TOPICS OF THE DAY.

STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION : THE LEEDS REFORM ASSOCIA'FION.

" Sueroter INlinisters" is a cry that cannot be kept up much longer. nilen turn away from the task of supporting -Ministers, in order to mind their own business, or what they conceive to be such. In Leeds they are calling out for Household Suffrage ; in Man- chester, for the repeal of the Corn-laws; here and there throegh- out the empire, the Chartists still carry on their agitation ; in the South of Ireland they are bawling fos Repeal, in the Nerth they have formed an Ulster Association; in Scotland, Velunturies, Non- Intrusionists, Vetoists, Patronage end Anti-Patronege advocates, arc thumping each other. Every day some new topic emerges to distract men's attention from the great duty or "Leering ie the Whigs." The fate of this 'Nlinistry threatens to be even more deplorable than we anticipated: it is in eminent danger of being forgotten before it is turned out.

The movement in favour of Household Suffrage in Leeds, is the newest and the most promineut of all we have alluded to; but, in order to estimate its prospects of success, it will be necessary to touch upon the actual position of some of the others. The Chartist movement—if we are to understand by that the

orpsmization, almost exclusively among the IN-risking clessese which

followed the promulgation of " the Charter" in London and the origination of the National Petition in Birmingleen—ia " burning low." 13ut Chartism in its essence—tIme feeling on the part of the unenfranchised classes that they are suffering—the belief that this suffering is mainly attributable to their ceche:ion from participation

in the -franchise, and an eager wish to obtain the franchise—this

existed before that movement, end has survived its repulse. Uni- versal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments, and Equal Electoral Districts, were demanded by the first Parliatnentary Reformers, in 1780. The Friends of time People advocated Universal Suffrage. The meeting at 'Manche'ster in 1819 met to petition for Universal Suffrage. And now, although Chartism has no organ in London,

and although the circulation of the Northern Star appears to have

fallen from upwards of 40,000, to 13,000 or 14,000 per week, the ebullition has left behind it, what we never before had, a Universal Suffrage newspaper-press scattered over the country. In Scotland

alone we find—the True :Ontanten, (Edinburgh) the Patriot, (Glasgow) the Perth Chronicle, and the Dundee Chroniele,—fair average newspapsrs, the propel ty of Chartists, and advocating "the five points." The .True ,-Veotsnion has been some years in existence: the Patriot is, properly speakieg, a revival of the Liberator, a news- paper which was carriod on for several years, and might have been flourishing still but for mismanagement in the business depart- ment : the Perth Chronic/a is a steady well-conducted paper : of the Dundee Chronicle only one number has appeared since it passed into the hands of its new proprietary, but that is a creditable per- formance, with a racy and sensible " Letter I." by the ubiquitous Colonel Titooraox. In England, we know of' only two Chartist newspapers, (strictly speaking) the Northern ,S7ar and Northern Liberator ; but the Star, although reduced from a forced and un- natural circulation of 40,000, still retains a sale exceeding that of any other provincial journal—execeded by few even of the most popular London journals ; and there are several newspapers in the manufacturing districts mainly dentaelent for support upon the unenfranchised classes and fave usable to their views. The portion or public opinion which clings to Universal Suffrage is at this moment stronger and more likely to survive than at periods when it had a greater show of power. The Anti Corn-law League has the conperation of a large pro- portion of the newspaper press, its own Circular, and its lecturers. Free trade in corn is the wish of the immense majority of the middle-classes throughout the liEllaltiletuvilig•districts, and of a considerable number of the working-classes. The Anti Corn-law lecturers have created a great excitement among the labouring po- pulation of the midleml agricultural counties of Engnand, of' Wales, and the North of Ireland. The Central Council of the League (in Manchester) have of lute ad( yted a course of egitatimm is snore likely to produce an effect tip' n the Parliamentary di cussions of the question tlemn any thing they have set tried. We noticed not long ago the meeting of a deputation f the c.imcii with the electors of Belton, and the idedge tid,:en by the enniebled elec- tors to endeavour at next gem rel leeth)II to (.*:cry two Members,

pledged to the total repes1 of the Gam-lews. meeting between deputation of the Lesotm and the en es Of Warrington took place on Moialay ben. with the result, Similar interviews

are to be held with the electors of Soe:kport and l'Iseelestiell, of Liverpool and Leocaster. An A mai-Own-law letente about Easter is talked of in Glasgow ; anal the Edinburgh Anti-Cnrn-lew Asso- ciation have isseed, er are about to issue, an address to time people of Scotland, calling upen them " ti mem every means in their power at the first general cletthom to int urn Members to Perliament pledged to the repeal of the (nem-laws." The first glow of excitement which animated the Corn-law Repealers, about the time of the demon- stration at Manchester in January 18:ts, may have subsided ; but a dogged, persevering, workiug spirit, has taken its place ; and- in that we have more faith.

