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    730 THE LEADER. fSAtftiRDAtf,

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    BECKETT DENISON ON "ASSOCIATION." Associ...

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    THE UKSISTANCK IN THE COUNTIES. In expos...

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    ON THE ISSUE OP THE ENGINEERS' LATE STRU...

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    Von Kj3ck Again. Tnn Course Of The Trial...

    tet . Constant Derra de Morodft Shared for a time the fate of his principal . He brings an action against Mr . Dawson and other persons , including his host , for false imprisonment , and he is non-suited . He was nonsuited for flaws in the statement of his case , but the incriminating evidence on the other side turned also on technicalities ; following the rule of the police-court in Birmingham , and of police-courts , indeed , in most parts of the country , the magistrate had committed what are really irregularities , and they received strong judicial censure . That censure , on a main point , was accompanied by glances at the defendants . Mr . Baron Aiderson , a jocose judge , went so far as to venture an opinion that the Baroness was not wrong to declare that the proceeding against Mr . Derra de Moroda was " very wrong and very rash , " to designate Mr . Dawson as " foolish" because " he paid beforehand for a book not yet published ;" and to intimate , in mysterious terms , that he " was not prepared to say that there was not something to say against Mr . Dawson . " To speak frankly , these random parentheses from a

    judge are very indecorous ; but we will not do Mr . Dawson the injustice to record an elaborate defence . We leave his vindication to the people of Birmingham , who know him well . Suffice it to say that , not being a lawyer , he had left the technicalities of the case to lawyers , who must be responsible for that part of the business . He is known in Birmingham as a man of strong sense , of active _ousiness habits , effecting a vast amount of good , and preventing a vast amount of misdirected zeal , which might become mischievous . In anticipating the aid to the Baroness von Beck " before her book was published , " he acted upon the generous construction of her vouchers , which was to be expected from his ardent though practical nature ; and in calling to account the spy Racidula , who appeared to be defrauding the generosity of Birmingham , and the interests of those who profit by the generosity of Birmingham , he was performing a public duty with that energy and decision for which he is known . Derra de IVXoroda simply suffered tlie inconvenience of being attached to the establishment of the itinerant Baroness , and in pointing him out as a victim , while the honourable and philanthropic George Dawson is slightingly glanced at as a mischief-maker , Baron _Alderson transgressed his duty as a judge , and tarnished his honour as a gentleman , in employing the seat of authority to pass an unwarranted judgment on a fellow-countryman .

    730 The Leader. Fsatftirdatf,

    730 THE LEADER . _fSAtftiRDAtf ,

    Beckett Denison On "Association." Associ...

    BECKETT DENISON ON " ASSOCIATION . " Association is not now without " respectable " advocates . Some time ago the Times printed a leader on Improved Dwellings for the working classes , in which they explained the benefits derivable from associated capital ; and asked , "Why , then , do not the working men of this country take advantage of this principle to exchange their present foul abodes for comfortable and airy IodgingsP " Mr . \ _V . Beckett Denison replies in the Times of Thursday : — " I will tell you : —Simply because the- law of this country is in such a state of barbarism that they can't ; because the law puts such obstacles in the way of that very principle of association—which you rightly Hay ' has covered our _landw with iron roads , and our seas ¦ wi th fleets of steamers , '—that it might just as well have said distinctly , that no body of people shall associate unless they have first got from 500 _£ . to 1000 / . to throw away , or unless they will submit to a perpetually recurring taxation , which comes to much the Niimu thing ; for the mere satisfaction to the State of keeping a heap of fee-taking machinery in action which is of no real use to any human being .

