On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    METROPOLITAN BOARD OJ WORKS, Council

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    F ROM the recent proceedings of our Metropolitan , we learn that a bill will be introduced early in the coining session , having for its object the material increase of the powers and revenues of the Board , What is true , probably , of all political bodies , is especially true of those which may , in their organisation , be called oligarchical 3—much would have more . The Metropolitan Board of Works already possesses as large pecuniary resources , and as great an amount of influence nncl patronage as the legislature of many minor states ; but not content with what it has , it grasps at further . prerogatives and a larger exchequer . Though nominally chosen by the ratepayers nature of its constitu

    of London at large , the really oligarchic - tion betrays itself in a great variety of ways , and in none more characteristically than in its impending demand for additional powers . Instead of being elected by the taxpayers themselves , this strangely constructed corporation is nominated , as every one knows , by the vestries of the different parishes over which its jurisdiction extends . Thp tendency of this system of indirect election was not long in displaying itself . It is , in fact , ah old device of bureaucracy for numbing in the representative the sense of accountability to public opinion , and for paralysing in those who are said to be represented the power of exacting any

    account . We see . this in the working of the system every day . The Board meets weekly , and reports of its proceedings appear in the daily papers . But nothing can beniore superciliously contemptuous of public opinion than those proceedings generally are . Were the score , or score and a half of gentlemen , who appear to understand one another so well , under the necessity of trying to understand public feeling- even a little , they would not have pursued the course during the last twelve months that has brought them into suoh ill-repute nraong their fellow-citizens .

    But , in point of i ' aot , it seems in their estimation to sjgniiy nought what opinion the great body of ratepayers may entertain regarding them . Each member has been elected for three years by n . majority of Ms vestry ; and if he can only " make , it nil right" by the end of his term with these , 'his ' only legal constituents , he may blunder and job as he will" in his place in the Bonrd of "Works . Wo hardly know whether the jobs or the blunders have hitherto predominated 5 but we rather suspect that when nil is known , the jobs will bo found to be in the ascendant . In the first , grent contract ,.

    Untitled Article

    by adopting atimid ,: time-serving policy . The Hohenzollerns 2 nd their subjects are , however ,, too confident and too ambitious to give up one jot of their pretensions to the rank of a great , power . The old aggrandising spirit still animates . them , and they try to keep up their importance by much the same fidgety behaviour as is displayed by a p arvenu , who is eager to show that he is quite as well born and well bred as the gentlemen of family into whose society he has managed to obtain admittance . Prussia is always standing upon tiptoes , to make herself as tall as her rivals , until the row commences , and then she would fain get into an out-of-the-way comer . It is just the same in her purely German policy . The present king actually demanded the empire of Germany in 1848 , but when it was offered him dare not accept it and stand the consequences . Prussia seeks now the exclusive direction of German affairs , or ^ as the Germans love to call it , the hegemony of the fatherland ; but she is afraid to openly avow an ' intention which could only be fulfilled by the expulsion of Austria from the Confederation , and the consent of the petty sovereigns to be her vassals ; so she pursues the poor undignified policy of encouraging the subjects of the smaller states to agitate in her ' favour . Of course she is l-io-ht enough to abstain from drawing the sword for results which—to say nothing about the moral side of the question—are so exceedingly problematical . We do not condemn her discretion , we merely point out the circumstances which explain that shifting , stultifying conduct she so often pursues . To this irresolute ambition , Prussia has sacrificed internal progress , and for it she has been party to many a deed of shame . . If an act of injustice was to be perpetrated , and Austria was ready to do it , Prussia ,, although convinced of its iniquity , would rather take a share in it than allow Austria to act by herself , as if she had pre-eminence in Germany . It was upon this principle that Prussia sacrificed Electoral Hesse in 1850 , arid stip ulated for the privilege of giving the victim a sacrificial stab . If the foreign policy of Prussia can be thus accounted for , it is not more difficult to discover the causes which impede her internal development . ; The Prince Regent is not , indeed , actuated at present by the scruples and fears which formerly restrained him / as all chance of the King ' s restoration is gone ; bxit he is swayed by contending motives , which impart a kind of doubleness to his ' conduct . On the one hand , the royal family of Prussia is not yet used to constitutional government , and the Prince himself , despite whatever may be said by his flatterers in Prussia and this country to the contrary , is by no means disposed , if he can help it , to surrender any of the kingly prerogatives , and make the liberties which Prussia enjoys in name a reality ; on the other hand , he sees plainly enough that the day is gone for rigid conservatism , much more for reaction ; and anxious besides to promote the one dominant idea of his family— the increase of their territory—the chance for which now lies in the German unity movement , he desires to carry the pepple with him by keeping up their good will by a show of liberality and confidence . Conflicting objects , which are well illustrated in his present Ministry , which consists of what we may call Conservatives and liberals in equal proportion . This double embarrassment is singularly manifest in the speech with which the Prince Regent has just opened the session of the Chambers . Prussia was preparing for war because the contest approached the German frontier . But why ? Not from any sympathy with Austria , ' but because the attitude of the secondary German states made it necessary for her to put herself at their ' head or submit to a complete isolation . The Prince refers to the movement , for Federal Reform ; but his words may mean anything or nothing . They can serve , by a little ministerial gloss , for a further encouragement to the Eisenach agitators , and yet are open to little exception even from Austria , " Prussia will always consider herself as the natural representative of the tendencies which have for object to restore and unite the national forces . " Very well ; but will she dare the deed , ask the Federal Diet to abdicate its functions , and Kings and Grand Dukes to make over to her the best part of their sovereign rights P She would do it if she were quite sure of being successful ; but not being sure , she holds back , and yet shows her grasping desire . We are glad to find that Prussia at last wishes to diminish the intervention of the Germanic Diet in its relations with the constitutions of different states , as we believe that intervention to be the greatest curse under which Germany labours j but such a narrowing of the functions of the central-ppwer is , really , quite inconsistent with the hegemony . to which Prussia aspires . A strong central power which does not interfere in everything is , all experience teaches , an impossibility . However , the result will bo satisfactory if Hesse gets I ? ack its Constitution of 1831 i Prussia qwes tho Hessions that poor amends for her past trcnohery . In tho allusion of the Princoto theHolstein

