daughter, whom shortly after, being baptized and brought vnto her,
shee blessed, and gaue God thankes that her selfe had liued to see
it a Christian: and then instantly called for her winding sheet to
bee brought forth and laied vpon her.
"So hauing patiently borne for some nine daies a violent fever, and
giuing a comfortable testimony of her godly resolution, she ended
her prayers, speech, and life together, rendring her soule into the
hand of her Redeemer, and leauing behinde her vnto the world a sweet
perfume of good name, and to her onely childe (besides a competent
inheritance) this Manuell, being a deputed Mother for instruction,
and for solace a twinne-like sister, issuing from the same Parent,
and seeing the light about the same time.
"Which composure because it commeth forth imperfect from the pen,
doth the more expect to be supplied and made vp by practise and
execution.
"_Sic approbauit_
"Tho. Goad."
Let us frankly own that we came to the close of this simple and
touching narration with tears in our eyes; and those tears fell on
reading the first few lines of the death-doomed expectant mother, which
follow. Let who can read them unmoved; we know of nothing in print that
is more melting to a heart of even but ordinary sensibility.
"TO MY TRVLY
louing, and most dearly
loued Husband,
_Tourell Iocelin_.
"Mine owne deare loue, I no sooner conceiued an hope, that I should
bee made a mother by thee, but with it entred the consideration of a
mothers duty, and shortly after followed the apprehension of danger
that might preuent mee from executing that care I so exceedingly
desired, I meane in religious training our Childe. And in truth
death appearing in this shape, was doubly terrible vnto mee. First,
in respect of the painfulnesse of that kinde of death, and next of
the losse my little one should haue in wanting mee.
"But I thank God, these feares were cured with the remembrance that
all things work together for the best to those that loue God, and a
certain assurance that he will give me patience according to my
pain.
"Yet still I thought there was some good office I might do for my
Childe more than onely to bring it forth (tho' it should please God
to take me) when I considered our frailty, our apt inclinations to
sin, the Devil's subtility, and the world's deceitfulness; against
these how much desired I to admonish it! But still it came into my
mind that death might depriue me of time, if I should neglect the
present; I knew not what to do; I thought of writing; but then mine
owne weakness appeared so manifestly, that I was ashamed and durst
not undertake it. But when I could find no other means to expresse
my motherly zeale, I encouraged my selfe with these reasons.
"First, that I wrote to a Childe, and though I were but a woman, yet
to a childes iudgement, what I vnderstood might serue for a
foundation to a better learning.
"Againe, I considered it was to my owne, and in priuate sort, and my
loue to my owne might excuse my errours.
"And lastly, but chiefly, I comforted my selfe, that my intent was
good, and that I was well assured God is the prosperer of good
purposes.
"Thus resolued, I writ this ensuing Letter to our little one, to
whom I could not finde a fitter hand to conuey it than thine owne,
which maist with authority see the performance of this my little
legacy, of which my Childe is Executor.
"And (deare loue) as thou must be the ouerseer, for Gods sake,
whō it shal faile in duty to God, or to the world, let not thy
indulgence winke at such folly, but seuerely correct it: and that
thy trouble may bee little when it comes to yeeres, take the more
care when it is young. First, in prouiding it a nurse: O make
choise, not so much for her complexion, as for her milde and honest
disposition. Likewise if the child be to remain long abroad after
waining, as neere as may be chuse a house where it may not learne to
sweare, or speak scurrilous words.
"I know I may be thought too scrupulous in this: but I am sure thou
shalt finde it a hard matter to breake a childe of that it learnes
so young. It will be a great while, ere it will bee thought old
enough to be beatten for euill words, and by that time it will bee
so perfect in imperfections that blows will not mend it. And when
some charitable body reproues or corrects it for these faults, let
no body pitty it with the losse of the mother.
"Next; good sweet heart, keepe it not from schoole, but let it
learne betimes: if it be a son, I doubt not but thou wilt dedicate
it to the Lord as his Minister, if he wil please of his mercy to
giue him grace and capacity for that great work. If it be a
daughter, I hope my mother _Brook_ (if thou desirest her) will take
it among hers, & let them all learne one lesson.
"I desire her bringing vp may bee learning the Bible, as my sisters
doe, good housewifery, writing, and good workes: other learning a
woman needs not: though I admire it in those whom God hath blest
with discretion, yet I desired not much in my owne, hauing seene
that sometimes women haue greater portions of learning than wisdome,
which is of no better vse to them than a main saile to a flye-boat,
which runs it vnder water. But where learning and wisdome meet in a
vertuous disposed woman, she is the fittest closet for all
goodnesse. She is like a well-balanced ship that may beare all her
saile. She is, Indeed, I should but shame my selfe, if I should goe
about to praise her more.
"But, my deare, though she haue all this in her, she will hardly
make a poore mans wife: Yet I leaue it to thy will. If thou desirest
a learned daughter, I pray God giue her a wise and religious heart,
that she may vse it to his glory, thy comfort, and her owne
saluation.
"But howsoeuer thou disposest of her education, I pray thee labour
by all meanes to teach her true humility: though I much desire it
may be as humble if it be a son as a daughter; yet in a daughter I
more feare that vice; Pride being now rather accounted a vertue in
our sex worthy praise, than a vice fit for reproofe.
"Many Parents reade lectures of it to their children how necessary
it is, and they haue principles that must not be disputed against.
As first, looke how much you esteeme your selfe, others wil esteeme
of you. Again, what you giue to others, you derogate from your
selfe. And many more of these kindes. I haue heard men accounted
wise that haue maintained this kind of pride vnder the name of
generous knowing or vnderstanding themselues. But I am sure that hee
that truly knowes himself shall know so much euill by himselfe, that
hee shall haue small reason to think himselfe better than another
man.
"Dearest, I am so feareful to bring thee a proud high minded child,
that, though I know thy care will need no spur, yet I cannot but
desire thee to double thy watchfulnesse ouer this vice, it is such a
crafty insinuating deuill, it will enter little children in the
likenesse of wit, with which their parents are delighted, and that
is sweet nourishment to it.
"I pray thee, deare heart, delight not to haue a bold childe:
modesty humilitie are the sweetest ground-works of all vertue. Let
not thy seruants giue it any other title thā the Christen name,
till it haue discretion to vnderstand how to respect others.
"And I pray thee be not profuse in the expence of clothes upon it.
Mee thinkes it is a vaine delight in parents to bestow that cost
vpon one childe which would serue two or three. If they haue not
children enow of their owne to imploy so much cost upon, _Pauper
vbique iacet_.--[There wants not poore at euery doore.]
"Thus, Deare, thou seest my beleefe, if thou canst teach thy little
one humility, it must needs make thee a glad father.
"But I know thou wonderest by this time what the cause should bee
that we two continually vnclasping our hearts one to the other, I
should reserue this to writing. Whē thou thinkest thus deare,
remember how grieuous it was to thee but to heare mee say, I may
die, and thou wilt confesse this would haue beene an vnpleasant
discourse to thee, and thou knowest I neuer durst displease thee
willingly, so much I loue thee. All I now desire is, that the
vnexpectednesse of it make it not more grieuous to thee. But I know
thou art a Christian, and therefore will not doubt of thy patience.
"And though I thus write to thee, as heartily desiring to be
religiously prepared to die, yet, my deare, I despaire not of life,
nay, I hope and daily pray for it, if so God will be pleased.
"Nor shall I thinke this labour lost, though I doe liue: for I will
make it my owne looking glasse wherein to see when I am too seuere,
when too remisse, and in my childes fault through this glasse to
discerne mine owne errors. And I hope God will so giue me his grace,
that I shall more skilfully act than apprehend a mothers duty.
"My deare, thou knowest me so well, I shall not need to tell thee I
haue written honest thoughts in a disordered fashion, not obseruing
method. For thou knowest how short I am of learning and naturall
indowments to take such a course in writing. Or if that strong
affection of thine haue hid my weaknesse from thy sight, I now
professe seriously my owne ignorance: and though I did not, this
following Treatise would bewray it: But I send it onely to the eies
of a most louing Husband, and of a childe exceedingly beloued, to
whom I hope it wil not be altogether vnprofitable.
"Thus humbly desiring God to giue thee all comfort in this life, and
happinesse in the life to come, I leue thee and thine to his most
gracious protection.
"_Thine inuiolable_,
"Eliza Iocelin."
Is there a mother, is there a woman living, who can read this
heart-subduing passage without lively emotion and sympathy? What must
have been the feelings of the lovely writer,--who, in the homely
language of worthy Dr Goad, "when she first felt herselfe quicke with
childe, (as then trauelling with death it selfe) secretly tooke order
for the buying a new winding sheet, ... and vndauntedly looking death in
the face, priuatly in her Closet betweene God and her, wrote these pious
meditations!"
Of her husband, Mr Tourell Joceline, to whom she was married in her
twentieth year, little more seems to be known, than that he was a
gentleman, probably a relation of the learned John Joceline, chaplain of
Archbishop Parker; and it is indeed, as Principal Lee informs us,
"Most satisfactory to know that he possessed the unbounded
confidence and affection of his amiable wife, whose letter,
addressed to him in the immediate prospect of death, is so tender
and touching, and so replete with practical wisdom and hallowed
principles, that no human being who is not past feeling can read it
without deep emotion. Of the maternal counsels bequeathed to the
unborn child, it is unnecessary to anticipate the judgment of the
reader. We are told by Dr Goad, that 'this small treatise was found
in her desk unfinished;' and it is affecting to know that the
serenity of her mind, in looking forward to the eternal world, was
not unclouded by occasional visitations of sadness. But these
seasons of affliction were happily instrumental in weaning her from
the deceitful allurements of things temporal, and establishing her
soul in the perfect work of patience, and in the blessed hope of an
eternal weight of glory."[O]
[O] Introduction, p. 11.
_The Mothers Legacie_, which, as we have seen, is "a small treatise
found in her desk unfinished," consists of fourteen little sections,
applicable to a "child" of either sex; every one of these sections
breathing a spirit of solemn and exalted piety, and evidencing a writer
whose brief life had been spent in profound meditations upon religious
subjects. Its perfectly orthodox character is sufficiently guaranteed by
the responsible editorship of the Reverend Principal; but in addition to
that circumstance, we have no hesitation in adding our own humble
testimony, that every line is redolent of _religion pure and undefiled_.
