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Leader (1850-1860), 7th August 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, y 0. 487, Auotot 7, 1858.] __ T H E L E ...

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      Lady Btjlwer Lytton's Case And The Lunac...

      7 Z cts of this case , so far as it is necessary to advert to them in . reply to the exaggerated statements that have "been published . Into the private history of either Sir E . L y ttoii ™ T , adv Lytton , we have no desire to cuter . J 3 ut it must be recollected that public notice has been at- Sacted to domestic differences , not by Sir Edward Won , but by Lady Lytton herself . Indeed , some if the indefinable eccentricities of Lady Lytton , for instance her extraordinary and unfeminme exhibition at the Hertford election , must have been a . sore infliction on the sensibility of a high-minded "English gentleman , and appears to us to warrant something closely approaching to a belief in . an unhealthy condition of intellect . In setting right the public mind upon this painful case , we do not desire , by any means , to oppose a searching investigation into the mode m which the luSTcy laws are administered . The last report of the visiting commissioners proves that there nave been shameful delinquencies on the part of the managers of certain asylums , and that the Commissioners themselves have neglected to discharge their duty Had they exercised their authority with less lenity the cruelties of a Metcalf never could have been perpetrated , and the- protracted mismanagement at Haverfordwest and Ealswood House would have been impossible . In bur judgment , what is chiefly ] wanted is , first , a more rigorous and frequent inspection , which can be- effected only by increasing the number of commissioners or other officers appointed for such a purpose , and getting rid of the two venerable gentlemen who now do the Chancery business ; and , secondly , a more resolute determination , on the part of the Board , to see its own orders faithfully executed . More energy , and less red tape . ; .

      Y 0. 487, Auotot 7, 1858.] __ T H E L E ...

      y . 487 , Auotot 7 , 1858 . ] __ T H E L E A D E E , 775

      A The Past Session. I T The Meeting Of P...

      THE PAST SESSION . t the meeting of Parliament on the 3 rd of December , 357 , for the purpose of passing a Bill of Indemnity to le Directors of the Bank of England , the then Premier ' s blowing was some four hundred strong . Lord Palmer- ton had appealed to the country upon , the question of is Chinese policy . He had signally triumphed , and semed to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of popular ivour . He had triumphed in that way most dear to lie wishes of a popular statesman—he had unseated is most troublesome political opponents , the repreentatives of the Peel and Manchester parties . On be 4 th of February the Administration , to all outide appearance , commanded a host as true , numerous , ind bold as ever . The hurricane which bad _ torn hrough the commercial interests of the country in the p receding December , and had been stayed by the susaensioa of the Bank Charter Act only when Lombardstreet quaked with fear , had blown over . A state of comparative ease had supervened , and so far there were no breakers ahead of the Administration . Although Lucknow had been relieved and many triumphs achieved by our arms in India , there seemed so little chance ot uiui ¦* ¦ —

      immediate pacincaxion mere . »> «*•— _ -- political shades had fair excuse for pursuing their views upon the East India Company's patronage . As leader of the raid , it was clear that Lord Palrnerston would command the countenance of the high court party and of " the upper ten thousand . " The majority of the Indian Directors had been made safe ; the passage of an Annexation Bill was looked upon as a certainty ; ana tue position of so hyper-aristocratic an Administration upon the fcack of the public camel was , to all appearance , far too secure to be agreeable or advantageous to s that long-sufFering animal . But during the > adjournment which succeeded the passage of the Indemnity Bill , a cloud arose which burst upon the budding glories of the Palmerstonian majority . lne nrst violent shock to the PaJmerston prestige was given by the return to the Opposition benches of the Manchester party , vindictive with rage at then- temporary humiliation , and burning to revenge it . lhe attempted assassination , of the Trench . Emperor by a band of conspirators who unquestionably had enjoyed the advantage of asylum in Great Britain during the progress of their design , succeeding , as it did , a long series of attacks upon the French Government and institations by a portion of the English press , ; naturally drew an exchange of compliments , after their fasj" ° » . - - _ ¦¦• L _ _ — x .. « .- % , ! ^ -l-iair nvaftllR . * 1 \ Hitter - ~ -- - r ¦ ! L > ' ¦ ,-

      | from tlie imperialist puny uuu »»« . " ^ .... - mitmillade , conducive , perhaps , to the sale of news- 1 i pavers , but far less so to the permanence of pacific relations , or the advancement of French liberty , was going 1 on between the advanced posts on cither side , when our session opened definitively on the 4 th of February last . The first business of both Houses was to congratulate the Sovereign upon the recent marriage of her daughter , and tho next the arrangement of the Parliamentary ¦ c ampaign , with the announcement of their programme * and the muster of their forces by tho . leaders of her Mar jeaty ' s Government and her Majesty ' s Opposition re-SP thflirst night of the session , Lord Derby , who had evidently no conception of the wholesale leck-eating in store for him , threw down the gage of Opposition in tho House of Lords . He challenged Ministers to take steps to afford security for the lives of foreign princes against tlie machinations of foreign assassins resident among us . He censured the War Department for their dilatory re- I L , ; . fo « M . nf troons to India . He urged that every - l- K ir te > r rv efl a- e-

