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Leader (1850-1860), 10th January 1852, Edition Town of 1, Page 36, Untitled Article

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      with all the scenic accessories of fifes and drams and upholstery . True , it is the Kite in the feathers of the Eagle ; but what matters it , if the votedrugged and sabre-ridden People precipitate themselves on the delusion , and rushwith acclamations to enjoy the . happiness of well-fed slaves , caressed and murdered by turns ? If cymbals , and drums , and flutes , and incense , arid illumination , and dim religious light with dramatic genuflexions and choral benedictions ; if the homage of priests who celebrate the bloody traditions of St . Batholomew ' s day with thanksgiving , and the acclamations of a

      drunken and debauched army of assassins , constitute this second Empire ; then , indeed , the Empire is accomplished . If to stifle all thought and speech , to rob the country of all its liberties , nay , of all the reminiscences of its liberties , to put out the light of a people ' s life in banishing all that has a heart , and proscribing all that has a soul ; if to drive into exile and starvation , or to immure in forgotten dungeons , the hunted survivors of the axe , the sabre , and the musket ; if to create around the precincts of a court of bastards the darkness of terror , and to call it" Order , " and the silence of desolation , and

      to call it " Peace "—be the inauguration of the new Empire ; then , indeed , the Empire is accomplished ! If the luxury and adulation of antechambers , if the homage of lackeys gowned and liveried , if the adhesions of apostates who have lived to betray every dynasty they have served , be the guarantees of stability , or the foundations of authority , or the pledges of a - nation ' s prosperity , or the tenure of ** Society ' s ** existence , then we say is that stability a snare , that authority a quagmire , that prosperity a juggle , and that Society condemned and dead . For on what basis does this Empire rest ? On negation of all that constitutes the vital forces of a nation . Out of negation what good can come ?

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      THE GUARD OF " . FREEDOM . Institutions may be admirably devised , but they are poor safeguards of nationality and freedom where the spirit is absent . The Turks , it is said , have excellent municipal institutions , and an enthusiastic traveller has held up the Orientals as models for imitation ; but the amount of liberty which they enjoy would scarcely content a Western . Prince Louis Napoleon has just swept away a Republican constitution ; and we find that the having of that constitution had not fortified the People

      to the degree even of protecting it . France has been Republican in name , but she yields her nationality to a personality , on demand ; whereas the wild Arab Abd-el-Kader resisted a powerful invader for years , until duped . The Emperor of Austria has formally swept away such traces as remained of the Stadion constitution , named after its date of " the 4 th of March . " and no one knows the

      difference . Austrian 8 go on as before ; and Frenchmen accept Louis Napoleon ' Saracenic usurpation as a " fait accompli . " In the countries which have Buffered ( his violation of their political institutes , there was one trait common to them all ; they all possessed great Standing Armies . This collection of military power into one body has two effects . ( Economists vaunt it as a capital instance of the division of employments , by which commercial men are released from disturbance in

      their business ; and certain it is that the disuse of military habits permits a blind devotion to trade , which in its turn further withdraws those subjected to it from action or independence . On the other hand , the bod y exclusively trained to military exercises is alienated from the people , has little sympathy with it , and is prepared to forget patriotism in " orders from the proper officer . " The duplex effect of the double operation is , that the people are the more easy to be placed under compulsion , the compelling power is more effective and unscrupulous . The Standing Army is a readymade tool for any Absolute power which can but once get possession of it . The people , it is true , must support it by taxes ; but then it can be used

      as an- instrument or coercion against- any resistance to taxes . , A Standing Army grows by what it feeds on , bigger and bigger ; and then , with augmented strength , it extracts from' an emasculated population the additional food which it needs . We see what can be done by means of Standing Armies on the Continent : let us not forget that we have the same instrument here , politely as it may be used on ordinary occasions ; and we pay eight or ten millions to support that costly force , the guard of officialism . How far the process of taking away the arms from the population , and reposing them in the hands

      of trained mercenaries , has emasculated the people may be seen in the grievance of Italy , of France , of Germany . We are told that the tranquillity is due to " peace "; but that is not " peace" which consigns thousands to the grave by shooting , as ^ in Paris , or by prison-torture ,, as in Naples ; which deprives man of the power of meeting his fellows , of writing , or even talking . It is not peace , but degradation and oppression—the very opposites of peace , the very things which render peace itself intolerable and disgraceful .

