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Leader (1850-1860), 15th March 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page unpag.

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      Untitled Article

      Another defeat of the renovated Ministers is the prominent fact of the week in Parliament ; the occasion of defeat being of secondary importance in a political sense . Lord Duncan has been devoting his spare time to the Window taxes and the New Forest abuses , and has been one of those to rake up a very strong case of neglect and malversation . The scandal had already forced the Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests to prepare a bill for the better management of the Forest lands , but Lord Duncan moved a resolution , that the revenue accruing from the Forests should be paid into the Exchequer . The abuses of the Forest administration are an old story ; Members had no comparative

      knowledge of Lord Seymour ' s or of Lord Duncan ' s proposition , the merits of the case having a very slack hold on the attention of any party ; and under ordinary circumstances the House would have supported the head of the department , especially when he was promising a measure . But , independently of the specific question , independently of any Ministerial crisis , which scarcely anybody in Parliament wishes to renew just now , there is a satisfaction in beating Ministers—because they have been beaten before , because they are down , because repeated beating helps to make them know their place . It is for this reason that Protectionists and Whig-Radicals are found voting with Lord Duncan , who beat Ministers by 120 to 119 .

      I he defeat has not been regarded as very seriously important , until the pure Whig Globe made it a matter of solemn warning . The Whig journalist admits that Ministers might have done better —that Lord John Russell " might have been more communicative to his supporters , " and that " a more judicious distribution of patronage" might have silenced Lord Duncan ; but it warns the Whig-Radicals , " the mass of the Melbourne majority , " " the ballot and household suffrage men of the first Reformed Parliaments , " against the consequences of voting by the side of Protectionists and Orangemen , of Mr . Cobden and Mr . Bright : they will let in a Stanley Cabinet

      !' It is all very well to swagger about , tin ; clubs , and say that it is high time to make short work of n Ministry that rpU beaten six or seven timex a-week . W « only venture to hint th » U this amusement i « not quite compatible with the prudent and disinterested policy which vre really believe th » t the Parliamentary Liberals honestly have at heart . We believe that nine out of ton of their number look with a natural dread on the possibility of nny violent domestic convulsion , that tluy are determined to resist the reimposition ei » her of taxes upon food or of religious disabilities , and that it in their lionoHt wiHh to wourc the

      tnuiNrnisnion <> f the Monarchy to their descendants by 'educing its coat and popularizing itn defences . We believe that they look on the piesent Cabinet na the fittest eng ine for accomplishing this task . Now , we need not pretend to any v <« ry deep inHight into Cabinet weerets , when we say that ibis morally impossible for Lord John ltUHtell again to go through the perplexities and humiliation * of the last three week *; and that , after a very few ITown Edition , ]

      more such divisions as that on Lord Duncan ' s motion , he can only be expected to wash his handa of the whole concern . " This is very alarming , as the Globe puts it—Lord John Russell , or a revolution ; for the Globe sees no other alternative . The Morning Post seconds the Whig warning . If the alternative were true , it would be distressing ; but even then there are not a few who might prefer revolution rather than a Russell Cabinet . The revolutionary alternative would hold out a promise of novelty ; besides , it is untried , which the Russell Cabinet is not .

      In this enfeebled state , which excites so much anxiety among his friends , Lord John Russell is trying to rub on with his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill in its mutilated form ; but the concession which was intended to disarm objections has failed in that effect , while it has aroused a new class of objectors . The Irish Agitators suspended their operations while the Russell Ministry was in jeopardy ; but no sooner has Lord John regained strength enough to go on with his fractional bill than the Irishmen , animated by their past success ,

      again advance to confront him . The meeting at the freemasons' Tavern to resist the bill shows that the Roman Catholic laity of London has awakened from its slumber ; and there is every prospect that the resistance to the measure will increase as the bill advances in ulterior stages . At the same time the Ultra-Protestants are beginning to stir in an agitation against the measure as it is amended by Lord John Russell . The Roman Catholics will continue to oppose any fraction to which the measure may be reduced ; the Ultra-Protestants will oppose it the more it is reduced to a fraction .

      Of the other subjects in Parliament the most practically important are Mr . Baines ' s bill for the better protection of parish apprentices , and Mr . Milner Gibson ' s for the establishment of County Financial Boards . Mr . Baines ' s bill would prevent the recurrence of cases like that of Jane Wilbred , and would secure a very needful protection to one of the moat unfortunate classes of the community .

      The County Boards are recommended by many practical considerations : they would add local representation where local taxation has been extended without it ; they would familiarize the People with the practice of local government ; they would create subsidiary local legislatures , to which might be transferred much of the local and private business which now overburdens the central Legislature . Mr . Milner Gibson may be obstructed for a time , but his perseverance ih . sure of ultimate reward .

