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    Untitled Article

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    Among other of our institutions the royal speech has survived criticism . Persevering in platitudes , it has drawn forth the utmost extent of criticism of which the United Kingdom is capable , and by favour of that exhaustion it revels in impunity for villanous composition and barefaced assertion . To criticize a royal speech has become a condescension of faculties utterly impossible to the man of the world , and thus it happens that Ministers are able , without any consequent scandal , to make Queen Victoria utter such things as the " trust " that the Australian Colonies Bill " will improve the condition of those rising communities , " " Australian colonies" ! We believe in no other public composition except a royal speech or a trade advertisement , could any declarations so perfectly idle be put forth . The Queen is also made to say that " the act for the extension of the Elective Franchise in Ireland " must have " the most beneficial consequences , " " has been framed with a view to give to my people in Ireland a fair participation in the benefits of our representative system . " Now , as it differs essentially from the bill which the authors of this speech had previously framed , with a view to give the people in Ireland " a fair participation , " &c , they either contemplated by that abortive bill a revolutionary act against the constitution , which they now condemn , or they are now betraying their Sovereign into an act of political " smashing , "—the utterance of a worthless measure with the false stamp of the genuine coinage . In like manner Queen Victoria avows " satisfaction" with the Merchant Naval Service Act ; her Majesty thus presenting an exalted and singular exception to the universal opinion . She is ' encouraged to hope ] for peace in the North of Europe " through the Berlin treaty ! In short , there is nothing too extravagant to be put into a royal speech by favour of this public assent not to criticize it . From the Royal speech you look to the noble speech —that of Lord John Russell , on being brought to a reckoning by Sir Benjamin Hall for the work done during the session . The gist of Lord John ' s reply may be summed up in these few words : — " There was so much to do , that he had no time to do anything . " If he were an Irishman , some commonsense Englishman would at once ask him , why . then he tried to do so much ; — why not leave " everything , " and fasten his energies upon the few things that may be accomplished in seven months ? But we doubt whether such a question would obtain an answer from Lord John Russell , since it is too logical to fit the temperament of his mind : we do not see how he could bend his faculties to a suitable response . Two things unquestionably have been accomplished this session . By a nice adjustment of commissioners , Ministers have obtained a report [ Town Edition . ]

    which sanctions the undoing of their measure to suspend the Post-office on Sundays ; and perhaps Whigs can never be more properly employed than when they are undoing some previous work performed by Whigs . As the best energies of an author are said to be exercised in blotting , so the greatest wisdom of a Whig Minister is found to be exercised in reversing his own acts . If Lord John Russell were to undo himself , altogether , he would unquestionably earn the national gratitude . But there is " good in everything "—even in a Russell Cabinet ; and it is not for us to deny the merits of that truly great measure , the Metropolitan Interments Bill . That is the real achievement of the session ; although it is mentioned in the Royal Speech . Dictated by a great soul , it is a measure calulated to have the most enlarged and beneficial influence even on the people for whose service it is constructed . If it be carried out in the spirit of the report that preceded it , it will lead the people of this country into new customs concerning the last rites of mortality such as will elevate the sentiments and make every-day practices accordant with eternal laws . To readjust that accordance is the highest act of practical , 'statesmanship . Parliament is gone , and it is the out-of-door politicians that keep up the national activity . The Irish are endeavouring to grapple with the great incubus on their industry , the vitiated tenure of land . It will be observed that the agitator in this behalf is carrying on a movement concurrent with that official movement which is embodied in the Encumbered Estates Act . This agitation , too , differs from many others in the fact that the Presbyterians of " the black North , " the hard-headed Scotch Irish , are taking the lead ; supported , indeed , by all the enthusiasm of the South , and the subsidies for which the altar is so convenient an instrument of collection . The crops are said to be deficient , —blighted , both potato and wheat . The bad harvest will give a formidable stimulus to this movement . The Chevalier Bunsen ' s letter , published this week , exposes the bad faith of the protocols published last week . It will be remembered that those protocols treated Prussia as a party acquiescing , if not consenting : from the new letter it not only appears that Prussia strongly protests against the Eosition taken up by the parties to the protocols , ut also that she has a case against the one-sided case upon which the main protocol rests . ^ Prussia may have her own motive , may be not quite singleminded and sincere ; but the project on the side of Denmark is not less double dealing , nor less marked by technical flaws . Denmark arrogated to herself the right of dealing with Schlesvvig and llolstein in a manner beyond her powers ; and wrong is not to be made right by the mere act of presuming it to be so in a protocol . France is entertained just now by the political tour which the President is making , and serious politicians busy themselves with remarks on the

