Hawke's Bay Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1867. THE POLITICAL NIAGARA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 534, 16 December 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1867. THE POLITICAL NIAGARA.

“ Nullius mhi'idus jttrare i/i vcrla unt/itfri.

Thomas Carlyle, under the title ofj “ Shooting Niagara, and After/’ has) written in Macmillan’s Magazine forj August an essay on the probable disas-i trous results that may be expected to (low from the organic changes effected I in the British Constitution, ■ by thej new lieform Bill recently become law.! His essay would of itself more than fill that part, of our 'paper which We can devote to reading matter, so that ive are barely able to indicate his views, and show our reasons 1 for regarding them as groundless. The

men of our day, lie regards as alllicled with a passion for acting in masses “ swannery ” as bees are when led off from a hive by a new cpieen. In this condition they are ready to commit any act of insanity, if only headed by any one of themselves who has impudence and rashness to placa himself at their head, even to the shootinp of Niagara, regardless of what must follow after.

He regards the late American war with its results as one of the most notable instances of the development of “swannery” in recent times, and, as we have said above, the Reform movement, as one fraught with' the direst consequence to British society. “ Democracy,” being let loose, will complete itself and lead to the bottomless pit. “Progress of Opinion” and Puberty of Conscience ” will deliquesce and evaporate all churches, and even the Christian religion itself- “ Free Trade ” will run all lengths in things temporal, spiritual, and eternal; all starting free, the race falling to the swift, and the highest offices to those ablest to get elected to them. Carlyle, however, owns that apart from the new experiment about to be tried, thatthe present is an ageof shams; that the aristocracy are but few of therii sterling gold, or capable of bearing the crucible test; that the so-tailed constitutional conservative system is a fabric of wretched rottenness, covered with Varnish, well laid on, to hide defects that would otherwise yawn palpably, and would not bear the touch of hammer or saw ; altogether beyond the aid of the carpenter. Just so; we, on the other hand, are willing to admit that in the new class of voters there will be found ■“ Blockheadism,” Gullibility,” “ Bribeability,” and " Amenability to beer and balderdash but this only shows that there are in the higher, or rather richer, classes panderers to these vices, givers of bribe and beer. Ana it is a question whether the one class is more vicious than the other; certain it is that vice is not confined to the lowly

and ignorant, neither does virtue maintain a common ratio with wealth and education. In fact there is a psychical as well as a social scale of station, and they by no means run parallel one'with the other. There is an aristocracy of spirit amongst the workmen and the humble of Kngland as well as in the upper ranks of its society, and a degradation of character to be found a i there capable of casting the other into' the shade, owing to the contrast' afforded by its incongruous union with wealth and education, the absence of which, to some extent, affording excuse to the vices of the down-trodden poor. We have great hopes for the Mother country. The bestowal of the suffrage on a class hitherto shut out from its privilege, will do at least something for the elevation of that class, while its wider extension will check the; abominable practice of bribery by so; extending the field for its exercise as to place it beyond the power, as a rule, of those willing to bribe, to satify | so enlarged a demand as may be created. Like other evils, its very exaggeration will cure itself, and elections will be more pure than they have been heretofore.

That great constitutional changes will follow the instalment already made there can be no doubt, aud as little that they will be of an extreme character. Ihey will probably favor Liberty, Progress, and Free Thought. But while we admit the possibility, we do not anticipate the probability, of their degenerating into prolligacy, anarchy, and infidelity. We rather look for a healthy development of the good that is in the masses, which has hitherto been stilled aud choked by the overlying burdens they have bad to bear. In a word, we believe in a Divine Providence which holds even political changes in its hand, and does not permit evil except for the sake ol greater good.