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beings in health , and paying him an annual salary for so doing , but stopping his payment during the illness of any one under his charge . " We in civilized England might be imitators of a practice less rational . The principle , we imagine , might be beneficially applied in the working of public as well as private affairs . . Wide as is the gap between rulers and people , and Utopian as may be the . desire for a nobly paternal government , we still indulge a hope that a being made in " God ' s own image" shall be at least as well provided with the physical comforts necessary for his sustenance as the beast of burden .
In the Registrar General ' s returns we lately read— " Mr . Lane , the medical attendant , writes on his certificates , ' The effluvia from the drain very offensive ; ' and Mr . Murray , the registrar , adds , ' I learned from informant that the drains mentioned are not the house drains , but a gullyhole , in connexion with the sewers , directly at the corner of the house . Another child in the family is now suffering from the same complaint . And the Times of Wednesday last recounts how two men repairing a drain perished under the very mischief which they went to correct . These reports are still of disasterously frequent occurrence . We do not feel it to be as necessary now
as it would have been five or six years ago , to detail the peculiar character of the ev $ 9 arising from bad ventilation and drainage ; those evils are become patent , and there are few of us who inhale the fragrance of a gully-hole or dead-well without knowing that we do but smell fever and premature death . 1 We know these things well enough , and we appoint men to do the right thing—to eradicate the evil ; but it isn ' t done . There wants a sufficient motive . "Why not try the application of the principle with which we started ? Create an organized body of active men , to be well paid during the proper performance of their functions , but to be direct sufferers when the certificate of
a medical man should bear testimony to the inadequate fulfilment of their duties . Indeed , there are a number of men who already possess both knowledge and place ; apply it to them . Suspend the salary of the Commissioners of Sewers , or other health officers , during infectious fragrances or endemic diseases ; or , if they have not power enough , suspend the salaries of their superiors .
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HINTS TO NEW M . Y . 'S . PEOSPECTS OF THE SESSION . G entlemen , —While you are progressingthrough the barbarous rite of " taking the oaths" upon faiths , as " Christians" and " liornan-Catholics " ( for Parliament distinguishes ) , which you may vaguely entertain ; while you are sauntering about club rooms , yawning your scepticisms as to what is to become of Ministers , and lounging away your longing for the 11 th in November fogs ; you may have time and inclination for a few more hints and warnings , which , like my previous suggestions , may still bo accep table to you for their perfect unreserve . I flatter myself there is at least this point in my
remarks—bluntncHM . In a word , then , Gentlemen , I fancy that your foast of reason , at Manchester , was a mess ; and I suspect from the look of the rehearsal , that the performance may bo a failure Not that the casting of the parts does not seem admirable ; and from JV 1 r . ( . jieorgo Wilson , the benevolent undo of the piece ( why was his firm selected for Radical pledges ?) , who is to bless everybody at an autumn banquet , to Mr . Marplot , M . JP ., who is shyly to net everybody by the- ears , and so , as usual , keep up the interest for Mr . Wilson , the seleetion does credit to Mr . Hright , bhii ' JUder on Tuesday . Hut there in an objection I start to
you all at the outset . \ on are beginning as amateurs , Gentlemen . The Manchester banquet wrh only private theatricals . You forgot your author , tho people , and are all too eager in making parts for yourselves . jAnd then ? in another error I notice . Who in your manager P Not Mr . JJright , surely ; such a manager would bo Charles Kean in a " company—always having tho stage to himself . Arid even Wmajhmmc c . t train ou qnatre pouptc . s' would bent Mr . Disraeli out of his present ijrata anui on the minny Hide of the House , 1 doubt your qualification for Marionettes . Well for us , tho strangers , perhaps , if there were njoro sticks than " whinn' among
The result of the Manchester banquet P Is there a Radical party for specific Radicalism P I have read the speeches , and admire them properly ; wondering , however , why all you new M . P . ' s were brought there to hear the slight variation of Wilson , Cobden , Bright , and Gibson , upon the more stock entertainment of Gibson , Bright , Cobden , and Wilson . Anything for ' . a change , however . There were other speeches in the mere list of names—eloquent , though silent members , whose presence spoke of vast resources , each name representing a different principle , and the congregation reminding us of Sancho Panza ' s account of the muster of the peasant-knightseach new comer was the " most valiant , " on his
own showing , and each had a different weapon The Radical armoury has no pairs . Radical politics are got together on the same system pursued by economical Germans at the fair—twenty bad razors are bought at a time , with the chance that there is one in the lot which will shave ! Still , it is true , there are some precautions taken . The rule is , that every gentleman is to regard
party success in Parliament as a lottery ; and the word is passed that each is to take a different number—except to Mr . Hume , who goes halves with all . But there are some gentlemen high in regard—say Mr . Gardner , of Leicester—who act upon the cunning idea of the Parisian grisette , who took no ticket at all in the lottery , but still thought that " Le JZasard" might bring her up a prize !
