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Leader (1850-1860), 27th January 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 88

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      to i ^^ dohe , Ttfr . Xiay ard , withlnow some 150 iretol ^ fralf-past nine o ' clock ) to hear him , was weariaomely Tindictive in supererogoto ^ details against the Generals and the Peelites ; and he spoiled even the detail * by a continuance in the sloppy , ttarry- <» nuMip style of speech which answers at the Cosmopolitan Club , and never will answer in the Westminster Club . But Mr . Xayard did refer to the motion : and announced that he could not

      vote for so absurd a thing as a select committee on a war , but that he would vote for the motion as a want of confidence motion . This gave some intelligibiUty to the debate ; and the turn took the proceedings somewhat but of the region of aimless grumbling . Yet as to the crisis—and whom he would follow to possible office—Mr . Layard , astute in all his Gallic declamation , said nothing . This disappointed the House , which , as he was closing , had thickened into fulness .

      , Sir George Grey was put up to answer , and to fasten on that point of the debate , and , like a true Whig , to taunt the Opposition that they were going to-Vote a want of confidence on a motion which technically was merely a motion for a committee . Why had not they the manhood , &c , &c . ? Sir George was frightfully fluent , as usual , and got into a scrape as usual—quoting from Sir Wm . Napier about the British soldier , and plunging into the celebrated * , ' cold shade of aristocracy " passage quite unawares —an escapade which made his colleagues shiver , and delighted the Radicals . Yet Sir George showed some symptoms of the irrepressible tendency of the

      English Government to get out of red-tapery ; and his honest condemnation of his old chief , Lord John Russell , must : ever be remembered by the Peelites to their Colpriial Secretary ' s honour , if only as being the last touch needed to illustrate the abject blunder made by "Lord John . Sir George , on the whole , made a " dashing" speech , as is his wont ; but he left the House as he found it—puzzled , sceptical , uncertain , and resolute not to be forced to a division until parties could ascertain the practical effect of their vote—and whether the Government had not made sure of a majority in so valiantly defying the vote . Mr . Walpole , speaking as if after an : Opposition Cabinet-council , only added to the " hopeless confusion by his indirect admission that his side had no chance in the crisis—an admission made

      in his suspi ci ously-impartial advice to the Government to reconstruct themselves . Mr . "Vernon Smith was the very voice of the universal confusion . He did not know what he was to vote for , or what would follow , or whether or not there was to be a Government , or was a Government ; and , therefore —his logic astonished few on his side of the Househe would not vote for the motion . After that , from a man who ought to have been behind the scenes , it was out of the question that any decision could then be taken : —the House , adjourning what was facetiously tjalled the debate , took till Monday to consider . And I have always noticed that Ministries are seldom turned out on adjourned debates . At any rate the reconstruction will be settled by them . Saturday Morning . The " Stranger . "

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      [ lir THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOWKVKR EXTBKMK , ABB ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THK EDITOR N EOKSSARILY HOLDS H 1 M-8 ELV RESPONSIBLE FOR NONB . J There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , hia senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton

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      NON MI RICORDO . ( 7 V > the Editor of the Leader . ' ) Sm ,- —Her Majesty ' s 46 th Regiment of Infantry have behaved ao gallantly before Sobastopol , that it seems more than ungracious to recal the proceedings of the Windsor Court Martial . I hasten to assure you that ray sole object in doing so now , is to invite your attention , to an allusion in a characteristically-timid and " never-good-at-need" clerical contemporary . Here it is in a lending article on the " Clevedon Inquiry" in the Guardian of the 17 th inst . : —

      " Wo cannot help thinking that very few persons brought up with the common ideas of Englishmen nowadays , of whatever party or opinion they may be , can h « ve read the proceedings of the Tribunal held at Wmph ' si Hotel , Clevedon , without at least a secret smile . We are quite sure that if the persons and the opinions arraigned before it had not chanced to Ho under a strong temporary prejudice , the wit and sarcasm which were lavished in such abundance on the Windsor C ^ urt . Martial would have revelled for many days on such a flingulnry tempting subject . " In vour own" article on thp " Ditcher-Denison Ckaer you dealt broadly and generously with the orger questions , and touched lightly tho details of

