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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd October 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 947

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      Untitled Article

      crime . Big . babies as they are , they do not hear the great sea of time roaring at their doors , while Bright and Cobden are the bogies with which they are at once terrified and subdued !

      Untitled Article

      EXTENSION OP THE THAMES TO ASIA , AFRICA , AND AMERICA . Steam is conquering new domains . The sudden access to the power of transit between distant parts , by the institution of the Transatlantic steamers , scarcely formed so great an advance as the new plans that are now in process of application . To bring England and America within a week ' s sail was a grand conquest , but to bring the western coast of Africa within the range of

      regular intercourse , to have begun the process of superseding the sail by the engine even for goods and emigration , and to essay the use of vast ships calculated to defy the inequalities of weather , are enterprises that would have been thought wild dreams no longer than a year back . The men of active imagination , like Bridges Adams or Macgregor Laird , find the facts overtaking their reveries , and turning the laugh against the slower intellects .

      The very extension of this steam intercourse , with the crossing of many paths , in itself greatly improves the character of the benefit . America has already several lines , and new ones projected . Beside Cunard's line , we have the New York line and the West Indian line . The Australian Pacific Mail Steam Company proposes to establish monthly mails connecting Sydney with

      Panama , and so with the West Indian line . The Cape already has its steamers . India sends us regular mails by steam ; and the Peninsular and Oriental Company has extended its operations to Australia . The Formosa sailed in July last , to serve in the new extension of bi-monthly mails , including not only China and Singapore , but Australia .

      Golden Australia has several lines to herself . Messrs . Kenna , Jones , and Chappie , of Liverpool , have established a line of screw steamers , including the Geelong of 1200 tons , and some smaller ships . The Great Britain , now belonging to " the Eagle line , " sailed from Liverpool for Australia last month ; she had accommodation for a thousand passengers . The Sotith Sea , of 2000 tons , and the Sarah Sands , the Australian , the Chusan , and the Sydney , 1400 tons , also belong to " the Eagle line . "

      The Australian lloyal Mail Steam Navigation Company sends out the Melbourne , of 1800 tons , to sail from Plymouth on the 3 rd instant . The Cleopatra , a private ship , of 1500 tons , has sailed from Liverpool . The General Screw Steam Navigation Company has , partly sent out , a magnificent fleet , comprising the Quean of the South ,

      1800 tons ; the Lady Jocelj / n , 1800 tons ; the Indiaman , 1850 ; the ' Mauritius , 12 (> 0 ; Calcutta , 11 ) 00 ; and Jlijdaspe . s , 1900 tons . We are aware that even now we have not exhausted the list ; but wo have stated enough to show how much lias been done in rendering the intercourse ! with tho most remote quarters not only speedy and k : iI '<\ but habitual .

      I lie comfort of these ships is also greatly in < i < vanee of the old models . In those under Mrs . < luslioliu ' a auspices—such as ( . he Carolina Cftis'' olin , a steamer of 21500 tons burden , constructed •<) carry out , 55 () young women—perfect , comfort ! »» ' < l decorum are made consistent with great jmmoiny . The Quean of the South is a , magnificent ''* - ' - ^»< 1 if complaints have been made- of N <> ii >< ( other steamers , for want of full accoimnocl ! ll '"»« . »— -proper enough to be corrected—it would ' ^ loiiish the ( irst voyagers to the G reat South " ¦ " »< l , to nee bow fastidious circumnavigators h « grown . 11 hi many respects more surprising than ¦*<»» I . Imh great licet ( . ending on the Colden ! VV

