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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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laws , and the wholesale introduction of fire-water . These unhappy creatures , having lost the use of their native weapons , when they become too old to hunt for the Company ' s profit , are refused a suppl y of ammunition , essential to their existence , and left to die of starvation , or to eat each other . Their lives are never put in competition with a full-grown beaver-skin ; and they are tried , convicted , and executed on the spot by the hands of their judges for crimes as shadowy as being found near some horses with the supposed intention of stealing them .
If a Company's servant is found dead , the first Indian met is sacrificed—blood for blood—without trial of any kind . In dealing with the natives , the Company invariably buy in the very cheapest and sell in the very dearest market . A coarse knife , worth sixpence , is given to the savage in exchange for three martin-skins , worth ,- in London , five guineas ; and for the skin of the black sea-otter , vaiue fifty guineas , they give in exchange about two shillings worth of g-oods . It is hi this manner that those huge profits are made by the Com pan v , which have become known ,
however carefully it has been endeavoured to conceal them . Twenty-five thousand per cent , is something worth fighting for , and if the gentlemen who waited upon the Earl of Derby on the 6 th inst . do not carry their point , it . will be strange if Canadians , Americans , 'and Russians—especially the two former —leave the Company much longer in undisturbed possession of their happy hunting-grounds . It will be also strange if nine individuals—for that is now the Company ' s number— -can . in the face
of publicity and the desire of annexation , retain an injurious monopoly , extending over territory six times the size of . -. Canada , Or one-third larger than all Europe , with the power to call in the aid of the mother country ' s fleets and armies in that difficulty which must surely come , to enable them to still hold that which was illegally obtained , which has been unjustly extended , which has been grossly mismanaged , and which is only retained to benefit obscure and anonymous individuals at the expense of the mass .
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THE MASSACRE AT JEDDAH . Now that we are in possession of the main circumstances of the massacre at Jeddah , we are enabled pretty fairly to estimate its character . There can be no doubt it was not a mere isolated burst of temper , that degenerated accidentally into ferocity ; but that it represents with accuracy the state of Mohammedan feeling , in its most exalted development , against us throughout the world . All persons who have looked at the East , and whose susceptible hearts have not been-won over by the white grins of obsequious dragomans , by certain picturesque features of life which derive their chief value from
the fact that they recal the Arabian Ni g hts' Entertainments , by the fascinating ease in matters of manners and morals there found , and by the delightful vigour of their own sensations , wliich seem more delightful as years roll on , must have perceived tb . tt , under a varnish of civilization in some places , and under a mask of complacency or a smiik of fear and respect in others , there still exists the same old hatred of Christians which was taught in principle by the Christians which was taught in principle by the
Koran , was accentuated by the Crusades , and has beon kept alive by centuries of hand-to-hand conflict . Whatever Turk or Arab , indeed , does not secretly desire to slay us because we believe differently from him , may be an excellent man , but lie is not a good Mohammedan . We can expect , therefore , no other treatment in any part of the East than that we have experienced at Jeddah , from . the moment at which our power or our will to punisb . such . acts is doubted .
It is necessary , therefore , to inflict prompt and stem chastisement , i £ possible , on the perpetrators of individual crimes at Jeddah , but at any rate on the city itself . We doubt whether anything but a bombardment will meet the necessities of the case ; and we join therefore in the regret that has been expressed that the commander of the Cyclops did not proceed to scatter shot , and shell over the place as soon as he had got all fugitives safe on board . Iu the time that must now eTapso before justice is dono Mohammedan bigotry will labh itself up into u ^ r ? " * fc wu * believe that hesitation , which can only bo Uio result of individual incompetence , is the result ot national fear and weakness . If these Easterns have one mental defect more marked than another , it is want of foresight . The triumph .
however partial , of to-day , is always a . n ample setoft ' against any possible defeat to-morrow . Their faith fortifies them against much fear of prospective evil . " God is great ! " But , like other men , natural instinct makes them wince from the lash that is hanging over their heads . All their fatalism will not protect them from panic when the round shot begin to ricochet by ; and Oriental theory and practice , which demand summary and instantaneous punishment for every misdeed , are based on a profound knowledge of the part of human , nature with which they have to deal .
We trust , therefore , that the first error will be repaired as quickly as possible . Our Government has to act in no ordinary state of things . This is not a mere sanguinary riot , in an out-of-the-way place , on the shores of a semi-explored sea . It is a development , right in the p ath to our possessions in the East , of a feeling of mingled hatred and contempt for us which has gradually been growing up in all Mohammedan countries . The hatred is a matter of faith : the contempt , we are sorry to say , is partly justified by our own want of vigour and
energy . Chance determines on what spots these hostile sentiments shall exhibit themselves ; but to their widespread existence we cannot any longer be blind . Prom Servia and Arabia , from the Greek Islands and Syria , from every point of the Turkish Empire , -we receive warnings of the existence of peculiar malignity against England as a nation ^ and this malignity is perpetually showing itself by insult , blows , and murder , perpetrated by choice against our political and commercial representatives .
The French at . length have come to share in the hatred we inspire . This is partly because they share also the character and denomination of Feringhees ; partly on account of the somewhat ostentatious , and at the same time ineffectual , manner in which they have made known their sympathies for the Christian populations of the empire . It is a remarkable sight to see the two countries which , but a few years ago , were exhausting their blood and treasure in an endeavour to save the diplomatic existence of the Porte , now on the verge of almost personal hostility with all its Muslim subiects .