_The Mothers Legacie_ also affords decisive evidence of its accomplished
writer's having received an education far higher than falls to the lot
of women of our day. Several delicate and appropriate classical
allusions here and there present themselves, as from a mind imbued with
such subjects; the composition is pure and nervous, and the tone
uniformly grave and earnest. The following is the Introductory Section,
and affords an excellent specimen of the character and tendency of the
whole:--
"Hauing long,[P] often and earnestly, desired of God that I might be
a mother to one of his children, and the time now drawing on, which
I hope hee hath appointed to giue thee vnto mee: It drew me into a
consideration both wherefore I so earnestly desired thee, and
(hauing found that the true cause was to make thee happy) how I
might compasse this happinesse for thee.
[P] Her first and only child was not born till she had nearly
completed her twenty-seventh year, and consequently after she had
been married seven years.
"I knew it consisted not in honour wealth, strength of body or
friends (though all these are great blessings) therfore it had beene
a weake request to desire thee onely for an heire to my fortune. No,
I neuer aimed at so poore, an inheritance for thee, as the whole
world: Neither would I haue begged of God so much paine, as I know I
must endure, to haue only possest thee with earthly riches, of which
to day thou maist bee a great man, to morrow a poore beggar. Nor did
an hope to dandle thy infancy moue mee to desire thee. For I know
all the delight a Parent can take in a childe is hony mingled with
gall.
"But the true reason that I haue so often kneeled to God for thee,
is, that thou mightest bee an inheritour of the Kingdome of Heaven.
To which end I humbly beseech Almightie God thou maist bend all thy
actions, and (if it bee his blessed will) giue thee so plentifull a
measure of his grace, that thou maist serue him as his Minister, if
he make thee a man.
"It is true that this age holds it a most contemptible office, fit
only for poore mens children, younger brothers, and such as haue no
other means to liue. But for Gods sake bee not discouraged with
these vaine speeches; but fortifie, your self with remembring of how
great worth the winning of one soule is in Gods sight, and you shal
quickly finde how great a place it is to be a Priest vnto the liuing
God. If it will please him to moue your heart with his holy Spirit,
it will glow and burne with zeale to doe him seruice. The Lord open
thy lips, that thy mouth may shew forth his praise.
"If I had skill to write, I would write all I apprehend of the happy
estate of true labouring Ministers: but I may plainly say that of
all men they by their calling are the most truly happy; they are
familiar with God, they labour in his Vineyard, and they are so
beloued of him, that hee giues them abundance of knowledge. Oh bee
one of them, let not the scorne of euil men hinder thee. Look how
God hath prouided for thee sufficient means; thou needest not hinder
thy study to look out for liuing, as the Israelites hindred their
worke to looke for straw: If thou beest not content with this, thou
wilt not be with more; God deliuer thee from couetousnesse.
"I desire thee that though thou takest a spirituall calling, thou
wilt not seeke after the liuings of the Church, nor promotions,
though I honour them as I haue great cause, but I would haue thee so
truly an humble and zealous Minister, that thy onely end should bee
to doe God seruice, without desire of any thing to thy selfe, saue
the Kingdome of Heauen. Yet as I would not haue thee seeke these
things, so I would haue thee as carefull not to neglect Gods
blessings, but with all thankfulnesse to receiue what hee bestowes,
and to bee a carefull steward, distributing it to those that haue
need.
"I could not chuse but manifest this desire in writing, lest it
should please God to depriue me of time to speake.
"And if thou beest a daughter, thou maist perhaps think I haue lost
my labour; but read on, and thou shalt see my loue and care of thee
and thy saluation is as great, as if thou wert a sonne, and my feare
greater.
"It may peraduenture when thou comest to some discretion, appeare
strange to thee to receiue these lines from a Mother that died when
thou wert borne; but when thou seest men purchase land, and store vp
treasure for their vnborne babes, wonder not at mee that I am
carefull for thy saluation, being such an eternall portion: and not
knowing whether I shall liue to instruct thee when thou art borne,
let me not be blamed though I write to thee before. Who would not
condemne mee if I should bee carelesse of thy body while it is
within me? Sure a farre greater care belongs to thy soule; to both
these cares I will endeauour my selfe so long as I liue.
"Againe, I may perhaps bee wondred at for writing in this kind,
considering there are so many excellent bookes, whose least note is
worth all my meditations. I confesse it, and thus excuse my selfe. I
write not to the world, but to mine own child, who, it may be, will
more profit by a few weake instructions comming from a dead mother
(who cannot euery day praise or reproue it as it deserues) than by
farre better from much more learned. These things considered,
neither the true knowledge of mine owne weaknesse, nor the feare
this may come to the worlds eie, and bring scorne vpon my graue, can
stay my hand from expressing how much I covet thy saluation.
"Therefore deare childe, reade here my loue, and if God take mee
from thee be obedient to these instructions, as thou oughtest to bee
vnto mee. I haue learnt them out of Gods Word, I beseech him that
they may be profitable to thee."
The Principal informs us in his "Introduction," addressed to the
Marchioness of Bute, that the present is "a fac-simile impression of an
early and _genuine_ edition" of the work, which he had lent to her
ladyship; and with equal justice and sternness, he reprobates certain
spurious impressions, containing several unwarrantable deviations from
the original text--to an extent which, in several instances, materially
alters the author's meaning; alluding especially to a recent
republication, twelve years ago, at Oxford, of one of these spurious
editions, as an appendix to a volume of Sermons." These are matters
unsuited for detailed notice in our columns; but the Principal amply
vindicates the propriety of his censures, and entitles himself to our
gratitude for the pious care with which he has presented this beautiful
and instructive little performance, one quite unique, to the notice of
the public.
THE APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY.
Not thoughtlessly, nor in a spirit of vaunting triumph, do we hail the
accession of Lord Derby's Ministry to power. It is an event of by far
too great importance to be classed with other Ministerial changes: it is
not, in any point of view, to be regarded as a party victory. The Whig
Free-Trade Cabinet has fallen from its own inherent weakness and the
consummate folly of its chief. With the country it never was popular.
Whiggery, in the abstract, is not an enticing creed. It is founded upon
pure negations: it neither seeks nor receives the sympathy of mankind.
With a selfishness that would appear surprising, if Whig history did not
afford us so many instances of its recurrence, the members of the late
Cabinet, though ever ready, in obedience to popular clamour, to sanction
any innovation, studiously kept themselves aloof, in their official
character, from the great bulk of the men whom they counted as their
regular supporters. The whole affairs of the State were lodged in the
hands of a family alliance. Each Cabinet Council resembled rather a
meeting of relatives than an assemblage of statesmen. Fathers, sons, and
brothers-in-law, with other near kinsmen and connections, met to arrange
the affairs of State, and to settle among themselves the succession to
important offices. In their instance nature had not been bountiful in
her gifts beyond the average. There was no plethora of talent among
them--not a single vestige of genius. They were simply officials, so
made by fortune rather than desert--some of them glib and adroit, as the
better class of officials are--some of them singularly and
preternaturally dull. And so, with hunger in their hearts, from
quarter-day to quarter-day, they tried to rule the colossal empire of
Britain and her colonies.
Of course, this arrangement, though convenient to the monopolisers, gave
vast disgust to the men who were actually the props of the Government.
The veteran Joseph, with an appetite unimpaired by age, querulously
complained of his exclusion from every kind of Board. The Manchester men
desired, not only an extension, of the suffrage, but an extension of
patronage, which might conveniently take them in. All the Radicals grew
sulky at being called upon to give their votes gratuitously. No one can
be surprised at this. Patriotism, in its highest form, is not a common
virtue, and very often is found combined with self-interest--just as the
gold of California usually appears in combination with worthless quartz.
Although anxious to avoid anything like illiberality in estimating our
opponents, we cannot conscientiously state it as our opinion that the
bulk of the Radical party are actuated by pure patriotism. Even if it
were otherwise, it is evident that they had ground for complaint; and we
all know how soon action follows upon a sense of injury or neglect.
Therefore, in the House of Commons, there was little enthusiasm
displayed in favour of the Whig Cabinet by the ultra-liberal faction.
Out of doors Lord John Russell had contrived, in one way or another, to
disgust almost everybody. We are informed, on good authority, that up to
the present moment he is wholly ignorant of the view which is
entertained of his conduct by men of all parties--believing, in his own
mind, that he is rather popular than otherwise, and wondering why the
people have not petitioned _en masse_ for his immediate restoration to
office. We should be sorry to dispel any such agreeable impression; but
truth compels us to say, that a grosser delusion never occupied the mind
of any man. Lord John Russell's career, during the last seven years, has
ruined him in the public estimation. He has not attempted to govern by
principle, but by expediency. He has never risen to the proud elevation
of a British statesman--he has simply shown himself to be an
unscrupulous party leader. Whether in office or out of it, his measures
have uniformly been based upon considerations of Whig supremacy--not
upon those higher views of public policy which a Premier of Great
Britain should entertain. He issued his famous letter from Edinburgh
propounding the abolition of the Corn Laws, not because he considered
such a measure necessary for the welfare of the nation, but because he
thought he had discovered an admirable opportunity of ousting the
Government of Sir Robert Peel. He roused the Protestant feeling in 1850,
although he was the man of all others directly chargeable with the
measures which invited the Papal Aggression. And finally, at the last
hour of his official existence, he produces a Reform Bill, which he had
no expectation of carrying, simply that it may be made, at some future
period, the instrument of party strife. These things are patent to all
men, and are in every mouth; and therefore it is no wonder if Lord John
Russell has lost all hold of the affections, and forfeited the
confidence, of the country. Expediency may be tolerated, though we doubt
the propriety of its ever being adopted in lieu of broad principle, but
in cases only where expediency can be shown to conduce to the immediate
public welfare. But that is not the sort of expediency which Lord John
Russell affects. The public interest has been to him as nothing in
comparison with the maintenance of party. Whig ascendency has been, and
is, the leading object of his life. So strong is that feeling in him,
that he cannot even comport himself with a show of ordinary forbearance
towards his political opponents. His Cabinet falls to pieces, almost
without any external violence. He is compelled to resign; and, in
resigning, takes the opportunity of flinging down, like the ill-favoured
Ate, an apple of discord. Hardly is the new Ministry formed, before we
find him actually engaged in the work of faction, and in direct
communication with the acknowledged chiefs of the democracy.
