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the Allied Sovereigns . It was a bad season for the world , that time when Napoleon had to be conquered- by base and * vulgar men ; wHo , however , in checking the career of the military dictator were instruments of a divine purpose . Pew men with sufficient genius or largeness of power would have liked to accept even a divine missi on under such vicegerents . Enthusiasm and nationality were not required—Napoleon had reduced such appeals to a burlesque and a cant . A power of large military combinations , and cool-headed unflinching perseverance were needed , and Wellington supplied
them . Napier ' s soldiers remembered him also for his power of combination and large operations , but likewise for his own brilliant daring , his energetic inspiring manner , his fervid eloquence , which made the men execute the orders with some spark of his own fire . When the exposed condition of this country fairly made itself sensible to the bulk of the nation , it was felt that we wanted men . to call forth the latent iire of English nationality in the work of defence , and a national satisfaction was felt when it was announced that Napier was appointed to command the district nearest to the continent whence
an enemy might approach . He had already shown his thorough fitness for that particular duty by an admirable pamphlet , in which he explained how a militia might be raised , trained , and employed in aid of the regular army . His view immensely simplified the difficulties that had beset the subject before . The training was thought to be a much more cumbersome process than he described it to be ; and , on the other hand , it was asked , if the
militia were not regularly trained soldiers , how could they be of any use ? By filling up the interstices between the movements of the troops ; by making the country alive with danger for the enemy , and peopling the hedges with born defenders , who could know the ground , and distract the wandering foe . The very opposite of a regimental martinet , Napier could explain all the resources of a military commander , and teach a nation how to be ready for tho assertion of its independence .
No military commander of late years has proved himself more thoroughly to be imbued with the necessary virtues of the soldier . His account of a soldier ' s kit , comprising very little more than a piece of soap ; the simplicity of his own life ; the promptitude of his own actions ; in short , his unfailing energy and portable readiness for everything that might occur , marked liim as a model to the soldier . But ho was not
content with victories in the field , nor with seeing to the material training and equipments of ms armies : in India he set himself to reform abuses—the idleness of the officers , their extravagant mode of living , their habitual debt ; for it is truo that a soldier is weak in proportion as Ins sense of honour and independent pride is weakened ; and in our state of society these abuses dull the sense both of honour and of
pride . Napier worked hard to restore a chivalrous sense to the soldier ; he had shown that he know tho relation of tho Boldier to tho State ; he treated the soldier , not as the mere tool of Govorn mont , but as an armed patriot ; ho had taught uo shortest path to victory . Although sinking to Ins grave at a comparatively early age , ho Avas still an aged soldier , for ho had been half a oen'' " . y in active sorviee . Unablo any longer to Mir ? ' * . » I " "oblc memory still survives to ' ¦ ell Englishmen what a aoldior may bo .
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THE - NORTON CONFESSIONS . Ik who accuses , confesses . IF tho confession ° <> s not always apply to his own actions , it inv <) iV (! H » , presumption that ho believes tho things ! winch lie accuses another , to be possible in tho ¦ V-K-ol . society in which that other moves . In uu . h H « , iiHo , <; 1 1 C conjugal disputo which has un"PP'ly come before tho public ; constitutes a bill mUictinont , not against tho husband anil wife Iu but against those eireles in which they < - » pwl , iv « l move . ' If Mrs . Norton accuses her HOnnd of certain misdeed * , it follows that she
« | 1 I ones , t , possible for gentlemen to bo guilty " «<> o nusdeods which nho charges against Mr . Norton , and lor this gentleman still to ho vc" ' «« l hi society . On tho other hand , if Mr . 01 ion accuses his wife of certain conduct , Ihh „! , h ""} K ' ' »<> 1 ' ri . iiul in Favour of whom many JwTT - « ' woU ! lH r »» P «« table society , MVo their testimony , it follows that Mr . Norton
who are disinterested bystanders , implies that such , things are possible , and are known to be so . Whether Mr . Norton stands acquitted or not , whether the charges against Mrs . Norton are baseless , or capable of proof , does not touch the question which we are considering now . The charges are not treated as wanting in verisimilitude ; they are freely gossipped about in society , and not received as incredible fictions .
