The old parties have
been broken up with the old system, and new ones are forming. Not to
speak it profanely, “all old things have passed away." The Tory
party is an unreal shade, which continues to look spitefully and
peevishly upon us, but eludes our grasp. The Whig party is a mere
name bestowed upon all that worthy class of the community who wish
to have matters amended, without well knowing how to set about it.
It is supposed to include every man who, disapproving of our Com
Laws, is of opinion that it would be inexpedient to alter them; or
who, abhorring slavery, thinks it unjust to free the slave; or who,
averse to wasteful expenditure, rejects every plan of retrenchment;
or who thinks the law of entail an absurdity which ought to be
perpetuated. This is not a party. A party must have a community of
interests or opinions for the bones and sinews of its frame. This is
merely a ruddle of timid sheep crowding together, and tumbling
stupidly over one another at the impulse of their common fear. Then
the word Radical is one which indicates no class of politicians; it
vaguely comprehends every man who goes a step beyond the worthy
citizens we have been describing. It includes Mr. Hume, who would
keep faith with the national creditor; Mr. Cobbett, who would turn
him adrift; and Mr. Att-wood, who would pay him with fine words,
which butter no parsnips, and little paper parallelograms. It
includes Mr. Roebuck, who squares all his actions to the principles
of Bentham; and Mr. Hunt, who troubles himself with no principles at
all. Mr Hume's patriotic band has received an accession of numbers,
and a still greater accession of talent. The Edinburgh Whigs, who
have hitherto been little more than the literary champions of their
cause, have emerged into legislative existence. It is worth while to
take a closer view of this first-born of the Scottish Reform Act.
The Edinburgh Whig Coterie has gained a name by the identification
of some of its leading members with the Edinburgh Review, and has
riveted its influence over the minds of the wealthiest and most
influential Whigs of Scotland, by the high stations which they
occupy in the legal profession. The talents and professional habits
of this body eminently qualified them, as both friends and foes have
found, for organizing a partisan force. They are united among
themselves, and to the Chancellor; to whom, in despite of occasional
piques and jealousies, they look as their leader and representative,
by early, unbroken, and long-continued friendship and intimacy. They
will stand one for all, and all for one; will enable Brougham to
cock his wig more crousely in the cabinet than ever. It is therefore
of some importance, that the public should be put in possession of
the character of this new influence which has been added to Earl
Grey's councils.
The literary talents, amiable dispositions, and purely honourable
characters of the leaders of this clique, are beyond a doubt. It
were affectation to dwell on their claims to the first of these
attributes; and as to the others, men better fitted to grace the
festive circle, and add a charm to retired intimacy; men guided by
purer feelings and higher principles in the relations of private
life, are not to be found. Our estimate of their public character
must, however, be “craftily qualified." They commenced their
political career at a time when the suspicion of a man's being
tainted with liberal principles was, in Scotland, enough to exclude
him from the more fashionable circles. The Edinburgh Review, in its
earlier numbers, was, if any thing, a Tory publication. When its
young conductors did at last venture to shew the cloven foot, it was
with a degree of timidity, drubbed into them by the repeated
snubbings they had received from the civic and collegiate
authorities during their career in the Speculative Society. They
avoided the expression of any decided opinions, preferring the
eclectic or sceptical tone. Those few doctrines which they have at
last heartily embraced, (chiefly relating to the theory of
commerce,) they long coursed around, and snuffed at, then scampered
away, and then came back again, for all the world as a dog does
before he ventures to pick up the bone he finds lying among the
snoirl They mildly remonstrated with the Tories on the inexpediency
of some of their ways; disclaiming, at the same time, with
hysterical vehemence, all connexion with the naughty men who had
frightened the said Tories. They uplifted their mouths, and thanked
God, that they were not as Godwin, neither contaminated with the
heresies of Bentham. They were a race of political academists;
touching with gentle hand the sore parts of either party, and
elegantly and playfully hinting at a remedy; but not particularly
sanguine in their expectations that the world would follow their
prescriptions, and not much caring whether it did or not. They were
like “La Belle Hamilton" at the court of Charles II., possessed of
sufficient self-command to keep her own person pure, but not of nice
enough feelings to be annoyed by the uncloaked debauchery of those
who surrounded her. They held the even tenor of their way, more
gratified by the consciousness of their own goodness, than pained by
the naughtiness of the rest of the world.
The political condition of Scotland, previous to the passing of the
Reform Act, was well calculated to keep them in this state of
political nonage. They were placed in a region where the voice of
the people was never heard in any consultation regarding the
business of the state. Like certain gentlemen in Milton's
Scotland—Pandemonium we mean they “apart sate on a hill retired, and
reasoned high," of matters in which the constitution of their
country permitted them to take no active share. The nearest approach
allowed them to taking a part in the tug of war, was the delivery of
beautiful set speeches at political din. ners, and those solemn
meetings, heralds of parliamentary petitions, where the orators have
it, “like the bull in the china shop, all their own way." They could
not exactly be called unversed in the real business of life; for
most of them, as before hinted, are lawyers; but politics were “of
their lives a thing apart," a beautiful imagination not linked with
sordid realities; and the only debates tending to practical result
in which they mingled, were those of a Court where every step is
prescribed by law, not of those more stirring, character-forming
assemblies where the laws themselves are made. Every thing tended to
keep the leaders, the lights of the party, theoretical, not
practical statesmen; persons to whom it was free to float at will on
a sea of doubts, indulging in nice distinctions; men untrained to
promptitude in decision, and perseverance in action. Such , of them
as meddled with local politics, experienced the truth of the old
proverb respecting the handling of pitch.
