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    and Scott exercised his right at common law . It would be "worth while to try the right of the magistrates to restrain hinvin the exercise of his conjugal authority , and we propose a subscription , to be opened in Marylebone and Pancras . No doubt several officers of the army , and probably Conservative members in both Houses of Parliament would subscribe . The treasurer of the Husband Defence Fund

    should be the Reverend G-eoege Bimv of Whitehaven , who has already given to poor Scott the most admirable advice and support . The congregation which that earnest religionist was urging his wife to join was that of the Iteverend George Bird , who has since delivered a course of lectures on . the subject of Scott ' s conviction . ! Rlr . Btbd completely justifies Scott : it is , he argues , a man ' s duty to > rule his household ; if the wife refuse to obey his orders , the law of

    0 od authorizes him to enforce obedience by beating her . We do not see how this logic can be resisted in a Christian country . True , the wife might suffer from the abrupt contact with the cane ; but how can that suffering be set against her eternal welfare ? The affectionate regard for her eternal welfare would justify any course necessary to promote the object . That her eternal welfare would have been secured by bringing her to the congregation of Bird is evident . The eloquent Spubgeon lately denounced those

    lukewarm ministers ¦ who suffer , their congregations to cool , and who afterwards have their parishes " come howling after them into hell . " It is evident that Bird will not have "Whitehaven howling after him anywhere on the Bcore of neglecting its spiritual welfare . It may howl after him , but he will be safe with Scott , in the blessed election of the righteous , and wicked Whitehaven may howl at them , but it will follow other leaders . The magistrates committed poor Scott to prison , but whither will the magistrates go ?

    Disorder , indeed , is rampant in this wicked land . It now appears that Mrs . Cheiuist , whose Teverend husband lately took her up with the aid of a policeman , in' order to bear her home , as it were , for the second time as a bride , has been again abandoned by the contumacious woman , and it is hinted that he is about to proceed legally for " restitution of conjugal rights . " This , of course , cannot be refused to him . Biot has made great

    progress amongst iis , but we are not yet come to such a pitch of morality , that if a husband advance his claim , we can refuse to drag- back the truant to his affection . Shemay protest , she may entreat , slie may bewail , she may shriek , she may struggle ; but law and morals must be executed . Ai ^ lce Leiujy showed that such things are done frequently iu the interest of men like ' the Old Marquis , ' in establishments which are any but models of legality ; and shall it be said that the Law refuses to moral

    men a support which [ Lawlessness gives to an ' Old Marquis ? ' Marylebone , Pancras , and Bird are witnesses that some respect for law still prevails in this unhappy land .

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    strife of parties stayed ; we have little syi > I pathy for any wretches who may be shot a ! a continental Peterloo . We have had our Leagues and Unions , but we suspect their benefits abroad . They are not continental , but English , and we cannot imagine how England and the Continent can have anything in common . "We suspect that there exists in England a feeling of supreme superiority over the rest of Europe . We are pleased to be told , by the Debats , that a

    universal system of free trade would place Germany and Frances at our feet . Possibly , Englishmen are in the right , and . -the Debats is candid , not ironical . But it is not to be forgotten that foreigners , for the most part , entertain the same sense of their superiority that we do . There is then just a possibility , if we may insinuate it , that both are wrong , and that England is as little inferior to the

    other countries of Europe , as the other countries of Europe are to England . They may be different without being better or worse . We have not always been what we are , yet our national conceit was at least as overpowering in the degraded era of the GrUOKGEs as it is at present . In truth , we may be said to have moderated our selfesteem since we became civilized . At all

    events , a nation ' s opinion of itself is not a correct standard , or England would stand no chance iu comparison with Burmah . If the Continent were set free from the vast network of industrial and commercial restrictions inseparable from a system of absolute government , we should probably become more European in our character arid feelings , foreigners , . we know , are apt to say that England is interested in the slavery of German } 1- , Italy , and ! Prance . To establish political freedom in those countries would be

    they think , to establish an industrial and commercial competition that would overwhelm us . Intelligent Englishmen will at once perceive tlie spurious cynicism 6 f this idea . We sell our manufactures , not to oppressed but to free nations . In Prance we are met by tariffs , in Grermany by tariffs , in Italy almost by prohibitions . We supply Amei'ica , Australia , New Zealand , the open ports of India and China ; we trade , it is true , with every European country , but the doubling of our txade Avith Europe would not be a compensation for the loss of our trade with the

    United States oi America . Instead of dreading the freedom of the Continent , we should regard it as a promise of new prosperity to ourselves . Who , indeed , are the friends of European liberty ? Our artisans , our manufacturers . Where are its enemies ? A . mong our landowners , ouv aristocracy . The English nation has a direct interest in the political welfare of every nation on the Continent . And this is a sufficient answer to those who ¦ would persuade the public not to engage itself in watching the play of diplomacy abroad .

