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September 23, 1854.] THE LEADER. ggg
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SUNDAY EXCURSIONS AND SUNDAY LICENCES. A...
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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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Conditions Of Russian Success. Russia Ha...
" sick man then than she jclow is . She had no army , no commander , no spirit of obedience , not one ally . Threatened in his capital by the fanatic Mussulmans and the Christians , Mahnioud scarcely dared to send his undisciplined armies into the field . Yet , with all these disadvantages , Uussia was occupied in two campaigns in reaching Adrianople . The
splendid march of Diebitsch was within an ace of proving his destruction , and it was only his utter weakness that prevented him from advancing on Constantinople . In Asia the same spectacle was presented to the world ; and the Russians beat the Turks mainly because the Russian Government was strong , the Russian army well-organised and well-commanded , while the Turkish
Government was weak , and the Turkish troops , although as brave as lions , were a mere horde . Thus it was that Pasluewitch made a famous march from Tiflis to Trebizond , and conquered a strong frontier for the Russian territory in Armenia and Georgia . Has it not been so in 1853-54 , and for the same reasons ? And if the Turks have been less unsuccessful , is it not because their army has been less undisci
- plined , and their Government less impotent on the frontiers of the empire ? There was no Sehainyl at the head of the united Circassian tribes in 1828-29 ; there were- no European officers with the Turkish commanders in Asia ( Omar Pasha is an Austrian ) , showing , when deprived of , or declining , European science , as much incapacity then as now . Russia was the wellbound fasces-. Turkey tlie scattered rods .
When m 1848-49 Europe was in the throes of anarchy , Austria in great peril , and England modified by the peace party , Russia , diligently carrying out her policy , * made the most of the situation , and gained power and consideration by intervening iu Hungary and occupying the Principalities . Again , in 185 G , Austria and Prussia quarrelled over the gallant little Hesse-Cassel , and Russia threw her weight into the contest on the side of ; Austria . Towards 1853 the Porte showed signs of internal improvement and extended
trade . Religious toleration was making rapid progress ; the judicial system had undergone important reforms ; a sort of representative Government was springing xip ; and , above all , the army and navy had acquired an efficiency , especially in the artillery arm , ominous for Bussian interests . Calculating that Europe would not interfere , the Emperor Nicholas sent his soldiers across the Pruth , and entered on a new war to seize the property of the sick man before his death . It was tine old game ; but there was a miscalculation .
And what do we sec ? The results are quite in accordance with history . In Asia , whore regular and energetic government does not exist , and where there is neither an army nor a general , Russian discipline carries the day ; but it meets with difficulties in proportion to tho organisation of its opponents . In Europe , Russia fails altogether , oven against tho Turks , in partial rencontres ; and is compelled to submit to bo assailed in her own strongholds . Tho result ia striking .
Pop something like a century and a half this Northern Power has been encroaching upon Europe . During that period her incursionB have boon made upon tlioso least able to defend themselves , whether against her intrigues or her amis . Poland , Finland , Turkey , Grim Tnrtary , the Cossacks , tho Circassians , the Persians , have all felt the wei
ght of hor power at critical momenta of domestic confusion . During that period she Jiae availed herself to tho utmost of tho well-Known forbearance and notorious ombarmsslnenta of European Oovornrneuts to piifcih her interests on all sides , eliciting neither at lorco nor fraud . It waB natural that Europe should arrest this constantly aggressive
power : it was natural , although not exactly in the form foreseen by the great Corsican , that Europe should engage in the contest of Cossack against Republican institutions . The lesson which history , as we read it , teaches to Europe is that nothing but strong and regular Governments can successfully oppose Bussia ; and it behoves the Western
Powers , therefore , to consider , for their own sakes , how far they can act , not only to make [ Russia know her place , but to set xip strong frontier powers—Poland , Hungary , Turkey , Circassiaj Scandinavia—to confine her within due bounds when she shall have been driven thither . Unless this be done , Prance and England will have wasted their
strength m vain ; and the frontiers of the " West will be still disturbed by the unscrupulous conduct of a state which has ever the least to lose and the most to gain in a general war .
September 23, 1854.] The Leader. Ggg
September 23 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . ggg
Sunday Excursions And Sunday Licences. A...
SUNDAY EXCURSIONS AND SUNDAY LICENCES . An brief statements must be taken subject to much qualification . " There is , " asserts the J & orni ng Advertiser , "little drunkenness in our public-houses ; in the majority of those houses it is a rare thing to see a drunken man . " We are willing to confess that the public-house is not the place to look for the most signal instances of intemperance ; perhaps we might look to more private places . Nevertheless , if publichouses are sober , the proprietors are not always the cause of sobriety in others ; and from whatever cause , England certainly is not a country celebrated for the rarity of drunkenness . On the contrary ; the traveller wlao comes from some other " lands is ainaz . ed at so frequently encountering men in various stages of intoxication . In Tuscany , for example , where wine can be bought in every street , and sometimes very good -wine too , a drunken man is a real rarity .. In this country he is not an unfamiliar object , but then we restrain the sale of intoxicating drinks by licences and other impediments . ~ We infer , therefore , and our inference is supported by other facts besides those cited , that the licence is not the cause of sobriety , and that free-trade in stimulants is not the direct incentive to intoxication .
