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Leader (1850-1860), 18th January 1851, Edition Country of 2, Page 11

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      Who Carries All Jan. 18, 1861.] __ Gftg ...

      who carries All Jan . , 1861 . ] __ gftg gUaftCt . . ^_

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      «J,Y Saturday, January 18, 1851.

      « j , y SATURDAY , JANUARY 18 , 1851 .

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      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary , Beca...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because thera w nothing bo unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep thin gs fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation m eternal progreas . — Dr . Abnold .

      A People's Administration. Until The Peo...

      A PEOPLE'S ADMINISTRATION . Until the People of England organize a Provisional Government for the conduct of movements in the popular interests , it is very unlikely that much proin * 8 S _ wijU _ be _ made in obtaining popular power and Social Reform . An administration appointed by the People , to collect information for the People , to take the instructions of its constituents , and to promote the objects advantageous to those constituents , is only rendered the more necessary by the well-organized Officialism which rules in this country and throughout Europe . It is necessary also in order that the People may acquire a knowledge of foreign relations , and a power of action in foreign affairs . We believe that no one

      People in Europe can assert its independence , or secure even its own internal freedom , while it remains in a state of isolation . To prove this necessity , let us note the state even of France—a republic in name , but prevented from being a republic in reality , by an organized conspiracy of officialism at home , which can at any time obtain reinforcements from the organized officialism of other countries . It is to the interest of the English People that the trial of republican principles in France should be complete and successful ; but , by something worse than a fiction of law , the English People is only able to act upon France through the Government of which Lord Palmerston is a Minister ; and that Government has a very slight and indirect connection with the English People .

      It is very desirable that this point should be thoroughly understood by our popular politicians , and made clear , not only to the People , but to those among the exclusive classes who can appreciate the value of concord in the country ; still more to all " Reformers" who really desire to do anything . A country with an exclusive franchise is a nation divided into two Peoples . That is the case with our own country at this moment . The enfranchised class possesses the Government , the laws , the funds , the army and navy , the official Church , and the

      subordinate public servants who perform public services throughout the country : ihie class is a « eparate People in the nation : it is endowed with the instinct of self-preservation , which gives it separate interests ; it has separate views , opinions , and feelings ; collectively , it has slight sympathies with the other part of the nation—its own instinct ot setf-presorvation tends to make it act towards that other part in a spirit of antipathy and opposition . Hut opposition between a People possessing power and a- People not possessing power implien , in the best regulated countries , the oppreH « ion of the Dowei'less .

      The unenfranchised class is governed by the representatives of the other class ; those representatives appointing the mipreine Executive ; which in its turn appoints all the public servants . In boroughs there is Home Nlight exception to this , with respect to local a / Iiiira ; and there is no doubt that if " ratepayers " generally were to aocustom themselves to a more vigorous ami systematic action in local government , they might devdope the

      power inherent in the nation at large . Hut wo are speaking of matters as they stand ; and at present , even the " ratepayers " by no means include the whole 1 ' eoplc . In England the enfranchised elans is not u filth of the wholu country ; from the titled and the very opulont < lown to the " respectable , " the enfranchised class includes the whole of the moneyed classes ; they constitute , therefore , a separate nation within the Knglish nation . The uiunfmnchimil cluus in the other fotir-liftliH—in

      more than n " majority "— -it . is the body and bulk ol' l , \\ c . IVoplc ; it iti the People . Tlie . Knglish People , therefore , cannot claim the terms in which it , in described by historians and political claH . siliciH : it ia a " free ueoplu" only in so

      far as it is governed by the Money People . It has no Government of its own , but it is governed by the public servants of the Money People . The English People does not possess the land . The English People has great difficulty in retaining even the produce wrought by its own labour out of the land , because the laws relating to accumulated produce , or " property , " are made by the representatives of the Money People . The English People does not even possess its own labour , because the laws relating to labour are made by the

      representatives of the money class . The English People , therefore , possesses neither its own labour , nor the land , nor the produce thereof ; every individual of the English People performs his labour under decrees emanating from the Money People ; he even stands upon any one foot of the land to which he is born , under the decrees , and therefore by the sufferance , of the Money People . He cannot lay his length upon his native land without permission of those decrees ; even if he lies down to die in the broad face of heaven he commits an act of " vagrancy . "

      The consequences are not limited to present helplessness . The Money People not only makes the laws and appoints the servants by which the English People is governed , but it is able to keep up all the self-preserving defensive contrivances by which it continues to prevent the " encroachments " of the English People towards any power over its own land , its own labour , its own produce—its own action , individual or collective . Opposed to the Money People , thus organized and fortified , thus able to act through the concentrated instrumentality

      of Government , the English People has not even a consultative voice—has not , even as a subject nation , any means of collective action , —has not the means of collecting its own suffrages on any general question ; and so it remains a prey to its own undirected and conflicting impulses . It is for these reasons that the emancipation of the People would be greatly facilitated , if it were to appoint a provisional government for the conduct of its own affairs—for the collection of its own suffrages and the promotion of its own objects .

      In the present state of civilization it is impossible for one country to escape being acted upon by another ; but in the actual constitution of nations , this international influence is administered in the interest of the Government-holding class . In England , for example , it is administered in the interest of the Money People ; the interest of the English People being seldom regarded . Their advice , if it could be given , —which , for want of the suffrage , it cannot be in any authentic shape , —would be utterly scouted .

