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Leader (1850-1860), 19th May 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 6

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      Garibaldi In Sictly. _ A The Events Now ...

      hero , of whom England should be proud , languishes in penury , tut it is . obviously a Spartan discipline , sure to lead to a Thermopylae , which furnishes " black broth" to the true , warriors , and only * permits the softening influences of wealth and favour to descend upon the most lady-like practitioners of the military art .

      466 Theleaderand'saturday'analyst. F May...

      466 TheLeaderand ' Saturday ' Analyst . f May IP , I 860 .

      The Coming Census. Mi-Ie People Of These...

      THE COMING CENSUS . mi-IE people of these isles will be numbered next year with X much greater exactness than on any previous occasion , but the value of the information so obtained will be much less than that formerly acquired by ruder and more careless processes . The census has been forestalled . When a man carries on his "business for ten years without examining into the state of his affairs , he looks for the result of the thorough investigation which he may then employ an accountant to make with the Greatest interest ; but if he has every year had a rough

      stocktaking , and made up an approximative balance-sheet , he knows pretty well how he must stand ; and although lie wishes to have tlie exact figures , so that he may apportion the profit and loss to each branch of his trade , he does not feel much anxiety about them . The Registrar-General has given us these yearly balancesheets He takes each year the number of births registered—a number which has now become pretty nearly that of the births taking place , —deducts from it the number of deaths registered , which is almost exactly that of the deaths which occur , as well as the number of emigrants , and gives us' the ' result of this little sum in addition and subtraction as the actual-.

      population . Of course the statement is but an approximation . There are thousands of foreigners who settle in this country every year , and tens of thousands of Englishmen , Scotchmen , and Irishmen who emigrate , under circumstances which do not bring _ tliem under the notice of the Emigration Commissioners ; Tnit ^ tiie '¦ ¦ figures ' , of the Registrar ar & near , enough for practical pm-Doscs , and the census will therefore tell us nothing very new upon this mainpoint , except about Ireland . There , no system of ¦ registration ' . either of births or deaths is yet in operation , and we hayc no means of calculating the present population .- The census of 1861 will , . ' therefore , ' have an clement of interest about it which that of IS 71 will want , if , indeed , in the march of

      science and statistics , a decennialcensus is not voted unnecessary long before the arrival of that epoch . Still , although that total , which is the chief matter of interest in a national census , has lost most of its importance in this country , there are many minor points upon which .-the enumeration of next year will * -furnish welcome information . It lias not the political interest of that of the United States , —thtr ^ grn-es-of ^ vlrit ^^^ to be sent to Congress by each State , and upon which , therefore , may depend the preponderance of one section of the community in that House for the next ten years . We have not yet arrjved at equal electoral districts , and our very , politicians ' who most quote figures are just the men to deny the

      rights of numbers ; but , undoubtedly , if the Reform Bill should go to the bad" in the dog-days , we shall have boroughs and counties looking to the enumerators for weapons wherewith to fight their respective claims next session . The Registrar-General can give us the sum total , but he can give no particulars of tho items . He can say what is the population of the United Kingdom at such a period , but he cannot say what is the population of this town or that county . He could strike , indeed , a balance of local births and deaths , but he cannot apportion the proportions of general emigation to each place ; and , what is infinitely more important , he has not the faintest notion of the internal immigration of the people . The increase , for instance , in the population of London does not consist of the difference between its births and deaths . It arises mainly from the

      constnnt tide which sets to it of youth which seeks employment , nud misfortune or vice , which would hide its poverty from former friends , or pursue its guilty pleasures unchecked . Everybody wants to know what is the population of the world ' s metropolis ; the whole country takes a certain pride in its very hugeness ; and the first thing men will want to know from the officials , is the number of its denizens . An answer of three millions would give general satisfaction . Then overy inhabitant of a rising town will want to know how it has grown , and how

      it stnnds in regard to its old rivals . There are , besides , several other matters in which the general public feel some flttlo interest . We don't speak of the statistical gentlemen , who will gloat over every column of the voluminous returns , which will be presented to the Houses of Pnrliament by Her Majesty ' s commnnd nt a pretty cost for printing and paper ; only adepts of their own order can appreciate their raptures . We want to know how many Scotchmen and Irishmen wo have in England , nnd what they nro up to hero ; how ninny spinsters

