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The proceedings of the Bankruptcy Court disclosed to us the very extensive branch of tailoring which bas hitherto been kept in the dark . This commerce ' , under the rose is constantly developing its extensive connexions , and we have this week some further evidence that its connexions also are very high . A : passage in the Times Money Article tells us that " the New Tork and New Haven Hailway had declared a dividend of 3 per cent ., but an injunction against it had been obtained in the Supreme Court . This is the company of -which Mr . Robebt SchuyIiEB , a year or two back , acting as president with full power , issued fictitious shares , and which , unlike the Royal Swedish Railway , the Crystal Palace , and the Great Northern Railway Companies in London , forthwith repudiated the acts of its own officers . "
In the trial of the directors of the Docks Napoleon at Paris , M . Aiitjiub Bierbyeb , son of the distinguished advocate of that name , a Government commissioner , whose duty it was to watch over the proceedings of the company , is accused of having connived at the frauds with which the directors are charged ; and his defence is one of the most remarkable disclosures yet furnished to us in this kind of commerce . " He says that M . Pebsigits :, who , when Minister of Commerce , appointed him to the post , M . Mi one , and
M . RotraEB . were all made aware by him that the company , though ostensibly starting with subscriptions for 200 , 000 shares , had , in fact , only from 85 , 000 to 86 , 000 shares subscribed for . If they chose to take no initiative , M . Bebbyeb , argues that it was not for him , a subaltern , to make a stir about the matter . " This statement is in part contradicted by M . Heuktieb , formerly Director-G-eneral in the department of Agriculture and Commerce ; but , as M . Bekbyeb says , " Perhaps the whole truth will never be known . " If hard
pressed , he promises to tell some secrets , " which will be interesting and instructive . Meanwhile , it is the fact that M . Bebbteb himself was a Government commissioner , and that , being accused of connivance in the fraud , he makes this defence »
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THE FRANCHISE MOVEMENT IN SCOTLAND . The Scottish movement in favour of a 40 s . county franchise is an excellent specimen of the political movements of the day ; it is dictated by a manifest void in the Scottish constituency ; a void , that is , as compared with the English constituency . For until every free and independent Englishman is allowed
by statute that electoral right which he has by the common law and the constitution of this country , we hold that the fran chiso of all three kingdoms is radically defective . The Scotch county franchise is in a very absurd condition : the right is held by freeholders and occupiers to a high amount ; but anything resembling the humbler class of English yeomanry , or the working vote , Scotland does not show . Freeholds aro held there
at a much higher value , and represent a totally different class . In fact , the tenure of land differs materially , and lawyers make a vast distinction between the English freehold and the Scottish feu . It is a distinction for lawyers , but not for practical men . There are various kinds of freehold in this country ,
differing materially from each other ; but the practical pinch of the distinction lies in the question , whether or not the owner has a permanent possession of the land , not subject to renewal , as in the case of copyhold and some other kinds of inferior tenure . Now , in Scotland , wo are told , and the statement is not denied , that the feu ia a kind of tenure ae permanent in ita character as oiu- foe simple ; although theoretically and technically
it is In the nature of a copyhold , it constitutes , in fact , positive ownership . In England , such an ownership to the clear annual value of 40 s . gives a man a right to vote in the county ; in Scotland it does not . In England , a man living in a town , possessing property of that kind , may not possess avote for the borough in ¦ which he lives ,- but he does possess for the county ; in Scotland , if
communities of Scotland . Here is a reform for which justice loudly calls , but which awaits the revival of political feeling in the United Kingdom generally . It is one of those political movements that remain in abeyance for want of political union ; one of the materials that would supply the strength for a political action , as soon as our public men have the courage or the sense to act upon the popular invitation .
the owner lives within the precincts of a borough , he does not possess the vote for the county . The sum and substance of the complaint is that the humbler middle-class man , or the rising working man who lays by and accumulates independent means , has in Scotland no prospect of acquiring the vote by his own act ; in England he has ; and the sole question is , why there should be that distinction .
The question is reduced ad absui'dwrnhj a consideration of the national character of the Scotch . That part of the country is poorer , and therefore a lower range of money value would , all things considered , represent the same level with a higher range in this country . As 40 s . will buy more land , on the average , in Scotland than 40 s . would buy in England , so a 40 s . ownership in Scotland would give a
higher grade , as it is called , than in England . Again , taking the Scotchman and .. the Englishman one with another , you will find that the Scotchman at a given social'level-will , be at least as well informed , as intelligent , as energetic , and as prudent as the Englishman . Why then have only a 501 . or a QQl . freehold for Scotland , and a 4 sOs . ' freehold . foi England ? What is the reason for the distinction ?' .
