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    2fo; Tff| t/IAMI [No. 313- Saturday,

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    TEE CLOUD OF COMPANIES. A Paeliajientary...

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    PLEA. OF THE DEBTORS' CAGE. "When one ha...

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    Election op a new Bishop.—The ceremony o...

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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.

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    The Collapse Op The Administrative Refor...

    opportunity , has "brought ridicule upon a thoroughly good cause . Witlout ability , and without political sincerity , what can it hope to effect ? The public has a right to withhold its confidence and its subscriptions . The apathy of the Administrative Reformers on subjects of political interest has lost them the sympathy of the political classes ; and all classes have been disappointed by their presumptuous incapacity . Reform is not yet so dead that it must be dragged round the circus by such a team .

    2fo; Tff| T/Iami [No. 313- Saturday,

    2 fo ; Tff | t / IAMI [ No . 313- Saturday ,

    Tee Cloud Of Companies. A Paeliajientary...

    TEE CLOUD OF COMPANIES . A Paeliajientary- return has been printed , and the number of Joint-stock Companies formed under the Act of 1855 , -with the names of the Directors , the amount of the proposed -capital , and the object for which the Company was established . The returns include also the number of applications not completed xmder the Act , -with , in some cases , the necessary financial , and personal , details . But as many of the persons applying have not

    stated either the number of shares they propose to issue , or the amouart of each share , it T ^ ould be useless to compute t he aggregate capital ideally represented by these half-boru icindertaldiigs . The total niunber of companies registered since the mtrodiaction of the limited liiability ; Act , lias been a hundred and sixtyniae , distributed under four separate heads : — . potottpandes formed before the passing of-the Act ; - —¦ Companies of which tffe formation had been begun , but not completed ; Companies of which

    the fprnaatioh lias been begun , and completed sirtce the Act came into . operation ; and Companies > vhich have applied for but not yet obtained complete registration . It is to be noted that seVeral important associations organised under tfce old law , already in the enjdyment of corporate powers , and supposed to be interested in keeping competitors out of the field , not only supported Mr . Lowte ' s Act , but , when it had passed , reformed their constitutions , and placed themselves within its scope . Among

    these -were one navigation , one gas , one notanure , and one patent candle company 5 a gas anil a coal company that were in progress of formation , under the unlimited , at once took the advantage of the limited principle , since the introduction of which six Joint-stock Associations liave been fully established . There remain ten '' which have applied for , or taken steps towards obtaining , biit have not yet obtained , complete registration , " and a hundred and forty three , "the formation of wMch

    has been begun . " Analysing these sections of the return , we find seventeen Companies established to supply gas , eleven for general or local navigation , thirteen for mining in Great Britain or the colonies , seven for advancing money on real and personal security , two for dealing in reversions , seven for publishing books and papers , or " promoting the circulation of first-class periodical productions" six

    , for cultivating the vino as foreign , estates , or ( brewing , malt liquors , or distilling spirits , two " Armoury Companies , " a "National Opera Conrpany , " five for developing new sea fisheries , and & " Crptal City or British Madeira Company , " to construct a city—of glass it may be assumed—in which consumptive patients may live close to London , enjoying tho warm and equal climate of Madeira . Thexe are three

    $ jj / otir law-reporting companies in the list , STO ^'* hotel companies , a " Ladies' Guild " to * the * manufacture of decorated glass , a company for bringing bitumen from Trinidad to oe'iised as ftiel ; a general company of Euroi §? 5 v Credit ' " ~ nQl ; ' however , on the " Credit 3 E £$ ? ft ^ W a » d several companies S ^ T ^ . Wtwrtagje ° f * e adulteration aisclostto to promise pxuee tea , pure

    bread , pure drugs , and pure beer . Two or three popular clubs exist in these prospectuses ; a company for establishing a perpetual carnival in Surrey , a Dutch laundry , an Universal Purveyor , and two or three Bath companies . One annulled Corporation proposes to revive itself by " purchasing , cLiltivating , and selling lands and the produce thereof in the islands of Borneo and Labuan '' another sets afloat

    a scheme of joint-stock pawnbrokerage , another of marine surveying , and raising and recovering sunken vessels . Two or three associations of omnibus proprietors offer to compete , under the Limited Liability Act , with the great French company , while twenty-five prospectuses declare the readiness of as many bodies of men to enter into large manufacturing partnerships , by the establishment of cotton mills , iron works , tanneries , & c .

    Many of these schemes are rather ingenious than sound , and rely for success more on the credulity of the public than on any real wants which they propose to supply . But the number and variety of the registrations proves that a vast amount of enterprise has been held back by the terrors of unlimited liability . The parliamentary return is worth studying .

    Plea. Of The Debtors' Cage. "When One Ha...

