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Leader (1850-1860), 11th September 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 872, Untitled Article

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      republic , also , some intrigues are going on in Europe . And , in short , lor the interests rather of the classes to which the Spanish families of the island belong , the royal and official classes , Eng land is to be arrayed against America . Whether the rumours of such a fact are entirely correct or not , there is no question that they hare a considerable influence in moving the popular mind of the republicans , in stimulating them to meet that antagonist force

      more than half way , and to settle , before the battle is waged against them , the question whether or not the Anglo-Saxon or the Spanish shall be dominant on the waters of the Mexican Grulf . As to the result of that conflict there cannot be the slightest doubt . As to the question , whether or not Englishmen sympathize more with the upholders of constitutional freedom in America , or with the upholders of legitimacy in Europe , there cannot be much doubt . As to the side on

      which the material interests of England are staked , there will be but one opinion . If England should chance to be opposed to America in that great contest , her prospects would be thunder-clouded indeed ; her very commercial men would write her horoscope on the Stock Exchange , in " quotations" sufficient to shake the throne itself with alarm . But should that contest be waged on the other side of the Atlantic , whichever side might conquer—and who can think for a moment that the Americans would

      be conquered ?—whichever side might conquer , we repeat , the contest would be prolonged on this side of the Atlantic ; and the victorious starspangled banner would cross the ocean to avenge in Europe the insult offered by braving it in America . In such case , especially , we ask the most calculating Englishman , whether he would rather see the Union-Jack ranged on the field against the Americans , or whether he would feel more confidence if the two were moving forward side by side ?

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      THE NEW . ERA . A new aera is opened to us , " and the Times proclaims it : " that none can doubt . "— "We are come upon an age when the value , the powers , and the wants of man , are suddenly and considerably raised , and when everybody gives more , and receives more in return . How fortunate that on the threshold of this new state of things , more wonderful than any which revolution could have brought us to , we nave already got rid of Protection , and have not that old fraud to mar our present good fortune ! We have committed ourselves to the general laws of Providence , and Providence now rewards our confidence with a vista of social improvements and unexpected blessings such as man had not dreamt of ten years ago . " The farmers themselves have discovered that " whatever is to be done" for them , " must be done by themselves ; " although , expecting no more than the forty-shilling average for wheat which they have had for several years , they are not pressing their friends in office . The " country party" which had seceded ao long from office , flared up into agitators , and subsided into misanthropes ; learning at the end of several years , " to sit like Patience on a monument , smiling at forty shillings a quarter . " Under these conditions , we scarcely wonder at tin * enormous vicissitudes elsewhere . What with

      the joint attractions of hope and gold in Australia , of republicanism and prosperity in America , the Irish are leaving those desirable premises which they have so long celebrated as " the gem" or " flower of the ocean , " &c . ; and concurrently with this depletion of its native race , is going on a quiet settlement by English and Scotch . A splendid grocer ' s shop is opened in Coinieinnra , and the Irish who remain are learning to buy

      groceries , for cash , to the extent , of (\ 0 l . a week ! Such is the effect of the reparative operation of tho Encumbered Estates Act , reported to the [ British Association by Mr . Locke . While an alienated population is leaving the land , that statute is sweeping away the spurious tribe of insolvent landowners ; a race- of gentry whom the grocer aforesaid finds it most difficult to keep off his books . " The empire" to bo proclaimed in France , on r * K VvQF about tho second of December , will bo but u % X ' trAftfyf iJftjkof * h « n « w *» ra ftS compared with this * . ' / " ¦ tfn £ if dn # nif \ transformation of irulanri into a Yrw ^;;^^^ tferti \ E ^ Wland . Tins Times may well say , - X'f * 'v 4 » Wg 4 B ^ $ Jru now occurring of the mont mo-- " ¦ : -. ' , ' >* e » i Wtt « oliai-RcU-r , tlutt require ua much vigilance ¦ \ ¦ " , t V " * . ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ *» ¦ « , ¦ , ' . r S'fc :- ;/ - >¦ ¦ ¦ / •^¦ •• uf : 1 : . y

