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Leader (1850-1860), 25th January 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 89

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      conversation was mournful , very earneat , yet not without a gleam of hope , a prayer for brighter days , a promise of better things . The same week I left the hospital the troop , of which I was such an illustrious and fortunate member , marched to Glasgow . As we entered that city of baillies , kippered salmon , and minced collops , several of my fellow-students passed close by , without seeming to recognize me , and during the remainder of my stay at Glasgow as a soldier , I occasionally saw in the barrack-yard persons whom I well knew , but who did not appear to know me , though , for fear of being seen by any old acquaintance I never went outside the barrack gates .

      On the 5 th of July , 1832 , my military life closed . I dresaed myself that morning in . solemn blaek , and though I was glad to leave for ever scenes bo little fitted to my character and tastes , yet it was not without a heavy heart that I bade my messmates adieu . After i had gone about a stone's throw from the barracks , I could not help turning round to look at the walls for a few minutes , and to ponder on the past and the future ; and I could not avoid the s uspicion that in spite of what I had suffered I was still a di earner and a fool . To thrust that suspicion and all gloomy thoughts quite away , I walked on as

      rapidly as I could till I carae to the Broormelaw —• the Glasgow quay . I went on board a steamboat -which I found ready to sail to my natire village . It was a glorious summer ' s day , and as the vessel passed one well-known and beautiful spot on the banks of the Clyde after another , all the old romance of my nature revived , and a destiny magnificent a * the sky above me and the scenery around me once more seemed possible . As we came nearer the familiar cliffs of my boyhood emotions and fancies of a different kind came rushing on tay heart . I pictured tbe glad and welcoming faces of the father , the mother , the brothers , the sisters I was about to meet .

      As I stepped on shore a little child put its hand into mine and murmured my name , Which he was scarcely able to pronounce distinctly . It was one of my brothers . Others of the family were also there . I thought I had never felt so happy as that evening when we we ' re all assembled at tea together . In the subsequent November I resumed my college life at Glasgow , my father having in the meantime paid the printer of " The Magician . " The regiment to which I had belonged was still in Glasgow , but I did not

      once go near the barracks . I often saw my former fellow . soldiers in the streets ; but it was easy enough to avoid meeting them , though when they were persons I had known well I was almost irresistibly impslled to rush up « nd seize them by the hand . It would answer little purpose to append any elaborate reflections to such a record as this . Suffice it to say that I do not regret having been a soldier for a season . The hard and harsh necessities to which rny course of existence then condemned me first awoke

      m me the conviction that life was a grand and stern reulity , not a vaguo aspiring or a fantastic amusement . The headlong impulses of my imagination have often carried me since into exaggerations and extravagances ; but in the midat of them all I could not forget that I had been trodden and lacerated b y tragic facts , and that grim memory recalled mo to myself . And , perhaps , my military career was only meant by Providence as w foretaste of what I was destined to do and suffer ever after . For I did not cease to be a soldier in ceasing to bo a light dragoon .

      I lmvo fought for whoever I considered God ' a tmuso with tongue and with pen , evor aiming to make , as far as I could , truthful speech the companion of valiant action wherever placed , to Avhatever duty called by the Captain of salvation . It ia a jjreat gain for us , it is the lushest wisdom ut which we can nrrive hue below , that we feel thoroughly and gratefully convinced that the finger of the Holiest hu « l « d us on , haa directed all our movements , ha « never deported uu for an ingtunt though our pilgrirxmgo has been little but dicustur , disappointment , and pain , and in n- worldly neuso it soemn to huve been tho

      most miHerablo of failures . IIo who 1 ms taught liiinaell amid cloud , and anguish , and inct'Hsnnt tlist-uflo the Hublimest spiritual truths , and applied them to the humblest of hin needs and deeds , him dono n divine work , and ought to kitm the hand that has so tortured . uUd tried him . Vht bo it from me to nay that I huve succeeded in doing all this ; but 1 have endeavoured utronuousl y thereafter , and , purhnpa tho ilium ) and the pertinacity of tho endeavour have been gifts to mo from tho military hospital at ¦ Hamilton . God is great !

