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    Untitled Article

    also fetters the labouring man in his choice , both of a residence and a place of work . It is , therefore , one means of keeping dovrn wages ^ by preventing the perfectly free movements of the industrious class in seeking wages where they are highest . Thus , whereas in some special cases the law creates . a saving , it does so at the cost of an unjusi ; and greatly disproportionate burden to some districts , and of actual privation to the poor . These conclusions are admitted by all who have investigated the subject .

    With regard to rating there can scarcely be two opinions . Mr . Disraeli , and other speculative politicians , have thought it would be more advantageous to the agricultural interest , and to the labouring man , if the rates over the whole country were equalized , aad if for that purpose the charges were cast upon the Consolidated Pund . We have not yet seen any satisfactory suggestion for providing a cheek upon the lavish expenditure which the local relieving officers would be sure to indulge , if they could lay a charge , not upon the guardians representing the rate-payers m their own place , but upon that vast aad magnificent

    abstraction—the country . There are reasons against this suggestion which it is not necessary to recite , because there is no probability that the plan will be carried out . On the other liand , those who insist that the parish sltould provide for its own poor , and look after its own interest , forget how totally the face of the country has altered since tie term parish meant something distinct . In many cases you cannot now understand what a parish is . Some towns will overlap niany a parish . Some parishes are separated into little pieces , like the county of

    Cromarty , with spaces intervening \ a small inconvenience when the ecclesiastical authority of the Church was distinct , and the lands intervening were houseless fields . Since those ] days the population is no longer in little clusters around the par ish church , but is distributed in much greater masses . The object of present legislation , therefore , is , while not charging the relief of the poor upon the State , which could keep no check upon the local administration , to-find such partition , of the country as sLould include some variety of district , while it would present &

    recosrnizable form of division . The union is such a division ; with the additional advantage , that it is already associated with the administration of the poor-law , and has Its machinery not only for ad- ? ministraiive purposes , but also for representations . To extend the rating to the union , is only to put rating in harmony with the local administration and representation . On tlijit point also , there can scarcely be two opinions , and Mr . Baines , if he had "been less a , man of the world , might have expected to hear not a whisper of objection , but only one murmur of unqualified assent .

    But there are objections , and for obvious reasons . Mr . Knight said that the proposed amendment of the law would cause much property to change hands . W " e scarcely know what he means , unless it be this , that many landlords being on the verge of insolvency , and their farmers not much better off , but deroting keen attention to the work of preventing an increase in the rates by driving the poor off their lands , the prospect of abolishing the law by which they accomplish that trick frightens them . They now confess that the idea of having to pay a few shilling more for their own paupers , would cause them to Bell tleir lands in a panic !

    There is , therefore , a spendthrift , mean , and tricky interest arrayed against the amendment ; and there is another interest still more important , as opposing the free progress of the measure . The law of removal causes an enormous amount of travelling expenses and of litigation between parish and parish . Now there are persons who are paid for conveying paupers , and there are lawyers who profit by the litigation . To let the reader complete the chnin , lot . us observe that active parish officers who turn an honest penny by conveying paupers , active local lawyers who draw

    to themselves u good share of parish litigation , arc the same lawyers and active parish busy-bodies who execute a great part of Parliamentary election "business , and who do not let honourable Meinl >< .. rs forget past favours . We believo that this is the most formidable lion in Mr . IJaines ' s path . We only trust that lie will have sufficient chivalry to call out the good sense and the right feeling- of Parliament , and no gather a following at his buck which may embolden him to face that lion—in . short , thjit he may induce the LJritish lion to come out and cat up that local lion .

