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Leader (1850-1860), 29th November 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 1135, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      THE SUPPLY OF " REFORM" FOR " NEXT SESSION . " Six measures of Reform are in the bill of lading for next session . The Public is hardly aware of the promised abundance ; but the list is easily made out . 1 . The Russell Reform Bill , much trumpeted , little known . 2 . The Conservative amendment thereon , expected to be much more imposing . 3 . " The People ' s Charter , " supported by about 6000 enrolled Chartists , _ and by many dormant Chartists who do not think the movement worth the investment of the enrolment fee . 4 . " The Little Charter , " annually moved by Mr . Hume , and for three years supported by the Parliamentary Reform Association as a makeweight to the notions about Financial Reform , about which Mr . Cobden ' s friends desire to et drop the subject—it was all a mistake . " 5 . The projected and wholly unknown Manchester Reform Bill , to be promulgated on the 3 rd of next month . 6 . The compromise between the Ministerial measure ( unknown ) and the Manchester measure ( unknown ); a derivative measure , necessarily involved , at present , in deepest obscurity . Besides these six measures , of which four—the Disraeli opposition measure , the Ministerial measure , the Manchester measure , and the Compromise measure—areas wholly unknown to the public as Lord John -Russell's mind is to Lord John Russell , there muy be a seventh . A party at Manchester is bent on stealing a march upon the Parliamentary Reformers , and means also to steal a Jar ^ e slice out of that organization . This the Manchester party can do , because it has ulready

      belonged to the Parliamentary Reformers , and can , therefore , claim something on the credit of ihe meeting at which Mr . George Wilson so much distinguished himseif . If Mr . George Wilson should happen to be at the meeting of the 3 rd , the fact will give it something the appearance of an adjourned meeting , which would oe very convenient to the promoters of the second meeting . But the Parliamentary Reformers cannot consent to be left quiescent by a body of deserters : they must take up a new portion , and what shall that be i

      It must bo a position stronger , more national than that of the deserters . That might be easy ; but it must uIho bo a position stronger , more national , than that of the deserted ; and what shall that , be ? The Parliamentary Reformers have already declared for that which is all but Universal ^ ullVnge : and , if they would move further , they cannot stop short of Universal Suffrage itself . That would at once command u true national adhesion As an overture from the middle class to the working class , including all in its compass , it would include in its ( support the innumerable sections now divided . Among tlu ; promised Reform measures for the plentiful year 1852 , therefore it is the Seventh Measure .

      Untitled Article

      I'ltOGUiKSS OF IMPERIAL REVOLUTION IN THIS V 1 ENJNTA MONlilT MAJtKKT . Tine operations of the Austrian Money Market are how NyKtematically conducted under the superinten * dene © of police , and * ' order " ban been eHtablished »»» that last resort of disalfection . The police have been strictly enjoined to apprehend any person v yho shall be found uttering acditioua offers to negoll the Government papers , on the terms in favour "inong the Heart * recently expelled by force of arms . A'iy person betraying A diuJoyal preference for Mivftr renders himself amenable to the correctional u « Uiority ; and any man who , under the pretext of Private advantage , attempts to obtain incendiary ,

      because sterling , gold will be promptly called to account . The quotations are watched with vigilance , lest anything seditious should creep into themsuch as an allusion to dulness in the Government stocks , or any outspoken mention of a fall . The next step will be to make the mere possession of gold or silver a political offence , with penalty of confiscation : such a rule would scarcely be an encroachment now , and it would be strictly in harmony with the spirit of the recent proceedings . What we have said looks like a jocose statement : it is no more than a statement of the facts in naked and untechnical language . We say nothing respecting the morality of these proceedings , since morality would be perfectly out of place in considerations on the conduct of the Austrian Government . This last act of the Viennese

      Government , introducing " order " into the money market , has given to commercial men . an opportunity of learning what that word signifies in its new technical acceptation . The Times has already declared , that the system of foreign loans has come to an end ; but this last explosion , this last act of bankruptcy superseded by bayonet , may induce commercial men to inquire why the system of foreign loans has broken down ? Because the stamina of the borrowing Governments has broken down . It must have done so sooner or

      later , but the day of doom has come . The Austtiaii Government is trying to conceal its mortal state , its disease must not be mentioned under the penalties attached to sedition and treason ; but no terrorism can conceal the fatal fact . Absolute Monarchy in Europe is based upon a system which abstracts large masses of the ablebodied population from productive industry , converts them into armies of oppression , and charges their support upon the People which is to be oppressed . Overburdened , fettered , disheartened , disaffected , the industrial People naturally failed to supply the means for maintaining the instruments of its own oppression . The Governments then resorted to the system of " loans , " to be " funded " ; charging the

      deficiency of the present upon that which little concerns any Government for the time being—upon posterity . But even thus the liability could not be eternally deferred : we have arrived at that posterity which now has to pay , not only the deficiency of the Government in the past generation , but also the deficiency of that Government which oppresses the present generation . The gigantic bubble has burst . The Governments which began it might derive a temporary advantage by swindling posterity as well aa their own generation ; but in its very nature , and from its birth , the system was one of bankruptcy—one of bankruptcy in the present , redoubled by bankruptcy in the future . We have arrived at that future . The Austrian Government , which is the first of the class to break down

      thoroughly and openly , is endeavouring by force of arms to coerce and terrify the state into solvency : commercial men will know how far coercion and terror are likely to induce the condition of solvency .

