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    August 5, 1854.] THE LEADER. 733 ^^^^^^^...

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    THE SPOON MANUFACTURE FOE. THE ARMY. Mil...

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    THE TRADE OF HULL IN DANGER. Hull is awa...

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    THE PUBLIC HEALTH. Pablia,ment, in its w...

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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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    Those Principles ? The Modern Cardenio I...

    nature might bind to protect her against all violence to the tenderest feelings and the most natural shame withdraws his defence , and leaves the path open to a Carden ? Yet how many a girl sees herself pursued with hated importunities—is dragged to the church , which is desecrated by her wrong —is the victim of a wedding feast , and finally left——How many a girl would cry out to the bystanders in the street , for rescue from the Carden , but that her own father would Touch for the due and lawful nature of the sacrifice ?

    Xes , in many a home , whose knocker and bell-handle are untarnished with the suspicion of any stain to the " respectable , " crime is begun by such confederacy ; and . undenounced Carden of that crime , ve say , is not better than the lawless Lord of R-athronane , but worse—not less cowardly , but more so . If we are bent on measuring the vices which sap the life of society , Tve must

    look further than the Morning Jlerald or the Society for the Suppression of Vice ; perhaps we must peer among the very subscribers to those respectable institutions . If we desire to protect injured woman against every lawless appropriator , we must' defend her , not only shrieking in the public streets—but sometimes sobbing in the desponding prison that is called " home '' \

    August 5, 1854.] The Leader. 733 ^^^^^^^...

    August 5 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 733 ^^^^^^^^™^*—^^—^^^^™^^^^^ " ^^^^^^^—^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ - . . ^ . _ .. _ — — — .. ^ ^ ^ _ — _

    The Spoon Manufacture Foe. The Army. Mil...

    THE SPOON MANUFACTURE FOE . THE ARMY . Military life is not civil life , but very much the reverse . It is not always in the direct statement that people tell the most , especially when the subject is themselves ; but the keenest autobiography conies out in collateral confessions . " Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman , " is the plirase for expressing that which a gentleman wearing a sword in her Majesty's service is expected to avoid ; but "what is conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman ? According to the charge against Lieutenant Perry such conduct may consist not only in defending oneself -with a pair of candlesticks , when no more regular weapon is at hand , but also in making certain allegations , or asking certain questions in selfdefence . This gives a very wide scope to the honourable force of militaiy law , and we must take a comparatively high standard of it . Again , Mr . Perry " mentioned to people in Dublin" that one of the officers in question " was known by a very ugly name , " and this

    was considered to bo a cause of complaint against Mr . Perry . On the other hand , there is no disproof of the fact that the anomalous officer in question was known by the ugly name ; there is no disproofftf the statement that Colonol Grarret had met complaints of tho grossest indignity by mild or evasive answers ; there is no disproof , but proof , that indecent irregularities took place almost in Colonel Garret ' s preaenco . Thus , it would appear , whilo it is an offence to allude to such matters , it is no offence to tolorate them . In tho regiment

    men may call each other by ugly names , yet the offence shall consist in tolling peoplo outside that the name is used . Tho offences of making an officer perform tho sword exorcise naked , of dragging him downstairs almost in the colonel ' s presence in his night-shirt ; , or of dragging him about and forcing him to drink with ladies not usually admitted into good society , are voninl ; but to complain of them , to mention thorn outside—those are tho grave misdeeds . There must be , therefore , a certain freemasonry in her Majesty ' s service , which creates a totally different standard from that established outside

    We know well that it is the greatest of nuisances to have a " spoon" forced into » regiment . Certain kinds of weakness are

    disliked everywhere , and the spooney is not tolerated amongst school boys , sailors , bricklayers , or officers in her Majesty's service . If a , spoon-hill be merely foolish , he may become a species of persecuted favourite , like the idiot of the village ; and the hero who is initiated into the freemasonry of a barrack room , may even rise to the level of a monarch in the favour of a world-famous Helen . But

    if the spoon add the lawyer to his other qualities , he is detested . A man who will consent to perform the sword exercise naked , and yet can answer a silly remark with a repartee—who cannot defend his own position , and yet can teach the colonel bis duty , must evidently be a provoking dog . Nevertheless , however desirable it might be to force such a man out of the regiment , common self-respect would prevent civilians from using the means with which gentlemen wearing a sword in her Majesty ' s service appear to find redress for their wounded honour .

    We suspect that no small part of the embarrassment Tinder which officers appear at present to labour is occasioned by a vain , attempt on their part to assimilate their mode of life to civil standards . The spoony regime has been rather encouraged in high quarters . A . t the present moment ,-. while officers and men are burning for action , the chief activity of the Horse Guards , and of their representative even at the scene of war ,

    is an incessant restlessness and despotism in man-miliinery . " While officers and men are chafing with desire to get at the Russian , Lord Raglan and the Horse G-uards are chafed with neglect of the razor ; the subaltern imagination revels in wild and chivalrous campaigns , the imagination , in chief busies itself vfith two inches of shaven space on face or chin , with more or less buttoning for shell jackets , —is shocked at the sight of bare necks or red flannel-shirts underneath .

