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    Margh 81 ^ I860.] The Leader and Saturda...

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    OUR BEAV15 DEFENDF/llS. fllHERE is a nov...

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    Parliamentary Justice—Dover And Norwich....

    being , a bad bargain for the State , and as being tainted with corruption . At the end of a long night ' s discussion , one hundred-and sixty-two members affirmed this view ; s 0 the question was then resolvjed in the negative . To sum up the results of this / most discreditable affair ; we have the two seats for Dover earned by corruption , while the members who filled them . remain undisturbed ; and we have the power and discretion of two great departments of administration flagrantly abused for corrupt political purposes , without any censure , to say nothing of punishment , being inflicted on the evil-doers , , Mr . Churchward has ! failed indited to secure his extra prize money ; but so little does he apprehend any disagreeable consequences to himself or his accomplices from p ublic attention being fixed on the transaction , that , he actually succeeds in persuading them to revive its ; discussion by a distinct motion in Parliament .

    Turn we now to the case of Norwich . That ancient city- has long enfoyed an unenviable notoriety in electoral malpractices . In \ April , * 1 S 59 , Lord Bury and Mr . Schn \ eeder obtained a majority over their opponents by means of direct and lavish bribery / So clear and incontestable was the evidence adduced before the Election Committee , that hardly a struggle was made to . retain the scats . What is far more significant , there has been * ¦ ¦ within , the last few months , a mutual confession by the managers oil both sides at Norwich that corruption has been the standing rule : and practice almost invariably in their parliamentary contests , and that it would be the greatest blessing ^ the cqmmuiiity generally if some means were found of breaking the sordid and enslaving spell . All this has been recorded circumstantially hi the votes of themunicipal council , and iio audible voice has been raised to contravene it . Many of the

    most respectable inhabitants of Norwich have , moreover , memorialised the Government to institute proceedings , in the name of the Attornei ' -Genemi , against some of the ; most notorious offenders ; but this the Home Secretary , acting on the adviee of Sir lircii : VHD Bethell , has refused to do , upon the ground , as . we understand , that ex-affieio prosecutions , being well nigh obsolete , it would be highly objectionable to commence a set of modern precedents for the resuscitation of that most questionable what

    branch of the prerogative . Under these circumstances , was the duty of the House of Commons ? Manifestly to interpose its judicial vest 6 when a new writ was moved . But the House , like ' G . vLLio , cares far , none of these things . In spite of the remonstrances of some honourable members , who challenged contradiction when they , averred that there had bacii more bribery at Norwich , as far as the numbers of the bribed were cqiicerned , than at Wake field and Gloucester taken together , — the House decided ' the writ should issue , in order'that the

    carnival might be kept at Norwich with all the usual circumstances of undisguised corruption ; So kept it has baen accordingly during the last '¦" week . Drunkenness and venality , jobbery and lying , have held high festival ; and the ignorant si ml unthink . ing partakers in the scandalous saturnalia arc of course more than ever . confinned in the not unreasonable conviction , that Parliament doas not desire to put an end to bribery and treating at elections . That conviction , we confess regretfully , wo a re compelled to share . Virtuous protestations by Ministers of the Crown , and respectable elderly gentlemen , on the Opposition benches , are mere fustian and fanfaronade in the teeth of the facts we have stated . If they were in-earnest , why did they assent to issuing the writ for Norwich ? They wore nob iguorunfc , they oould not bo unconscious ; in agreeing to this wanton act of legislative levity and recklessness , they did what was muni Costly and grievously wrong , and they know it ,

    Margh 81 ^ I860.] The Leader And Saturda...

    Margh 81 ^ I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 297

    Our Beav15 Defendf/Lls. Fllhere Is A Nov...

    OUR BEAV 15 DEFENDF / llS . fllHERE is a novelty of invention in tho tragedy of the Great Jt Tasmania which is quite appalling . Famine and pestilence xaging in a * transport ship is no uncommon spectacle . The British public is so accustomed to hear of fifty or a hundred deaths occia'fing during the voyiige of ono of these floating pestliouses , that it receives the intelligence of such a calamity with the utmost cpolness . The Accrin / jfton has been the subject of some little interest , because the cook was supposed to have poisoned the captain 5 but who will troublo about tho Dudbrook ,

    which , carrying 390 souls from Southampton , had only 853 to land at Bombay—or the Euxino , whioh , in her voyage to Madras , was tho sgeme of some aeventy-six . deaths P Tho victims in those cases , as in nearly all thoso which have go wo beforo , were only women and children ; and , as they arc deomed nuisances by the military authorities , a diminution of their number must bo . wither matter ' for congratulation in official circlos . Wo will not say that ) the . public shares this opinion , but it allows itsiilf to be immediately satisfied with the excuse which tho Government makes i ' ojr suph a mortality , that it is impossible to provide

