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Leader (1850-1860), 16th February 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page unpag., Untitled Article

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    • (f o / ~^3 v'-v viv\ \ + A POLITICAL AND LITEEART EEYIEW, which
    • mettiem rf tire Wnk.
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      Content?: 151

      Contents ; Obi 151

      Untitled Article

      VOL , VH . No . 308 . ] SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 16 , 1856 . Price { S 5 ^^ :: Sl ^ v

      Untitled Article

      and so , with our eyes open , create a larger number of Pauper Peers . Whether this would help to sustain the particular character of the House of Lords , it is for the Committee of Privileges to determine . They have easier questions before them , an , dyet they prove to be quite incompetent to settle those easy questions . For example , there are many precedents , which have already

      Chancellor , and formally explained his warning to the House of Lords on Tuesday , that when he heard of the creation he determined w to make a row about it in the House of Lords . " The discussion on Tuesday fully deserved the epithet which Lord Campbell prospectiyely applied to it ; and probably , when Lord Wensleydale appears , Lord Campbell will be prepared for an extension of the * row" into that more intense form called a ¦*• shindy . "

      If Ministers are promised a victory over the oppugnant Law Lords , they are decidedly threatened with defeat in a more distant , but not less conspicuous ground—Central . America . It is true that American feeling , as represented in the last accounts , does not lead us to expect any disposition on that side to make a war business out of the enlistment question . If there has been any subterfuge in the matter of the apology , probably the Americans will be satisfied with the retribution i nvolved in the

      exposing the subterfuge . At all events , there is no practical operation going on , which calls for further interference on their part , and it will probably turn out that the balance of discredit will not lie on their side ; although Mr , Cushing has done his best to make a set-off against the Imngling in England . Central America is the ground on which our Ministers can proceed to actual defeat . If they were to accept the American interpretation of tbe Bulwek .-Cla . yton treaty , it would enable . ' them as

      a matter of good luck to withdraw from the territory . No doubt , as a simple matter of power , they can hold their ground in Honduras and the . Bay Islands , at least for some time j but they will do so at the expense of maintaining themselves in a neighbourhood that would beepmc excessively troublesome , if not dangerous . It is perfectly absurd to require the Government at Washington to hold

      back the adventurers who are crowding into Nicaragua . " We have been able to drive back Ru&siqu . from Turkey , because the Government was / maltixig the encroachments , and we car * alwjtiyEs Sl ^ ljit -. » government answerable for its acts . ^ inJfUvj ^ u&l Kussians had simply thronged Into tjjtei ^ Mtlipufti . dominions , as individuals had gradually afiqtfiretf possession of the soil , had as graduallWjguflerepded . the Turkish or Greek occupants , no repfton 8 t > rttnp (? ,

      HpHE Conservative Peers have made a very pretty - * - quarrel out of the Wensleydale case . Whatever may have been the intention of Ministers in creating Lord Wensleydale a peer for the term of hie natural life , the avowed reasons for the measure are quite sufficient to justify it . The House of Lords claims to be the highest judicial authority in the kingdom . At present there would be many reasons against superseding the authority of the Lords in that regard , but nothing is more

      notorious than the incapacity of the Lay-Lords to exercise the judicial function , or the small force of Lords learned in the law to adjudicate in the name of the House . " More Law Lords ! " that is the grand want , if the House of Lords is to continue giving judgment which the public can respect . When the ancient Law Lords tell us that they want no more assistance , we perfectly understand

      the meaning of the assurance . All very old gentlemen resent the being helped ; they wish the bystanders to assist in making them believe that they are as efficient as they have been when young . We not only require Law Lords to be appointed for the purpose of taking the places winch will be vacated shortly , but also for the purpose of adding immediately and permanently to the number of the order in the House . It is advisable that the most

      experienced , able , and independent judges should bo selected for that purpose . It has not proved to bo the rule that the cleverest lawyers secure the largest . amount of heritable property . If Scarlett left a fortune , Erskinb died poor , and if Storey founded a property , Jefferson died a bankrupt ; and the list of diverse fortune might be infinitely extended . We might illustrate the case well by