    Schleswig question , we merely have the same cantin which all the German Governments indulge upon this question . The cause of the inhabitants of the Duchies against Denmark may be . just enough , we do not now dispute it ; but it is -monstrous for Governments which themselves exercise a practical despotism , and have only conceded to their subjects very lnnited privileges , to preach a crusade in the name of liberty . The Schleswig Holstein enthusiasm of the Germans has been well worked by their masters , who have thus turned an aspiration which would have been dangerous at home , abroad ^ where it can do them at least no harm . t ¦ . . ' , '• .. ,. . If we turn to domestic topics , what is the great legislative measure which the Prince announces ? A reorganisation of the army . Now this step may be necessary ; the existing system is certainly uneconomical and obstructive to industrial progress ; but it is very doubtful whether it would be well for Prussia , with its but nascent liberties , to abandon a system by which every soldier is a Prussian citizen and every Prussian citizen a soldier , for another , which may give a better disciplined and more easily collected army , where the soldier is everything and the citizen nothing . The present military organisation , although it makes Prussia comparatively powerless for aggression , open to incursion , and timid in her dealings with great Powers , yet ensures her at a small cost against serious , invasion . And whilst the army is to be altered , nothing is said about the alterations which Prussia most urgently asks—the abolition of the present press restrictions and the abominable Government police . Is it that the Prince is afraid to trust the people , and would at least have the army more at Ms command before he allows his subjects to publish what they think and go where they will ? We should be sorry to say so , but certainly we can see no evidence of genuine confidence in them in this speech . The picture we have drawn of the position of Prussia and the policy of its rulers may not be flattering , but it is truthful , and just now very much needed . We admire greatly the Prussian nation , and desire its political and material progress as a safeguard of libertyand peace ; but we cannot allow our countrymen to . be misled by > public teachers , " who , after grossly abusing Prussia and its king for a series of years , now , just because the royal families of the two countries are allied , turn , completely round ,.

    and represent what is really no very great advance from despotism as a delightful illustration of constitutional Liberty .

    Untitled Article

    kd 3 fe ^ tf ^ * m ^ L * 21 ' S 6 () *

    Metropolitan Board Oj Works, Council

    Council METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 21, 1860, page 58, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2330/page/6/