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Leader (1850-1860), 25th September 1852, Edition Town of 2, Page 924, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      in the heart of an exile ?) as for the extreme cheapness of living , and the French language and habits of the population . The last barrier against a relentless persecution is not England but the local rights of that dangerouslysituated English dependency . Decidedly our retention of Jersey will be considered an inconvenience which the next 6 ea fight , so ardently anticipated by M . Ducos , the French Minister of Marine , will have to rc-adjust .

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      THE At THORSHIP OF THE "AMICTTS LETTERS . It would seem that the authorship of these letters has influenced the fate of an election . During the struggle of the Amalgamated Engineers , one " Amicus" indited in the Times certain letters against the rights of labour , of which letters the workmen had just cause of complaint . We did not ourselves hesitate to express utter dissent from the language and tone of "Amicus , " whoever he might be . These letters have been imputed to Mr . "W . J . Fox , about the last man who would have condescended to write them . Those letters , both in sentiment , and style , were so

      utterly beneath Mr . Fox , that it may be said that he could not have written them had he tried . But the unscrupulousness of the electioneering imagination imputed them to him , and though he emphatically denied " any knowledge of them , " the imputation continues to be repeated . Mr . Charles Hindley , of Ashton , wrote to Mr . Samuel Fielden , to inform that gentleman that he know who " Amicus" was , and that Mr . Fox was not he . But Mr . Fielden has made no retractation of the averment upon which he had ventured . A correspondent who has frequent intercourse with the northern towns , assures us

      that the impression diffused among working men , that Mr . Fox wrote those letters , continues general . The correction has not had the currency which party spirit has given to the calumny . If the life and services of a man like Mr . Fox are to be disposed of in this manner , and the people are to be imposed upon by such flagrant fabrications , what has become of the intelligence , not to say generosity , of the working class , whose interests Mr .

      Fox has so long promoted r The Council of the Amalgamated Engineers could arrest this dishonourable imposition—and we think they ought to make it a point oi honour to do so . They conducted their contest with great credit to their order ; they might add another instance of their superiority to conventional prejudice , by refusing any longer to lend the countenance ! of their silence ( o an imputation on Mr . Fox , which continues to ho received because working men believe that the Council believe it .

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      rOIilTICA Ij JMISilKI'KttSKNTATION . Our attempt in a recent article to distinguish between the good cause of democracy and the travesties of it , got , up by certain " rod" republicans abroad and at home , lias been in some quartern tortured into an opponeney of u wise political progress . . Hut we doubt not that our intelligent readers wiJl see the difference between a protest ngaiimt tin ; extravagancies perpetrated under the " red" designation , and that manly and heroic championship of freedom which is the guarantee of national deliverance ' . Jt in because these extravagancies have never been disowned by the friends of the people , that the real patriots remain widely unrecognised by the public . If we render . some service in this direction we shall not care to have been made the subject ofiiiisrcprcsculatiou .

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      A TIO . ST I'OR TIIK I'HACK KOOIKTV . Wii commend the following brief paragraph to ( he especial notice of the executive of the Peace Society : " 11 A AU'HH I UK .-- ( From 11 Correspondent . ) - Tim comity police have received strict orders to destroy and suppress all placards , titui bills published by the L ' eace Society and other parties , ol" a tendency to prevent men from volunteering for the two regiments of militia to be raised in this county . " " Correspondent , of what journal I "' The Mqrniiuj ' ll ' erald , gentlemen . Here you have a county magistracy , offering , through a correspondent , of the Ministerial Organ , a challenge , and presenting the whole county ol Hampshire an a battlo-lield ; and if there bo any pluck in the l ' eace Society , which in not to be doubted , bore is an occasion which will iv . nl the well-known sincerity of its convictionH . W « put it to them as a question for deliberation ; ought they not to placard Hampshire at onco P

