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    Dec. 6, 1851.] ®f)$ %t&*tt. 1161

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    A 11AILWAY TOURNAMENT. Wk wonder the rai...

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    PROGRESS OF ASSURANCE. UEDKMl'TION OF LA...

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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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    Jewish Rights And Offical Wrongs. Oaths ...

    Rothschild will be entitled to take their seats in the nsuing session , without the consent of the Peers . But what now is the position of Mr . Salomons ? He has taken his seat , spoken , and voted , in the House of Commons , without having taken the oath of Abjuration in the form prescribed by the statute for Members of Parliament ; that is , having expressed his willingness to take the oath , omitting the words , " on the truth faith of a Christian , " because those words were not binding on his cons cience , he acted within the House as if he had taken the oath in the alleged proper form . Now ,

    any one who presumes to act as a Member of Parliament , without taking the oath , thereby renders himself liable , not to lose his seat , that is the penalty for refusing the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , but to heavy penalties and the loss of civil rights . So that a Jew , who cannot swear " on the true faith of a Christian , " retains the trust reposed in him by his constituents , but dares not perform the duties of that trust in his place in Parliament . That is the position of Mr . Salomons at the present moment , as decided by the majority of the Commons with the Premier at their head .

    Be it clearly understood , that the exclusion of the Jews from Parliament is an accidental , not an intentional , exclusion . The oath of Abjuration , at the tail of which come the obstructive words , was levelled solely against the Jacobites ; and not only this , but the oath is actually out of date , as it abjures the descendants of the Stuarts , no descendants of the Stuarts being in existence ! But apart from the exclusion being accidental ,

    irrespective of the oath being ndicuously out of date , —facts cogent enough from a common sense point of view , but not quite so forcible from a legal point of view , —there is another circumstance connected with this oath which is legally relevant and weighty . By the 9 and 10 Victoria , cap . 59 , Jews are admitted to all the civil and political rights which pertain to her Majesty ' s subjects dissenting from the Church of England ; and by a previous ant it was enacted that the words " on the true faith

    of a Christian " might be omitted from the declarations to be made by Jews upon taking civil offices . Not only this , but the 1 and 2 Victoria , " An Act to remove Doubts as to the Validity of Certain Oaths , " positively enacts that upon " any occasion" the oath to be administered shall be administered "in such form and with such ceremonies" as the swearer " shall declare to be binding . " Obviously the essence of an oath does not lie in any sanction , but in that sanction which is binding on the conscience of the swearer , and no other .

    And since , by statute , Jews are allowed to declare in their own manner , since they find no difficulty in taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , it becomes a serious question whether the House of Commons did not , last session , arrogate to itself unjust and unwarrantable power in excluding two Jewish members from the beneficial operation of the enabling acts above cited . Why make an exception to the 1 and 2 Victoria , in respect of parliamentary oaths ? Is there statute warrant for it ? Surely the want of a precedent cannot be urged , nince there could be no precedent in a case which was sui generis .

    Thus then stands the question as we understand it , the Jewish Members willing and anxious to fulfil the trust reposed in them by their respective constituencies , and the House of Commons obstructing them by a special vote . The Hebrew members being prepared to take the ridiculous oath , actually in the " form prescribed by law for Jews , " that is , without the worda " on the true faith of a Christian , " and a motley majority persisting in the

    assertion of the illegality of an oath ho administered . We need say nothing of the injustice indicted on <> ur Jewish fellow subjects—that is too glaring . The Jews have shown , on many occasions , that they were thorough Englishmen in political feeling , <» i ( i Englishmen generally are waiting to hail their victor y over the obstructions offered by the prejudices of an Inglis , or the hollowhearted Hupport ° f a Russell .

    Dec. 6, 1851.] ®F)$ %T&*Tt. 1161

    Dec . 6 , 1851 . ] ® f ) $ % t &* tt . 1161

    A 11ailway Tournament. Wk Wonder The Rai...

