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Leader (1850-1860), 7th January 1854, Edition 1 of 1, Page 14, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      sbxi appears to confirni the eupposition , that this y ear "will , witness * the jp . fflnwne ^ p ^ Tneint of a wax in which this eoantry . jnust take a prominent shave . AH p&rtaes waft ( agree that it is desirable t » keep < do * jn iilhe expendttiire which war entails . Alrcj&jty ' ^ faerfe : » re reports , that several of our rejg ^ za ^ itB are wanteeL for ~ foreign service , and eYidjen&y it is desirable on many gronndB to avoid 3 H &ttgatentat £ on of the standing army .. That may he done itt great past by extending the age at which Tnen are liable to serve in the militia ; hvtb an "various grounds fixe mrKffo is unpopular , if not t > dious . In part tile distinction which we hair's : mentioned , renders . service in its Tanks

      derofflttar y ; and tio gentleman would like to serve in at . This consideration gives additional force to another , arising from the comparatively inferior character of the force , which also renders ihe service to & certain extent humiliating . Howeyer ambitious a man may be of cutting a good fi ^ ote ^ an& ^ erTormlng lus duties in a soldierly ^ t yle ^ lt ^ uieVitaKly happens that the character of the-force is produced by circumstances beyond his controul , and lie can , dp very little to elevate it . Even in the United States this latter motive

      operates , to some extent , ^ and there is a general preference to avoid service in the militia . The J ^ U ^ ublie ^ however ^ requires thai th 6 great body of itB ^ iable-bpdie ^ . men should be trained and liable tostuninons for nuutary service , ; and the cumcul ]| y . is got over hjr , a -very simple process . ITvery-inaai must ^ serve in the militia , unless he be enrollecl in an auiShorisecl volunteer corps , ; an arraag % ment not unknowa to this country . 3 ier ^ ju « maT ^ advantages in the use " of volun teer corps . Those who serve can sort themselves in ^^ jdlaaseftj without . soy . invidious ; distinctions within tihe ^ aoEBS ; : they can regulate their expenses

      according . to < their means , < and thus afford every ^ pjensja , ^ hece 4 t . v ^ lunteejr has the means or fadt ^ . ^ ^ c ^ cdH | g to ^ he iafite >« ndcability of the vo-^ fif ypAi ^ ^ h ^ pi ^ gitr eTirtrt faimself in a cracfe company , mth a r superio > r costume and well-rprovided mess , and society suited to ibis tastes and habits , or he uught . enter into . a , plain corps , intended for work . and . mot ibr show . The voluntary assorted character of this corps also encourages a -species r « £ Just emulation between different corps an vthe ^ cBsplay of soldierly qualities , rqnali

      4 ie »» ., which tcannot he > displayed ^ without their being ; tOp » . eeastain extent really attained . A wellaxrasi ^ idimstem . ; of volnoteer ^ orps , in fact , more txukf enable ^ the country to distribute itself spontaneousl yinto a Jm . 11 military representation of all classes , than any militia , or st ill more , than any standing army . Short of a conscription law , which this country would uet endure , there is no other means of rendering it tolerable for a gentleman to carry ; « musket , « r for a . soldierly man of real sanitary jrenius » amongst the unweabthy class to tolerate 4 &B cost of costume-and means .

      The subject is one which merits attention , at a time when every regiment in-Ireland , with a single except ion s -is under orders jfbr foreign service , and when the jpnovements of regiments in England show that a large proportion of our standing army may " have to * be sent abroad . " We shall then want an , army to possess the country ; and it does appear to us that no army can do that so well as the flower of the people itself .