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      THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE . { To the Editor of the Leader . ) II . Leeds , September 6 , 1852 . Me . Editor , —I concluded my former letter by showing that "Ion" was himself guilty of that " exaggeration" and " extravagance" which lie ascribes to the Teetotalers . As regards the Temperance Movement itself , " Ion " has confessed its vast importance—acknowledged its iniuien . se usefulness—its capability for still more magnificent results . Under that avowed conviction , he professes to have written for its—reformation ! Was it not imperative to have drawn his materials from official documents and accredited authorities ?—unless he is warring with those who will not hear him—the Camp-followers , not the army and its real captains . How otherwise can he give the movement true expression , and realize his dream of liberating it into higher power ? If tcetotulism be the blind and imprisoned Samson that " Ion" represents , to deliver the captive he must be spoken to in tones and a language which will be intelligible and applicable to him . He stirs not else . lint the speech of " Ion , " where it is not laughed at as a caricature , either rouses scorn by its misrepresentations , or excites sorrow—sorrow that a writer with so much power and so great a theme , has done such signal injustice both to himself and to his subject . I protest against a great-cause being judged by individuals mid accidents—by vague report or popular rumour . It is a lest which no cause could stand , and iio . set of persons will allow , when applied to themselves - —however it may be applauded by people of " Earnest " tastes and intolerant temperaments , who revile our convictions as " sloppy consciences ! " Any man of talent might apply such a test , and with infinite mischief , to the cause which had the misfortune of his polite , attention . Though no paid agent of the Temperance Society , my knowledge of it extends through eighteen years of active connexion with it , and over many parts of Knglaud . J am personally acquainted with most of its leading advocates , and with all its standard and periodical literature , —and on this knowledge of the men and the movement , I declare that the representation given by " Ion , " is not tkiik . Misrerepresented as we are by our foes , it needed not that we should be more so by professing friends . 7 . Throughout . " Ion ' s" first article , besides an abundance of nicknames , are scattered the words " rudeness , " " disagreeable , " and their co-partners . 1 begin to suspect that it is with " Ion , " not ho much a question of principles as manners . The whole , in short ., is ii development of Kgoisin—an over-refinement , or morbid slate , of the a'sthetical organ—an attempt to reduce a great , social and moral question , involving not , only scientific principles , but , life and happiness to some artificial standard of taste which a self-appointed Khadanianthus may choose to set up , or some fastidious parvenu to imitate ! One is incontinently reminded . of Nhakxpeare ' s " trim Lord , " who talked so like a waiting gentlewoman . As the . soldiers , hot from t , \ ui shock of ( uf nicst battle , — " More dead bodies by inrni < tnncrly , Me called them , uutiiui / lit knaves . " . ' / tut for the " villunoussaltpetre , " the noise , iun \ wounds , " Me would himself have been a soldier !" Yet , * ' Ion ' s" written discourse is "besprinkled with very distasteful Mowers of rhetoric : " Orators of the Tub , " "bigots , " "insolence of Temperance , " " ginger-beer Churc / i , " (!) " Pharisees of the vow , " Ace ., are epithets which flow fresh and fast from tho pen of the Man who

      has expressly come forth to teach the i gnorant T totaJers better manners !— e " " What in the captain is a choleri c word In the soldier is rank blasphemy . " ' In this way , on the score of taste , I can understand ih scene described as taking place between the I nn < J Writer and the Temperance Hotel-keeper ; aadT ^ n confess , that if mine host were half as rude a * th guest is reported ' to have "been b y his friend he " utterly inexcusable . The poor hotel-keeper is ' dearl " treated as nobody—a mere machine—a pump-handle tn be worked up and down at the caprice or . convent ™ of others . The " celebrated" Writer seems to hav thought that mine host ought to have had no

      conscience—that it was a luxury which he should not afford to keep , —for when he audaciousl y lays claim to one , our author peppers him -with a volley of polite curses and ridiculous nicknames . It may , of course b a fair question for Casuistry to determine , in each particular case —( whether of an opium-smoking Turk and an arsenic-eating German , on a visit to an Eng lishman or of an < zfco /«) Zic-tippler , on a visit to a Teetotaler )—how far morals will permit you to observe conventional manners—but certainly there must be a limit

      somewhere , and it is only for the principle of the thing that I am at present contending . If , residing in Ohio a genteel " Ion" from the slave-states should require me to feed himself and his horse , or to help him in any way , while in pursuit of his slave , whatever " manners " might dictate , the " morals" of my heart and head would give a stern denial . He might stand before me , the very incarnation of the frigid and polite Reasoner , but I would stand up still , immovable , in my Humanity .

