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mm of me Wnk.
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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.
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Mm Of Me Wnk.
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IF any French novelist were amongst us , the events of the week would furnish him with materials , certified by contemporary history , for a tale much more suited to the taste of his compatriot readers than calculated to raise the credit of our own country . The incidents are more than usually diversified and dramatic . Real business has been done , but in the midst of dramatic " effects . " If the supposed Dumas had been in the Stranger ' s gallery of the House of Commons , he might for that vantage ground have painted a
picture of the English national council highly telling , with plenty of the startling and ludicrous , and yet more strictly true than French descriptions of English society are apt to be . The spectacle of Mr . Gladstone endeavouring to carry a great practical measure for the re-adjustment of our svstem of taxation , so as to relieve and enlarge our commerce , and interrupted in bis work by party tricks to delay , under the name of amendments , and by disputations in strong brogue about the wounded honour of Irish Members , would be
a singularly piquant incident . Mr . Palmer s amendment to take the net value of land for assessment of the Income-tax ; Mr . Vansittart's , to take only one-third of the farmer ' s rent instead of half—proposals hopeless of success as they were—are explained by the constant attempts of Mr . Disraeli and his colleagues to interpose every delay for the sake of delay , even down to "
reporting progress" at a comparatively early hour . The stories that Irish members bad been " corrupted , " because office bad been offered to two of themthat Ministers had broken a compact , because two Irish members had beard Mr . Haytcr say , that Sir Charles Wood had objections to the Irish Income-tax—stories idle in themselves , help to swell the tumult ; and Captain Magma ' s uproarious Irish " honour" inflames the ferment of theatrical
disputation , through winch the voice of Gladstone , steadily p ursuing its course , pierces like the still small voice of commerce , and represents the English character under a curious phase , unmoved in the Celtic and Caucasian storms . Just on the Cve of Whitsuntide , Mr . Gladstone luis got to the Legacy-duty section of the Kudget , explained by him in an admirable speech , which shows how little the landed gentry need fear the pressure of the new impost , adjusted as it is to
spare , their weaknesses . In the course of the debate , Lord Goderich , heir to some of the broadest lands in the country , who will have to pay a large contribution under this new tax , warned his own class , by the example of the French aristocracy , not to continue unjust exemptions . This is one of the pleasantest bits in the drama . The resistance of the Opposition grows faint ; Mr . Disraeli volunteered last night to let the resolution pass ; and the second reading of the bill awaits discussion with a Ministerial majority manifestly gaining strength .
education in this country . The leader of the House of Commons vainly struggles with the old small difficulty of national education , long since overcome in Ireland ; and he objects to the enforcement of Habeas Corpus Act in Roman Catholic houses , after he raised the country to prevent bishops bearing certain titles : it is a new figure for the historical drama . The scene changes to the House of Lords , where
the son of the great Reform Earl Grey is found pleading in favour of the convict interest ; and , jw a Liberal , urging the Conservative Ministers to disregard the voice of the colonists in their own affairs ! Lord Grey proposes to continue transportation , lmteful as it is to the Australian colonies , and pledged as English statesmen are to give it up . He says it is impossible to provide for the convicts at home , although , in the same
speech , he gives evidence that the imprisonment to which convicts are already subjected for the greater part of their term , is thoroughly efficacious , both us a punishment and as a reformatory process . Jiord Derby , leader of the Conservative party , backs Lord Grey in his attack upon the constituted Government . And the Duke of Newcastle , representative of the 1 ' eel Conservatives , is found teaching Lord Grey constitutional Radicalism I Shift the scene to one of the election committees—suy that of Plymouth , where we find a
British capitalist ambitious of being elected to the House of Commons , and distributing Government places as liberally as an English nobleman in a French novel gives guineas to all whom heraeet . At Plymouth , Mr . Charles John Mare behaved as if the purchase of votes were the obvious and legitimate mode of getting into the House of Commons . There was , indeed , at that time , a sort of fool ' s paradise for all of Mr . Mare ' s party ; but the dream is over , and the inode which got Mr . Mare into the House of Commons proves to be the mode for getting him out of it .
