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Leader (1850-1860), 19th February 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18

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      Mr. Gladstone's Mission. Notwithstanding...

      to entertain the question in any form or under any contingenc y ^ the temporary Lord Hi g h Commissioner proceeded to expound , with his usual precision and clearness , the constitutional changes by wliich it is hoped , some of the causes of discontent in the islands may be removed . Without entering into all the minute details of these alterations , we may say that they present a copy of our own approved system of parliamentary government , adapted , as far as eireiimstances will permit , to the peculiar condition of the Septinsular State . The right of taxation is frankly recognised in the popular branch of the legislature , subject only to the

      two checks Upon abuse which have long prevailed amongst ourselves , namely , that every vote in the way of expenditure should orig inate with some responsible minister of the Crown , and that the tipper Chamber should have the power of interposing its veto when any money bill came before it , but not of discussing its provisions or modifying them . The first of these reservations has in every free government been sooner or later adopted , with a view to prevent inconsiderate votes of public money in accordance with the impulse of the hour ; and the preservation to the more aristocratic branch of the legislature , of the

      privilege to say aye oriio when any hew outlay is proposed , acts in its . way likewise as a wholesome check upon additional expenditure , which is sometimes lavish and wasteful , though momentarily popular . The mode of constituting the Senate , or Upper House , is not fully explained to us in Mi * . Gladstone ' s address . All we are told is , that in default of any hereditary class claiming by right of birth to constitute a chamber of nobles , one is to be composed of a majority elected at fixed intervals , by the -wealthier and more highly-educated section of the community , and of a minority named by the Crown , t The proportion which the latter

      element is to bear to the former is not precisely stated ; and obviously upon its fair adjustment much would depend . The nominative element in our own Hoiise of Lords is really greater than people sometimes remember . The bishops and law lords , together with the eminent soldiers and sailors , from time _ to' time raised to the peerage , constitute fully one in ten of the total number jpz-Ivile ^ ed to vote in what is called the hereditary branch of the legislature ; and it is not too much to say that practically they consti-. tute a fifth of the deliberative and voting power of the House of Lords . We see , therefore , nothing

      in the principle of direct nomination by the Crown to seats in the Senate inconsistent with our own constitutional usages : the length to which the exercise of such , a prerogative ought to be carried is , of course , a different matter . The viceroy , instead of direct and personal communication with his little Greek Parliament , is to be represented by the heads of departments having seats in either chamber , and who are to form the cabinet responsible for his administrative as well as legislative acts . These ministers are to be removable on the joint address of the two houses ; and , like all other officers of tho government ,., are to be liable to

      impeachment , The Lord High Commissioner himself' is to bo amenable to complaint duly preferred by the Ionian legislature against him ,, and triable by the Queen in council , or otherwise as may be determined ; and the charges of an agent in England sent to conduct Bueh acciisationare to be legally payable as an item of civil contingency . We own we think this last ia somewhat questionable provision : it ou ^ ht , at all events , to bo very rigidly guarded , lest it should become a source of exaction

      and imposture . < Wo do not venture to anticipate an immediate acceptance , by the discontented Greeks , of these propositions . They will , in nil likelihood , reiterate their favourite demand , and may not easily be convinced of its futility . Explanations will , no doubt , be sought from the gifted member for Oxford , on his reappearance in the House of Commons ; but we do not behove that any politician of mark will venture to call in question the acts or the motives of his mission when he ie on tho spot and able to defend them .

