The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

is, doubtless, a grievous humiliation ; and it
is too much to expect that such an error should
ever be formally confessed. But the weakuess
of the arguments with which the statement of
French opinion is encountered is every whit
as good as a confession.
" Do the Northamptonshire farmers know
" who the intelligent foreigner is," says the
Times," of whom Mr. STAFFORD is speaking ? "
He is a Legitimist, and as perverse as any of
his school ! Now, we own ,ve are somewhat at
a loss to understand in what this perversity
consists. A man is thought to be perverse
when he refuses to see what every one else
sees plainly enough. But is any liberal
journal prepared to say that all the world sees
plainly that hereditary monarchy is obsolete?
In the face of all the European Governments
at the present day, this would seem rather an
extravagant assertion. Why then is the Legi-
timist perverse? Is it because he endeavours
to account for the overthrow of hereditary mo-
narchy in France, like M DE TOCQUEVILLE, and
for its preservation in England, like M. DE
MONTALEMBERT, on grounds distasteful to the
Liberals? We profess we can see no other
reason for the charge. As for the accusation
of wishing to stir up strife between dif-
ferent classes in this country, it is
really too ridiculous, and, as we shall
show presently, recoils upon the accusers.
It is not strange that a believer in aristocracy
should wish to point out to the landed pro-
prietors of this country the rocks on which
they wrecked themselves in France. He sees
in England the great stronghold of that senti-
ment, that kind of liberty, and those institu-
tions which he would like to see restored at
home. Is it wonderful, therefore, that he
should offer us the aid of his experience and
reflection towards the business of preserving
them here? His attachment to a political
theory is stronger than his attachment to a
party or a person. And as long as England
remains the best witness in favour of that
theory, he will share none of those feelings im-
puted to him, because she may be indifferent
to the claims of HENRY V. He is a patriot more
than a partisan, and a philosopher more than
a patriot.
To return to the agriculturists themselves,
we cannot admit that it is even a matter of
opinion whether they do, or do not, possess
the particular kind of superiority at the bare
idea of which the Radical becomes furious. Of
what constitution of mind is loyalty and love
of existing institutions the product? That is
the question to be solved. And will any one
deny that a country life, and country pur•
suits—the mere fact, if you will, of gaging
upon fields, woods, and rivers—gradually pro-
duces a tone of thought distinct from that
generated by the life of cities and the pursuits
of commerce? There all is constant, here all
is change ; there the influx of new opinions
is slow, here it is so rapid that the discoveries
of yesterday are the prejudices of to-day;
there, consequently, sentiments once imbibed
have time to make deeper impressions ; there
traditions linger, and become interwoven with
local attachments and associations to which
the town-bred man is a stranger. Now, it is
just this which goes to form that constitution
of mind of which we have above spoken ;
this it is which our greatest poets, whom critics
tell us proclaim the highest truths, have con-
stantly eulogised. Why do we refuse to recog-
nise their authority directly something practi-
cal is at issue ? Either three-fourths of what
has been written and believed of the poet's
mission, and insight, and didactic office, is so
much rubbish, or we must accept this view of
the rural as opposed to the urban popula-
tion.

Any dispute as to the comparative import-
ance of commerce and agriculture has usually
seemed to us rather verbal than real. Agricul-
ture is the foundation, commerce the super-
structure, of national greatness. One contri-
butes the element of stability, the other the
element of splendour. Without the first the
prosperity of nations becomes dependent
on the fluctuations of trade, which may
drift into other channels, and leave a
hitherto flourishing people stranded and
impoverished. Without the second, art
and literature, and all that constitutes
social refinement,which contributes to glorify

SATURDAY,

the national life, and ameliorates mankind
at large, can never attain to maturity.
Each possesses its own virtues and its own
vices. The mercantile class is liberal and in-
formed, but at the same time restless, specula.
tive, and cosmopolitan. The agricultural has
more confined views, but is steadier, more pru-
dent, and more home-loving. The one kind of
life sharpens the intellect, the other nourishes
the affections. Each ham its proper place in a
well-regulated commonwealth„just as in a well-
developed man ; each has its work to do, and
it is folly for either to step Out of their proper
province, and claim to be what they are not.
To recur more particularly to Mr. STAFFORD'S
quotation, no fact is more clearly established
by history than these two::—First, that the agri-
cultural classes are more attached to mo-
narchy, and secondly, that they are fitter
for war, than the commercial. In all re-
volutions and rebellions it will almost
invariably be found that the towns are on the
side of innovation, the country on the side of
existing institutions. The only class in
France which stood up for the monarchy
were the peasantry of La Vendee, where the
provincial aristocracy still retained their
ancient authority, and enjoyed the confidence
of the people. In England, as we well know,
the great civil war was a contest between town
and country. Nine-tenths of the towns were
fur the Parliament, nine-tenths of the coun-
ties for the King. In regard to fighting quali-
ties the same difference is observable. had
not a general of extraordinary abilities ap-
peared at the critical moment in the ranks of
the Parliament, the armies of the King must
eventually have gained the day. It is no
disparagement to the man of the loom that
he is a worse shot and a worse rider,
possesses a less hardy frame, and is
more acutely sensitive to danger, than a
ploughman, a huntsman, or a gamekeeper. It
is the necessity of his position. " The robust
"rural Saxon" says Mr. EMERSON, " degene-
" rates in the mills to the Leicester stockinger,
"to the imbecile Manchester spinner—far on
" the way to be spiders and 'needles." But
then he has his owu peculiar value. He is
the creator of that vast wealth which en-
ables us turn the physical energies of the
rustic to the best advantage. In time of war,
commerce finds the money, and agriculture
produces the men ; without the one we could
never have colonised the world, without the
other we could never protect ourselves. To
carp at this just and obvious distinction which
the experience of ages has sanctioned, appears
to us to be rather more perverse than anything
that M. DE MONTALEMSERT has said or dune.

