The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

780 THE RESIGNATION SCENE. (E.rchtsitely reported . for the Pity's.) Lord PALMRRRTON (lo the Cottneil): I have now, my. dear lords and gentlemen, explained my chief reasons for objecting to this Reform Bill. My objections, as you will have noted, are those of principle, and may be summed up in two words. Your bill was not wanted by the country, which demanded that existing corruptions should be purged away, not that its constituencies should be swamped by a new fangled desire for throwing political power into the hands of a single interest, to the exclusion of those who are above and beneath them. Therefore I cant assent to the measure. To occupy you with objec tions to its details is unnecessary, but I may be excused for sayingthat it is about as bungling a pieee of handiwork as was ever put together. Lord .loin RESSELL : I deny that. Lord PALMERSTON (SOSI/iMy): I retract, and beg to except your last Reform Bill. 6 LAI/STONE : Levity is at all tittles objectionable, and the sub ject is now too momentous to be enlivened by a display of dialectic pyrotechnics. Lord Palmerston, awakened, it is not tin• me to say by what agency, to a sense of the advantages of Conservatism, opposes this measure as too democratic. Lord PALsumnsres : I oppose it mainly on the ground that it is uncalled fin• and unnecessary, and legislation of that class al►pemo's to inc to be the worst form of political quackery. Sir C. Wool► : But, you see, my dear Palmerston, this is where the shoe pinches. Russell p►romise►l, don't you see, Two or three Voices (impatiently); Please, Wood, hold your tongue. Lord PALmmocrox ; 1 do not know why Wood should be silenced. He has hit the right nail on the head. You were in it MSS, and, in your eagerness to extricate yourselves, Russell did promise to intro duce, at an early period of the session, an ample measure of reform. I admit all that; and, remembering that you were under great difficulties when you made the pledge, I have, contrary to my own feelings, endea voured to render your measure as little mischievous as I could. But certain individuals here successfully opposed my view, and I cannot be party to the derangement of our constitutional system in order to redeem a pledge given simply to keep a Ministry in place. Sir JAMES GRAHAM (mildly): I never impute motives, but I should liko to know what advantage Pahnerston purposes to himself from embarrassing us. Lord PALMERSTON (quietly): Graham's way of putting things is so truly charming and natural that it is impossible to quarrel with it. Ho has first a reputation to lose, and then a reputation to gain ; and the sooner both are done the better, as he is not precisely a boy. Now, I have made a reputation which will quite answer my purpose, and I can afford to serve the country according to my own ideas of honour. don't often talk to you in this tone, but our dear Graham is a little urgent for truth, so I give it to him. Mr. GLADSTONE : Again we are diverging. I would entreat Pal merston's attention to one or two considerations. They arc not so much connected with the measures as with the position of Govern ment. As regards the former, I admit that other courses were open to us; and my own Conservative antecedents are evidence that I should not, without necessity, sanction such a measure as that now proposed. But I see no option if the Coalition Ministry is to stand. If we face Parliament with a feeble measure, down we go. A tolerably good strong one is our only chance. Do you see this, Pahnerston ? Lord PALMERSTON : Perfectly, my dear Gladstone. Nobody can put things more clearly than yourself when you choose. And sup posing that the great end of all things were the keeping the Coalition in place, and supposing (slily) that, as certain friends of—somebody's— do suppose, the end justifies the means, I should be prepared to keep in office, by a bad measure, a Ministry which intends to introduce others, and good ones. Mr. GLADSTONE : I have convinced myself that such a Ministry as ours is the only one which can benefit the country. (Applause) Yes, but Ido not mean mere selfishness and self-assertion. The principle of compromise is the only principle compatible with the interests of society. Lord PALMERSTON: I believe nothing of the kind. There are such things as right and wrong. Sir C. WOOD : Certainly. There's a right lobby and a wrong lobby. stud that. I think. is about all a good supporter of Government need remember. Lord Join : The bill before us is by no n►ca►ts what I desire. Lord Am:nor:EN teageript : Nor I. Duke of NrweAsm: (poiekly) : Nor 1. Duke of Ancri.t. k ma/Tidily ) : Nor I ; nor could any bill be, unlei4s I prepared it. Sir W. Mott:swoarit rosiari/yi : Nor 1. for reabous which I need SATURDAY, Sir 3. GRAHAM (Madly): You need not. Now, for my part, I think the bill a most admirable bill, and I intend to defend every line and letter in it, all(1 