The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-28 00:00:00

. _ JANUARY 28, 1854. Mr. COBDEN : You kee -ord with yot out leaving v " a Nlinis r t do the same 9 M.BRIGHT : You hat usually do. Aberdeen was why Palmerston had govt ever so solemnly told am make Palmerston confirm Mr. W. J. Fox : If a 1 hishc2e's business, I would Mr. BRIGHT : We sht soualities, as you all know not be sifted to the bottom allusion to the matter whi( Mr. COBDEN: We shall hold our tongues. Mr. BRIGHT : That's as Mr. W. J. Fox : I also and illogical; but I deem i a person of the name of F. I am informed so by a fries the party can think over hi Mr. COBDEN : An ungi for him—or at least promi telling the truth. Mr. BRIGHT: A meann rants are seldom guilty. `A for you. I like to defen( friends of ours who sit tx deal of defending this Bess Mr. COBDEN : As afore somehow. Because it's di with the Coalition. Mr. BRIGHT : What a s, that the more people are them. And so, like good Mr. Gissots : And whim Mr. BRIGHT : No, HO! it is in the way of some of Mr. GIBSON : But I car about the Reform Bill. I Mr. COBDEN: You will what we want, but there ms On the other hand, the bill and yet there may be reaso may not be driven to either is, that the League supp Russia and will not go t John Russell because he c comes, I think it probable 1 our votes into the other. l Mr. GIBSON : Not exact Mr. COBDEN : Very well SKETCHE 14. THE RA. IT is now time to be bringi: begin to be bored by the glance, then, at their folio devices. As to converting philosophical Republicans least, will listen to argumen in that direction. For the affair of the intellect as of never have a system, you m• feeling (sometimes generous lively sense of the materi anomalous position of old rest is antagonism and ha been hostile to kings and ar able than those which ma Mayhew) hostile on system personal feeling —the carryi: public affairs, and calling it he is Potts—and there's an The Christians when th Romans; Knox and his fr the Scottish Churchmen. who pretends that the Rad. hours ? Is it their morals, t are to save from the persecu sympathy that I listen to personal friends of Doll Tea t ranscendent, then 9 The d• fine fellow makes a hit in ence between a cockatoo and and writing, I have known a cultivate these arts, instead would have demolished Cod Walter Scott was of opini( Buchan, was his equal in nal an income which, though lud to keep him in boiled muttox wider an ambassador of ix THE PRESS. keep flunkies yourself, and sometimes you go , ur flunky why you have gone out. May not Ave blundered your simile, as I observe you , as the instructor in this case, and explained le out. I don't believe that a crammer was td so utterly disbelieved. They will try to it. bishop confirmed it, and confirmation is a id not believe it. hall have it out before long. I detest per- Av.—(Hear, hear)—but, sooner than it should om, I shall sacrifice my feelings and make an ich will bring up the parties. shall see. It is possible that we may be asked to another matter, if we are asked properly. lo dislike personalities, which are irrelevant it right to mention that, one of these days, Somerville will be alluded to in the House. end ; and, if it concerns anybody here present, his answer to what may be adduced. _igrateful fellow, that ! After all that we did ,mired him—to have the meanness to go about iness of which, people say, the League itine- Well, if it comes, we must do the best we can Id a friend ; and it seems to me that some to our left hand of a night will want a good ssion. oresaid, they must make it worth one's while, damaging work to march through Coventry • set they are ! Howeve r , Christianity, tells us 13 in need the more is our duty to succour Samaritans, we will pour in oil. • tne ' They may do the opening for then selves Jf them. cannot quite understand yet what is to be done . wish you would tell me. will see when the time comes. The bill is not b may be reasons why we should support it. bill may be what we desire, in some respects, ions why we should obstruct it. Perhaps we r course. All that you need know atpresent •ports Lord Aberdeen because he upholds to war ; and that the League supports Lord calls himself a Reformer. And, if a crash that our speeches will go into one lobby and Do you understand? 3tly. 41. Then we'll go to bed. S OF RADICALS. RADICAL RANK AND FILE. [ging this series of papers to a close, and I contemplation of these fellows. Let us owing, and then leave them to their own them, that I never expected. There are and philosophical Liberals, men who, at int; but the British Radical is inaccessible to truth is, Radicalism is not so much an if disposition and circumstances. Radicals nty remark; they have strong and obstinate itis feeling, but that is rare) ; they have a Tial progress of modern times, and of the Id institutions in reference to it ; all the late. Half the Radicals I have known have aristocracies from motives no more respect lake the costermongers (according to Mr. tto the police. It is generally a matter of 'ing of the motives of Little Pedlington into " politics." Potts dislikes lords, because end on't. they reformed Rome were better than the friends were better and higher spirits than . That kind of reform I understand. But Radical party are any better than their neigh their charity, their piety, or what is it we ;ution of a naughty world ? It is with little to denunciations of Nell Gwynue by the 'earsheet ! But is it their party that are so deuce a bit, as far as I can see. Many a in agitation who scarcely knows the differ td a choriambus. And as for their speaking t dozen men who, if chance had made them of partridge-shooting and salmon. fishing, ikroaeh and Potts over and over again. Sir ion that Erskine's brother, the Earl of Aural gifts ; but the earl was cursed with idicrously small for an earl, was sufficient At and turnips ; so he " declined to serve inferior family," and died, having done 