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    January 12, 1856.J >

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    THE PERSIANS AT HERAT. Herat is not the ...

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    | MORE PENSION LIST VAGARIES. Not more t...

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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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    "George Bates, Esq." Does Fiction Contai...

    secretary as to the object of the insurance , I for-Sedcopy of his communication to WUHam Palmer , I who had attracted me , and suggested an explanation Siould be given of Bates * mode of living , if he kept his carnage , & c , what property he had ; and on nay u ^ nrxr thaf c the obiect was ' to cany out a matter of

    [ portion exists , may we ask , of insurances at Riort dates ? The question is enough to make some of us hope that our families may be among the earlier claimants upon the msur-I ance offices .

    business , ' I wrote and objected to the explanation beinff unsatisfactory , and subsequently , on inquiry ] in another quarter , determined to let the Matter drop , having called on the secretary of the office with , a view of telling him so , but found him out of town . Here was a machinery concentrated on « George Bates , Esq . ; " and , according to the tale , even Bates himself was not altogether unprepared to try his luck at diamond cut i »« - ««

    diamond , in a game wnere m * u «* ^^ stake ! „ . . . . , ., , There is one point in cases of this kind that does not appear to have attracted attention . According to the story , Palmer had enjoyed an extraordinary facility in obtaining money upon persons who were insured that they might die . The case of Wainwiught had pointed the

    warning long ago , and yet we now nna me same plan repeated , apparently upon a scale as much larger as the facilities afforded by the insurance offices are greater . Thus the offices hold out a premium upon the poisoning of innocent persons . According to the plan , as it is now exposed , any man who is in want of timewiu luauic

    cash within a reasonable , ^ r life of some unsuspecting person , may give his bill at three or four months , and tlius raise the . money for the purpose ; and with a very moderate amount of skill and tact in the use of a proper kind of pill , may realise the sum assured at a given date . 11 would perhaps make 11 o f i _ - .,. *• -. T < - » -n < - » t ^ r 1-iic Hill minfi or ic ij ivu ^

    an saie u nc w « » « ** - ~ twice , so as to allow a sufficient period-between the insurance and the death , and keep some kind of p lausibility to the transaction . How far has this practice been carried out ? We really should regret to libel any class in the community ; but no libel that we could compose would tear off tile veil of decency that covers such transactions , as it is torn even to tatters , by the excess of-vice in the community

    itself . It is no literary libeller who has orougnx out the complicated spelter case in the matter of Davidson and Gordon ; and remember , D vvidson and Gordon can scarcely be said to I have stood alone in that case . They could not Tih . v g accomplished what they did , but tor the

    extraordinary facilities they have found . It i was not ix literary libeller that tore down the S front wall of the Bank of Strahan , Paul , and Bates . The commercial world has been exj posing itself ; in this instance it appears as ! the accomplice even of a Paoier . How is \ this ? To what extent has it really gone f

    \ The importance of tlie question will be tclt when we observe , that it does not relate only I to morals or to human life , but to a question ? of money . If we were thinking only of savmg S « George Bates , Esq ., " no very great interest

    i mig ht be felt in the question . Possibly tew , of our commercial readers would turn pale if < i the question related only to a Mary or a Walter 5 Palmer . But let us observe that it affects a \ much wider circle than the immediate family i a / % -m nr rf * ^^ - ^ — -. /¦_ ^ x y \ s \ % i t * ! xi

    ¦; and connexions ot the poisoner , v *™* ™* in which assurances are effected in this fashion , and moneys arc paid out of tlie capital of insurance offices , what effect is it likely to have upon , the resources of the insuring community , in meeting liabilities of longer date upon lives ' that reach their termination in a more natural manner ? We have some reason to doubt

    whether the rates of insurance offices arc not already calculated so as to shave very closely to the manciple of stability . Now , if sums are

    anticipated in payments upon tlie prompt death of I a Cook here , or a somebody else there , howl much will remain to pay the insurances upon tlie lives of persons who are suffered to reach the final goal in natural fashion ? What pro-

    January 12, 1856.J >

    January 12 , 1856 . J >

    T « E ^ LBAD ^ i _ T" 3 ft *

    The Persians At Herat. Herat Is Not The ...

    THE PERSIANS AT HERAT . Herat is not the key of India , in the sense that the key opens the gate ; but it is one of the most important positions in Central Asia . Its possession brings Persia actually -within the frontiers of Afghanistan—a fact that may startle those who deride the idea of a Russian advance towards the boundaries of our Indian

    | empire . Great Britain has lodged nerseu within the Eastern limits , Russia , virtually , I within the Western Emits , of Afg hanistanso that , absolutely , the enemy with wnom we are contending in the Crimea and the Baltic , has forced his authority upon a city of the old Durani Empire ! Herat lies in the most frequented route

    from Persia to India . The path of commerce is usually the path of armies . It is easy , * Q doubt , to enumerate the physical difficulties that would intervene between the conqueror of Herat and the invader of India . But the historical fact remains , that Russia , which has advanced her actual territory a thousand

