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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd March 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page unpag., Untitled Article

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    • ¦fitms at the Wnk
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      ¦Fitms At The Wnk

      ¦ fitms at the Wnk

      Untitled Article

      Crisis continuing , Ministers develop a peculiar aptitude for existing in that state . Indeed , as some animals show unheard-of capacities for existing in monstrous states of air or heat , so Lord John and his colleagues display a power of maintaining life in impracticable positions . It is as wonderful as that of Mr . Crosse's Acari . You would have thought that no Ministry could have lived in the situation of last week ; but , as if not content with achieving that marvellous feat , they have this week made the situation worse for themselves , and yet go on existing , to the astonishment of all beholders . Last week Lord John surprised the world b y the execution of a little manoeuvre : he announced that

      he should put off the Budget and the income tax until after Mr . Baillie ' s motion of censure on the Ceylon affair , a procrastination which had the advantage ofloolung magnanimous , without being less a postponement of difficulties . At the beginning of this week , however , Mr . Baillie made an embarrassing counter-move , putting off his motion until after the Budget and income tax . Thus Lord John was left as he was before without any pretext for putting off the evil days . He had shown the disposition to procrastinate , but had not been allowed to do so .

      While we write , the treatment of the Budget is matter of speculation . The rumours afloat are dictated by the manifest necessity that JSir Charles Wood should , in some degree , rclinquiuh his position ; and the popular notion , we know not on what authority it may be based , is , that the window-tax i-s to be repealed , the house-tax not imposed , and t he income-tax renewed for one year . But it still remains most uncertain whether the Russell Cabinet will survive to carry out its own Budget , or fulfil any intention of its own . Its restless uneasiness is betrayed on every occasion of

      ( loul ) t . Mr . Disraeli , Mr . Locke King , Lord Duncan , Mr . Baillie—all are sutficicnt to pluoe Ministers in a position of jeopardy , if not to provoke a resignation . It seems to be generally presumed that no Ministry which could now enter o / Iice would riak the convenience of the respectable classes , by resorting to a general election ; yet no one party can get on with the existing Parliament , and alread y the more active constituencies arc preparing for the content , which may be put oil" , but fannot

      be prevented . It is the general desire to postpone the election however , v" . *; h makes the Opposition so frequently wuivo itn function , and permit the Government , not onl y to exist , but to continue its petty measures . Tins miffe-runce , indeed , is of a kind the most precarious ; it is as difficult to avoid giving the final stroke to an imbecile Ministry uu it in for a child to let a loo « e tooth alone . An instant ' s provocation , an irresistibl y tempting opportunity , a sally of temper , LTown Edition ]

      may upset Lord John once more , bring on a new crisis , and precipitate the general election . AH parties should stand prepared for that contingency , with these further incidents—that the public never went to a general election with so damaged a faith in men and things as they now exist ; that many prejudices much shaken only await a final concussion to be dispersed ; and that great social questions , as yet hardly shaped for national discussion , are pressing with all the force of practical exigency . To judge by Mr . Druimnond ' s sally of imaginative bigotry , the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill may open the contest with a sectarian general election . Lord Torrington has come forward on his own account , in the Upper Hou 3 e , challenging the prosecution of Mr . Baillie ' s charge against him . Practically , the charges against Ministers and their protege are , gross misgovernment of Ceylon , wanton cruelty in suppressing the insurrection among the natives , and the parade of false evidence in their defence . But these matters will be best discussed when Mr . Baillie sets them before Parliament . Meanwhile , Lord Torrington must be content to bear the popular rule—of holding a man guilty till he is proved to be innocent . Mr . Baring Wall has succeeded in referring Mr . William Williams ' s Sunday Trading Bill to a select committee . It is perfectly true that a day of rest should be secured to all classes , but it is equally true that many working people find great difficulty in supplying all their household wants by Saturday night , and that many a poor trader would find a large piece of bin business annihilated . The fact is , ' that the measure ought to bo preceded by others . When the working man ceases to toil from morning till night , when a lair time of labour gives him a fair return , then you may talk of protecting bin Sunday . A new dig ban been made at the Knowledge taxes by the deputation to ask for the repeal of the advertisement duty . This claim labours under the disadvantage of being but too notoriously reasonable . The tax is protected by the circumstance that it is utterly unwarrantable . The two factH , taken together , enable the Minister to reply , us Lord John did , by admitting- the case without defending the tax , except as an Exchequer necessity . Now , it is not an Kxdiequer necessity , or is no only under a generally vicious system of taxation . With a sound system of taxation , no tax would bo maintained which should tend to suppress the article taxed , uiiIchh that werta iu its nature pernicious . The hardest pressure of thu advertisement tax consists in preventing a vast number of advert isements—limiting the number among those who do advertize , and totally preventing advertisements among very large cIhhsch . Of all the servants out of work very few advertize ; of master workmen , working on their own account , perhaps none ; of the inventors among the working classes , u very considerable number , — luinlly on" . But