Clearly , however , although the Radicals have not yet learned how to originate a parliamentarypolicy , they frequently find themselves in a party made for them by others ; and the attitude they have now assumed , strengthened on one side by ex post facto defiance of Lord Derby , and on the other by anticipatory sneers at Lord John Russell , being an attitude of preparation to be knocked down by the highest bidder , w e must look , in enquiring into the chances of popular legislation , to the prospects of Tories , Whigs , and Peelites , on whose manoeuvres and fortunes the chances of
helpless Radicals themselves are completely dependent . It was an American ( General Jackson ) who said that history was a " series of accidents , " implying that statesmen should consider themselves mere Micawbers—perpetually awaiting something to " turn up" ; and at least it is obvious that Radical statesmanship would reduce itself to the functions of shutting eyes and opening mouths—to bawl at and bully fortune . As it has been so it will be . It is still a question , not what will Molesworth , Roebuck , Cobden , Walmsley , Bright , or Osborne do ; but what will Sir James Graham bid—how far will Lord John
Russell go—is Gladstone open to reason ( of the rougher sort ) — is the Duke of Newcastle in earnest P Let us , then , discuss the probabilities for Manchester Micawbers . Out of tho vague and circuitous eloquence of that class of orators , let us endeavour to extract some fact we can rely on , and work upon . The pivot of the Manchester Banquet was an " if . " " If the Tory Government do bo and so , " Mas the refrain of the evening . Hut " if" the Tory Government should eventuate as a Liberal
Government—that contingency was insufficiently calculated . And why not P There is not much heartiness of political sentiment in the . English nation just at present : and a character for Liberalism ( an Sir James Graham and Mr . Cardwell ought to know ) is easily got . It may bo that Mr . Disraeli would prove himself to be an excessively dishonest man if he brought forward a budget ( as some people- anticipate ho will ) which should not only not rc-tender Protection , but which should develop the principle of " JiYeetrado" throughout our financial system . Hut would he not be forgiven P Our morale for our statesmen in not very high . Peel did in 1 H 2 S )
what Disraeli is expected to do in 1852 . Jn 1827 , 1 ' eol opposed Canning ho vehemently on tin ; question of Catholic Emancipation I hat ho carried Wellington and others out of Canning ' s cabinet with him ; and people said that Peel ' s hostility broke Canning's heart—other people , however , attributing that usually not over sensitive statesman ' s death , to catarrh . Canning died : and in two years Peel passed Catholic Emancipation , and us Wellington ' s papers will surely show , ? io / , because either ho or Wellington feared a civil war . Peel underwent a good deal of abuse ; but Ik ; lived through it ; and rose tho higher for all llu > opposition , which drove him into solf-devolopmont . Arc we moro proeino in our principles
now P The nation forgave Peel the inconsistent because Peel left off on the nation ' s side Would not the inconsistency of Mr . Disraeli be equallv profitable to us all—his own party , whom he con siders first , included P And if profitable would we not forgive it ? Nemesis may revive in COod time ; but meanwhile the unserious British nation only smiles at Mr . Disraeli ' s unscrupulousfress and in fact admires him all the more for having succeeded in spite of dishonesty . Mr . Cobden speaking for the whole Liberal House of Com - mons , had only one policy for enlightened Radicalism—to compel Mr . Disraeli to speak out " Manchester will insist on retaining its opportunities for being important : and will not admi *
