'THE POLITICS OF A CLERGYMAN.

E F

To TH EDITOR O THE "SPECTATOR."

conceptions of our people that have been put forth in Europe SIR,--Some distinguished members of my profession have

during the war more monstrous announced that it is their intention to vote for Mr. Mill at the fitting ourselves rapidly for the acceptance of a military coming election for Westminster. I wish I were one of that as

constituency, that I might follow their example. Perhaps I. tary despotism is impossible in Great Britain at this period. dissent from certain maxims of Mr. Mill's philosophy more strongly than any of those who will oppose him most; I might Another Duke of Wellington, nay, another Cromwell, could not establish one ; for Mr. Carlyle is in a splendid unitarian minority, feel the difficulty which you have expressed in accepting some of the political opinions which he has announced in his letter to the electors, but I cannot understand how any reasonable sibility exists in a certain mental constitution and training common man or patriotic citizen can help wishing for the counsels of pains to study the

to both nations. To each other we need not talk of the why and one so calm, so wise, who has taken more the wherefore. The upshot of the matter is, we wouldn't stand it, questions which may be submitted to Parliament, and will enter

on the discussion of them with a gmater sense of responsibility, been or will be sent to it. And to obtain we wish for his counsels we should make an effort them, knowing how many would rather be without them, and know- ing also that he is determined to use no one discreditable means for securing what will be our honour, not his. The ultra-Conger- vatism which leads him to suggest a rule-of-three sum as a qualifi- cation for a voter, Conservatives, I should suppose, might forgive.

Some of them appear to think it an admirable joke that a philo- sopher should esteem women capable of exercising a judgment on the merits of a candidate. But as they do habitually acknowledge that this faculty belongs to women by claiming the influence of their smiles and threats on the ten-pound householders, I do drunken serjeant, and his army would have followed the new not quite feel the point of the jest. The new electresses might

make many blunders in giving their suffrages ; perhaps it was a who gloried in being under his command, if he had set up his will blunder in their champion to ask the suffrage for them. But the against that of the constitutional authorities of the republic, would non-electresses have been tempted to commit a great crime, to use have turned against him the same bayonets that they had borne a power which was not given them by law for an illegal and an at his orders against the enemy. For then he would have been immoral purpose. And those of us who learnt our ethics at Oxford the enemy. They would have done this not only within the last when Lord Grenville was Chancellor, and when Fouclui was not few months, but at any time, at the most uncertain-seeming esteemed the best commentator on Aristotle or the New Testa- period of the war, and in the case of any general. ment, may still be permitted to consider a crime worse than a You may ask a question which hundreds here have asked, blunder.

"What could have led Sherman into such a blunder ?" Simply I do not in the least assume the air of an advanced or Liberal this,—that he had ambition ; that he was not absolutely politician, or wish to separate myself from my order under that single-minded ; that he lacked, as I have previously mentioned, plea. Ifs Conservative means one who reverences and therefore that broadly - based moral nature, that large grasp of mind, would preserve the Constitution in Queen, Lords, and Commons, that eye only for the essential which give Grant his supe_ I may boast of that name. As young men, we were many of us riority—a superiority which is not purely military, although utterly staggered by the triumphant exposure of Blackstone's it has great value in purely military affairs. He did not see theory of the Constitution in Mr. James Mill's "Essay on Govern- always, although he saw sometimes, that the great rule of ment." That exposure not only struck us as logically complete, it also appealed to the practical feeling—so strong in young men— action is to seek first the one essential point, and that then

all things else will be added. He had led an army with such that a government ought to govern, that, if it is a machine, every wheel in it should not exist merely to check and counteract the the movements of some other. As against Blackstone, such rea- soning seemed invincible ; I still think it is. But some of us turned person of the monarch, of A YANKEE. might, disjoin their convictions from their common life ; they cannot, if they fry ever so much, make their divinity a separate concern. It must be interpreted, as it is in the Bible, by all the ordinary doings of men, it must live in the air which they are breathing. They come from all classes, they have been brought up in families with strong Tory, Whig, and Radical prepossessions and traditions. A Conservative would naturally wish them to cherish such prepossessions and traditions, not to cast off the faith of their forefathers. I wish it too. Allowing for inevitable reactions which all young men must pass through who have heard one doctrine exclusively glorified, one set of men vehemently de- nounced, when they discover, necessities in their minds which that doctrine does not meet—excellence in the men whom they have been taught to abhor—allowing for the effect of new experi- ences and greater knowledge of the past—still the lessons of the early home have, and ought to have, a power over us which nothing that comes after them can destroy ; they are remembered and recovered with thankfulness as we grow older, and are seen to have in marvellous ways determined the course of our lives. If a clergyman sees in these the tokens of God's calling and guidance for himself and for others, he must greatly desire that a hearty Toryism, Whiggism, and Radi- calism should flourish in the land and in his own class ; that the convictions belonging to each party should be as lively and vigorous as possible, and should not give way to a mere negation of other convictions. Not to that, nor therefore to a party Con- servatism, which means only a dread of the people, nor to a party Liberalism which means a not very strong belief in anything.