When the Reform Bills were under consideration , attention was turned upon the main questions of the struggle , and these details escaped notice . Scotland has since been torn by ecclesiastical dissensions . The appetite for that kind of quarrelling has now been satiated . It happened that a leading man in the 3 Tree Church had occasion to travel in North America ; one of the first things that struck him was the independent bearing of the resident classes , however humble , on political subjects . Every man had his own opinion , and was prepared to enforce it with his vote . Some
ot these persons were found in Nova Scotia , — -they were Scotchmen ; by crossing the Atlantic they had regained that political right which , in modern times , is denied to them in their own land . Nay , on consideration , the traveller found that the Scotchman is not on a level even with the Englishman . Returning ,, he detected some further reasons for the docility of the Scotch : from the comparative smallness of the constituency , the position oi the tenantry , and the largo possessions of individual families , the counties are really private possessions . Thus , Buteshire returns
persons under the approval of the Marquis of Bute , who sometimes puts members of the aristocracy into tho House of Commons ; peTsons possessing very little sympathy with the agricultural and industrial inhabitants of Bute . He neutralises the entire population of Greenoek , Paisley , Dundee , or Aberdeen ; Rotbsay or Arran being entirely unrepresented . If Dumfries , with Annan , Loclnnaben , Moffat , Lockerby , and other villages , possessed a franchise for 40 s . owners , they would send into the House of Commons men representing tho real blood and muscle of Dumfriesshire . It ia the samo
ui Lanarkshire , now handed over to the decrees of Hamilton and Dou € l , as . There is , however , a serious uiiliculty in tho way of this reform : tho Scottish members , in si largo proportion , aro of Whig if not Tory principles , and they aro not for anything bo really popular . 1 'hey will not speak up for the disfranchised counties and
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THE LORD CHANCELLOR'S DIVORCE BILL . The real difficulty in making ; progress with amendments affecting either the position of women or the law of marriage and divorce is , that there is no effective public opinion upon the subject , and for obvious reasons . Those who are inost conscious of the evils of the present law , are , speaking generally , disinclined to place themselves prominently forward . They are in the condition of persons suffering under some hereditary disease , who shrink from the hospital applicable to their
case above all other buildings in the world . They would like a remedy , but they still more dread to draw attention , upon their own sufferings ; hence they can only operate through a very peculiar agency , which effects great reforms in the world , but accomplishes them slowly . Their true hope lies in the thorough , conviction of thinking men . But we seldom find that thinking men are men of action , and we commonly find that men of action adopt
their convictions long after they have ceased to be discussed by thinking men . So that , in the present day , we are accomplishing thoughts which lurked in the minds of philosophers hundreds or thousands of years ago . The best hopes for practical law reforms upon subjects affecting the moral regimen of society , lies in tho carrying out of Mr . Napier ' s motion , wliich Government accepted—the appointment of a Minister of Justice .
The course of tho Xoud Cha . ncetjIOb ' s Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill shows this . Society has long made up its mind upon some points at least of this subjectthat , if there is to be divorce at all , it should not be a question of expense , so as to exclude from its benefit persons because tliey are' poor : that in questions of matrimonial litigation tho wife ought to be placed upon an equality with the husband ; that the industrious and neglected wife should not be
liable to licensed burglary on the part of a profligate husband ; and that the outrageous indecency of the action for criminal conversation , by which the husband brings in his bill to tho seducer , should be totally abolished . The subject has been beforo Parliament now for several years . It was laid before a Commission ; the Commission could agree only upon a report which amounted to the suggestion—that the expense of divorce should be reduced bo as to bring it within
the attainment of poor persons . Successive bills have taken in new proposals . Tho Lord Ciiancellou ' s last " bill proposes that divorce should bo granted for adultery on some few of the recogniaed causes ; principally differing from the present law in rendering such a relief reul and tangible . Ifc also proposes that husband and wife hIiouIcI be allowed to separate by agreement ,
leaving the wife independent of the man with reference to property and earnings . Those aro real additions to the present law , for , aa it now stands , a separation can bo overruled by the Ecclesiastical Court at tho instance of one of the parties . The bill , however , ia atill more conspicuous for its omissions than for its inclusions . Two onrisaions aro very remarkable . It does not make Hyatcmabic doaortion a ground of divorce ; i <; dops not
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March 7 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 229
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 7, 1857, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2183/page/13/
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