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    THE DOWN-TRODDEN INDUSTRIAL PARTIES . " Pabliament , " as a . sergeant learned in the law used to say , " can do anything , except enact rain or sunshine ; " yet Parliament seems to entertain the utmost difficulty in dealing with its own creations . . Although most statutes contain a clause specifying that ' ¦ this act may be repealed during the present session , " Parliament always hesitates in meddling with its own acts . . Not because they are sacred , fox : it will " rescind " anything for a frolic ; but the fact is , that Parliament is dismayed at the prospect of revising its own work , on account of the terrible confusion

    which it will hare to penetrate . As a spendthrift augments his own troubles in the dread of grappling" with them , so Parliament yearly adds to its mass of tangled law , without courage so to arrange the whole as to secure that the additions shall fit . Hence projects for codification—the Criminal Law Commission , to be followed by others ; tie new Law Reformer and Victoria Code Journal , to promote codification generally ; and other plans , like Mr . George Coode ' s , for special " digests . " Mr . Coode proposes a digest of a set of statutes which would have been supposed to be peculiarly compact and definite—the Poor Layys : " The Poor-law statutes now in force wholly or partially , " ^ ays Mr . Coodo , " are about 160 ( 162 ) in number , besides a multitude of incidental provisions dispersed through statutes mainly relating to other subjects . Of those Poor-law acts , at least 40 (< t 3 ) have accumulated since tho enactment of tho Poor-law Amendment Act in 1834 . The entire series is spread through tho statutes at largo from 1603 to 1851 ( 249 years ) , and they differ as much as during so groat a

    period might bo expected ., in policy , expression , form , and substance . They liarq been the subject of discussion and of judicial exposition quite as various in its character , in more than 1 , 900 reported ensos ( counting only those which still aro of somo authority ) , dispersed absolutely without order through tho works of at least 62 legal reporters and 149 volumos , of which a few aro still only in black letter , and many others aro scarce , and rarely referred to .

    " Of all this mass of print , but n comparatively email portion is in effectual operation as ; law at the present timo . In a digest which I was in tho course of preparing , by authority of the Poor-law CommiHsion , about twelve years ago , and which included all tho Poor-law Acts between tho years 1840 and 1766 , tho matter found to bo in operation , when stripped of all that wa 9 usoloss and unnecessary , and tho result reduced to a methodical form , but retaining its original expression in all cases to the very letter , wan found to bo diminished to less than ono-flffceonth of its original bulk . Of tho reported" decisions , upwards of 3 , 504

    pages' of letter-press , folio and -octavo , when rigidly analyzed and their effect interpolated in its proper place in the statutory matter which they interpreted , added just 248 words , or about one-half of * n octavo page , to the digest . In other words , on this scale , 7 , 000 pages of the reports would have supplied about one page to the digest . " ,

    Mr . Coode proposes to make an authoritativef digest of this mass : the Commissioners object that it is not exactly the time to do so , when the laws of Settlement and Removal are under discussion , with a view to alteration ; on which Mr . Coode rejoins , that a digest is the very thing that is needed , " as the preliminary to all safe legislation and consolidation . "

    The proposal is the proof at once of the confusion , of the need for a clue , and of the possibility of extrication . But the objection of the Commissioners enormously underrates the real obstacle . The fact is , that the Poor Laws , as they are called—the laws which directly connect the State with the regulation of industry—are altogether under discussion , and the reports of the Commissioners prove that the responsible officers are wholly incapable of dealing with the question as it is now opened . See the slight glancing notice which the last JBhw Book , the Fourth Annual Report of the present

    Commission , makes of the subject of industrial training . The materials for a lull report lie all around ; the actual administrators of the law are taking up the subject practically ; but the readers of the tracts put forth by the Poor-Law Amendment Society , since its renewed activity , or of the Leader since its commencement , are better informed than Parliament is through its own Commission , on the progress which has been made in the question of reproductive employment . The question , however , is rapidly assuming dimensions which forbid its being much longer neglected . TJpon it turns far more than mere Poor-Law Administration . The industrial classes

    throughout the country will soon , be clamouring for some intervention that shall reduce the present anarchy to order ; and their demands will tell even upon political parties . The Amalgamated Society has been defeated for the moment ; but the claim which it embodies , the claim of the town operatives to have an equal voice with capital in regulating industrial occupations , survives , to pursue many a candidate for Parliamentary honours ; and in many towns , even the working-classes can hold the balance . We have

    already advised them to make the Labour Question heard at t 7 ie hustings and felt at the poll . In . the rural districts , a vague , uneasy sense of injustice is stirring farmers and labourers , and that feeling also will have to be encountered at the coming election , by those who can only perceive it at such magnetic periods . In such districts , they will vote for the present Ministry to a man , not because they expect the renewal of Protection , but because they expect no consideration for the Land , or for Labour , from the " Liberal " party . And they are right : as a . party , the Liberals , so-called , despise the claims both of Land and of Labour .

    To the agriculturist this contempt comes in a highly practical form . Ho is told to trust to himadlf ; but he finds himself hedged in with circumstances and faws that prevent his acting freely or effectively . It is not alone the repeal of the corn-laws that exposes him to hurt . IJo finds that , under Free-trade , for instance , which admits American cheese , tho goods which formerly brought him 41 . 4 s . in the market , now bring him 21 . 10 s . Ask tho Somersetshire fannor if we aro not stating plain facts P He is told to improve his farming ; but where is his capital P Ho novcr had much , and his rent oats up what ho might have . Ho has never heard of " concert " as a social doctrine but ho has a dim idea that if

    he could come tp an understanding with tho customers in towns , he might render his business less prooarious . Not in the towns of the North : ho hates those as tho . strongholds of his bittorest enemies . Ho only' knows that he cannot compote with a cheese-growing Cheshire somewhere in America as big as the United Kingdom ; and , if they cannot order it bettor than they have done at homo" , he wishes to emigrate to that more fortunate Cheshire in tho Republic , or to quasirepublican Australia , whore it is easier to pickup gold than it ia to make cheeses in monarchical England . Ho is losing faith in a monarchythat lie knows by its taxes , in an aristocracy that he knows by its rout , in liberals that he knowa by

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    There is nothing so revolutionary , because there . i 3 nothra . & so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep thongs fixed when all thewbrldis "by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Db . Abnoxd .

