The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-12-05
The Election of Stuart Mill.

The Boston Transcript expresses doubt
whether Mr.. Mill, with his weI-known senti-
ments, could have secured an election from a
Massachusetts constituency. That paper
says:
The accounts we have had of the election Of
members of Parliament for Westminster are
interesting in many ways, and in regard to enc
of the candidates raise the question whether,
had he been on this side of the Atlantic, he
. could have been chosen representative to
our own State Legislature. We allude of
course to the philosophical, thoughtful and ell
oquent radical, John Stuart Mill. Some of
the answers he gave to inquiries put to him,
and the opinions he was known to entertain
on several points of political and social policy,
mark him as little too ultra for our proyerb-
ial ultraism. Moreover his independence and
adherence to his own convictions, popular or
unpopular, would have seriously affected his
availability.
Mr.. Mill avowed himself in sympathy with
the temperance movement and regarded
drunkenness as ruinous to the laboring class.
But he could not favor the prohititory law
He could not desert principle and forbid the
use of a thing because it was abused, or liable
to abuse. This confession would have settled
his case to our advocates of packed juries and
Metropolitan Police Bills.
Mr.. Mill stated that he was decidedly in ia
vor of opening the British Museum on Sun
days. That declaration would have robbed
him of the votes ofour citizens, anxious to en-
force, according to their creed and notions, a
better observance of the Sabbath.
Mr.. Mill frankly admitted that he had said
that the working classes, generally, were ad
dieting to lying; explaining that he accounted
for the fact by attriDuting it to their weakness.
He wanted them to have power and be made
stronger, that they might thus become better.
Such frank and honest words addressed to
those whose upport was solicited, would
hardly win ballots in New England. sf
If we add to these instances the fact that Mr.
Mill is in favor of universal suffrage, even to
the extent of granting it to women, and that
his theological beliefis by no means "Ortho-
dox," as the term is usually understood, it be-
comes very plain that the victorious canvasser
in London, could not have triumphed among
the descendants ofthe Puritans. sT
The election of Mr.. Mil, under the circum-
stances. is one of the marvels of the times,
and proof that the world moves. A liberal
of the extreme school, according to the bigot-
ed prejudices OF extreme conservatism, he is
sent to Parliament from district where the
"glory and shame" the aristocrats and degra-
dation of England are side by side in glaring
contrast-from Piccadilly and Covent Garden.
This certainly is an event of wide meaning
where it occurred and it is not without lessons
for us. 1t shows that honesty, after all, in true
and great men-men of clear heads and hu-
name hearts, is the best policy. 1t proves
that for progress in ideas, we must have the
largest liberty in thinking and speaking, and
that it don't do to try to shut up Independent
minds, who have the right to teach and lead,
within the narrowness of cliques and sects,
if we want power and guidance for beneficent
use. Mr.. Mills triumph is the triumph of
brains, learning, principle, intellectual and
moral integrity. Itwas his manhood, his frank
ness, his sympathy with freedom and human
ty, that carried the day, against the stubborn
ignorance and blind obstinacy of Toryism.