On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    684 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

  • 

    THE NEW PUBLIC-HOUSE LAW. The plan for d...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The British Officeb. Ik Tuesday's Times ...

    service . Is it possible that Providence has in store victories for such men as these ? Are these the instruments by which England collects her glory ? Incredible ! The Fortysixth Uegiment must , by its condition , be doomed to destruction : it is in the state of & rius dementat—the demented state -which . precedes fatal doom . And yet , again , it occurs to us that there have been adventures not wholly unlike those in which Mr . Perry was the principal actor .

    "We see , indeed , this week , that Greer and Perry are not the only officers under arrest . A court-martial assembled on Tuesday last to try Lieutenant Frederick G . Iieigb , on a charge of drunkenness ; Leigh was sentenced to be dismissed the service . Not long since the Colonel of another regiment was tried bv a court-martial in India raid dismissed , his offence consisting in the tolerance of scenes very like those described in the court-martial in the 46 th , only not

    quite so bad . And we remember that stories have been , current in society about another gentleman who had , like Mr . Perry , "been made the victim of brother officers , and who had undergone indignities yet more vile . Does the reader know what school-boys call making a freemason ? In their ceremonies , it is said , officers sometimes emulate school boys— -and excel them . Nor can we wonder at these stories : we have , at times , " assisted" at the embarkation and debarkation

    ¦ of regiments ; and verily the spectacle is not "always elevating . The officers of the British army are not always men Tvho bear -upon their countenance the stamp of high character . . ¦ : ... ¦ These are astonishing results , considering the pains taken to keep the British army high in character by various restrictions . The custom of purchase , of course , keeps out pool men ; the exclusive character of Court favour , the difficulty of getting into the Coniinander-in-Chief ' s list , and then off that

    list into the army list , contribute to increase the aristocratic character ; and pains are taken to preserve it . The army is cut off fxpm . society , the officers from the men . It is only by a monstrous exception that a private paaaes to the rank of a commissioned officer . Every individual who wears a sword is liable to l ) e tried for any departure from regulation conduct—for " conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman . " To keep it more exclusive , the military body must not meddle with politics , or , as Colonel Thompson knew ,

    promotion may be arrested . The Duke of Wellington has contrasted our army with the Irejnch , army in these respects ; has mentioned how scandalised he felt at seeing officers actually f laying at billiards with the inen . and conversing with them . The Americana , whoso army is but a nucleus , and whose real military force is a militia , are of course open to all kinds of vulgar admissions . Our own navy is more free and easy . But our military officers are picked men , with picked Quints , high punctilios , and preservative restraints .

    , Suddenly , however , a suspicion comes over us that- there must be soino mystic interpre - tation given to that phrase " conduct becoming the officer and the gentleman . " To turn white at the sight of danger , to break on , e- of the articles of wn , r , to play at billiards ivith , private soldiers—thoso aro broaches ol

    thatj . sjicrod rule . But , to take part in forcing a y ^ ung officer out of bod at night , and p acing him perform the sword-exerciso naked , ijjiftt : ' jis fi < ft " conduct unbecoming an officer apdya , g ^ tjlewian ; " for tho gentlemen who di f l «> rpmiainoAGtaers . It is the man who d ' linces Jftjs ed ' . 'ttywiff punished ; but not we > admijfc Jp ^ JttUfc ( d flTpnpe ' ' Trust Mr . Perry ' s uixcontradictod account .

    and the character of certain officers , —the character tolerated by the commanding authority , —is that of cowafdiee , ruffianism , cruelty , vulgarity , and indecency . It violates the commonest rules of gentlemanly feeling , and violates them in the grossest degree . The bestial indecency is only exceeded by the cruelty , and the cruelty by the cowardice of many setting upon one . Yet , these are our models of chivalry , —the men who are sent abroad to sustain the British flag ! This is

    the army as it is preserved aristocratic by excluding ignoble , low-born persons . The exposure ought to be followed by a cry for reform , especially at the commencement of a war . "We may naturally feel anxieties at trustingour national standard to such keeping , liuckily we know that the exclusive rules of the army do not shut out brave men , or men of real chivalry , since they are to be

    found in all classes , even amongst the class that produce these same ballet-masters of the bed-room ; and as to the reform , we may expect it from the necessity . Not "because the Horse Guards have shown any excessive anxiety to weed the army , but because , we suspect , those who take delight in combats like those of the Windsor barracks , cannot share the higher ambition of the real battlefield . When we are at war creatures of this

    stamp will not press so much into the army , and on . the field they will yield the victory to men , making room in the ranks for their betters . Thus we may expect that the war which would render an altered system necessary will be itself the sanitary measure .

    684 The Leader. [Saturday,

    684 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    The New Public-House Law. The Plan For D...