    Untitled Article

    TREATMENT OP THE ARMY . Sir Charles Shatv is again insisting , through the press , upon a suggestion which he made a year or two back for supplying the men with " sack tents , " an article which , borne by each sixth man , forms a useful bag for carrying many conveniences , and subsequently , a shelter against heat , rain , or night dews . But there are other improvements in the army , perhaps leas obviously required , yet far more desirable fox encouraging the proper spirit amongst the men . It is a subject of regret to those who witness the departure of the Guards on their way to Constantinople , to think that they should again be setting out for the commencement of a war which may last for years , before many obvious and generally accepted improvements had

    been made for their comfort . It is a disgrace * to the country that the men who fight her battles , protect our homes , enlarge our . empire , and sustain . the power of Great Britain , should "be compelled by a meaa system to witness with discouragement the superior care bestowed upon the comfort and well-being of piiae felons and reformatory fondlings , It may be aU very well to preach to a community of hucksters and « . « age of cotton , the emptiness of gfa > ry and the insolvency of heroism ; but we have not yet made up our minds to relinquish the use of soldiers ; and while we actually consume their flesh and blood , and their strength , it is inconsistent to act upon the parsimonious doctrines which could only be reconciled to a * purely unwarlike policy .

    ^ ¦ 1 . . 4 4 . 4 Low wages do not pay in any trade ,, but least of all in the soldier ' s . An army : is composed of individuals ; it will be weak and Graven in proportion as the individuals are vreak and craven ; and it is notorious that an under-fed man is weak , and , if not craven , what is worse ,, indifferent and discontented . Stint the food and pay of the soldier , and you not only stint his spirit physiologically , but you give him a right to treat you With the

    slight which you : show to . him * Something , we have said , has no dotrbt been ' done . The education of the soldier has been improved : he has the opportunity , at least , and he often uses it , of learning to read and write . In some cases he has access to a regimental library . His barrack life has been somewhat humanised ;; and some 6 f the worst indecencies , that ^ added insult to discomfort , have been remedied . But fir too much remains to be done .

    The bed of the soldier is too like that of the pauper or prisoner—inferior , indeed , to the bedding in some prisons . Although the worst indecencies have been corrected , especially in a better disposal of married people -where that is possible , still the barraek remains a sehool in Which- the student of good behaviour mu st be dreadfully dis * heartened . Employment is provided for the soldier , even almost to a vexatious extent , especially where that pest of the na . yy and army haunts barrack or ship—the Martinet . It cannot be

    denied that th « exigencies of discipline require some degree of control over the cursory reading of those who " Are , at the best , an indifferently educated body . But , still , the soldier is treated too much as an unthinking machine , who has no requirements of ease , of recreation , or of employment for his mind in the intervals of set occupation . The sergeant who tells the man that he sLould always be clean and smart , and " walk the street as if it were his own , " is by no means enabled to supply that maji with the raw material of so much spirit and dignity .

    Even as regards restraint upon the reading of the men , we believe it is turned to too great a length . Officers who combine active attention to those under tlieir charge , and strict discipline with an indulgent disposition , have no doubt had opportunities of observing that the soldier who is trusted may be trusted : and a review of the books most demanded , in the library will show that the spontaneous taste of most soldiers inclines them to n class of reading which is far from being either theoretical or unorthodox . A freer public opinion thus fostered is enough to keep down Somervilleism , without tlioae severe restraints that are

    irksome to the thinking soldier , and keop the unthinking perpetually in a go-cart . By such adult childishness is it that the soldier , out of bounds , becomes the victim of the squalid syrens that liaunt barrack towns , ortlio plaything of the pushing publican wlio thinks only of the profit of his li quor . Many a soldier who had been taught to think like a msiii , would have walked home steadily to his barrack at a proper hour , instead of stngtfering up too late , only to bo put in the blaek-Jiole .

