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diet the feeling of his people , because a country in which every man must serve for three years in the ranks is an army . The most striking example to our view , however , is still the American people with its limited and cheap standing army . The force scarcely exceeding 16 , 000 men on the 1 st of January , 1852 , must be a joke to those who are acquainted with our Army List . The officers trained at West Point , can only rise by merit ; and merit can elevate men from the ranks .
Although , by the way , it is a rather curious fact , that a large proportion of the ' private soldiers of the American army are emigrants from the United Kingdom . But the true army of the United States consists of its militia , 2 , 200 , 000 strong . The people of the United States is it its own army , and upon that people cannot be thrust the commercial cost , the political oppression of a huge standing army , aggravated by abuses which shut out the citizens from the rank of officers and
convert the monopolists of that rank into greyhaired pensioners , officially pronounced to be inefficient for their duty . "An armed man , " says Spinoza , * " is more than an unarmed man , in possession of his rights , and those citizens transfer absolutely their right to another , and conimit it entirely to his fidelity , when they give Mm arms . " The nation which has entirely surrendered the hold and practice of arms , has neither insight on that subject , nor voice in military matters , nor power of enforcement if the voice were raised . We must therefore accept the officers vouchsafed to us , and rejoice that they are no worse .
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ADULTEKATION OP SOCIETY . Abttlteha . tion' is a proces 8 that appears to be carried on in . many more kinds of industry than ordinary trade . Some time since , the Lancet performed a public service by exposing the actual quality of goods which are sold under certain names of articles used for food , medicines , condiments , &c , but we very much doubt whether the exposure has had the effect that might have been expected . If
for the moment tradesmen changed countenance , the faces of their shops have not altered ; firms have not disappeared ; there is no sign that great Italian warehouses , supposed to deal only in genuine jellies , pickles , spices , and preserves , have been blasted by the proclamation that partly selling those things they partly also put off upon tlie customer glue from the knacker ' s , copperas , vermillion , and earths , literally worth no better than the dirt beneath the feet .
The fact is that in niuo cases out of ten the customer also adulterates , and it might bo an amusing exposure to follow that process of adulteration carried on all round . Imagine a circle of men comprising the butcher and baker of society , " the tinker , tailor , apothecary , ploughboy , thief , " each dealing with tho rest , each adulterating , and each in turn purchasing adulterated goods . In this case each man makes a dishonest profit upon the spurious part of the article—tho copperas which passes amongst tho trickles , the
currant-leaves amongst the tea , the vcrmillion amongst tho pepper ; but each loses exactly the proportion on his expenditure that he gains in his trade , and thus the circle , as a whole , actually produce , use , and enjoy losa of food and its condiments than they intend to have . Strange division of employment , by which society cheats itaolf ; strange condition of society in which each man dares not donounco hia fellow because he ia an accomplice in the crime ! lloally tho only genuine doalor amongst tho circle apponra to bo tho thief !
Tho adulteration is not only detected in food , but in clothing , furniture , houses , in * Spinoza ' t Treatise on Politics , trantlated by \ V . Macaall .
short everything purchased . Your coat is shoddy cloth , your wife ' s silk gown is cotton ; the house you live in has a flaw in its existence—the house you purchase has perhaps no drain to its sink ; the digging implements delivered to the army will not dig ; and recently it has been discovered that this adulteration extends even to the instruments of
trade—its bills of exchange and its warrants . A statute has been passed this session by Mr . Gladstone to stop the practice of manufacturing Colonial Bills of Exchange in lion > - don itself ; and by a series of cases which have come before the Court of Bankruptcy , we find that warrants are said to have been manufactured to the extent , it is affirmed , of
400 , 000 / . The failure of Messrs . Davidson and Gordon , distillers , led to this discovery . They failed about three weeks ago ; two of the houses connected with them have fallen , and one of these houses is said to have advanced 4 O , 000 Z . on warrants that are forgeries . There is precedent for this species of false deposit . We remember that the illustrious Don Jtodrigo de Bivar , the Cid , whose name and exploits are immortalised in Spanish history and poetry , once raised a loan from some Jews on the deposit of treasure , which treasure consisted of large boxes filled with stones and sand . In modern times
this device has descended to persons who fraudulently fl y from their lodgings . . Nay , it appears even the partnerships themselves may be not what they purport to be . There were , for example , transactions between the firm of Davidson and Gordon and that of Eichard Parris and Co ., distillers ; whereas , on . inquiry , it appears that Richard Parris
has nothing to do with the distillery at all , but lets out his name at two guineas a week to Mr . de Rusett , who has the sole interest in the distillery . Nay , we arrive at a further discovery—this Mr . de Rusett , describing himself as a private gentleman , in the Directory is a general merchant , and in fact is a distiller .