      available man of the regular army should bo sent out to h the Enst , and that our defence at home should bo eii- h I trusted to the militia , whom he would embody through- t out England . He revived , nlso , tlie Chinese war r grievance , and derided the very idea of negotiating at » II 1 ¦ 1 Vhe answers of tho Cabinet were of course cut and 1 « lry The Premier gave notice that ho would bring in ft < bill to amend the law in relation to conspiracy to 1 ! commit murder . Lord Panmure declared that his denartinont . which includes Wecdon , wo presume , was Perfection itself , and informed tho house of the steps ho had taken to raiao the 100 th Hoglment in Canada . Tliey were of eour . io full of hope und uncertainty about Iiuliii but Mr , Vornon Smith would introduce a measure W <> enable the Company to raise loans , and Sir ^ 'orge . Grov , by way of sauco piquanto , promised a bill to reform the Corporation of London . Lord John « " «»«»» took an « arly opportunity of introducing his Oaths Dill . Sir John PuUington moved in eilucational matter * , and Mr Ayrton announced his unfortunately abortive mlentions about tUo equalisation of poox rates ; and nil tho I 1 ) -be 9 0 ,. , t e ; c . o

      a f ^ ' , ¦ : i-ocheteers of Parliament were intent upon developing md submitting their legislative projects to the House , still lnconscious of the white squall which was blowing up . But it . is . clear . ' that about this time the grenades of 3 rsini had carried unusual perturbation into the councils af Napoleon III . The French Government had already permitted the appearance in the Moniteur of absurdly bombastic addresses to the Emperor , in which the services of certain regiments were proffered to his escaped Majesty for the invasion of this country . Understanding as we do the dependence of every Trench dynasty upon the bayonet , the occasional presence in commands , unavoidable under a French army system , of a few mere fire-eating " roughs , " and the extreme jealousy of the vast and petted Imperial Guard which pervades the lino regiment 3 , we can readily comprehend that the rejection or suppression of an effusion , however absurd , from oneof the latter , migTit have "been construed into an insult , not to that particular corps alone , but to a brigade or even to an entire army . England , we thought , could well afford to let the idle puff blow by and to compassionate the position of a ruler the source and mainstay of whose power was so manifested . But when from the

      laboratory of the Trois Freres Napole ' oniens there issued the ponderous admonition of Persigny to our civilest of civic councils , and the unguarded assassination despatch of Walewski , followed as they were by diplomatic rallies yet more plain spoken , we were not without apprehension oa our neighbours' accousit , whom a change of dynasty might perchance involve in a reign of terror , that premonitory madness had seized the Imperial family . The propriety of an alteration in the law of conspiracy was so patent to every -well-principled Englishman who could , call himself a friend of order , and irrespectively of all sentiment for or against tie Trench Emperor , that there was no indisposition , on the part of the country at large to proceed with the Coaspiracy to Muxder Bill , which passed its first reading by a large majority , including many gentlemen noyr in office . But it was otherwise ordained . The anti-French section of the English press were making political capital by fanning the names of international hostility with their eternal columns of cheap pa-triotism ^ two * - parties . " who had long sighed for office saw their account in a timely fusion . Personal foes of the once petted Premier swelled the ranks of tlie most singular coalition that ever attained power . Wlien Lord Palnuerston moved the second Teading of his Conspiracy to Mttrder Bill , the conspiracy to dethrone Lord Palmerston defeated him by a majority of 234 against 215 votes . tlialsD 01 i ««?»

      On Sunday , e j'eoruur . y , u « u w" : summoned to Buckingham Palace . He immediately accepted ofllce , and proceeded manfully to face the difficulties of his inheritance . These were due in part to the blunders and conceit of his predecessors , and in part to the conduct of his own party in opposition , seeing that the : ¦ Derbyites in the House of Commons could not number more than 160 or 180-This was in the opinion of the "SYhig Tadpoles both indecent and unconstitutional . But they had omitted from their estimate the powerful Manchester and Peace party , whose bellicose discontent with the pacific tendencies of Lord Palmerston had given the coup de grace to tho outgoing ministry . It was passing strange , indeed , that tlie Apostles of peace and economy , and the leader of the Opposition" in the " Arrow debate of 1857 , should be found ' in 1358 jointly censuring the Ministry for the heinous crimes of deliberation and reluctance to take offence . And now , the industrious member for Birmingham is the buttress of Lord Derby ' s Administration , while the little band of pre-RaphaeHto politicians who follow his more natural ally , Mr . Gladstone , are still in chastening cxilo . lo a mau of the Premier ' s autocratic temperament , indebtedness to the Manchester school may , as his rivals say , be to