VVise men may now be provoked to reconsider the line which we took in 1853 , and be led to doubt whether it was good policy to fight for the absolute integrity of an empire which contained no vital principle within itself . It would have been one thing to resist the encroachments of Russia : it was another to maintain the claims of a " dying man " to the mastery of one of the finest portions of the globe . But we were carried away by a phrase ; and hampered b ^ the prudent jealousy of a neighbour who is not inclined to go halves in conquests or protectorates "which six months of maritime war can always destroy . The country will be anxious to know to what new treaties and understandings the present menacing state of things in the East will lead .
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THE JEWS BILL A ^ fD THE LORDS ' PROTEST . An arrangement has been arrived at , which , we think , places one if not both branches of the Legislature in an undignified pjosition . The nine consecutive years of sturdy resistance on the part of the Peers having been found wholly unavailing against the advancing liberality of the age , a reluctant consent has , at last , been wrung from the Lords , but they—or rather an uuteacliable section — have adopted the ungracious and inconsistent course of coupling -with their consent to the final reading of the Bill which releases Jewish members from insulting oaths a strong protest against the very principle of the bill . The proceedings of the Lords speak for themselves ;—they evince a want of settled action , a
distrust of their duties and powers , which will operate in reducing that respect with which the people at large have been willing , though certainly not so sincerely of late years , to regard their functions in the Legislature and their Constitutional position . The protest was an insult to the other branch of the Legislature , besides being in itself little more than an emanation of personal spite from a disappointed and defeated minority . The House of Lords may rest assured they have gained no accession , of confidence or respect from the British nation by their open admission that their deliberations are controlled not so much by tlio " right" as the " expedient . " Lord John llusscll adopted tho right course when he proposed to take a stop which would
practically ignore the Lords' protest . He was also right in asserting that the Lords' bill did not " concede the whole principle of religious liberty for which the House of Commons contended ; " but we think he was not quite right in consenting to accept a qualified concession because it was the eastest means , not of overcoming- ' but of giving the go-by to a difficulty . Lord Joliu Russell should have stood forward boldly and uncompromisingly as the champion of the great principle he himself enunciated , " that religious opinions and religious faith , do not constitute a disqualification for civil or legislative rights . "
There was one portion of Lord John . Russell ' s statement which was apart from the question before the House , but which appears to us to convey a doctrine dangerous in itself to popular rights and liberties . Lord John Russell claimed for ° tUe House of Commons , exclusively , " possession of a power with which no other power ot the country can interfere . " That is , in plain words , he claims , or seemingly claims , for the House of Commons a power to override the law and the other- two branches of the Legislature , and to set up its own decrees , whatever they may be , and to whatever
extent they may reach , iu triumphant defiance of the judges of the land . To this by no meaus novel doctrine we can in . no way subscribe . The House of Commons is not supreme in power ; it has its responsibilities , its checks , and its 'limits , and though it may desire for a good object to put the irresponsible power it claims into action , it . may , at some other time , in pursuit of a dangerous innovation , equally resolve to exercise that fancied power . This is not the time for making such claims ; the temper and intelligence of the British people equally repudiate them , and we enter our protest against even their assertion .
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CRYSTAL PALA-CE PROSPECTS . The recent meeting of the Crystal Palace Compauy disclosed a state of things . not entirely free from anxiety , and one which demands the serious attention of the shareholders , who do not seem hitherto to have sufficiently considered why an enterprise towards which so much public sympathy was directed , should have fallen to what at present appears to be such a low estate . The . process of depreciation of the shares has been steady and remarkable . After reaching a considerable premium , they declined in August , 1855 , to £ 5 for a 5 e .-share In December of the same year , they fell to 9 £ . Iu July , . 1857 ,. they tumbled down to 1 J . This was a
period of great discontent , and the directors , under considerable pressure , promised a complete change in the system of management . This promise has yet been very imperfectly fulfilled , and the consequence is that the shares are now quoted as low as 25 s ., and have been marked at 22 s . 6 d ., and a further decline would take place if any quantity were thrown upon the market . In July , 1857 , the directors were authorized to raise 250 , 000 / . in Debenture Stock , which was to be in lieu of existing debentures and floating loans , and to furnish the means of discharging some outstanding liabilities . In 1855 , the summary of the capital account was as follows : — Original shares , 100 , 000 at 5 / . A' 500 , Ol > 0 A „ 60 , 000 250 , 000 B „ 50 , 000 ... 250 , 000 7 per cent . Preference Shares , 30 , 000 ... 150 , 000 Debentures at 5 per cent , ( part unissued , sec below ) ' .. 165 , 000 £ 1 , 315 , 000 At the abovo date , debentures to the extent of 65 , 000 / . were reserved for the land account , and others to the amount of 14 , 000 / . had not been taken up by the public . These , with some other deductions , left the sum actually received on capital account up to the 30 th June , 1855 , 1 , 217 , 078 / . A . t this period there was a considerable deficiency , owing to tlifi large sum required to complete the works , and as tho public declined taking the debentures iu sufficient quantity , temporary loans , many of them at a very high rate of interest , were resorted to as stop-gaps until tho financial affairs of the Company could bo placed upon a permanent foundation , which was attempted bv tho creation of the Debenture Stock before alluded to . Of this stock , it . appears by the last report ( June 21 st ) , only 140 , 000 / , hivs been appropriated ; 011 account of which , up to April last , 84 , 251 / . 5 s . . hud been received . There was a sort of understanding when this stock was created , that , if tho shareholders would take half of it , the public would be likely
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686 ; THE LEADER . __ Pj [ o . 434 , Jtjxy 17 , 1858 ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1858, page 686, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2251/page/14/
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