Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 2nd October 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1019

Page 1019
Page 3
3 of 32

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • ^ « i* it tyvY \r ^L\ '$ttittU HI IjJ£ ivBtlV * t
  • Text (3)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      ^ « I* It Tyvy \R ^L\ '$Ttittu Hi Ijj£ Ivbtlv * T

      % nlm nf ttje 'Bub .

      Untitled Article

      Mb- Disraeli , it appears on good evidence in black and white , may take to himself some small praise for penetration in national money mattersat least it has . come to pass as he said it would : the revenue of the country exhibits in the quarterly and yearly returns just issued signs of vigour such as make glad the hearts of Chancellors of the Exchequer . It is true that there is a decrease on

      the side of the Income-tax to the extent of nearly two millions and a half in the quarter ; but there is so much increase in all the other great branches of income , with the exception of the excise , that the diminution of the nett revenue is not very greatsix millions in the year ' s account instead of the eight that were calculated for on the supposition that the income would remain stationary . The

      year ' srevenue reaches the pretty sum of 05 , 000 , 000 / ., and it is useful to contrast it with the national income of 1832 , the year in which the great Reform measure was passed * to estimate the change which in that respect has taken place in the tax-paying capacity of the people , from which their general condition may , to a considerable extent , be inferred : in 1832 the nett revenue was 47 , 322 , 744 / . On the subject of the coming Reform Bill Ministers are maintaining a studied and remarkable

      silence . That they arc busy with the subject is no secret ; there is good reason for believing that , now that they have fully determined t o tackle it , they may find the work less difficult than they have been wont to consider it . Heaps of the old impediments have been cleared away , or sufficiently trampled down to be passed over comfortably . The workingclasses have earned by a long and searching probation the trust of those above them , who in the past struggle for Reform stood in desperate opposition to the idea of any great extension of the

      suffrage . At the present time , it is hardly too much to say that all classes are in favour of a greatly extended suffrage ; and any agitation of the question would draw forth a strong expression of public opinion to that effect . One thing is very certain , that Ministers will not venture in the present state of the public mind to attempt to evade the responsibility thrust upon them in the first instance , and , at length , accepted voluntarily ; and there is room for something like a hope that , having taken to the work at last , they may take a real

      mentary powers of Indian development— " European energy , enterprise , and thought . " In preparation for the advent of these beneficial influences , the force of our army is gradually weighing down the Opposition of the rebels . Of these , the fiercest—as they are the most desperate and hopeless—are the remnant of the " Gwalior Contingent , " which we have beaten and dispersed so many times since the outbreak of the rebellion . After being again beaten by General Roberts , on the 14 th of August , they lied in the direction o

      the Bombay Presidency , into which it has all along been their desire to penetrate ; but their object was defeated by the interposition of the force from Neemuch , from which they turned first towards the north , and , later , towards the east . On the 28 th of August they reached Julra Patun , or Patteen , which place they cap tured , after a resistance of some days ' duration . According to the latest intelligence they appear inclined to make a stand there , for they are

      described as busy repairing and strengtnening me fortifications of the place , and throwing up breastworks on the roads approaching it . A column , under Colonel Lockliart , had been moved towards them , and another column in support , under Colonel Hope , had left Indore on the 3 rd of September . Such is the disposition of the British forces , indeed , that if the rebels stand they will assuredly be destroyed , and id any case their numbers will be thinned . In Oude the rebels are being closely followed , and in one engagement they lost two hundred , ajid in another sixty , men . In Bombay there has been an attempt on the part of two unarmed regiments to repossess themselves of their arms ; after a sharp struggle * in which great numbers of them were slain , they were repulsed and dispersed . On the other hand , ire have news that two or three of the Sepoy regiments have been re-entrusted with arms . ot wtnen at

      The Chinese Treaty , we nave lengiu . been supplied with an official abstract , comes up to the expectations which we ha d formed of it from the briefer and more general description which we had of it some weeks back . As far as the document goes , every provision which care and ingenuity could . frame for the security of British life , property , and commerce , has been made . The interests dealt with and , as it appears , protected from the adverse influences that may be brought to bear upon them by the crafty Chinese officials , are of the largest and most important , and the doenment in which they are set forth might , it has been suggested , be called " the civilised Europeans' Magua Charta with China . " The dignity of G . C . B . which has been bestowed upon Lord Elgin will not be thought a too marked ackuo wlcdgmcnt of the services he has rendered to his country and to the world ..

