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April 27, 1850.] &bt VLtKittX. "
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DEATH OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. A few weeks...
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REPORTED SAFETY OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. A ...
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REFORM CONFERENCE. The Conference of the...
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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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Histoby Op Thb Week. The Adverse Vote Of...
cannot prevent wheat from becoming cheap . —The motion was ultimately agreed to . The Juvenile Offenders Bill was thrown out on the second reading , in the House of Commons , on Wednesday , after a brief discussion . Mr . Monckton Mii-nes , who moved the second reading of the bill , said it was mainly founded on the report of a committee appointed by the House of Lords in 1847 . The evidence given before that committee shewed the frightful extent to which juvenile crime prevails ; and the report , after adverting to the contaminating effects of a gaol , recommended the adoption of a reformatory asvlum with corporal punishment . The bill
proceeded on the principle of increasing parental responsibility in cases of juvenile crime , and contemplated the establishment of reformatory asylums . The bill was opposed by Sir George Grey , on the ground that it gave a most objectionable latitude to magisterial jurisdiction , and because the machinery it provided for enforcing the pecuniary liability of parents would involve parishes in litigation and expence . Mr . George Strickland , who concurred in the objections mentioned by Sir George Grey , moved that the bill be read a second time that day six months . The amendment was carried without a division .
The Affirmation Bill , which ought to have gone into committee on the same evening , was also thrown out . Last session the House of Commons sanctioned the principle on which this bill was founded , —that of giving relief to those persons who have a religious and conscientious objection to taking an oath . But Mr . Goih-bttrn did not think the fact that the House had done wrong last session was any reason why it should now persist in error , and as he was opposed to the bill altogether , he moved as an amendment that it be committed that day six months . The House having divided , the amendment was carried bv 148 against 129 . The bill was consequently lost .
The adjourned debate on the second reading ot the Securities for Advances ( Ireland ) Bill took place on Thursday . Several Irish members opposed it on the ground that it would act injuriously on the present landed proprietors . Lord Naas complained that the bill offered advantages to the new proprietors which were never enjoyed by their predecessors . The real object of the measure appeared to be to prop up and perpetuate the action of the Encumbered Estates Bill , which had not fulfilled the intention of the Legislature . He considered it a step in the wrong direction . It enabled parties who bought estates to the
borrow half the purchase - money and secure claim on the land . The course pursued by Government was very much like that taken with church property in France during the first revolution . The amountof property there was worthnearly £ 16 , 000 , 000 , not much larger than would soon be in the market in Ireland , and the National Assembly passed a resolution by which they agreed to sell the lands to the highest bidder , but only a certainportion of the purchase-money was to be paid down , and a period of twelve years was to be given for the payment of the rest . The French Republican scheme was evidently intended
to let in purchasers without money , and the same result would follow from the operation of the proposed bill for Ireland . Unless Ministers would pledge themselves to modify the measure , so as to extend the same privileges to the present landowners as those which it confers on the new proprietors , he would move that the bill be read a second time that day six months . Mr . F . French , who seconded the amendment , said the amount of property which changed hands annually in Ireland was said to be about £ 2 , 000 , 000 in value , but the immediate operation of the Encumbered Estates Bill would be to
force sales to the amount of £ 20 , 000 , 000 . The declared object of the bill under discussion was to bring purchasers into the market , but it must drive bond Jidc purchasers away ; for no man would come forward with money to compete with these paper assignats . Mr . Fagan supported the bill , on the ground that it would encourage English capitalists to invest their money in the purchase of Irish estates . Mr . H . J . Baillie characterised it as a measure for converting a certain portion of the land of Ireland into a circulating medium of exchange ; in other words , to give to certain proprietors ofland in Ireland a power of issuing exchequer bills on their property . They were told that land to the be forced into the
value of £ 20 , 000 , 000 was about to market . This would give something like £ 10 , 000 , 000 as the amount of paper which would be issued ; now what would be the effect of suddenly throwing that amount of exchequer bills into circulation ? The Solicitor-General denied that the operation of this bill would be to reduce the value of land in Ireland . Its tendency would be to increase the number of persons anxious to invest their money in the purchase of Irish estates , and this would surely tend to raise the value of land rather than to depress it . The House having divided on the amendment , there appeared For the second reading .... 186 Against it 41 Majority 145 The bill was ordered to be committed on , Monday .
