On this page

• Departments (2)
  • 
  • 
• Text (7)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    *&g T\ ^thft^> Ml w ^<J C^ r\w l hfi& <%& rtf 1^ \ y s^yJ~*^ y JLr pV <\P & \ s ? Qy £^ (v) t tjtTa v Tvcrn7-Arm?T> on ia~-< SATUKDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1800.

  • 

    ^ "= ^llhltC SLft ltinJ » ^1____T

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    i 246 ¦ THE LEADER . [ No . 301 , Saturday , 1

    Untitled Article

    thoughts at a time when others are thinking either of the One sacrificed to teach the lesson of devoted love , or of their own . love-warmed homes . It is not that young girl of grave countenance , whose pale face and wasted form betray cares that should be alien to youth . She is " opposed" by her family ; the brotherof whose home she is the very soul —whose " difficulties " her care concealswhose labours she smoothes—whose troubles she consoles—is severe and hard : those whose gaieties she joins , guess not the cares concealed , although her thoughtful countenance is a mystery . Still Christmas is not sad to her . She trusts , and is trusted ; loves , and is loved ; and | who can take " him " from her ? The season comes as a mockery to the hundreds of thousands of whom " the houseless beggar old" is the father . Christmas-day amongst the mudlarks , or in the low lodginghouses—in the hundreds of haunts where penury steals a passing stimulant from debauchery , is a scene which few of us would like to explore ; but even there , perhaps , the anniversary is not without some kind of cheering association—some rough luxury , hideous out of that hell , btit called " pleasure " within it . The greatest blank must at present be to those who are absolutely excluded from all communication with the society to which they have belonged . It so happens that some of them have been rendered familiar to us , in name at least , if not in person . The anniversary must bring strange recollections to them . How different this Christmas-day from the last to the Baronet , that eminent banker , Sir John Dean Paul , whose word was as good as his bond—and his bond as good as his word . He was not a man to miss any festival of the Church ; he has attended divine service as regularly as the day came round ; he could give you chapter and verse for all the allusions with which every sermon would abound ; and he can compare this sermon , which he has listened to this year at Millbank , with that of any church from St . Clement ' s to the newest fane in the newest watering-place . But with what a commentary in his own reflections ! How different all the circumstances ; how changed the pew ; how absent the fashionable dresses and the fashionable faces Avhich were so familiar ; how different even the demeanour of the clergyman—how altered from the passing bow , which could recognise the altar on one side , and the banker on the other , from the abrupt commencement of the discourse in a silent building where many aro together but still isolated ! The same comparison will be observed , with the same changes , in Stuahan , the person who ends the banking line . Snow . Before that day of social gathering , too , Palmku was running his horses , as Paul was running his bills ; was booking his bets as Paul was calculating his operation to raise money ; was watching his associate Cook , as Paul was watching his customer Guii-tith . Everything prospered—even the bankruptcy of the bankers prospered ; they got along ; they raised their money ; they made both ends meet your after year , and had succeeded in erecting- an established insolvency Avith n current income from the very source of dciicienc }' . So Palmku may look back , and ask himself , sitting there during the dull parts of the sermon , how it came that he , who avus afterwards to bo accused of poisoning Cook , should prophetically confer upon one of the * horses that was to win for him the name of Strychnine ? Murder , they say , will out ; and strange thinking will seize equally xipon the m

    CHKISTMAS-DAY IN THE PBISON . On Christmas-day some of us spent no " merry Christmas . " Not that merriness is all in all , even for Christmas . Yoti see that careworn man , with grey hair and time-scarred face on a young body : he is an xmtutored man who has had to labour his way through a hard world , where " cleverness" and commercial tact rule ; he has seven children to feed out of fifteen shillings a-Aveek , in these days of bread tenpence a loaf ; and if his " ' ess " ^ can earn a trifle , it is not much that they have , even with the scanty honorarium for cheerful service called Christmas-box , to make merry withal at this festive season . He had an accident some months since , and he knows that he shall not be out of debt " for the next six months . " The " honourable" young gentleman whose cab dashes round the corner , splashes worthy John Avith mud , and , taking no heed if he himself be in Avanton debt for six months , or six years , holds John in all things his inferior . And honest John , grateful to any one Avho will but acknowledge him as a fellow-man , almost thinks so too , when he compares the small , hard home allotted to him with the blessings heaped on the " honourable . " John has not seen a merry Christinas ; but he is fond of his home , and it is not for him that the season is bad . You " disapprove of Christmas-boxes on principle '"—and they have been corrupted ; yet the breach of your too-sweeping principle has added a little to John ' s Christmas dinner , and not a little to his consoling . sense that the fellow-men whom he so choerfully serves for so small a return , do think of him , and Avish him comfort though they give so little . Some of ua , perhaps , might not altogether refuse to exchange Avith John . It is not cither that groy-hoaded , sad-faced man : ho has not long since learned the death of his son in the Crimea—just long enough to have learned Avhat his loss really is ; s * o many occasions have happened since to make him think , " Ah ! Geouuk would have done that " , — " George would have liked this "—or " George would never have suffered such Avrong ; " for Georoewos a noble felloAV a very inch of him . Which makes the grey-headed gontlomun sad to face the first Christinas without Geoimh ; yet makes him also think with pride Iioav many fathers would envy him that son , dead though he is , but worthy to fill a father's

