The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. 1122 Reformers. We make no attack upon their motives, and we admit in many instances their great ability. But we cannot help seeing that Mr. BRIGHT is monophthalmic. lie talks ex tremely well, but much of it is about what he does not understand, and is therefore full of pre judice in some instances and unseemly misrepre sentation in others. We will not doubt that he is desirous of benefiting hir country as a whole. But his politics have 'so blinded him that he cannot see it as * irholt6 though he' thinks that he does; and the result' is that he is doing one portion of his work in the dark. It is so with all his school. Their views are limited to one section of the community, and to please and pro pitiate that section they will sacrifice all the rest. So they tell us that they wish to see legisla tiqp that will secure the permanent benefit of all classes. But by " all classes," they mean the working classes, and perhaps the trading classes, especially if they work or trade in cotton. Mr. BRIGHT would be sorry to see the upper classes benefited in any way. Or rather we should say that he has eccentric views of what would be for their benefit. He would think, for instance, that it would be for their benefit to be mulcted in some way, by greater taxation or by the parti tion of their estates. Who can fancy Mr. BRIGHT wishing to see a bishop benefited, or a great peer and landowner ? The thing is preposterous. " The benefit of all classes," as the Radicals have it, is a confusion of the rights of pro perty and an enrichment of the working man by the spoliation of the wealthy. They cannot under stand the benefit to society of the gradations of rank. It is nothing to them that there is a social balance of power as well as an international one. Impressed with an exaggerated theory of the equality of political rights, and the inequalities of the existing representative system, they feel the need of prompt and vigorous reform. So far we have little to object. But the moment they take. the actual work of Reform in hand, the partiality of their vision, the littleness of their minds, and the narrowness of their sympathies, become manifest. They see but half of their pro blem, and leave out of their calculation that a true and sound reform involves the benefit of every class, disturbs not the balance of our social system, and maintains the great relations of the Constitution unchanged. The consequence is that they begin by enlisting the passions of the poor against the rich. To do this it is necessary to draw an ugly picture of noblemen and landed proprietors, and a pretty one of factory operatives, artizans, and agricultural labourers. And how unscrupulously they can do this we have seen in some recent speeches at Birmingham. But Mr. BRIGHT'S attack upon the aristocracy is not likely to pass unchallenged by those whom it chiefly concerns. The Duke of ARGYLL and Lord Lrrrstros have already come to the rescue of their order, and as opportunities arise the Peers of England will have no lack of defenders. The Duke of ARGYLL is a living contradiction of Mr. Balcarr's disparaging insinuations. Ac cording to the Hon. Gentleman, a peer's eldest son has no motive to exertion: He passes through school and college in a lazy, inert way. Knowing he will be rich and looked up to, he has no stimulus to emulation ; and as peerages are not yet awarded by a competitive examination, there is nothing to induce the noble youth to cultivate his intellect or qualify himself to do anything. Hence he succeeds to his title and estates, a poor useless creature, capable only of folly and luxury, a deadweight on Parliament, an incubus on society. And the crowning mis fortune of this country is, that these constitute an estate of the realm I Anyhow this does not hold good in the Noble Duke's case. He, as a youth, had the early possession of titles and estates before his eyes. But these did not blind him to the responsibilities of his position. They did not disincline him to make good use of his time, to cultivate his powers, and qualify himself for public usefulness in the service of his country; nor when lie was at length fairly entered upon his hereditary station did the accidents of his birth and position prevent his rapid success as a public speaker and a politician. His powers, his attainments, and his industry have been such that two successive Cabinets have found room for him, and various public institutions for the promotion of art and science have placed him at their head or amongst their leading members. And it is this man—this living contradiction of the impugner of the aris tocracy—who comes forward at Dundee, in a speech which might compare in fluency and point with any of Mr. BRIGHT's, to vindicate his order, and repudiate the aspersions of his assailant. But be does more : he shows that he can do something besides defendine himself against an adversary : he can interest andinstruct an educated audience, and also bring the advantages of his extensive read ing to bear, upon the enlightenment of those very working classes whom Mr. BRIGHT would teach to hate him. Now, the Duke of ARGYLL, is no destructive Tory such as Radicals delight to pic ture as the enemies of all advancement in social or political life. He is the advocate of progress ; the member of a Liberal Ministry ; the companion of Whig statesmen ; the friend of popular liberty, popular education, and popular improvement in any shape. His testimony is, therefore, all the more valuable when he declares his honest con viction that the tendency of events has been to draw the higher and lower classes of the commu nity nearer together front year to year, and that the attempts of Radical agitators to stir up dis union are so many steps in a backward direction. Equally pertinent were the remarks of Lord LYTTELTON, himself a scholar of a high order, and a friend of progress and of the amelioration of the condition of the working classes. Indeed, a glance down the peerage will show how largely the sons of noble houses have distinguished them selves. In point of learning, there is seldom a class-list at either University without one or more noblemen in it ; while even Mr. BRIGHT could hardly maintain that Lord INGESTRE, Lord GODE nicn, Lord EBRINOTON, Lord JOHN MANNERS, Lord COURTENAY, not to speak of Lord STANLEY, Lord HARROWBY, Lord SHAFTESBURY, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and many more, have not devoted a large portion of their time and talents to the promotion of the welfare of those