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    October 25l, 1856.] THE frEABEl, 1021 —'...

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    THE "WHISPERS OF PARIS. All real politic...

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    FEDERAL UNION OF TKADES. The project of ...

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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 Dtjke Of Cambridge In The Augean Sta...

    extent of debasement , if not of crime , which -would scarcely be credible . There is no doubt that amongst the regimental peculiarities , that of sorting officers by encouraging exchanges has been most productive in bad results . It has made preposterously expensive regiments and preposterously riotous regiments . " We remember the case of a young officer whowas told that he could not enter a particular regiment unleBs he could have three or four hundred a year from his father , besides his pay . The Colonel of the regiment plainly informed him that he

    could not come in ; and that instance , again we say , is not an immoderate example . Lord Cabdigait , who thinks that gentlemen of condition-will not go into the army if they are to be bothered with troublesome duties , or prevented from retiring to their yacht ; and the officers of the Fourth Light Dragoons , who thought that they could emulate the most disgusting frolics of the most debauched classes , are specimens of the varieties of ' gentlemen' which the present regimental system has tried to make into ' officers ' without success .

    The Duke of Cambridge appears to be resolved to change the course of an officer ' s ambition . Henceforward , we might hope , it will not be to get into the Tenth Hussars , which " never dance , " but only give expensive entertainments— -into the Eleventh , with its extravagant uniform—or into some other regiment , the mere dress of which would beggar a rising young man ; but to get where the officer can obtain distinction by personal efficiency , and by promotion to the regiments

    where the duty is the severest . If the Duke is resolved upon introducing that new spirit , we shall only have aided his labours when we urge the necessity of thoroughly cleansing the army from the creatures that infest it amid we can assure the Duke— -though probably he knows the fact already— -that there are numbers of tormentors , and of victims too , who are made what they are by the school of the arrny > and who render some mess-rooms a schoolfoi animals .

    October 25l, 1856.] The Freabel, 1021 —'...

    October 25 l , 1856 . ] THE frEABEl , 1021 — ' * " — '' * "'"' — ¦ ¦ ———— ^ !? ^ " — ¦¦ i —¦¦ ™ i »

    The "Whispers Of Paris. All Real Politic...

    THE "WHISPERS OF PARIS . All real political discussion in Paris has been , carried on . in whispers , since December , 1851 . But , besides political discussion , there has been a perpetual current of anecdotes , epigrams , and rumours , passing from salon to salon , and , of course , hostile to Louis Naioleoit . " Within the last few weeks , however , this kind of warfare has been carried on

    more bitterly and more universally than at any period since the coup d ' etat . Much that is said may be invented simply to multiply " the pins that -prick the Empire . " But the floating talk of Paris represents a body of public feeling which the Government , at least , does not ignore , and so many hard truths are indicated by the reports of the Emperor ' s madness , illness , and melancholy , by the stories of attempted assassinations , secret executions , kidnappings , and by the sarcasms of the epigrammatists , that not a

    little may be learned from a collection of the Whispers of Paris , A favourite process is to select a passage from the Emperor ' s works , and to append to this a commentary supplied by the events of the day . A happily-chosen fragment -was handed about last week . It was composed , not by Napoleon III ,, but by Louis Napoleon , in the prison of Ham : — Taxation will become unondurablo : If it bo devoted to tbo creation of useless offices , To tho erection of barren monumeuta , To tho maintenance , in time of peace , of a military force more costly than that which conquered at Auaterlitz . * This text leads off a catalogue of public

    works , constructed at an enormous expenditure , of state lacqueys profligately overpaid , of military establishments kept up in numerous districts of France , merely to perpetuate the victory of Louis Napoleon over the French people . It may be supposed that this allusion to the French as conquered , and held in subjection , which is literally the truth , tells upon a national sentiment which is something better than vanity . Thenthe degradation of the civil orders

    , of the people in the presence of the military power is keenly felt , by the working-classes especially . One of the new sayings is , "A Zouave can do no wrong . " At theatres , casinos , singing-cafies , in omnibuses , diligences , railway carriages , the soldier is a privileged being . Notoriously , the garrison of Paris is constantly treated with largesses , feasts , supplies of tobacco and cigars , so that the men , conscious that they are the props of the Empire , and will be favoured , even should they offend , with the indulgence extended to spoiled children , treat the citizens en v ' eritablespehins .

