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    a new fund to be collected , Major Powys would "be exactly the man to prevent it . — - At a late meeting held for the purpose of supporting the present array- of editorial talent engaged upon the Morning Advertiser , a gentleman named Homer made a speech to prove that that liberal organ has distanced all competitors . " Where ( said Homer ) is the Rambler , whose pages weie filled with the contributions of Addisonf !) , Steele (!!> Johnson , and Oliver Goldsmith ? " Where , indeed , is that wonderful Rambler ? ^ Ye should like to see it . Yet this gentleman also presumed to explain what , in his opinion , were the qualifications necessary to make a good editor of a paper .

    — jvlr . Perry calls his draft upon the treasurer to the Defence and Testimonial Fund an unintentional act of discourtesy ; surely it merits a harsher term . In the first place , the list was not closed , and no transfer of the money had been made to him : to deal with the money , therefore , in anticipation was like pawning a testimonial snuff-box before the ceremony of presentation . Besides this , it turns out that the story about the profitable investment is , to use a mild expression , doubtful ; there being no such railway in existence . Again , ire suggest that this money should go to the Patriotic Fund .

    — Lord Palmerston has directed the prosecution of a Manchester bill-sticker , for posting a placard containing 1 extracts from the war correspondence , tending to excite disgust at the Avar . What will his lordship do with the author of the following passage from the despatches of the Morning Herald?— " I picked my way back among the dead and dying , turning aside to let the stretchers with their moaning burdens pass , I could not help thinking—oh , you English people , who are so clamorous for war and bloodshed , come and survey this scene , and you will exclaim with all who have—Peace > 'let there be peace at any price / " . .

    — The Guildhall Hop was a disgusting barbarism ! not because it was a dance of death , "but because of the thorough vulgarity of the whole affair . The music an hour-and-a-half late ; and fancy those queer city girls , and their queerer men , not dancing ! — It is rather annoying to the new payers of Income-ta 3 , the young men— -gentlemen—that their money is applied without any reference to any wishes that they have the opportunity of expressing . The notion amongst that class is that it has been wasted , or rather misapplied , and that it would have been

    Better expended on the military service than on the naval , which has played a less prominent part . They , however , are far more annoyed at being socially exempted from sharing the glory which they purchase for others . Had the produce of the tax levied been applied to the raising of a regiment , or regiments , of gentlemen , every private soldier of which would even absolutely have gained caste , a large body of men would have been made happy , and their country would have had , at comparatively trifling cost , any number of the most valuable volunteersthose who fight with a conviction of the sanctity of their cause .

    — Have you heard of the " bolt" of Lord , at Inkermann ? A shell fell near him ; ho ran , to the amazement of his men , exclaiming , " D—d nonsense ¦ waiting-to be hit ! " So it was ; but the uneducated masses cannot understand the Charles Lamb disqualifications for the amiy—" short-sighted and a coward . " My notion is that the wise men should , as usual , make away from the East as fast as possible ! — Menschikoff , whoso random wit bus a reputation in Russia , apologises characteristically enough for the comparative veracity of his later despatches : — " I had a dream last night : I stood at the gates of Paradiso ; -within , the gates was St . Peter dangling his keys . While I was waiting to take my turn ,

    there came tip three hundred British soldiers who begged admittance , as they had died at Alma fighting for their country . St . Peter referred to lord Raglan ' s despatches , and finding 1 tho soldiers tale to bo true , let them in . Next camo three hundred Frenoh soldiers , who also bogged admittance , as they had died at Alma fighting for France and their Emperor . St . Peter turned over tho flics of tho Moniteur aud passed tho Frenchmen through tho gates . Next came up a thousand Russian soldiers , who begged admission into Paradise , for that they had died in tho Dobrudscha , fighting for tho Czar , under Prince Gortsehakofil against tho infidel troops of Omar Pasha . But St . Peter shook his head as ho

    held up thu Invalide liuuxe , containing tlio despatches of Prince GortschakofT , in which the loss of tho Kusaians was described as insignificant , 'Go , ' said St . Tutor , ' 1 have admitted tho British soldiers , for I find their names in Lord Raglan ' s despatches . I have admitted tho French , for I ( hid thuir nnines in tho Monitaur ; but Prince , GortHuhakofT says nothing of your riouth . ' You uro impostors , and can have no place in Paradise ? And so I saw these poor Russian eoldiors wanctor away outcast and forlorn , aii < l it seemed to mo that they were doomed to wandur lor ever . When I awoke , I resolved to endeavour to conciliate my duty to tho Emperor with my < lesiro to gain admittance for our soldiers into Paradise . "