      are left to pine in single blessedness , by how large a number of bachelors—what their ages are ; and the ladies had better , tell the truth , for if they don't , the Registrar-General , with his old census and his lists of births and deaths , will discover their weakness ^ and expose it to a jeering world;—how many Smiths , and how many Browns ; how many butchers , bakers , and undertakers ; how many missionaries of all names to convert sinners , —and , if they would only be kind enough to tell us , how many sinners . That would , indeed , be a great result if it could be managed - Of course it were vain to hope that the respectable bank clerk would bracket swindler with that designation , or that a lady of

      easy virtue without its reputation would describe herself m plain Saxon or euphemistic French . But if the recognised dangerous classes would designate themselves as burglars , garotters ,. swell-mobsmen , brothel-keepers , or prostitutes , we should have figures over which social science doctors might dispute , until they fancied themselves derai-gods , on which narrow-minded philanthropists might base repressive or so-called preventive legislation , sure to produce a plenteous harvest of greater criminals , and by which earnest , truthful men who believe in God and liberty , might be urged to fight still more stoutly the up-hill fight for that real liberty which alone can cure the disease , of which most of these crimes and vices are the

      symptoms . But why talk of sinners ? The Government , presided over by that eminent theologian , Lord Palmerston , holding with its chief that all babies are born good , treats us all as genuine Christians . Every householder is to say what is his own religion , and that of the inmates of his house . The proposal is a most preposterous one . We . put aside all question of the rio-ht of the Government to demand a profession of religion

      from any one . It would puzzle a great number of men belonging to the wealthy and well-educated classes to say to what particular confession they belonged , and if they answered truly they must unfortunately say to . " none .- ' at- all ; but when we-come down to the very poor , what answers can we hope to get ? How is the keeper ' of the low lodging-house , or landlord of the crazy tenement let off in separate rooms to separate families , to tell the religion of his lodgers or"teiiants , and what help can they give him ? The . Irishmen will , of course , be set down for Catholics ,.

      but what can be said for the Englishmen who never went into ' a church or chapel except to commit sacrilege , pick pockets , or perhaps to be married ? Everything must be left to the emirlnerators , the majority of whom would be incapable of discovering the religion of the poor creatures , if they had any , and who belonging mainly to the class in which religious partisanship is most violent , would be sorely tempted to commit pious frauds to magnify the importance of their own particular sect . And , after all , of what value will the figures be ? They wuT ~ only serve , a ~ S have those taken in the last census of the number of attendants at places of worship of different denominations—a , number

      utterly fallacious , because dependent upon the sectarian zeal of the people , and the canvassing ability of their pastors—fora source of embittered and fruitless controversy . Surely it is enough for all denominations to know that were their churches filled to overflowing , the bulk of the population would still remain in a state but little raised above Paganism . As useful ' to ask men whether they are Whigs or Tories , have had the small pox or measles , and what they think about marrying a deceased wife ' s sister . These religious returns cannot be accurate ; and : if they were would do far more harm by the amount of angry controversy they must necessarily create , than the most exaggerated estimate can make them worth .

      The Pope's New Irtsh Brigade. Rphe Spiri...

      THE POPE'S NEW IRTSH BRIGADE . rpHE spiritual sword of the Papacy has lost its early keenness , X and after a vain attempt to cut down his foes Pro Nono has dropped it in disgust . He now clutches , with both his feeble hands , the temporal sword which some of his holy predecessors wielded so vigorously . Has the old man strength enough to brandish the cumbrous weapon P—or will tho effort bring his tottering form to the ground ? That is just the question which , must trouble all devout children of mother Church , and furnishes matter of interesting but unconcerned speculation' to all outside her bosom . What the major excommunication has failed to accomplish Genornl Lamohigieue has to perform , and the encyclical letters nnd pastorals are abandoned for tho tricks of the recruiting sergeant . Tho result of this temporal warfare will probably be the same signal defeat , perhaps upon a larger and even ruinous scale , ' but tho struggle will doubtless be a harder one . Tho French general is a man of dash and daring , an experienced commander , and , still more , an able organiser j but he wants the raw material upon which to exercise his skill , nnd , although called to the command by its sovereign , must really

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19051860/page/6/