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734 THE LEADER/ [gA^trRDAi^
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HONOUBABLE SUBSERVIENCY TO DISHONOUB. It...
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A WINTER SESSION. Ovee-wobk, and consequ...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Bussian Coup D'Etat In Denmark, And Its ...
prove the invidious and hostile feeling of Austria It is evident that the adherents of absolutism on the Continent do not understand American Jjolicy ; but the Americans ,. we are fain to beieve , understand themselves . President Pierce has equally been accused of entertaining extreme opinions , and of being undetermined in his policy ; but we have shown that his appointments indicate a positive , active , and national policy . Their character is unmistakable . If there is any doubt at all , it consists in the appointment of Mr . Marcy to be Secretary of State . That gentleman , with all his distinguished personal qualities , inclines to that spirit of-. **
moderatism , " as it is called in Europe , which is really a compromise of decided opinions . But it would be an absurd error to suppose that any individual minister can check the decisive character inherent in General Pierce , and the men by whom he is surrounded . You can hardly look through a file of American pap ers without perceiving the longing which possesses the American mind , to extend the principles of the republic , whether by absolute annexation , or by aiding in the progress of freedom throughout the world . "We cannot , " says a paper which we may call provincial . a Connecticut journal , - ^
* ' We cannot / says the Hartford Times , " yet believe that this country , held up by Providence as an example of what self-government can accomplish in the restraint of crime—of how much more efficacy law is than the bayonet—will be suffered to fall a victim to foreign combinations , to internal dissensions , to the progress of wickedness , or to the follies of ambition . God has still something for us to do in the political regeneration of the world , and that the great destiny of the nation will yet be fulfilled , in spreading the knowledge of the true principles _ of government through the
world . " "We perfectly agree with the correspondent of the Times , when he says , of Austria , " this Government will , at no distant period , have cause to rue the day on which it gave America an opportunityof picking a quarrel . " "Decidedly , " says the Journal of Frankfort , with tb . at strange mixture of truth and misconception which distinguishes continental writers on English or American questions ,- — " Decidedly there is a secret pact between the United States and the Sultan . It is certain that the port Marmorizza has been
in agitation . The Commodore has remitted nearly 500 , 000 dollars , in gold , to the Sultan ; he has taken possession , with three frigates and corvettes , in the middle of the Turkish squadron in the Bosphorus . He pretends that the treaty of the Straits of 1841 does not regard him . " Wnatever the truth or falsehood of these particulars , the statement serves to show , at once , the malice and the alarm with which the American eagle is regarded on the Continent . If England is irresolute , we do not believe that America is so , or that a Bingle position taken up by the star-girt Eagle will ever again be yielded .
734 The Leader/ [Ga^Trrdai^
734 THE LEADER / [ gA ^ trRDAi ^
Honoubable Subserviency To Dishonoub. It...
HONOUBABLE SUBSERVIENCY TO DISHONOUB . It is remarkable the extent to which society takes the last form of any question , and confounds the form with the substance . Latterly an affair of honour" was understood to mean an arrangement of two persons at a stated distance opposite each other , with a pair of pistols ; and the real honour and merits or the case , the generosity , the truthfulness , the justice , the humanity , almost came to bo considered irrelevant , if not
impertinent . So in Parliament , every man is an honourable member , whatever may oe his conduct , unless he be actually placed at the bar , and reprimanded , by the Speaker , in his proper name . But even when wo como to n more particular use of the word honour , as meaning something distinctive , we find that it still means conventional arrangements , separated from the substance and merits of the ease . So divorced have the usages of debate become from the practical
considerations of justice and humanity . whiph dictated them , that an honourable member may strictly conform to the rules of the House , and yet violate truth , justice , and good feeling towards his fellow-men , and faith to his country . And yet , again , if ho depart from those rules , for the sake of truth and justice , and tho public weal , there will bo an outcry at his misconduct . The other night Mr . Bright violated one of theao conventional rules of honour , and seldom has there boon a louder burst of cant , hypocrisy , malevolence , and cowardly unfairness , than that
with which he was assailed , Amongst the rules of the House it is set down , that you are not to make a charge against persons , unless you can bring forward names , and substantiate the charge . The rule looks very fair , and it would serve fairness in an assembly composed , entirely , of ^ bold and sincere , but it does not worje exclusivel y for fairness , in an assembly of the opposite kind . In society a great portion of police art
consists in covering corruption with a veil ; arid where all society , although more or less virtuous , or the reverse , connives at keeping the veil over the indecorum , there is no end to the unfairness and falsehood which may go on , under the glittering cover of a conventional honour . Thus it happens , that things proceed , around us which we may know , but which we are . forbidden to name . Who cannot recollect scores of instances of bad
things , which continue by virtue of that tacit sufferance P . On Thursday last week , Mr . Bright assailed one of these covert conventional corruptions , and declared that he knew an instance , m which attempts had been made to use the patronage of the East India Company , for an ; oblique purpose . He had learned these facts in confidence / and therefore he was precluded from mentioning the individuals who were implicated . And are there not scores of such instances P Do we not knoyc in society of men , and women too , who break the laws by wholesale , which they
pretend to observe , in trade , in morals , in administration P Does it serve truth , to pretend that these things go on regularly , smoothly , and virtuously , when the fact is the reverse . There have been instances in which the speaker was less strictly bound by confidence , but the indignation was almost tiie same , at any censure . We have known such things as a Minister's denying that a despatch had been received , after it had been ; yet that man is better welcome in honourable society than some of his straightforward denouncers would be . He is a
man wb . o can be admitted into society , without fear that he will break its glass cases ;; whereas , amongst the social shams , the direct speaker is like a bull in a China shop . We remember a Minister who quoted part of a despatch , to prove , on the high authority of Lord Harris , that the West Indies were prospering , the extract being divorced frora . the context , which asseverated the direct opposite ; yet there was no howl against Lord Grey , even in a ri ght honourable assembly . Wb . en Mr . Stafford declared that he had not received Sir Baldwin Walker ' s resignation , there was a degree of impatience to believe him : Lord John Russell hastened to declare that Mr .
