On this page
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
TTow our hearts should bleed for them ! how , m farnest purpose , and in sad compunction for the nast we should prepare for the day when their Kmntrymen will rise to free them , when Europe will a ^ ain be upheaved with a convulsion , from which ° no pretended non-intervention policy can . succeed in keeping our country entirely apart . "Let us rouse ourselves , and shake off this moral aloth , and make war to the indiffef entism which unto who is
is a danger and a disgrace us . He not for ' the nations is against them . We do not fear that we shall be neutral ; neutrality is impossible , it is a blind immoral dream ; but it throws us , at home and abroad , bound hand and foot into the power of those who will use our resources in the service of despotism , and leave us at last incapable even of defending the liberties which we have acquired for ourselves .
Untitled Article
ANT 1-MAYNO 0 T 1 I AND ITS TKACJIIN < JS . That which is a crime committed in the name ol one nmn ' H religion becomes nn heroic act under another ' s—at leant in the estimate of that other . I he indecencies of the Christian , world are the Nolernnitiea of the Hindu . But wo need not
look so wide apart for this sort of identical discrepancy . The adherent of one faith denounces an act as a shocking violation of morals , and does the selfsame act himself as a vindication ol morals . According to the enemies of Maynooth , the students at that college are instructed to put a series of questions to persons at confession , most certainly suggesting ideas subversive of to
morality ; and a book has been publisned . exppse this practice . The indecencies of certain manuals in the course of Maynooth are matter of debate ; but there can be no question as to the gross indecency of the book that exposes them . It is possible , however , that it may be needful occasionally , for solemn purposes , to make statements that would not otherwise be tolerated without some such grave motive ; and if so , a book is a very proper vehicle , since it ^ can . be kept , upon the whole , in the hands for which it is intended . But what have the ultra-Protestant assailants of Maynooth and champions of morality done ? They denounce the unscrupulousness of the Romanists , but they have slight
scruples of their own . The newspaper is a questionable arena for such discussions , but the anti-Eomanist zealots do not even confine themselves to newspapers . It would be a flagrant outrage if they were personally to enter a strange household , and to address their foul controversy to the ears of the young daughters ; but there would be this safeguard in such a step , that conduct so flagrant would promote prompt expulsion . J-he course which they have selected is one not less outrageous , but infinitely more insidious . There is a weekly publication specially framed
for circulation in the English middle class , like Chambers s Miscellany , with miscellaneous essays and fictions , selected to attain such a circulation , by avoiding all that can tend to startle that class , and seeking all that is adapted to the tastes of the class ; and we believe that the publication in question , the Household Words , is very widely successful . It is edited by Mr . Charles Dickens . This is the publication selected by the anti-Komanists . Of course they had not the leave of the editor ; but handbill is
they did not wait for that . A printed incorporating some of the most odious suggestions of the book , and that handbill is inserted between the leaves of the Household Words . By that disposition it is the more sure to reach the hands of the youth of both sexes , who form , we conceive , no small proportion of the readers of the Household Words ; and thus a publication , singularly harmless , is made the vehicle for those very ideas which the circulators of the handbill declare to be poison .
The editor of the Household Words instantly and indignantly repudiated all connexion with the odious act ; of which , indeed , no one could for a moment have believed him guilty . It is among the most flagrant traits of the outrage that the circulators of the handbill have ^ not scrupled to invade his property with their filthy polemics . To adopt Achilli as an apostle , and to convert the Household Words into a sandwich of abomination , are the two most recent exp loits of the ultra-Protestant purists I
Untitled Article
THE " STANDARD" CAIMHT KAVKSDRO 1 T 1 NO . TitEitR are various standards in use among us ; as the standards of gold and silver , of militiamen and . sherry , of weights and of measures , which are the standards of the country gentlemen , and the Standard of the confiding ' Derby itea , which we will not way is a low standard , for no one has
yet been able to appreciate its mean rapacity , even with the most delicate of instruments . It is , therefore clawed by natural philosophers among the animalcule of the political world . JJut as a very HTiiall bone in the hands of Professor Owen indicates to him the nature of the animal to which it belonged , so a very insignificant object becomes significant by its relation to other larger and inoro important things .
Lord Derby raises the miserable ' No Popery cry , and the ' Standard aids and abets him . All well and good , while that journal confines itn advocacy within the limits of inanlineBH , courtesy and honour . But the Standard finds those limits too narrow for the exercise of its peculiar functionH , ho it dosconds into the congenial , medium of the unmanly , the discourteous , and the nIwiik . ' - leHH . Tlio Times printed n just and manly
commentary on the upshot of the Achilli trial , uBinc strong language in reference to both judge and jury . The Standard , to whom as to others , it was open to reply in the same way , prefers to denounce the author of the article in the Times . Some adept in the arts of Venetian spies dropped a letter into the lion ' 3 head , in Bridge-street , containing the name of the alleged writer of this article ; and the editor of the Standard printed the name in full , an act which we are not going to imitate . -, -, i . Now this journalist is denounced because ne is presumed to be favourable to religious liberty for the Roman Catholics . This reason is avowed .
We , for our part , protest against this violation of a ' rule of honour understood among journalists . The Standard has placed itself in exactly the same position as the eaves-dropper and retailer of private conversations . We need do no more than gibbet the Standard as the Standard has tried to gibbet the independent journalist ; only , be it understood , we refrain from naming tne person who officiates in the character of editor ol that paper ; from a feeling of respect for our profession and ourselves .
