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254 THE LEAPER. [No. 364, SATTm»Av
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CAMBRIDGE POLITICS. The "University of C...
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THE RUINED SEASON. The groans of a great...
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THE LITERARY 3?UND MEETING. It is imposs...
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THE CRIMEAN COMMISSIONERS. The House of ...
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DIRECT TELEGRAPH TO INDIA. There is now ...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Retirement 03? The Speaker. The Scene In...
House of Commons will be asked , in appointing its own President , to forget everything but the man who will remain for . a brief day longer at the head of the Treasury Bench . So that unless a sturdy House be returned , we may expect it to be insulted with the request that it shall appoint as its own master the tool of the Cabinet .
254 The Leaper. [No. 364, Sattm»Av
254 THE LEAPER . [ No . 364 , SATTm » Av
Cambridge Politics. The "University Of C...
CAMBRIDGE POLITICS . The "University of Cambridge , as we learn from the gazetteers , is situated in the town of that name on the river Cain . The town itself has returned two members to Parliament since the dim year 1295 . Cbomweli / , Chbistopheb "When " , Soamie Jdhtits , have represented it at various times ; Spring Rice , SuGDEir , Manwees Surioir , JTitzbot Kelly , and Shabto Adair hare also been among its lights of other daya . In 1853 , its
burgesses were so basely bribed that the election was declared null and void . As to the University , it is not imputed to the doctors and masters of arts that with itching palms they sell and mart their offices for gold ; their archives are studded with historic names of men who have represented them in the Commons House : ITbanois Baoost , Bichabd Cbom * weiiX , the rusty weathercock Geobge Monk , starry Newtow , Chaelus Tobke , Wiijdiam Pitt , LAirsDOwiirE , Mansfield ,
PAIiMEBSTOK , IiTNDHTTBST , and TlNDAL . In 1847 , they rejected Mr . Shaw I / efevbe And now they wish to add the name of Mr . Arthttb Helps to their representative roll ; but Mr . Helps begs to decline . He thinka many excellent Cambridge University voters are bigots , and very gently he tells them so . They have a morbid tension of ideas on the-subject of the Maynooth Grant ; they consider the Sabbath their peculiar pleasureground , and can abide no Crystal Palace or
Art Gallery rivalries , sweetening and softening the day , after religious severities have made it holy . But his main objection is that " the interests , thewelfare , the amusements , and the education of what we call the lower classes , are steadily neglected , " and that unless he would promise to continue steady in that neglect he could not hope to be acceptable to the University of Cambridge . He dislikeB
fixity of opinion not formed from thought ; he cannot stultify himself , and he will not represent the doctors and masters of arts . Better not go into Parliament at all , we Bay , "but adhere to historical studies than personify all the prejudice bred under the cap , or all the cant concealed by the gown . But such a representative as Mr . Helps is not to be spared from . Parliament .
The Ruined Season. The Groans Of A Great...
THE RUINED SEASON . The groans of a great interest have been heard against the Coalition ; the pastrycooks have withdrawn their confidence from Mr-Glad stone ; the milliners no longer sympathize with Mr . Diskaeli . John Thomas responds to the lamentations of Heb , Majesty ' s Purveyor ; mercers who dwell in palaces of plate-glass an d gold cannot understand the policy of a Parliamentary dissolution who deal
; they in shawls are not satisfied of the necessity of an appeal to the country . In other words , the General Election is said to have spoilt the prospects of the London Beason . It cannot be questioned but that an injurious check has been given to tho licht trade of the metropolis ; the series of fashionable festivities has been interrupted ; society is for the time disorganized ; the free and independent will open their hands to moot the golden ofllux that would havo fallen with iovlnspmng chink into West-end tills . Our iree-hearted EunmosYNis , who had caught the flush , that in summer belongs to the roso
during a long Christmas relaxation from operas and late hours , will not follow the spring into Bond-street , and barter the gold of Ballarat for the silks of Samarcand or the tissues of Paisley . Efpheysonjej must not be missed from the county when the younger brother of a peer is hesitating how" to inform the freeholders- that this is the proudest day of his life , or when , the foxlike Peail is lowering the price of public confidence , or when W . Beeesfobd , the beadle of his party , articulates uneasy impertinence to the non-ele ctors . Xdves there a heart so sordid that the proposition of Fbail does
not satisfy , or is it in the British constituent nature to be deaf to the gross benedictions of IBebesfobd ? that heart and that nature Euphbosyne quells by . a . look from the landau , or a kiss bestowed upon some destined driver of pigs not yet known at the village school . A poet of our days has said , " Give me another kiss , and I will scatter kingdoms like halfpence ! " Give kisses to those dirty "bpys and those half-distinguishable girls , and .
their owners will tumble the franchise upon the Tory floor y and the political influence of Efphrosyne will be duly appreciated ! But good Great Britons , observe how the lady laughs at her own condescension . Her brother is a knight of the shire her father has a right to wear golden strawberry leaves on his head j she calls you . " common people , " and ^ her pure purple mantle is not soiled during her electoral travels .
