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Leader (1850-1860), 27th August 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 828, Untitled Article

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      palm of a higher courage and the claim to a higher glory . ) Different regiments might also have distinctions , and the whole army should be clearly distinct in appearance from the civilians of their day . The moustache and beard would serve this end as well as preserve the throat and lungs of the soldier . It ; is also well that lie should be widely different from the common enemy- ^ say " the Russians " - —lest he should be mistaken and worsted , a result natural to anything like a Russian . TheJDuke was strong on this point ; Ids enemy being " the French . " " If they by chance went right he'd purposely go wrong . " He wrote in 1811 : —

      " I hear that measures are in contemplation to alter the clothing , caps , &c ., of the army . There is no subject of which I understand so little ; and , abstractedly speaking , I think it indifferent how a soldier is clothed , provided it is in a uniform manner , and that he is forced to keep himself clean and smart , as a soldier ought to he . But there is one thing which I deprecate , and that is , any imitation of the French in any manner . It is impossible to form an idea of the inconveniences and injury which result from having anything like them , either on horseback or on foot ; and his piquet were taken in June because the 3 rd Hussars had the same caps as the French chasseurs a cheval and some of their hussars ; and I was near being taken on the 25 th September from the same cause . At a

      distance or in action colours are nothing ; the profile and shape of the man ' s cap , and his general appearance , ai * e what guide us ; and why should we make our people look like the French ? A cocked-tailed horse is a good mark for a dragoon , if you can get a side view of him ; but there is no such mark as the English helmet , and as far as I can judge it is the best cover a dragoon can have for his head . I mention this'because in all probability you may have something to say to these alterations , and I only beg that we may be as different as possible from the French in everything . The narrow top caps of our infantry , as opposed to their broad top caps , are of great advantage to those who are to look at long lines of posts opposed to each other . "

      The suggestions "have the one view well expressed , but then it is the mere look out of a soldier guarding one point . The last point is the suitability of the dress for the character of the service . Our troops must pursue as well as fight , so their dress should be easy . They must carry with them conveniences for impromptu lodgment and personal shelter , and therefore should carry knapsacks — the

      lighter , of course , the better . Circumstances dictate other changes . Late improvements in offensive weapons make the soldier less liable to sword thrusts or sabre cuts than before , and more likely to bo picked down by that human speck nine hundred yards off , or swept away in mass by grapeshot or ball . Defensive breast-plates and very heavy helmets are therefore gravely

      useless—Like Saul's plate armour on the shepherd boy , Encumbering 1 but not arming him . Metal shoulder scales •—the first form of the useless worsted epaulette—might be retained as easily borne and really defensive in close conflict ; while they eko out and point the manly squareness of the shoulder . But all other heavy pieces of metal arc bad . In the Avars of to-day the . sol diers arc not ; to win by via inertia ' ,, as the British partly won at Waterloo ; modern science would

      noon make whorl ; work ol' a standing army , or kneeling squares . Our troops must make " good running as well as fighting ; they miiHfabc quick to circumvent the enemy , or quick to meet , him full in the face before he can load his batteries a second time . In short ; , our system should make the Holdier easily moved—his own spirit will nuggest the direction . Tho beat dress for use i , s easily found ; tho object ; of tho man . should nlono suggest tho beauty .

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      'I I IK EARL OF » ST 1 K . LIN ( AND THE RUSSELL CONVENTION . TiTio Convention . concluded bof ;\ veen Lord John KviHsollnnd Mr . Ingernoll , in . February last ; , on tho part of tho . 'British and American Governments , seems ( , o have been detained to provide for tho " portentous" oventthat haw happened at Washington . Tho Convention arranges tho appointment ; of a , joint connniNsion to decide claims preferred by corporations , companies , and privato individual of either Stato upon the ( Government of the other Stato . It iH proponed that , her Britannic- Majesty and tho . President of tho United States shall each appoint a Commissioner ,

