The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-18 00:00:00

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No. 281.—VoL. VI. LONDON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18,185 S• UN STASTAMPMPED
ED -.SIXPENCE..
..FIVEPENCE.

Vrtss.

state of things which they condemn is an un-
questioned evil and an undisputed wrong. Thus
one of our able and clever contemporaries, the
Evening Star, who is trying hard to get up the
steam, dwells at great length on the influence of
landlords over their tenants, and after having
laboured to prove, what no one denies, that they
do possess a considerable influence, inclines to
think that his case is established, and that such
a hideous thing as a landlord having influence
over his tenant is a monstrous evil, which needs
only to be shown to be acknowledged. We
think, however, that another and far more im-
portant step is necessary in order to maintain
the argument ; and that step is to show, not
merely that this influence exists, but that it is an
evil and a wrong. The inference which it is
natural to draw respecting the writer who
makes this off-hand assumption, is, that he and
his friends have no influence as landlords, but
that they flatter themselves that they have some
other influence which would avail them under a
different order of things. For this notion of
destroying influences is evidently absurd. Let
every existing influence be annihilated to-morrow,
and what would be the result ? Simply this :
in a month's time other influences, far more likely
to be pernicious to the community at large, would
be brought into operation, and then a fresh
outcry would be raised that those also must be
got rid of. Vain and idle aspiration ! It is a cry
to change human nature. There is not a human
being alive but must more or less be subject to
the influence of others, and to the circumstances
which surround him. Therefore we must ask
our contemporary to have the goodness to tell
us why the influence of a landlord is more
dangerous to the State, or more unfair to the
individual, than the influence of a mob of demo-
crats, such as prevails in the United States of
America, the notorious effect of which is to
banish from the councils of the State the ablest,
the wisest, and the most respectable members of
the community ; while it sends men to Congress
who allow themselves to be betrayed into brawls,
more suited to a pothouse than the legislative
assembly of a great nation—brawls which even
the men who take part in them would be
ashamed of if there were members within its
walls whose high character and social position
conferred a dignity on the whole body, which
the worst would be constrained to respect and
would not dare to outrage.
We do not, however, mean to assert that
landlord influence may not be improperly and
unfairly exerted ; but then we know of no kind
of influence whatever which is free from this
imperfection. Says a customer to a shopkeeper,
"If you don't vote for my man, I will withdraw
my custom from you." Says the leader of a
mob to a peaceable citizen, "If you don't vote
for our man, you will soon find this town too
hot to hold you." Says the creditor to the
debtor, "I shall press for my money if you vote
against my candidate." Says the great lady of
the neighbourhood, " I shall not invite you and
your wife and daughter to my great archery
meeting, if you vote against my son." And so
on, ad infinitum. Indeed, from the sovereign on
the throne to the peasant in the cottage, one and
all are subject to the influence of others. We are
no admirers of Mr. ROEBUCK. lie is of the
Radical school. But what does he say on this
subject ? Addressing his Sheffield constituents
just two years ago, he says :—" You have chosen
" men, who have gone to Parliament, and the
" moment they have entered it they have been

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1858.

REFORM OP PARLIAMENT.
SoNtE of our contemporaries are labouring hard
to rouse their readers on this question ; and,
since there is generally no great difficulty in
getting a certain number of people to make a de-

monstration in favour of any political measure,

- :
it is possible they may succeed in so doing. And
then they will designate the demonstration as
rox populi ; and since, where there is real apathy
upon any given subject amongst the people, so
that the vox of the demonstrators is the only vox

which is heard, it sounds plausible enough to
assume that those who demonstrate speak the
mind of the mass of their fellow-subjects.

