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Leader (1850-1860), 8th January 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 38, MANSION-HOUSE JUSTICE. For a lord mayor ...

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      European Policy In America; And American...

      the word which points the discreditable allusion . It is impossible to read this Letter to the Electors , and not feel the melancholy position assumed by the writer . Are there many men , adherents of the High Church party , who believe , as he . does , that any Cabinet , and not the Church herself , holds in its hands the destinies of the Church of England P Are there many gentlemen of High Church principles who have bo " little faith ? " Mr . Denison proves too much . What is the worth of his Church , what

      the importance of its claims upon the nation , it it be so slightly founded that a coalition Cabinet can shake it , and education undermine it to its fall ? High and true Churchmen , whose case we are putting , would trust to their own energy and sincerity in the Church's behalf , not to the shifting forms of Cabinets , whether as highprincipled as the present , or as low-principled as that of Lord Derby . If the Church can stand alone , no Cabinet can harm her . If she be rotting to her fall , no Cabinet can sustain her .

      Mr . Denison may depend upon it , that if the Church be in danger , it is not by political State Churchmen , like himself and his ally the Morning Herald , that she can be rescued . Her only chance lies in the spiritual simple-mindedness of her ministers , who , working apart from politics , each in his own sphere , heedless of the rise and fall of temporal powers , disdaining to be the tools of unprincipled ministers , shall carry out her principles fully and conscientiously , and accept the consequences . If that will not save her , she is , and ought to be , doomed to perdition .

      38 The Leader. [Satubw _

      38 THE LEADER . [ Satubw _

      Republicans In State. Republican Austeri...

      REPUBLICANS IN STATE . Republican austerity cannot altogether repudiate the pageantry of State , a fact made visible to us in the reports of the American diplomatists to the department of State at Washington . The reports , indeed , confirm the assertion of well-informed travellers , that living in the several capitals of Europe inclines to an equality . Mr . BAves explains how living in Paris is far more expensive than in the United States ; Mr . Neal S . Brown explains how St . Petersburgh is

      emphatically , and in every respect , an artificial city—its taste and habits expensive , its houserent , carriages , furniture , servants , living , and clothing , counting more than at either London or Paris ; Mr . Folsom declares that the cost of living at the Hague is probably greater than in any other part of the Continent , and quite equal to that of London ; Mr . Barringer pronounces Madrid unquestionablyone of the dearest capitals in Europe ; Mr . Mac Curdy finds that as to the

      expense of living , there is not much difference between London or Paris and Vienna ; Mr . Marsh believes " the necessary expenses of living are considerably greater in Constantinople Mian in any other European capital , with the possible exception of St . Petersburgh , " about which he has no such detailed information as Mr . INTeal 8 . Brown supplies . Every man seems to find liia own place the dearest .

      But . Republican salaries have not been calculated with an eye to court examples , and the Ambassadors of America are abashed before their diplomatic coadjutors . Their straits aro sometimes remarkable . With a striking naive t / ,, Mr . IMves proclaims that in . Paris butcher ' s meat is fifteen cents , a , pound , and twice that for " ¦ the delicate portions , " fowls nine francs a pair , and ham thirty or forty cents ; bo that , " according to this . scale of rigorous and unavoidable expense , the mere ordinary

      sub-Histenre of a , small household will not be short of : {<)( X ) dollars , " besides house-rent , carriage-hire-, fuel , and servants . Mr . Barnard cannot pay his way in Berlin , although lie goes without a palace , such aH most diplomatists have ; and JV 1 r . Marsh at Constantinople , proclaims the onerous prices of potatoes and asparagus . " The Dutch people , " nays Mr . Kolsom , with touching particularity , " lire great economists , and consume the least

      possible quantity of everything necessary for the maintenance of life . By thin means they reduce the expenses of living to the limits of their incomes , which are generally small . But . the effect is often , seen in the unhealthy aspect of the people , and especially of the children . " How painful it , would be if 1 , 1 k ; little ambassadorial npe « 5 im <> , nn of | , | , o Union , fed only up to the Dutch point of parsimony , were to walk , not Yankees , but Dutchmen , in the sight of Europe .

