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No. 406, January % 1858. j T H E L E A D...
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CENTRALIZATION OR SELF-GOTERXMENT. Local...
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CHRISTMAS AT THE THEATRES : A JOURSEY .T...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Christmas Sports. The Sporting World. By...
to claim them as tliis . property . The game is as much so , which feed themselves , for it is his grain they eat . The best plan of preservation would be to say to the tenants , thus : —" Look ye , neighbour , I understand you shoot . Do so ; kill what game you want for your own consumption ; and , in return , help to " keep a sharp eye , on my preserves . " After some highly pertinent , and therefore useful , observations on betting and ' betting men , ' and the degrading exhibitions of the cock-pit , dog-fights , rat-killing , and other similar sports , the author concludes his amusing book with the following seasonable advice to the younger generation : — A morbid kind of enthusiasm frequently induces men , particularly young men , to patronize and mix in scenes ( sports , they are called ) that cannot be justified . Will these misguided persons permit one who has seen much , to observe that such pursuits will exclude them from the notice of sportsmen , and can only procure for them the very undesirable and purchased civility of the lowest characters in the sporting world .
No. 406, January % 1858. J T H E L E A D...
No . 406 , January % 1858 . j T H E L E A D E R . 19
Centralization Or Self-Goterxment. Local...
CENTRALIZATION OR SELF-GOTERXMENT . Local Self-Government Unmystified . By Toulmin Smith . Stanford To see a live lord holding forth : to the common , unperfuined , everyday workpeople , aud not to applaud , is a ' moral self-restraint' scarcely to be expected from human -flesh and blood . The feeling that one of the great of the earth has lowered himself to the plane of temperance apostles and guinea lecturers in general , is so sweet , so intoxicating to the vanity of poor mortals , that few can withstand the desire to sip the honeyed words of such noble speakers . However , the very fact that this indulgence is a kind of inebriation carries in its train certain disagreeable consequences , which Germans denominate kalzeiijajiDiier . It is the reaction of the body over the soul , of matrimonial reekoninas over the fleeting dreams of love .
Mr . Toulmin Smith has performed these reactionary duties towards the members of the Social Science Association , of blessed memory . Their days of glory are past now , and their days of katzenjammer have arrived . The long l-eports of Birmingham speeches begin to be forgotten ; but the short , cuUing little pamphlets of London critics Call after them , smashing the brilliant card-houses which had been erected with such an expenditure of fine phraseology and benignant smiles . According to Mr . Toulmin Smith , those sweet speeches were all humbug : — The whole Social Science Association was planned and carried out in the sole interests of centralism ; and those , well Jcnown as they were , who are identified with the maintenance of the spirit of liberty and self-government , were never conferFed with , or even asked to take a part in the proceedings of the association , or had any notice of its intentions , or opportunity of either making a suggestion or securing fair play ; while centralists crowded its committees , and mauaged and controlled the papers that
were to . be read . The Birmingham speech-makers , * self-exalting philanthropists , weak sentimentalists , pretended reformers , ' and others , have been either the dupes or the tools of that ' grasping hand of centralism which is eager to curtail parochial power , to benumb throughout the land the spirit of all that is noble and manly and genial , to dwarf the completeness of manhood , to close the door to the only practical education , to stop improvement , violate common sense , and coerce every honest and right ellbrt at local duty . ' The Association has been nothiug more than a new move of those ' unscrupulous tacticians , whose only ideas of government are Germanism and influence , the realization ot which they have ceaselessly pursued for the last quarter of u century- '
What Mr . Toulmin Smith thinks necessary for the true progress of Great Britain is not an appeal to the central government to do everything for the people— 'to educate it , guide it , and protect it and tax it at all time 9 . ; but , on the contrary , to give aid to the real development of local self-government , the basis of which lies in the Ward system . Such local . government is as old as England itself , mid , therefore , best adapted to British feelings and habits . History proves that three , five , eight , ten , and more centuries ago , local selfgovernment did exist in England , and was of force to keep in cheek tho most ambitious monarclis , an well us to fulfil tho needs of every community in the land , and to defend the state against every foreign ugressor . We 'find that , whether it were in tho crowded city or the rural parish , the men of England , including the ' villeins' wore , heretofore , in tho habit of handling their own business rfnd knew