Or turn to the Dockyard Committee , where the members of the late Government are found giving successive explanations of their own acts and statements—explanations as inconsistent with each other as they appear to be with the facts . The Duke of Northumberland , late head of the Admiralty , a grey-haired sailor , fifty years in service , reiterates the excuse of " no experience " for all that happened under bis own management ; with a good-humoured countenance , devoid of all mistrust , he represents himself as a venerable innocent , too unoffending for the Committee to strike . Afterwards enter Mr . Disraeli , reciting
one of those charming essays , reminding us of French philosophical history and his own historical romances — which set every-day events in a totally new and amazing light . In this pleasant picture , it appears that Mr . Stafford ' s peculiar use of patronage—misunderstood by an Admiralty Board too exclusively absorbed in devotion to the naval service—was only the proper and scientific mode of satisfying and managing the House of Commons . Send a sketch of "
Parliamentary system , " according to that view , for the use * of the Dunnis , and Waterloo is avenged indeed ! Then enter Mr . Staflbrtl , who had asserted that he was only redressing the party appointments of the bite Government , and who now confesses that he has no warrant for that assertion , except anonymous letters and witnesses who skulk . Then Lord Derby , charging all the responsibility on the poor Duke ; of Northumberland , and still believing Mr . Stafford . Let the drama next follow a distinguished
English gentleman , whose adventures of a night form an episode in itself , such as the dramatist would invent , rather than expect to find on the broadsheetgospelof our day , the morningpaper . The Chancellor of the Exchequer is walking home alter midnight , when the fatiguea of the legislature and
Lord John Russell has furnished a strange character for the scene . He appears in the House of Commons , opposing a very moderate measure by Mr . Thomas Chambers , to secure inspection of religious houses , lest persons be improperly confined in them ; and be also appears at the meeting of the British and Foreign School Society , with Mrs . Beecher Stowe , expatiating on " body , mind , and soul , " as compounding some reason for not giving to English children instruction separated from the sectarian teaching- which obstructs
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VOL . IV . No . 164 . 1 SATUKDAY , MAY 14 , 1853 . [ Price Sixpence .
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NEWS OF THE WEEK— p a gb Cardinal Wiseman ' s Discourse on A Latch-Key into Parliament for Gerstaecker s Journey jsouna ^ iie The Week in Parliament 458 ^ 465 , / T , \ "L iTVrWN «*¦ ^ Tracts '" against ' S ^ xday Beform "' . ' . ' . ' . ' .. 475 The Dockyard Disclosures 462 Tke Wages Movement 406 Mr . Gladstone and the Calumny of b LettexsfroSJpSs "" tS Clever Knavery Frustrated 466 Illustrious Men 469 THE ARTSContinenttil T ^ ntf" * ' 4 A ? . Miscellaneous 466 The Eastern Question : Turkey and Madeleine Brohan 47 b India China the rw 4 M Health of London during the Week 466 the Balance of Power .-Letter I . 470 The Koyal Academy .-Life in Pamt-Snerican Notes IS births , Marriages , and Deaths 467 "A Stranger" in Parliament 470 ing Vvi" w" ^" roio ^ So " aZSZhm v ' * 25 Prepaid Taxation .-Letter II 471 Exhibition of the W ater Colour So-£ S £ i ? £ 2 £ ! . * = ¥ & ; : PUBLIC AFFAIRS- * ^ lement to the Time 8 m Aw ^ sw :::::: | cation" 463 English Government : its Principles OPEN COUNCIL— TheAmateurGallery .. 47 S APractical Triumph in Ireland 464 and Statesmen 457 . P Model Lodging-Houses and Sunday ^ S ^ ^ ^ Z ^^^ . ^ Koyal Literary Fund Dinner ......... 464 Another Blow at Turkey 467 Reform Petitions 472 Mrs . Stowe at Stafford House 464 Encroachment on English Rights ... 468 COMMERCIAL AFFAIRSAttempt to Extort Money from Mr . . Proposed Improvement in the Par- LITERATURE— City Intelligence , Markets , Adver-Gladstone .. ! . ' . 465 liament Agency Business 468 Books on our Table 473 tisements , &c 478-480
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" The one Idea -which History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Idea of Humanity—toe noble endeavour to throw down , all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and by setting aside th 3 distinctions or lieligion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development or our spiritual nature . "—Kumboldt ' s Cosmos .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1853, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1986/page/1/
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