On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    756 THE LEADER [Saturday,

  • 

    THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH. Si...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The Spirit Of The Army. "Whatever May Be...

    ^ r v ^^^ J ^ fi & P * ^ Majesty's service . The talk | £ : ^^ j I $ mNp 3 lc of schoolboys , and the life is the 5 % ^ % ^ f g § ' ^ " gent . " As for the esprit de corps , Zj- ^^ mx ^ fas usua ^ y been considered the life T * ^^?^ P ^ ° ^ armies , that chivalrous sentiment ' # J ^ c- ^^ taaes « ed ia a form of systematic denial ly ^^ pi ^ d jjgeEaersion , for which the law has a name , - <^' . 3 * ' ^ ri ^» i a punishment . What is an oath ¦ "i ^ td £ tfne duty of " sticking by each other ?" Such is the point of honour as interpreted "b y her Majesty ' s Forty-sixth regiment , and ostentatiously approved by the " Court . " It appears to have escaped the witnesses that the natural effect upon the public mind of this form of " sticking by each other" is , that the entire regiment becomes a partaker in the disgraee of one or two ' black sheep . '

    The reports of the court-martial from day to day have excited a crescendo of public indignation and disgust at judges , witnesses , prosecutor , and prisoner in an almost equal degree . Let us take a single instance . In the report of Tuesday ' s sitting the court "refused to permit the prisoner to examine Captain Campbell as to his own habits . Here we have a witness who states upon his -oath that he shunned the society of the

    prisoner hecause , among other proper and pertinent reasons , of his " general depraved habits , " which he subsequently explained to refer to the prisoner's taste for the ' society of prostitutes . ' A terribly uncommon taste , we are to suppose , among the Subs in the army ! This evidence , although , as the witness admitted , merel y hearsay , the Court received without the slightest scruple . But when the prisoner , by way of testing the value of the evidence asked the witness whether he was not himself

    m . the habit of frequenting the society of prostitutes , the Court at once interfered , and decided that questions having a recriminatory , tendency could not he put . Now , we take it upon ourselves to affirm that no judge in the country would have stopped the line of cross-examination adopted by the prisoner—that it was strictly regular , and that the refusal of the Court to allow the prisoner to ask such questions as might show the character and habits of a witness who

    pretended to have shunned the prisoner ' s society from moral scruples—looks very like an . undue leaning of the Court to the side of the prosecution . There has been a singular anxiety in the Court to convince the prisoner ( and the public ) of their extreme indulgence towards him . This idea of indulgence alone denotes a strange blindness to the functions of a tribunal . The prisoner has no right to seek or expect indulgence ; he simply asks for justice . If the Court would be a little lesB indulgent , and a little more judicial , truth and honour would be the gainers .

    Iiet us not be supposed to accept the responsibility of apologists . "We do not feel any violent enthusiasm for Lieutenant Perry . " We fear he is something of a prig , something of what sailors call a " sea-lawyer , " He has , perhaps , aspired to be a fast man , and has only succeeded m being pert , ' forward , ' and obnoxious . This is often the case with young men destitute of individuality , who have not the moral courage or the force of character to accept their condition in life , nor the sense of dignity to challenge respect without familiarity , and to assert independence without inferiority .

    Iiieufccnanfc Pony , we are led to believe , entered the army aa n profession , not as nn aristocratic club to which he had no title to belong . ' If lie forgot the obligations of hia position , and affected tho swagger and the * life' of the club , tho fault was his own , and the punishment ia deserved . But the whole system of an army officoro'd b ' Purchase is radically debauched . That noblo blood should lead tho chivalrous proteaawnv of arms , is at least iutolligiblo ;

    that promotion should be an affair of pursestrings seems an anomaly even on the classic soil of ploutocracy . " Money , no doubt , " writes an officer of fourteen years' standing in the Times , " has its weight in this society as in all others , and I see no way of altering this result . " Perhaps there are a few who do not yield to this acquiescent indifference .

    Perhaps there are a few who do see the way of altering this result , and a few other similar results ; who can conceive an army , as they can imagine a Senate , to which ' the name of club' would not \> e applied with justice . A sharp war may purge away many absurdities far more serious than the stock and the coatee . I £ we are told that to

    abolish the existing system would be to democratise the army , we reply that a democratised army , terrible as the idea seems , would be worth an aristocratic club for fighting purposes any day . It is idle to say that these exposures are exceptional cases ; of course they are . But good " officers and gentlemen seem to be equally exceptional . At any rate ; a military establishment composed of an aristocracy of spendthrifts , a middle class of bullies and " gents , ' and a professional ininority of prigs and Parias , is not in a very wholesome condition .

    Xiet us not be misunderstood . Par from us to libel the army . We are jealous of its reputation as we are proud of its renown . " We know that fops have fought and " dandies have stood hardships" as well as the rudest and the roughest ; - —to this Wellington bore witness . But it will take a severe brush on the banks of the Danube , or on the heights of Sevastopol to rub out the disgraces of the Forty-sixth . [ England will be

    glad to know that bullies can stick by each other in fighting as well as in swearing . A little of the superfluous energy wasted at Windsor in midnight brawls , would be well spent against the [ Russian battalions ; and , for our own part we should be content to see all the proceedings of the recent courtsmartial annulled , and the gallant witnesses and prisoners together courting expiation in the thickest of the fight .

