On this page
-
Text (3)
-
722 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
-
THE COUltT. This Court remains at Oaborn...
-
¦^t ijBLIAMENT OF THE WEEK. ANIGHT IN SU...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Tfotwltiistanding War,—Its Expenses,— Js...
position of this Mr . Lawley ; what was the common topic of the City changes and the West-end clubs could not have failed to reach the < 5 ars of the Cabinet ; and we arc , also , compelled to connect the acceptance of office and of the Chiltern Hundreds by Mr . Lawley , with t & e eleeflKm for t & e vacant borough of Mr . Gordon , the son of the Premier . From first to last the affair was a joh , in which four Ministers at least are implicated : and it is a disgrace to the House ! of Commons ; that the jobbers are not punished as well as the victims . There is , perhaps , this difficulty , that the aristocratic system on which this free country is governed is in itself a huge job , not very manageable at a period when most of the popular members are such Ministerialists . For . it will of course bo observed that it was a Tory leader , and not a Radical purist , who seized the scandal . There are some other jobs from -which , a selection might be made for a popxvlar debate if the Independents were not so slavish and sluggish . u Supply" on Monday nigTit was the elimination of a series of jobs 5 and we have given a full report of the remarkable proceedings on that occasion-hv < order that our portion of the tl people' ' may see and -wonder at the alacrity with -which people ' s-members fight the aristocracy on expen »
diture . Lord Ellenborougk gave the hint early in the session that a time of war is the time to be economical in minor matters ; but judging from the present tendency of the guardians of the public purse , we are disposed to think slightingly of the intellect of JVfr . James Wilson , who , as Secretary to the Treasury could pass estimates three times as high as those he presents . It suits not our purpose , however , to take any but the most obvious jobs : —those coming under the head of supply are
complicated . For instance , -the job in the Ordnance . Mr . Ii . Vernon asks in the House ¦ wh y Sir Something Somebody is appointed Iiieutenant-GJ-eneral of Ordnance over the head of his senior officer , Sir John Burgoyne : — this being contrary to all military rule , and , according to the testimonials proffered "by various members in the House , excessively unjust to a first-rate man , as Sir John Burgoyne is acknowledged to be , The incapable Clerk to the Ordnance , representing ifc in the House , answers—Lord Raglan made the
appointment—vegrottinothat Lord Raglan was not present to explain . Mr . Gladstone , a generous and high-minded man —not hopelessly , let us hope , lost in the frauds of the aristocratic system— -was shocked at the attempt of Mr . Monsell to throw the responsibility on Lord Raglan ; the last man whom the House of Commons could bo allowed to think unkindly of just now . And he accordingly insisted that the general had only made the recommendation—the Government was responsible for the appointment . There , howover , the subject dropped : —it was a palpable job . It was well known that a shameful Horse-Guard's intrigue was at the bottom
of it , — but no one had courage to coerce the Government into explanation or apology : and Sir John Burgoyne stands before 3 iis apathetic countrymen , whom ha has well served , a disgraced and degraded man . Still more shameful ia the conduct of the House of Commons in the Jeremiali Smith job . That gentlcman , sent to gaol for practices which twothirds of the members of the House of Commons countenance and connive at , him been liberated by an order from the Home-office—on the ground that his health is bnd . JN " ow , a lettrc dc cachet ia a bad thing , but a lattve cle relaxation is another
instrument of precisely tlio same system , and it ia difficult to reconcile this act of Lord Palinor-Bton s ( necos 3 arily influenced by the gentlemanly pressure from within ) witli our British proton « ionu of superiority over the continental unfortunates who suffer from a " secret police . " Tct , strangely
enough , tbeHouse , n ® fc 3 ± aa » med at Lord Palmerston ' s annouiseemea ^ " ekftered" him ! Another job , palpable from tike personal illustrations , has been consummated in the destruction of the old , and the eweation of a new , Board of Health . Gran-tedl tfiate Mr . Chadwidfc was an impracticable pviblicssrvanft ^ but , if 3 ^ why , in dismissing Mm , allow auch a wsagnificensfc pension ? Granted that the chief of tilt © new Board should be a " resgjensible" ( V ) member of the House : but why sheffldNPhe be a noble ? The House of Commons knew that
Lord Seymour , who is so successful in his spite , intends to join the Coalition as Minister of Health , and the House knew that Lord Seymour intends to sacrifice the Dr . Soutliwood Smiths , the class of men who have done their duty at the Board in utter indiffei'ence to the -whims and cretinism of the succession of Seymours put over their heads by different Governments : but the House of Commons voted assentingly the estimate for the new Board presented on Thursday night , and which estimate the Government admitted was of " the vaguest character . 7 We hope that the new Board will work better than the last : tve believe
it will : but we cannot miss the opportunity of pointing out that the " popular clamour" against the Board of Health has resulted in the same way as the popular agitation for an efficient Minister of War—viz ., in the governing classes consenting to provide an additional tent for a supernumerary lordly pigling 1 .
