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Leader (1850-1860), 1st February 1851, Edition Country of 2, Page 10, THE NEW REFORMATION-. If any quietists s...

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      The Manchester Policy. The "Manchester P...

      But at present the Manchester party has not with it the great mass of " the people' out of doors . Manchester is doing great good , especially in taking the lead on the public education question ; but it enjoys no lead at present in any active political movement ; and , therefore , it is not so formidable as it has been , or as it might be . Manchester does not , in action , come up to the foresight of its own member , John Bright : —

      " On looking over the present calm which appears to exist , I can detect , I think , signs that we are not going backwards , but that , in point of fact , we are gradually , but certainly , gathering strength for future progress and for future successes . The surface appears very emooth ; but who will deny that , in these days of calm , opinions are being created , and former convictions are sinking deeper and deeper , and men whom we know nothing of whom we never see in public—by the discussions which are going on in the newspapers and through the pre 8 S—are gradually unravelling some of those mysteries in which we have hitherto dwelt , and are becoming more alive to the necessity of those changes which we believe to be inevitable . "

      Through these speeches we descry a strange spectacle . Here are three able politicians—clearspoken Cobden , vigorous , English John Bright , keen-witted , courageous Milner Gibson—describing the actual state of affairs , justly and explicitly denouncing the men " supposed to be leaders of their party , " exposing the political tricks of those false leaders , avowinu the political necessities , and

      prophesying a great future ; yet doing nothing to expedite that future , or to oust the unworthy men who obstruct the march of the nation . And why is this conscious shortcoming ? Because the Manchester men will not muster courage enough to proclaim a policy equal to their own declarations , sufficient to call out the people , and strong enough to give them the lead which almost any party might have that would take it on those terms .

      106 Jed* &««&«»? . [Satprdat,

      106 JED * &««&«»? . [ Satprdat ,

      An English Patriot. Charles Adderley, Th...

      AN ENGLISH PATRIOT . Charles Adderley , the member for North Staffordshire , is a man of the stamp that might redeem the English Legislature , if we could have more of them . He is a Liberal Conservative—not of that neutral class indistinguishable from the Whig , Conservative through inertness and Liberal through indifferency—but of that higher class which unites Tory convictions with newer lights as to the capabilities of a people , and corresponding desires to elevate them . With his Tory convictions , such as his apology for corporal punishments and for the social classifications of rank , we have no

      sympathy ; but we have a full sympathy with his manfulness in avowing those convictions and his resolution in acting up to them . This last is the rare and valuable quality . It is the want of it which prevents every kind of movement , by involving-the whole Legislature in a system of negations and trimming compromises , and so reducing its whole performance to a fretwork of intentional cross purposes and little movements that compensate one another . If we had more men like Adderley , both action and opposition would become positive , conflicting principles would be brought to a measurement with each other , and we should attain tangible results .

      He has done good work , and he is following it up . We have Keen how he acted for the Cape Colony as its representative in Parliament , while it resisted the illegal attempts of Ministers to force convicts upon that colony . The case of the convict colonies is a sequel to the other . Opinion against transportation , as a process actively depraving the society of the Australian colonies , was first matured in this country by the exertions of Edward Gibbon Wukeficld , with the aid of Sir William Molesworth , I lenry George Ward , Charles Buller , and the Editor of the Spectator : it is a matter of history , that the facts and arguments collected by those men ultimately forced the Government to discontinue tlie practice of transportation . At first the convict colonies of Australia resisted that

      " withdrawal of labour ; " but ultimately they too were reconciled to the purification . What , then , was their indignant surprise when Karl Grey and Inn colleagues attempted to renew the practice Already angered in many ways , the Australian colonies have I ) ct : n effectually exasperated by this step backwards . The last ple ; i in which Lord Grey and his colleagues took refuge , added to the insult : " If you stop transportation , " tsaid Ministers , " what are we to do with all our convicts ? Our prisons are too small for them , and the colonies are the only places that we can uhc ! " Yes , use : the colonies were thus avowedly to bo used as a noil , of riuistholc for our criminal refuse . But Charles Adderley has

      discharged even that plea . A natural sympathy induced the champion of the Cape to take up the Australian cause , and then , by a not less natural progression , he has carried the resistance from the colonies home to fight Ministers on their own ground ; he has even " turned" their position by going beyond the broad question of transportation , into the administration of the criminal law , and into the very causes of crime . ht his