      gall and wormwood indeed . Hut all we nave ao-wun is thfl account of the public in the matter , and from this point of view we can imagine no alliance more pregnant with disappointment to the country than would be that of the Peelito of to-day with so much of the old Tory as is left in my Lord Derby . The secret of Mr . Brights power is this " He can at any moment , with his ready oratory , his largo capacity , the wide-spread influence of his immediate partisans , and tho political mechanism at his command , rouse the Commons of this country to the deinaml of a large and comprehensive measure of reform . TUo patriarch of progress , LoTd John Russell , dare go no further in the direction of large reform than such an addition to tho electoral rolla as would in no way increase tlie popular power or disturb the nristocvatic supremacy . Mr . Brig it has inscribed upon his standard that any roTorm Ull to worth a moment ' s thought or tho smallest eftort to carry it , must at least doublo tho representation of the metropolitan boroughs and of all tho great cities of the United Kingdom . These are reasons why Mr . John Bright is to bo fcarod by every nrmtoc . atic Aclniinwtmtion ; and these , again , why the alliance of Mr . John Bright and his party wa » peculiarly a matter of iiu-,, « , Tanco Lo Lord Derby when he told up his supporters

      —| II— before accept in ; , ' oilice . . frt Deprive ! , an >>« very properly are , of all access to tho grcU ( Vovcrnn . ont lied-tn ,. cricH , we arc obv . ouB y n ¦ no position to delinc , the con . pl caMons which had mj directly led to Lord Mahiiesbury ' B instalment , and which

      Thge Electrig Communication * Between En...

      THGE ELECTRIG COMMUNICATION * BETWEEN ENGLAND AND A . MEHICA .. p The unexpected fulfilment of the laying down tlie . t electric wire between this country and America has « excited some of the most lively feelings ^ : of-our r nature . Every class of the community feels its 1 vast importance , and hopes of every kind are-stimulated by it . Tlie two disappointments incurred in , the first attempts have but added a zest to the h satisfaction witli which this . important , result lias 3 been received . It is , indeed , a fact to be proud ot , , and the indomitable promoters deserve the thanks ; of the nation ; and they will certainly receive a substantial acknowledgment in the honourable profits that will accrue ' to them m working this grand application of science to commercial puruoses . . . . . . . ' viewinc

      In a political and social point ot , . suggestions of the advantage of rapid communication , indeed , in the complete destruction ol space as regards the transmission of ideas , are too numerous , and in the present , early state of the invention , too crude and too crowded to be detailed . The crossing sucli an immense ocean as the Atlantic , and the constructing , by a thin wire through it , a solid connexion between th e great continents , arc such conquests of physical diiBcultics , and of apparent impossibilities , that the mind finds itself , like Uolumbus and his followers , entering upon a new world . The imagination will trace results that arc not exactly logical ; but the practical man will perceive that the electric telegraph thus shortening and annihilating such an immense space , will produce the snorter eiec -I

      effects far beyond those gained by - tric lines . It must in some degree supersede the post ; rumour will be quite put to silence , and conjecture will form a much smaller portion of the speculator s business . Every circumstance of consequence in the political and commercial world will be install-1 tancously communicated , and the action on such intelligence will be equally rapid . Perhaps , however , tlie most advantageous of the results ot the successful fulfilment of the project is tliat it is possible to lay down and communicate- through two ¦ thousandmiles of wire . This fact being proved , tho system must become universal , and every colony and every place of importance will have its electric lines . Such a bringing together of commmnscience is > : 1 1 . ' l

      ties clearly proves that apjwmnAi to carry on tho great work of civilisation lor providential purposes . Very pretty writing might 1 bo indulged in , by contrasting how sit the same time the bruzen mouths sent forth volleys of the warrior ' s thunder , and the waters rushed iato the great excavation at Cherbourg , the peaceful and comparatively frugilc wire was gliding along in tho deep waters to unite tho two great Anglo-V I 1 c s d C- >«¦ o-

      S p J : fc t t 1 Saxon families . Much moralising , also ., might a < political Jacques or a literary Touchstone utter upon * this momentous fact ; but even the genius of a x Shakspcare could not narrate , much less exhaust , ( the results of the successful voyage of the Aga-1 ( memnoa and the Niagara . Let us hail tlie electric j ] line as a , fresh bond between us . and . our American j brethren . !

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1858, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081858/page/15/