On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
1340 THE LEAD E R. [No. 455, December 11...
-
Town Telegraph.—An undertaking is spoken...
-
?
-
POLITICAL FORESHADOWINGS. Mr. Miljseu Gi...
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.
T> Efoiim Demonstrations And Personal De...
mean time tbe appeal of the Count against his sentence is to be made . Kothing has oceurred to throw light upon the relations of France and Austria ; but every scrap of news from Italy bears witness to the growing disquie t ; . A report is current that Couut Pefsigny is about to visit Italy , and the conclusion most natural is that the present state of affairs must have something to do with his journey .
The publication of the Government Proclamation against Riband Societies in Ireland has been followed by results unexpected , at least on this side of the Irish Channel . On Thursday there arrived at Cork , under a strong escort of police , a party of l ^ fteen . prisoners fro m Skibbereen and Bant ry , charged with being members of a secret society , the object of which is said to be to bring about an invasion of Ireland by American filibusters ! The whole of the fifteen arc described as voung men of respectable position in society ; and most of them were captured , ou the information of a Ribaudman , while they were in bed .
The miscellaneous news is very varied and interesting . We have had accidents on several of the railways during the fogs of the early part of the week ; but it is by no means certain that neglifence rather than the density of the atmosphere as been the cause of these calamities . If trains are run one after the other , wit bout any care being taken to ascertain whether the lines are clear ahead , the chances are decidedly in favour of evil consequences , whether the air is bright or foggy . In
the story of the Bombay , we have a very pretty trade moral : that it is too costly to accept assistance for an old , storm-battered ship , containing merely a few hundred soldiers , so long as the hull can be kept from going to pieces—at least , when the vessel is employed under contract with Government . Not the least important item of the news is the opening of the Smithfield Prize Cattle Show . Fat appears still to be the grand object of the breeder ' s ambition . ; shape , substance , lightness of bone , he now accepts as necessary conditions ; but fat he will have anyhow , and for a long time to come , we fear , the . foolish fancy will hang by him .
1340 The Lead E R. [No. 455, December 11...
1340 THE LEAD E R . [ No . 455 , December 11 , igfts
Town Telegraph.—An Undertaking Is Spoken...
Town Telegraph . —An undertaking is spoken of , called the London District Telegraph Company , for the purpose of providing the various localities in the immediate neighbourhood of the metropolis with the means of telegraphic communication . The required capital is 60 , 0007 ., and it is proposed to divide the City and suburbs into 11 districts , each containing 100 stations ,
so aa to ensure that a despatch may be delivered in any part in the course of a few minutes . Messages of 10 words are proposed to be sent for 4 d . to any place within four miles of Charing-cross . The construction , so far as practicable , will be by the inexpensive overhouse system adopted in Paris , New York , and Brussels , and lately in London by Messrs . Waterlow and Sons .
Telegraph between Liverpool and I-Iolyheao . —• - At the meeting of the Mersey . Doek and Harbour Board , it was decided that a telegraph cable should be lai between Liverpool and Holy head , the Liverpool end of the cable crossing the Mersey at Woodside , in order to avoid the danger of being subject to injury by the numerous anchorages of flats and other small craft south of that point . Infant Moutalit y in A ^ stbalia . —The resident of Victoria who wishes to feel the extent of infant mortality , can go to a graveyard . Last April , I walked
through the Melbourne Cemetery , and read on th © headstonea names of little children by the hundred . Tho day was one of the few in the month of April when the hot wind blows with clouds of dust . Finding a grave with reclining Blab conveniently placed under the shelter of a tret , I shrank from the hoat of the sun , and rested there . Presently a woman approached , whose sad face and dust ~ whitoned mourning dress told me that she came hither not for curiosity , but from her great love to some among the dead . Without observing me , she hastened to
a grave not far from where I sat ; it was one of those which had arrested my attention , beceuse at tho head , upon a simple tombstone , the deaths of four young children were recorded . I have witnessed many forms of grief over the dond , on land and far away upon the sea , but never before or elncp have X looked upon such agonising grief and hoplcss sorrow as was in the face of this poor woman bosUlo the grave , which had four times opened ' and closed over the objects of hor , lore . She bowed her head , and , believing the solitude unbroken , poured forth hor soul In prayer over the tomb of her children . —Household Wovfa
?
% famt gutelltgmcL m ¦ ¦
Political Foreshadowings. Mr. Miljseu Gi...
