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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd January 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 87, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      CROMWELL AND CHARLES STUART . Tqbyism deserts its trenches even before its adversaries open their first parallels . The Queen gives uo praying Heaven to avert from England the eiilt of the blood shed at Whitehall even before the eeneral public -take any hostile notice of the old service for the 30 th of January . A Drawing-room is to be held on the anniversary of the day when Chabxes I . was put to death , and there is to be merry-making instead of mourning in the Palace of St . James ' s . How effectually that veteran radical , old Time , saps the ancient prejudices of the Conservatives ! Trace the change from the days of the

      Restoration , when the body of England s greatest and most real sovereign was hanged in chains , to the day when the second son of ' the martyr' was driven from his palace . Trace events a little further , and we have the grandson of the martyr set aside by Parliament hi looking out for a new line of kings . We have his great grandson ( once the Young Pretender ) dying at Rome , a childless , neglected old man , with our lion and unicorn glittering over his bed ; and ' last scene of all / Cardinal York ( legitimate Henby IX . of England ) , obliged to leave Italy when invaded by BoNAVAJtTE , and afterwards pensioned by his royal cousin . George III . So end the descendants of Charles the Martyr . On the other hand , our young men were taught in school-books that Cromwell was a bloodthirsty usurper , and that

      Charles , with some errors , was a saint . Car-IiYLE disturbed that creed by his ' elucidations ' of Cromwell ' s speeches ; but still the Protector was refused a statue . How oddly we treat our history ! we make a compromise of extremes : the two great adversaries are alike insulted : we refuse the Republican a statue , and we dance upon the grave of tlie King . Remembering the old tie between Church and King , and how Charles shed torrents of blood to force Bishops on Scotland , it is , perhaps , the greatest change of all to find the Bishop of London at an Indian meeting last week , praising the old Puritan soldiery of Cromwell , simply adding , that he would ' say nothing either way as to their politics . ' A Bishop will ' say nothing' as to the policy of cutting off a king ' s head . Truly , ' the whirliffier of Time brings about its

      revenges . It is worth while to note that the Times is wrong in speaking of Queen Victoria as a representative of tlie family of Charles I . She belongs to a rival branch of tlie family . No blood of the decapitated king is in her veins ; she is descended from his sister . The Orleanists might as logically mourn the Revolution of 1830 as Queen Victoria the fall of that branch of the Stuart family whose successive crimes- caused the change of succession to the other branch , of which she is the direct descendant .

      Untitled Article

      THE SPANISH DANCERS . Europe evidently misunderstands Spain . Some politicians disregard her because she will not play even the tenth fiddle in the European concertothers appear to study the web of Madrid politics with the perseverance of Robert Bruce ' s spider . In truth ,, both are wrong . We should hand over Spanish affairs to our theatrical critic , and were it not that the noted Spanish dancer is an unexocptionably ' proper' lady ,, we should suggest Perea Nena on a Throne as an interlude on that European stage where Louis Napoleon does leading tragedy , Ferdinand of JSaplcs the melodramatic' villain , ' and LEOroLD of Belgium tho heavy futhcr . We should name our own Court for genteel scntimcntalcomcdy , only that there is a real happy family life behind tho curtain , and the only theatrical point is ' no money returned . '

      Tho mo 3 t recent scene in tho Spanish drama teaches us that there is . a Cortes . Our study of Spain haa been so occasional—wo had hoard so much of tho favourite , ' and of unexpected turns in the chances of winning , that wo had hastil y imagined the Puluoo a kind of Spanish Derby . We were mistaken j tho ministry of Admiral Aumhko lias resigned , because defeated in tho election of Speaker . Why , this is like England—Lord John

      revolution he- had most wantonly provoked . What will the VicalvariBt generals who overthrew this man four years ago say now to his return ? What Espartero , who at the head of the national party seconded the mutineers , will say , is not of much importance . True , he is honest , but the only honest man in Spain is he whose good faith puts all the rest to shame , as tie only great Spanish book is that which ridicules all the rest . When the late Minister was retiring , he denounced to his face the King ( titular Consort ) as the head of the Absolutist intrigues- These intrigues are the one check n * + i *> Anoon ' o -roish +. r > . rp . icm without a Cortes . on the ueen ' s Tvisbto reign without a Cortes .

