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    on the Legislature . Baron Rothschild may now take comfort , his unflinching and costly advocacy of a great pmncitle \ iti $ triumphed , and though the disappointed assert he may find his future seat for the City by no ineaus a certainty—for inany who A'otcd on his side , voted not for the individual hut for the principle—still to him will be the honour , to him the praise and gratitude of his co-religionists for having * removed . a mark , a Cainlike mark , but inflicted by the hard of erring man , from a class of our fellow citizens who have throughout recorded an uncomplaining and therefore

    irresistible protest against the wrong , the injustice , and calumnies heaped upon . "them . It was finely imagined by ancient philosophy that a chain dependent from the footstool of the King of the Gods hung down to earth . The mortal was thus linked to-the immortal , perishable mortality was joined to imperishable divine essence . This ^ noble idea may be further extended by imagining a chain whose mission it is to link together in one common brotherhood all human nature . The decision of last ; Thursday .. added another link to that fraternal chain . The Jew and

    the Christian now form an unbroken series in the Social scale ; the shades of difference where they join are nearly imperceptible , and will finally disappear as time , the progress of liberal doctrines , and better acquaintance goes on . But let us do equal justice . 'Not ' all-the bigotry was on the Christian side . There was as much prejudice to overcome on the side of the Jew as on that of the Christian . The wall of demarcation which hitherto divided Christian and Jew was built up jointly ; the Jew himself , by his pertinacious adhesion to segregating ceremonials , helped to . make the wall stronger and higher ,. ' . And even now the

    social junction which has been achieved is solely due to the educated and enlightened of both sides . The extremities still exhibit , and will for a time continue to exhibit , all the opposing characteristics —Hebrew and Nazarene . Exeter Hall is at one end , Petticoat-lane at the other . Newdegate may from one extremity still glare In rabid antagonism on the chief Rabbi , who , at the other may be found retorting contempt . Exeter Hall still points to the Jews as the mysterious race— -once the favoured of Omnipotence , now dispersed by Divine behest—the race to be shunned , distrusted , and spit upon . The synagogue of strict Jews still

    shun tlie Christian as the eater of unclean thingsthe ham-devouring unbeliever unworthy to share in Paradise any portion of that consecrated beef and wine reserved at the Judgment-day only for the sealed and circumcised . But let us be thankful the first step is taken —\ yehavc publicly given the cold shoulder for ever to intolerance against a class of fellow-subjects who can poinL among scores of other good men to a Rothschild and' Salomons , second to none in unscctarian charity , and we look upon this step as . the first of a , sciics shortly to follow in the same liberal direction .

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    THE WATER OF OBLIVION . There are yet left to the choice aristocracy some things which they seem to prize as much as the vassalage in which they at onetime held the nation . Their persons arc tabooed from the touch . of the bailiff for debt ; if their horses or carriages arc to be forfeited to the sheriff a ribbon is to be placed in front of their steeds ; and if , as ouec or twice has happened , a lord has to appear on a certain platform in the Old Bailey , a silicon cord is provided instead of a hempen linker . But there are other privileges and honours of a more agreeable , if not of a more substantial nature , and these arc the ancient orders of honour distributed by the Sovereign with all due ceremonies and pomp . These proceed as if the chivalrous ages still survived , and as if time and cotton-mills , and other trifling inventions , such as printing-presses and steam power , had nol , varied the ideas and inanucrs sinco the time when the gallant Edward Rex picked up the garter of 1 he dancing count ess . Still in the sacred precincts of St . George ' s Chanel , shut out from tho vulgar world of reality , a select , an exclusive few , occasionally assemble in all the pride and i > oinp > of the feudal period . There the idea of the Chevalier " sans pcur ct snns reproolie" is still sustained . There Amndis nnd lioiu j d , and the rest of tho romantic knights would find their paradise , andQuixoto himself see nothing to fight , but everything to adoro . Unknown and unobserved by the living working-duy world a short , time since another Knight v / hh m ' lnntted within these . sacred " precincts , by proxy . His description

