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jSTo. 4M, September 25,1858.] THE LiBABE...
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Itf ivtttivttf rtf - tit* m^V Jlt ^Ul^lU Ul llj t -tV^XlV
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FT1HERE appears to be no. loophole by wh...
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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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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Jsto. 4m, September 25,1858.] The Libabe...
jSTo . 4 M , September 25 , 1858 . ] THE LiBABER . 98 ?
Itf Ivtttivttf Rtf - Tit* M^V Jlt ^Ul^Lu Ul Llj T -Tv^Xlv
ftimvtrf'i m-. WttK
Ft1here Appears To Be No. Loophole By Wh...
FT 1 HERE appears to be no . loophole by which Lord X Derby can hope to escape from the . unpleasant task of bringing forward something in the shape of a Reform Bill . It is generally believed , in fact , that he has accepted the ugly necessity and -set to work to make the best of a bad bargain . One very significant sign of activity we have in the care with which certain important preparations for a hard struggle are being made by the leaders of the Conservative party , as we must , for the present at least ,
continue to call them for convenience' sake . It is said that the * registration courts are being " worked" by them with the closest attention to the state of the voting lists , with an eye to the possibility of a general election . Concurrent with the intelligence which readies us on this subject , we have other intelligence , to the effect that the Liberals are hardly yet sufficiently awake to the importance of this move to make up differences , and systematically to meet it and neutralise its effect by the
countermove which is ready to their hands . But whatever the reinissness of those to whom the country naturally looks as the leaders of the present , as they have been of past , Reform movements , the country , as we have shown in another place , will not be content to have the question of Reform played fast and " loose with by either Liberals or Conservatives , bat will demand a measure
worthy to represent the great changes that have taken place in the moral a nd material condition of the country since the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 . At present we have no intimation of the scope of the forthcoming Government measure ; but , as We have said , it must be thoroughly comprehensive and worthy of the conditions under which . it has been called for to find acceptance from
the people . Mr , Newdegate , at Coventry , on Monday , was at considerable pains to assure the licensed victuallers of that ancient city that there were no reasons why Conservatives should not be the representatives of progressive policy . " When others tell you / ' he said , " that a Conservative has no right to speak of progress , pay no attention to them . " And he said further , that he desired to see all classes of the community advance , his sentiments being those which at the present moment appear to
animate the breasts of all the foremost men of his party . The difficulty which appears to stand in the way of a general acceptance of these new professions of faith on the part of such representative men " as Mr . Newdegate is , that they will not admit that they arc making any new profession of faith at all . On the contrary , they insist that they have always been of the same way of thinking—na became Consorvativos—without giving us any explanation as to the contradiction which , to uncouservative minds , has appeared between their
love of progress and their practical opposition to it at every step taken during the quarter of a contury since—after they had twice defeated the Reform Billr-rthatjneasure was wrested from their strangling clutch by main force The only limits which the new progressionists , speaking by the lips of Mr . Newdegato , put to their aspirations for popular advancement are " tho principles which constitute s <( fety ) " but it is precisely at tho definition of that word that Cpnaervatism has stuok , and remained a
pemnaoious obstruction in the path ol " progress " hitherto . If , however , Conservatism can now give a suflksiontly liberal moaning to it , tho country will willingly bo helped forward by Mr . Newdogatc , - ^ aiidmW 4 li-aooopt * a ^ lleform * BilWrom hi 3 ^ o 1 rio"fr " " But the fact is , that tho only danger whioh is over likely to menace tho constitution is the pestiferous opposition of tho Consorvativos of tho Upper House to tho progress for whioh tho country , on ' various questions , has long evinced its readiness .
Sir John Trelawny , at Tavistock ,. on Tuesday last , pointed t » a fact which is growing up into a dangerous abuse , and this is the warning moral he draws from it : the Lords consider themselves too high and mighty for the consideration of public questions ; and he thinks it will be a question whether three persons shall be allowed to make a House of Lords , while in the Commons forty persons are required to make ' House , ' " for ! don't think , " he
says , " men ought to be allowed to vote from a mere cursory view o the subject , without having mastered the evidence . It is in the power of members who may be absent in different countries to place their proxies in the hands of any given member who happens to have prejudged the question , and for the future the House of Lords must take care that if it runs counter to public questions
year after year , dangerous questions may , some of which may be considered to be fatal to the British Constitution . " Other public events of the week , however , will attract more general attention than those which are merely political . Decidedly the most interesting of these has been the inauguration of the Newton statue at Grantham , on Tuesday , and it will be memorable as much from the circumstances by which it was attended as on its own account . After the lapse of one hundred and thirty-one years , from the time of Newton ' s death , a statue has been erected
in the town in which the greatest original thinker whicli the world has yet seen in science received the rudiments of his school education . Upon the uncovering of this memorial , Lord Brougham delivered such an address as perhaps no other man now living could have pronounced . . The fame of Newton can neither be augmented nor diminished by anything which anybody could say on an occasion like that of Tuesday ; but there is room to question whether anybody better than Lord Brougham could set forth his greatness and the abundant reasons which England and . the whole world have to honour and revere his memory .
