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Leader (1850-1860), 15th March 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 248, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      offences . And this hideous compound , after undergoing all the adulteration on which the brewer can venture , is again subjected to the " doctoring" of the retailer before it reaches the consumer ! From the Government , the People have no hope for protection . Competition is the panacea and talisman of the Government for all ills and dangers . But fraud , adulterations , and deceptions are inseparable from competition . The public , therefore ,

      must seek redress elsewhere . The first blow in the right direction has been struck by the " Metropolitan and Provincial Joint-Stock Brewery Company . " With a capital of £ 200 , 000 , afterwards to be increased , if necessary , to £ 1 , 000 , 000 , that company proposes to establish breweries , not only in the metropolis but also in the provinces , for the supply of unadulterated beer and porter at prices below those at present charged by the trade for an inferior article .

      We know of nothing which bears a higher promise of entire success than this enterprise . The beer supply is doubtless the very worst in every domestic household ; and thousands will join with alacrity in an undertaking which will give them a wholesome beverage in addition to an excellent investment of capital . The prospectus states that , " At present prices every quarter of malt will yield upon an average a net profit of seventy per cent ., to be divided between the company and the public ; and the company is pledged to " supply every description of ale and porter made from malt and hops only . "

      The thriving state of various cooperative associations in which the proprietors are also consumers , has been frequently referred to in the Leader ; and we are not surprised to hear that the applications for shares in this company have been both numerous and from precisely the class of People most likely to appreciate the benefits of the plan . The success of the People ' s mill at Leeds is

      conclusive on all the points aimed at in this undertaking . The subscribers to that mill have flour at its real price , not raised by the competition of the market , or the many hands through which it passes in other channels . The flour is the best in England . It is as unadulterated as a household truth . In like manner it is quite possible to have beer as cheap , as sound , as good , as the best of the real old " home brewed . "

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      POLITICAL INTERESTS OF THE SOLDIER . Opportunity was never so lavishly wasted as it is by our ruling classes . They are not only alienating the afFections of other classes , but , although their power rests wholly on existing prestige and the possession of the Army , they are breaking down the prestige as fast as they can , and they are neglecting to retain the attachment of the Army to the existing state of things . We mentioned last week how General Sir Charles Napier denounced favouritism in the Army , or as Sir Krskine Perry called it , " the cold sh . 'ide of the Aristocracy , " under which the merits of ths working soldier , officer or private , languish without reward or hope : we leave our military readers to draw their own inferences of the opportunities afforded by more stirring times , as they are indicated by the Tory historian Hume . In his fifty-. seventh chapter they will find these expressions : — " Citizens and country ( jentlemen soon became excellent officers ; and the Generals of greatest fame and capacity UAI ' im ' . nki ) , all of them , to Hprinij up on the aide of Parliament : the conrtieru um \ the great nobility on the other hand , checked the growth of : iny extraordinary genius ainonj the tmUordiiiate ofllcer * ; and •• very man , as in a regular established government , wan confined ti > the . station in which his birth hud placed him . "

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      OUIKVANCKH Ol' THK FA 11 MKU . Mit . John Ellman is the first to speak out , in a course which will be forced upon farmers . In a letter " to the tenant farmers of the empire , " he makes u suggestion which we may call No . I . : — " Ministers could m > t deny the dintrcMH of the tenant lannern ; smil tlinir main reason ^ iven for refusing you relief ih , tltat your liiboururs are well off '; in other wonts . that at long at from kind Jeelingt you refuse tit screw down your labourer * in wages , tmd employ them sootier than send them to the Union home , so lomj will they refuse to do anything to save you from ruin . " Let every one of you explain the whole case to your respective labourers . I'M them that it is sorely against your will to reduce them to the same miserable diet as the serfs in I ' oland , or even the agricultural labourers in I ' ranee , or to send them into the Unimi / mine , but that her Majesty ' s present Ministers openly avow that till thit be done all relief to you shall be , refused . " The Times linn mtido a dead net at Mr . Kllinnn , aivd brings to bear upon him the whole weight of its Hatirical powers ; but he is only giving voice to a fooling which is x < - ry general among fanners . Let the Times ask them for their real opinion in ^ Shropshire , Lincolnshire , or Hnckinghainfthire . But the Leading Journal knows well enough where the truth lies ; only it ia thought expedient to silence Mr . Ellman—if possible . The difficulty may be deferred for a time ; but the day is corning when the armera will he foroed to make ( heir appeal to the public ; and then

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      There is a vigorous aristocracy in our Republic of Letters ; and that aristocracy is very much disquieted by the importance which the agitation for the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge is gaining . Naturally enough those who flourish under the present system have little sympathy with those who demand a change ; with Candide they declare all is for the best in this best of worlds , and are liberal in

      prophecies of the evils which must attend a change . Among these evils great prominence is given to the ruin of t ( respectability in the press . " Throw open the field , break down monopoly , and from that moment " Carthage is fallen ; ' * Respectability will no longer pride itself on its " Long-acre springs , " the gig will be displaced by the coster ' s barrow , the pen of the literary man may be burnt as useless !

