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August 27, 1853.] THE LEADEE. 829
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THE WILKINSON CASE. j * l{ - HiUdni' is ...
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THE SESSION. Theee is a remarkable conse...
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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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W O M E N. It Is Easy To Say That The Ma...
pssarv submission of a dependent , is a fact u ] d l ive us pause . Here is a close relation f life the closest we can conceive , bound up >{ , Worldly pr ogress , the love of common ^ hildren and the . comfort of a common hearth . TiV > r the most ordinary happiness of that hearth nrnethlnff like good feeling is required between SI e two . A quarrel arises ; in a drunken mood , r stuno- by the many bitter things which needy neopleiiave to bear , the man beats his wife . We straig htway put a vengeful weapon into her
hands , and she locks up her husband for sit months , rolls his tortured feet on a treadwheel , or whip ' s him at the carts' tail through the public streets , herself and children starving meanwhile . It is not in the nature of things that that man can return to his Home a kindlier husband : a rankling memory must remain . Vagabondage and vice are the resources of the woman ; some coarse companion replaces her in her home ; the children become thieves and grow up to perpetuate the festering sore—the great sin of great
Where have the " lower classes" learned this vice ? Rich people do not beat their wives , and gentlemen do not maim their sweethearts . Yet daily in our streets , and in the life of our ' better classes , 'is an example which homely instincts quickly imitate . A gentleman meets a poor girl . He does not treat her with open roughness ; he
knows a better game . He sees her weak m comforts , poor in worldly goods , bare indeed even of the cheapest pleasures . He strikes at her with the strong temptations of comfort , clothes , pleasures ; and robs her of her honour . She becomes the victim of a brutality as gross as that of the wretch now on a treadmill for trampling on an enceinte wife . She , loses her chance of decent
living ; finds the burden of a living shame thrown on her for support ; arid js an outcast from the homes of all good people . " If the silly wretch do not drown herself , she may accuse the gentleman , and when . the case is fuily proved , he is fined half-a-crown a-week . From the class of w « men thus treated the working men must select their
wives ; and yet we wonder that they treat them badly ! We allow well-dressed men to set the pattern , and we cry out for the whip when men in fustian better the example . If the young lady who flung herself into the water at Southampton the other day had been insulted or outraged by a working man ; if her arm had been bruised or her face exit , the revenge of the law had been
tcmble . But she was only betrayed and deserted by a gentleman ; her life and fame were only blasted , and the gentleman sailed away to India with flying colours and a gallant reputation . Working men live among people who talk iredy of such coarse facts ; they note the facts , and take up the manly tone . They have not the finesse to seduce or the art to betray ; but they gratify their passion with bludgeon blows or win consent to their lust by rude force . We are too
wli (> ate to talk on these incidents , and too rciined to apply to the evil direct legislation . Wo gnveeiully veil tho sins of the seducers ; wo do not talk of them in tho drawing-room , nor com-Pil « statistics of them in the offico ; but their existence is the current cant in any mooting of young men . Working men imitate our actions and follow out our practices in their own way .
It would bo wrong to say that a full remedj' foi n'ntality towards women would bo a just punishment or all kinds of outrages upon thorn committed by all kinds of men . Wo know avcII that l-lio caiiflos of this constant crime lie deeper . Tho many social customs Avhich cramp woman ' s power ° i <; iu-niii £ bread , and tho many laws and rules wind ! fetter all kinds of industry , aro among tho obvious
causes which place her at the mercy of inan ; while a materialized tono of society , making K °° « dinners and strong tttimulantu tho chiof K'xkI juid innocent amusement an oddity , establish ' ' dorninanco of man , and abridge woman ' s own < - «> mainH - —f , Uo pleasure-ground , tho ball-room , " ><[ u , o liomo . JJut strict equity in inoting mea' " « 'or measure to all who do wrong , would at " ¦ jwt mark tho public hohho of justice , nnrl bring 11 IJ " ' «\» - Hocial tone through I ho spirit rather than ll » rowffli tho letter of a now legislation .