      , Q . If Spain tolerates or upholds a despotism , the logic of facts and of family right is with her cousin Montemolin , and Isabella , the facile and devout , has no wish to take a pension in exchange for her Palace . That people may see some difference between her and the other Pretender , she keeps a Cortes in . Madrid—but she may find that she is playing with edged tools . The Carlist party is cunning and unscrupulous , and * with its aides in the Palace , can afford to wait and watch occasion . Opposed to the Princess of the Asturias , the Legitimist Infant of Spain has a new emphasis in bis title . What quaint jokeslike bits out of Tristram

      , Shandy , one finds in the Court Circular of Madrid The little girl called a Princess gets a name derived from the Immaculate Conception , and by a curiously illogical process , her birth is the occasion of a decree giving donations to all ' legitimate' children born on the same day . Cross the Atlantic to see the very black joke of slaves landed in Cuba by the bribed concurrence of Spanish Governors . We send Dr . Livingstone to tlie interior of Africa to persuade the inner tribes and kings to give up slave-dealingwhy not send him to the capital of that advanced

      part of Africa' north , of the Mediterranean ? Is not the unfortunate Spaniard a man and a brother ? It is wrong to judge of the people by the thick-lipped , low-browed Isabella . Is not the capacity of the race proved by Perea Nena ? And if Spanish soldiers and generals now-a-days are nothing oetter than policemen skulking down tlie Palace areas , must we not try to remember the middle ages , when the Spauish infantry was a power in Europe ? But this would lead us too far : and a society for missionaries to Madrid savours too much , perhaps , of the profitless enthusiasm of Exeter Hall .

      ^ umeeH ^ CQuJd ^ noLdp . tlicJluwgJiy'Jil ^ - ^^ TlicJ a ^ ujo ^ part of the piny is , however , the best . THcTQuecn hcrsolf had supported the defeated candidate ; sho gavo AiiMicao a dcoroo to dissolve tho Cortes , and then , worked on during the night by some of tho Absolutist party , sho recalled ' tho decree , and accepted AumeWs resignation . Tho successful candidate in tho Cortes is Bravo Muiui / lo , and tho loader o ( the successful section is Sahtoiudh , tho minister who , in 1851 , oscapod in disguiac from a

      Untitled Article

      FRUGAL MARRIAGES . No sooner does any public meeting upon the greatest of our social evils initiate a discussion upon the best means of checking or exterminating what is erroneously called the vice of great cities ( for the country in this respect is not pure ) , than a hundred letter-writers are sure to spring up under various signatures in the newspapers , advocating the subject of frugal marriages . Tho very phrase involves a contradiction in terms , for marriages are in the abstract luxuries of existence , and the quality of absolute frugality cannot be logically conceded to them . Marriages may be relatively frugal , that is to say , one marriage may be more prudent and

      economically arranged than another , depending upon the standard of living existing in the mind of the persons interested ; but it provos very little in tho cause of hymeneal propagandism for each individual to parade his standard before the eyes of the world , saying , " Sec what I have done , or can do , and cannot you do likewise ? " The standard of a clerk —even in . ' one of the first houses of business in the City '—is not , and cam never be , the standard of the younger son of a nohlcinan ; and if comparisons arc Invited , the clerk will be outdone in marriage upon small means by the porter in the same establishment , who will again yield to the Whitechapcl birdcatcher , who will in his turn give way to the

      Dorsctshiro labourer , who must yield tho palm to the poasant of Comieinura , the discoverer and practiscr of the lowest standard of all . Perhaps tho letter in-tho Times of the 15 th , inst ., signed ' Another Happy Man , ' has excited the most attention , because ol the d « tails which tho writer en tors into , showing how he , his wife , and infant child , and two servants , contrive to live upon 230 / . 03 . per annum . Tho first item , ' baker , ' gives lilrdWa" b " o ' ut ~ i ; wo—pounds ~ ofv ~ brend—peir ~ dtty » r-wmoll , for fivo porsons , scarcely seems suuiciunt . Tho ' butcher and fishmonger' arc very moderate—about nino shillings per week—and their household bcema to consume nearly tho samo value in beer during tho year aa it docs iu bread . The cheesemonger's account will « scunningly allow about one hull-pound of butter por wock , winch , for five persons , ia economy of the most atriugont kind . Tho greengrocer's