POLITICAL FORESHADOWINGS . Mr . Miljseu Gibson , M . P . —On Tuesday the right hon . gentleman met hia constituent * at A ' shton . After alluding to the downfal of the Palmerston Ministry , and justifying his share in that catastrophe , he said—I will do my Lord Derby the justice to say , as a political opponent , that he has done some very good things since he has been at the head of affairs ; and that he has given utterance to a great many important truths , which we were not in the habit of hearing from our late Whig leaders . I should like to see the new Reform Bill . Lord Derby is going to propose to us . I have heard a report in London that Lord Derbv , who is rather a sporting
character , is going , to astonish the old Whigs , lie is going further than they , perhaps , will follow him . Then there is my esteemed friend * Mr . Bright . I have not seen his Reform Bill . He is going to introduce what I have no doubt will be , coming from his hands—though it may not go to the extent of all the Reformers' wishes in the country—a real and solid improvement in our representative system . People are not alarmed as they were at the idea of Reform . Sir Robert Inglis predicted that if they passed the Reform Bill in 1832 , in ten years there " would be no King in England , and the Lords would be turned put of their House . Well , you have still got the throne , and a monarch upon the throne , perhaps more respected and loved than ever was
a monarch in England ; and you have got the Lords' House , and I say what we are going to ask for is not'the destruction of the House of Lords , or any interference with the prerogatives of the Queen . What we are going to ask for is , that we may have a Commons' House as well as a Lords' House , and that the Commons'House maybe returned by the peoplej and not nominated by the Lords ; that there may be freedom of election by protecting the voter , by giving him the vote by ballot . I will support that extension of the suffrage which appears to meet the approval of the greatest body of sincere Reformers , which appears the most likely to be carried , and to confer a great advantage upon the country . I will
not be deterred from supporting a moderate measure of Reform because it may not come up to the theories of the right of the suffrage being in the man * which everybody , no doubt , whether he is Tory or whether he is Liberal , must in his conscience hold , I have put my name to a programme of the rate-book being the register—that every man who occupies and pays rates , in fact , who hag a home , shall have a vote . Whatever bill be introduced , unless the ballot be a part of it , it will be an imperfect and ineffectual measure for the purposes that are intended . Let us insist upon the ballot . It is supported by a very large proportion of the Liberal party—two-thirds—and I believe it is approved as a vital necessity for freedom of election by every true Liberal in this land .
Mb . Lowk , M . P . —The right hon . gentleman addressed his constituents at Kidderminster on Wednesday . He admitted that Lord Palmeraton had fallen from his high position in popular favour , but he believed impartial history would render to the memory of Lord Palmeraton a very different measure of justice to that which had been rendered by disappointed factions and unscrupulous malignity . Referring to the topic of the day , he said—At the time of the last Reform Bill the most extraordinary excitement pervaded all classes , and it was felt that political matters had come nearer and dearer to them than their own private interests ; the country never felt more dismay and apprehension when it was feared the Reform Bill was in danger , and never
experienced such a thrill of triumph as when it was at last successfully carried . What , however , was tlio case now ? Did they recognise any of the old features of the former crisis ? Where was the enthusiasm ? where were the crowded meetings ? where were the petitions signed by thousands ? and , more than all , where was the deepseated and heartfelt interest that wrung every bosom with its intensity ? Wo took those things coolly now . The grievances they had suffered had pinched them so slightly that they had allowed more than seven years —more than the statute of limitations—to go over their heads -without a Reform Bill , and still they were in a placid state of mind . After a further passing allusion to the state of the public mind in 1832 , the right hon . gontloman said that it could hardly have escaped
obsorvation that the tone of the people on the subject of Reform was altered . He added that it suited Mr . Bright , for tho purpose of gaining a fleeting popularity , to raise a feeling Against those whom fortune had placed in a superior position . Let tho nation adopt Mr . Bright'a views ; and if they wore successful they would drag tho Peers down to their own level . But if they were to abolish tho House of Peers tomorrow , the best thing they could do would bo to set it up again next d « y . He was an advocate for further improvements in tho representation of the people based on the principles of tho Reform Bill of 1882 , varying its details to meet the improvements and wants of tho times . He wns favourable to tho lowering of the franchise in counties , and ho considered that property- and
