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*¦„»„»„* 2. 1856.1 THE LEADER. ¦ LLJ _
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H^THIS BJ5KAETSIEKX, AS AM , OPUTrOX *, ...
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Tiaere is no learned man Dut will confes...
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THE MISCONDUCT OP THE WAR. (To the Edito...
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Transcript
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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.
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Candidates And Consciences: Or, A Tale O...
" ticulars , so far as we have- been enabled to glea n them from documents before the public , and from special inquiry of oar own , are shortly as follows : 1 Bazalgette , the protege' of Mr . Stephenson , was naturally adopted as the candidate of Great Georze street , whose denizens came forth , as one man with a blaze of testimonials , in Bazalgette ' s honour and glory . True , two of these testimonials ( their number was nine in all ) were signed respectively by Robert Step lieixson and bir \ f Cubitt , Mr . Bazalgette's associates in the retain drainage scheme impugned by Mr . Ward as = £ 874 000 too costly : so that their co mmendations had some little tincture of indirect self-praise . Two more , signed respectively by Mr . Simpson and Mr : Ilawksley , were the testimonials of men , one associated with Mr . Bazalgeite in patching up the Victoria sewer ( that monument of engineering skill !) the other Mr . Bazalgette's algebraic . t „ £ t-Ua / lnnli / intp tnvm lllft . jl
- giants " were in the ascendant . Three days before the election Bazalgette was a score of votes a-head . . At this crisis , an intimation was received by Mr . Rawlinson's friends that Mr . Bazalgette's printed letter of application was a tissue of misrepresentations . It was pointed out , for example , that he claimed in this document to have " acted as Resident Engineer on the Tame Valley Canal , and there constructed a great number of locks , bridges , and heavy earthworks ; " also to have been * engaged in extensive works in Portsmouth dockyard ; " furthermore to have been for twenty years in act ive practice , " after" completing his professional education ; and , lastly , to have been appointed on the engineering staff of the Commission of Sewers in . 1848—a date alleged to be false . An investigation was undertaken forthwith . Innnirv was made at Birmingham and Portsmouth ;
¦ ri ' Parliament will think fit to adopt , we have no means of judging . If , indeed , individual and corporate morality in the least degree resembled each other , we should entertain no doubt of the result . For half the amount of misrepresentation which blots Mr . Bazalgette ' s circular , a banker ' s clerk would be turned out of ^ doors- If a candidate for an upper footmanship set forth on inquiry that he had filled that post in a nobleman ' s family , but proved to have been only button-boy for four months , on probation , at five shillings a-week , his services would probably be declined , or his appointment , if made , would be forthwith cancelled . But the ways of forty-four men are not as the ways of one ; and though each would condemn the delinquent button-boy , it does not follow that all will condemn the deceptive draughtsman . For there is something quick and keen in individual perceptions of honour—but something blunt and dull in a Board ' s collective conscience .
prompter , ana purveyur « w ~ « "r' ^^ .. ,. whereby he justified his own tunnels , while discrediting those of his rival , " plain John Roe . A . fifth bore the name of Bidder , Mr . Stephenson s partner ; while the remaining four , signed respectively by Brunei , Hawkshaw , Rendel , and Ilardwick , were the contributions of gentlemen who sit with Messrs . Stephenson , Cubitt , aiul the rest , as members of the Council of the Institution of Ciyil Engineers . Thus , in point of fact , the nine certificates were virtually one ; and that one was a party manifesto , imbued , as we have pointed out , with a considerable tincture of self-praise . Mr . Rawlinsonwas the champion selected by the < - ~ i . _¦ :..- _ . _ . r >^ c » .. « .. a .. c . * -n An . ~\\ n * -t \ c * 1-inTninn . llvwith Ml * .
dates were computed ; the records of the Commission of Sewers were examined . From Birmingham a letter was sent by the secretary of the Canal Company , certifying that Mr . Bazalgette was not , as he stated , resident engineer on the Tame Valley Canal ; and , therefore , did not construct the locks , bridges , and embarkmeuts on that work . From Portsmouth a telegraphic message was received to the effect that Mr . Bazalgette ' s only engagement there had been as a draughtsman on probation at 5 s . per diem ; in confirmation whereof his own letter of resignation , specifically describing his post as that of " draughtsman in the civil architects' department , " was sent up by post next day . As for Mr .