    would fill several of Lisuarte ' s or Scudery ' s folio pages . His swartliy skin , his burnished complexion , his gem-studded armour , his diamond aigrette , his noble horsemanship , would be set forth so as to stir the pulses of the royal demoiselles who read of him . He would be styled the Kni ght of the Snowy Mountains , or some title indicating he came from the fat Ind . One circumstance alone would be passed slightly over ; and that is the Paganism of his religion . His name as pronounced by the swelling heralds would be Jung Bahadoor * and when the clangor had ceased , and the echo had reached the outside of the Castle walls , some one might inquire who this gorgeous knight was whom the fail' hand of royalty had dubbed one of an order created to promote the Christian faith , protect the honour of woman , and succour helpless orphanhood . The answer would not be entirely satisfactory to common sense and eommoa feeling . We will briefly give it . Jung Baliadoor , jnsfc made a GKC . B . — Grand Gross of the Order ot the Bath—and one of our English Nobility , is the spirited yoxing man ¦ who shot his uncle and five more gentlemen of the Court of Nepaul , with his own hand , in a chamber of Ms aunt ' s palace . This famous battue of relations made even some sensation in Eastern regions , where such mornhig ' a amusements are not so

    uncommon as they are in these Western parts of the world . This doughty knight is one of the boldest of adventurers , and of course , therefore , a younger brother , having never been rendered lazy by inheriting a patrimony . He is very clever at card tricks ; can vault over the head of his attendants on to a table , where lie will sit cross-legged ; or spring into his saddle in a way to raise the admiration , and perhaps the envy , of Mr . Robins , the American phenomenon at Astley's . He led a roving lifeinlndia , getting up card parties , and it is thought conspiracies ; and was supposed to be rather seedy in

    circumstances , until , happily for him , t * he Queen of Nepaul quarrelled with his uncle , her prime minister ; and as gentlemen in office in the East do not walk as easily out of their p laces as my Lord Palmerston and his followers did out of Downing-street , there was the usual deathly struggle to get rid of the offensive First Lord of that Treasury . Young Jung was the lad for the 30 b , and the Queen sent for him , and he finished it off by the slaughter -we'have mentioned , th inking as little of it as certain princes here do of getting rid of half a dozen of the daDDled

    denizens of the Highland preserves ; man-stalking in the one region holding in the piiblic estimation about the same place as deer-stalking in the other . This admirable shot surrounded himself with a small band as expert as himself ; and when in durbar , instead of a wordy reply , a revolver bullet , settled the opposing speaker's argument and life at the same time . Wo arc apt to sec and laugh at such conduct in our Eastern burlesques , but we shall . henceforth look npon-them as historic truths , and as such serious realities as to take them beyond the sphere of the comic muse .

    The great feat which , perhaps , has entitled the dusky knight to his recent honours at Windsor , was the crowning act of his fortune . It was necessary to produce a political crisis in the government of Nepaul , so Jung Bahadoor took his mini < f rifle in hand , and calluig his friends and opponents to council , he shut the door of the parliament chamber aud finished the debate by bagging fourteen of the opposition off his own trigg-cr . l ^ or tliis ho was made Prime Minister of Nepaul , and its virtual ruler . He now thou ght it wise to take his pleasure ; and perhaps it might be convenient for a time to leave

    the neighbourhood ; and so lie came in state to Europe , and to England , and dazzled tho eves and bewildered the brains of ladies who love diamonds aud an olive complexion . There was no odour of blood perceptible ; he vsis perfumed with all that Araby and Circassia could shed upon him , and plastered all over with gold and gems ; and ho became the observed of all observers . He mado shrewd observations at Woolwich and Chatham ; he cot f-onie idea of tlic Hank of England cellars ; and lie thought that . Spithcad and Plymouth , and tho houseold troops and artillery , were suggestions that were nni ; In V » r * r 1 i « ro < Tnr < lr >( l ITr » > unrip iir > Kie inimi nrlimi Un ¦ iivt > i | i ^ t « w »»«* J 111 AVt tYUvIl

    " - "" " F *«^ - * . »•« v _^*«> . » « . x ^ .. ** l * II 'MM \ J got buck to adhere to the English rule , and lie kept to it , through the late insurrection . For this , as his exceeding great reward , he has been made a paladin of England ami a Grand Ivnight , of the Bath ; mid lei ua hope that tho lustration such an immersion is supposed to be typical of , may prove to ho a fact ; and that Sir Jung Jiiihadonr — Maha-rajah , and O . C . B . —may now be considered as pnriticd from any blood stain , and clarified to the utmost by the writer of St . George ' s Cli-ipcl .

