TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE DOCKYARD REPORT.
Ii' a man who has once been in bad company and has wasted his substance and become corrupted in his notions, but has been re- elahned from those evil courses—has been guided into a better Path-.–has made some progress in that new life, and is gradually acquiring confirmed habits of correct behaviour,—if such a man is then accosted by an inveterate debauchee who tries to win him back from his better life, and lays traps to betray him into old profligacies, our indignation against the seducer is filr greater than- against the boon companions who shared and incited the early indis- oretions of the trespasser. Exactly the same indignation has been 13roieked by the Tory party in their treatment of the Admiralty. They found it reformed, they tried to disreform it ; they found it ee?idieted with purity, for the benefit of the Navy and of the Country thrbugh the Navy, and they did their best to prostitute it to their own party and personal objects. The attempt has failed, and those who made the attempt stand convicted of betraying their trust; no one engaged escapes. Mr. Stafford, the " Artful Dodger" of .the gang, is rendered incapable of future service ; the Earl of Derby is convicted of recklessly assuming the post of chief re- sponsibility, and totally neglecting its duties of command and auperintelidence ; Mr. Disraeli is called upon to defend himself, and myitifies the Committee with a defence which is an impertinence ; and the Diike'of Northumberland accepts the responsibility as lightly as the Earl of Derby intrusts him with it. Each one stands tiefOie- the' public according to his acts, and is condemned by them. So signal, an instance of prompt retribution has seldom visited the delinquencies of official men. .The Committee reports these delinquencies in what has been ,properly termed "a special verdict," but shrinks from pronouncing judgnient on the criminals. Perhaps the Committee hesitated to mist stones, as feeling itself, by its members or its companions, not without sin. It is true that this attempt to gain back the public department for the interest of corruption stands without precedent or parallel ; • nevertheless the Committee might feel that its own side was not pure. Composed of Members of the House of Com- mons, it might well feel its judgment chastised by its view of that assemblage. The public departments are officered in their highest ranks from the Houses of Parliament. The heads of the depart- inents, the seconds in command, and the secretaries, rule these offices ; they are selected from one House or the other, mostly from the Commons ; and any one of that class, appointed to be judge over ii.delinquent of his own class, might survey the House and say, whether, if there may be a balance of sin on one side of the Speaker, the other side is immaculate. We all know better. We have not on this side been endeavouring to corrupt a penitent de- partment, but we have winked at long-standing corruptions that sap the morality of public men in general politics as much as it has' been sapped: in' this particular department. It is not only that Canterbury has disclosed the existence of a " fund" rtlie suffrages of the electors for one side or the other, liotli sides being implicated ; but is not the " trust" of the franchise systematically'corrupted ? We have not set ourselves to account or classify, but- the impression is, that in the manage- ment of corrupt boroughs the Liberal side is at least as far ad- vanced as the other. And thus, if a public department of vital importance to the country is not corrupted by Liberals, neverthe- less,- the very constitution of the country itself is corrupted, and the organization of the public service, which springs from that constitution, is diseased in its growth. ' It would, however, be an exceedingly narrow application of the moral taught by the Dockyard Committee, if it were to be regarded merely as an act of retribution on a political party ; we should gain from it but half the benefit if we were but to secure an un- corrapt and therefore an efficient administration of the ''Navy. The moral has a much wider scope, and if any virtue yet exists in our public men it will be duly applied. The first object unques- tionably is to bring the offenders to justice; and that has virtually been' done, although the Committee, with a conscious humility, abstained from executing justice. The next object is to secure an incorrupt administration of the department ; and that we may hold to be secured. The late Administration had shown their vicious disposition, but they had neither time nor opportunity to inflict very serious injury ; and the proper administration of the department ii`renderecl all the safer by this speedily-detected attempt upon its Yale. But if an offender is brought to justice, the chief advan- tage of doing so lies in the example. There will be little use in a party triumph over Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, as well as their subordinates the Duke of Northumberland and Mr. Stafford, un- less other parties in the state apply to themselves the moral con- veyed by that political downfall. As Partridge says, "Nemo repente fait turpissimus "—the most inveterate offender seldom begins with criminal intentions equal to his achievements. The worst Old Bailey culprit probably commenced with "white lies" that career which ended on the scaffold : it is the same in official life. The political convict initiated with white " misunderstandings" that Career of falsifications, suppression, and intrigue, which has ended in'the moral pillory. But where can the dabbler in political corrup- tion draW the line with safety to himself ? Where can he say to the "tide of white lies, " Thus far shalt thou go and no further : thou shalt go to the Canterbury high-water mark, and not to the Chatham"? It is not to be done. The first stumble risks the
entire fall; and he who enters political life as the debauchee of departments has before him the fate of Stafford.
But the tale which the Cominittee discloses has its moral of en- couragement as well as determent: If the weaknesses of a Staf- ford are followed by the political ruin of himself and his accom- plices, the incorrupt conduct of those on the opposite side exhibits them no doubt with greater strength than has been seen in public life for a long series of years. Political rivalry, the resentment of defeat, the spite of detection, must have impelled the vanquished party to retort had it been posiible. Nay, we need not presume the animus, for it was betrayed in the assertions of Mr. Stafford, that the other side had been making corrupt appointments. But the strength of a virtuous course was seen in the impregnability against these retorts. No ingenuity of defeated and detected offenders could establish a reproach upon the other side : on the contrary, denunciations were but the test of good conduct, and the Liberal side found itself in this department absolutely unassailable. That is the true source of strength—pure and correct conduct ; and if the same virtue which the Liberals have thus far shown in the administration of the Admiralty could be extended to other departments, and especially to that great department of the state called Parliament, the Liberal party would acquire a strength which would secure its immortality.
Previous page