This is not conduct which will find favour in the eyes of the British
public. We do not regret, except for the character of public men, that
Lord John Russell has thought fit to adopt this course; on the contrary,
we rejoice that he has indicated the policy which he intends hereafter
to pursue. He cannot hope, and he does not expect, again to govern with
the old Whig party. The history of the last two years has demonstrated
that to be impossible. He has entered into a new compact, not more
scandalous, but decidedly more dangerous, than that of Lichfield House.
He has thrown himself into the arms of Cobden and the men of Manchester,
as he did before into those of O'Connell and his tail. He has taken
sweet council with them already, and the terms of the union are sealed.
If he should return to power, he can only return, not as a Whig, but as
a Democrat.
Let no one be deceived in this matter. The coming strife is not as to
the mere nature of the commercial policy which this country ought to
pursue--it is not a simple question of import duties, or of direct or
indirect taxation--it is a grand struggle between constitutional
principle and that innovation whereof no man can foresee the end.
Already it is so felt and acknowledged. The Roman Catholic clergy
believe, and with reason, that the hour is now come when they can make
their most vigorous assault upon Protestantism. Already the Irish
priests have cursed and excommunicated from the altar those of their
flock who had presumed to exercise their political privilege, by
pledging themselves to support a member of Lord Derby's ministry. The
Protestant champion of 1850 is now in league with the minions of the
Pope. Radical and Papist go arm in arm together; for it is through the
triumph of democracy that the apostate Church of Rome now seeks to
accomplish her ends. Upon the ruins of the Protestant churches she hopes
to establish her dominion.
Already are we told by Sir James Graham, the Spartacus of the present
Parliament, that the voice of the country at next election, should it
pronounce in favour of Lord Derby's Administration, will not be accepted
as a clear indication of the public opinion. If in favour of Russell,
Cobden, and Graham, all will be right; if otherwise, it will only be a
proof that a farther extension of the suffrage is required. Can faction
go farther than this? We scarce believe it possible. Already, without
waiting for an explanation of Lord Derby's intended policy, the old
Anti-Corn-Law League has been resuscitated, and the old hocus-pocus of
paper subscriptions has been renewed, on the understanding that only ten
pounds shall be exacted for every hundred pounds nominally subscribed!
Already has Mr Cobden, like Mars in the _Iliad_,[Q] yelled from the tops
of the factories, exerting himself to the utmost to prevent the
formation of any kind of Government. Already have attempts been made to
excite the prejudices and to rouse the passions of the populace. If we
had been at all apprehensive as to the results of these combinations,
the experience of the last three weeks would have quieted our minds, by
exhibiting the harmlessness of the movement. But, in truth, we never did
entertain the slightest apprehension. Not courting office--not having
used any Parliamentary means to attain to it, by defeating the Russell
ministry--Lord Derby could not refuse to comply with the wishes of his
Sovereign, when directed to undertake the task of forming a new
Administration. Nay, more, it was _at the suggestion of Lord John
Russell himself_, that Lord Derby was sent for, and honoured with her
Majesty's commands. The position of parties in the House of Commons was
such that no other arrangement was practicable, if the Government was to
be carried on at all. The Whigs need not have resigned on account of
their Palmerstonian defeat; nor do we believe they would have resigned,
but for the certainty that, in the following week, at latest, they were
doomed to ignominious exposure and total overthrow. It was Lord Derby's
duty, as the leader of the only compact body of politicians in the
Legislature--a duty which he owed alike to his Sovereign and his
country--to form a new Ministry, and to undertake the conduct of the
public affairs. Lord Derby did so; and has expressly and unequivocally
declared his intention of abstaining, during the existence of the
present Parliament, from introducing any measure which shall tend to
unsettle that system of commercial policy which is at present in
operation. Without concealing his opinions as to the effect of that
system, he is willing--nay, desirous--to wait for the deliberate
judgment of the people of Great Britain, expressed in the only
constitutional method, before attempting to modify or to change it. But
he refuses, with equal wisdom and fairness, to explain to the present
Parliament the nature of that policy which he may consider it his duty
to submit for the consideration of another body. How was it possible to
suppose that, in the face of so clear and distinct a declaration as
this, any kind of agitation directed against the existence of the
present Ministry could succeed? What pretext was there for agitation,
seeing that the decision which must ultimately regulate the nature of
our commercial policy depends upon the will of the constituencies?
[Q] The passage to which we allude is certainly remarkable. It occurs in
the twentieth book of the Iliad, and is as follows:--
"Αὖε δ' Ἄρης ἑτέρωθεν, ἐρεμνῇ λαίλαπι ἶσος,
Ὀξὺ κατ' ἀκροτάτης πόλεως Τρώεσσι κελεύων,
Ἄλλοτε πὰρ Σιμόεντι θέων ἐπὶ Καλλικολώνῃ."
Which is thus literally reduced into English:--"And Mars yelled aloud on
the other side, like to a dark whirlwind, sharply animating the Trojans
from the summit of the city, at other times running beside the Simois
upon CALLICO-LONE." Great is the ingenuity which the commentators have
displayed in their researches as to the nature of this place,
Callico-lone, which appears to have puzzled them. The most learned of
them, however, agree in this, that it was a building situated without
the walls of Troy, and _decorated with a tall shaft_; in short, that it
bore a striking resemblance to a modern cotton factory! The reader need
not be surprised at finding such allusions in Homer, who was not only a
great poet, but an enlightened political economist. He was decidedly
against unrestricted imports, as appears from the following passage,
which is put into the mouth of Hector:--
"Πρὶν μὲν γὰρ Πριάμοιο πόλιν μέροπες ἄνθρωποι
Πάντες μυθέσκοντο πολύχρυσον πολύχαλκον·
Νῦν δὲ δὴ ἐξαπόλωλε δόμων κειμήλια καλὰ,
Πολλὰ δὲ δὴ Φρυγίην καὶ Μῃονίην ἐρατεινὴν
Κτήματα περνάμεν' ἵκει, ἐπεὶ μέγας ὠδύσατο Ζεύς."
We believe that the following translation will be found to express the
meaning of the original in its integrity:--
Once we were a wealthy city, and our fame abroad resounded
As a place where gold and silver, and all precious things, abounded;
BUT WE TOOK TO IMPORTATION, and the sad effect has been,
That but little of our former wealth within the walls is seen.
It has gone away to Phrygia, and Moeonia growing-grain,
And we've eaten all they gave us--Jove has made our thrift in vain.
--_Iliad_, xviii. 288-292.
Really it is difficult to know what the Whigs would be at. They cannot
keep office themselves--they cannot even agree among each other while in
power--and yet they seem resolved that the functions of Government shall
not be exercised by other hands. They insist, almost before Ministers
have taken their seats, on Ministerial explanations; and, these
explanations being given, they are extremely wroth and dissatisfied to
find that they have no valid pretext for proceeding at once to
extremities. They are furious at Lord Derby because he will not
immediately propose a reversal of the existing commercial system! They
even take up the cause of the farmers, insinuating that they have been
desperately ill used by Lord Derby, and that the latter has been guilty
of an entire abandonment of his principles!
We have no respect for the Whigs; but we really are sorry to see men
who, a week or two ago, were engaged in the administration of public
affairs, degrade themselves in so pitiable a manner. We have respect for
the general character of public men; and, although of late years, that
character has suffered considerably in the estimation of the country, we
are very anxious that it should not be rated at too low an estimate. The
appearance which Lord John Russell and his friends have made upon this
occasion is purely lamentable. They have shown themselves able neither
to rule respectably, nor to fall decently. The character which they have
lost in power, they cannot redeem in Opposition. As for their attacks
upon Lord Derby, they have greatly mistaken the nature of the men with
whom they have to deal, if they suppose that, by any representations of
theirs, they can shake the confidence, even of a single individual, in
the integrity, honour, and prudence of that distinguished nobleman who
is at the head of her Majesty's Government. There is not one supporter
of the interests of British industry in the country, who is not willing,
with the most perfect confidence, to leave the conduct of the cause in
the hands of Lord Derby, and to accord to him, in the present crisis,
his firm and unconditional support. Already the great Protection
Associations, both in England and Scotland, have spoken out
unequivocally on the subject; and here it may be worth while to quote
one or two paragraphs from the address of the Council of the Scottish
Protective Association, agreed to after Lord Derby had intimated, in the
House of Lords, the line of policy which he intended to pursue during
the sitting of the present Parliament:--
"In common with those who ardently desire that the Government of
this great country should be conducted upon just, rational, and
constitutional principles, we hail the recent accession of your
Lordship and your colleagues to office, with the warmest gratitude
towards our beloved Sovereign, who has thus graciously confided to
you the Administration of the Empire. Your Lordship's high
character, great experience, and commanding intellect, are to us so
many guarantees that the condition of all classes of the community
will receive your most earnest consideration, with the view to
promote and re-establish that harmony of interests which is
essential for the permanent welfare and tranquillity of the nation.
"Since the establishment of our Association, we have seen no reason
to modify the views we originally entertained. We still continue to
think that, under the pressure of the existing and necessary
taxation, it is impossible for the great classes of British
producers to maintain their ground in the home market against open
and invited competition on the part of foreign nations. We believe
that the effect of this system has been to depreciate invested
capital, to lower incomes, and to depress the retail trade generally
throughout the country; whilst its grievous operation upon the
interests dependent on shipping, on the sugar-producing colonies,
and on those interested in the produce of land, is too evident to
require illustration.
"In these circumstances, we desire to express to your Lordship our
hearty and implicit confidence in your Lordship's justice and
wisdom, being satisfied that the course which you may think fit to
follow, cannot fail to be dictated by honour and tempered by
prudence, and that the interests of all classes of the community
cannot be lodged more safely than in your hands. We, therefore, take
this opportunity of assuring your Lordship, that no effort of ours,
collectively or individually, shall be spared, whereby we may
contribute, in any degree, towards the stability of the present
Government, as, by so doing, we are satisfied that we shall best
promote the true interests of the country."
We have no manner of doubt that the sentiments so well expressed in this
address will be responded to generally throughout the kingdom; and, in
spite of all the efforts and misrepresentations of our enemies, we feel
assured that a course so wisely and temperately begun, cannot but prove
acceptable to the great body of the nation. Here are Lord Derby's own
words explanatory of the course which he intends to follow; and it is
most important, at the present moment, that these words should be
thoroughly understood. Of their eloquence we need say nothing.
