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Leader (1850-1860), 8th January 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 38

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      Untitled Article

      the word wliicli points the discreditable allusion . It is impossible to read this Letter to the Electors , and not feel the melancholy position assumed by the writer . Are there many men , adherents of the High Church party , who believe , as he does , that any Cabinet , and not the Church herself , holds in its hands the destinies of the Church of England ? Are there many gentlemen of High Church principles who have so little faith ? " Mr . Denison proves too much . What is the worth of his Church , what

      the importance of its claims r : pon the nation , if it be so slightly founded that a coalition Cabinet can shake it , and education undermine it to its fall ? High and true Churchmen , whose case we are putting , would trust to their own energy and sincerity in the Church ' s behalf , not to the shifting forms of Cabinets , whether as highprincipled as the present , or as low-principled as that of Lord Derby . If the Church can stand alone , no Cabinet can harm her . If she be rotting to her fall , no Cabinet can sustain her .

      Mr . Denison may depend upon it , that if the Church be in danger , it is not by political State Churchmen , like himself and his ally the Morning Herald , that she can be rescued . Her only chance lies in the spiritual simple-mindedness of her ministers , who , working apart from politics , each in his own sphere , heedless of the rise and fall of temporal powers , disdaining to be the tools of unprincipled ministers , shall carry out her principles fully and conscientiously , and accept the consequences . If that will not save her , she is , and ought to be , doomed to perdition .

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      REPUBLICANS IN STATE . Hepttblican austerity cannot altogether repudiate the pageantry of State , a fact made visible to us in the reports of the American diplomatists to the department of State at Washington . The reports , indeed , confirm the assertion of well-informed travellers , that living in the several capitals of Europe inclines to an equality . Mr . Hives explains how living in Paris is far more expensive than in the United States ; Mr . j Meal S . Brown explains how St . Petersburgh is emphatically , and in every respect , an artificial

      city—its taste and habits expensive , its houserent , carriages , furniture , servants , living , and clothing , counting more than at either London or Paris ; Mr . Folsom declares that the cost of living at the Hague is probably greater than in any other part of the Continent , and quite equal to that of London ; Mr . Barringer pronounces Madrid unquestionably one of the dearest capitals in Europe ; Mr . Mac Curdy finds that as to the expense of living , there is not much difference

      between London or Paris and Vienna ; Mr . Marsh believes " the necessary expenses of living arc considerably greater in Constantinople than in any other European capital , with the possible exception of St . Petersburgh , " about which lie has no such detailed information as Mr . Neul > S . Brown supplies . Every man Booms to find his own place the dearest .

      But [ Republican salaries have not been calculated with an eye to court examples , and the Ambassadors of America are-abashed before their diplomatic coadjutors . Their straits are sometimes remarkable . With a striking naivctY : , Mr . Rives proclaims that in Paris butcher ' s meat is fifteen cents , a pound , and twico that for " the delicate portions , " fowls nine francs a pair , and ham thirty or forty cents ; so that , * ' according to this scale of rigorous ami unavoidable expense , the mere ordinary subsistence of a . small household will not be short of

      ; $ ( X ) 0 . dollars , " besides house-rent , ' carriage-hire , fuel , and servants . Mr . Barnard cannot ; pay bin way in Berlin , although he goes without a palace , such as most diplomatists have ; and Mr . Marsh at , Constantinople , proclaims the onerous prices of potatoes and asparagus . " The Dutch people , " says Mr : Kolsoin , with touching particularity , " are great- economists , and consume ( he leasl , possible quantity of every thing necessary for ( ho

      maintenance of life . My ( his means l-liey reduce t-bo expenses of living l , o the limits of their incomes , which are generally small . But . the effect is often seen in t , be unhealthy aNpecl , of the people , and enpe .-ially of the children . " How painful it , would be if the little ambassadorial speeiinoim of Ihe Union , fed only up to the Dutch point , of pai-Hiinony , were to " walk , not ifaukooB , but . Dutchmen , iu Uu , sight of Europe .

      Mr . Schank at Rio , finds 9000 dollars barely enough to support himself in the residence of a gentleman , although his family is absent . " No one knows , " says Mr . Neal S . Brown , " the restraints which the present rate of pay imposes on the Minister , who is compelled to fall back on some subordinate rank of living . " Twelve thousand dollars might do in Paris ; 20 , 000 , Mr . Lawrence thinks , in London ; 100 , 000 francs , Mr . Barnard understands , is the salary of the Turkish Minister at Berlin , even the Sardinian Minister has 55 , 000 francs ; and all speak as if the honour and interest of the American Union

      would be promoted by enabling its Ministers to cut a more respectable figure in palace , carriage , clothes , and hospitality . " Courtly corruption ! " the stern Locofoco exclaims . But we are inclined to think » that the Republican diplomatists take a strictly matter-offact view of the subject . Even a Republic cannot do without the grosser symbols of State , nor is there any reason "Why it should ; the maintenance of these gentlemen is not an individual , but a national affair , and it ought to be on a

      national scale . One quality of greatness is to be open-handed ; and to be close-fisted is to be little . If * the American Republic cannot enable its representative to put the delicate portions of beef before his guests , in Paris ; if it begrudges ^ a potatoe or an asparagus to its ambassador in Constantinople , there must be some point of weakness in its character which is open to attack , and which it would proclaim by its niggardliness . It is true that the intelligent brain , generous heart , and stout arm , make the good citizen , and that most men of her millions may typify the Union , but the Ambassador has to do more than

      typify his country ; and if his children should not be starved to an unhandsome Dutch type , so his hospitality ought not to be below that even of the wandering Arab , who sets the best before the stranger . We need scarcely tell these things to our brethren in America , who are learning them so authentically through , the official channels , and will so well know how to act upon that information ; but the discussion has some interest for us in England , where a false economy , which thought it wise to bate and cheapen everything , did but so recently threaten to be in the ascendant .

