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Leader (1850-1860), 24th March 1860, Edition 1 of 2, Page 278

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  • Departments (2)
    • THE NEW CONSTITUENCIES—CHELSEA AND ' KENSINGTON. ¦
    • THE NATIONAL DEFENCES.* . of
  • Text (6)
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      Untitled Article

      rpHE united parishes of Kensington and Chelsea . ' will form the JL most populous and wealthy of the new boroughs . Its estimated rental is already £ 657 , 823 , and its population cannoi be taken at less than 120 , 000 . To what extent these numbers will be increased Within the next ten years , as the area still vacant becomes occupied with dwellings , Ib were difficult to say . Th < limits of the new borough are perhaps wider than could be wished They comprise the whole stretch of suburbs from Iiowndes Squart to Fulhaiii Bridge , and from Chelsea Hospital to Keiisal Green ; and the communities how for the first time about to be politically

      associated tog-ether embrace almost every variety of condition ,, from the man of hardrtoiling- industry to the luxurious patrician , and from the , secluded man of letters to the busy idler of fortune . Churchmen who interpret variously their common creed , and dissenters who agreein the liberty , of differing 1 on all points * of faith and discipline ; mercantile men of various branches of trade , and professional , men and artists with , talents and occupations sufficiently diversified , are there to be foun < £ To represent efficiently such a society will be no easy task , and those who may be chosen for the purpose will certainly have no sinecure . McCuixa

      A requisition is in course of signature to Tohbens . gh . Esq ., late M , P , for Yarmouth , cal ; li ' ng on him to undertake the duties of representing Ciielsea and Kensington in the next Parliament ; there being a strong . sense of the services he has rendered in obtaining for jbhe inhabitants the privileges which they so long fruitlessly sought , and his experience of many years in the House oi Commons naturally creates confidence in his fitness for the trust which is Jikely to devolve upon him . We do not know a man better calculated to represent the middle and intelligent classes . He is a singularly cleaivheaded naan ; as shown by his style oi

      oratory ; and that he is a sound politician we believe from the various contributions he has made to political literature . That he is also single-minded and honest we believe from his career ; and ii all the hew constituencies can get such men , moderated by a great experience of practical politics , and who , ; whilst they have gained by a knowledge of the world , have not lost the freshness of their political consciences , we shall not think the new Keform Bill quite the useless projection some of our contemporaries affect to do . Choice of competent representatives is , after all , the whole end and aim of all our reform schemes : and what are wanted are middle

      class men of ability , not concerned in any speculative pursuits , who have a sound knowledge of public affairs and the necessities of the time . We sincerely hope that Kensington will join Chelsea in , seeking cut a fit companion to Mr . McCux . hAGK , and will set a good example to the other metropolitan boroughs , by neither being led away by brawling partisans , self-seeking capitalists , nor aristocratic noodles .

      Untitled Article

      BULLY MARS , an immortal much ii ^ , the thought ^ patriotic Britons lust Autumn , has bean completely driven but of them these three months past by jolly Bacchus . As the year died out , the invasion-panic died but too ; the volunteers began to drill , wa oy their martial presence reassured the more alarmed old ladies ; the naval reserve was inaugurated by ani enormous advertising expendi ture which satisfied somewhat stouter hearts , and knowing politicians were perfectly comforted by the accord which appeared to exist between our Government and ' that of our Imperial ally upon continental questions . There was , in fact , a reaction from the like most

      exaggerated alarm which prevailed for a few weeks , and , reactions , it went a little too far . At first , nothing but a most costly system of fortifications could defend us , and out of the depression no system of defence at all was thought requisite . Then , Mr . Gladstone came and sang his siren eong about perpetual pewoe and goodwill between France and England , discoursed most eloquent music about the intenao fraternal affection which John Bull and Juan Crapaud would henceforth entertain for each other , and seduced a good many weak-minded pious people into the awtul heresy of supposing 1 clarets , cognacs , and " Articles de PArjs , efficient agents in precipitating the millennium . Of course , wlulst

