The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1884-10-07 00:00:00

lioreet (Unlit' Erpreci§.

DOROHUTER, OCTOBER 7th, 1884

THC NEW DEMOCRACY.

Lord Halmeebury's memoir., which have jolt erne
the light, among othr things point out a contrast
altogether favourable to our age between the agitation
of 1832 and thst of 1884 On both °coast ors the
Lords threw out a Itsform Bill, and threw it out after
it had bees paned by the lower Horne by lure
majorities The challenge was tek 11 up in both cane
by the people, and a brisk agitati os wee got or.
Happily it went no farther than • war of words in
loth cane. Men thra.toned reprisal', but the crisis
posted ewe,; and yet the Bristol riot", the burning of
the Castle of Nottingham, the threat of 100,000
men of Birmingham to m•-ch on London chow how
much nearer we were to a chit war in 1832 than in
1884. Lord hlslmeebury in his memoir' gives us an
instance of the savage character of the mob in those
timer, which leads us to roe that with the advance
of education the people can contend for their
right, with better weapons than sticks and stones
and threats of brute violence. In 1832 the
Darlington mob had deliberately piled up • heap
of stooge opposite the principal inn in the towa, with
the intention of assailing and battering in the panel.
sod windows LI the first carriage with a coronet
painted on the do r. A. it happened, the Earl of
Tankerville, with his dau4hter and son-lo.law, the
Earl of Halm...bury, were the first to pees through
Darlington, on their way north to Ltd Tankervills'e
twat of Coillinghern in N othomberland. No so ,ner
wee the carriage seen to be that of a n ,bleman then
II was swelled with • shower of atone, ; the windows
were mashed in, and but for the travellers crouching
under the 11•144 the lii arias received would have been
more anima. Lord bialunsbnry.who ha" done well not
to leeve the bury "cone of life in which he has
played a not ungraceful port without writing his
memoirs, should remind his fellow piers that if the
egitatioa of 1884 has not displayei the ,a 0 scenes of
mob vtokom m that of 1832, it hat not been owing to
the gaped°, wisdom of the Upper House, but to the
metraist of the people at urge, arising from the
better knowledge which they now potent of their
powers. The people are claim because they know
that, strength, end am trust In the good faith and
resolution of the Ifthistry to force the hinds of the
peers without giving the Constitution too severe a
wrench. No one will deny that the sagacity and self.
reetrelot in the present oontrover.y rests with the
Liberal, not the Conservative aide of the Hotter.
He. Gladstone, who is not given to enloprieing
Lord Beaconsfield." memory, could not help
passing on his pnadeoelsor in ofithe this
eulogising the other day, that if he had been
still at the head of his party, the prefect crisis
would not have occurred. He would have found some
way to avoid It, and would at least have "educated
his party," which Lord Salisbury appears to be
inespable cf doing. The moderation and wrlf.restrant,
in a word, are all on the aide of the stronger, not the
weaker party of the two Hum if we can congratu-
late the country, as we certainly can, on he self.
restraint, it is owing to modersting ilifitlllllollll which
bepoflynowanin foroe.lnt which werenot se yet called
out in 1882 Popular education ham eared liberty from
in very excesses.