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      v LEISUKE OF A DRAMATIC CRITIC . I have nothing to do : the theatres are dispensed from bringing out new pieces for the present ; , so that success is not only beneficial to managers , actors , and authors , but also to critics . Not a single new piece am I threatened with ; not a new actor ; not even a revival . Old LovJ and tho New at Drury Lane will be a stock piece for many nights—people seem to be very unanimous in its favour . Then as for King Charming there ia a perfect ' * rage" to see it , and an universal ' * oh ! " choruses its triumph . At the Princess ' s Shakspeare and the Pantomime nightly fill the house ; ao that no povelty is wanted there . ' At the Olympic , AH thai Glitters is Not Chid will keep its place and draw laughter and tears for some time to come . My office is thus a sinecure . I am a gentleman at large , with nothing in the woxld to do . My conscience is at ease . For a whole week—or say a fortnight—I am sure not to be quarrelling with anybody , or rather not to have him quarrelling with me because I am base enou . gh | not to admire him . That villany I am saved from . Then , again , I have my mornings to myself—free to ramble about the fields , or to sun myself in St . Jaroes ' a-street , without having to give myself a headache over profound criticism . My evenings , instead of being spent in a hot theatre , redolent of humanity , are passed serenely by the fireside , where I relax myself with a cigar and Aristotle , or an 8 greeable volume of Chrysostomi Opera . So fruit , when I am called into active service again , I can . fling one of the Christian Fathers at the head of tome farcewriter with all the air of a man worthy to be a bjshop . The farce-writer is indignant , no doubt , and cannot tee ' what that has to do with it . " But he secretly respects me as a man who reads bigger books than he does ; and thus I make my leisure profitable ! If , in the next few weeks , my articles become terribly erudite , you will know to what cause it may ^ je attributed ; for I am now as idle as a gay , sparkling , light-comedy gentleman during the successful run of a lugubrious tragedy at the" theatre which has the honour of his talents ; while the heavy fellows are nightly roaring themselves hoarse he has nothing to do but lounge during the day , and go to bed early . He is idle , and is paid as if he were worked to leanness . Yet , candour before all things ! Let me confess that , just as the sparkling comedian to whom I have compared myself very soon gets tired of his idleness and thinks the heavy dogs have had their day , he being impatient once more to resume his position before the public , so I , though glad enough to let the heavy fellows thunder away for a while about politics , religion , literature , and political economy—glad enough of the excuse to be idle for a week or twoyet at last begin to feel impatient , and desire again to see the Leader brighten up with something which can really interest people—viz ., the drama ( for who cures about anything else ? Politics are very well to make a noise about—but tho real topic in which the public is interested , believe me , is the topic I treatthe drama !) Imagine , then , that comedian daily gazing at the bill , and daily seeing , " Every evening the new successful tragedy , in five acts , entitled , The Blood of Vengeance "—how he must feel tho public tire of that bill , and feel that it desires something gay again , some of the " good old English comedy " which ho can play with so much spirit ! That is what I feel when Social Reform , European Democracy , Taxation , and other heavy matters till up the columns which might be signed Vivian .

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      Livkui'Ooi , Statistics . —1 * rora a return presented to the Health Committee by Mr . Rishton , the building surveyor , it appears that the number of houses ar » 'l warehouses erected , or in the course of erection , within the municipal borough of Liverpool , from the 1 st of January to the 3 lst of Decotnber , I 860 , were 420 ; comprising , under £ 12 , 41 ; from £ 12 to £ 2 , 5 , 2 !) 7 ; from £ 26 to £ 3 ^ , 41 . Of the 420 eight were warehouses . The following iu a comparative statement of the number of houses t-rected ii » each year nince lH . ' W : — 18 , 'i 8 , 1025 ; 1839 , 997 ; 1840 , 1570 ; 1841 , 1701 ; 1842 , 2027 ; 18-13 , I 31 M ); 1844 , 2460 : 1845 , 3728 ; 1840 , JMOO ; 1847 , 1220 ; 1848 , 056 ; 1849 , 44 ( 5 ; 1860 , 420 : total , 21 , 183 . Militia , Foucu ok twk Unitkd States . —The

      enrolled militiu of the United States reaches the number of two millions , a tolerably large army . Pennsylvania , has a greater number of enrolled militiu than any other state , whioli shows that , as the above number it ) , all those oapuble of bearing arms are not returned by the difrcrt / nt tauten . Tho returns from official HourccR are an follows : — Maine , 4-1 . (>(>() ; New IlaiiipHbiro , 27 , 1 ) 07 ; MaHHJolnifletts , 101 , 78 ' . ) ; " Vermont , 23 . 91 , 1 ; Rhode Maud . 13 , 0 fiH ; Connecticut , 57 , 7 ll >; N > w York , 201 , 4 /> 2 ; New Jersey , 3 U , 17 i >; Pennsylvania . 276 , 070 ; Delaware 022 $ ) ; Maryliuul , 48 , 801 ; Vir « iuia , 124 . 202 ; North Carolina , 71 M 4 H ; South Carolina , 65 , 205 ) ; Georgia , A 7 , iH 2 ; Alubumii , 44 , 331 ; Ijouiniann , 438 , 348- Mis-« l * nip |> i , 46 ,: ) . % ; Tennessee , 74 , 262 ; Kentucky , 88 ( J 2 «) ¦ Ohio , 170 , 466 ; lixliam * . 63 , 1 ) 18 ; Illinois , 120 , 219 ; Miv-Houri , 01 , 000 ; Arkansas , 17 . 137 ; Miphigmu 00 017-Florida , 12 , 122 ; Texas , 10 , 770 ; Wbconyin , 32 , 203 ,-District of Columbia , 1249 . —New York Tribune

      ( Bntnpan Wtmuxu^ And Its Official Acts.

