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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 28th November 1868, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • WHAT WILL HE DO WITH IT?
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      T H E To M Ah A W K: A Saturday Journal ...

      T H E TO M AH A W K : A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . & YxUh bg Jtrtljur n '§ x uUtt "INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

      No. 82.] Lo.Vdojst , November 28, 186s. ...

      No . 82 . ] LO . VDOjST , NOVEMBER 28 , 186 S . [ Price Twopence .

      What Will He Do With It?

      WHAT WILL HE DO WITH IT ?

      There Is No Longer Any Doubt That Mr. Gl...

      There is no longer any doubt that Mr . Gladstone will have in the next Parliament a majority numerically stronger than any political chief , since Pitt , has ever commanded . He will be carried into office , as it were , on the shoulders of the nation , and will be confronted by an Opposition as weak , if as bitter , as the small band of Jacobins which the eccentric Fox led to

      constant defeat . No man , not even his original master , Peel , has , since the time of Pitt , ever had such vast political power as Mr . Gladstone now enjoys . It is not unnatural that those who are privileged to hold themselves aloof from party politics , and who may assure themselves that they are free from party prejudices ,

      should ask anxiously , now Mr . Gladstone has got this vast power , What will he do with it ? We are not at all inclined to underrate Mr . Gladstone's great talents and high purposes ; nor are we inclined to abandon ourselves body and soulas too many seem inclined to doto

      , , his absolute guidance . It seems to us that it is not a healthy sign when men are ready to surrender on the hustings all true independence , and to promise and vow implicit obedience to one man , although that man is for the present , doubtless , identified — with _ .. _ one — — , measure _ _ . _ ^ _ _^ , and — . —_ _ —i that ¦ ^— - — ¦ — v ™~ a very w ^^ r ^~ ^ J necessary ^^«™ ^ f * - ^^ ^^ ^ . r ^^» ^^^ ^ ^ x ¦ and ^ ^»^ B ^ tr ^ ¦ just a ^ ^ ^ p

      one . But for this political unitarianism Mr . Disraeli is mainly responsible ; it is the natural reaction against that utter abuse of personal influence of which he has been guilty . Party allegiance has been degraded , and it is only by raising it out of the mire through — ~— — — ^^ 3 which — ^^ Mr — ^^ . Disrael ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ i has ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ dragged ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ T ^ B «^ % ^^^ ^ i ^ w" it ^« ^ , w that ^ w ^ h ^ qnp ^ m it ^ k ^ p can ^ i ^ ^¦ ' ^ * v ^ m

      be reinstated in the approbation of men ; and having been purified of the ill odour which the very name has contracted , be made fit for use again , as , what it undoubtedly is , a most important means of carrying good measures . Rightly or wrongly , Mr . Gladstone is accepted as the Bayard of politics " sans peur

      et sans reproches" a man of unselfish spirit whose aims are high and pure , and who strains every nerve in the honest endeavour to discover what is the right course , and having discovered it , pursues that course undeterred by any abuse , and undaunted by any obstacle . Therefore , to make him the , object of a strict and

      unquestioning party allegiance , seems to many the best protest against such prostitution of personal power in high places as has distinguished the career of Mr . Disraeli . Notwithstanding all the good qualities of Mr . Gladstone , it is impossible not to feel the gravest anxiety as to the future

      , when the government of the country will be delivered over to him . This is not the time or the place to cavil at the many changes which his opinions , we may almost say his principles ,

      have undergone . In office , first under the Tory Sir Robert Peel ; next under the semi-Liberal Sir Robert Peel ; next under the semi-Conservative Lord Aberdeen ; next under the Liberal-Conservative-Whig , Lord Palmerston , the high priest of expediency ; finally , the leader of the House of Commons , ^ and WAA ^* practicall f ^* . fc * ^^ W «^^ *•*•<* AT y l Premier f ^ A ^^*** M . ^^^ under W * AA VIVA the *»* A ^ r Whi V * *«* M g- ^ Radical - »• ^ - ^ » ¦ " ~ v- —— — , Earl — Russel ; f

      and soon about to be absolute Prime Minister of England , committed only to one sweeping measure of Reform , with a submissive crowd of followersthe idol of the people ; the hope of the Democrats ; the , great man , clinging to whose skirts what Whigs have taught themselves to ape Radicalism hope to creep into office-hated by the Tories , as the Romans hated Coriolanustheir greatest general

      , , whom their ingratitude had made their greatest foe , — such is the position , such the prestige , and such the power , of Mr . Gladstone ; and the happiness , the very life , of England , depends upon how he uses this power . In all the above changes there has been a kind of progress .

      Mr . Gladstone has fulfilled Macaulay ' s prophecy , written in 1839— ' * Whether he will or not , he must be a man of the nineteenth century . " And now Mr . Gladstone is the man of the nineteenth century . To change one ' s opinions , or even one ' s principles , cannot be in itself wrong . There is one ruling

      principle , indeed , which we must never change ; and that is , whatever the consequences to oneself , good or bad—whether disgrace or honour—to do that which is just and right , as far as our consciences can guide us . If we have hitherto acted on certain principles , and the growth of our knowledge teaches us that those princiles are it is better to leave themeven if

      pwrong , , pursued with accusations of treachery , than obstinately to cling to them , knowing them to be wrong . But it is also the duty of a public man on whom all eyes are fixed , and whose example many will blindly follow , not to make any change of this sort in a doubtful or hesitating wayor with any sidelong glance at

      r the profits to be reached by it ; but to pursue the earnest humble inquiries , and fight the difficult conflict , in the privacy of his own study , and to come forth to the world not till he is certain that right has conquered , and that he can give his reasons for his conversion . This is Mr . Gladstone ' s

      weakest point : with a passionate yearning for the truth , he combines a singularly casuistic habit of thought ; he balances the pro and con , and inclines to the one or the other , before all people ; he is so anxious to believe that every question has two sides , that he often does not make up his mind on which to declare till it is too late : on the other hand , he often rushes impetuously to the aid of the weaker side without considering if ,

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), Nov. 28, 1868, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_28111868/page/1/