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^n 4M. OrrroBEtt 30, 1858,1 THE LEADER. ...
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. No notice can...
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1358
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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MR. BRIGHT AT BIRMINGHAM. Having remaine...
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FURTHER DESTRUCTION OF THE SLAVE TRADE T...
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Transcript
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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.
^N 4m. Orrrobett 30, 1858,1 The Leader. ...
^ n 4 M . OrrroBEtt 30 , 1858 , 1 THE LEADER . 1161
Notices To Correspondents. No Notice Can...
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous ^ correspondence . ^ Wtatevlr is intended for insertion must be authent . <» ted by the name and address of the writer ; not . necessarily for publication , bujb as a guarantee of his good . fcrit It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to B pnPS . of matter ; and when omitted . it is frequently from rea- > sons quite independent of tho merits of the coininumca-We caiinot undertake to return rejected communications .
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Saturday, October 30, 1358
SATURDAY , OCTOBER 30 , 1358
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There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed -when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Abnold .
Mr. Bright At Birmingham. Having Remaine...
MR . BRIGHT AT BIRMINGHAM . Having remained in seclusion during the autumn , and listened in vain for some signal of popular movement on the subject of Reform , Mr . Bright Las at length broken silence , and , according to his former wont , has given us one of his stirring speeches on the great question which is so soon to be-upon . us . Like every man of clear head and strong will in the country , he feels that no more time ought to be lost in denoting broadly and distinctly what it is that the . people expect , and what ' it is they would be content with . Nothing
could be more mischievous than to allow Lord Derby and his colleagues to drift ignorantly upon the shoals of abortive compromise in this matter . It would be quite another thing had no promises been made , or no party issue staked upon the question . The country is prosperous , food is plenty , employment hi ay not be adequate , but emigration has various temptations just now , so that no , immediate symptoms of congestion to any formidable extent are perceptible
near any of the great centres ol vitality . Popular outcry against administrative abuses there may be said to be none ; neither is there any popular organisation worthy of the name . But for these very reasons it may be said with truth that the opportunity is one pcouliary propitious for the settlement of the question , and one which wise men , if any such there be in high places , will not suffer to slip . A certain perception of this , indeed , may not unreasonably be [ ascribed to Ministers . Cabinet meets next week , and no doubt the committee of that body
appointed to prepare the outlines ot a Bill tor next session will be expect e d to present the result of their preliminary cogitations to their colleagues . But what is far more important than any suggestions of these gentlemen , or any adoption thereof by a majority of the Cabinet , is the clear understanding by them and all others whom it may concern what the people ' s opinion is of what ought to bo done , and what tho people ' determination is as to insisting upon it . It can tend to nothing but tho revival ot party competition , chicane , complication infinite , and confusion without cud , if this one all-essential fact be not first made clear—so clear that
no man or set of men , whatever then' faculty of mystification , can affect to misunderstand it . No greater folly and no greater scandal could be committed than that Parliament should meet in February noxt to find a teetotum of Reform upon their table to lie taken up by turns and spun by each lordly gambler for power with no other object than that of winning the game of ouioe . Tho days are gone when this sort of thing could bo dono on subjects vitally affecting the mass of tho nation with impunity ; and for tho sake of us all tho attempt is fervently to bo
deprecated . It will not , however , bo tho fault of Mi \ Bright if tlio middle affd working classes are not wakened betimes to the duty Hint lies upon them of tolling then rulers in a few plain pcromplory words what tAfy are resolved upon . And if his speech at Birmingham on Wednesday lust serves no olhor purpose , ho will certainly not have spoken ju vain . Wo aro not at all sure that wo coincide in all of Mr . Bright's views of electoral ohtuigo .
any more than we do in some of his eccentric notions of foreign policy . But that signifies little . He is one of the few really strong men whom the manufacturing element lias turned up in our time . He has very Tittle real sympathy with , the working classes ; and none , as far as we can judge , with those who are devoted to the professions , whether of arts or arms ; but is a witness all the more unexceptionable when lie speaks out manfully for the rights of intellect and of industry ? He is too shrewd not to see that the class to which he himself belongs , that of opulent and enterprising traders , has no more chance of obtaining a fair share of Admi
power or influence in the Legislature or the - nistration of their county , as things now stand , than if thev were Kaffirs or Malays . There is not a single merchant or manufacturer in the present Administration , nor was there one in the last . One or two , after they liad retired from business , were , as a mark of extraordinary condescension , permitted to sit in former Cabinets . But the monopoly of power has been actually growing more exclusive latterly , and Lord Palmerston ' s and Lord Derby ' s Cabinets have proved as insolently exclusive of the commercial element as any that existed in the dark days of George III . Mr . Bright says
nothing about this , but lie feels it , and a despicable caitiff he would be if he did not . Far from repudiating the self-interest of such a man , or of the class he so vigorously represents , we shall rejoice heartily to find him and them throwing themselves into the ranks of the disfranchised many , and making common cause with .- us .. Community of self-interests is a far surer and healthier ensign of success than the gilded and varnished patronage of some whimsical grandee or splenetic peer . Our age and country no longer need demagogues like Lord George Gordon ,
Sir ' Francis Burdett , or the late Earl ot Durham , and , for our part , we . liave no desire to see flash leaders of the sort ever heading angry mobs again . We have got beyond all that , let us hope , and what we now want is , that each injured and outlawed class of the intelligent and industrial community should speak out audibly for itself its sense of wrong under the present w ^ -representative system , and its sense of the debt of justice that is due to it . Mr . Bright has , in this respect , set a good example , and we earnestly hope it may speedily be followed . Whether the elective franchise is tb be extended