There is something like a job visible in the debates , on the Russian Securities Bill . The House is sick of the bill ; the country is ashamed of it ; it is silly and offensive ; but the House has not the vigour to offend the amour propre of Lord Palmerstou , who has got into the scrape of pledging himself to the absurd measure by his reluctance to vex Lord Dudley Stuart—the leader ef that eccentric school of Liberals who believe that
Lord Palmerston has a . love of popular rights and a hatred of despotisms . It is a job when public time is wasted , and a nation ' s character trifled with , out of deference to these personal considerations . Special incidents in the discussions onthe bill ought to attract attention . In a quiet way , as if he were saying nothing remarkable , Lord Palmerston meets Mr . T . Baring ' s opposition with this remark : " The hon . gentleman is the last man who should intervene in regard to such a bill , for the hon . gentleman is himself an agent of
Russia . " If this were true , and Lord Palmerston clearly thought it was , ought he not long ago to have moved the expulsion from the House of this Russian agent ? Mr . Baring was able to deny the charge ; but he offered his denial merely' as if ho were answering a commonplace parliamentary sneer ! In fuct , we are accustomed to charges of vileness against our public men—against none more than Lord Palmerston ; and to suggest treachery and treason , —as the Russian Securities Bill does against Englishmen generally , —excites no surpi'iso . Several gentlemen who opposed the
bill on Wednesday , said that they feared Lord John and Lord Palmerston were allowing the measure to pass because they felt a personal enmity to the Czar . That , again , caused no surprise : and ifc was considered a sufficiently reasonable accusation to call from Lord John an elaborate reply . Lord John was heroic . " No , " he said , " I don't feel personal enmity . As long as wo woro at ponce with the Cznr , I felt most friendly to him . But mow that ho has behaved in such a way aa to require us to go to war , why then , sir , —then , indeed , I feel it my duty to—to speak out . " That is our statesmen ' s notion of their ftinction in a war j—and they do speak out .
722 The Leader. [Saturday,
722 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
The Coultt. This Court Remains At Oaborn...
THE COUltT . This Court remains at Oaborne . Nothing seems fixed us to her Miyeaty ' s autumn movements . Prince Albert , it is stated by tho French papers , is to mcut Louis Napoleon at Boulogne , to see the great camp , in the course of thia month .
¦^T Ijbliament Of The Week. Anight In Su...
¦^ t ijBLIAMENT OF THE WEEK . ANIGHT IN SUPPLY . MbiBEPATf n ^ pit ' wasr a supply night in the Commons , ancr tlier varied * discussions , illustrating-, in their resultleseness , the resignation of their proper functions by the pecFgjle ' s representatives , are worth giving at somefeagth . " The vote was then agreed to , " ia the only distinct sentence in the report . On tb > voteo § " 20551 . for reinstating the chapel at Contan tinople ^ Sir Jt . WAETWSJKSr said tlirait tbe ambassador ' s house in Constantinople ftacTeost 84 , QQ W ., andjie believed tliat it contained ample accommodation aft present for those who ' were attached to the embassy .