      The meeting on tin ; adulteration of cofl ' ee ought to make an a ; ra in the history of retail commerce . The latter clans of tradesmen , aided by two com mercial Members of Parliament ., Mr . Thomas Baring and Mr . Moflall , are making u tstaiul a ^ iunsl . adulterations in the grocery trade According to hints at the meeting , the retail traflic in some articles in almost threatened with extinction by the

      increasing trade in spurious substitutes . Were such practices to continue unchecked , all confidence in the dealer would be destroyed , and serious inconveniences would result to the trader as wellas the consumer . There can be no doubt , howeve that if the respectable dealers persevere in the . stand against adulterations they must succeed , not only in arresting the progress of fraud , but in drawing a larger portion of custom to the sound trader . Although the majorities at the meeting were very close , the balance of moral weight lies with the innovators .

      The stagnation of affairs inseparable in England from the mock crisis we have just undergone would seem to influence—magnetically , we suppose —the politics of the Continent . Everywhere the same painful state of suspense . Germany sends us notes , memorandums , protests , and protocols without end : the result of all , a return to the sleepy old Diet of Frankfort . Prussia proposes it in good earnest ; most of the Princes are quite ready to accede to any measure that may be altogether of a negative character . Austria indeed would soar higher , and Schwarzenberg storms and thunders . But Metternich sends in a word of peace and moderation , and he is the man of 1815 .

      From France , next to nothing . Louis Napoleon tries to win Parisian hearts by cantering and caracoiing along the Boulevards . His Ministers try to win over the National Guards by affecting to leave them the right of private suffrage to the last . They wish the French people to see how averse the President i 9 to rob them of a franchise by virtue of which he has attained his exalted station , and by the aid of which he feels sure he would be enabled to retain

      it . There are rumours of an adjournment of the Assembly in April , to afford the Government leisure for sounding the people ' s mind , previously to the presentation of any motion for a revision of the Constitution . The feuds of LfgitimintH and Orleani « ts run higher than ever , and the breach between them will only cease with extinction of one of the branches . They teach the French to cry , " A plague <> ' both your Houses 1 " and the ultimate success of the BouupurtistK can no longer be matter of serious doubt . A new turn has been given to the Slavery

      agitation in the United States . The act ot Congress authorizing the capture of runaway slaves has been found to conflict with an act of the State Legislature in Massachusetts , and the conflict has been used to facilitate the escape of a captured slave . Here , therefore , we have the general slave question complicated with old disputes about . Federal rights and State right . On the one side is the President issuing proclamations in support of the Federal nt . u lute ; on the oilier side , the State oflicurs are <>}> - poMng to the Federal statute a certain passive re-Histance , and the eloquent theologian , Theodore Parker , ia helping to tun the ardour of the Anti-Sluvery party .

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      Ivo ^^^ V

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      VOL . II . —No . 51 . SATURDAY , MARCH 15 , 1851 . Price 6 d .

      Untitled Article

      Nivps OF the Wjek— Pug * The German Revolution 243 Grievances of the Farmer .. 248 Letters to Chartists 254 I Parliament of the Week 238 The Uckfield Burglars 243 Literature— Open Council—I Tlie Continent 239 •• Punch" Condemned 243 Spencer ' s Social Statica 248 The Polish-Hungarian Exiles in Li-I The Polish and Hungarian Exiles in Miscellaneous 243 Hose Douglas 25 U verp > ol 2 "> I Liverpool 240 Public Affairs— Mayo ' s Philosophy of Living 251 Duty of the People to be Politicians 2 . V > I The Kaffir War 240 Why Can ' t we have a Good Budget ? 246 Portfolio— Kxisttiice of a Deity i . ' 5 "> I Anti-Slavery Disturbances 240 Courting La " Belle France" 210 Sketches from Life 252 Harriet Martineau and H . G . Atkinf The Heal Gold Coast 241 Progress of Assurance 24 « The Plains of Lombardy 2 J 3 son v 2 " > i ; [ Protestantism and Popery 241 The Palaces of the Poor V 47 The Arts— Macready ' s Farewell ii . ili A Protectionist Meeting 242 Grievances of the Sailor 247 Love in a Maze 253 The Wood Pavement 256 The London Dock Company 212 Adulteration of Beer 247 Tlie New Tragedian 254 Commekcial Affaiks—The Chicory Question 242 Political Interests of the Soldier .... 248 Pkogkess of the People— Markets , Gazettes , &c 257-53

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      Untitled Article

      "Thb one Idea which History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Idea or B Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw down alL the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided H view 3 ; and by setting a 3 ide the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race H as one Drotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldt ' s Cosmos .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1851, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1874/page/1/