On this page
-
Text (3)
-
1166 THE LEADER. [Saturday, " '— -'¦ — —...
-
SCOTCH EVICTIONS. Hitherto, Under the in...
-
DIVORCE A LUXURY FOB THE RICH. It is pro...
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.
-
-
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.
Btjssian Generals. The Inquiries Touchin...
General Comte Stackelberg , we believe , was the officer appointed by the Emperor to prosecute an inquiry into the existence of the military college : and all the researches of that careful oiEcer got no further than the discovery of a , fevr very doubtful vestiges of creation of such , an institution . He found in the environs of Tomsk a few young peasants , who were got up with some ingenuity , biit w ] -ose appearance and occupations were strangely inconsistent with the education of cadets . The-result of this
commission , conducted on the spot by Comte Stackclberg , was the further appointment of General Aunenkof , Minister of the Council of the Empire , to proceed to more special investigations , the result of which was , that Prince Gortschakof was found to have been conscientiously and calmly sharing the sums hypothetically devoted to the military college with a subordinate officer , by name Shramm , to whose intimate relations this benevolent Prince , it was whispered , entertained a close but clandestine attachment . Prince
Gortschakof was 'broke ; ' his friend and partaker , Shramm , dismissed the service in disgrace , and the military college ceased to decorate the list of the military defences of the -Russian Empire . ] S ~ ow , Sir Harry Lester , in the G-ame of Speculation , whose salt-marsh was " about the coast , " and who " borrowed money on the sea , " was a marvel of simplicity and uprightness , compared with this admirable type of Russian probity and patriotism—Prince Gortscliakof . If such is the morality of Russian Princes , what may that of Russian Barons be ?
General Politkowsky , Governor of thelnvalides , committed suicide not long since , after having pocketed 3 , 000 , 000 roubles . As the culprit had shot himself out of the ugly-scrape , the Emperor made an example of his corpse , which was degraded and denied Christian burial . It was on this occasion that General Luders , Grabbe , and Sass were brought to trial . Where the guilty had escajjed , it was probable that the accused were innocent . But their innocence did not prevent their being tried and condemned for infringement
of the general orders . The Czar offered to pay their line , confidentially . General Grabbe refused a surreptitious atonement for injustice ; and the curious letter he wrote to the Emperor on the subject was for some time the whisper of the salons at St . Petersburg . This General Grabbe , it may be well to remember , is the same who burnt to the ground a town in Hungary , where a Russian officer or two had been killed by the Houveds . General Sass has distinguished "
himself for rapine in the Caucasus . His illustrious Asiatic campaigns consisted in pillaging and razing inoffensive Circassian villages , on the pretext , that they were ready to revolt . Prince 1 ' askiewitch is tho enfant c / atc of the Czar . He received a million of roubles for his Persian campaign . With tliat sum ho sought to purchase the famous domain which was granted tolioumiawzoffby Catherine II ., in consideration of bis victories over ( lie Turks . But the domain was worth thrice a , million of roubles . Prince Paslciewitch mortgaged liis purcha . se-, and tho Emperor remitted him h . df , and , subsequently , the whole amount .
Prince Woronkzof is , or wan , a sovereign in the Caucasus , lie permits no reports to be addressed directly to himself : bin court , is worthy of Darius for luxury and . splendour , and presided over , with infinite grace , by a distinguished Countess , whose name : belongs to the old aristocracy of France . The Prince ' H recreation linn consisted in organizing imaginary expeditions against the Cireasniiuis , for the sake of his favourite odieers who
pan (< lor promotion . This inimitable composer of bulletins Iinh been in ( he habit of destroying more Circassians in one year than are born in ten , CtMieral Kleinmiehel , Minister of Ways and Connnunications , is the man who made the following reply to the Czar , who had expressed his fear . s about the safety of the -route to Moscow , as the UmpresH n ; in departing | , <> that city . "Sire , " naid ( he adroit courtier , " wo will lick I be road
with our tongues . " And the amiable Klehnnichel , avIioho domestic- felicity is annually twice blessed by hi . s master , and whose : home is a nursery of . Imperial foundlings , scoured | , he empire ' for Hiiow to make a safe nlcdge- \ vay of the road to Moscoav . Prince Monschikof is almost more renowned for bin bitter and cnut-ifie wil , in the nalons , than for his diplomatic conquests . Since the death of the ( jU'und X ) uko Michael , he him been without n
rival in jeux aV esprit . But General Bibikof , Minister of the Interior , is our trump card . He sent a certain M . Pissaref , his chef cle cliancellerie , to Kief , as Civil Governor of Siberia . Domestic sympathies , as usual , facilitated the promotion of M . Pissaref by his patron : and the obliged husband bettered his instructions . The public virtue , so conspicuous in every other department of the Russian administration , sinks into insignificance compared with the systematic and ostentatious honesty of M . Pissaref . The Ministry of the Interior itself is pure by contrast . Such arc a few of the notabilities of the Russian army . No wonder Russia has won more victories with her gold than with her guns !
