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    226 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ma...

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    THE .BRIBER CAUGHT. _ T HE briber has at...

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    The Supply Of Hags; It Hns Bouu Auuounco...

    hibitibn , which the Governments of France , Spain , and Belgium have , for a considerable period , laid on the export of rags . They want to keep this raw material of a noble / artas much as possible for the use of their own people . They do not encourage the use and manufacture of clothing , and so increase the quantity of rags ; they rather repress these by taxing the import of the raw materials and the finished article ; they frown , too , on luxury of dress , but carefully monopolise their own rags . They do what our protectionists would have had us do with our coal . They were very desirous to promote the export of the rails arid ciitlery made by its means , but wished to keep all our coal for ourselves . The one error is equal to the other ; but the protectionists abroad

    keep in an old and decredited path ; our protectionists wanted to make us re-enter it . There is no probability of man wanting coal more than rags , or rags more than coal , if the relations established by nature between his exertions arid the external world-be not interrupted . But the Governments of the Continent first stop their people from getting plenty of clothing , and carry out their interference by maintaining a monopoly of rags . It is a complete mistake to suppose , as the Times did , and wrote an elaborate essay on the supposition , that the recent treaty concluded with France made any difference on this subject , or has in any degree aggravated the evil . ' ¦ ¦ B y--that treaty it is

    provided that a duty shall be imposed on paper-hangings and cardboard imported from France equal to our excise duty on paper . Subsequently , however , to its being concluded , and wholly independent of it , Mr , Gladstone proposed , in consequence of the manifest evils of this duty , to repeal it , and at the same time to repeal all the customs' duties on the import of paper . To have continued them when he abolished the excise duty would have left his work incomplete , and given : a pecuniary protection to our paper-makers against competition such as has now been taken away from nearly every other description of manufacturer . The negotiators of the commercial treaty , though veheriaently scolded by the Times , had nothing whatever to do with the abolition of the excise duty , and could take no steps to procure

    the abolitio ' n of the prohibition to export rags irom France . Only unreflecting ignorance could blame them for-the new candid tions of the paper trade resulting * from Mr . Gladstone ' s design of abolishing the excise duties . The Treaty makes mo difference in the regulations of France on this subject , and leaves our paper-makers with all their former sources of supply as full and uninterrupted as ever they were . It is not improbable , howe , that the anxiety , expressed to get rags by new regulations may induce the Governments of Prussia , Russia , jhe Hanse Towns , Ttaly , & c . ^ --whenee wedr-aw supplies ^ -to imitate the Government of Trance , and tax the export of rags , or make the

    non-exportation a means of extorting some concessions from a weak Government unfavourable to freedom , In the year 1858 we imported 11 , 379 tons of rags , equal to about one seventh par !; of the paper made in the same year- ^—for that portion only of our supply are we dependent on others . . The bulk of them came from Prussia and Hamburg ; the remainder frqm Russia , Holland , Tuscany , the Papal States , and our own possessions . From all these sources we shall probably continue to derive as many rags as before , and probably an incieasing quantity .

    All the countries of the world , except those y \ which the prohibition to export mgs is continued , will be open to our nig importers ; and with our extensive trade they must be deficient in energy find skill if we catinot obtain supplies of rags better than any . other .. country , The present consequence of the prohibition is to make rngs fifty per cent , cheaper in France than in England , which carries with it the certainty that rags from other countries will come to England , - not go to France . The prohibition to export rags , which keeps the price low , extinguishes

    the power to buy elsewhere ; and if the prqhibitio . n secure the JVench manufacturer Ihe use of all the rags made in France , it excludes the rags of other countries from his use . The advantages of such a law are on the side of the non-prohibiting countries . Everywhere , as the people increase in numbers and prosperity , they will use more clothing ; but the French increase very slowly in comparison to tho populations , except the Italian , from which we derive rags . France , therefore , will not increase her paper manufacture by the prohibition .

