The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

mp-Li.. • • . 16 witted to do so by preparing the way for the sacrifice of Mr. Disraeli by systematic libels. He will outlive their spite, or they will only be remembered in connection with him like the heroes of "The Dunciad." The career of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer is not closed : we believe its brightest por tion is in the future. We have watched its wonderful vicissitudes with a deep interest since our college days, when we read for t the first time " Contarini Flemin g " with a low ing heart and a kindling cheek. Its author was decried as a writer, and he is now one of the most popular, as lie will certainly be the most enduring, author of the day: he was coughed down in the House of Commons in his maiden speech, and he lived to produce oratorical effects in the same assembly which have never been equalled in our time, and which we much doubt whether the eighteenth century ever surpassed. He has only been driven from power by a coalition against him of every man of tale nt of every party in the house except his own, and that coalition already is nauseous to the nation. We have invariably observed that, whenever Disraeli has received a check, it has only been the herald of a great advance ; and that, when the world has believed him beaten, he has always been on the eve of his greatest victories. Life of Quintus Horatian Flaocus. With Illus trations. By the Rev. Henry Hart Milman, D.D. New Edition. London : Murray. ABOUT three years since, on a fine summer after noon, one of the judges of the land went to pay a visit to an illustrious old orator then living in rural retirement, after having carried the highest honours in the Senate and at the Bar. Amongst the amusement of the aged statesman was his curious collection of all the editions of Horace worth preserving. By way of pleasing intelli gence, Judge told his aged friend that a treat was in store for him, as Milman's edition of Horace was advertised in the last Quarterly. The venerable statesman slowly tottered with his visitor to the side of his library, whore tiers of " Homces" were ranged above each other. " I love every Horace with a scholar's loving," said he, and his eye complacently surveyed his treasures. " But you have not Milmau's ? " and the visitor eagerly expa tiated on what might be expected from the Dean of St. Paul's forthcoming one, with its picturesque illustrations, its critical disquisi tions, and the pleasing annotations of so graceful a writer. After some converse, the visit terminated with the old scholar saying, "Well, you see that I was able to sack you yet at the odes of Horace. But nevertheless I'll get Milman's too." The aged Horatian enthu siast, whose decease, since this was written, is unhappily recorded in the Times of yesterday, the oldest public man in the British empire, termed by Lord Brougham " the incompa rable orator," was the nonagenarian peer, Lord Plunket. And, without going into his judicial merits, we have no doubt that the famous ex-Chancellor of Ireland gave worse decisions than when he uttered the words, "I'll get Milman's too." The Dean of St. Paul's is excelled by sonic of his clerical contemporaries in erudition, and he is surpassed by some authors of our age in originality and vivid force of style; but he has special merits of his own which honour ably distinguish him in the world of letters. He is at once learned and eloquent, graceful and profound. His knowledge of books is very extensive, and his attainments are car ried easily, unlike the case of certain awkward commentators, who aro perpetually stumbling under their ponderous acquisitions. There is II blending in his scholarship of the old and new styles amongst our English divines. Ile comroses in the spirit of one honourably proud of his academical attainments, yet desirous of gaining that popular fame which can only be won from a large circle of readers. Too much of a rhetorician to be completely successful as a poet, ho still showed in early life con siderableaptitude for more exciting styles of composition than those to which his manhood has been devoted. We have often thought of the present Dean of St. Paul's as .. , ntntsted with a late witty canon of the same ..athedral. I n the case of Sydney Smith, we agree with THE PRESS. those who knew him best in thinking that the clergyman's gown was a wholesome restraint on what might otherwise have been the too riotous and rampant art of Peter Plymley. A more exquisite flavour was thereby imparted to his humour from the infusion of morality and elevated purpose. But in Dean Milman's particular case we think that he would have written with more strength and nervous power if his mind had not been so trammelled with the conventions of his order. This " Life of Horace " has been too long published for us to criticise it at length. It is one of his most characteristic performances, extremely graceful, often eloquent, and some times just falling short of originality. As a writer he often rocals to us the manner of Lord Denman as an orator—rich in external graces, fraught with learning, diction, sense, and taste, but wanting inspiration. The Dean of St. Paul's concentrates his talents in his style, which ho carefully elaborates. Incorpo rating in his text, matter suggested by German scholars, he rarely gives us his own thinkings, though ho brings under our view the best sug gestions of the deepest commentators. He scarcely succeeds in giving US a vividly graphic picture of Horace, and, after all , every portrait of the poet must appear tame and spiritless eontrasted with his own self-portraiture in his writings. But a more truly elegant (and we use the word in its critical sense) life of Ho race than Dean Milman's we have never seen. The present edition (separated from " the works ") is most beautifully printed, and does credit to British typography. Many of those lovers of Horace who have not yet seen this volume will, upon inspecting it, " say ditto " to Lord Plunket, and cry, " yet Milligan's i 00." Minorities and Majorities ; their Relative Rights A Letter to the Lord John Russell, M.P., on Parliamentary Reform. By James Garth Marshall. London : Ridgway. THE representation of minorities is one of those wise provisions for reconciling popular institutions, with a just admixture of Conserva tive policy, which deserve more attention than they have yet received. In the pamphlet be fore us this question is well treated : the writer's tone is impartial, his style plain and not diffuse, his arguments free from sophistry. The fundamental truth for which he con tends, and which indeed is at the bottom of all his and our political creed, is that which was most forcibly expressed, if not first perceived, by Burke, namely, that the principle which makes the will of a majoiity binding on the whole of a community is in its essence conventional, not natural, and under many circumstances inconvenient, if not dangerous, to be applied. This