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able in case . of emergency , and by which elementary military training could be ^ videl y diffused , ¦ without compulsion and without interfering -with the ordinary occupations of life . The Mpniteur complains that the English people are deceived by misrepresentations of French armaments , and thus induced to consent to fresh taxes and immense expenditure ; and endeavours to substantiate its assertion by comparing the military ^ expenditure of the two countries ; but the Imperial orgait knows perfectly well that the whole available force in England is much less than that which the French were able to send to Italy-without weakening their
defences on the Rhine . We never make the slightest effort to rival France as a military power , but we cannot view with equanimity her constant efforts to compete with us at sea ; and although we welcome the order for . reducing the French army and navy to a peace footing , we remember how rapidly any disbanded men can be recalled . The French people should not forget that no English Government could plunge us into war in the autocratic manner in which their Emperor got up his Italian
campaign . They have a great safeguard in our free Parliament , while we have to provide against the possible proceedings of a single inscrutable and irresponsible man .. It is to be regretted that our preparations are not made without the introduction of any cii'curastance calculated to irrir tate our neighbours ; but we trust they will learn that the policy of Elizabeth and Cromwell embodies our national sentiments , and that we recognise , as those wise rulers did , the advantage to ourselves arid to civilisation of an alliance with France .
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THE ACCOUNTANT IMPERIAL . During the late war the French Government deputed a gentleman to attend the path of the army , as Historiographer Imperial . It was his pleasing duty to embellish the successes of the armies of France , to palliate their—no not their reverses , say their less brilliant exploits- ^ -and generally to confound their enemies by the pen as well as the sword . War has given place to peace . " Cedant arma togis . " The military historiographer is deposed , and the pacific accountant reigns in his stead . This gentleman has made his first appearance in the columns of the 2 kfonit ? uj ' , and , as yet , the Imperial Government has every reason to be contented with their , appointment . There is nothings said the cynic , so fallacious as facts ; for with facts you can prove any conclusion . Surely , then , there is nothing so important as figures , for with figures you can prove any fact in the world , The highest triumph , of logic is to prove that black is white . The proudest success of accountancy is to prove that a deficiency is a surplus . In our own land we have had some rare specimens of this cabalistic art . Joint-stock bankers are able professors thereof , and our merchant princes are apt Op ils . Our Hudsons , and Waughs , and Sadleirs e , however , into insignificance , compared with the ^ Napoleonic teacher . Truly , we may sny of Louis Napoleon , in the words of Johnson , " Nib . il tetigit quod non ornavit . " Coulon converted dancing from an exercise into an art , and the touch of the Imperial wand has turned accountancy front a trade into a soience . Let us cull a few items . from the ministerial balance-sheet . Read , mark , and wonder at them silently . The thesis sot before tho Imperial accountant is to prove , by the irresistible , logic of figures , that as far as any increase in ¦ warlike expenses goes , it is France and not England that has caase to . fear and complain . Tho items on tho British side of th ^ account ore clear and intelligible enough . It is a melancholy and undeniable lact , that during tho Inst six years our war outlay has increased eight millions of poimds sterling . It is equally true , and equall y melancholy , that in the coming year our estimate is between fourteen and fifteen millions for the army , and nearly thirteen millions for tho navy . These are bx * oad , plain facts , not to Ibo palliated ox' explained away . It is true that doping these six years wo have had a Crimean war , the Chinese expedition , and tho Indian mutiny . What of tliot P The simple , faot of tljio MJoreftso of eight millions to our war oxponsos remains undisputed and indisputable . How , on tfto _ other hand ^ doos the case stand with pnclfio and \ ra-- \ varliko . France . During tlie same period of six YQora the estimates for tho army have not increased a million , and for the navy barely over o » o . It is true that from this veracious
estimate the expenses of the French ; during , the Crimean war are ' omitted , ' as being temporary and unimportant , while the whole outlay on troops in Algeria is carried to a sepai-ate account . The present outlay of France upon her army is about an eighth of a million more than ours , while on the navy it is four millions less . To this pleasing calculation there are only two slight objections , which a suspicious auditor might suggest . In the first place , the French estimates are systematically under the mark . In the second ,. the whole expenses of the Italian campaign are omitted , because they are not easy to calculate with extreme accuracy . As a mere work of arithmetical ability , the above piece of calculation is perfect . The question of its practical ability is not equally clear . In England it will produce no effect whatever . In this country we have an incorrigible incredulity in the truthfulness of French financiers , and even if we admitted the accuracy of their figures , we should dispute their conclusions . It is to us a matter of perfect indifference' how many millions of francs or pounds France chooses to spend on military purposes . Bitter experience has quite prepared us to admit that with our system of military government , to all probability every English soldier costs some three or four times as much as a French one . What we want to know is , how many tens of soldiers Trance has to our one , and how many
vessels of war she has to ours , liumour , we suspect , has greatly exaggerated the extent of the French forces , and a simple statement of their exact amount would do more to restore confidence in England : than all the elaborate hocus-pocus calculations in the world It is to France rather than England that this calculation is addressed . Its real object is to induce the French nation to believe , -whether justly or unjustly , that they are not unnecessarily burdened with war expenses . A nation which reads with enthusiasm the legends of an Imperial historiographer , and listen without astonishment to the classical orations of Imperial courtiers , may surely accept without investigation the cooked accounts of an Imperial accountant .
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§ 90 THE LEADEK , [ Nft . 48 B . July 30 , 185 & .
