Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 8th May 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 442

Page 442
Page 14
14 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)

      Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      THE BLACK STATISTICS . Political arithmetic tells us any tale it pleases the poet of the Board of Trade " lisps m numbers , for the numbers come , " and can make you out a Progress of thejTation in any direction . Grime has diminished during the half century : studious men can prove the fact by figures , prime has increased during the half century : men not less studious prove that also . The Morning Herald shows us , a ^ fcer Iforeau , that murders in Ireland , from 1823 to 1837 had increased from 69 to 264 . From 1826 to 1845 , 5519 persons were committed to prison on the charge of murder ; 4900 escaped by acquittal or want of prosecution ; 619 were convicted ; 202 hanged . Yes , in Ireland , you say , criminal Ireland . But in England , as Henry Mayhew calculates , from data which he gives , the annual rate of criminal offenders in every ten thousand of the population has increased from 9 during the ten years ending 1821 , to 16 * 5 during the ten years ending 1851 . The Herald is arguing to show that conciliation fostered crime in Ireland ; and ranged in the Herald fashion , the figures dantn conciliation altogether : —

      1823 ... 69 — Lord Wellesley arrived in Dublin 1824 ... 57 to assume the office of Lord Lieu-1825 ... 78 tenant , on the 30 th December , 1826 . . 96 1822 . The work of conciiia-1827 ... 94 tion system then first began— - 1828 ... 84 crime advances pari passu . 1829 ... 143 — Year of Catholic emancipation . 1830 ... 1831 ... ¦) 1832 ... > Years of reform agitation .

      1833 ... J 1834 ... 180 — Decrease under the Coercion Bill . 1835 ... 218 V Halcyon days of Lord Normanby ' Si 1836 ... > system fully organized and in 1837 ... 264 j complete operation . Possibly a Stauriton or a Somerville could make out the exact opposite by the help of figures ; but he would not deny that Ireland has undergone a horrible famine ; that wretchedness has exiled more than a quarter of a million yearly of her population ; that landlords are still " evictine- " and people still idling :: that Hibandism . still

      haunts the . land , and reddens it with blood ; or that the authors of " conciliation" have followed it up with anti-papal hostilities , embittering the whole country . Nor would he deny that the Encumbered Estates Commissioners have sold up 100 landowners , and transferred property worth 4 , 000 , OOOZ . sterling ! What a state for a countrv ! We believe that conciliation has failed ,

      that coercion has " succeeded ; " but whyr Because Ireland is held , and governed , as a conquered country ; with the ideas , the manners , the laws , of the conquering country . A conquered country is best kept down by force , inexorable force . If Ireland is to be soothed , she must be freed—left to govern herself , with Irish ideas , Irish sympathies , Irish machinery . Till such time as Bhe bo depopulated , or released , will her black statistics coon . statistics go on .

      Henry Mayhew was arguing to show that Eree-trade has not diminished crime ; and , whatever feats aEwart or a Cobdon might perform with statistical Marionettes , ho is right . We see many proofs , without neod for figures . Wo see how adulteration is eating into the very body of trade . Wo know that tradesmen , ruinously competing with each other , are stealing their profits from the parcel under the customer ' s arm . The marvellous spread of bankruptcy is open to every newspaper reader . Commercial men daro not guess at the aggregate yearly amount .

      Tradesmen feel that their position is uncertain . What is to happen next P is the frequent question . Yet shops multiply , shop windows become better furnished ; luxury devises now niceties for every house . We can all notico the constant appearance of mysterious notices in the Timesdaily multiplying , often many in a day—addressed to fugitives and hidors—mostly oithor to

      persons run away from qroditors and employers , or ladies evading some domestic responsibilities and bonds , Occasionally domestic bliss explodes , as in the case whore the " injured wife' seizes her husband , and drags him into court . Enough transpires to indicate the volcano beneath . Freetrade assuredly has not orgonizod society ; nor has it established the millennium ; nor , as Freetraders promised , has it made evory working man sought by two masters . Ask tho sullen

      have broken his parole . The statistics are ; but probably if Irishmen and Englishmen , if people ' s men of every country , understood each other better , they would improve the statistics . Nay , it is the same witli society in its intimafbe relation . Half of crime is caused by the attempt to conceal from each other temptations , importunate wants , difficulties common to most of us ; and if we would but ^ state them frankly , or hear them kindly , we might save ourselves much waste of crime .

