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Leader (1850-1860), 12th December 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      Loud Palmeitston's Citizens At : . \- Na...

      prove to tie Liberal party throughout England that the Reform Bill of 1832 is worn out , and that the House of Commons is false to its very heart , Selfish , cowardly , and supremely incapable . Lord Palmeesion rises in his place , recants a former statement , confesses tliat two British subjects hare been so brutally treated at Naples that one of them was driven to commit suicide , and the only voice of protest heard is silenced by shouts of ' Order . ' The exhibition is most discreditable to Parliament , most insulting to the country . We recommend the Newcastle public to renew their agitation , and to force the rights and claims of their unhappy townsmen upon the attention of the Legislature .

      Ko. 403, Pboembeb 12, 1857.J The Leader....

      Ko . 403 , Pboembeb 12 , 1857 . J THE LEADER . 1189

      Public Spirit In France. The English Pub...

      PUBLIC SPIRIT IN FRANCE . The English public naturally watches with interest the perils and adventures encountered "by the Liberal press in France in its difficult navigation through the narrow straits to ¦ which Imperial will confines it . _ Nor are we at all exclusive in this matter . By * liberal' we do not understand any particular section of the Opposition of whose principles we more especially approve . Wherever there is an aspiration for liberty , or even for regular and legal existence under a form of government recognized b y modern philosophy and identified with the tradition of a powerful and respectable .. class , we are always

      willing to direct our sympathies . When the Spectateur , having risen from the ashes of the Assemblee UTationale— suppressed by the police—was threatened in its existence recently by a ' warning' for some harmless pleasantries on the guests of Compiegne , and when the Gazette dn Languedoc , a Legitimist journal , was definitively crushed , we felt as if the reign of violence was extending , and as if our own friends had received the blow . But the suppression of La Presse for two months is with reason regarded as the most significant an ! important fact in this war of free thought and

      expression with angry and irresponsible power , that has occurred since the coujp d ' etat . Lovers of coincidence point out that it was on the Second of December that the obnoxious article by M . Peyrat was written . It is more worthy of remark that , during the few days that have elapsed since this exertion of arbitrary power , a feeling of desolation has come over the Paris public . Although nothing can be more distinct in character than the two periods , people constantly refer hack from the present to the terrible June days of 1848—the only other occasion on which La Presse has ceased to be

      cried on the Boulevards . To give an idea of the number of people who are daily annoyed , and reminded by this circumstance alone of the stern regime under which they live , it will be sufficient to mention that the number containing the article for which the journal was suppressed , sold that evening fourteen thousand two hundred copies in the streets and on the boulevards of Paris , in addition to those supplied to town and country subscribers , cafe ' s , & c , which form of course the chief circulation . The obnoxious number was not seized . The subject was the elections . The object was to condemn abstention . The tone did not strike the inferior Censor as dangerous . It was M . Billaui / t himself who denounced the article . A council was

      called to deliberate on the course to pursue . The suppression was hastily resolved , and will be as leisurely repealed . For it is not a light matter to strike out of existence , permanently or for two moutljs , the principal journal of a country . Imagine England waking up and finding itself deprived of the Times ! If any-Uiing coula provoke us to revolution , assuredly that would . The disappearance of the Presse is not quite so serious . Still , it is a fact of a very important character . All the subscribers are up in arms , and eager to seize this opportunity of making a sort of political demonstration . The proprietors have sent out a circular , stating that at the end of two months the distribution of the journal will be recommenced as if those two months had never

      existed , so that they and not the subscribers will be the losers . The answer is a shoal of letters , containing offers to repeat the payment , and the warmest encouragements to the editor to proceed as he has begun . So far from the suspension of the Presse causing it any pecuniary damage , it will probably augment its resources—certainly its reputation . That is , if matters are allowed to take their natural course . The situation of the Presse at the present moment is peculiar . Our readers will remember that recently much noise was made about