    better accommodation . Perhaps the soldier must not coiivplain . He is sufficiently warned against marriage by his superiors . He is practically told that he may spend his whole leisure time in the most disreputable dens of a giu'rison town , destroy his health , and make the Government expenditure upon his training valueless . Hemay deceive as many poor girls as he finds credulous enough to trust him , and abandon them heartlessly when they most need his aid ; but he must not give way to an honourable attachment ; or attempt to atone for the consequences of his passion . If he docs so , his marriage will -probably not bs recognised , and lie will be separated from his wife ; or , if it is

    recognised , he iinist make up Ins mind to see her exposed to indignities and privations without end ; and , if he goes on foreign service , he will probably hear , that she and his children have died of cholera or starvation on board the transport which was bringing her to join him . So * as he marries well aware of the penalties which the generous-hearted British public patiently suffers the authorities to inflict upon him , he must not complain if the Government considers "killing no murder , " and quietly goes on packing the wives and children of its brave defenders upon a system which , justifies the expectation that the Government burdens will be-lessened . so . m ;? ' twenty-five per cent , before the

    arrival of the good ship-at ' her destination . The victims of the . Great Tasmania were stout stalwart soldiers , men who had stood that awful siege of Lueknow , and with a hru-oisin never surpassed . maintained the honour of their country ill its utmost need . Bronzed arid , seasoned , warriors ' , able to stand the heat of India , the fatigues of lonij ; marches untired , and the privations of a scanty commissariat : . They were men of whom , with all their faults , any country might be proud , ami . whose stalwart forms any general would have been delighted to see iu In s ranks . But they ' had offended the ( rovermnenl of . India by their assertion of a claim to a small sum of bounty . They had been enlisted by the East India Company , and they asked' that

    their transfer to the crown should be accoinpnnied by thy same consideration given them upon their original enlistment Their claim , if not technically just , . was fair enough . The >> iuiu ' . potence of an Act o [ ' Parliament may be pleaded against them , but ... undoubtedly Piirliameiit had no ec | uilnble right totransfer these iiien from tins Company to the Cro-. vu as so-jnauy head of cattle . The m mi supported tlieir claim by the opinion of , Lord- ' I '^ L-> i $ rstos , % \ Hio , referring to possible , objections to the transfer of the -European army , said that the nieu would no . doubt be satisfied by a small bounty . Lord (' ax . xixg and Iiis advis-rs were , however , pedantic formalists , and' pr . ilerred to ciubngor the safety of India rather than depart , from the letter- of the

    law . The men continued to urge their demands , a . ud a . lew mutinied / The . Govemor-Gjuend , then alarmed , oliVsnxl the men , not the bounty , but a discharge , accompanying ib by the ¦ ¦ menace that they would not bo allowed to enlist again in India , the effect of which , he anticipated , would be . to frighten them from accepting the discharge- ;¦ The men , however , took his offer ; and so , j list when" England most needed men in the East , tho best men for that service- were _ b . ! iiig sent away in . ' thousands . Many of tin ; men luivi ; been iu England sonic time , and are now serving in I ho regular arjny . They belonged to the . Madras and Bombay prusidoiimorf ; and were

    treated with , as much eonsidcratiou us is usually given to the coninvou soldier . The unfortunate thousand who came by the-Grout Tasmania belonged to Bengal , . , and they have buen made to feol the full weight of dflioiul spite . They were mlurched down , from the interior at a season of tho year whou it was kuowu that the march would bu severe and dangerous . They wore then kept at tho depot at Cluusurah , and left completely at tin ; mercy of a scrgeuiifc-maj g iy the proprietor of the canteen , who used every inducement ; ' to make thorn drink , mid even took i \ w clothes off their bnckd in payment . They were , put on board the vessel iu this ill-clad , haH' -drunken ' stiito ' , predisposed to disease by the fatigue which tin * Government had wantonly exposed them to , and the excesses which it had almost forced theiu to ooimnit .

    Crowded together in this- vessel , they lmd to food upon provisions absolutely unlit for human food ; not only was the food bud , but none of tho ordinary precautions to prevent ttisuuao were taken , ¦ Tlicro woro no ( lisinft'ctuiits on board , and tup liino-juico whs so bad ua to bu valuclc ^ . It - \ vm known that tho ship would urrivo at Liverpool in the wiuUir , yet thgro was no supply of blankets . Tho mou woro put on board the vosscsl in a comUtiou wluoU tlio Calcutta uuthoritioa woll know rendered tUtiin liable to disonso . - Thc ^ r were supplied with provisions which woro bad , and ¦ wrhieh—it is no use blinking the fact—tho officers who sitmod tho report , stilting tlmt thoy were

    good must have knowu to bo bud , They were desUtuto ottlio absolute nocossnrios for thoir condition . Is it wondorful , then , that more tlmn sixty of the poor fellows have diod , und that many more have oontractod diaeuaea wbioli must . ere long curry

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 31, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31031860/page/5/