    ' —™^^™ n ™« M »» guilty mind and the mind innocently accused ., The man who has done a crime cannot refrain from talking about it , because he thinks about it ; he has a morbid , desire to test his oavu safety , by continually tampering with proofs of his guilt , and almost hinting at them . On the other hand , the weak mind , earnestly accused and crushed by forged proofs of guilt , Avill , at last , as if at the mercy of a technical logic , disbelieve itself and assist at its own condemnation . Either way Palmer has passed the Christmas-day , eating nothing , it is said , comparing his present restraint with his past freedom , his amusements , his companionships , and their result . What a day ! Marcus Beresford desperately Avanted a feAV pounds ; he could have had the money by igiA T ing a piece of paper into a bank , if a pedantic banker had not refused to take the cheque without another man ' s signature . Most ill-naturedly the other man refused to execute the signature ; so Beresford was driven to the expedient of putting his obstinate friend ' s name upon the cheque without his obstinate friend ' s leave . The malignant banker discovers the expedient , rudely calls it " forgery , " brings Beresford before the Criminal Court , and he now , for that single act of penmanship , lies in prison under sentence of transportation for fifteen years . Marcus , however , had undergone various tips and doAvns in life , and the comfortless Christmas-day Avill be no novelty for him . He has been in the Church , and no doubt will have criticised the sermon : still it must haA ^ e been a variety , even in his experience , to hear the sermon of the condemned . And Abraham Baker , avIio last Christmas-day Avas still alive ; still honing to marry Naomi Kixgswell ; still ready to enjoy , grace said , his roast-beef and plum-jmdding . To him , perhaps , least of all Avill this Christmasday make real difference . His Avorst happened at the moment when , as he expresses it , he " used that fatal Aveapon . " Nothing so bad can happen to him after that . His sole , as it had been then almost his chief purpose , is noAv to fulfil the offices of the Church ; and to him the sermon is a sermon . Yet the day Avill have been a dream jarring with the dream of the past . And Christianity sees its anniversary go by yearly , with so few rescued from the purgatory of brick Avails—" the Jug ; ' so great a number fantastically elected by detection to expiate the undetected crimes of society !

    *&G T\ ^Thft^≫ Ml W ^≪J C^ R\W L Hfi& ≪%& Rtf 1^ \ Y S^Yj~*^ Y Jlr Pv ≪\P & \ S ? Qy £^ (V) T Tjtta V Tvcrn7-Arm?T≫ On Ia~-≪ Satukday, December 29, 1800.

    < 3 jP ^ % * c ^^^ x&xx . SATURDAY , DECEMBER 29 , 1855 .

    ^ "= ^Llhltc Slft Ltinj » ^1____T

    3 fiMt affair * .

    Untitled Article

    There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the -world , is by the very aw of its creation in eternal progress . —Da . A-bnoud .

    Untitled Article

    A YEAR'S CAMPAIGN . Twelve months ago there Avere rumours of peace , similar to those Avhich : irc iioav occupying attention . The treaty of the 2 nd December Avas to produce astonishing results , and ( he mediator in the strife of nations , then us nuw , was-Austria . That treaty , so loudly bruited , Avas followed by no act on the part of Austria stepping beyond the bounds of neutrality ; that mediator , so much exalted , entirely / ailed . It may avcII be that tho effort to procure a peace in December , 1855-6 , mny share the fa to of the effort made in 1851-5 . In the meantime , except in Mingrclia and hnincritin , there is a lull in tho storm of war ; and Ave may be allowed to note how avc stand in case Count Ebtekjiazv brings pence from tit . Petersburg . It is impossible to look buck and not be struck Avilh the truly . stupendous character of the contest . Within twelve months avo have seen two armies of not loss than 200 , 000 men each contending in tho Crimea for the possession of a fortress , chiefly improvised on the spur of a moment . We luive seen a . steam fleet of nearly n hundred sail in the Baltic ; and a second fleet , scarcoly inferior in number , in the Black Sea . And more numerous still

    Untitled Article

    NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous communications - Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated bv the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . Comniunieatfons should always be legibly written , and on one aide of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for then * .. We cannot undertake to retnrn rejected communications . [ t is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it ia frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication . Mr . F . O . Wabd and the Engineers ; " " What shall we gain by the War ? " and several literary notices , are unavoidably omitted this week . nqdibeb . — We cannot undertake to account for discrepancies between the criticisms of the Leader and those of any of our contemporaries . 5 . B . — " Le Roman d ' une Femme" was noticed in the Leader gome months ago .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 1246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2121/page/10/