NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE election struggle is beginning in earnest ; combatants here and there having actually joined in the attack. The fashion of THE election struggle is beginning in earnest ; combatants here and there having actually joined in the attack. The fashion of
pulling character to pieces, which usually prevails at such seasons, as becoming common. Electors conceive a sudden sense of their own importance as the makers of honourable gentlemen, and are inclined to be stern. Men who have grown easy in the long Parliament, and have perchance almost forgotten that there are such troublesome things as constituencies, are now roughly re- minded of their votes in critical divisions. Official gentlemen who represent popular constituencies are especially taunted in this way, and made to. tremble for their seats. It is sport to con- stituencies to make honourable gentlemen tremble, even though the infliction is to be nothing worse than a fright.
Among those whose seats are threatened are Mr. Roebuck and Lord Duncan ; but the danger does not originate with the Bath constituency. The reader will infer where the danger originates when we recapitulate a few salient facts well known to all the world, and already pointed out, on successive occasions and sepa- rately, to the readers of the Spectator. Mr. Roebuck has often been troublesome to the Government, because he is a very shrewd, 'vigilant, and stern critic, and will make the defects and drift of measures quite plain ; sometimes succeeding to such an extent as to extort confession. After one of Mr. Roebuck's critical cas- tigations, Lord John Russell hinted at what "a city in the West" might say to his conduct,—that Oriental circumlocution meaning to imply Bath. Lord Ashley was the mediator in the -curious Education affair, between the Russell Cabinet, so shy of Roman Catholic participation in the public grant, and the Wes- leyans, so forward with No-Popery suspicions. Sure enough it is, that at the very first opportunity, Lord Ashley appears, and is proposed by a gentleman who disclaims any attack on Lord Duncan's seat : it Is Mr. Roebuck's which is attacked. It is odd enough, too, that Mr. Roebuck's antagonist comes before the electors with language warm in praise of Lord John Russell. At a meeting in Bath, this week, a Mr. Norman stated that he once voted for Mr. Roebuck, and that he did It at the dictation of the Whig Ministers : Mr. Norman an- nounces that he shall not again vote for Mr. Roebuck. We have simply recounted facts perfectly known to every news- paper reader. Lord Ashley comes to Bath under these circum- stances. Now on what grounds does he profess to stand ? On three,—that he may pursue his own special missions of philan- thropic legislation ; that he may support a No-Popery course of action in Parliament; and that he may oust Mr. Roebuck, whose opinions are "extreme" and whose language is harsh. The Bath electors have shown so much intelligence, that -they are not likely to be hoodwinked or cajoled at this day. They will naturally think it is very proper for Lord Ashley to be in Parliament, but not on these grounds. Why should he go to Bath ? He more especially „acts for the working classes ot the factory districts ; and he might have found vacant seats in his ,own region. For tranquillizing Ireland, he relies much on the crushing of Popery and the distribution of "Irish Bibles "• a view of statesmanship not likely to recommend him to the Bath constituency. Thirdly, he proposes to obtain his seat by exclu- ding Mr. Roebuck. Now we do not believe that any section of politicians worthy of respect would desire to exclude from Par- liament either Mr. Roebuck or Lord Ashley. Both have chalked out distinct courses for themselves. Lord Ashley seeks to defend the interests of labour : a very useful vocation. Mr. Roebuck defends the interests of the people, and especially of the poorer classes, from at empts to put delusions upon them, and to pass measures by the h tlp of some disguise or evasion or suppression ; he sits in Peri,. m .nt to see that nothing is passed without the people's understanding it, its bearing on them and on public in- terests: also a very useful function. When, therefore, Lord
Ashley avows the attempt to oust Mr. Roebuck as one of his own claims, he avows that which would inflict an injury on the public. It is not probable that the Bath electors wilt consent to aid him in such a needless and mischievous wandering from his own proper mission.
Mr. Disraeli has bought an estate in Buckinghamshire, and aspires to fill that seat for the county which his own Tanered de- spised. Having achieved his enterprises as a knight-errant, seen visions on Mount Sinai, and penetrated "the great Asian mys- tery," Mr. Disraeli thinks that he has a right to the repose of the benches in the Commons. He is a clever littkrateur, and his ad- dress is a clever mystification. He is as "faithful" as ever to his " fruidess" task of opposing free trade; but he will not attempt " factiously or forcibly to repeal the measures of 1846." He is now engaged in contemplating a conflict between "Popular prin- ciples" and "Liberal opinions "; for he enjoys a fight between the two parts of an antithesis, as much as men of spirit used to en- joy a cock-fight. And so, working himself into a polite phrensy, he advances 'amid the crash of parties," to ask the Buckingham tenants for their confidence. Mr. Disraeli enlivens a debate, and sometimes throws light upon a subject ; and most people would be sorry not to have him in Parliament again. It is to be hoped that he will not be excluded by the aristocratic monopoly of Buck- inghamshire seats—a kind of hereditary claim which he has so prettily painted.
