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years since Sir Charles "Wetherell resolyed , against the advice of his friends , against tbe warning of the local magistrates , to make a public entry into Bristol , after having spoken and argued against the Reform Bill , and after the Iiords had thrown out the measure . The populace converted his triumphal entry into a disastrous dodging escapade , followed by a riot of many days . The triumphant Member-Judge sneaked to a place of safety , had his window barricaded at
night with a feather-bed , and escaped in disguise as a woman ! The sequel is well known . ! For several days the City was in a state of tumult ; law was suspended ; buildings were pulled down ; private houses were set on fire ; and the middle classes , who supplied the magistracy , sympathising , panicstricken , irresolute , hesitated to summon military authority , yet afterwards pestered a handful of troops , suddenly called into the town , with private and individual instigations to attack the mob ! The lamentable result
is also well known . The magistrates were tried , but they got off , on the idea , sedulously enforced upon the court , that they were not to blame , since the Government had not provided a sufficient garrison for the town . Colonel Brereton , the commanding oificer , brought to trial before a court-martial , escaped criticism by shooting himself . It appears , however , ^ hat the military officers , who were then anade the scapegoats of laxity on all sides , were ready to do their duty if they had
had from the civil authority that formal , distinct , and peremptory instruction to act against the English people , Without which if they do act , save in self-defence , they become murderers as well as traitors against the authority of the law . Here , then , by a wretched impoteney on the part of the police and the civil authorities of Bristol , the town was for days in the hands of an unruly mob—for it was no better ,- —and was only rescued from that control by a coup d ' etat , an absolute military . conquest .
"We are forced to compare these results with others that we observe on the opposite side of the Atlantic ; where certain principles of the English constitution , forgotten by us , suffered to decay , and practically to die out , are still preserved . On more than one occasion , as in the recent instance of riots caused
by the Fugitive Slave Law in Boston , there have been vei y serious disturbances ; but the disturbances are invariably put down . The most alarming , perhaps , was that occasioned by the dispute between the Native American and the Irish parties , but it was less a riot of the ordinary kind than virtually a limited and fractional civil war . That which most
resembled a riot , in the English sense , was the disturbance got up by the Forrest faction , to put down Mr . Macready , the actor ; when New York was for a time in the hands of regular rioters . What ensued ? A great force was called out , far more than sufficient to overwhelm the disturbance , and it was effectually put down . But of what did that
force consist ? It was not soldiery in one sense of the word , although it was a . body trained to the use of arms , accustomed to discipline , and obedient to the voice of command . Jt was principally , we believe , the first division of the New York Militia ; in other words , it waa the pick and flower of the people itself .
The people itself , therefore , locally , by a body not in any manner to bo distinguished irom the civil community—the people itself put do wn the disturbance creatod by a faction , and caught up by the disorderly part of the population . But then it is the ' abiding principle , recited in moat of tho stato constitutions , now as well at ) rid , and repeated in tho amended constitution of the Jtopublic , J-natawell regulated militia being
necessary to the security of a free state , the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be . infringed . " The people of the American Republic are kept in a state of perfect capacity for self-defence , whether against the internal traitor or the foreign invader ; and this is the reason why they are not persecuted on the one hand by riot , which they are impotent to put down , or pestered with centralizing police bills , or in default of any other rescue , left at the mercy of a royal soldiery .