      Lawrence thinks , in London ; a 100 , 00 ^ , Mr . Barnard understands , is the sa & ry ° f * Turkish Minister at Berlin ; even *& e Sardinian Minister has 55 , 000 francs ; and * U speak as if the honour and interest of the American Union would be promoted by enabling its Ministers to cut a more respectable figure an palace , carriage , clothes , and hospitality . Locofoco

      francs Mr . Schank at Rio , finds 9000 dollars barely enough to support himself in the residence of a gentleman , although his family is absent . " No one knows , " says Mr . Neal S . Brown , " the restraints which the present rate of pay impose ? on the Minister , who is compelled to fall b ^ on some subordinate rank of living . " Tw-l ve thousand dollars might do in Paris ; 20 , 0 . 06 Mr .

      " Courtly corruption ! " the stern exclaim . But we are inclined to think that the Republican diplomatists take a strictly matter-offact view of the subject . Even a Republic cannot do without the grosser symbols of State , nor is there any reason why it should ; the maintenance of these gentlemen is not an individual , but a national affair , and it ought to be on a national scale . One quality of greatness is to be open-handed ; and to be close-fisted is to be little . If the American Republic cannot enable . its

      representative to put the delicate portions of beef before his guests , in Paris ; if it begrudges a potatoe or an asparagus to its ambassador in Constantinople , there must be some point of weakness in its character which is open to attack , and which it would proclaim by its niggardliness . It is true that the intelligent brain , generous heart , and stout arm , make the good citizen , and that most men of her millions may typify the Union , but the Ambassador has to do more than typify his country ; and if his children should

      not be starved to an unhandsome Dutch type , so his hospitality ought not to be below that even of the wandering Arab , who sets the best before the stranger . We need scarcely tell these things to our brethren in America , who are learning them so authentically through the official channels , and will so well know how to act upon that information ; but the discussion has some interest for us in England , where a false economy , which thought it wise to bate and cheapen everything , did but so recently threaten to be in the ascendant .

      Mansion-House Justice. For A Lord Mayor ...

      MANSION-HOUSE JUSTICE . For a lord mayor or an alderman , as an institution , we entertain the profoundest respect . Wo read books about his origin with interest , and wo hear speeches made at dinners in proof of his utility with admiration . As a part of the city , a pillar of the constitution , an obsolete , but still venerable , usage of antiquity , he claims and is entitled to our regard ; in one capacity only do we doubt his ability . As a magistrate he sometimes crra .

      Wot to make statements which would only bo credited in the sister country , where , as we have lately . seen , proofs are politely waived us superfluous , we will mention an instance in which a signal injustice acorns to us to havo been committed in consequence mainly of an alderman ' s extreme sentimentality overpowering his stricter notions of right , and rendering him oblivious of what we conceive to be the ordinary course of law . It will have been noticed probably by those of our readers who , from duty or inclination , scan

      from day to day the records of crime which every morning's broadsheet supplies , that certain gentlemen , termed in courtesy " worthy , " have of late years undertaken to " put down" various offences against society- —suicide amongst others—and that they have gained , not undeservedly , considerable popularity by these undertakings . One magistrate , it will have been observed , has devoted himself to this hobby ; another to that , ; and -no doubt through - the sagacity of Mie police , who never bring anybody ui > unless he is pretty mire to bo convicted— it has almost invariably happened

      that if a , particular class of charge ; came before a particular alderman the cane was satisfactorily proved , a heavy -penalty inflicted , and the intelligent citizens in" the court with diflieulty restrained from cheering . We do not , for a moment suppose that injustice has under these circumstances ever been consciously done ; but ; we do believe ! that there have been very many instances of groundless committals , and that those gentlemen whom we have so often seen hovering about the recorder—a . city appointment--during the trials of the very prisoners whom they havo