    " I may as well show you at once ? that I am not talking at random , or without having had practical experience of the nature of the impediments I um _wpoaking about . " I believe I may Hay that , chiefly in consequence of the success of a lodging-house experiment of my own on a small scale in this town , an attempt was made hero last winter to form such an association as you recommend . It was _supported by all the most substantial people in this very substantial town ; but when it _mino to 1 ) 0 worked but , we wore met with such difficulties _uh the following : —1 - We might run the risk of Betting up a very _exjRmsive concern , which might in 8 (» me way or other fail , and leave its creditors to pick out uny one rich man among the members _ntid _umke him pay for _everything that had beeu done , _by

    Beckett Denison On "Association." Associ...

    virtue of that beautiftil law of partnership of the middle ages under which we live . 2 . We might get a charter ; and this we found would cost above 1000 _Z-, of which , of course , every bit goes in fees to people who do nothing of any use at all , except some reasonable sum to the lawyer , who really does all the serious business there is to do , in seeing that the grant is a proper one . I am told , though I can still hardly believe it , that every'single name which is added to a charter of incorporation adds 4 _& 1 . worth of fees . 3 . We might apply for an Act of Parliament ; and , singularly enough , we found that this , with all the machinery of Parlialiament to put in motion ( if unopposed ) , would cost les ' than a simple grant of incorporation from the _Qnetf-Still , the very lowest figure at which even this arfcele could be put down was 400 _? ., which is a good dealA a poor man ' s association to throw away without any _^ turn for it , except a bit of paper . 4 . Then the Join * Stock Companies Registration Act presented itsel / to our notice . But here was the old enemy , fees a _^ ain , with a great deal of trouble besides , and a grea / many formalities to be perpetually complied with , / hich , somehow or other , nobody ever manages _rigj'tly out attorneys , who must , of course , be paid _# r it . I have always understood that Act was _passedit the beginning of the joint-stock mania , seven ye ? rs ago , with the view of bursting bubble _companie * before they had time to damage anybody but their own promoters . Everybody knows it has been an . titter failure for that purpose ; and now the concern seems only kept alive for that great end of official existence—to take fees , and bother people with no end of useless formalities and penalties if they don't observe them . We determined , therefore , to have nothing to do with the jointstock registering gentlemen . " The of this state of things

    consequence , says Mr . Denison , is , that the working men of Leeds are in this respect just where they were last February and last February twenty years ; only , he says , they are worse off , as there are more of them and less room for them . But it is imperatively necessary something should be done . " The thing , " he continues , " speaks for itself" Let working men have the opportunity of investing their money in a concern which w ould give them and their families the means of living like Christians instead of pigs , and then we should not have them throwing away their savings in speculating on 50 per cent _, at _Snig ' s-end , or investing them in trades-unions , which promise to give them their money hack again with interest when they are ill or worn out , and then go and spend it all in amalgamation battles for the temporary glorification of Mr . William Newton and his confederates . " Mr . Denison might be a little more charitable to working men who work for working men . All gentlemen are not like Mr . Denison , or the working classes would not be "just where they were last February twenty years . " " Only one word more , " he emphatically writes , " and I have done . Let us understand what the real dragon is that wants killing just now . His name is ' fees , '—that is all . " We are not over anxious to claim adherents ; we do not claim the mild , paternal Conservative Denison as an adherent ; but it is some consolation to us when we find men like him not afraid of using tho dreadful phrase , " principle of association "—for advocating which wo have been " tabooed" by the press , and rendered " suspect " to tho public .

    The Uksistanck In The Counties. In Expos...

    THE UKSISTANCK IN THE COUNTIES . In exposing last week tb , e scandals of certain county elections , wo ventured to predict that the inevitable result of intimidation would bo resistance . It lias been said that a revolution which attacks persons is , ipso facto , tho commencement of reaction . In like manner , Toryism rampant stirs up the languid pulses of a liberal party that had lost its activity in tho tranquil assurance of a slow but stead y progress . In many quiet rural constituencies , Liberalism , content with , the undisputed " settlement" of ' 32 , and _unsolicitous , if not afraid , of the onward movement of more advanced or more eager politicians , lay asleep in the embrace of Finality , rocked by _Itussell forinnlaH . But the vaunting domination of tho " territorial influence" lias effected in a few weeks what long years of unprovoked propagan-( lirim would have endeavoured in vain to _uprouse . The Parliamentary Keform Association was never so well served as by Tory landlords und their unscrupulous agents . In Kast-Sornerfiet , where intimidation has runt won flo _nuioidal a victory , wo find _leading lloforrncrfl neither _disoourngod nor paralysed by ( _lwieat _, but , on the con *

