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[ ^^——i ^—— ¦ —i ———^ — 62 THE LEADER. -...
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"PKOl'LK" SCANDALIZED AT PEOPLE. Mihh Gu...
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LET US COUNT OUR CHICKENS. The public is...
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THE UNPJtlNTED LITERATURE. A couitKsi'ON...
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More Of The Kirwan Case. If Anything Cou...
villain though he might be—on such insufficient evidence as had been brought forward against him , was to violate a principle which lawyers have always held sacred , and the obvious importance of which would render it dear even to laymen , when once they saw the danger into which a neglect of it would infallibly lead them . A ccordingly , we recapitulated the facts of the case , stated what had been proved against the prisoner , and ,, whilst expressing a personal belief that he was innocent , admitted that those facts so proved
were compatible with the hypothesis that he was guilty . " We did not for a moment deny that Mrs . Kirwan might , according to the evidence given , have met her death in the manner alleged by the prosecution , but we asserted what everybody now allows , —that nothing , after all , had been proved which was inconsistent with the supposition that she had died in another way . We contended that , according to the recognised doctrine of circumstantial evidence , it was necessary to the establishment of the charge , that
those who brought it should meet the defendant with a rednctio ad absurdum , and having shown that the deceased might have died in such manner as they supposed , should have been able to ask , unanswerably , How else could she ? Such was the position which we took up , and such the principle which we supported . A catacomb may be discovered under every house in which Kirwan ever resided , without shaking our belief that this was the right view of the question .
But it would seem , from a letter by the foreman of the jury who convicted him , that in once more asserting that the end does not justify the means , and that the law must not be wrested , even to get a scoundrel , if he were such , out of the world , " aportion of the press" were damaging " the-character of trial by jury , " and endangering a " sacred institution . " An innocent man—a man
not proved gnilty , if he prefers it—cannot , we must be permitted to reply , be sacrificed even for the support of a " sacred institution . " Let Mr . Dennis , the foreman , recollect what Victor Hugo says of all institutions , sacred or otherwise : they are not damaged from without ; they die of suicide . Some people must be kept out of the panel , or the last inquest will be on a jury , and the " sacred institution" be pronounced afelo de se . One thing , by the way , we should mention , as illustrative of the spirit in "which this case lias been tried . Our readers will recollect the new
evidence , collected since the sentence , and that it was given on oath by most respectable and crediblepeople . The twelve gentlemen whobelieve N angle and Mrs . Campbell do not believe them ! Half-a-dozen witnesses swear that Mrs . Kirwan was subject to fits of epilepsy : and the dozen gentlemen who constituted pro tern : the " sacred institution" decline to credit the statement—i . e .
rather than confess themselves in the wrong , accuse those who make it of perjury . No wonder they say hard things of a body like the press , the only court of criminal appeal at present existing , when they can even do their little beat to blast the character of individuals in preference to acknowledging that it is possible they may themselves haA o been , for once in their lives , mistaken .
For ourselves , as u " portion of the press , " we conclude as wo commenced , with the belief that to take up this case was a duty which we owed to the public . We have endeavoured to show that the conduct of both judge and jury waB , aa wo thought it , ridiculous ; and wo have done so because M o thought that it would bo leas likely to temp t , imitation if heartily ridiculed than if solemnly impeached . We have professed no regard for Mr . Kirwan , and no regret for his wife ; leaving sentimental cynics to wail pitifully over the dead , wo have joined Mrs . Crowe , the deceased ' s mother , in an effort to obtain
justice for tlto living . Of the new charges there is nothing yet to I > e fluid . According to lawbut that won't matter in Ireland—Kirwan is cwiliter tnortvus , and cannot , therefore , l > o again tried . Probably , however , he will : wb phall then , no' doubt , sec justice done , and the recently discovered , witnesses , who tell of murders committed ill periodical intervals for tho last seventeen years , severally transported as accessories hoforo or after the fact .
[ ^^——I ^—— ¦ —I ———^ — 62 The Leader. -...
