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84 mtf$ VLeatiet. [Saturday,
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REPUBLICAN FRANCE. Sthangk and sad is th...
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A DESERTED VILLAGE. The episcopal domain...
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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.
Mr. Rowland Hill's Report On" Post-Offic...
quested to submit his opinion as to what would bethe result of acceding to the prayer of the Memorial from Birmingham : —" That the transmission and delivery of letters may be wholly suspended on the Sunday , " and this opinion he gives in a very deliberate and conclusive manner . His statement seems to settle the question , at least for the present . The conquering of mechanical difficulties , such as wouldresult from a general stoppageof the mail-bags oneveryroadthroughoutthekingdomatmidnighton Saturday , is described as impracticable , lake , lor
example , the North mail , which now arrives in London at four or five o ' clock on Sunday morning . Were the prayer of the Birmingham memorialists granted , the mail-bags , instead of being carried on to London by the railway train which leaves Manchester about nine , would be left behind at Stafford or Wolverhampton , whence they would be forwarded some time or other on Monday morning , according as the railway companies might arrange . Now , it probably never occurred to the men of Birmingham that , if the mail-bags are to rest from half-past eleven on Saturday night till half-past twelve on Monday morning , tne guards will require
to watch over them during the whole of that time ; otherwise how can any one guarantee the safety of the mails ? It is evident , then , that the guards would obtain no relaxation of their hard work from the proposed change ; and , if we take all the parties employed in the delivery and transmission of letters throughout the kingdom , we shall find a very small number who would derive any benefit from the proposed reform . Mr . Rowland Hill sums up the whole question in these distinct conclusions : — " 1 st . That as the collection and delivery of letters may be suspended in any particular place , without material inconvenience to other places , such suspension might safely be made , whenever applied for with the general concurrence of the inhabitants .
* ' 2 nd . That , as the conveyance of the mails could not be suspended on any part of a line without producing inconvenience to all places served by the line , the suspension should not be made except with the general concurrence of all such places . 3 rd . That , to whatever extent the Sunday suspension of branch mails may be thus effected , there is no probability that either the necessities of Government or the convenience of the public will allow of interruption to the mails on the trunk lines .
" 4 th . That while such interruption would produce great inconvenience throughout the country , deranging the hours of delivery and despatch , and doubling the number of blank post days , it would seriously affect the convenience of London itself , delaying , by twenty-four hourK , the delivery of every letter and newspaper contained in the despatch of Saturday night , of many of those of Saturday morning , and some even ; of previous days , throwing all Sunday ' s delivery on Monday , and great part of Monday morning ' s on Monday afternoon , or on Tuesday morning , and so on , producing also a corresponding delay in Monday and Tuesday ' s arrivals .
" 5 th . That it would be impossible to suspend all postoffice business for twenty-four hours without suspending the conveyance of the mails for a longer time ; and that , besides producing the irregularity set forth above , this unninaiy involves insurmountable difficulties with the Y * A 11 WAVfl " 6 th . * That , even if all these difficulties could be overcome , the mere stopping of the mails would , in all probability , add no material relief to that which would arise from the independent measure of suspending collection and delivery . office business
*« 7 th . That the suspension of post- on the Sunday would interrupt the progress of a vast num . her of urgent letters , thus causing much suffering , and leading to a large amount of contraband conveyance , which , besides injuring the revenue , would reproduce , in another form , tne very evil which it is intended to remove . " From this vexatious agitation at least one moral may be drawn , namely , the necessity of frankness in all official statements . Had the Post-office distinctly stated at the outset what its proposed alteration really was , the public would not have been led b y a misconception to join in the bigot agitation which seized on this new form of raising the Sabbath question .
84 Mtf$ Vleatiet. [Saturday,
84 mtf $ VLeatiet . [ Saturday ,
Republican France. Sthangk And Sad Is Th...
