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Leader (1850-1860), 30th July 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 737, Untitled Article

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      fcord John , which everybody politely affected not to observe , being amply balanced by the extra salary of 1500 ? . a year , which Vernon Smith , who ifl waiting for a vacancy in the Coalition , proposed , and which the House was too careless to denounce as a job , but rather permitted as a capital joke , that he was puzzled at this supp lementary opposition , tagged on by Sir John when the committee bad been got through , and it was evident from his haw-haw-ish andpooh-poob 4 sh air in replying to the Droitwich baronet , that he never dreamed of the defeat that he immediately received , and which should never have been allowed , for the very reason for which the

      unwilling House has been intimidated into passing this wretched bill—that it weakened the moral power of England in India . The natives might not have comprehended our sesthetical difficulty about double governments ; but they understand their own politicoceconomical perplexity as to salt ; and the practical effect on their minds of Thursday night ' s division will be this — that they will believe , with great propriety , that Parliament has rebuked the East India Company for what the ryots regard , with great propriety , as an infamous monopoly of what is , in India , a first article of subsistence . The result will

      test whether or not the House of Commons might not safely have put the Government in a minority ( had it been so disposed , —which is very doubtful ; for most members have relatives who hold India stock , and most members are practical men ) on the main points of the bill . If we do not see a revolution , or a murder of a collector , Sir Charles Wood will have been convicted of obtaining an act under false pretences . There are , however , other tests at work of native endurance . It appears that the India ( native ) newspapers are going to translate Sir Charles Wood ' s five hours speech . If England retains her great dependency after that , she is sure of her for ever .

      England , at any rate , has paid India the compliment of agreeing to give a Yorkshire squire 5000 / . a- ear to govern her ± of putting the Minister for India on a level with the Minister for all the Colonies . Nay , Lord Palmerston , who spoke for the blushing and would-be unconscious Wood on the occasion , induced the House of Commons to consider whether it was not desirable to have in the Indian department some man , to be called a Permanent Secretary , who should know something about India ! That sounds an extravagant report of Lord Palmerston ; but—read his speech . He spoke for half an hour on the advantage which it would be when a Minister for India was appointed

      to find in his bureau a gentleman , hi gh in character , and reliable in tone , who could guide the Indian Minister on Indian affairs ! He referred to the advantages he had experienced from such an arrangement in the Home Office , where he was very new ; and he referred , generally , to the facilities which such a system gave to all new Governments . That is—up to this moment India has repeatedly been governed by men who knew nothing , and who , until they had educated themselveB at her expense , could get to know nothing of her affairs ! What a satire , from one of our first Parliamentary horoes , on . our whole Parliamentary system ! A Stbangeb , Saturday Morning .

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      WHO IB THB OTTI . PBITP Simowt ia a Tery innocent and proper thing ; it '« only one of the rights of property ; why should you interfere ) , with your canonical notions , to put ifc down ? Law sanctions it ; human avarice holds fast to it ; the Church—now you " know tho Church could not got on without it ; and if unfit men croop into the Church through tho backdoor it opens , of courso that is tho fault of tho Bishop . Yes ; it ' s all tho fault of tho bishop ; he should not institute ; it ' s a disgraco to him to instituto an unfit person . Wo , Simonists , wo nro not to blamo ; wo only Boll tho presentation , tho Bishop , he ' s tho culprit . the ob wh ich views

      Such aro ^ jections our ns-Bailod . Now , roador , wo ask you who is the culprit in tho following disgraceful transaction , narrated by tho Rovorend Sidney Godolphin Osborno , authenticated with his signature , and published by tho Times . Thero is in Cornwall a certain parish called St . Ervan ' In or about tho year 1851 , by tho death of the thon incumbent , tho living became vacant . Tho patron wished to sell tho said living ( tho next presentation or tho advowson , I am not informed which ) tit the highest price ho could obtain . A gontloman was found , very infirm , paralytic , uttorly incompetent to do tho duty , and giving every

      pronpect , from his state of health , of affording to tho puronaHor speedy possession . To this gentleman tho living Was given . It was fiomo time boforo ho was brought to tho spot for induction , Ac . ; ho had then to bo supported up tho aialo by two persons ; jolly and wino , says one informant , wino und water says another , woro ( supplied him ** t tho roading-doHlc . II ' o was not ablo to get through reading tho Thirty-nino Articles in tho morning ; becoming vojry unwoll , he was removed from tho desk to tho inn in an almost fainting state . In th » afternoon , however , ho

