The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

882 undertaken—it will be utterly impossible for the Conservative party to feel any sense of security ; their political power and their social influence will be menaced: and the Con servatives, now forewarned, should be fore armed, and should not make the same error in domestic politics which certain offi cial wiseacres, after full notice, have committed on Indian affairs. Enormous delusions prevail about some portions of the subject of Parliamentary Reform, and it is in the highest degree neces sary that the public mind of the country, and that the adherents of the Conservatives, should be thoroughly familiarised with the knowledge appertaining to this ever-recurrent question of " Reform." THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857. enlarging into dimensions of striking dignity and power. Even now Lord BROUGHAM, after thirty years' experience, does not see the defects of the vaunted Mechanics' Institutes. We agree with the Times of Friday in thinking "that the march " of-mind idea, as regards the masses, has " much subsided." We do not admire COB BETT as a publio instructor. He was much of an anarchist, and he had wild views about meum and taunt, though they were so plausibly put forward that Sir /AMES GRAHAM plagiarised from them largely. in his suppressed " Corn and Currency." But COBBETT told Lord BROUGHAM and Dr. BIRKBECK some home truths about the absurdity of expecting that the sons of toil, after twelve hours' work, were to go, and, in the Broughamic cant, " slake their thirst for knowledge" (1) The " masses" have not intellect equal to laborious study after days of toil. Some sin gularly gifted individuals amongst them may have such mental energy ; but it is delusion to encourage the idea that the working people at large, ploughmen and draymen, can be ex pected to acquire a philosophic ardour in the pursuit of knowledge which the middle classes rarely show. We honour the working classes for the great part that they perform in our social commonwealth ; we admire their cheer ful fortitude under privations ; and we rejoice in their progressive prosperity, and are glad to see many amongst them emerging into larger social spheres. But it is social sym pathy, friendly intercourse, and cheering esti mation, rather than hard, toilsome, intellec tual life of the dryest kind, that the working classes crave for. Many amongst thein wish that their superiors had more hearth and less " head ;" and the promoters of Mechanics' Institutes totally forget the differences between the working classes in agricultural and manu facturing England. "Lord BROUGHAM and his friend Dr. BIRK " BECK," wrote COBBETT, " knew nothing of the " habits of the working people of England. " They are talking of the horns of the ox, and " not of its hindquarters and tail. What can " Lord BROUGHAM know of the working classes " when all his life has been passed in Lin " coln's-inn, or in the botheration of speculative " books?" The latter phrase was a happy one, as it touched the radical error which has run through much of the thinking of the "Liberal" party even down to the present day. National habits, customs, and social prejudices are too much disregarded by the " Liberal " theorists. They have lived upon " botheration of specula " Live books." There are two sides, it may be said, to this subject of the education of the working classes, and so there are. If there was too little faith in educational institutions for the working classes in the rural districts, there has been to-) credulous an expectation in the towns of benefits which could scarcely be realised. We have quoted COBBETT because it is almost the sole question on which he could be safely cited. Lord Jotor RUSSELL alluded with approbation to the common•sense views of ConsETT upon expecting miracles from the march of mind amongst the working classes. THE PAPAL POLICY TO ENGLAND. Ir would be a great mistake to suppose, be cause there has been little said or done of late with reference to religious questions, that the people of England had ceased to care about those mighty controversies which occu pied not long since the attention of the coun try at large. In the religious world there is much activity that is not represented in the journalism of the time, and all through the provincial districts there aro influential reli gious circles which keep sentiment alive on subjects of a far more spiritual character than mere political discussions. Indifferentism is not the dominating feeling of the land; and questions in which Romitnism is involved aro eagerly examined by large classes, who care little what Ministers are doing with reference to a new Reform Bill. In the days of the long revolutionary war, while our armies were encountering the Marshals of France, Ministers were made and unmade by the subject of " Ca tholic Emancipation." And even now, in the presence of an Indian mutiny, there aro numbers of persons who take the deepest in terest in the new aspects which the Papacy seems anxious to assume to England. That there hats been a decided change of policy at the Court of Rome is plainly mani fested. ,What is -called " The Pope's Pro gress * in Italy has not been undertaken without a deep design. Pius IX. had for a series of years been declinini , in estimation amongst the Courts and Cabinets of tho " Catholic Powers." His reputation had greatly fallen, and his popularity had proved ephemeral. Whispers had been heard of a meditated deposition, and of a contemplated retreat to some position more suitable to his disposition. His tenure of the Papal office had certainly injured his Church. He had disturbed the minds of many ; his measures were wildly conceived in a spirit of crude enthusiasm that was received with apprehen sion by skilled ecclesiastics of his own communion ; he meddled with things that he did not understand, and his rule sowed revolutionary seeds. Between the charac ters of JOSEPH 11., the " philosophical Em peror " of Austria, and Pius IX., there is a striking resemblance. Both were enthu siasts, mistaking sentiments for convictions, and