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    which would have concealed from the eye of the Government and the public any amount of'defalcations ,- misapplications of the funds , extravagance , and reckless management . "We do not propose to repeat what we have already said with reference to this painful inquiry , but the transaction lets in a flood of light upon the system by which lords and gentlemen , in or out of office , are interested

    in shielding one another , and form a guild with the object of protecting their common prerogative and suppressing the inconvenient integrity of subordinates . For example , it seems to have been very amicably settled between Sir CHAEiiES Tbevixyan and Lord Beifeb , and again between the same priggish purist and Lord G-banvii-i-e , that Mr . IJebtoiAcci should be chained to his desk at the Ordnance office at the times

    when lie might have been otherwise enabled to penetrate the financial secrets of the Duchy . In effect , the heads of the department falsified their engagement with the auditor , and the heads of other departments connived with them in . doing so . The auditor had a last resource . His letterspatent empowered him to appoint a deputy to exercise his functions of check . This

    he did , and selected a gentleman who we believe had formerly been employed to investigate extensive defalcations in the household at Buckingham Palace , and also by Prince Ai « bebt himself in connexion with the Great Exhibition of 1851 . The deputyauditor was treated as an intruder and a spy , and the books were closed against him . The auditor and his representative were domineered over by the clerk of the Council , whereas that individual was strietly

    accountable to them for all sums he received from the Duchy . Every exertion was made use of —sometimes insolence , sometimes wheedling —to procure Mr . Bejuqlacoi ' s signature to a formal document intended to make things pleasant between the Chancellor , his staff , and the Hous 3 of Commons . " We do not say that a system of plunder has been carried on , but we insist that Lord Bei-peb , Lord G-BAUViiii-E , Lord Habbowbt , Sir Chabi-es

    TbeveiaYan , and Mr . Monseix behaved , if Mr . Bebtoi . acci b statement be true , as though they had some crime or some blunder of enormous magnitude fco conceal on the part , of themselves or of their friends . The public has always considered Lord EL&browb y so correct a gentleman , it has so consistently regarded Sir Chabies Tbevei < yai ? as one of the most morally prim and rigid-hearted of the mandarin class , it so intuitively believes when a rumour of shabbiness is set afloat that Earl

    G-bajstvixlb would be ' above' it , that it cannot understand , why , wlien an inquisition is demanded , so much official trepidation should be displayed . It has also oeen perplexed to understand why , if Mr . Bertolacoi suffered a wrong in August , 1855 , he did not long ago bring his case before the public . "We think Mr . Roebuck could explain , and not Mr . Roebuck . only , but certain other patriots whose voices are sweet upon the hustings . There is . one elect of the ten-pound householders by whom

    Stafford is beloved , and he hovered so long overthisquestion that an Englishman notfomi liar "with the back-stairs goings and comings of patriotism might have sxipposed that he would infallibly come before the House hot from Bxtiike ' q speech on economical reform , and talking of meat and drink offered to the dead , of goatherds on mountains , and miners in pits . The literal interpretation of which would have been that Stafford is corporately afraid of tumbling through the earth some evil day—churches , market , shops , citizens , ten-pound householders , and all the ivorywriiBted , rosy-fingered girls together—into one

    of Earl G-banvilxe' s coal-pits ; for the noble lord is said to have burrowed very far in that direction into the subterranean possessions of the Duchy . Consequently , Mr . Wise has felt himself compelled to procure a committee , but we wish that he would print a return of his patriotic ejaculations with respect to chartered abuse and matters that must be inqnired into ; here is an opportunity to increase his political capital among his , constituents . Turning from small cattle however , we invite . Mr .. Roebuck , to demonstrate the actual value of his services as a reformer . He would be Brutus , of course , if there were a Cjesab at Buckingham Palace ; he would be Cicebo to Catiline ; he would fight like Hampden and die like Emmett , and it would certainly be worth his while . But tlie public would like to know—and we would tell them if we might —how long Mr . Eoebuck had Mr . Beb-TOiiACCi ' s case in hand ; how often the President of the Administrative Reform Association consulted Prince Axbebt on a question of abuse ; and how the nineteenth century Ptm , who deplored at Sheffield the corruption of patriots by tickets for state dinners , showed Mr . Bebtoxacci ' s petition at a lordly table , endeavoured to raise the essential point without-wounding any noble feelings , and finally washing his hands of a task that would bring him into gratuitousodium , exerted all his influence to burke the whole affair . Why , this is the boldest man in Parliament , who is always saying severe things ; and can it be believed that John Abthtjb Roebuck , when lie gets upon his legs to put a question to a Minister , as sternly as a French judge might put a question to a member of a secret society , has held that Minister by the button in the lobby , and obtained his permission ? There is a silver whistle inside the trumpet of challenge , and no Whig Minister is afraid of Mr . Roebuck . To the electors of Sheffield it is left to decide , when they are next empanelled as a political jury , whether there has been any evasion of trust , or misappropriation of influence . It may be necessary to x * eserve for the present a detailed explanation of Mr . Roebuck ' s conduct bearing on the abuses of the Duchy of Lancaster , but if he knows what is due to himself , or if he dare to p lead his own justification , let him tell the House of Commons or his constituents why he shrank from presenting the petition of Mr . Bebto-XiACor . We do not care for the ex-auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster any more than that he is a meritorious public servant , who has been grossly and unconstitutionally maltreated for attempting to perform his duty ,. ancl we would have preferred that Mr . Bebtoi-acci should have proved mistaken , rather than that Mr . Roebuck should have lost liis public character ; but unhappily this is not the first example we have had of playing into the hands of the Government on the part of the most selfsufficient patriot in the House of Commons . We have bad Tory corruption ; we have had Whig jugglery ; out worse than either is the demoralizing duplicity of a set of men who , calling themselves Administrative Reformers , trade upon a long career of pretence , and confound and battle every effort to construct or to lead a Liberal party in the English House of Commons . Well may Reformers of all classes unite at this moment in welcoming back to England and in inviting back to Parliament Johk Beiqiit , in whose restoration to health we have now a double cause to rejoice .