      The two Commissioners to meet in London with the least possible delay . They are at once to appoint an umpire , or if they cannot agree upon an umpire they are to nominate two ; and on each question of disagreement between the Commissioners the case is to be referred to one of those umpires , who shall be selected by lot for that particular judgment . Every claim must be presented to the Commissioners within six months t

      from the day of their first meeing , or any special case requiring delay within three months longer . The Commissioners must examine and decide all claims . within one year from the day of their first meeting , the two Governments binding themselves to accept the decision of the Commissioners or of the umpire as final . Any payments decreed under the Commission to be paid within one twelvemonth of the decision without any deduction save a slight per centage towards the

      expenses . It is a well-considered plan , and promises to work well . A contemporary has vaunted it as a proof of the good feeling between America and England , and far be it from us to deny to Lord John Russell and his colleagues the credit that they deserve for their share in a practical arrangement , which , b }^ tending to prevent many mischievous understandings between two important States , will promote a real understanding . They have done something towards the American alliance ; and it is not our part to withhold from them the due acknowledgment of their contribution . But to our agitated minds at the present moment the convention has a solemn destination .

      If the property of an English country gentleman was recently threatened , by the sudden apparition of a " Sir Richard Hugh Smyth / ' the possessions of her Britannic Majesty are in like manner threatened by a portentous individual calling himself the Earl of Stirling and Dovan , Viscount Stirling , and Viscount of Canada , in right of his ancestor Alexander Earl of Stirling , &c , hereditary Lieutenant-Generaland Lord Proprietor of Nova Scotia and Canada . The present noble earl claims territory extending to fifty leagues on each side of the St . Lawrence and the Lakes , with all the fisheries which were recently the scene of disputes between English and American fishermen . This venerable nobleman

      —for he is upwards of seventy years of age—is not only accompanied by his son . but also by the traditions of his family ; he holds " the original charter of JSTova Scotia , " also " the original charter of Canada , " with other charters giving vast political and administrative powers , including the power of making " baronets . " A company is forming itself for the purpose of supporting tho noble earl in his claim , and when they have made

      it good for him , he , reciprocating the favour , will make over the fisheries to them . Here wo have , therefore , a corporation , an individual , and a company ; so that tho Earl can come before the new Commission in all capacities , and we can foresee something of the turn which the examination would take before the Commissioners . The parallol , wo believe , with the late Smyth case would be very close .

      The Earl would prove that he had been in correspondence , under his title , with Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst , . First Lord of tho Treasury Grey , Mr . Robert J . Walker , lato Secretary to tho Admiralty of the United States , . English Lords of tho Committee of Council , and other olh ' cers of State , whoso authenticity in undoubted , lie will probably bring forward " tho original charter of Canada , " " tho original charter of . Nova Scotia , " and other original documents :

      one of winch irrefutably makes over to the kncestor of the present noblo Earl , " marrcaaiua lacubua aquir < piscat . ioni . bua tarn in aqua saf . an quam racenti tarn rcgaliwm pisc ' mni quam alionon . " JtHcems impossible to contest a claim sustained by such Latinity ! Ho will bring forward , also , wo dare nay , rolls showing that he ban voted in the election of reprenentativo peers ; likewise maps netting forth tho territories which are his , or ought to be his .

      And then the Commissioners tfill examine , They will ask him whether tho charter of 102 . S , offering to him Canada , and some small appurtenances—a sort of territorial watch and seals - then belonged to his Britannic Majesty to givoP Should the Earl loyall y answer in tho allirmative , perhaps a reference to history will show that lit Mint period the country in ijuostion belonged to . Jhmnee . Too . late , " therefore , in ono Hcnso , aud much too early for Wolfo . 'The

      Commissioners will then perhaps inquire wherJi ^ + t . map of Canada , by " the maptdesi gner to X King , " Louis the Fourteenth , endorsed with X ° lograph observations by the most eminent . IW J " men of that day , including the King and a 2 " bishop Fenelon , is the same map which was hibited in Edinburgh on a distinguished occasion - in respect of which it was proved that . "the iW designer to the King" had not received his pomtment until ten years after the date of Sf " map , and that the persons whose names wp endorsed , including Fenelon , had most of them died before the designer was appointed ? S true it is that persons advancing claims to an cient estates and titles should be exquisite archfeol gists and chronoloerists !

