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    ' 1£arch ¦ i-0, i860 I The Leader and .S...

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    THE SUPPLY OF HAGS; IT hns bouu auuounco...

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    The Savoy Bugbear. Nphebjs Is A School O...

    Such readiness to allow Yenctia to remain . the prey of Austria , and such willingness to place obstacles in the way of the liberation of Hungary , are not consistent with a thorough-going love of liberty , founded upon principles which a free country should approve . We think Louis Xai'o ' leox unwise in provoking alarm and hostility by this Savoy scheme , and ridicule the idea of France being in . danger because Italy will be mistress of her own destinies for if ever danger existed , it was when the . passes of the Alps were virtually under the control of the powerful empire of Austria , and might have , been used against France in the event of any quarrel in which Germany was involved . ! But we are not going to serve the cause of the H-vpsbukgs , and damage the interests of Italy and Hungary by hounding on Europe to a coalition against France . It is quite possible that tlie influence of England might make the French of the

    Government unwillingly abandon its desire having passes of Savoy but if by so doing we alienate France from Sardinia , and give new hopes and vigour to the Austrian cause , can it be pretended that we have done any good ? If we choose to say to Sardinia , " Don ' t cede Savoy , but rely upon us to help you if Austria- . dares to ofter molestation , " there would be some consistency in the conduct ; but while we are only ready to look on and applaud the performers who please us , as if the whole affairwas an operatic spectacle , . we Ought to be chary of advice which France dislikes and Sardinia docs not need . Our apprehensions may likewise be calmed by a passage in Sir j . Hudson ' s letter to Lord John Russell , dated February 10 th , in which our minister at Turin says : " The people of Savoy have long been divided into tA \ o separatist parties , one for France , the other for Switzerland- The valleys which open on France , for France ; those which open oil Switzerland—Anuecy , for instance—are for

    Switzerland . The news from Austria and from Italy is more and more warlike , and nothing would befter serve the bad interests- of absolutism than obstructing the free action of Sardinia in making the most effective preparations , and . alliances to meet the struggle which appears daily more imminent " . It is-confidently hoped that the result of . ' the appeal to universal snftVnge will be a triumphant . majority , in favour of annexing the Duchies and Tuscany to Sardinia ; and it is believed that the arrangements

    with reference to the llomagna will not lead to any misunderstanding between the Courts of the Tuileries and Turin . It is . Austria , and Austria only , who opposes impracticable obstacles to the continuance of peace ; and , instead of Wasting energy upon the question of Savoy , it would be better to take time " " by the forelock and declare that if Italy is again attacked , England and France will not permit llussia to undertake ! any operations in Hungary with a view of preventing the independence of that country if it choose to throw oft' the Austrian yoke , nor with that of enabling Fitancis JoSEi ' ll to pour additional

    forces upon the Itnlian plains . "We are glad to notice that Count Cavour appeals to Europe against the barbarities which Austria is perpetrating upon the Venetians . We must go back to the worst days of the worst Eastern despotism for any decree so cruel and barbarous as that by which any persons suspected of being anxious for the liberation of their country arc , without any regard to their state of health-, condemned to penal servitude in the military ranks . "While acting upon such principles , it will be in vain for Austrin to go through tho farce of remodelling the constitution of < lier

    state council ; nor will she benefit Popery by holding it up to the ex . ee vntio . n of humanity as the -accomplice in her crimes . Tito moral feeling of England condemns wars of aggression and wars of diplomacy , for the idle purpose of keeping up artificial balances among despotic States . The only balance the British people care to maintain is that of justice and popular right ; and whatever may be the future demarcations of Europe , they will rejoice in any movement by which nations arc uplifted and tjicir opprqssors cast down . .

    ' 1£Arch ¦ I-0, I860 I The Leader And .S...

    ' 1 £ arch ¦ i-0 , i 860 I The Leader and . SaturdayAnalyst . 225

    The Supply Of Hags; It Hns Bouu Auuounco...

