The Press.
London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Jtrla 11, 1853.

its own own diseases. With states, as with men, all that physicians can do
is to assist nature. To every political constitution is its own nature,
its own idiosyncrasies. You cannot amend the abuses that have crept
into an ancient monarchy by the remedies you would apply to the
system of a young republic. Attempt it, and you do not cure the
disease : you destroy the patient.
For myself, I stand somewhat distinct from the ordinary relations
of party, and altogether remote from the interests of official ambition.
The name I have assumed is so far appropriate, that it is
obscure to those who may yet well remember the more prominent
disputants in the grand arena of old Roman politics ; it is a name
incidentally cited by CICERO as that of one among otherF. who had
studied the customs of his country, and might, therefore, be competent to
suggest an occasional counsel to his fellow citizens. I see before me a nu-
merousand powerful party, animated by chiefs whose opinions in favour
of all that can advance the cause of pure Democracy have been openly
proclaimed. Amongst that party, no doubt there arc some more mo-
derate than others, some who march blindfold towards the goal which
those of bolder vision see clear through the mists of faction. But all
unite in the march of the caravan towards the heart of the desert;
and, if there be those who then discover that the fountain which allures
them on is but the mirage, it will be too late to return, and it will be
but destruction to pause. To that party the real sense of the country
is nevertheless healthfully opposed. But what avails the sense of the
country, when it is subdivided into sections, who dispute on the
straws which the wind will soon whirl away from their sight? If Eng-
land is to retain that empire which she owes to no natural resources,
but to the various influences of a most complicated and artificial but a
most admirable and effective social system, she must gather into one
united phalanx all who hold the doctrine that England, to be safe,
must be great—to continue free she must rest upon the inter-
mediate institutions which fence round monarchy, as the symbol
of executive force, from that suffrage of unalloyed democracy which re-
presents the invading agencies oflegislative change. Our system of policy
must be opposed to all those who, by rules of arithmetic, would reduce
the empire in which the sun never sets to the isle of the Anglo-Saxon,
and leave our shores without defence against a yet craftier Norman. Our
measures of reform must be so framed as to gain all the purposes of
good government, yet to admit under the name of return no agency
that tends by its own inevitable laws to the explosion of the machinery
whose operations you pretend it will economise and quicken. By
what plausible arguments were the dwellers in the Pincus admitted to
vote in the Athenian Assembly ! They had fought at Salamis. What
so just as that they should possess the franchise of the State they had
assisted to save? 'Regarded in itself. that extension of suffrage was
reasonable enough ; but, as applied to the system of the Athenian
commonwealth, all sound historians (mear that it became the necessary
destruction of Athens. A power was brought to play against the
tendencies that preserved the good that was acquired from the geed f
the fatal something that is yet to be obtained. In a word. r
those
who had no stake in the soil swamped the votes of those who were its
natural defenders. Hence, from that moment, arise the dictator and
the demagogue—P II RIC I ,Es and et.EoN—the flatterer and the tyrant of
mobs ; hence the rapid fluctuations, the greedy enterprises. the domi-
nion of the Have-nots, the ruin of the fleet, the loss of the colonies, the
Thirty Tyrants, the vain restoration of a hollow freedom, the conquest
of the Macedonian, the adulation offered to DEM EMI CH as to a god—
licence--corruption—servitude—dissolution.
Give the popular assembly of Great Britain up to the controlling
influence of the lowest voters in large towns, and you have brought
again a Pirteus to destroy your Athens.
But I see the sole hope for England in the union of those men
who will defend England as she is. History has buried in the past
all of the old feuds between Tories and Whigs save that mere emula
tion for power which hunts out pretexts for unsubstantial differences.
Both have now to protect from a common_ foe the
.constitution which
has been corrected and ennobled by their ancient collisions of opinion.
A manly alliance upon the broad understanding that reforms are to
cement the foundation of monarchy, and not attempt the anomalous
paradox of uniting democratic institutions to a defenceless throne,
would at once give to the Whigs all that they require for the
resumption of their historical influence,—electoral numbers—and
strengthen the liberal disposition of Lord DERBY'S partisans by the
accession of all that they need to make the public fully comprehend
their views—viz., colleagues experienced in office and eloquent in
debate. The Whigs may lose that occasion; the stubborn prejudices
attached to obsolete feuds—not strong enough to resist subordination
to ABERDEEN and Gt.sustosy—may yet induce them to reject association
with men whom atheart they more cordially approve. I f so, the loss is to
themselves—their extinction will be dmed. It is the G IWTON Es and
the ABERDEENB who) will then ultimaotoely obtain all the ground that

they forfeit. Meanwhile, let not the true Conservati'ves despot—.
let them be patient, till the storm which their opponents themselves
have invoked scatter the fleet which carries mutiny on board.
All
wrecks come to the shore—the shore does not go to the wrecks.
Nut that I would have you suppose that Fortune is a goddess that
favours the inert. They who think that it is sufficient to wait for the
ripening season never reap the harvest. Sow first, and then wait.
" Time," said Lord PLUNKET, in one of his great orations, "is repre-
sented with the hour-glass as well as with the scythe." By the
one he mows down—by the other he reconstructs.

IMITATED FROM LORD DORSET.
Old Noah in his motley Ark
Had dogs to fawn and dogs to bark.
As times and reasons fitted ;
For principles were laid on shelf,
Each partner acted for himself.
The firm was MlCOMlllitted.

So complaisant his stoek was found,
Mongrel and puppy, whelp and hound,
His kennel could afford ye ;
A dog to hunt with every pack,
A Protestant bow-wow frow Jack,
A Popish whine from Geordie.

Prepared alike for outs" and " ins."
A champion for the side that wins

Was ready at his summons :
An ancient Tory for the Peers.
A Liberal leader for the ears
Of sympathising Commons.

So have 1 seen i►i toyhhop placed
A curious house with figure', grateed
To suit each change of weaker
To face the clouds stands surly John,
Next Phillis smiles to greet the sun,
But never both together.

NIANILICS.

NOTES AND Qt'
K It. suggests that the old version of the curious proverb
SHAMMING ABRAHAM itt incorrect. It WIIM formerly supposed to indicate
the pretence or simulation of sickness. It now evidently signifies the
eontinuance in a political club where nine-tenths of the members con-
sider you a SPY.

THE OXFORD NI,Ps.

An ill-mattebed pair, nor foemen quite, nor ii iends,
Divided Oxfiwd to St. Stephen's sends ;
One oft at missionary nue.tings found
And one for lame seeuritiem renowned.
Oh ! how our tottering credit were restored,
Could both united rule the Exchequer Board.
And worthy Imm; missiomo7 aid
Courert the bonds him GiAorrroNE's art has made.

EPIGRAM BY THE CHANCELLOR OF THE ERCHEQUER.
My scheme to change the old "South Sens"
Has cost a deal of trouble ;
And, after all, it only proves
A second " South ,440. Bribble."

RAVING INTELLIGENCE.
Baron BittNOW says thatn Mr. Siusra
Biaxial..v HEITHER
if he had notT sold The Autocratlong
before Ascot. He wouldnot be half .

CABINET WORK.
In the exhibition of Cabinet work at (lore-house we remarked
a singular omission. There was no specimen of that novel descrip•
tion which combines any kind of materials by means of Roman
Cement. A specimen, we were told, was on its way from Aberdeen,
but there was some doubt whether it would bear the carriage.

I

9.

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