[ ¦ —i ———^ 62 THE LEADER . - Saturday ,
"Pkol'lk" Scandalized At People. Mihh Gu...
" PKOl'LK" SCANDALIZED AT PEOPLE . Mihh Guavkaiilh and Mrs . Slipslop who rail at oach oilier in tlio Hinge-couch , under the abstract name of " people , " for an equivocal charity to uii extremely haucboino und much denuded young
their fellow-creatures to starve , and so forth ; and with "Christian affection , " they propose that we should discontinue these unseemly practices . The latter proposal is , at least , more rational than the former . It would be far more easy to abandon the endeavour to pull down our workpeople below the subsistence level in their wages , than it would to let loose the slaves by a stroke of the pen ; since there is no question of any social revolt at the back of such a proceeding in England . The tu quoque argument is usually accounted a
gentleman on the one side , and a mortified austerity on the other—have had many models ; and they have now the honour of being copied by the ladies of Great Britain on the one side , and the ladies of the iTnited States on the other . The ladies of Great Britain assembled in Stafford House , are shocked that " people" can keep up the institutionwof slavery ; and propose to abolish it forthwith as a Christian act . On which the American ladies call to the mind of the Sutherland ladies , that " people" in this country ill-use governesses ; oppress their working hands ; allow
weak one , and it is only tolerable when the nrst incrimination is accompanied by a pharisaical presumption that the accuser is himself immaculate . There is an illogical use in the word slavery as applied to Englishmen which we do not like ; inasmuch as the so-called slave is under no species of compulsion except that of his own necessities . It is only a quibble to call him a slave ; but that
he meets with Christian kindness—that he is treated as a man and a brother , would be suppositions too ludicrous ; and if England is not chargeable with maintaining an institution of slavery , she is , at least , chargeable with violating the plainest dictates of her national faith , and the precepts of her morality ; and has , moreover , in the person of her ladies , violated the rule which tells us to take the beam out of our own
eye before we offer to remove the mote from our neighbour's . It would be a good suggestion to postpone proceedings in England for the abolition of slavery in America until the English people , the ladies of Stafford House included , shall be converted to practical Christianity .
Let Us Count Our Chickens. The Public Is...
LET US COUNT OUR CHICKENS . The public is slow to deal in abstractions , quick to recognise that against which it breaks its shins . The great philosopher has but one motto , — " Seeing is believing ; " a sceptical expression which may account for the slow progress of Christianity in this island . The public ignores until it sees ; but then it believes with a total devotion . With the gentleman that lived between Manchester and Liverpool , who sneered away the possibility of railway travelling at nine
miles an hour , it disbelieved in railways , and then ruined itself in the shares of any railway , including the John o' Groats , Orkney , and Heligoland line . With Dr . Lardner , it disbelieved in Transatlantic steam navigation , and now demands vessels bigger , quicker , and fleeter than Cunard ' s . It has great faith in collections . It hardly knew its own handicraft superiority , until it got together all its works in the Crystal Palace . It had no adequate idea of its own beef and mutton , or of its own wretched implements agricultural , until specimens were brought together in
Bakerstrect ; ( and then ideas concerning reaping machine ' s , ' or newly invented beeves , dawned upon the agricultural mind . And positively , tho public did not know anything about the cocks and hens that haunt our cottages , our poultry yards , our lanes , and byo streets , until a collection was made in that same Baker-streot , which also congenially informs the public as to its crimes and its statesmen . If you want to see a celebrated statesman , a celebrated bull , a celebrated murderer , or a celebrated fowl , you must go to one of the collections in Baker-street .
