John Stuart Mill | Page 7

philosopher. His first speech in the House of Commons,
delivered very soon after its assembling, was on the occasion of the
second reading of the Cattle Diseases Bill, on the 14th of February,
1866, when he supported Mr. Bright in his opposition to the proposals
of Mr. Lowe for compensation to their owners for the slaughter of such
animals as were diseased or likely to spread infection. His complaint
against the bill was succinctly stated in two sentences, which fairly
illustrated the method and basis of all his arguments upon current
politics. "It compensates," he said, "a class for the results of a calamity
which is borne by the whole community. In justice, the farmers who
have not suffered ought to compensate those who have; but the bill
does what it ought not to have done, and leaves undone what it ought to
have done, by not equalizing the incidence of the burden upon that
class, inasmuch as, from the operation of the local principle adopted,
that portion of an agricultural community who have not suffered at all
will not have to pay at all, and those who have suffered little will have
to pay little; while those who have suffered most will have to pay a
great deal." "An aristocracy," he added, in words that as truly indicate
the way in which he subjected all matters of detail to the test of general
principles of truth and expediency,--"an aristocracy should have the
feelings of an aristocracy; and, inasmuch as they enjoy the highest
honors and advantages, they ought to be willing to bear the first brunt
of the inconveniences and evils which fall on the country generally.
This is the ideal character of an aristocracy: it is the character with
which all privileged classes are accustomed to credit themselves;
though I am not aware of any aristocracy in history that has fulfilled
those requirements."
That, and the later speeches that Mr. Mill delivered on the Cattle
Diseases Bill, at once announced to the House of Commons and the
public, if they needed any such announcement, the temper and spirit in
which he was resolved to execute his legislative functions. The same
spirit and temper appeared in the speech on the Habeas Corpus
Suspension (Ireland) Bill, which he delivered on the 17th of February;
but his full strength as a debater was first manifested during the
discussion on Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill of 1866, which was brought

on for second reading on the 12th of April. His famous speech on that
occasion, containing the most powerful arguments offered by any
speaker in favor of the measure, and his shorter speech during its
discussion on the 31st of May, need not here be recapitulated. They
were only admirable developments in practical debate of those
principles of political science which he had already enforced in his
published works. The other leading topics handled by Mr. Mill during
the session of 1866 were the expediency of reducing the National Debt,
which he urged on the occasion of Mr. Neate's proposal on the 17th of
April; the Tenure and Improvement of Land (Ireland) Bill, on which he
spoke at length and with force on the 17th of May, then practically
initiating the movement in favor of land-reform, which he partly helped
to enforce in part with regard to Ireland, and for the more complete
adoption of which in England he labored to the last; the Jamaica
outbreak, and the conduct of Governor Eyre, on which he spoke on the
31st of July; and the electoral disabilities of women, which he first
brought within the range of practical politics by moving, on the 20th of
July, for a return of the numbers of householders, and others who,
"fulfilling the conditions of property or rental prescribed by law as the
qualification for the electoral franchise, are excluded from the franchise
by reason of their sex."
In the session of 1867 Mr. Mill took a prominent part in the discussions
on the Metropolitan Poor Bill; and he spoke on various other
topics,--his introduction of the Women's Electoral Disabilities Removal
Bill being in some respects the most notable: but his chief action was
with reference to Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill, several clauses of which
he criticised and helped to alter in committee. Though he was as
zealous as ever, however, in his attendance to public business, he made
fewer great speeches, being content to set a wise example to other and
less able men in only speaking when he felt it absolutely necessary to
do so, and in generally performing merely the functions of a "silent
member."
In 1868 he was, if not more active, somewhat more prominent. On
March the 6th, on the occasion of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre's motion
respecting the "Alabama Claims," he forcibly expressed his opinions as