1166 The Leader. [Saturday, " '— -'¦ — —...
1166 THE LEADER . [ Saturday , " ' — - '¦ — — ¦ !!¦ . I I ¦! ¦¦ ¦ ll ¦ I . ¦¦¦¦ I ¦¦ | l Mil || HI I . I ¦ ... » ill— . I 1 II ¦ —P ^^» — ¦¦¦ I ' „ -. - ¦ ———*—— " ———*—aM * M ^— " ™———^^—^—^ - ^
Scotch Evictions. Hitherto, Under The In...
SCOTCH EVICTIONS . Hitherto , Under the influence of ignoranceeducated as well as uneducated ignoranceagricultural improvement has involved two important classes of mistake . It has been assumed that the grand object was , not the welfare of the people , but the prosperity of the estates , which is literally to mistake the means for the end . And it has been supposed that it is a better
plan to drive the people like sheep , than to guide them by sound instruction . The improvement of machinery , a better distribution of the population , and new methods of cultivation , are essential to agricultural improvement : but all can be brought about better by guiding the people than by driving them . One auxiliary to improvement is emigration , which carries off a mass of useless labour ; but it is not to be forced in the old Scotch and Irish
fashion . We say " . old , " though it is still continuing . Down to this very autumn we have had evictions from the Scotch highlands , of which our contemporary , the Scotsman , furnishes an authentic and connected account . Knoydart , a district of Inverness , . is a wildly mountainous country , "in the possession of the house of Clanronald , famous in Highland story . " Here a numerous body of cottiers' sons , or near relatives , had built themselves houses on their friends '
croffcs , and were not rented to the estate . They maintained themselves by fishing or by labouring for a portion of the year in the eastern and southern counties . Glengarry , the owner , having died in 1852 , the managing trustee , Mrs . M'Donnell , on behalf of the heir , a minor , issued to the small tenantry notices to quit , together with a notice that they must prepare to go to Australia , or to leave the estate ; their passages to be paid , and their arrears forgiven . May the 10 th brought these people a letter from Mrs . M'Donnell , announcing that " for good and sufficient reasons , " Ca ? iada must be their
destination . In default , the people were threatened with eviction . The crofters had requested the llev . Mr . M'Donald , a Bonmn Catholic clergyman , to intercede on their behalf ; but a resolution had been taken that the estate should he cleared of nil small tenantry and cottiers , at whatever expense or hazard . It was done . On the 01 h of August , a ship sailed for Montreal with < YM men , women , and children . Twenty families ¦ w ho refused the assistance Mrs . M'Donnell had offered , Avere evicted a fortnight after tho departure of the emigrants . Five cases , where sickness was in their houses , remained exceptions to this wholesale deportation .
Little discrepancies in payments on the part of the tenants—the demoralizing of customers who purchased whisky by the . sale of that liquor—the want of sites for farm ollic . es at some future—the halving received relief from the poor funds , served an pretexts for Avarranting this cruelty . Tin ? desolate habitations , flie ' sufferings of sickly women and children , and the fate of the evicted , are told in a long list of sickening incidents . Three -poor women arc
turned out after an occupation of a . hut foi . fifteen years . Three fain Hie * at Doune were exposed to the weather for four weeks . One woman endured premature labour , brought on by her sufferings . Hlie was found by the reporter lyin <> under a , bush , a , keen northerly wind , blowing , and heavy showers faHin ; r . A . Avail wjih her next shelter . These are a , few of the incidents , not ^ perhaps tho Avorst in their accumulated suffering .
