The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-03-12 00:00:00

IN PARLIAMENT.

A friend of oars was, a few years since, riding on
to meet the bounds, when be was overtaken by an
M.P., who accosted him thus: "Extraordinary
thing; 1 was in the house at half-pest three this
morning, and now I am in Blankshire, riding on to
cover." "Half-past three," exclaimed our friend,
" that's very late; important debate, I suppose r
"0 yes, very important," was the reply. "What
might the subject be?" was then asked, and the
Id. P. answered, "Oh! 'poet my soul I don't know;
very important though." And so he rode off to
relate his wonderful powers of locomotion to some
one elm. Now such Members of ,Parliament, and
we fear there are not a few, must be sorely punted
by the present dead-lock of parties In the House of
Commons. Used to play at "follow my leader,'
without a thought or care, they find their leaders in
a state of positive bewilderment. A subject is
brought before the House; nay, forced upon its
consideration, which is splitting up in piece* all the
party combinations which have for es long a time
helped or impeded pUblio bunnies, and each member
Is reclooed to the painful neoessity of thinking for
himself. Now cut of this unprecedented state of
things we foresee very great good that may arise to
the country at large, and very great improvement in
the management of affairs. Heretofore only one half
of the practical intelligence of the House was
available. Whatever Mr. A proposed,Mr. B opposed;
and Ws party religiously followed nit. Now no one
ever pretended that all the ibtelllgenoe and practical
good lielnee,•or honesty of the nation, was confined
to one side of the House. The great difficulty has
ever been to bring these qualities to bear on any one
important subject without the interferenoe of party
feeling. By making the Reform Bill an open ques-
tion, the present Government have sought to do this,
and, not improbably, they will succeed in doing it,
although not in the way they intended. Next to
uniting all parties in one, the second step is to break
up all parties to piece.. While therefore the
secessionists from the Ministry, and Messrs. Bright,
Beale., and Co., occupy the ogesceile poles, and, •
step nearer to one another, Mown Disraeli and
Gladstone look at one another moues the table with
somewhat suspicious ;Janos, we believe that there
are a number of practical and thoughtful men who
feel that the present state of affairs is too important
to be trifled with • that the remodelling the repro-
:moieties system of the country is too vast a work to
be made subservient to the ambition of any party, or
the stalking horse for any private feeling. There
are Liberals who do not look upon all Conservatives
as necessarily enemies of the people; and Con-
servatives who do cot consider all Liberals as
traitors; who believe that men may, with equal
honesty, be seeking for the °Gantry's good, although
in different ways. It is to such that the intelligenoe
of the country now looks ; it ',epode that they will
no longer encourage the "war to the knife" system
of their respective leaders, bit rather check and
maimate all such feelings, and show, by their Meade
support of measttres rather than men, that they will
no longer be led blindfold, but judge for themeelvee.
Much prejudios most be overcome on both sides;
much forbearance most be exercised, and if it is
absolutely necessary that some Reform Bill must be
carried, and if from the state of parties it appears
that the present Ministry is most likely to carry •
safe, and at the same times satisfactory bill, their old
supporters must make considerable allowance for the
difficulties In which they are placed; and their old
opponests must meet their attempt with candour,
and not repel or condemn whatever dose not exactly
coincide with their own views, or reach their own
standard of required change. Besideetbe difficulties
arising from diversity of interests—the agricultural,
oommerojal. and mennfactoring, and the intricate
and perplexing relations of capital and labour, we
must remember that prescription has • great influence)
on the minds of men, and that they cling with the
utmost tenacity to those habits of thought in which
they were brought up; and this natural feeling is a
great security against rash and ill digested changes.
The last forty years have been • period of one steady
progressive and almost uninterrupted revolution. It
has been progressive bemuse it has been steady and
deliberate; and it has made its way against • continual
opposition of prejudice which barn not been without a
salutary effect, in keeping it out of the heeds of those
who would have herded it on beyond the require-
ments of the times and the preparedness of the
people. We have only to look at the ideas and
habits of thought of men forty year. ago, to see bow
vast the change, and yet bow silently it has been
brought about. The relational between the Sovereign
and the people—how vastly are they changed? Forty
year. ago the king was seem exclept in state;
and the loyalty of the people
expected to have, the slightest infusion of sympathy
or love. The relations again of the great landed
proprietor and his tenants wee almost feudal. But
bow have these things passed away? Each change
was looked on by some as fatal to the country ; and
yet the continual prosperity of the country show,
that these apogee, so far from being prejudicial,
were necessary for its well.being. We may then be
hopeful for the future, and may believe that the
good mem of the practical men of the House of
Commons will steer us safely through the misty
atmosphere of prejudice and ambition which hides
the future from our eyes, and that the Session cf
1867 will be distinguished by • domestic legislation
which shall secure our present blessings for years to
come.