      the case . It may , however , be interesting to some of your readers to appreciate the full meaning of your clerical and cautious contemporary . I subjoin _ an extract from the printed report of the examination taken before the Commissioners at Wason s Hotel , Clevedon . It speaks for itself : — "The Ven . - Archdeacon Law , examined byDr . Phfflimore . ... .. or " Have you taken any part m this prosecution t—/ cannot allow that I have . _ " Do you know Mr . Everett , grocer , of Wells (—I know him well . . . " Did you request him to give evidence in this case i—I did not . 1 , 1 . o " Did you go to bis shop in the early part of last year i ~~ " And speak to him on the subject of the Archdeacon's sermons?—/ did . " Did Mr . Everett say anything to you about other persons having heard the sermon?—I will not say he did not ; but I have no recollection that he did . " Mr . Everett has sworn that he said to you that there were clergymen present , and that he thought they would be the proper persons to give the evidence you were seeking . Is that true?—/ don ' t recollect ; if he did so , it made no impression on my mind . " Can't you recollect so remarkable a statement coming from a grocer to whom you went for evidence to convict your brother Archdeacon of heresy " i—I have no recollection of any such observation having been made , or anything like it . " Did you ask the grocer whether he knew anybody who heard the sermon besides himself ?—/ have no recollection of so doing .. "It would have been a rational question , would it not ?—It would ; but / have no recollection of so doing . " Did you communicate with Mr . Ditcher , the prosecutor , on the subject of that sermon ?—I have had frequent communications with him upon the subject . " Did you send the sermon to Mr . Ditcher when Mr . Everett sent it to you ?—/ did not . " The grocer has sworn that he asked you whether you had the sermon , and you answered that Mr . Ditcher had it ; is that correct ?—It is perfectly correct . " How did Mr . Ditcher get that sermon?—On the occasion of his calling on me at WestOn-super-Mare I put that sermon into his hands . " Was that before you went to the grocer ' s shop ?—Yes . - V -- - - - " Then when you said that you had not sent the sermon to Mr . Ditcher , you meant that you had given it into his hands , but not sent it?—Yes ; I did give it into Mr . Ditcher ' s hands . I did not send it . " Mr . Ditcher is your official , is he not?—He is one of my surrogates . " You are in constant intercourse with him , are you not?—Most constant . " Did Mr . Ditcher ask you for the sermon , or did you volunteer to give it to him ?—To the best of my recollection he asked me whether I could lend it to him . " Did you mention Mr . Ditcher ' s name to the grocer on the occasion of your visit to him?—Mr , Ditcher ' s -name would doubtless- be . mentioned when Jtold - him . that I had lent the sermon . " Did you ask the grocer , to send the sermon to you originally ?—He sent it to me of his own accord ; I . knew nothing of the sermon till he sent it to me . " How did he send it ?—By post . " Was it accompanied by any letter?—I make no doubt it was , but I have no recollection of its contents . " Did any conversation pass bfitween you and Mr . Ditcher upon the subject of the sermon at the time you gave it him ?—Doubtless . " Will you be good enough to state the purport of that conversation ?—I have had so many conversations with him that / do not recollect . " Examination resumed : —Did ypu ask any person besides the grocer , if they had heard the sermon preached by Archdeacon Denison ?—I do not believe I did . "You know of course that it must have been heard by some of the Chapter of Wells ?—Not by several , but by some . The Canon Residentiary at that time was deaf , and therefore it would have been idle to put the question to him . ' . ' Was that the reason you did not ask tho Canon ?—It was not . " I am , Sir , your obedient servant , A Seek Kit of " The Truth . "

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      CAPITAL PUNISHMENT . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —I have protested in many languages , lands , and journals , against tho punishment of death . I venture to ask of you the permission to do so once more in your estimable journal . My conscience cries aloud that what one man has not the right to do—not even a thousand nor a hundred thousand men have tho right to do—and thnt is , to kill a man ! To kill judicially is to kill ! I say to society what was said to tho murderer : Cruel man !"— " Cruel society I" Will it never understand that nothing is gained by capital executions ? The public that rushes to gaze on the courage of the culprit , and tho

      adroitness of the executioner , to see a head fall , or a body swing in the air , seeks sensations , and not moral lessons—assists at a spectacle more or less rare , and always gratis . Have the thousands of executions that preceded that of Barthelemy arrested ^ his arm ? Will his execution prevent one crime ? It is even on evidence , that executions are often followed , if not accompanied , by fresh crimes . There are men who have a mania for beirig talked about , for making an exhibition of themselves for good or for evil . There are others so tired of life , as to prefer to die by the hands of an executioner than by their own . Tf we may believe the words spoken by Barthelemy in his last moments , ' he was one of these men . , , -

