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82 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1853.
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^uiiltr Maim
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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THE CLOUD OVER, THE "CITY." Not only is ...
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THE PRESS AND THK ADMINISTRATION OF JUST...
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.
82 The Leader. [Saturday,
82 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Ar01000
Saturday, January 22, 1853.
SATURDAY , JANUARY 22 , 1853 .
^Uiiltr Maim
^ uiiltr Maim
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
The Cloud Over, The "City." Not Only Is ...
THE CLOUD OVER , THE " CITY . " Not only is " honesty the best policy , " even in trade , but frankness also is , in the long run , essential to a sound policy . If secrecy is necessary for any operation , it must be for the purpose , either of obtaining an unfair advantage , or of counteracting unfairness ; and it is to be confessed that there is so much unfairness going forward , that the honest man is often obliged to resort to secrecy . Nevertheless , genuine trade , —that is to say , a trade -which deals with real things , and only wishes to make such honest advantage as each side would agree to on seeing the whole transaction—must find its enduring
interest in promoting the largest possible amount of frankness . " We need not seek for an illustration any further than the actual state of commerce , which is rather remarkable . Within these laet few days , the Bank of England has been making successive enhancements in the rate which it exacts for discount . On Thursday last week the rate was raised from 2 per cent , to 2 £ per cent ., an enhancement which has been followed by the discount houses to the rate of 2 per eent . ; and throughout the earlier part of the week , there was an expectation of a further rise in the Bank to 3 per cent ., which took plaee on Thursday .
At first these enhancements caused some astonishment , if not annoyance , inasmuch as the money market was generally felt to be easy . There had , indeed , been considerable demands upon the Bank , and tliese have been followed by a general pressure upon the money market , which commercial men found to be not altogether anticipated , nor intelligible . The difficulty was at once referred to the unsound condition of
commerce in France , where the extravagant railway speculations under Government patronage have been by no means the worst form of fictitious commerce . The " Credit Foncier" and the " Credit Mobilior" banking projects have probably acquired , by forced support , some ; shadow of hold on the ordinary commercial body by means of investments on the ; one side , and of loans on the oilier . TJie Hank of * France has been for some time in a steadily sinking condition , its bullion having decreased progressively , by the amount of 4 , 200 , 000 /? . since the month of September , and its bills discounted increased within
the same period by at least 4 , 700 , 000 / . The uneasiness became excessive ; and the report that Cabinet ministers of the highest rank had been gambling , was thought to be confirmed by the denials of the Government . The effect was a great fall in the course of last week , and a species of panic still continues . Our own City men are ho far involved , either by direct advances , or by speculations of their own , or by ordinary trading operations , that they feel the necessity of making themselves Hale ; and the Bunk contraction Avas at once referred to the state of France as the principal cause .
JNow it is quite certain that in France there is no small amount of substantial industry . There are certain things to ho done profitably by capital , and ecu-tain things not to be done profitably ; and the misfortune is , that these two classes of operations are entirely mixed up . They are not only kept secret as far as possible , but are subject to a species of disguise , in the fraudulent
nppearanres of things , deliberately kept up by the Government and its commercial tools . All is concealment and mystification ; and the capitalist who ventures his means in that field is throwing his stake on the table ; of a , Hank , some of whose proprietors are insolvent , all of whom are elisingenu 6 uH , and whoso chief is irresponsible , save to the lord and master of the Tuileries . There is no doubt that the honest trader could do more
if he could see his way clear : that he would reap profits from which he is at present deterred by fear , and that the individual ^ Frenchman , in the humble capacity of consumer , would be benefited by a contribution of English capital and industry . TJiat benefit is restricted in the greatest degree by the prevalent incertitude , through dishonesty and concealment .
We may contrast with this the actual state of affairs in Australia , which are as clear to the eye in every part as the whole surface of an English farm . We know almost to a man how many labourers there are at work ; we know what they produce ; we know exactly the relations of Government to the trade of the country ; we know to a T what the Banks are
at ; we see bullion increasing in their strong boxes ; we know exactly the amount of goods imported and consumed ; and , in short , anything more absolutely above-board than the Australian trade it would be impossible to conceive . It has taught us exactly where capital can be invested wholesale—in the business of shipping , for example , or of trading in goods ; and where it cannot he so invested , as in the business of digging , or in that of speculative land-purchase . Mistakes even are kept down , to a minimum , and corrected almost as soon as they are made . In spite of the newness of the trade , but little waste
has occurred , or is likely to occur at present ; and the consequence is , that on each side there is the largest possible gain from the reciprocation of industry . The Australians get out of this country as much in the shape of living labour , active capital , ministering commerce , and general assistance , as this country can possibly collect and send to their shores . On the other hand , we have upon the whole as large an amount of gold , of wool , and of relief for our superabundant resources , as , under the circumstances , Australia can furnish . JNTay , we are able to make a daily increase in the use of Australia , by the expansion of practical experience .
