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Leader (1850-1860), 1st May 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 416

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      Untitled Article

      THE SEASON . Portentous has been the season in many -ways —perplexing not only monarelis , but merchants , mariners , farmers , astronomers , and other practical philosophers . The East wind persevered for so many weeks that the Oldest Inhabitant does not remember the like . We , who hare a better surviving memory , do remember something not altogether dissimilar in 184 . 2 , just ten years ago , with somewhat similar results . Then , as now , vessels were kept hack in " the Chops ofthe Channel" until the crews tnat

      "began to think , like the Ancient Mariner , they should never more get home , but remain at sea for ever , a fleet of Vanderdeckens . At that time indeed , if we remember rightly , there were not the remissions which have , at rare intervals , "broken the continuity of the wind and let in a ship or two to report ihe durance of the rest . It Tvas a cold whiff of harsh Westerly wind , much Eke theEast , evidently , indeed , no other than the East going-back again , like a tired wild goose going to the rear in the unstaid flight of the flock .

      But in another respect the season has been more obdurate than that of 1842 ; the more evidently so , too , since the spell of east wind has now happened later in the year . There was not then * if we can trust our memory , the same almost total suspension of rain . This year , not only does the farmer cry aloud , but the parched moors and hills have taken fire both in England and Ireland ; and the home-keeping Britisher has seen the spectacle of the American prairie imitated , even in the " preserves" of the lordly Ellesmere and Stamford .

      While we have had East winds scouring tlie surface of sea and land , Schwarzenbergs and Napoleons vexing the nations , marvellous goldfloods newly disclosing themselves to perplex our commerce with riches infinite , we have also seen a strange portent in the higher heavens . Many times lately has it appeared . At first , cunning men took it only for an effect of moonlight ; some , indeed , only for earthly fires , and forthwith " fetched the engines . " Bat no hose could play so high . It happened ahout the middle of ih . 0 > month , not by any moans for the first time , and subsequently , about seven , On the evening of the 19 th , as it is described by an observer at

      Chatham : — - « ' A brilliant crimson play of light , of a fan-sloped iippoaranco , and oxtremely vivid at tho nucleus , was followed by numerous columns of dazzling light shooting upwards ; In three minutes tho brilliancy ceased , and in fivo minutes wholly disappeared ; the clouds , however * in the immediate vicinity of tho phenomena , retained a rich crimson tint , of unusual dopth and bril liancy , ' for some minutea longer . * ' Tho day had been very cloudy and cold , nntl the evening proved too cloudy to discern tho setting sun , but the apparent time of tho phenomena occurring was a' few minutes after minuet . For Homo considomblo

      time after the occm-ren . ee , while every other part of tho heavens was obscured by dark and angry-looking cloudy tho extreme odgo of the western horizon pni-Hontod a long-continued Htrealc of a blood-coloured huo . " Again , on tho oyoiting of tho 20 th : — " This evening , at 7 h . 2 ^ m ., " writes Mr . K . J . Lowe , from . Hfgnfiold IIouso Observatory , " tho oingulur phenomenon of a perpendicular rny of light from tlio mm ngain'occurred hero . , It was omnge-coloured , 2 (> an length ; and very slightly inclined lVoni the porpendichlar toward tho west . Tho column moved northerly . M litid ipalsiUions of greater and loss brilliancy . It finally disappeared at 7 h . 50 m . Tlio width of tho colu ' mh was about that of the apparent diameter ot tho ^ rK ^ Eov . V . 0 . Clouston , of Sandwiclc-mnnso , Orkney Manda ; liuorins mo that it lias beon plainly

      visible several times lately after sunset , and also several times before sunrise . " Tlie elevation above the earth must have been very great , as it was seen across the whole breadth of England and Scotland , and in the Orkney Islands . " Strange season of celestial apparitions , burning moors , golden revolutions at the antipodes , despotic triumphs on the „ Continent , smothered labour questions at home , — -of doubt , dread and drought ! _ _ ... .