"My Lords, I go to the country when I think it is consistent with my
duty to my Sovereign and my country that I should go there, not on
any narrow view of whether a duty be imposed on corn or not--that
question I leave to the deliberate judgment of the country, and to
the general concurrence of the country, without which I will not
bring forward that proposition. (Cheers.) I will not shrink from
performing my duty for fear of any noisy agitation, if the general
consent of Parliament and the country shall be with me in supporting
a measure which I believe to be a useful measure for the country;
but I will not strain the influence which may belong to the
Government--I will not abuse the trust confided to me by my
Sovereign--I will not coerce the consciences of the
constituencies--I will not, by a mere majority in Parliament, force
on the country a measure to which a great portion of the country
should be adverse. (Cheers.) There may be those who will unite with
us on general principles, and who, agreeing with us as to the
distress which various interests in the country suffer, may be ready
to join in the endeavour to afford them relief, though there may be
a difference as to the specific mode of affording that relief. But
there are higher interests at stake. We are threatened with far more
serious consequences than the result of the imposition or the
non-imposition of a 4s., a 5s., or a 7s. duty on foreign corn. It is
a question whether the Government of this country can be carried on,
and on what principles it is to be carried on; and when I appeal to
the country I appeal on this ground. Will you--Protectionist or
Free-Trader--you who desire the advance of all the interests of the
country--will you place your confidence and give your support to a
Government which, in the hour of peril and danger, did not hesitate
to take the post of danger when the helmsman had left the helm?
(Loud cheers.) Will you support a Government which is exerting
itself to protect this country against hostile attack, to maintain
the peace of the world, to maintain and uphold the Protestant
institutions of this country--(cheers)--to support, to the utmost of
its power, religious and moral education throughout the land, and
which will exert itself, moreover, I do not hesitate to say, to
afford some opposition, to oppose some barrier against the
recurrence of that continually encroaching democratic influence in
this country--(cheers)--which is bent on throwing the whole power
and authority of the country nominally into the hands of the masses,
practically into the hands of demagogues and republicans, who
exercise an influence over those unthinking masses? Will you support
a Government which is determined to resist that dangerous and
obnoxious influence, to preserve the influence and prerogative of
the Crown, the rights of your Lordships' House, and the liberties of
a freely-elected House of Parliament? (Loud cheers.) These are the
questions on which, when I go to the country to make my appeal on
behalf of myself and my colleagues, I claim--to use the words which
the worst felon who stands in the prisoner's dock has a right to
employ, but which I do not deem unworthy of the first minister of
the crown of the first nation in the world, and to say--I elect to
be tried by God and my country." (Loud cheers.)
We have, of course, no reason to complain of any efforts which may be
made to give the Revolutionary party a majority in the next Parliament.
That is all fair and natural. It will be for the constituencies to
decide whether they will return men pledged to the maintenance of the
Constitution as it exists, and desirous to adopt such measures only as
shall remedy injustice, and promote the harmony of interests throughout
the country, or whether they will pronounce decidedly in favour of
downright democracy. The question of Free Trade or Protection is
undoubtedly one of immense importance, but it is not the only question
which is now before the country. By bringing forward his mischievous
Reform Bill, and, still more, by indicating his intention that, when
brought forward again, that measure shall appear in a more extended
shape, Lord John Russell has appealed, _as a democrat_, to the whole
constituencies of Great Britain. If he returns to power, it can only be
on the shoulders of the Radical party, with whose proceedings, indeed,
he is now and for ever identified. The frail barrier of sentiment or
opinion which separated the Ministerial Whig from the more sturdy
Liberal, has been broken down by the hand of the late Premier. There is
no room now for any distinction. He cannot retract what he has said, or
retrieve what he has done. Of his own free will he has espoused the
cause of revolution.
Therefore it is the more necessary that, at the coming election, men
should distinctly understand what principle they virtually adopt in
voting for particular candidates. The most strenuous efforts will be
made to sink all other questions in that of the Corn Laws. We shall
again hear the rhetorical commonplaces about taxing the bread of the
people; and no doubt some ingenious gentlemen will illustrate their
arguments, by reference to a couple of fabricated loaves of grossly
unequal dimensions. For all this we are quite prepared. It has been the
policy of our opponents for years back, both in their speeches and in
their writings, to represent Free Trade as nothing more than the free
importation of corn. In this way they get rid of the ugly circumstance,
that many important branches of manufacture are still protected by large
duties, and owe their present existence in this country simply to the
retention of these. In this way, too, they try to persuade the other
classes of the community, who are suffering under the operation of a
cruel and unnational system, that they are compensated for diminished
profits by the reduced price of bread, and that what they lose in wages
they gain in the baker's account. A very favourite question of theirs is
this--"You say that your wages are low--admitted. That is owing to the
badness of the times, and circumstances over which we have no control;
but we ask you to consider what your situation would be now, had the
price of bread been kept up by an artificial Corn Law?" Of course, while
putting such questions, they take especial care to conceal the fact,
that the admitted "badness of the times" arises simply from the
pernicious operation of Free Trade in another quarter; and thus they
attempt to set the artisan against the agriculturist--to maintain the
discord of interests, instead of promoting their harmony.
The evils which this wretched commercial system has brought both upon
Great Britain and her Colonies, cannot be cured by a remedy applied
solely to one injured interest. No such selfish cry has ever been raised
on the part of the agriculturists; on the contrary, we have all along
maintained that it is only by a deliberate revision of the whole system,
with due consideration to the circumstances, of each particular
interest, that the proper measure of justice to British industry can be
ascertained. Lord Derby does not propose in any way to favour the
agriculturist at the expense of the artisan. His object and his desire
is to place British labour on its proper footing, and to secure it
against being crushed by the weight of foreign competition. We are of
those who firmly believe in the reciprocity of interests in this great
country. We cannot understand how one large interest can be unduly
prostrated for the benefit of another. We are convinced that partial
legislation ever has been, and ever must be, disastrous; and we agree
entirely in the sentiment expressed by an eminent orator, in a speech
delivered in the House of Commons--"Let them but once diminish the
consumption of British-grown corn, and from that moment the consumption
of iron, of hardware, of cotton, and of woollens must decline. There
would come a fresh displacement of labour, and a fresh lowering of
wages; and discontent, disturbance, and misery, would prove its
inevitable consequences." Now, although it may be rather out of place,
in this part of our paper, to state any facts relating to the present
condition of the country, we are tempted to give one instance, which
fully corroborates the views of the said orator, and proves the justness
of his remark. The wages of the iron miners and colliers in the west of
Scotland, a numerous and important class, seeing that upwards of fifteen
thousand persons are directly engaged in that branch of industry in the
two counties of Lanark and Ayr, were in 1845, and previous years, from
5s. to 6s. per day--on the average _five and sixpence_. But now that the
duty has been taken off foreign corn, and British agriculture has been
depressed, their wages have fallen to 2s. 6d. or 3s. per day--on the
average, _two and ninepence_. Now let us see what the miners have gained
in exchange. The average price of wheat for the years 1842, 1843, 1844,
and 1845, was 48s. 5½d. per quarter. If we assume the present price
to be 38s., there is a diminution of about _one-fifth_. To that extent,
therefore, we may presume that the miners have profited by the reduction
of the price of bread; but we apprehend it would be difficult to
persuade them that the benefit is at all commensurate to the loss. They
may save a fifth upon one article of consumption, but their wages are
reduced to _one-half_.
If it should be said that this is not a fair illustration, and that the
depression in the iron districts arises from peculiar circumstances
unconnected with the question of Free Trade, we reply, that to the iron
trade, more perhaps than to any other in the kingdom, the most
extravagant representations were made of the increased consumption which
must follow on the opening of the ports. Not only have those promises
utterly failed, but this most important branch of industry has been
brought down to a point only short of absolute annihilation. The masters
are not only realising no profit, but they are large annual losers by
carrying on their works. The men, as we have already seen, are on half
wages.
But who was the orator that, in 1839, predicted with such exceeding
accuracy the decline of the iron and other trades as a necessary
consequence of a diminution in the consumption of British corn? Hansard
gives us the name: it is that of SIR JAMES GRAHAM.
In truth, unless an early and thorough revision of our whole commercial
system is made, the mercantile interests of Great Britain will be placed
in the greatest jeopardy. This may appear incredible to that portion of
the public who are gulled by the political economists, and who are
content to receive the Board of Trade returns of exports and imports as
satisfactory proofs of prosperity. But there is not a merchant in one of
our large towns who does not know that the case is otherwise. The
present number of the Magazine contains a paper from a valued
correspondent in Liverpool, giving a fearful account of the losses which
have been sustained during the bygone year of prosperity and Free Trade;
and we are enabled, on the very best authority, to state that Glasgow is
at this moment suffering under the effects of extreme mercantile
depression. This may, and undoubtedly does, conduce to cheapen
commodities; but such cheapness will be dearly purchased by the
sacrifice of capital, and the wholesale ruin of thousands. It is the
knowledge of these facts, and, in many cases, the bitter experience of
them, which has wrought such a change in the mercantile mind of the
country. No one has profited--all have lost by Free Trade; and therefore
it is no wonder if the resuscitated Anti-Corn-Law League should receive
little countenance beyond its own particular domain. What the country
most urgently requires, and what we expect to receive from the
Government of Lord Derby, are measures calculated to secure the
prosperity--not fictitious but real--of all the great interests of
Britain; and it is to prevent the introduction of such measures that
faction is exerting itself to the utmost. The Whigs cannot deny the fact
that there has been a strong reaction throughout the country. They can
assign that reaction to no other cause than a general conviction that
the interests of the country have suffered, instead of being promoted,
by the practical working of Free Trade; and the existence of that
conviction is of itself a clear proof that Free Trade has not fulfilled
the anticipations of those who promoted it. It has long ceased to be a
theory. It has been presented in a practical shape to the people of
Great Britain, who, moreover, had experience of the older system of
legislation; and every individual has had the opportunity of testing its
effects, and feeling its operation upon his own circumstances. Can any
man believe that, if Free Trade had tended to promote the prosperity of
the country, or even to maintain it in its former position, there could
have been any reaction at all? In that case the opponents of Free Trade
might have as well attempted to overthrow Atlas, as to assail any
portion of the policy inaugurated by the late Sir Robert Peel. The
educated classes of England are still what they were described by
Milton--"a nation not slow nor dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and
piercing spirit; acute to invent, subtile and sinewy to discourse, not
beneath the reach of any point that human capacity can soar to." What
effect could any arguments against Free Trade have had on their minds,
if the system was daily and yearly vindicating itself by promoting the
general prosperity? If the facts had been favourable to their side, our
friends of the press, who, in the exuberance of their humour, were wont
to accuse us of entertaining a scheme for the restoration of the
Heptarchy, would have been fully justified in their banter. As it was,
we managed to live on, even under the load of their ridicule, being
fully convinced that the day must ere long arrive when stern experience
would open the eyes of the public to the real posture of the country, in
spite of every delusion which interest and ingenuity could devise.