      the purchase of the journal from M . de Girabdin by M . Mimauj ) , a suddenly enriched speculator , who , it was supposed , did not want this property so much for the political as for the industrial influence it would give . It was expected every day that a new colour would be given to the articles ; hut this was not the case . Indeed it was noticed that a wearisome series of lucubrations on matters of trade began to make way for more popular topics . This indifference of M . Millaud astonished , and made people fancy he was playing some very diabolical game . But the truth was brought out the other day before the Tribunal de Commerce . M . Millattd

      imagined that in . buying the principal part of the shares , and the title of gerant , lie had acquired complete influence over the paper , with the right to name himself or another as chief editor . Not so . The company still remained under the title of Rotjy et Ci 0 ; and M . Rouv , invested with , the name and the power of principal manager , asserted his right to govern all matters connected with the paper , editorial or not . M . MiMiA , m > , therefore , found that instead of purchasing the cleverness or the influence of M . de Girardin , he had simply purchased shares in a speculation which returned twelve or fifteen per cent ., but in the management of which he was not allowed to interfere in the

      slightest degree . Wealth is proud as well as genius . M . Mii / lattd could not submit to this disappointment , and determined to try whether he could not by degrees , as principal proprietor , obtain the influence which was denied him in the bond . Matters came to a crisis when M . Peykat was named by M . Rouy Chief Editor . M . MiLLAUD had no personal objection to make . He knew the ability , the honesty , and the stainless dignity of the new editor , and wrote to him in his own name conferring the appointment which had already been conferred by the competent person . Hence the trial which has now to be decided . A provisional decision has maintained M . Rour in his post , invested with all the rights lie claims ; but this is only that the property implicated may not suffer . Next week the tribunal will decide .

      At first the question , in so far as the public is concerned , was of slight importance . Provided M . Peybat remained Editor of the Presse , it little mattered from whom he received his appointment . It seems evident that M . de GiraAdin meant to sell , and the impatient speculator thought to buy , not only shares in the journal , but the right to edit it . We shall soon see whether one has not sold and the other bought

      what was not in the market . All this appears , no doubt , very mystical and confused to English readers , who forget the peculiar state of the press in France , that , every paper is obliged to propose a gerant to Government and wait on its acceptance , and that , in order to deprive M . Rouy ( unless that gentleman has totally misunderstood his position ) of the right to name an editor , a dissolution of partnership must take place .

      But since the attitude taken by M . Pevrat and the ill-advised conduct of the Government , all these minor points disappear . It was at first rumoured that the suppression of the paper was in some way connected with the dispute we have related—that there were tricks on this side and tricks on thatthat Prince Napoleon was mixed up in the intrigue , now as the patron of M . Peyrat , now as his adversary . Nothing of all this is true . The arrite of M . Biixault was intended simply to warn the Liberal party that , although the Government might affect to desire the revival of political life * t » - » r \ «» ntr /\ ivi n « il- 4-li /\ it /\ ** r *~ k a ¦»* . " \ t" \\ lit rw in Mnnlifir d tthere nothing in realit

      anmovemen , was y it so much feared . The Emperor himself is reported to have said , with reference to this discussion : " No enemies to institutions arc so dangerous as those who affect to acknowledge in order to destroy them . I would rather sec the Republicans behind the barricades than in the Corps L 6 gislatif . We have cannon for them in the one case ; but what can we do against them in the other ? " The impression that this is the view of the Government is now so strong , that M . Henon , Who in taking the oath plainly admitted his hostility , though at first lampooned , is now held up as a model . We shall have no more refusals of the oath . This is well . It was a step to abandon the system of abstention and come up to the polling-places . It is another step—after the example of the refusal of the oath has been given repeatedly—to set aside squeamish scruples , and endeavour to gel . within arm ' s length of the common foe—irresponsible authority . M . Pkyka . t wrote in this sense , though so moderately , that many people supposed ho only intended a 'dynastic opposition , ' with Prince