that Protection is dead . " We must first settle this question , " said Mr . Cobden ; as if Mr . Disraeli ' s last budget had not settled it as ' if the complete silence of Protectionists had not settled it ! Mr . Cobden obviously , ia his speech on Tuesday , retorted on my " Hints " to him : and he sneers at those who , as I do , call on him and his friends to push on beyond the formulas of 1846 into the real politics of 1852-3 . And , not believing that the Free-trade question is settled , Mr . Cobden scouts the notion , of a Parliamentary organization of Radicals , and summons the nation simply to take Mr . Disraeli by the throat and to demand a Yes or No ; and while
he , by implication , still expresses his faith in agitations for progress ( as if any further agitation were wanted to prove that the country wants two or three things—say , for one , extension of the suffrage ) , Mr . Bright , without offering , as a compensation , his aid in a warfare of Parliamentary tactics , elaborately announces that he for one is sick of agitation . Mr . Disraeli may rejoice in . Mr . Cobden ' s obstinate blunder , and may congratulate the country party on the genteel intentions of Mr . Bright for the future ; and the result
will be that while Manchester goes to Parliament to oppose , and to talk its silliness about " speaking out" ( nearly one year having been already fruitlessly spent in the endeavour to induce Ministers to confess their fraud , and it is not quite usual with men wha are winning to cry " Peocavi" ) , Mr . Disraeli will unexpectedly talk " popular principles , " propose financial , and social , and legal measures , which will force reluctant approval from the whole Opposition—the Palmerston and Clarendon section of it probably intimating their delight by taking places—one way , at least , of suggesting to Mr . Cobden that " this question" needs no more settling . But
this is not certain ; Ministers may not bo wise , may flounder , and get turned out . Is that probable P Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli ( and the talk of society seems to admit that they are united in objects and motives ) are perfectly musters of the position . They have already practically admitted that the policy of 1846 is irrevocable ; and though they may make such an alteration in the Income Tax ( Schedule A ) as would tax farmers on their profits and not on their rentals , as at present — this being a clever concession lew would object to—for the purpose of saving uppcarnnees ns ' fanners' friends—it ifl an insult to tho
understandingsofsuchremarkably keen politicians to suppose that they would court defeat by introducing any measure which a working majority of the Houho of Commons would not perforce have to vote for . They wish to keep ottico . clearly : they can only keep office by a ooJo financial liberal policy , and by a partial admission of all tho current popular claims ; and tnrre is every reason to suppose that , calculating L »«
confusion in the Opposition , they Avould remain , after a good Budget , the strongest Parliamentary party in the country . There are no circuinstiinceH around them which lend strength to their opponents—the Whigs . The country i « unworitodiy prosperous— -this prosperity is likely to continue ; and we know that I . ho English nation w » ' [ theoretical in politics when it is easy in V ° ' r , Tho Peelites waver , and would join a muroHHiin
Tory government . Lord Palmerston , a personality of mark in the nation , and who has a rojn - tatio ' n for avoiding sinking ships ( some } M j ° P supposing tha . 1 ho arranged his decadent in tho Whig government ) , is unpledged . and vvou , doubtless , join bis forces to his old lno »< I ' »« ¦ pratc ^ , tho member for Bucks , if ho « iw "f lively gentleman al , all secure of being flii < H » ( ' by the country . Against the persona ! potency <> lion ! Derby neither that of Sir . James ( ' ril 1 '" ' nor of Lord John Russell can bo matched . 1 ( vu « t landed , church , and " contrv , " With m ** 01
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1066 ^_ THE LEADER . __^ [ Saturday , - — - —¦— . —•— * ** —— - - ^ —^—_^— —————__ .... -... ——
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1852, page 1066, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1959/page/14/
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