NATIONAL INDIFFERENTISM AND NATIONAL ENTHUSIASM.
FRANCE has elected her President ; the typical English county has elected its new Member; and the facts of the two elections fulfil what we had anticipated : France is all alive ; the English county has nothing particular to say. It is only by a very forced construction that any peculiar signi- ficancy can be imputed to the West Yorkshire election. If there is anything remarkable, it is the prevalence of negative over posi- tive ideas. Some display of Voluntaryism was made in support of Sir Culling Eardley ; but he was not the successful man. An Anti-Popish feeling was abroad ; but it was most marked on the side of the Exeter Hall candidate. Sir Culling had made up his mind to refuse secular education : Mr. Denison so changed his terms, but always kept them so equivocal, that his meaning puzzles the inquirer ; you are left to guess that he is free to act with the Committee of the Privy Council, or with the Ministry for the time being. So much, therefore, as there was of positive opinion, lay on the side of the minority. The majority of the successful candidate was a minority of the constituency—only two-fifths : of the 36,000 registered electors, some 10,000 with- held their votes. Of Mr. Denison's majority, some 1,100 voted for him merely because he opposed Sir Culling—for the reason that the Baronet does not belong to the order of Whig or Con- servative gentry ; so small a reason turned the balance ! Mr. Denison says that by the election West Yorkshire has pronounced for.the unbroken connexion of Church and State : but if the snub- -lung of Mr. Fitzwilliam had not soured the Whigs beforehand,
or if Sir Culling had belonged to the " order," the vote would have gone the other way, and Mr. Denison would have had to invert his assertion. West Yorkshire has declared nothing, ex. cept that it will not "rush to the poll" at the summons of the Voluntaries.
How different the spectacle in France ! A mere name is set up, and the whole nation does rush to the poll. Nearly nine- tenths of the adult males, nearly all of the qualified electors, have recorded their votes ; and a majority of three to one signi- fies the choice of the people. There is no wavering of the ba- lance. Louis Napoleon was set up against the statesman-poet, the commander illustrious for his military achievements and his vigorous firmness of government, the man of the people, and the impersonator of the Red Republic : but France, undistracted by the reveries of Lamartine, the persecution-glories of Raspail, the popularity-hunting of Ledru-Rollin, or even the prestige of "la gloire" which invests Cavaignac, has fixed without faltering or equivocation on the name of a Bonaparte. It is no doubt a heterogeneous majority—including parties of all sorts, actuated by conflicting fears or speculating on incompatible hopes : but all France is stirred, and all France fastens upon a common idea. Personally there is little more in the new President to excite a national interest than there is in the new Member for Yorkshire. Both are reputed to be endowed with the usual attainments pf gentlemen : we have it on the authority of Walter Savage Lan- dor that Louis Napoleon is a "thoughtful and studious man"; and Mr. Denison bears the average repute for university accom- plishments. Over the dessert-table, you might be equally pleased with the conversation of either : if Louis Napoleon is rather more of a " heavy coach," the associations of so eventful a pedigree do not adorn Mr. Denison's conversation, nor do such picturesque mustachios impart point and character to his style. But both, no doubt, can sip their wine with dignity equally sententious, and unbend among the chestnuts with as gentlemanly a grace. It is not, then, the difference between the men that has made the difference in the manner of their election. It is not alto. gether any definite views about measures, since the President is no less equivocal and more untried than the Member. It is not altogether the difference in the genius of the two countries, since France is less ready for the routine of public activity than England. Why is France so heated on behalf of Louis Napoleon! Is it that he possesses some qualities of greatness, newly brought forth by the opportunity ? does the Corsican blood animate him to bolder projects ? does the spirit of the old Greek seed survive and flower in the Imperial President of the last fashionable Republic ? It may be. For keep in mind, that he not only bears the name, but is a Bonaparte—is of the Napoleonic stock. However dull his level conversation, he adapts himself readily to the fashion of great national movements ; the "thoughtful and studious " gentleman who may have found it difficult to recipro. cate aphorisms with the great conversationist, and found it easier to retort an epigram with a bow, has shown that he is not bound by the bondage of etiquette and routine—that he can attach him- self to great ideas—that he can imagine great events, and can succeed in being raised upon the bucklers of the French. And this is the desideratum. We in England do not lack men of cleverness and ingenuity, who can get up an "agitation" in
due form ; nor men of judgment and businesslike habits, who can repeat what their predecessor repeated before them. It is not mere " measures " that we want—we have bills enough and to spare. It is not the semblance of movement—our statesmen are indefatigable in a political sort of "marking time." We are un- wearied in "discussing" all kinds of "meliorating measures," from " the Serpentine as it ought to be" to Indian cotton and the regeneration of Ireland. But national vitality is lost in a wooden mechanicalness. Our very projects become stale and
effete before they grow to be measures. We taunt each other, and
boast of our own plans, as if we were about to start forward; but not a man will venture to make the start : each cries " On ! to the field!" but waits to see who stirs ; none will throw himself neck
or nothing even into his own enterprise. If for a moment some bolder spirit advances with a "measure," it proves to be a sham—
some electioneering pretence or agitation counterfeit. It might be possible to escape from this nightmare stagnation. Great- ness is not necessarily indiscreet or criminal ; the stock of great measures is not exhausted. It is still open to the statesman to serve his country. For example—he might redeem the working classes from many ills, without cajoling or betraying them by pretended care for their weal : he might grasp the subject of our national finances, and dealing with realities, redeem the country from its temporary embarrassment. If such a man were to appear—if such there be ; if he were to speak to the people in the national dialect, and not to cliques in the jargon of party; if he were to advance plans of national action, instead of tinker- ing old bills, or vamping up agitation-schemes made for show rather than use ; if he were to manifest the boldness and readi- ness to risk obloquy and defeat while dashing at fame and vic- tory,—such a man, independent of small criticism and nice tech- nicalities, would rouse the nation from its dozing apathy. But self-seeking freezes courage and pinches the conception ; Whig- gery sits supreme by the right of sufferance; the lineage of patriotism degenerates to a phthysical negation ; and polite statesmanship submits to be an emasculated neuter, without im- pulse or vigour or life-giving influence.
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