    A 11 AILWAY TOURNAMENT . Wk wonder the railway directors did not think of H before—the notion \» ho very capital , surpassing n > originality bull-fighting and pugilism , duels and wrestling . TUe notion—what notion ? Railway jousts , dear reader , with the public admitted : 't ho much per head to defray expenses , wear and u > : >> -, Iohh of life , fracture of limb , ike . Sec . ; all which articles can be paid for in money damages , ljiopurly assessed . All you require is a rockleHH director y , daring engineers , inflexible btokors , a

    quarrel between rival lines for territory , and , presto the thing is done . Your joust comes off , with the public expectant and adspectant . Your engines guarding up and down line , engine pitted against engine , charge up to the very buffers , salute and retire—the interesting public and the public authorities calmly or feverishly looking on . All this sounds like a romance . So far not one of our readers will believe the story . Nevertheless , substantially it is true ; we did not invent it , the facts , " matter of history , " lie before us in black and white . Here they are . Most people have heard of the war between the potentates who rule in the West and their

    contemporary sovereigns in the North West . Also the public is not quite forgetful that there is a railway in the Stour Valley , now leased to the North Western Company . It happens , however , that the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Company have an interest in this line , contingent , we are told , upon their not amalgamating with the Great Western . Lately , however , the Shrewsbury men have agreed to amalgamate with the Great Western , and , consequently , they are ipso facto held to be excluded from the Stour Valley line . But by some ingenious argument about amalgamation not being amalgamation in their case , they contend that their running powers are still in force , and , what is more , that they will make use of them .

    Last week it was announced by the North-Western that the line to Birmingham would be opened j but in consequence of a threat from the Shrewsbury authorities , that they should run " independent trains " on the same line , the North-Western directors thought it prudent to postpone the opening of the line . On Sunday it was ascertained that all was prepared for carrying out the threat : and by Monday morning two engines belonging to the North-Western occupied the lines at Wolverhampton , and the station was held by the officers and police of the company . Meanwhile the forces of the Shrewsbury party were held in readiness , and an official placard issued , stating that they

    intended to run on the line , and that if the North-Westerns did not remove their engines , the Shrewsbury brigade " would do it for them . " Whereupon application was made to the Mayor of Wolverhampton , and he , accompanied by a body of Police , arrived on the field of battle . A thousand people were now assembled , and theybeheld an astounding sight . The engines of the Shrewsbury party moved up to the attack , which the engines of the North-Western awaited with great firmness . Slowly came the attacking engines , until they touched the buffers of their opponents ; and then , finding that the North-Westerners would not recede , after much blustering they retreated , and so ended the stupid

    campaign . I I'JL'his is a true story . Harmless as the encounter was , it might not have been so : a trifling loss of temper , and the rival engines would have been dashed against each other , perhaps causing , certainly hazarding , death . What can we think of directors who permit , of a Mayor who beholds , such a spectacle ? It is all the more reprehensible as it borders on the ludicrous . Boys blowing at a semi-lighted fusee , intended to fire a train of

    gunpowder , or fencing with naked swords , or playing at hop-scotch on a railway , are not brilliant examples for sagacious railway directors . The fusee may fail , the swords may do no damage , the train may not pass till the game is over ; but most likely the reverse in each instance will take place . So in this railway joust , it might have happened with trains of passengers as well as single engines . Surely a stop should be put to pranks like these , which smack eo much of the genius of the schoolyard .

    Progress Of Assurance. Uedkml'tion Of La...

    PROGRESS OF ASSURANCE . UEDKMl'TION OF LAND—APPLICATION OV iiAWVAX .. " Thk worst of all rebellions , " nays Lord Bacon , " is the rebellion of the stomach . " If the Irish wore not in the slough of despond , they would be rebellious . They have no lu > ne of their country . They lie moodily waiting for a crisis or quit their native land for a more promising clime . It ih not desirable to depopulate that country . Justice to Ireland will not bo rendered by the eviction of her sons . But what are wo to do r 11 ' they remain in their present condition , while they have strength they will rebel ; when exhausted in spirit , they will come upon the poor ' s rate : to an Irish landholder , a bitter alternative . The only way of maintaining peace in Ireland is to provide employment for the people , thereby producing an ever ncreasinif uourcet of revenue . " The want of