Mr . Wilsoi * stria that some six years ago the chapel belonging to the embassy had been burned down , ami it had not been since re-erected , partly , he must own , in consequence of the extravagant and lavish expenditure on the embassy house . The inconvenience cf the want of a chapel , however , had become so great , that urgent representations were made on the subject . Mr . Williams -wished to know -what the 300 / . for superintendence meant ? Mr . Wilson said the 3001 . included the expense of sending out an architect for the double purpose of superintending the erection of the chapel and the consular building . The vote was then agreed to . On the vote of 1-AQOJ . for the building of a walL and other necessary buildings connected with the Protestant cemetery at Madrid ,
Mr . Wise said he thought the conditions on -which the Spanish Government allowed the existence of this cemetery ; would lay the foundation of considerable future misunderstanding . He believed there "were not more than twenty-fiveor thirty English residents altogether in Madrid , yet they were called 011 to pay 1400 Z . for a cemetery . there , whereas in Paris , where there wete great numbers of English , there was no cemetery . Mr . Pjellatt wished to know if the burial ground was to be consecrated by an English biishop , whether the chaplain
would receive Dissenters in it , and -whether he would receive the children of Baptist parents who had not received infant baptism ? Mr . Wilson said that from the spirited way in which Lord Howden represented Protestant and British interests , conditions of a more satisfactory , kind had been obtained from the Spanish Government than those which had been referred to by the hon . gentleman , That would appear from the further correspondence on the subject which had not yet been laid before Parliament . The ground would be consecrated by a Protestant bishop , but all Protestants would have the free use of it .
Mr . Milnes said the question of the burial ground involved something of a principle , and it was somewhat gained that the existence of Protestants was recognised in Spain . — [[ A principle—price 1400 Z . \ 1 'Hie vote was tlien agreed to . On the vote of 2500 / - for repairing the royal monumentsin Westminster Abbey , Mr . Ewakt thought the Government should not lose the present opportunity of securing free access for the public to sec the monuments ' which were repaired at their cost . Sir W . MoLESWOiiTH said the subject was under his consideration . The object of levying fees was to pay tho persons who were employed in showing parties tha monuments in the building .
Mr . M . Mn . NES was afraid that his hon . friend ( Mr . Ewart ) would be disappointed if ho thought that for the sum of 2500 J . all the monuments -would be restored to their pristine state . Neither did lie ( Air . M . Milnes ) think it desirable that they should be restored to that state . If tho Dean and Chapter did not provide places for public statues , it could not bo tlie interest or the duty of Parliament to spend the national money in the preservation or restoration of the building . He did hopo that tho Government would interfcro in tho matter , and that tho result would be , that this great seandnl would be removed . As a churchman , ho felt that things of that kind did much to injure the higher order of the clergy . Mr . Bkady considered it a disgrace to tho country that tho people were not allowed to visit monuments which had such a tendency to ulovato tho mind without tho payment of a ft'o .
Sir W . MoijKsworth wished to remind lion , members that tho greater pnrt of the Abbey—viz . tho imvo , tho choir , and tho transept—were alread y open to tho pulilio without any charge ; nnd tho only ronaon why the re & t was not placed in the mimo position wits that which ho had stated . — namely , that it was necessary to prevent them from bunm pilfered . Mr . W . WiUMiAiftrs thought that if tho levying of money from visitors was to bo tolerated , tho procccdu ought not to go into tho pockots of the deitn and chapter , but to bo applied to tho making of repairs ox tho payment of persons to go round , Tho voto wns then agreed to . On tho proposal to grant 1000 Z . for tho restoration of tho Btatuo of King Qhurlcs I , at Chnring-cross , Sir J . Shkllky said ho should like to know how all that money wub to bo expended .
Sir W . Molrswoutii had to state , in reply to hio hon . friend ' s ciuc » tio « , that last yoiu \ an application liuving beau inudo to him by tho Crystal Palace Company to allow a oawt . of tho statue to bo made , and that application having been acceded to , ho had an opportunity of viaituig the Btntuo , nnd observing cortaiii dofcctn in it . In conHoqucnoa of what hu tmw , ho employed Mr . Inclined Wostmacott to examine tlni Htatuo and make a roport . That gontlemnn reported that it , wan in a vory lad atate . Ho stated that tho hoiso wim fractured in tho knooa— ( Lauf / lihr)—that tho bridlo , nwoi < l , nnd bit woro no maro—( " f / cnr , " and laughter ) - — that tho lull wnu nlso dofeotivo , tho weather hnviufr p « notiaU < d it . { Hoars of luugfUer . ) In short , ho ( Sir W . Molctworth ) iound that tllo fltntuo could not bo complotoly restored for Icsb thnn tho sum now naked for ; it who evidently in a , vory
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05081854/page/2/
-