The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-05

orats," after landing in America, are gene
rally observed to be transformed into the |
similitude and likeness of red or black Re- |
publcans--a change which some observers |
have attributed, perhaps without sufficient |
grounds, to the effects of the NAL de mer,
which is known to bring many hidden things |
to light, and which has been observed to
change the lily-white complexion of prima
donna to CHASTITY bottle-green. Nor have
we been greatly aided in the determination
of the question of whether England's loss
by the migration of Mr.. Goldwin Smith has
equalled our gain, by the perusal of an epistle
lately addressed by that gentleman to the
"Workngmen Of England" through the
columns Of the BeehiUe, a trades-union journal
of London. So far are we from being enlight-
ened by this letter, that 1t has befogged us in
an entirely new class of speculstions arising
from the suspicious which it awskens that,
had the workingmen aforesaid been a little
more demooratic-in Mr.. Goldwin Smiths ao-
ceptation of that word-he would have re-
NAMED in their midst to bless them; and tb at
1t has only been because they were in his
opinion, hopelessly given over to Cheer and
bribery" and were willing to be led like
voting cattle to the polling booths by the
Plutocracy, who have taken the place of
the old aristOcracy, that he has forsaken
them to come to this happier cline, where
beer, when drank at all, is heroically paid
for by the consumer, where bribery is
wholly unknown, and where it is noto-
riOusly much easier for q rich man to
pass through the eye of a needle than to be
elected to Congress under any circumstances
whatsoever, our legislators being invariably
selected from the laboring classes-those en-
gagged in that arduous TOLL known as "pips-
laying" being especially favOred-our Presi-
dents always being rail-splitters, tailors,
| or tanners. II appears that, had there
been the slightest hope of bringing about
such state of things as this in England,
Mr.. Goldwin Smith would have remained
there to aid in the work; but that, as the case
was a wholly hopeless one, he resolved
not to wear out his life in fruitless toll.
The recent election in Great Britain he de-
| clares, so far from being a victory OF demo-
| cracy, was only triumph of money; the
| House Of Commons is more than ever the
| rich mans club; no wise man can expect
any good thing to come from such legisla-
ture; the extension of the suffrage, from
which such mighty results were to flow,
| has placed the Government OF the country
more firmly than ever in the hands of the
mobiles and the rich parvenues the new cleo
tors have not only failed to send even q single
member of their own class to represent them,
but they have permitted the few old members
who entertained pronounced democratic
opinions to be expelled from their seats. True,
Mr.. Goodwin Smith thinks that all this was
but natural-the new electors were like Adam
in the garden; the woman tempted him and
| QauQl60
the almighty pound'' before the eyes of the
newly -enfranchised and straightway they
voted the wrong ticket. The most alarm
ing part of the business is that, unlike
Adam, they are not ashamed, probably be-
cause they are not naked, but are newly clad
in garments bought with the "f'-pun' notes"
thrust by kd-gloved fingers into their horny
palms. And although the Lord punished
alike the tempter and the tempted, Mr..
Goldwin Smith thinks it so entirely in accord
with the instincts of English human nature
that poor man should sell his vote to the
highest bidder, that he has no words of con-
dempation for the bribed, and reserves all his
wrath for the bribers. Something may possi-
bly, be done, he thinks, by substituting the
ballot for open voting, 'the abolition of those
nests of venality, the small bOroughs" Gone
of which nests, by the way-the little bor-
ough of Frome-elected Mr.. Thomas Hughes
the only man who, by any stretch of imagina-
tiOn, may be called a workingman's member,
and the transfer OF the expenses of elections
from the candidates to the rates. But after
all this is DONE there will be little hope of a
reform, since 'no legislation can alter the
character OF the people," and how miserable
and venal that character is, Mr.. GoIdwin
Smith has already explained.
Having thus delivered himself on general
subjects, Mr.. Goldwin Smith descends to
personal themes. He explains why he was
not himself O candidate at the late election.
. 'Either Tory or protesting Liberal'--no
l genuine Liberal, of course, would have op-
posed him-would have run against him;
"and could not have afforded to fight him
with my own money, and | could not have
brought myself to accept pecuniary aid even
from the most generous hands. A
: man is not bound to ruin himself, much less
to degrade himself, in seeking it Ga seat in
Parliament), and / could not have repre-
! sented the workingmen except on terms con-
L sistent with their honor and my own." And,
: moreover, had he been elected to Parliament
he could have done his constituents no good
0 for "beiDg unframed to debate, l could mo-
:, have given even a forcible expression tC
i our views" There is no little meat to be
9 f. und in these few kernels. In the first place
9 even with Mr.. Goldwin Smith, it seems to bt
i all mere matter of money. A seat in Par
| lament is only to be bought. Could he have
q "afioJded" the expenditure requisite to buy
j the necessary number of voters, be does no
q make 1t appear that any scruples of principle
u would have stood in his way as he could no
I "afford' that expenditure out of his owl
pocket, and could not bring himself to accep
donations" !" as Mr.. Odger and Mr.. Hartwel
did, he let the seat go to the deuce, anC
? bought his ticket for New York. To buy
seat at ones own expense, to a man of limited
y wealth, is ''ruin;" to buy one at the expens
+ of others is "degradatiOn;" but for yer,
u wealthy man to buy one out his own pocke
is to represent a constituency on terms ''cOn
o sistent with the honor" of the represented an,
/ the representative. II this all be really true
what in the name of common sense has Mr.
/ Goodwin Smith to complain of? From hi