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314 THE LEADER. [No. 419, Apbtl 3^58. of
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Wages op Dockyard Laboukers.-A acpuiauuu...
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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.
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— * • ? - R Have Until The 19th Of This ...
*• but Low are we to do more than we do , when you are so niggardly with your money ? " Now , we say we are not niggardly ; that we give more money for the support of our Army than any other people under the sui \ j- tha * we are ' xttdfrto give even more , if it can be afeowa that more is needed for its proper maintenance ; bat , on tfee Other hand , we say that 11 , 500 ^ 000 / . a year is * very large sum , and ought to go , a good way tosards the objects for which it is voted—with no niggardly feeling . And—since we are on neutral ground—• we say further that our doubts as to the condition of our brave soldiers have no reference to the insufficiency of the provision made for them , but only to the competency of the * authorities through whose hands our money passes . Perhaps at this moment , when we have a great deal of work on hand , and our attention is led away from close considerations of details , we shall not do muck to remove our doubts as to the economy of the Army or of the State . But a time must be found before long for looking right to the bottom of the question of our national expenditure . The letter of John Bright to the representative of the unemployed operatives of Birmingham sounds a note of alarm , the echoes of which will not quickly die away . Here are thousands of the skilled labourers of one of the first manufacturing cities of the world memorializing their sovereign to furnish them with means to quit the land of their birth , where their toil can no longer ensure them the means of subsistence . What ia the reason of this ? Mr . Bright points to it : it is the overwhelming-taxation of the country . What is to stand against this tremendous conclusion ? ** This year , " says Mr . Bright , " I suppose we -s ^ all raisp . in taxes at least 50 , 000 , 000 / . sterling >!—¦ ¦
my i ¦ ^ ^ ^^ ^—^^ - ^ : _ . _ . v _ ^^ more than will require to be raised by an equal population , living , not in England , but in the United States of America . " To watch the time , to seize the right moment for opening up this mo mentous question , we take to be the mission of . Zohn Bright ; there is not another man before the country so capable as he for the performance of the task . Nor shall we want for monitions to watchfulness . The returns of revenue will come with inevitable precision to wake us up if we are sleeping . The present year ' s returns show a net decrease of 4 , 452 , 550 / ., on the quarter of 2 , 500 , 000 / ., while , on the other hand , there has been a considerable increase of expenditure . The direct cause of the deficiency has been the reduction of the income-tax , so pertinaciously enforced by Mr . Disraeli and by Mr . Gladstone . To Mr . Gladstone the consequences will give little distress , but to the Chancellor of the Exchequer what torment ! If he had not torn from the hands of the late Chancellor o » toe Exchequer the 4 , 503 , 819 Z . now to be found , bow comparatively pleasant would have been the preparation of the coming' budget I It will not be difficult to raise * the money , —but th * cadeal of asking for it 1 Money is indeed plentiful , as we see by the alacrity with which the greater part of the Indian loan has been tendered for at an average of ninety-eight , the minimum price fixed by the Company being ninety-seven . This readiness to advance large sums of money on such terms indicates in a marked manner the stability of our public credit , and particularly the confidence with which tho maintenance of the Indian credit ia anticipated , whatever the form of government . Wo are carried by the telegraphic news from ---Htndia-many-step 6 Tnew : er ~ to ^ Ue . centro ,. ttppnj 8 ( luoli anxious attention will for some time be fixed . At the latest date to which we have intelligence , namely tho "Oth of March , tho bombardment of rebel Luoknow was only four days distant . By many roads ; between the 21 st of Fobmary and the date named above , vast trains of artillery and atores had found their way , in spite of every impedimont that the enemy could devise , to the hand
of the Con ^ aiuteria-Guief . Large bodies men , too , fighting : their , way onwards to the given spot , had ' joined their famous leader—Outram and Franks , with Jung Bahadoor , pressing forwa « d . Throughout Central ladia , all was a ©* m tyv under Sir Hugh Hose and General Whitlocxe . Everywhere overthrow and disaster were overtaking the wavering and dispirited rebels . Only the great act of the e & rapMgn remained to laeachieved ^ and for news of that we shall , in all" probability , not have long to wait . What the result will have been , wlio doubts ? From China we have letters of strange interest-Masters of the City of Canton , it is only by snailpace that we make progress with its people , and even more slowly with the authorities . We cannot make ourselves understood ; shall we ever succeed in doing so ? At any rate , it would seem that we have really some reason to pursue the attempt . One incident of our experience goes far to settle the question of our right to meddle with the Chinese in opposition to their expressed wishes . This incident is described in the letter of the Times special correspondent . Circumstances in themselves illustrative of some strange Chinese characteristics , led Mr . Parkes , the British Consul , with a party of ofiicers , to visit certain of the city prisons , and there were made sueh discoveries as confirmed the most tremendous stories of Chinese cruelty that have been related any time during our dealings with this astonishing people . The scene described by the Times correspondent is too horrible to relate : men cooped in dens like those of wild-beasts , and left to starve to death in company with the putrid and rat-eaten bodies of their more fortunate com . panions . And children were among the men ! Surely j / u ~ ^ r ^ v ^ i ^ iiir « lnrliTior thfl -neRfie-at-anv-imce Dartv , ™ ——