Postcript , Friday Evening . —The Board has met today , and called on Mr . Bazalgette , by a vote of 17 to 16 , to explain bis conflicting statements respecting the Tame Valley Canal ; of which , in Ms ' circular of the 15 th , he named himself alon-. as " Resident Engineer , " and " constructor . Thus pressed , Mr . Bazalgette has confessed that he was but one of three subordinates ander the Resident Engineer , himself and a Mr . Tempelay being employed as superintendents , while * Mr . Drysdale w * as engaged in preparing the plans and designs . Was this ignominious avowal of the deception previously palmed on the Board received with a burst of indignation ? Not at all . Individual consciences probably winced ; bnt the collective conscience received the conlession in silence ; and " the subject dropped . " Such is Corporate morality . Will it awaken to a clearer sense of right and wrong ? or have we now the final denouement of this " tale ot a trick ?
Bazalgette , but really with the formidable engineering phalanx above enumerated . No brilliant names adorned Mr . Rawliiison ' s modest circular ; no * ^ id he rely , to use his own words , on the «* multiplied eulogies of professional friends . " Preferring work ' s to words , lie save a list of fifty towns that
Bazalgette ' s professional education , it was ascertained to have been begun at the date when , according to his circular , it ended % so that his twenty years' practice was inclusive , not exclusive , as he had alleged , of his pupilage . Finally , it appeared that he had ( inadvertently , of course ) , antedated his ntment ine vvoinuussiuii ui uchhs /
he had drained ; and sent round a sheettul ot resolutions passed by Town Councils aud Local Boards , in testimony of the economy and efficiency of his works . mi The city " giants , " led by Mr . Low man lay lor ,
appoi on , av <* a to give himself a factitious priority over district engineers really his seniors in office . The first two of these misrepresentations were set forth by Mr . "Ward in a letter which , with the lit W - «¦ —
sided with Great George-street , and espousea me cause of Bazalgette . An active canvass , backed by the united influence of the Corporation and the Engineers , speedily won over a . score or so ^ ot waverers ; so that , two days before the election , Mr . Bazalgette stood safe to win . The " metropolitan party" ( so called because they venture to prefer the interests of 2 , 3 oC , 000 people , inhabiting 100 square miles , to the interests of 150 , 000 , inhabiting one square mile ) , adopted the candidate put forward by the Sanitary Reformers ; and did their best to secure the return of Rawlinson . But the metropolitan members he scattered tar not uigui *
U .-CI CllUIC 11 tO 111 % JlKJ \ JXy **_** . » * « . * * - **>« . *• .. - - -w— " *~ J on the day of election , with liberty to lay the ease before his colleagues . Mr . Nicholay opened the case ; but , when he had got half way through it , he lost his presence of mind , and sat down , fairly overwhelmed by the clamour of the Bazalgette party . He read Mr . Ward ' s letter , but the documentary evidence he , by a singular oversight , kept back . Thus , Mr . Bazalgette , when called on for his defence , was enabled to treat Mr . Ward ' s statements as simple assertions , and to meet them by a simple denial . When Mr . Bazalgette sat down , not one of Mr . Rawlinson ' s supporters rose to reply to him . They nnrkPai * to hfive been seized with a sort of moral
and wide , ana are as yei . »» cu «»«» * " ° * - plined like the practised electioneercrs of the City . They could not —probably they would not if they could—resort to the electioneering artifices employed by their opponents . No flying sheets , with false addresses , were circulated against Bazalgette , to meet such attacks as that fulminated against Mr . Riuvlinson from * ' No . ( 3 , Charms-cross ' , " the respectable occupant of which house instantly published a repudiation of the paper . No counterrumours were propagated by Ruwlinson ' s supporters , to meet the rumours set afloat against Mr . Ward and his friends , by the Great George street interest . These latter adroitly invoked all the prejudices against the late Board of Health to damage
paralysis . Not one of them thought of adverting to the documents—which lay all the while on the table , irrefragable proofs of culpability , but as utterly unheeded as if they had not been in existence . The case having thus , to use the slang of the bar , " fallen through , " Mr . Bazalgette was elected by a triumphant majority ; and Mr . Ward's name was duly hooted by Mr . Bazalgette ' s supporters . For three days public opinion , misled by this break-down of the case in M . v . Nicholay's hands , was strongly in favour of Bazalgette , and as strongly ngainst Ward . On Wednesday last , however , Mr . Ward pubwiioie ui uuciumi ^ *»> - ««~«