Stafford had thoroughly exonerated himself ; and we verily believe that there was more dislike of thoBe who had brought the Admiralty corruptions to a thorough exposure , than to those who had revived these corruptions ; although , in that particular case , it so happened th a £ party interests were served by the exposure . The true test of honour is the substantial merit of the case and the interest at stake . Mr . Bright asserts that there is a corrupt distribution of Indian patronage ; Sir James TSogg asserts that if tho originator of tho accusation be named , tho
East India Directors will prosecute him ; and the public has found no difficulty in believing both assertions . We all of us believe that appointments made without responsibility are not governed exclusively by regard for the interests of the whole empire , but are also governed , if not in a greater degree , by regard for the individual interests . No doubt these arrangements would always bo managed in such a way as to avoid flagrant scandal ; but should that nice arrangement , or even the possibility of error , be a reason wh y we should continue to wink even at a suspicion that there is malversation of such important trusts P On the contrary , it appears to us
that tho violation of good fooling and breach of honour lie in winking at the corruption , not in denouncing it ; that if tho arrangements are bo comploto for concealing direct evidence , it is still the duty of a courageous nian to get as near to the truth as he can , by plain and direct speaking . Tho man who refrains from , doing so through fear of such reproaches as were levelled at Mr . Bright , lowers his own truthfulness to the standard of conventional hypocrisy , and becomes an accomplice in tho corruption which a little rough handling would shake out of its tranquil impunity . Thero is no doubt that Mr . Bright ' s blunt speaking will bo useful to India and to the Empire ; ana was far more honourable to him , than that
conventional courtesy whiph perseveres in huajj , ing up notorious scandals , so long as the ill-doers contrive to fulfil their little arrangements \ rith as much privacy as custom requires .
A Winter Session. Ovee-Wobk, And Consequ...
A WINTER SESSION . Ovee-wobk , and consequent exhaustion of niind and body , want of time for the performance of social duties , mental culture , and innocent re . creation , are common complaints among our working classes , on which wen need waste no writing here . But the world has lately listened to sinjuar complaints from our legislators . They to whom the working classes look for redress have grievances of their own . Mr . Cpbbett in ' traduced a bill for limiting the hours of labour
in factories and workshops . Before long . shall have a Home Secretary coming down to the House with a bill for limitation of hours in the House of Commons . The Lords manage to pass tjieir time agreeably enough . Only on grand occasions , such as a call for a splendid display of intellectual gladiatorship , when £ ord Derby tries his skill withtheDuke of Newcastle , and some ernestion of principle is at issue , do we hear of their lordships sitting far into the night , or breaking in upon the still repose of morning wit ^ their noise of voices . In the Commons it is different . A .
cab horse enjoys the luxury of indolence , compared with a working member j ambition , prospects of a place , love of notoriety , or the external pressure of constituents , are as " exigent " in their demands , upon Ms time and labour as the most determined " cabby" in the irietropolis . During the early portion of the session there are committees from eleven o ' clock , or , it may be , earlier , which last till the hour of four ; at five the bell , inexorable as that which summons unhappy operatives from their beds , calls members to the
work of legislation . And no easy work it is . From 4 o'clock p . m ., to some hour ranging between midnight and 4 a . m . j as has lately happened more than once , our legislators are condemned to linger in the precincts of the House , to be ready for a division , if they have not endured the additional torture of listening to prosy debates in which they can feel the very smallest amount of interest . Matters are even worse as the
session advances . The press of business produces morning sittings , and the House is occup ied from noon till 4 > o ' clock , and , with a short intervalvof two hours , from 6 p . m ., until the exhausted senators wander dreamily through the streets , sickened , rather than refreshed by the morning air , to snatch a few hours of distracted repose . What dreams they are which haunt this victim to public duty it would be easy to imagine . Then comes the mass of correspondence . Letters from constituents on most
ridiculous subjects— -letters of importance—letteri of private friendship—all demanding an immediate reply . What is to be done P Ono of the main complaints we take to be no real complaint at all—that of late hours . In this the members of the House of Commons are no worse off than fashionable ladies and dancing Guardsmen . We put no faith in the nursery fable , that one hour ' s sleep before 12 o'clock at night is worth any two after that hour . Some men " are fat : sleek-headed men , and such as sleep o' nights . " Others , like " Randal Leslie , ' neither like nor require much sleep . But what ' ever be the exact measure of repose required , we take it that it matters little whether it is enjoyed
at morning , noon , or night . Let this grievance , then , go for what it is worth . Doubtless the real evils consist in the burdensome character of legislation ; the amount of business to be transacted in the House of Commons ; tho onerous duties imposed upon Mio ' " ters ; and the consequent want of time for the performance of social duties . Mr . Drumnaond has prbposed to remedy these evils by introdu" ' ing the practice of a winter session , and Jjotu John Hussell gave a partial assent to tho pr ° " posal , but deferred its consideration to a more convenient season . With recrard to tho f * rBP
evil it is not the ampunt of work , but its character , which form tho main ' objection . Tho actual amount of labour undergone by members of w ° House of Commons ( always excepting Ministers and working conscientious members like mf j ? whom wo could name ) is not so severe as tli » entailed upon journalists , barristers , pb . y si « i anfl ' and men in . otjier callings ; but it is in "" fl cases wearisome , boring , coaseless , and u ftP ^ fitablc . The Legislature takes too much upon
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30071853/page/14/
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