      ( Bntnpan Wtmuxu ^ AND ITS OFFICIAL ACTS .

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      This page ia accorded to an authentic Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of the Democracy of Europe : as such we do not impose any restraint on the utterance or opinion , and . therefore , limit our own responsibility to the authenticity of the statement .

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      DEVELOPMENT OF POLISH DEMOCRACY . [ We resume our delineations of Polish Democracy , availing ourselves , as last week , of the aid of the same foreign pen . ] The organization of the Polish Democratic Society is very simple . The Society is divided into sections , whose duty it is to be in continual intercourse with the centralization , and to follow its instructions . The centralisation undergoes an annual election by the whole of the society . It alone initiates all acts of a political nature . The Central Committee is responsible for its past proceedings to the newly-elected members for each forthcoming year . The government , in fact , however , remains with little change in the same hands , for frofn 1836 to the present day , viz ., during a period of fourteen years , the elections have only sent altogether twenty members to the centralization . To meet the expenses of the cause every member of the society is bound to pay a progressive impost in proportion to his ineome . This impost constitutes the principal source of revenue , and the funds thus collected are devoted , not only to sending out numerous agenta to Poland , not only to the costs of the written propaganda , but also to the education of pupils in the French military sohools , viz ., at the Ecole d Etat Major , in Paris , and at the Ecole d'Artillirie and du G 6 nie , in Metz . To what extent the principles of the Democratic Society made way in Poland is best demonstrated by the numerous democratic conspiracies which , being separately formed , and having afterwards ranged themselves under the leader » hip of the centralization , have been discovered in Poland under the sway of all the three spoliators—Prussia , Austria , and Muscovy .

      The association spread by the Polish Democratic Society acquired such an extent that it became no longer possible to postpone the outbreak of an insurrection , for which the 21 st of February , 1846 , was fixed . How that insurrection failed we shall not here explain . Whether information from the aristocratic party ( as Count Montalembert then publicly confessed ) , or treason of one of the conspirators , denouncing the plan to the Prussian Government , was tUe cause of the failure , we shall not enter into;—suffice it to say , that all Poland became the scene of a human battue , carried out against the conspirators for her liberty , and the trials which were held , and the judgments which took place upon them , showed that there never was a conspiracy having more

      extensive ramifications , or a more universal and national character . Austria , wishing to avoid the storm , incited the ignorant peasantry of Galicia , by the moat infamous lies , agninst the patriots in the classes above them , and , under the protection of her troops , an enornioua number of families of patriotic landowners were massacred in their own homes , regardless of sex or age . Muscovy filled her numerous prisons with victims , who breathed their last either on the gibbet or in the citadel of Warsaw , whilst others wore transported to people the deserts of Siberia . Prussia incarcerated upwards of 600 individuals out of her Polish population , which does not quite amount to one million , and , moicover , brought nearly 200 of them for high , treason , before the bar of the Berlin tribunal .

      Despite their immediate failure , the efforts of 1 S 40 were not without sonic good results for Poland ; lor , however short the duration of the Cracow insurrection , it nevertheless had just time enough to issue ita manifesto , whose principles are those of the Polish Democratic ; Society , and which manifesto proclaimed the thoughts and principles of the future Polish Republic . * The influence of the movement of 1840 on the emigration was beneficial . The ranks of the Democratic Society were greatly encreased . All shades of Democratic opinion fused themselves into the body of the Democratic Society ; and from that moment there remained hut two purties—two camps in the boROin of the ? emigration : — Democracy and the Monarchical Party , which latter party the year 1848 oompletely extinguished .

      It is not in our power , nor would it be discreet on our part , to enumerate all the iuternational relations of the Polish Democratic Society ; but if we were to believe all the reports given , mi >< 1 all the accusations uttered by the reactionary press , the oentrilizaliou of this Hoeiety has hud a hand in all the European uiovtmientK , and participated ia all the events of the last three years . Thus , the events of Berlin , Vienna , Drctidcn , Brwliiu , UauVn , Sicily , Rome , and Hungary , were not . it would seem ,

      without its active participation . Time alone can show the rial extent of the cooperation of the Polish Democracy in all those movements ; but whatever may be ; tho opinion formed of what is already known concerning tho part the Polish Democracy took in the great events commencing in 1848 , it . can hardly be denied that the men who w » -re equal to Hueh emergencies , and who exposed themselves to the hatred of the reactionary Governments , were not altogether without merit .

      Inched , the wholesale persecutions which now engngei the reactionary powers , Huilieiciitly uliow Hie umount oi hatred which prompts them . Kverywhere pursued and hunted , there is not a corner on the whole Continent . wht're the Polish Democrats can take refuge . In 184 !) , I he Government of the mock Republic of Fruner , expelled u great many iiiHttklve . ru of the Pcvlitm Democrulio Society

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 25, 1851, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1867/page/17/