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    have been buying for consumption by the trade . These purchases must have helped to keep up the price of cotton ; yet masters say that the Iowness of price for the manufactured goods obliges them to abate wages . Thus , the factory owners appear to be making purchases which raise the price of the raw material before there is any necessity for doing so , and to be hurrying into an immense manufacture of goods , when , the Iowness of price shows that markets are already overstocked . They are doing this at a time when the storms of winter , industrial as well as atmospherical , are likely to be severe . Their purpose is at present unintelligible . We can imagine that some , who are indisposed to war , might not be sorry to see the Government impeded by domestic discords at home . We can suppose that some factory owners are dabbling in cotton speculations . But the real source of the difficulty which , these men are creating is a mystery . Although we do not charge Government , we repeat , vith the conduct of the mill-owners , we do accuse them of keeping up an example of mystery . The various markets for Manchester goods are not in a . worse condition . From India ' they write that , although prices are declining in Bomb ay , there is a very fair prospect of an increased con-Bumption in the interior . We might add that the improvements about to be carried out in India must necessarily increase the wealth of the country and its consuming power ; only our Manchester men have too great a disposition to discount future markets . From Australia we have the standing accounts—stocks still overloading the import markets of the different colonies ; but they are melting away . If there is a break in the cloud , however , the atmosphere would be still further cleared by distinctness of policy on the part of Governrn ent . In India , for example , we have innumerable disturbances . The King of Otob , one of the most profligate tyrants in the world , appears to be instigating the religious differences of his own subjects . Has he taken Russian money ? The insurrection of the Santals in the Bengal Presidency , and the mutiny of Native troops under Brigadier Colin Mackenzie in the Nizam ' s territory , are but specimens of a general disposition to indulge the fanaticism of the native races- We already haye had measures carried out for consolidating the Government of India ; nothing would contribute to allay these disturbances more completely than to carry out direct English rule instead of keeping up puppet rulers like the Nizam and the King of Oude ; but a clear and united course seems to be impossible for the statesmen of our day . The single fact with reference to the contest in the East is another and a more decided rebuff for Russia in Asia . ¦ We have already reported the jepulse by General Wiuliams at Kars . Hearing of Iub straits , and of his gallantry in maintaining his position , hiscb , M $ Omer Pacha , hastened on from Soukoum-Kale ~ srrenqd ) iiiteV ) ed , alarge ftussiftn force < m the river Ingour * , in JMirigrelia—succeeded in effecting his passage by several , ' parts at oncesustained battle with the Russians for iive hours , and then beat them off ; continuing his route . Tb , o success is a great ^ vantage in itself ; it appears to settle the safety qf ^ Qcmeral Wwjuamsj but besides those two decided ! , gains , it marks the fact that the Russians do riot possess any orer-¦ wh elming power or capacity in Asia , ; and , ad ' ded to the list of their reverses , it cannot ijtyil"JJq' Ihaye a gre « fc moral effect in Europe , and ovoii in St . Petersburg . . ' ' ¦ ' ; - ¦ •;*•; . ; .., ; ^ ,. !¦ la Spam tho Governn »! ei * t o £ , % , « «) , " ¦«!»¦ "been placed in a very curious position by imp ' o ? IVI . T . !¦"¦ •/¦ ' ... . ¦

    his colleagues . It has refused to accept the suggestion of a committee that , in declaring offices of state open to all Spaniards the existing privileges of grandees should be distinctly annulled , and the refusal has threatened to bring about a disruption among the friends of the Prime Minister . When we look to the power which factions exercise in the Peninsula , we cannot fail to be alarmed at any incident which should divide the party of the Government . For although Espartero has not come up to the expectations formed of him , we do not see any other party than his likely at once to retain power and to excel him . He appears to confess that he is not prepared to grapple with the obsolete and preposterous claims to dignity which render Spain the ridicule and reproach of Europe . Everybody remembers the story of the grandee who was roasted to death because his dignity prevented him from moving to place a humble screen between himself and the fire . All Spain is roasting to death between the fires of Carlism and Republicanism , but cannot bend from her grandee dignity . It is the very chosen land of Manners : — * ' Let laws and learning , arts and commerce die , JBut spare o 1 spare our old nobility . " ; So our grandee says , and so it is said in Madrid . While Spain cannot hold Spain firmly , how can we expect any improvement in the tenure of Cuba ? We have had our own little grandee exposition at home , but it has been appropriately in the ecclesiastical department . There is a new cemetery at Cheshunt , part of which is allotted to the Established Church , part to Dissenters ; and the Bishop of Rochester was invited to consecrate the orthodox plot of ground . Not , he replied , until it shall be divided from the other part by a strong iron railing . The parishioners have put up posts , but the Bishop is not satisfied with posts . He has waived his claims to the railing in other places ; but , it seems , these concessions have exhausted his episcopal charity . We do not know why he is so inexorable at Cheshunt . Is dissent more rampant there ? Does he fear that without the iron railing he will be unable to keep a division between the souls in the next world ? He should sink a fence downwards as well as upwards ; and , evidently , he should carry it somewhere above the zenith , altogether to preserve that mechanical division which his episcopal mind requires . Perhaps the event of the week belongs to a future week . There is something in the movements of public men to strengthen the belief that the present Parliament will not keep together . Lord JonN RossEri ., seeing that he has not long to sit for London , has been settling h imself at Stroud—an intelligent place ; and his Exeter Hall demonstration will probably secure him in the favourite constituency of Poujlett Thompson and Jisxt-JCNOER Simons . Mr . Gladstone may , perhaps , count upon retaining his Oxford seat , but in the meanwhile ho is saying good things—taking up a democratic position on colonial grounds ; a safe range for a Conservative Minister in England . The City of London is promising its votes to Lord Palmeiiston , who is , however , not to be inconvenienced by any uncertainties at Tiverton : he is all but promised a double election , and will liave to divide his affection between the Exe and the Thames . Wo would advise him decidedly to remain tho rangor of the 'Exe , until Mr . F . O . Wabo shall have succeeded itt rendering the Thames fit to receive him . ' The Refuged question is ripening . The great meeting , held in St . Martin ' s Hall , on . Monday , was a protest which carried with it the opinions of even the moat moderate adherents to