      on our part as if we were passing through icebergs at the break-up of an Arctic winter . " But , where is the vigilance / That is the point . Amongst other great movements , there is the migration of the cholera ; and Tottenham , in anticipation of that fashionable arrival , has been preparing itself not to receive the distinguished guest . Tottenham is to belong to the new sera . It has provided itself with drains that will perform the office of draining ; with water so soft , that people can really wash with it , or make tea with it , and so pure , that it cleanses rather than pollutes ; and with other arrangements proper to a state of civilization . But London at large belongs

      to the old sera : its drains no houses draining , its water returning the filth that might escape ; its Smithneld , and its grave-yards , spreading nuisance and pestilence . i _ -i Doctor Franz has been teaching the philosophers of Germany how the present age is witnessing the departure of " authority . " Costumes of different ranks are disappearing , and one costume covers all ; the castle and palaces of patrician orders are exchanged for mere large houses , not distinguished from those of bankers or traders ; the railway is abolishing the six-horse

      carriage and its outriders ; electric telegraphs are about to bring Celestial Empires to our very door ; philosophy , after analyzing the bolt of Jove himself , does not scruple to analyze Institutions . But all this while the princes , who might have allied themselves to the great movements of civilization ; who might have been its leaders , have endeavoured to remain behind with the machinery of the six-horse carriage ; in the

      castle , impregnable to arrows alone ; in the faith , political or ecclesiastical , that will not stand the eye of science . Doctor JFranz rates the philosophers of Germany , and the princes thereof , for being behind the age : possibly he might be able to preach these instructive sermons to people in authority nearer our own home , even to those who witnessed the vast movements , the iceberg

      risks described by the Times , and the vaster op-Sortunities , and who yet suffer the work of the ay to be done against every difficulty by amateurs , or succeed only in postponing it until tomorrow . A new sera is come , but the premier for that sera lias not yet been " sent for . " Here is a chance for an enterprising young man . " Wanted , a statesman for the new iEra . " How many might answer that advertisement , even though " all letters must be postpaid . " But But to whom should the candidate address his

      tendersP Scarcely to any department in Downing-street , since he must be unknown there , and so lack " interest" ; or , if known , disliked . Should he address his proposal to V . B . direct P His letter would be intercepted : the man of the new cera would not be able to penetrate the beefeaters . Should lie go to the British public P British public is always too busy in the hours of business : and after the hours of business , it

      never attends to business . Besides , we arc told that the British public , the true people , never appears in public , having no time : it stops at home , and attends to business . lieally it is not easy to see whom the man of tho new { era could apply to . Ho could obtain no attention ; or if lie did , tho official folks Mould get hold of him , and would put him in office—probably making the man of tho new jura a Chancellor of tho

      Exchequer , and setting him to blunt his teeth on an Income Tax , or banishing him from the presence , for talking 1 *> o freely about bottle-holding . Sometimes , indeed , the man of a new lera can obtjiin an exclusive attention from one potentate , —King Mob ; and that is probably the reason why so many a new a ; ra has commenced so roughly and painfully . Could not the Times add to its information a recipe for beginning tho now jura in a more worknmnlike and quiet style P

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      MOLOCH . Chi Mies , says tho Morning Chronicle , aro often national . Sin is old , and j > ervadoH all conn tries ; but particular crimes become nationalized in particular countries , and crime in England is acquiring special characteristics far from honourable to her fame ; they are evidently , however , the results of faults in ourselves , and aro not imported diseases . " Kuglish ruffianism has not taken to tho knife ; but it . has advanced in the dovilish accomplishment of biting oil" noses mid Hcooping out eyes . Kicking a man to death when bo i « down , or treating a wife in tho uumo way—atununng on an oncmy or k paramour with