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PARTNE R S H IP LAW F O R T H E P E OPLE . No subject has been more considered than that of limited liability in partnership . The merits of the question are perfectly understood , and the case on the two sides may be verybrieflypresented , although volumes might be written on both sides . On the side of limited liability , the main arguments may be reckoned up in two classes : first , there is a great amount of capital , consisting of small sums reposing in the hands of persons who
have no experience in business , who are not disposed to take an active share in management , bait would willingly devote their capital to purposes of reproduction , if they were per- * mitted "to do so with the ordinary risk of losing it . On the other hand , besides the advantage which the community would derive from rendering that mass of capital reproductive , there is also the interest of the humbler
classes in being permitted to take a share of trade by combining smaller capitals without the liabilities that attend ordinary partnership combinations , and inflict , especially upon humbler partners , the most frightfully ruinous consequences . Thus the community is deprived of a mass of capital which . would be available , and humble capitalists are shut out from the benefits of trade . The mass of the
arguments , we say , on the side of limited liability resolve themselves into these two classes , and they stand in this peculiar position— -tliat they are not denied . The arguments on the other side consist of a totally different class , and they resolve themselves all into presumptions , that to admit tho principle of limited liability would introduce irresponsible partners , would deprive creditors of a guarantee which they now possess , and would throw trade into
confusion . The last point is supported by the presumption that , if partners were not made liable for the whole amount of their substance , they would become less discreet , and then not only would the sleeping partners lose their substance , but trade itself would be thrown into confusion by the great number of ruinous speculations which would be fostered . These arguments are denied , and they stand in the peculiar predicament of being perfectly theoretical . They find their evidence
mainly in analogy—always an unsafe species of evidence ; and they are contradicted by the experience of almost all other countries , for England is nearly alone in refusing the principle of limited liability . England , indeed , does not refuse to admit the principle . As Lord Goderich said in tho debate on Tuesday night , it is admitted in the form of exceptions ; for under the present law tho privilege of limited liability may be granted by royal charter , theoretically
bestowed by tho Crown , but pratically given by the Board of Trade . It may also bo bestowed by Act of Parliament , and is enjoyed by many companies . But , to obtain this limited liability , whether by charter or by Act of Parliament , requires tho possession of influence and of money . Virtually , therefore , the limited liability is a privilege which may bo obtained by the rich , who do not want it so much , while it is dernied to thoeo of limited means who want it most .
The arguments on this subject are very instructive as to the moral principle upqn which commercial gentlemen apply political economy to their own business . They were hot in driving the landed interest off the rotten ground of protection ; freetrade was a standard under which the trading interest marched to destroy the corn monopoly ; but now , when exactly the same principle is applied to commercial credit , —when a great free-trade measure is claimed on
behalf of the humbler classes ; then the trading gentlemen , like Mr . William Brown or Mr . Horsley Palmer , are loud in claiming " protection" for credit ; using exactly tho same prophesies of ruin , confusion , &c , &c , which the landed interest employed to frighten people away from corn-law repeal . We believe that a great part of the fallacy of this subject is occasioned by the fact , that the word " limited" is used ; as it appears to
be supposed that the law is wanted in order to limit the liability of property . Now nothing of the kind is required . The present law ^ is one of limitation . It says , that the man having money , and willing to risk it in trade , shall not risk that particular sum of money in the hands of another person , —a proportionate share of the profits being allotted to the owner of that money , —unless the owner will also risk the whole amount of
his property , whatever his partner may do . The ELing of Belgium , for example , having an estate in England , and being a liberal though not a rich monarch , and willing , let us suppose , to aid some humble friend to set up in business , say as a buttennan , by investing 500 Z . of his principal in that friendly act of indirect commerce , would not , according to our law , be permitted to do so , unless he would also incur the risk for the whole of
his xoyal possessions that could possibly be brought within the jurisdiction of English courts , and placed at the disposal of the butterman aforesaid . The present law , there * fore , is one which limits liabilities to a very peculiar class , only suitable to great capitalists , and chiefly suitable for capitalists who
are mixed up m cliques . Indeed , Lord Palmerston put the subject iu its most intelligible form , —and the humbler classes of this country will do well to study the declaration of the Home Secretary ; for he is experienced , and he is not bigoted ia favour of the working classes against tho Q-overnment classes . He intimates that
Government might be willing to make this concession ; but as an excuse for the delay of the Government decision , he pleads the " difference of opinion ; " " , perhaps , " ho add < 3 d , '" it is fair to say , that the largo capitalists are of one opinion , and the bulk of the small capitalists of another . " Tho House of Commons ought to represent tlio whole country , and tho public , enfranchised as well as unenfranchised , will watch tho House , to see whether it sides with the great capitalists or the small , —whether it fobs off tho small capitalists with abstract resolutions , and gratifies tho large capitalists by refusing practical legislation .
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THE SPIRIT OF LAW . Let us hope that a deoided improvement is taking place in tho feeling of tho English people with regard to tho socinl protection of tho more helpless sex . It is time that that change should take place , and perhaps the excess to which tho want of amendment has gone may account for the wholosomo reaction . Mr . Henry Fitzroy'a Bill did not como before it waa wanted ; but statutes wo nothing without the spirit that gives thorn their true vitality . The Itoroana had tolerable laws during the decline of their empire—laws which have been , in part adopted by modem
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614 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 1, 1854, page 614, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2045/page/14/
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