If JJO TF V * . * " * J *** V *« - ^** " "Q » g- MJ . * ** ~ will agree with Lord Elgin that , " where a Christian Power has means to stop these things they cannot he permitted . " Peh-kwei , the Lieutenant-Governor of the city , had asked , " What was it to us how he dealt with bis own people ?" Forewarned , and in the hope of forearming him . self , the Emperor Napoleon has been taking counsel of the great money -dealers of Erance and elsewhere as to what he is to do to mitigate the evils of the present stagnant condition of trade and commerce in France . His counsellors at once suggested the Bourse as the medium through which his Majesty ' s beneficent desires could he best realized . Speculation having brought about the present very undesirable state of public credit , speculation is the antidote prescribed by these adepts , among whom was M . Jules Mires , a . great authority . One step by which , with their advice , publio credit is to be revived , is , that instead of one settlement per month for dealings in national funds , and two for all those in all classes of shares , there should be only one settling-day for the latter kind of transactions as well as the former 5 the effect of which would be to give speculators * for tho rise ' an extra chance , and a strong inducement to avail themselves of it . What permanent good these thoroughly French remedies can be expected to produce , it is not easy to see—outside the Bourse . In other respects , Napoleon is just now willing to take counsel , and has sent Gonoral Espinasse on a tour of inspection through the country . Before the general's departure , he was made , the medium of an act of Imperial generosity which will find many admirers—and awakon many other feelings and reoollocttons besides . A deputation having waft ed upon him to solicit permission to open a subscription in . JTranoolor the purpose of relieving M . jib . Lamartine of the pecuniary difficulties under whioh ho has so long boon labouring , General EsPiNASsu answered in writing that he was authorized by the Emperor to give the permission asked , and further , to plaoo his Majesty ' s name at the head of tho list , in romombvanoo of tho sorvioes rendered by M . » e Lajkarokne in tho oause of order
jn 1848 , and ill recognition of " all the misery and disgrace France was spared by his generous enerey " From Naples we have the intelligence that th King is taking the same course with regard to our countryman Park which he took with reference to Watt ; that is , he has permitted Park to be removed to an English hospital , the first step before giving him permission to return to his own country . Is all this done with , a view to mitigation of damages ? If the judgment of the country is permitted to have any weight with the diplomatists I in whose hands the vindication of the national honour will be left , this after-thought of the Neapolitan tyrant will avail him nothing . The question of the illegality of the seizure of the Cagliarihas been sifted by another great English authority , Dr . Travers Twiss . His opinion entirely confirms that given lately by Dr . Phillimore ; it leaves not the shadow of a doubt that the vessel was seized upon the high seas in contempt of international laws ; and establishes clearly the fact that all the after proceedings have been in violation of Justice . Will Sardinia be left single-handed in forcing the King of Naples to make amends for the fonl wrong in which he has persisted ? It would appear that we must go northward for any relaxation of autocratic will . In Russia to have the agreeable spectacle of the Emperor Alexander II . following out the scheme of his father I for the emancipation of the serf . The work is teing I set about in vigorous earnest , and the speech of General Mouravieff to the committee charged to I investigate and prepare plans for carrying out the objects in view , gives hope that , great as the dii- I culties are , they will be surmounted . A ukase has lately been signed precluding landed proprietors from converting peasants into domestic I iiutvxfl ** ww -v Vi
sens , dul ictivxiig biio piu ^ """* w * - vert their domestic serfs into peasants . A corre- I spondent of Le Nord says -. —" The Government I will thus follow up its idea of transforming the I peasant serfs into peasant proprietors , which is the I most natural and the most rational solution of the I question of serfdom . " I It is only by degrees that the principles enunciated nearly two thousand years ago are applied by our slow rulers all the world over . Bis to be hoped that the faith in which the Prince las been formally ' confirmed' this week will be yet more largely enforced during his reigu ; for , studied in the spirit of their Author ' s own words , what are the principles of Christianity but those of good government P ^^^ -= >
314 The Leader. [No. 419, Apbtl 3^58. Of
314 THE LEADER . [ No . 419 , Apbtl 3 ^ 58 . of
Wages Op Dockyard Laboukers.-A Acpuiauuu...
Wages op Dockyard Laboukers .-A acpuiauuu from G ^ enwich and Woolwich had an vfv *** Monday with Sir John Pajdngton , Firat Lord of be Admiralty , at Whitehall , for the purpose of reqgW the Lorda Commiasiouere of tho Admiralty to rwe m wages of Government dockyard Roarers 0 « *• £ aent insufficient scale of thirteen shilling "? " j * . Mr . Townsend , M . P ., tetrad uoed tjjwbjf Ji awerto a question , Sir Jobn P « kxnS fcon -wos h « that , some years Bince , when the price o conijj'B the wages paid to the men were : fourteen » W Week . " Then , ? 'said Sir John . « I * ould tl . inJ , Bidering tho reduction in tho price of P ^ vMionj w men are better off at present . " Ho ^ * f ? i of not at present in a position to P « " « ibo » n inorj wages , Wt ho intended to visit hose doclyr ^ , personally investigate tho condition of _ tw 1 w whom he would gladly benefit if it could be ^ ^ sistently with justice and a due regard to econo . , the expenditure of tho public funds . B AT The Oxford an » Cambridge Bioht-oajbd Racb took place last Saturday ™ 0 ™ xaf- . < l 0 re 811 U was from Putney-bridge * f | Mo * ^ ' J" ThoVm « was that tho Cantftbs beat the Oxoman 8 . J' m | . passed the flag-boat near MortlaUcm twenty ^ nutea twenty-three seoonda from tho umo , 01 two second lator-that is to nay ^ about turo behind . Tho Oxford men ore roportod « 9 ' ui , h parently out of training , and , although . they P ™ v 0 U 8 great nplslt , they exhibited some degree . 01 lxuvry . The builders of the Oxford boot , hjj . th 0 written to the Timca to wy that t VT ^ idc nt Oxonians m « y bo attributable to tho fact ^ «[ J lottfl | y having happened to the stroke oar , ' wbicu affaotod tho speed of tho boat .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 3, 1858, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03041858/page/2/
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