The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-29 00:00:00

1132 MR. ERNEST JONES. WE have received the first two addresses delivered by Mr. ERNEST JONES at St. Martin's hall on the con dition of the English people. Whether lie has delivered any subsequently we really do not know ; and, what is more, though we say it without any feeling of contempt for Mr. JONES himself, we really do not care. The little truth which these addresses contain (and they do contain some, as far as it goes) is buried under such a mass of exaggeration and falsehood that we are quite certain of its impotence. We don't believe there are half a dozen persons in Mr. JONES'S audience who would be imposed on by the mass of absurdity he has uttered, or half a dozen with sufficient patience or curiosity to separate the grain or two of truth from the rubbish with which it is overlaid. It is like searching for a farthing in a waggon-load of feathers. In the first place Mr. JONES iS very great upon the subject of the land. " The people's land," says he, " shall be the people's own." That is his watch word. They were robbed of it by the brutal offscourings of Normandy, and the time has arrived to wrest it back from them. Now, without stopping to demonstrate that there are very few of the descendants of these brutal offscourings left, and that out of the 30,0(K) landowners of this kingdom (such are Mr. JoNEs's figures) there are probably not 300—ay, not thirty—without a very strong infusion of that Saxon race which Mr. JONES denominates the people, we will just ask him one simple question : In what respect was the title of the Saxons to the meadows and corn-fields of England superior to that of the Normans' Prior occupation simply, and nothing more. The title itself was identical—the right of conquest. And, if Mr. JONES'S theory is sound, he had better take a railway ticket for some of the remote valleys of Wales, and exhort the descendants of CARACT.%CUS to regain the possessions of their forefathers. We really cannot distinguish between the titles of successive hordes of invaders. There is a theory among ethnologists that there was once a Mongolian population spread over the west of Europe, the remains of which are to be found among the Esquimaux and some other tribes in a similar state of civilisation. If the indefeasible right of the Aborigines be so strongly insisted on, Mr. JONES is bo Ind to have an "evening with the people" on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Touching the present condition of the English people, we confess with unfeigned sorrow and sym pathy that it is worse than it ought to be. But then, of all this misery, how small is the part which the aristocracy could either "cause or cure"? In one important respect the evil results from the very fve dom of action for which English society is remark able. Here every man who possesses any natural or acquired advantages over his fellows immediately rises into a superior class. If a ploughman shows superior intelligence or education lie becomes a bailiff. If an operative he becomes an ()veneer or book-keeper, and from that position, perhaps, either he or his family may progress to something higher. Can it be wondered at, then, that the class which remains the lowest of all remains wretched ?—a class from which all ifs best elements are perpetually drained off, leaving nothing but the dr,•gs behind. It is the same with the women as with the men. Our shops and our theatres, to say nothing of other pui suits, are constantly absorbing all the cleverest, prettiest, and most refined women of the lowest class. The natural result is obvious. The elevation of some must infallibly deepen the degradation of the rest. If a man, however superior, could never rise out of his own class, he would in some degree leaven the whole body. We deplore the degradation of our labouring classes as much as Mr. JONES can do. But we defy him to remove it by any fresh arrange• ment of property. The tide of population would sweep over his landmarks within two generations, and leave not a trace of them. The evil, on the con trary, is inherent and fundamental in English sotiety ; and as long as it is productive of such a preponderance of good, we must submit to it as the inevitable price which we have to pay, and exert ourselves to ameliorate the harshness of a lot which we cannot hope materially to improve. THE CONVICT DIFFICULTY. TICKET-OF LEAVE men are said to be a very much maligned class. If so, why are our colonies so loth to receive them? Labour is floc so plentiful in Australia that a periodical influx of able-bodied men is likely to be despised, nor are the colonists gene rally of that class which is subject to idle terror, or bypercritical in the choice of its company. If the presence of a large convict population could be endured in any civilised - be endurable there, - olt.lv va uLivu guveLuitiE; vu ...ivu ~ to receive them? Labour is no:, so plentiful in