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644 ^_ THE LEADER, [Saturday,. - _^^^^M^...
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THE GIBRALTAR CENSOR. The G-overnor of G...
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" THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT. [The resp...
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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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Imperial Stock-Jobbing. The Paris Corres...
of news for an . hour after its reception in London . " What was to prevent him from receiving it simultaneously with our Secretary to the Admiralty ? This is but one instance out of many , but ex uno disce—Sebastopol est pris .
644 ^_ The Leader, [Saturday,. - _^^^^M^...
644 ^_ THE LEADER , [ Saturday , . - _^^^^ M ^^^^^^ M ^^>^^^^^^^ M ^^^^^^*^^^ . ^^^^^^^^^^^ __^—_
The Gibraltar Censor. The G-Overnor Of G...
THE GIBRALTAR CENSOR . The G-overnor of Gibraltar has recently evinced the wildest ambition that we ever knew to seize a person in the capacity of Viceroy , wild as viceregalty often becomes . He has issued a proclamation , embodying an ordinance professedly to prohibit unlicensed printing within the State , the territory , and garrison of Gibraltar . The essential part of this order lies in the first paragraph : —
"Whereas it hath always been the custom of the garrison of Gibraltar that nothing should be printed therein without the permission of the Governor thereof ; and whereas it is necessary to the order , peace , and good government of the city and garrison of Gibraltar that the said custom should immediately be made , enacted , and advanced , to be the law thereof , and should be established by proper penalties for the violation of the said law ; be it , therefore , ordained
and enacted by his Excellency the Governor , that no person shall , within the said city , garrison , and territory , print , or cause to be printed , any matter or thing which shall not have been previously submitted to the Civil Secretary of the said garrison , and have received his confirmation in -writing , signed by him , under a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars , and not less than five dollars , to be recovered before any justice of the peace for the said city , garrison , and territory , at the discretion of such justice . "
Practically , therefore , the order requires that every article in any newspaper shall be revised before publication by the Civil Secretary , who stands , of course , only in the place of the Governor . What is this , but to enact that " his Excellency Sib , Robert " William Gaedinek , Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath , Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order , and of the Second Class of the Military Order of St . Anne of Russia , General of her Majesty ' s Forces , Colonel Commandant of the 4 th battalion of the Royal Artillery , Governor , Vice-Admiral and
Commander-in-Chief of the city , garrisou , and territory of Gibraltar , & c , & c , & c , " claims to be the editor of every journal published in Gibraltar . We believe that Sir Robert William Gardiner is an extremely good officer , and a very worthy man ; the expiring of his term of service at Gibraltar has released him from a recal on account of this vagary , as well as others connected with the admission and departure of goods in the commercial port of Gibraltar ; but the ordinance is of n kind that , if it be not challenged , it could be continued by Sir Robert ' s successor .
Now , challenged it must bo . It is a very arbitrary interference with the rights of any British community ; and it is needless as well as arbitrary . It has never been the custom in " the garrison of Gibraltar" that " nothing should be published without the permission of the Governor . " The averment in the preamble is false . There is a printing establishment in Malta which has been in operation since 181-1 ; and from that establishment no proof sheet was ever sent for the sanction and approval of the censor of the press .
