The daily Minnesota pioneer., 1855-06-12
Reform I'm England.

cal reform which has sprung up with tre-
mendous energy throughout England. 1t
has penetrated all classes of society, and
while the nobility view it with alarm, the
mass of the people are urging it with a
directness OF purpose and strength of energy
which must soon topple to their fall the
aristocratic institutions of England, and
place them Oh truer and more democratic
base. Never since the memorable days Of
CROMWELL, have the walls of Parliament
echoed to spoken thoughts such as have
been recently expressed, even by peers of
the realm and if there is gloom upon the
military and naval glory of England, there
is no less upon the proud fortunes and
aspirings of its titled nobility. The miser-
able idea of hereditary right to occupy the
eminent places in the land-the servle
obedience paid to the creed Of birth, the
adulation exacted for what is termed
blood" no matter whether it had its
spring source in Nell Gwynne, or any other
equally chaste delight Of royalty,-is fast
passing away before the terrible realities
which the bloodiest war of modern times
has forced upon terrified nation. While
peace lasted, it gratifed the national pride
in a great degree to own, and it did prize,
this titled class. Even the miserably poor
and degraded have lifted their voices in
thankfulness that England possessed no.
bility of descent, in utter forgetfulness of
the fact that, that very system, time-tried
and rotten by time, took bread from their
mouths, and kept them starving in order to
minister to the splendors necessary to its
support.
A change is coming over England. The
bloated carcase of English hereditary right
is to submit to painful, but justly earned
ordeal and sllorn of its ancient glories it
will soon give place TO that which it has
lever striven t. repress, but which, spite of
its utmost efforts, of its chilling Indifference,
and sneers at what it has been pleased to
term parreauism, has forced its way into its
ranks. The human intellect is obtaining q
wider sweep Of action in the nation and
the dry-bones of the pedigrces Of the Domes-
day Book are being ratified by parrenus in
a way that must be anything but comfort
able to the feelings or prospects of the
Lords of the English nation. The doctrine
of an hereditary class is fading before the
terrible necessities of the times; and as
under the present management the blood
and treasure of the nation is being poured
out like water, with no hope Of honorable
cessation, and no release but deep and last
ing national disgrace, the minds of all are
naturally turned to the enquiry as to where
the means of relief can be found 1t is not
to be found in the nobility, but among the
commonalty. 1t is not to be obtained from
the exertions or the intellect of any of the
starred, and gartered, and ribanded class
of exclusives and the feeling is deep and
powerful, that if found at all, it rests amid
that great mass of cultivated and active
intellect of the untitled middle classes, from
which the nobility has been compelled to
draw very frequently, to supply itself with
vital energy. ..... ...J
As evidence of this growing feeling, and
the rap,dity of its progress even into the
high places of the nation, we quote the
following extract from the motion of Lord
ELLENBORoUGH, which burst like bomb
shell in the House of Lords on the 14th
ult. 1t says, after expressing the convic-
ton that the conduct of the war has occa-
stoned general dissatisfaction, and given
rise. to just complaint" that it is only
through the selection Of men for public en-
ployment without regard to anything but
the public service, that the country can
hope to prosecute the war successfully and
to obtain its only legitimate object Ia
secure and honorable peace" ~
The point Of this declaration may best be
gathered from the following extract of the
speech made by the mover. He said:
"But, my lords, how can we, sitting here by the
hereditary right conferred, for the most part, upon
our ancestors, for their services to the stae for their
fitness for public employment, how can we refuse to
adopt that princplea 1t is the principle OF our own
origin. (Cheers.l 1t was because my father was a
great lawyer, not because he was party man, that
be was selected, account of fitness for great of.
6ce, that Of Chief Justice of the Pleas He had no
family, no connections; he altogether bv his fit
ness. (Cheers.) 1t was not favor, it was fitness
that made Mr.. Yorre Chancellor and Earl. CHEERS
1t was not favor, it was fitness that made Sir James