    THE SIXTH PART .. OP THE WORLD . There is some truth in the phrase which foreigners are accustomed to use with respect to England . We do live , it may be said , in a B A 1 * - * k . P arfc ° f tl *© world . We are not Asiatic , or African , or American , or Australasian . Then what are we ? We can scarcely be called European . The difficulty is popularly recognized in the employment of the word " continental" to signify un-English . But we are not the only islanders of the European world ; we aro distinct ; wo look out upon Europe ; we are atraid of its ideas , its interests , its troubles . We are glad to seo it quiet . If , in a neighbouring country , political agitation exists , it is unpleasant to us ; we desire to see the

    Our national genius , our history , our constitution separate us , in a great degree , from the continent of Europe ; we are physically and morally insular ; but wo are not so from interest . What interest , for example , would lead us to prefer , in Italy , an aggregato of miserable stateB shut in by protective twin ' s , to a country , with a free population of twentylive millions , multiplying along the coast such ports as the port of Genoa ?

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    sent . Sir Benjamin Hall seems to propose a somewhat similar course for Westminster " -a grand removal of the rubbish which encuthers the ground of the ancient city on the sit * of the marsh between Westminster and the sle of Thorney ; and then a rebuilding of be official quarter , which would greatly imrove the aspect of the metropolis ,

    would be t , e key to main further improvements , and ould give employment to a great number c workmen , with splendid opportunities for > ur architects . There is > however , a different between the two great master masons : Lots Napoleon has no Parliament to check lm ; Sir "Beetjamin Haxii must work by -permision of the House of Commons , and he has peiaps to contend against some other drawbacki

    Let us see what he has to A In the first place , some of the new offices ive to be rebuilt . This is absolutely nece&uy . The foreign Office is a place not nmb . better than a good-sized lodging-house—it cannot compare with a first-class inn ; and *¦ < is in such deplorable repair , that public docuaents of the greatest value are in constant dialer of injury . The old * ' War Office' has ben developed into the ' War Department . ' ;• , 'fc

    is at present in temporary lodgings , behind " Whitehall , and it wants a home . But , besides' buildings for these offices , it has long been proposed to concentrate the twenty chief Government offices on the spot of ground lying between the corner of St . James's Park at Downing-street and Bridge-street , Westminster . It is very desirable to establish ready and direct communication between the Parliament and the public offices , between wbich some members of the Government have

    to divide their time . ^ ov this purpose , various designs have been proposed . For a year or two G-overnment have , we believe , had a }> ian by an eminent architect for "building a gran d quadrangle , with one end at Downingstreet , back towards the Park , and front facing the line that continues Whitehall . All ¦ persons-who have considered the subject agree that the old private buildings which clog the space between the Park and the river

    —most of which are of a very ugly and profitless character— -should be removed ; and several persons have suggested plans which , would substitute an . entirely different class of building , —opening the side of the river , abolishing Vanhiiugu ' s ugly building of the Horse Guards , finishing Whitehall on its original plan , doubling the Admiralty , find placing the chief of the Government ofliuea on the site of Downing-street , Fludyer-streeb , &c . This would make a continuous series of

    official palaces from Westminster Abbey to Chariug-cross , with a grand entrance into the Park , and a side open to the river . On ¦ entering office , Sir Benjamin Hale found all these dreams unexecuted , Downiug-street iu a tumbledown stato , and his office encumbered with plans having no prospect of fulfilment . Ho found something else . He found old Westminster-bridge growing too shaky for tho traffic , and new Westminster-bridge rising from its foundations under water , in the hands of a contractor who could not

    carry out his engagements , and who soon became bankrupt . It had been designed , in a manner little calculated to secure stability , and it liad' become liable to botching even before tlio foundations had risen abovo tho vater level . And since tho bridge is to be rebuilt , a previous question is reopened . Has it ; been placed at tho best site ? Of all tho traffic across it , two-thirds cornea to Ohariugcross , and one-third goea south-west towards Pimlico—scarcely any of it straight on . The traffic , -therefore , would naturally be divided between two bridges—a minor bridge further up tho river at Lambctlx horse-ferry , and a

    THE NAPOLEON OF WESTMINSTER . Louis Napoleon hns demolished fifteen hundred houses in Paris , has constructed six thousand of a more magnificent order , has given , in the process , employment to the working classes , and lias converted the heart of Paris into one of tho most magnificent quarters that any city in tho world can pre-

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    October 11 , 1856 . ] THE XEADEB , ; 973

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 973, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2162/page/13/