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Feb. 22, 1.861 J ©ft* fUafett* 177
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THE GRTJEL QUESTION AT BARHAM. The Times...
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THE PAINS AND PENALTIES BILL. Meanness a...
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LIBERTY TO POISON. Sir George Grey and S...
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THE POOR V RESIDENT. Louis Napoleon has ...
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T1IK 1UVAI.S. Comvktition visits the hig...
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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.
The Progress Of Life Assurance. Wiieke A...
the party dies during the existence of the policy , and the office has paid the claim , his widow and children will still have an interest in the annuity and educational funds , and be fully entitled to participate in them if at any time reduced . To prove that all these objects may be effected with commercial security , the Trafalgar Assurance Association refers to the sums of money which have been honourably realized by nearly the whole of the assuranc e offices already established . For instance , an office established in 1806 has declared its profits in 44 years as amounting to £ 743 , 000 . Another , commencing in 1821 , has realized as the
profits of 28 years £ 770 , 000 . Another , in 1834 , from the profits of 16 years has realized £ 207 , 000 . While three others established in the years 1823-24-25 declared , in 1849 , as the profits of five years , 1845-46-47-48-49 , sums amounting respectively to £ 270 , 000 , £ 188 , 000 , and £ 139 , 000 . Had these offices been constructed on the principle of the " Trafalgar , " they would now between them , be in a position , not only to grant two hundred and twenty-one annuities of £ 50 each to the distressed shareholders or assurers , but also to educate or apprentice eleven hundred and fifty-five children ; leaving at t he same time a considerable sum as interest on the capital invested .
Such are some of the latest applications of a Life Assurance . Nor do we see how a man can stand acquitted for neglecting in some way or other to avail himself of their advantages . By such neglect he deprives himself of that peace of mind which is essential to the successful transaction of his duties , and subjects himself to continual distraction respecting the future . What a feeling of proud satisfaction is it for a man to reflect that his savings throughout his life are really providing permanently for his poster ity : and on his death-bed what an incalculable consolation must it be for him to know , as he looks on his weeping wife and helpless offspring , that by his provident care he has shielded them from destitution and want .
Such considerations must have their influence on the minds of all thoughtful men . Every person holding an influential situation in society owes it as a duty to his fellow-man , to inquire into and recommend whatever plan may be suggested , and proved to be productive of even a trifling benefit ; and we are sure that every philanthropist , if he reflect , will consider it one of his first duties to encourage his fellows to avail themselves of the advantages of these most useful and beneficial institutions of civilized life .
Feb. 22, 1.861 J ©Ft* Fuafett* 177
Feb . 22 , 1 . 861 J © ft * fUafett * 177
The Grtjel Question At Barham. The Times...
THE GRTJEL QUESTION AT BARHAM . The Times Commissioner , sent to inquire into the workhouse revolt at Barham , makes the question turn upon the workhouse dietary . To such paltry issue is the industrial disturbance of a whole county brought—nay , of two counties . The Commissioner holds the paupers to be clearly wrong , since they are allowed , in the workhouse , ample amounts of bread and gruel at breakfast and supper , yea , even seven ounces of bread and twenty-four of gruel ; at dinner , of bread even eight ounces , with an
ounce-and-a-half of cheese ; but that is not all , for on two days in the week do they not have five ounces of cooked meat and twelve of vegetables ? Cooked meat and vegetables ! Twice a-week ! Do they get that out of doors ? You see it could hardly be greater , since the very object is to make the workhouse " repulsive , " by keeping the diet below the fare of that imaginary being " the independent labourer . " Free-trade may have made provisions cheaper , but it has not yet raised the labourer of Norfolk and Suffolk to hucIi a level as would justify a richer diet in the workhouse—under the repulsive plan .
The Commissioner holds , therefore , that the Barham paupers were clearly in the wrong—they ought to eat [ bread ] and drink [ gruel ] and be merry [ within bounds ] , and be grateful to a generous public , & c . But they are not quite to blame : they were put up to it : they were crowded into the workhouHe , just before Mr . Disraeli ' s debate , on purpose to bo many , and unruly , and demonstrative of " agricultural distress" in hysterics . 1 ' erhnpn ho ; the Ipswich Express clearly shows that the fanners did like to crowd the workhouse , - —till rents should be lowered ; the motive being to impress the landlord with the ruinous state of things .