      Untitled Article

      278 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ March 24 , 1860

      Untitled Article

      the French Revolution . The arrogance of birth had been the pest of th&Frencli services . Scbibe , in his Trice de la Fie , Speaks of the "' inconceivable good fortune that had raised Fabebt tu the rank of Marshal of France- ^ -a nobody , hbtnme de rien , the son of a printer , the enly example of such strange success ; so extraordinary did such an elevation appear that Fabekt was accused of having practised the ^ occult sciences . Amongst the various provocations to the Revolution in . France few people are aware of the state of the two services . In the navy the very few offieiers bleus , men who had raised themselves to the lower grades of official rank by their own -merits , were the victims of the insults of the officers of high birth . Emi £ e Souvestbe in his Clironiqites de la Mer , mention )* the case of Chabl . es Cobmic ; he had greatly distinguished himself against the English by his remarkable bravery . In consequence of the insults of the aristocrats he was obliged to fight duels with seven or eight of them on the same day , and had at last a body guard allowed , to protect him from their vengeance and jealousy . Because he > vas not noble he could never obtain anything above the lieutenancy of a frig-ate . At last he retired in disgust . At the time of the floods of the Garonne witlr four sailors he saved in as many days the lives of six hundred people . He again made an application at the commencement ; of the warfor a naval command and was refused , and finally broke his All these nonsensical airs were thoroughly dispersed before the end of the wars-of the French Revolution , at least in France itself ; and one cannot help rejoicing at finding the sons of innkeepers et hoc genus brtine at the head of victorious French armies , scattering to the wind the nobles of France , Austria , and Prussia . It . was a tremendous lesson , enough , one would imagine , to have annihilated for ever the conceit of necessarily superior valour of the gentleman "born , but it has not . Laing , in speaking of the Prussian army , savs : — " It is difficult for any one without rank _ or property to be eome an officer , . . . about one in twenty of the citizen class are officers ; . . . but these aregenerally rich men ; almost all the cavalry officers are nobles ,... the citizen class officers are looked , down upon ; scarcely any of the lower classes are ever raised to the rank of officers . The regular officers insulted the Landwehr by their mode of address , so much so as to call for state interference . " This aristocratic spirit is one of the pests of Prussia , and we fancy it is not altogether unknown in some portions of the English army . However , this is a question of pure power , not of right , nor even of expediency , t In spite of our purchase and of our aristocratic influences we have had , it is true , plenty of noble blood , still further ennobled by noble conduct ; biit many , very many ofour battles have been eminently soldiers' battles . How much aristocratic and wealthy rubbish did Wellington send back as good for nothing , men-aptly described by the Roman Tacitus : ¦—Satis constatfuissein eo exercitu veteranos qiti non stationem non vigilias inissent ; vallurn fossamque guas nova et mi ' ra viserent nitidi et qucestitosi militia per oppidq eawietd . ( 3 rive us , by all means , men with all the lofty associations of high birth , but let them be competent soldiers , no court colonelcies impudently foisted oh a nation that can judge , in spite of waste and expense and experience . What said Wellington in his despatch of the 18 th of July , after the battle of Vittoria : — u It is an unrivalled army for fighting , if the soldiers can only be kept in their ranks during the battle . " Cause of defects , " want of obedience , and attention to orders by the inferior officers , ana , indeed , I might add by all . They never attend to an order with an intention to obey it when obedience becomes troublesome or difficult or important . " " We carry the principle of the gentleman , and the absence of intercourse with those under his command , so far , that , in ihy opinion , the duty of a subaltern officer , as done in a foreign army , is * not done at all in the cavalry or the British infantry of the Xine . It is done in the Guards by the sergeants . Then our gentlejnan officer , however admirable his conduct in a field of battle , however honourable to himself , however glorious and advantageous to his country , i « but a poor creature in disciplining his company in camp , quarters , or cantonments . " It was something even worse than this thut led Dr , Johnson in his letters- —no radical , by the W e—to speak of the adage , "A French officer will always lead it Jia soldiers will follow , and English soldiers will always follow if their officers will lead / ' Tim does not much look as if , at any rnte jn England , the more eminent degrees or valour wore the peiv quiBites of birth or wealth ' , though we do not wish to confound the two . The child of wealth , who trusts mainly to purchase , and who chooses the army merely aa a gentlemanlike , profession , and who seeks td regenerate himself by hia uniform alone , is of all officers the Very worst . Examinations , which ought to be no trifles , will probably cure a good many of our defects , if the examinations are not turned into a mere farce , which there was an attempt to do lately , We know what has been the effect of requirements in the Swedish army . Scott , in Ma f < Panes and Swedes , " says of the Swedish nobility , « ' they seek for the easier offices in the state and army , of aides-de . camp , staff officers , guard officers : the proportion of nobles to non-nobles is a hundred and sixty-seven to twenty j but in the corps rewiring science , as artillery and engineers , it is the reverse , Here ' wei have the men of consequence in a country , out of sheer indolence , deliberately resigning the highest and most honourable posts , we 9 ball see what the effect of a course of examination , and competition , fiwrly carried out , will have on ours . Mixed with the cant which wq have animadverted upon above , there is th £ ' nnti * oducation-of-officora' cant , the cramping and debiihtnting effect of learning ; that generalship is a matter of g-onlns , and » ofc of fltudy—« Hint presence of mind in action w not to he learnt by rules—that what ( a gained in the knoyled ^ e of the schools is lost in the knowledge

      of the world ; with a quantity of such , decaying clap-trap , with jusi such limited amount of truth in it as gives it plausibility . W < fancy it would atnuse exceedingly a company of French staff officer ! who do not find themselves rendered particularly unmilitary by severe and earnest course of study at Saumur , St . Cyr , &c Against such men , mere blood and spirit will not avail ; we musi have working and scientific men , or both } we must have such mer for an European as we have had for an Indian war , for they vyoulc be even more necessary for the former than the latter . Let th < flood come , and we shall be gJad to have men of merit in higl places , whether with the blood of a WiELLESLBY or a Naeier , or i birth as mediocre as Nelson ' s , or as humble as Clyde ' s . Haud aliter Stilicho fremuit cum Thracia belli Tempestaa , cunctis pariter cedentibus , unua Eligitur diictor ; sdffragia quippe peregit Judex vera Timor ; victus ratione salutis Ambitus , et pulsus tacuit formidine livor .

      Untitled Article

      • ' Groat Britain ' s Defenoo of her South , ami £ <;«•¦*» Jfi *? " ' ? Co **** , Metroiwlit , attd X >< fok >/ artla ; In » JUettor to the Kighfc U ' ... 6 > jr «» V Horbort . By W ^ JQr ^ Qn «» l Wiluams , BoyAl Bn # ne « w . Lowdon * W . Clowes »» d Sone .

      The New Constituencies—Chelsea And ' Kensington. ¦

      THE NEW CONSTrTUENCIES—CHELSEA AND KENSINGTON .

      The National Defences.* . Of

      of THE NATIONAL DEFENCES . *

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 278, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2339/page/10/