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    52 THE LEADER/. [No - 459, January 8; 18...

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    for believing that the absence of some s...

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    BIOGRAPHIES OF GERMAN PRINCES. ,?s T o. ...

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    The Lindsay Letter, The " Memorials Of T...

    misery Into vice , and of equalising the level of crime amidst the whole class . Many reasons , therefore , dictate the removal of the casual poor , the vagrants , the homeless , to some place ^ where they can be treated at once with more leniency , more rigour , and more discrimination . Charitable societies have hitherto furnished the home under conditions which secured an effectual regulation ; but charitable societies have no means of taxing the public ; and even the Field-lane Refuge , one of the most valuable of the kind , has been languishing for

    want of funds . Now > short of a Chancellor of the Exchequer and a " committee of the whole , " there is no taxing machine more powerful than the Times , which signified its will and pleasure that persons should subscribe to the Field-lane _ . Refuge , and forthwith obtained the requisite supplies ; but the necessities of the Refuge called attention to the existence of a class which is too numerous to be included within the walls of any charitable institution , and the Poor-law Commission ers put forth a document which proves that they have not been

    inattentive to the public want . This is a circular letter written by Lord Courtenay > the Secretary of the Board of Guardians of the Metropolitan Districts , proposing ah entirely new establishment . The plan is to divide the metropolis into six asylum districts , each to have an inexpensive building set apart for the reception of the homeless poor , the whole to be administered by officers specially appointed under ^ process of election by the several boards of guardians , the expenses to be defrayed by a rate levied upon the

    entire metropolis equally . The power to effect this arrangement is vested in the Poor-law Commissioners by the Act 7 and 8 Victoria , cap . 101 , which authorises the board to combine several unions and parishes into one district fpr the relief of the houseless poor , to be managed as we have described . Undoubtedly this arrangement would meet some of the difficulties of the present case :- It might draw forth a better attention to the particular wants which are to be met . We might have better ma * nageinent , and obviously additional funds would be provided , But we do not see how , in its nature , it would ensure any amendment upon some of the

    abuses now existing . For example , instead of introducing a better discrimination between the different species which form the whole genus of the homeless , it would , on the contrary , assemble under one roof the scourings of a much larger district ; would draw together a more "clamorous herd of the reckless and the profligate ; and would oppress the unfortunate and the feeble more severely than they are at present . Much , indeed , would depend upon the management and the system of dividing the prisoners , for such they seem likely to become ; but how should we secure better management ? Unless the officers of the new refuges were selected from a higher class , unless the offer of payment were such «< e t . / i ntfTJinf m / Mv * *> ffloioTi +. r > nnrlirl « f , f »« frvr 'flips tinst . t WMIVkVMV

    l » k * W »^ HV «»» W *«*»*^* % rf »»»»*»«»**» p * MI «<*¦•** ¦• V * v « w «** f " 7 we suspect that the refuges would become nothing more than outl y ing departments of the union workhouses , and it is to be feared that they might give rise to all the inconveniences whicn belong to divided establishments , while they would unquestionably originate a new impost . Beyond these objections jit has been pointed out that the plan would effect a material innovation on the principle of local self-government .

    52 The Leader/. [No - 459, January 8; 18...

    52 THE LEADER / . [ No 459 , January 8 ; 1859 .

    For Believing That The Absence Of Some S...

    for believing that the absence of some such machinery would be a great defect in the forthcoming measure . But it is quite another matter to ask us to lower the tone of our demands , in the present instance , respecting the suffrage , upon the ground that at some unknown and unnamed day hereafter the whole question may come to be reconsidered . The equitable claim of industry , loyalty , intelligence , and liability to taxation , to be included in the benefits of active citizenship , does not in any

    way depend on those changes of population or property to which allusion has been made . If by some new discovery the woollen trade were to recover its ancient pre-eminence among our staple manufactures , and the currents of capital and labour were to set in towards the West Riding and Gloucestershire as strongly as they have done during the last twenty years towards Lancashire , that would not alter the great social and political question whether a weaver or a spinner who dwells in a rated house and contributes to the well-being

