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Leader (1850-1860), 17th March 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 248, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      sions , should avoid all allusions to the peculiar currency doctrines , known as those of " the Birmingham school ; " but it was ultimately decided to leave the Question an open one . " / _ The hosiery trade of Nottingham has improved ; but that of Leicester still experiences great depression . In the neighbourhood of the latter city , the operatives are suffering great privations ; and the number of those who have applied for relief at the Hinckley workhouse , is nearly treble that of the same period of last year- The Leicester wool-market ,

      however , is firm ; while at Leeds and Bristol it is unusually dull . At Leeds , the cloth-markets have experienced a change for the better ; but in the flax trade , and" the machinery-making trade , no alteration has taken place . The stock of most descriptions of leather is but small ; and the large government demand for boots and shoes for the army and navy lias caused prices to advance . From Bristol we learn that light hides have been taken at extravagant rates for the army ; and the market has in consequence been strengthened . has had

      The unusually hard frost of February a very great effect upon the coal trade of London . During that month the importation of coal into London by sea , amounted to 244 , 226 tons , being a decrease upon the month , as compared with the same period last year , of no less than 205 , 664 tons . The supply by rail and canal was 132 , 872 tons IS cwt . ; same period in 1854 , 154 , 902 tons 15 cwt ., showing a decrease of 22 , 036 tons 17 cwt . The City article in the Times of Monday has the following with reference to the state of trade in Australia : —

      " From Sydney the latest dates were to the 25 th of November , at -which period the depression in the import markets continued to be increased by constant arrivals . From Adelaide , South Australia , the accounts were to the 29 th of November , when the stocks of goods were still considerably in excess of the demand , not only from the pressure of direct arrivals , but also from receipts from Melbourne , where the markets were in a still worse position . The colony , however , was generally prosperous , in consequence of ffgood trade having been carried on in the shipment of breadstuff ' s , hay , &c , to Melbourne , and an improvement in the labour-market , which gave a good prospect for the progress of the copper production at the Burra "Burra and other mines . The facilities afforded by the navigation of the Murray-for the transmission of wool from the interior had likewise operated

      favourably . Some drawback , however , had been experienced from a rather deficient harvest , in consequence of drought . " The guardians of the Newton Abbot Union in Devonshire have tried the experiment of renting land for the employment of the youthful and adult paupers . The balance-sheet for the last year has just been published : we have given the statistics contained in it in another column . The Hebrides and the West Highlands are in a state of terrible destitution . We see by an advertisement in ; the" daily papers ' that a subscriptionis being set on foot for the succour of the people of

      those districts . The advertisement states that , " owing to a more extensive failure last autumn of the potato than in any previous year , and a wet and bad harvest of the scanty cereal crops grown by the poor inhabitants of parts of the West Highlands , and of the Hebrides , including Skye , Mull , and Islay , not merely want and hunger , but destitution of an alarming character , afflicts numbers of the population . By the existing Poor Law of Scotland , no ablebodied person , however destitute of the means of subsistence , possesses a claim , as in England and in Ireland , tp workhouse or out- door relief , as a refuge from starvation . "

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      THE LITERARY FUND . At the annual general rneetingof the Literary Fund , held on Wednesday last , Mr . Dilke made some sin . gulur revelations with regard to the . management of the body . Ho said , that owing to the great expenses of the Association , with respect to house-rent , secretaryship , clerks , &c , every draught drawn for the benefit of applicants for the Society ' s aid cost 11 / . 17 s . in addition to the sum voted by the committee for their relief . Ho therefore moved the following resolution : —

      "That whereas during the ten years from 1844 to 1858 , both inclusive , the cost of assisting 429 applicants to the Literary Fund amounted to 5094 / . Os . Id ., exclusive of collector ' s poundage , advertisements , and expenses attending the anniversary dinner ^ and wheroas the cost of assisting 559 applicants to the Artist ' s General Benevolent Fund within the same ten years , amounted to 904 / . 17 b . Id . ( also oxolusivo of collector ' s poundage , advertisements , and expenses attending the annivorsury dinner ) , this meeting in of opinion that the expenses of managing the Literary Fund aro unreasonable and enormous , and that a great change must bo made in the administration of its affairs . " The motion , howovor , was lost by a majority of four . —Mr . LMokens , in an admirable speech , wittily