Meanwhile , little pastry is ordered in London . ; marriagea are postponed ; invitations are revoked ; JDe JFoIlet is neglected ; dancing teas stand indefinitely adjourned ; and soon no one ¦ will be left in London except the Commissioners of Bankruptcy and Insolvency , the metropolitan , candidates , the police and servants on board wages , and the general [ London public not belonging to that class , bred , according to one of its own members , " by no means to be very wise or witty , b ut to sit up while others are in bed , and look down on tlie universe in pity . "
The Literary 3?Und Meeting. It Is Imposs...
THE LITERARY 3 ? UND MEETING . It is impossible to resist the statement made on behalf of the reform party of the Literary Pund Association in the Atlienavm last week . Here is an association established with one object only—the relief of distressed literary men—and every act of relief costs on an average 10 ? . That is to say , fifty-three applicants , in 1855 , were relieved at a cost of 54 fil ., the grants ranging from 251 . to 501 . —larger amounts being seldom or never voted by the
Council . Now , we conceive that the case presented by Mr . Dilke on " Wednesday afternoon was unanswerable , except upon the assumption that a literary man in distress cannot be assisted upon the same conditions as an artist in distress . For , as was clearly shown by Mr . Dilke , the > Artists' General Benevolent Fund relieved sixty-eight applicants in 1855 , at a cost of 851 . The conservative members of the association insist that there is a difference ; but what is it ? Is not inquiry as essential in one case as in another p Are not expenses incurred by both
associations for salaries , rooms for meeting of committee and subscribers , poundage , advertisements , postage , printing , and stationery ? But why in the case of an authors' fund should these expenses amount to more than 500 ? . sterling , while in the case of an artiats' fund relieving a larger number of applicants they amount to less than 100 ? . ? These were the questions put to the meeting b y Mr . Dtokens and Mr . Fobsteb . aa well as by Mr . Dilke ; tho majority however , wore- not there to argue , but to voto . Tlio amendment wns opposed by sixt 3 -mnc , and supported by cloven . "Why only cloven ? Wo shall be
much disappointed if , next year , the reformers , do' not find their phalanx consider ably , enlarged j it is the duty of literary men to join and assist those who represent their independence , and who have ably and steadilv asserted it . The points in dispute are whether it is necessary to have an . expensive * house for the convenience of nineteen gentlemen , composing the committee , who meet nine times a year ? whether a secretary is required , with a salary of 200 / . a year , to cooperate with nineteen gentlemen in meeting the necessities , of an average of a hundred and fifty applicants ? whether the Literary Fund has not been perverted from f
its original object whether its range of usefulness should not be considerably enlarged ? ^ and upon these questions we trust to the judgment of the reformers , who are literary men , or closely connected with them , rather than to that of the miscellaneous notabilities who compose the council . Be it observed , we do not disparage the services of the members of the council ; they act up to their own views ; they are gentlemen of high , honour and of
generous tendencies ; but , under the system of management which they uphold , the fund is practically sacrificed . An expenditure of 500 Z . a year incurred in the administration of . 15002 . a year is an unparalleled and intolerable extravagance . We do hope , that the general body of literary men will join the association that they may act with the reformers , and enable them to develop the real objects of the Literary Fund .
The Crimean Commissioners. The House Of ...
THE CRIMEAN COMMISSIONERS . The House of Commons , for once , has done its duty . The Government was pursuing an improper course , and the House of Commons coerced the Government . That , perhaps , is a gain we owe to the proximate general election . The Crown—Lord Pal-MERSTOtr , that is to say—has been prayed to award some conspicuous lionour to Sir John " M'Neilii and Colonel Tfllocii . There will be nothing to restrain those gentlemen , from accepting it . It is the gift , not of a Minister , but of a Parliament .
Direct Telegraph To India. There Is Now ...
DIRECT TELEGRAPH TO INDIA . There is now a near prospect of a direct telegraphic communication being established with our Indian possessions . The East Indian Submarine Telegraph Company having obtained the necessary concessions , lias laid down the route by the lied Sea , the great line of commercial communicationi Prom Alexandria across Egypt , a 3 the printed statement shows , the Turkish and Egyptian
Governments have arranged that the wires may bo suspended on the posts of the Egyptian telegraph already erected between Alexandria and Suez , or along the railway . From thence to Kossier ( a military station ) it may l ) e laid in the Red Sea , and thence , in short lengths , from station to station . The Ottoman and Egyptian Governments undertake to protect it throughout . . The stations below this on the Hed Sea are Jiddali and Camaran Island ,
both belonging to the Sublime Porte . At the former a Turkish garrison is always quartered ; the latter is an island with few inhabitants . ^ Next comes Aden , a British possession ; the Kooria-Mooria Islands are a British possession ; Ras-cl-Had is in the territory of our close nlly the Iniaum of Muscat , from whence the line will be connected , with the Indian system at Kurrachec . To Aden , alone telegraphic communication would be most important . Tho advantages of such ji line , in comparison with one traversing a wilderness distracted by perpetual war , such as tlie Euphrates Yalley , arc obvious . All tlie soundings having been taken , nothing remains but to manufacture the cable and to fiiuk it .
As an example of the rapidity with which this may bo effected , avc may note Unit , tho Atlantic ^ cable , only commenced last November , is to be laid next July .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 14, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14031857/page/14/
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