how to handle it . Tl » o things they haudled were of the same nature , exactly , as those to do , or interfere in tho doings of which , we are now told that ' contraliam is a necessity . 13 ut if the men of England were able to handle theso things formerly , how comes that they arc loas able to handle thcun now ? Surely they do not less concern them now . Is it , thun , education , or progress , or civili / . ution , —or what is it that has unfitted them ? JJy what process hue it happened tluit tho understandings of men have become disabled to comprehend and graap what were formerly ' common things ' to all men ? Is it tho naturul degeneracy of tliu rnco ? Or in it that the importation into England of thu centralizing system has chillod tho sense of men ' s duties to their neighbours , and drawn them from those hub it n , by keeping up which alone can tho true practical education of i ' roo and intelligent moil bo mado u living thing ? Have su , puruoml book pedantry and ' oosthotics' boun inado to supersede tho practical training of men in the duties of lilo ? '
Xos ; superiioial book pedantry' or , as the new phrase culls it , Red Tape , is fast becoming one of tho fundamental institutions of Groat Britain . It 18 in full Ivloom just now ; and Mr . Smith himself , who scorns to question , gives an interesting evidence of its vitality . Ln 1855 , a select committee of X arlininont had under consideration the Nuisances Removal Act , and Public Health Hill , in which Mr . Touhuiu Smith , by unceasing perseverance , succeeded in embodying his ideas of local self-government . Tho Bill hud already twice passed tho House of Commons to the joy of the flOcrct . autkoiVwJiuuauwu ^ phrasus were interlarded with tho text as if fovlh ~ e * aolo purpose of crTrffting ~ coTr = ~ fusion . Evidently Red Tape wns at full work ! Vainly did Mr . Touliuin Smith appeal to Sir Benjamin Hull " who owed his position to hid having culled some flowers from tho garden of tho author of Local Self-Government , ' vainly , even did he cxphiin to Lord JPuhnorHton the . clauses ho desired to have altered in order to make tho Bill one that would really work and be useful ., Her Majosty ' a Sooi'ofcury of State for Ijho Homo Department listened attentively , tho president of the Board of Health assented graciously to
all propositions , but the noxious phrases remained , and the lawyers of the Court of 'Queen ' s Bench had some neat work cut out for years to come . It was as clear as sunlight that Red Tape was infinitely stronger than either Mr . Toulmin Smith , Sir Benjamin Hall , or Lord Palmerston . We might almost conclude that everything great or . good , hitherto accomplished by legislative enactments , had been the fruit of individual energy ; as soon as the central authorities interfere , mischief only seems to be produced . Mr , Toulmin Smith , a private man unpaid and unrecognized , spent si large amount of time and money in getting a Public Health Act
for i & ngland ; while those who are employed at a high remuneration to do the work , not only did nothing to -further it , but raised innumerable difficulties and obstructions in the way of accomplishing anything real and practical . Again , when the Act had at last been passed , Sir Benjamin Hall ' s particular attention was called to the importance of making it known to the local authorities , as otherwise the Act would be as good as non-existent . The health department , however , did not stir in the matter , and to get the tiling done Mr . Toulmin Smith had to do it himself ; and the labour , inconvenient as it was to him , promptly proved a positive boon to the public . Instances like these show the practical working of centralism in a clearer ] i < rh ' t than anything else which ini <* ht be said either for or against it .
Mr . Toulmin Smith may cast at the British public the reproach of Phocion . He has fastened upon a truth which lies at the very bottom of . English politics . He has explained to us the origin and working of those laws which constitute our strength in political freedom . But the public of our day , instead of seizing upon that lever for the maintenance and extension of popular freedom , has turned a lazy ear to the historical admonition ; and has preferred to muddle on with Reform Bills , ' bills to . amend , ' and 'bills to amend amendment on acfc , ' until we have come to consider any recognition of the liberties which we possess already by our great statutes as a ' ministerial concession . ' If Englishmen throughout the country would take up Mr . Toulmin Smith ' s principal book , study its principle , and resolve to carry it out , we should not be dependent upon ministers , or new charters , or anything else , but should soon make our own House of Commons carry out our own laws according to our existing rights .