    756 The Leader [Saturday,

    756 THE LEADER [ Saturday ,

    The President Of The Board Of Health. Si...

    THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH . Sib Benjamin Haxl is to be President of the new Board of Health : preferred over the heads of Lord Seymour , Mr . C . Lewis , Mr . James Parker , Mr . M . Baines , and Mr . Strutt ; and very properly preferred . But still it is a very ridiculous appointment . Mr . Simon , in one of his able state-paper essays , thus sketches the functions of a minister of health : — " Into tho hands of this now minister—advised , perhaps , for such purposes by some permanent commission of skilled persons , would devolve tho guardianshi p of public health against combined commercial interests , or incompetent Administration . He would provide securities for excluding sulphur from our gas , and animalcules from our -water . Ho would come into relation with all local improvement boards , in respect of tho sanitary purposes of their existence . To him wo should look to settle , at least for all practical purposes , the polemics of drainage and -water supply , to fpnn opinions which might guide Parliament , whether street sowers really require to bo avenues for men , whether hard water really bo good enough for all ordinary purposea , whether cisternage really bo indispensable to an urban water-supply . " Organisations against epidemic diseases —questions of quarantine—laws for vaccinntion , and tho like , would obviously lio within his province ) and thither perhaps also lua colleagues might bo glad to transfor many of those nicdical questions whioh now belong to other departments of the executive—tho sanitary regulation of emigrant ships , the ventilation of mines , tho medical inspection of factories and prisons , the insecurities of raUwuy truffle , et hoc aenua omne . " , Tho sketch might have been amplified into a more statesmanlike portrait ; other pnrticularflof qualification might have been added ;

    and then , thinking all the while of Sir Benj amin Hall , we could read the" character" in the sense in which we tako Swift's " advice to servants . " Sir Benjamin Hall is an admirable man : a parvenu aristocrat , who has bewildered a lladical borough into electing him—he must be a very clever man . Possessed of a copious smile , which clothes his presence with ineffable—if not strong-minded—sweetness , he is notoriously gifted with " popular manners , "—as those manners are always described which are insulting to the people . Then Sir Benjamin Hall is conspicuous for his irrepressible horror of bishops : —a lively monomania -whicli is entitled to some sympathy . Furthermore , Sir Benjamin Hall has obtained some club fame for faith in the lead of a Radical morning journal , which considers that the great democratic points are—to insult the Court " because it occasionally interferes with the aristocracy , and to drive Irish Roman Catholics into insurrection because they are not partial to the Presbyterianism which in Scotland illustrates itself , as a reformed religion ., by inducing a depressed population to take to delirium treinens . Sir Benjamin Hall -was in the rnarket for office : having no objection to drop in at Downing Street , on his way to the House of -Lords [¦ JNTolo Episcoparl will be more than a phrase when he gets there ] ; and having indicated to the Coalition , by secretiveness during the Session , his continuous astonishment at having been left out . His capacity to be in his " place" with regularity , and , after his many years admiring study of Lord Palmerston , to answer a question with conciliatory incondusiveness , cannot be doubted . It is even possible that , with the aid of a private secretary of a 3 Iarylebone education , Sir Benjamin could , get through a despatch , and manage a correspondence with advocates of local self-government demanding opportunities to come up to town . Let us also , as Liberals , not overlook the fact that Sir Benjamin Hall ., when pressed once in seven years at Langham-place , is in favour of " a considerable extension of the suffrage , " and of Lord Dudley Stuart , and suppression of Maynooth ; "vote by ballot , and Lord Palmerton ; triennial Parliaments , and primogeniture ; and a variety of democratic measures of that class . But , in the name of Chadwick , what arc Sir Benjamin Hall ' s qualifications as Minister of Health ? When we look out for a judge , we seek a lawyer ; when we find a bishopric vacant , we expect a man who knows something of the'Ufew Testament . Or if these are not analagous cases , let us examine the routine in ordinary , public business appointments . It was Lord Carteret who remarked that tho Secretary of Stato ( for Poreign Affairs ) ought to be able to talk French ; and wo generally fill great offices with officials possessed of somo sort of suitable speciality . When wo do aiot observe such a rule of common sense , wo hear a great many complaints—as when n Yorkshire squire , with no more practice , than ho got in keeping of I' his mortgagees , , waa , made Jb'iaance Minister by tho "Whigs . Sir Benjamin Hall ' s appointment is passed , over , the public feeling rather relieved , the aristocracy , declining to consummate tho , bilious ambition of tlio tho spiteful Lord Seymour , has condescended to look below ihe gangway * md seise a motropoKtim member- — . who , though boasting of tlio cront of the bloody hand , nud a painfully YVulah p * J ( lign'oc > , has behaved with tho liberal acutoneHS customary in Biiyh roprosentalivcu . Kxamiuad . by dtaolf , however , . tho appointment can only bo regarded as improper , andat a momeni ; wliQn tho Board of Health it * or should bo somethingjnoro than o dilettante

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12081854/page/12/