      comjnit ^ d , hare felt , without knowing it , an undue anxiety to have their own judgments confirmed , wid have been disappointed when , as now and then happens , the prosecution which they sanctioned has been successless . In the present case the facts speak for themselves . Ihej are briefly as follows : —A young gentleman , aced 23 , was agent to certain shipowners m Liverpool . Acting in that capacity , he received from various emigrants the amount of their

      passage money to Australia , giving them in return a certificate entitling them to berths on board tho ship of his principals . The emigrants got to Liverpool , where they found that , from some misunderstanding between the broker to whom they had paid their money and the firm to whom they were sent with his certificate , they were liable to detention till such time as a correspondence could set the matter right . At this they were all naturally enough disgusted , and the

      more timid of them no doubt very excusabfy alarmed . But what were they to do ? At an outlay of six and eightpence they would havo been informed b y any respectable attorney that the broker here had been guilty of a breach of contract , but advised that , as probably he had been so unintentionally , they should bring no action against him till they had afforded him an oTinortunitv of removing the unforeseen

      difficulties which had arisen . But instead of consulting with a solicitor , or possibly so instructed by a knowing one , they rushed off in a body to the Mansion House , assured the city Solons that their case was very deplorable in deed , excited furious indignation in the breasts of those worthy men , and finally got the civil action , to which they had a legal right , converted into a criminal prosecution , to which they had none . Great glory accrued to the humane magistrates ; verymuch , we understand , to their surprise ; no benefit was received by the emigrants ; and absolute ruin is the consequence to the young man .

      On Tuesday the case was tried , and the jury summoned for the occasion were informed that the offence imputed to the prisoner was that of obtaining money from emigrants to a considerable amount by false pretences ; that he was not , as he had represented himself , agent to the shipowners in Liverpool at all ; and that , consequently , the persons who paid him in the belief that he was , had been defrauded . Evidence was of course called in support of these assertions ; but as , on cross-examination by Sergeant Wilkins , the chief of the hostile witnesses gave testimony in

      support of the defence , the Recorder was at length compelled to interfere , and to tell the counsel for the prosecution that he hardly thought the jury could convict , inasmuch as there was no symptom of any false representation like that with which the prisoner was charged , and as the only question was whether lie had made any such . Mr . Bodkin assented , and the unfortunate young man , whom every impartial spectator knew from the iirst to be innocent , was then pronounced not guilty , and allowed to go free , with all the chances that a man who , justly or unjustly , has ever stood in the dock , is allowed

      subsequently of making his fortune . Now , who , we should like to know , is to compensate him for the evil consequences , extending through his whole life , of this most unnecessary trial ? Who even is to make good to him the expenses of his defence F We often see barristers applying for the costs of a prosecution , and obtaining them , where that prosecution was needed , but how is it that tho court cannot allow the expenses of the

      prisoner , when , as in this caHe , he has been specially retaining the bestf counsel ho can get , who prove ineonteslably that , the charge was one which never ought to ' have been made , because , as its makers knew , it never could be supported ? Perhaps the best plan under such circumstances would be to compel the committing magistrate to settle the prisoner ' s lawyers ' bill . I Ail , City gentlemen have their enjoyments , but let ruining a , man be a luxury proj > erly paid

      'I Uk Unimmn(Mimj']|) Opposition To Mr. ...

      'I UK UNIMMN ( MIMJ' ]|) OPPOSITION TO MR . <; LAI > , STONK AT OXFORD . T iik University of () xfonl j H /•„ ,. ,, ) , „ ,, l , j nl Liino m six months disgracefull y conspicuous . It seems resolved upon suicide . In the summer we had the famous onslaught of a Bullock Munilimii , decked in ( , | , ( , » Il () |>( M )(> ry " « , ololirH ) »„ , ! IU 1 . iiounced with trumpets and shawms , by the JlcralU of Biblical Derbyitmi , and the Standard

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/14/