      Sir Charles Wood says he wants the tax ; so working men may go without their advertisement , and traders with one , where they might have five or six . There is a confusion among the Bishops—a flaw in their authority . The Primate of all England tells nearly a quarter of a million clergymen and laymen , I who present him an address , that he cannot do more against Puseyism than " discountenance 8 " it ; j the Bishop of London talks to Lord Robert Gros-I venor like a distressed mother whose boys are too ! big for her ; the Bishop of Chichester amicably urges a clergyman of his diocese to bury Dissenters , but the Bishop admits that he cannot coerce the mutinous priest ; the Bishop of Exeter is involved in a new baptismal quarrel , like that with Mr . Gorhain , the present opponent being Mr . Codnor , a curate . Here and there we notice a disposition to get up Anti-State Church movements in various forms—refusal of Church-rates , and the like . Austria has lost a point in that slow game of German politics . Bully Schwarzenberg has scared the kinglets out of their poor wits : they have all taken up the Wurtemberg ( lodge of a Federal Parliament , and are now huddling up to Prussia , who also takes the national cause to heart . King Frederick William is " going to" pluck up a spirit ; and those notable bottle-holders , England and France , are setting him on , eager to get him into a scrape , let him come out of it as be may . Austria lowers her tone , far the present , and disavows all intentions of hostile attempts against her Swiss and Piedrnontese neighbours . These latter " organize themselves . " They labour at new schemes of national education ; improve their capital ; put their free press to the test of use and abuse . From the rest of Italy melancholy news only—the Papal States eaten xip by brigandage ; the Pope startled by daily scuffles between his French and Roman soldiers ; at Naples the King riding the high horse , with a braggart tongue and a cowering heart ; the other petty Princes and their Ministers moving from court to court , restless , anxious , like cackling goslings terrified by the shriek of the unseen hawk . In France the extinguisher has been at last laid on the National Guards . At Strasbourg they are no more : in Paris they were already reduced by three-fourths ; they must now bo brought to a level with the people , subjected to the electoral provisions of the ' Mat of May ; undergo reorganization , reform , annihilation . Louis Napoleon has made up his mind to keep his Ministers , at least until the great day of constitutional revisions . The Legitimists second him ; the power that imbecile Chambord trifles with is to continue in the l »; md-s of the scarcely less imbecile llonaparte . Tin- bittorness of late discussions in the Assembly is sweetened by long debates on the sugar question . The Socialists at St . Am and have given f-igns of life : tiny luu i' routed a aini . y-prcfet

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      ^ F *

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      "The one Idea which . History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness 13 the Idea of Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw down all the Darners erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and CoLour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldt ' s Cosmos .

      Untitled Article

      News of the Week— Page A French Romance 3 R 7 Litkkati . mir — Experience of « m Emigrant 278 Parliament of the Week 2 <> 2 Miscellaneous 208 The lJelijnoii * Movement in Tt . ily .. 27 . 5 Oi'KN Council—Intelligence from Abroad 2 'il PuBr . 10 Afk . UKS— The Dreamer and the Worker 274 To thu l' > riti > li Vn-. n crnoy 278 Episcopal Perplexities - < J 5 What Men are Thinking of 370 Spencer's Suciiil Stntics 271 The Spnretary of Kns-ii-h 27 !) Election Intelligence 2 ( 55 Pope Ashley . " . 270 Uook * on our Table 27-i The R- liyions Views at the lje . itl .-r ' 2 ' . ' . ) The Arlvertis .-meut Duty 2 < J 5 Germany — Retrospect * and Pro- Pokthoi . io— Adulteration of Milk and Cream 2 . 9 An Unhappy Marriaire 26 i > spects 270 The liuds 270 lniiiet Parishes for Dangerous I ' . ive-A Chloroform Kobbery 2 ( jtf Wtiat ' s the Use of a bishop ? 2 H Pnnsjel 27 G meat -2 T J Two Faliil ICxp ; osions 2 i > ' > Secondary Punishments vT'i The Theatres ¦ - !"!> Tin ; Iluddersin : ! d MutiHl Impro \ c-Cruel Treatment <> f an Apprentice .. 267 Haiues to the Rescue 272 Ki'dopean Demockauy 216 nient Society 270 Two Poison Cn-es 267 The Irish in America 272 Pwogubss of thk People— Prize Kks . iy .-s l 80 Starving a Ch . il 1 to Death 2 G 7 How to set an Income Tax 272 Parliamentary and Social lteforin .. 277 Cukmlkcial Affaiisn — Wholesale Murders .... 267 How to use a Surplus ( Economically 272 Working-Associations ol Paris .... 277 Markets , Gazettes , &c 241-82

      Untitled Article

      ¦ # VOL . II . —No . 52 . SATURDAY , MARCH 22 , 1851 . Price-6 d .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1851, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1875/page/1/