Officials , however , very often assert that which is ludicrously and notoriously false simply that some new and arbitrary law ma / in terms at least , have tho appearance of being a continuation . And here was a case in point . While Sir Robert was about it , he might have enlarged the time of the immemorial custom here pleaded . He might have said that the custom had existed ever since Heuoules established that " pillar'' to prevent tho progress of mankind beyond the impassablo Strait of Gibraltar . There is no necessity for any such rule , It
is true that the Governor follows the custom of calling the place " the garrison of Gibraltar , " but Gibraltar is not only a garrison it is also a port of great commercial importance , though not of so great importance as it was before the commercial rise of Malta and the revival of Genoa . Being a commercial port , it is occupied by a resident English population , which has shown its intelligence in establishing those places of public worship and those schools , which ought to exist wherever Englishmen are located . It seems
impossible that our Government can sanction the Queen ' s representative in the colony in cancelling the right of Englishmen to the free publication of opinion . The less , we repeat , since there is no military necessity . It may be a question quite separate from that of civil rights , whether outside opinions ought to circulate with freedom amongst a soldiery . We think that they ought ; that if a soldiery be properly constituted and disciplined , —if the interests of the army be identified with those of the State , and the minds of the
individual soldiers be trained to have a proper trust in their commanders , any class of subject could be discussed in the ranks , and the results be nothing but a strengthening of the spirit of unity and discipline . Nevertheless , the question does stand separate from merely civil considerations ; but the lowest kind of discipline , the poorest species of influence , ought to enable any commanding officer to exclude unlicensed publications from admission to the soldier . The soldiery , therefore , might be kept in their state of infancy , without reducing the whole of the resident commercial i ) opulation to the same
tutelage . There can be but one motive to compel his Excellency Sir Robert William Gardiner , & c , & c , & c , into such a course , and it must be the one that we started with . His Excellency is ambitious of being the Editor-in-chief , as well as Governor and Commander in and over , & c . The Governor might have his way , if it were not for two serious objections . First , official routine interposes endless delay ,
and we know no journal , even in our own metropolis , that would not be totally destroyed if its manuscript contributions and proofs had to go through one of the public departments before it came to the reader . The Times of to-day would be published a month hence . Secondly , we have no proof that Sir Robert would be anything but a very bad editor . His own ordinance shows a total incapacity for grappling with facts .
" The Stranger" In Parliament. [The Resp...
" THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions is limited to the act of giving them publicit }' . The opinions expressed are those of the writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by the freedom which is left to his pen and discretion . ] The House of Commons is an assembly in which the country has no confidence , and which has no confidence in tho Government—and that incoheroney accounts for an adjourned debato extending over six nights , of seven hours per night , and of speeches which printed in full would produce a greater amount of lottor-press than is engaged in the largest editions of the " Decline and Fall" or Hume ' s " History . " Tho House of Commons has no purpose , is not adequately in contact with the people
to know the will of tho country , and without will of its own , without knowledge of affairs , and with a clubby tendency to stave off agitation and crisis , it attempts to conceal its imbecility in adjourned debate—talk , chatter , cant . As well as one can at present make out tho English , they are divided into two ijarticB , Tory and Liberal , one in favour of going back , and by fur tho largest , most respectable , and most religious party ; the other in favour of going forward : both profoundly disdainful and distrustful of tho present , Both are weary , sick , scornful of the House of Commons , to that extent that even Conservative members of tho administrative reform movement are acknowledging that the cry they must como to that they may get a hearing from tho country , is " Election Reform . " Aa well as one can make out public opinion , there is what Mr , Henry
Drummond calls a fatal want of faith in public raeu and the six nights' debate does not promise to improve that singular state of things . A few people believe in the war , but no one believes in the Government . On the other hand , the Government points out with great effect that no one believes in anybody else . We acknowledge , even those who insisted that he was a Chatham , that Lord Palmerston is a delusion , deluding even himself , and that Lord John Russell is a man with a tendency to intrigue , but intellectually not up to so clever a business . But when , before we vote , we compare them with Derby and Disraeli , personages too smart to have character , ve come to regard even these conscienceless and callous ^ ^ _ _ ^