We had already intimated as much , with the lurther reason , that the farmers like to keep the labourers at the pauper level , because then they ( -an keep wages at the pauper level : virtually , they cultivate their land with pauper labour , the cost
being called ' rates' * or " wages' * according to the season . Yet Suffolk is not over peopled , if the Parliamentary Returns may be relied upon . It contains nearly 900 , 000 acres of good arable , meadow , and pasture land , and only some thirty or forty thousand labourers . So there is land to be worked . But the farmer replies that he is helpless , his landlord grinds him down so hard . Thus is it ever
the same vicious circle—landlords making farmers bankrupt , farmers making labourers paupers , paupers turning idle , ill-fed rioters , and the idle land exhibiting " the results of our boasted competitive systetn "—a system that boasts of setting man against man , and preventing the concert which alone can make distribution of employments thoroughly fruitful . ( Economists sow the whirlwind competition , and reap the workhouse storm .
The Pains And Penalties Bill. Meanness A...
THE PAINS AND PENALTIES BILL . Meanness and impotency characterize Lord John Russell ' s whole course from the Durham letter to the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill published this week . In the statute we learn unmistakably the malevolence of his intent against the Roman Catholics ; but when he comes to the point of legislation , we discover the impotence of his resources . The bill is intended to prevent the use of episcopal titles , and to deprive the episcopal officers of the Roman Catholic church from an official immortality , by
rendering them incapable of receiving endowments ; the Attorney-General declares that the bill will also have the effect of preventing synodical action . This is persecution , and if the Roman Catholics submit , they will be placed in a more degraded and helpless position than any sect in the United Kingdom . There is no other sect whose office-bearers are debarred from using the titles appropriate to their offices ; no other sect is debarred from permanently arranging the funds necessary to its ecclesiastical
organization ; no other sect is debarred from the synodical action of its dignitaries . We have the synod of Presbyterians at Belfast , the conference of Wesleyans , and the committee of Congregational Dissenters in England . Such privileges—allowed to the meanest sect in point of intelligence or numbers—are denied to a sect which comprises some of the oldest families , the most accomplished persons , and the most orderly classes in England .
For we are saying nothing of Ireland : there the bill must be absolutely suspended , unless Ministers wish to provoke a rebellion—the " civil war" under dread of which the Duke of Wellington emancipated the Roman Catholics . The Whigs dare not disemancipate them . One part of the new bill , indeed , is incompatible with an existing statute in Ireland . The Morning Chronicle calls this to mind . The Charitable
Bequests Act has expressly authorized funds to be vested in commissioners , for " the maintenance and endowment of bishoprics and deaneries intituled , designated , and described" as districts in which ecclesiastical functions are exercised : the new bill , which applies to " Great Britain and Ireland , " enacts that any such vesting of funds shall he null and void , and forfeit to the Crown ; that is , any funds applicable , " directly or indirectly , for or
towards the endowment or maintenance of any archbishopric , bishopric , or deanery intituled or in anywise designated or described as an archbishopric , bishopric , or deanery of any city , town , or place , territory or district in the United Kingdom . " The bill , therefore , is designed to conflict with the Charitable Bequests Act , which ih overridden but not expressly repealed . What is the reason for that evasive mode of going backwards ? Meanness ,
meanness . It does seem impossible that the Roman Catholics in England will be merely submissive . They cannot hut perceive the total impotence of the measure . Its parade of legal exactness and comprehensiveness only exposes the points for attack . As Mr . Peel observed , it is but another illustration of the futility of attempting to coerce mind by statute . The
dishonesty of the agitation which Lord John set going is reproduced in the feebleness of the measure : the pretence was , the necesmty of resisting a political aggression ; the real object of fear was , a mental , moral , or spiritual influence : the bill will only force the Roman Catholics to strengthen their moral influence , as the substitute for those legal guarantees which Lord John seeks to withhold from theirs
alone among all the sects of England . They have been politically passive , and they see the consequence : the weakest of Kngland ' s Ministers is placing his foot upon their necks . Will they let him ?