      In France , popular opinions have made considerable progress ; as we may judge by the fact , that the Socialists are reckoned to have placed a hundred and eighty members in the National Assembly . But wanting our long practice in local Government , the French nation does not possess any effective power proportioned to its innate strength . In the capital , where the various conflicting powers of the country are concentrated , the statesmen who sympathize with sectional interests or retain a gambling expectation of advancement through those interests , are combined against the nation : the Orleanists , the Legitimists ,

      and the bureaucratic Republicans , however they may conflict with each other , will unite against any new manifestation of popular power ; they have united with President Honaparte so far as he : seemed opposed to popular power , they were arrayed against him wherever ho sympathized with the People . They showed their spirit when they upheld that personification of draimnninir . ( Miniu / aime ) . The President in fctrengthgooningChangai nier . The Presidents

      strength-, ened against the popular interests by foreign support : if the national representatives were not to give him the dotation of £ r 2 ( > , <> 0 (> a year which he auks , it is understood that he can have the money from Russia ; who would be willing enough to invent any such trifling kuiii in fortifying an outpost of constituted authority . It is stated , witli more than probability , that influential parties in 1 'Vanoe would welcome an occasion for

      rcintiodueing Austrian and Prussian armien : it is not to the interest of any of the Ve . opU ' . s subject to the Government at Vienna , that popular power should bo crushed in France ; but the resources of thowc Hubjcct Peoples cran only be brought to bear upon France through the ftmpcror and bis servant * : Germany must sympathize with Franco , ho must FiUgliinu ; but . Germany mimt act through its princes and diplomatists , who have just wit up a crowned culprit over tho llomuans ; England must

      act through Lord Palmerrton , on his transactions in secret , is permitted by the aristocracy and petted by the middle class , and has no connection with the English People . Thus , for want of true national administrations , the Germans , the Italians , the Hungarians , the Bohemians , the Austrians , the French , the English , and the Irish , who all have interests in common , are kept apart ; while the public servants who profess to act in their name , act against them all , and bring against each the united resources of all . It is necessary for the domestic emancipation of the People that it should have an Administration of its own ; it is necessary ' to the alliance of Peoples , that they should be able to act together through really national administrations .

      Protection Of The Poor. The Morning Chro...

      PROTECTION OF THE POOR . The Morning Chronicle is still performing its duty as " protector of the weak against the strong . " It is still foremost of the dailj press in this duty , although it has used reservations which its Commissioner , Henry .. Mayhevv , justly and gallantly repudiated . It has drawn special attention to three cases before the public almost rivalling the Sloane case ; all , however , happening in different kinds of abode , yet all illustrating the grossly defective state of our laws relating to the poor .

      Hannah Hinton was engaged at Michaelmas last , at a statute " mop " in Worcestershire , by Mr . Lee , a farmer , of Kempsey , to be a nursemaid , at £ 2 ayear : her course of life was miserable ; her food was bad and scanty ; she lived in an atmosphere of vituperation ; her master beat her with his leggings ; her mistress with a stick . She appealed to a police court : the defence was evidence to character for " humanity "; but the chairman of the Bench naively pronounced the case to be one of " great and unnecessary cruelty , " the defendants were convicted of a common assault , and fined £ 2 each , with costs .

      The next case has recently been disclosed by the exertions-iaf Mr . Osborne , chaplain of Bath goal , although it occurred more than a year ago . In November , 1849 , Elizabeth Hillier , who was within a few weeks of giving birth to an illegitimate child , applied to the relieving-officer of the Bath Union for assistance . Summoned before the Board of Guardians , she was told that she must goto her own parish , eighteen miles off . She walked three miles on the way , and was then exhausted ; a poor woman took her in and gave her a little food ; and she got back to Bath . Another poor woman procured her a shirt to make ; and , on the proceeds

      of that single job , she lived until her confinement . Her child was found dead , concealed in a box : she was tried for " wilful murder , " convicted of illegally concealing the birth , and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment ; and she found in the gaol that refuge and counsel which were denied to her , inhumanly and illegally , by the " Guardians of the Poor . " At the instance of Mr . Osborne , the Poor-Law Commissioners order an enquiry , which is instituted , and results in an expression of " regret " by the Chairman of the Guardians . In the Peckham-houae Lunatic Asylum a pauper

      dies ; an inquest is held , and a medical witness pronounces that the death was caused by violence . The body was greatly emaciated ; the hair was infested with vermin ; the flesh was bruised in various places ; the bone of the upper arm was broken by a comminuted fracture , the broken end pressing into the armpit ; four of the ribs were broken , Another lunatic charges Hill , an attendant , with the violence ; but the coroner thought the evidence inadmissible ; and the verdict was " Manslaughter against some person or persons unknown . "

      In a fourth case reported by the Hampshire Advertiner , at a coroner ' s inquest , the Southampton Hoard of Guardians was accused by Mr . Cooper , a surgeon , with hastening the death of Dinah Kmbury , by refusing the relief he had ordered : the woman wan in a very diseased iet . ate , and be hud ordered relief in the shape of nourishing food . Thn inquest stands adjourned , and while we write we do not know the verdict of the jury on the conflict between the medical idea of necessity and the dilatory nogleot of the relieving o / ilcer ; but it >« certain that the woman died , und it is prohublo that starvation gained the nice with organic diwenae in killing her . In the Cu-Mt of these eases the victim does obtain

      some protection , and there is no death ; but it in evident that she underwent throe or lour months of persecution beeamui her ignorance wns unenlightened hh to her personal rights , and her holploa «» ws » s was not taught wherto to «« ek protection .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 18, 1851, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18011851/page/11/