      black engineers how that is . JSTeither has it established peace all over the world . Lord Norbury's murderer was never discovered , although , says the astonished statistician , three thousand pounds were offered for his detection . It proves the fidelity of the Irishman to crime—aiid to Ireland . It proves that there are other motives besides cash , even for the very poor . When they were told in Ireland that Meagher had escaped , they disbelieved it , Because he would

      Untitled Article

      PATAGONIAK MISSIONARIES . ^ There are several parts of the surface of the earth of which even yet , with all our spirit of adventure , we know next to nothing ; and among these is Patagonia . The region so called , to * gether with its continuation , the large island of Tierra del Puego , forms the southern extremity of South America . A vast number of small islands line the western shore of Patagonia , and the western and southern shores of Tierra del Fuego j stormy seas roar along the channels formed by these islands ; and ships , in rounding the extremity of the continent on their way to Chili and Peru , " have such windy work of it that they make as little acquaintance with the land as possible . In fact , so far as present convenience for all but the Patagonians themselves is concerned , the annihilation of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego too , and the truncation of South America about the 40 th parallel of southern latitude , might seem a geographical improvement . There the - countries are . however ; and , doubtless ,

      something or other is yet to be made of them . Patagonia is nearly a thousand miles long , with an average breadth of about three hundred and fifty miles ; and Tierra del Fuego is as large as Scotland , Here , as elsewhere on the earth , there are mountains , p lains , vegetation , desert , fowls , fish , and wild annuals . Situated so far to the south , and blown on by the sea-winds , the country is , on the whole , cold and damp , as comf ) ared with the better known South American ands . Yet the climate must permit touches of

      natural beauty peculiar to the warmer latitudes ; for humming-birds have been seen in Tierra del Fuego itself , fluttering , during a snow-shower , over the red bells of native fuschias . Neither as colonists , nor as tourists , have Europeans of any nation yet set foot in Patagonia . The inhabitants who , for both the mainland and Tierra del Fuego , are estimated at half a million , are relics of the native Indian races that possessed these regions when America was first colonized from the old world . At least two varieties of these natives have been recognised—the Patagonians proper , tall , stalwart follows of " a rich reddish brown colour , between that of rusty iron and clean copper , " who lead a nomadic life in the interior , and on the east of Patagonia , wear skins and eat game—and the Fuegans , a shorter breed of men , with stout bodies , crooked legs , and complexions like old mahogany , or between " dark copper and bronze , " and who inhabit Tierra del Fuego , and tho western coasts and islands of tho mainland , whero they go about almost nakod , and catch fish and seals . Neither race is very promising intellectually , both having the low , projecting forehead , and tho small restless villanous eyes peculiar to tho invoterate savage ; but , if there is a difference , tho Patagonians are probably tho superior . Tho distinction between Patagonians and Fuegans , however , is , for ordinary purposes , superfluous ; and both may very well rank among tho outcasts of human history under tho single name of Pntagonians . High browed or low browed , stalwart or

      dwarfish , copper-coloured or mahogany-coloured , these Patagoniana , according to the doctrines of tho Christian Churches , aro men—Imving souls to bo saved or lost ; destined , like all other men to an immortality of existence , oithor happy or miserable , boyond tins life—beyond Patagonia , as boyond Europe . Nay more , as tho Christian Churches teach , there is only ono way in , which those Patagoniauei can bo " savod "«— -can bo made

      spirituijlly bettet beings Here , and nihentors of the Jblessed state hereafter j and that is tne wav appointed for the salvation of all men-ralike in all . countries and in all ages—the knowledge namely , * of "" Jesus' Christ , crucified eigjjteen liui ! dred years ago in Jerusalem . To bring this gospel , therefore , to those Patag 6 nians ~ to present , somehow or other , to their : vitianous little eyes the sympbl of that ancient and stupendous fact transacted in a part of the world they never dreamt of , and never could conceive or to communicate , somehow o * other , to their scanty brains , through their ears , sounds that would