    Untitled Article

    \ We have never ceased to protest against the * mciple of a standing army , as being opposed both to constitutional liberties and to the nufitary spirit of a people . A standing army is a modem innovation in our country ; it was wholly unknown to our constitution in the time when leading Englishmen , of the landed gentry as well as of the middle classes , were best able , by constant devotedness and active courage , to defend the institutions of their country . It is an importation from the continent— -an . Institution copied from

    military adventurers in . times when Europe has been distracted by dynastic wars . It is a curious result of the unreasoning position into which that which is absurdly called ihe Economical school has fallen—that while its members object to ihe scale of our military expenditure , they also object to any interference with the institution of a standing army . Situated as Englandis , she requires for her defence a large hqdy ( Of armed men , and , if ib > 0 people at large be not—as . in aft irifee . countries at should be—its own army , there must be that forca of

    separate soldiery which , occasions so large aJi expenditure , and is so ready a nan < Ue for arbitrary Governments . ^ Nay , a standing army niay be made that which the middle class economists most profess tonlreact—& preserve of ^ rist ^ cratap patronage ; and such those who objeci to tike arm ^ of the people declare / our present army ' $ a /| > j& . They would cat their cake aacl have it ioo , ^ M £ will not have military exercises fox the people lest they sho-uld be taken away from their faboiqfc and profit suffer ; and yet they ' complain of a standing army . They complain ; fcut yth < e& tfijb occasion offers tney ^ axe ready enough to invrt ^ the aid of the stand in or nrnvir norjkmsf . iha Yinnn&

    Tell one of those middle-class ? iibferals ' that " A mob is coming , ? ' and he instantly calls out in $ , panic for " The mtiitarj" —for | &j ^ niiUfcaitfr wiioife pay he grudges and ( whom he would stsiirVe . But while we object far more sincerely than any . of those half economists : to a standing . army . ; w ^ must refuse to share their , clap-trap assertions } against the actual state of our army . It is pretended that there is wastefulness in ^ providing fat the army ; and yefc . jit is ^ scavered ^ . on | l ^ e verj ^ eye of , a wac , that the . British , soldij ^ r is kejpt s ]| prfr of a sufficient supply of food ; at the . same tini& that he is obliged to pay . for his own keep 1 ' T ^ 0 Secretary at "War has just announced to JParJiar ment that tte " stoppage * of the British soldi ^ t will not be increased in propotfmpn to . the niarket

    price of provisions—in other words , the . nation will feed its soldiers , cost what it may v and will not persevere in the ruinous economy of savingits cash at the expense of its armed strength . But when the proposal was made to give up the extravagant stoppage which is exacted from thejprivaW soldier , a representative economist of thi » aniimilitary school sent a letter to the Times , bomplaining that for ^ every halfpenny allowed to the private soldiers , the country would have to pay 40 , 0002 . a year ; a statement which is enforced asinvolving a self-evident proposition that the soldiermust go without his halfpenny , and the nati qi *

    ke ep its 40 , OOOZ . The same bigoted llindness to things as they are , gives rise to the complaint of our enlightened traders , that the officers are all men of aristocratic birth , who are over paid . We are as little inclined to the system of purchase , as we are to that of a standing army . It is , we conceive , a bad plan , that officers should be selected by their purchasing capacities , instead of their fighting or scientific qualities . It is a bad plan that the officers should become a species of fundholders , investing money in , the national funds under the name of u purchase , " and drawing dividends called

    " pay , " with the condition annexed of active service . We do not know any system © f military organization theoretically more ludicrous . At the same time , it must be admitted that the payafforded to the officer is soarcelv so much as 8 k full interest upon his money sunk—is indeed farless than the profits which some of those economists expect for their own capital . Tested by coimmrison with other public employments , the British ofli ^ er has indeed strong grounds to complain . If the Manchester dogmatisers and Marylebone demagogues are in search of high pay and aristocratic connexions , they may find both in some of those department ! for which a reform i&

    promised . There are , fo » example , Somersethouse commissioners , whose chief duties during the day are to read the papers , interrupted occasionally by the laborious work of administering an oath , and hearing a formal declaration ; and who for such a service have an amount of pay

    Untitled Article

    February 18 , 1 & 64 . ] THB L E ADER . lw

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1854, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2026/page/15/