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THE " MERRY WIVES OF WAKEFIELD . " " Quis cmtades ipsos custocliet . " We are not aware who is the author of this quotation . We are npt aware , also , that it possesses any peculiar originality ; but we are aware—painfully aware—of the fact , that every newspaper correspondent , for the last fortnight , has been citing it daily with reference to the Austrians and French in Italy . There is no ill wind bui ; blows somebody good ; and so it is very hard if we may not take advantage of the constant repetition of this unfortunate quotation to quote it once , and once only , for our own purposes . We ejaculated it inwardly , we recited it mentally ; we murmured it despairingly , when wo learnt the dreadful news that the brother-in-law of the great John Bright had been unseated for bribery . There ara few things in this wwld that wo have any faith in . Doubly hard , therefore , is it upon us to lose one of our few illusions . If there was ono thing that we did believe in , it > vas tho immaoulatenoss of John Bright . When we have found an ideal wo don't like to discover that our ideal is ntft infallible . If wo learnt that Sir Edward Buxton , the friend of negroes , walloped his-own footman , we should feel a bitter disappointment . If Mi * . NWdegate ¦ were to say a wise thing , or Mr . Itoobuck a good-natured thing , wo should feel that these gentlemen were talcing an unwarrantable liberty . If we learnt that Mr . Win . Williams had taken a cab from Westminster to tho " Horns , V and paid tho cabrnau eighteen - pence ( inclusive of tho Vauxhijill ,-bi < idge-toll of iburpeneo ") instead of tho legal ono shilling , exclusive of tuo said toll , we should remember that , after all , to err is . human . If Sir Walter Troveiyan was found rolling drunk in tho Haymarkot , singing a comic song , wo should turn aside and weep in dilenco . Well , wo ourselves , 'are human after all , and for frailties such as these we could fool compassion , if not pardon , ; but that a gentleman , broa at tho feet or our political Gamaliel , a very Brightito cf the Brightites , should bo unseated for tho vulgar oflenco of bribery ,- — -really this overthrows our whole moral system of othios . In future , we shall believe , in nothing at all . Wo
really don't know if we may not even come , to believe in Palmerston . It is no use trying to console us with the reflection , that Mr . W . K . Leathani > v : is only the brother-in-law of Mr . Bright . It' he had been his own brother we might have consoled ourselves more easily . After all , one has no choice as to one ' s brother . He is a sort of mortgage on the paternal property , created-without your knowledge and executed without your consent , of -which you must make the best or the worst , as the case may be . Most men , however , have something to say as to their brothers-in-law . If they have not , they ought to have . We do not suppose that many of our readers are acquainted with Wakefield . For their sakes we hope they are not . We are . It Ls a dismal place , and . a dreary place . In coaching days it must have been visited "with comparative prosperity . Coaches , however , have deserted Wakefield and the world together . The great march of progress . , and manufacture has forgotten Wakefield in its glorious progress .- Dirt and destitution and decay are now the . standing institutions of the free and independent borough . Did you ever notice that , in family life , a man who cannot pay his way ceases to be master in his own house ? An insolvent husband is . hen-pecked-by-his wife . The same rule applies to towns . " In the country of the blindv . the one-eyed are kings . " In a town , where all are insolvent , the wives , who « i-e not liable , to ' personal ' . arrest , . axe rulers . Ir is so in Wakefield . Women are the cause of every evil under the sun . Had it not been for Eve , instead of contesting elections and . writing articles , we should all have been at this hour disporting ourselves merrily in the garden of Paradise . Had it not been «„ for the women of '• Wakefield , Mr . Leathani , instead of being out of seat and out of pocket , would have now been sitting in Parliament ready to defend the cause of reform and purity of election . A Quaker may be a match for any man , but any woman is a match for a Quaker . The " merry wives of Wakefield" were too much for Mr . Leathani . Thei'e was Mrs . Jackson , a woman who understood business . If Mr . Leatham ' s friends wanted her husband ' s vote , and would have it , why of colirse they must have it ; but the price was 501 . A good conscience is a pearl without price , but when once vou have made up your mind to sell your conscience , it is Wonderful how cheap you will part with it . So the price of Jackson ' s independence was at last reduced to 30 ^ ., less 1 L commission to the broker . Jackson , like nil . bunglers in a great work of art , nearly marred the transaction oy signing a note of hand for the amount . His better half redeemed the error by during the holders to make any use of the bill , and up to tbis time no use has been made . Then there v . as Mrs . Cousens , who considered that if her husband could not legally take money for his vote , she couldand did so to the extent of five-und-twenty sovei'eigns . Mrs . Ingham , too , deserves a mention . This lady , with a virtue unexampled in Wake . " field , remained uncorruptccl . She dallied with temptation—she fingered tho 01 . notes — the wages of iniquity—and tlaeu she spurned the proffered bribe . Virtue , however , was its own reward . At the same period , by some myste rious interposition * , she was enabled to pay ofl' her debt , to a loan oompany . Wonderful are tlic ways ol Providence . The best , however , remains behind , Wo all knew beforehand in the German legends , that il Satan buys tho soxil of some hardened reprobate there will be somo flaw in the blood-stained document . The Devil is sure to lose both aiuilul and interest , and will have to pay tho cosIm into the bargain . Mr . Loathnux ' s agents must bo the lineal descendants of the extinct Teutonic iiends . Thoir folly is yet greater than their wickedness . The husbands of tneso wise matrons , ono and all , wont and voted against Mr . Leatham , gave evidence of thei ? own corruption to his opponents , and turned their benefactor out of his hnnl-curned seat . ¦ Ofoourso wo shall bo told that Mr . Leathnm knew and suspected nothing of all this , —of course not . Ladies who happen , to havo illegitimate children never do know , or oven suspect , till tvflor the event , that they are in the family-way . Senators aro all honourable men , " nnd honourable men never do bribe , —of course not . In our
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1859, page 890, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2305/page/14/
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