If it be said that a great many of these ob-
servations verge upon truisms, the reader
must remember that when a truism is denied,
there is no alternative but to simply restate
it. If a man tells us the sky is green, we can
only answer that to us it appears blue. We
have essayed nothing more in the present
article than to recapitulate the grounds, both
a priori and d posteriori, on which it is usually
believed that agriculturists are, as a rule,
more conservative and more soldierly than
mechanics and tradesmen—which, we take
it, is all that is meant by saying that they
afford " the safest barrier against convulsions
and invasions." As to their being more loyal,
the phrase does not occur in ➢lr. STAFFORD S
speech ; but has been dextrously assumed
by his assailant for the purpose of exciting
the commercial class against the agricultural,
and creating a prejudice against so powerful a
reasoner as the author of " The Political Future
of England."

CONSERVATIVE INTERESTS AND
ROMAN CATHOLIC INFLUENCE.
ALTHOUGH " sociology," or practical measures
relating to society in the gross, must continue
to claim the principal place in our domestic
affairs, it would bo a great error to suppose
that all questions connected with " party "
must be completely laid aside. Whatever bo
the rule of action applied to English govern
ment, the number, education, and property of
Conservatives must be proportionately repre-
sented. Mr. DOUBLEDAY (a Radical political

OCTOBER 4, 1856.

economist) has stated in his " Life of Sir
Robert Peel" that " even now the Tories are
" the richest party in England ;" and we are
convinced that, as things are managed by the
" Libe,rals," the Conservative interest is de-
prived of its legitimate influence in the House
of Commons. The eve of a general election
is not an improper period for considering such
a subject. and there is one phase of it which
we shall illustrate to-day.
We alluded last week to the great official
influence given to the Roman Catholics. We
believe that the disproportionate power given
to them should become the object of severe
scrutiny. There are some persons to whom
such questions are distasteful, as being mixed
up with polemical considerations and with
Irish provincial politics. We have no liking
for them ourselves. But there are times
when provincial politics assume imperial im-
portance ; and, recollecting how seventy Irish
" Liberal " members have turned the scale at
every :crisis against the Conservative party,
and that, in point of fact, the " Irish vote ' has
decided our party struggles in the House of
Commons, we cannot refrain from examining
some new aspects of the question.
This subject, we repeat, has derived new in-
terest from the stream of official patronage
which has recently been flowing to the Roman
Catholics. We have no desire to cheek the
legitimate claims of talent and character, but
we cannot allow the Conservative interest to be
unfairly swamped. The state of the Par-
liamentary representation in Ireland is one of
the primary causes of this exaggerated in-
fluence given to the Roman Catholics.
We stated last week that there were six
Protestants only out of the twenty-seven mem-
bers for the province of Munster. But the
case we find to be still stronger. The Con-
servatives of the south of Ireland have only
two members to represent them. The over-
whelming majority of the Protestants are
" Conservatives" in politics, for only one to
every twenty amongst them is a " Liberal."
With the exception of the estates owned by
absentee Whigs (like the Duke of DEVON-
SHIRE, Marquis of LANSDOWNE. and Earl of
Coax), the great territorial properties of the
district are owned by Protestants. The fee
of the soil of Tipperary is owned by Protes-
tants. There is a large Protestant gentry in
Limerick which has contributed many bril-
liant military celebrities to our modern army.
In Clare the estates are decidedly Protestant,
and also in Waterford. The professional
classes are divided between the two religions,
but no one can deny that the overwhelming
preponderance of accumulated wealth and
hereditary rank is on the side of the Pro-
testants.

Yet, in the present state of things, Lord
Viscount BERNARD (the worthy Member for
Bandon), and Mr. IsAAc Burr (the Member for
Youghal), are its only representatives in the
House of Commons!
The bare statement of such a fact is enough
to show how unjustly the Conservatives are
swamped, and how unjustly their influence is
overborne. To the six counties of Clare,
Limerick, Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, and Water-
ford, including their chief cities, besides many
thriving towns, only two Conservatives are
assigned ! How comes that fact ? We are
compelled to answer—Because the Roman
Catholic interest is allied to Government
patronage ; and, as Mr. HATTER well knows,
the elected members are incessant in their
applications for promotions for their con-
stituents.

Let us look at the case in another light.
Let us leave out the words " Protestants" and
" Romanists," and put the question, as if it were
locally an English one, between " Conserva-
tives and Radicals." Would Sir BENJAMIN HALL,
or Mr. WILLIAMS of Lambeth, or even Mr.
RALPH OSBORNE, have the hardihood to assert
that two members were enough for such an
aggregate of wealth and respectability as the
Conservatives of Munster possess?
It is nothing to reply that there are, besides,
four " Liberal Protestants " in the represen-
tation of that district. These gentlemen,
doubtless, are respectable characters, but their
line of politics is in many respects more ob-
jectionable to the Conservative Protestants
than that of thorough-going Roman Catholics.