old lords as statesmen and patriots . We have all made up our minds that the Peelites are Quakers well read in the Ethics of the Jesuits , and that the Manchester men are only fitted to be head clerks to the Peelites . As to the House of Commons' bench which is occupied by the gentlemen who answer every argument and fact by a reference to the " eventualities" of the war , who reply to the suggestion of the little bill , ly dreamy talk of golden joys and Afric ' s sands , and , generally speaking , cosmogony—the gentlemen who assume that they are public opinion , because when they denounce Russia the pot-houses applaud , —why even the pot-houses would be sorry to let them into power for a week . The House of Commons knows of this
estimate of it by the nation : and it the Government will not lead—will not define the position , or sketch the prospect—what is the ludicrous club to do but wander in a woeful bog of washy " able speeches ?" They have adjourned debates because they hare nothing to discuss : they have so many amendments because they have no opinions to pronounce . In this ( self-governed ) country it has been felt to be a degradation , formally levelling us to the condition of our cordial allies the French , that our representative institution set to work to discuss the conditions of peace after Government had been diplomatising in absolute independence of our opinions ,
wishes , or hopes : and in the House itself no osichas anticipated the least benefit from the debate . Mr . Bright , indeed , lias thanked Mr . Disraeli for having forced on the discussion ; but Mr . Bright cannot but know that Mr . Disraeli ' s specific , though not ostensible , motive was to stop negotiations : so that Mr . Bright ' s congratulation is peculiar . Is it a benefit from the debate that the Peelites , most intellectual and honest of our governing class , have annihilated themselves as statesmen ? Our pleasure in hearing and reading Mr . Bright ' s exposure of the shallow natures and dishonourable statecraft of the Ministers , individually and collectively , is enormous : but when this
conviction of them does not in the least lead to any actual punishment , —does not advance us to any better form of government , any better set of men , or any better conduct from these men , —our enjoyment of Mr . Bright ' s magnificent oratory becomes a sensuous enjoyment which has little connexion with the practical business of our political life . Impossible to avoid the conclusion that the six nights' work of talk are not to be followed by any respectable seventh . day rest , agreeable in a conscientious sense of results , —in short , to be brief about so lengthy an allhir , all that hideous prolongation of chaotic palaver does not raise the House of Commons , and rather lowers
England . When a debate like this spreads , when there have been several score speeches , the faculty of summarising , and the capacity for generalisation becomes valuable ; and in those cases the lawyers turn up in " awful ascendancy . Last night —the conclusive night—when tho division , or divisions , were inevitab e —when therefore , there was appropriateness in astute retrospective arrangements , of the whole of tho pros and cons—the lawyers came up as a matter oi course , and , from five to eleven had the banging oi tho table and filling of the smoking-room almost entirely to themselves . Sir Frederick Thosij ' . ei ^ aa advocate of the foremost reputation , who having in his is
notorious ^ ' excelled domestic uflair . s , supposed to be adequate to the management of the btute , sent everybody to dinner ; and Mr . Fitzroy ( wont ac speaker , both in look and demeanour , since Onslovw to sleep , with great emphasis , much ingenuity , anu attempt at great expenditure of physical t' ^ w —being observed nnd appreciated by JWr . Israeli , three ministers , and five niiscellnneoiw persons . Ho whs answering Sir Alexander ooc * - 7 . i » A » / -t „„„! .... iiwl /\ mnt . 1111111 Ul burntho AttorneyGeneralan indolent »»»'»»
, - , . great power , who , for philosophic reasons , prcic . ib a faindant course of life , but who , when roi « . «« into energy , can display a grand energy—w » o , « this occasion , made the most use of his si ' " " * voice and his flexible intellect to show that his patioi * , tho old Lords , were painfully in tho right , ami absurdly misunderstood , —the which impnrU » i su Alexander docs not in tho least believe , but tho « me , ho argues bucnuso they are his clients , and bee . « u . . happening to find tho House ( before dinner ) crmwu- < , ho liked the excitement of showing tho in ^ clever man might do with a bad case . M r . W < 1 J > H » forcible fcoWo member for the Militin , was tho t > u « lawyer—more lawyer , and talked like a heavy or * tiau ftis amiably decorous commonplaces ior un « o »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1855, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061855/page/16/
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