      If the conversation be correctly reported , the Gingerbeer had the best of it in good taste and in argument . A man has surely the right to set up whatever he pleases as the rule of his house—to play the fool and fanatic , if he likes . ] STo matter as to its wisdom—the right and the conscience are sacred , and I shall feel bound to respect his right and his rule so long as I place myself voluntarily within its range . Dictation , in such a case , is insult , and even criticism is impertinence . In my opinion , the London writer was insolent , and had he treated me in such a way , I would have had him shown to the door . If a stern , orthodox Puritan , for example , who happened to be quartered in the house of a Deist , were to insist that his host should

      summon the inmates of his house to hear read certain ( to him ) obnoxious portions of the Bible , and to go down upon their knees in worship of Christ—what would he think of that ? Will " Ion" say that " Lemonade" ought not to have made the drinking of wine a case of conscience ? I answer , that what he ought , or ought not , is a matter of reasoning in his as in any other case , but so long as it is a question of conscience , the conviction ought to be respected , not flouted and ridiculed . If the notion is wrong , get it out of him , not by calling names , but by fair argument .

      8 . Hut the real pinch is here . " Ion ' s" notions about " Temperance" diflbr from the Teetotalers ( if " Ion ' prefers the designation , " Abstainer , " we do not object ; " the rose will smell as sweet by any other name ) . To Mr . 'llitUMMAOKM PoitTO temperance is u mcro question of convention and convenience : to Mr . Ljsmonadk ( why not Spring Water ?) it is a duly aii < a principle . To him the dietetic use of intoxicants ( ol opium , tobacco , or alcohol ) is a demonstrated violation of that law of the physical and moral nature happy defined , by » writer in lihichivood , as " adap tation 'o the organ . " He beholds the innumerable evils win *' have flowed from that violation , and is thoroug hly impressed with the conviction that these evils must continue to flow until men come to acknowledge and ow . Y

      this law . Now , to ask him to bo a party " » Us VI ° ' tion—to turn druggist for sick Christian , or erran ^ . ^ man for sensuous Turk— -to tMipply physic at < 1 h ! ^""^ table , or opium in the drawing-room , because Ins tf " ^ have acquired a liking or a prejudice for them , n J " the clear sacrifices of a Principle and a lYoteHt ( of w U 1 H / \ , i \ !»>¦ null uiv \ , \ ri it i J iiH' » j' *»> •*¦• -- -- - 1 * 1 111

      the Pledge is the motto and the symbol ) ; "' ''" ' ^ n y my opinion , if made , would display a queer llll ( 1 , , ' !" . ()| ll compromise , rather Minn a " quaint connive . i ( , this stand-point , the Teetotaler cannot ; < snwM . « i » > ^ ^ otherwise than be- does , you would despite '" , ' , " ) o did . If that stand-point " be wrong , let " !<>» ^^ remove it , not , quarrel with Uh leg itimate ^'"' ''l ' ^^ ,,, Let him vrovk tlmt alcohol It adapted t , <> tin ' () r ^ ^ of manund that its general use does not ( 'W

      , of narcotics ) lend to evil , and mw in evil . ^^ !) . What strange confusion of thoug ht , u »< ' ^ <() thai differ , to denounce the TwI . mI . h 1 w , who < u- < ^ ^^ violate Iuh own convictions in bis own sp here , ^ like the bigot who will not allow another man . ^ in his sphere , his natural rights , but dtetam ^ what ho shall think , and how ho uhnjl wor « n > p .

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      XOtTIS ITAPOLEON IN JIIS PiACE . In royal and ambassadorial appointments it is common to say that such a man is appointed to an office " near our person , " or that he is appointed to be Minister " near the Court of St . James ' s , " or the like . The Paris correspondent of the Times appropriately informs us that , at Lyons , " the triumphal arch , painted in tho Prince ' s colours " —in blood , we suppose— " was raised in the middle of tho quay , near the slaughter house . "

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      There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by readingcontroversies , his senses awakened , and nis judgment sharpened . If . then , itbe profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .

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      [ in this depabtment , as am . opinions , however extreme abb allowed an expression , the editor necessarily holds himself responsible for none . ]

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      924 THE LEADER , [ Saturday

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 924, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1953/page/16/