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July 22, 1854.] THE LEADER. ^S3
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USEFULNESS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. The&...
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THE BRITISH OFFICEB. Ik Tuesday's Times ...
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.
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Spain.—The Bourbons. We Cannot Understan...
Military ambition commenced the insurrection ; but middle class discontent , and peasant class poverty , uneasy despite the s-pirit-• ual assuagements of the demoralised priests , is continuing the revolt . If it prove successful , and that is the probability , the revolution cannot be the replacement of one despotism by the other ,- —turning out a female sovereign's Maire du Palais , and giving power to a soldier-dictator . The men who commence
are not often the men to complete such movements ; after the O'Donnells come the Usparteros ; and some sort of constitutionalism must set in , whether the Queen remain , or whether the throne comes , by dynastic conspiracy , into other hands . The proclamations of the generals speak of constitutional reform , and of the organisation of a militia , — -which , in such a country as Spain , would secure the people liberty—as it would even in England . And Spain will do as well
aa another country to set an European example ;—Rome even , the last capital men thought of for the initiation of reform , answered the purpose excellently in 1847 . Fortunately , as a providentialjprofision in guard of human freedom , peoples liave sympathies and are partial to political mimicry . As Spain , successful in a revolu * tion ,-would not be permitted to round the ¦ work in Madrid , so it may be possible that the idea- ^ Revolt— -jdid not commence in her
own capital . The Spanish despotism is only a portion , and the weakest , therefore assailed the first , of that political system against which England has risen at last , and which Russia , in the war we have begun , hideously represents — by authority . " The "blow struck at St . Petersburg bit , very bard , at Vienna also ; and there is a solidarity among Camerillas winch may account for Madrid , in the first instance , indicating sensitiveness ;—¦ thehot sun there bringing the blossom to' a fruit soonest . May it grow .
We have got to the fifth act of the " Spanish marriages . " It would be dramatically interesting if Louis Philippe ' s policy should triumph , after all ; and if only for considerations of poetical justice—regarding the victim not with vindictiveness , but still with a sort of hopeless pity—it -would be pleasant , though but an Orleans , always crafty and patient , were to succeed—to get rid of one Bourbon . A t the same time let
us not throw all the blame for these disastrous Spanish , politics upon Louis Philippe . Abhor that intriguer , and all his kitli , our Court ' s friends , as much as we , a nation of family men , fire bound to do , for the Mezontian marriage- he insisted on between young Isabella and her cousin . But lot us remember that our own Whigs commenced the mischief by their traditional cant as to
the blessings of Constitutional Government , " this cant having led to the institution of a female sovereign in a manly , robust , southern , and always respectable , nation . A military revolt , in this instance , liappens to moan a man ' s revolt 5—the nation might endure a Court ' s despotism , but not a Queen ' s bully ' s despotism . Yet if thore be a dynastic intrigue in the interest of Montoanolin ?
The world is very weary of the Bourbons . Whorovor they arc , they arc accursedmiserable , and the cause of misery . Thoeo who trace God ' s government of mn ' nlcind will not refuse to detoct tho punishment of a " . House ' s" centuries of crime against humanity in tho horrible degradation of that House ' s ropreBontaitives . Tho dread of a Bourbon rdr / imc establishes in France a Napoleonic UospoUum J n- « d even loynl futilities turn with disgust from tho prospect ; of such a ruler as the couainty Oomlbronco at , J'Yohsdori" would have provided for a groat pooplo . 111 Pnvmn , an . individual dnggor a-wngos ( and society
condemns without cursing the criminal ) an outraged community , the assassination being accomplished under circumstances which all but justified the deed—when the wretched Duke was slinking from his palace to defile a woman . In Naples , a Bourbon king represents all that is detestable and depraved in even kingly nature . One Bourbon the less would be a gain ; and we may await with hope something xnoxe from this Spanish revolt .
July 22, 1854.] The Leader. ^S3
July 22 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ^ S 3
Usefulness Of The House Of Commons. The&...
USEFULNESS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS . The & e is ; a tendency in the sublimest institutions and in the ifinest insbrwmerfts to degenerate to base uses . 'Temples ; get into tlie hands of laoney ^ changeus , and the bones of Alexander stop a cask . Perhaps the iAJtbambra , wben Washington Irving visited lit , was not the less beautiful a temple becaiase rat-catchers advertised themselves in-its purlieus , but it lost effect in such mean associations . The elephant is , of course , the more magnificent ( animal , because he ean pick up pins , as "well as rend trees . But if we see him in the Zoological G-. ar . dens onhj picking up pins , we'cease to feel respectful . Our House of Commons , it is the glory of our Constitution , is equal to ruling the world tand dealing with the most wretched minutue of popular necessities . But , then , if the House of Commons prefers dealing merelit with the minutiae ?
On Tuesday night Mr . S . 'Green , wlio appears not before to have been heard of in Parliament , and who seems to be less M . P . than Chairman of an improYement-in-printing-rnachinery-Company , piit the Government in a minority on . a question of whether or not it was the legitimate function of fche House to inquire into the probability of printing for one farthing that amount of
literature which cannot now be produced for less than one penny . The division included numbers enough , with a majority sufficiently largo , to indicate a decided conviction in the House generally that it ivas the business of the House of Commons to assist ]\ Ir . Cassell , Mr , Reynolds , and such like publicists , in cultivating the rending tastes—by cheapening the supply of educationary and exhilirating periodicals—of the British public .