This ripeness of judgment, and want of experience, have conjoined
with the provincial locality of the Edinburgh Whigs, to stamp the
respectable portion of them with a very peculiar character. Without
belonging to that class, which, looking more deeply into the
workings of society than the busy multitude, elaborate, in quiet
cells, the political and moral creeds of coming generations; their
views are eminently unpractical. They are called upon to take a
share in the active management of a machine which they have hitherto
contemplated iply from a distance. They are conscious of their want
of mechanical skill and readiness, and consequently timid. At the
same time, they have been too long the oracles of their little
circle, to have failed to acquire, not exactly a confidence in their
own judgment, but a comparatively greater distrust in every other
person's. Anxious and hesitating when called to action, they are
supercilious and immovable in argument. They will neither stir
themselves, nor allow others to push them on. They disapprove of the
system upon which the Government of this country has hitherto been
conducted, and, if you give them time, will take it into their
consideration whether a better may not be devised; but if you hint
that there is no time left—that the wolf is at the door; and still
more, if you venture to hint at what they ought to do, they turn
away with a cold smile of conscious superiority. They are too
ineffably above you, even to be moved by your presumption.
This has heen their line of conduct ever since the Duke of Welling,
ton's dismissal. They were averse to petitioning at first—'“Let us
wait and see what ministers will do." When forced into a
demonstration, they took care that the petition of Edinburgh should
be such as might be amply granted by the narrowest, the most
illusory reform—“For any sake, avoid all details: they are rocks
upon which we cannot fail to split." The struggle grew keener and
closer; it was evidently the death-grapple. A bolder demonstration
was called for. With timorous deprecatory remonstrances, they
acquiesced in an open air meeting. Earl Grey resigned. The whole of
the rest of the nation boldly pointed to the last resource; but our
Edinburgh Whigs shrunk from the slightest allusion to the stopping
of the supplies, as if the shade of Castle-reagh stood frowning
before them. It was only after the most urgent and reiterated
prayers, and under the threat of a counter-motion, that they nerved
themselves to stand firm by the L.10 qualification. They were
willing to have conceded that essential point “as one of the
details." During the whole of the canvass which preceded the late
elections, they evaded the questions of short parliaments and the
ballot. To the former we know them to be unfriendly; respecting the
latter, they have uniformly said, "Let us see whether it be
necessary?” Its necessity has been experimentally established. The
most unwarrantable acta of bribery and oppression are proved to have
been resorted to by the Conservatives; and Sir John Dalrymple mildly
tells them, that t( if they persist," he may “incline to favour the
ballot.” Maria Darlington a “Very naughty man," addressed to her
seemingly faithless spouse, was not a more disproportionate rebuke.
All the time that they are thus turning a deaf ear to the urgency of
the people, they are coaxing the Tories to kiss and be friends. “Now
that the struggle is ever, let all harsher feelings be forgotten."
Oh yes! We have won at the game of Change seats, the king's
cominglet us now join with the losers to bar the door against the
intrusion of too many new guests.
Some people think there is dishonesty in all this. They are
mistaken. The Scottish Whigs persist in keeping up every sinecure
appointment; they refuse to hear of further reforms; they strive to
keep on good terms with the Tories: it is all weakness and ignorance
of the world— no positively dishonest purpose. Raw from their
studies, they tremble to lay a reforming finger upon the delicate
machine intrusted to their care, least*it should crumble in their
grasp. Conceited of their own superior acquirements; believing that
all are in utter ignorance except their old corrupt opponents,
themselves and their toadies, they doggedly refuse to hear of any
person undertaking what they fear to attempt. They are like a
physician who would consult all his authorities by the bed-side of
an apoplectic patient; carefully collating every passage with the
symptoms of the dying man, before he attempted to relieve him. They
feel not themselves the grinding of that penury which redundant
taxation, and a clumsy, cumbrous system of executive government have
brought upon the working classes; and they believe every man who
speaks from feeling an unsafe counsellor. He is excited, and cannot
reflect coolly. It is as though they should address a friend, “My
good fellow, you must allow that you, who have a goad of red-hot
iron sticking in your breech, cannot reason so coolly on the matter
as we who are free from all such appliances and means to boot. It is
absurd in you to deafen us with your cries to pull it out before we
have time to come to the conclusion that such is the most eligible
mode of procedure."
This is not dishonesty: but it is every whit as dangerous. You may
force a rogue to act right by pointing to the gibbet: but
pragmatical council walks with closed eyes over the precipice.