      account nearly balances the baker ' s , which rather goes to show a . vegetarian tendency . The grocer ' s allowance can give no puddings , and only weak tea , and little of that . Passing over the other items , such as coals , rent , taxes , & ' c . &c , we come tot another class of expenses . Washing is put down at the very moderate figure of 2 > l . 7 s . 2 d . per annum , or about twopence per day , which may be accounted for , in some measure , by the fact that they live iit the country , a few miles down on a line of railway . Bearing this in . mind , it is rather difficult to reconcile so much household economy with the very liberal , not to say extravagant , amount ( in comparison )

      allowed for dress . Carrying out our friend » standard of living rigidly in all its ramifications , we should say that forty pounds a year is too much to allow for the dress of himself , wife , and infant child . We hope the mother is not allowed to revel in crinoline , and the child in purple velvet mantles up that cheerful , clayey country lane which always leads to your villa from a railway station . Such elegances would certainly be thrown away in suck a neighbourhood , if they did not have a revolutionary effect upon the two servants , liberallly supplied with greens , but pining each upon a one-fiith share each week in half a pound of butter , and a Ihe

      one-fifth share each day in two pounds of bread . - twenty pounds a year allowed for ' church and charity' rather indicate a desire to make a sensation without , by a pinching economy within . So much for ' Another Happy Man ; ' and a dozen writers might come forward , each with his little personal narrative , in the same way , and leave thegreat question exactly where he found it . There is no doubt that much of the vice and misery that exist at the present day is the result of a weak desire for display—a morbid passion for outdoing your neighboar ia all the showy externals of ornamental respectability . < Another Happy Man , ' by his own . showing , does not seem to be entirely free Irom tlus feeling , for a risrid economist might point out a field

      for no inconsiderable annual saving , even m his carefully regulated expenditure . Persons who are * incapable of acting upon the salutary principle of self-restraint , are not likely to be better members of society when married than when single . Unfortunately for those who advocate marriage as the only cure for the * social evil , ' those who know anything of casinos , night-houses , supper-rooms , wineshops , and the top of the Haymarket , know that married men form no inconsiderable proportion , of the permanent patrons of such places . And even , in the records of private vice , with , which the public may be regaled in a newspaper that contains in the hoto

      same columns an advertisement oC indecent p - graphs and an account of a Dtjgdaxe prosecution , it is not always the single man and the single woman who figure aa the hero and heroine , but more frequently those who , according to no mean authority , are supposed to have given hostages to society fox their good behaviour . With three hundred thousand paupers , depending : at the present timo upon the slender charity of one parochial system , it cannot be asserted that marriages have not been plentiful enough of late-. Before Sir Benjamin Brodie made that notable speech at the late Birmingham ' Social Science ^ meeting-, it would have been well if he had pondered over this '

      alarming fact , and not given utterance to- the opinion that it was the duty of all persons to get married at the youngest possible age , and without the slightest inquietude aa to their means of support . Such , an opinion coming- from a younger professional man would have seemed to savour of the selfish hungering after the profits of the ' night-bell ^ ' rather than of a desire to oenefit his fellow-creatures . Tlie unpaid vice of the country and the paid vice of the town , are not to be overthrown by such platform palliatives—nor , we fear , even by a leaf from the Housekeeper ' s Book of a mercantile clerk , exhibiting a minimum of washing , and a maximum of Church and Charity . '

      Untitled Article

      -Kn . 409 . Jakuaby 23 , 1858 . 1 THE XEABEBt 87

      Untitled Article

      Revival ojt tub Slave Trade , —The committee of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce appointed 'to consider tho French plans of obtaining colonial labourers from Africa , ' have preaontod a report to the Council , in which they show how the people of England have been , frustrated ' in tho hope of putting on end to the trofllo in lunninrU " / ^ X ^ . and Verona , by special treaties with Franco horsolf , and with most of tho African chiefa on the slave coast , and to put down which wo hiivo armed our cruisers and oxponded vast treasures both of life and money . They refer more especially to tho clonign on tho part of the French Government to introduce African labourers intoher colonies , and to tho resumption of tho slave-trade a * Lag-os .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 23, 1858, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2227/page/15/