      In the pamphlet which has newly broug name before us , * he has shown that transportation , otherwise indefensible , is not justified by the plea of necessity ; but the process by which he does this is remarkable . He finds that a rigorous and able administration of the criminal law , with improved prison machinery , would amply suffice for the controul of the real criminals . Investigating the causes of " crime , " he further finds that the gross number of criminals , so called , would be reduced to onefifth of what it is , if we discharged from it those

      who are rendered criminal by bad government—by laws and administration which check employment for the people , augment pauperism , neglect public education , follow up childish offences with prison instead of school , withhold recreation for the people , promote ill-controlled beer-shops for the people , breed poachers , monopolize land—in short , predispose immense numbers to crime by making them ignorant , untrained , alienated from order , and hopelessly poor . We shall recur to some branches of this subject . to its

      In this tracing of a public wrong source , we see how a man , taking simple facts and plain truths as his guides , is led at last to some broad common truth . Here we have the Conservative Charles Adderley , not confessing , but urging the fact , that four criminals out of five are made so bycauses which maybe prevented . While no effort is made to remove those causes , the Ministers of the day ought to be held personally answerable for the crime committed by the misled multitude whom they call " convicts , ' and ask what they are to do with . We say personally , because , if they are not strong enough to turn back that crimemaking method of government , they ought not to enter upon the post of responsible Ministers . If the House of Commons were filled with Charles Adderleys—with men able to listen as well as he can speak—we should not have a Government which fills our hulks and asks where to put the people .

      An English Patriot. Charles Adderley, Th...

      • Transportation not Necessary . Hy (' . U . AtMurlny , M . I' . A pamphlet of Home seventy octuvo pujfett . John W . 1 'nrker .

      Invasion On The London Working Pltlnters...

      INVASION ON THE LONDON WORKING PltlNTERS . The Glasgow enterprise to introduce a new system of printing in the offices of the morning journals has not been justified by the attempt at explanation . We have , indeed , no knowledge of the case , but we take it as it stands in the statements of both sides . The facts are stubborn and cruel . Some fifty men , against whom no charge is brought , have been suddenly ousted and cast loose in the labour market . That is a cruel fact . The capitalist is to save £ 2000 a-year ; but what good will that saving of " capital , " or stored wealth—what good will that do to that one man , commensurate with the sudden and total stoppage of income to the fifty with their families i We reckon that the dismay , the trouble , the poverty , perhaps the hunger , inflicted on $ o many of the capitalists' fellow-creatures , would form an aggregate mass of suffering , gigantic in proportion to the benefit snatched by him . This is

      cruelty . There are two kinds of cheapening , one good and one bad . The good kind , is where art discovers a mode of lessening the cost of produce by saving in raw material , time , or tool-working ; the other kind , is where an encreased demand for employment , and competition , enable the capitalist to seize more of the fruits of labour and return less to the labourer . This is not cheapening by saving the expenditure of materials , time , or tool-working , but hy subtracting from the subsistence of tlie labourer . It is not making the article less coHtly to labourer and consumer , but making it less costly to the consumer at the expense of the labourer . This in where competition becomes destructive .

      It is nonsense if you say that tins process of cheapening in effected by free trade . The trade in labour is not free : it is oppressed by laws that avowodly protect the capital-monger . It is borne down by bad government , which alienates labour from tho land -the food-producing land -and forces it into towns , where it crowds the employments that are not food-producing . Labour , too , is constrained by laws which facilitate , the

      combination of capitalist with capitalist against labour , but hinder the combination of workmen to protect their very subsistence . Such cheapening is not warranted by sound ceconomical theory , by justice , or by humanity : we challenge the aid of the Morning Post , which has so ably and earnestly distinguished itself byadvocating " the protection of industry , " to . resist this aggression on an important and intelligent portion of the industrial community .