      the actual sons of Law Lords now holding seats in the Upper House , but it would bo invidious to bring forward the individual names . A birth of Pauper Peers has luappencd when the Ministers had exercised some discretion in creating Peers who could manifestly be enabled to transmit fortune with hereditary title ; but , if we require to pick out the best lawyers now living , wo must necessarily cease to regard the question of money

      been debated in the House of Lords , establishing the fact that the royal prerogativc"iias" % eerr * C 3 : ercised in the creation of life peerages—in ancient times for men , in modern times for women—¦ quite sufficiently to prove that the Law Lords cannot establish the i / legality of the act . When they begin business in Committee of Privileges , what must they do but recommence a laborious consideration of those

      same precedents , in a language which they could neither understand nor read . Just as the Hungarian Senate has left off debating in Latin , the British Senate begins l aw Latin as a variety for its debates ! This proved really too dull a joke , and the committee adjourned for six days in order to have the impracticable , precedents translated , perhaps also to gain time in the hopes of finding out how to back out of the difficulty of proving Ministers in the wrong . Lord Campbell tried to

      get Ministers themselves to back out , by suggest - ing , on Friday last , that they should render the Wknsleydale peerage hereditary ; that is , that they should tacitly confess themselves guilty , and adopt the dictum of Lord Campbell and his coadjutors . Ministers were too cunning to be caught by that trap , and they stood but . The Conservative Peers have , therefore , placed themselves in the ludicrous predicament of resisting the royal prerogative in order to preserve the House of

      Peers from being rendered useful and perhaps from being popularised ; so that they resist an ancient authority on the one hand , ami modern improvement on the other . When popularity and precedent nre leagued together it will be very difficult for any combination of Law , Lords to defeat the combination . Lard Wjinsmcvdale seems most likely to take his seat in the very midst of the lawyers who now declare that they will not admit him . Lord Campbell distinctly warned the Lorn )

      (F O / ~^3 V'-V Viv\ \ + A Political And Liteeart Eeyiew, Which

      ( f o ~^ v' -v viv \ \ + A POLITICAL AND LITEEART EEYIEW ,

      Untitled Article

      " The oue Idea ¦ which . History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Ide ^ a of Humanity—the noble endeavour to thro-wr down all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and , by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldt's Cosmos .

      Untitled Article

      REVIEW OF THE WEEK- tags tuary .... How to Win Sabbath Observance .. 157 THE ARTSOur Civilisation 151 T . nrri StratfYn-rl dp Redeiifffc's A ivnpnl 158 I n t # \ K I O , „ ,. . ... The Romance of " The Times" .... 152 ^ ora btrattora ae iseacime s Appeal i& " Stay at Home . " ... 164 Imperial Parliament .............. 146 Miscellaneous 152 LITERATURE— ' __ The taws of Property as they affect Postscript , 154 UltKAIUKt _ JV omen { -J 8 Summary ... 159 Births , Marriages , and . Deaths 165 ^ r ^ ceuanea -:::::::::::::::::: ^ public affairs- i&SSf ^ lSSS ^ ..:. \— ^ ** **** - _ ........ . , i « ¦ .. 2 ESSSr ..:::::::::::::::::::::::: iS ^«« G ^ ir ...... 155 ScSSs . ?^!?? .:::::::::::: ! 3 commercial affairs-The Orient , ... . 150 Our Relations with America ...... 15 S _ .. -, ; „ . ¦»« - , . « ¦ , Ora ^ "ntalNotes ' ..:: . . 150 Mr . Lowe ' s Partnership Reform .... 156 PORTFOLIO- Cityjfatelbgeuce , Markets , Ad-^ aval and Muitwy News 151 Army Reform : No llinchUjg ...... 157 P a Russian Sketch .... 163 vertisements , &c 165

      Mettiem Rf Tire Wnk.

      mettiem rf tire Wnk .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 16, 1856, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2128/page/1/