    THE SUPPLY OF HAGS ; IT hns bouu auuouncod in Parliament that tho two powerful Governments of France ami England arc engaged in negotiations about rugs ; and interested manufacturers and leading journals have complained fiercely of tho French . Government for prohibiting tho exportation of ' them . That one Government should bo eager to withhold and others anxious to got what is proverbially worthless is due to the iiiofc , that rags are the raw material of our most extraordinary manufacture . Wo are far better acquainted with the ntqiloru improvements of the art . of paper-making than with its origin , and . now its products are singularly various , From bdiug chiefly used for writing and printing some persona imngino it is liltlo required for anything olsqj but though indispensable * for them , they are only a few ol the muny uses to which it is uppHud . Plato and jewellery aro

    wrapt up in the delicate tissiie paper which almost disappears as we crumble it in our hands ; and solid cornices for rooms , frames far . looking-glasses ' and pictures ,. arc composed of-the same substance . The art may be . shortly described as the means of liquefying vegetable matter by water , as smelting is the art of liquefying mineral matter by heat , and casting it into leaves thinner and liner than those of the most aerial plant , and manipulating it into lumps massive as granite roeks . JSetween these two extremes the forms into which this liquefied vegetable matter may be run , and the uses to which it may bo , put , are infinite ; and importations from Japan have latterly practically convinced us tliat the glorious art has been cramped ¦ anu stinted in its growtli throughout the Western , world , and especially in . England , by ignorant and unintentionally mischievous tiscal regulations . An explanatory report of the Inland Revenue Commissioners to the Treasury , published by the authority of Parliament on Tuesday last , informs us tliat British merchants are compelled to import light paper boxes made in Germany , in which to pack their goods for the foreign market , because our excise regulations and duties concerning pasteboard prevent siich boxes being made in England . It further informs us that the best regulations concerning pasteboard and scaleboard , concerning envelopes . ¦ ¦ m ade in paper mills and envelopes made by -stationers ,. ' which the ingenuity of . the Board could devise to enable these several manufacturers to carry on . their respective businesses with an equality of hinderaiice and restriction , are so injurious that it has become impossible to defend them on principle , or continue them in practice . Since duties were levied oil pasteboard , and not on scaleboard , a large manufactory near Oxford that supplied-pasteboard ' , for .-boxes could not be . continued , and-was given up . It is not , therefore , as some . persons suppose , merely for the advantage of booksellers and newspaper proprietors that the excise duties on paper are to be abolished , but to liberate the " most ingenious of human arts" from the most ruinous fetters . If it be , as is said , a mark of barbarism not to allow the body to grow fully and freely to its destined proportions , surely it is a mark of still darker barbarism ' to stop art and skill , and thus prevent the inventive minds from becoming ,- like tlie . divinity from which thev grow , completely masters of matter .

    The Commissioners speak , too , of "the unequal incidence of the paper duty / ' and admit that " the evils complained of by the manufacturers " cannot be denied , neither can any remedy be suggested for them but the entire repeal of the duty . They " cannot conceive a more untenable position / for tlie heads of a Revenue department" than to be obliged to say , "in answer to complaints from persons whose trade is annihilated by our exaction of a duty , that such is the -necessary ' consequence of the existence of the tax . " Strong as this language may be considered in their month , they do not half comprehend the vast evil . They think their regulations leave " the paper-maker free

    to adopt the best and mast-economical modes of working , and that neither the cost of production nor the quality of the article " is impaired by the fetters imposed for fiscal purposes . But such an art can only be improved by little experiments , and the necessity to take out a license to practise it . must stop men from engaging in it , and stifle fcho germs of innumerable improvements . It was not in established factories , but in the privacy of their own dwellings , that Okomi'TON and Stevjcnson thought out tlie suggestions of their genius ; and had they been obliged to ask permission of the Excise before they set to work , our cotton have been as backward

    manufacture and our locomotives w ^ uld as our paper manufacture . Tho incvij , able consequence of nil such fiscal interference with busiuoss is to impede its progress ; yet Mr . Gladstone :, in his simplicity , while he wiaoly proposes-to release paper-making from them , imagines that his own pet penny taxes , —mifelt , as is , said , because their evils have not conio into existence—will be exceptions to the general law , and that he is an exception to all previous tax imposers . As . this great art needs freedom to make it prosper , so " every other art restricted by fiscal regulations , whether invented by Mr . Ci i . adstonk or any other of the meddlers who sam'iuce society to ( Jovomment ,

    will under them languish or decay . Tho singuhirily of the art in thai no other unbalance is so well adnptod to mako ' paper as worn clothing . Almost every -fibrous vegetable aubatiinoo U susceptible of . inuwirntioii or liquefaction by water , but none answers so well for thi * purpose aa woll-woru cotton mid liiion garments . As they must be removed , or buooino a nuisnuoo , it is not possible to lind another material so cheap iii } they aro . This has long , been obvious to common sense ; and now Science having found it out / demonstrate ; * tluit every fibrous material which can bo conveniently convert into pnpor , may first be advimtiigcously converted into clothing . The impossibility of fludhitf a substitute for rafga , wUli tiw importance of paper to oivilimutiun , lies at tlio bottom oi the pro-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031860/page/5/