How the great masters of science deserve to be honoured and revered was more generally illustrated by Professor Owen in his inaugural address at the opening of the twenty-eighth session of the British Association at Leeds on Wednesday evening . Most able and impressive was the call which he made for State protection and assistance for the labourers in pure science , and noble was the array of services already rendered by them to the world he set forth
in support of their claims . By a far-seeing Minister , he truly said , " the man of science will be regarded with a favourable eye , not less for the unlooiced-1 ' or streams of wealth that have already flowed , but for those that may in future arise , out of the applications of the abstract truths , to the discovery or which he devotes himself . " Of the future of one branch of science , Professor Owen draws a grand picture , and every day we see it growing into the shape he describes . " It is impossible to foresee , " ho says , "to what extent chemistry may not ultimately , in tho production of things needful , supersede the present vital agencies of nature , by laying under contribution tho accumuenablo
lated forces of past , ages , which would thus us to obtain in a small manufactory , and in a ' few days , effects which can be realised from the present natural ngenoies only when they are exerted upon vast areas of land and through considerable periods of time . " Such are the aspirations and the uses of pure ¦ science , worthily fostered by the British Association . In another Hold of oxporimontal labour we have had tho Marchioness of Londonderry g iving an account of her labours . It is hor Ladyship ' s wont once a yoar to assomblc tho tenants and workpeople on hor Irish estates at a dinner , and ou those occasions sho performs what sho takes to be hor
might have done more to improve their cottages , and might have exhibited more signs of thrift and frugality . Lady Londonderry , without doubt , is actuated by the very best intentions , but it is riot quite clear that she has the right to be " disappointed" in the short-comings Of her cottiers and labourers—the standard she judges them by may be altogether inapplicable , under the circumstances of their condition ; at all events , the sharp lecture on thriftiness and abstemiousness never did and
never Will come well from those who , like her Ladyship , are exalted above the necessity of ever practising . those virtues which the poor man is compelled in some way or another to practise every day of his . In truth , there is nothing for Lady Londonderry to be " disappointed" at in the failure of her little plan of social reform ; much greater schemes of a like kind have failed , and yet—as even her Ladyship admits—the " progress" made within the last few years has been wonderful . We have the amplest proof in the statistics of the country , social and commercial . From the disasters of the last and preceding year we are
recovering so rapidly , that , from the accumulation of our national stock of capital , we are in some danger of bringing about a reaction by plunging too hastily into business for the purpose of employing our idle money . The Bank of England coffers are overflowing , and it is the same with those of the Bank of Erance , and the danger is alike in both countries . It is a danger , however , brought about by an excess of that blessing which few will regret to witness—abundance of stored money . Among other new schemes which may find their way into the money-market , is one of peculiar interest . The Great Eastern Steam Navigation Company are looking about for means of finishing their vessel and getting her to sea , or of getting her off their hands altogether . They propose to form a new sufficient ital f
company , and to raise new cap or their purpose under the Limited Liability Act . The original shareholders are to have the first offer of the new shares , and in the event of their declining to take them up , then the shares are to be offered in 4 he -London market .. With regard to the Atlantic Telegraph , nothing has been decided upo & and- th ' e ' only progress that has been made towards a solution of the difficulty has been the examination of the cable by Mr . Varley , the electrician to the International Telegraph Company , who has discovered that the present conducting wire is much too thin for the work which the cable was designed to accomplish . The flaw , which has led to a partial , if not fatal , stoppage of electrical communication , is , according to his discovery , somewhere between . 2 . 50 and 300 miles from Valentia .
One of the most stirring pieces of the week ' s news came to the public by the unusual way of . private correspondence in the Times ; it was , that the convicts at Portland , 1500 in number , were within an ace of an outbreak ; , when they had arranged to murder their guards , to burn down their prison buildings , to plunder the villages in the neighbourhood , and then to escape as they best might . The authorities , put on their guard by one of the convicts , made such arrangements as enabled them to overpower the conspirators at the moment of their rising ; but their chance of escape has been a very narrow one . The cause of the threatened dmeute was some fancied difference in
the relative punishment of prisoners convicted under different modifications pf the law in 1853 and 1857 j men sentenced between those years to ' * transportation , " but kept at home under a commuted sentence , not appearing to enjoy , a proportionate remission of ¦ their sentence , like other prisoners . The outbreak , however , cannot but bo regarded as casting a doubt on that system which Colonel Jebb was lately defending against the competition of a different system under Captain Walter Crofton in Ireland .
Noither the Russian Government nor the Government of Sardinia has vouchsafed any direct information on the subject of Villafranoa ; but from the Piedmontese offioial journal wo gather that Sardinia has gratuitously given to Russia the use of some old buildings formerly usod as a convict establishment ; that there is no contraot or lease of ttu-y ^ W-ndraiicd ^ hat ^ RaisBianvil ^ haveHfho ^ se-oHhe 8 e « - buildings as a coaling station only so long as it shall bo agrooablo to Sardinia . Wo havo just roooivea intelflgeuoo from Paris to the ofloot that similar oon \ vonioncoa have boon aocorded to Russia at a poro in tho GulfpfLopanto by tho Greek Government . The plot thickens , . «
7 jmTTT 5 nrlimul ? ntfs == n ^ leoturo upon their habits mid conduct during the past yoar . This year tho lecture is a littlo sharp , or hor Ladyship lias boon disappointed of certain results for whioh sho lookod—sho had instituted prizes for gardens , and she has boon " obliged to jivo up Uio Uowor show ; " her tenauts , sho thinks ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091858/page/3/
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