The Repeel of' the Enimm, which, except in the province of Ulster, seems to engross the attention id' all who take a part in public proceedings in Ireland, is 0 question fairly open to discus- 51011 Up011 time prinCiples Of rational politics. But that is not the

way in which it has been advocated in Ireland. The cry for Re. peal of the Union, which is heard there, is of the same sort that was heard in Scotland after the Union of 1706. It is the voice of national vnnity, of honest prejudice, of tradesmen afraid of compe- tition. Under an average government, it mill die away amid the increasing wealth and physical wellbeing of the commuoity. The Repeal of the Union is only a part of the Repealer's creed; which combines with that dogma, restrictions upon the use of English in favour of Irish menufactures, the exclusion of all but Irishmen born from every official function in Ireland, and with some a

tern of of national education sanctioned by the Archbishop of Toast. This is not a very enlightened political creed; but it is, and will for some time continue to be, the political creed of the majority in Ireland.

The phases of the Church question are innumerable. In Ire- land, we have the Orenge Ascendancy at one extreme and the Arelthishep of Team at the other. In England, we have the Esta- blished Church divided into Puseyites and Protestants: we have a body representing or supposed to represent the Dissenting inte- rests in London, with a newspaper under their control : and we have a seetien of the provincial Dissenters, dissatisfied with this central body as ten liable to be pmeed by men in office, busy setting up The Nonemgeormist. in Scotland, we have the Voluntaries with a central head and a newspaper (The Pilot) in Edinburgh; the High-Church party, oith several newspepers—The Guardian (Glasgow), The Witness (Edinburgh), The Banner (Aberdeen.) In Ireland, the battle-ground is Tithes and National Education ; in England, Church-rates; in Scotland, Education, Patronage, and the connexion of Church and State. The last is the question which is at the root of all the others; but it is only in Scotland that it has been fairly grappled with, and even there the disseverance of Church and State is advocated, not by a combination of men of all creeds seeking to stand upon an equal footing, but almost exclu- sively by the Evangelical Dissenters. We might almost say that in Scotland one church is seeking to base itself upon the Voluntary principle. The aimless and desultory bickerings of ecclesiastical politicians must, however, continue without producing any result, until the population of the empire is divided into two distinct par- ties—the one advocating, the other opposed to, an established church. It may be long cre matters come to this pass; but as men are often found to be vehement and loud in proportion to their ig- norance, the keen war now waging will not abate.

And now we come to the Household Suffrage movement, of which Leeds is at present the most active centre. The object of the Leeds Reform Associatiob is to promulgate a plan of Parlia- mentary Reform sufficiently effective to render it worth struggling for by the unenfranchised classes, and yet sufficiently measured in its extent to gain for it the support of a majority of the enfran- chised classes. Mr. HAMER STANSFELD, apparently the most influential member of the Association, says, in the conclusion of a letter addressed to the editors of the Leeds Mercury—" I have adduced evidence of bad government at home and abroad. In the misery of Ireland, which in the language of the Quarterly Review is a pest-house of destitution'—in the unparalleled distress of the working-classes of England and Scotland—in their demoralized and degenerated state—in the famines of India, clearly traceable to the grinding influences of their misrulers here and there. I have pointed out the eflbrts of nature to get rid of these evils by the agency of associations. Among them you have O'Connell and his millions of Repealers; the Ulster Constitutional Association, comprising the Whig nobility of that province; the Household Suffrage Associations ; the Socialists ; the Anti-Corn-law Asso-

ciation ; the Anti-Church-rate Society. This disastrous, this dangerous state of' things, cannot be denied ; and I have pointed out a remedy sanctioned by Fox and Grey, and proved to be an adequate and safe one by the flourishing condition of those coun- tries which have adopted similar reforms." The remedy proposed by Mr. STAN:TEM) and his Association is a constitutional reform, embracing Household Suffrage and sundry other points.