      was again brought down to the church , and did succeed in finishing the reading of the said Articles . Another clergyman from a neighbouring parish had been sent for , to be read y to finish the service , in case this new incumbent should through weakness fail to do so . So fatigued was the poor man with the effort that he was detained in the neighbourhood under circumstances causing great apprehension for his safety . Henvver . resided ; within these few weeks the living has become again vacant . " Tho whole scene , " says my correspondent , " was one calculated to inspire unqualified disgust . "

      Mr . Osborae , with whom we by no means agree in general , is a zealous hunter of such abuses as this . In the present case he lays no small blame on the Bishop of Exeter for allowing a paralytic to pass muster . Well , we admit it is a strong case . But although Mr . Osbbrne is confident that the Bishop could have refused to Institute , we by no means share his confidence . Clearly the Lay patron thinks he is . right ; but how he reconciles it to his conscience , it would take an Erastian imagination to

      conceive . To us he is the culprit ; he knows that the bishop is surrounded by a network of legal doubt , and that if he refused to institute , it would be under heavy penalties ; for Parliaments , composed of lay impropriators , have fully protected their property in simony , and neglected the rights of the Church . It is too bad of them to turn upon the bishops , whom they menace with penalties , and say , after having appointed an unfit man—My lord , it is disgraceful , why did you institute ?

      The practical point suggested is this : Could not the Bishop of Exeter take up the challenge , and explain why and how a bishop is at the mercy of lay patrons ; what restrictions are set upon him , and what penalties ?

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      THE LAW AS TO THE ADMINISTRATION OP OATHS . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sm , —The following is the 6 and 7 Viet ., c . 22 , referred to in my last letter . It is entitled " An Act to authorize tho Legislature of certain of Her Majesty ' s Colonies , to pass laws , for the admission , in certain cases , of unsworn testimony , in Civil and Criminal Proceedings . " Passed May 31 st , 1843 : — " Whereas thero are resident within tho limits of or in countries adjacent to divers of tho British colonies and plantations abroad , various tribes of barbarous and uncivilized people , who being destitute of tho knowledge of God and of any religious belief , aro incapablo of giving ovidenco on oath in any court of justice within such colonies or plantations ; and whereas doubts havo arisen whothor any laws which havo been or which might bo made by tho legislatures of such colonies rospoctively , to provide for the admissibility in such courts of tho ovidonco of such porsons , aro not or would not bo repugnant to tho law of England , and thoroforo null and void ; and it is expediont that such doubts should bo removed . Bo it thoroforo enacted by tho Quoon ' s most excellent Majesty , by and with tho aclvico and consent of tho LordB Spiritual ami Temporal , and Commons in this present Parliament assembled , and by tho authority of tho same , that no law or ordinaneo made , or to bo made , by tho legislature of any British colony for tho admission of tho evidence of any such persons as aforesaid , in any court or , boforo any magistrate within any such colony , shall bo , or bo doomed to havo boon , null and void , or invalid by reason of any ropugnancy or supposed ropugndncy of any such enactment to tho law of England , but that ovory law , or ordinaneo inado or to bo mado by any such legislature as aforesaid , for tho adminsion before any such court or magistrate of tho ovidonco of any such persona as aforesaid on any conditions thereby imposed , shall havo such and tho flame effect , and ohall bo subject to tho confirmation or disallowanco of Ifor Majesty in euch and tho same manner as any other law or ordinance enacted for any other purposo by any such colonial logjalaturo . " The legislature appears to have had eonno doubt , a *

      to whether the law proposed to be made was repugnant to the law of England , as it uses the words " repugnancy or supposed repugnancy . " And well might it doubt , since Lord Denman ' s Act has rendered infamous persons—persons who have been convicted of crimes- — competent witnesses j—for Lord Coke considered infidels as not fide dignus , nor worthy of credit , and he put them in company , and upon the level with stigmatised and infamous persons .

