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Leader (1850-1860), 29th December 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page unpag., Untitled Article

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    • 7 J7' A POLITICAL AND LITERAEY REVIEW. I
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      7 J7' A Political And Literaey Review. I

      7 J 7 ' A POLITICAL AND LITERAEY REVIEW . I

      Untitled Article

      VOL . VI . No . 301 . ] SATURDAY , DECEMBER 29 , 1855 . Price { g ^ T . t ' VMence . '

      Untitled Article

      Naples will get no more for its debased silver than the silver is really worth . The Neapolitans will suffer , because they will have to fulfil existing engagements in the nominal coin , and they will see their silver driven away bodily , while trade sails past their ports without entering it ; for they are discredited customers . So the King thinks it a wise course to impoverish the very people from whom he is to draw taxes ; and King Bomba is the great ally of Russia in the South—the great sustainer of Rome in its latest vagaries . Whatever may be our critical doubts of Napol _ on the Third , an act of our Post-office shows increasing connection between the two peoples , which must , to a great extent , bind him to the better part of his measures . A new newspaper and book-rate has been adopted of which , it may be said , the single postage for newspapers is one penny , and for books threepence . This , to a certain extent , brings France within a uniform system of postage , and it indicates a tendency to extend that benefit , which must necessarily be accompanied by other extensions of commercial intercourse . An English governor has just invented a stroke of state rather on the Neapolitan pattern . It is Governor Denison , of New South Wales , who has been raising a tax as if for the very purpose of defeating revenue . There was a tax on spirits in New South Wales and ia Victoria , hut the rates differed , the Governments being independent of each other . The Victoria rate was higher , the New South Wales rate lower , and the consuquenco was , smuggling on the wild border between the two . It would he as easy for the Metropolitan police to prevent trespassing on the Great Sahara , as to prevent smuggling on the waste lands halfway between Sydney and Melbourne . It was necessary , therefore , if the smuggling was to be stopped , to adopt some other measure , nnd the natural step was equalisation of the untie * . If the Victoria duties had been lowered , the object would bo attained ; but Sir Chaiilish IIotham , who after his first good bIiow on making acquaintance with the inhabitants has fallen from blunder to blunder , thinks to supply his want of cash by grasping at heavy taxes . He taxes the spiritconsumer of Victoria sufficiently to induce

      smug-TTOSPITALITY seems to be the business of life ¦*• — at present for our public men . They have been down at their country seats , leaving the world apparently to wag as it may ; though public men , especially at our day , have no real peace . The progress of improvement , with its railways , its post-office , and its telegraph , leaves no interval of blessed ignorance for them . Every day has its despatches to be received and sent , and the incessant passing and re-passing of diplomatic agents between all the capitals of Europe proves that instead of vest there is more action going on than ever . The rumours vary : we now hear that Russia will accept and that she will not accept ; that the secondary German Governments are uniting in a representation as well as Austria ; and that Prussia is considering finally whether she shall not abandon her neutrality ' , * and take sides against her chief ally . This is the last phase of the peaec rumours . On the whole , however , the expectation appears to be losing ground that Russia will really come in and accept the terms offered to her . Naples , the great model Conservative state of the South , has been playing high "jinks " in finance . She has been teaching Austria , Russia , and other States which are hard up , how to make n short cut at a subsidy . It is by clipping the coin . Not literally—that is a wasteful process left to Jews nnd Greeks . Nuples "j oes about it in a more scientific manner—she clips the coin before it is minted . A new rule has been adopted , by which the Mint price of silver is at 14 per cent , lower than it was before , leaving the Mint profit on coin at 114 ; in ¦ other words , that is the depreciation of silver in Naples as compared with other States , and the Government thus embezzles a section of all the silver sent to Tit for coining . This looks like a great booty , but it is reall y' cutting up the golden gooso . Of course , all foreign merchants who hnvo dealings with Naples will , in the firat placo , hesitate to send silver where it is at a discount . In the second place , for all the goods they send , they will charge in the nominal coin of Naples a sum equal to the real coin of other places , and thus

      gling . Sir William Dennison has joined him , by raising the New South Wales duties to the Victoria level , which will probably prevent smuggling at the expense of introducing illicit distillation , so defeating the financial objects of both governors . Thus Dennison and IIotham constitute a kind of twin Naples , imposing a tax that must cut off the sources of taxation , besides exasperating the people into contempt of Government , if not rebellion . They report from the United States that Mr . Cbami'TON never intended to break the laws of the Union , and that the British Government declines to recall him . The British Government was never asked to recall him , and nobody thought he meant to break the law . The agents , whom he sanctioned , broke ' the law , and it is a question whether a gentleman implicated in the ludicrous intrigues of the agent , Strobel , can command the respect of the people to whom he is sent diplomatically . At home , our administrative business does not get on so beautifully , however , that we can sneer at our diplomatic agents abroad , our governors , or foreign kings . Our Ministers rub on somehow in the war of diplomacy , and the patient people lets them tell us what they please , do as they please , and put up with the consequences when they come . We treat public affairs , in fact , like railways . Shareholders appoint directors to manage for the shareholders , the directors appointed manage for the directors , and dividends and passengers arc left to shift for themselves . This is Captain Hi / ihh ' h account , and he ought to know , as l ><; is genera manager of the North Western Knilway Company . There is no real general government of the railways , ho they fall to quarrelling witli each other ,, and waste the cap ital which ought to go to dividends or improvements , in lighting line * , or Other forms of Parliamentary warfare . This conHftfjnonco we see . The Enitteni Counties nhareliolilets l c { toiy plain that their dividends are constantly < lwiTftulj | Xj ) accidents like that on the North Kent liixfrvire tin frequently repeated from the employment ;*! nogligcnt servants , or from imperfect construction , and . invontora like BniPOKH Adamh , compliant to tie papers that they have approved means of prevent-

      Untitled Article

      NEWS OF THE WEEK— page The War 1238 War Miscellanea 1239 I State of Russia 1239 The King of Sardinia and the Scotch Protestants 1240 > Public Meeting 1240 America 1241 Our Civilisation 1241 The Late Count Krasinski 1242 Continental Notes 1242 Naval and Military News 1243

      Early Greek Romance 1253 A Batch of Books 1254 THE ARTSChristmas Week at the Theatres .. 1251 COMMERCIAL AFFAIRSCity Intelligence , Markets , Advertisements , &c . .. . i . 1255

      A Gale on the Coasts 1243 Miscellaneous 1 * 243 . POSTSCRIPTLatest News from the East 1245 Street Bobbery near Londonbridge 1245 Outrage on the Commissioner of Bankruptcy 1245 PUBLIC AFFAIRSChristmas-day in the Prison .... 124 G

      A Year ' s Campaign 1246 Political Symptoms 1247 Tlie Spitaliields Weavers 1248 Abraham and Naomi 1240 Mr . John Thwaites 1250 The Law of Partnership—Part II . 1250 LITERATURESummary 1251 Macaulay 1251 Essays for the Age 1252

      Untitled Article

      The- one Idea which . History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Idea of Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw down , all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and , by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great obiect—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Hmnbotdt '' a Cosmos . x

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2121/page/1/