REPUBLICAN FRANCE . Sthangk and sad is the condition of France in this third year of the Republic . Infamy abroad and anarchy at . home ; such seems all the fruit of overthrowing the monarchy . The leaders of the revolution are in exile ; those who manned the barricades of February are convicts under sentence , or amnestied criminals , watched by the police ; discontent spreads fast among the people ; the Government is but a faction wrestling with other factions , all alike the objects of popular hatred ; the army follows its leaders to dishonour , or inutinouHly swells the numbers of the disaffected . The country is divided into two camps . On the one side the party of " order , " maintaining their
position by force , yet so fearful that their workmen " cannot strike for wages , but the affair is magnified into a revolt , so fearful that a soldier may not vote for the representative of his choice , but he must be ordered to Algiers as one unfit to shadow the soil of France ; so fearful that no ordinary measures of Government suffice to assure innot bthe
them , but they must be hedged , y divinity of real worth , but by the usual guards of tyranny , police spies , suppression of the press , atrocious punishments ; and on the other side the popular party , dispirited , sullen , distressed , and exasperated at the suspicions , the ill-treatment , the preventions , and the penalties they are compelled to undergo . Two parties , each sworn to destroy
the other , splitting up the nation , dividing the house against itself . One may well dread to question the future , scarcely daring to think what disasters so direful a complication may induce , sadly wondering where all shall end . Even from the beginning the Republic has been assailed . The first blow against its stability was Lamartine ' s famous manifesto of the " non-intervening" policy of France , issued early in March , 1848 . In those would
days of enthusiasm , when before all things it have been wise to place a high idea before the people , the fatally narrow doctrine of interest ( meaning by that isolation for exclusively selfish objects ) was substituted for the broad principle of duty towards the whole of Humanity . Not that the manifesto was wrong because of its peaceful disposition , but because for the sake of peace it denied
the mutual dependence of nations , seeking fearfully to save the Republic at home at the price of deserting Republicanism abroad . It involved the isolation of France , in the world , her separation from Humanity . It was a lowering of the popular creed , a sapping of public morals . If the nation , as a whole , had but ^ to consult its particular " interests , " without care for its responsibility to mankind , whv should not the several parties in the
nation seek also their several interests , without regard to their duty towards the nation ? So faith in the leaders departed . It was but one step from that manifesto to the demonstration in May , and yet a step from that to the insurrection of June , when the reaction floated in triumphantly upon a tide of blood . No wonder that twelve months later the appeal to the honour of France was made in vain . The French are accused of turbulence . In truth it is not to any such charge that they are
obnoxious since the revolution of February . I he emeute of May , saving the tumultuous " conspiracy" of Blanqui , in which so few were really implicated , was but a peaceful remonstrance from the instinctive justice of the masses , to recal their rulers to some sense of duty towards their neighbours . The terrible revolt in June , though excited by numberless intrigues , though the last desperation of men starving , brokenhearted , after months of patience , even that could have been prevented had the Government dared to deal le
trustingly and faithfully with the peop . History will one day mark that here again Lamartine was wanting . Since then the people have been only too quiet , and that spite of suffering , insult , disappointment , and most vexatious annoyance . It was not matter of congratulation that France could tamely allow her armies to be led to Rome , nor is the quiet submission to laws of restriction and cruelty a thing to be much applauded . It may be urged that universal suffrage , as Victor Hugo remarks , puts an end to insurrection , and shuts the door of revolution . But it is not universal suffrage
when the army can only vote against its officers under pain of transportation , when none without the reach of Government influence can vote against Government without the certainty of persecution ; and it is but a vitiated suffrage when all political teaching is interdicted . The " extreme" party may be wise in their present policy of trusting altogether to the elections j they may have accurately gauged the public spirit , may know even more certainly than from the failure of the 13 th of June that the nation cannot stand the proof of any