      Untitled Article

      THE GOVERNMENT AND THE tTNTVERSITEES . Tnii letter of I ^ ord Palmerston to Prince Albert on the subject of'University Reform at Cambodge , may be taken as a sufficient indication of the extent ito which our Government is inclined to accede to the recommendations of the Commissioners . We are quite ready to acknowledge that Cambridge ia less open to rebuke than Oxford . From whatever abuse it may proceed , whether

      , and moral science . Butrthese signs of partial progress must notlalind us to the radical defects of the institution .. The discussion between ourselves and the advocates of a moderate reform on the one hand , or the upholders of the existing system on the other , is one of principle , and not of details . It is useless to amputate tv single limb when the whole body is corrupt . If the principle of life has become extinct , we can look for nothing but decay and dissolution . If the disease has taken root in the very heart of our Universities , if they

      embody no princrple , and are animated by no idea , what can follow but paralysis and death P They belong to the past , they are abiding monuments of a superstitions despotism and of priestly intolerance . They form no portion of the national Kfe . "Without relation to the present time , with no sympathy for its wants , or unable to comprehend them , these wealthy but dying institutions excite no anger , because they have no claim upon our esteem . By ; the great body of the nation they are passed by and trodden under foot .

      aaBMaaMaaa ^^ jjg ^^^ S purpose widely different , by one whose forme r love for the National Church has been changed into undisguised contempt . " We must not indulge our imagination in the view we take of the National EstabHshment . As , in fairy tales the magic castle vanishes when the spell is broken and nothing is seen but the mid heath , the barren rock , and the forlorn sheep-walk : so it is with us as regards the Ohurob . of England , when we look in amazement on what we thought so unearthl y ^ and find so common-place or worthless .

      Hence it is of little use to make any attack upon details . The mfeerable Tesurts of a three years' coarse at an Ipnglish University are universally acknowledged . After fourteen years of preparation -at a public school , and at one of the Universities , the great majority of young Englishmen discover that they have spent their money ., time , and labour ito little purpose . They mix in society , and they are ignorant of the most ordinary topics of conversation . They iall in' with artists , lawyers , surgeons , and men of

      letters , to say ^ nothing of ploughmen and mechanics , and blush to find that they know so little of the world which lives and stirs around them . It is not , indeed , improbable that some changes may he effected in this respect . We believe that . the Government has decided upon recommending sx . considerable extension in the systems of education now pursued at the

      Universities . But , beyond this , we see no prospect of improvement . It does not appear that public opinion in Gtedford is ripe , or that Government is prepared for the abolition of those tests which are the real obstacles 4 o any effective reform * It is . not even'Certain thai , in spite of Lord Palmerston s recommendation , the constitution of the Universities will be re-organised on a truly liberal basis . We have no Teason to believe that th «

      principles of government , which have produced such happy results in this country , -will be ap p lied to the nature government of the Universities . It is even less probable that the restrictions now laid upon the tenure of fellowship will be removed or lessened . It is worth while to quote the evidence ef Dr . Hawkdns on this point , as an illustration of the opinions entertained by the Hebdomadal Board . " If we have anywhere set aside the spirit of our original statutes , it is rather perhaps in our not requiring of our fellows , who are

      admitted to the study of the Law or Medicine , to take Holy Orders at aU ; for such students were originally ecclesiastics . But I trust that in this instance also the intention of the statutes is sufficiently preserved . " This speaks for itself , and the evidence of Dr . Pusey , which breathes in every line the most naive hostility to the Commissioners , is to tie same effect . It is obvious that both the Hebdomadal Board , and the majority of Oxford tutors , hold that " the educating body in the Universities should be clergymen . " And

      as if . it were not enough to express their private convictions , they maintain that " the feeling of the country" necessitates -such restrictions . Surely ibis unabashed display of ignorance is sufficient to ensure their condemnation as superintendents of Education . Does not this account for the mournful fact that the nation and its Universities are -without a single bond of union ? Will this country ever be convinced that men cannot teach chemistry , botany , geology , or even scholariship and history , without having received a call to

      the discharge of spiritual functions ? While , however , such notions continue to prevail , the nation and the Universities must remain distinct , and these wealthy institutions , rich in royal and aristocratic endowments , in traditions , in honours , in lands , in leisure , in spacious hulls , and sylvan Academes : rich in prizes , scholarships , and all manner of incentives to intellectual exertion , will have no part in the future history of our country . 'Strangely enough -we may apply the sarcasm employed m a diflfenriit connexion , and for a wf

      from the character of its studies , ox the inclinations of the ruling body , that University has over exhibited an apparent willingness to adapt its system to the requirements of the day . The PeBowB of Trinity College are the fairest specimens that can be produced of the results of university training . Stronger inducements are held out for proficiency in the physical sciences . Some years have elapsed since the honours , if not the rewards of the university were conferred on young m ^ n distinguished ibr tbeLx attainments in luHtory ,

