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Leader (1850-1860), 13th June 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 566

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      Parliament is part of the life of a nation—not its life : it must act in harmony with the other functions of the body politic—not paralyse society and try to he a living point in a dead mass . We do not deny that what has passed in Belgium is abnormal , foreigners have not yet learned the art of exercising ' -pressure from without , ' whilst avoiding contact witii . the police . Nov have we . Our Hyde Park riots were as irregular as anything that has happened in Brussels ; but they also enabled a

      government to ( escape from a difficulty , and were rather considered as an over-healthy action of our constitution than as a sign of decay . In Belgium , bones were broken as well as windows , and some blood was shed . 3 Jefc us hope that similar scenes will not soon recur , either i > here or elsewhere ; but we should prefer the alternative of a little lawlessness to the sight of elected legislators , taking

      advantage of their title of representatives and disposing with the recklessness of irresponsibility of the fortunes , the happiness , the honour of si country lying in abject submission before them . Parliaments , like women , are apt to take refuge too often behind the privileges which opinion grants them—to meddle and torment and tyrannise because they think they can do so without danger .

      The events that have taken place in Belgium , sind which have not yet found their catastrophe , sprang out of an untimely endeavour to re-legislate on a point long before settled . Instead of behaving as the representatives of the country at large , the Chamber m , ade itself the representative of a corporation . Even the Ministers gave up their free will and acted under the immediate

      direction of a party and interest outside the House . How they contrived to obtain a majority would be easy to explain . But this is now immaterial , as in the most unequivocal manner we have been told that that majority does not represent the nation . Not only have the populations of the towns declared themselves with a unanimity and an energy never before known , but even in the country , among the ignorant peasantry , usually so much under ecclesiastical influence , most

      energetic declarations have been made that nothing that increases the power of the priests will be tolerated . It is true these Dovin-e . expressions of opinion are nob to be much hearkened to . In Belgium , as in most other Catholic countries , provincials may often be heard to talk very loudly against priestcraft , even to retail free-tbinking ideas , whilst at the same time they are under the thumb

      of the cure , and may be detected now and then . paying sly visits , with all the appearance of being en bonne for tzine , to the confessional . "We may suppose , therefore , that the routed IJltramontanes will be able to fall back on a considerable reserve ; and the Iaberals must continue to harass them unceasingly in their retreat . It may be quite true that at the meeting that took place at the house of M . db MinoDE the clericals xesolved to abandon

      the law on charities ; but we must not suppose they will so easily give up a struggle in which they have been so nearly victorious . We have not yet received news of any modification in the Ministry . MM . Djs-30 EOKBB and Vii . ai ; n XIV . still keep to their posts , though they are reported to be edging away from their colleagxi . es ; and the great

      AiLPWONSE Nothomb has not yet retired to [ Luxembourg . TJbis last gentleman , after describing the semicircle of success — from extreme Liberalism to extreme Conservatism —the . weUUtrodden path from , opposition to favoiw?—has not yet been awakened from his dreicup . Two years of office have lefifc him as ignorant and as vain , as imperturbable and as ivbnna ' awfc , as ever . ( The experience of the last jttonth , too , seems to luive peen last upon

      him . M . Maj&ott , the Bishop of Bruges , showed great discretion when he entrusted to such a man the management of his Charity Bill . M . Nothomb nob only BtiJl clings to his post , but is reported to be preparing a fatally fluent dissertation for delivery to the Chamber when it meets again to discuss tMs project ; whilst every one is saying that the Catholic party , of which M . ISToirjBiOMB is the tool , have at any rate agreed fto put themselves in the hands of the King * and leave to him ; the responsibility of disposing of the

      obus measure . It is difficult , as yet , to tell how the d-enoument of the drama will be brought about . If the Ministry refuses to be modified—if it is bound together by pledges—and such may probably be the case , if we may judge by the manner iu which the Charity iBill was brought forward aud supported—it is not likely that the King will venture on the experiment of dismissing it altogether , and endeavouring to carry on the Government with a Liberal or Coalition administration in the face of a

      hostile majority . Kings know too well now the peril of such a . course . Besides , they are but men after all—Men and Fathers . Excellent King Leopold was just about to have proposed to the Chamber a little bill for the dotation of his daughter Cham-otte—a name dear to the memory of the heart and the pocket of England , He is about to give her in marriage to the Archduke Maximilian

      of Austria ; and what Englishman is ignorant of the cost of these interesting transactions ? To convoke the Chambers for this purpose only " would be impossible . Yet convoked they must be . According to the letter of the Constitution an . adjournment cannot last more than a month . It is said the meeting is fixed for the 25 th—unless in the meantime the Government determine on a dissolution .

