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    either of which , " we could understand—a general public demonstration , after which the feelings and opinions of the country in favour of an amended parliamentary representatioa might gravitate to a Central League ; or an unostentatious informal consultation , carried on among all the members of the Iiiberal party , and in no way biassed by personal jealousies of sympathies . But a JReform clique is a monstrosity , and will command no national confidence . The effect of it is

    simply to show the cards of that which professes -to be a party , and to produce the appearance of a sham . During the present and the last year , several attempts of this kind were made , resulting in failure . Firstly , the Residential ^ Franchise Association was set on foot , and gained the temporary support of some really sound politicians , but these were compelled to fall away when they discovered that they were sinking into a confederacy of hacks , itinerants , and superannuated traders . Then some one inaugurated ( in private ) a c Xiiberal League , ' with offices in Cravenstreet , Strand , and the names of two or three members of Parliament flitted ephemerally on the prospectus ; but this speedily became transparent as the project of an individual with a soul above public considerations , and the Liberal League vanished whither a thousand other leagues composed of a projector and an errand-boy liad vanished before it . Then , as we informed our readers , a good deal of gossip went on at the Reform Glub , and a conference of Parliamentary ^ Reformers was held within closed doors in . June last , at the King ' s Arms , Palace-yard , Westminster , Mr . John Abthttb Roebuck , the mediating member for Sheffield , occupying the chair . A committee was appointed as well as whipperin , and it was resolved to draw up" a scheme . Avast correspondence is said to have taken place with Liberals in all parts of the country ; concessions have been received from the

    special And the extreme ; and , we repeat , there is a new Reform Bill . It is not a bad hill . It confers a large extension of the suffrage on all occupants , owners , or tenants , in part or whole , of premises rated for the relief of the poor ; it establishes the principle of secret voting , on the Australian plan ; it redistributes the constituencies , so as to give a majority of representatives to a majority of electors ; it abolishes the property qualifications for members ; and it calls a new Parliament every three years . This , then , is the Roebtjck , Heform . Again , we say , it has a promising aspect , although a little cut-and-dried . But do the Gresham Coffee-house Liberals sincerely believe themselves , when they say to their fellow-countrymen that Government , if it meditates the introduction of a measure , will gladly receive popular instructions ? Could not Mr . Roebuck abrogate the ' if , ' since be is so dear a friend of the Cabinet , and confide to ua the Paxmishston theory ? If not , is he totally unprepared to act in the public light , and to give up backstairs agitations ? We are well aware that only a few members of Parliament are acting with him in promoting this sectional movement . But , if Keform is to be obtained , it must be by the union of Reformers , and not by secret conclaves , making up a project of shreds and patches , and relying upon , a fraction of the people , instead of the whole . Prom the Public Office , Birmingham , conies n 'Chatter ;' from Wood-street , an outline . ' Which will the public adopt ? Or will it reject both , and frame a Reform Bill of its own ?

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    THE ACCOMMODATION-PAPEll MANUFACTURE . If we could venture to do so without presumption , we should urge Mr . Commissioner HoiiROTD to inform himself more completely on the subject of bankruptcy , and particular ] v of that branch which was concerned in the case of Sadguove aud Hagg . The case was before him last Tuesday for judgment , and he delivered a judgment conspicuous for its uprightness and its intelligence . We have

    already stated the circumstances under which the firm managed to supply the place of capital with paper . " The financial partner , " says Mr . Commissioner Holeoyd , " resorted to the meanest devices in order to make Up for the want of capital ; " and for those ' meanest devices , ' the bankrupt was punished by the withholding of his . certificate ¦;¦ his less culpable partner being refused the certificate for two years . In the course of his remarks , Mr . Commissioner Hoi / rot i > declared that

    the manufacturer of a bill purporting to bear a signature which was in its nature false , or to be signed by persons falsely represented , ' to say the least of it , amounts to a gross fraud . ' , ^_ To write the name of a perso / x nonexisting is a forgery as much as to sign the name of another person living . In making these remarks , however , the Bankruptcy Commissioner appeared to be unaware that forgery is by no means an unusual oft ' encc in the manufacture of accommodation paper , or that misrepresenting the character of the parties is one of the most usual occurrences in the world .

