TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE FUTURE.
.gPARTY-SPIIUT has run high in this country, and the manner of it Still so far prevails that a writer who can admit two sides to any question which has been under party discussion is viewed as people look upon a monster—as our earnest contemporary the Morning Post looks upon the Spectator. Our neighbour notifies to his read- ers that we have been singing "a song of triumph" on the "vic- tory" obtained by the repeal of the Navigation-laws, and is sur- prised that after the victory we should confess to descry "clouds and darkness resting on the future "; and he quotes at length all that we said upon the difficulties of that unknown ocean beyond "the pillars of Hercules," as if we counted it to be "what the British nation is to derive from the victory of Liberalism." Now, In the first place, we were singing no song of triumph, hailing no victory, but rather observing on the effects of a defeat— oil the completion of an inevitable series of events—and on the doubts which hung upon the future, not as the sole fruits of the policy just consummated, but as attendant dangers. Our earnest contemporary., who so often takes a flattering satisfaction in pro- fiting by our candour, will perceive that to descry dangers is sometimes the trait of a friendly solicitude, not of a hostile wish ; and we must confess that to ignore them is not a very wise sort of friendship. We are passing from one system to another—no one can deny that fact. The dangers of the past were known, and we had all been familiar with the encounter. But, argues the criticizer of our clear sight, if there are dangers in the future, why not stop in the past, why desire to go to that future ?—Be- cause you can't* help it. And we do not deplore the transition, full of trouble and danger as it may be. Not because the pro- cess of "moving" is intensely disagreeable do you abstain from going from one house to a better. Nor do you effect the move best by overlooking the difficulties of the road or the defects of the
new house. * The great deficiency with us is the want of any great leading political object to animate the people—a political " creed," a
faith "—call it what you will—which rests on broader and more enduring moral grounds than mere self-interest. Interest may be a stimulating bait to industrial activity for supplying material com- forts and pleasures, but it is not a moral guide to happiness. It is not we alone who descry the danger of this political scepticism : see what that stout Liberal Mr. Osborne says, amid the cheers of congregated Liberals at the great Parliamentary and Financial Reform meeting, this week, in the City- " There is apathy, there is distrust amongst the Reformers themselves; and I repeat what I set, out with, that there is at this moment no Popular party, no leader, no Popular principles well expounded in the House of Commons. 1 shall be told, perhaps, that OD occasions they vote together; but I, who am behind the scenes, know the difficulty by which alone you can serape together eighty Mem- bers returned on what are called Liberal principles to vote on any one question. You got them together on Mr. Cobden's motion. Why P—Because they knew it would be of no import It cannot be denied that the great want of any Popular feeling or party in this country—and I don't mean to attack either parties or men—has been owing mainly to the conduct of the present Government But I do think it is owing a little to you, the middle classes, who can see no wisdom except in a lord—no probity except in an estated gentleman. . . . . The House of Commons, the People's House of Com- mons,' 'ha tl degraded into a mere taxing machine."
Again, see the account which the Conservative and not revo- lutionary Lord John Russell gives of those "lords and estated gentlemen." He dares not entertain the idea of triennial Parlia- ments, because the "lords and estated gentlemen " are untrained to their coveted duties and prone to truckle to popular prejudices.
"Two years out of the three years for the transaction of public business would be much disturbed—the first by want of experience in the Members, the last by looking too anxiously and intensely at the effect of votes in this Mouse upon a general election From the experience which we have had since the Reform Bill, I should say that very general attention is paid to the wishes of con- stituents, and that public opinion has fully as much influence as it ought to have upon the transactions and votes of this House; and I think that if it was car- ried to a greater extent, instead of Members who entertain a strong opinion upon the euhject voting for measures which they believe to be for the public good, there will be too many instances of their sacrificing that opinion to the transient and temporary passions of their constituents." Nut by love of country are the "lords and estated gentlemen" moved ; not by strong opinion—if they have it ; not by the public good but they will sacrifice all those sacred things to the transient and temporary passions of their constituents, for the paltry ambition of sitting in a national council thus corrupted I Such is the description given by the leader of the Liberal party, still undeposed. Yet he is precisely where he would be : he de- sired to move out of the old Tory regime, for he proposed the Re- form Bill ; but he desires to go no further, for he refuses to accept supplemental measures. In this state of the House of Commons, Lord John thinks that "public opinion has fully as much in- fluence as it ought to have upon the transactions and votes of this House." He has no sustaining faith, no guiding principle for the future.
Mr. Osborne, the hearty "Liberal," tells us that the Ministers have corrupted the political virtue of the people ; that the Legis- lature is apathetic and effete, treating important questions as the decayed College of Cardinals treated the election of Pope, by carrying those which can have no effect; and that all this is owing to the dulness and servility of the people themselves. Lord John, undeposed leader of the Liberals, says that the House is formed of men ignorant, ready to sacrifice the public good, and prone to be servile ; and be, self-describing, avows his content- ment with that state of things.
Even the earnest Chartists, stifled by the force of universal apathy, are consorting with the folks whom Mr. Osborne rebuked to their face for political Atheism. We do not exult in this state of things: it is no victory, bat simply a fact. We descry the danger, and describe it. We mark it down in the chart. We know that a nation cannotiong re- main without a political "faith"; and that if it does not shape one out by its own intelligence and living conscience, one will be forced upon it by calamity. There are advantages in times of trouble—they make men know each other and work for each other, love and serve each other. The tribulation of the moment is sore to human flesh, but the history of man attests the faet that he is ruled by higher laws than his own—more steadfast, powerful; and beneficent. It is his to search those laws, that he may obey them better for his own happiness, that be may work with them and promote their ends, for his own happiness and the glory of God : if he forgets them for a time, or misconceives them, or is seized with the disease of a perverse and sceptical apathy, the unstaid march of Necessity treads heavy upon his heels, and the pain reawakens him to a healthier lifesomeness. Let us avert calamity if we can ; but if not, then with chastened and strengthened faith march on to our allotted future.
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