      convey a tantamount meaning ;—this , according to all Christian teaching , in any genuine accepted sense of the word Christian , is the one duty , par excellence , owing b y ail the rest of the world to that wretched region of it . Strange , strange thought—to the Jews verily a stumbltag-block , and tothe Greeks foolishness ! Yet to this thought ' in all its strangeneBSv Christianity is , bound ; this and no other is the thought of Cnristianity ; this very strangeness ± this very " foolishness to the Greek" is its exultation j and that soul which , from any sense of shame , would abate one jot of the absoluteness of the seemmff follv , is . bv a

      sublime spurning clause in the articles of Christianity' itself , not the soul of a Christian . True , Christian citizens , and Christian newspaperB , aro now accustomed to set themselves against such views of matters ; but this is because citizens and newspapers retain the name of Christian long after , so far as they are concerned , the thing has been banished to the winds . Whoever asserts a Patagonian or any other mission to be " foolish " js a " Grreek , " and no Christian—audthis , though he should read his prayer-book daily , or wear a bishop ' s mitre .

      Well , but there are some among us , it seems , who do believe in missions to the heathen . The belief may be a mere njerital fashion inherited along with the Puritan class of notions , and the people who hold it may be , in essential respects , no better than their neighbours ; stilt the belief is held , and people meet to talk about it , and ai'e willing to put their hands into their pockets for it . Now to persons of this class , a Patagonian mission had all the charms of a new idea . There were Indian missions , African missions , South

      Sea missions—why should there net be a Patagonian mission P The possibilities of such a mission were large enough to captivate the missionary imagination . Christianity inserted into South Ainerica , at Cape Horn , and thence to make its Way northward , among untold tribes of nomadic natives ! So , after various preliminaries unknown as yet to the public , thething was arranged ; and under the auspices of a society , whose honorary secretary is a clergyman residing in Bristol , a party of seven persons left England in the year i oerrv j . ~ /?„„ ,., A 4-l » ™ « , ino ! nn T'U / jo / s cnvAn TlfirSOnS ¦

      . J . OOU lAJ 1 UUUU vllK > liliooiv / " . a . ij . v . uv uv v— i Were , —Captain Allen Gardiner , of the Eoyal Navy , as Lead , or superintendent , ( a religious seaman , we suppose , who had , in some of his voyages , looked with a Christian eye on tno Patagonian coast , and so became possessed witii the idea which he was selected to carry out ); Mr . Williams , surgeon and , catechi 8 t ; Mr . Maiclment , catcchist ; John Erwin , carpenter ; ana John Badcock , John Bryant , and John Pcarco , Cornish fishermen . All were pious men , we are to imagine , full of the Methodist spirit and tenets , not clergymen , cither , it will be observed , but hardy laymen fit for manual labour , and prep ared for roueh usage at sea or on shore . ^« p-

      tain Gardiner , wo learn , was a roan of resource a man after the stamp of the South Sea missionary Williams , who , while ho preached tho gospel , could steer a ship , or show tho carpenters How w build ono . , * Thevessol that took the missionaries ouUandcu them at Picton Island , a small island oil ¦ w »« southern coast of Tierra del Fuego , on tho em oi December , 1850 , and kept hovering about to s _ how thoy got on in their first dealings with tuo natives . The Picton people , iiowovor , » ow menacing ; and tho missionaries went on dow _ ,. „ : „ i : ir jK ^ j ,. + « r ^ K ^ .. fa / . mils ! 1-in rrot rott ( ly » t iiwvfAw

      Ui > MJJl LIU liUUJJ . linw uuuvn » ~ - rt 1 j * . J . I ., / , length , on tho 18 th of December , they , lei * « it ship finally , and embarked with their etoj ( clothes , provisions , firearms , gunpowder ,, Iooib , bibles , and a manuscript Patagoman voca ^ i ^ or two , ) in ihoso two boats , meaning to " » aKo the coast of Tierra del Fuego . On the . 10 L £ ship sailed , and tho seven mon wore loll l > eav » fa about among tho Patagonian w&v $% nfAnni [ [ rom No nows of thorn having reached Ungloiia w

      Untitled Article

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 442, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1934/page/14/