That such delusions have been practised, and that very largely, we have
had frequent occasion to show. Dull statists like Mr Porter, shallow
political pretenders like Mr Cardwell, and unscrupulous compilers like
the Editor of the _Economist_, have done their utmost to persuade the
public that the proofs of national prosperity are to be found in certain
tables emanating periodically from the Board of Trade. For some time we
are inclined to believe that their efforts were rather successful than
otherwise. Most men have an antipathy to figures, and a fondness for
general results; and when they were joyously told that both the exports
and the imports of the nation were on the increase, they concluded that
all was right, and that the mercantile interest was advancing. We are
almost inclined to give the Whig Ministry credit for the same sincere
belief, at least up to the commencement of the Session of 1850. We do
this the more readily, because we feel convinced that none of them were
at all conversant with the real practical working of the commerce of
Great Britain. If we were to make an exception at all, it would be in
the case of Mr Labouchere; but this we shall not do, as ignorance is his
best excuse for the statement he made regarding the position of the
shipping interest in February of that year. After that period, however,
it is not uncharitable to suppose that the Whigs must have lost
confidence in the accuracy of their oracles. It might, undoubtedly, be
too much to expect that they should have denounced oracles so
perpetually delphic and comfortable to their cause, or that they should
not have availed themselves of their aid in repeating to the very last
the cuckoo cry of prosperity; but we must conclude that the Trade
Circulars were brought, occasionally at least, under the notice of Sir
Charles Wood; and surely no man, holding the office of Chancellor of Her
Majesty's Exchequer, could fail to perceive that there was something
manifestly inconsistent with the deductions which hitherto had been
drawn from the trade tables, in the uniformly lugubrious, and frequently
despairing tone of these valuable publications. The fact is that these
Trade Circulars are by far the most authentic documents we have for
ascertaining the real state of the country. They give us, from month to
month, an accurate account of our commercial position. They emanate
alike from Free-Trader and Protectionist--reveal the actual state of the
market, and the amount of demand and supply--and admit of no party
colouring, except as regards anticipation of the future--rather a
perilous commercial vaticination, as the result of each succeeding month
is expected to justify the prediction of the previous issue. For nearly
three years we have been unable to glean from these circulars a word of
actual comfort. They are uniform in their accounts of depression and
absolute want of profit in manufactures, and all of them confess that
the home trade is most miserably contracted. This being the case, of
what value are the tables of export? They are valuable simply as showing
that the manufacturers _must_ export what cannot be used at home, unless
they choose at once to shut up their mills, and square their accounts
with the banking establishments which have given them credit--a process
which, in nine cases out of ten, would lead to most unpleasant results.
As to the imports upon which so much stress has been laid, let the
importers of Liverpool, Glasgow, and Bristol, tell us what they have
made of their speculations for the last couple of years. We sympathise,
most deeply, with the valuable class of men who have so suffered. They
were not the originators of the system which has proved so fearfully
hostile to their interests; and we firmly believe that, in giving their
support and countenance to it, they were not actuated by any selfish
motive. Their mistake was this--that they believed the effect of the
Free-Trade measures would be to extend the foreign market of Britain,
and greatly to increase its value. They contemplated a reciprocity which
has not taken place, and which never can be established, unless the
governments of other states fail in their duty to their own people. And
here we may remark that nothing can be more odious than the spite and
rancour exhibited by the Free-Traders towards the states which have not
reciprocated. If the views of some of their organs were to be carried
into effect, this miserable lack of liberality would be made a _casus
belli_, and we are not quite certain that some members of the Peace
Congress would object to such a declaration. These gentlemen have no
idea that any kind of manufacture, which can at all interfere with their
own, ought to be permitted abroad. Since America has established her own
cotton-factories, and applied herself to the working of her own mines,
she has lost an amazing hold of the affections of Manchester. Sorry are
we to say that Mr Cobden now seldom wafts his sighs across the Atlantic,
and that apparently he has abandoned his scheme of rivetting together
the valley of the Mississippi and Manchester "with hooks of steel." The
smoke of an American factory is excessively nauseous to his nostrils.
John Bright has ceased to take any active interest in Pennsylvania. He
opines that it has denied the faith according to _his_ principles of
brotherhood; and it may be that the charge is well founded. We hope our
Transatlantic friends are prepared to stand the fearful consequences.
Terrible as has been the denunciation of the Manchester men, launched
against Russia, Austria, and every other non-reciprocating state of
Europe which has made head against British calico, the Americans must
expect a fuller volley of tenfold wrath for their unprincipled
tergiversation. According to the views of Manchester, a Free-trading
despotism is to be preferred to a Protectionist republic. Liberty is
estimated according to the return which it brings, not to the children
of the soil, but to the cottonocracy of Great Britain.
Even if it could be shown that the commercial policy at present in
operation had tended to the prosperity of particular interests, and the
realisation of individual fortunes, it would by no means follow, as a
necessary consequence, that it is a desirable one for the nation at
large. What are the symptoms which we find coincident with the increase
of exports and imports? First, there is the wholesale depopulation of
Ireland, and the great abandonment of tillage in that country, to the
amount, we believe, of many millions of quarters of grain. Secondly,
there is the ruin of the colonies, not in a metaphorical, but in the
literal sense of the term. We have lying before us a copy of a Jamaica
paper, _The Daily Advertiser_, of date 19th January last, containing a
full report of a meeting in the parish of Saint George, convened for the
purpose of taking into consideration the present deplorable state of
the colony. We regret much that we are precluded from commenting in this
article upon the statements made by the several able speakers; but we
may give, as a proof of the decline of the produce of the island, the
following statement by Mr Hosack:--"The past history of Jamaica shows a
crop and export of 150,000 hhds. of sugar, and 34,000,000 lb. of coffee.
The present shows a crop and export of 36,000 hhds. of sugar, and
5,000,000 lb. of coffee." Another gentleman, Mr Dunbar, thus described
the appearance of the island:--
"The present crisis of affairs is fearfully appalling, and cannot be
viewed by those immediately concerned without the greatest dismay.
Within the recollection of the youngest among us, but a few years
ago, our fields wore the garb of luxuriant culture; our population
was active and cheerful; our homes were easy, comfortable, and
hospitable; and our towns and villages presented the appearance of
busy lives. Now the scene is all changed. There is a widespread
desolation; the din of industry is no longer heard; we have been
driven by distress from our long-cherished homes; the jungle has
taken possession of the fields where, but lately, the waving canes
met the eyes; our costly buildings are mouldering into decay; and we
ourselves are now suspended on the brink of a precipice, created by
the unwise and heartless policy of the mother country, in the lowest
abyss of which we must ere long be engulfed, unless some kind
protecting angel should come to the rescue."
Still more significant, perhaps, of the state of the colony is the
account given by the collecting constable of the parish. We insert it
here in order to show the effect of Liberal legislation upon British
capital invested in a British colony:--
"I will show that properties which formerly paid £1400 taxes are
now, if not entirely abandoned, very nearly so. Let the most
favourable supporter of Free Trade policy ride over the Buff Bay
River district, and at one glance he will see the awful, lamentable,
miserably fallen state of our once valuable and flourishing coffee
properties. Let him continue his ride through the sugar district,
and I envy not the heart of that man who can look on approvingly
when he beholds so many valuable estates grown up in common
brushwood; the residences of many falling into decay, and scarce
affording shelter to the watchman. Let him ask how long has all this
been brought about, and I will tell him--that by the list I now hold
in my hand, and about to submit to you, sir, it will be found that
twenty-six of these coffee properties were valued in 1841 by the
assessors of the parish, appointed by the House of Assembly, at a
total of £53,060; that these properties paid £619 public and parish
taxes; that fourteen of these sugar estates, now nearly all
abandoned, were then valued for £83,600, and they then paid £782
taxes; that in 1850 the whole of the taxes of the twenty-six coffee
properties amounted to, and were reduced to £147!--and of the
fourteen sugar estates, £144. Are these not damning evidences of the
destructive policy? Mr Sollas then laid before the meeting the
following statement, which he had prepared for the occasion:--
+------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| -Sugar Estates.- | Assessor's| Public and | Public and |
| | Value, |Parish Taxes,|Parish Taxes,|
| | 1841. | 1841. | 1850. |
+------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
|Eden,[R] | £4,500 | £45 14 9 | £5 0 1 |
|Paradise,[S] | 7,000 | 60 18 9 | 12 3 11 |
|Lenox,[R] | 10,000 | 94 8 9 | 13 19 0 |
|Hart Hill,[R] | 6,000 | 59 16 0 | 12 13 10 |
|By Brook,[R] | 1,000 | 18 19 6 | 2 14 6 |
|Hope,[R] | 1,600 | 22 4 0 | 3 5 11 |
|Spring Garden,[S] | 20,000 | 181 3 1 | 36 5 8 |
|Cainwood,[R] | 6,000 | 56 10 0 | 8 1 10 |
|Buff-Bay River,[R]| 3,000 | 33 2 6 | 6 13 4 |
|Elysium,[R] | 8,000 | 72 4 0 | 15 16 7 |
|Craigmill,[R] | 3,500 | 35 14 0 | 4 9 10 |
|Skibo,[R] | 3,000 | 32 13 1 | 6 11 5 |
|Chepstow,[R] | 8,000 | 39 4 0 | 9 13 4 |
|White River,[R] | 2,000 | 29 15 9 | 7 8 8 |
| +-----------+-------------+-------------+
| | £83,600 | £782 8 2 | £144 17 11 |
+------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
[R] Abandoned.