      But hark I what sound is that without , —soft and steady , vague , and yet familiar as the mother ' s hush of love to her sleeping child P It is the rain I Come then , at last , harbingered by that West wind , that real West wind . Come and welcome ! Richer than gold ; more powerful -than power ! The farmer smiles ; the leaves burst forth to meet the lifesome draught ; and the heart of man opens with delicious gratitude to the Giver of all good .

      Untitled Article

      COMING EVENTS . " The present Ministers , " says Lord John Bussell , " like pheasants , > not to be killed until the 1 st of October ; " but then , it is to be presumed , Lord John will have a shot at them , put Lord Derby out of his pain , and restore theJbeloved Whigs ! "Not that the division of Friday night is very favourable for the prospects of the itussell party . Lord John retains a preference for his own Militia Bill j but evidently the House of Commons does not . A majority voted with Lord Palmerston against the very first item of Lord John's bill , the title ; a majority of two to one affirmed the second reading and the principle of Lord Derby's bill , in opposition to Lord John . The Whig leader is deserted in his own House of Commons—his party has fallen away from him . He knows itj and like a peevish child he lets it be seen that he knows it .

      Will he be better off in the next Parliament ? It is scarcely possible . So far as it still retains political unity , the Liberal party seems to have resolved to take up its stand on the Free-trade question ; and on that , the Free-trade jparty jpar excellence will have a victory— -the Manchester Schoolbeing the obvious and rightful leaders of the . Liberals in the contest . But what then P The issue of that contest is already known : the very Protectionists decline to join battle on

      the question , and in fact give up Protection ; so that , according to pre-arrangement , their doctrine is not to be restored , Free-trade is'to be maintained : perhaps even extended and completed P The quondam Tories or Protectionists intend to take the battle on a different issue , capitally set forth by "A Highland Farmer" who writes to the Times , but whom we suspect to be next of kin" to something very different from what is ordinarily understood by a Highland Farmer .

      " It is not because we detest Mr . Cobden , or have a muddled association of ideas with respect to that gentleman , and the other gentlemen elsewhere , that we have pinned our faith to Lord Derby . 3 STo , sir , it is from no such contemptible motive . It is because he , when others . deserted us , stood boldly apart from the tagrag and bobtail who followed their leader , and left their colours to bo trampled in the mire . Gallantly ho then strovo to stem the torrent that liad burst its

      banks ; and , though ho cannot now turn the course of tho rolling water , ho is none tho less our leader and our friend . Would that the word was spoken—as it will be yet—that never again can tho slightest duty bo imposed on corn ! Would that tho time was como when , without fear of injury to the great Conservative cause , tho wholo truth may be plainly spoken , and the same breath that sounds the latest knoll of tho corn law proclaims a nobler and a higher aim as tho object of our future Government ! It is utterly unfair to compare tho relinquishment of Protection now with its abandonment before . Sir Robert Peel misled his party ,

      but failed to transfer thorn . Lord Derby ' s party are in advanco of him . Let him bo convinced that , though principles can novor change , opportunities are tho oflcct of circumstances—that thooretio opinions as often lag behind veal ronults as they precede nbuohito failures ; and , with a bold heart and fairness worthy of him , lot his cry bo addrosHod to tho Conservative un < l Protestant feelings of tho nation , and ho will find that tlio farmers of Great Britain will as thoroughly rely upon his character , and far more highly approve it , than if ho reawakened all tlio memories of injuries done , or proposed the most impossible romedy in his budget . '