August 27, 1853.] The Leadee. 829
August 27 , 1853 . ] THE LEADEE . 829
The Wilkinson Case. J * L{ - Hiudni' Is ...
THE WILKINSON CASE . j * - HiUdni' is to bo congratulated that , after nil , j , ' ° ri'N » lt of hi . s rush communication to tho Avi ?| lV ' ^ »»>« n » of a private conversation ill , Mr W . A . Wilkinson , in regard to tho proi - » 'W > u aalti of an Indian eudotahip , has only cost
that gentleman , and bis brother , Mr . Norman Wilkinson , some few hundred pounds for lawcharges incurred in resisting the virtuously indignant persecution of the East India Directors . The public verdict upon this whole affair is very simple : that Mr . Bright was indiscreet ; that the Messrs . Wilkinson , compromised unexpectedly , have exhibited the most careful honour : and that
the Directors have gained nothing by insisting upon national attention to the charge , but , on the contrary , have only deepened the impression , which this particular case merely illustratesthat Indian patronage is sold as a commodity in the city market at the purchase of good , and wealthy , and safe families . But the moral of the case , as it was closed , is a special one , applvthe case , as it was closed , is a special one ,
applying to the laws of " honour . " Mr . W . A . Wilkinson was bound , as a gentleman , —and his demeanour in court indicates the perfect gentleman—not to give up the name of the implicated person . Mr . Norman Wilkinson preserves at once his character for veracity , and his reliability as the receiver of a confidential communication . But clear as was the course for these gentlemen to take , and unimpeachable as is the decision of the Lord Mayor upon so much
of the facts as came before him , the course which should have been taken by the third party—the implicated individual — he is spoken of as " a gentleman "—is equally plain . He ought to have declared himself , before either ^ of £ heMessrs . Wilkinson was placed in the witness-box , bringing down on him , if necessary , the whole edifice , of . East Indian corruption . We suggest to the Directors , as they will be in earnest , to make some such appeal to him now that they have failed in eliciting anything from the Messrs . Wilkinson on the Mansion House rack . There
is another point for the consideration of this same gentleman—ought he or ought Mr . Bright to pay the Messrs . Wilkinsons' law costs ?¦
The Session. Theee Is A Remarkable Conse...
THE SESSION . Theee is a remarkable consentaneousness in the comments of the journals upon the Session of Parliament which closed last week . By one and all , whatever tho reserved references to tho Ministers , the House of Commons as a body is congratulated upon the extent of the work it has accomplished , upon the manner of the performance , and generally upon its capacity to deal with and direct the complicated affairs of this enormous Empire . Reading these compliments , and studying these culogiuma , it requires a mental exertion to remember , that by universal consent the next Session is to open with debates upon the best method of revolutionising the House of Commons—upon tho best method of obtaining Parliamentary Reform !
If it bo a fact that the House of Commons is equal to its functions , and adequately reflects and expounds tho wishes and the principles of the nation , why Parliamentary Reform ? Tho indiuerentiain of the ago is painfully illustrated in those comments of immoral British journalism , which is craftily careless of being moro alert than its public . But the fact is to bo faced : that it is agreed that wo have seen the last Session of the unreformod Reformed House of Commons : and it is a fitting period to ascertain where
and what are those defects in constitution and practice which demand the romedy of a change equivalent to a revolution . Or is tho defect simply in tho constitution , and not in tho practice ? Avo wo going to havo h revolution for the gratification of our theoretical anxieties , in despite of tho perfect practical success of a theoretically bad system ? On this point , perhaps , tho Queen herself is unintentionally an authority . Her Mnjesty closed this Hckhioii with a speech from tho throno u nparalleled for the variety and extent of
its congratulation of Parliament and country upon tho actual work done : hor Majesty will open next Session with n speech from the throne , in which tho prominent paragraph will nugget tho expediency of a considera - tion of certain measures frtuncd for tho purpose of remodelling this strangely admirable Houhu of Comluoiiri . Can Lord John Uiih . noII expect that tho iucon . siHteney will escape his Queen P Tho whole nation iuuhI ; detect it ; and , as it in a practical nation , it may ho inclined to regard Lord John as a visionary politician , risking tho peace for the aako of his thoorioa .