[S] In partial cultivation.
| |Assessor's| Public and | Public and |
| COFFEE PROPERTIES. | value, |Parish Taxes,|Parish Taxes,|
| | 1841. | 1841. | 1850. |
| +----------+-------------+-------------+
|Wallenford, [S] | £2,500| £23 16 0| £55 77 11|
|Ashcott, [R] | 300| 6 15 0| 2 1 8|
|Glengyle, [S] | 1,500| 16 0 0| 4 3 3|
|Cascade, [S] | 2,500| 23 4 1| 7 5 6|
|Birnamwood, [R] | 5,000| 51 0 0| 8 17 9|
|Spring Hill, [R] | 5,000| 45 4 0| 8 14 4|
|Smithfield, [R] | 1,500| 15 11 6| 4 3 11|
|Orange Vale, [R] | 2,500| 39 15 0| 11 18 5|
|Wakefield, [S] | 1,500| 15 0 0| 2 10 4|
|Ellerslie, [S] | 1,500| 14 5 0| 1 3 1|
|Middleton, [R] | 1,500| 23 3 0| 6 3 9|
|Corsham, [R] | 1,000| 12 3 0| 4 5 3|
|Green Hills, [R] | 800| 8 19 6| 1 3 11|
|Galloway, [R] | 1,000| 12 15 6| 3 12 7|
|Leighfield, [R] | 2,500| 27 15 0| 7 3 6|
|Silver Hill, [R] | 3,000| 37 1 3| 9 1 4|
|New Haven, [R] | 1,500| 23 5 3| 4 2 6|
|Mount Pleasant, [R] | 3,500| 25 1 4| 6 11 6|
|Cherry Hill, [R] | 360| 5 3 11| 2 3 6|
|Pleasant Mount, [R] | 3,000| 27 19 0| 7 15 10|
|Balcarres, [R] | 5,000| 50 1 0| 9 19 7|
|Prior Park, [S] | 1,500| 38 3 0| 7 0 1|
|Trafalgar, [S] | 2,000| 41 0 0| 11 10 4|
|Dry River Retreat, [R] | 1,600| 22 10 0| 5 13 6|
|Rectory, [R] | 500| 7 4 11| 1 0 11|
|Mount St Bernard, | 500| 6 16 0| 3 13 6|
| +----------+-------------+-------------+
| | £53,060| £619 12 3| £147 16 11|
[R] Abandoned.
[S] In partial cultivation.
--I feel, Sir, that I assert the truth when I add, that my predecessors
in office collected these heavy sums within the walls of their office,
and the proprietors were then in a position to pay sufficiently early,
to avail themselves of the ten per cent discount allowed by law for
prompt payment. How different is it with me, sir? I am necessitated not
only to keep my hands constantly at the pump, but in too many cases I
have been obliged to give the finishing stroke of destruction by levying
upon the stock of these properties; and but for much forbearance on my
part, heaven knows if others might not be hurried as quickly to ruin.
These are truths patent to all; and I assert that this very fact of the
taxes being so much reduced, so insignificant by comparison, and yet
unable to be met, or met with the greatest difficulty, is an undeniable
evidence of the total prostration of the island."
The third symptom to which we would refer is one of marked importance.
We mean the enormous increase of emigrants from the British islands. The
emigration from the United Kingdom, which, in 1843, amounted only to
57,212, rose in 1849 to the astounding number of 299,498, _being 22,000
more than the entire combined population of the large counties of Perth
and Fife_, according to the census of 1841! How is that fact
reconcilable with the professed prosperity of the country? Fourth, and
last, because we need not here multiply examples, we have the returns of
the Income-tax, which must be accepted, if anything is to be accepted,
as a sure index of the state of the nation, and regarding which there
can be no delusion, as in the case of export and import tables. Well,
then, what do we find from these? Why, that in 1843 the amount of
property assessed for trades and professions amounted to £63,021,904.
That was under a protective policy. But in 1850, with Free Trade in full
operation, that property, which, be it remarked, includes the entire
profits arising from the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain, was
estimated only at £54,977,566. Where, then, are the increased profits?
Let the oracles of Free Trade explain.
Surely these are no wholesome symptoms of the state of the country.
Taken singly, each of them implies an enormous amount of misery and
decline; taken together, they furnish clear evidence of general national
decay. They show us that trade, commerce, and manufactures are far less
profitable than before. They show us that emigration from the mother
country has multiplied five or six fold, and that the great stream of it
is directed to America, a country which is flourishing under protective
laws. They show us that agriculture, the only great staple of Irish
industry, is largely on the decline. They show us that some of our once
richest colonies--because the case of Jamaica is precisely that of
several others--are prostrated, and the capital invested in them lost.
And all this has taken place under the new commercial system!
Is this a policy to be pursued? Is it one which we are justified in
pursuing? Is it one which can afford the slightest pretext for
agitation? The answer to these questions must ere long be given by the
country on the occasion of the general election. In the mean time, we
would entreat the constituencies to consider what interests are at
stake, and how much of the national welfare depends upon the nature of
their decision. The symptoms of general decadence which we have just
referred to cannot be gainsayed nor denied. They are clear ascertained
facts, which we have, over and over again, defied the Free-Traders to
account for or explain, consistently with their prosperity theories; but
in no one instance yet has the challenge been accepted. We are not
surprised at this backwardness. Reckless as are the champions of the
League--unscrupulous as are their advocates--cunning and sophistical as
are the compilers of returns--slippery as are the Whig officials--it
would require more courage, craft, and ingenuity than belong to the
whole body, to account satisfactorily for the one fact of the diminution
of the value of the property assessed for trades and professions. While
this fact remains unimpeached--and we have it on Parliamentary
authority--it is absolute trash and childish babble to tell us about
increased exports and imports. Here are the detailed returns. They
comprise, as we have already said, the whole commercial profits of the
kingdom; and if we should seem to insist, more strongly than is our
wont, upon this point, our apology lies in its paramount importance.
PROPERTY ASSESSED FOR TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
1843, £63,021,904
1848, 60,068,090
1850, 54,977,566
Can there be a more bitter commentary on the working of Free Trade--a
more decisive summary of its effects--than is contained in the above
three simple lines?
These are the results of that policy, to secure the adoption of which
Sir Robert Peel broke up the great Conservative party, leaving the
government of Great Britain, and the welfare of so many millions of
human beings, in the hands of an incompetent faction, powerless of
themselves, and depending mainly for support on the capricious votes of
the democracy. What wonder if that democracy took due advantage of their
position? Without them the Russell Cabinet was nothing; and each
successive month the tone of the Minister became less firm and
determined. Radicalism, in our day, has assumed an entirely new form. It
affects a community of interest with the prosperity of British
manufactures, though rather abroad than at home. Its focus is
Manchester; its apostles are the men of the League. Brimful of hate and
envy towards the aristocracy of Great Britain, these men are determined
to leave no stone unturned whereby they may scramble upwards into power;
and they calculate on the possible reconstruction of a Russell Cabinet
as their most probable means of ascent. Their actual ulterior objects,
after they have attained power, are best known to themselves: we hope
never to see them placed in such a situation as shall admit of their
broad development. In the mean time they are vociferously demanding an
enlargement of the suffrage, and a reconstruction of the whole electoral
system, by means of which additional power may be given to the large
manufacturing towns, and a huge mass of urban ignorance added to the
constituencies. It is full time that their progress should be checked.
Unless a stand be now made--unless the country shall rally around Lord
Derby, and give him the means of stopping those perpetual inroads on the
Constitution, it is by no means impossible that the revolutionary party
may soon achieve a triumph. Henceforward, in any Liberal Administration,
Lord John Russell can be little better than a cipher. Already there has
been talk of deposing him--of electing new leaders for the conduct of
the Opposition--of putting forward to the van men who are beset with
less scruple, and unencumbered with aristocratic connection. The private
history of Liberalism affords more than one instance of such
depositions. Lord John must abdicate, or march onward at the head of the
progressive democracy.
We are glad to perceive that this position of affairs is appreciated,
not only at home but abroad. The advance of Radicalism, under the cover
of Free-Trade opinions, has not escaped the notice of the French
journalists: indeed it would be strange if it were otherwise, seeing
that no long time has elapsed since the same movement was made in France
by the acknowledged friends of Mr Cobden. The result of that movement is
matter of common notoriety. We copy from the _Standard_ of 20th March
the following extract:--
"The _Assemblée Nationale_, in its remarks upon the new English
Administration, makes the following just observations:--'Lord Derby,
with that elevation of sentiment, and that boldness of language,
which give him a patrician superiority among English statesmen and
orators, throws down a challenge to his adversaries upon the
_ensemble_ of Conservative policy. In this point of view we look on
Lord Derby's speech as the inauguration of a new phase in English
policy. For several years back the agitators, Radicals, and English
statesmen, have too much materialised the policy of England. Lord
Derby is right in reacting against this tendency, which has caused
the English constitution to lean too much to the side of democracy.
It was by subordinating his policy to economical questions that Sir
Robert Peel threw parties into that state of mobility and confusion,
which now raises such serious difficulties in the way of
parliamentary government. The evil reached its extreme limits under
Lord John Russell. For the honour and safety of the British
Constitution, it is time to put an end to it. Thus Lord Derby does
not accept the battle on the sole ground of Free Trade. He promises
to disembarrass the political life of England of that struggle of
economical interests which has for ten years absorbed it. He aims at
reconstituting in the country and the Parliament a Conservative
majority, to defend traditional interests, old national
institutions, and social and political principles, against
disquietude and revolutionary tendencies. The English people,
endowed with admirable good sense, will comprehend that power ought
to be in the hands of a united and disciplined party, and of a
compact and homogeneous majority; and not at the mercy of two or
three factions, which can neither govern or allow others to govern;
and will feel that, in the actual situation of Europe, England ought
to have at its head a Ministry firmly and loyally Conservative.'"
Mr Cobden, in his speeches both at Manchester and Leeds, has thought fit
to be quite explicit as to the avowed connection of the impending
contest with ulterior political objects. At Leeds, he made use of the
following language:--
"You feel, as all will now feel, that this is the critical time of
this question. _Other questions are not so ripe as this._ You feel
that this must be settled now and for ever, and therefore you come
forward in all your strength, in order that you may put the
finishing stroke upon it. But it is not merely the Corn-Law question
which is involved in what we are now doing. If you settle the Corn
question now, once and for ever, _it leaves the field open for other
questions_."