The party Conservatism which means a dread of the people ,must be specially abhorrent to the mind of a clergyman who understands his work. For whatever traditions he has acquired or inherited, he must be a minister of the people. The aristocracy, the Queen herself, is for his special purposes a part of the people. The sense of an equality beneath all differences must be strong and profound in his mind. And this sense must be equally strong, that no function is a mere exercise of dominion, that every function is a ministry. He cannot throw off either of these beliefs without discard- ing his profession and all that is involved in it. The words monarchy, aristocracy, democracy—he must always accept with a kind of reluctance, under protest. If either King, or Lords, or Commons forget that they are servants, he must tell them that they will be tyrants. And the tyranny of the Sovereign he will hate in pro- portion as he honours and loves the Sovereign ; the tyranny of the nobles in proportion as he thinks they have a glorious task in up- holding the law and order of the Commonwealth ; the tyranny of the many because he believes it will destroy them, and bring them under the yoke of one.

What would be the application of this doctrine to the question of the franchise ? There seems to me, looking at that from my point of vieiv, a very miserable inclination in our public men to treat that question as if it was this :—" How much power must be granted, how much may be withheld, from the body of the people? They are very mighty, we are obliged to give them something ; but it is unsale ; what precautions can we devise that they may not swallow up the property and the intellect of all the other classes?" Sir, if it is a question about the power or dominion which one or more classes have got and at which another class is clutching, this ignominious battle must go on for ever, and it will become always more ignominious. There will be resistance as long as it is possible, there will be an insincere concession to mere force at last. That indeed will be a triumph of democracy, the very thing which is dreaded coming in its most deadly form. But may it not be that we have a right to the services of those men who are at present excluded from the franchise ? May it not be that the Commonwealth wants the intelligence and moral strength which they might contribute to it, for its conservation ? I use the words deliberately—intelligence and moral strength, I use them in the teeth of such able speeches as those by which Mr. Lowe and Mr. Gregory have opposed the extension of the franchise. I do not undervalue their ability, the country would surely be the worse for wanting it. But I think by itself it may be- come a dangerous ability, dangerous to the permanence of the British Constitution. The negative cleverness of such men as Mr. Lowe and Mr. Gregory has none of the fervour of old Toryism or of old Whiggism. It implies no passionate love for the Sovereign, for the law, for the traditions of old families. It is merely anti- popular, merely detective of certain dangers which have come, or may come, from popular ascendency. Toryism may welcome such allies. It may think that it has in them what it obtained in Burke during the loot century. The comparison is fallacious. Burke brought a burning zeal for the Constitution, a Whiggism almost fanatical, but always positive, abhorrent of mere negatiOns,

to oppose what seemed to him the demolition of an order that was dearer to him than his life. Such a champion was worth some- thing. Those who had scraped him down with their feet might naturally say, " Behold ! a dens ex machind has come to the rescue of our land and beeves." And those who have most learnt to hear in the French Revolution a message which Burke could not hear may prize more than others the wonderful teachings of his later as of his earlier years, may like them all the better for the fire which mingled with his philosophy without extinguishing it. The more they warm them by the fire or learn from the philosophy, the less will they care for the frost-work of epigrams which em- bodies the sagacity and foresight of the modern anti-democratical school. Those epigrams make me, as an Englishman and a clergyman, feel the absolute necessity of the experience, the sympathy, the hardy positive intellect, which the working classes might supply to the debates of the House of Commons. In the presence of these exceedingly adroit men, whose adroitness is sure to command the admiration of a set of youths on each side of the House, who will try to fashion themselves after such models, I do not see how we can dispense with this element. The intelligence of the House, if it is not merely to revolve always on its own axis, not merely to give birth to a set of brilliant sayings chiefly complimentary to itself, if it is to go forward and produce any results for the next generation, must be recruited from this source. And I hold that the clergy, for the reasons I have given, because they are to be Conservatives Of the whole Constitution, because they are to prefer conviction and belief to mere denials, should desire this consummation, and should strive that the country may not be disappointed of it.

I am afraid we shall meet with this disappointment if we insist on asking candidates at the next election whether they will or will not support the Bill of Mr. Baines, or any other specific measure for enlarging the franchise. I cannot but regret that Mr. Mill should have yielded to this demand. He, better than, any man, might have resisted it, and proclaimed the principle which Burke defended so nobly at Bristol, that a man entering a deliberative assembly should never part with the right to deliberate. Bitterly must clergymen reproach themselves with the forgetfulness of that great maxim. They called upon young men to declare that they would never vote for the repeal of the Test Act or of the Roman Catholic disabilities, or for the admission of Jews into Parliament. Some of the most honest of those young men felt that a prior obliga- tion to their country made the breach of these contracts a duty. We certainly ought to repent of having inflicted such injuries on the consciences of individuals and on the conscience of 'the nation, and should never under any preteict repeat them.

