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Leader (1850-1860), 10th May 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 441, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      would have been so , if , at the eleventh hour , Lord John had not , witja that courage which so peculiarly characterises him , knocked under . " My dear sir , Lord John always does knock under , if you only knock him down enough . He calls it " pressure from without . " Besides , what if he had not ? If he makes himself constituent part of a bad Income Tax , does that sweeten the payment ? Is

      the commercial man reconciled to the inquisition into his " profits " by the reflection that his martyrdom is endured , not for the sake of Lord John as the sport of inexorable destiny , but for the sake of Lord John ' s whimsey ? Does the professional man , doubtful of his present year ' s gains , and paying fine for last year ' s prosperity , feel that all is compensated by existing under Lord John ? Does the farmer admit that solace i

      But Lord John has not yielded the bad income tax . He has only given up the point forced upon him by Mr . Hume . He grants the inquiry with the foregone conclusion that the income tax cannot be made more tolerable without being made less productive ; and we may expect , either that the Blue Book will echo that childish presumption , with quantum sufficit of " evidence" to " prove " it ; or that the committee , under fear of de-Johnization , will put off coming to any conclusion at all ; or will " report the evidence "—a cartload , to be ransacked by the bone-grubbers and rag-pickers in Parliament assembled .

      All this depends upon the public . It is the public that has ratified the time , vacillating , henand-one-chick policy of the Manchester-School , where Lord John is concerned ; and the public is paid out—or rather pays out whenever the Income tax collector calls . It is for the public to say whether it will support Joseph Hume , in pursuing his just course , undeterred by the whine that he may run over poor Lord John , who chooses , naughty spoiled boy ! to lie down in the middle of the road . If the public prefers to uphold the mere " Liberals , " and spare Lord John , let it ; but then it must continue to pay the bad income tax .

      Untitled Article

      PARIS ON THE FOURTH OF MAY . The " Party of Order" seems to be rather annoyed that the 4 th of May passed over in Paris without even a riot or an arrest . It is charitably supposed that the rain damped the ardour of the " Reds and Socialists "; that the rain prevented the appearance of the " truculent and brigand-like looking fellows " in the streets , who " disgust the brave " and " affright the timid "; that the rain , in short , came down providentially for the Republican party , as it at once saved their reputation for bravery , and left them in as good a position as before . Mighty effects , truly , to be the fruit of rain-drops !

      Certain it is that , while the Place de la Concorde was filled with holiday folks , the boulevards with real diners-out , the Champs Ely sees with gamins , and the aristocratic quarters with those who conspire under the shield of Order , there was not the least disturbance , no seditious cry , no insult offered to the effigies of the immaculate worthies with whom Leon Faucher had peopled the public places and streets of Paris ; nothing , in short , remarkable , but lamps that would not burn , and masses of umbrellas .

      And yet Paris had been inundated with copies of that ferocious appeal to the People which we mentioned last week ; yet had every republican name been omitted in the festal decorations , every republican allusion suppressed , every republican statue forbidden ; yet had the police , not only in Paris , but in the departments , been actively provocative ; and every inanuMivre had been resorted to by spies and others to excite at least an dmcute , and effect an insurrection . But they did not succeed . Even the shout which , had there been an dineute on that day , would have been the battle cry—" Vive la Republique , " was rarely heard . Why wan this ? It has caused much astonishment to the partisans of the Reaction . Perhaps it was the rain ; perhapH indifference ; perhaps hatred to the Republic ! perhaps The most probable explanation is the simplest also . Perhaps the People justly conceived that that cry would have been interpreted by the police to mean defiance ; and that the People were not disposed to run into every snare which might be laid for them . Moreover , the stability of republican institutions does not require that the Parisians should bo incessantly invoking somebody to let the Republic live ! Besides the real anniversary of the foundation of the Republic is the 24 th of February when the

      People proclaimed it ; not the 4 th of May when the constituent proclaimed the gospel according to De Lamartine . You cannot expect much enthusiasm for the Republic of the men in power who have violated the constitution , not only by the expedition to Rome , but by the Restrictive Suffrage Act of the 31 st of May . That there was no emeute is an honour to the Republicans ; but that snares

      should be laid for an impulsive people is a disgrace to their reactionary rulers . The extent to which the " Party of Order" went that they might excite a row , is shown by the fact that a false report was diligently circulated that an insurrection had broken out at Lyons . The extent to which they failed is shown by the hollow congratulations of their partizans that order was not disturbed .