85 nothing. I think, however, that such men begin to see that it is time to be up and doing, now ; and I don't despair of having an almanac with " Potts shooting begins," or some such announcement, duly entered in it. When Tanqueray, th e di s ti ngu i s h ed novelist, goes to Knights bridge-house, the Radical literati call him (the sweet, affectionate creature) a " tuft-hu n t er ," b e i ng to a man " tufts " themselves to anyb o dy who . will pay them th e compliment of attention,— on l y m i nus pedigrees and manners. Mr. Cobden made it a charge against the British people generally, the other day, that they were apt actually to show a great deal of respect to the large proprietors. One deduction may be made from all this vu l gar quarre lli ng (which discredits our literature), viz., that the ar i stocracy are really more popular than these fellows like. It is a co mmon comp l a i nt with the Radicals, and ought to give them sad m i sg i v i ngs, when they look round the country for their rank and file. Who are their rank and file ? There is not a more difficult problem than to pronounce as to what the " popular opinion "is at any given time. The public were all for Caesar, and his death demolished Roman freedom and paved the way for the Empire. For the fall of the historic aristocracy and the rising of the money interest to undue heights invariably produces despotism. So, in our own day, the cry against the aristocracy is, after all, a superficial one (does not come from the heart of the mass), and is likely to encourage a despotism here of the most intolerable character-- with Radical libertini for counsellors and senators. The peoples (as distinct from the Radi c al R an k an d Fil e ) feel instinctively an oppres sion which, under the fi ne names o f " progress " and " laws of political economy," is crushing them to the mire. Cotton potentates sneer publicly at the operatives "on strike ; " and, after years of effort to set the agricultural labourers against the owners of the soil, protest that a question of wages is not a question of politics ! But the operatives have clearly little confidence in these potentates, and begin to see that they are not to be made tools of for political purposes on occasion, and dismissed with a sneer and a few cheers in their distress. It is the supporters of Radicalism to whom they are indebted for this kindness : they are the men who, after assailing every rank in turn, now wish to secure the whole power of the country by trampling upon the labouring classes too. Perhaps,' after hearing so much against the aristocracy for the last fifty years, the labouri ng classes would not like to be roughridden by a bran-new body of nobility, bragging of its investments, and calling itself a " Horder ! " Out of all these confusions, it emerges clearly enough that the Radical Rank and File is a limited body, intent rather on plunder and excitement than gifted with any definite convictions ; while the com monest observation of the people shows one that the popular feeling is decidedly on the side of the hereditary and tra!litionary influences. Say, for instance, that in towns, as of course is the ease, the Radical has his best chance ; yet, what bond is there between the Radical and his leader? In periods of excitement the leader has an influence; but nothing dies so quick. Many a moneyed man, again, favours Radicalism to salve his wounded self-love. But where is his popular following? The labourer owes him nothing—nay, it is ostentatiously put forward that only " supply and demand " is to rule between them. Nothing about this relation appeals to the imagination or the heart a man. With all our " progress," we are a less brotherly and friendly people than we were centuries ago. Is a man a machine, then, to have oil only that he may work ? Is th ere t o b e no a ff ec ti on , w h ic h, coming from the superior, is repaid with loyalty from below ? Now, h ere is Radicalism's weak point. It ex i s t s on ly i n nega t ion , in denial. It " cobbles institutions," and leaves man as poor us it finds him. It appeals to nothing in humanity but its cheapest qualities. Hence, what spectacle of moral elevation has this sect presented u s with? It has given us no poetry—no illustrious examples of personal grateful ness and nobleness—no great friendships—no martyrs but "church rate martyrs." How can it st an d i n com p e titi on w i t h anyth i ng that appeals to the romantic element i n man k in d ? F or this, and a hun dred other reasons, I look upon this noisy body, who are trying to roar down the historic names of Europe, as nothing but a commonplace FAL-nos, intent on the vulgarest o bj ec t s —th e offspring of a mechanical age and of the deification of trade, a n d t o be d ea lt with by opponents with /goy little ceremony ! We are apt to exaggerate the importance of these men . altogether. To prevent anybody from making the complaint, I now dismiss the subject, hoping that, in an age when men like these pretend to great ness, even the present writer may h o p e , without presumption, to add his quota to the cause of philosophical Conservatism. EXTRACT FROM AN UNFINISHED EPIC TO BE ENTITLED " OXFORD REGAINED. 4 , Oh weep, fair Oxford, mourn Sir Robert Harry ! The sad intelligence bid Isis carry ; From tower to tower the dismal tiding swells; Mu is ed and sad the merry Christchurch bells. Oxford, of classic learning once the seat, But now of Gladstone's clique in Downing-street! No more the portly form, and polished pate, Shall rise the Prospero of each debate ; No more the flower that graced his ample coat Shall cast a vernal fragrance o'er the vote; No more shall Fitzroy or kind Mahon reach An orange moisture for Sir Harry's speech. Old times are passed, no longer shall old ties Of shoes and neckcloths claim our sympathies. The fob, the watch, the seals, the pendent chain— When shall we gaze upon his like again?" mmiugglMlN ~.~ a ! 4 j 3 Al t