      Numerous instances are to be found in our books , of the application of the principle , that witnesses are to be sworn in that form which they consider binding on their consciences , and the following may interest your readers . Members of the Kirk of Scotland , and others , who object to kissing the book , have been sworn , by lifting up the right hand , while it lay open before them . This appears to be the mode in which President Franklin Pierce took the oath of office . ( See Leader , March 19 th . ) Irish Roman Catholics are sworn on a New Testament , with a crucifix delineated on the cover , Jews are sworn on the Pentateuch , keeping on their

      hats , the words of the oath being changed , from " So help you God , " to " So help you Jehovah . " Mahomedans are sworn on the Koran , and the ceremony is thus described in B . v . Morgan : The book was produced ; the witness first placed his right hand flat upon it , put the other hand to his forehead , and brought the top of his forehead down to the book , and touched it with his head ; he then looked for some time upon it , and > on being asked what effect that ceremony was to produce , he answered that he was bound by it to speak the truth . According to the report of Amychund v ,

      Barker , part of the ceremony of swearing a Hindoo consists in his touching the foot of a Brahmin , or if the party swearing be himself a priest , then the Brahjnin ' s hand ; but , if this is considered by their religion as essential to the validity of an oath , and it appears to be so , it is obvious that a Hindoo cannot be sworn in a country where no Brahmins are to be found . In a recent case , a ~ Chinese witness was sworn thus : On getting into the witness-box he knelt down , and a China saucer having been placed in his hand , he struck it against the brass rail in front of the box , and broke it . The officer who swears the witnesses then administered

      the oath , in these words , which were translated by the interpreter into the Chinese language : " You shall tell the truth , and the whole truth ; the saucer is cracked , and , if you do not tell the truth , your soul will be cracked like the saucer . " Whether this deference to the conscience of witnesses could be carried so far , as to allow a form of oath involving rites which our usages would pronounce indecent or improper ; as , for instance , the sacrifice of an animal , or , as in patriarchal times , placing the hand under the thigh of the person by whom the oath is administered , ( See Genesis , ch . xxiv . v . 2 ; ch . xxvii ., v . 29 , ) has not been settled by authority .

      In conclusion , I have only to thank you for enabling me to state the law upon this subject , through the medium of your Open Council , and express a hope that some law reformer will take this subject in hand , and remove the evils which I have shown to exist . Temple , April 4 th . A BaebISTEB . To persons wishing to investigate this subject , I can confidently recommend Mr . Best ' s philosophical book , from which I have so largely quoted . Being a treatise on the principles of evidence , it is more adapted to the general reader than the more elaborate works of Mr . Pitt Taylor and the Right Hon . S . March Phillipps .

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      July 30 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 7 S 7

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      There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and nis judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .

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      f _ IN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWEVER EXTREME AKB ALLOWED AM" EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR NECESSARILY HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE JfOE NONE . ]]

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      The Pediokee of Gkeat Men . —Ono often hears the question , what kind of families have produced men of distinction , brought up in conversation . As we liavo said before , it is not always quito fairly put . For instance , when it is recorded that Milton ' s father was a " scrivener , " it should ho remembered that ho was of ancient linengo . The families * may claim among pootn , Spencer , Drydon , Waller , Surrey , George Herbert , Bcatuncmt , Byron , Shelley , Cowpcr ; among great writers generally , Bacon , Boy lo , Gibbon , Huinc , Fielding , ? Sinollot , Congrovo , Swift , Sterne , Arhuthnot , Walter Scot !; , Goldsmith . TIioho men were all what a herald would designate goittlomon . Doubtless , wo omit oth ' orH , for wo quote from memory : but tho opposite nide ban a formidable lint : —Bon . lonaon , Cowley , Prior , Jeromy Taylor , Dr . Johnson , Collins , Gray , Soldon , Keats , Richardson , Franklin , Bunynn ( by somo , supposed to descend from tho gypsies , n point worth searching into ) , Mooro , Crabbo , all came out of tho inferior strata of society . — Westminster Review for July .

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      NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . If a reader will give us some particulars of tho objects and purposes of tho now Religious and Scientific ) Society in Taviatookplaco , wo shall ho happy to give thorn currency . Several letters under consideration . Erratum in our W . —Pago 7 K 1 ( 3 rd col . ) , for " to tho com - plete explosion of a disgraceful accusation , read "to tho complete explosion of a disgraceful organization . "

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 737, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1997/page/17/