    frequency or rarity of the cries that attend his progress , " Vive l'Empereur , " and so forth ! He seizes a musket , and goes through the manual exercise ; some enthusiastic partizan endeavours to improve the act into a coup d ' dtat , and calls him " the little Corporal ; " but the stroke of state proves a failure . In such triflings is the political world of France now engaged . In America the politicians are occupied with the failure of Mr . Clay ' Compromise Act , which was to settle the relation of California and some other new states , to the Union , with regard to the embarrassing question of slavery , on terms calculated to avoid difficulties and to suspend an ultimate solution of that vast question without creating new impediments . The movement was not only difficult on account of its complication with so many different views and interests , but it also had the weakness belonging to all indirectness ; and the failure of the great American statesman corroborates the belief that his countrymen will have fairl y to grapple with the monster question of their Republic . Our journals at home are full of disaster , crime , and death . So many mortal outrages , newly discovered or under trial , are not often reported in one week . The case of Elizabeth Bubb , who killed her step-child by misusage , rivals that of Mrs . Brownrigg or the Birds . It reminds us that there is a very numerous class of the community subject to torture and suffering of the most agonizing kind , least able to bear that agony , and yet most devoid of protection—the class of children . Could we conjure up to our minds , compressed in one vision , all the agony and despair endured by the little multitude , at any moment now passing , under the tyranny of ignorance , passion , and avarice , the vision might well turn the strongest head . We believe that our law does not provide any adequate machinery for extending protection to that helpless class . The fire at Gravesend , whatever its cause , is among accidents which Charles Lamb described as the condiment of civilized lffe : it is a disaster , but suggests no very painful reflections , and may perhaps suggest some improvements in the precautions against such calamities . Two official deaths of some importance will create a movement in the legal world—those of Sir Launcelot Shadwell , Vice-Chancellor of England , and Mr . Law , the Recorder of London . Sir Launcelot ' s benign aspect will be missed from the judicial bench ; and , although the citizens may well find , a legal adviser more suited to the spirit of the timelf , they will not readily replace Mr . Law ' s acuteness . The meeting of the British Association is a passing suit and service to maintain enduring interests ; and the account which we arc able to give , by an accomplished hand , will show that the service has been well performed , although some visitors do complain that the Scottish hosts had made no sufficient preparations for illustrating the important and delightful phenomena of digestion .

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    JST O- 21 . SATURDAY , AUGUST 17 , 1850 . Price 6 d .

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    News of the Week— P < u > e The Industrial Exhibition of 1851 .. 486 Public Affaies— w ! i « iw P » i ., rf . 49 C Parliament 4 * 3 Institution of Mr . Gorham 486 The Session of 1850 492 Wordsworth 3 Prelude .. ........ • f * The Queen ' sSpeech 483 Trafficking in Matrimony 486 Uoyal Duties and ltoyal Savings .... 493 gay s * ocudLond ittonot fcnglaud .. 497 Thelrish Agrarian Conference .... 483 Sunday Post Delivery 487 The Tenant Ri-ht Movement 492 Books on our l * ble 4 JS National Reform Association 484 The Fire at Gravesend 487 The Source of Greatness 492 p" *?™ 7 Ton « in «« at the Oner * 499 Sir Launcelot Shadwell 484 Murdors and Attempts to Murder .. 487 Libel Fighting 493 iffeSnini P 499 Austria and Prussia 484 Miscellaneous 488 piax versus Cotton 493 Madame lioientuu J » American Politics 484 Associative Progress— Social Keform 493 pA ^ Ko The British Association 484 Profits of CoSperation 490 Council— Ascension 500 & * gFS £ Xsrs 22 A" £ « * S £ r ^^ X-. ^ « . S ^ .,, g J ==:=: « . ^ MSrsSESSSS :::::::::::::: 3 3 SZtt&tt&" ::::::: » SSKf . iyia ;» aay ::::::. va ° !! 2 £ ? & £ 2 iS ** . * .. **»*

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 17, 1850, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1850/page/1/