TOPICS OF THE DAY.
FINALITY. •
PALMERSTON is doubly certificated as "the man of the situation." Last week the House of Commons rejected the Tory proposal ; this week the House accepts the Palmerston proposal. Every par- ty has proved too feeble to withstind him. He not only coin- mends the largest individual section of the House of Commons, but when he reminds Members of the consequences of thwarting him, he can rally a majority. The people do not see any ad- vantage which they would gain at present by, changing from one party to the otherand, what is more to the purpose, the Members of the House of Commons do not see what they could gain. Thus it follows that we shall have neither dissolution nor change of Ministry. The Ministry has settled down probably for the ses- sion, perhaps for two sessions. The Army- and Navy Estimates have been reduced ; the next thing will be to disembody the Militia, and to pull down all the paraphernalia of war ; with an expectation held out that taxes may be reduced while business is expanding. This is " the thing ' for the day. It had been expected that when the war should cease, the Eng- lish public, after the spirit of the epoch," would again turn its attention to domestic questions, and particularly would demand reforms. All in due time—but not yet. We have got rid of war, but there is no prospect of " reforms ' according to the general acceptation of that word. As to " Administrative Reform," which was to succeed so many years of "Parliamentary Reform," and to supersede the supplemental measures designed by Lord John Rus- sell and other Members, it has never gained a very firm hold in the House, and Ministers have been sufficiently ahead of it in practical execution as to disarm the pressure out of doors, and al- most to reduce it to ridicule. There was an expectation that if We did not have ordinary administrative reform, we must have re- form of the Army : but during the war several sergeants have been promoted ; an Army Works Corps has been established ; the Sebastopol inquiry was followed by some practical improvements. Our army is not to be put to any present use ; and as we do not require the instrument, it is not very likely that we shall turn our attention to mending it. For it may be said of the English public, that, being a practical people, it only makes its instru- ments for the particular occasion. Whatever it may do in private life, in public it always turns its attention to establishing its in- surance-office at the moment when the calamity against which it should insure has happened. The maxim " Si vis pacem " always comes into our mouth after the war has begun ; for we forget the exact converse of the proposition—" Si via helium, para pacem." This is what we arc now about. "Army Reform" has every prospect of being shelved. As to "Parliamentary reform," Lord John Russell has not announced a third bill ; no Member has the courage to grapple with the subject except Sir Joshua Walmsley ; the Charter is am- d and the middle classes are turning their atten- tion more to limited liability and other practical improvements which promise to aid in the development of commerce. " Im- provement" has taken the place of "Reform." It has the ad- vantage of reconciling pure Conservative opinion with the mate- rial avidities of the day. It is only necessary to call improve- ment " Reform," and your adroit Minister, who is for maintaining
all constituted influences, can set Liberals i s to neutralize Tories, and thus prevent either the reaction or the action which would lead to organic changes. The country, therefore, never was more settled than it is at the present moment ; never less earnest about any political questions ; never more ahtented with the Govern- ment de facto and the actual state of things.
That is the natural presumption from the successes in the House of Commons, to say nothing of the absence of all conflict in the Upper House. If Mr. Disraeli asks for "the spirit of an epoch," the Palmerston Cabinet may say " We are the spirit of the epoch" • and Lord Derby cannot deny it. There is indeed one defect in this presumption, and that is the negative cha- racter of the evidence upon which it rests. It is true that the House of Commons ratifies the postponement of reform by favour of improvements ; but the House of Commons represents only a sec- tion of the people—a much smaller section than Conservative-Li- berals have declared to be worthy of representation ; and a sec- tion, it may be said, stationary in numbers, while the numbers of the population and interests to be represented are continually in- creasing. Add to these circumstances, that the very increase in numbers, the extension of our great towns, the mechanized rela- tions of society, are gradually introducing a widening of the sever- ance between the different classes .personally. There is less op- pression than there used to be, less personal domineering; but also leas personal intercourse between the extremes of society. There is consequently less personal knowledge. As there are peo- ple living in London who are less familiar with the topography, aspect, manners' and customs of some of the Metropolitan dis- tricts, than with Syria or Central America, so the statesmen who conduct our public affairs seldom play the Haroun Alraschid, except urli set occasions, when their visits are expected, and they see the inferior world in its holiday guise. If they presume the opinions and wishes of the people, they have raised their pre- sumption upon very imperfect evidence, and must accept the con- sequences of mistakes.. When Lord Palmerston went in for the war, he discovered that he had the hearty support of the middle classes ; and it may be supposed that those classes, once imagined to be so commercially craven, are now all military ardour and in favour of war with any state whatsoever. We hear it continu- ally said that " the country" expects this or that to be done ; that it will compel Ministers to take up the cause of Italy or Hungary ; that it will support them in a war with the United States for the honour of our flag ; that it is thoroughly disgust e with the arrogance of distinguished military officers, and will de- mand effectual reforms teaching.Lucans and Cardigans to know their duty in the presence of business men. These assertions are expressions of sectional feeling, unsupported by any proof that
the country" entertains the feelings and opium= imputed to it. But as little is there any evidence which would enable the public men to deny that the country has opinions. . Underneath the country, which is the open dupe of cajolery t a general election and the object of slight in the interval, there really happen to be very numerous classes of men with hearts in their bosoms and brains in their heads, who are not without in- formation on the same subjects that engage the attention of our public men ; who have opinions ; who arc susceptible of feeling, approval, or dislike ; who are slow perhaps to give their convic- tions practical effect, but who if neglected too long will punish the public men that mistake them. If not the question of the day, it is the question of toniorrow which we shall not solve by presuming the answer—What, after all, are the wants, f
and wishes of the people ? A Cabinet in possession, aided by e great numbers who speculate in subserving the Ministry de facto, may slight those wants, feelings, and wishes, with temporary im- punity ; but the impunity will not be more than temporary. If the Government deviate too far from the genuine feelings of the country, a dissolution will become inevitable, which might other- wise be deferred. If it should happen that the Ministry has alienated itself from the great bulk of the community, others, whose interest it is to find out the severance, will make it their business to ascertain what the mass of the taxpaying public has got in its head ; will put that inarticulate idea into the form of a policy or " a cry " ; will be accepted by -the public ; and the neglectful statesmen in possession will find themselves suddenly served with notice to quit. If Ministers are under the old hallu- cination that they are released from the necessity of knowing the actual wants and wishes of the people all disguises and reserves notwithstanding, because they have attained a ' settlement " of public or party questions, the process which is to dismiss them has commenced.
Previous page
