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    878 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Oc...

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    ElFLE POLITICS. I T mig ht be disrespect...

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    us curiosity, and, if he iwos moderate c...

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  • 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.

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    Verdict, "Died Of Starvation : " Man Or ...

    during the presence of ladies at court parties , is said to have urged that aft assembly without the feminine institution was like the night without stars . Doubtless , due provision will be made for the society of the sexes iri the canine asylum— -a provision which political economy , not to say a politic economy , has excluded from parochial almonries . So great is the canine love of society , that numbers of that intelligent race are said to have been bereft of reason for want of it . Then what a numerous progeny of dogs we shall have !

    How the canine race will increase and multiply , for it is not to be supposed that litters upon litters are to be brought into existence , to be summarily put out again by an aqueous grave . To be serious : the best way of caring for decayed and destitute dogs , is at once to put them out of their misery by painless extinction , and thus preclude the imminent danger of the horrors of hydrophobia , with which we are constantly threatened through the swarms of ill-conditioned curs that prowl about our streets .

    878 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Oc...

    878 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Oct . 20 , i 860

    Elfle Politics. I T Mig Ht Be Disrespect...

    ElFLE POLITICS . I T mig ht be disrespectful to call ° the present a Pop-gun Recess , but the chief news after Garibaldi ' s victories arid sanguinary murders , which ' . daily papers' contain , relate to contests for prizes among the Rifle Volunteers . As far as this goes , it has our hearty approval , and we hope that in due time every parish will have its practising . ' ground , and that we shall be remarkable as a nation of good shots . We cannot , however , commend the stoppage of all other public business , nor be satisfied if our . only . diversion from aiming at a target is to be . the construction of iron , war ships ,

    at half a million apiece . If the nature of the property destroyed will add to the pleasures of war , a combat between this country and France would be a martial luxury of the most perfect kind . Using thousand pound bank-notes to make wadding for partridge shooting would . "be nothing to . the cost of an international pounding match ; every discharge would scatter a fortune to shivers ; and when a ship went down , DAvr Jones ' s locker would be turned into a Croesus ' treasure-house , with an inaccessible ; keyv If this submergence of wealth bought the mermaids new combs , or

    even furnished the herring with a great coat for tlie winter , benevolence might find some consolation ; but under the best of circumstances all we could expect would be to prevent one mischief at the cost of another nearly as big . Everybody knows we shall not fight to achieve any positive good . We shall have no Magenta and Solferino , liberate an Italy , nor will our saltpetre give freedom to Hungary , , 01 * rocal Poland ' to life . Under these circumstances , if we should have a war , it will satisfy nobody , and its admirers would only bo able to commend it upon the ground that we might have done

    worse . Such being the case , we ought to watch narrowly the foreign policy of the Court and Cabinet with , a view to prevent an entanglement in the quarrels of the German . Princes , whose influence appears very powerful at the present moment , and who seem drifting towards dangex-s they have not . integrity to avoid . , We ought also to perceive that by allowing foreign affairs to occupy exclusive attention , we are reducing our mox'al influence in Europe , and by standing still ourselves , we assist re . action . ary Governments abroad . In our home politics we make no advance whatever ; and when all the nations around xis are engaged in a struggle between old

    notions and new , we do not , in our collective capacity , help the party of progress in any land . If efforts were made to purify our Parliamentary Institutions , and make the House of Commons a representation of English intelligence , we should aid every good movement , from the effort in' America to elect an anti-Slavery President to that in Russia or the emancipation of the serfs . We should , moreover , materially diminish the chances of our being compelled to go to war ; for the moment it was known that the power of our oligarchy was broken , and that if England fought at all , it would be for liberal idoas , wo should render it tolerwbly certain that no one would quarrel with us .

    ' It is a disgrace to us that , at a moment when to prove the value of Parliamentary Institutions , would be to render a groat servioo to Europe , we simply offer the spectacle of a oorrapt , incompetent body , returned by corruption , and ludicrously unfit for every function it ought to perform . While the Session lasted it was u -wearisome nuisance 5 and now it is over , our scattered M . P . ' s are of no use in stimulating opinion , or instructing the people . Foreign diplomatists are puzzled tp jknow what course England would take in given emergencies , beoause they have no moans' of uicertaining to

    what extent the Court and the Cabinet could successfull y oppose ' the wishes of the people . Everyone sees the folly of - Lord John Russell ' s constant ' advice to everybody to be quiet , and no one can , tell at what point our . active intervention , would take place , or on what principles it would be directed . Dr . GuLLENmay think it enough to predict the ¦ downfall '

