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    646 THJE LEAPEU \ . rPm,^-

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    BACKWABDHESS OF GOVERNMENT at

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    Fact. It May Be Regarded As A Test Paper...

    has left the recruiting sergeant to unfold the splendid promises of Sec . XXXIX ., in which a grateful country contracts that , " af ter the defeat and expulsion of the enemy from Great Britain , " or the suppression of " rebellion or insurrection , " every volunteer ( who wishes it ) shall receive a guinea , "in order the better to enable him to return to his parish . " It is quite clear that only urgent danger would induce any considerable number of persons in full possession of their faculties to volunteer upon such terms ; and we are not surprised that in town af ter town in which movements -have been ; made to establish rifle corps , dissatisfaction has been expressed with the Government plan .

    lion to reduce its crack shots to an unserviceable level by forcing upon them the clumsy Government arm , and if another club should possess ColtVsixshot repeating carbines , whose ammunition is so light that a man can cany three or four times as much as the Enfield sort , it would surely be folly to favour the enemy by taking away the really dangerous weapon and substituting a comparatively innocent one in its place . Without a much more scientific weapon than the Enfield , and a much better projectile * nothing like the accuracy of the Swiss riflemen can be obtained ; and we shall be surprised if English arnateurs condemn themselves to bad shooting to keep the Government in countenance . "'" ¦ ' '

    Nothing can be more simple than the arrangements that would respond to the popular wish ; and prove effective in their results ; and they seem to have been contemplated when the first of Castlereagh ' s Six Acts was passed . The object of this statute , which became law during the British reign of Terror , was to prevent the " clandestine and unlawful" training to arms ; . and it enacted that all meetings for military exercise should be prohibited and punishable , unless authorised by the Crown , the lieutenant , or " two justices ; of the peace of any county or riding , by commission or otherwise . " If the Government would give

    justices of the peace or other local authorities the . power to license the training of any respectable body of men who might apply for it , the whole thing would be accomplished , and we -should see voluntary associations springing up in all directions . It would be easy to make such regulations as would remove all reasonable ground for alarm , and the licenses might be revoked if any misconduct occurred . Under such an arrangement young men would meet on summer evenings after their work was-done , and large employers of labour would be able to train their hands without interruption to the course of trade . It is to plans like ~ tjiis , and not to expensive complicated systems that the country should look , if the work is to be done at all . They would give the

    Government no patronage , enable it to perpetrate no jobs , but they would train up a large number of men who , would be willing , when required , to render efficient service to the State . It is not to be expected that any administration will adopt such a rational course if it can help it . Looked at from the point at which most cabinets would contemplate it—that of party interest— -it must appear as a surrender of power without any adequate gain in return . The country would indeed be safer ; but it would be more self-reliant and less dependent upon the central authority . . Neither Whigs nor Tories wish this- ^ they like the people best in long clothes , and by no means desire to see them outgrow the condition of " infants in arms . " TuQt the people above all things remember that personal skill is of far more consequence to volunteers , who would be employed as skirmishers , than it is to troops destined to act in masses , and tha good rifle shooting is far mote difficult to acquire than tolerable proficiency in drill . Every day brings inquiries about the choice of weapons , and a popular writer strongly advises that , whatever may be its peculiarities , the rifles used by different societies shall adopt the- Government bore . The advantage of uniformity is obvious , but there are other matters to be considered . In the first place the Government , in adopting the Enfield rifle ,

    determined upon a weapon with a very low rate of twist , and consequently unfit to carry a ball approximating to the shape of a solid of least resistance . The experiments in Switzerland , America , Franco , and Prussia , coincide with those of General Jacob and Mr . Whitworth , and show that at least double the official twist is necessary for shooting with the best kind of projectiles 5 and after all the puffing which the Enfield rifle has received , its inferiority to Mr . Whitworth ' s stands confessed . Even

    Mr . Busk , who benevolently recommends the Government tool , says the efficiency of the Whitworth rifle , as compayed with the Enfield , is nearly as 20 to 11 Ho further tells us : " At 1 , 880 yards it drove its bullets into the target when the Enfield made no hits at 1 , 440 . As regards aoour rapy * the . Whiiiworth , at 1 , 100 yards , was nearly on a pay with the Enfield At 6 * 00 , and when both had a range , of 000 , the superiority of the WUitworth waB in . the proportion of 8 to I . " m It would be a great absurdity if a club provided itself * with Whitworth rifles and plenty of amnutni-

    646 Thje Leapeu \ . Rpm,^-

    646 THJE LEAPEU \ . rPm , ^ -

    Backwabdhess Of Government At

    geons than , the navy required . Over and over a-ain was this fact , and similar facts , thrust under the nose of the Government , and it was told tW it had only to treat seamen as it treated docS apprentices and college pupils , and it would at all times get as many as it could possibly require and pay . It was both blind and deaf , and continue ' d to act towards the seamen on a principle utterh inapplicable to all other men . As the medicS profession was enlarged , improved , and , we may say , ennobled by the additional price paid for its services at sea , so it was affirmed , with everw probability of truth , that more seamen , and of an improved character , benefiting alike the mercantile marine and the navy , would be called into existence by acting on the same principle towards

    seamen . In fact , in a small way , the principle has been continually acknowledged . Petty additions have been made to the seamen's Wages , and more care taken to provide them with good slops and additional food . On Wednesday week Captain Pim who seems to have been sent to the North to talk to the seamen , af ter carefully enumerating these petty improvements , accordingly stated that the Queen ' s service is now better than the merchant service . Something has been done to carry out the principle , but not enough ; for one of

    the seamen , speaking after Captain Pim , replied—the Government " had not treated the British sailor in a proper manner . " The continued use of the W was objected to . " Seamen ought to have the same privileges as the officers , "—/ .

    price , whatever it may be , given for their sendees . No ; they are yet to be flogged to make them work . It is still hinted at that impressment may be renewed even yet , af ter fifty years' experience of the advantage of paying and treating men properly . After the experience of all ages has demonstrated the validity of the principle adopted as to the surgeons ; after the Admiralty has had numerous examples of hearts estranged and hands turned against it— -the old . principle and practice of brutal coercion are still retained and avowed .