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      THE ELECTIONS . The Montrosk Boroughs . —On Friday week the sheriff of these boroughs announced that Mr . Baxter had been elected in place of the late Mr . Hume . Dddlet . —Sir Stafford Northcote was returned on the same day for Dudley . Barnstaple ;—Mr . Buck ( Conservative , but m favour of the Sebastopol committee ) was elected last Saturday for Barnstaple . Forfaksuire . —Lord Duncan , having accepted office under the present Government , as one of the Lords of the Treasury , presented himself again to the electors of Forfarshire last Saturday , and was returned without opposition . Portsmouth . —Lord Monck has been re-elected for this borough by a majority over Mr . Serjeant Gaselee of 1005 . - ' ' .

      Tamworth . —Sir Robert Peel , who has accepted office as one of the Lords of the Admiralty , was on Wednesday re-elected for Tamworth without opposition . Speaking of our present policy , he said ;—" "W " e must no longer be either paralysed or humbugged by Austria ; neither must Prussia , under the cloak of neutrality , be permitted to be the Russian ally . ( Cheers . } Let Moldavia and Wallachia be set up as an independent kingdom , as a check upon Russia and Prussia , as Belgium was a quarter of a century ago . ( Cheers . * ) Let Poland be restored to its place amongst nations—another efficient bulwark against the aggressions of Russia . All this we had the power to do , ¦ without sending an armament- to . the ^ Crimea ,. and _ prpclaiming that England was not a military power ; her strength lay in another direction , and she might use it with effect . " He added that he thought there was now a fair prospect of peace , as the death of every Russian Emperor caused a change in the policy of Russia .

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      OUR CIVILISATION . Elizabeth Lownd , a servant , aged eighteen , has been tried before Mr . Justice Colerid ge , for the murder of her illegitimate child . The prisoner-had been delivered at the workhouse on the 24 th of last August , and exhibited a great disinclination cto suckle the infant . She was heard to say she wished God would take it , as she had ho home to go to ; and on September the 1 st she buried it alive . Being questioned with regard to it , she gave several contradictory accounts , and . seemed to be in a state of great agitation and excitement . Ultimatel y she confessed the truth , was taken into custody , and , being found guilty of manslaughter , was sentenced to transportation for fifteen years .

      At the Westminster Police Court , on Saturday last , a ruffianly-looking man , named Walter Buckley , was charged with having committed various assaults on the occasion of his mother ' s funeral . The prisoner , who was intoxicated , had entered the room where the mourners were being dressed , and , having picked a quarrel with his sister , on the ground of his wife not being invited to the funeral , he kicked her twice in the abdomen , and cut her eye severely . Upon a policeman being sent for , lie assaulted him , and succeeded , together with his wife , in forcing his way into the mourning coach . IIis conduct at the funeral was very indecent and disorderly ; and he afterwards returned to the house , and broke some of the windows . For the assault on his sister he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour ; and for that on the policeman to

      one month . It will be recollected that the case of the two Irishmen who had obstructed the performance of a funeral in a Protestant burial-ground , which we recorded last week , was adjourned , in order that the Bishop of London might be consulted with reference to dispensing with the Protestant ceremony in the case of Romanists . The Bishop has since given his judgment , which is emphatically against the omission asked for . We may , therefore , expect further scenes of the same kind , since it is declared ex cathedra that decency and toleration shall be sacrificed to sectarian punctilio . - ;¦' ¦ . — ¦ — —

      John Manley , a boot a shoe maker living at Kings - land , was charged at Worship-street witli cruelty to a parish boy , his apprentice . The statement of the lad , who is fourteen years of age , was made with a very pathetic simplicity . He said : — " I was apprenticed , nine months ago , to the defendant , who has been in the constant habit since of beating me severely with the strap produced ( a stout strap , tied in two large knots at one of the ends ) . The last time was on Wednesday afternoon , when , while at work , without either waistcoat or coat on , he beat me in that manner severely for about five minutes ; then pulled my hair out of my head ; then beat me again for five minutes more : and after that a third time beat me , because I

      could not tie up my work fast enough . He has beaten me in this manner every week since I have been apprenticed to him . -1 have often had but one meal a day , and one day , about amotith ago , I hadno iood at all till 6 o ' clock in the evening , and then I had only some tea and bread and butter , though I had worked all day . For a week together I have had nothing but bread and cheese and butter twice a day , with only sometimes something to drink ; and this has happened for several weeks . I have been very ill for the last month , with a very bad cough , so that my master was obliged to take me to a chemist ' s for medicine . I sleep in the workshop , on straw , and did have two sheets , a blanket , and rugbut have had no sheets lately for some time , and