Untitled Article
WORN-OUT WORDS AND SYMBOLS IN POLITICAL CONTROVERSY . Wobds wear out like other instruments . The cultivation of the understanding , like the cultivation of the earth , is performed by certain machinery , which may be old or new—well or ill-adapted for the office . We plough up the intellectual soil and sow the seeds of knowledge by the aid of terms , just as in agriculture we accomplish similar operations by the aid of implements . In arts and sciences , leading ideas are conveyed by leading terms . As these terms perpetually recur , care has to be taken that they do not change in signification materially , because such change involves confusion . In the advocacy of special political or social principles there are , as in art and science , leading terms continually employed , upon which the right understanding of what is intended depends . Yet very little attention is paid to the variation of meaning which these words undergo . Sometimes a partyname acquires , in the course o f twelve m onths , a meaning entirely opposite to that which it at first had . Perhaps some indiscretion in speech , or folly in policy , is committed by a party bearing a particular name ; perhaps something is imputed to a society by an unscrupulous enemy , and reiterated by a credulous press , whereby the collective name acquires a new and detestable association of ideas . To continue to use
the name after t his has occurred , is to mislead the public , and to obscure the objects intended to be explained . When an accident of this kind happens , there is no help but to abandon the term , and choose a new one . There is commonly great opposition to this course , as there is to everything reasonable on the part of people more obstinate than wise . 1 roposo to change a party-name which has been distorted by accident or error , and many , more headstrong than wise , will set up an ill-considered demand for objects , « , „„„« and all . " This is considered to be honesty ,
whereas it is in fact practical dishonesty , lor whoever insists upon using a name with a new association misleads all who bear it , and causes the public to misiiultfe all who arc represented by it . This practice also diverts a . party from the . pursuit of its proper objects into n laborious attempt to re-educate the people into this right understanding of the old name with Uio new signification . A person wearing a new and becoming coat may pass us a respectable man , but it ho
will continue to appear in it after the elbows nro out , and the skirts torn oil " , this wearer ' s rank and integrity may remain the same , but the public will be sure to mistake him for a very dillerent person . It is of no use saying the public out / hi not to do ho—the pubhe will . < lo no it will judge by such general rules as it has inherited , and he who disregards 11 mm must take the eonsequeiurs . So it is with a party-name , it is the letter of recommendation to the looker-on . I he
association of ideas connected with that name determines the man who is a stranger to the truth of the
matter . If a term connotes , that is , rails up , notions of anarchy , spoliation , and outrage , the \ warvr is filled with these ideas—they constitute a Uii « k < -1 <» i < 1 through which he probably never penetrates to the real meaning behind . A more pernicious and irrelevant question never blinded the discretion of Reformers than " What ' s in u iwiiK !? " Thorn is nothing '" lllllll ( i ^ ilie reality be before yon . Hut if it bo not , there in confusion in the name , " unless it exactly indicate the thing intended . If the mum ; be the Hole medium by which the public me to bo informed of the bearings of nomo policy , or
Untitled Article
Juw 17 , 18520 THE LEADER . 683
Untitled Article
HOW TO ELECT GUARDIANS TO YOUR MIND . Let us tell some facts about the election of Poor-Law Guardians at Leeds . As we only mean to tell facts , without the slightest comment , the reader will be good enough to pay strict attention to the facts , and supply the comment for himself . The returning officer is the same person as the clerk to the Board ; it is he that engages the persons who distribute the voting-papers , and who collect them when filled up ; he makes up the returns . The same gentleman has filled both offices for the last seven years .
In March last there was the usual election , and voting-papers were distributed as iisual ; the proceedings of this election were the subject of an official investig ation by Mr . Farnall , the Poor-Law Inspector , within the last fortnight ; and from the proceedings at that enquiry we derive our principal facts . Some of the voters had had a sense of old suspicion , and had taken peculiar precautions . One ran his pen across the margin opposite the names of the candidates for whom he did not intend to vote , observing to the collector— " I have run my name across the
margin opposite the Tory names ; there can be no mistake now ; you cannot put my initials there . " When this voter ' s paper came before Mr . Inspector Farnall , the genuine initials had been erased ; and others , fabricated , had been placed opposite the Tory names ; at least , so the voter deposed . Another returned his votingpaper blank , declining to vote : initials were added . Another had voted , but his paper was rejected because his initials " did not look like G . R . " A fourth voted one way , but his paper Mas found amongst the opposing papers , and counted amongRt them . A fifth had filled up a paper , but totally repudiated the one produced as
his . A sixth inadvertently did not deliver his paper to the collector ; it was offered to the returning officer at his own office , but declined , as the collector could only call for it at the voter ' s own house . A seventh filled in his paper ; it was " ticked" by the collector as having been collected ; but was missing or " lost : " out of 131 to be delivered by ono collector there were 52 short ; and the collector could not explain it . All these aberrations told for the Tory candidates or against the Liberals . They arc ; specimens only of the facts collected during three ( lays .
" We are still without the close of the inquiry ; the legal adviser of the Tory party undertook , to bring forward recriminatory evidence , and had obtained several days' graces to get it up ; but the mass of testimony on the Liberal Hide seems to defy refutation ; and if both sides prove to have erred , the evidence against the system will only he doubly conclusive .
The reader will not be surprised to hear that the people of Leeds have long been dissatisfied with the plan of electing the : ( Guardians , and some time since they sent a memorial to the Poor-Law Commissioners asking for a change . Tin ; reply of the Commissioners was that no case had been made out . . Probably the Commissioners will now think that a awe has been made out ?
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 683, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1943/page/15/
-