      Some such fooling as this , though not so distinctly posited , exists , not only in hard headed Scotland , whoro steam chimneys are invading the fields and converting agriculture into a manufacture , but in agricultural England , even to the

      unintellectual South . Every ^ helps to confirm our calculation , that the workinff Protectionists of " the countryrare prepared to let IiOrd . Derbyabandon Protection ; but that they cling to him in theRelief that , after all , J ^ otection or no Protection , he will yet do somethinq forilwfnrrn ^ s . j ^ ow : what is that to be P It is , we are surei quite possible to do " something" for them ; but what ? Thet moral of Protection , which places the welfare of the Human

      being above the prosperity of the goods , and deems * men better than raiment , " is sound : " Live and let live" is a wise as well as humane injunction , and the instinct which dictated it is true . Lord Derby may well and wisely abandon Protection ,, but not that just object of Protection . Yet how will he pursue itP . By falling back Upon the " Conservative" portion of his jjartytraditiottsP That would hardly suffice . It is not by resistance to an imaginary " revolution" that Lord Derby will enable the farmers to pay rents and

      wages j still less by the panacea of the day--" Protestantism , " He must be a , bigot indeed that can expect to pay his landlord or Kis labourers by the strength of anti-papal successes at the next election . It is , in truth , neither the Pope nor the Democrat that is invading the farmer—it is neither Pope nor ; Democrat that he expects to be shielded against by Lord Derby ; the revolution which lie has to dread does not await the advances of Ghartisinv which is falling to pieces , nor of Puseyism , which inclines to a

      more generous spirit of landlordism ; but it is already making progress . The question which has tp be solved next after Free-trade is already darting its shadows across tlie ground we tread . "While Parliament is busying its routine brainsaboutalternations of Derbys and B-ussellSj while exclusive middle-class politicians are devoting their souls to fight o ' er again the battle of a thrice settled question , gigantic events-are still week after week inarching inexorably forward to make a totallynew " situation . " at no distant date . Our present ideas are but tlie leavings of the past , and our practical

      politicians have not yet begun to learn the art of handling the ideas of the next period . Although Freetrade has given the mechanic and labourer " cheap bread , " they are not content , hut are bent on going to seek something wore than cheap bread Si distant lands . Although " Chartism is dead , " immense numbers are leaving this country every month for the colonies , multitudes preferring the American Union , because it is Republican . Landlords who have been accustomed to " improve" then : estates in Ireland by driving off the people , are paid in kind , by the used to drive

      immense flight of the people they away , leaving only the memory of wrong and a sectarian bitterness provoked by the sectarian intrigues of England ' s official representatives . We have seen an exode of 300 , 000 yearly from the United Kingdom : this year the number appears to be yet greater : the people are pouring out through Liverpool . At JNew York they are landing in large multitudes— -26 , 000 in one day alone . Nor is this drain of people confined to England ; Germany also sends multitudes to the country that is preparingto elect a Democratic President , and to welcome Thomas Francis Meagher because

      he Was an Irish insurgent . . We are not preaching theories , we are only stating facts , which anybody can ascertain tor himself : but every fact moans something ; ana wo only ask whether these have not a meaning , deep yet clamorous P , ; Look to the other great fact . The raw material of our chief « medium of exchange is discovered in a British colony in immense

      abundance , and straightway tho bonds of society are all but dissolved . 3 % e instrument of trade is strengthened , and industry is in contusion ; w little does mere trade suffice as the regulator of industry , still less of society . O . he go " not only causes a collapse on industry oy w »» concentration , in Australia—it is adding to tho drain of labour from this country ; it i ? pourwg into Australia moro " Democrats ; " it is coming

      over here to " disturb prices . " . «• Labour is undergoing a process of drotting ; w to happier dimes and moro expansive P " ™' capital is getting cheaper amongst us ; land au n < 5 increase in breadth at ; home . Our V » V ° rity" at present is enorraoua , and laughs to boot * any doubt of its own immortiuito ; jWst « w ° French noblesse of the last canfyijey ; revelled i » the undoubted immortality of their eyetom .

      ^N Biu Mitim

      ^ n biu Mitim

      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , "because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . — -De . Aknold .

      Untitled Article

      SATURDAY , MAY 1 , 1852 .

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      416 THE l ^ pi ^ tjAi ^^^^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 1, 1852, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1933/page/12/