      . JUUJ- ih the establishment of the general lino ^ este ,. Africa ,. Thai , indomitably savage Tl ' i r '"' ' Hil ( M ' ! l Hcries of five steamers . ( " t ' orcruHHrr , of 400 tons , has gone , wil . h its "Hler , Mm-gre gor Laird , on board ; two other « a . acrs , of <)()( > t . () llH > Im , (() fo ,, . , , W () ()( - 111 '? J . . IIIH - Tlie lino will touch at ( , ' orce , Balh' ¦ , Sierra , I , eone , Liberia , Cape Coast , Accra , ( 1 'y < " > u , Hadagry , Lagos , Old Calabar , the VVil ' l " /!'" ^ milll <» ' ' Ma < leira , andTeneri ( Ie . Lair I '' nU' H l ) iri '' () 1 > a reformer , Macgregor ( . (>| ( l ' » " « lulroduced on board a , species ofgoodj (> " < 't money , divisible among officers and men , «„ , i < Mlr » K" discipline and - / . ml ; n grand cheek ( Jni « 'tfimut influences of the climate . The

      slave trade will not withstand this invasion of steady commerce . The exile of the white man will be cheered by the regular intercourse with home . While the paddle and the screw are thus making regular roads across the ocean , strange rumours come from Australia , of a new kind of screw , devised by Thomas Mitchell , on " the principle of the boomerang . " A screw propeller on the inscrutable principle of the native weapon is an idea as strange as a jockey race on the saltatory biped , with honorary front legs—the kangaroo ; but who , in these days , shall

      undertake to pronounce what is possible or impossible r The Funnel is superseding the Sail in the vast landscape of the ocean ; and why . should not the boomerang , invented by the human ornitlwrhyn * chus paradoxus , supersede the paddle and the screw , and perhaps teach Queen Victoria ' s Portsmouth how to bang Louis Napoleon ' s Cherbourg in the great game of sea fights ? " A game , by the bye , which , when it begins , may be very troublesome to all our ocean steamers , if we do not have a good escort or outfit for those floating inns ; especially if a great statesman , like Maimesbury , should contrive to embroil us with ouv only sea rival , America .

      Untitled Article

      WOMAN AGAINST THE « TIMES . " The Woman ' s Hights Contention at Syracuse , in the United States , was not an achievement but a symptom . That a great number of women should be collected together for an organized agitation in favour of" woman's rights , "—which appear to be more especially political suffrage , equal control over property , and removal of other civil disabilities —is a fact not to be abolished by ridicule or by overlooking . At the same time , the assemblage of a great number of ladies of

      all ages , with the machinery of a convention—its president , its morning and evening session , and its resolutions—before the agitators have acquired the slightest practice , or even insight into the conduct of public business , shows that they are not only incompetent to exercise the functions which they claim , but that they are incompetent to the preliminary task of marching towards those rights by the paths of agitation ; nay , that they have not even got so far as to know their own deficiencies .

      lhat the position of women is far inferior to what it ought to be , is proved by many enormities in our social S 3 ^ stem . It has been remarked , that if the female infanticide were tried by women , the verdict would often be less narrow-minded and less severe than it is ; since women would enter more into the spirit of the influence that coerces the prisoner against nature . JSut the same principle maybe carried much further : if woman possessed equal control over property , or

      to avoid uncertainties , if she possessed a secondary control , or control over a specified proportion , it is most likely that the misery which haunts many an improvident home , would be checked . It is probable , that if women had a share in the franchise , laws relating to the responsibilities of parentage would be seriously modified , and that the canker of society which endows the seducer with impunity , and consigns his victim to no resource but a , profession of infamy , would at least begin to be effectually arrested .

      That ideas of this kind are making way , is proved by the adhesion which several philosophical and practical politicians are known to have ; given to the rights of women . ( ) ne most eminent ( economist and logician , whose works on those abstruse KubjecU are deservedly as popular an novels , has publicly ho I . forth his anticipation of a time when women of a superior cast shall prefer intellectual labours to the functions of maternity ; leaving such inferior duties to those who might still be prejudiced in favour of I he passion of Itomco and A uliet . The convention at Syracuse is a still more tangible sign . That- it should be able to produce its clergy women , such as the Iveverend Antoinette Brown , its docfresses in

      medicine , like . Dr . . Harriet X . . 1 hint , its editresses and speakers of real merit , proves Mint , the fcclin " in favour of asserting woman ' s presence in public life is making some approach , however distant , to pracl ical fruition . This kind of advance is not , to be met by feeble commonplaces like ( . honeof tboreMpectablequaker , Mr . Brigham , who argued that " man wmh the objective , woman the subjective element , " and that each should remain in tho allotted " sphere ;" nor by the conventicle ribaldry of the Reverend