April 27, 1850.] &Bt Vltkittx. "
April 27 , 1850 . ] & bt VLtKittX . "
Death Of William Wordsworth. A Few Weeks...
DEATH OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH . A few weeks ago the local papers announced that Wordsworth was seriously indisposed , but nothing was said which could lead any one to infer that he was dangerously ill . On Thursday the morning papers contained the always startling intelligence of his actual death . He died at noon on Tuesday , the 23 rd of April , at his abode on Rydal Mount , on the banks of Windermere ; a spot hallowed by his long residence there , in the eyes of many a literary pilgrim from other climes . Few men of that class from Germany or the " United States ever came to England without visiting Rydal Mount .
William Wordsworth was born in the year 1770 , at Cockermouth , in Cumberland . His parents were of the middle class , and and he was educated , together with his brother , afterwards Dr . Wordsworth , at the Hawkshead Grammar School . His first effort at poetical composition was made when he was thirteen years old , but it was ten years later before he appeared in print . In
1787 he entered St . John ' s College , Cambridge , where he graduated . Shortly afterwards he made a pedestrian tour in France , Switzerland , and Italy , of which the result was a volume of poems , entitled , Descriptive Sketches in Verse . This was accompanied by another poetical work , Evening Wal / c , an " Epistle to a young lady from the lakes in the north of England . " The volume appeared in 1793 , and at once arrested the attention of all who could relish genuine
poetry . Soon after he became an author he visited Paris ; but was compelled by the " Reign of Terror" to return to England . He then made a pedestrian tour through England , and finally settled down for a time in a cottage in Alforton , a picturesque valley near Nether Stowey , in Somersetshire . It was here that he began that intimacy with Coleridge , which so much influenced the subsequent intellectual life of both . One result of this sojourn in Somersetshire was the publication , in 1798 , of a volume of poems , which he entitled Lyrical Ballads .
In the following year he went , accompanied by his sister , on a tour in Germany , where he was joined by Coleridge . The two poets were then comparatively unknown to the world , although the originality and the beauty of the little they had done had already riveted the attention of a few admirers . In 1803 he married Miss Mary Hutchinsonof Penrith , and shortly afterwards went to reside at
Grassmere . In 1807 he published a second volume of the Lyrical Ballads , which were followed by a number of other poems at brief intervals . A few years after his marriage he received the appointment of Distributor of Stamps for Westmoreland and Cumberland , the salary of which , with the proceeds of his writings , enabled him to lead a calm , contented life , free from those pecuniary cares which so frequently embitter the existence of men of genius .
On the death of Southey he was nominated Poet Laureate . In this capacity he wrote an ode on the Queen ' s visit to Cambridge—his sole official effort .
Reported Safety Of Sir John Franklin. A ...
REPORTED SAFETY OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN . A letter has been received from Captain Sawyers , of the Lord Hardinge , to his father , Mr . Sawyers , collector of Customs at Aberdeen , which contains a statement that Sir John Franklin is yet alive . The letter is dated , " Whampoa , " Feb . 23 , 1850 ; and it says : — " California has been all the rage at Hong-Kong lately ; and the day before yesterday a vessel arrived from thence ( namely , from California ) , with news of 400 vessels there entirely deserted . One had chalked upon her side , Gone to the diggings for a month . ' She brought news also of Sir John Franklin . I have seen no particulars yet in the papers . One of the officers of the expedition had reached the Sandwich Islands , and reported it ( namely , the expedition ) being in safety . "
In corroboration of this statement we find the following further intelligence in the Overland Register and Price Current of the 26 th of February , 1850 , published at Victoria : — "A gentleman from Mazatlan , and formerly connected with an independent yacht expedition from England , informs us that the British Consul at Mazatlan told him that Sir John Franklin had been discovered by an Erifflish expedition on the Atlantic passage , in Prince
Regent ' s Inlet , where he had been frozen in nearly four years . The weather during the greater part of that period had been unusually cold , even for that high latitude ; while that of the past year has been , on the contrary , warmer than usual . On this account the expedition referred to has been able , it is said , to penetrate the icy barrier , and rescue the unfortunate adventurers . The gentleman who gave us the information is of the hiehest respectability : and the facts he gave us were reevident
lated with such a degree of caution , and so a desire to avoid all exaggeration , that we are induced , in the absence of other information , to regard them as probably accurate . However this may be , tho report at least gives room to hope that this heroic navigator and his companions have escaped the dreadful fate which it has been so long feared that they had encountered . These rumours cannot fail to excite interest ; but they are only too like others which have been successively reported .