    of Napoleon III . for not supporting the'temporal power of the Pope ; Mr . Walter , repre . sen . ting the Time * wisdom , may find the fight between Sayers and Heexan the best of all possible tilings to establish British influence abroad ; but their exhibition of mental imbecility , even aided by Dr . Cttaiming ' s rliodooioutade 011 prophecy , and the amusin g corrcsiiondenee on Spirit Rapping in the Marian . ;/ tila /; are insufficient to fill the vacuum caused by the absence of ilm

    usual agitation and discussions to which we have been accustomed . It is gratifying to find from its announcement s that the Ballot Society is still determined to keep its great question alive , and if tlio Constitutional Defence Committee ' fulfils its promises we shall have some efforts towards a winter political campaign . In the North , the Liberals who- . were snubbed by the Lords , cannot merely intend to pocket the insxilt involved in the rejection of the Paper Duties Kepeal Bill ; and the Coventry manufacturers , who find the Excise an hindrance to their business , have learnt from Mr .

    Gladstone what they ought to have known before , that they must seek their own benefit in this matter , not by asking for special exemptions in their favour , but b y cooperating with others for the general good . We have heard of rewards for the invention of a new j ) leasurc——one might be now offered for the discovery of a national grievance the people would pay attention to . There arc plenty of grievances important enough to do the work be of a stimulant , but public vitality is depressed , and the moans of raising it must be found .

    Us Curiosity, And, If He Iwos Moderate C...

    us curiosity , and , if he iwos moderate caution , without m his personal safety , JJu / r , Svk . kb may speculate on tie < , enorals up of Bixio . Jb \ vaiN may at onco havo shared in the . enthusiasm ot ti . 11 entoitraao of tho Piuucii of Walks and puke ot ^ i ^ WAs-m ., picked o-pocket or two , listened to tho roar of an American cutnnict , and retired to write lottora to tho Yankee newspapers . In luot , tnoio is no end of tho amusement to be got , and the cupitalto bo nmcio out of the groat moral movements and patriotic struggles that aio and have been going on , in various ptirts of tho earth Hsuriaju Formorly , tho echoes of tmch doings boomed with c lgmty horn Uie dim distance , and made a solemn impression ; now rel y niter roU > 01 the inquisitive come back from tho scene of action , lull of win " nlm . ff . Av nlimih navtiftiilavs . and the nncstion w who shall nrac ciupu licni

    imicii visk BUSYBODIES . W HO does not know tlic effect upon a mind endowed with the slightest particle of sentiment of an old letter envelope in some Swiss solitude ; a soda-water-bottle cork in a Highland glen ; or a fragment of a play-bill- among the ferns of a Devonshire dell , or any such shred and emblem of Cockneydomcoining upon us when wo least expect them ? We have known a man disheartened and almost spoilt for tho day by an odd oyster-shell , or a bit of crockery , willow pattern . We may be quite aware that others have , probably , been before us , in the out-of-the-way nook or the sublime . solitude , but we do not want to have the fact obtruded upon our senses by tho most vulgar and offensive evidence . Thus it is with the physical , and it is pretty much the same in tho cw « of the morally beautiful and magnificent . Hut how oiten are ¦ we doomed to find the well-known text reversed into " " here tho eagle is there are tho carcases gathered together . lhcre w scarcely a glorious forest conflagration , occurring- by calamity or lor clearance , round which the apes and monkeys do not peer ami gibber , oven those who , residing in forests at a considerable distance , are not supposed to have any deep personal interest in the event . John Orpin ' s " May I bo there to soo " is the motto of our ( lav . Thanks to railroads , and other facilities , there is nobody now who may not , if he has a few pounds in his pocket , not only sec liut mix himself up , whether wanted or not wanted , to nearly any extent with the momllv sublime , not so much , probably , from sympathy

    his wallet of gossip . Should we havo a groat naval engaa 01 Homo rion-profeasional . looker-on will bo found to have jjot hi » J r perehod , by some inconceivable means , in tho crows >> ( ' « ° ' " ,. flag-ship ; and unauthorised inspectors—wo do not bore " 1 *"'; . " men . of the press-are roady to poor at tho movements of our 1 in tn with move eager attention than that with which the civihnn du 1 utiej of the French Convention embarrassed its generals ,, or thqj » W « our own Long- Parliament vrorridd their own roundhead oftwoi a . i » The rogutor newspaper reporter ' s occupation i » a moat gou . because hundreds are ready to volunteer into h « pluoe , B ™ > J though often expecting paymont in tho way of llotono <^ V 3 sort of solf-advertiaernqnt . Hot an event of importance 0001 rs , dopona upon it , of which there has boon the least prior » mtl 01 £ " 1 tho wltfoh the brioflofls barrlstor , tho hohday-malang mJh « » ; J ! J novelist in search of 0 hint , and the pay hamontiiry man m souio 11 01 » mbjeatnm notary represented , often stw ang like ifSZ ^ ^ Si mon who are doing the realbueinoeo , and who would bo gf l « tt . onoup »

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20101860/page/6/