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    October 11,1856.] T H E X E A D E &. 973

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    THE SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD. Tilere is s...

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    THE NAPOLEON OF WESTMINSTER. Louis Napol...

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    British Rights Over Wites And Paupers. T...

    and Scott exercised his right at common law . It would be worth while to try the right of the magistrates to restrain him in the exercise of his conjugal authority , and we propose a subscription , to be opened in Marylebone and Pan eras . No doubt several officers of the army , and probably Conservative members in both Houses of Parliament would subscribe . The treasurer of the Husband Defence Fund

    should be the Tlevevend George Bied , of Whitehaven , who has already given to poor Scott the most admirable advice -and . support . The congregation which that earnest religionist was ¦ ¦ urg Ids wife to join was that of the Reverend George Bied , who has since delivered a course of lectures on the subject of Scott ' s conviction . Mr . Bibd completely justifies Scott : it is , he argues , a man ' s duty to rule his household ; if the wife refuse to obey his orders , the law of God authorizes him to enforce obedience by

    beating her . We do not see how this logic can l ) e resisted in a Christian country . True , the wife might suffer from the abrupt contact with the cane ; but how can that suffering be set against her eternal welfare ? The affectionate regard for her eternal welfare would justify cmy course necessary to promote the object . That her eternal welfare would have been secured by bringing her to the congregation , of Bibd is evident . The eloquent SptriiaEoir lately denounced those

    lukewarm ministers who suffer their congregations to cool , and who afterwards have their parishes " come howling after them into hell . " It is evideut that Bird will not have Whitehaven howling after him anywhere on the score of neglecting its spiritual welfare . It may howl after him , but he will be safe with Scott , in the blessed election of the righteous , and wicked Whitehaven may ; howl at them , but it will follow other leaders . The magistrates committed poor Scott to prison , but whither will the magistrates go ? '

    Disorder , indeed , is rampant in this wicked land . It now appears that Mrs .. OnEEEr , whose reverend husband lately took her up with the aid of a policeman , in order to bear her home , as it were , for the second time as a bride , has been again abandoned by the contumacious woman , and it is hinted that he is about to proceed legally for " restitution of conjugal rights . " This , of course , cannot be refused to him . Eiot has made great

    progress amongst us , but we are not yet come to such a pitch of morality , that if a husband advance his claim , we can refuse to drag back the truant to his affection . She may protest , she may entreat , she may bewail , she may shriek , she may struggle ; but law and morals must be executed . Axi . ce Leiioy showed that such things are done frequently in the interest of men like ' the Old Marquis , ' in establishments which are any but models of legality ; and shall it be said that the Law refuses to moral

    men a support which Lawlessness gives to an ' Old Marquis ? ' Marylebone , Pancraa , and Bibd are witnesses that some respect for law still prevails in this unhappy land .

    October 11,1856.] T H E X E A D E &. 973

    October 11 , 1856 . ] T H E X E A D E & . 973

    The Sixth Part Of The World. Tilere Is S...

    THE SIXTH PART OF THE WORLD . Tilere is some truth in the phrase which foreigners are accustomed to use with respect to England . We do live , it may be said , in a sixth part of the world . We are not Asiatic , or African , or American , or Australasian . Then what are -we ? We can scarcely be called European . The difficulty is popularly recognized in the employment of the word " continental" to signify un-English . But wo are not the only islanders of the European world ; wo are distinct ; we look out upon Europe ; we are afraid of its ideas , its interests , its troubles . AVe are glad to see it quiet . If , in a neighbouring country , political agitation exists , it is unpleasant to us : we desire to eeo the

    strife of parties stayed ; we have little sympathy for any wretches who may be shot at a continental Peterloo . We have had our Leagues and Unions , but we suspect their benefits abroad . They are not continental , but English , and we cannot imagine how England and . the Continent can have anything in common . We suspect that there exists in England a feeling of supreme superiority over the rest of Europe . We are pleased to be told , by the Debuts , that a universal system of free trade would place Germany and France at our feet . Possibly , Englishmen are in the right , and the Debats

    is candid , not ironical . But it is not to he forgotten that foreigners , for the most part , entertain the same sense of their superiority that we do . There is then just a possibility , if we may insinuate it , that both are wrongs and that England is as little inferior to the other countries of Europe , as the other countries of Europe are to England . They may be different without being better or worse . We have not always been what we are , yet our national conceit was at least as overpowering in the degraded era of the G-eouges as it is at present . In truth , we may be said to have moderated our selfesteem since we became civilized . At all

    events , a nation ' s opinion of itself is not a correct standard , or England would stand no chance in comparison with Burmah . If the Continent were set free from the vast network of industrial and commercial restrictions inseparable from a system of absolute government , we should probably become more European in bur character and feelings . Foreigners , we know , are apt to say that " England is interested in the slavery of Germany , Italy , and Jrance . To establish political freedom in those countries would be

    they think , to establish an industrial and commercial competition that would overwhelm us . Intelligent Englishmen will at once perceive the spurious cynicism of this idea . We sell our manufactures , not to oppressed but to free nations . In France we are met by tariffs , in Germany by tariffs , in Italy almost by prohibitions . We supply America , Australia , New Zealand , the open ports of India and China ; we trade , it is true , with every European country , but the doubling of our trade with Europe would not be a compensation for the loss of our trade with the