Open the trade , let any one obtain a licence who can pay for it , argues our contemporary , the Advertiser , and drunkenness will be extended broadcast . He refers to Scotland for proof ; where , " especially in large towns such as Glasgow , there are somo streets in -which every third or fourth shop or cellar is appropriated to the sale of intoxicating drinks . " " Free-trade in whisky is rapidly transforming the lower classes in Glasgow , Edinburgh , and other large towns north of the Tweed , into a community of drunkards . " Unfortunately for this argument , Mr . Duncan M'Laren , tho Lord Provost of Glasgow , has recently bestowed upon tho world an enormous mass of statistics , to show that drunkenness is declining in Scotland . Many who have noted the vice ascribed it to other causes besides free-trade ,, especially to the absence of harmless stimulants for tho people . Deprivod of a holiday on tho seventh day of amusement—of almost everything that enables life to bo tnatod once a week with a relish and a zest—the Scotchman flies to the whisky bottlo . Evidence to tho Hamo olfcct has boon furniahod in thia country . One of tho reasons why publicans and large numbers of tho working- ( 'hisses are not adverse to closing public-houses on Sunday is , that tlio greatest numbers of tho people are becoming accustomed to speeding Sunday otherwise ) than in tho bar parlour . Tho Sulect Committee on Public-houaea notico thia fact . In
Manchester , tlie free library , musQttt o 8 , i | tndjma ^| £ &* in Dublin , the Zoological . gar d . ffl \ % a !| yi ^^^^' admission ; in Yorkshire , the' . jOp ^^^^ p ^^ ii grounds at Chatsworth , h & ve , ^ ep ) l } Sj | j |^ Ljj operate as powerful counter-a ttraxi | i <)^^^^^ i publicans generally have remalrlced ^ hp | fjlfcc ^ the use of excursion-trains , Much ¦ •• of /*[&§& * custom has been drained , off . Temjjerance , therefore , may be occasioned by other causes besides strictness of licensing . The trade no doubt are in arms at the idea .
of abolishing distinctions between publichouses and beer-shops , as the Select Committee on Public-houses proposed . Alderman . Wire , solicitor to the licensed Victuallers ' Association , declares , that in the metropolitan districts alone 6 , 000 , 000 ? . of propertywill be destroyed . " I use the word ' destroyed' advisedly , " he declares ; a statement perhaps as well founded as that of the coach .
proprietors , who declared that railways would , destroy the habit of travelling in the British , people , abolish the race of horses from the island , and sweep away innkeepers , " With , every fresh extension , of British institutions it always has been so . When any trade has grown up under restriction ¦ there always has been an assertion that to abolish the restraint would be to destroy the want for
which the supply as limited . There are those who say that if the wine trade were thrown open , no more wine would be drunk in this country ; beeause , ' they argue , the price would fall , and it would not be worth , while . to import it ; present drinkers would be disgusted , new drinkers -would not be formed ,
and the demand would cease : Q . E . D . The fact is , however ,- that experiences of past relaxations have been in favour of continuing the process , The Beer Aet , authorising the sale of beer , without the necessity of taking out a public-house licence , was successful . The last Sale of Beer Bill , intended to pass for the better observance of -the Sabbath , while it has given a new sanction , to some ^ ^^ ^^ «* ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ r v »* ^^ «¦ - f ^ ^^ ^^ ^ m v ^ rwfe ^ m , "v *^ ^^ ^^ ™^ ^™ ¦¦ —r ^ " ™ —¦ - *~ - ^^ -w — ™ j while it has given a new sanction , to some
publicans who did wish to close their public- ' houses , has done much to destroy one of the chief counteractions to Sunday drinking , especially in the neighbourhood of large towns , by placing difficulties in the way of the excursionist . No doubt magisterial decisions have in many cases softened the effect of tho act , and it has been properly discovered that the excursionist to Hampton Court , for example , is a " traveller , " and may be furnished with refreshment . But people do not feel the same confidence in a magisterial decision that they do in an act of Parliament ; and tho attendance of travellers at that particular place , Hampton Court , has undergone a marked decline . Indirectly the last Sale of 33 Act has far repealed
eer so . l / IAU JllOb MUJLlv Ul 4 JUU 1 XLH lll *> 3 OVJ At 11 . 1 U | JCUH / U Mr . Hume ' s reform , by preventing the people from going to Hampton Court , except under the pain of making the journey without re- , freahmeut . The alternative of course would , be , for tho traveller to carry the refreshment in his pocket and eat it on a door step ; but English families do nob relish that mode of refection . Now , without discussing for tlio present the larger question of throwing open licences entirely , though wo incline to agree with tho Select Committee , let us deal with tin ' s unforeseen cneet of tho last Boor Act . Of course there was no intention to stop Sunday viaitinpj of Hampton Court ; or if such an intontion had been avowed it would have
been fruntmtocl . Tho net of Parliament renders tho opening of jmblic-housoH on that day precarious ; tlio fvuedom to do so depends upon tho cluuuMW of iiingifltoriiil decision . Without ro-oppiiiiiff tlio whole question ol BuikIhv ti'HflurW or Helming , tlicii , et thut cliflimily bo mot direcLly m tho tooth 11 tho ncUimila imybodv , lufc it at all events bo nmondod by a new act , authorising tho issuo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 23, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23091854/page/11/
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