to all ratepayers as such , or whether a pecuniary limit of 4 / . or 5 / . be aflixed by law , signifies numerically but little- In tlie metropolis and many of the great towns the difi'erence would not . be worth fighting for , so few comparatively are the number of houses paying less than 5 / . a year in rent . In the smaller boroughs ifc would , no doubt , make a difference ; and for that reason , as well as because we think it unwise for any small consideration to leave any just ground of complaint unredressed , we should be in favour of ratabiliiy to taxes without any pecuniary limit as tlie foundation of the new franchise . There wil } always be a certain number of humble dwellings exempted from rating on
account of the poverty of their occupants ; and about these it would be absurd to contend . But it ' a man is a householder , and contributes out of Ms earnings to support the poor of his neighbourhood , to keep the highways in repair , and to maintain civil and military charges of the State , let him have a voice in the nomination of those by whom those charges aro imposed and by whom the laws are made . Chartism and all other forms of organised discontent will then die out of themselves . Tho extraordinary forbearance and patience of the people year after year while waiting for this fundamental recognition of their existence by their rulers is one of their strongest claims to its full and frank concession . Wo think with Mr . Bright that any measure which contains not this will bo but an
ineffectual one , and will inevitably lend to further agitation . We own wo are somewhat less sanguine as to tho practicability of a complete and satisfactory redistribution ol' scats . If Ministers attempt any large scheme of positive disfranchisoinent , they will encounter a muss of opposition which no amount of reason would ever overcome , and of which , tho moro conservative portion of their rivals for oflico will be only too glud to avail tliomselvos to compass their parliamentary overthrow . Nor will such a scheme bo less embarrassing should t » ° y resort to a general election . Wo should very much prefer to seo tho experiment tried of inclusive enfranchisement of towns , wherever thoy uro to bo found of suflicient size , and sufficiently contiguous to have common sympathies and interests . We admit that
counties , are entitled , no doubt , to additional representatives ; and we have no objection to take the number required from places which are notoriously either venal or nomination boroughs . But beyond the reasonable limits of such a change , we hardly expect any aristocratic party sincerely to go ; and knowing , as they well do , the weight of opposition , which in a Parliament like the present any plan of dividing the country into equal electoral districts would call forth , we confess that we should regard the proposal of any project of the kind as meant only in bad faith by Ministers .
this , in some cases , would give rise to anomalies and apparent inconsistencies , not easily defensible in debate . But , upon the whole , we think it a more practical way of going to work than by any wholesale transfer of electoral power from the small boroughs to the counties , as certain Tories recommend , or from small boroughs to great cities only as Mr . Bright would seem to indicate . Some twenty great towns , and perhaps as many popular
Further Destruction Of The Slave Trade T...
FURTHER DESTRUCTION OF THE SLAVE TRADE TREATIES * When the French Government succeeded in maintaining its course , notwithstanding the challenge of this country to disallow the contract granted to M . Regis , we remarked that the effect would be to cancel the compact between European Powers and the United States for the armed suppression of slavery . Subsequent events have confirmed that calculation ; Portugal has , however innocently , assisted in corroborating the tendency of the Regis contract ; and although M . Regis himself is understood to have realised nothing but failure through the high price of free black emigrants on the coast of Africa and the want the
of enterprise in Guad e loupe and Martinique , moral effect of this invention is a perfect success . There is some reason , in fact , to suppose that Portugal and Don Pedro have to a certain extent been at variance . The king is a young man of chivalrous mind , highly cultivated , ana unquestionably sharing the exalted humanitarian . views of whichLord Palmerston , is the most consistent and chivalrous exponent in this country ; and as soon as he ax > tively interfered in the matter he peremptorily stopped anything resembling a slave trade m the African settlements of Portugal , as well as on the west coast . In the meanwhile , however , there appears little reason to doubt that the local Government of Mozambique have connived at a trade in blacks , nominally free , actually bond . This circumstance , of course , weakened the friendly
mediation of our (^ Government , since it was manifestly against common sense as well as justice that a ship , carrying on trade according to license from the Governor of Mozambique , should be seized by the Government of Portugal and confiscated , while its owner was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for being in a place and doing that which the local authorities positively allowed . Tlie interference of Don Pedro , lias had an effect the very reverse of what he intended . The whole subject of the Charles-et Georges is complicated and will never , perhaps , be rendered perfectly
distinct and free from ambiguity ; but in the French view the state of the case is this : —The vessel was not engaged in slave-trading , but in the conveyance of free black emigrants from the waters of Mozambique to the island of La Reunion . Under orders from Lisbon , the Colonial Government of Mozambique interfered with this legal traffic in free black emigrants , and seized both ship and captain . Franco instantly protested , and called for surrender , with compensation to tho injured parties ; and , under pressure of French power , deprived of moral force by tho imperfections of her own case , unaided by any intervention on tho part
of England , Portugal has given way . From the French point of view , the Uovornincnt of Lisbon has therefore been compollcd . to recognise tho difference botweon free black , emigrants and the oldfashioned stylo of slave-trading . But for tho protest of Great Britain tho scheme of M . lle ' gis might havo been attempted , and might have broken down as it has , without having boon positively converted into a precedent establishing tho distinction between the free emigration and tho slave-trade . Tho assertion of the protest , however , and its failure , havo undoubtedly commuted this country to recognise tho distinction originating wilh Fn co . Tho action taken by the Portuguese . Govori mont in tho onto of the OlWics-ot-Goorgos
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 30, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30101858/page/17/
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