The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-09

ness, though we dare to say that, when Mr.
Gladstone thought OF earnestness, he was
thinking Of Mr.. Gladstone. What is certain
is tha. we shall have Parliament pledged by
an overwhelming majority to Gladstonism,
and Mr.. Gladstone is earnest terribly earnest
-as earnest In pulling on his gloves as in
disestabsbng Church. One thing we
can understand about Mr.. Glsdstone's
earnestness-it is his gravity. And our
new Parliament is likely to be grave
enough. Mr.. Bernal 0sborne's ready wit
will be absent from 1t; SERGEANT Gaselee
will no longer provoke and poke fun; Mr..
Darby Griffith the irrepressible bait who had
the kpack of making boredom divertiug, has
disappeared from the list OF senator's and,
worst of all, Mr.. Roebuok's vitrlolio and sar-
castle powers of ofense have so far offended
his constituents that they have preferred dull
ness to genius, and a delegate to the most in
dependent politician of the dav. The Hoass is
likely to be- dull enough, and, as earnestness
takes the form of dullness, Mr. Gladstone has
SO far been proved to be right. II, as seems
likely, Mr.. Whalley on the one side and Mr..
John Hardy on the other will have to do all
the work of making or suggesting jakes, Par
lament men may look out for a very dreary
time of it under a Premier who is as uusus-
ceptible of wit as Sootchman. The occasion
may perhaps stimulate Mr.. DIsraeli to recur
to his old vein, and his gracious fooling at
Guildhall seems to show that Office has sup
pressed, but not extinguished, his original
powers in playing the fool, aud playing the
fool admirably.
The next Parliament will, therefore, be de-
fcient in wit. And in another aspect the con-
stituencies have gone in for earnestness.
Earnestness, according to the cheap newspa-
pers, is an enemy to theory and speculation.
An earnest man must be practical man;
above ALL he must not have rag OF philoso-
ply about him. Englishmen, they tell US, are
an unphilosophical race; metaphysics they eau
neither abide nor understand; they want
things done, and first principles, or any alb.
stract grounds for policy, they resent as an
insult. This Peckham. omnibus view of a
senator's qualifications has certainly prevailed.
OF all the classes OF candidates who have suf-
fered most severely, the doctTiadi' es have been
hit the hardest. Not only is Mr.. Stuart Mill
rejected, and by the most decisive defeat, at
the hands of a constituency which used to be
considered a sort of touChstOne Of political
feeling, but the educated and extremely
earnest class whose noble junction was to
justify radicalsm by philosophy, history,
aud the assertion of abstract rights, have
only succeeded in returning Mr.. Hughes the
novelist for seat which almost preserves the
memories of pocket borough aud Mr.. Faw-
cett, the Cambridge economist. Not only
have the doctrinaireS failed themselves, but
their advocacy has been signally detrimental
to their pupils and clients. DR.. Sandwith
had the misfortune to be lectured for by Pro-
fessors and Oxford SarahS, aud Mary lebOne
has preferred not to take the advice or dicta-
tion of its guides, philosophers and friends.
Mr.. Brodrick, Mr.. Rounded, Sir George Young,
and Mr.. LushingtOn have not been able to
bring into the House an element of thought
which no deliberative assembly can afford to
dispense with or despise, and which might
have stood them in bstter stead at the hust-
iDgs had the respective constituencies been
less initiated by advice and di,tation
from academic and tutorisl quarters.
Something of Mr.. Chadwick's defeat at
Kilmarnock may be attributed to Mr.. Hills
offensive interference with the editors; but the
general failure of this class of candidates can
only be accounted for by rooted aversion on
the part of the electors to what they consider,
with or without justice, dictation on the part
of the sophists. the Parliamentary jury has
been struck on the principle known in the
courts as knocking the brains out OF it.
In another direction the electors have
shown a remarkable disability to profit by
new lights. In one respect the new Parlia-
ment is likely to be more dogged aud pertina-
| cious against innovations than any of its pre-
decessors. For good or for evil, the new
House not only perpetuates, but exaggerates,
| the character, be they the faults or the excel
| lences, of their predecessors. The tradesm an
and <picier mind has it all its own way, and it
| seems to come to come TO this, that the trades
man who is superseded, and the artisan who
rules, are scarcely varieties of the same type
of mind, or narrowness. vast ma
jority OF Liberals has been returned,
but they are all of the Liberal type; rich
tradesmen, hereditary Wings, aud the old
members make up most OF Mr.. Gladstone's 3
supporters. The shirt-sleeves and the work.
ing men candidates have not stood the slight
est chance; the fate OF Cremer and Odger aud
Hartwell and Howell and CJlonel Dixon and
Ernest Jones and, above all, of Mr.. Bsalss,
the President OF the Reform League, attests,
either the proverbal iDgratitude OF the citi-
zeDs to successful demagOgues, or a more
creditable disinolination on the part of the
electors to entrust the destinies Of the empire
| to those who might have their uses in agita-
tion, in handling mobs and professions, and
| pulling down park rails, but in no position
more creditable or responsible. What is
even more curious is, that though the elections
have gone so completely against the Irish
Church, they have also proved how strong is the
conviction or prejudice against fanatioal dis
sent. Merely to be representative OF strong
or exceptional views in religion has been gene
rally fatal to a candidate. Unfortunately this
degged old-fashioned aversion to innovation in
reli gion has kept out of Parliament such men
as Sir John Acton and Lord Edward Howard,
representing, as they do, the very best aspect
OF English Romanism; but, on the other hand,
| II has also rejected Mr.. Mall and Mr.. Handel
Cossham, with whose views extreme as they
are, it wOuld be insulting to bracket the inso-
lenoe OF Bradlaugb, whose only claims to dis
tinction of any sort were the avowal of an
atheism more vulgar, more mocking, and more
audaoious than that OF such extinct monsters
ma Carlla and the DeVil's ChaDlain of 6va.and.