THE " TIMES" AND THE UBEIi LAW . The verdict of the jury , in the case of Wilks versus Lawson , is virtually a declaration that the press must not employ censure , however just , however mild . It must not even record . Any person—to use the definition of a libel once given from the bench— " whose feelings are hurt , " may sue for libel , and if he obtain not damages , may saddle the journal with costs— " word of fear !" The Times had recorded the escape of two prisoners from gaol , and noticed the very grave suspicion that
there must have been connivance . Wilks was not named ; that there was any desire to injure him specifically would be the wildest of fancies ; but before the article appeared he icas dismissed on suspicion . The amount of practical injury done to him by the writing is rated at a farthing ; but a farthing carries costs—not quite so little as a farthing . The Times can afford to pay for its vindication of justice ; but every journal is not so well off in funds , and the whole press ought to feel grateful to that one for keeping the lead in this behalf .
Liberty To Poison. Sir George Grey And S...
LIBERTY TO POISON . Sir George Grey and Sir Charles Wood seem to be playing at cross purposes . Sir George proposes to introduce a measure imposing restrictions on the sale of arsenic . Sir Charles refuses to impose any restrictions on the dealers in coffee , including , of course , under that name , any kind of poisonous mixture sold as a breakfast beverage . Sir Charles says " the buyer must protect himself . " On the same principle , might he not ask the Home Secretary to leave the people to protect themselves
against arsenical doses ? If Sir George will persist in throwing obstacles in the way of the poisoner by arsenic , who is easily detected , and Sir Charles is resolved to let the trade manufacture any kind of poisonous mixture under the name of coffee or tea , one may easily guess what course the poisoners will take next . Let those who believe , with Sir Charles Wood , that the buyer is able to protest himself , read the article entitled " Poisonous Breakfast Beverages , " by a practical workman , in another part of to-day ' s paper .
The Poor V Resident. Louis Napoleon Has ...
THE POOR V RESIDENT . Louis Napoleon has sent his stud to a Parisian Tattersall . Anon he will call in the auctioneer into his cellars , the canvassing Champagne bottles to be knocked down to the highest bidder . Next comes the turn of the copyright of the Idees Napoleoniennes to be sold for what they will fetch . France is to be blessed with a cheap President . Subscription lists are opened at every other shop in the faubourgs : Date obolum Belisario . The Dix Decembre is sending round its hat . But , lo ! the " nephew" can afford to be magnanimous : Nolo epiecopari . The President cannot live on sour grapes . Destitution will do j ust
as well for him : in fact better . He will not alone be the poorer for the hard-heartedness of a jealous Assembly . Many an habitue will miss the luxuries of the Elvsceboard ; and as for the Paris garrison , will not the remembrance of last year ' s Champagne madden their thirst at the next review ? Never was poverty turned to richer account : the supreme magistrate out at elbows ! promenading his squalor and misery along the Boulevards ! Poor President , indeed ! See if the AsRembly and the whole nation arc not made to rue their shabbiness at tho next election ! Subscription-lists , indeed ! " I glory in my pennilestmesa , " says Louis Napoleon , " and likes to bo despised ! "
T1ik 1uvai.S. Comvktition Visits The Hig...
T 1 IK 1 UVAI . S . Comvktition visits the highest : Lord John Russell has been cut out in his newest agitation , for Mr . Dion Bourcicault has a better knowledge of stage effects . Sixttis V . is far more effective than the Durham letter . The happiest passage in ttiat epistle must pale its ineffectual fire before the startling effect of" Act the Third— ' The Veil of St . Ursula . ' The Convent of Ave Maria "—with cathedral music—the lovelv Agnes about to bury herself
for ever in conventual iiccluKiou—the secret husband rushing in , bearing off the veil , and standing with that round one arm , sword in the other hand , hero of the " tab-low vee-vong , " at which the galleries roar with sympathy , and the whole audience shout , with Protestant furor . It in thrilling . . Lord John has had crowded audiences , but Bourcicault is the man for rousing the British lion . His dialogue too beats the debate ; hollow ; but then he has it nil his own way , which Lord John has not . Quite the reverse .
Before the uccond reading of his hill , Lord . John nIiouM go down to the Olympic Thculro and study a few c fleets ; he might bring u cardinal ' s hat and pallium down to the House ; or stud some " hurried Hudson" to Home , to bring back a wanderer ; arid then , hero of the piece , Lord John , might rush into the House with the rescued Gladstone fainting on his shoulder , and stand , amid the thunders of upphuiHc , across the pioMliute form of Lord Arundcl and Surrey , the centre of tin ; most Mi iking tableau vivant ever been on uny boards .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 22, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22021851/page/13/
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