      242 The Leader. [No, 465, February 19, 1...

      242 THE LEADER . [ No , 465 , February 19 , 1859 .

      Lie Is Fast Bound To Do Rigid And Cautio...

      lie is fast bound to do rigid and cautious doc ' trinaires of the Journal des Debats , who are merciful towards England , through delicacy for Clennont . M . Alphonse J £ arr might have directed some stinging guesses to our address ; but he is—O factum bene !—busy planting his cabbages at Nice , and forcing asparagus for the Paris market . The continental press , indeed , teems with abuse of the English army ; but its publicists deal through ignorance in generalities and in platitudes . That ° we have an army of mercenaries who are flogged to the charge like hounds to the chase ; thatTwe were too stupid to know when we were beaten at Waterloo ; that the Duke of Wellington murdered Marshal Ney ; that the defeat of St . Cast eclipsed the victory of Blenheim ; that in default of the " rosbif" and the " monstrous

      grogs , " without which the British soldier cannot fight , we were reduced to destitution , to pusillanimity , and almost to cannibalism in the Crimea . These are topics , on which foreign journalists are never tired of dilating , but which have scarcely more novelty now to recommend them than the narrative of the capture of the Guerriere by the Constitution , the woful history of our vandalism in burning the archives at Washington , and the re-r capitulation of our errors at the siege of New Orleans . Fortunately j we repeat , our military ehj-onique scandaleuse is a sealed book to the alien gazetteer . It is probable that the Droit or the Gazette des Tribunaux will give a summary of the eorecrious trial of Dickson versus the Earl of Fry C 3 ¦ : - ¦

      _ . _ . . . Wilton ; and will point to its concurrent exposures as only another proof of the barbarism _ a people who sell their wives in Smithfield , stupify themselves with " porterre beer" during the Parliamentary debates , and occupy their leisure moments in torturing the enslaved and oppressed Hindoo , arid wringing the life-blood from the docile and kind-hearted Irish peasant . But if France could only- send over here a " chiel " capable of '' taking notes among us , " and if there existed , a public across the water who could understand when he was moved to " print it , " how pverwhehning might be the ridicule brought upon our military system by a , writer , who combined humour with observation , and malevolence with both !

      There is the Earl of Wilton , doubtless a benevolent and urbane , certainly a gay and courtly nobleman , but a carpet knight , a warrior who has never smelt powder save at a battue of snipes and partridges , and who is about as well qualified to have a regiment as is Mr . Thomas Sayers to edit this Journal , and who . is appointed to the full Colonelcy of the Second Regiment of Tower Hamlets Militia , On the other hand , is

      Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson , an officer who has seen service in the Queen ' s army in almost every part of the world during a period of nearly thirty years , who is appointed to the virtual command of the regiment , who is responsible for its training , its discipline , its internal economy , its soldierly bear ^ ing aud efficiency , and who yet is at the mercy of a cabal composed of two or three inferior officers of hjs , regiment , who concoet a series of chargeshalf absurd and half false and malignant

      dred and five pounds damages for the libels he wrote concerning Colonel Dickson to Lord Combermere , and the slander he spoke regarding him to the gentleman who acted as amicus eurice in the matter , Mr . Thomas Duncombe ; and in almost every journal possessing the slightest influence , and in journals of ¦ almost every shade of political opinion , a cry of indignation has been raised at the scandalous injustice received by Colonel Dickson , not only from Lord Wilton , but from the incapable' martinets who seemed to have coalesced to thrust him from the Army List .

      We will not inflict upon our readers anything like an analysis of the evidence . offered in a case whose proceedings bade fair to be interminable , and of which every person concerned in it—excepting , of course , the plaintiff and defendantfrom Lord Campbell to the crier of the court , nm st have been heartily tired . From the charges of malversation of the funds over which he had control , Colonel Dickson Las been , virtually , most thoroughly acquitted , and it _ now only remains to be seen whether our military authorities are disposed to render a modicum of justice

      to the officer so unworthily traduced and so scandalously ill-treated , by re-instating in that regimental rank from which he should never have been ousted , save after a searching and impartial investigation . As for the Eight Honorable , Earl of Wilton , we dare say that the verdict of the jury , the perusal of a two-fold bill of costs , and the obloquy he has brought upon himself by his unwarrantable conduct , will be suflicient to cure him for sometime of his passion for soldiering , and that lord-lieutenants of counties will henceforth be chary-in ... nominating him to the command of militia regiments .