    ! miles in the direction of Teheran , has pusnea I her moral influence as far as Herat , which has succumbed , after sev-eral times resisting the Persians . The siege of the city in 1838 was described by certain India House politicals as a contemptible burlesque . It was , however , a great and exciting struggle . The Persians ,

    | with forty thousand , men , anu . seventy g ""< = , sat during nine months before the citadel , and three times planted their standard in the breach . A British officer , however , was then the Khan ' s auxiliary , as a British officer should have been in the conflict which has i recently ended . The siege failed ; the Persians retired , ravaging the ralley ; but since that clay , Russia has worked incessantly to iwino-the Shah once more into the field , and

    to revive her influence in Central Asia . It has been demonstrated , historically , that Russia has long entertained designs against our Oriental empire . It has been demonstrated , also , that she has selected Persia as the basis . c ^ i ^^ j flo ; m , c Another track has , indeed ,

    been marked , through Khiva , up the Oxxis , to Bokhara and Balk , and through the Hindu Koosh to Kabul ; but for this the subjugation of Turldstan , of Kharism and Bokhara , would he necessary . These countries are in a rude social condition , and generally poor . So also , i * . o ,. « tlio countries between the Cas-¦•¦

    „„„ IIUWvVCi j c **» * - < . w -r pian and Herat . ] The enemies of our Indian ascendency have invariably aimed at it through Persia and Persia through Herat . Napoleon , before o ., ^; ., A p ^ rsi n wp . v fi one . diplomatically ,

    incited the Shaji to assail Turkey , and to subdue the Khanates that lay to the east of his do-| minions . When , . after disastrous wars with Russia , Persia submitted to her powerful neighbour , she became , not her ally only , but

    her slave ; and it is impossible to doubt mat she has been bribed as well as coerced into her present attitude . ' In our opinion , therefore , the capture ot Herat by the Persians is a serioxis event , which destroys British prestige throughout the vast icoions of Central Asia . In the eyes of some , ., . „ ,,: „„ ; ., v .. lnnl ^« hnt wo think it IS at

    least worth a naval expedition in the Persian Gulf .

    | More Pension List Vagaries. Not More T...

    | MORE PENSION LIST VAGARIES . Not more than a month ago , vve drew the atten-I tion of our readers to the m . rfortun « of J £% Q «^ the writer of elementary works , vrho , ™ " ^ deep want , and with real ckua » upon the public

    purse , was unable , ta obtain a pension . A case of equal Hardship ; and exhibiting in as glaring a light the inadequate amount set aside from the public reveuue for the relief of men of intellect , ha & come befoFe the public in the course of the present week . Mr . Joseph Hayj > n , the author of the !• . r \ i . j •„ .. „ ..-,. ^ -f Tlnt *>& . a ™ r / irT * r » t oreat "USe cvittwi >»• ¦— -

    popular jswb * t vj - ^ " «> 'S' » *• .. — o - . to those who , without aiming at scholarship , are desirous to get at facts l > y a ready proeess-liasbeen offered a pension of £ 2 $ per annum ! Seriously , he has received that degrading offer—the pay of an upper servant , for a life spent in useful literary labours . And the fault is not with those who administer the national funds i the fault consists in screwing those funds down to so beggarly an amount that ( after subtracting whatis given as j-m « * _ _^_^ . . . I . j ^ . « J *»• * l /\ t" TlOPfl ' ot to

    a mere matter Honour men w « u «« « w ~~~ - pecuniary assistance ) almost the only effect of the bounty is to insult rather than to relieve . Mr Haydn-, like his fellow-labourer to wnom we have already referred , lias been reduced to most painful extremities-the eat ose in hisjcmb > f "Jg » stroke of paralysis on last Easter Tuesday , at wtocn . time he was employed by tlie Admiralty «¦ *™»* r ing up the records of the Secretary of State s

    letters . Lord Falmerston , accunuug ™ «~ statement of a correspondent of tbe g ™?> *** had the generosity to send brar M *&> * ™*»« Mr . Disraeli , and a few otherst , added to this sum enough to purchase for Mrs . Ha ^ n and family a shop for the sale of stationery , and newspapers ( No . 13 , Crawley-street ^ pakley-squareO If in the neighbourhood of Oakley-square there x . . D i / .. _ j u . __ . i . 1 ^ . nSntin-hnriir fit have oenenteu * ¦

    be anv who uy ^ -m ~ ' — > ,. {? Date * or who have respeefr for the struggles of ill ^ requited intellectual labour , we are . sure they . wili re-ard it as a dutv to do the best they can for that stationer ' s shop 3 established under these touching circumstances " But the public at large ™« fu > ure look to another matter—the removal for the future of these blots upon our national generosity .

    oSS ^ STd ^ SSSJS i : ^ i «« 5 ? js v 53 £ consideration . The annual ffleetog of to Cnambew bs ?^ iSW ~ « sa ss ^* the matter wiU belaid before tb . e members . _ ^ £ S ^^ 2 ^ SS » 5 SS d & ussed . Mr . Ba ^ l gette , tbe ^ mpoOTy angmeer

    th . a ^ ona . be i ^ of the four metropob ^^ |

    irr ^ SSs ra ^ SE ^ S r « anirod br OoTernment after the 21 st . ine " »'" 1 tat

    I ta %£ 5 SS £££ S £ co ^^ -TKe ta . Sss -Z & tt & S & S

    tnvnitv . and considered to De 01 ctiuu . v » " « ,

    iss ^ f ^ sisS ' £ rn ^ ru ^ w . » rr =. 0 < r Bpondonoe h »" 'L ma ? bo conyoyed nt ouo " ¦ ¦

    bus m any jhu- . ; J" linoti « ll , by tho mutual 01-S 3 ! - « ¦ SSS-k S ? i ^ S £ S . » - * - " "

    | £ & s & vsiwwsBSaa not destroy any of tho parcele .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 12, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12011856/page/15/