necessity of app ea li ng to hi g h er mot i ves, f or 1111111 principles. W inc tti iples. Australia that a periodical influx of able-bodied men they do not require to enlist the passions of servat i ve e 1 My letter has been already too long. I have men on their side. Hence in a party so eon My likely to be despised, nor are the colonists geno- yet to point out the effect of Whig prepon- stituted all we can expect as a general ru l e i s , rally of that class w hi c h i s su bj ec t t o idl e t error , or derance as engendering bu se literacy, which, i of originating an avoidance Political apathy, hypercritical in the c h o i ce o f it s com p an y. If the ndeed, is the ultimate result of Parliamentary measures, which, by agitating public opinion, inefficiency, and as corrupting the press, the presence of a large convict population could be and evoking a contest of interests, may result endured in any civilised community, it would surely in the conversion of some of theirs, accustomed last resort of constitutional vitality.—l am, Sur., be endurable there, wh ere th ere are so many out l e t s vo te r s, who are qu it e w illi ng to follow their ------ - - - • • - IL 41. a THE PRESS. f)r. adventurous spirits, and so many chances of reformation. That our criminals cannot be borne in Sydney and Melbourne is to our mind the best nrgnment that they cannot be borne in London; and is so far from showing that trans portation must be abolished, that it furnishes incon testable reasons why it should be revived and extended. The ticket•of•leave system, however well intended, is a failure for two reasons. First, because it retains experienced offenders in the country ; and, secondly, because the terrors of conviction are thereby very much diminished in the eyes of those who have not yet violated the law. The consequence is, a rapid improvement in the art of evading detection, and a corresponding increase in the encouragement to crime. Thus offences multiply at a sort of compound interest, the result of which in a few years it is perfectly shocking to contemplate. Some new localities must be found for penal settlements, and that speedily, if we would not have the population of this country rise, as that of Cali fornia has done, and establish a Vigilance Committee. Without exaggeration, we believe they will soon take the law into their own hands in some fashion or another, if they are not relieved from the apprehen sion of being throttled, stabbed, beaten, robbed, jumped upon, and murdered, as soon as it grows dusk and the policeman is well out of hearing. The fact is, it is idle any longer to say we cannot transport our convicts. We must transport them, or else transport ourselves, for the country is too narrow to hold both. We dissent from those persons who seem to imagine that every new foreign settlement is, de jure, entitled to dictate terms to the mother country. No definite rule can be laid down. It would he in the highest degree unjust and unwise to force our con victs on communities like Sydney and Tasmania. But that Sydney and Tasmania are too flou rishing to be penal settlements now, is, in great measure, due to the fact that they were penal settlements once. The predecessors of the race, who talk so loudly of contamina don, were illud quod dicere nolo. They did most of the rough work which the infancy of a colony requires, and if a new settlement is founded the same process might be observed. As for the alleged taint in the blood, it is an argument which we suppose the Australians would be as unwilling to bring forward as we should. If, in fine, prosperous and orderly communities have arisen out of penal establishments in one quarter of the globe, why should they not do so in another? In forming new penal settlements, two things seem to be required. First, that they should be sufficiently remote from civilised society; secondly, that the country shou'd be large enough to afford scope for industrial labour. But there really does not seem to be any great want of such localities if we would only take the trouble to look for them. There is the greater part of the north coast of Australia; there is the east coast of Africa; there are the Falkland Islands ; there is Borneo, inhaoited only by savages ; and, lastly, there is our own Island of Ceylon. There may, of course, be objections, of which we know nothing, to many of these places ; but some one of them would, probably, turn out to be available, or, even it not, there are surely other tracts of country on the world's surface which we could employ in the manner proposed. Corrtspontatt. ELECTORAL INEQUALITIES. Letter V. TO THE EDTIOR OF "THE. PRESS." Sir,—The decay of Parliamentary efficiency, which is now conceded as a fact, is legitimately traceable to that vicious constitution of our electoral system which I have attempted to expose. I must be pardoned for repeating so often that the Whig or town constituencies return twice as many members