ADVICE TO MR. BROUGHAM.
MR. BROUGHAM, in his speech to his constituents cn the first day of the election, came under certain pledges (he has reiterated them in other speeches and documents) with respect to his future Par- liamentary conduct. The first of these was a pledge to oppose all Monopolies, and nominatim the East India monopoly and the Corn Laws ; the second was a pledge to prosecute to its an- nihilation the system of Slavery in the West Indies ; the third was to advocate Parliamentary Reform. His ideas on Parliamentary Reform were detailed in his speech at Leeds on the 27th of last month: he would give a vote to all inhabited householders, and he is opposed to non-resident voters and to the ballot. On each of these three pledges we shall say a very few words. It is almost unnecessary to premise, that our purpose is most friendly towards the eminent man to whom our observations are addressed. The most attached of his personal friends does not admire his great talents and real worth more sincerely than we do, though he may be better able to appreciate them. But, influenced as we are by sentiments of the utmost respect towards Mr. BROUGHAM, we shall yet do our duty honestly by him, and by the public, to which he now belongs by a higher and more powerful title than bound him to its service when he sat in the councils of the nation as the nominee of a Whig nobleman. We shall dispose of Mr. BROUGHAM'S second pledge first, and very briefly. It is acknowledged on all hands, that Slavery is a great evil, and that it ought to be abated. That we have always avoided declamation on this topic, will, we 'trust, be attributed to the obvious reason—our contempt of its facility, not diminished by our opinion of its inutility. To enter on a proof for the pur- pose of showing that free limbs are preferable to manacled, ap- pears to us more like an insult which an audience of common sense would feel called on to repel, than an argument to which they would be inclined to listen. The question now is, not whe- ther slavery ought to be perpetuated, but how it is to be termi- nated. The sturdiest advocates for emancipation (we need only mention Mr. FOWELL BuxToiv) admit that it must be accompa- nied by compensation. They allow that, though the planter has no right but the right of power over his black, he has the right of law of his white brethren. The emancipation of the children is opposed by a practical difficulty of precisely the same kind as the emancipation of the fathers and mothers—how are they to be reared when free ? Let Mr. BROUGHAM devise a plan by which these difficulties may he obviated, and his work is at an end; let him attempt to accomplish his object without such a plan, and his failure is inevitable. On the injurious effects of all Monopolies, it is unnecessary to say cam woad.- :Perhaps a. nice..investigation would show, that in almost every case they are as injurious tothoSe that possess them as they are to the public, against whose interests they are main- tained. That the Corn-Laws—the Bread Monopoly—is of this character, it needed not the confession of practical agriculturists to convince us ; still, that of Mr. COKE) one of the greatest agri- culturists in England, quoted by Mr. BROUGHAM on the occasion . when the pledges we are considering were entered into, is not un- important. We believe that a similar opinion is entertained by many partners of the East India Monopoly: That monopoly is not indeed supported by the Company properly so called—the Com- pany are the shareholders—it is supported by the thousand and one sinecurists and overpaid labourers of the Company. We shall advert by and by to the manner in which Mr. BROUGHAM must, if he would triumph over them, carry on the war against those pickers of the people's purse ; but we must say one word of a species of monopoly which is every whit as injurious as if it were hedged round by charters. We mean the monopoly which a tax on any description of Manufacture creates in favour of the overgrown capitalist. The operation of the Landlords' and of the East India Company's exclusive privileges is limited to corn and tea, but the monopoly which taxation confers on capital extends to all things. We shall mention but one instancezethe monopoly of the Press— which is a consequent of the taxes, disgraceful to a free and enlight- ened country, under which it labours. People. are apt to talk about censorships with very great horror; and in England, where cen- sorships are out of the question, we hear much of the law of libel, and of ex-officio information-, and the long array of measures by which the press may be assailed. In our opinion, all these mat- ters sink into insignificance compared with the burdens to which the press is subjected. Those burdens, which render the establish- ment of a respectable journal impossible to any man who is not prepared to risk a fortune in the experiment, are now the grand source of the venality and ignorance of which daily, weekly, and continual complaint is made, and for which no man offers a remedy. And it is this press monopoly which helps to perpetuate all the rest. Let Mr. BROUGHAM look over the file of the London journals for the last six months, and mark how many have as- sailed the East India monopoly—and was there ever so palpable an object of attack ?—Of the Daily newspapers, so far as we recol- lect, only nne ; of the Weekly, two or three. And why ? It is a monopoly which plunders the community at large, and the com- munity at large cannot afford to buy newspapers. We believe Mr. BROUGHAM will succeed against the monopoly of tea • we hope he will succeed against the monopoly of bread ; but if he will single it out for undivided attack, we are sure he will suc- ceed against the monopoly of intelligence, which is more scan- dalous than either. Let him assail the newspaper tax, with a view not to reduction,. but annihilation—(it is small, and can be easily spared ; it is unprincipled, and ought to be abolished)—let hire assail it with all those wonderful powers of reasoning and invec- tive that he possesses—let him bend his endeavours but for half a session, not to the emancipation of black men's limbs, but to the freeing of white men's understandings—and he will accomplish a work great in itself, and in its consequences far greater than any to which he has yet directed his attention. Let him give every Englishman his threepenny newspaper, and with such a coadjutor he will soon accomplish all that he desires. The intellect of the country requires this at the hands of the founder of her institu- tions for the diffusion of knowledge. On the question of Parliamentary Reform, Mr. BROUGHAM has still something to learn. He must reconsiderhis objections to the vote by ballot. Science disowns them ; practical experience re- futes them. Taking society as it is (and we must take it as it is, if we mean to to make it better), the ballot is essential : the rest is matter of detail. The elective qualification may include many, or it may include few ; but many or few, they must have the means of giving their votes without fear. Mr. BROUGHAM talks at one time of the ballot, that it conceals no one, at another that it makes a man's whole life a lie. This contradictory view of the same pro- cess—this assertion that it is ineffectual and effectual at the same moment—shows that his judgment of it has been formed without care. The cases of France and of America are " confirmation strong as holy writ" of the practical value of the ballot. The example of the latter shows, that by no extension of the franchise is it safely to be dispensed with ; of the former, that by no contraction can its efficacy be destroyed. Will Mr. BROUGHAM for a moment con- tend, that without the ballot such a Chamber of Deputies as that which now sits in France could have been assembled ? Yet what the king, the Ministers, and the Prefects are in France, but ten times more powerful, because ten times more numerous, is the titled and wealthy aristocracy of England. Mr. BROUGHAM knows the inference, and we need not press the point: he has taken up a false position, from which he must retreat, and the sooner the better for his own honour.