new appeal to arms . It may be their only course to wait patiently till 1852 , hoping then to outvote and displace their present rulers . Be it as it may , still the fact is evidence of weakness . Be their policy the best , they must pursue it under disadvantage , having to teach with the channels closed against them . The reaction are well aware of this . To them time is everything . Give them but a season of power and they may well be content , as it is said they are , to change their policy , to abandon all thoughts of a coup-de-main , to depend upon other measures for the achievement of their
ends . With a police minister to tamper with the elections by prohibiting all political propagandism , all electoral teaching , by harassing and , if possible , crushing the press , and by establishing a Jesuitical system of education — dismissing any who are honest enough to educate according to their own convictions , and so corrupting two generations at once—they think to stay the propagation of Democratic and Socialist doctrines , vitiate public opinion , and mould the nation to their own will ? If Russia can wait for this they look on their game as near
So they hope to reestablish despotism , whether royal or imperial , or , as seems more likely , « Republican , " at least in name , matters not much . It is true they altogether ignore the existence in France of a fast-growing desire for self-government , which even in the moment of their triumph may smite them down . For the proscribed doctrines cannot fail to spread ; the pseudo-communism , which is only antagonistic , must , under a rule of
repression , rapidly proselytize the untaught people , since misery and wrath are not to be debarred from preaching . " Produce" the line of policy thus laid down , as a political mathematician might say , and in the sequel we see results haply to be put down but to rise again—the terrible phase of a servile waranarchy ; then despotism , then again rebellion , wiser for its severe experience , founding anew the
Republic . After all the reaction must be conquered : but meanwhile of how much mischief and consequent suffering it may be the cause . It is sad to think of the days through which France may have to pass .
A Deserted Village. The Episcopal Domain...
A DESERTED VILLAGE . The episcopal domain of Riseholme , near Lincoln , lately witnessed an interesting and instructive spectacle . In the park recently purchased for him by the ecclesiastical commissioners , the venerated Bishop was engaged in laying- the first stone of a church to replace an ancient fabric which formerly stood on the same site , and which was destroyed some years ago , together with the rest of the village , bv its former proprietors * .
The motive of the demolition was twofold—first , to form a park for the proprietor of the lordship ; and , secondly , to eject from the parish those who immediately or remotely might become a burden on its funds . The cottages of the labourers being thus pulled down , the unfortunate inhabitants were compelled to take shelter in such neighbouring villages as could afford them harbour , or in the city of Lincoln , distant some three miles from Riseholme . Thus did the convenience and interest of
a single family spare not the dwellings of the humble poor , nor scruple to demolish even that which the destroyer regarded as the house of God . This is , unhappily , no uncommon case ; in numberless parishes throughout the land , from the destruction of old cottages or the refusal to build new ones when required by the wants of an increasing population , the poor have been driven to a distance ; and though employed when required , on the soil , they have been forced to walk to and from their labour a distance of two , three , and even
four miles each way . The recent change in the law of settlement , with its required industrial residence of five years , has tended to aggravate the evil , sufficiently deplorable before . It is now more than ever the interest of the landlords who hold entire parishes in their own possession to drive the poor into the towns , or into villages owned by many small proprietors , where competition readily furnishes them with abodes , and the proprietors cannot evade or transfer the charge upon the poor-rates . The social wrong of these proceedings is
immense and evident . Besides the physical suffering and fatigue induced by distance of abode from work , and by constant exposure to weather , which render the labourer prematurely old and decrepid , see what not only he but society loses in the disruption of all ties between the labourer and the soil on which he labours , the abrogation of all bonds save that of interest between him and his employer , and the removal of himself and Ins family from the genial influences of intercourse with the owner , the pastor , and the instructor of the village whence he has been expelled .
All these ills have befallen the sons of the soil of Riseholme through the demolition of their village and their church . The Bishop has commenced the work of reparation in the reconstruction of the latter . It would be well if , having restored the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 20, 1850, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20041850/page/12/
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