      We believe that when the next revolution breaks forth it will be as sudden and unforeseen as it will be strong and resistless . The " fusionists" will be dissipated , the Decembrists scattered . France has cried from her soul " Plus de Bourbons , " and she will not seat in the saddle they left empty , the weak heir to a grand historic name . The reaction lost a battle last Sunday . It will behove the Republicans to make the most of their victory .

      Untitled Article

      " LA TERRE EST AUX LORDS . " It is amazing what simplicity you meet with , even in practical public life . At the Canterbury Colonists' breakfast , on Wednesday , Mr . Adderley having glanced with reprobation at the Malthusian doctrine , a gentleman expressed satisfaction that " these philosophers do not carry out their own doctrines " ; for " he had met a son of Mr . Malthus the other day , who had fourteen children . "

      But what of that ? We do not see it militates at all against Malthus ' s doctrine . He did not preach that Malthus must not have progeny , but that Poorman must not . Poor-man must be diligent , orderly , and dutiful , and do his work as fast as possible ; as to the affections , they are a luxury only for the well-to-do . So that if Malthus has done his duty in being well off , he has a perfect right , in the Malthusian faith , to be fruitful and multiply .

      " Poor " is a human expression : the beasts and birds are not poor . The sheep has all he nibbles , and the lamb is born without thought of the morrow . " For the earth is the Lord ' s and the fulness thereof , " as respects the use which his creatures may enjoy in it , save his human creatures . And here lies the pinch and truth of the Malthusian creed . The Frenchman was right , though we , blind fools ! called it a mistake , and ,

      God help us ! laughed when he read the inscription on the Exchange— " The earth is the Lords ' , and the fulness there "—belongs to the Lords hereditary , the Peers , or landlords , h is so . Man is poor , not because his Heavenly Lord withholds the means of living , but the earthly Lord . Since the earth has become the Landlord ' s , Man is no longer able to get at it ; thus he has become Lackland , Poorman , Pauper ; he has lost right to be many , his children are " surplus population . "

      There are two faiths in the country : the one declares that the earth is the Lord ' s , and tells man to be fruitful and multiply ; the other declares that the earth is the Landlord ' s , and the high priest of this creed tells man that his duty is to he sterile and diminish . And this is the faith de facto of England ; the other is only a theoretical faith , disregarded by the rulers in practice . They would as soon love their neighbour as themselves , or turn one cheek when the other was smitten , as admit in practice the principle they preach in the pulpit . That tells them to think not of the morrow ; but the faith that is in Malthus tells them most especially to think of the morrow , that it is " wicked " not to do so !

      It is to be remembered , indeed , that the preacher of that trust in ( Jod and human industry , which can do without thought of the morrow , was himself trained in n Communistic school , and was the founder of a body still more amply Communistic . Still , those facts , and indeed the whole of that faith , have nothing to do with the Malthusian dogma ; which is quite a new invention of modern timeH , evidently suggested by the primary dogma of the faith that rules England de facto—t \ ic dogma thut the Earth in the Landlord ' s , and the fulness

      thereof . No heresy is received with a more angry alarm than any doubt of that principle ; and , therefore , a whole clergy of Malthus i 6 Kent about to persuade- Poor-man that the earth in not the Lord ' s but only the Landlord ' s ; that he , Poorman , must not have a great noiNy family ; that it \ h proper , provident , and " intelligent" to way

      nothing about it , but just go on working and being few ; accepting what Landlord vouchsafes to leave , with a lowly and a thankful heart , and leaving the affections to the Landlords , the Malthi , and other ; well-to-do-cla 8 ses . But , meanwhile , those thoughtless people at breakfasts and public dinners will talk !

