The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-11 00:00:00

MONDAY

WHAT DOES DERBY OFFER ?

The lessen taught by the French Revolution of
1848 had been learnt, by anticipation, by Sir Robert
Peel. His party desired, like Louis Philippe, to
rule by mere marshalling and manoeuvring of Par-
liamentary majorities; and he, himself, had disco-
vered that all the power of the Legislature was ut-
terly worthless unless endorsed with the imprimatur
of public opinion. It is true that, in the reign of
Queen Anne, and even of Castlereagh, the masses
had scarcely a political existence. They knew, in-
deed, little, if anything, of politics. Communication
was, physically, difficult. The right of public meet•
ing was practically ignored by the legal traps which
surrounded the exercise of the privilege. Corre-
sponding societies were indictable for treason—so that
the people were prevented from knowing and con-
ferring with each other. The press was virtually
under a censorship of the Attorney-General, who, by
ex-officio informations, could at any time turn the ar-
tillery of the law upon the most just, true, and neces-
sary exposures of Ministerial delinquency.
The population was less than half what
it is now ; and the same, or even a larger staff
of persons in the pay of the State in the army, navy,
customs, excise, church, law, and local magistracy,
constabulary, &c., overawed the neutral portion of
society in their respective neighbourhoods. Rotten
boroughs and pocket counties existed universally, and
a large military and militia force was kept perma-
nently afoot. But society has long outgrown these
influences. Catholic and dissenting emancipation, re-
form, and free trade, have made them all of very
small account. Dissent is too powerful to afford any
play to the arrogant pretensions of the Church to as-
cendancy. The press is still in such a position that a
single est officio information would hurl the Govern-
ment which directed it at once into irrevocable dis-
grace. The patronage of the State is reduced to a
sum of sixteen millions per annum ; and all sinecures,
as well as many law abuses, are at an end. Even
13,000 established parsons are a very small and unin-
fluential body among twenty-eight millions of people,
whose knowledge has been enlarged and wits sharp-
ened by cheap literature, railroads, and newspapers
of a description infinitely superior in intelligence,
ability, freedom of disquisition, size, and cheap-
ness to what they were even at the beginning
of the century. The nation far overshadows the
slate. The British race has burst the bands and
boundaries of its public institutions. The bulk of
the population so overreaches the influences of the
executive, that daily the power of Government by
great families becomes less by the increasing forces
of the popular momentum. The distribution of pee
tronage in the hands of railway directors already
amounts to nearly one-half of that at the command
of the Queen's Ministers—and their influence in the
House of Commons is not greatly inferior. We saw
the Anti• Corn-law League, an empire within an
empire, raising a large voluntary tax for the avowed
purpose of dictating laws to the Legislature—and more
lately we have witnessed the merchants of London
shaking the late Cabinet to its centre by an onslaught
on their management of the Board of Customs. It
is true that the traditional methods of getting
and keeping power superficially appear to be
yet adequate to their purpose. The Church puts
forth still a kind of galvanic energy and epileptic
strength. Squires still arrange the representation of
counties, and Peers overawe the boroughs which lie
near their country seats. The plain non political
public cannot be everlastingly pestered with party
interests ; and, when the people sleep, politicians go
to work. But whenever any great national question
demands a settlement, woe to the Itlinister who ex-
pects to dispose of it in the old way of mere counting
ofnoses.
Now, it was the error of the late Ministry
that, although they got into office by preaching this
doctrine, they utterly disbelieved it in power. It is
true that Lord J. Russell, at Perth, once more un-
folded the old sound opinions on the philosophy of
government on the progressive theory, which first led
to the achievements of the reform party. Bat his
declarations only convince us that his colleagues were
opposed to and thwarted their leader—and that, for the
sake of the mere Parliamentary support which they
could bring him he committed the grave mistake of per-
mitting himself to remain in office with a set ofmen who
had tamed their backs upon their professions. When
they had given up the appropriation clause—resisted
any inroads on the Reform Act, added largely to the
public expenditure, and guarded profusion from re-
renchment—paid their court to the clergy, and pro-
tected the delinquents of the Church from merited
retribution, they showed that they were contented to
jog on with the old system of counting of noses, and
hoping en a party division to have a " balance of in-
fluenza in their favour"—they had abandoned the
idea of resting their rule upon popular support, by
ceasing to propose anything worthy of popular
sympathies ; and rather than fall back upon the
nation by calling into their councils that Radical
party who represented public opinion, they threw up
their cards, and handed the odd trick over to the Tories.
We read Lord John Russell's statement at Perth as an
implied exposure of this Ministerial disunion, and
his exposition of the necessity of recognising and
obeying the democratic spirit as a declaration that he
never had any sympathy with the policy which was
dictated by his Cabinet. At all events he and his
party may rest perfectly assured that that policy and
its abettors will never receive any countenance from
the country again; and that unless he proposes to do
homage to the advanced opinions of the Radical party,
his own reign has finally closed. The Tories tell us
that at last they have settled the principle upon which
their Government is to be founded. Like Balsam's
ass, they have been cudgelled until they have found
a tongue, and mauled till they have begun to pro-
phesy. Mr. Henley's jaw-bone has been on this occasion
chosen to smite the Pnillistines of Reform ; but,judging
from the result ,the Samson who wielded it must
have had his eyes put out before commencing the ap-
plication of his weapon. Conservatism, if this latest
of its proclamations is to be credited, is to be just
what old Tory ism was. It is to rule by material
, forces, in contradistinction to moral and intelligent
influences. It is to be that which Louis XIV. or
Philippe relied upon, the mere brute powers of pa-
tronage, finesse, and state dependents. Its cry, like
that of the crazy Red Republican, is to be "No
nothing." It is to fight the battle of the constitution
in Registration Courts ; which means, by sheer dint
of attorneys, pettifogging in the list of voters, and
grubbing for objections to electors before the revising
barrister, it is to gain a Parliamentary majority,
not by general acceptance by the nation of the Tory
Government, but by quirks of registration law, and
sharp electioneering practice; and then, being in a
condition to reckon on a numerical majority in the
Parliamentary divisions, it is to dispense with public
()pinion altogether. Mr. Henley has no idea of recon-
citing the House of Peers with the House of Com-
mons. No: his idea, and that, too, as a representa-
tive of the people, i 4, that the Commons most some-
how or other contrive to reconcile themselves to the
registration of the decrees of the House of Lords.
He gently hints that the Upper House will never
consent to an extension of any modification of organic
reform, by way of preparing the country for h
his
party's determination never to use the remedy pointed__e
out by the constitution of creating new Peers.
announces, therefore, the first Derbyite principle
to be the inviolability and ascendancy of the
draws
a of the House of Lords, because he
a portion of his support in the Commons from
that source. The second is resistances toevery change
in the Church, or any reform of i
the parson, clerk, sexton,a.n.d beadle,t abuses,arebecause
elec.
tigneering staff lA, every Parish, and return so many
Members to the House. The third is the arrest of