Again, it engenders public distrust. Public men must be judged by
their public actions: few have access, and fewer leisure, to study
their ruling motives, and to learn to pardon them for their good
intentions. That people with which they disdain to form a nearer
intimacy, will soon grow disgusted with them. They will bear the
blame of all the ill they occasion, which is fair ; but they will
also be accused of having willed it, which is hard; for they have
kind hearts and high aspirations.
If they persist in their besotted obstinacy, they will form a drag-ch&in
of imposing strength on the motions of government. Let us see: Then
are in the present parliament Jeffrey, Murray, and Macaulay,—tongues
of the trump. Then there is Lord Dalmeny, an ingenuous diffident
boy, who will do as they bid him; and Sir John Dalrymple, a good man
and true, though somewhat priggish, whom they will manage by making
him believe that he follows his own inclinations. There are Ferguson
of Raith, (one of themselves,) Admiral Fleming, Lord Ormelie, and
Stewart Mackenzie, as honest and well-meaning men as breathe, whose
gentlemanly feeling will guard them against the blandishments of the
Tories, and who will be kept from the approach of the people by the
jealous and plausible arts of the Coterie. How many more of our
Scottish members are in their toils, we cannot precisely say; but
even this is a tolerable nucleus of a party in the House of Commons,
to stick to the Lord Chancellor through thick and thin, and do his
spiriting gently. With this tail wagging behind him, in its
tremulous pride, Lord Brougham will be more likely to put on his
peremptors in the Cabinet. He has been from youth a man more of
brilliant, comprehensive, and restless, than of solid parts. In the
Speculative Society he was one of those whose boldness was mainly
instrumental in calling down the indignation of the big-wigs; and
again, he was the one who most overlaid the character of conformity
he was called upon to assume. Such has he been through life. His
ambition is great, his conceptions noble, his activity sleepless:
but his power wants continuity of application. He puts on too much
at one time, and too little at another. Forming bold ideas, and
acting upon them with a startling rapidity at one moment, he seeks
the next to tread the perplexed paths of intrigue with the noiseless
footstep of the courtier. One day he beards his enemies with fierce
denunciations; and then fbr a week be is all conciliation, “the
torrent’s smoothness ere it dash below/' For a week he is the oil
spread over the vexed billows of the House of Lords, to restore the
glassy surface of that once wavelesa aristocratic ocean ; and at the
end of it, he breaks out into a Herculean frenzy, seizes poor Sugden,
as his prototype did Hyks, and hurls him far away beyond human ken;
or rather, by a more cruel metamorphosis than any in Ovid, he,
before our eye9, transmutes a man into a bug. Such a creature of
momentary and varying impulses—over-bold the one moment, dangerously
timid the next—followed, as he is likely to be, by a numerous and
talented body of personal adherents, is a questionable coadjutor for
a government, which, more than any we have known, requires to temper
boldness with caution, which must feel its way at every footstep,
yet dare not loiter for a moment, or withdraw one hair's breadth
after it has advanced.
Earl Grey will do well to look to the motions of this party, which,
by its bigoted scepticism, and its coquetry with the old
aristocratical and priestly faction, may interfere materially with
the stately march of his own straight-forward policy. The nation
will do well to look sharply after men who may not dare to be just
to it. The party itself will do well to scrutinize its own
character, and examine the nature of the hold it has upon the
country. Our objurgation has not been uttered in anger. Personally,
we love and esteem many of its members, however much we may distrust
them in their corporate capacity. “We neither seek nor shun their
favour nor their feud." Let them remember that they are new to
office ; and not rooted in that genial soil. Let them remember that
the national spirit has been excited by real wrongs, not abstract
theories; and that men of action are what we now want. Let them
remember, that they have hitherto kept themselves immured within the
Bastile of their own domestic circles, and do not know the people.
Even with our wealthier citizens, their intercourse has had a tone
of distance and condescension. The ten-pound voters were a race
altogether new to them ; and there are myriads behind of whom they
know nothing,—men of clear heads and quick feelings. Above all, let
them remember how feeble is their real influence. Their ill-omened
patron, age mainly contributed to lose Mr. Crawfurd his election for
Glasgow, and their opposition had almost re-established Mr.
Johnstone in the Stirling burghs. They are taken on trial: let them
beware lest they be weighed in the balance and found wanting.
We know that these are unpalatable truths, and we know the love
generally born towards those who administer such nauseous mixtures.
Nay more, we know that many worthy and independent men will blame us
for hallooing before the hounds are out of the wood. It is indeed an
unthankful office to keep men to their duty by hinting our
suspicions of them. We are likely to be regarded as pragmatical
coxcombs at the time, and abused afterwards for our distrust;
although, perhaps, it was our plain speaking alone which prevented
what we foresaw from taking place. Our moan however is soon made. We
have already established a sufficiently good understanding with oat
readers to entitle us to hazard the risk of incurring one harsh
opinion at their hands, if there is any good object to be gained by
it; and seeing that we are more anxious to Hve jolly members of a
peaceful and happy community than to gain credit for prophetic
powers, or to ride cock-a-hoop on the broad back of popular
applause, we have ventured to strew our pearls before—a respected
public. |