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    a man who has read the Times or Herald ^ repeats its intelligence to a writer in an evening paper , is that an independent source ? The paper in which intelligence first appears will still be exclusively bought by all those to whom very early intelligence is a necessity , or a luxury . An hour ' s start is as good as a week with a stock-jobber . An hour ' s start is as good as a week with all of us when we are anxiously looking for intelligence from the Crimea . Remuneration will be obtained for the supply of intelligence in each according to the number of persons interested , because everybody interested would buy the paper in which it first appeared . Are the foreign papers to have a copyright in their news against the Times ?

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    " THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions is limited to the act of giving them pub-Ecity . The opinions expressed are those of the -writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by the freedom -which is left to his pen and discretion . ] ( "A laugh" )—that is now the report of Parliamentary proceedings . From the general tone of affairs down in Palace-yard , one feels justified in

    suggesting that the horse-collar might with appropriateness be added to the British Arms—the Lion would then look more British . This comes from having a wag as a Premier , a noble lord who winks at his Queen , and pokes fun at . his country , and whose general notion of his functions in the House is that he should treat the Opposition as Mr . Merryman , in the Ring , treats Mr . Widdicomb . Possessed as he is of the insane liveliness of the comic writer—a

    class who come to public tumbling when a subscription , has to be raised for any individual member , induced into actual madness by his professional hilarity—I have no doubt that if Lord Palmerston were pressed , he would consent to sing " Hot Codlings " before the session is out . But , as the Britons are a practical people , why do they put up with this feeble imitation of the natural comic ? As the old Lords are rather used up , why not avail ourselves of our colonial connexions to construct a cabinet of

    laughing jackasses ? It wouldn't be much m « re expensive ; for their keepers could get their 500 / . per annum as private secretaries—at present , gentlemen oOvains appointed to look after the old Lords—a Hammond being to a Russellas thes background female is to the more prominent " dress-lodger " whom she lets out . The now constant rising of Palmerston—which means the permanent friskiness of Palmerston—has rendered . the club much more attractive ; and when the telegraph between Balaklava and the Ministers , and the Smoking rooms , is actually at work ,

    Coppock ' s business will have a great increase ; it will then be something to be " in , " particularly if the Government , as the last effort of the aristocracy to put down the Times , should turn penny-a-liner , and read out all the news of the day between four and six every afternoon . But in this matter it must be some other Minister than Palmerston who is to divulge the news on such occasions . He has such an inveterate habit , only equalled by a practised ticket-of-leave man , of not committing himself by any sort of intelligible answer to any description of question , that he couldn't , if he tried , state a plain fact . How he was ot'er brought to say , " Y 6 s , " in answer to the Church ' s inquiry whether ho would take Lady Palmerston as his wedded wife , is a mystery his

    best friends have never been able to explain ; and , of course , a man of that peculiar idiosyncracy would not do as a Government ; sub-editor in arranging the news . And , after all , members may bo too ingenuous in assuming that this new " triumph of science" will at all facilitate our actual knowledge ofevents . Considering that the newspapers , with news of fourteen days ' , aro constantly reprimanded for giving information to the enemy , how can wo expect that our secretive Governing Clasacs will be very rapturously eager to announce information of a few hours' youth ? Thero is a telegraph at work to Vienna ; but the interests of tho public service seem to havo required that wo should know nothing of what has been done , or is to he dono

    there . The triumph of science , then , may not in the least promote our self government—the English notion of self government being news about ourselves . " It is rumoured , " however , that the absurd negotiations at Vienna are over : Russia has treated our old Lords and the Brummagem Napoleon with derision—Russia , a despotism of intellect , knows the men she has to contend against , and that such men cannot win . We know , then , at last—the affectations of our old Lords are now exhausted—that we haveawar before us with some greater object than the limitation of Russian ships in the Black Sea to six sail