      Meanwhile , the very bankruptcy which the Austrian Government is trying to frighten away , is abstracting from it the means for maintaining the instruments of its coercion . Pretended subsidies from the Duke of Modena , or from houses of even higher commercial repute , postponed this final act of bankruptcy for a iew weeks , but could not supply the means of paying huge armies . Of course the armies would be the last to go unpaid ; but even that painful day must come . Austria has been suppl ying the converse of Kos-Biith ' s lesson on real freedom of trade , which cannot exist without political freedom . " Commerce is the locomotive of civilization , " and at Vienna Absolutist barbarism has broken down the locomotive .

      The staple of the People , in every civilized country , consists of the industrial classes , engaged in the work of production , and desiring peaceably to exchange their productions in order peaceably to live . Where they arc free and unimpeded , they will most largely profit by the power of exchanging the products which they are severally suited to create ; and the disposition is proved by the fact which KoBHiith has told to our industrial and trading

      clauses - that Republican America takes 7 s . a head of our manufactures , while Absolutist Russia takes but 7 d . Agricviltural Hungary is only prevented from trading with manufacturing England by the bayonets of Austria . The Peoples are kept apart by Despotism ; are drafted oIF as soldiers to fight each other : industry is defeated by Despotism , even as commerce has at last been given into the custody of the Police at Vienna . " Peace ! " cry

      the men of commerce : but they see what sort of peace they get from Austria . Europe has to earn peace by setting itself free from this bankrupt brigand , Despotism ^ which rides roughshod over the land , oppressing industry , and taking Commerce captive tnat it may extract a ransom called loan to pay its hireling soldiery . But the system is bankrupt , —is bankrupt , openly , impudently , infamously ,

      irretrievably . Despotism is in the Gazette . Even Commerce , which has a natural leaning to authority , especially to any which can promise largely in the way of protection , now knows the character of its patron ; and on the total failure of "Legitimacy , " Commerce will perforce turn its enterprising eye towards the opposite quarter : nothing but the Alliance of the Peoples can retrieve the finances of those soldier-ridden priest-ridden states .

      Untitled Article

      THEY NEVER MEANT TO DO IT I The art with which questions are burked in this country , is perfect . The People , from whom springs every reform worth having , discover some matter which requires alteration . It is pressed on public attention . Petitions are sent to Parliament . A Commission is formed . Inquiry commences . Evidence is received . Everybody appears in earnest . The Commission makes its report . The Public is astounded . Matters are found much

      worse than the most abandoned grievance-monger had supposed . An act of Parliament is framedpassed—receives the Royal assent . The Government has done its duty—Agitation subsides—the People are satisfied . More than a quarter of a year elapses . Suddenly it is discovered that the act is inoperative . The People remonstrate . The Government jokingly confess they knew it all the while , and that nothing can be done till " next session . " Such , by the " Minutes of the Board of Health , " the remonstrance of the deputation of the Sanitary Commission on Monday , and the replies of the First Minister and the Chancellor of the

      Exchequer , is the fate of the Metropolitan Interments Act . This act received the Royal assent in August , 1850 ; and the Board of Health , to whom were delegated the powers contained in the act . forthwith proceeded with a zeal that provoked animadversion through its very earnestness . Additional officers were appointed ; sites for sepulture were fixed upon , surveyed , and valued . Communications were opened with the Continent ; statistical returns were flying about in all directions ; and while proposals were under consideration for compensating parishes , negotiations were opene 1 for buying up all the existing cemeteries .

      Having obtained the necessary information , the Board were prepared to act . And on the 23 rd of November they sent a letter to the Treasury requesting " authority for the purchase of lands for a new cemetery , and for the acquisition of the cemeteries of the metropolis . The Treasury , seeing " the game was up , " took time to consider the next " move . " A reminder from the Board , dated January 10 , 1851 , provoked a reply on the 22 nd of January , wherein the Treasury demurred to the estimates , declined to authorize the proposed arrangement , recommended

      negotiations with one or two companies only in the first instance , but suggested the acquirement of ground for the formation of the new cemetery . The Board ventured to remonstrate , but the only effect was u letter from Lord Seymour , our friend of the Woods and Forests , in which his lordship desires to express his disapproval of the letter of the Board , and objects to the course pursued by them in their opposition to the Treasury . From this period , November 23 , 1850 , to July 24 , 1851 , the prevailing and continually recurring question was one of finance . Government had sanctioned the passing of an act and delegated powers to a Board with the knowledge that nothing could be done without money , yet without vouchsafing one penny moro than was necessary for the daily expenses . An appeal to the Chancellor of the Exchequer proving fruitless , application was made to some of the leviathan Assurance Companies . But a Government Bourd , east of Temple-bar , asking for loans of u hundred thousand pounds at ft per cent , f Where were the Government and its Exchequer Bills at 2 j per cent . ? that facilo mode of raising present capital for future taxation . Five per cent . 1 The very propotml was enough to create HUHpicion . The City men would consider of it . They would consult their solicitor . They did bo ; and declined to accommodate the Board . Thus disappointed , another attack is tnado on the stony heart of the Treasury . Whereupon their

      Untitled Article

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , a 3 the strain to keep things fixed when all the world i 3 by the very law of its creation m eternal progress . —Db . Arnold .

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      Untitled Article

      SATTJRDAY , NOVEMBER 29 , 1851 .

      Untitled Article

      Nov . 29 , 1851 . ] tRt ) e ftt&frt ?/ 1135

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1851, page 1135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1911/page/11/