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Leader (1850-1860), 19th August 1854, Edition 1 of 2, Page 780, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Maave money to squander on their freaks ; thither purchasing proxies , if the mischief is iMsoo unsafe for them to meddle with ; or else t Expecting to purchase immunity . By the f ^ ystem , the commanding officer is a club-^ f ellow , who has been ^ articeps crim in is , and 1 % thinks it fitter to wink at such practices than to expose them . Since money , interest , and chance , rule promotion , the fitness of the commanding officer has comparatively little to do with his appointment ; though evidently it requires no ordinary ability to rule 10 O 0 men with our small proportion of officers .

      But there is another effect of the system of purchase which has heen too little noticed . It brings into the service men of more or less wealth , but "belonging by birth , education , and habits , to different circles . These different circles all get into the army through the Horse Guards ; but , being once there , they strive to re-arrange themselves according to social sympathy . Exquisites try to purchase or exchange into an exquisite regiment ; and we have military corps distinguished like

      " the Tenth , ' * for expensive entertainment , for never ( dancing , or other fopperies . We have also quiet regiments , in which the officers " never hear" of such practices : the rough fellows who fall into them , finding the society too " slow , " gladl y exchange with some real gentlemen , in order to go into a " . fast" regiment . A fast regiment thus becomes a corps of picked blackguards , —a free

      and easy club ,- —a military Order of ¦ the Coal Sole . Were it not for this system of selfselection , the gentlemanly feeling of some men . would tend to correct the blackguardly feeling of others ; but in practice that advantage is lost ; and while one part of the army gets pverrrefined into an effeminate fastidiousness , there is too much reason to fear that other parts become corps of concentrated "blackguardism .

      We have spoken only of what we know ; we have no opportunity of measuring the extent of such practices , or the proportion of regiments that must confess to them more or less . But we say that the very existence of such degraded conduct in the army calls for a searching anatomy of the whole system , in order to a correct knowledge of the disease , and a vigorous cutting out of the diseased parts .

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      HOW TO BRIBE UNDER THE NEW ACT

      Bt an act of last session , the laws relating to bribery at elections are consolidated and amended . By the consolidation the member or agent is saved much trouble , since he finds compressed in one view all that he must avoid ; and by the amendment , the process of bribery , rendered a little more difficult for uninventive minds , is facilitated for those of a higher order . The bill " defines" bribery , treating , and vindue influence ; leaving a wide extent outside the bounds of the definition , a margin now

      marked out as safe . The incidence of punishment is made to fall with entire weight on the briber or the provider , not on the bribed elector : it is an offence to bribe , but not to be bribed ; to promise , but not to ask . The penalty , however , falls only upon the candidate ; disinterested parties may bribe and welcome . All expenses are to be paid through the election auditor and his accredited agents :

      but conforming to tho rule in that respect , the candidate is absolvod from all responsibility . Cockadoa , ribands , music , flags , and banners , are illegal ; it is doubted whether even the vendor of cockades may not be liable to a penalty for providing them ; though why a . haberdasher ahould be prohibited from providing « . commodity required "J his customers in accordance with tho reign ot fashion for u brief season we do not undoretand . Tho law indeed does not prohibit

      good cheer and hospitality , nor a genial largesse , nor fashions of costume ; it only prohibits the attaining of those luxuries by particular modes , and of course those modes will be avoided . Meanwhile the statute forces upon agents who desire to exercise influence , and electors who wish to be influenced , the task of discovering other modes . And the task is not impossible , as the cleverest of election agents announces . The cleverest , we Bay , on the presumption that we recognise the initials of " J . C . " to a letter dated from the Reform Club . The members

      need not so conscientiously have struck out of the bill the declaration " That they have not unknowingly made any illegal payments , and that they will not knowingly hereafter make any illegal payments on account of being elected to Parliament ; " since it might have been made with safety to conscience , person , and purse . Of course " illegal expenses" are expenses prohibited by the act , all others remaining legal ; and as the most conservative candidate will not need to make

      payments precisely in any of the modes prohibited , why scruple to declare so ? It is easy to pay in modes that the declaration would leave untouched . Why , for example , neglect the round robin or triangular plan , of election . A desires . to get elected for the borough of X , ~ B for Y , and O for Z ; but why should A bribe the X electors , or either , candidate bribe liis own borough ? Clearly the way will be to bribe the electors of one borough , and to get elected for another . A can bribe B ' s

      borough , B bribe C's , and C bribe A ' sbribe and proclaim the restoration of the good old times . And that after all is but a childish plan compared to others that must lurk in the brain of a ¦ " " vv \ B . " Yes , you may as well try to extinguish love , as bribery ; for what is bribery but one form of love—love of good cheer and precious coin in the elector , love of the forbidden seat in the candidate ? Every fine upon one

      form of " undue influence is only a protection duty upon another form . The most that this bill will do , will be to increase the value of a " J . O . " Brown , a " W . B . " or a Flewker . You must destroy bribeability —extinguish temptation to sin—depose the sovereignty of the thirty pieces of silver , before you can pass an effectual bribery act ; and then it won't be wanted .

