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    No, 394, October 10,1857.] THE LEAD E B....

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    MISSING—£5000 REWARD. What about Reform ...

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    LADIES IN INDIA. Stones are hard, and ca...

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    SHIPWRECKS. Caw we diminish the number o...

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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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    Englishmen At Arms. Altj Sorts Of Small ...

    Still leas can any one promise him better chances . "Wherefore , he takes up the unmanly yard measure , or the clerical quill , or even the badge of household servitude . Because , in the first case , he hopes to set up in business for himself ; in the second , he may marry upon a neat little income , and ¦ visions of a junior partnership make bright the dingy

    wall beyond the desk ; in the third , he may rise to be butler , and then—who knows—he may keep a tavern , and mellow into old age a respected , comfortable landlord . Anywhere but the barraclcs . There is no social thoroughfare , in that direction . That is why Englishmen are not rushing to arms ; and why we are groping about in Shoa , Ashantee , and Calabria , in search of imaginary regiments .

    No, 394, October 10,1857.] The Lead E B....

    No , 394 , October 10 , 1857 . ] THE LEAD E B . 375

    Missing—£5000 Reward. What About Reform ...

    MISSING— £ 5000 REWARD . What about Reform ? There appears a certain disposition to sink the very subject . We almost su-spect that c the party' has absconded . A suspicious silence in certain quarters invades the ear . India is a godsend to those who are in hopes of preserving the British Constitution , not in its original state of healthy vigour , but in its collapse . -Still we are inclined to doubt whether the British

    public will be quite content to miss its adopted . ! Last session . Uord Palmerston announced that although Reform must go into retirement for a time , it should reappear next session . But in what state ? Has it been put out to nurse for the express purpose of being overlaid ? Sometimes unjust guardians have used that objectionable process

    with sickly infants or superannuated persons in a ' soft' state , of course with an eye to the property . Lord Palmerston is for the time guardian of Reform ; but it is an ominous fact that he never talks about it ; just as Jane Eybe ' s Mr . Rochester never talked about his wife , or King John never talked about Prince Arthur . We are not in the habit of

    raising questions that we intend to drop . This pointed silence has somewhat excited the popular interest . The noble public has made up its mind that it will not be balked of its Reform , and is quite content to wait for six months with a full confidence in its own power of attaining its rights ; nevertheless , it would like to know how Reform does at present . Luckily the dear departed L .- * s . sq « i ^ influential friends . We have no great trust in Reform demonstrations

    at present , especially where the commanding officer , like Sir- Chaelis Napier in the good Bhip Bury , makes a grand parade as a Reformer ., but is evidently on the best of terms " with the opposite party . The Emperor of Russia , is said to have a great esteem for Sir Chakl . es ever since that distinguished officer resided , in . the Baltic ; and as a Reformer , Sir Charles is now earning the esteem of Lord Diiitcr , Lord Pai ^ meustok , Mr . Dis-BjVEli , Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton , and

    other upholders of the ' Oh no we never mention it' policy . But there is Lord John Rttssexl , who ought to have been guardian to the ward , and whose past conduct as guardian has been so much misrepresented . And then there is a very smart fellow who wears the livery of tho great guardian ' s house , and Who , in spite of hid liking for his present has

    paster , a real attachment to ' tho old iamily , ' and cannot in his heart forgot the Tvard . His nnmo is Osmoiwjs , and ho has been talking to the people at Dover on tho subject . There is no chance , therefore , that Jioiorin can be smuggled overto ' tho Plantationa , ' na many a ward has been ; for Uuh-BElt , , and OsnoitNE , juul others , can always give us information of his whereabouts .

    ilowevor , the matter will not bo left altogether to chance , for we understand thai Bomo public-spirited , gentlemen nro

    determined not to let the question of poorUeform and his whereabouts drop . We have not yet heard what arrangements will be made ; but , probably , at the next session of the Court of Parliamentj some learned gentleman will move for a , writ of habeas corpus to bring up the missing party . And , already , we are authorized to state that , should other proceedings fail , a handsome reward will be offered . Any gentleman , properly qualified , who shall produce the missing party in the proper place , will be rewarded with 5000 Z . a year , and the post of Premier .

    Ladies In India. Stones Are Hard, And Ca...

    LADIES IN INDIA . Stones are hard , and cakes of ice are cold , said Boilingbroke , and women are not meant for camps . Better scrape the streets , as of old in Liverpool , or saw stone , as in Paris , or carry earth for railway embankments , as in Naples , or administer the weekly whippings of men and girls , as iu Southern Russia , than approach the blaze , the stench , the unimaginable brutality of war—such a war as that provoked by the Bengal Sepoys . British India is for the present one vast camp , and it is unfit that women should go there . Yet we hear of twentynine young girls who went out by one packet a short time ago . With what objects ? Not as nurses or as sisters of charity ; if women undertake those harrowing duties , their devotion is sacred , and whatever fate they meet is hallowed . But , even allowing that they do not venture to the East with the idea that it