      Contrast with the prostrate condition of France the magnificent scene before Kossuth in the Castle Garden , at New York , when he was received at the military levee . Twelve companies stood before him , five thousand strong , well disciplined , in excellent condition , animated by a fine spirit . They are the materials for some of the most victorious armies of the day . They have proved their power in maintaining " order" when that was threatened . Yet they cannot be used against the

      people , for they are the People . They cannot be the tool of faction , since the whole body of the nation and its army are identical , so that to have a chance of victory a party must first be national , which overrides the need for victory . From such a People institutions cannot be wrung by a midnight surprise . The invader would despair to vanquish such an army-nation ; the internal traitor , should he be audacious enou g h to show himself , would but brave defeat Yet to maintain such a force no

      National Debt is needed . In a nation possessing so much manly spirit , so much practice in manly exercise , institutions as the protectors oi Uberty ^ becQine of secondary importance : arid yet , we repeat , no where could institutions be more rigorously maintained . Liberty needs no protecting compacts when it is itself armed ; and yet , being armed , it can enforce its compacts . The American nation is truly free , because it retains to itself the last appeal- — the only guarantee of freedom .

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      GOVERNMENTAL DEPARTMENTS . —No . IV . II . —Secretaries op Statk . There ; was but one Secretary of State till towards the end of Henry VIII . ' s reign , when a second was appointed ; and the 31 Henry VIII ., c . 10 ., gives the holder of the office , if a peer , precedence over all peers of the same degree ; and , if only a commoner , a seat on the woolsack , as well as a place next to the great officers of state in the Star Chamber , and other deliberations of the Council . At the union with Scotland a third secretaryship At the union with Scotland a third secretaryship

      was created for " Scotch affairs , " and continued from 1708 , when it was held by the Duke of Queenaberry , to January , 1746 , and then it was realigned by the Marquis of Tweeddale . From that time to 1768 there were again but two " Principal Secretaries of State "; and then , in consequence of the increase of business from the American colonies , a " Secretary of State for the Colonies" was appointed in the person of Lord Hillsborough . In 1782 , Mr . Burke ' s bill ( 22 Geo . III .,, c . 82 . ) abolished the office ; and the two remaining Secretaries of

      State began soon afterwards to be distinguished as " Home" and "Foreign . " The war occasioned the appointment of Mr . Henry Duridas , afterwards Lord Melville , as " Secretary of State for War , " in 1794 . In 1801 , the business connected with the colonies was transferred to the Secretary for War , who was then called " Secretary of State for War and Colonies . " After the close of the war , in 1816 ,

      Mr . Tierney made a motion in the House of Commons for the abolition of the office of third secretary as no longer necessary ; but it was lost by a large majority , the Government alleging the necessity of having a Minister , or Secretary of State , for the superintendence of the colonies . From that time the third Secretary of State has been called the Colonial Minister , as the others had previously been called the Home , and ForeigU Ministers .

      The Secretaries of State are appointed by tho mere delivery to- them of the seals of office , and are always made members of the Privy Council and of the Cabinet . The Chief Secretary for Ireland , though he may be a member pf the Cabinet , is not a ' * Secretary of State , " although his office is almost analogous to

      it . He is subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant , whereas the Secretaries of State have no superior , although it is customary in their exercise of patronage to confer with the Prime Minister , and have his concurrence in such appointments as are deemed to be of national importance . From a very early period , the Secretary of State was keeper of the King ' s Signet , and had under hi » direction four Clerks of the Signet , who were

      appointed by patent for life , and allowed to perform then ; duties by deputy . By 2 Will . IV ., o . 49 ., the Lords of the Treasury were authorized to abolish any of the offices of the Clerks of the Signet and Privy Seal , as vacancies should arise ; arid under that authority two of the four clerkships of the Signet were abolished , leaving the establishment of the office to consist of Clerk of the Signet ( £ 608 *) , Mr . W . H . G . Bentinck . Ditto ( £ 300 ) , Mr . Charles S . Grey . Deputy Clerk ( £ 344 ) , Mr . T . H . Plaskett . Record Keeper and Receiver of Fees ( £ 366 ) , Mr . G . Dewe Jones . Ditto , ditto ( £ 356 ) , Mr . H . W . Sanders .