There are two things which materially contribute to preserve the continent as a contrast to this honest , substantial , open , above-board state of commerce with Australia ; and the distinction does not depend upon our peculiar relation with the Australias as colonies . Those two things are , the secrecy of the Governments , and the secrecy of our relations with those Governments under the name of diplomacy . W ^ e have the vaguest conception of what the Government of France is really doing ; and as the Government of France exercises so jealous a control over trade as to order the men on the Stock
Exchange what to say or not to say , and to place them under the surveillance of the police , we know that there must be much arbitrary meddling . Again , while diplomacy is secret , it is impossible for us to tell what our own Government is doing in relation to any foreign Government , or how the political influences of this country may bo operating , injuriously or not , upon commercial rights . The absence of the same degree of secrecy in our relations with America makes our commerce with
the States almost as intelligible as that with our own Australian colonies , subject , perhaps , to some occasionally mystifying operations' of ' cuteneas . Still the diplomatist cannot meddle much , or mar much . Whereas , in our relations with the continent , we keep up a great ambassadorial staff , as if for the purpose of preventing ourselves from knowing what wo are doing . At a great expense we plant a machinery of concealment , in order to reap a harvest of loss .
The Press And Thk Administration Of Just...
THE PRESS AND THK ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE . " Tntkhmkddi' . ino with justice , " — " . Fustiees ' , " for example , may be a very bad practice , but certainly is not a very novel idea . It was attempted , not unsuccessfully , some years since ; , by clivers gentlemen whom nobody called unscrupulous , and whom nobody even suspected of . having any knowledge : of criminals ,
e > r any sympathy witu crime . A journal , then , perhaps , the liohfest of i Is day , won a reputation by its fearless vindication e > f the right , ne > matter in whoso peM-son it was endangered ; and men in the position oven of Lanian Blane-hard — for we must not speak of the living—weire not ashamed to ee > nfeHs themselves the contributors to that paper of articles whieji called magistrates ami judges to account , and absolutely " intorrneeldled" with juries when they lot prejudice get the better of
may not remember the Examiners of the period to which we refer , and probably they do not see those which now appear , so we may be excused for drawing their attention to both , and asking , of course by the way , whether they do not deem it at least an absurdity that the sin of " intermeddling" should meet its great rebuke from the Satan who first taught erring men to " intermeddle . " Of course , in this case as in others , it is very natural , indeed very necessary , to our contemporary to act up to the " short hint" which makes
duty , or hanged a man though they had only the wish , and not the evidence , to find him guilty . A troublesome memory , apprising us of these facts , has somewhat diminished the enjoyment with which otherwise we might have read a veryindignant article that has just appeared in the contemporary to which we allude , and which , condenses into a space of very little more than five columns quite a new view of the Kirwan case , and various original as well as important remarks upon the infallibility of juries , the " outrages ' of the press , and the sanctity of an unrighteous verdict . Possibly , however , some of our readers
its motto , and " proclaim war with mankind ' whilst professedly only aspersing individuals , with , be it remembered , the praiseworthy object of upholding law . We feel * no surprise at seeing triumph , and not truth , its object , and observe , with little more than a smile , that the executive , the journalists , the barristers , in fact all , who have recognised the propriety of the verdict which the coroner ' s jury returned on the Kirwan
case , are alike denounced for their misrepresentations and misconduct in reference to the results of that second investigation , which was held when Irish imagination had had three months ' play , when vulgar malice had had three months ' preparation , and when Kirwan had had three months to make good his escape , if he preferred trusting to his heels to confidi « g in hi 3 innocence . But let us quote by way of illustration : —
" In our time we have witnessed many an outrage on the administration of criminal justice , but we remember nothing to compare with the scandal of this Kirwan case . For weeks the papers have teemed with such garbled misrepresentations of imperfectly-reported evidence as are here described by the Irish Crowu Solicitor , —and on the failh of them , a solemn legal investigation has been discredited , its results set aside , and men of whom ifc exacted the most painful duties put upon their defence for having conscientiously discharged them . Such impartial witnesses as the
accoucheur employed by Mr . Kirwan in his mistress s confinements , have been heard against the upright and learned magistrates who sat in judgment on his crime . The Crown Solicitor employed in the case has been obliged to appeal to the press against charges he could answer in no other way . The Jury who did their duty according to their oaths , have been driven to the same expedient of defence against imputations tho most shameless . The Executive has not had the courage to support any of those whose services it had engaged in the ; elischarge of the most important of its officeH ,
against a miscarriage ofjusticeof the very worstexample . " For something " to compare with tho scandal of this Kirwan case , " let tho inquirer turn to almost any copy of tho Examiner , at tho period to which wo have alluded . As regards the " imperfectly-reported evidence , " let him look back at tho Times , and note what was the obvious impression of the reporter , where ho has omitted anything ho thought material , and whether he gave the speech for tho prosecution ,
or that for the dofencc , at the greater length . Passing , then , to tho sneer at tho " impartiality " of tho accoucheur , who spoke out at Anderton ' s in Kirwan ' s favour , we must consider what interested motive that gentloman could have , and he ) w a ruined man , even if liberated , is to compensato him for that deviation from truth of which , since he ) dares to follow tho Examiner ' s example , and " intermeddle with justice , " whore lie conse-iontiously believes that injustice has boon done , this fearlesH writer ventures so coolly , not
to say so audaciously , to accuse him . Wo must mark , toe ) , the total omission of tho fae ; t that the subject of this delicate- irony has been backed in his assertion , that tho statement for the prosecution was false on tho point to which he ) alludes , by Mrs . Uontloy , a soiicitor ' s wife ; and wo must not forget tho expression that " such impartial witnesses" have boon heard aqainst upright and learned magistrates—the said upright and learned magistrates knowing nothing whatever about tho matter except what they hoard from " such impartial
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 22, 1853, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22011853/page/10/
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