The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS. JAITVARY 21, 1854. SKETCHES OF RADICALS. 18. THE UNCONSCIOUS RADICAL. IT would be a pity to pass over—without, at all events, the slight notice demanded by their party--a class of men whom I may call Unconscious Radicals, gentlemen who on various public occasions talk sheer Radicalism, under the guise of liberality, philanthropy, enlightenment, or what not—for the sake of a round of cheering and a quarter-of-a-column's report. We had a specimen of this kind of thing, this polite " Bunkum " (to adopt a Yankee expression), the other day at Oxford, from a mild and harmless Peelite. It is amusing to see one of these lymphatic mediocrities coquetting with Democracy, like a thin man in spectacles at the Zoological Gardens giving a penny bun to the bear. Up gets Meagre, 111,P., and, with infinite vapoury phrase, presents Democracy with a penny bun; and goes home (to gruel) with the foolish notion that he has done rather the liberal thing, and —ah conciliated popular affection, you know ! Such men as Meagre, the philanthropic Lord Foozle, and some (who dine in the cause of the poor man), seem not to know that the upshot of their proceedings is to favour Radicalism, and are, in a word, Radicals without knowing it. A few words may be addressed to their understandings—or, if an appeal in that direction be useless, to their fears. Meagre might as well understand that the British Radical is made of stern stuff. If his head is wooden, it is of British oak. He does not thank Meagre for his kindness, or care a fraction for his civility, except, of course, as a homage to his consequence. Ho reflects that his importance is the source of Meagre's vapoury phrase; and, indeed, the Radical is not grateful as a general rule. Cuckles, of the Morning Rasper, for example, is rather annoyed than otherwise when a solid benefit is conferred on the people ; and feels that insolence is shown to the Rasper thereby ; the Rasper, which has so often denounced the present system of things as incapable of all popular benefit. Does Meagre, does Lord Foozle suppose, that these fellows are imposed on by postprandial rhetoric ? Pooh, sir ! their object is to get the government of the country into their own hands ; and the object of a sensible man should be to keep them permanently out, a thing quite possible to achieve, but not to be done by polite, indefinite, speechifying, where, every time the lymphatic speaker talks of "progress," the listening Rad thinks—" i.e. Democracy." Just as Meagre, then, does Democracy a personal service for the sake of the aforesaid round of cheering and quarter-of-a-column, so Lord Foozle and other Liberal lords are perpetually doing the same thing. Our friend who volunteers the information to Europe that the day of privileges is gone by—(he individually being nobody apart from his order)—is surely a marvellous spectacle ! That he means it one cannot suppose—the army and navy lists, with other public docu ments, do not allow us to suppose such a thing. What, then, does he mean? He only wants to get a cheer or two from, the casual hearer , at the expense of his own order—that is all. Meagre has an equally lofty object. He wishes the surrounding spectators to see how deftly he can hand the bun to the bear, and thinks the bear delighted. His own tacit and reserved notion (as a Peelite of the great middle class) being probably to the effect that an enlightened moneyed in terest is to govern this country, and just to talk amateur demo- ' cracy in public, now and then, by way of amusing the bear. Let Meagre reflect that he is a Radical when he is making these demon strations, and that the exclusive moneyed interest is not a tithe part so popular in the country as the aristocracy, whatever he may suppose. The time is coming when we shall have to divide men much more definitely, and to ascertain with some precision what principles are to govern the country, and to which principles each individual inclines. For my part, I want to know what " progress " is—what " enlighten ment' is —and then I shall be able to estimate the value of Meagre's services when he helps—Radicalism, under these names. If by "pro gress " is intended the improving labouring people's daily life, the establishment of libraries for those who require them, and so forth, I cannot, for the life of me, understand why these objects cannot be hieved without universal suffrage—the advancement of Cuckles of the gasper to great power, or other such measures as I know to be c ontemplated by the persons whom I have made the subject of these Sketches." The slavish idolatry of machinery which is the charac teristic of the time makes our geniuses propose cobbling institutions, at little compl a i n t, as if t h at was all that was needful. But it is e , too b a d that every alteration should be baptised " progress , ' though you can no more help it than you could prevent a man from calling his cob " Eclipse," if he was so minded. . t Against th e R a di ca l hi mse lf— t h e d ownr i g ht outspoken Radical — L is easy eno ug h t o argue on hi s own groun d s . But one has a right from when one finds dilettanti dabbling with the business, and, sheer love of an odd " cheer," helping men in objects which are as fatal to the Meagres and the Foozles as to the general establish ments of the realm. Fi rewor k s are a ll very well in their proper places, 1 , 3 u he is but a foolish private individual who lets off squibs to amuse himself when they must inevitably help the work of the incendiary. 