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      Feb. 1, 1851.] G»» %*&%9x> ™J_

      Feb . 1 , 1851 . ] g »» % *& % 9 X > ™ J _

      To Headers And Correspondents. Dorset's ...

      TO HEADERS AND CORRESPONDENTS . Dorset ' s letter received . The books referred to have not come under our notice . Will " A Bachelor" lately favoured us with a letter on ' Moral Restraints " oblige us with his address ? It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their'insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter , and when omitted it is frequently from reasons quite independents of the merits of the communication . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it encreasee tha difficulty of finding space for them . ^ All letters for the Editor to be addressed 9 , Crane-court , Fleetstreet , London . ^

      [The Following Appeared In Out Second Ed...

      [ The following appeared in out Second Edition of last week . '] POSTSCRIPT . Saturday , Jan . 25 .

      An Important Meeting Was Held At Manches...

      An important meeting was held at Manchester , on Thursday evening , at the Albion Hotel , called together under the designation of a " Boeial soiree , at which was put forth by the honourable member for the West Riding of Yorkshire a sort of manifesto , indicating the policy he and his friends are disposed to take on the leading questions which are likely to come before Parliament during the approaching session . The parties invited to the soiree were the leading members of the committees in South Lancashire and Manchester having the charge of the registers of voters , at whose suggestion the meeting is said to have taken plaee . Mr . Alexander Henry , M . P ., and Mr . Brotherton , M . P ., were present , and took part in the proceedings . Mr . George Wilson took the chair .

      Mr . Milner Gibson , spoke first , chiefly in iavour of large reductions of taxation—the abolition of the taxes on paper , newspapers , and advertisements ; Mr . Bright , who followed him , ridiculed the No-Popery movement , and urged the importance of adhering to principle , even at the risk of unseating the Whigs . Little progress would be made in the cause of Reform if they were always trembling for the fate of a Ministry . Mr . Cobden defended the course he had

      pursued last session , and indicated very plainly that he will not go a step out of his way next session to keep the Whigs in office . " I must confess , " he says , " that , in regard to fiscal matters , I believe the Opposition party would do quite as much in the way of retrenchment as the Whigs—I am not sure that they would not do more ' He denounced the proposed attempt to impose some restriction on religious freedom , under the pretext of checking Papal aggression .

      " We shall be told , pretty often , no doubt , that unless Government interferes the privileges and prerogatives of the Queen of England will be invaded by the Pope—not by Cardinal Wiseman . Cardinal Wiseman is a British subject ; he cannot invade the prerogative of the Crown without being guilty of high treason ; and if he is so guilty let him be tried by law . But what prerogative hus been invaded by the conduct of the Pope ? Not the temporal prerogative . Why , the Pope has at this moment in his army a few thousand French and Austrian troops ; and I have it on the best authority , that if these troops were removed dire would be the dismay and speedy the flight of the whole body—Pope and

      Cardinals . ( Cheers and laughter . ) It is not , then , the army of the Pope that is to threaten the temporalities of the Crown . Are the temporal prerogatives threatened by sea ? You may have a list of the entire naval force of the Pope—it amounts to two gun brigs and a schooner . { Laughter . ) Put one quarter of an effective service on the coast of Sussex , it would be quite sufficient to guard the whole island against it . We are told , however , that the spiritual dominion of the Queen is to be perilled . Now , are we as politicians , who are called upon to vote money for ordnance and for shot and shell to

      meet and repel the aggressive enemy that meets us with Himilar weapons—are we to forge the spiritual artillery with which we are to meet this aggreneion ? ( Cheers . ) If we are , I beg you to consider how capitally , we are suited in the House of Commons for that purpose . ( Loud cheers and laughter . ) Admitting , if you please , that we are , the great majority of us , eminent for our piety , how are we constituted ? { Laughter . ) Are we ill churchmen , owning to the spiritual authority of the Queen ? Why , about forty or fifty of us are Roman Catholics ; and , mark me , you will have a great many moro Jtoman Catholics returned from Ireland at the next

      election . We have an Independent or two , we have three or four Unitarians , and wo have a Quaker I am happy to suy , nnd I wiah we had a good many more—( great applause ) ; and we have a prospect of having a Jew . ( Laughter . ) Now , is not that » very nice body of men t <» uphold the Queen ' s supremacy as head of England's "hurch ? - If you wanted lo give us a task in the House which should last till Doomsday , then give us the task «>< Hettliag the question of Papal aggression . ( Cheers . ) 1 Hay , give it to the politicians to settle if you want it never to be settled at all . Aa has been well expressed here by Mr . Bright , politicians have been at the work already lor 400 or fi () 0 years . They hnvw tried every available meariH ; they have tried fire and faggot , and then camo th ? penal laW » which went every length short of extermination . . . . JUut then ? in one symptom , and almost the <> nly symptom , which haa consoled mo in this agitation lor religious disabilities , and it ift this .- the calm , passive ,

