Some debatable questions and how to solve them : an address delivered at the opening of the session, 1883-4, before the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society / by Sampson Gamgee.
- Sampson Gamgee
- Date:
- 1883
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Some debatable questions and how to solve them : an address delivered at the opening of the session, 1883-4, before the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![from the most competent men. But such men are only likely to come forward in decreasing numbers, unless they are protected from the abuse of village ]ioliticians and of the hirelings of irre- sponsible party organisations. The state of things in our midst would suffer less from strict political demarcation, if the Town Council representatives on our educational institutions submitted reports which became the subject of public discussions. But this is practically impossible with the system which has grown up So long as it is understood that committees are to work out, within closed doors, business referred to them, and that reports are to be passed with substantial unanimity, discussion will become more and more difficult, and any one professing independence will be liable to a charge of obstruction. If such a state of things be justifiable, it becomes, a debatable question whether a system of 'paternal government be not superior to a constitutional one ; and whether the Parliament sitting at Berlin be not superior to the one assembled at ^^'estminster. It must be within the recollection of many whom I have the privilege of addressing, that under the last Napoleonic rule, anyone who dared question the wisdom of the dominant majority was taboed as an obstructive. The solid unity of the majority was an endless theme of praise, and the monuments of beautified Paris were pointed at as a substantial evidence of material progress. The Empire fell nevertheless. The causes of its decadence were many ; but amongst the most prominent were—the violence done to intellectual and conscientious minorities,—the disregard of the truism that he who pulls too much breaks the rope,—and the violation of the spirit of compromise, which has pervaded our own history and is so pre-eminently characteristic of the best English life. Discussion is an educating power, alike for those who debate and for those who listen ; for those who govern no less than for the governed. By common admission de-centralization of government is desirable, to relieve the congestion at Westminster, and to admit of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22304575_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
