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    such , a scheme , however plausible , is unfair from its partiality . Something , however , might be accomp lished by a division of the whole country jnto districts , so as to strike an even balance between town and Country population . By extending the franchise beyond Jiarrow , un-national limits , and by abolishing the practice of a double representation , we should at all events approximate to a fair representation of all classes ; the jnore since there is a considerable tendency for classes to distribute their residences topographically into lumps . This arrangement would not exclude the extension of the franchise to all our Universities , on which indeed most persons are agreed .

    But the most difficult problem is that which refers to the persons who shall be entitled to vote . We cannot at this moment enter at any length upon this portion of the subject , and can only state broadly that the qualification should bo measured by the stake which individuals possess in the country . It has been the fashion to speak of a stake in the country as if it referred only to the possession of land , or a large interest in the money market . Is it not manifest that a man may be a good citizen who has not an

    acre of land to call his own ? Has the artisan , who receives and spends his weekly earnings , no interest in the stability of our institutions , the preservation of peace , the condition of trade , and efficient legislation ? Once for all , this partial conception of an interest in the country must be got rid of . J ^ o one seeks to represent vice , indolence , and improvidence ; but there is a reason , too strong to be withstood , in the demand for a franchise which shall represent the practical intelligence of the country .

    At the same time , we cannot urge too strongly upon our countrymen the necessity of education as a necessary preparative for the full enjoyment of the franchise . Whatever we have , let us have a constituency of intelligent and earnest citizens . Above all , let those who truly desire the right , not fail to manifest their wishes . The subject is too wide to discuss in a single

    article , and we have omitted many points well worthy of consideration . Wo shall , however , return to it , and , for the present , we are content to urge the importance of acquiring precise notions , and of employing all the leisure of the recess in a full and comprehensive review of the whole question , so that the public , as well as Ministers , may be prepared for the grand work of next session .

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    ADVANCE OF AMERICA IN EUROPE . We have in previous numbers of our journal noticed Mr . Everett ' s letter to Mr . Crampton , and Lord John Husscll ' s reply . In one , the American Minister showed on what grounds Cuba is necessary to the United States , the steps alread y taken to acquire it , the resolution of the Ameriricans to have it one day , and the scrupulous good faith which the successive Governments at

    Washington have observed ; and in tho other Lord John treated tho American Government as weak because it obeys the public opinion , and the claim on Cuba as weak , because the compasses on the map tell him that it is noarer English territory than American . Of these letters the Daily News treats ; praising that of Lord John for its lofty rebuke and ri ghteous sarcasm , and chaivietcming that of MY . Everett thus : —

    'It was with nothing' short cf minnzemont tlmfc K"Klishinon rend that letter of hi . s to Mr . Ounipton ; a hitler intended . to bo rend hy Englishmen nnd Amevieaus in general ; a , letter as able and elegant , in regard to composition , as perhapn any other sfcuto paper . ; . " ! ' pi'inciplo and tone so HhnnieleHs and complacent i" i < h disgrace , an to bo almost beyond the power of d'ui n ; buk <\ Nobodknow what to Ray -whero to

    y )(! Kin among the commonest considorutioiiH of integrity non to aim rebuko at a man or a ( Jovorninoufc who '"• god pleas by anticipation for spoliation and breach of IUlUi . H WC ) U ]( J ] 11 | V ( , ])(; on difficult t () ] ,, lv 0 Huppo . sod "Horohnnd tluit a contemporary of tho groal , American ^ giHin - < , ] 10 pro / t'Hsed admirer of Kent and tlio friend <> i Htory—could havo written the lawless i ) rodnc ( ion Much I « . ur « Mr . Evoiv . U ' s lmnui . Wo tviiHt it , will

    appear tlinf , h 0 gro . sHly uiimilculiitcd bin ground , > ' ' 10 beli , ! V 0 ( i that in that act he was humouring tho national indinution . A stronger robuko than even iO 1 " « I J . KubhrU ' h would be a course of honcHt conduct , 011 the piu-l- of thu United States towardH Hniun , in regard to Culm . " fni nioro im no advocacy of spoliation or broach 01 « uln in Mr . Everett ' a letter , as our readers

    well know ; and the United States have long shown , and will yet show , that Mr . Everett expresses the national feeling , as Lord John Russell ' s flippant reply has not failed to rouse an angry expression of that national feeling . We are only amazed to see a journal'conducted " with so much ability as the Daily News , and acquiring so excellent a position in this country , opening its columns to systematic attacks on our most important ally , inflaming the odious policy of rabid abolitionism , and aiding to mislead the English public as to the dominant policy of the United States . We well understand the attempts in America

    to disparage President Pierce . They are due , in the first instance , to that party which is called into existence after every Presidential election , and whose nucleus is formed entirely of the disappointed candidates for places in the extensive removals that occur at such periods . It always happens that this nucleus gathers around it the more unscrupulous intriguers of the permanently existing political parties , and thus something resembling an independent faction is made to obstruct the President for the time being , simply because he is the President chosen by the

    maiority of the people , and is the man who has not appointed persons who regard themselves as the fittest candidates for office . The more popular a President , the larger is the number of persons who consider themselves to have claims upon him ; and this kind of spurious opposition was naturally formed upon a large scale after the completion of General Pierce ' s official arrangements . Besides this , there have been , we know , systematic attempts by the agents of Russia to

    divert Americans from truly national- objects , and to wheedle them into some position favourable to that Power , chief of the Absolutist party in Europe . These of course could have little effect in themselves ; but they tell for something in a general movement . Again , the Abolitionists , who , as a party , are for the present under a cloud , are helping the anti-Pierce movement . Miserable as it is , we suspect that it is that Absolutionist motive which instigates some writing in English journals .