    To satisfy the Horse Guards , a little Cupid shoiild be stationed beside the looking-glass of every officer , to superintend the shaving of his cheek , the arrangement of his shirtcollar , and the buttoning of his jacket ; to see , in fact , tliat he would be fit for parade or a linendraper's shop . In the meanwhile , the rough arbitrament by which soldiers were accustomed to settle quarrels amongst themselves has been discontinued . Formerly , if a spoon intruded himself into a regiment in the hope of clothing himself with courageous red , when white was the uniform of his liver ,

    some summary but not indecent indignity would call upon him to redress the grievance for himself ; and if he neglected that duty to his own pride , he would soon be compelled to leave his regiment and the service . At this day , in every barrack room , the subaltern finds a Peaco Society ; tho arbitration of chivalry lias l ) een discontinued ; and we need scarcely . wonder , therefore , if we find young officers engaged in squabbles and scandals that unite the ' indecency of school-boys with the malignity of old maids .

    The Trade Of Hull In Danger. Hull Is Awa...

    THE TRADE OF HULL IN DANGER . Hull is awaiting the writ for a new election , and is already courting two candidates of very different stamp . In one souse , wo may say that an opportunity is now oll ' ercd iov tho candidate who ia declared incapacitated for sitting again , since ho has an offer from some of the constituency to sit ngnin by deputy . It is said that Mr . Clay may be permitted to nominate the now candidate , and that Mr . Watson , Q . O ., is to lend tho luatro of a name onunont at the bar to

    that project lor continuing tho Hull smuggling trade , notwithstanding tho provontivo guard which tho Commons aro attemptingto strengthen . On tho other lmnd , somo amongst tho constituency profiting by tho

    example of Edinburgh , which discarded Macaulay for a time , and then invited him back , are endeavouring to open the way by which General Perronet Thompson maybe escorted back to his old seat . Hull , indeed , is a splendid place for the Conservative of Parliament management . There were 193 names in the schedule of the bill for disfranchising the corrupt voters , and there were 180 persons not included in that schedule against whom the evidence was

    strong . The schedule of these illustrious persons is confined to no party , but is equally open to all ; we cannot say influenced by none . Mr . Clay , however , may be said to deserve the attention , of the constituency , since it was through his means that the freedom was taken up for 236 individuals , who would otherwise have let their right lie

    dormant . The cost of creating that faithful party was 30 s . a head , and although—such is the corruption of human nature—some sixty of them imitated the " immense ingratitude " of Schwarzenberg , and failed to fulfil the ex-r pectation , the creation of voters was , upon the whole , a good venture . The voters thus created , however , have to be fed ; like the factitious man Avhom Frankenstein called into

    being , they ask their parent for the means and delights of existence . But Clay ,, like Frankenstein , cannot perhaps command all that voters wish ; hence the policy of a partner in the election ; hence the preference for a candidate whose purse is stored with , solid sunshine , and who Has not , like Greneral Thompson , a punctilious dislike to . entering the House of Commons by the universal suffrage already enforced—the suffrage of the sovereign .

    We can sympathise with these objections to Greneral Thompson . In-former- times his intervention has rendered the election of " Reformers , " in " the usual way , " almost impossible . But Hull lias arrived at that point in its existence at which it seems to have the choice of continuing a merry life and a short one , and of being politically killed by disfrancMsement , or of reforming its ways ; honestly electing a honest member , and defying disfranchisement bills . The , way to rescue Hull from this compulsory reform , and

    to keep up the good old trade for freemen , so long as the Commons will permit them to indulge it , is to find a man of good standing who will consent to accept the position which General Thompson indignantly repelled . When he was asked to stand for Hull " ia the usual way , " ho declared that " he would as soon think of selling his daughter to be a concubine at New Orleans ; " but possibly other honourable candidates may as little dread the yellow fever at New Orleans , upon Mississippi , as at lvingston-upon-liull .

    The Public Health. Pablia,Ment, In Its W...

    THE PUBLIC HEALTH . Pablia , ment , in its wisdom , has this weelc seen fit to adopt Lord Seymour ' s motion ; and the Public Health Act Continuance Bill , as modified and proposed by Lord Palmerston , is rejected . That some Government board should exist for tho purpose of perform ing Public Health Act duties , seems to bo acknowledged oven by the opponents of tho old board ; and , no doubt , tho new bill , .. which

    has been brought in , -will be passed . Bycix at this hito poriod of tho session there are niany and vital interests involved in the question ot public health . These , such legislators as Lord Seymour may put down for a time— they may retard—but , tliry cannot overlook . Iho seed 1 mb been sown , tho plant will riw ; there will , in duo Li mo , ho fruit . Governments lmvo taxed , huvo blinded , have persecuted , hiiro dospiwoil the people—tho result haa over been destruction . Tho groat nations of antiquity grow up in comparative poverty

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05081854/page/13/