      Napoleon at its head—a sort of parody of the Whigs patronized by Prince George . We are not- surprised , therefore , that M . Millaud has just sent into Court a fresh accusation against M . Rotty , asking for enormous damages , and accusing him of having named as redactevr en chef ' of the Presse a well-known revolutionist , and a factious opponent of the Government ! This is rather too bad after the letters— -whicli have all been handed into Courtin which M . Miliatjd , a month ago , disputed with M . Hov y the honour of choosing so distinguished a man . But we know that when capitalists arc in a passion they can not only say hard thincs . but strike

      hard blows— -witness MM . Mirks and Millatjd in the foyer of the Gymnase , venting their mutual wrath , utterly unmindful that all Paris next day would be laughing at them . "We shall wait the report of this trial with curiosity . Meanwhile , the Paris public has not been led astray . With admirable tact , as soon as the suspension of the Presse became known , first one person , then another , without communication , in different quarters , suggested that M . Peyra , t , in whose person journalism had been attacked , should be chosen as Opposition candidate for one of the circumscriptions of Paris in the approaching election . In a very few days a sort 01 movement had

      taken place , and something like a result had been come to . Proposals were made by the third circumscription , vacant by the death of General Cavaignac , and hy the sixth , vacant by the resignation of M . Goudchaux . Decisive energy was displayed by the fifth . Several deputations from that quarter have waited on M . Peyra . t , and there can be little doubt that lie will not only accept the contest , but obtain a triumphant vindication . We know that at present free men can be of slight use-in the Corps Legislatif—the proces-verbal of the Moniteur of this

      last petty session informs us how poor M . Oi / livier was pooh-poohed by M . be Morny for imagining himself in the Assemblee Nationale of old—but their numhers will gradually increase . Let' once the country become acenstomed to these electoral contests , leading to some practical result , and a good minority may at length be elected which , multiplied in strength by its virtue and its genius , may overawe the hireling multitude that crhiges to the President ' s voice and votes * with enthusiasm ' all decrees submitted to it in the dress of 'laws . '

      Smithfield Club Cattle-Show. Justice Sha...

      SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE-SHOW . Justice Shallow . —How a score of ewes now ? Silence . —Thereafter as may be ; a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds . Shakspeake . —Henry IV . The gifted son of the Stratford woolstaplcr and butcher—for in a small country-town the two callings , were and are identical—has put on record the price of one class of farm produce in the days of merry Queen Bess . The best pasture-land then paying from half-a-crowu to five shillings per acre ; prime grass-fed five-year-old wethers could be

      purchased at the rate of two for a twenty-shilling gold piece . Mangolds , swedes , cow-cabbage , and oil-cake—the mainstay of modern graziers—were unknown . Jacoh Tusser , a quaint writer of Siiakspeare ' s age , ever and anon , in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry , laments over the losses and crosses endured by himself and nei ghbours when a dry , ungenial auturnn destroyed their hopes of abundant aftergrass . They had nothing to fall back on . Hence arose the thrifty custom , still prevalent in remote country places , of killing an ox about Christmas when he had arrived at a condition which , from the precarious supply of

      fodder , coxild not be maintained . Having thus ' provided for liis own domestic wants , the farmer drove the remainder of his lean , half-starved stock to the city , there to dispose of them for whatever he could get , and where they were immediately slaughtered for the salting-tubs . In fact , our ancestors , even of the highest rank and fortune , consumed very little fresh meat ; and the entries in the' household book' of the great Duke of NoitTiiUMUERiiANi ) describe his Grace and Duchess , sons , daughters , and suile , living on corned beef and mutton for three parts of the year , with salted herrings and stockfish on the jours matures of Old Mother Church . Such was husbandry three centuries ago .

      George , III ., in his muturcr years , gave the first impulse to Die march towards that perfection , to which , in breeding animals destined for human food , we ' arc doubtless rapidly advanoing . His tastes wore dooidedly for bucolic life : and the royal example speedily influenced the noblest and wealthiest of the lund . Kising from some long and

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 12, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12121857/page/13/