classes whom Mr. BRIGHT shamelessly says are poor because of the unjust legislation for which these self-denying noblemen are responsible. The egregious injustice of saddling all the wants of the poor upon the oppression of the landed aristocracy is a disgrace to the cause which these pretended friends of the people profess to advocate. We are not going to condescend to a tit quoque, but it might be worth inquiring whether cotton-spinners are always friends of the poor ? In very many cases, we cheerfully acknowledge that they are a well-educated, mu nificent, and exemplary class of gentlemen. In many more, we certify of our own knowledge that they are selfish, grasping, and oppressive. Depend upon it, immorality, the Chartism, the dark phases of degraded life which are so often the chief characteristics of the poor in populous places, come from something else besides the mere consequence of the aggregation of numbers. Aud it would be quite possible to conceive a far better state of things if the owners of mills and factories exhibited as much sense of responsibility for the improvement of their people as is usually found in the owners of land. Doubtless, strikes and adverse combinations of trades are the off spring of popular passion and delusion, but it is far from certain that great employers of labour are not to a great extent responsible for them. Mr. Brucrrr's admirers should investigate this point. It might even be a piece of timely wis dom to do so, for certainly whenever the people whom they now hoodwink with their specious plausibilities come to see, as sooner or later they certainly will, with both eyes, they will know their true friends from feigned ones; and should the time ever come when the working classes carry Mr. BRIGHT's teaching to its legitimate results and rise against the titled owners of land, the self-dignified aristocracy of the mill will not escape easily. The Nemesis of Radicalism will know her own. public at large, as an agreea bl e To say that it is not only a si ngu l ar l y able composi tion,—but that it was deli vere d , under the gigantic dome of St. Paul' s , w i t h a grace and an anijnation which, in such a space and before such an audience, not many men could have commanded,—is giving it the least weed o f praise that can be awarded to it. And yet, even for that feature of his performance, our new Diocesan is entitled to no small amount of credit. The selection of that part of the area of St. Paul's immediately under the dome for the pur pose of addressing large assemblies, was consi dered by good judges in such matters as a doubt ful experiment ; and to make that experiment with his Primary Visitation Charge was un questionably a bold step, such as few men would have ventured upon. Dr. TAIT ventured upon it, and succeeded admirably. It is not, however, on account of the adventi tious merit of appropriate arrangements and a successful delivery—though, considering the use to which the area under the dome is intended to be put hereafter, that, too, is matter for congra tulation—that Dr. TAIT'S Primary Visitation Charge has won golden opinions for him. The substance matter of the Charge has already done much, and, when there shall have been time fully to consider its contents, will do yet more, to raise his Lordship in the estimation of the clergy and laity of the diocese to that high position which it is desirable that the Bishop of this great metro polis should occupy. This is all the more grati fying because it was in some measure unexpected. While no one questioned the personal amiability of Dr. TAIT, and the goodness of his intentions, doubts were entertained by many as to the suffi ciency of his calibre, intellectually as well as theologically, for the government of not only the largest, but probably the most highly-educated yof clergy in the whole world. Partly, no doubt, this impression was owing to his antecedent career, which was not of a nature either to bring his powers and attainments prominently before the public, or to give him that practical insight into the Church's parochial work which is so essential a qualification for the episcopal office. Add to this some injudicious remarks which fell from his Lordship on one or two occasions, chiefly in his place in Parliament, and in a few instances a line of action which did not altogether square with the law ecclesiastical and with English notions of justice, and we can scarcely wolider that misgivings should have begun to be enter tained as to the future government of the metro politan diocese. These misgivings Dr. Trim's Primary Visita tion Charge will go a great way to remove. His Lordship has evidently made good use of his time during the two first years of his episcopate. He has mastered the facts with which he has to deal, and he views them with a comprehensive grasp of mind, with much discrimination and practical wisdom, and, we are happy to add, in a spirit equally removed from sectarian narrow ness and from latitudinarian indifference. He does not, upon certain points, disguise his personal leanings towards the views of one rather than the other of the two schools into which our Church is divided ; but he has, in the most solemn manner, pledged himself to hold the scales even between the two, on the principle that the Church whose laws he is called to ad minister, is founded upon a basis of comprehen sion, not of exclusion. The terms in which he acknowledged not only the zeal and piety, but the valuable services to the Church, of the very men against some of whose extravagances of doctrine and practice he felt himself bound to protest, indicate an evident and heartfelt desire on the Bishop's part to do them the fullest justice, and to win, rather than constrain, them to a more moderate tone of sentiment and conduct. ---- ----- Having said this, we may be permitted to add that we should have liked the Charge all the better if it had entered less fully into the questions, still pending, with regard to the revo cation of the licence of the Rev. A. POOLE, and the continuance of the Exeter-hall services in defiance of the prohibition of the Incumbent. As regards the latter, the Bishop avowed, and THE BISHOP OF LONDON. To be overrated is, at all times, a serious misfor tune ; to be underrated, though mortifying at the onset, is, in the long run, no great calamity to any man, and to some men it is of essential service. It has proved so, at any rate, to Dr. TAIT, whose Visitation Charge, delivered on Wednesday last to the metropolitan clergy, has come upon that important body, and upon the