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ter . Constant Derra de Moroda shared for a time the fate of his principal . He brings an action against Mr . Dawson and other persons , including his host , for false imprisonment , and he is non-suited . He was nonsuited for flaws in the statement of his case , but the incriminating evidence on the other side turned also on technicalities ; following the rule of the police-court in Birmingham , and of police-courts , indeed , in most parts of the country , the magistrate had committed what are really irregularities , and they received strong judicial censure . That censure , on a main point , was accompanied
by glances at the defendants . Mr . Baron Alderson , a jocose iudge , went so far as to venture an opinion that the Baroness was not wrong to declare that the proceeding against Mr . Derra de Moroda was " very wrong and very rash , " to designate Mr . Dawson as " foolish" because " he paid beforehand for a book not yet published ;" and to intimate , in mysterious terms , that he " was not prepared to say that there was not something to say against Mr . Dawson . " To speak frankly , these random parentheses from a iudge are very indecorous ; but we will not do
Mr . Dawson the injustice to record an elaborate defence . We leave his vindication to the people of Birmingham , who know him well . Suffice it to say that , not being a lawyer , he had left the technicalities of the case to lawyers , who must be responsible for that part of the business . He is known in Birmingham as a man of strong sense , of active business habits , effecting a vast amount of good , and preventing a vast amount of misdirected zeal , which might become mischievous . In anticipating the aid to the Baroness von Beck "before her book was
published , " he acted upon the generous construction of her vouchers , which was to be expected from his ardent though practical nature ; and in calling to account the spy Hacidula , who appeared to be defrauding the generosity of Birmingham , and the interests of those who profit by the generosity of Birmingham , he was performing a public duty with that energy and decision for which he is known . Derra de Moroda simply
suffered the inconvenience of being attached to the establishment of the itinerant Baroness , and in pointing him out as a victim , while the honourable and philanthropic George Dawson is slightingly glanced at as a mischief-maker , Baron Alderson transgressed his duty as a jxidgo , and tarnished his honour as a gentleman , in employing the seat of authority to pass an unwarranted judgment on a fellow-countryman .
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BECKETT DENISON ON " ASSOCIATION . " Association is not now without " respectable " advocates . Some time ago the Times printed a leader on Improved Dwellings for the working classes , in which they explained the benefits derivable from associated capital ; and asked , "Why , then , do not the working men of this country take advantage of this principle to exchange their I ) resent foul abodes for comfortable and airy odgings r " Mr . W . Beckett Deni . son replies in the- Times of Thursday : — " I will tell you : —Simply because the law of this country in in such ii state of barbarism that they can't ; because the law puts such obstacles in the way oi" that very principle of association—which you rightly nay ' lias covered our lands with iron roads , and our seas with fleets of steamers , ' - that it might just as well have said distinctly , that no body of people shall associate unless they have first got from 500 / . to 1000 / . to throw away , or unless they will submit to a perpetually recurring taxation , which conies to much the same thing ; for the mere satisfaction to the State of keeping a heap of fee-taking machinery inaction which is of no real use to any human being .
" I may as well show you at once that I am not talking at random , or without having had practical experience of the nature of the impediments J am speaking about . " I believe I may say that , chiefly in consequence of the success of a lodging-house experiment of my own on a small scale in this town , an attempt was made here last winter to form such an association as you
recommend . It was supported by all the most substantial people in this very substantial town ; but when it ( Mime to be worked out , we were met with such difficulties as the following : —1 . We might run the risk of netting up a very expensive concern , which might in sonio way or other fail , and leave its creditors to pick out any one rich man among the members ami nmko him pay lor everything that hud . been done , by
virtue of that beautiful law of partnership of the middle ages under which we live . 2 . We might get a charter ; and this we found would cost above 1000 / ., of which , of course , every bit goes in fees to people who do nothing of any use at all , except some reasonable sum to the lawyer , who really does all the serious business there is to do , in seeing that the grant is a proper one . I am told , though I can still hardly believe it , that every single name which is added to a charter of incorporation adds 401 . worth of fees . 3 . We might apply for an Act of Parliament ; and , singularly enough , we found that this , with all the machinery of
Parlialiamenfc to put in motion ( if unopposed ) , would cost less than a simple grant of incorporation from the Queen . Still , the very lowest figure at which even this article could he put down was 400 ? ., which is a good deal for a poor man ' s association to throw away without any return for it , except a bit of paper . 4 . Then the Joint Stock Companies Registration Act presented itself to our notice . But here was the old enemy , fees again , with a great deal of trouble besides , and a great many formalities to be perpetually complied with , which , somehow or other , nobody ever manages rightly but
attorneys , who must , of course , be paid for it . I have always understood that Act was passed at the beginning of the joint-stock mania , seven years ago , with the view of bursting bubble companies before they had time to damage anybody but their own promoters . Everybody knows it has been an utter failure for that purpose ; and now the concern seems only kept alive for that great end of official existence—to take fees , and bother people with no end of useless formalities and penalties if they don't observe them . We determined , therefore , to have nothing- to do with the
jointstock registering gentlemen / The consequence of this state of things , says Mr . Denison , is , that the working men of Leeds are in this respect just where they were last February and last February twenty years ; only , he says , they are worse off , as there are more of them and less room for them . But it is imperatively necessary something should be done . " The thing , " he continues , " speaks for
itself" Let working men have the opportunity of investing their money in a concern which would give them and their families the means of living like Christians instead of pigs , and then we should not have them throwing away their savings in speculating on 50 per cent , at Snig's-end , or investing them in trades-unions , which promise to give them their money back again with interest when they are ill or worn ont , and then go and spend it all in amalgamation battles for the temporary glorification of Mr . William Newton and his confederates . "
Mr . Denison might be a little more charitable to working men who work for working men . All gentlemen are not like Mr . Denison , or the working classes would not be "just where they were last Ftibi'uary twenty years . " " Onl y one word more , " he emphatically writes , " and 1 have done . Lot us understand what the real dragon is that wants killing just now . His name is 'iocs , '—that is all . " We arc not over anxious to claim adherents ; we do not elaim the mild , paternal Conservative Denison as an adherent ; but it is some consolation to us when we find men like him not afraid
of using the dreadful phrase , " principle . of hbsociation "—for advocating which wo havo been " tabooed" by the press , and rendered " suspect " to tho public .