      and in many respects contemptuous Bilenoe and indifference with which it has beeu regarded by the great mass of the people of this Country . ( Cheers . ) If the same tumults had occurred fifty or sixty years ago , owing to the ignorance and bigotry of the mass of the people of this country , half the Roman Catholic chapels would have been in flames , and half their occupants' lives in danger . ( Hear , hear . ) And I thank the demonstration only for this—that it has given me , more than anything else , a conviction of the great progress that has been made in real intelligence by the great mass of the people , especially in the north of England . ( Cheers . ) I will not say so much of the south . " The whole of the speakers were much applauded , and the meeting was altogether very enthusiastic .

      The Queen Gave A Dramatic Representation...

      The Queen gave a dramatic representation at Windsor Castle on Thursday , the performance taking place in the temporary theatre , which was fitted up the same as on former occasions . About eight o ' clock her Majesty the Queen and Prince Albert , with the Prince of Wales , Prinoe Alfred , the Princess Royal , the Princess Alice , and the Princess Helena , accompanied by the royal dinner guests , comprising the D uchess of Kent , the Baron and BarohesB de Brunnow , the Earl and Countess of Minto fcnd Lady C . Elliot , the Marquis and MarchionesB of-Worcester , the Earl and CounteBsof Hardwicke , Lady Fanny Howard , Baroness de Speth , Lord and Lady Ashburton , the Bight Honourable Fox Maule , and Colonel Wylde , entered the temporary theatre . A select party had been honoured with invitations to witness the representation . The performances were Douglas

      Jerrold's comedy , The Prisoner of War , and Planche s vaudeville , The Loan of a Lover . The metropolis and the suburban districts were visited yesterday with one of the densest fogs that has been witnessed for some time past . All travelling by the usual steam conveyances was completely out of the question . At four o ' clock in the afternoon it became so dark that it was extremely difficult to see more than a foot ia advance ; the consequence was that several accidents happened both on the river and along the public roads . Near Westminster' steam-boat pier , a boat containing three men and a female , who were making for Coltege-Btairs , ran their vessel against the stairs and all four were thrown overboard , and narrowly escaped drowning , At the foot of the various bridges , and along the streets , several vehicles came into violent collision .

      A public vestry was held in the vestry-room of St . George the Martyr , South wark ' , last evening , for the purpose of considering the propriety of petitioning the Legislature for a total repeal of the window-duty . The following resolution was passed Unanimously : — " That the window-duties are impolitic , unequal , and unjust , and ought to be entirely abolished without further delay ; that the window-tax not only operates unequally and oppressively upon the ocGupiersof the middle and lower destructive of all those

      class of houses , but is entirely sanitary improvements which have been sanctioned by the Government and Legislature . " The Government has offered a reward of £ 150 for the discovery of the person or persons who so brutally murdered Mrs . Mary Kinder , on the 16 th instant , at Roads Fold , Chester . It is announced also that any accomplice , not being the actual murderer , who will give such information as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of his or her confederates , will receive her Majesty ' s

      free pardon . The wife and four children of John Mitchel , the Irish exile , arrived in Liverpool on Saturday , from Dublin , for the purpose of embarking thence for Australia . They were accompanied by Father Kenyon , who made the necessary arrangements for their departure in the Condor . Seven boys from the Metropolitan Ragged Schools were also passengers in the same vessel , which left Liverpool on Thursday .

      The Latest Accounts From Paris Bring No ...

      The latest accounts from Paris bring no intelligence of any progress having been made in the formation of anew Ministry . It is said , on the one hand , that M . Leon Faucher has opened negotiations with other parties ; on the other , that the President will bo obliged to form « temporary Ministry from friends , who are not members of the Assembly . It is said to be beyond a doubt that Rendsburg and Altona are to be occupied by the Diet ' s troops ; Lubeck and Hamburg are also for a certain period to be garrisoned by ' Austrians and Prussians . Only about 6000 men of Austrian troops will for the moment enter