      The affairs of Canada arc before us at present on new and highly important grounds , A deputation of the leading members of the Canadian Legislature lias come to England for the purpose of conferring with the Secretary for the Colonies on the subject of establishing a closer connexion between the whole of the British North American colonies . The plan proposed is , to form a continuous line of railway 1300 miles in length , from Halifax to the extrcnio west of Upper Canada . Some of tho immediate advantages of such a lino of " intercolonial" railway are suggested by the Canadian News : — " By tho now ' Overland' route , Victoria in London could hold personal or postal intercourse with licr Victoria of Vancouver in fifteon days , and with lior Victoria of Hong-Kong or of Australia in some twenty-seven . " Foreign politics are a prominent feature in the news of tho week . Wo have what—if it is not the full text—may bo taken us sufficiently near to the Letter of tho convention regulating tho Government of tho Dnnubian Principalities . Henceforth theyare to bo called the United Principalities of Mol dwvia and Wtvlluohia , the practical union of the two

      states being affected by a . central commission , composed of sixteen persons , four nominated by each Hospodar and four by each Assembly . The suffrage is based upon a property qualification , and the amount is fixed high enough to deprive the majority of the populations of any voice in the election of their representatives . The suzerainty of the Porte is guaranteed , but the two states are to be left entirely free to govern themselves ;

      though the hospodars may appeal to the suzerain by petition in case the immunities of the Principalities should be violated . The militias of the two states are to be independent , but may be united for the purposes of exercise , or in defence of the Principalities . After the long working of such ponderous machinery as the Paris Conferences , astonishingly little appears this result : a constitution made up of contradictory details , which , on the slightest commotion , must destroy each other .

      The question of the Prussian regency is now a foremost topic ; on its solution seems to hang the hopes of the Liberal party in Prussia . Now that the imbecility of the King can no longer be concealed , the party which has so long surrounded his throne and kept him in the path of retrogressive policy see their power threatened , and are making desperate efforts to avert their fall .. Their plan has

      been to endeavour to compel the Prince of Prussia to accept the Queen as co-Regent , the Russian predilections of her-Majesty being their security against the constitutional leaning of the Prince . As the game stands at present , it appears to be lost to the " Court jjarty ; " the Prince ' of Prussia standing firm in his determination not to submit to the division of his power .

      From the side of Italy there come murmurs against the brutal dominion of Austria . At Venice , the other day , a sentence delivered by Ristori in . the tragedy of Judith had the eff ect of raising the whole audience in the theatre to a pitch of fiery political enthusiasm ; the electrifying -words were , " The war is sacred which is waged by a nation against those who invade a land given to its . defenders by their God 1 " The only answer given by the Austrian authorities was to forbid the repetition

      of the piece ; well for them , if they could forbid the germination of the seed sowed broadcast among the crowd at that Venetian theatre ! At Florence we have seen a popular demonstration with a somewhat different climax , though the feelings called into play were not wholly unlike . The appearance at one of the theatres of the popular poet Niccolini induced the whole audience to rise in his honour . A few days later , on the production of a new play written by him , the crowd eagerly applied to their own situation every popular sentiment expressed by the poet , and vehemently applauded . The Grand . Duke- —grown tired of his

      unpopularity it may be hoped—did nothing to check the people ' s enthusiasm , and they venture to found upon that circumstance a hope that there is a better time coming for Florentine liberty . Count Cavour has been moved by the comments of some of the English press on the Villafrouca affair to write a circular of instruction to the Piedmonteso representatives at foreign courts . He instruots them to say , when questioned , that there lias been no cession of tho port of Villafranca , but only a gratuitous uso permitted of tho old disused convict , establishment , the which permission may be revoked at a determined moment . The

      newspapers complained of by Count Cavour have , ho says , misrepresented all the facts j there is one fact which he himself appears to havo overlooked , it is , that had official information been forthcoming at tho outset , there would hayo boon no room for oither misunderstanding or misrepresentation . And with all defcrenoe to Count Cavour , wo do not yet feel quite satisfied with the mutter . Some surprise has been felt that tho Bank of England at its last meotiug did not tower its ru ( o of discount to two and a half per cont ., and thore is some reason for tho surprise Privnto disoount can now bo had at two and a quarter per cent , j tho Bunk « f England , . therefore lor the present , and for reasons which it docs not publish , appears to have declined to continue that branch oi its business .

      liking to it , and do their best to make it unobjectionable to the country at large . , But whatever their intentions may be , they keep them to themselves with a somewhat ludicrous constancy . So afraid arc some of them with long tongues of being led into incontinency under the exhilarating influences of agricultural dinners , that they have fairly shown tho white feather and run away from tho dangerous seductions : as Aylesbury became droadful to Mr .

      Disraeli—calling up weird reminiscences of Slough speeches and the dire effects thereof—aud Hortl'ord scared Sir Edward Lytton . At the Fishmongers ' banquet , on Wednesday , Lord Stanley had not a word to say on tho dangerous topic ; but in his caso the reticence is not so remarkable ; , seeing that ho was not challenged to be communicative on tho subject , and he did moreover speak with his accustomed freedom on tho subject i «> f tho Indian Board , about which he could talk with direct authority . His

      speech was vory interesting for tho frankness of its style , as well as for the light which it throws upon tho working and future promise of tho new Indian Government . " That Government was not devised as a penal proocoding against tho India Company , " Lord Stanloy says , " but as a change , which was a natural and ovon nocosssary result of tho lapse of timo and tho progress of events j" and , while ho boliovcs that tho change will bo beneficial to India , his hopes aro thoso which wo havo so often oppressed , that it will lead to the introduction of those ole-

      Untitled Article

      4 ' ' ¦ ¦ No . October 2 . 18581 THE LEADER . 1019

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1858, page 1019, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2262/page/3/