I he refinement of obedience to instructions was exhibited in the ease of a , poor woman , Avho , being found in bed , was suffered ( o remain there with only ao much of the walls and roofoffho habitation aa sheltered her bed
" Twelve houses were completely destroyed—the roofs thrown down , the walls levelled , the furniture scattered about , and the inmates left exposed on the moor to the weather , which at the time was cold for the season . The most stringent orders were issued to the paupers that they should not give shelter to any of the ejected people under penalties sufficiently terrifying to them . On the third . evening , when returning to Inveree , the factor's party came upon a small boathouse erected on the shore , at Doune , which they had overlooked . In this the ejected families had huddled together at night for two nights , not daring to put up any artificial shelter . Fire was immediately applied to the roof , and the structure burned down . This
completed the work of destruction , and eleven families Avere felt absolutely without shelter—for unfortunately for them the coast of Knoydart has no caves in Avhich protection from at least the rain might have been found . This state of matters remained unaltered until early in the present month , when one . of the families obtained service and shelter from Mr . Macleod , Seotus , and three others obtained possession of bothies , after exposure for four or five weeks , in Aveather singularly cold , wet , and stormy . Weekly , during that period , acting on the peremptory orders of his superiors , the local manager had gone the round of the tOAvnships , and overturned the frail coverings of blankets and turf which the people had constructed . "
The Scotsman enters into calculations to show that a poor-law Avould have afforded the means of rescuing these people from the depth of misery , and of effecting the change without such cruelty . It is possible also that the simple furnishing of information to the people would have done it . Some of the emigrants who have gone out to the north with Glengarry have done very well ; indeed , accounts from them have come over from time to time , showing that they had better opportunities than they had at home . Emigration-to Australia is of course not less promising . The most stupid people can understand such facts -when
they are plainly stated ; or , if some were too old and too "bigoted to understand , surely the State could bear the burden of the ignorance which it has suffered to continue in existence . There is many a thriving settlement peopled by such men and women as those from I £ noydart ; but they can be transferred without such barbarity as that which has attended these evictions ; or if they cannot be transferred , " enlightened " economy might be ashamed to hunt ignorance , age , and feebleness out of bed , and to persecute them with paltry tortures like those which our contemporary so properly exposes .
Divorce A Luxury Fob The Rich. It Is Pro...
DIVORCE A LUXURY FOB THE RICH . It is probable that Mr . Henry Fitzroy's Bill , for checking aggravated assaults upon women , mi \ y not be without much useful effect , but we are not certain that it will be all gain . Those who arc not the worst or the bravest amongst the Avretchod cowards that habitually beat thenwives , may be frightened or shamed into better behaviour * but there are some to whom the being called to account , in court , may act as a new offence , to be visited by retribution on the who ; and three eases that we mentioned last avcoIc ,
seemed to be beyond the probability of being effectually checked by such a law . Tho mania that appears to have ' visited Griimoy will inevitably be cheeked by no Jaw at all , and the two tailors , who exorcised their prowcHH upon their wives , in New-cut , (» ravel-lane , and in CkmhInian ' s-yard , ( iioodnian ' H-fields , evidently regarded legal interference only an an impediment to no overcome . Curtis , ' tho hero of JNow-eut , threatened liis wife that if she hallooed , he would dance upon her till she burst ; and Wright , tlm hero of Cloodman ' s-dsaidas ho was gom" l <>
yar , , the slation-house , flint , " if he got oyer tins , ' would smash his wife's brains out . " " ° had already made considerable progress towards Mini ' result " M rs . Wright i . s secured gainst doim-HM *' murder for six months , and Mi-h . Curtis limy ciijoy , for an equal npa . cc , a , holiday from !> ' illl . '" . But how at the end of that time ? . MrH . Wright has been married to her husband for three yenrH , and he lias beaten her every nioiiUi ninco h . io wilo f
married him . Curfis ' H treatment of bin H . « dilliculli to realize to tho . imagination ; b » it any tangilde conception of it shown us that tlm horror * which that woman must go throu / di , daily , <^< <( 1 ( '< any description in Dante ' s p icture of the liilcrii . i regions , lie had frequently struck ber ; J"' » lllU thrown boiling water upon ' , from tho fenpoi ¦ , he had repeatedly used upon her n thick n <| H « « stick ; the Mown " from that stick Avere heard , i > y a - policenia . il , ' bofore ho could force an ontry n < tho room where Curtin was ill-using lna v > " i
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03121853/page/14/
-