    capital , " says Sir Robert Kane , '• ' has been the bugbear of Irish enterprise for many years . England has capital , Ireland has not ; therefore England is rich and industrious , and Ireland is poor and idle . " To the state of property in Ireland , however , must we attribute much of its present condition . Immense unwieldly estates , entailed , heavilymortgaged , and otherwise encumbered , the owner not only an absentee , but unable to expend anything in the improvement of his property : the land cut up into minute subdivisions , held by a tenantry who have no inducement , if they had the power , to improve

    a property of which they have no certain tenure : a large cottier population , heretofore living on potatoes , the produce of their own gardens , now without employment or any means of support . Such is the present condition of Ireland . It is confessedly daily getting worse . Yet up to this moment not only is nothing done to grapple with the evil , but people only one degree from starvation are called upon to pay for the bread which but lately rescued them from , death .

    Thus will it ever be until organization takes place of the galvanic relief hitherto afforded . They who subsist on charity are ever at the point of death . It is an unhealthy condition , which saps the energies and leads to destruction . Concert and cooperation , the association of labour with intelligence , are what will avail in Ireland . Millions of capital have been advanced and spent in reckless disorganization , and now that the people have nothing to show for them these millions are suddenly recalled .

    What might not have been effected if the money had been properly spent ? There is land lying idle which reclaimed would give employment and food . Mr . John Stuart Mill in his Political Economy observes : — *• The detailed estimate of an irrefragable authority , Mr . Griffith ., annexed to the report of Lord Devon s commission shows nearly a million and a half of acres reclaimable for the spade or plough , some of them with , the promise of great fertility ; and about two millions and a half more reclaimable as pasture : the greater part being in most convenient proximity

    to the principal masses of destitute population . The one million and a half of arable land would furnish properties averaging five acres each to three hundred thousand persons , which at the rate of five persons to a family answer to a population of one million and a half . Suppose such a number drafted off to a state of independence and comfort , together with any moderate additional relief of emigration , and the introduction of English capital and farming over the remaining surface of Ireland would cease to be chimnrinal . "

    We have facts and proofs of the soundness of this hypothesis . Mr . Stuart French , of Monaghan , has reclaimed 300 acres of mountain land in four years , and raised its value from 2 s . to 35 s . an acre ; the entire cost of reclamation being repaid by the crops in three years . Mr . Reade , of Wood-park , County Galway , reclaimed 500 acres of moorland and mountain ; the cost was repaid by the crop of the second year , and the land formerly worth 2 s . 6 d . an acre now pays 20 s . per acre annually . Mr . Coulthurst , in County Cork , reclaimed a bog farm for which the tenants could not pay 4 s . an

    acre . 1 he expense was repaid before the fifth year , and the land is now rated , at the poor law valuation , at £ 4 per acre . Sir Charles Sliyh , Baronet , located the surplus population of his estate in Donegal , on the waste lands , and assisted the poor farmers to cultivate them , lie gave up his rents for two years ; and permanent employment ban been found for six times as many persons as the land could formerly support , and its produce has been multiplied tenfold . The Irish Waste Land Improvement Society also , on a limited outlay of £ 1658 , has received 10 per cent , interest .

    The capabilities of the land of Ireland are hero apparent , and by giving the Irish people the opportunity of becoming small proprietors they would , as De Beaumont observes , " clear at one bound the spac , e which separates a prosperous lot from the most wretched condition . So long as the Irishman will be merely a tenant , you will find him indolent and wrejtched . " The question in , how to get rid of the present state of things and enable an almost bankrupt man to become the possessor of a farm .

    Freehold assurance , which is an elaboration , of the life assurance principle , has been proposed by William liridges , the actuary , as u means of improving tlio condition of Ireland . Mr . Bridges suggests that ( Government should issue £ 50 , 000 , 000 sterling in land scrip to certain commissioners , on . a first mortgage of all the lands of Ireland , and redeemable in . twenty yeans , bearing four per cent .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121851/page/13/