In short , you must not take for granted anything that you see about you . If you buy an ounce of mustard , it is probably turmeric that j'ou have bought ; if you see a man set down in the Directory as a general merchant , he is perhaps a distiller ; if " Richard Doe and Co . " appears over the door , it is probable that there is no " company , " and that Richard Roe is the real " firm j" if you have a warrant for the delivery of wines or spirits , there are , perhaps , no spirits or wines . ^ There appears to be no appeal from this universal adulteration , for tho saiue vice
encounters you in the tribunal to which you would appeal . Go to Parliament for new laws to protect trade against our vices , and you find Parliament itself adulterated . Purporting to represent the people , probably tho member sits there by having purchased hia vote from a fraction of the people ; for tho " independent" electors are purchasable . Having sworn to his qualification , the member perhaps jxjssossos none : and lie has taken oaths at which most men in tho House
laugh , —amongst other things solemnly s-woaring not to aid and abet in placing on tho British throne tho extinct descendants of tho Pretender . One asks where all this is to stop ; an important point ; for if ono could find any ' unadulternted part of society , that might furnish a firm rock upon which to stand to recover tho rest .
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DIVORCE " NEXT SESSION . " The Lord Chancellor has withdrawn tho Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill—a retractation in many respects , and by many degrees , the cruellest which Governmont haa
committed . Of all irritating endurances a matrimonial " cause , " or a cryingly urgent divorce unaccomplished , is about the worst ; and we have reason to know that many a weary heart , long sick with hope deferred , or with no hope at all , did at last learn a false hope from Lord Cranworth ' s bill . The bill was infinitely less of a boon than many supposed ; yet relief it would have brought to some—and it is withdrawn .
Not that evidence of its necessity failed . In this very week of the retractation we have two divorce case 3 , and scarcely a single ca 8 e occurs without exemplifying the necessity of amending the law . We do not now speak on theoretical grounds ; we are not raising any question of first principles , or quarelling with the morals with which society professes to be content ; but we take them as we find them , and judge of these cases only by the ordinary standards of received morality , good feeling , and common sense . Take the case of " Caton ' s divorce , " before the House of JJords—not a new one . The
couple were married in 1831 , we are told , and " lived happily" till 1841 ; the lady was then , under some suspicion , but her conduct was suffered to pass as " levity , " and she again lived with her husband until 1843 . A child was born in 1845 ; its father was understood to be a French officer , the paternity of Mr . Caton being disproved by the fact that cohabitation had ceased since 1843 . A bill for
divorce is before the' House of Lords nowy in 1854 . Thus a lady , virtually without a husband , accepted one irregularly ; and that oifenee is visited with condign punishment ten , years after tlie fact . What was the life practicable for either of that doomed couple during those ten years ? In " Stacker ' s divorce" case , the facts , although not subject to much legal doubt , are not so perfectly undisputed . Here the husband was a schoolmaster . The couple
were married in 1839 ; the wife left her tome in 1843 , and lived with an usher , under feigned names . Witnesses declared that the husband and wife had " lived happily , " the lady ' s sister , however , who gave her evidence with great candour , said that the husband waa " very violent -with his tongue , " the wife's " meekness" only made it worse—she was " exceedingly kind : " she did " nothing to give rise to his irascible conduct , which she received very quietly , and tried to appease him ; but she did not often succeed . " Now let us suppose tins a correct account , and let us ask our readers whether , in their
experience , or m their imagination , they cannot foresee one very probable—let us say one" very common result of " irascible" conduct , unconciliated by meek attempts to appease ? We know what the effects may be , especially upon a truly serious and affectionate disposition : first chagrin , —then estrangement , —indifference , —repugnance , —horror at the position which subjects a woman to receive tho manifestations of love from one who is the object ofrepugnance Such a position can be felt by the woman alone . It ia rarely that the sentence of a court on that most indecent and hideous oi
all proceedings , for tho " restitution of conjugal rights , " coerces a man into suoh a violation or natural feeling . The woman vrho undergoes it ia subjected to legal prostitution . Supposing , however , that in this cuao tho husband waa not irascible , at all ovonts they part — they are separated do facto , under
circumstances which , according to principles accepted by our legists , render thoir ro-union impossible . Yob to obtain a release tho husband must bring an action for criminal conversation in n court of law , n . suit for separation in tho Ecclesiastical Court , and a bill into Parliament . Mr . Stocker is a schoolmaster , aud however successful ho may have
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July 15 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 661 ^^^^^ ' . * . ¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2047/page/13/
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