      C . L . Hatch , congregational minister ; nor yet by the elaborate ridicule of the Times . The leading journal devotes an inordinately long article to a resume" of the speaking in the Convention , somewhat dry , although interlarded with jocose sarcasms . The Times calls the Convention the sample of a " petticoat parliament , " laughs at the " anti-male and female movement , " ridi c ules some of the pedantries and crudenesses in the

      conduct of business , and , with a " proh pudor , " almost applauds the licentious language of Mr . Hatch as " a coarse test , " which was " sufficient to prove that his hearers were women , in spite of themselves . " It did no such thing ; it only proved that the Reverend C . L . Hatch was incompetent to understand the practical principles of fitness or unfitness to the occasion , which are the basis for rules of decency .

      The arguments against the Convention are not to be found in the intruders who violated its presence , nor in the tripping commonplaces of the Times , but in the acts of the Convention itself . When Doctor Harriet Hunt declares that " untold sorrows have driven women into convents , " like those of the Shakers , and when she asks what is the social status of a single woman

      without professional independence , she points to facts and urgent questions ; but when it is assumed that the position of woman is to be attained directly through a political enfranchisement , or snatched by suddenly enduing male titles and male costume , the agitators prove that they do not understand the method of advancing any totally neAv principle in society . To put a woman into coat and trowsers , and call her " Doctor , " is

      to contradict every sympathy in favour of her sex , and practically to make her the scarecrow of the opinion she advocates , protecting it against all approach or adhesion . Before even the first steps of progress can be made , it is necessary to clear away false facts with which advocates obstruct their own advance , such as the assumption , that women have a capacity not unequal to that of man , for the arts and sciences . Independently of educational training , there is no more evidence of any such coequal capacity than there is of coequal muscular power .

      There are , in fact , only two concurrent methods of working ovit practically any new law alien to the recognised opinions of any community . One method consists in expounding the principle , which is much more easily received into the body of theory or abstract reasoning , to stand there on record for practical enactment in due course , than it is to be pieced together in the form of a systematic plan , amongst institutions framed on different principles . The principle of I < ree-trade was accepted in every standard authority , even by Peel , while still the practical advocate of Protection , long before the enactment of

      Corn-law Repeal was possible . The other method is , to carry out the principle in individual conduct so far as that ; is practicable within the range of existing compulsory laws . . If all j ) ersoiis who thought that women ought to have equal civil rights with man , were never to flinch from the avowal of such an opinion , and always conceded the right in their own conduct , tin ; working of the principle would be reconciled by degrees to the general usage ; and the party entertaining the opinion , by thus mustering its numbers , would attain to a knowledge of it , s real strength . It is the curse of all reforms just now that those who advocate them leave the work of

      promoting them to somebody else , and wait to enjoy the advantage when it shall have been earned by the labour of other hands . Thus many an emancipated woman of the present day walks in the livery of bondage , disguises the numbers asking for enfranchisement , and scolds Parliament for not decreeing liberty on speculation . In all great ( 'mancipations of mankind , individuals work oul . their freedom first , the herd follows , and enacted law conies lagging last .

      Untitled Article

      October 2 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 947

      Untitled Article

      NAI'OLKON BUKWLSQl'Kl ) BY 15 ONA I'AKTIO . Antoii n i > i < : i > at that strange human phenomenon , who in . I / Vanco is styled Bonaparte , at his progress , his acts , the symbols Im employs , and the wonderful success he meets with , we havcseriously endeavoured to discover the meaning of it , all , and lay it bare to the world . By every post from I'Yanco we have learned how that section of society , which deals in high and transcendental mysteries , calling itself the Priesthood , looks with unmistakeablo reverence on him who was once a Prisoner at Hani , and is now Prenidont of

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 947, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1954/page/15/