TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND THE MULTITUDE.
THE House of Commons never showed its characteristic sagacity more strikingly than on Thursday night in dis- cussing the propriety of rejecting the Piittlewell petition,—.a petition which brings the gravest charges against the Judges in the Tichborne case,—and that, too in spite of very little help from its natural leaders. Mr. Disraeli was not equal to him- self. He was throughout the debate embarrassed and apparently a little timid, and in his last speech, what he hardly ever is, prolix and uninteresting. Lord Hartington was so long in rising that he evidently had no impulse of leadership in him and when he did rise it was rather under the stimulus of Wil- frid Lawson's banter than from the consciousness that he had anything weighty to say. Indeed, what he did say was not very fortunate. He laid the chief stress on the absence in the petition under discussion of specific charges against the Lord Chief Justice and his colleagues in the Tichborne trial ; whereas when the petition was afterwards read, it appeared that there were several very specific charges indeed, the truth or falsehood of which it would be quite easy to ascertain most clearly. Again, Lord Hartington laid little stress on the savage assault which the petition made,—hypothetically no doubt, but, as Mr. Fawcett admirably said, none the better, but rather the worse for that,—on the Speaker of the House of Commons, whereas that clearly was the true ground for rejecting the petition, as Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Fawcett all clearly discerned. If the House of Commons should make the mistake,—even though the mistake were due, as it would be, no doubt, to too confident a sense of pride—of not vindicating adequately its own dignity and the dignity of its officers in the face of the multitude, its hesitation is certain to be attributed to wrong motives, and the clamourers will be told, and will believe, that it is coweling before the voice of popular indignation. It was clearly right, as everybody felt bound to announce in the strongest way, to put on record that the House would not, under any pretence, restrain the right of petition, least of all in relation to a matter of so fundamental a character as the purity of the Judicial Bench. But it was as clearly right for the House of Commons to reject a petition in which its own impartiality and dignity were assailed by gross reflections on its Speaker. It can never be too carefully remembered that the multitude do not really know the House of Commons, and are just as likely to misinterpret its motives if the House does not take the greatest care to assert itself and maintain its dignity in all external relations with the people, as if it were really destitute of the pride and self-respect which it so strongly and justly feels.
But while the House received very little true help on Thursday from its natural leaders, it was fortunate in having in Mr. Macdonald, who, as a "working-man's candidate," had a special right to strike the true key-note in this matter, and in Mr. Bright and Mr. Fawcett, advisers of the true popular stamp for whom, if for anybody, the politically uninformed multitude are likely to feel respect. These Members felt, as indeed the whole House felt less distinctly, the critical character of the emergency. It is no light matter that multitudes all over the kingdom should be profoundly impressed with a conviction which is most menacing to our social order and political stability, and yet a conviction which certainly not more than two Members of the popular House share, neither of those two being either impartial, or in any judicial sense, reliable witnesses. Dismay is the feeling with which all true statesmen regard, and ought to regard, a chasm so profound between the popular mind and the mind of the House of Commons. If ever it should happen that "the dim common popula- tions," as Carlyle pathetically calls them come to be utterly unable to interpret their inner beliefs to the House of Commons, the day of the House of Commons will be passed. It is, of course, not to be desired that any impartial man should share a delusion so gross and even monstrous as that which is spreading in the country as to the claims and the supposed wrongs of Arthur Orton. But for our own parts, we should be less alarmed than we now are, if that delusion had but sufficient moral plausibility in it to have convinced heartily, say, a score of men in the House of Commons who usually incline to the popular side. In that case, we might hope for such a discussion as would clear up the delusion,—for such a discussion as would convince
the people that their state of mind is at least fairly represented in the Commons, and fully interpreted to it. As it is, Dr. Kenealy, who has of course the strongest per- sonal reasons for taking the view which he professes, and Mr. Whalley, who is witless enough to vote even for Sir John Lub- bock's Ancient Monuments Preservation Bill on the elaborately irrelevant ground that the Jesuits have an interest in destroying the evidences of their own former falsehoods, are the only per- sons who can pretend to interpret a widespread and passionate conviction which threatens to destroy popular confidence in English Courts of Justice, and so to undermine the very foun- dations of English society. That is a very grave matter in- deed. And yet only those members appreciated on Thursday its true gravity who made Dr. Kenealy feel, and drew the atten- tion of the whole nation to the fact that they made him feel, that if he has' any fidelity in him, his first duty to the multi- tudes whom he has managed to convince, is to move an Address to the Crown to remove the Judges whose corruption and judicial iniquity he asserts. Mr. Macdonald deserves the highest credit for being the first to challenge Dr. Kenealy on this head, and for eliciting from him the very shifty and evasive statement which brought up Mr. Bright. Of the wise and weighty language of Mr. Bright it is impossible to speak with too hearty praise. He felt with all the imaginative force of a true popular leader the fearful danger of a complete alienation between the popular House and the masses: of the people. While giving the most cordial credit to the earnestness of the popular belief that gross injus- tice has been done in the Tichborne Case, he was, of course, most emphatic in his desire that the only man who really represents that popular belief, whether or not he shares it, should produce his evidence before the House of Commons, and so prove to the people behind him that the House will listen to his case ; and further, that it is solid reason, and not mere prepossession which prevents the House from giving its assent to the assertions of Orton's friends. Mr.. Bright's weighty words may, we trust, reach even those who accept as true every assertion in the Englishman :—" I say, charges of the most grave character are brought against three eminent Judges, the man who makes these charges, and hesi- tates to the best of his power to substantiate them, has- no right to say anything against the Judges, for, however evil may be their character, I suspect his own will not stand examination." That is a challenge which Dr. Kenealy on Thursday night had not the courage to accept, and from whteb,. indeed, he shrank in a way which will produce more impression on the country than any attack upon him by another. 'Thiess. he accepts it frankly and soon, the present estimate of him in the House of Commons will soon become the estimate of him in the country. And though, if he accepts it frankly and soon.), there is but little chance for him that the estimate of him in the country will ever repeat itself in the House of Commons, he may yet, in that case, retain for a few months longer the inexplicable fascination which he has somehow acquired over the multitude.
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