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Christmas At The Theatres : A Joursey .T...
CHRISTMAS AT THE THEATRES : A JOURSEY . THROUGH FAIRY LAND . At this festal season of the year , the utmost dreams of youthful imaginations seem to be realized by the art of the scene-painter , the machinist , the balletmaster , and the costumier ; and Fairy Land is brought visibly before our eyes at some score of places in this vast , drab-coloured world of London . A few shillings at the utmost—a single shilling , or less , if we are humble folk—a scrap of paper , duly signed , if we are ' gentlemen of the , press '—will unlock the gates which open on these golden regions , and send us home like people who have wakened frnm the dreams of hasheesh . . Behold , as you walk aloug the streets , the black
and red announcements of these wonders ! Do they not come upon you like reminiscences of the old days when you thought a theatre at Christmas . time the true summum bonumf Do they not lull the watchful dragon of the present with the enchantments of the past—opening , as it were , a strange , long shut-up door that shows you , in the keen flash of a moment , what you were once , and have long ceased to be ? Well , well , you are a man of business now , deep in speculations and ' hypothecations , ' and have no time to be sentimental . But vour own childhood is renewed in that of your little ones , and , as of course they must go to the play during the holidays , you , like a good Paterfamilias , will not object to take a rapid flight with us through the Fairy Lauds now blossoming , like " onreous oases , over the length and breadth of London . air above the that like another Asmo
Away then into the chimney-pots , so , - deus we may take off , for your especial behalf , the roofs—^ not of the dull , common ' houses , but—of those huge caskets wherein ( as under the magic tent which the hero of the Arabian story carried about with him ) lie the gardens of lUysuitn , the palaces of the genii , the lands of Faery , and the waters of enchantment . Stay ! We will pause here , at the portals of this castle , known to the dul world as the Theatre of Druuy Lane . All around us , for miles every way , lie the deserts—dry , dusky , husky , foggy , brawling wastes of brick and mortar ; but in a moment all is changed . We have taken oil" the roof of this castle , Q 1 aterfamilias ! lifted it even as you lift the top of your egg at breakfast ; and here wo are in a quaint , bright world , wherein is unfolded to us the history ot Little . Jack Jiorner or Harlequin A B C . Wo behold how Lddliyenca is engaged m a strife nirainst JunQvanwand how Inmybmtion conveys tho former to n gorgeous castle
, in the air , where a hundred maidens , headed by a syren known to the world by the name of Miss Hosina Whiout , euchunt our eyes and ravish our hearts by dancimr in delight , 'like those other hundred damsels whom tho knight in Spunsfu saw upon a day , which day shall last for ever within the eternal ring of aciiius and poetry . Many other wonders do we seo , and at length are taken to the bottom of the ocean , whence we are rescued by the electric cable , and are conducted to a Palace of Coral , or Fairy Aquarium—a homo of beauty , blushing with the hidden splondours of tho watery world , as if all tho sunsets that Mail over fallen and sunk into the western waves wore here preserved and glorifled . At this point , let us pay homage to tho ' potent art' of the cnehantor Bkvjsri , ky , who has conjured up this vision for our delight . The nymphs of Greece ., ml tii » fuva of modern Eurooo people the warm mid Hashing glories ot this lire
region , ami hovov unsupported in the Rowing air . Electric light iiiul u uo still further kindle the already dazzling splendour , mid , as wo gaze and wink , we pass from the wonderful world below tho boh to the ordinary PJ" ^«'"™ o regions , and find ourselves in tho company of two Clown * ( Messrs . 1 ' y . XMO i . Wo are In the thick of life and ' businoss ' -of a certain sort . Mr . 1 » . ™ o « , w every one known , is tho boat of clowns , and also an excellent da . u . o , a u no hero performs , in company with one of tho ladles of tho pantomime , a very pretty "IWi pl ' to the H A ™ , vuk KT , where Mr . I > vo «* vo «« ™™ %££ %% of scones of osuuiaito beauty and grace , thc ^ torv ot Jho tl « y » ny Beauty m he Wood , or / larlJuin and My Spiteful l- ' uby . Air . Cm . ucoit 1 * hero the stonio
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 2, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02011858/page/19/
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