But there is no doubt this resource for a Ministry pledged to a measure of Parliamentary Reform—they may repudiate their speech from the throne , and laugh at the laudatipns of their journals ; and contend that the Session has been an infamous failure , and the Parliament an audacious sham . Not to take some such course leaves them in a humiliating difficulty , and strengthens incalculably the hands of those cynical statesmen who are disposed to believe that good government means
as little government as possible , and that Parliaments are good or bad , not in reference to their constitution and origin , but in reference to the excellence or vice of the age in which the Parliament is placed ; who , consequently , contrasting the concluding declarations of this with the initiatory demands of next Session , will ridicule with effect Lord John Russell ' s scheme on which Lord Aberdeen is now popularly supposed to be brooding . This school of politicians had no chance in 1792 and 1830—the two eras of
parliamentary reform agitations : then they were the theorists , and their assailants were the practical men . They argued that an English House of Commons was simply an assembly of English gentlemen who , when they got together , whatever their separate origins , would , of necessity , do just what any other average meeting of English gentlemen would approve ; that is , that inevitably the House of Commons would , in the end , represent with admirable accuracy contemporaneous educated public opinion : and some of them , even so late as 1830 , pushed their philosophy so far as to suggest that a good , a practical , and a patriotic House of Commons could be obtained out of an
assembly exclusively nominated by the Crown . But when the people said , irrespective of the theory , "We have no faith in tho House o € Commons as at present constituted , " it obviously became indispensable to appease the people by a change which should simulate a reform , —as in 1830 . Now , however , what is to resist the reasoning of that school which disbelieves in the virtue that is to arise from closer contact between mob
and party ? The people are not demanding a freforin : the popular journals see no faults in the career of the Session : Lord John' Russell , therefore , committed by his Queen ' s speech and his newspaper pecans , must , in February , 1854 , when he rises , puts bis elbows in his liands , and mentions ¦ Hsvmpden mid Sidney , meet the question— " Why should there be a reform of Parliament ? Admitted that it is not a Parliament theoretically perfect in its constitution : that ,
statistically , it does not represent tho property , the intelligence , and the population of the country , but only sections of the property , species of tho intelligence , and classes of the population ; but what then—does it not work well ? At least you told us so , only last session . " In anticipation of so natural a controversy , admirers of Lord John Russell should prepare materials to show that his last Queen ' s speech was a complete mistake ; that , as a summary of the session , it
was u wrong one . But a similar contrast , ' —between ministerial satisfaction with tho past and ministerial intentions for the future , —is , in the Sesnion itself . Two acts of facts stand out prominent in the Session : it has been a Session of Bribery Committees , and tho Budgot . The Bribery Committees proved that anyone can buy bin way into tho House of Commons : and tho Budget was based on tho Succession Duty Extension Bill , a bill which annihilated class legislation , tho noblest , boldest , and most truly national piece of recent legislation . Thus , villauouH as i . s the source , pure , ho far , is tho flow of tho House of
Commons . Again : it was a . session which coninienced under the influence of , in a House wd ' octed under tho influence of , a corrupt Tory Ministry ; and at tho end of the session we huh firmly Heated ( on a broad bottom ) in power , u Ministry whoso distinction it is -the distinction of ii coalition—that it in not a party and not a claw Government ; but that if ; in a British Government pledged , in all it undertakes , to tako a national view . Can wo reconcilo tlu . wo contradictions ; and , if we can , would not the reconcilement bo fatal to tho rara avis which is to result from our Pmnier ' n incubation ? In fact , i « not tho exiHtoiico of u coalition Government in if . solf an argument against tho cry of PaiTmnientaiy
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27081853/page/13/
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