      , have latterly been very cold . I was a strong healthy boy when I went to my master , but am not so now ; and the doctor told me yesterday that I was so altered he should not have known me . I was too weak to do the work that was set me . My master had four meals a-day , while I had but two for three times a-week , and for weeks together . Three times a-week I had no tea or coffee , only water , and had to work from 8 in the morning till 10 , 11 , and 12 o'clock at night ; this was on two meals a day . A fortnight ago I worked from 8 in the morning till 12 at night for two days running , and one night that week I worked till 1 in the morning

      following . I had no breakfast two of those days , bread and butter for dinner , and the same in tho evening ; ouc day no coffee , but bread and cheese for dinner , and tho same with aomo tea , when I went to bod . My master told mo I might go away if 1 l iked , but I thought they might not take mo back into tho union , and that l should bo obliged to thieve , and therefore stopped- ir i had loft to toll tho parish oflicors how 1 wns used Ho would havo known whoro I had gone to , ami periwig treated ino worse . While upon trial with him ho ieil ino better than I wus fed in tho workhouse , but never

      since . " Those statements having been supported by the evidence of the purish-beiidle and otliors , and by t io certificate of tUo medical man who examined tne boy ' a person , and who said ho perceived indications of consumption arising from bad treatment , tlie prisoner was remanded for a week , in order t " ho verbal evidence of tho surgeon might be taken .

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      pointed out the absurd nature of the so-called " Council , " which never meets , and has no duties or functions whatever . He said : — " He had had the honour to be elected some years ago upon the council , and he had hoped that by study and fasting ( alauffhyhe might be fit to discharge the high duties which he supposed devolved upon that august body . For months he never lefj home without leaving word where he might be found in the event of the Literary Fund wishing to take his counsel . ( A laugh . ~ ) The Literary Fund , however , seemed to get on i n its own manner , without requiring his aid ; but when the council met , and where it met , and what it did he never could meet

      could learn . The fact was that it never , never did meet , had no place of meeting , and nothing to do—that it was , in short , the only thing in creation that had no purpose , end , or object in existence . ( A laugh . ) What would the public say of a board of directors that did not direct , of a bench of judges who did not judge , of a jury that did not deliberate or find a verdict , of a physician appointed never to prescribe , of a surgeon directed never to set a bone , of a fireman enjoined never to go withi n fifty miles of a fire , or of picked officers of the Humane Society being tied up not to approach the water ? ( Much laughter . ) That was the case of the council at this moment . " Ultimately it was resolved that a committee should be appointed to apply for a new charter , or an act of Parliament .

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      24 iQ - THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

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      LORD DUNDONALD AND HIS SECRET . Lord Ddndonald has sent to the daily papers a copy of a petition presented by him to the House of Commons , having reference to a plan by which he undertakes to destroy Sebastopol and Cronstadt in a day each . In his letter to the Times , he says : — " Tho means I contemplate are simple , cheap , and safo in execution . Thoy would spare thousands of lives , millions of money , great havoc , and uncertainty of results . Their consequences might , and probably would , effect the emancipation of Poland and give freedom to the usurped territories of Sweden . "

      The petition sets forth that the petitioner discovered in tho year 1811 a new and more effective instrument of destruction ; that a commission , appointed the following year , made a very favourable report ; that the plan hns been subsequently approved on more than one occasion ; and that the petitioner prays that he may bo allowed to put his plan i n execution , " reserving tho encased batteries and stenm gun-boats entire , and ready for tho brief and easy task of destroying tho hostile fleet . " Foreseeing the usual objections made to new plans by all officials , Lord Dundonnld gives the said obstructives a capital anticipatory rub : —

      " Your petitioner begs that , should theso promises and tho prayer hereunto annexed seom to your lion . House exaggerate . ! or Unreason able , you will bo pleased to take into your consideration that , had electric communication mid photographic delineation been privately known and publicly announced , these incontestable realities would have been received as an insult to tho undent tandng .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1855, page 248, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2082/page/8/