    THE NEW PUBLIC-HOUSE LAW . The plan for dealing with public-houses , taverns , exhibitions , tea-gardens , and other places of entertainment and recreation , is a good measure marred by a bad spirit that is increasing . The whole method of treating these subjects is a compromise between sound sense and nonsense , between liberalism and cant . After having abandoned the pursuit of the Englishman in trade with restrictions and prohibitions , there is still a disposition to

    pursue him in his amusement . The old guilds have been largely given up in the City , but we still have some of their -worst part—of their prohibitory lumber , such as the prohibition upon carrying goods by hand against all except by ticket-porters . In the main , however , we have got rid of those ancient restrictions upon the free choice of a trading pursuit . They liave fallen by degrees within our own shores ; Sir Robert Peel blew up the principle of restricted trade in our foreign relations ; but while the ticket-porters

    are doomed , and while some of tho worst restrictions upon the amusements of th © people are to be abolished , it appears that there is still trust in the principle of prohibition , and that we are to have new examples of it . ¥ e admit that the change is for the better , but we object to restoring at this clay , in conjunction with a reform , any kind of restrictions upon classes , any meddling tutelage over free men , or anything but a police control oyer the positive misconduct of individuals .

    The general character of the measure proposed by the select committee consists in closing all public-houses whatsoever duringtho Sabbath , except for four hours in tho day—namely , from one till two , and from six till nine , and then only for the sal © of spirituous liquors ; and in opening places of rational recreation after tovo o'clock on Sundays . "We applaud tho permissive part of this measure ; but wo require to eeo fclie second at leaafc accompanied by some securifciea that the comforts of the g ? eat number of tho people will not be' arbitrarily « nd « mjuijfcly dimiaiahed . ¦ '¦ :

    The English people , Heaven knows , have not too much holiday . Some of them , in a certain precarious fashion , observe St . Monday , when they can do so without paying too heavy a fine ; that is , when the state of wages permits them to earn enough for the week on the other five days . In many kinds of employment , however , such as most

    factorylabour , the holiday is quite impracticable . From an early hour on Monday morning till Saturday afternoon or evening , there is nothing for it but uninterrupted hard work ; very little margin is left for the working man , woman , or child , —very little margin either of time or of physical strength , still less of intellectual activity .

    With very numerous classes , the one idea , from early dawn on Monday morning till a late hour at evening , is a set duty in some part of a manufacture . Scanty room , therefore , during those working days for gathering ideas to expatiate upon during the Sunday , and we must not wonder if crowds of people , wearied with toil , exasperated by restriction , reach that day of rest with the one idea of breaking through that restriction , and finding

    some simple contrast for the toil . The contrast for continued restriction and concentrated lahour , is unrestrained enjoyment without labour of any kind , either intellectual or moral—mere physical excitement not necessarily connected with ideas ; The only recreation for such an existence , as abstract reasoning might determine , is a simple outburst , an orgy ; and the practical instinct confirms the abstract conclusion by the facts as they exist .

    . The moralist , however , is scandalised at this extensive resort to one evil as a set off against another . Men living in a totally different state of life have pre-determined to themselves what it would be desirable for the working classes to do on Sundays . Still there is so much disagreement on this point , that a compromise is necessary . Some persons consider that , however a depraved town-Bickened appetite may rush to the public-house for relief , a more wholesome enjoyment would be

    to wander forth into the fresh air , to seek ideas in Picture Galleries , Museums , Zoological Gardens , Crystal Palaces , and other places where the picked ideas of civilisation are collected , classified and so arranged that he who runs may read . Others , howover , consider that Museums are only a worse abomination than public-houses ; that they have more of tho devil in them because they have more of the " tree of knowledge ; " and with these moralisers the object is to create

    such circumstances as will drive the working class into church or chapel ; the latter having the preference . A third class do not care much about museums or chapels ; but they do care about well-regulated streets , and they object decidedly to crowds of drunken persons at public houses . But what say tHo working classes themselves ? Are they consulted at all ? In truth , these laws for the good of tlie working people aro against thotfr will ; they are middle class edicts , leaving no choice in the persona subjected . ' ¦ "

    Now wo do not believe in this species of control . Tho working class show no indisposition for rational recreation ; they irequent places where it is to bo found , when they have time or money , or when they are not forced there . Open the Crystal Palace on Sunday at a reasonable price ; and -the working classes will go there in thousands ;

    aa they do to the Zoological Gardens at Dublin , or to Hampton Oourfc , or to tho British Museum during the Buiatev holidays . rEiot ohurchoa bo free from social distinctions , ias churches used to bo , and are s ^ ill in other countries ; - —let there' be no powe , no barricading botweon v \ m & and : chasa ^ W * let tho prenchors he capable of epeaking hqmo to tho

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 22, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22071854/page/12/