Libei'al members of

    tions in a speech which would be received throughout with Tory cheers , and listened to with disgust and . consternation by every honest member of the House . Mr . Bright and other Liberal members agreed to accept the resolutions , because they were led to suppose that they were brought forward with an honourable intention , and they are now like Mr . ' ( Gladstone and Mr . Gibson , smarting under the consciousness of having been thoroughly and dexterously cheated by the man whom they were silly enough to help into power .

    At any earlier period of the Session this conduct would not have mattered , because opportunities would have offered to break up the Cabinet , and . perhaps the Parliament also ; but it is now very late for action , and the friends of honest dealing and constitutional liberty must take care that they do not leave the cadger premier in unchecked power during the recess . It is a pity that Mr . Bright lost his wits when the fraud practised upon him became apparent , and that he delivered a speech sounding more like a funeral oration than a trumpet call . Sir John Trelawny and Lord Fermoy deserve the gratitude of the community for their zeal in recommencing the fight , which ought to rage from day to day , and from hour to hour , until it is won .

    The interest of the country is umnistakeably manifested by the numerous local metropolitan meetings that have taken place , and greater enthusiasm lias seldom been exhibited than by the large numbers who assembled at St . Martin ' s Hall on Saturday night . There is , also , a wholesome sign of connected action between London and tJic provinces in the Conference held on Wednesday , at the King ' s Arms Hotel ; and if no definite arrangement for a permanent association was then completed , it was something to find that the reformers of Manchester , ¦ Liverpool , Birmingham , Newcastle , Derby , Warrington , Rochdale , and many other towns , had agreed to call upon the House of Commons to l-eiusqjurther the Lords their

    supplies , except on condition of abandoning aggressive position , and also to take steps to turn out those members who refused to adopt an-. honourable and _ patriotic course . The battle maybe lost in this session of Parliament , not so much from any real difficulty in winning it , as from the-failure of Mr . Bright and his immediate adherents to produce any plan of action adapted to the occasion . We feel too niuch indebted to Mr . Bright for his exertions on the Committee to have any desire to press hard-upon him for his faults ; but if he can only be a powerful and dashingguerilla , neither he nor his friends ought any longer to claim for him the position of a general who has not only to load in a battle ,

    but to arrange a campaign . Scarcely a day passes without bringing forth evidence that flu , Hons ^ of Lprds looks to Lord Palmerston as its real chief in the Commons , and has determined to struggle , not only to resist further reform , but to wrest from tho wealthy manufacturers and traders some portion , of the power they have already won . In this struggle the aristocratic order fear the working-man . Lord Hardwicke has only given expression to their feelings when he declared , that if the working-men had ¦ either civil or military weapons—the franchise or the ritle—they would immediately proceed to seize the property of others—a , phrase , which , stripped of its insolence , means that they would join the industrial capitalists in demanding both a , reduction

    and a fairer adjustment of taxation . The result of this conduct of the oligarchy will be to draw tho . middle and working classes into a closer union , and to compel men of wealth who have hitherto been very moderate reformers , to increase their demands . How the Tories can expect , morn than a transient triumph to bo followed by a severe defeat , wo cannot ; understand ; nor can we comprehend how so dexterous ; i tactician as Lord Palmerston has committed the fatal blunder of decisively severing himself from tho ill-placed confidence of the liberal party . It may be that lie hopes that , wars and rumours of wars will completely occupy public attention next year—that by a hubbub of foreign politics lie will , bo able to smother attention to home affairs ; but . suc-li

    expectations would indicate that his judgment is failing , and that ; old ago has diminished his cunning , while it . lms not brought wit'll--itH ; littfc"lioneHty-of ^ of time . ¦¦ .,. ' ¦¦¦ , Mr . 'Gladstone" is In a position of oxf roim > < i < 'li < : acy and difficulty— -ho lms been cheated b y liis eliief , ami furiously assailed as a ¦ demagogue by Ilio Tory inolinn . His groat speech in defeneu of the rights of tho Onmin < ms I .:.. s p loclgoU him to action , and he will find thai , it is only l . y . 'dl . yn . tf himmoro firmly Avith the advanced . thinkers of the a-r > , ( Mat lie wi ll bo able to miiintain lm position tv < n | . iii'lniii"Nl : iry lender .

    therHou 8 d ~ 6 f Cominow , " and the nation at large . -The fcoblc , confused , and unworthy resolutions which tho House of Commons has adopted , were agreed to by Mr . Gladstone , by Mr . Gibson , and by Lord . John Russell , as affording a moans of further action during the present Session , by which the aggression of the Lords could bo repelled by a reversal of their illegal decision . ¦ Not one word seems to have boon said by the chief offender in tho transaction that could have led any one to suspect that he contemplated moving the resolu-

    Untitled Article

    July 14 , I 860 . ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 651

    « Won By Tricks."

    « WON BY TRICKS . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 14, 1860, page 651, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2356/page/3/