      Untitled Article

      OTTR DEAR OLD MEN . SoMEaransrG appears to be amiss in Army and Navy ^ Lord Hardinge ' s resignation is revoked , and the difficulty has been overcome . But there is one standing evil to which a recent incident has called attent ion . Both Army List and Navy List are burdened with superannuated gentlemen , -who

      are retained in service because it would be hard to take away fcheir pay . They are really pensioners in commission , with this striking absurdity , that it is as if the enrolled Chelsea pensioners were to be made 1 » he forlorn hope of the Army ; for -these epauletted pensioners stand m the ibremost f anks for command .

      A mutiny has broken out in the flag-ship at Hongkong , < and when the < c&use- is asked , it is found in . a very arbitrary act of cruelty on the part of the conxmanding officer , Admiral iPleetwood Pellew . The men preferred a reasonaHe request for leave to go ashore , and he answered it with ordering the ship to sea . The men hesitated , and he gave orders to put down mutiny with the

      sword , which the officers on board diS as a matter of inevitable duty . This is the same Fleetwooc Pellew who , in a similar manner , was commanding officer when the crew of the Resistance mutinied in the Mediterranean forty years ago . 'One has not heard-much of this Admiral , unt il he suddenly comes before the public as a professor in the science of mutiny-making .

      When we look back to the disaster at "Ca'bul , and see the ' effect of p lacing an army under the command of an invalid pensioner—and when we look Torward , and see the position in which our armies and our fleets may be placed at no distant date—^ re are doubly alive to the truth that it is a desperate delinquency to send very aged gentlemen to sea , or to place men whose prime belongs to the age of Waterloo in active service forty years later .

      Untitled Article

      PROGRESS VIEWED FBOM THE HEAD 01 * TEE 1 GUAJSO © ON , ^ 'Seeing ts . believing . " Among great specimens at the Crystal Palace in Sydenhain , wul be those of the gigantic animals that peopled the world , we will not say before the Deluge , but in ages before the present surface of the globe existed . For the world had to develop its surface out of its vegetation and animals , whose dust mingled with the abrasion of its mountains in order to

      form layer afler layer of new soil , before the surface was fit for the tread of mankind . And long before the globe had risen to the present surface upon which we walk , other creatures , alien to our view , then breathed the air in a state of the world impossible to our life ., as cuts , perhaps , would be to theirs . Then there were frogs . ten ieet in length , infinitely more calculated to alarm the

      tender female than tlie Tittle creatures whose hops are now so often followed "by shrieks . Even the sensible Hosamond of Miss Edgeworth might be forgiven for screaming if she saw jumping towards her a frog as broad as three "buffaloes abreast ; and the Duke of Wellington might have hesitated if he had met on the banks of the Thames the Iguanodon lizard , thirty-five feet in length . The mind has a difficulty in conceiving the actual state

      of the world at that time ; but it is , however ,-to be realised before us at Sydenham in an arrangement of rocks , manking tbe successive formations ^ and in models of those great creatures , the Iguanodo n , Megatherium , Ichthyosaurus ,-and so forth * some -of whom strayed about the land where the Crystal Palace now stands , before there were human eyes to look upon them . The dullest of sceptics might begin to conceive

      Untitled Article

      W [ iKBMHMHBBMaiaHHMaiH ni THE LEADER . Saturday , _ . iiw ... ¦ ** — __—^_^__^_^___ J ^^^ _ - _ j ™» 1 5

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1854, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2020/page/14/