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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd August 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page unpag., Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      A POLITICAL AND LITERABY REVIEW .

      Untitled Article

      ?——TUST before the close of Parliament the puolic f ) lias succeeded in obtaining some information as to the state of affairs with" regard to India , her finances and reinforcements . The Government , indeed , has exercised a considerable reserve , and we ~ cannot entirely blame it ; nevertheless several facts have come out . Mr . Veknon Smith has declined to make any formal statement on the finance of India ; and in doing so he is quite correct , since it would be impossible for hinvfo estimate either the revenue of an empire of which one quarter is in the hands of mutineers , while the trade of the other three-quarters is interrupted , or suspended ; and equally impossible to estimate the outlay , which must depend upon the extension and endurance of the revolt . The reserve , however , is calculated to excite undue apprehension . The Government of India is by no means in an insolvent condition . Even the annual deficit is i ather to be ascribed to bad management than to real poverty ; and it would be overcome by a course of improvement now inevitable And it has been ascertained in the City , that instead of being iji want of immediate cash , the East India Company has surplus funds to lend . Mr . Disraeli and others have endeavoured to obtain some , information from Government respecting the new restrictions upon the Press- —sweeping and arbitrary restraints that arc not demanded by any military or political considerations . Here , again , Government was reserved , probably because the case in reply was not a very creditable one to bo brought forward ; but Mr . Vebnon Smjtii went so far as to invite a private interview with one of the inquirers . On the subject of reinforcements , the statements have been more explicit . Government will continue to raise regimonts of militia as rapidly as possible , and as extensively as may ho needed . Recruitments arc going forward satisfactorily . Govornmonfc now sees the necessity of maintaining a naval force at home , — -one reason why screw-steamers have not been employed in the transport of troops . The avowal , by the way , implies some dawning doubt as to the state of our relations in Europe . If it prove to bo desirable , some portion of the reinforcements may bo sent ovor by way of Egypt , and no doubt it would bo very advantageous if artillerymen and engineers could bo reinforced by < Mt route . In thoso explanations , Government is mani- '

      festly giving way upon some points where it had hitherto maintained an air of preposterous confidence . ; From India , of course , we have no direct intelligence beyond that given last week . The f heavy mails' add to the accumulated details , but do not alter the general character of the information . The Ministerial whitebait dinner on Wednesday was virtually the close of the session , although some legislative accounts still have to be wound up . No summary of . the proceedings has yet transpired—we have no report of the good things said by the Premier —none of the felicitations exchanged at the parliamentary successes of the year—no reprint of the opinions expressed upon opponents , or upon uncertain friends . No gentleman connected with the Press has told us what was said at that table of the Independent Liberals—of Lord John Hussell—John Bright—the new members—the House of Commons at large—the Reform Bill of 1 S 58—or the political fancies of the public . On these points the conversation was capital—of coarse . But we are left to safe presumption , without specific information . Within the walls of Parliament legislative business has been gradually giving way to administrative business . Bills have been made up into bundles for committee , third reading , or Hoyal assent , and got through as fast as possible . The measure which has most" occupied the House of Commons is the Divorce Bill , of which something more than mincemeat has been made by ' amendments '—they have made it a new measure . Tho members on both sides who joined in creating a special opposition with reference to this measuro , first of all tried to defeat it , and have since pursued their consistent course of enlarging it to such an oxtont that it now grants divorce or separation for causes never originally contemplated , It releases clergymen from tho ministerial duty of performing marriage for persons who have been divorced , and in some degree tho committee restores tho action for criminal conversation in a now form . Tho Anglo-Saxon cannot givo up the idea of a monoy fine for porsonal offences . Moreover , a groat deal of business under tho statute is handed ovor to Quarter Sessions and tho Courts of Assizes , so that questions between husband and wifo will como amongst tho ordinary business of Quarter Sessions . Imagine that for a ohango in our British institutions , effected under cover of those who would have defeated tho bill altogether if tl > oy could ! No doubt they reckoned in some degree upon , tho effect