      A dissolution ! This would then be the year of elections . After the brisk and noisy contest in England—in which English constituencies , independent or corrupt , ignorant , prejudiced , enlightened , liberal , conservative , and servile , managed to arrive at « an average representation of their want of earnestness —we shall have the muffled and unequal struggle of an exasperated minority in France , with the Government supported by its halfmillion of soldiers , and preceded by its flock

      of six or seven millions of electors—or bulletins ; and then would come the deadly wrestling of two hostile parties in Belgium —the ghastly , but vigorous , cowled monk with the ripening modern , man—the disciplined hordes of the convent with the enthusiastic crowds of Liberalism . But the probability is that the Jesuit party , with their usual caution , will act according to the feeling of the meeting at the house of M . 3 > k Meuode-Westerloo — do every tiling they can to prevent a dissolution of the Chambers or the breaking up of the Cabinet . Though

      defeated on one point they deaire to preserve their position for future uae . We may be sure , at any rate , thab the struggle is not really over . An ecclesiastical party is not so easily overcome . Much , of course , will now depend on the policy pursued by the King . If he clearly see that his power , or at any rate lu ' s popularity , is risked by these dosperato Conservatives , who would throw everything into confusion , ho will , iu as far as the Constitution allows him , range himself on the Liberal aide . Every ono feels that the contest will not be decided whom the Charity Bill

      has been withdrawn . The ndyunoed party in Europe , singularly ouoiigb , is waiting with anxiety for the decision of a King—fearing that that decision will bo a chock to monarchy—hoping that it will consolidate a throuo and confound fcho calculations of whoever may seek advantage JtVom anarchy .

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      THE NATIVE AMUSES OF INDIA The latest intelligence from India solves all doubt as to the reality or extent of disaffection m the Bengal Army . It is now ^ that the whole of . the native (' result troops are more or less implicated in a ^ spiracy against the State . The fruits of Lord Whiiam Bentinck ' s mad crusade against military discipline are no longer to be mis taken . The outbreak which has just occurred had been long predicted alike by soldiers and civilians of ordinary Indian experience . What then , has been done towards meeting the

      threatened danger , if , indeed , it could not be altogether averted ? Nothing — absolutely nothing ! As for the feeble palliatives glanced at in our last number , such remedies could , at the most , be expected to hare no better effect than that of from , time to time postponing the evil day . Au increase of European officers has , it is true , been doled out during the last twenty years ; but the

      increase of extra-regimental staff appointments has been far more than corresponding . So that the addition spoken of would go for rather less than nothing , were it not , in certain , other respects , positively detrimental , as wo can very soon show . The subjoined table exhibits the proportion of European officers allowed to a Bengal native infantry regiment , at a period immediately succeeclin < r Lord Wii / ltam Bentinck ' s

      reductions , and again at the present day : — 1837 . 1857 . 8 companies ; 610 privates . lOcomps . ; 1000 privates , Colonel ... ... 1 Colonel ] Lieut .-Colonel ... 1 ; Lieut .-Colonel ... 1 Major . 1 : Major ] Captains . ... ... 5 . Captains ... ... 3 Lieutenants ... ... 8 Lieutenants 11 Ensigns 4 Ensigns ... ... 5

      Total 20 Total 2 G Hence it will easily be seen that , in 183 , 7—excluding field officers—there were 17 . cap * tnina aud subalterns allowed for an establishment of 610 privates ; being at the rate of 1 officer to about 37 Sepoys . In 1857 , we find that tho captains and subalterns have been increased to 23 : but the number of privates has been augmented to 1 . 000 ; and the result id that the proportion of officers to soldiers

      is only 1 to about 43 . Tho vaunted increase of officers is thus proved to bo an arithmetical fallacy . And how great the practical fallacy is may bo gathered from the fact that , oa the strength of this imaginary augmentation , three four , or five more individual * have been withdrawn , for staff employ from regiments already much under-officered . This state ot things is , as wo have already said , positively detrfmentalbut still more detrimental r -

      ; suits must ensue from a persistanco m tue pitiful half measures hitherto adopted , referring again to tho establishments ot law and 1857 respectively , wo observe that « cadet of the former year , on joining luj regiment as fourth ensign , bad only seveut on steps between him and tlfc reguuenta 1 ma jonty—the point , in fact , at winch ^ nili&ry ™ begins to bo pretty » £ h motion was w

      remunerated—thoug pro from boing rapid at that period . i *" " ° cadet of f 857 ? joining « ^ ^ X twenty-three steps to win ere ho tan ¦ oupy tho same desirable position j "J ^ J . ^ J must vho by dint of sheer boiuou y , Johnny INWoomjb of the present . day » ewj under ordinary ^ "OJ ^ W ' ^ ii maoK better result than that oL l ^ ° ag 0 half way up the list of cai ) toin ^ at aa o when inoHt generals are rmo U P b

      ^ Here is an argument w ^ ^ oienb to grounds wanting , ia m itsell oU-surn o establish tho necessity ior w « nu J q { the Bengal Presidency , at least , Ue ° demomlBfttion l » aa proceeded w > i « tw »

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      me THE LEADER , PNo . 377 . SAaro ^ - ' —— - ^———^——^———— - —* - ——¦^— ¦ —¦ M————— —^ . — *¦>

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 13, 1857, page 566, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2197/page/14/