When the House of Commons , by a clear majority , is of a decided way of thinking on a question not involving principle , it is presumption to contend against its sagacity ylob us , therefore , only express a hope that as the House has determined to abide within the rogions of what has been insultingly called ovor-legislation , it will not stop short in inquiries ns to the competitive pretensions of dific-rent printers . " We might prefer that the House of Commons should devote itself rather
to conducting , war and organising peace , hut ns ib takes a diffident view of its proper functions at this period of history , it is excusable in its constituency insisting ; that it should clcvelope its elephantine powers in picking up all bhe available pins . If it be proper to investigate tho claims of Jones ' s printing-press m against Smith ' s , tlms saving licynokb and CiiBsoll considerable experimental outlay of capital , why should it hesitate to diverge into commissions of inquiry us to what hooka should be bought , what papers should bo subscribed to , what lecturer wo should patronise , « nd at what thontro lonst hont and most :
nmuseinont is to bo found ? Thore is a con-Irovorsy among tho youthful manly intellects of tho day as to ¦ which of tho nmuy patented ahirts are tho most entitled to British pntronai £ <> , and tho merit a of hop chnmpugno against ; tho more eBti » bli « hod pretensions ol -Allaopp iu-0 bo iroquontly discussed , that the Ilounc of Commons would bo doing a general sorvieo by nppointing a coininitlt . 'o to ronort
authoritatively . The House of Commons is no dooabfe a publishing firm , which is -the excuse Ibr its intervention with , respect to . printing machinery ; but the House of Commons is also a body depending for nouriibiaent ttpon special refreshment-rooms of its own ; = wbi * h has to vary its linen ; 'which on Saturday afternoon must take to public atnusemenibsT or popular reading ; and obviously , therefore , the public has claims on its attention in regard to all such matters .
And if the House of Commons undertakes to superintend the moral health of the Tnultitude , should physical health be neglected ? Is the House of Commons prepared to debate and divide on homeopathy , the water-cure , and animal magnetism ? Will the House of Commons superintend the popular diet and
publish a blue cookery-book ? There can be very little doubt that if the House iof Commons perseveres in its present anxieties about everything , it will increase in what is called public usefulness . But if it leaves public policy to a cabinet ^ ind ceases to ( have a nobler ( ambition than that of being useful , will it increase in public power ?
The British Officeb. Ik Tuesday's Times ...
THE BRITISH OFFICEB . Ik Tuesday ' s Times we read the inspiriting account of the departure of Su regiment for the East on the previous day : —¦ " The senior and junior companies of the 46 th Ilegriment , consisting of 200 rank-and file , with 22 non-commissioned officers and drummers , marched from the Infantry Barraclcs , Windsor , under the command of Captains OToole and Hardy , Lientenants Shervington and Knapp , and Ensigns -Helyer and Tovrashend , preceded by the baud , playing 'Cheer , Boys , Cheer , ' and ' Jeannette and JeannotJ They were loudly cheered by their comrades in garrison , and by th " e spectators who lined the streets for some distance from the-barracks . The men appeared in high spirits , and were accompanied to the South-Western Railway Station by Colonel Garrett and the whole of the officers of the regiment , except those on duty . The train , consisting of fifteen carriages , started at ten o ' clock , the inhabitants and officers giving three times three cheers , which were heartily answered , by the troops . "
The regiment went on its way to Southampton , to embark iii a vessel which , at Cork , would take up the head-quarters and service companies of the Sixty-third Toot , " to proceed , " say the journals , " for Constantinople direct : ' " JBut there is an impression that the men are to go straight to Sebastopol . It is a glorious service . Officers and men might well cheer . But , stop ! Is not this tho regiment in which certain officers lately transacted battles of a kind different from that "between the
Russians and the Turks r We have an impression that recently , while the regiment was at " Windsor , ouc officer persevered in " pulling about " another , —dragging him by his coat collar , squeezing his ribs ) , and otherwise tormenting him , for the purpose of forcing him to gamble ; that tho nillicted officer , who " wears a sword in her Majesty ' s service , " defended himself with n pair oC candlesticks ; and by those weapons brought hia brother-officer to rcuBou , and to a contom » plative posture over a wash-hand bason , in . which ho sluiced his bleeding face . It waa said nt tho inquiry into those chivalrous combats that tho ninn who resorted to this
peculiar Bolf-defenco had dono so after a long string of persecution , in tho course of whieU his brother-odieora had compelled him to get out of bed at night , t \ nd perform tho sword . exercise naked . . It in not exactly fluid which of tho olftcoi'H took part in thoso dramatic ontertaininonls ; wo suppoHO tho oflieors on duty v <» ro cxivpteil , jm / hoy aro in the enibnrkiition BotMicB ; but , at all events , there jiro more than two oHi <; i . 'rs w ho can consent ; oithcr Lo perform tho purl , of poBture-niastcp in Hint Hpcuicrtof ballet , or tho still mow diso-raccl ' part of nudiomv . It ia thus officered that tho ruinnu'nl seta forth ou its gulhinb
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 22, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22071854/page/11/
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