      produced in the House of Lords , where Lord Redesdale has not been slow to announce that he should move the consideration of the Commons ' amendments three months hence . Amid the mass of railway intelligence , where we see much mistrust arising from the decline of the dividends or increase of . expenditure stand forward three great questions of commercial enterprize . We have the report of the failure of the Atlantic telegraph—that is , the failure for the season . It was indeed a daring attempt to begin the laying of the electric cable without any previous experiment on the process , and the " company is in no worse position than in having been forced by circumstances t 6 make rather a costly experiment . The cable lias broken , and it is doubtful whether any large portion of it can be recovered . The best engineers always distrusted the success of this particular cable , on various grounds which it would be neodless here to particularize . Several questions have arisen respecting the apparatus for laying it down , and the mode of doing so—subjects which have been much illustrated by the experiment . We arc also inclined to doubt whether sufficient allowance has been made for ' the slack , ' or for the necessary bondings and windings , -whether in following sinuosities of the surface , or iu drifting sideways frolh the straight line . Many of these data were left out of the calculations—they will now be brought into it ; and the experiment of ' 57 may be considered to have settled the question for ' 58 . The bond of union which ihc Americans show in their remarks upon our Indian difficulty will then bo substantiated by the electric link . The noxt subject is a submarine question , but it is not quite so agreeably settled . When tho last telegraph was received from tho East , it was found that tho messages had not reached their destination in tho order of their original despatch—those which wcro sent first did not arrive first , arid private persons got their messages before Government . . Was it possiblo that the electric fluid might turn sportive on the route , and ono messago overjump the other within tho narrow channel of tho wiro ? Who can deny it P Yet before wo iwsumo any such process , wo might guess at some other ni o ^^ sL- It version ; and an intercepted , letter ^ /^ J ^ fe ^^'* assorts that tho Honourable F . W . ^^ V ^^ PS ^^ M - - chairman , of tho Submiu-ino r ^ cBv W ^^ M ^^ Mm fr gave orders to Mr . T . W . Evans , ^^ 'fWS ^ JHk + ~ the instrumonWooin , . to . transpose ^ Wm ^ A ^^ a p £ inosaagoH . Tho aoousation , inclucc Sw ^ P ! ^^^ Pi , 2 : with , the vory rovorso of authouff ^^ flHr ^^ ggg ^ y ^ . ^ , ;

      Untitled Article

      uonuin - q VOI ; . VIII , No . 387 . ] =

      —^ A ! rUB ^ A ^ 7 A ^^ O ^ 227 is 57 . " Pracra { g ^^ ^ S ^^

      Contents:

      Contents :

      Untitled Article

      eniai inoccs »» REVIEW OF THE WEEK- 1 > A < 1 E Imperial Parliament 794 The Late Storms " 96 Accidents and Sudden Deaths 79 / i State of Trade , 797 I Spollen on the Stage ,. 797 Ireland 798 - The Indian Revolt : 798 America ' 99 The Orient 800 The Completion of the Louvre 800

      " ¦———1 Our Civilization v's ;— 801 I Gatherings from the Law and ro-! lice Courts "r- — , " Report on the Purchase and Sale of Army Commissions 80 * Naval and Military f <™ Miscellaneous ° " * Postscript ° PUBLIC AFFAIRS — The Victorian Era 800 imi > r < Ri . nn 'India , and England oO «

      Good and Evil our . ou . Commercial Failures 80 S Work for the Recess 808 Our Pictures .,... ' - « J { . | The Duchy of Lancaster 809 The Australian Mails 809 A City Audit 809 LITERATURESummary old An Old lilackwood Contributor 810 Arabian Travel ¦ 811

      Life in Kansas fll A Batch of Books 813 THE ARTS — The Close of the Mont Blanc Season 813 The Gazette 814 COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS — City Intelligence , Markets , &c ..- 814

      Untitled Article

      • Theone Idea which History exhibits as evermore dev-aopm , itself ^ intc ^^^^ l ^ . ^^ S tt ^^ S ^ I ^ S ^^ - of our spiritualnatuje . "— jy « m&oZ < tt '» Cosmos . ^ ;

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 22, 1857, page unpag., in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2206/page/1/