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    June 30, I860.] The Leader and Satmday A...

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    HARBOURS OF REFUGE. HUMANITY is a very d...

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    Political Dishonesty. It Will Be A Great...

    strictest standard . It is no ordinary party quarrel , but as critical a question as has ever occurred in our constitutional history . With the power . of the purse exclusively in the hands of their representatives , the people of this country have grown oreat and free . Without it , they could never have realized either the wealth or the liberty that now belongs to them ; and Mr . Isaac Butt , in his admirable " History of Italy , " is quite ri ? ht in his assertion , that the chief cause why parliamentary o-oyernment decayed in Sicily and flourished in England , was that in the former the Lords were a taxing power , while in our country they were never permitted to become anything of the kind .

    ' Parliamentary Reform sinks into insignificance beside this great question of the fundamental right of the House of Comriaons . If the conspiracy of the Lords is permitted to end in a successful aristocratic revolution , England can only be prevented from going down by a counter movement of greater violence than any good mar . would wish to see The lordly conspirators do not seem to know what they are doing when they overthrow the historical basis of our Constitution Their own existence as an order can only be defended upon historical grounds , and if they compel the people to begin afresh , making a new constitution , they may be sure it will not contain any provisions for an hereditary Upper House .

    The defenders of popular right cannot be too careful and zealous in expounding to the people the time-honoured legal ground upon which they stand . Men of great wealth among the manufacturing and trading classes will feel that their safety depends upon upholding the law , and if it should become necessary to rouse the people to take any strong measures for defending their rights , such measures will have the hearty concurrence of the real friends of order , who might shrink from applying equal energy to obtain the more rapid acknowledgment of new

    ideas-Lord John Kusseil and Mr . Gladstone at present stand out well from the general mass of public men , and if they are thoroughly true to " the principles of free government they will come out of the trial to which they have been exposedVwith a large increase of power - If they falter , they may bid good bye to the honourable ambition which they are believed to cherish .

    June 30, I860.] The Leader And Satmday A...

    June 30 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Satmday Analyst . 605

    Harbours Of Refuge. Humanity Is A Very D...

    HARBOURS OF REFUGE . HUMANITY is a very delightful virtue whenever it can k indulged in at other people ' s expense , and if . that indulgence involves , as is often found to be the case , direct pecuniary advantage to one's self or one's friends , the temptation to come out strongly in the humane line is irresistible . No wonder , therefore , that su ' ndiy members of the House of Commons expressed such a tender regard for human life , drew such sad pictures of the ( Ttanp-r . rA , nf _ thnse who go down to the sea -in ships , and even had

    a full measure of sympathy to spare for the luckless owners of the vessels wrecked on these inhospitable shores , when Mr . Lindsay moved his resolution to the effect that it was the duty of the Government to construct , at the ¦ ¦ earliest possible moment , the harbours of refuge recommended by the Commission of which he was a member . Some of the speakers only gratified their humane feelings and their dislike to Mr . Gladstone ; others had the additional gratification of pushing on si measure which

    would largely increase the value of their own property or promote tlie pecuniary interests of their constituents , and all had the pleasing feeling that the ¦ much-enduring public would pay the p iper . The end , of course , when such a good one , justifies the means ; we must , therefore , feel no surprise that Mr .. Lindsay ' s supporters misrepresented facts and misstated figures in a wny which , if "tried on" to obtain anything from a private iiuliridual , would have exposed them to a prosecution for false

    pretences . Before we deal with these misrepresentations , let us say at once that we cannot admit the slightest obligation upon the part of the Government to construct harbours of refuge . It has no more business with them thnu it has with making docks or improving the entrance of any port . If such harbours are ' needed , they should be paid for by those who use them . A Government bus no right to expend funds derived from all classes of the population

    for the exclusive benefit of a pnrticulnr interest . The Committee of the House of Commons which reported the necessity of such ¦ worksi itself felt ^ tins ' Initli , inhsmuoh as it rocomincuded tlint thTee-fburths of the cost should be defrayed by a toll on shipping ; and the Commission which was then appointed to examine into the fittest spots asks the Government to contribute « aly £ 2 , 865 , 000 to works tho estimated cost of which is more thnu four millions , leaving the balance to be supplied by the localities themselves . The whole coat should be raised in one of thesntwo Vrays . If Hartlepool thinks that a harbour of refuge will benefit its trade , let it build one , and cither trust to increasing prosperity to

    repay its outlay , or charge the vessels which resort thereto for the accommodation . The Government has no business with any such works , even if it were fitted to undertake them , except where required for purely naval purposes , —and how it bungles over those-everybody knows . . The truth is , these harbours would be so many jobs , and it was the unclean spirit of jobbery which prompted the . virtuous indignation of honourable gentlemen at the supineness of Government . Shipowners woidd like the harbours very well if not called upon to pay for them . They

    could then make the rotten tubs in which they have no scruple to put brave men last a little , longer . Some members of Parliament - have estates tlie value of which would be enormously increased by the formation of a harbour ; and the constituents of others wouid like very much to have such a harbour near them , and have the handling of the money which must be expended during its construction . Then there is a whole shoal of other interests as eager for pickings—engineers , contractors , and what not—an cloaking their private interests under pretended zeal for the public welfare .

