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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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0 I ft . ) ludfy j ( fft / l ^ wfaj fan ; yuAAsut ' ry ^ a , t 7 ffv 7 f ? *** ^ " njp vf ^ /^ gS ^ -V v v-U -v -v ^ "Thb one Idea which History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness la the Idea of Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw down all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided , views ; and by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldt ' s Cosmos .
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The session of Parliament is running to its dregs the Members are getting weary , not only of protracted work , but also of idle labour ; and they are scrambling over their arrears in a manner that presents the usual contrast with the tedious debating of separate points at an early period of the session . In their hurry-scurry they do not get more spirited ; their attention , drawn away from points , is not more broadly fixed on large principles . On the contrary , principle , punctilio , conscience—all grow faint with the drawling of the
session . It is certainly not from a Parliament behaving as ours has done this week that the people can look for much improvement . That measure is accepted which presents the least trouble in its acceptance . The favourite , no doubt , is a " Continuance Bill ; " next to that is a simple Government measure , the responsibility for which remains with " her Majesty ' s Ministers . " The
endorsement of her Majesty ' Ministers rises in value in these hasty days . The Ministerial compromise on the Factory Bill , for example—the measure ostensibly introduced to fortify the act of 1847 , but actually sanctioning the infringement of that act in the shape of " relays "—is impatiently adopted ; while Lord Harrowby ' s amendment to protect children , and the Duke of Richmond ' s keeping to a real Ten-hours Bill , are hastily brushed aside .
It is out of doors that we must look for efforts m favour of the people—in the great meeting to further Parliamentary Reform , at Norwich—in the concourse of Social Reformers to the campmeetingof the Leeds Redemption Society , near Shipley—in the room where Mrs . Chisholm displayed her scheme for emigration in family groups—in the dinner of the
Colonial Reform Society , where effort m favour of justice to the Colonies was gathered with great force of social influence and intellect , and where Mr . Lowe eloquently explained the tendency of Ministerial injustice towards dismemberment of the Empire . Even the peaceful routine meeting of the Agricultural Society at Exeter does more for national progress than the lounging Parliament .
Among the occurrences which indicate the culpably impatient spirit , is the readiness to adopt the very indifferent Ministerial measure for the remodelling of the Ecclesiastical Commission , and the abrupt , the almost undisguised haste in which the House of Commons set aside Mr . Gladstone ' s plan for increasing the number of workina Bishons . Although Mr .
Gladstone ' s scheme involved a small demand upon the Episcopal fund , it is not to be confounded with common " Church Extension . " We cannot deny to the Church of England , any more than to all other religious bodies , the right to promote its own extension ; still less the right to organize its own administration . But these points were not [ Town Edition . ]
before the House : it regarded the bill as a harmess measure backed by authority ; the amendments weredebateable matters which meant something , and were better put off" till next session . " They might have helped to keep members beyond the 12 th of August . The demoralization of Parliament is disagreeably , not to say alarmingly , confessed in the complaint of the Minister , Sir Charles Wood , and the independent Member , Mr . Aglionby , of the canvassing which is able to procure the success of such a measure as Lord Robert Grosvenor ' s to abolish the duty on Attorneys' Certificates , but can scarcely stir up Members to the arduous duty of reading a
Bill . According to constitutional form , Sir Thomas Wilde , the new Lord Chancellor , has been called up to the House of Lords as " Baron Truro ;" and some few of the newly-promoted Ministers , Sir John Romilly and Mr . Cockburn , have been reflected . The pending election of Sir Robert Peel in the room of his father is a matter of more novel interest . Sir Robert is wholly unknown to the political world , except as a youthful diplomatist who 'was assailed in the Palmerston debate that occasioned his father ' s last speech , but was scarcely defended . He enters a new field however — one
singularly prepared for him by the burst of public anxiety to do honour to his father ' s memory . Hie enters Parliament while the nation is planning many monuments to bis parent . The foreign news is scanty . The French Government is still waging its bad and fatal war against the press . The diplomatists boast of another " settlement" of the Schleswig-Holstein
affair—but it can scarcely stand . In more than one country we notice active preparations for sending inanimate representatives of trade and industry to take up their abode in the crystal palace which Mr . Paxton is to build for the Exposition of 1851 . The Commissioners , we learn from the Daily News , have decided on Mr . Paxton ' s original ana remarkable design . From the West we have at length the confession of Webster that he killed Dr . Parkman . Of that
fact no doubt could have remained in the mind of any body ; but according to Webster ' s new story , his first defence amounts to suicide . He now publishes an elaborate narrative , by no means deficient in credibility , which goes to make out that he killed Dr . Parkman in a sudden fit of passion , brought on by the violent and exasperating demeanour of
the doctor , who was an angry and importunate creditor . Webster succeeds in explaining away , with great verisimilitude , many incidents which were taken to prove that he had prepared for the crime . The fact that he had openly invited Dr . Parkman to an interview , in the very place where the crime was committed two hours later , helps to confirm the assertion that at that time it was not planned . Webster shows that some special preparations which were supposed to be peculiar to the
occasion were not so : it was imagined , for example , that a particular furnace had never been lighted before ; but it seems that this was the mistake of ^ attendant . The comprehensive plans for disposing of the body were the sudden suggestion of imperative necessity . All this is a probable tale enough ; but it is totally incompatible with Webster ' s first story : by anticipation he had given this account the lie : and if he was to be disbelieved while
under fear of conviction , how is he to be believed when his invention is stimulated by actual sentence and the last hope of escape . If this new story is true its moral might be accounted to enforce the axiom , that in the worst and most doubtful extremity the truth is the best resource , even though it may seem the moft perilous . Many persons think that American dislike of hardness in the creditor , and sympathy with the resentment for personal indignity , may help the co mmutation of Webster ' s sentence .