And it is astonishing to see tho ideas that instantly start to life in the collective suggestion . . No sooner are eminent poultry collected at the bazaar , and proclaimed at prices varying not above sixty guineas a pair , than the public exclaims , through its organ , that the collection may bo tho means of making fowls cheaper . Show a Londoner a denizen of the poultry yard worth twenty or thirty guineas , ana ho at once sees his way to putting a fowl in every man ' s pot . They don't understand them : things so well in France . There , we are told by the plaintive Kives , that poultry are not Jens than nine francs a pair ; und there is no prospect of a decline t but we in
^^——i ^—— — England Bee , through this bazaar , the coming of the capon at a working-man ' s price . Without joking . The fact ib , that the materials for poultry exist , and are most dear to ub at present ; but there is a field for improvement . The breeds have much improved of late years ; so have the means of transit . A tradesman in the suburbs of London can advertise his supplies of poultry direct from Devonshire or Somersetshire ; and his next-door neighbour can advertisfi new laid eerars from his own back yard . The
multiplication of poultry in all quarters ^ has been the subject of frequent remark . The thing wanted to set improvement fairly going , is some system in the improvement of breeds , and especially some ideas on the subject . Baker-street will hatch the ideas . The public is now in a condition to contemplate the idea fowl , collectively , generically , and discriminatively j and in a few years we shall have fruit—perhaps we ought to say eggs—in specific ideas . We shall begin to discriminate between the essential and the non-essential . We shall ask
ourselves whether a snow-white breast and a sixth toe are reciprocally imperative conditions . Seeing that bigger eggs may rival bantams , and yet be more for the mouthful , we shall ask whether a delicate fulness and a stunted stature are inseparable . The Cochin-Chinese are tailless , and wear a species of tucked-up unmentionables ; but are those " features" appreciated in the flavour ? These are interesting inquiries , indeed , we know no branch of the newly-developing science of embryology more exciting than that of new-laid eggs . -
. . ., T Ttr _ 1- * V 4-T . A m « A / i 4-i / iAi oAion / jfli l \ nTir I flirt We speak of the practical science . New laid eggs are valuable at the breakfast table ; but why limit them to the wealthy P Why not have universal omelette P We are inclined to think , from the practical experience of our streets , that no stock can be kept at a less cost than fowl . We have the authority of our own eyes for ^ asserting that they can be fattened on granite chippings or the grit of macadamised road , with the condiments of those popular dishes . Indeed , the famous Barbezieux capons in the south of France are devoted
to pebbles , as their admirers are to truffles . Every little helps in the poultry yard , and nothing of it that doth fade but doth suffer a remarkable change into something very pretty to eat . That breast of fowl on your plate was once scraps of various sorts ; and the new laid eggs that you have just uncasketed of their light stony domes are pearls that were not pearls before . A little science in matchmaking and systematic feeding might improve on the Macadam diet ;
but assuredly plain good fowls and reasonable eggs may be multiplied now that wo are going to have ideas on the subject of poultry . One discovery , or re-discovery , let us claim for ourselves—that " Honesty is the best policy . " It is a truth even at the poulterer ' s . Let the history of a new laid egg illustrate our meaning . It was brought to the domestic council by writ of summons , fee duly paid ; it was qualified for table -by the officer of the cuisine with the usual
ceremonies ; with the usual ceremonies opened . It was green I—not the usual colour * of eggs newly laid . The lord of the creation ate no more that day ; no more did the poulterer bring now laid eggs to that outraged board . Tho incident is not singular in its kind . The poulterer had a fee in lieu of a line : but it was his last . Eowls that have joints , new laid eggs that have not yet made up their minds whether to rot 6 r develope—these are the delicacies only contemplated oy Henri Quatre , but now really looming in the future for those who breathe in this annus mirabilis .
The Unpjtlnted Literature. A Couitksi'on...
THE UNPJtlNTED LITERATURE . A couitKsi'ONDKNT urges upon us tho subject of a thorough reform of tho press , arguing , with great truth , that our journals arc imperfect in their construction , in their discussion , and in their working , as an instrument for disclosing real opinion . Mo wishes some machinery to rescue the suppressed literature which cannot find its way into the press ; and there may be in the pigeon-holes of many a journal papers of merit , which would deserve to see the light . But the mass of tho suppressed litcraturo is bo huge , and upon the whole so little fitted to compete with the literature which is not suppressed , that we doubt the possibility of providing a machinery for its promulgation . A special organ fdr tho purpose would sink by itB own weight . If we might hiward a sugtfoyUoju , it would bo tint a
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 15, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15011853/page/14/
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