      I approve the verdict of the jury ; I attack only the executive act , which took no account of the recommendation to commute the punishment . I repudiate the supposition of any concession to the French Government , but I think mercy . cannot be too often exercised in the reign of a gracious Queen . A disciple of Germany , I will take the liberty to propose a question to the learned English Bar . - If a prisoner , instead of allowing himself to be hanged , kills the hangman , should he be killed for that act alone ? : For if the hangman was discharging his duty , the prisoner wasobeying the natural law of self-preservation . I say , then , that a man who , rather than be arrested , kills the arrester , commits homicide , notf

      assassination . The State ought not to take what it has not given , and cannot restore—Life ! How is it , when an innocent man is executed by mistake ? In Spain the victim ' s coffin was brought into court , the judges lifted up the winding-sheet , and uncovered their heads to the dead . In Erance , the memory of the punished is " rehabilitated , " but tardily , and with difficulty . In Russia , the punishment of death is abolished , and life is not less secure for all that . Perhaps this is the only law that does honour to the Empress who decreed it . Other States have no Siberia , but they have a Botany Bay . They have no knout , but the rope , or the knife which they employ , to intimidate , or , as it has been said : " A stick to frighten the dog . " —lam , Sir , ^ JTour obedient servant , Ivan GoLovrir .

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      &a flE LEADED [ SATtr ^ PAir ,

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      STATISTICS OF TOBACCO . Some of our readers may not be prepared for the fact that tobacco , though nofc-foodJbr man or beast , is the most extensively used of all vegetable productions , and next to salt the most generally consumed of all productions whatever—animal , vegetable , or mineral—on the face of the globe . In one form or other , but most commonly in that of fume or smoke , it is partaken " by saint , by savage , and by sage ; " there is no climate , from the equator to the pole , in which it is not used ; there is no nation that has declined adopting it . Europeans , except in the extreme East , are allowed to be the most moderate consumers , in consequence of its being—with- them -generally-an-article-of-import and . ofheavy taxation ; while their form of civilisation agrees to refuse the luxury to the gentler sex . And among Europeans our own nation figures as one of the lowest in proportion to the population ; yet the official returns prove that the annual consumption here is on an average 16-86 ounces , or considerably more than a pound weight to every man , woman , and child throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Moreover , this consumption is greatly on the increase . Between the years 1821 and 1881 the increase was at the rate of about one ounce per head ; during the next ten years it was somewhat less than an ounce ; but from 1841 to 1861 it was three ounces ; making an increase of nearly 44 per cent , in' proportion to the population within the last 30 years . In Denmark , exclusive of the Duchies , the average consumption in 1851 was nearly 70 ounces per head . But this is nothing to what is used in warm countries , where tobacco is grown with facility and free , from taxation . If tho population of the earth be taken at 1000 millions , and the consumption reckoned as equal to that of the kingdom of Donmark , or 70 ounces per head , tho produce of the whole world will amount to nearly two millions of tons ( 1 , 958 , 125 ) a year . Seventy ounces a- head , of course , far exceeds tho average consumption of Europe , in most of the countries of which tobacco , as before stated , ia heavily taxed . It is certain , however , on tho other hand , that it falls far short of the consumption of Asia , containing the majority of mankind , where women and children smoke as well as men , and where the article is moreover untaxed . Tho value of tho quantity thus reckoned , at 2 d . a pound , amounts to above 26 , 000 , 000 / . sterling . EDUCATION IN THB MIDLAND DISTRICTS . Mr . Bowyer , inspector of schools , thus , describes a " Midland" teacher : — "At my first visit tho school was vacant . At my second I found a new mistress , whoso ignorance surpassed anything within my oxpuricnoo . To tho question , ' What remarkable event occurred when our Saviour was twelve years old ? ' oho replied " I boliovo ho was put in the bulrushes . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 27, 1855, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2075/page/16/