    Some of the French journals have reproduced , with particular solemnity , the report of a police case at Liverpool , where an individual named Go be , a butcher by trade , was condemned to a fine or twenty days' imprisonment for wrenching off the tail of a live sheep . The journalists congratulate themselves on the circumstance that France , too , has her humane laws for the prevention of cruelty to animals . Of course , the private supplement to a paragraph of this nature is to the effect that IiOiris ^ Napoleon violated these laws

    when he * assisted' at the disembowelling of horses , and the laceration of bulls at Bayonne . But the Emperor must have his campaigns . He sent home no bulletins from the Crimea ; he conquered the bull ( or saw it conquered , for he is more gentlemanly than Commodus ) , on the Spanish frontier ; and now there are nine daya' campaign on the banks of the Oise , in the forest of Compiegne —three days' stag-hunting , three days' shooting , and three days' theatricals . The Imperial party carries on its Chevy Chase in " soft morocco / boots , plumes , and habits of sylvan

    green ; " even the Empress , who rides with two officers carrying guns behind her , condescending , from time to time , to take a shot at a , bird . These pleasantries occupy his Majesty in the intervals of that " affliction " which M . Magne declares has been caused in the Imperial heart by the ominous condition of the public funds . There are those who , without putting too much faith in M . Magne , corroborate his statement , and affirm that Loins Napoleon is afflicted—by epilepsv ;

    the climax of rheumatism , whisper some ; by morbid terrors , others say ; by insanity , according to a third class of authorities ; while rumours equally positive attribute the Emperor ' s continual absence from Paris to the necessity of hiding his wounds ! It is needless to say how much exaggeration is introduced into these reports , which cannot all be true . True or not , however , they indicate the popular feeling . The Emperor has a meagre form and a weary face—he' mounts his horse with difficulty—he takes a cordial

    before , and a bath after every hunt and review—he employs now Grabsot , now Hyacinthe , and now a matador , to amuse his melancholy . These are among the secretly circulated bulletins not issued from St . Cloud . But at St . Cloud it is found necessary to make war upon rumour , so that the Moniteur adduces proofs of tho Emperor ' s sanity , announces his enjoyment ot complete health , and publislies the text of a special treaty to increase the securities against his assassination . In one day are posted up six condemnations to death for " attacks against tho

    person of the Emperor . " Meanwhile , Marshal Castbilane arrives at Court , to confer with Louis Napoleoit , it ia said , on the means of suppressing the formidable secret societies of Lyons and the south . The police , with discriminating clairvoyance , detect disaffection in private houses , and hurry abbes and others to prison . And an eclipse of the moon takes place , and a poor poet is arrested for writing- in & prdJphetic spirit an allegory on the subject of eclipses in general !

    Federal Union Of Tkades. The Project Of ...

    FEDERAL UNION OF TKADES . The project of a Federal Union of the Industrious Classes is about to be put into operation in Scotland . Last week the delegates of ten important trades met at Griasgow , for the purpose of agreeing upon an . organization . The trades represented were : —masons , cotton-spinners , rope-spinners , bakers , miners , joiners , cabinet chairmakers , handloom weavers , labourers , and harbourmen , already incorporated in societies , but now resolved upon carrying out the plan of Federation , on which we have so long insisted . It is gratifying , of course , to see a suggestion of this character adopted , even after years of delay . When we last called attention to the movement , it had been determined by the Scottish trades to appoint a committee to draw up a set of rules for the government of the Federal Union . Some time was occupied in this way . The scheme , however , is now complete , though we have not yet examined it with sufficient minuteness to judge of its provisions in detail . G-enerally , it seems to deserve the confidence of the classes ap ** pealed to . /^ The object of the Federation , as declared in the preamble , is to promote by organized action , always within legal and constitutional limits , the interests of the industrious classes tbroughout Scotland . Strikes are nob to be encouraged , but prevented by all possible means , though when men are actually ' , ' they will be sustained and supported as far as practicable . Mr . Protjd : foot , speaking in behalf of the committee , explained . to his hearers certain clauses of the Combination or Intimidation Act , which prove how narrow is the way left for the poor when endeavouring to make good their most undeniable claims . To these clauses the courts have given an interpretation of the most rigorous and overreaching character . Thus , in the case of the ' Wolverhamptoii tinplate workers , it was laid down , that if , during a strike , any workmen met a Mend in the street and said to him , " You are wrong in remaining in that person ' s employment ; you should come out with the rest , " though no menace should be used , they would be guilty of intimidation , and liable to three or six months' imprisonment . A mere utterance of sentiment , in such a case , is construed into a threat . Noyv , such an act of Parliament ia open , during times of political excitement , to the grossest misconstruction ; and it is clearly for the interest of the industrious orders to procure its repeal , or simplification . With such a law to hold in terror em over the heads of their workpeople , it is not surprising that the masters count the prison and the crank among their means of illegitimate coercion . To break the force of legislation like this , it is necessary that tbo trades should combine ; and we are g lad to see that the objection to the admission of unskilled labourers has been set aside . Certainly , in , all matters relating to the broad interests of industry , are skilled have no better claim to protection than the unskilled . As Mr . Buohanabt aptly suggested , would that be a federaliza-I tion of workmen which admitted tho stonecutter and excluded the hodman , which ad-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 25, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25101856/page/13/