Rawlinson ; who , they declared , was a " mere nominee of Chadwiclc "—a thick-anil-thin theorist in pipes—the very father of stoppages and failures—a man who would drain a mansion with a quill , and all London through a few 12-inch tubes . As for Mr . Ward , ho was an anonymous slanderer—a persecutor—the hidden prompter of Chiubvick — the secret soul of the Into Board of Health—an adventurer—a charlatan—a hireling scribe , fighting , not for the public weal , but to gratify his own personal spite against that great and good man ,
lisueti tne sunus ««« - p ., — the Times ; connecting them with a few brief remarks ; nnd setting forth , in n crushing summary , their bearing on Buzalgettc's circular , and the irrefragable proof they afforded of trick and misrepresentation . The effect on the town was instantaneous . Ine London ratepayers felt that a lucrative post , of great trust , had been won by a trick at their expense ; and the public at large felt thftt Mr . Ward , for doing his duty , had been unjustly maligned . ,-,. 1 , a _ a . !_ .. * . A . ^^« 4 . \ V \\ nt t-lirt 1111 * . i ¦
Bazalgetto . Mr . Rrtwlinson , for all reply , sent round u circular allowing how the drainage of Carlisle had been estimated by the late Mr . Stcphonson at ^ 7 » i O () 0 ; how he , Rawlinson , had estimated it at only « ' £ ' -23 , ()() 0 ; how the works had just bqcn completed for , $£ 22 , 500 ; and how analogous I economies might probably bo effected on the Grout [ George-street estimates for the main drainage of the metropolis . It was of no avail . Great George-street and the
oo tuc matter sumus » . prcowint . " «••« " > " ~ y " shot will be , whether a protest against the election by tho minority , indignant » t the deception put upon the Board ; or , on the other hand , a vote ot confidence by the majority , anxious to screen thenofficer from further attack ; or , thirdly , a Committee of Inquiry , to talk over the unp leasantness , and shelve it ; or , lastly , and not the least probable , a sub sitentio acceptance of tho wrong , ns something bygone nnd incurable ; which ot all these , and divers other possible courses , the new I anali
*¦„»„»„* 2. 1856.1 The Leader. ¦ Llj _
*¦„»„»„* 2 . 1856 . 1 THE LEADER . ¦ LLJ _
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dDpeu Cmtndl
H^This Bj5kaetsiekx, As Am , Oputrox *, ...
H ^ THIS BJ 5 KAETSIEKX , AS AM , OPUTrOX * , HOWEVEB EXTREME , ARE AUOWED A . N" EXPEESSIO 1 T , THK IDITOE NECISSAEIJ . T HOLDS HXMSEiB JlESEONSLBLE lOR NONE . J
Tiaere Is No Learned Man Dut Will Confes...
Tiaere is no learned man Dut will confess he hath rauch profited by reading controversies , lus senses awakened , and Ms judgment sharpened If then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least be tolerable ' for his adversary to write ?—AIii-ton .
The Misconduct Op The War. (To The Edito...
THE MISCONDUCT OP THE WAR . ( To the Editor of the Leader ) . Sib —The estimate which you seem to place upon Colonel' Hamtey ' s work on the war in the Crimea is , generally , not / hared by many able . and ^ tmgmshed officers in the army , who consider Woods Past Campaign" a Tevy superior and trustworthy narrative of the events in 1854-55 . , It is singular that many peraons , including the gallant officer , trace the mishaps of this war to the Sarsimony of the Parliament ( country ) , in reducing ail our warlike establishments diiniig a oag peace ; v et there is not one solitary military blunder made by L , commander * , and tley were numeroua , which , to tiiub *
| bv anv possibility , can bo traced >« ow « u «» - « , gfie any one so credulous as to believe that if we had kept 4 an army of 500 , 000 men during the long Seooe Lord Lucan , and many others , would have Sue better i . the Crirnea ? No ! these , offlcerS were , selected by favourittein , not merit , the usual oonseqvionoea of aucU selections followed . Tho staivatk > n oTthe troops , and tlie want of adequate transport ly aea and Uad / were no doubt , entirely owmgto the cross neglect and ignorance of the t \ % o war mhjiSers in England ; but these do not excuse , or eTnfecount forf the absence of . kill and 5 » ergy , and the many instances of inexcusable timidity on the par t f the commanders , which caused so m uch lo s of life , and have so much reduced the pruttge of the Ea . Hsx army . The flaak march may have . been aa uie
,,. "„ assert hipchlv creditable to goimia ^ *»~ SZTSho ^^ tedit , butuothiugcoulcl ^ Ijavc , beeu more discreditable to auy < lwoxplmod ^ i co than tn e ¦ SSJS-SSrH SiSSESSSSI mta
andbaggugo , and covered ™^ ' ^^ 7 ha wmmm ij \ iro mibtakea oi' ignorant meu . - 1 JU 1 ° 1 » nh Sir , your obedumt ^ rv ^^^ 28 th Jivnaary .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 2, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02021856/page/15/
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