And again more enigmatically, but perhaps not less significantly--
"I have said that it is for the interest of the people that this one
thing should be done, though, in saying this, I do not say that it
is to be carried on to the exclusion of other important
questions--_as reform in Parliament_, OR WHAT OTHER MOVEMENT MAY BE
BEFORE YOU--but I say you will be better able to do those things
when you have obtained this charter of the bread of life. When you
have received abundant food, with its chances of abundant labour,
_you will be better able_ TO ENTER UPON THAT NEW CAMPAIGN YOU HAVE
CONCEDED _well drilled_; and, having beaten your opponents in one
thing, you will find it is just the same party you have to beat in
the other; for the monopolists in corn are, after all, the
monopolists in political power. We may have in our ranks men who go
various lengths in political reform and the question of the
suffrage, but, at all events, I scarcely know anybody who voted in
favour of the total repeal of the Corn Laws that is not willing to
go onward also in the path of reform; whilst, on the other hand,
they who would deprive you of the privilege of eating an untaxed
loaf, they are the very men who will keep you out of the pale of the
Constitution, and who will take advantage of their power to tax you
in other things pretty roundly as well as the loaf. By settling this
question, and securing for the working classes freedom for their
industry, and the greatest abundance, under the laws of nature, in
the supplies of food, we are placing them in the best possible
position to fight any other battle."
We quote these passages simply for the purpose of showing that Mr Cobden
considers the defeat of Lord Derby's Ministry as a necessary preliminary
to ulterior objects, the nature of which may be interpreted according to
the will of the reader. We have no leisure to make remarks upon the
alteration of tone visible in these speeches, from that exhibited in
others delivered in former years. Mr Cobden now admits that the question
is not settled; and that is undoubtedly a very considerable concession.
Also, he is not quite so minatory or threatening in his language as he
used to be, which possibly may arise from a prudent conviction that
certain acts, relating to sedition, which are contained in the
statute-book, are not yet altogether in abeyance. He wisely confines
himself to inuendo, trusting to the intelligence of his audience to
supply the lack of direct speech. Only on one occasion does he
transgress the limits of prudence; and we quote it, as reported in the
_Times_, as an instance of that kind of suggestive oratory, of which the
late Mr Hunt was esteemed a consummate master.
"I don't like to see a London newspaper saying we have not the
working classes with us on this question, because it is a great
libel on the working classes to say so. And another thing too; it is
trying to discredit the working classes with those who have at
present political power, in order that, by-and-by, it may be turned
against them, and enable them to say they did not, by their
petitions, contribute to the repeal of the Corn Laws. Now, when the
Corn Law was laid on in its most unmitigated severity in 1815, the
loudest protests against it were made by the working classes. The
working men of London made the loudest protests against it, though
rather rudely I admit, for they tore the members' coats from their
backs. (Cries of 'They did right.') They pulled them out of their
carriages, soldiers had to be called up to protect the members of
parliament, and the Houses of Parliament were surrounded by infantry
and cavalry to enable them to pass this infamous corn law. The
middle classes and the working classes then thoroughly co-operated
in opposing this law; but the middle classes had not then the
political power they have now. The working people _did their duty
then, and I hope they will do it again_. (Shouts of 'We will, we
will,' and loud cheers.) I hope they will do it not only in
Yorkshire, where it is well said 'we are safe,' but elsewhere."
Far be it from us to put strained interpretations on the language of Mr
Cobden. We do not care one rush what he says, considering the blatant
absurdities of his speech on more than fifty occasions. No jack-pudding
alive has exhibited himself to greater disadvantage, although
jack-pudding exhibitions can always command an audience. But what we
wish to bring out is this--that Mr Cobden, _the individual expressly
consulted by_ LORD JOHN RUSSELL _before the Chesham Place meeting was
held_, refers uniformly to "ulterior objects" as the consequence of the
defeat of Lord Derby's Ministry, and does not hesitate to express his
hope that, in the event of the parliamentary majority being returned
hostile to his notions, the working classes may proceed to acts of overt
violence, similar to those which were committed on a previous occasion.
If we misconstrue Mr Cobden's meaning, we ask his pardon; and, on a
disclaimer of such being his intention, we shall make ready reparation.
But we judge of words according to their ordinary significance, and we
can gather no other meaning from his language.
We have lived too long in the world to attach much importance to an
agitation of so exceedingly equivocal a kind. Even Mr Cobden, who has
had more experience in the agitating trade than any other man alive, and
who has materially profited thereby, admitted the other day at
Manchester that it would be no easy matter to maintain a popular
ferment. "Leave this question," said he, "in suspense during a whole
session of Parliament, and what will be the result? In the first place,
we all know from experience that it will not be very easy to keep
popular enthusiasm in that high and fervid state to which you can
probably bring it in the course of a few weeks. You cannot keep the same
enthusiasm alive for a number of months;" and, accordingly, he
counselled immediate action. From what we can gather of the opinions of
the working classes, we believe that he is right to this extent, that it
would be impossible to keep up a prolonged agitation: we question much
whether it is in his power to get up an agitation at all. The real
objects of the League are as well known to the working classes as the
characters of the men who compose it. One of the speakers at a late
meeting of the "National Reform Association" in London, expressed the
sentiments of the great majority of the operatives when he stated, "that
they should not seek for the mere advancement of the manufacturing
capitalist. He (the speaker) was a Chartist, but he would not support a
mere manufacturing aristocracy, (cheers); he would never consent to turn
the woolsack into a cotton bag, (cheers); and he thought there were now
arising daily questions deeply affecting the working man, which should
be left to some one to decide not quite so deeply interested as his
master." Another speaker at the same meeting observed that, "for his own
part, he did not see what great good it would do the people if the
Financial Reformers were in power. The people would not be in power, but
the manufacturing capitalists; and, as to that, he believed many of the
aristocracy had more chivalry, love of country, and fine generous
feeling about them, than most of your mercantile classes." (Loud
cheers.) It is only by separating the question of free importation of
corn from that of a revision of our whole commercial system, and by
addressing himself exclusively to the former, that Mr Cobden hopes to
succeed. The truth is, that he dare not go into the question of a
revision of the commercial system. There is nothing which the members of
the League dread more than the broaching of that subject; for the fact
is, that a large number of our manufacturers depend for their existence
upon the continuance of that Protection which has been withdrawn from
other kinds of industry. Let every branch of manufacture which is at
present protected by a duty, varying from 15 to 10 per cent, be
subjected to the operation of Free Trade, or even protected only to the
extent of 2½ per cent--as is the case with wheat, if we assume its
average price to be 40s. per quarter--and six months will not elapse
before a howl for manufacturing protection will be heard from one end of
the country to the other. With this before them, it is not surprising if
the members of the League should sedulously abstain from touching upon
the question of a general commercial revision. More than two years ago,
when we first drew the attention of the public to this subject, a
letter, purporting to be written by Mr Cobden, went the round of the
newspapers, in which it was averred that, with the exception of a small
duty upon silks, there were no duties levied on foreign manufactures. In
answer to that we gave a list of no less than sixty-six different kinds
of manufactures upon which import duties of 10 per cent and upwards are
levied. If our memory serves us right, Mr Cobden afterwards declared
that he, for one, had no objection whatever that those import duties
should be taken off; and we have, since then, more than once both
requested and defied him to make such a proposition in the House of
Commons. If those duties really are so trifling as some maintain them to
be--if the remission of them would cause but little loss to the revenue,
and not affect the manufacturers at all, why are they not removed? If we
belonged to the Free-trading camp, and really were of opinion that the
continuance of these "fragments of protection," as we once heard them
termed, were intrinsically of no importance, certainly we should make an
effort to strengthen our position, and prevent the possibility of
hostile attack or retort, by getting rid of them at once. We happen,
however, to know that the manufacturers dare not make any such
proposition. Let Mr Cobden go down to Paisley or Sheffield and try it,
and we answer for it he will not be anxious to repeat the experiment
again.
We rejoice to find that the "ulterior objects" of the Manchester men are
well understood by the intelligent classes throughout the country, and
that their insolent attitude and attempts at dictation have excited
general and profound disgust. To do Mr Cobden justice, he has materially
contributed towards this feeling. His conduct in the House of Commons on
the 19th of March, and his coarse and vulgar contradiction of the
statement of the Earl of March, deserved and received the unqualified
disapprobation of every gentleman in the House; and we doubt not that,
at the moment, Lord John Russell cursed the fatality which brought him
into contact with such a counsellor. Bitter must have been the
humiliation of the aristocratic Whigs to find themselves incorporated
with a squadron under the command of so polished a leader! But, even
without the able assistance of Mr Cobden, the League is likely to be
obnoxious enough, especially among the mercantile community. A week or
two ago a meeting of Leaguers was announced to be held in Liverpool, for
the purpose, doubtless, of aiding the ten per cent subscription so
auspiciously begun in Manchester. But, somehow or other, nobody thought
proper to attend; or, at all events, the number of the self-sacrificers
was so small that it was not deemed expedient to admit those dangerous
gentlemen, the reporters, to their confidence and privacy. Accordingly,
the meeting was "postponed"--_sine die_, we presume--but, in place of
it, a numerous meeting of the Conservatives of Liverpool was held. The
object of that meeting was essentially practical. A large number of the
electors of Liverpool, being convinced of the inefficiency of Sir T. B.
Birch, and sick of the flippancy of Mr Cardwell, the present members for
the borough, met together for the purpose of adopting a formal
requisition to Mr Forbes Mackenzie, M.P., and Mr Charles Turner,
chairman of the Dock Committee, to stand for Liverpool at next election.
The following extract from the newspapers will show the tone which was
adopted at that meeting, and the estimation in which the efforts of the
League are held by the mercantile portion of the community:--
"Mr Samuel Holme, who moved the adoption of the requisition, in the
course of his remarks, said he would not occupy time by going into
any of those great questions which were agitating the public mind at
this moment--questions which must be definitively settled, not so
much mere fiscal questions--or whether there should be a duty of a
few shillings imposed upon wheat. The question at issue was a more
extended one, and must be treated at a larger meeting. The question
was--Are the men of Manchester to be the rulers of England? (Loud
cheers, and cries of 'No, never!') Are they, a number of them, to
shake their purses in the faces of the aristocracy of
England--(hear, hear)--in the faces of the commercial men of
England--(hear, hear, and prolonged cheers)--in the faces of the
agriculturists of England, and then to say, 'With a subscription of
£47,000 at our back'--how much of it is paid I know not or care
not--'we will become the dictators of England; we will destroy the
balance of the British Constitution; and we will dictate to you the
principles upon which England shall be governed; and you shall do as
we bid you, but shall have no voice in the matter.' (Laughter, and
loud cheering.) A gentleman recently stood up at a public meeting,
and threatened the aristocracy of England 'to look to their order,'
but he (the speaker) asked any gentleman who had read the debates in
the House of Lords, whether there was not a larger amount of talent
and ability displayed there upon commercial questions than in the
House of Commons? (Cheers.) He said with Cobbett, 'Thank God, we
have a House of Lords;' and he trusted the people of England looked
upon the Peers as a component part of the British Constitution--that
Constitution which had been a blessing to mankind at large, and
which had given strength and security to England when the thrones of
Europe were tumbling. He asked, were they to barter these invaluable
privileges away? Were they longer, by their unhappy divisions, which
at the last election they had such reason to regret--(hear,
hear)--to suffer two gentlemen (Mr Cardwell and Sir T. Birch) to
represent a great commercial community in Parliament, gentlemen both
of them amiable in private life, but utterly unfit to have placed in
their hands so great a trust? (Cheers.)