      Untitled Article

      L . S . D . Will , it pay ? That is the great testing" question , in our day , of public affairs ; and to the fact that it is so , as we most devoutly believe , must be asscribed the impracticability of moving to any useful purpose . To hear statesmen talk , in private even more than in public , you would believe that a general helplessness had seized upon our race ; that there never more were to be any leaders , never more any decisive movement of the nation , never more any mastery over circumstances or individual will ; but that , henceforth , states were to drift along , like ships without captains or compasses , awaiting what might be vouchsafed by the caprices of tides , or the less calculable caprices of the unruled crews .

      Read the confession of the Premier in the debate on the official salaries—that the representative of England in France cannot support the digni y of his position under £ 8 , 000 a-year ; he has no weight at a less figure ; he has no authority without money in his purse , though he has England at his back ! Probably , however , the idea is that a man with less than £ 8 , 000 a-year will not have England at his back ? The rebel States of America could speak with dignity before the defeated

      monarchy , in the person of Adams ; but poor England has no greatness to impart to her representative , and , therefore , must eke it out in pounds sterling . So say our public men ! It is the confession of Lord John Russell , also of Lord Palmerston , administrators de facto of the English nation . It is for these reasons that English statesmen cannot emulate the simplicity of Agrs or Regulus , of Cromwell or Washington : abate their salaries and you destroy their influence , jeopardizing the institutions of the country .

      Mr . Cobden denounces this obstinate lavishness , but he finds there is no help for it . He scolds Lord John , but admits that all efforts at improvement are useless . He threatens to follow " the example of an honourable friend near him , and decline to serve on all committees when he found that so few of their recommendations were followed . " Lord John is chief of a regime whose influence totters if salaries be touched ; yefc against that regime Mr . Cobden and the other ceconomists avow that they are perfectly powerless . They proclaim that they cannot get up any more healthy action ; they cannot arouse healthier , more

      virtuous , more manly motives . Now , Mr . Cobden and his party are especially those who have made everything turn upon the money question : it seems that they are not very successful . They have mistaken the old mercenary adage , " 'Tis money that makes the mare to go , " for a fundamental precept of national morals , and they find out their mistake in a total impotency : they cannot make the nation go , nor the Government , nor the Parliament , nor anything that is national . There is , indeed , more than one motive in human affairs , and those who manage for us just now have not hit upon that which is most exalted or most powerful .

      The same mistake , even in the conduct of still higher affairs , with the same results . Great rejoicing lately over the £ 80 , 000 saved with Miss Talbot from conversion to pious uses in the Romish Church ; hut docs the Protestant Establishment act with fastidious delicacy in money matters ? We can hardly boast as much . For example , Mr . Bennett is turned out of his incumbency , for ultra-ecclesiastical notions : but did the Church return the fortune which he bad sacrificed ? No ;

      the heretic was cast forth ; but the profit- -there in no provision for expelling heretical pounds sterling . Indeed , pounds sterling cannot be heretical—they arc impeccable . Protestantism does not deny thut infallibility . Bennett must return whence he came ; but as to the sovereigns— " null" vesti gia" ! " No money to he returned : vivat R « gina . " Again , Bishop Li : « cannot grant Mr . I-inlay a eurate , deterred by a financial punctilio . Dr . Lee had arranged the mutter of tins surplice ; but he would hazard nothing in the matter of salary !

      Y <; t again , wo hear of such things as proprietary chapels , half seceding from the Church of England on the score of doctrine ; and then setting up their own Thiily-nine Articles to bind posterity for ever

      Untitled Article

      May 10 , 1851 . ] g |) t & £ && *** 441

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 10, 1851, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1882/page/13/