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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd February 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13

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      Tribunals Of Iotujsthy. Mr. Macklnnon's ...

      •^^¦ ¦¦¦^¦¦¦ mmm ™^™™*™™^"""^^™^"""" ^^^^^^^^^" " ¦""""¦" j Should any difference arise it goes before the Thames police-magistrate , who has no absolute legal jurisdiction , but -whose arbitration is all but invariably accepted . Not one dispute in a hundred is carried further . The employer of to-day knows that to-morrow he may be the employed , and thus it is the interest of all to establish a systematic moderation and equity in their mutual dealings . These , however , are but imperfect plans . The carpet manufacturers only listen to the arguments of their workmen ; they do not admit their votes . The ship-riggers happen to be a peculiarly equalised body . But the questions between the great capitalists in the northern and midland counties are more involved and serious , and are even now , we regret to -notice , tending towards a general rupture . It is , in fact , impossible that good feeling shall ever be established between the two classes , until the views of the workmen are as fairly considered as those of their employers . It is intolerable that , while every other class of the nation progresses socially , the mechanic and the artisan should never ¦ enjoy a chance of earning more , or better , than the daily bread by which their families live . There is rising in the minds of the vast and intelligent majority a protest against the absolutism of capital— -that capital in the defence of which army , militia , and police are enlisted . But the conviction is spreading also ^ . 1 _ ^ . 1 . * 1 ~'« 1 . 1- AU 1 A Xi- * a v -m ( iK ' n ^ m n j-k ^» iJ A-Mft 1 * 1 f * 1 TJf \ Lilt lUUuauiLia ± \ aic

      ^^^^ tliai > JilWitJlHJ ; u kjjl * : jlo , * y ^ sought redress by rude and injurious methods . They have lost moral influence by the parade of physical force ; they have enfeebled themselves by strikes ; they have organised few industrial combinations ; their trades are disunited , their strength is dispersed and frittered away in irregular efforts . In the north the principle of association has to a great extent been recognised ; but in the south and west what are its results ? And yet a mighty power is within the reach of the working classesthe same power by which the middle classes «^ mM _ tan . A J-A A 4 J « ta 1 A v ^ S V 4 > ' | 1 ¦ M W / tXA ^ IWk 4 Y rf"V 'V * f ^ f \^ i SI /*^ T uieu iicMuciiLcii tiuuijlccuwu

      ^ * ^^ ^ *^ ^ ^ * ^^^ git . jjcii , . y xciuajlu . u » trade . It is said that they contemplate a new political movement . But have they an object ? have they a plan ? or are obsolete cries to be revived by demagogues , " damned to everlasting fame , " by brick-bat agitation ? The subject of industrial tribunals is one that must be presented broadly and in detail to the working classes . We have some hopes that it Avill engage their attention , and that when Mr . Magkinnon ' s Committee has published its report , public opinion will be ripe for the discussion .

      February 23, 1856.J The Leader. 181

      February 23 , 1856 . J THE LEADER . 181

      Noble Dislike To Useful Lords. "What Is ...

      NOBLE DISLIKE TO USEFUL LORDS . "What is the House of Peers ? Is is a body created by the Crown . Its members originally sat in the Assembly before ifc had a house , because the Crown wanted their support , or feared them ; but , by degrees ' , the Crown extended this summons to others besides the Lords who held their land by a " service of barony . " The King , called to the Assembly Knights of gentio blood , who becanie " Peers , " or " pares baronum . " By Whitelocke ' s time , most of the Peers were created by letters patent , and scarcely any now exist that are not thus created . At the death of Queen Elizabeth , the number of Peers was 59 ; before the reign of the First George had closed , 154 peerages had become extinct ; from the reign of the First James to the First George , 273 Peers were created ; many have subsequently been placed in the House by the Crown ; and so , to deny the prerogative is to deny the sourco of their own oxistence . If the prerogative is not sufficient , why have we any Peers at all ?

      the Crown has created their own House , ana that the patent of creation is a ticket of admission . Let them deny the Wensleydale patent , and what becomes of their own patent ? Manifestly the Lords think to stand upon some separate rights of their own , independently of the royal creation ; but what are those rig hts ? In the early days of the Peerage the Peers sat by the right of power , the most indefeasible of all rights . They were under the King , but practically , and in very fact , the Lords" of the soil , the masters of the inhabitants , the governors of counties , and the House of Peers was de facto a council of the officers of the country . They are now the land-owners by an usurpation , actual property having been substituted for the feudal tenure , which was tenantcy acquitted by military services and contributions to tho State . What has become of that tenure now ? The Crown no longer summons the Lords , existing da facto , Imt it has created before it summoned . Have the Pcore , ceasing to bo identified with the