    lature , and more than one-half of the seats in the other . They keep amongst them nearly the entire profit and power of the civil and military administration ; and they confessedly make use of both as class perquisites , out of which the opulent members of their order are systematically" fed , clothed , housed , and otherwise provided for . A revenue of sixty-five millions a year is raised by taxes on the industry of the people at large , and expended by the Parliament , in which these few hundred families

    are paramount , as they think fit . Of the heads of households in the United Kingdom , which , by their unremitting toil , create this enormous annual sum and pay it over to the tax-gatherer , not one man in five has a voice in the election of the minority in Parliament , who are nominally the guardians of the purse of the nation . More than five millions of men are without vote or franchise , direct or indirect . Is this wise ? Is this just ? Can this last ? Then , if not , the sooner the subject is dealt with the better .

    and support of the state , ought or ought not to have the privilege of voting at elections . The monopolists of power are jealous of the cotton region just now ^ beyond all others , because it contains the greatest concentration of manufacturing enterprise and skill . They will fight hard against giving many new . seats to Lancashire , and they would fight just as hard against giving them to other districts were they to become in the course of trade equally populous and wealthy . But the basis of representative right , the elective franchise itself , is not affected by the raw material out of

    which a man earns 30 s . or 2 / . a week . Great improvements may be made in machinery during the next twenty years ; new elements of industry _ be discovered or developed whereby ; additional hands may to a large extent be employed without displacing those that are already engaged in the fabrication Of articles of luxury or necessity ; villages on whose tranquil green may now be heard the lium of the bee or the song of the bird , may have grown into busy towns ; arid towns now rarely visited by commercial traveller or tourist may expand into youthful cities . . But justice'to

    the working classes , whose toil , and thrift , and intelligence constitute the great element of all improvement and prosperity , will remain the samethe greatest of considerations that can occupy the minds of legislators or statesmen . , It is not desirable that this great question should be further evaded by our rulers . For them the season is peculiarly propitious for dealing with it wisely . There is no excuse of too great pressure from without . There is no irritation produced by defeat abroad , or distress at home , poisoning and warping the public mind . If Parliament will , it may approach the discussion in a temper of judicial calm , and a spirit of judioiai impartiality . Even

    party teelmg is unprecedentecuy torpia , ana xue voice of factious violence is literally unheard . The obstinacy of Toryism is slaokened by the exigencies of its official position ; and the habits of courtiership into which the Whigs have fallen render them averse to rash biddings for popular favour . The Radical party in the House of Commons contains fewer moii ot influence out of doors or power in debate than at any former porlod within our recollection , The aristocracy have no decent pretext , therefore , fpr shirking the question . Will they try to do so P We have httle doubt that all who advocate extreme measures hope they may . We havo as little doubt that attempts will be made by some from party and

    personal motives to thwart and embarrass any scheme that may bo proposed by Ministers , not with any view of " obtaining a better bill next year , but in the hopo that they may have a finger in the making of the borough pie and in the helping of it . But for tho ruling omss , as a olass , there never was a ciearor course or a plainer policy . To them it signifies comparatively little who is Promior , ov which of a dozen duchesses is Mistress of tho Hobos . They dwell on tho verge of a perilous

    THOUGHTS , FACTS , AND SUGGESTIONS ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM . No . IX . An idea has been thrown out by certain speakers at recent public meetings , that we are not to press for any very decided change in our electoral system just now , because it is likely that the amended Reform Bill of 1859 will be followed , ore long , by another , wbioh may be lookod to for the supply of any

    omissions loffc in tho measure of tins year . In ono sense this may be truo . Finality has become an odious word , in popular cars . Wo all know that the nation has not stopped , growing ; and wo all feej . that untij . it does , ana until population and employment cease to shift from ono district to another , it is idle to talk of a final and permanent settlement . In a former chapter of the present series , tho necessity has been pointed out of making provision for tho gradual self-adjustment of tho system to tho fluctuating wants of successive periods ; and it is hardly requisite to repeat in this place the reasons