The characters of the leaders of the Leeds Association, and the firm yet measured language in which they state their views, would of themselves entitle them to attention. But there is more than this : there ere scattered throughout the country many middle- class Reformers, whose individual views are expressed by the pro- gramme of the Association. That body is, moreover, exerting itself with considerable decision and energy. It is to it that the public are indebted fbr the very able lecture on the rationale of Representation lately delhared at Leeds by Mr. ROEBUCK. It is male hg preparation for a great banquet at Leeds, to which many leading Liberals are to be invited. It has elicited a promise of conperation from Mr. O'CosaMM, and a guarded expression of sympathy from the Ulster Association. The intentions of the members of the Leeds Association do them honour ; and so flir as they have gone they have shown no deficiency in activity. Their agitation Call do nothing but good ; for, at the very least, it must provoke discussion ; and that is the only means by which public opinion can be formed, as public opinion is the only means of worinug out social or civil ameliorations.

Still, as dispassionate bystanders, we do not augur any very im- mediate or glowing result froin the efforts of the Leeds Association. The ground they have occupied—Household Suffrage—is untenable in abstract reasoning. It is a compromise, which would be ad- visable were the public mind in a state of preparation for it ; but we do not see where a party exists able and willing to carry this compromise into effect if it be accepted.

The arguments in favour of representative government rest not upon the propriety of allowing public opinion to control the Govern- ment, but upon the fret that public opinion everywhere and at all times does control the government. Even under a military despotism, public opinion is at once the main prop of and a sure check upon government. Themilitary chief ()fa nation must not only be himself brave, and capable of knowing how to discipline armies and to direct their energies; he must have a talent fur conciliating the affections of the soldier, and those who supply him with the means of paying the soldier. All history affords proof of this. The ruler incapable of conciliating public opinion has unitbrmly gone to the wall in every state of society anti form of government. Repre- sentative government is merely a means devised for giving peaceable expression to public opinion. Abstract reasoning renders it pro- bable, and what_ experience we have confirms it, that when men are convinced that the majority differ from them in opinion, they will be satisfied with arguing time question, instead of resorting to the hopeless alternative of violence; and that therefore a govern- ment resting upon an unequivocal expression of public opinion is less liable to be attacked by force than any other. This argtunent, however, leads to an unrestricted right of suffrage. Everything short of this is only recommendable on the ground that it can be more easily attained. Even those who would make knowledge a prerequisite for the suirrage, are merely seeking to assure them- selves or others against a danger they conceive to exist in it, seek- ing to give themselves or others courage to concede it in part. The principle of representative government once granted, there is no argument for excluding any portion of public opinion, except this— you cannot get it in. So long, therefore, as the opponents of extended suffrage do not hang out a flag of truce and offer to come to terms, the advocates of a limited suffrage must have the worse of the argument. Thus, at Leeds, Mr. BsosEs, who has taken up the cudgels against Household Suffrage, has the worst of the argument against -Mr. HAMER STANSIELD, who supports it ; but when Mr. STANSFELD Comes to argue with the Chartists, we do not see how he is to escape being worsted in his turn, for the arguments in his letter to Mr. BA/NES clearly go to make out the Chartist case.

The question, therefore, with regard to the Leeds Association, comes to be—is public opinion so thr advanced on the question of Extended Suffrage as to lead us to expect that any thing is to be got by offering terms? We confess we incline to believe that it is not The object of the Leeds Association is to combine such an amount of public opinion in favour of a practical scheme of constitutional reform as shall be irresistible. Mr. SrANseELD goes first to the Chartists—" Gentlemen, there is no chance of your getting all you ask : join with the middle classes to get some part of it—Household Suffieige." The Chartists, supposing them to be in good humour at the time, reply—" Sir, your proposal is plau- sible enough : but excuse us sticking to our point (or points) until you can show us that the middle-classes are prepared sincerely and earnestly to advocate Household Suffrage." Back goes Mr. STANS- FELD to the middle-classes ; and almost the first man he addresses, his old friend and ally Mr. BAINES, shakes his head and says, "No—really—Household Suffrage—that is going too far." We should think Mr. BAINES likely to draw quite as long a tail of what are called middle-class Liberals after him in Leeds as Mr. STANS- FELD—we think the same state of allitirs will be found to prevail in almost every town in the kingdom; and we cannot therefore see any inducement for the Chartists to give up " the Charter" of the working classes in order to support the new charter of the Leeds Association. Old Whiggery is too preponderant among the middle- classes to admit of time move Mr. STANsrehn contemplates being made, unless a .3lini.4r1, could be formed that would begin it. his new Association will, we suspect, instead of proving as he hopes a substitute for all the associations he enumerates, only add one to their number.

However, so fin from there being any hams in trying, it is only by the repetition of such experiments that the true way of going to work can be discovered. We trust that the middle-class Chartists will show more sense than the original Chartists, in not seeking to paralyze and disparage every agitation but their own.