    PLEA . OF THE DEBTORS' CAGE . "When one has perused forty long pages , giving the list , and the circumstances , of persons imprisoned for debt , the first question is , what is the use of subjecting those persons to the particxilar kind of torture ; for imprisonment , in that particular sense , is nothing more nor less than torture . Debt is not a crime * and not to be punished as such , in modern times ; although , in olden times , the forfeiture of promise in the non-payment of debt was treated as a penal offence . When noblemen could cast the Jew that importuned them for payment into a dungeon , or could flog the means of payment out of their villeins , they did not think it necessary to mitigate the penalty of the law ; but in modern days , when scions of high lineage have been before the Bankruptcy Court , we find co-operation in moderating the code , from the House of Lords ; - —a great improvement . The man who gets into debt is not detained simply to prevent mischief to society , as a lunatic or pickpocket

    is detained / The detention , therefore , is not preventive ; except that it is preventive of the very thing which is desired—payment of debt . It is torture—pain inflicted for the purpose of compulsion ; and it presumes , therefore , that the debtor is in a position to pay . Now , it is a singular fact that the very qualification of a man for going to prison implies inability to do that

    which the imprisonment is to compel . He becomes a non-paying debtor , in most cases , beoause he cannot pay his debts . . The return made from York Prison , naively represents this case : —" The chief reason why the debtors are detained in prison , " says the return , " is the inability to pay their debts . " This reminds us of the exquisite nursery poem : —

    There was an old woman , and what do you think ? She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink 1 TiotualB apd drink were the chief of her diet ; Yot this plaguy old woman could novor bo quiet . " The principal difficulty under which debtors lie is the difficulty of paying their debts . But the application of torture to tlieir case prosup poses tho ability . As th $$ j | haVc no money in their purses , it subjects them to pressure fox the purpose of squeezing out their money .

    Lot us see the direct consequence of this ingenious process for getting sunshine out of cucumbers . In tho first place tho money is nearly always obtained out of somebody else ' s pocket ; but , in a groat number of cases , it is drawn , including * the law expenses , from the

    pocket of the creditors . Sometimes it is old creditors who lend " a little " in the hope of recovering more ; sometimes new creditors sometimes relatives , who are not the less creditors because the loan is extorted from them through family influences . That is the first consequence . The next consequence is still more absurd and mischievous . We may say , broadly , that nine-tenths of the creditors would not give the credit—would not permit the debt to be created—if they did not cherish an expectation , that by means of imprisonment

    they could screw the money out of somebody or other . In the larger proportion of cases they are disappointed , and only have to pay their own lawyer ' s bills . In the exceptional cases , they screw the money out of somebody else ; but , in order to balance th-eir books at the end of the year , they make their other customers pay for those wrongly contracted debts ; and it is the false reliance on this presumed but fallacious screw , which induces them thus to add to their real trade an appendix of false trade .

    The third consequence is less in extent , but almost worse in the nature of the evil . We look to the men actually imprisoned . They are the representatives of the indebted class , thus assembled in an involuntary parliament —in that parliament into which bills can be introduced , but never to become law—a parliament without a , recess , with no royal speech to > inaugurate it , and none but dishonourable members . Who get in ?—the abandoned , the

    reckless , the eccentric , the soft-witted ; the frowsy fool that is content with the prison for a residence . One man stops in prison ( as this return tells its ) because , through some per-Verseness of wit , he will not file , his schedule ; another because he will not make over apettj annuity of twelve shillings a-week ; a third because he lias not the means to pay for his schedule and his friends will not ; a fourth for some sillier and sadder reason . Tjike one

    example , and let us learn how bad may be the instrument of which such a use can be made . In one of our prisons is an old man of ninetyfour , placed there at the suit of liis son , because tha"t son is tired of supporting him , and wishes to impose on the county the expense , not yet incurred , of burying-his father ! We do not see that the debtors' prison is of much use to honest creditors , or to the community , amongst which it encourages the creation of debt ; but we do see that it has its use for that pious son !

    Election Op A New Bishop.—The Ceremony O...

    Election op a new Bishop . —The ceremony of electing tho new Bishop of Carlisle lias l ; aken plac « in tho Chapter Louse . It is now nothing but a , ceremony . The assembled chapter stood in mute atteution while their registrar , Mr . Saul , read the Queen ' s graoious letter to them , granting them her leave to proceed to tho election of a bishop and pastor of their cathedral church and dioceas in place of the Hon . and Right Rev . Dr . Percy , deceased . It sounded lilce a renlity for tlie moment . But , without a pause , the i-egiBtrur

    read on her Majesty ' s letters commendatory , nominating tho Hon . and Rev . Henry Montague Yilliei' 8 , and charging the Dean and Chapter on their ulloyUiuco to elect him , Tho antique phraseology of tho Queen's lottery , \ inclianged probably since tho thuya of J-loury VIIL , and tho mute , passive appearnnoe of all present ( the registrar only exooptod ) , strikingly illustrate tho tenacity of mioiont formalities among vis after nil substance and reality have departed from thorn . No ouo thing apparently oonneoted with anothor can have loss to do -with it in reality than the capitular oleotion of a bishop has to do with his real appointment , —Oarlisle Patriot .

    The tA . ' jcja Duicra of Norfolk , —A solemn botvioq and requiem have been performed aii tho clmpol attached to the Bavarian Embassy , in Wunviokstreet , for tho late Duke of Norfolk . Tlio inturior of the chapel was hung entirely with blraolc olotli und eiWor , and illuminated by silver Boonaosi . Tho nervico wftB attended by most of the Roman Ontholio nobiMy in town and several distinguislxod foreigners . rA''lls oiiroumstanao aooraa to confirm tho assertion of 'W Irish paper that the late duke was rooonverUod to Papacy a short time before his death .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22031856/page/14/