    He naively pointed out that proceedings ot this kind must inevitably lead to ruin ; but here again we have to teach the Commissioner . The mercantile profits in this case were about 10 . ^ - per cent , on the returns ; money could only bo borrowed at the rate of 10 to 12 per cent ., and the Commissioner sees in this operation , therefore , nothing but ruin ? Jlow so ? To drop the particular instance , let us take another case—anonymous , but not imaginary . A man sets up a shop , say a lineiulrapev ' s or a grocer ' s ; bin capital is small , say 3000 ? . ; and he can only engage in a limited scale of business , eiin only arrogate to himself a very middle-class income—two or throe hundred pounds a year , and must live a great part of the week at a cold-mutton scale of existence . Such a life is rather ' slow . ' He determines to have an income of seven or eight hundred a year , or moro ; ho wishes his box out of town ; ami it is easily done . He has only to extend his business . Ho wants capital , it ia true , and ho _ has not customers ; but capital can bo obtained by paying a sufficient prico for it ; , and customers will como if the goods nr < 5 sold at . ' tremendous sacrifices . ' Accordingly , ho borrows one or two hundred thousand pounds , at ten or twelve per eenb . ; sella his goods oven undor prime cost ; drives a largo business ! to the full extent of his capital , sets apart for himself his 700 / . or 8002 . 3 i year , or more ; goes on for three or four yearn , finda his dobta accumulating , and declares himself bankrupt . But ho keeps excellent books , pays ton shillings in the pound , and cstublitmea hiui-

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    ITJtST STONE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN INDIA .. Tub spirit of Christianity is to assert itselt at all risk to the Christian , with all tolerance

    for the Heathen . We have compromised our faith in India ; we have encouraged the Heathen to rebel against us , and we have been fearfully scourged for that infidelity to our own faith . At the same time we have misled the Heathen into a misconception of their own powers and place in the world which is destructive to themselves . InCawnpore will never be forgotten that hideous monument of Hindoo ferocity—the well . General Neill inflicted a terrible punishment on the traitors , by making them cleanse the traces of their murderous work before hanging them ; the Hindoo gentry being scourged as malefactors to coerce them at their toil . Mr . Henry Christophjbrson has proposed a far nobler revenge : it is , over that well , the tomb of the victims , to erect a Christian , church . -Nakta , Sahib has bid his countrymen rejoice because the Christians , even their women and children , have been destroyed—because ' they have all been , sent ta hell , and both the Mussulman and Hindoo religions have been confirmed ; ' but on the foundation which he thus hideously prepared , the Christian Church will rise with resistless power , to preach the doctrine of forgive-¦

    ness . . ¦ ¦; ¦ . - ¦ .: ¦¦• .. " ¦;¦ . ¦ ¦ . . It appears to us that . Christianity never had such an opportunity in Iudia ; has , indeed , seldom had so sublime an opening in the world . A spirit of chivalry just no w animates the whole body of Christians . Thousands upon thousands- —millions , who would set little store by the technical refinements of scholastic distinctions of doctrine , are prepared to lay down life and property in vindicating her faith , and in sustaining the Grovernment which shall assert that faith in all its purity , in all its gentleness , but in all its power . Some cunning persons have thought to filch an opportunity , not for Christianity , but sect . One person has suggested this kind of church ,- that kind of chapel , this other form of cathedral or meeting-house . The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts at once issued an advertisement , taking the idea of Mr . Cmtistopheuso ^" , and appropriating it to the Church of England . jN " o \ v if that Church really were , as we have always wished it to be , the Church of the people of England , it would be most fit that its clergy should be the builders of the new Christian ' church in Iudia . But it is not so ; the Church of England might be called the Church of the upper classes of England , and even that would overstate its pretensions . Another gentleman has thrown out a very cunning bribe : Havklock is a Baptist by persuasion , and he has done much to restore peace ; build then ' a . Baptist temple on an extensive scale . ' 'A Curate ' says ho will give a guinea should a cathedral be erected ; but « I , ' tho Baptist , * will give two guineas , and promise to procure tiocnli / guineas more , should my plan be adopted ' . ' Here is ' S . ' L . ' ' offering twenty-one guineas if the public will choose ' a Baptist temple 'some kind of Greek fane , wo suppose , —instead of a Christian cathedral ; so completely does the fanaticism of sect neutralize Christianity ! On the other hand , Mr . Uiinkst Ha . wkos , Secretary to the Society for Propagating tho Gospel , eagerly declares , through the columns of tho Times , that the Society has , of its own accord , given the fullest-. security against any pnrty bias in nn appointment of missionaries . It represents no party in tho Church ; its missionaries are appointed by tho Archbishops of Canterbury and York and tho Bishop of London for tho time being , and the two missionary martyrs at Cawnpore wore thus approved . Jh not tho Society , however , still a Society of tho Churcli ' of England ? ' If Mr . Eiinich'E Hawkins , with tho warrant of his coadjutors

    in the Society , could rise above the level of sect and give some guarantee that the Church would fairly represent Christianity in India he would no doubt call forth a national response and he would create a new society worthy to ' have the most Christian gentleman in the land , Prince Axbert , as its president ; and worthy , we will say , of the man who suggested the memorial . For Mr . CilhistopheiisoiN , himself a Nonconformist , lias said " nothing about sect , but has pointed at ' good Bishop Wilson' as the man who could vindicate Christianity against its own divisions .

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    1068 THE LEADER . TOo . 398 / NAmvnn 7 tgk *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 7, 1857, page 1068, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2216/page/12/