    By that officers and men were alike injured and degraded . The former were made petty tyrants , the latter slaves . The standard for treating the seamen adopted by the Government influenced and regulated the conduct of the private shipowner ; and the officers and seamen of the merchant service suffered a lik . e degradation to a considerable extent . Both services were deeply iniured by our old system , and neither lias eiFectsAt present

    yet recovered from its . , however , after all bur progress in sound political knowledge , it is thought sufficient to place the seamen of the navy on the same footing as to wages as those of the merchant service , without remembering that it , too , has been degraded by our unjust system . Admitting that the Ircnen Government , by its commercial regulations , is behind the knowledge of the age , our Government ii in the same predicament , by still retaining the use ~ p * r . « -o * r « «•! , /» nnra nnd still supposing tliai

    BACKWARDNESS OF GOVERNMENTCORN LAWS ABROAD *—SEAMEN AT HOME . As it is no part of the functions of Government to originate or increase knowledge , it is always behind some of the people ; and as its chief function is to be conservative of the past , it is always in opposition to present progress . It resists that which is not subservient to its purposes and does not chime in with its ancient prejudices . It always moves slower than the elite of the nationand even when it tries , under some

    , ex t ernal pressure , or from some whim of its own , to hasten progress , it only misdirects , and ultim ately thwarts it . Nobody can say , looking at our steam-engines , railways , telegraphs , at our manufactures and agriculture , that ^ the present age is slow in improvement ; but everybody who takes note of the march of . society and Government continually reproaches the latter , and all that depends on it , with slowness and backwardness . At the close of last week the information came

    from France that the Government , not now having time fully to consider the matter , had allowed the old corn law to [ be revived , and had continued the use of the sliding-scale . Scarcely a journal of the metropolis but reproached the French Government for retaining this law , seeing that ten years have now elapsed since we got rid of such a nuisance , and every year the advantages of doing so have become more apparent and greater . At _ the same time , a com law , though it have a slidingscale , may be in France—where a watchful Government can suspend it , without consulting the landed interest assembled in parliament , and where the population in a much greater proportion than our own

    is engagedin agriculture- —less strikingly scandalous and destructive than in England . The Government there may be really less backward , considering these circumstances , than the Government here , which enacted the latest corn law in spite of a serious opposition , and continued it in spite of infinite scientific representations for . more than a quarter of a century ; Admitting the backwardness of the French Government on this point , we cannot , with propriety , claim for our own Government- ^ -though our people have much more knowledge on commercial matters than the Frenchany great forwardness in recognising and acting on the knowledge gained by individuals .

    But if our officials should plume themselves on their readiness to move because they were forcibly shoved forward , and made to repeal the corn laws , who , acquainted with their conduct to our gallant seamen , can urge q ^ g word in their defence P There may reasonably be doubts as to the operation of expediency laws affecting commerce , till they have Ibeen put to the test of experience , but there can bo none as to the duty of ooeying the laws of justice and morality . All men , and particularly the rulers of sooiety , who exist only to do justice , are bound to obey these , but our Govcunment for ages brutally violated them in spite of remonstrances and resistance in the case of our seamen , and have not yet done them justice , Very nearly a century has now elapsed since it became familiarly known to every reflecting man , that for any and every kind of employment there is always an abundance of candidates , if the payment bo in proportion to difficulties and danger . Therefore , it was onl y necessary for the State to reward the seamen , sufficiently , to secure their services to any extent . More than half a century ago this principle was practically and theoretically applied to the navy . There was then a groat want of efficient medical men for our shipd . The Admiralty was , advised to increase their emoluments and raise their rank . It did so , and in a short time there were more well-educated medical men candidates for the situation of

    surseamen can be had and governed by following rules condemned in every part qf civil society . They are both essentially in the rear , and must dc pricked or dragged forward by advancing society , not to stop its march . . . 1 Even the means and instruments , such its inu ways , telegraphs , steam , percussion guns , « c , which GovernAients use only to destroy , are mventeu by individuals outside of them , and lire genog invented to forward the progress ; they « f »* ° , * retard . Their gratification m using tho . wouww inventions of art is great in proj [>< wtion tor wg mischief they do . In merely organising his « n ^ and setting thorn in motion , the Fronoli j ^ Wj must have had intense delight , for ho has Jim e all " Europe . Even were ho now to die «¦ « g » death , ho has had tho gigantic pleasure ot tw ;« Q all tho political notabilities who scorned ana despised W , and he would leave a name u » history would for over glorify . Like tho fl » Napoleon ho is tho representative of to P «"" P of destruction , and Frenchmen and otfoois , *<* than tho worst of ancient idolatow who Y ^ Sr only images , continually fling thomsolvofl unu « the' wheels of this most stupendous of ft" •»»» gernauts .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21051859/page/14/