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    SATUEDAY , APRIL 17 * 1852 :

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    Apbh . 0 , 1853-i THE LEADER . 369

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    THE BRITISH SUBJECT A COCK-SHY FOB EUROPE . Shiiove Tuesday has just passed , but there was no throwing at the Snrove-cockv It was an unmanly sport , and not to be regretted ; but we do not like the substitute . Ancient customs generally survive in an alteredform ; Ceres and Triptolemus still watch over the vineyards of Italy in shrines now said to be dedicated to "the Virgin and child . '' So the British subject used to have his fling at the cock on Shrove Tuesday ; now denizens of other countries may have their fling at the Englishrnany all the year round . Formerly the British subject carried his rights along with him , and the power of England was understood to be at his back wherever he went ; but we have abandoned that old-fashioned notion . Cromwell , Lord Palmerston ,. and other obsolete persons , used to boast of their adherence to the maxim * but Lord Palmerston was the last in that line . He Tras distrusted "by the " Court /' and dismissed by his colleagues for a too independent temper .-and now the Tory successors of the pliant Whigs have " adopted the Russell idea , of hushing up indignities , lest resentment should " lead to war . " By favour of that patronage , the sport of British subject-hunting has suddenly grown common . Tuscany is a favourite resort for lovers of the sport , and we have already a string of some dozen " outrages , " all happening since the year 1850 . A price used to be charged for the sport

    of cock-shying : the British Government suffers the Austrians to fling at Mr . Mather , but exacts a fine . With regard to inferior Thirds , the sport may be enjoyed without payment : as we see in the case of Corporal Baggs , whose story we copy from the Daily JVews . Mr , Baggs afforded great sport to the gendarmes of Leghorn . He is a sturdy fellow , and was dressed in the British uniform . The fact of " Her Majesty ' s Ship" to which Corporal Baggs belongs , being in the port , may have added a keener relish to the insult . It would convince the popular Tuscan mind that British broadsides are mere popguns , when

    Malmesbury is Minister . By the help of numbers , the official Austrian bravos , after dogging his footsteps like a thief ' s , arrested him as he walked peaceful and harmless in tlie open street , and tried to chain him . He smashed the chains , and had almost made himself free ; but he was overpowered again , manacled , tied- on his bach to a table , and then marched in bxoad day time through the gazing street—in her Majesty ' s uniform and in chains ! Mr . Bag ; gs and his commanding officer exacted reparation ; but Lord

    Malmesbury is quite " satisfied . " Friend and correspondent of Louis Napoleon , Lord Malmesbury has no such aversion to manacles , that he cannot tolerate tho chaining of a British subject ; as much a philosopher as if ho wore a mere Whig , the Tory Minister has no traditional superstition in favour of the British uniform . Besides , it was only a common person . Mathor enjoyed the dignit y of being paid for , but Baggs may bo bullied gratis . Lord Malmesbury does nof exactly give " orders to the ploy" for his frionds the

    Austriansj but tho understanding suffices . 0 / course , the faot officially intimated in the tJranvillo despatches to Austria direct , and now so < abundantly exemplified in Taseany , that British subjects are lawful game , will become generally known ; and tho privilogb will bo oxtonded to other countries , with the smiling consent of our Foreign-office , delighted to have ronowed friendly relations with our natural allies . I ho present System , wo suppose , is what modern , statesmen call " moral force "—the force of PUflulanjmity allied to the moral of abandoning

    your countrymen ; It is understood to be conducive to the maintenance of peace ; but it becomes an interesting questionnow far the sport can be permitted ; and , when it becomes intolerable , wha , t amount of resistance may be necessary P Had it been stopped at once , resolutely , Austria would certainly nave desisted . At first she asserted her privilege meekly , by encroachment : the responsibility was evaded by shuffling from the weak to the strong and front the strong to the weak : if redress were demanded in

    Florence , they said , "Oh ! it was the Austrians that did it . " If in Vienna , " Oh ! please , Sir , it was not done here , but in Florence . " But now it will be felt that there is no responsibility to evade , and Austria may roundly assert her right to this kind of chace . Presently it will be understood in Europe that negroes , fellahs , and Englishmen may be beaten with equal impunity . By degrees they will learn that the dominant peace-party in

    England makes no distinction of rank ; and , beginning with Mather and Baggs , the fast men of the Austrian police may carry on the game until they bait an jEarl , badger a descendant of our Barons bold , and make a cockshy of a Duke . Would Cpbden , Uussell , and Derby , be any the mOre ready to go to war on behalf of a Buckingham than a Baggs P They dare not say yes . And if they were , how much war would it now take to convince Austria that she was mistaken in

    classing Englishmen among ordinary beasts of chace , feratnatuns ? A premium has been offered for the practice , and we do not see what chance there is of arresting it without measures violent in proportion to their incredibility . The pacific passiveness , then , leads only to war . We say nothing of the honour : now-a-day s that might be considered an irrelevant issue .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 369, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/13/