      The conclusion at which Mr . Stephen Blackpool , the hard-handed and hard-headed hero of "Hard Times , " arrived anent the conduct of public afFairs in this country was , that it was " awliis a muddle . " if . Oliver Goldsmith's Chinese Philosopher could once more revisit England , he would doubtless be of the same opinion as Mr . Blackpool . A Jloyal Highness commanding-in-chicf stating calmly in a court of justice that he " knew very little of military matters , " a field marshal once entitled to our respect and admiration as the gallant Sir Stapylton Cotton , but in whose memory there are lapses of forty years , and who gravely avers that he came to tne

      town last January twelvemonth to attend marriage of the Princess Charlotte , meaning that of the Princess Frederick William , and who owns that he had counselled the dismissal of an officer from the army , of whose case he had not been able to make head or tail ; a parcel of militia officers squabbling about , cups and saucers , unpaid dinners ,, and Cremomo fetes i and a peer of the realm soiling liis ermine with tho libeller ' s dirty ink . The whole affair is such an imbroglio ot meanness , petty vengeance , and petty « pite , that it would be ridiculous , were it not disgraceful , that we feel inclined to agree with Beninuarchnis Figaro , and hasten to laugh at such a ilnuna , lcat we should be compelled to weop . at it , for very shame .

      against their commanding officer ; the charges are brought under the cognisance of Lord Wilton , who , we hope , more through carelessness and ignorance than through the desire of satisfying a petty vendetta for having been sued -on an unpaid crpckeiy bill , forthwith writes a letter to Lord Combermore , imputing conduct very little short of peculation to Colonel Pickson , and requesting his immediate removal from his service . The noble and nonagenarian Field-Marshal- ^—albeit , he confessedly is unable to " mate head or tail " of the case—* is only too ready to assist his noble friend in ruining and disgracing a gallant veteran of the Queen ' s army . General I * cel , when appealed to , grants with much reluctance a Court

      ot Inquiry , composed of military red-tapists , who sit with closed doors , dispense Lord Wilton from attendance for the purpose of being examined , and never send in any report at all , Meanwhile , a quiet notice appears in the Gazette that Lieutenant-Colonel Diokson is displaced from , his command ; and ho is , to all intents and purposes , kicked out of the army , ostracised from an honorable career , without trial , and without condemnation . ITortunately , Colonel Diokson had yet two tribunals remaining" to which to appeal *—the Court of Queen's Bench and the columns of press—and justice has been awarded to him in both . A jury has cast Lord Wilton in two

      hun-DIOItSON verms WILTON . It is very fortunate for the military reputation of this country — -already sufficiently undervalued ftbroad-T-that our neighbours across tho Channel do not possesB a single available satirical writer who knows anything about English affairs . M . John Lenjtomue might have taken us in hand , but

      An Expected Ovation. [Communicated From ...

      AN EXPECTED OVATION . [ Communicated from an Ionian CoiTimpomlont ; uml wclu * sort it , although wq do not indorse * « ll hla m-utlini'iuu , nltoirotUor approve tho stylo , which houiiih to lollow wi '" of tho ovlcbratod diHpivtoh lVom tho Secn-tiiry ot 11 " > Colonies . ] Ifoow gonily , ye breezes—be culm , yc waves , that waft our Gladstone homewards from the Ionian Isles . Since tho vessel big with tho liitu of Iroy , that bore Helen and her paramour across tho selisame waters to the shores of llion , noyer has ship been loaded with a freight so precious . V > hat would be the fate of Greece—what would become of England — where would be tho hopes oj Oxford , if the bark were to founder , orator and all P Tho grief of Venus when Adonw died . woiUU be nothing to our sorrow . Groat , however , as arc our fears , our hopes are greater still . It » 10 arxoient gods of Greece be not all unmindful oi the past ; if from the Walhalla , sacrod to deposed deities , they still oast a fond and longing glance on tho land where once they reigned supreme , they will surety protect tjio fortunes of the last auu most illustrious of their worshippers . , Neptune will bid his subject waves be still , and iEolus % v » restrain the fury of his rebellious blasts . Men u the power of the old gods bo altogether doparteii ftoin them , wo are not devoid of hope , lhopnw

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19021859/page/18/