    THE SAFETY INSURANCE COMPANY : IN WHAT DOES IT DIFFER FROM OTHER WOEKXNG

    CLASS SCHEMES ? ( To the Editor of tke Leader . ) Sir , —I am not sure that your brief notice of the Safety Life Insurance Office Company -will be enough to make your working-class readers understand the things that distinguish it from the two classes of enterprise to both of which it belongs . It is an insurance office , competing with others for public favour : in what does it differ from them ? It is a project to benefit the working-class , emulating others that have preceded it for working men ' s trust : in what does it differ from them ?

    We have had plenty of schemes to benefit the working-classes materially and economically , all based on some " principle , " sound enough in itself , but regardless of circumstances—that mixed soil in which the seed of principle can alone take root to produce the fruit deed . We have had land societies , co-operative labour exchanges , working-class jointstock insurance offices , savings banks ; and what has become of them ? That they have done good I am not either silly or wicked enough to deny : they have been great experiments , strong practical proof that the interests of the most num erous class must

    and should be attended to ; but they have not been experiments ending in final success . Land societies coxild not get enough of that valuable commodity , land , to return even the puny investments of the majority of investers ; nor capital nor markets even to put the , representative allottees or blessed elect in circumstances of prosperity to rejoice the workingman ' s heart by deputy- Co-operative labour exchanges failed for want of profits to insure the zeal or attention of philanthropic adventurers—perhaps failed to enable them to go on ; and could not compete with shopman or employer in regularity of goods supply , or sufficiency of return for labour .

    Savings banks have been a wretched abortion . They only admitted a dead saving , with a very trifling and arbitrarily limited kind of profit on that saving of invested capital : to render them " safe , " the amount doposited was excessively limited * and was clogged with impediments on withdrawal totally unlike any proper " banking" security : yet , although the Chancellor of the Exchequer used the money , the guarantee of the state was refused ; and the officers of a paltry irregular excrescence on the banking system were too often adventurers speculating on embezzlement or robbery as the complement of bad salary . Used by a mongrel herd which represented no class , the savings banks are a working-class failure .

    Life Assurances should have done better—and accordingly it is in this class of enterprise that we find some progress- Intelligent people soon discovered that the working classes cannot make their deposits in pounds sterling , quarterly or half yearly , and that the entire plan of premiums must bo altered , while the objects of insurance must in some degree be modified ; but there "was still a want . The commercial basis had to originate with commercial men •—the conduct had to be entrusted to experienced men—the moral guarantee to be given by men of known probity and weight—tha material guarantee by men of money . In short , you wanted an Insuranco Office designed from the working class point of view , and constructed within tho commercial class .

    Wo have all these things in tho " Safety" — with its payment of the premium by weekly instalments—its ample and stubborn guarantee fund , its really remarkable list of officers , directors , and trustees . That list includes men who like Cobclon , Walmslcy , and John Biggs , have made their own fortunes , while their position distinguishes them from the common run of mere trading fortunemakers ; they are real fortuno-makors ; thoy are also statesmen . The working classes might still ask for proof that tht ir interests would bo felt at heart ; and

    so wide have tho more educated classes permitted the clusa severance to become , that tho usands of the working-men would hold back from a scheme , however beneficial to themselves , if designed only for a middleclasfl profit . Hut thousands fwill anwser me that Sir . loshuii Wahnsley has not only risen abovo profit-Booking pursuits , and ia intent ) on political objects of tho higher order , but is a right hearty KngliHhmiui—Hiul the whole working class know that their welfare occupies tho heod and heart of Lord Godorich .