truth is practically recognised in the United States, where funda mental laws, whether federal or local, cannot be altered by a bare plurality of suffrages. It is also embodied in the rules of almost every association, those rules being generally de clared unchangeable, except by the will of two-thirds of the members. The principle in each case is the same : where parties are nearly balanced, a simple plurality of votes having full power, all depends on the indi vidual decision of two or three persons, it may be of one only. Hence arise temptations to corruption, intrigue, and violence ; all dangers of the greatest character, especially where popular government leaves little coercive power in the hands of the law. But the cases above mentioned do not fairly represent the position of a legislative body, whose members are generally elected by a majority of their constituents. Where the constituency itself, the whole mass of persons interested, is present bodily, as in the case of subscribers or shareholders in a company, the minority has the less cause to complain of being overruled, because its arguments at least have been heard, and its objections con sidered : But when a representative assembly, like our House et (•ommons, is to be created and invested with the supreme and ultimate legislative power, the case becomes widely different. The individual constituents or electors have at the hustings but one single function, that of choosing their representatives. That duty performed, they wholly lose their direct legislative power, which they consign in trust to other parties—viz., to their representatives—to be UIMMIMMI SATURDAY, exercised on their behalf, and for their benefit. Cense quently, it becomes a vital point that the mechanism of. the elective process should be such as to allow all parties and opinions to be fairly represented in the House of Com- MOUS. In the more simple political constitutions first decribed, all parties are necessarily fairly represented, because they are all permitted to be present, and to act for themselves. But in our representative system, as will appear hereafter, it may possibly happen that even a large minority may be wholly excluded, either in the case of a single constituency, or in that of the House of Commons itself. And a minority thus excluded are manifestly placed in a much worse position than if merely outvoted in an assembly at which they have the right of being present. The right of being heard, of discus sing, objecting, explaining, protesting, is taken away from them, not on one question only, but on all questions; not on a single administrative act, but on questions of perma nent legislation. It is as if the majority in a simple democratic republic wore to use their powers as a majority to disfranchise a minority, and exclude them altogether from the National Legislative Assembly. There can be no question as to the reality and extent of this evil: the sole possible doubt regards the nature of the remedy. Again w•e quote our author : Let us consider the various modes in which the votes of electors may be taken. The whole body of electors may vote as one constituency for the whole of the members of the representative body, and they may vote on different principles. In the first place, on the system which has been called collective voting, each elector may vote for the whole num ber of representatives ; in our own case, for instance, might have 656 votes. It is clear that on this system a simple majority may re. turn the whole of the representatives ; and a minority of nearly one-half the electors may be excluded from all share in the Legislature. Nay, further, it has been shown, in an able article in the Edinburgh Review, that even a small minority may nearly monopolise the representation. The reviewer is considering the instance of Franco, where this system is used in their plan of departmental voting : " If France were one constituency for the election of representatives, as it is for the election of a presi lent, and each elector had to vote for 750 represen iatives, it is probable that a single list would prevail almost without alteration. We will suppose the country divided into Legitimists, Orleanists,Bonapartists, and Republicans, in the following proportions :—four-thirteenths Republicans, sud three-thirteenths belonging to each of the other dello- xiinations. " Under such circumstances the Republican party, Mough scarcely exceeding one-fourth of the whole popu. lotion, would return nearly the whole Assembly. If such In the effect of the collective system when fully carried out, such must be its tendency when partially adopted. " And it must be admitted to be most mischievous both is the successful and to the unsuccessful party; impelling one to acts of insolent oppression, and driving the other towards disaffection and revolution." A remarkable instance of the effect of this kind of voting was furnished by America in the election of President Pierce. That gentle man was returned by a majority of twenty nine out of thirty-one States, his rival's party Icing thus to all appearance annihilated. Yet the actual numbers voting for each candidate were, for Pierce, 1,600,000 ; for Scott, 1,380,000 ; a difference of not one-sixth. Really, the defeated candidate had five-sixths as many rotes as his opponent; apparently, to one con sidering only the prima facie aspect of the return, he was beaten by fourteen to one. Yet the American system of voting is lauded as the perfection of fairness. Two other modes of voting remain for con sideration. The first may be designated as the " Single Vote," that by which each elector shall be allowed to vote only for one repre sentative. The tendency of this is precisely the reverse of that first named. l lt secures the representation of all parties, however small. It gives every section a fair hearing in the Legislature If we suppose the country to be divided between two parties, the smaller, being, for example, one-third of the whole, if that minority were to restrict their list of candi dates to one-third of the number to be elected, and were to distribute their votes equally amongst them, might thus secure the return of their list of candidates. If, again, we suppose the country to be divided into an almost indefinite , number of parties, this mode of voting would in like man ner give a proportionate share of representation to each. For instance, any party or opinion in this couniry which ' could number one-six-hundredth-and -fifty-sixth part of the I electors amongst its supporters might by combination re turn one member and have one voice in the Legislature. But this result is attainable only through the medium of a complicated and cautious machinery. It requires the union of the whole country in a single constituency, a plan which, by excluding p ers onal knowledge and local influences, would practically rest all power in the hands of political clubs or committees, organised for the express purpose of selecting 1111 1111..