contend for its plennry inspiration. LORD PRRRIDENT (significant/y): We understand that. Lord J. Ressram: The point I was going to urge on Palmerston is this: I have said—you all have said—that none of u.s likes the bill as a whole. I consider it damaged by every departure from my own bill of last year. But if every one of us can waive his strong personal objections to the measure, for the sake of a common object— Lord PALM E nsrox : Common and unelcan ? Lord J. 11,'ssi:i.i: Not at all I say that it argues great self sufficiency in Palmerston to stand out against the sense of his col- leagues. What I myself can do, and Lord Aberdeen can do, and others can do, in order to retain office, and servo the country, I think Lord Palmerston might do. Lord PALMERSTON : Lord Palmerston doesn't think so ; that's all ; and happens to be able to afford to think for himself. But I will offer no further obstsele—here—to the introduction of this great measure, which is entitled, I hope, " An Act for Amending the Position of the Present Cabinet." Lord T. RUSSEI.I.: If you don't do it here, where can you do it? Lord PALNIMMTON : In my place in Parliament. Lord J. Russw.: What ! as Home Secretary? Lord PALatEnsToN: No ! as member for Tiverton. Didn't you know I was a member of Parliament? Lord J. Russm.t. (terrified): You never mean that you will resign office ? - - 1.014 PALMERSTON : I see no other course. I leave you the means of preserving the Ministry, as Gladstone says, and I also preserve my own convictions and consistency. Sir C. Woon (piteously): But, Palmerston, if you go out, the country will say we are breaking up. Lord PALMERSTON : My dear Wood, the country will soon say that, whether I go out or not, I give you very few months, and I am an old hand, and know the look of the political weather. (To Lord Aberdeen): Dirty ahead, Captain ! Sir JAMES GRAHAM : And, believing the Cabinet in danger, you resign, in order to escape the fall you consider inevitable. Lord PALMERSTON : " Think so, if so thou art resolved to think," but I don't imagine that is the line which I have taught people in general to accuse me of taking. Lord ABERDEEN (uncomfortably) : The country will believe that you go out on the Eastern question. Lord PALMERSTON ; And I am afraid that, after the way you have used your organ, the country will not be in a hurry to believe their contradiction of the supposition. But I beg that you will give the necessary instructions that, for once, the truth shall be told. Igo out on the Reform Bill, and because some persons who term themselves my Conservative colleagues are too decided Democrats, in the narrow est sense, for my (own predilections ; and, my dear lords and gentle men, you will do the same thing—only a little later. (Singo) Weep not for me, my colleagues dear, The I no longer meet you here; The game is played, as you may see, — So, wait awhile, and follow me." • (Exit, jauntily.) ALL : The ice is cracking !—wlutt's to be done ? (fn conster nation.) SKETCHES OF RADICALS. 10.-THE RADICAL MAN OF LETTERS. THE first remark which occurs to me in beginning the present paper is— how badly, after all, Radicalism is represented in literature now ! The last generation of Radical literati—the Godwins, Hazlitts, Holcrofts—wero giants compared with their successors. They were the huge, brawny children of the French Revolution. The " Liberals," to be sure, have amongstthem fine slashing fellows enough ; but, then, the Liberals are almost as much hated by the regular Radicals as the Tories are. Even those of them who are past or passing —Mackintosh, Dr. Parr, Charles Fox, Macaulay—Radicalism loveth them not. Macaulay told the Radicals, apropos of DIVA, that it might be necessary to " sacrifice liberty in order to preserve civilisation," with an air which seemed to say, " Put that inyour pipe !" ; and a very disagreeable drug they have found it. Besides, a " Liberal " talks about the " vulgar," generally, with a gusto quite peculiar ; a Liberal glorifies a historic family (if it happens to be a Whig one) : a Liberal historian informs the masses that they have hospitals now, whereas centuries ago no Liston existed for monarchs ; and that. therefore, everything is improving, and will continue to do so, if " wise principles of reform are acted up to—viz., if the Whigs are perpetually kept in, and enabled to give rising young gentlemen ten thousand a year. The sturdy British Radical is by no means satisfied with all this. He remembers that the Whigs cheered the advanced age of Godwin with a pension of 1001. per annum, and joined Peel to crush old Cobbett, when that amusing and most readable old boy moved in the Commons that the kick out of Sir Robert should be petitioned for ! In fact, the Radicals, in my opinion, despise and dislike the Liberals rather more than any other persons iu this realm. I much fear that if the first step of that European recurrence to barbarism which Niehbuhr THE PRESS.