      hob-nailed boots—smashing a woman ' s head with a hand-iron—these atrocities , which are of almost daily occurrence in our large towns , are not so much imported crimes as they are the extravagant exaggeration of the coarse , sullen temper of an Englishman brutalized by ignorance , arid stupified by drink . " Note—We have made wonderful progress in " putting down" boxing , wrestling , single-stick , and other hardy but hard games , and while our easier classes have become so refined that they scarcely dare to open an omnibus window for fear that " the draught" should make them " catch cold "

      our hardier tribes behave as aforesaid . The sum of the two is what we call " ¦ progress . " But certain crimes , says our contemporary , are new to our calendar , and are almost peculiar to our country ; they are poisoning relatives to obtain money from Insurance and Benefit Clubs ; brutal violation of women by several persons in succession ; and infanticide . For the most part these crimes stand on separate grounds . The mercenary poisoning may be traced to that general drift of popular philosophy which has taught attention to parsimony and lucre , and has not

      cultivated eitherthe intellect or the better feelings . Commercial ' cuteness has outgrown education , and natural morals have stood still j and thus the " common people" have learned to think it clever to turn an honest penny by child , parent , or husband . The principle of insurance amongst the rude and uneducated has practically operated as a premium upon death ; not because the principle of insurance is in itself bad , but because the unfortunate people have not been taught to handle the edged tools of civilization , and their natural feelings have been stifled in their hearts

      by the morals of the cruel ceconomy . 'JLhe brutal violation may be referred to the fact , of the like kind , that the passions have been ignored and hurried from the surface of society , rather than regulated and refined by the higher influences which ought to have been extended along with the restraints of civilization . And still more is the crime of infanticide referable to the same ignoring of that which cannot be extinguished , but which remains without enlightenment or regimen . The Morning Chronicle adduces a terrible catalogue of accusations under this head : —

      July 10—Northampton—One case of concealing birth . July 13—Lincoln—One child murder , one concealment of birth . July 14—Home Circuit—Ann Welsh , tried for murder of her female illegitimate child ; acquitted . July 15—Nottingham—One concealment of birth . July 17—Norfolk Circuit—Ann Raven , tried for destroying her illegitimate infant ; acquitted—insanity . July 17—Nottingham—Emma Lewis , indicted for wilful murder of her infant child ; acquitted—insanity . July 20—Winchester , July 19—Richard Roe , and Frances Roe , indicted for conspiring to kill Alfred Koo son of male prisoner ; acquitted . July 20—Cardiff—One prisoner charged with

      murder of her infant . July 20—Ellen Vcnns , convicted of concealment ot birth ( bad case ) . July 21—Derby—Selina Ride , charged with murder of her infant child ; acquitted . July 21—Mary Mahoney , charged with murder ot her infant child ; acquitted . July 22—Mary Glarvey , charged with murder ot her infant child ; acquitted . July 23—WoroeHtcr—Mary Robins , tried for t » o murder of her illegitimate chiid ; condemned to dentb , but sentence not to bo carried into effect . July 24—Dorchester—Louisa Wolboni , for wiltui murder of her male infant , by administering vitriol ; acquitted . ,.., chiM

      July 24—Ann Applin , for the murder of hor ; acquitted . At tho close of tho proceedings Mr . ^ taron Martin , who tried tho ca . se , observed that tho crime o infanticide was most dreadfully common in this county ( DorHot ) . There had been six cases lust your , and ou of Hix prisoners on tho calendar for this circuit , tw wore charged with this crime . They bad lx > th K > c acquitted , and in tho caso just tried most properly h > but those subjected to this temptation had bettor tn ^ warning , or ' perhaps another case would bo w proved , and tho unfortunate woman would have to piato hor erimo by an ignominious death . July 28—MaidHtone—Catherine Urooko , tried for in « wilful murdor of her male illegitimate child ; «« q lllt ' July 29—Klizaboth Cnmpeny , for attempting murdor her son , by throwing him into a P « n ( 1 *

      quitted . . wilf « l July 30—Durham—Jano Harlund , for tno w » inurd « i ofh « r n « w-b » rn m « lo « bUdj acquitted .

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      372 THE LEADER . [ Satorbay ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 11, 1852, page 872, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1951/page/12/