      If any hope lies in legislation , it would be by the very opposite course—by adopting free trade in bribery—in bands , treating , cockades , and every other " . influence . " That might be effectual , especially with an extended suffrage , and therefore at once a wider market and an enhanced price . Yes , if men will bribe , let them open their purses wide , turn them upside down , inside out , exhaust the fund . Bankrupt the bribery class ; and then see if honest voters could not carry the day .

      Untitled Article

      N . CABDINAL WISEMAN" DEFENDANT . Tiros *] Roman Catholics who belong to the true Catholic order in religion will hail that action at Guildford Assizes which will create such consternation in Rome . Romans of tho high Roman party , of the ultramontane order , will bo astounded to find that there exists a country in which a plain priest can call a Cardinal to account .

      It is mdeed conceivable within the regions of romance , that fcho humblest priest , fortified by truth and a pure conscience , might advance to the f < uet of tho infallible father , expose tho crime of somo erring Cardinal ( for tho Cardinal is not yet promoted to absolute infallibility ) , and secure justice from the living fountain of all truth upon , earth , tho Triple Mitre .

      But short of some sublime appeal like that , the poor priest must , in the Roman view , be considered incapable of challeng ing the rectitude and wisdom of a Prince of the Church . Is not a Cardinal promoted to be next to infallibility , and therefore so many ranks above a priest in piety , knowledge , authority , and organised truth ? Of course he is . So much so , that according to a correct view , the statement of Mr . Boyle must be ipso facto false It is impossible that a Cardinal and a priest can stand in such relations to each other .

      The story is this . There are in Paris two journals , the Tfnivers , organ of the ultramontane party , and the Ami de la Religion , organ of the Moderate party . In the latter paper , there appeared in May last , articles censuring the conduct of the Cardinal in 1850 , as unwise and impolitic , because calculated to alarm the prejudices and provoke the resistance of the English people . These papers were formally signed "by the Abbe Cognat , the Editor ; but in them the Cardinal supposed that he detected the true authorship : 1 - rt " » m- i" ^ ¦» i ¦ • he and then

      . ^ . pounced upon Mr . Boyle , insinuated reasons why Mr . Boyle should attack him . There was " an isolated priest in England , " anxious to secure undue profit for himself . He had represented himself as "the victim of episcopal tyranny and oppression ;" he had been " expelled from a religious society ; " a superb church , had been built by the bishop at an immense cost , and this priest , serving its ofELces coldly , occasioned the attendance to fall off , and left the church bare and in debt ; wherefore he was removed , and had resisted his removal with

      contumacious proceedings at law , and advertised the prebendal house , which he said was his own , as a lodging . That priest Cardinal Wiseman inferred was the author of the letters which M . Cognat had adopted as articles , and was Mr . Boyle . Now there was a reason why the Cardinal fastened upon this priest . Mr . Boyle ' s case had been mentioned in the articles , but he

      was not the author of them : they were written , astounding as it may appear , by another Roman Catholic priest in this country—Mr . Ivors of Kentish Town ; and that gentleman had alluded to the case of Mr . Boyle , which is indeed remarkable . In 1847 Mr . Boyle was appointed to a " mission" at Islington . Supposing himself permanently lodged there , ho laid out between three and four hundred

      pounds upon his house , and served his ministry faithfully . In 1850 , however , great events took place ; the Romanists were making largo accessions , or appeared to be so . Converts joined thorn—some of the converts distinguished persons silready in orders ; and places had to be found for those converts . Such was tho state of things when the Cardinal cast his eyes upon the houso occupied by Mr . Boyle : ho found Boyle tamo in his ministrations , but there was a neophyte , hot of course with zeal , distinguished , likely to constitute a speotacle which would attract numbers to tho ecclesiastical theatre—that

      man was Mr . Oakley , and that man tho Cardinal destined for the church at Islington . Mr . Boyle was told to go . Ho submitted , but naked to bo repaid tlie money ho had laid out ; ho somewhat insisted upon this repayment ; but ho afterwards apologised to tho Cardinal on hia knees ; and was forgiven

      by that dignitary with a Christian blessing . Ruined in circumstances , Mr . Boyle bus subsequently been permitted to perform mass by Dr . Grant , tho liisUon of Southwark , for which ho recoivod a Htiinll stipend , and so he lives in obscurity , restored to Christianity , it not to good fortune , by tho Cardinal ' s forgiveness and benediction .

      Two years later Mr . Ivors , touching upon tho arbitrary conduct of Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman in this country , advances this talc

      Untitled Article

      780 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 19, 1854, page 780, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2052/page/12/