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    SERVICES AND PENSIONS . THE SOTEBANNUATION LAW AMENDMENT BHL . TVb have before us a bill which has been introduced into the House of Commons to provide for the superannuation of Civil Servants . To bring before the notice of the public the claims of our officials at a time when such investigations « re going on as those at "Weedon , for which Colonel Boldero has obtained a royal commission , is rather a bold measure , and one we should hardly have expected from a Government holding office by the support of such constituencies as Birmingham and Manchester . The measure proposed , hoyrever , does not sefcm . to ask for more than that which is already granted to the working bees of our public offices ; but only to remove an impediment which now exists to the retirement of men who ought to be superannuated , and who are willing- to take their retiring allowances if they can have what their years oi service entitle them to . The subject *< rill be better understood if we inform the public that , prior to the year 1829 , the civil servants of the State received retiring allowances without having any annual deductions made from their salaries towards raising a fund for that purpose , and they were entitled to a proportionate amount of their existing salaries according to then * years of servitude , until they had reached a period of fifty years , when they might retire on full pay . In the year 1829 an act was obtained by the Government of the day , allowing it to deduct five per cent , from the salaries of all civil servants towards the formation of a . superannuation fund , from which , such retiring allowances were to be paid , but this act did mot take effect on those officials who were then in the service , but on all who might subsequently enter into it , and at the same time reduced the scale of allowances , so that after fifty years , or any longer period of public service , no clerk paying towards the superannuation fund could get more than two-thirds of his salary as a pension , for the rest of his life . The grievance was that the payments were never constituted into a separate fund , but were paid into the Exchequer , and that those who had entered the service prior to 1829 ,

    and who paid nothing for their retirement , were drawing larger pensions than those from whom , up to last year , one-twentieth of their salary had been yearly stopped under the . title of payment to a superannuation fund which really aid not exist , whilst at the same time the periods for increase of pension , were at intervals of seven years only . Last year the House of Commons passed a resolution that these deductions should no longer take place , as it was ascertained that the payments were greater than woxild have been required by an insurance society , and because the committee for inquiring into the subject had come to the resolution that decayed public servants ought to be provided for by the State .

    The present bill is therefore introduced to allow of a yearly increase of pension , so that if a man has served the public for fifty-one years , he may not be classed as having only served forty-five , but receive a proportionate amount for the six years from forty-five years , which ho would lose unless he was able to serve one year more , when he would receive the benefit of the whole time , namely , fiftytwo years . We liave no fault to find with the bill ,, as far a » it goes , but we think it a grievous injustice that those who for tho first four years paid two and a half percent . of their salary , and for the subsequent twenty-four years have paid five per cent , out of their incomes towards a superannuation fund , should have no advantage at all for these payments . The scale as at present proposed is to allow those public servants who arc obliged from illhealth to retire from the service , $ ? , of their existing salary after ten years' service , before which thej have aio claim , and ^ of thei r salary for every year ' s service in addition ; which , however , is not to exUwd beyond $ 8 or $ of their salary , however long they may serve . It certainly seems only fair that tlioao public servants who have contributed to the fund ( or rather to the fund which ought to have accrued from their payments , wliicn tho Chancellor of the Exchequer lifts yearly passed to the credit of the imblie ) should derive somo advantage over those who now enter the public service , ami from whom no deduction of Hillary is 1 mule . A select corpnuttcc of the House of Commons on February 15 , J 85 f > , recommended that , tho « c » J « of mtperanmittttons should commence iifc M after ten yours ' service , uud increase ^ t ywirly for those

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    0 \ ¦ No . 433 , July 10 , 1858 . J THE LEADE ' K «*«?

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 10, 1858, page 663, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2250/page/15/