      The Wakts Of Hoyalty. The Executors Of T...

      THE WAKTS OF HOYALTY . The executors of the Queen Dowager urge an extraordinary demand upon the Treasury , and have actually gone to law about it . To make it understood , we must state the facts . Queen Adelaide was allowed £ 100 , 000 a-year as Queen Dowager ; William the Fourth died on the 20 th of June , 1837 ; her * ' first quarter" became due on the 30 th of the same June—ten days later . Queen Adelaide died on the 2 nd of December , 1849 , and her

      pension for the quarter then current would have been due on the 31 st—twenty-nine days later ; but her exeeutora claim for the proportionate amount of the" part quarter . This is not only in breach of the customary rule in the case of annuities and pensions , but in breach of all sense . The Queen Dowager lived as widow forty-nine quarters all but nineteen days , and she had had a round sum for the whole forty-nine quarters ; but her executors claim for fifty quarters—a quarter more than she actually existed ! Would such a claim be advanced on behalf of the family of a poor clerk ? But " de minimis non curat lex "—the law does not care for the small .

      Incapacity Of The Legislature. In Course...

      INCAPACITY OF THE LEGISLATURE . In course of the arguments on the Queen Dowager ' s annuity , Lord Chief Justice Campbell uttered an obiter dictum , or opinion by the bye , which it would be important to have cleared up , negatived or affirmed , forthwith . Allusion having been made to a " legislative declaration , " Lord Campbell said " it has been held , if the Legislature mistakes the law , that will not bind the court ; " that is

      to say , legislative declarations are of no effect , and are to be disregarded by the courts ; in other words , the Legislature cannot detflare . what an existing law i » , it can only make or unmake laws . Some politicians have supposed that in the Papal aggression Lord John Russell would fall back upon some declaratory process , which might satisfy the clamour he has raised , and evade the difficulty of doing anything : but , according to Lord Campbell , any declaratory process would be a farce .

      The New Reformation-. If Any Quietists S...

      THE NEW REFORMATION-. If any quietists should doubt the unsettled state of religious opinion among all sects , and the imminence of some great movement—if they should suppose that such an idea is the vision of speculators and enthusiasts , let them look to the speeches of the matter-of-fact men , the elite of the Manchester school , last week . The " New Reformation" was distinctly foreseen . Mr . Cobden expressly recognized the divided state of the Church of England , of the Wesleyans , and of other Dissenting bodies ; he spoke of large numbers among the working classes " not in community either with the Church or with Dissent . " In matters of fact , Cobden may be regarded as the gauge of ascertained public opinion : the new Reformation is among the recognized realities , though it has not yet shown its full presence : it is known like the approaching army or the flood , by the sound of its coming .

      Social Reform. Epibtoijh O B 8 O V It O ...

      SOCIAL REFORM . EPIBTOIJH O B 8 O V It O It U M VIBOBOM . No . XXVII . —Difficulties Teaching Us . To G . J . Hoi . yoakb . January 27 , 1851 . My dkaii IIolyoakk , —Difficulty is the measure of the power requisite for a given purpose . Tlie difficulties which you have described in the service of the People are not of a nature to daunt any true servant of the People , because the clear conception of them includes also the proper mode of overcoming them . I am glad that you have used such explicit language . I wish that your letters may be read by the thinking portion of the Peop le itself , and by those also who have an ambition to serve , not the Government of the day nor the ascendant classes of the day , but their country at large ; because you have enabled us to understand , the terms on which the service is possible . Hut although I apprehend your meaning and a fl £ ® with you throughout , yet , looking beyond , in what you call the difficulties , 1 discern the facilities for such men aH have the head , the heart , and the will to undertake the service . . You adopt the saying , " You cannot serve the People in the language of the People . " But * should rather turn the phrase thus : you cannot nerve the People in the language of the day : » or

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 1, 1851, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01021851/page/10/