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      MANSION-HOUSE JUSTICE . Fob a lord mayor or an alderman , as an institution , we entertain the profoundest respect . We read books about his origin with interest , and we hear speeches made at dinners in proof of his utility with admiration . As a part of the city , a pillar of the constitution , an obsolete , but still venerable , usage of antiquity , he claims and is entitled to our regard ; in one capacity only do we doubt his ability . As a magistrate lie sometimes errs .

      Not to make statements which would only bo credited in the sister country , where , as we havo lately seen , proofs are politely waived as superfluous , we will mention an instance in which a signal injustice seems to us to have been committed in consequence mainly of an alderman ' s extreme sentimentality overpowering his Btricter notions of right , and rendering him oblivious of what we conceive to be the ordinary course of law . It will have been noticed probably by those of our readers who , from duty or inclination , scan

      from day to day the records of crime which every morning ' s broadsheet supplies , that certain gentlemen , termed in courtesy " worthy , " have of late years undertaken to " put down" various offences against society—suicide amongst others—and that they have gained , not- undeservedly , considerable popularity by these undertakings . One magistrate , it will have been observed , has devoted himself to this bobby ; another to thai ; find—no doubt through the sagacity of ( he police , who never bring anybody up unless he is pretty Rure to bo convicted—it- lias almost , in variably happened

      that , if a particular class of charge oa / nio before a particular alderman the case was HaliHfaciorily proved , a heavy penalty indicted , and the intelligent , citizens in ^ the court , wilb dillicully re-Ntramed from cheering . We do not , for a moment suppose that injustice ; has under Uichc circumstances ever been consciously done ; hut wo do believe that there have been very many instances of groundless committals , and that those gentlemen whom wo have ho often seen hovering about the recorder—a city appointment , — during the t-riulfl of the \ ory prisoners whom they huvo com-

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      mitted , have felt , without knowing it , an undue anxiety to have their own judgments confirmed , and have been disappointed when , as now and then happens , the prosecution which they sanctioned has been successless . In the present case the facts speak for themselves . They are briefly as follows : —A younff gentleman , aged 23 , was agent to certain shipowners in Liverpool . Acting in that capacity , he received from various emigrants the amount of their passage money to Australia , giving them in return a certificate entitling them to berths on board the

      ship of his principals . The emigrants got to Liverpool , where they found that , from some misunderstanding between the broker to whom they had paid their money and the firm to whom they were sent with his certificate , they were liable to detention till such time as a correspondence could set the matter right . At this they were all naturally enough disgusted , and the more timid of them no doubt very excusably alarmed . But what were they to do P At an outlay of six and eightpence they would have

      been informed by any respectable attorney that the broker here had been guilty of a breach of contract , but advised that , as probably he had been so unintentionally , they should bring no action against him till they had afforded him an opportunity of removing the unforeseen difficulties which had arisen . But instead of consulting with a solicitor , or possibly so instructed by a knowing one , they rushed off in a body to the Mansion House , assured the city Solons that

      their case was very deplorable indeed , excited furious indignation in the breasts of those worthy men , and finally got the civil action , to which they had a legal right , converted into a criminal prosecution , to which they had none . Great glory accrued to the humane magistrates ; very mucn , we understand , to their surprise ; no benefit was received by the emigrants ; and absolute ruin is the consequence to the young man . On Tuesday the case was tried , and the jury summoned for the occasion were informed that

      the offence imputed to the prisoner was that of obtaining money from emigrants to a considerable amount by false pretences ; that he was not , as he had represented himself , agent to the shipowners in Liverpool at all ; and that , consequently , the persons who paid him in the belief that he was , had been defrauded . Evidence was of course called in support of these assertions ; but as , on cross-examination by Sergeant Wilkins , the chief of the hostile witnesses gavo testimony in support of the defence , the Recorder was at length

      compelled to interfere , and to tell the counsel for the prosecution that he hardly thought the jury could convict , inasmuch as there was no symptom of any false representation like that with which the prisoner was charged , and as the only question was whether he had made any such . Mr . Bodkin assented , and the unfortunate young man , whom every impartial spectator knew from the first to be innocent , was then pronounced not guilty , and allowed to go free , with all tho chances that a man who , justly or unjustly , has ever stood in the dock , is allowed

      subsequently of making his fortune . Now , who , we should like to know , is to compensate him for the evil consequences , extending through his whole life , of this most unnecessary trial ? Who even is t , o make good to him the exponsos of his defence ? We often hoc barristers applying for the costs of a prosecution , and obtaining them , where that prosecution was needed , but how is it that , the court cannot allow the expenses

      of the prisoner , when , as in this case , be has been specially retaining the best counsel ho can get , who proves incontestable that the charge was one which never ought , to have been made , because , as it , u makers knew , it never could be supported P Perhaps tin ; best , plan under such circumstances would be to compel the committing magistrate to settle the [ iriHoner ' s lawyers * bill . Let , City gentlemen have their enjoyments , but , let ruining a man be a luxury properly paid for .

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      T 1 IK UNPKINCIJ'LKI ) OI'l'OSlTION TO MIL ( JliADNTONU AT OXFORD . Tun University of Oxford is for the third time in hix months disgracefull y conspicuous . . Resolved , it , seems , upon miieido . " in the Bummer we had the litinouH onslaught , of n Bui look Marsham , decked in the " no | op 0 ry " colours , mid announced with truinpetH and pliAwmH , by the Me raid of Biblical Derby ism , and the Standard

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      38 ' THE LEADER . [ Satprpay ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 38, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1968/page/14/