If it could be helped,much trouble my good Secretary with addressing Parliament:needful explanations;yes,in a free country,surely;--but to every frivolous and vexatious person,in or out of Parliament,who chooses to apply for them.There should be demands for explanation too which were reckoned frivolous and vexatious,and censured as such.These,Ishould say,are the needful explanations:and if my poor Secretary is to be called out from his workshop to answer every one of these,--his workshop will become (what we at present see it,deservedly or )little other than a pillory;the poor Secretary a kind of talking-machine,exposed to dead cats and rotten eggs;and the "work"got out of him or of it will,as heretofore,be very inconsiderable indeed!--Alas,on this side also,important improvements are conceivable;and will even,Iimagine,get them whence we may,be found indispensable one day.
The hoable gentleman whom you interrupt here,he,in his official capacity,is an individual ,but the embodiment of a Nation;he is the "People of England"engaged in the work of Secretaryship,this one;and can forever afford to let the three Tailors of Tooley Street break in upon him at all hours!--But leaving this,let us remark one thing which is very plain:
That whatever be the uses and duties,real or supposed,of a Secretary in Parliament,his faculty to accomplish these is a point entirely unconnected with his ability to get elected into Parliament,and has relation or proportion to it,and concern with it whatever.Lord Tommy and the Hoable John are a whit better qualified for Parliamentary duties,to say hing of Secretary duties,than plain Tom and Jack;they are merely better qualified,as matters stand,for getting admitted to try them.Which state of matters a reforming Premier,much in want of abler men to help him,proposes altering.Tom and Jack,once admitted by the Queen's writ,there is every reason to suppose will do quite as well there as Lord Tommy and the Hoable John.In Parliament quite as well:and elsewhere,in the other infinitely more important duties of a Government Office,which indeed are and remain the essential,vital and intrinsic duties of such a personage,is there the faintest reason to surmise that Tom and Jack,if well chosen,will fall short of Lord Tommy and the Hoable John?shadow of a reason.Were the intrinsic genius of the men exactly equal,there is shadow of a reason:but rather there is quite the reverse;for Tom and Jack have been at least workers all their days,idlers,game-preservers and mere human clothes-horses,at any period of their lives;and have gained a schooling thereby ,of which Lord Tommy and the Hoable John,unhappily strangers to it for most part,can form conception!Tom and Jack have already,on this most narrow hypothesis,a decided superiority of likelihood over Lord Tommy and the Hoable John.
But the hypothesis is very narrow,and the fact is very wide;the hypothesis counts by units,the fact by millions.Consider how many Toms and Jacks there are to choose from,well or ill!The aristocratic class from whom Members of Parliament can be elected extends only to certain thousands;from these you are to choose your Secretary,if a seat in Parliament is the primary condition.
But the general population is of Twenty-seven Millions;from all sections of which you can choose,if the seat in Parliament is to be primary.Make it ultimate instead of primary,a last investiture instead of a first indispensable condition,and the whole British Nation,learned,unlearned,professional,practical,speculative and miscellaneous,is at your disposal!
In the lowest broad strata of the population,equally as in the highest and narrowest,are produced men of every kind of genius;man for man.,your chance of genius is as good among the millions as among the units;--and class for class,what must it be!From all classes,from certain hundreds but from several millions,whatsoever man the gods had gifted with intellect and leness,and power to help his country,could be chosen:OHeavens,could,--if by Tenpound Constituencies and the force of beer,then by a Reforming Premier with eyes in his head,who Ithink might do it quite infinitely better.Infinitely better.
For igleness can,by the nature of it,choose the le:there needs a seeing man who is himself le,cognizant by internal experience of the symptoms of leness.Shall we never think of this;shall we never more remember this,then?It is forever true;and Nature and Fact,however we may rattle our ballot-boxes,do at time forget it.