knowledge should have a proper amount of \^ Zr ~~^ the country . Jle considered the workin ^ seIV in great part the paymasters of the country , PosaeJ !; i in a body great power , wealth , and knowledge nnrf g Riich should have a due representation . Mr . Briehth ? told the people at Birmingham that the House of Co mons did not possess the sympath y of the country tp the meeting would take the trouble to look at th evidence Mr . Bright brought forward , they - „ ,, ? , ! see that the House of Commons was not an wiser than the country generally . The people hart never found when the country had been una nimous in wishing this or that to be done , that the House of Commons had resisted the demand , or set itself Un against public opinion . ' "
The Right Hon . T . II . Sotheron Estcourt asd Mr . D . GuiFi-mr , M . P . —At an agricultural dinner at Devizes on Wednesday the President of the Poor Law Board , alluding to the Reform question , said : "There are two things which I observe are here stated , that this is a very bad time to broach the subject at all , and that the Conservatives are not the proper people to bring it forward . I think that this is exactly the proper time when this subject of Reform should be brought forward for the identical reason which is assigned against U—I viz . that people ' s minds arc not in an excited state . I say that this is a reason why they are capable of forming a true and impartial opinion upon the merit of any measure that may be brought forward ; and 1 believe that the measure will be conceived-with an intention of placing the representation of the people upon a broad , a deep , a good , and a stable foundation ; and that it will he
judged of by the people of Lngland with much less excitement than when a Reform Bill was proposed twentyfive years ago . So much for the time . It is also said Conservatives are not the proper people to bring such , a measure forward ; they have always been obstructing Reform , and should therefore leave it to their opponents . Of the three great parties—Conservatives , Whigs , and Radicals—I say that the Conservatives are the one that ought to' bring it forward . Twenty-five years ago a Reform Bill , which has formed the constitution of this country since that time , was brought forward by the Whigs . We Conservatives spoke of it in very disparaging terms—in terms which I acknowledge were much more severe than the measure deserved . It was
confessedly a measure brought in by one party in the State ; that same party have twice put into the Queen ' s Speech a recommendation to Parliament to consider that same question with a view to remedy the defects which experience has shown to exist in that mi-asure . Will you , then , leave them—the same people—to attempt again to botch their own measure ? I say nay . Another Reform Bill ought to be no longer entrusted to them , but ought to full to one of the other two parties . I do believe that throughout the whole of Kngland the strong majority will be prepared to trust that delicate operation to the hands of the Conservatives ruther than to the Radicals . According
to my judgment , they would rather trust the bringing in of a Reform Bill to Lord Derby than to Mr . Bright . —Mr . Darby Griffith , M . l \ , also made some allusion to tho subject , and said he believed the country was not desirous to uudertake the great organic changes or to ride upon the sea of popular expectation as it did twentyfive years ago . He hoped that whatever change might take place , there would be a careful consideration of tbp claims of all classes ; but , speaking in ofi ricul urol language , he believed they would P 7 , « ° f , S prospects and their interests to the old Derby plough rather than tho Birmingham scantier .
Viscount Palmbbsto * . — -The ex Premier has attended an agricultural meeting at Komsey , and addressea the company . With tho exception , however , . » fjome remarks in praise of his foreign policy , ' jo J | d /^"' S to the political questions of the day . Hi * lonM > P , J J regard to the great Reform question , was quite silent . Ilfmade a great point out of the old topic , the IB ««« J war , and he went on to any how gratifying It «« " »» feelings to perceive that tho present Oovo n ent com
ple ^ d " he work which he and ^ ^^ S ^ y that is to say , by the suppression of the Indian revolt , ° y getting a treaty with VShln ., and by the recen , < n montat Japan . Hia lordship remarked thu tl . e , lto Government had appointed tho right men for iic . l . wow -Lord Canning , Lord Clyde , and Lore % ' «• A p ' . having made tWo observations , Lord Vnlmewto i P ceeded , in an able and genial manner , to do . U th o > . of « n agricultural character . He Justlflwl ho : *«»> adopted by tho agricultural soclotiw for revaluing w
labourers . . , ,,.. Tiruton Mr . W . Mimm , M . P .-Attho dinner of Hi . J »» JJ Agricultural Society , Mr . Mllea wild ho waa again < ballot and universal suffrage . But tho quoton i « the people had become ripe for tho suflYnge , » ign bo bestowed upon those who did not iU pr «« ' »? , it . Many of thorn had read a speech , nwnl ) * Jj , by Mr . tfewdegato . It « ho «; o < l that tho Jg" ™ liq members were In a . very small minority v i , ca name time they roproaontod much Jnrgcr to « w mid a much greater amount of population , t »| l f „„ bora for other classes . In « ny redIstrlbu i ° fl constituencies-ami there must ho » uch » "jj t , 10 | 0 ,, 5 t In a Reform Bill-tho claims of th « w who a « ' h 0 representation muat lo taken into nceoiuH ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1858, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121858/page/4/
-