    of the line . The solemn old gentleman , deputed by the Cabinet of solemn old gentlemen , is on his way home from Vienna to confess that he has been going through a ludicrous process of Conference , and that the very blunders which he committed eighteen months ago , in considering that Russia only crossed the Pruth for strategetic purposes , he has committed again this April , in imagining that Alexander the Second would back Russia beyond the point where she stood in the reign of his uncle . We are to have a debate on foreign policy , in the course of which our old Lords will successfully demonstrate that they never have had , and never can have , any statesmanlike conception of the position or duty of England in conflict with aggressive Russia . The men who drifted into

    be no public spirit , no grand thought , no national question . Let us , then , get out of such a war or say to the old Lords ^—Go to your castles and v ' our gout , and leave us the State : —with the money " you are making us pay we could establish Freedom in Europe , and while we are about it we will . But who " is to set about the Revolution ? There ' s to be a City Meeting of the Travers' Whigs , to recommend a consolidation of the War Department " The Manchester Liberals . are engrossed in protesting that they hope -the Whigs will be punished by-Lord Derby coming in . The statesmen among the Peers are occupied in putting up debating-societv . men like Lord Albemarle , whose principal

    distinction in human affairs is , that he was once private secretary to Lord John Russell , to talk statistical speeches about the Russian transit trade—which speeches , after all , the Lords , with all their private practice in being bored with one another , cannot stand , for , when Lord Albemarle was finishing last night , his audience consisted of—three . You cannot look to the mass of the professedly-enlightened Members , for one set of them ( who let the interest on their invested capital run on that day ) are going to shut up the Sunday trade shops in the back streets , while another set of them , who are nevertheless not indisposed to throw out the cheap news . paper bill , and who fully believe that this country

    and themselves in especial , are m the van of civilisation , are intent on the Education Bills—or what the Scotch Members , speaking of their own hill , due last night , call the " Education" bills . As to the great British public , it is glad to hear that Lord Panmure has resigned , and it hopes the next old Lord will be an improvement , and it sh . ikes its head about Palmerston , and if it had a leader , to lead it by the nose , niight perhaps do something , but not having a leader , will pay its increased taxeSj and make fortunes , and get out of work , and goto the workhouse quietly , with that persevering and industrious stupidity which is the secret of our commercial prosperity , Sir . Well , then , Avhere

    the war will drift in the war . They will " trust to the co-operation of Austria , who , nevertheless , is too sensible to stir , and they will " rely" on our cordial ally of France , and they will " hope" that Frederick William will keep a French army out of Berlin . And they will announce that they will carry on the war with " vigour , " by pouring our Irish and English peasants into the Crimea , and leaving patrician imbeciles to lead them to resultless destruction . Also that , meanwhile , they will raise 100 , 000 , 000 ? . annual taxes ; and that , if necessary , they will recur to duties on bread , and generally push back England as far as she can go towards 1800 . And the House of Commons will give laughing cheers , vote the money , and leave these veteran idiots to ruin England ,

    acare we to look for our Revolutionists ? Not in Mr . Layard . I don't adopt thecant that was so triumphantly pervading the House , its galleries , and lobbies last night , that the scrape he got himself into has smashed him for ever . In his too conceited obstinacy , he was weak and wrong not to say , "On this particular illustration of my general argument I see that I am wrong . " That admission would not in the least have affected his general argument—which is all the world ' s general argument—that the system of the Horse Guards is an infamous system , degrading to the nation , disgraceful to individuals . lie may have been gratified as a vain man , who is not a proud man , in causing bellowed at

    cording to all the forms of constitutional incompetency . England has already gone back , has ceased to be England . Where is the public spirit , the publi c knowledge , the public man , English ? We last week cheered a crowned coquin through our streets ; and this week , what does the apathy , the grin , the dilettantism , of Parliament—fumbling with Marriage questions and Wills questions—indicate and illustrate , " but the"decay "" of public liberty ? Our public spirit is shown in a quidnuncy clamour for paragraphs from Lord Raglan as to the weather ,