fancying that institutions can be kept up by benevolent words and amiable acts of a merely personal kind. It would not suit the Papacy to allow itself to be injured by the weak rule of a Pope like Pius IX. It was accordingly resolved that demonstrations should be made in his favour, so as to impose on the credulous or ignorant. A " progress" was determined upon. It has turned out to be a hollow failure. Nobody has been deceived by it, though at first it pro mised well In England it was deemed advisable to take a guarded course. The " Aggression " and its results had compelled even the boldest manceuverers to be more cautious. The con stituencies even of the " Liberal" connection had shown a decided aversion to being repre sented by Roman Catholic gentlemen, and the social influence of the Engiish Catholics had been much injured by the effects of the Aggression. Some of that lost power had been regained by the " Coalition," and by the triumph which the Roman Catholics had in driving Lord JOHN RUSSELL from the leader ship of the Liberal party, and forcing him to sit under Lord ABERDEEN. But the enor mous scandals associated with the SADLEIRS and some of their confederates, and the almost wholesale pledge-breaking of the " Irish Bri gade," counteracted the ephemeral triumph of the Roman Catholics ; and other causes also deeply injured them. It is in Ireland, as in days of yore, the Papacy has again sought its reserve of power. The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is to be remodelled on a system analogous to that existing in Italy. The Roman Catholics of England are to be left to gain social influence as well as they can by the aid of their ancient families, many of whom are entitled to much personal respect. While the popular power will be sought for in Ireland, the patric►an element will be looked for in England amongst the Howarda, Petres, Dormers, Cliffords, Constables, and others with long pedigrees and deep purses. A feeling of alienation had for some years prevailed more or less between the chief persons of the English and Irish Roman Catholic connections. The language and tone of the Irish platform was not liked at the Stafford-street Club. But it was shown by the compact movement to obtain the repeal of the Roman Catholic Oath that their differ ences had been considerably healed. Arch bishop M'HALE was treated with much dis tinction by the English Roman Catholics on his visit in the course of the present year, and it has been stated on competent authority that "close and friendly relations exist between " Cardinal WISEMAN and Archbishop M'HALE." The circumstance, also, that Cardinal WISE.. MAN should have written so strong a letter to the Member for Dungarvon on " Rome and its Rulers " is not without significance. The letter is written in a tone of emphatic, and oven LORD BROUGHAM AND THE WORKING CLASSES. THE energy of Lord BROUGHAM and his con stancy to his old hobbies at his time of life is calculated to astonish those who are not deeply versed in biography, and who are only super ficial students of human nature. In a man who for thirty years used daily to exhibit himself as a barrister, or debater, or lecturer, or promul gator of some novel scheme, or expatiator at " Freemasons'-hall, or " Henry Brougham " in proprid persona et de omnibus rebus, it is not wonderful that the habit of exhibition should become ingrained and be a second nature. Lord BROUGHAM, after all, is only five years older than our present Premier. In 1840, the Duke of WELLINGTON, then seventy-seven years of age, sat in the House of Lords, on the discus sion of the " Repeal of the Corn Laws," from five o'clock in the afternoon to five o'clock the next morning, and wound up the debate in a vigorous speech. The immense physical efforts of Mr. O'CONNELL in the Repeal year of 19.43, when he was sixty-nine years old, and the wonderful freshness of Mr. COBBETT, after a life of vicissitudes, and in spite of a painful organic disease exhibited to the last, are proofs that Lord BROUGHAM'S " wonderful energies " are not entirely peculiar to himself, His activity, versatility, and talking power were always great ; but " talk," with the help of " reporting," is very deceptive. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FREDERICK the GREAT, the Duke of WELLINGTON (during the Peninsular war), often went through days of intense, patient, and concentrated head-work far exceeding any thing that Lord BROUGHAM could show. The grand marvel is to do what several literary men have done, viz., in advanced years to dis play increased power of the intellect, and im proved force of understanding. JOHNSON'S greatest literary work, " The Lives of the Poets," was written when he was past three score years and ten, and it is a great advance on his former works in point of thought, style, and classical treatment. BURKE'S bodily labours were of an extraordinary kind. His toil in the early years of the impeachment of WARREN HASTINGS, and his acquirement of solid knowledge, as distinct from flashy generalisation, surpassed aught recollected of Lord BROUGHAM. In his later years he produced his terrible " Letter to a Noble Lord "—the divina Philippica fame of English political literature—at a time when the chief powers of his body were prostrate. "Man," says PAI.EY, " is a bundle of habits ;" and we see nothing so wonderful in Lord BROUGHAM retaining the habits of his early life. Since the Reform Bill we do not think that he has shown increased power of acquiring new ideas, the true test of " progress " in an intellect. Ho has repeated himself over and over again; and he has never improved as an orator since once his style was formed. After Sir ROBERT PEEL left office in 1830, and when a seat in the Opposition afforded him com parative leisure, there was a surprising im provement in his oratorical power, and his mind acquired more philosophic enlargement and breadth of view. BROUGHAM, like a huge machine, was always the same, with a deafen ing and incessant whirr of public noise ; PEEL was more like a tree, comparatively stunted for many years, but gradually, though_slowly,