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T 1 IK UKNIKTANCK IN THE COUNTIKS . In exposing hist week tho scandals of certain county elections , we ventured to predict that the inevitable result of intimidation would ho resistance . . 11 has been Hiiid that a revolution which attacks persons is , ipso facto , the commencement of reaction , in like manner , Toryism rampant stirs up the languid pulses of a liberal party that had lout its activity in the tranquil uBHiinmco of u tilow hut steady progress . In many quiet rural constituencies , Liberalism , content with the undisputed " settlnnriont " of "A" ! , and unsolicitous ,
if not afraid , of tin ) onward movement of more advanced or more eager politicians , lay asleep in the embrace of Kinality , rocked hy llusaell formulas . . Hut the vaunting domination of tho " territorial influence" has ellocled in a i ' ew weeks what long yearn of unprovoked propagandisin would have endeavoured in vain to uprouse . The Parliamentary Reform Association wiw never so well served as by Tory landlords and their imscnipiiloiiH agents . In FjiiMt-HoinerseL , where intimidation has just won so . suicidal a victory , we find lea-ding - Reforniert * neither discouraged nor mirulyjeud by defeat , but , on the
contrary , calmly devising means to strengthen thennumbers in the registration , and to consolidate their forces by an organization at once simple and effective . A more cheering indication of an . awakened public spirit we have not had occasion to remark . It will bear its fruits . Men wh 0 never dreamt of agitation for agitation ' sake now begin to ask one another , in sober seripus ' ness , Jloto are we to be protected in the exercise of our legal and constitutional rights ? It even occurs to them that nine tenths of the tmrepresented " rabble" would vote fair more purely and conscientiously ( to say nothing of
intelligence ) than the mass of herded and driven "friends and neighbours , " and the pliant or timid slaves of the counter and the till . We have before us a circular addressed to the Liberal electors of East Somerset , recommending a close and vigilant attention to the Kegister , and enforcing a suggestion which admits of general app lication , and which seems to us to contain the pith pf practical and serious agitation . It is to the effect " that arrangements should be at once made with some active person in each district , to perform this office ( attention to the Register ) , and that it would be very desirable to have a corresponding agent in each parish , to report progress , &c . &c , as well as a gentleman to superintend the whole division . "
To this capital suggestion we may be allowed to add another . Let district associations be formed , for the temperate and earnest discussion of those measures of political and social reform which must engage the next Parliament . Let such demands as the majority shall decide to be most urgent to secure at least the independence of the voter , be actively promoted , and let mutual concessions absorb allminor differences in presence of the instant need of close , vigorous , united action against the common adversary . We
cannot fairly expect many of our more quiet , and , perhaps , more sober , country reformers to go so far or so fast as the more restless spirits of the towzis , but on certain questions , such as the glaring anomalies of the actual ^ '^ representation of the People in the People ' s House , and the protection to the honest voter , which many would fain dispense with as " un-English , " but which English landlords render indispensable , there can bo but one conviction and one policy . We therefore say to our friends , register , organize , concentrate ; and without delay .
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ON THE ISSUE OF THE ENGINEERS' LATE STRUGGLE . A DIALOGUE BY THE RAILWAY . What can you do on a journey of three hundred miles , cooped up in a railway compartment , with three English passengers who never begin a conversation—unless they meet with a collision ; nothing less than that will make you * acquamted with each other . The train goes too fust for reading , the narrow gauge oscillates too much for writing , the journey is too long for silence ( unless you aro graduating for Pentonville ) , there is therefore no alternative but to make a violent attempt to convcr . se with your companions on some topic of tho hour , ,
Tile travellers on tho occasion of this dialogue consisted of the writer , a lady ' s maid , an engineer , and » gentleman , a sort of commercial hybrid , something octween a foreman and a muster—a species which Freetrado has certainly multiplied . After a satiety ° i those eternal advertisements now posted up in every second-class carriage , on which you read from morning till night of " Portable Manures" and " Accidental Deaths '' by railway misadventure— -only relieved by an announcement that " Cremona violins" are
warranted to bo " quite- new , " by Mr . Alvey Turner-- - "" opportunity occurs for a remark upon tho yellow ttkinH of Koine country women at ont ; of the stations , wlnoli our lady ' s maid ascribed to a rural habit of " drinking calomel , ten . " We thought this an unusual beverage , and distantly doubted whether camomile itself had produeed the saffron surfaces in question . . Hut our *• " " low-traveller wns confident her " Missis" had been to the " Cristel I ' nlli . s , " and among Other ' ? peculiosities , "
had seen Ihe very leaves " subinated" in a bottle . Judging from this example , both Mistress and M « i *» must have gathered up their science- at the Great Inhibition in a . very " popular" state . The young l | l ( ty > however , was somewhat given to confuse things on ner own account . Looking up at Stocken ' s nd vertiHeuient of iiis " Di-cMiing-case Manufactory , " she observed a " Diritressing-ciiHe Manufactory was very awfu l—there was nothing of the kind on the Continent , when nl ) u was there with Lady Hunting . " Our companion , tho mechanic , here took . occwJon t 0
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730 THE LEADER . [ Satitr ^ y ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 730, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1945/page/14/
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