    The Uksistanck In The Counties. In Expos...

    trary , _calmly devising means to strengthen their numbers in the registration , and to consolidate their _forces by an organization at onee simple and e ffective . A more cheering indication of an _awakened public spirit we have not had occasion to _pftnark . It will bear its fruits . Men who nei _^ r dreamt of agitation for agitation ' sake new begin to ask one another , in sober _seriousness , _JELoto are we to be protected in the exercise _Jf our legal and constitutional rights ? It even occurs to them that nine tenths of the unrepresented " rabble" would vote far more purely and conscientiously ( to say nothing of intelligence ) than the mass of herded and driven " friends and neighbours , " and the pliant or timid slaves of the counter and the till . We have before us a circular addressed to the Liberal electors of East Somerset , recommending a close and vigilant attention to the _Itegister , and enforcing a suggestion which admits of general applicati on , and which seems to us to contain the pith of practical and serious agitation . It is to the effect " that arrangements should be at once made with some active person in each district , to perform this office ( attention to the Ilegister ) , and that it would be very desirable to have a corresponding agent in each parish , to report progress , & c . & c , as well as a gentleman to superintend the whole division . " ital be allowed

    To this cap suggestion we may to add another . Let district associations be formed , for the temperate and earnest discussion of those measures of political and social reform which must engage the next Parliament . Let such demands as the majority shall decide to be most urgent to secure at least the independence of the voter , be actively prompted , and let mutual concessions absorb allminor differences in presence of the instant need of close , vigorous , united action against the common adversary . W & cannot fairly expect many of our more quiet , and , perhaps , more sober , country reformers to go so far or so fast as the more restless spirits or the towns , but on certain questions , such as the glaring anomalies of the actual _^ _Misrepresentation of the People in the People's House , and the protection to the honest voter , which many would fain dispense with as " un-English , " but which English landlords render indispensable , there can be but one conviction and one policy . We therefore say to our friends , register , organize , oonoentrate ; and without delay .

    On The Issue Op The Engineers' Late Stru...

    ON THE ISSUE OP THE ENGINEERS' LATE STRUGGLE . A DIALOGUE BY THE BAILWAY . What can you do on a journey of three hundred miles , cooped up in a railway compartment , with three English passengers who never begin a conversation—unless they meet with a collision ; nothing less than that will make you acquainted with each other . The train goes too fast for reading , the narrow gauge oscillates too much for writing , the journey is too long for silence ( unless you are graduating for Pentonville ) , there i _« therefore no alternative but to make a violent attempt to converse with your companions on some topic of the hour .

    The travellers on the occasion of this dialogue consisted of the writer , a lady ' s maid , an engineer , and a gentleman , a sort of commercial hybrid , something between a foreman and a master- —a species which Freetrade Imh certainly multiplied . After a satiety of those eternal advertisements now posted up in every second-class carriage , on which you read from morning till night of " Portable Manures" and " Accidental Deaths" by railway misadventure—only relieved by an announcement that " Cremona violins" are warranted to bo " quite new , " by Mr . Alvey Turner—an opportunity occurs for a remark upon the yellow skins of some country Women at one of the stations , which our lady ' s maid ascribed to a rural habit of " drinking calomel tea . " Wo thought thi _« an unusual beverngo , and distantly doubted whether camomile itself had produced the saffron surfaces in question . Hut our fellow-traveller wan confident her " Missis" had been to the " _Cristel Pallis _, " and among other " _pcculioflitics , " had seen tho very leaves " hubmiitcd" in a bottle . Judging from tints example , both Mistress and Maid must have gathered up their science lit tlie Great Exhibition in a very " popular" _otatc . Tho young lft < ly , however , wuh Hoinewhat given to confuse things on licr own account . Looking up at Stocken ' _s advertisement of h _" iH " DresHing-caHo Manufactory , " _« ho observed ft " DiHtre . _qsing-eiifio Manufactory was very aw ful— -tlioro was nothing of the kind on the Continent , when _flh ° was there with Lady Bunting . " Go * companion * tho mechanic , hare took _OecaMn _to »

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/14/