      The Commissioners will also ask the nolh and alleged Earl , whether , before he voted as a Scotch peer , he had proved his style , title , and estates P Whether , indeed , any such proof is absolutely necessary before voting ? Because we have an impression that other gentlemen have voted in that assemblage , and have afterwards been disproved . The Commissioners will * perhaps , admit that Lord Chancellor L yndhurst ' Earl Grey , and other distinguished Eng lishmen ' were in themselves authentic ; but they will ask ' whether that authenticity extended to evervbodv

      with whom they might happen to correspond " ? We have heard of a case in which a merchant wrote on the back of a bill of exchange— " I will be d- d if I accept this bill , John Smith , " was judged to have accepted it by his signature ; but we never heard that the Lord Chancellor , by the single act of writing to a suitor in Chancery—possibl y denying his claim—thereby certified the title of the suitor . If it were bo , the more absurd a claim was the more sure the man would be of ratification ; and a very impudent application to

      Chancery , extorting an indignant reply , would be the surest and quickest process for a suitor . The Commissioners also will probably ask the alleged Earl whether he is a Mr . Alexander , wlio took his trial in Edinburgh , in 1839 , on a charge of forging documents to support his claim , the map included ? Whether the jury did not pronounce the documents to be forged ? And , whether the verdict of " not proven , " as bearing on the chai'ge of personal complicity on his own part , is in itself a proof that he was the Earl of Stirling .

      They might also ask him some other interesting questions . Whether , for example , he intended to claim , as a British subject , those parts of bis territory which lies within the jurisdiction of the United States ; and , through his " company , " as so many American citizens , that part of his territories which lies within the British dominions ? This would be a most magnificent example of an individual under the Commission making a cat ' s

      paw of two great States—setting the United States to seine the fisheries and colonies of Great Britain for him , and Great Britain to reconquer a large portion of the independent republic F A further question might be putwhether in the event of his success , he intended to make every shareholder in tho company «• baronet ; and thus for tho first time , to introduce , by the high prerogative of Stirling , t '" lt chivalrous title into tho model republic P

      Untitled Article

      W O M E N . Pr is easy to say that the man who raises his h « n ( j to a , woman save in kindness should bo whippe d nt tho carts' tail , or brutally mauled by Barclay " draymen . A natural instinct suggests this wild justice . But suroly our best possible instructoi'H arc at fault when brutality against brutality i " their only device . The cell and tho troadwliccl have been tried for years ; in single caflcM they have instilled a useful fear , and in single cases they have hardened a , bad heart ; but their general effect on tho population in making i »(! U kindlier towards women , has been of no accou" Wo are- now advised to try a harsher remedy ; . to moot greater brutality in offence with £ rcftl « brutality in tho punishment . If wo fin " greater brutality in . tho rffect the logic of I "; barbarous justice will bo thoroughly earned otf ¦• That crimes committed through a ' cold and «<• ' lous thirst , for giving pain should lead to I" ' '" ' physical retribution we freely admit , !>»** ' ""j j are traits in many of tho Into cuhoh which nia us hesiUto to boliovo that tho whip is olir ..

      „ reformer , or our only resource . Tho rebK ' -w ^ of injured wives to " prosecute , wheth < ' « " ' (; c <) ji () from t ' lio forgiving heart of wonuvn , or from

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      828 T H E L E A D E R . ' , ¦ ¦ , ' , ¦¦ - ' " . '"¦ [ Satuiu ) ay

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1853, page 828, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2001/page/12/