      ( The Record Keepers receive , in addition to the sums here set down , £ 52 . 10 s . a-year each , in lieu of apartments ; y a sum which , since the year 1793 , has been paid out of the Contingent Fund of the Home office . ) The Deputy Clerk , Mr . ' Plaskett , has done the duty for the First Clerk , Mr . Bentinck , who was appointed in 1 S 01 , and is believed never to have entered the office during the whole term he has had the appointment , although his emoluments have actually exceeded £ 40 , 000 . Mr . Grey and Mr . Plaskett are stated to have attended the office

      during alternate months . The Committee appointed by the Lords of the Treasury * in June , 1848 , to inquire into the cir-^ mmatances connected with th e offices of th e Clerks ^——of the Signet and of the Lord Privy Seal , and which made its report in January , 1849 , recommended the abolition of the Signet-office , or its absorption in thatof ^ the ^ ome-Secretery . Inpoints of fact , the ' * Signet" was utterly useless , except for the purpose of leyying fees , and increasing the trouble arid vexation of procuring patents . Just see how much pains seems to have been taken

      in former times , to complicate the business of State , and with what unreasoning tenacity we ^ have clung to the cumbrous , costly , and vexatious forms . There are two principal classes of Letters Patent : one for the grant of appointments to offices under the Crown , the other for granting to inventors the sole use of their inventions . Then , there ^ charters , patents for denization , pensions , creations of honour , special pardons , licences in mortmain , and for Trinity-house Lights , &c . Take the process of passing a patent of appointment to an office ,

      almost all other patents going through the same or similar forms . The First Lord of the Treasury , or other Minister whose duty it may be , takes the Queen ' s pleasure in regard to the appointment of a particular individual to an office , and then directs the preparation of the necessary instruments for carrying the appointment into effect . A sign manual warrant ( i . e . a warrant signed by the Queen ' s own hand ) is accordingly prepared , addressed to the Attorney or Solicitor General , directing him to prepare a' bill

      for her Majesty ' s signature . The bill is prepared in the Patent Bill-office , according to a prescribed form , and is then submitted by the Secretary of State for her Majesty ' s signature . Two transcripts of this bill are at the same time prepared in the Patent Bill-office , one of which is sent to the Signetoffice , and eventually becomes the Signet bill ; the other goes to the Privy Seal-office , to be afterwards made the Privy Seal bill . The bill , when it has been signed by the Queen , is called the Queen ' s bill , and is handed over to the Signet-office , where

      the Signet bill is prepared by appending to the transcript sent there from the Patent Bill-office a proper heading and conclusion . The Deputy Clerk of the Signet then signs the bill , and having procured the Signet to be affixed to it , at one of the Secretary of State ' s offices , transmits it to the Lord Privy Seal . The Queen ' s bill is filed as a record in the Signet-office . The Privy Seal bill is prepared in the same manner as the Signet bill , and the Privy Seal having been affixed to it by the Lord Privy Seal , it is forwarded to the proper officer of

      the Lord Chancellor , when the patent is engrossed on parchment , and the Great Seal affixed : The Committee of Inquiry , composed of Lord Minto , Mr . G . Cornewall Lewis , and Mr . O . Rich , unanimously recommended that this process should be abridged by superseding the use of the Signet : thus when , the form of appointment or other patent had been settled by the proper legal authorities , so as to leave nothing to the discretion of the department , the Privy Seal should be at once affixed to the original document , as a sufficient authority to the Lord Chancellor for causing the patent to bo ? The sums , which are reopWed put of the feea paid at the office , are those returned to the Property Tax AeiseaBment .

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      36 m % t JUafreiv I 8 ** m »** >

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 10, 1852, page 36, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1917/page/12/