Method,--except even this,that we should each of us "pray"for it,instead of praying for mere scrip and the like;that Heaven would please to vouchsafe us each a little of it,one by one!As perhaps Heaven,in its infinite bounty,by stern methods,gradually will?Perhaps Heaven has mercy too in these sore plagues that are oppressing us;and means to teach us reverence for Heroism and Human Intellect,by such baleful experience of what issue Imbecility and Parliamentary Eloquence lead to?Such reverence,I do hope,and even discover and observe,is silently yet extensively going on among us even in these sad years.In which small salutary fact there burns for us,in this black coil of universal baseness fast becoming universal wretchedness,an inextinguishable hope;far-off but sure,a divine "pillar of fire by night."Courage,courage!--Meanwhile,that our one reforming Statesman may have free command of what Intellect there is among us,and room to try all means for awakening and inviting ever more of it,there has one small Project of Improvement been suggested;which finds a certain degree of favor wherever I hear it talked of,and which seems to merit much more consideration than it has yet received.
Practical men themselves approve of it hitherto,so far as it goes;the one objection being that the world is yet prepared to insist on it,--which of course the world can never be,till once the world consider it,and in the first place hear tell of it!I have,for my own part,a good opinion of this project.
The old unreformed Parliament of rotten boroughs had one advantage;but that is hereby,in a far more fruitful and effectual manner,secured to the new.
The Proposal is,That Secretaries under and upper,that all manner of changeable or permanent servants in the Government Offices shall be selected without reference to their power of getting into Parliament;--that,in short,the Queen shall have power of inating the half-dozen or half-score Officers of the Administration,whose presence is thought necessary in Parliament,to official seats there,without reference to any constituency but her own only,which of course will mean her Prime Minister's.A very small encroachment on the present constitution of Parliament;offering the minimum of change in present methods,and I almost think a maximum in results to be derived therefrom.--The Queen inates John Thomas (the fittest man she,much inquiring,can hear tell of in her three kingdoms)President of the Poor-Law Board,Under Secretary of the Colonies,Under,or perhaps even Upper Secretary of what she and her Premier find suitablest for a working head so eminent,a talent so precious;and grants him,by her direct authority,seat and vote in Parliament so long as he holds that office.Upper Secretaries,having more to do in Parliament,and being so bound to be in favor there,would,I suppose,at least till new times and habits come,be expected to be chosen from among the People's Members as at present.But whether the Prime Minister himself is,in all times,bound to be first a People's Member;and which,or how many,of his Secretaries and subordinates he might be allowed to take as Queen's Members,my authority does say,--perhaps has himself settled;the project being yet in mere outline or foreshadow,the practical embodiment in all details to be fixed by authorities much more competent than he.The soul of his project is,That the Crown also have power to elect a few members to Parliament.
From which project,however wisely it were embodied,there could probably,at first or all at once,great "accession of intellect"to the Government Offices ensue;though a little might,even at first,and a little is always precious:but in its ulterior operation,were that faithfully developed,and wisely presided over,I fancy an immense accession of intellect might ensue;--nay a natural ingress might thereby be opened to all manner of accessions,and the actual flower of whatever intellect the British Nation had might be attracted towards Downing Street,and continue flowing steadily thither!For,let us see a little what effects this simple change carries in it the possibilities of.Here are beneficent germs,which the presence of one truly wise man as Chief Minister,steadily fostering them for even a few years,with the sacred fidelity and vigilance that would beseem him,might ripen into living practices and habitual facts,invaluable to us all.
What it is that Secretaries of State,Managers of Colonial Establishments,of Home and Foreign Government interests,have really and truly to do in Parliament,might admit of various estimate in these times.An apt debater in Parliament is by means certain to be an able administrator of Colonies,of Home or Foreign Affairs;nay,rather quite the contrary is to be presumed of him;for in order to become a "brilliant speaker,"if that is his character,considerable portions of his natural internal endowment must have gone to the surface,in order to make a shining figure there,and precisely so much the less (few men in these days k how much less!)must remain available in the internal silent state,or as faculty for thinking,for devising and acting,which latter and which alone is the function essential for him in his Secretaryship.to tell a good story for himself "in Parliament and to the twenty-seven millions,many of them fools;"that,but to do good administration,to k with sure eye,and decide with just and resolute heart,what is what in the things committed to his charge:this and that is the service which poor England,whatever it may think and maunder,does require and want of the Official Man in Downing Street.Given a good Official Man or Secretary,he really ought,as far as it is possible,to be left working in the silent state mortal can both work,and do good talking in Parliament,or out of it:the feat is impossible as that of serving two hostile masters would I.