    an uproar in the House—in being , yah-ed at , given tho lie to , called false and calumnious ( amidst great cheering ) by Lord Palmerston—the whole constituting a scene not paralleled since the memorable Duffy hubbub two years ago , _ He was not cool and quiet , as Mr . Duffy was ; he ¦ l fgu " e * d , "'" lle "" gdt ~ 'into "" new"blun ( 1 . crs - he expostulated with the uproar—catching at and replying to passing yells and phrases . The House was Very full , and very excited , and very brutal , as the House always is at such times : and a man of veritable intellect would not have mnde such a shocking mistake as to fight with such an audience—more especially when in the wrong , as beyond

    while we abstain from forcing our facetious Premier to tell us what he and his sovereign ( of Paris ) are doing , or about to do , with the history of Europe . Our public liberty is manifested in the enjoyment of a Sebastopol Committee , which puts questions with the crapalous and objectless curiosity . of an old Gossip , and which a Duke of Newcastle , or any other clever witness , can play with , as a Humphrey Parry could play with a Pantnloony bench of chattering Sergeants Adams . Our public man displays . his heroic patriotism in travelling down to assist at a Mersey ship-launch , and to a beshcrryed company of

    all question Mr . Layard was , and so thoroug hly in the wrong , that he could hot get one solitary member to say a word for him . The bluff Tory officer-members—Colonel North and Colonel K . nox sort—finr , dull fellows , whom it was wonderful and delightful to hear , talking in a high " swell , " but very vigorous and effective manner , last night—these gentlemen went to their dinner when it was all over , very contemptuous of Mr . Layard—they said ho wasn't a gentleman . And there was but one opinion on all hands time Mr . Layard had deserved the painful pulling down , his best friends confining themselves to tho expression of a belief thivt , after all , it would do him good , and make his orations less swaggcry and more useful . But Mr . Layard is only down for tho moment . lie will , certainly , never lead a party , nor impress of

    gentlemen and ladies , recapitulating the stale inuendoes of a Pall-mall smoking-room—offering to the gushing patriots of a Liverpool 'Change that , by way of a cry against Russia , wo should shout " Justice to Billson ;"—who , it turns out , is thinking , not of his country , but of his 3000 / . Our public presspalladium of our liberties—is almost exclusively occupied in assuring the nation that if the papers were sold cheap , tho editors ( meaning themselves ) would be scamps ; or when it is not engaged in that careful demonstration , it is employed in congratulating us that , though our taxes are enormous , they are

    himself as a chief , on an assembly so full analytical intellect as tho House of Commons ; and if he doesn c study the manner , and tone , and tastes of tho place , he will speedily take a disastrous place among tne recognised bores . Yet , assuming that he win improve as an elocutionist , and otherwise subdue mo resuming Self , there is , tho roars of last night notwithstanding , a flno and honourable Parliamentary career before him . Ho has tho earnestness , tie energy , and the honesty , which claim respect : ana i w vast special knowledge of the whole question oi umwar already constitutes him a power winen i <" public is eager to recognise . It would be b 01 "*" n future , ho would avoid starring it in the provinces , and if , in the House , ho would not protend to . soi prominent apart as impeaching a Ministry , nor , observe , ho takca to this lino—without a company . ' « A Stkangek . Saturday Morning .

    very nicely distributed . The country is profoundly doubtful whether it is worth while to spend 100 , 000 , 000 / . a year in order , at tho end of ten years , to bring Russia to consent that she shall not show more than six ships in the Black Sea—or whether civilisation should bo convulsed in order that tho sinuous Turk should be tranquil on the Bosphorus , and that Louis Napoleon and Victoria should bo on visiting terms . But these arc tho only objects for which our old Lords—our caste of ruling incapablcs —appeal to us to contend : and , in a war of that sort , a war as to six ships or twelve ships , a statesman ' s war in tho sense of a rod tape war . there can

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    aaa THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1855, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2088/page/16/