    XJnited States of America . Instead of dreading the freedom of the Continent , we should regard it as a promise of new prosperity to ourselves . Who , indeed , are the friends of European liberty ? Our artizans , our manufacturers . Where are its enemies ? Among our landowners , our aristocracy . English nation lias a direct interest in the political welfare of every nation on the Continent . And this is a sufficient answer to those who would persuade tho public not to engage itself in watching the play of diplomacy abroad .

    Our national genius , our history , our constitution separate us , in a great degree , from the continent of Europe ; we are physically and morally insular ; but we are not so from interest . What interest , for example , would lead us to prefer , in Italy , an aggregate of miserable states shut in by protective tariffs , to a country , with a free population of twentyiive millions , multiplying along tho coast such ports as the port of Genoa ?

    The Napoleon Of Westminster. Louis Napol...

    THE NAPOLEON OF WESTMINSTER . Louis Napoleon has demolished fifteen hundred houses in Paris , has constructed six thousand of a more magnificent order , has given , in tho process , employment to the working classes , and has converted the heart of Paris into one of the most magnificent quarters that any city in the world can

    present . Sir Benjamin Hail seems to propose a somewhat similar course for Westminster —a grand removal of the rubbish which encumbers the ground of the ancient city on the site of the marsh between Westminster and the Isle of Thomey ; and then a rebuilding of the official quarter , which would greatly improve the aspect of the metropolis , would be the key to main further

    improvements , and would give employment to a great number of workmen , with splendid opportunities for our architects . There is , however , a difference between the two great master masons : Lotjis Napoleon has no Parliament to check him ; Sir Benjamln Hall must work by permission of the House of Commons , and he has perhaps to contend against some other drawbacks .

    Let us see what he has to do . In the first place , some o % the new offices have to be rebuilt . This is absolutely necessary . The Foreign Office is a place not much better than a good-sized lodging-house— -it cannot Compare with a first-class inn ; and it is in such deplorable repair , that public documents of the greatest value are in constant danger of injury . The old ' War Office' ha 3 been developed into the * War Department . ' Ifc

    is at present in temporary lodgings , behind Whitehall , and it wants a home . But , besides buildings for these offices , it has longbeen proposed to concentrate the twenty chief Government offices on the spot of ground lying between the corner of St . James ' s Park at Downing-street and Bridge-street , Westminster . It is very desirable to establish ready and direct communication between , the Parliament and the public offices , between which some members of the Government have

    to divide their time . Tor this purpose , various designs have been proposed . For a year or two Government have , we believe , had a plan by ail eminent architect for building a grand quadrangle , with one end at Downingstreet , back towards the Park , and front facing the line that continues Whitehall . All persons who have considered the subject agree that the old private buildings which clogthe space between the Park and the river

    — -most of which are of a very ugly and profitless character—should be removed ; and several persons have suggested plans which would substitute an entirely different class of building , ' —opening the . side of the river , abolishing Vanbrugii ' s ugly building of the Horse Guards , finishing Whitehall on its original plan , doubling the Admiralty , « iud placing the chief of the Government offices on the site of Downing-street , Fludyer-strcet , & c . This would make a continuous series of

    official palaces from Westminster Abbey to Charing-croas , with a grand entrance into the Park , and a side open to the river . On entering office , Sir Benjamin Ha . ll found all these dreams unexecuted , Downing-street in a tumbledown state , and his office encumbered with plans having no prospect of fulfilment . Ho found something else . He found old Weatminster-bridge growing too shaky for the traffic , and new Westminster-bridge rising from its foundations under water , in the hands of a contractor who could not carry out his engagements , and who soon

    becamo bankrupt . It had been designed hi [ i manner little calculated to secure stability , and it had become liable to botching even before the foundations had risen above the water level . And since the bridge is to he rebuilt , a previous question is reopened . Has it been placed at the best site ? Of all the traffic across it , two-thirds comes to Gharingcross , and one-third goes south-west towards Pimlico—scarcely any of it straight on . The traffic , therefore , would naturally be divided between two bridges—a minor bridge further up the river at Lambeth horse-ferry , and a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11101856/page/13/