      mim ^^ mmmmmmmmmmmm ^^ mmt ^ ammmma ^ mm ^ tm ^^ mi ^ a ^ m ^ m ^ u ^^^^^^^^^ If any particular restriction has been imposed on the prerogative , there should be a record of it . The Crown has exercised its prerogative in a great variety of ways . Dugdale remarks that by the records it appears that the Lords Temporal were summoned in various ways : some were never called above once ; some twice or more times ; some during their lives , but not their descendants . The creation of life Peers has been repeated in the case of women as late as G-eobge the Second , but there have been restraints on the exercise of the royal prerogative in other respects . Originally , the Crown settled the representation of the Commons . Henry the Eighth found only 147 constituencies returning 296 members ; he gave the right of returning members to the county of Chester , to the town of Calais in France , a few towns in England , and a number of Welsh towns and counties . Edward the Sixth created Grampound and other roughs ; " Leverpool" and Westminster figuring in the same list . Queen Mary continued the work , so did Queen Elizabeth ; and it was James the First who gave tbe representation to the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge . Thus the House of Commons owes its creation to the Crown "; but the royal prerogative , modified by the Revolution and the Acts of Union , has been distinctly superseded by successive enactments , including the Reform . Bill . In like manner , the creation of Peers and their n ^ rvi ^ c ; : nn * .- « + ii q " HYvnao r » f TvOTfls- has been tfw ¦——

      dAJLLU-10 * 91 . V / J-fc 91 \ S WAJi . V- ' ^ - » . v ^ v * -v— —— 7 qualified and restricted , but here the qualifications are partial and specific . The Scotch Lords are elected , for the Parliament and are limited in number ; the Irish Lords are elected by their own body to Parliament for life , but the Crown is restr icted from new creations , except in the proportion of one for every three peerages extinct , until the whole be reduced to one hundred in number . These restrictions upon the prerogative are specific and distinct . Dugdale , Prynne , and Whitelocke have amply traced the earlier growth ~ - ~ A ^^ n ^ i ^ n nf ¦ t-Vick Tvr < 3 vr » rrsj ± , i-O'f > T ? K . YNNE SaVS . ^

      ^^ ' ^ land , acquired some other title in the affections of the country , in being identified with any of our modern institutions , in being of any peculiar use to the people ? In no respect can the Lords establish any such trfcle . The best they can show is simply that they are members of the House of Lords by creation . Their claim upon their country consists in thenbeing where they are , and acting as they do . Place any man where they are , let him act as intelligently as they do , and he would have exactly the same claim upon the public gratitude . Is it possible to pretend that men of equal intelligence are not to be found outsidethe House ? The Opposition propose to limit the selection of able and useful men to the wealthy . A man ' s power of constructing consistent statutes , they say , of counselling the Crown wisely , and of judging upon appeals , depends , not only on his having a good income for himself , but on his being able to settle an income upon his children . This is judging of the capacity of the present legislator by the income of the successor he is going to have . They propose one expedient for getting over the difficulty . The Grown , they say , must grant only hereditary peerages , but if the succession is a difficulty , they add , besides those who can provide heritable property , the Crown can choose those who will have no children . The capacity of the legislator and the Priw Councillor made out of Judge ,

      is tested , in the first place , by the wealth of the peer ' s children , and in the second by his incapacity to have any children ! Baron Parke , they say , is just the man to endow with a heritable peerage , not only because he is a rich man , but because he can ' t have any heirs . The very legists who deny the validity of the " Wensleydale peer-age , willingly recognise that part of Lord Wensleydale ^ claim which rests upon his having no son . This is certainly presenting the House of Lords in a new aspect for the respect and confidence of the public .

      CHlll yJX CH- » L \ H-iV »» V / A ujlxvj * j- » . a v * « ,-- * " -- , / / "the King may be said to elect the members of the Lords' House , wheresoever he chooseth any person ( as he may whome he pleaseth ) and createth him a baron ; which he may doe by his writ , or by his letters pattents : and the persons so created are thereby elected by the King ( in effect ) to be members of the House of Peeres in Parlement , and shall enjoy the rights and privileges of a Member of that Hotise . " Even the Peers who have resisted the Wensleydale creation have found themselves unable to deny the right of the Crown to give the title and dignity of a Baron ; but evidently they have as little right to deny that

      The Nawab Of Surat And The East India Co...

      THE NAWAB OF SURAT AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY . In the palmy days of Islam , the city of Surat was known to Indian Mahommedans as one of the gates of Mecca . Thousands and tens of thousands of devout pilgrims annually sailed from that port for the holy city . The commercial advantages of its situation were , moreover , so conspicuous and great tha t an English factory was established there at a very early period . And these western adventurers availed themselves of an opportunity to render an important service to their Mogul protector , by repelling an invasion of the Mahrattas someuuuuiv ja l gviinv ^ " ~~

      limc in xno « « c B , > v ~^ - About one hundred years afterwards , the civil Governor of the town besought the aid of the English in gaining possession of tlie castle and fleet , which by that time had fallen into the hands of the Mahrattas . At first the Bombay Government hesitated to take a step which might embroil them in hostilities with their powerful and turbulent neighbours . But when British subjects also were exposed to insult and outrage , they could no longer hesitate upon a course rendered necessary as well tor their security as for the maintenance of their dignity . The castle and fleet wore therefore seized in the name of the Emperor of Delhi , whose flag floated from Iho walls , and from the masthead of an English cruiser stationed in those waters . It must be admitted , however , that their vassalage was rather nominal than real They not only undertook the military defence of the place , but they also interfered with itn civil government . They allowed the Nuwab , indeed , to retain hia title and semblance of power , but the actual administration

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 23, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23021856/page/13/