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    THE LAW v . ROWDYISM . Those who nro hostile to the Aniorioan Republic rojoico iu tho reports of riots in Washington city , and luxuriate in tho idea

    that the citizens have been put down by the soldiery . Those who are friendly to the Be public are dismayed at the appearance of conflict , and anticipate that the Federal authority will be reduced to nothing by the dissent of one province after another—of Utah , of Kansas—by the rebellions of mob after mob , now invading even the capital We have grown accustomed to these anticipations . We have seen them before , when Carolinian pride has revolted atdictation

    ' from Washington . We have seen them when Nullificators have appeared to exercise a moral power destructive to the union ; when Native Americanism was contending with' the foreign element' in ] STew York riots , - and Mr . Macbeady became a question of state . But all these bubbles have burst ; and , after the event , the prophets could thoroughly explain to you how it was that their prognostics did

    not take effect . In fact , most of these wise people were quite prepared to prove to you , always after the event , that they had quite foreseen the reverse of what they had told ; for , by the time it had actually blown over , they could discover that those mobs which disturb the peace of all cities , whether in the West or the East , whether in republican America or absolutist Austria , are not the

    republic ; but they are sections of society quite as contracted , quite as separated from the great body of the people , as the aristocracy itself , even as the ' Upper Ten , ' or as our court company from the body of the commonwealth . The incident at Washington might serve to have convinced both foes and friends that the American Republic is quite capable of defending itself through its Government . What was the occasion ? It was no question

    of American politics , but simply one of the local elections . A particular party , a band imported from a neighbouring state , had determined to dictate to the electors , not by moral suasion , but by physical force . In every new country like the United States , there is rather a large share of physical acti vity and energy . It is a species of influence which contracts the habit of self-glorification-,

    and when once it does triumph , it relishes the luxury of victory so much , that it seeks occasion , for more . The consequence has been thab the rowdy interest has b ecome a settled party at elections , and thus , irrespectively of the merits of any question , or of ordinary party divisions , the rowdies will make themselves felt . It is a kind of interest which encroaches , as a do

    matter of course , and the rowdies encroach . At Washington they threatened actual violence . Now Washington is not only the capital of the republic , but is tne chief town in tho district of Columbia and is under a municipality ; but is more than other states under the direct authority ^ the supreme Government . The mayor , m Maogbudeb , applied for the assistance oi the military , and a troop of Federal Mown * was called out . There certainly was no pre--. i ™* nTiftv in Attacking 1 the rioters , ¦« »» °

    expected that this evident sign of w flta "" Jg the constituted authority would have . a » or » effect , and that the mob would desist from any further violence . It did not do so . Aflwiv gun was brought out , —tho soldiers * e n threatened , a shot was fired ,-a Marm > teU , and then the military received the o * W » to fire . It would appear that then fort ** ance iu the first instance l » od induceJ { JJ mob to imagine that the constituted "Ut » rities wore actually in fear ot them . * rowdies took themselves for tho Kep « and were about to dictate to the Jjf ^ gJJ ° the Bepublio ; but tho energy ot therAwy ^ sustained by the Federal authority , *» taught tho fools that tho Republic is » tronD

    Untitled Article

    S 90 THE LEADER . ' [ No . 378 , Saturday

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 20, 1857, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2198/page/14/