In the present instance, however, we are well
convinced that this is an unjustifiable assump-
tion ; and though we feel bound to acknowledge
that there is a general and deep-seated discon-
tent with the composition of the present House
of Commons, still there is no confidence what-
ever felt by the masses that the measures urged
upon them by those who set themselves tp as
their leaders and guides will have the effect of
procuring for them a House of Commons with
which they are likely to be better pleased. They
naturally and truly say amongst themselves,—lt
sounds all very delightful giving us votes for
members of Parliament, but, mien we every one
of us have a vote, of what wonderfully small
value will it be to each individual possessor ?
What real political power shall I possess, what
real influence in the government of the country,
because I can affect the return of a representa-
tive, where my vote is only one amongst ten,
twenty, or thirty thousand ? Such a privilege
they regard as ridiculously small politically, and,
under a stringent Corrupt Practices Act, as
valueless commercially.
Now, this is a very common feeling amongst
the working men, and we are inclined to believe
that your great extension-of-the-franchise men
find this difficulty meet them at every turn ; for
the most sensible and the most ambitious of the
working classes—men who arc really worthy to
have a weight and influence in the councils of
the nation—men who have the ability to discern
that which is wise from that which is foolish,
and that which is right from that which is wrong
(and many, very many, such there be within the
compass of our own knowledge)—these men, so
tar from wishing any great extension of the fran-
chise, look to raising themselves in the social
scale so as to obtain the privilege, which may be
worth having when shared with a few, but Which
is assuredly worthless when shared with all their
neighbours.
will
think, therefore, that the Radical leaders
will fail in their object to create amongst
working men any extensive expression of a wish
for the indiscriminate enfranchisement of the
many. The wiser, too, of the working classes
are not blind to the rhetorical artifices which
their soi-disant " friends" do not hesitate to use.
One of these is the always assuming that the
LATEST EDITION.

" overwhelmed,—they have been utterly de-
" stroyed by the influences to which they have
" been subjected. I have seen men blustering
" on the hustings, telling the people what they
" were going to do, who, the moment they en-
" tered the house, would do any thing to gain its
" good wishes and good feelings. They were
" no longer your representatives ; they repre-
" sented only their own feelings and wishes."
Such is the conduct of " blusterers on the
hustings," as described by one unceasingly
labouring under, perhaps, as malignant an
influence as any unfortunate man can well be
ruled by—viz., the desire of obtaining a character
for independence, by blurting out whatever he
considers most calculated to hurt the feelings of
others.
To attempt, therefore, to destroy existing
influences is like the attempt to destroy the hydra
—if one head is crushed, two others start up in
its place. We ought, accordingly, to endeavour
to reconcile our minds to submit to the inevitable
law of our being, and before we can consent to
measures destructive of the natural influence
which a landlord now possesses over his tenants,
we have a right to require of those who call upon
us so to do, to show that other influences more
liable to abuse, and more deleterious in their
effects, will not result from their destruction. We
advise our friends of the working classes to con-
sider themselves these matters a little deeper
than the superficial writers who set themselves
up as their advisers. We advise each one of
them to consider what advantage be is likely to
derive from having a single vote for a member of
Parliament in a constituency of some twelve or
fourteen thousand voters. If he be capable of
reflection, he will very clearly foresee his lot.
lie must either be opposed to or associated with
those who will return 'the men " who bluster on
" the hustings, by telling the people" the won-
derful things " which they are going to do," but
who, when they " enter the house, represent only
" their own feelings and wishes." If he be op-
posed to this party he will be defeated, and the
possession of a vote will then only prove to him
a source of vexation. If he has joined the victo-
rious party, he may triumph for the moment,
but he will ultimately find that he has " only
gained a loss."
All history proves that, taking them as a class,
the flatterers of the multitude, those who profess
the greatest zeal Ibr the welfare of the people, are
the most selfish of mankind. They have one
object, and only one object, in view, and that is
their own aggrandizement. Look at the most
celebrated "agitator" of modern times—the late
Mr. O'CONNELL. No one knew better than he did
that the one panacea for the woes of his destitute
fellow-countrymen was the establishment of se-
curity and peace in Ireland. He knew that, had
that once been would ha,
to Ireland, by w,
fed. lie knew
the passing of
that capital would
parations were
invest money itt
his beloved felko
ligence ? Ile foresa
pass, the millions -
control, and that
would be gone.
system of agitation,
in a month, tl
their money to
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insured, capital would have gone
which alone the millions could be
that when an idea prevailed, after
the Roman Catholic Relief Bill,
uld be safe there • • a Ire-
: made by t .: .1 •
I Ireland. ,44 4Zi" Pia be
)w-countrym6d u .1,1 •
i tell
foresaw that itt I f faS
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.So he forth A. 114
tion, and them) .7:2,----
those who vM• • •
o Ireland abandon I tlie; •ntion I
the millions continued blindly to