so to speak , taken a part in it , as well as those believes ladies in the society to which his wife and himself belong , to be capable of the conduct which he charges against Mrs . Norton , and capable of it without forfeiting their position . Indeed , the whole treatment of the case by those who have discussed it , those who have discussed it in private as ' well as in public , those who have , so to speak , taken a part in it , as well as those
On the testimony of Mrs . Norton , we are to understand it to be possible , that in well-born and well-connected English society , there are husbands who enjoy the society of beautiful , accomplished , and affectionate wives , and yet supersede these wives in the conjugal relation in favour of others . That there may be husbands who fabricate baseless charges against
the fidelity of their wives , and then , to prove these charges , at a trial in public , can bring evidence in its own nature " unfit for publication , " and most especially unfit to be advanced by the instrumentality of any husband . On Mrs . Norton's showing , we are to suppose it possible that there may be married gentlemen amongst the superior classes of society , who can win their way into the arms and affectionate confidence , and the most sacred
familiarity with women , and then drag into public court palpable manifestations of the most shocking kind to make good their accusations . In some circles less versed in etiquette , it would be supposed that any man who had once enjoyed the . favour of a woman would hold himself by that simple fact for ever after precluded from speaking or referring to that woman in any terms but those of respect . There may be a charge
to be proved against her , but if it could only be proved by throwing off the sacred veil with his own hand , he would regard such proof as one utterly denied to him . But it appears that in good society in England , that species of chivalrous delicacy is not demanded . It appears from Mrs . Norton ' s tale of real life , that there may be husbands who charge their wives with infidelity , will then entreat them to return , will set their children to extort some concession from the wife ,
will again separate , will make compacts to allow a separate maintenance only amounting to a fraction of the husband ' s income , and will then , after tho bargain , on hearing that the wife has received some good fortune , chaffer over the details , and abstract some portion of the due . Wo desire not to be misunderstood : we are not saying that this is Mi-. Norton ' s conduct : what we are saying is , that , according to Mrs . Norton ' s testimony , conduct of this kind does not drive man out of " good society , " but is simply a question to bo determined by evidence . Tho picture drawn by Mr . Norton is not less
remarkable or instructive . According to him , English wives may bo on terms of tho greatest intimacy Avith other gentlemen than their husbands ; maybe in daily intercourse with those gentlemen , sitting with their arms round those gentlemen ' s necks , —nay , upon being challenged , claiming tho right of such familiarities . According to him , it may be a question whether ladies thus placed will grant tho last of freedoms , or reserve that dangerous favour , and only measure thoir accessibility by some standard of prudential consideration . . English ladies may tako advantage of their husband ' s difficulties when their
own signatures will be needed for some formal process , in order to extort a higher allowance than is just ; English ladies may toll false stories how their husbands neglect to provide For the maintenance of thoir children ; English ladios iiiay afterwards come into a , court of law , and by a piece of studied play-acting , endeavour to delude the audience and tiio public . Again lot us say , wo arc no I . hero in any degree believing ourselves to draw the portrait of Mrs . Norton ' s conduct ;; but wo repeat , we arc representing the portrait of conduct which Mr . Norton ascribes to a lady in good society , and which otliovs , her Friends , declare to bo baseless in her cane , but by no moans declare to bo incredible in itself . It in all a matter of evidence , and tho Hocioty of which those disclosures are
made , is that very highest in the land which is adorned by the names of the most distinguished in our hereditary peerage . We believe we have not gone beyond the record ; we have not strained anything ; we have imputed nothing ; we have only repeated the imputations of others . It is more than probable that many of the actions which are made the
subject of accusal might be explained in a manner far from discreditable to the persons accused . But in reply we say , the explanation would most likely involve the admission that many of those laws which we think it necessary to maintain , and which we pretend to be maintained , are in themselves neither absolutely perfect , nor actually observed . How vast then the hypocrisy which pretends that the average of conduct is the reverse of all ' this ; how contracted the wisdom which affects to treat the world in a condition so different from that which is really its own !
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THE MANUFACTURE OF ACCIDENTS . The " Great Northern" has distinguished itself . A railway company who nearly kill a lord mayor , a bishop , a baronet , and a peer , must be counted greater in the accident department than other companies who actually kill people of the common class merely . For the escape of the dignitaries was not owing to any fault in the arrangements for the collision , laid down by the company , and carried out with zeal . The first step was to break down a coal train at Colney Hatch station , so that the line was carefully made impassable . The next was to send on from London a pilot engine , which , according to the distance and the help available could not take away the obstruction for some time . And then before that time had elapsed the plan was to send down at its usual fearful speed the express train , and dash the devoted bishop , peer , baronet , and lord mayor right against the engine tender . It was also concerted that the danger signal should be so used that the driver could
not notice it . The execution of this plan was able and decisive . The coal train was broken down , the pilot engine was sent on , the hands to help it were deficient , the dignitaries were closed up in carriages and hurried to their fate , the danger signal was overlooked ; and the smash into the tender created a perfect furore of excitement . In effect there were some disappointments . The bishop was but slightly injured , the peer entirely escaped , the baronet was cut only about the calves , but the lord mayor was
severely wounded , his nose and mouth being severed . To make up in part for this partial failure several persons of minor rank were severely hurt . VVe are told that the railway officials deny that they conspired to kill the respectable persons aforesaid . But look at tho facts . They know the time proper for the pilot engine to remove tho obstruction , for they knew the help it could got at Hornsey , yet they send on the poor bishop and his fellow-sufferers to tho almost certain crash . The driver , they say , was the best , num in the service of the
company , " and so of course did tho work well . Tho legal aiaine for this offence is an " accident . " Accidents area British institution . Their manufacture is a part of English enterprise and toil . By a " little judicious letting alone" rails are allowed to rust and rot , and rolling-stock to become worn , and then the accidents accumulate of themselves-: ¦ such is the power of a management inspired with tact . Another branch of the national manufacture is ingenious . Tho railway carriages are closed up so neatly and tightly that Foul air gathers , and babies on laps arc quietly killed . In other departments besides railways , tho production of accidents progresses with groat rapidity . Thus , the other day , at ¦ Manchester , a
warehouse that hud boon built out of smallex rooms , was packed with more goods than the iloor could bear , and . in time tho floor Foil ; unfortunately not killing any one , i \» the tardineBS of tho Falling warmed the ' clerks beneath to run away . . Accidents From fire are generally contributed by builders . They build rows of houses without connecting balconies , or other way of exil , but through the street-door , and if a lire occur , tho stylo of construction answers its purpose —the people are tfonomlly suffocated . One thing in the statistics of the accident' trade should bo noted . A . great number of deaths daily occurring are attributed , stupidly , to ordinary personal oaiiBOH , such as low diet , unhealthy habits , no-
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September 3 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 853
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 3, 1853, page 853, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2002/page/13/
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