      If ever transparent fallacy imposed upon thinking men , this surely is one ! That price regulates respectability is very good shopkeeper ' s philosophy , but will not bear examination . Without appealing to the high character of various low-priced publications in this country , let us answer those who throw certain American newspapers in our teeth , by referring them to France . When Entile Gikabdin boldly took the initiative of cheap

      newspapers , and started La Presse at forty franca a-year ( a fraction more than a penny a-day ) the same arguments were used against him . The Press was to be ruined ; journalism was about to expire . Events have not confirmed those prophecies . La Presse has had many imitators . Has the tone of the press become lower ? Do not the most popular , and some of the most distinguished , men in France still exercise the office of journalist ? The conclusion to be drawn from the facts

      respecting cheap newspapers and periodicals is that , in respect of tone , whether dear or cheap , the press will be the echo of the nation , the reflex of its habits , the voice of its spirit : high , chivalrous , and hopeful , or low , scurrilous , and vindictive , cultivated or coarse , elegant or energetic , precisely according to the average mind of the section it appeals to .

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      We have on several occasions spoken of the astonishing advance in liberty of opinion during the last few years , and this advance is vividly brought before the mind by Holyoakk's little work , just issued , wherein he gives the whole history of his Trial and Six Months * Imprisonment—a graphic and touching narrative to make the cheek burn with indignation , and the eyes moisten with sympathy ; but especially curious as illustrating the intolerance which then ( 1842 ) paraded itself as a virtue , and the very different state of feeling which now exists .

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      Macueady has had honours showered upon him enough to sweeten the pain of leave-taking ; among them , this dedication of Okoru g JSand ' h latest publication , Le Chateau des Dtsertes , which is now appearing in La Revue des Deux Mondes . •—"'To W . C . Mat-ready . " This little work , attempting to net forth certain ideas on Dramatic Art , 1 place under the protection of a greut name , and of an honourable friendship . ( s ' eorqe Sand . " Nohant , April : (() , 1817 . "

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      Mohkh keeps a Poet . Wajikkn also had the reputation of having employed men of Letters to compose his pufl " n . We know not how true tint * report may be , for tho writers have shrunk from publicity ; none have been immodest enough to wear the livery in the open streets . The aon of Diimah—Alexander tho Younger—has no such scruples . " ( jetting a living by one ' s pen , " he interprets in the fullest sense . Pay , and he will write ! If puffs are as lucrative ns novels , why not write them , since one i « as conscientious a piece of

      literature as the other ! The gigantic speculation which placards and puffs itself through France at this moment—the great Lottery Wfr the Lingots of Gold—has employed the facile and unscrupulous pen of Dumas fils , whose long puff , signed by himself , forms a curiosity of literature . There is no false pretence about it . As an advertisementpuff it appears , and that without disguise . Its composition reveals more audacity than skill ; but the speculators care little so that their puff be read , and

      the name of Dumas will secure it a reading . Some passages are very amusing . With perfect gravity he tells us , " Lotteries are of great antiquity : a trustworthy tradition affirms that the sons of Noah , before quitting the Ark , played at mourre , a species of lottery still in use among the lazzaroni of Naples . " We shall respect morra the more now we have learnt its antiquity ! Dumas adds , " We find

      in the histry of the Heraclidae an anecdote of marvellous interest which proves that the lottery is very ancient . " After Noah and the Heraclidse , who can hesitate ? If antiquity has no authority with you , Dumas the younger has an argument in reserve "Is not everything in the world a lottery ? Life is a perpetual lottery for the profit of death ; love the lottery of the heart ; ambition the lottery of the brain ; the future the lottery of all . " After that one is silenced : there is no alternative but to take a ticket !

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      Among German novelties we may mention that Kuehne has published some clever sketches under the title of Deutsche Manner und Frauen j and that the Countess Hahn Hahn is to issue a new and cheap edition of her writings ; but we suspect the " rage" for her works is over , certainly in England . We have reserved a bonne bouche for the last . Is there a man in England who has not repeatedly seen the terror-bearing name of Jellachich , the Ban of Croatia , upon whose sword the dt stinies of

      nations seemed to hang ? The fact now escapes that the terrible Ban is a poet ! Why not ? Achilles soothed his leisure with the sounding lyre , when not listening to the " many-sounding sea ; " Alexander always travelled with Homer in his casket ; C . ESAR has left us fragments of verse , and the Great Frederick wrote reams of poetry . If Horace ran away ( which he had a

      perfect right to do !) / Eschylus redeems the poetic reputation , for the hand which wrote the Prometheus did terrible execution on the darkhaired Persians at Marathon ! We have great curiosity to see Jkllachich ' s poems . The imperial printing press of Vienna is doing its utmost to give them due magnificence ; and it is said a copy is to be sent to the Great Exhibition !

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      SPKNCElt ' S SOCIAL STATICS . Social Statics ; or , the Conditions essential to Human Happiness specified , and the first of them developed . My Herhert Mpenccr . John Chapman . We have already , in a brief sentence , recorded our emphatic admiration of this remarkable treatise , the title of which has led some persons to suppose it to be a work on Socialism . Social Statics is an attempt to define and circumscribe the primary conditions of society—those abstract princip les of equity which mutft receive their application in

      morals and politics ; and the logical precision with which this is done is as admirable as the luminous illustrations with which the abstract principles are brought home to the reader ' s understanding . A work at once so scientific in spirit and method , and so popular in execution , we shall look in vain for through libraries of political philosophy . Beautiful it is to eee how , by the aid of two principles , he evolveH the whole argumentative basis of his work ; and theae two are — -

      I . 1 hat every man has freedom to do all that he wills , provided he infringes not the equal freedom of other men . II . All social imperfection results from the nonadaptation of man to social conditions ; which non adaptation is continuall y being diminished by the changes of constitution socially induced , and must inally disappear . This second principle will not at once be ho readily conceded m the first . Mr . Spencer has

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      248 CDC &eafcet . [ Satitrbay ,

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      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them — Edinburgh Review .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1851, page 248, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1874/page/12/