    So much , for the moral and intellectual guarantees . The material guarantee lies , first , in the ample means which the officers , directors , and trustees command ; secondly , in the untouched state of the und to keep the office out of debt ; and thirdly , in the resolve not to compete with other offices in low premiums , but to make the deposits ample in amouat for securing , not " virtual" but absolute safetydead certainty of solvency . The difficulty -with the working-classes would not be to pay the sufficient price for absolute safety : many a loss has taught them its value ; and they can afford loss less than any other class . Their difficulty is to pay it all at once ; and that is met by the plan of -weekly

    payments . To them , however , will , after all safety and solvency are thus secured , come back two-thirds of the profits . The object of its founders is not money profit for themselves : they only insist on the absolute solvency of the concern for its own sake ; and then the profits , clear of all expenses whatsoever , may drift back to those whose payments go to fill its treasury . The institution cannot become insolvent ; the deposits of the thrifty-will be safer from loss or diminution , than if they were locked up in savings banks or Consols ; yet profits they assuredly will yield , and those will come , after expenses are paid , to the depositors . And insurance is , of all others , the form of saving which secures the largest objects a given amount laid by .

    Of course it is not pretended that only " workingmen , " in the ordinary sense , will see the benefits of this new savings-insurance office : all thrifty men will recognise the want supplied . The savings of the shopman and the small shopkeeper will lie as snugly and fruitfully here as those of the working-man . The young shopman , looking forward to advance himself in places of trust , will be able to refer to the policy le holds as a proof of thrift , —a proof of " substance " to make him " responsible , " of intelligence to make hrm trustworthy . If he wants to go into business , here is a collateral security to those that aid him . The established shopkeeper , whose increase of business is a continual going into new business , will have the same collateral security for his creditors enlarging their credit . Or if a man meet a reverse , here is a recourse for temporary aid on security .

    The value of insurance as a provision , for the depositor ' s own later years will be recognised by all classes ; but this is so important a Bection . that it ought to be treated by itself . T . H .

    Untitled Article

    THE MARRIAGE LAW . ( To tke Editor of the Leader . ') Sir , —I wish to call your attention to certain anoma lies and absurdities which are to be found in the law of marriage as it now exists in this country . I shall merely state facts as I have found them , and then leave the reader to sigh or smile over them according to his humour . 1 . The law says that , when parties are to be married by license , tho person obtaining such , license from the surrogate shall make oath that one of the said parties has resided during the fifteen days imniediately preceding in the parish in which the marriage is to bo solemnised ; and also upon oath to state whether either of the parties is under the age of twenty-one , and , if so , whether the consent of the parents or guardians haB been given .

    These are the requirements of tho law , and yet , strange to say , if none of them are complied with , but all broken , tho unlawful marriago is just as lawful as tho lawful one . Thus parties "may elope to another parish , a license be obtained from a winking surrogate—the common characteristic of the tribeperjury ho perpetrated and connived at , and a minor or an idiot bo trepanned into an unfit marriage , and yet the illegality , dejure , is transmuted by sonno unknown process Into legality de facto . " The king is dead—long live the king . " The law is broken—fulfilled bo the law .

    2 . It is tho same in tho case of marriages by banns , with tliis difference , that a statement is taken instead of an oath . Tho law requires that tho parties should bo residents in tho parish or parishes in which tho banns are published . But , nevertheless , if parties can manage it through a friend or a convenient parish clerk , and have tho banns declared in uorae distant parish in which thoy never set foot until tho day of marriage , still although tho law is broken , tho marriage is lawful , at onco valid and invalid , legal and illegal , by Bomo comprehensive aud mysterious fiction which I do not pretend cither to explain or comprehend .

    Ought tho law to bo left ; in such an unsatisfactory state ? Make it moru stringent or more lax—I care not wliich—but nmko it ; either one or the other . Aa it now stands , it not only tolerates perjury and deception , but it onocmragos by rewarding them . Should thefio thingn be ? Should thoy continue ? What nay tho biHhopu ? Will they " make no sign ?" Wliicli will undertake- tho work of amendment ? Which ? A Country CwanorMA . iT .

    Untitled Article

    November 25 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER Hl 9

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 1119, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2066/page/15/