61 THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSAL REMEDY. As the day appointed for the meeting of Parliament approaches, the unfortunate nobleman at the head of the affairs of an unfortunate country is getting into a state as nearly approaching wildness as the tame nature of the noble earl will permit. We understand that he counts the days and estimates the hours and half hours of grace between the present time and that at which he must advance to the table of the House of Lords. He had notched upon a stick the num ber of these interesting days, and was one morning despondently removing a notch, when he received a painful shock from the Home Secretary, who came in and said, "Ha ! ha ! going to cut your stick already ? No, no ! wait for the division." So the stick was thrown away. The noble earl likewise complains constantly of the inconsiderateness of his colleagues in fixing the day so early as the 31st, when they might have had another week's respite ; and he also objects to that Tuesday because it is the eve of Ash-Wednesday, and because it is the last day of Hilary Term, and because he once knew an old woman who was ran over on a Tuesday. He wrings his hands, and is obviously in a very unprepared state to meet his trial. But he has great hopes, which he shares with the other Peelites, that much may be done by abusing Mr. DISRAELI. Indeed, this is now the great card of the Cabinet. They have played it in the newspapers, and in a thick and stupid pamphletwith great savageness, but they hope it will do again. It is the Premier's answer to almost any question that can be asked him, " Abuse Disraeli." Lord CLARENDON went to him the other day for final instructions as to a despatch to America on the Central region question, and the Premier was exceedingly pettish because the poor Foreign Secretary could not manage to introduce something against Mr. DISRAELI into the Honduras paragraph. The earl makes no secret of the fact that in his opening speech he intends to charge the late Chancellor of the Exchequer with having caused the strikes, by allowing his novel of " Sybil " (which describes such scenes) to be published in a cheap form, with having brought Consols down to 92, and sent the loaf up to a shilling, and coals to two guineas a ton ; and these Free-Trade phenomena his lordship has no doubt he can successfully ascribe to his dreaded antagonist, while he has also reason to believe, though he cannot exactly prove it, that, by means of some intrigue with the Earl of DERBY, Mr. DisitAELl brought about the snowstorm which has occasioned so much suffering. In short, distressed and terrified RS is the Earl, he has this one comfort left. The other Ministers, especially those who are not in the House of Commons, intend mainly to rely upon this defence against all charges. The Duke of ARGYLL means to urge with terrific force that Mr. DISRAELI cannot reason ; and Lord CLARENDON will meet the Oppo sition Peers with an equally overwhelming answer, that Mr. DISRAELI cannot smoke. The Duke of NEWCASTLE will lay all colonial disturb ances, especially the destruction of the Canadian Church, at the door in Grosvenor-gate; and even Earl GRANVILLE, who is too good-natured to be very vindictive, designs to let off an elaborated joke about Bon jamin—" the son of the right hand "—pursuing a lelt-handed policy, but this it is hoped the hon. member for Bucks will survive. The LORD CHANCELLOR also means to be down upon him for having made Vivian Grey say that to be a great lawyer ono must give up all idea of being a great man. " Look at me!" Lord CRANWORTH means to exclaim, "am I not both ?" And the Chancellor will indignantly demand whether a man who could write such a sentence is fit to speak on Turkey and Russia. In the House of Commons there are, perhaps, reasons why this felicitous line of defence should be pursued more gingerly ; but, never theless, it is to be the staple of the Ministerial arguments. The Cabinet is wonderfully "up " in Mr. DISRAELI'S history, and it is thought that the pages of Hansard will be enriched with a series of memoirs of him by the various members of the Treasury bench. Lord JOHN RUSSELL means to argue that the hon. gentleman can know nothing of the constitution, because his father wrote learnedly upon English history. Mr. GLADSTONE will dispute the possibility of Mr. DISRAELI comprehending the next budget, because he has written novels ; and Sir JAMES GRAHAM will make it equally clear that he can not understand the navy estimates, because he is a friend of the Duke Of NORTHUMBERLAND, and is not, like Mr. GLADSTONE, too humble to suppose it possible that a mere gentleman should presume to call a duke his friend, except " with regard to the difference in their stations." Sir CHARLES WOOD even means to muster courage to allude to Mr. DISRAELI'S budget, and is busily learning its points, that, if possible, he may avoid any dreadful blunder in stating them. And Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH means to be especially severe upon the folly of a states man who, having once held certain views, has modified them, without the inducement of place to do so. It will be seen, therefore, that the case of the disgraced and moribund Cabinet is simple almost to severity. It is the old lawyer's story of instructions to counsel, "We have no defence to this action, but please to abuse the plaintiff's attorney." And, as heaven tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, it is matter of congratulation that such a topic has providentially occurred to the Coalition at a time when it so much stood in need of support. There can be no doubt that, if the Ministers unite heartily and loyally in abusing Mr. DISRAELI, the country will be convinced that they are all active, patriotic, far-sighted, and sagacious men. El IL