We have spoken of the what of Mr. BROUGHAM'S pledges; we must add a word of the how. Hitherto Mr. BROUGHAM'S attend- ance in the House has not been so punctual as it was desirable. We learn from COAT'S Statement of the Votes, that of fifty divi- sions on important questions discussed in the last four-years Par- liament—including those on the Catholic Disabilities and the Test Laws, his favourite subjects—Mr. BROUGHAM was present only at twenty four ; in twenty-six of those important divisions he was not counted. We mention this not in censure. We do not pretend to know what justification Ins absence might receive from the necessities . of his private business. But the future must . be more carefully attended to, even if private business should now and then be postponed. Mr. BROUGHAM is honourably proud of the station he now holds. It is the highest reward ever paid by the public to political talent. Be 'views it in the way in which a true philosopher and patriot must ever view such a noble distinetion--as arming him " with an extraordinary and vast accession of power to serve the people of England." But we may confidently announce to Mr. BROUGHAM yet greater honours than the spontaneous sufficage of the county of York. If he seek to redeem his pledges, wisely and tempe- rately, but vigorously and uncompromisingly at the same time, he will earn not the suffrages of a county, but of a kingdom. At present there are more eyes directed towards him than any other man in Britain,—a few for evil, very many for good, none from indifference. How is he to fix them ? By unrelaxing persever- ance. He must never be absent from his post ; he must never slumber at it. Let Mr. BROUGHAM look to what mere persever- ance has done in the case of the member for Middlesex. If that shrewd and honest and indefatigable gentleman had possessed the eloquence of Mr. BROUGHAM, what might he not have effected ?
There is an error, equally injurious with desultory attendance —the error of desultory and isolated attack. Mr. BROUGHAM is not free from this capital fault. The House of Commons, like the community which it in part represents, has a xis inertia in it which the vigour of Hercules would not overcome by a single effort. He who would put the sluggish mass in motion, must do so by repeated impulsions. We hope that Mr. BROUGHAM will not cumber himself with many things, but that, selecting the one thing that is needful, he will press it on the House from night to night, and from week to week, in season and out of season, till he compel attention and redreSs, if not for the justice of his cause, at least for his much importunity. We have no objection to long speeches when they are good, and Mr. BROUGHAM'S speeches are almost always good ; but we would rather have two sentences once a night, than two hundred once a month. Mr. BROUGHAM must not only study regularity of attendance and unity of aim ; he must also endeavour after combination of purpose. He is placed in the rank of general, and the qualities of general will be required of him. He is not to lead on every bri- gade ; but no brigade or detachment ought to lack his cooperation, and his support when needed. He sometimes takes up ground from which a very small antagonist can compel him to retreat. This hastiness of ad- vance is not of much consequence in a man of inferior note, but it is greatly detrimental to a Parliamentary leader. There are prejudices of the understanding, as well as of the will ; and men of quick copception are specially liable to fall into them. They take a hasty glance of a complicated subject, comprehend it under one of its relations, and refuse until compelled to view it in any other. Such is -the prejudice entertained by Mr. BROUGHAM respecting ballot. We have no doubt that, now he is free from all party trammels, and has no monitor but his own ex- cellent understanding to control him, he willbe most cautious how he assumes a position which admits of being turned. To be corn- Pelled to give back even a single step, is always injurious ; and he who advances one step without consideration, must give back, unless his opponent be still more inconsiderate than himself. Here, then, are the points to which Mr. BROUGHAM must at- tend, if he would carry all or any of the objects which he has ho- nestly proposed to himsel£ He must attend closely—we should say constantly—certainly no debate or division should behold him absent ; his efforts must be unrelaxed by success or failure; his object must be single and practical ; he must study combination of movement; and his advances must be made considerately and securely. One word on two other subjects, which will necessarily, though not peculiarly, occupy much of Mr. BROUGHAM'S attention in Par- liament,—Reduction of the Expenditure, and Reformation of the Law Courts. It is needless to say that every honest member of Parliament must be an advocate for the first. Every sixpence that is levied from the public unless for the public necessities, is as much an act of robbery in a court of morality, as a sixpence picked out of the pocket of a passenger is at the Middlesex Ses- sions. The reformation of the law courts is part and parcel of Mr. BROUGHAM'S nature, and already is it begun. But we need hardly repeat the old observation, that all attempts to purify the stream must be unavailing while the fountain is troubled ; that before we can wisely dispense law, we must have wise laws to dispense ; and that wise laws, by natural consequence, ask wise law-makers. Men must not, in England more than in Palestine, look for grapes from thistles. To conclude, we wish Mr. BROUGHAM good speed in his honourable career. We shall watch his course with no small interest; record his success, if he succeed, with gratitude, and his failure, if he fail, without malignity.
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