      Hoistein . Fredericksort will be occupied probably by the Danes . No proposition hns been made by Count Sponneck at Vienna for the withdrawal of Holstein from the Confederation . The statu quo ante , 1847 , i « now to be the fate of Ilesoe Cassel . . Every vestige of Liberalism , of course , disappears . The Kaffeller Zeitung , of January 21 , nays that a retrograde policy is to be immediately and vigorously adopted . " Everything that has happened since 1847 is to be blotted out , and we are to be pushed even further back than that period . The new election is to be ubolished , and for it is to be substituted Chambers composed as they were in the yeur 18 IJ 1 . The laws respecting the press , religion , and the jury are to be 8 < t

      aside , or to be reduced to insignificance . At the veiy most , the institution , of the jury in to be confined to UKcrimeB of ' theft' and ' murder . ' All political offences are to be tried by other tribunals ; that is , by the ' permanent military tribunal . ' Besides the Commissary of Police , llomutein , the Burgomaster , Ucnkcl , has been arrested and imprisoned ; and many more arrests arc expected . " The President of the German Association for the Section of National Coinmorce , Prince Felix of iJolu-nluhe , bus addresnvd a letter lo the plenipotentiaries assembled in conference at Dresden , exhorting them to labour seriously at the accomplishment of tho customs union between Austria and the rest of Germany .

      Cap, %*P ^Slirp A N & T

      cap , % * p ^ SlirP a n & T

      Saturday, February 1, 1851.

      SATURDAY , FEBRUARY 1 , 1851 .

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      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing bo unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world ia by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold .

      The Manchester Policy. The "Manchester P...

      THE MANCHESTER POLICY . The " Manchester policy of next session , ** if it amounts to no more than that declared in " a sort of manifesto" by Mr . Cobden and his friends at the soiree on Thursday week , is not sufficient . So far as we can collect it from the speeches of Mr . Cobden , Mr . Bright , and Mr . Milner Gibson , it amounts to this—the Manchester party will support public education , financial reform and retrenchment , and repeal of the taxes on knowledge ;

      they throw out hints in favour of improved taxation on the Peel principle , irrespectively of a surplus ; it is clear that they will not support the Ministry in any no-Popery policy , but would leave sect altogether alone , simply withholding from it temporal power ; and they profess totally to abandon the principle of voting " to keep out the Tories . " This last is an excellent trait , and there is much that is good in the rest , but taken as a whole the policy is not sufficient to secure the lead in the political movement of the nation .

      It is not equal to the great political facts , or the great prospects asserted by the speakers themselves . Mr . Cobden declares the Whigs to be indistinguishable from the Tories ; he describes Mr . Bright as assailed by the " insolence" of Lord John Russell , " the man supposed to be the leader of our party ;* ' he declares that Lord Palmerston is " not the champion of liberty you suppose "—and

      most truly does be so declare of the manwnose course has been subservient to Austria and Russia while affecting to oppose tbem , —who has played the diplomatic bloodman to Italy and to Hungary . But why does Mr . Cobden leave it to be " supposed " that these men are the leaders of his party ? Mr . Milner Gibson excellently exposes the " red-herring trail" of Lord John ' s No-Popery agitation , and the monopoly rancour of the Church of England against its rival of Rome : " lam afraid , " he says , " that the Church

      party , who feel that their own time is coming , think it good policy to get us into a quarrel with the Pope , in order that they may be safe " : but not a word that Manchester intends to further " the new reformation" which appears to be so distinctly foreseen , even in Manchester . Mr . Bright would have an " independent party " : — " I believe there is nothing more essential for the progress of freedom in this country than that you should have an independent party in the House of Commons . Even though we should sometimes go wrong , even though we should occasionally vote against the Government , when you may think thut without abdicating our position or principles we might have voted with them , bear this in time

      mind—that whatever slight error we may at any commit ( and I confess our liability to error ) , that error is abundantly compensated for b y the existence of aonie fifty or one hundred men in the House of Commons who have a regard to the opinions of their constituents , or ( what is even a far better g \» i « le ) to the principles which they have learnt , which they have taught , and which they value . It is far better for the country that there should be such a party , than that any Ministry that ever existed in this country should be kept in office If there had been no men in Parliament but those who trembled for the fate of a Ministry , where would have been the liberties that you have already achieved ? and wheie would have been your freedom to import corn at « hi « very hour ? ( I ' rolonqed cheeriw / . )"

      Mr . Bright weems to assume the present existence of such an independent party ; but what can be tho strength or independence of that party which wavers between resistance to an imbecile Ministry ami apologies for itH opposition ? We might find the solution of this weakne . nn and wavering , numerical an well as moral , iu tho neglect heretofore to fulfil the precept well act forth by Mr . CoJxlen : — " The result of thnt a « itation in the euae of the corn laws Iiuh convinced me that if unything is to be done in this country for the gr « ut . mans of the people , if you uro to succeed in

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 1, 1851, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01021851/page/9/