    is an unrivalled marriage-market , and that tliey yearn to rejoin husbands , brothers , or parents , we would put it to those ladies who are among our readers not to offer or encourage so injudicious an example . What can young girls do in India at this crisis of darkness and misery but embarrass and encumber their countrymen , and paralyze their efforts ? By many it is believed that , had a decent vigilance been exercised at Calcutta , the Christians at Cawnpore , Agra , and other

    stations , might have been brought down to the maritime cities and placed in security ; but that is a question to be settled hereafter . Certain ifc is , however , that had there been no women and children to guard , Wheeler , and Lawrence might have cut their way out , effected a juncture , and fought a passage to Agra or Allahabad . Scores of officers

    and civilians have fallen , simply because , true and noble-hearted as they were , they stood by their wives and died with them . As men , they could not do less ; but it was by an unhappy chance that these poor women , with their families , were at the posts of danger . Some , it is true , contributed to the defence of besieged places ; Julia . Skene loaded her husband ' s rifle

    while he fought the enemy , until , with deadly fortitude , he fulfilled that last act of love and mercy which spared a thousand agonies to both . The daughter of General Whkelis-r died fighting like Artemisia ; and it was by a Portuguese girl that was inflicted the only retaliation upon women and children that we have heard of . She was shut up in the house of a native who had reserved her to be the

    victim ot his brutality ; a Hindoo woman waa left in charge of her . This woman she killed , with two infants , be lore slaying herself . Now , no part of India is absolutely secure from horrors like thene . The more women go out , the more soldiers must follow to protect them ; so serious id tho inconvenience , that it is by no menus nil arbitrary act to iysuo a positive order against tho embarkation of women for India during disturbances . Whon a woman fought a gun in Kodnic y'h flagship , he told her who was a lino creature but a jji'eat nuisance . Fine creatures

    andpardon us—great nuisances , arc tho ladies who now go out to Bombay , Madras , or Calcutta .

    We doubt whether Queen Dttbghutti herself , of the Hindoo kingdom of Gurrah , would be welcomed in the camp of Haveiock , although she was a brave champion of the Hindoos against their Mohammedan invaders , wore armour , shook a burnished lance , plucked arrows from her bosom without fainting , and at last died in the field . But the young girls bound for the East are not Dfbghuttis or Maids of SaragosBa . They carry to India only so many forms of grace , bloom , and delicacy , within cool circles of crinoline ; and at a glimpse of their white throats the knives of a hundred Nana

    Sahibs would be sharpened for another licentious butchery . Let them think of the worst that might happen . It is not probable that there will be any dividing of maidens' limbs , or hanging up of school-girls fresh from Brighton by hooks passed through their loins , where these ladies are going ; but such horrors have been enacted , and are possible anywhere within the limits of British India . Calcutta itself is in the position of a town expecting a bombardment . Every European goes armed . The Europeans

    suspect their own servants ; no one feels sure that an attempt will not be made to massacre the Christians ; as a proof that the alarm is intense , the English , even in Calcutta , Madras , and Bombay , are hastily sending home their families . W ^ implore our countrywomen , therefore , not to aggravate the difficulties of the Europeans in India by going out to the scene of the conflict before peace has been restored . We repeat , by doing so they only paralyze the energies of soldiers and civilians alike , while they risk the moat peculiar of fates for themselves .

    Shipwrecks. Caw We Diminish The Number O...

    SHIPWRECKS . Caw we diminish the number of shipwrecks , which occur annually on our coast ? Is the large catalogue of casualties we have so frequently to lament the result of violent gales , or do . these terrible accidents arise from preventable causes ? Turning then to the Statistics of Wrecks , which \ re find in the Wreck Register , a work commenced in the year 1850 , at the suggestion , we believe , of Captain Washington , ll . N " ., now hydrographer' to the Admiralty , we find some remarkable details .

    Taking the five years from 1852 to 1856 , it appears that the total number of wrecks amounted to 5128 , whilst in the same period 4348 lives were lost , of which 787 resulted from collisions at sea . The year most destructive to vessels was 185 t > , when 1153 craft of all kinds either foundered or were wrecked . The greatest number of lives lost in one year waa iu 1854 , when it attained the maximum of 15-49 . Confining , however , our examination of casualties to the year 1850 ,

    wo find January , February , and September the moat fatal months , and June , July , and August tho least destructive , representing less than one-third of the accidents occurring during tho winter season . The fleet of vessels of all descriptions—aailing ships , steamers , colliers , and country vessels—afloat during the sumo year averaged 2 ' 29 , 936 tons , and employed altogether 10 , 014 hands , of whom 521 perished . From tho tables supplied to us ,

    but which it would bo impossible to transfer 'too our columns , wo ascertain that tho coasting-trade , and our coal-trado in particular , hu tiers most severely , yielding ono-tUird ot ' tho whole losses and collisions . This re veals to us a most painful pago in our marine history , for we aro assured that this unhappy pre-eminence arises not so much from violent storms as from the disgraceful condition of tho vessels . Only a few months ago , it is reported that a small schooner from Sand-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 10, 1857, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10101857/page/15/