in proportion to their numbers as the county or Conservative con stituencies. The injustice is glaring, and ought to be exposed till it is remedied. I re state it at present, however, in order to trace its results. It is plain that the Whig party, having a fixed mechanical 'preponderance to fall back upon, can afford to rest its tenure of power on the vulgar and well-understood interests of their supporters. Their leaders are under no necessity of appealing to higher motives, for they do not require to enlist the passions of men on their side. Hence in a party so con stituted all we can expect as a general rule is, political apathy, an avoidance of originating measures, which, by agitating public opinion, and evoking a contest of interests, may result SATURDAY, own interests, and to coincide in opinion with ' the dispensers of patronage, so long as the injustice they do to other people is not forced on their attention. Hence the " safe role " has been the general tenor of Whig polies► since the preponderance in the electoral body secured by the Reform Bill has come clearly into view. They throw out a tub now and then to amuse the public ; but the moment the great whale shows any excitement, the tub is quietly withdrawn, and the political waters subside into their usual torpidity. Hence the new Reform Bills of Lord John Russell, and the measures of administrative and legal reform which are brought forward in the beginning of every session to be burked at its close ; and hence also the more dangerous manoeuvres on foreign policy of Lord Pal merston—fussy tactics, which, like a man on a hobby-horse, combine apparent motion with entire absence of progress. Such is the effect on the Whig party, the natural and logical consequence of the exist ing state of things acting on human nature. Let us now inquire into the effect of the system on the Conservative party. The Conservatives being in a minority in the electoral body when things are in their ordinary course, cannot expect to float their measures merely by an appeal to the common vulgar interests of their electoral supporters. To carry their measures they must gain con verts from the habitual adherents of the other party. Now, if the preponderance was not overwhelming this would be no great griev ance. for an appeal to higher principles—to patriotism, to philanthropy—might in each case be sufficient, and the only mischief would be that the Conservative party would he less frequently in power than their numbers entitle them to be ; but owing to the preponderance being in the ratio of two to one, the Conser vatives, if they are to be an efficient political party at all, are thrown, as the very condition of their existence, into a normal state of agita tion. They must create a political capital out of political excitement, or they must assist quietly and decently at their own political obsequies. Strange necessity this for the Conservative party, constitutionally adverse to excitement and agitation ! but, nevertheless, the logical result of the position in which they have been placed by the Reform Bill. Is it to their honour or is it not that they have shrunk from this political exigency? That is a question very open to discussion ; but the fact is undeniable, they have abstained from employing the sole means within their power capable of securing their due place as a party. They have not appealed to the pas sions of the country, and the consequence is they have only their own political supporters to rely on. Hence the normal minority in which the Reform Bill has placed them with the constituencies has been perpetuated in the Commons. They have been obliged to confine themselves to a critical and negative course of political action of great disservice to their party prestige and of little use to the country. Sum - ming up, then, the practical action of the two parties—the apathy of the Whig party arising from their security, and the apathy of the Tory party arising from their hopeless ness of success—the result is Parliamentary inefficiency. If, on the other hand, the interests of all parties in the nation were justly represented in the House of Commons, there would be a due oscillation and a healthy vigour in party conflicts. The Whig party would not then re strict themselves to the " safe role," just because they would not be safe, but would require to appeal to patriotism, to principle, to passion, to secure their possession of power. Nor would the Conservatives be compelled to adopt political agitation as the only means of attaining power ; for their regular supporters in the electoral body would be sufficiently numerous to allow of them governing on Con servative principles. My letter has been already too long. I have yet to point out the effect of Whig prepon derance as engendering la se literacy, which, indeed, is the ultimate result. of Parliamentary inefficiency, and as corrupting the press, the last resort of ititutional vitali .1 du;