    Tho course which General Pierce has taken , and is about to pursue , however , is perfectly intelligible , and our own readers must already understand it . The last time that he came promi * nently into notice before the American , citizens , was as a volunteer in the war which added a province to the United States . He was chosen as a victorious General anxious to extend the territories , influence , and institutions of the Union . The instructions issued by his Government to the representatives of America in foreign countries and at sea , havo been to protect

    American citizenship on every occasion and in every form . Tho spirited conduct by which Captain Ingraham rescued a man bearing a colourable American citizenship from the hands of an Austrian oilieer has met with distinct approval . Another oilicer of the United States who did not show tho same zeal , and did show a tendency to fall in with a different species of conduct , has been privately made to understand that such a course would be incompatible with the retaining

    of his place , and ho may now be reckoned amongst tho moat zealous of American officers in Europe . Austria has appoaled to tho other Powers against this conduct with no effect ; but an appeal mado by ho great a Power as Austria without effect is a fact which draws after itself very serious consequences . Tho American Government will not be inclined to desist from a course so far successful ; and wo are justified in saying that a contest with Austria itself would not be disagreeable to the American people .

    Hut to another appomtmont wo have already drawn attention . In tho United States there exists mi cxtonsivo association for more systematically promoting the same objects which wcro promoted by tho Mexican war . Tho Ordor of tho Lone ( Star is founded to extend the territories , influence , 'and institutions' of tho United States , but more especially to tako possession of Cuba ; wo aro not sure whether Mr . Soulo" is a member

    of ( hat Order , but ho is well known to sympathise with its views , ilo has avowed tho same views since ho received tho appointmont as ambassador to the Court of Spain . It is probable that Spain would rosont tho appointment of such a man . There is not an American that would be surprised if Iho Spanish Govuvnmentrefusod to receive tho American Ambassador . JNovv , to refuse to receive au AmlMUjaudor is a national insult , and is tho

    first step towards war . Well , America would not grieve to be at war with Spain . She is , therefore , already thus far advanced in a quarrel with two important European States . Other circumstances have como to our knowledge which make us well aware that the Government at Washings ton is animated in its appointments , as it is in , its practical action , by the same spirit of sustaining institutions and principles which agree with it ' s own , in Europe as well as America . It appears to us that a policy thus carried out , is not only consistent with the antecedents of General Pierce , but is in itself quite intelligible , and quite in harmony with the prevailing sentiments of the entire Union .

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    ANALYSIS OP A MURDERER . A man must go through much before he becomes a murderer . The whole of the process cannot be pleasant . There is something besides the crime mixed up with the motives , and it is not always that the will is thoroughly depraved . Sometimes the crime results from want of will . Sometimes from total incapacity to grapple with perplexing questions , in which case the conscience , as it were , bolts and flies over the ropes of the law—to get hanged in them at times . JNTor is a murderer usually a pleasant or easily comprehended object . It is difficult to know how to deal with him for the best .

    As pure a murder as ever was committed is that charged against James Hayes—a man who hunted his -wife about a market-place , brutally beating and kicking her . It is possible that a jury may not be able to trace the actual deprivation of life to his guilty hands ; but that he did to her enough to destroy life—that he was found near her where she lay parting with life , are

    facts absolutely indisputable . The circumstances present an accumulation-of brutality seldom witnessed , even in England . Hayes had deserted his wife , and had converted her into a creditor ; who , it appears , dunned him weekly for some miserable allowance that he made her . On Saturday she applied to him for her money , and then it was that in Shepherd ' s Bush market he was seen to strike his

    wife . He knocked her down twice with his fist . When sho got up the second time she ran for protection behind Thomas Taylor , a labourer ; and he told her " to go from behind him , as he was afraid the prisonor might think he was harbouring his wife , and would attack him 1 " The woman ran out of the market , and the prisoner followed her . Another man who had stood by corroborated this man ' s evidence : two " men , " therefore , had witnessed the assault , and had not

    interfered ! About twenty minutes past ono o ' clock on the same night a policeman was standing near ground which had been dug for the foundation of somo new buildinga ; and a man scrambled up tho bank ; it was Hayes . Tho policeman who had heard the noise turned on his lantern , and saw the prisoner standing in front of him ; " ho appeared stupified at tho time , and seemed to tremble very much ; he sighed and shivered , and could scarcely be ordered away from tho spot . "

    What if he had been seized there and then , and told " to account for himself , " not only aa the vagrant is , but morally nnd biographieally . Most likely he would not havo answered . Ignorance and a dull untrained mind could never stand apart from itself to dofine and describe its action , as the judge or the jury can do , who have to decide upon the man ' s degree of guilt . But if some , supernatural power had been given to him , and he could have related the path through which ho had arrived at that place , what account ; would he havo given P What a horrible story would have boon unfolded of blind rages— -of exasperations—of dim problems struggling in tho breast

    for solution and unable to work themselves out ; bursting into mad actions because hopeless of a patient ' disentanglement ! What Was his , homo P Probably mated with a brutish , exasperating , repulsive woman , afterwards his creditor . Tho horrible transformation of that which ho on ' co lovo . d , into that which ho loathed—loathed tho nioro because , by somo change inexplicable to tho mind , although known in fact , it stood before his conscience claiming tho obligations which he hud incurred to the object lovetl . What strange , wayward passage from somo rude and brutal enjoyment of life , to what moralists call its stern realities—from " sweetheuvling" and Greenwich , to u homo dull in ideas , beggarly in ouuipincuts

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    September 17 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER . 899

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 899, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2004/page/11/