Reform Conference. The Conference Of The...
REFORM CONFERENCE . The Conference of the National Reform Association held its first sitting on Tuesday , at Crosby-hall . The attendance consisted of the Council of the Association , 130 delegates or persons invited , and some thirteen Members of Parliament , Colonel Thompson , Messrs . Hume , Cobden , J . Kershaw , W . J . Fox , Laurence Hey worth , Feargus O'Connor , J . Williams , George Thompson , Lord Dudley Stuart , & c . Sir Joshua Walmsley took the chair , and explained the objects of the conference . They were not met to consider and decide what measure of reform they should seeks to attain : that question was already determined . But they met to discuss by what practical measures they should carry out that determination . He described the promising character ot the infancy of their Association ; the meetings which they had held in all parts of the country having been of a most animated and enthusiastic character , and without a single exception unanimous in approval of the policy of the Association . Everywhere they had found the people alive to the imperfections of our electoral system , the industrial classes disposed to concede their extreme views , convinced of the value of the scheme propounded by the Association as embodying a broad , practical , and peaceful reform . Overt or active opposition they had not met with . If they yet had not the working classes in the majesty of their millions flocking to their standard , it was on account of their general employment and comfortable circumstances . So their progress would be slower , but safer . The same cause lessened the ardour of other classes . After the appointment of a business committee resolutions were unanimously carried , expressing satisfaction at the progress already made , and approval of the course pursued ; inviting every class of reformers to aid the operations of the Council ; and asserting the expediency of employing as many lecturers ( specially in the agricultural districts ) , and issuing as many tracts as their funds might allow . On Wednesday resolutions were passed , approving of the Freehold Land Societies , and recommending the Council to establish a literary organ of the Association , and prepare a bill for Parliament , embodying their plan . A resolution was submitted by Mr . Le Blond and Mr . Reynolds , with a view to extend the object of the Association to universal suffrage , basing the right " upon a claim to be registered instead of a claim to be rated . " The business committee refused to entertain this resolution ; and the Conference confirmed their decision . On Thursday the attendance was but scanty , ± ne business committee proposed a resolution , recommending to the next annual conference a more satisfactory plan for electing future councils , which was amended by an expression of opinion that the 101 . qualification should be discontinued , and a recommendation to the council to direct their attention to the best mode of election , and to report to a future conference . A resolution was then passed , affirming the desirability of forming a permanent machinery to watch and superintend the registration , and to nominate thorough reformers ; a report of the conference was ordered to be prepared , some suggestions were made with regard to funds ; and a vote of thanks to the President and Council terminated the day s proceedings . „ , _ , j . This concluded the business of the Conference . Beyond this the proceedings consisted of expressions of sympathy from delegates sent by associations in Leicester , Derby , Dublin , Merthyr , Stroud , Peterborough , Southampton , Deptford , Norwich , Newcastle-upon-Tyne , Aberdeen , & c . ; and xn listening to a number of desultory speeches , interesting and able , but rather adapted to an ordinary public meeting than to a conference of delegates . The principal sneakers were Colonel Thompson , M . P ., Mr . Hume , M . P ., Mr . W . J . Fox , M . P ., Alderman Kershaw , M . P ., Mr . Hey worth , M . P ., Mr . George Dawson , Mr . Houghton , of Upton , near Aylesbury—the largest tenant-farmer in the countiy ; Mr . Or . Thompson , M . P ., Mr . Cobden , M . P ., and Mr . Bright , M . P . Mr . Cobden pointed to America , Switzerland , and Norway , as the countries in which the people had the greatest influence , and as the models in modern times of a wise and economical administration of financial affairs . The experience of those countries proves that with a full and fair representation there would be an economical government . He defended the mixing the two subjects of parliamentary and financial reform , because the financial business of the country is entirely in the House of Commons . The main thing for them to do was to attend to the registration . 'Their great obstruction was the county representatives . He would tell the middle classes that even they had but little power in the House . They must infuse the popular element into tho registry of voters through the small freehold associations . The two things , registration and freehold associations , are what they had to attend to . He wished to see all classes interested in the possession of land , and every other species of property . He was aware that the freehold associations could not avail for Scotland and Iroland ; but the £ 8 franchise is about
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 27, 1850, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27041850/page/3/
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