    Now for the false pretences . The average annual loss of lives by shipwreck is about 800 . In 185-i it reached 1 , 5 00 , and that exceptional year is put prominently forward . The loss of property is estimated at a million and a half . Such being the facts , Mr . Lindsay and his friends did not scruple to argue as if all these lives and all this property were lost from the want of harbours of refuge , when they knew very well that all the harbours recommended by the Commissioners would not diminish the annual sacrifice ten , or even five per cent . The Commissioners do not . propose a single harbour from Filey 'Bay * in Yorkshire , to the Land ' s End . Upon that extent of coast , which is thus assumed ,

    to be amply protected , three-fourths of the lives so inuch deplored are lost . Of what avail would it be to the ships driven on the fatal sands which line the coast of Norfolk —and not a gale of wind blows there which does not drown the shrieks of some doomed men— -or to the American , Australian . ; or / Indian , vessels tempest-tossed _ ' in-the-channel , that £ 800 , 000 are spent to build a ; harbour at Filey , and nearly as much more thrown away close by , at Hartiepool ' f" Let us test the value of these harbours by two of the most terrible wrecks which have , ever occurred . Both are of very recent date . Our readers will recollect the emigrant vessel bound from Bremen for New York—we forget her iiame - = H-

    which was wrecked on" the Ess ' ex . coast , some -W ) 0 souls—half the average annual loss upon our whole seaboard—perishing . Which harbour of refuge would have saved them ? And nobody has forgotten- the Royal Charter , —with strange ignorance mentioned by some advocate ' of these harbours as an illustration of their great necessity : —wrecked within a short distance of Holy head—r- a harbour of ' refuge , which it had actually passed the same afternoon . But could there be crasser ignorance ; , or more deliberate dishonesty than was displayed by Sir Joiix Takixctox and Mr . Beeciioft , who instanced as- evidences- oi the necessityoi *^ flJCSe ~~ lTitr ! jDUrs ; - the . late fearful shipwrecks oft- Yarmouth and Lowestoft , and the

    loss of-the fishermen , of those ports ? The nearest harbour of refuge to Yarmouth which it is proposed to construct is nt ; Filey Bay , on the coast of Yorkshire . Do these legislators wish us to suppose that the vessels driven on shore at this end of Norfolk could have got into Filoy ? The 300 fishermen wen ; engulphed off the Dutch coast . tVere they to have reached Filey ? . ¦ Sir Joiix ; Pakixgtox and Mr . Be echo ft- are either utterly ignorant of the geography of their own country , although t he one has beeu Colonial Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty , and the other is a successful trader , or they have been guilty of one of the most impudent misrepresentation . * ever practised in the House of Commons .

    It is evident that the harbours of refuge now proposed will save but very few if any lives , even if they should not prove destructive by drawing ships from the open sea , where they are safe , to a dangerous coast , in the hope of making them . We have not , indeed , the slightest proof ot their utility . Mr . Lindsay tells us that \ v <> have fooled our money away on Aldemey and Dover . ' They are useless . Aery likely ; but what guarantee have we that when a million has been spent on Filey , iind hull' a million on Wink , the some discovery will not be made ? We ennnot take the ime tlixit of Mr . Lindsay or his colleagues .

    Alderney and Dover were selected as the best spots for harbours ol refuge by , men as experienced in their day . We cannot afford tc BpMur £ fi ^) 07 ^ apply it if the Treasury were troubled by a constant surplus . Tin Commissioners , it is true ,, only estimate tho cost to the country at . 63 , 50 . 0 , 000 , but . estimates / especially for ( iovcrnmciit work , inustulways be douliled to ascertain the probable sum required . Sir Mokton 1 ' eto , indeed , suys that they would uot be exceeded , and pleads wirnoatly , in the numu of Finsbury , for a commencement of the good work , asserting that his constituents ore quite willing to contribute for such a purpose—a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 30, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30061860/page/5/