At home the suicide of Walter Watts will have produced more pain than that of an ordinary criminal . His turpitude , indeed , was not of a very deep dye , though very necessary to be checked in a commercial country : many a man gets through life with impunity who commits far blacker acts ; and Watts had qualities which made him liked . His summary escape from final disgrace and exile provoked rather a needless surprise . He was
" cheerful" to the last , and some say that they should have thought him " the last man to do such a thing . " He had , however , unnerved himself by the lavish resort to stimulants . Besides , these " last men " to do a thing hypothetically are often the first men to do it practically . Your vivid enjoyment of life is mostly accompanied b y vehement revolt from its reverses , if not by a spirit that will rather meet adversities with resistance than with submission , — " and by opposing , end them . "
The death of Mrs . Glover , though , sudden , is attended by far less painful circumstances . Hers had been a life of exertion , of anxiety , of trouble ; but one also of keen sensation and much enjoyment , and , above all , of great and increasing artistical success . She had deserved many rewards , and had won them . The Duke of Cambridge has followed the example of his excellent sister-in-law , Queen Adelaide , and has been carried to the grave in a manner very quiet for a royal person . There was enough snow , however , to draw many spectators down the
Kew road j and in that direction the day became a sort of holiday . At first the feelings are rather jarred by this combination of sightseeing gaiety with funereal ceremony ; but the good-natured old Duke would have been one of the last to complain that he had occasioned a day ' s pleasure to his humbler fellow-subjects ; and the golden show of nasturtiums blooming under the hatchment in the front of his own house suggests the reflection that Nature does not mourn for death , but is immortal in happiness and beauty .
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No . 17 . SATURDAY , JULY 20 , 1850 . Price 6 d .
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News op the Week— Page Death of Mrs . Glover 389 How to Send Your Letters on 8 unday 396 The Arts— # Parliament 386 Matrimonial Infidelity 390 Open Council— . Racheland Racine 4 . wa National Testimonial to Peel 386 Continental Amusements 390 The Ruling Idea of Society 396 Progress of Science—Funeral of the Duke of Cambridge . 387 Untradesmanlike Practices 390 The Lost Keys .. 396 Destructive Fires 4 Utf The Anglo-Russian Protocol 387 Two Suicides in Newgate 390 A Proper Financial System 397 Portfolio—The French Gagging Law 388 Destructive Thunderstorm 391 Love and Marriage . 398 The Unseen Witness | W * The Overland Mail .. 388 Public Affairs- Kight 8 .-Exten . ion of the Suffrage . 393 Ballad . . •••••••••• | J | Society for the Reform of Colonial Peel ' s Legacy 394 A New Religion 399 1 he Cat s Pilgrimage 405 Government 388 Capital Punishment 3 G 4 Literature— The Lowly-Born w * The Hyde-park Exhibition-house .. 388 A Site for the National Gallery .... 395 The Dramas of JEschylus 400 Comfort *» . » The Redemption Society 388 Suffrage Extension 395 Prize Essays on the Church of Eng- APicture ... * w Confession of Dr . Webster .. 388 Nominal Ownership of Land 395 gland Self-Supporting Village .... 401 Commbkoiajl Affairs—Mrs . Chisholm ' s Emigration Scheme 389 Mr . Disraeli ' s Whiggery 396 Klapka ' s Hungarian War 408 Markets , Gazettes , Ssc 4 Ub-u »
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 20, 1850, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1847/page/1/
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