    constitutional principles . Mr- Cobi > en , in a letter to the ^ Chairman , expressed his strong sympathy with , the objects of the meeting . Mr . Miaio > uttered a fear that the prestige of England would fall below that of Turkey . Mr . Washington Wixks spoke with effect , and roused the spirit of the three or four thousand persons assembled . It was novel and pleasant to see Mr . Ernest Jones in possession of the platform , uninterrupted and uninterrupting—forming , in fact , a part of the programme . What if he were in Parliament ? What if his fiercer coadjutors were with hirii ? Would the House flame , or would the man take his due position ? We are confirmed in our faith—there is no danger in liberty ; men are made violent by repression . There are to be other meetings on the subject . The sanitary movement , so far from languish - ing amidst the anxieties and excitements of foreign war , seems to have derived a fresh impulse from our Crimean experiences of its value . Last year we were still in the midst of the Tubular controversy , and a commission of eminent engineers protested , by a resignation en masse , against the adoption of Mr . F O . Ward ' s views by the Government . This year , Mr . Ward tells us , the tubular question may be regarded as settled ; and he therefore opens a new phasis of the movement , by propounding the Interception of Town Sewage in Small Tunnels , as the logical consequence of its collection in small Tubes . Sir W . Cubitt , Mr . Stephenson , and the other " eminent engineers " who opposed the introduction of the tubular system , are now in the field against the extension of the same principle to tunnels . Mr . Ward maintains that the capacity and cost of the North-side Intercepting Tunnels can be reduced cent , per cent ., so as to save the fN " orth-side ratepayers above three-quarters of a , million sterling , while securing a more concentrated current , and a cleaner scour in the tunnels themselves . Me . Ward relies on the experience of Mr . John Hoe , the inventor , he tells us , of the tubular system of drainage , and of all the great modern improvements in the sewerage of towns ; whose observations during twenty years of tie run of the Fleet in all weathers , enabled him to upset the old formulas , and to effect enormous reductions in the magnitude and cost of sewers . Mr . Stephenson , whose letter we published last week , contents himself with declaring Mr . Ward ' s views " puerile . " Sir W . Cubitt sends to the Times an unexplained adhesion to Mr . Stephenson ' s side of the argument ; and Mr . Bidder , the partner of Mr . Stefhensox , angrily charges Mr . Ward with wilful suppression and misrepresentation of the facts . The City magnates side with the engineering eminences , and have issued a long report against Mj \ Ward ' s views . A voluminous statement , impugning Mr . Ward ' s personal good faith , as well as his engineering propositions , has been produced by Mr . Bazaxghttb , the engineer of the Commission to which Mr . Ward belongs . Mr . Wabi > , nothing daunted , makes head against his numerous assailants ; opposing cool argument to angry aspersion , and weighty facts to empty epithets . His Letters in the Times and Daily News are masterpiece s of controversial composition ; hardly less interesting in a literary than in an engineering point of view . If his facts and figures hold good , and on these he invites professional investigation , his case is impregnable ; and the prom ^ ed economy , vast as ., it . is , may shortly be realised in the case of the great tunnels , as it has ulrcady been with respeot to the small tubes . For details , we refer to Mr . Wabd ' h letter , of which we reproduce the substance .

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    1094 , THE LEADER , [ No . 295 , Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 1094, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2115/page/2/