"Mr Adam Hodgson said that he was present there to a great extent as
a Free-Trader, but that he would throw Free Trade and everything
else to the winds when the Constitution of the country was
endangered. Referring to the recent meeting at Lord John Russell's,
Mr Hodgson said that he gathered, from what there took place, that
Lord John Russell was prepared to bid higher now, and to give a more
indefinite extension to that franchise which many of them thought
had been already carried quite far enough. (Loud cheers.) This was
one reason why he deemed the present a most important crisis. The
fundamental principles of our Constitution were, however, safe in
the keeping of Lord Derby. What, again, he asked, was Free Trade,
compared with a resolute determination that Protestant England
should be Protestant England still?--(Loud cheers, and the 'Kentish
fire;')--and that, whether she carried on her traffic under what was
called a restrictive or a free system, she should carry to the
remotest nations of the world, with whom she had intercourse, her
Scriptural principles and attachments?
"Many other speeches were delivered, and the requisition to Mr
Mackenzie and Mr Turner was most heartily and most unanimously
agreed to; after which three cheers were given for Lord Derby, three
cheers for the Queen, and three for the Church."
This is in the right spirit; and we trust that the example so well set
by Liverpool will be followed generally throughout the country.
Is it not time that the ascendency of mere faction should be brought to
a close? Is it consistent with the honour and dignity of Great Britain,
and with the welfare of the many millions of men who owe allegiance to
the British Crown, that the government of the nation should be scrambled
for, on account of the perquisites of office, as ignobly as a prize
exposed for competition at a village fair? Is it seemly that the
interests of the Empire should be put up to auction, to be knocked down
to the largest bidder for popular support, with the most expansive
conscience?--or that compacts for a prospective division of the spoil
should be entered into by the leaders of factions hitherto
irreconcilable on principle? Why is it that Mr Cobden, since the Whigs
resigned, has become the confidant of Lord John Russell? He has not, we
are well assured, abandoned one iota of his opinions. He is of the same
mind as when he proposed the reduction of the army and navy, and the
abandonment of national defences. He is the same Cobden who threatened
the aristocracy with overthrow if they dared to oppose his will in a
fiscal question. He is the identical senator who at Covent Garden, in
December 1845, talked of "the Noodles and Doodles of the aristocracy,"
and stated that, "before we have done with them, they shall be as
insignificant and more contemptible than the round-frocked peasantry on
his Grace's estate." He remains the unvarnished democrat. And yet this
is the man from whom the ex-Premier of Britain craves counsel in
preference to all others, within a fortnight of his abdication of
office! What new tie was between them? None. Why should this scion of
the house of Bedford have condescended to court so extraordinary an
alliance, which Whigs of other and better days would have shunned with
instinctive shuddering? What imaginable reason can be assigned, except
that frightful craving for office, which sometimes is a positive
disease?
We write strongly, because we feel strongly. Far be it from us to decry
that noble ambition which, for hundreds of years, has inspired the most
gifted men of the nation to take part in public affairs, and to act for
the public benefit. Often has the occupancy of office been to those who
filled the highest and most influential situations a burden rather than
a benefit; often, but for the sake of their country and their sovereign,
would they have been disposed to resign their trust, and resume their
simple habits and congenial pursuits in that private sphere which they
were so well calculated to adorn. But the sense of duty prevailed over
inclination, and they remained as STATESMEN, not as precarious
politicians. Principle was to them all in all. Their pole-star was
honour. They guided the vessel of the State with a firm hand, conscious
of their great responsibility, and of the magnitude of their trust. They
were no blundering navigators. They did not run the ship upon the reef
and forsake her; and then, when better and bolder men were engaged in
extricating her from the danger, attempt to embarrass their efforts for
the sake of regaining their position. But we live in different times.
One eye of Palinurus may be directed to the stars, but the other is
gloating on his perquisites. The great question is not the safety of the
ship, but the permanency of the appointed helmsman.
Setting aside those who are directly interested in his success--the
members of the family compact, the officials, and those who expected to
become officials--who are the uncompromising vindicators of Lord John
Russell's past policy? We can find them nowhere. One short month ago,
the Radicals had no confidence in him. To the Chartists--if we except Mr
Feargus O'Connor, who lately manifested some unrequited marks of
affection--he was peculiarly obnoxious. The Country party were in direct
opposition to him. The Peelites rejected his overtures. The Church
regarded him with dislike. The Protestant Dissenters put no faith in
him. The Irish Roman Catholics denounced him with more than usual
fervour. The colonists abhorred him. The shipping interest stood afar
off. Even the Jews mistrusted the genuineness of his efforts in their
behalf. Such was the situation of "the child of expediency," towards the
end of his official career; and can he now make it better? Only in one
way. By carrying into full effect the alliance which he has already
commenced, and by becoming, as we said before, a bold and uncompromising
democrat.
He may do so, undoubtedly. He may, in order to regain power, and to
maintain his hold when he has regained it, tamper with the Constitution
of the country. As the intelligence of the nation refuses to go with
him, he may ask assistance from the mass of ignorance which lies
beneath. He may, as the author of another Reform Bill, "upon an extended
scale," try to reduce the political arrangements of Great Britain to the
level of those of France, and create in the country a dissatisfaction
which, but for his efforts to recover his forfeited place, would never
have existence. He may become the leader of an attack upon the national
churches; and even, following the example of some younger brothers of
the French noblesse, against the order from which he is descended. But
in this he will not succeed. It would seem to be a rule of Providence,
that the man who deserts the straight and beaten path cannot conduct
himself aright. He loses his power of calculation. By his alliance with
the Radicals, Lord John has forfeited the support of many of his best
adherents. Such men as the Marquis of Lansdowne and Earl Fitzwilliam are
not absolutely tied to party. They are hereditary Whigs, and would
remain Whigs within the pale of the Constitution; but we mistake them
greatly, and have formed a false estimate both of their character and
their loyalty, if they are disposed, at the bidding of any man, to go a
step beyond it. We believe they feel that, of late years, the reputation
of their party has been soiled by so frequent and close a contact with
the baser material. We believe that they would far rather occupy a
respectable and sometimes useful place in Opposition, than submit to be
dragged, against their will, to the verge of the democratic precipice.
To them a Radical gain would be an incalculable loss: they can,
assuredly, have little sympathy with Cobden and his crew.
In conclusion, we would entreat every man in the country who is opposed
to democratic innovation, and who values the blessings of that
Constitution which we now enjoy, to reflect that unless due support be
given now to Lord Derby's Ministry, there may be no possibility of
erecting another bulwark against the tide of organic change--in other
words, of Revolution. Men lived as calmly as we do, during the earlier
days of the French commotions. They saw the waters rising gradually at
their feet; but they would not believe that they could be overwhelmed,
until the current became too strong for resistance. So is it always. We
do not profit by the lessons of history, because we do not realise our
own situation. We make light of things trivial in themselves, but which
are, nevertheless, the necessary harbingers of greater things to come.
No event which has occurred for the last twenty years is so significant
as the movement of Lord John Russell _towards_ Mr Cobden. It shows us
what we must expect if the constituencies do not give their hearty
support to Lord Derby and his Administration. We are not ashamed to
confess that we greatly dread organic changes; but we dread them upon no
narrow grounds. We do not advocate, and never have advocated, any class
interests. What we wish to see is, a happy and contented people, united
by that harmony of interest which cannot be attained if one class is to
be unduly favoured at the expense of another, or if jealousies are to be
sedulously promoted between natives of the same island, brothers in
blood, subjects of the same sovereign, professing the same religion, and
distinguishable only by a difference of craft and livelihood. What is
there wanting but an equitable adjustment of interests, to restore peace
and concord throughout the whole nation? Who stand in the way of that
adjustment but the agitators who derive their fortune from their trade,
and the trading politicians who, incapable of holding office themselves,
will not allow others, with better and purer motives, to occupy it
unmolested? If, as all concerned with trade and manufactures allow, the
history of the last three years has been one of almost unmitigated
disaster, why not allow some remedy to be tried? We do not fear the
people--if by that word is meant the bulk of the operative masses--at
all. Why should we? For their cause we have ever strenuously contended.
We wish to see the rights of British labour most thoroughly recognised
and defended. If, in bygone years, our treasure was spent, and the
labour of unborn generations mortgaged, most thanklessly, for the
subsidy of Continental nations, who even failed to fulfil their part of
the contract, it is the more reason that we should take care that no
undue advantage is given to those nations over the people of our own
soil; and that Englishmen should not be forced to emigrate, for the sake
of carrying out a vain and impracticable theory.
We have looked over these pages, with much anxiety, to see if there is
one word which we ought to alter or modify. We cannot find any. The
approaching political struggle--however it may be disguised by local
influences, whatever complexion it may assume in districts more or less
interested in the solution of particular questions--is a national one,
and upon its issue the destinies of the country must depend. If there
are any who look with complacency on the expatriation of the British
labourer, on the decline of the colonial empire, on the depression of
once thriving branches of industry at home, and an unsettled trade
abroad--if there are any who think that a democratic form of government
is the safest and the best which can be devised by the wit of man; who
agree with Mr Cobden, "that the instinct of the million is wiser than
the wisdom of the wisest"--let them by all means cast the weight of
their influence into the opposite scale. But let those who wish to see
the harmony of interests restored, and the conflict of classes ended;
who desire that labour should be justly dealt with, and native industry
encouraged; who deprecate all rash innovations on the Constitution; who
uphold the cause of Protestantism, and appreciate the value of sound
government--let them rally around Lord Derby in answer to his noble
appeal; and the triumph of the cause of truth, justice, humanity, and
religion is secure.
_Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh._
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other
inconsistencies.
Obvious punctuation errors and minor printer errors repaired.
p.456: (Fennimore Cooper's novels) in original (across hyphen),
corrected to (Fenimore Cooper's novels)