In defiance of the customary cry, I would inscribe on our ban- ner, "Men, not Measures." Thoughtful, energetic men we want, and it is hard enough to find them. Defenders or opposers of measures we may get by the thousand, and of much worth they will be to us in our land when we have got them. Dr. Posey has made a very useful and legitimate application of this maxim to the case of Mr. Gladstone. He finds in him a man whom he can trust, who acknowledges a higher guidance. He will cling to such a man, he thinks the clergy of England should cling to him, though he sanctions some measures which clerical inclinations would disapprove and rejects some which clerical inclinations would endorse. I entirely accept this lesson from an eminent divine. Of course I like Mr. Gladstone all the better, as he does, because I recognize in him an earnest Christian and a fervent member of the English Church. But I think I am bound to go further. I am to accept and affirm continually that "all good counsels and just works "proceed from the Spirit of God. I must hold that opinion, whatever other is held by the persons in whom I discover good counsels and just works. Therefore I cannot be limited in my choice of a man for the House of Commons by the profession which he makes of Christianity, or by any knowledge which I may have or may want about the light in which he regards it. If I make that the rule of my voting, I shall be in immense danger of setting my Christianity above Christ, which is the greatest error that I as a Christian and Churchman can commit. I shall deny His government over the world and over the hearts of men whilst I am pretending to be His disciple and minister. And I shall be almost certain under the circumstances in which this country is now placed to encourage a set of candidates who will trade in their Christianity and their Charchmanship, who will parade these as the substitutes for any honest fulfilment of the duties to which God has called them. The mischief of a Church party, i. e., of a body affecting to stand aloof from the other parties, and to make the Church its special care, may be denounced by otheis; but must be felt most by the clergy. Such a party must cause the Church to be regarded as a special class interest, like the agricul- tural or the railway interest. It must become a protector of ecclesiastical jobs which required for the sake of the Church to be exposed, not concealed. It must treat all questions concerning the service of Church and State as if they were dangerous questions not to be approached, lest the alliance should be dissolved,—a doctrine which in fact acknowledges the premisses of the Liberation Society, and ought to involve its conclusion. If a Church party or a Church Defence Association can uphold that union—if it does not exist in the nature of things and the order of God—it must perish. If it does exist in the nature of things and the order of God, the more it is examined from all sides and in all lights the better. It was treated with great levity in those happy days when the House of Commons consisted only of Churchmen, when it was underthe devout leadership of St. John or of Walpole. It has been gravely and manfully considered, its principles have been investigated, many of us have been convinced of its reality, since that leaven of Protestant Dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews, was introduced into the Legislature which was—so we are told by men who said they believed that the union was divine—to destroy it. If I thought only of the Catholic Church, I might say, with Dr. Pusey, that I should not dread universal suffrage. I do dread it, for the sake of the English people. I believe that it would swamp the wisdom and manhood of the classes now excluded from the representation that wisdom and manhood which we need so much to invigorate our Legislature—in mere numbers, in a series of O's dependent for their value on the 1 that precedes them, which 1 might be an agitator, a landlord, or a priest. Universal suffrage may or may not have injured the Church in France ; it has established the Empire. An empire is, as 1 think, the antagonist to Moral life and political freedom ; therefore I would take no step which could lead to it. The British Constitution, if it is a substance, and not a mere watchword, seems to me the force in Europe which can resist the progress of Imperialism. Therefore I would call on the clergy, if they care for moral life and political freedom to assist in giving it all the development of which it is capable. They can contribute much to this object at the present time, by giving their votes and moral influence to the men in whom they discover most of distinct purpose and manliness, most of cordial attachment to the principles which they profess, most openness of mind to receive fresh illumination. If they accept men who can glibly repeat the favourite phrases of any party, or who boast of their determination to live and die in supporting or opposing certain measures of that party, they may be tolerably sure that theywill be giving no help to their country. The candidateswho repeat Church phrases and propose to make the Church the cheval de baton& are those whom they should suspect most of all. And with respect to those men of real available talent, who use their talent chiefly in awakening suspicions of their fellow-men and in discouraging their hopes, we need be under no anxiety. Such men will be sure to find seats in Parliament ; their ability will never want patront or rewards. Ministers of God, ministers of the people, should seek for those—far leas likely to be noticed or admired—who reverence their fellows, and who labour for their sakes that the institutions of their land may be preserved, and therefore reformed.—Yours faithfully, F. D. MAURICE.