The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-20 00:00:00

890

ardour even the gibbet of failure has no
terrors.

In the present week we have witnessed the
closing scenes of two popular movements.
Chartism in England has had its Frost;
repeal in Ireland has bail its Smith O'Brien.
It may be admitted that both those " leaders "
were sincere enthusiasts. Mr. O'BRIEN saw
how the Whigs had succumbed to the Lich-
field-house compact. lie felt, also, how much
hypocrisy had been shown on the parte of the
English leading Liberals, and the Irish sti-
pendiary demagogues. He wished to change
the tone of Irish popular politics, and to revo
lutionise his country. He did not appreciate
the difficulties in his course. He did not
estimate the resources of England, or gauge
the cormorant appetite of his countrymen for
places He was an Irishman deceived by
" the blarney "of his own associates. He saw
Lord CLARENDON pack juries in a style that
surpassed anything in the days of the old
Saurin rule, and in his exile he must have
read of Liberals trying to excuse Lord
CLARENDoN in the House of Commons for his
arrangements with Mr. BIRcH. To keep the
Tories out and to get themselves in place was
the object of many of Mr. O'BruEN's con-
federates. " Repeal" was to them a good and
safe investment. It made them members of
Parliament, and raised them to lucrative posts.
Two sons of Mr. O'CONNELL hold valuable
offices under the Crown. Every prominent
Repealer has got " something good ; and it is
with a smile that we peruse the exception
noted by Mr. O'BRIEN of "those who left the
" country." But the story is an old one. The
tribune of to-day is the courtier of to-morrow,
and nst unfrequently after foaming at noon
oefore the crowd, he is in the evening fawning
in the antechi.mber. "Demagogues are the
" pests of free countries," says Mr MACAULAY
in his History of England; and the historian's
political friends are responsible for having
encouraged such " pests" to swarm in the age
that has now passed away.
FROST was another sort of character, differ-
ing mush from SMITH O'BRIEN. The latter
had been reared in a country where it was
" patriotic" to exaggerate grievances, and to
rant against the " Saxon." In England, even
our advanced democrats have always breathed
a cooler political atmosphere. FilosT was an
ultra-Radical, and retained his principles
when his friends had exchanged the teaching
of Cosexrr for the advice of Mr. CoProCK
When it was asked where now were to be
sought in England the lineal descendants of
that, democratic faction which began with
WILKES and HORNE TooKE, the answer
was shrewdly given—" They are to be looked
" for in--Downing-street." Radicalism has
been "managed." Extreme politicians have
been neutralised by " places," and the mass of
their followers, tired and disgusted, have re-
turned to their occupations, and subsided into
peaceable citizens.
It is really quite remarkable to observe
how nearly all the purposes for which the
Whigs and Radicals banded themselves toge-
ther have been defeated. Reform of the
House of Lords, Extension of the Suffrage,
and other cries, have all departed Mr. ROE-
BUCK has declared that the people of England
are utterly indifferent to " Parliamentary Re-
form." The Examiner of last week alludes to
" the jobbers and nincompoops " elected by
the present constituencies; and, oddly enough,
Mr. JOHN FROST recorded on Monday last how
he had warned the country that " the Reform
" Bill was a humbug, and that it would put
" into the House of Commons the same sort
" of people as those under the boroughmon-
" geeing system;" and a greater party of
jobbers than our Parliamentary Liberals could
ce.rtainly not be conceived.
...Thanks to Conservatism, England has been
prefierxe4 from anarchical projects of Radi-
The natural influences of property
Eid ,cenit#ction are allowed to balance the
' . pewir4aetued by men of factions and pushing
• valor . Sir ARCHIBALD AMON has stated in
• 4 - „sequel to his " History " that the old Tory
psslat, $s administered by the Duke of WEL-
. k• ;tear .Os before the Reform Bill, bordered too
1-, Eamell on 4. a.cla.3s ascendancy;" and the rile of
ra tends to something of the same
attical "jobbers " are the personages