    ohasm , and the consideration , which if they bo wise ought to bo uppermost in their legislative thoughts , is , Iiqw may tho palpable and dangerous inequalities of tho surface bo lessoned whilo tho weather and time arc . favourable for undertaking such a work . There are depths they are not oxpootcd 1 ) 0 fill up , and heights of power and station which nobody asks them to break down . But they ai ; o mad if they do not perceive that their actual position is overy day becoming more and more anomalous and moro ana more indefensible . Some ftvo or six hundred families engross tho wholo of ono branch of the Logis-

    Biographies Of German Princes. ,?S T O. ...

    BIOGRAPHIES OF GERMAN PRINCES . , ? s o . ix . ; ' . " . JOHN-NEPOMUK-MARIA-JQSEPII , KING OF SAXONY . The Royal House of Saxony—a country pre-eminently Protestant , and whose fields served as the cradle of the Reformation—has belonged to the Church of Rome ever . since the time , of ¦ Frederick Augustus I .,. who changed-his creed to enable him to acquire the Polish crown . Great and "powerful has been the support given by . the Saxon rulers to Popery from the day of that unfortunate connexion with Poland . The " lute King , who was killed , it

    will be' remembered , a few years ago in the 1 yrol , by the upsetting of his travelling . earriage , was a fine specimen of these ; crowned- Jesuits . Accomplished as a scholar , a literary connoisseur , and an enthusiastic student of natural science , the botanical branch of which he had made his especial study , he yet , in spite of this versatility of intellect , forming such an exception among princes , was little better than all abject tool in the hands of the black-robed gentry . Year after year he continued in secret intercourse with such plotting Romanist gangs as , for instance , the " Fraternity of the Heart of Jesus . " The commands they laid upon him lie

    submissively and faithfully obeyed . Sovereign over a people professing the Evangelical faith , he scrupled not to persecute every Protestant . association that deviated in any minutire from the recognised credos . Against the iNeo-Catliolic dissenter who ignored the supremacy of the Pontiff , he directed the most violent persecutions . Ay , he had no compunction even in spilling the blood of the citizens in order to prevent their forming Anti-Papal leagues . With the shaveling intriguers of tho Swiss Sonderbuud he was also detected in having rather intimate connexions . Wherever , in fact , Jesuit machinations were going on , some thread of the mesh might be

    followed till it reached the royal palace at . Dresden . The education and the whole life of the present Saxon King , who glories in the correct Catholic denomination of Joliii-Nepomuk-Maria-Joscph , has been in perfect keeping with this Romanist sentiment of the Drttsdeu Court . The King is tho brother of the deceased sovereign , and the son of Prince Maximilian by the Princess of Punna . Born in 1801 , he received his earliest impressions from a number of tutors , -the majority of whom were deeply wedded to tho Popish interest . Ho was initiated into the mysteries of the Church of Rome by those pillars of Catholicism , the Abb < 5 dc S . ylvcstrc , the Father Loillor , and Iho-sinco Bishop Mauermann . Undor their superintendence ho acquired not only thoso cunning scini-roliyious , semi-political praoticcs peculiar to tho system , but also that smooth polish and classic taste which has not unfroqucntly distinguished tho disciple * ol Loyola . A solid military instruction was also , us ft matter of course , duly given him by Gouonila von Foroll and von Waladorf , by Liolcimnl-C ' oloucl FJciachcr and Major von Eppendorf , who taught . him how to make use of tho grape-shot , a h-oiouco tho Prince afterwards displayed his uroJleioiiey m by employing it against tho restive Protestants ol Leipzig . Tho dootrinos of public law—or , to spoak , perhaps , more correctly , of royal privilego and , right ; divino—woro expounded to young Jolm-Nopomuk by an Aulio Councillor of tho orthodox , sohool of Hallor . . Those wore tho rudiments of the right royal eu > oation ho roooivod . However , it inuat bo said , ho

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1859, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011859/page/20/