    If there be a great increase in the demand for paper as civilization advances , there is also an equal pv greater inorease in tho demand for clothing . Throughout the countries which export rags , and in almost every par ? of Europe , the multitude ia vpry imperfectly otothed . Now , without any effort on the part ' of Governments , or paper manufacturers , the present activity of trade , arising from increasing freedom and increasing prosperity , ia sure to cause a continual and vapid increase in thp demand and supply of clothing and of rags . All the measures , including the Treaty , for permitting or prompting cominorce tend to those ends . The rapid increase in our colonial population , and theiv inability , at

    least in the early stages of their existence , to manufacture paper for themselves , operate in the same direction . The number of uses to which paper may be put , and the demand for it , are , nodoubt , very rapidly increasing , but so are also the supplies of rao-s and of the auxiliary materials of paper . If the use of it be a necessity of civilization , we have good reason to infer from these facts that the relations between the production of paper , the production of rags , the use of clothing , and the march of civilization will be undisturbed . There is no good ground * consequently , for the present alarm , that . printing and publishing may be impeded from a deficiency of paper . The United States , which more than any other country , except

    our own possessions , is our largest customer for stationery and paper hangings , arid our very largest customer for printed books , does not in return , except occasionally , and in very small quantities , send us any ' .. rags . In fact , the States export books and maps and stationery to a considerable extent ; ' and they not only use all their own rags , 'but they are successful -competitors .. with xis for the comparatively few rags which the half-clothed Italians have to dispose of . In the natural course of things , the Americans should continue to derive from us not only much literature , but much stationery , and should in return contribute to our paper manufacture a . considerable supply of the raw . material . The productions of the intellect have however been more free here than-the productions of the hand , and the States have in consequence had the advantages <> f our nnexcised minds , and have made for themselves unexcised .

    paper . For books—so far as the intellectual production is concerned—they continue to be our best customers ; but our excise duties on paper , . and their freedom from such duties , have enabled them , fully to equal if not to surpass us in the manufacture . Such facts corroborate the opinion that the products of our hands for the general welfare and the general progress , whatever interested parties may say to the contrary , should no more be subject to an excise than the products of our intellect :

    226 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ma...

    226 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ March 10 , I 860 .

    The .Briber Caught. _ T He Briber Has At...

    THE . BRIBER CAUGHT . _ T HE briber has at last been tracked to his lair . The law , hitherto believed to be inoperative , has vindicated itself ; not , it is true , without much difficulty , but still with sufficient potency to establish a conviction , which will lead the way toother results . ¦ . ' .-. - ¦ The borough , of Berwick-upon-Tweed has long enjoyed , politically , a nascent notoriety : Respectable candidates avoided its representation as they would a plague . Berwick , consequently , became the object" of the political attentions of millionaires , " , or

    adventurers , bac ked by the Reform or Carlton Clubs . What Walpo ' le said with respect to men , Berwick always proved for constituencies ' . It had its price ; and so long had the practice prevailed , that Berwick began to imagine the right to dispose of votes to the highest bidder was a constitutional prerogative vested in its voters . It was in vain that petitions were presented by defeated candidates , the re-issued writ only caused a repetition of tlie sale of votes , so that at last Berwick ceased to be offended at a mere imputation of bribery .

    At tho last general election Messrs . Gokdox and Eaule , the Conservatives , defeated the Liberals , Messrs . Majokiuanks and Stapleton . A petition was presented , and then a compromise was effected of a curious character . Mr . BAitjiK was to seek tin ; retirement of the Chiltcrn Hundreds , and Mr . Majoiujjanks was to come in unopposed . Mr . Gordon and Mr . Eaule bound themselves not to interfere , but to advise their friends to allow Mr . Majohijbanks " a walk over . " But the local Tories were not so to be disposed of ; so setting aside tho practical part of the fact , they started Mr . Richahi ) Hodoson as a candidate . A H inducements to retire were resisted by the Tories . At the poll Mr . Majokibanks was returned by a majority of one !

    There happens to exist in the counties of Northumberland and Durham an association called the Northern Reform Union , of which a gentleman well known to reformers , Mr . Joseph Cowj 3 N , jun ., is the head . Constituting its local members at Berwick a vigilance committee , and Messrs . Cowjgn , Reei > , and Gilmohb a sub-committee at Newcastle to watch events , the Union soon discovered that Mr . Majowibanics ' s election had been procured by bribery . A report was published ,

    animadverting in strong terms upon the fnends of Mr , Majoiu banks . Evidence ' w « s taken , and writs ibr penalties issued . ' . The Berwick Liberals , fairly took alarm , and taking advantage of tho strong longuoge of the report , in which tho names of six gentlemen accused of bribery were mentioned , m many actions for libel wore commenced . These actions , and tlioso for tho penalties , went down for trial to tho Northumberland Assizes' last week .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031860/page/6/