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December 3, 1853.] TH E L E A D E K. 116...
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WHERE IS THE .RUSSIAN ROUTE TO INDIA ? M...
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t .11 k (i < " > v ;io :i i n i n a c l ...
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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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Divorce A Luxury Fob The Rich. It Is Pro...
On that last critical occasion the process of his ¦ brutality was elaborate in the extreme . He made his wife to strip off all her clothes , and lie upon the bed . . He beat her with a bone , which he had cut for . the purpose , out of' her stays , until- he broke it . He then beat her with a hairbrush ; he dragged her out of bed , obliged her to make it three times ; he tried to strangle her with his hands ; he beat her with a square stick ; he threatened if she called out to dance upon her ; he went out of the room , for a
short time , and returned , to commence beating her again . All this while he was perfectly sober . The prisoner made one counter-accusation against the -wife . It was that " she was the person most in fault . " He supplied no details , but asserted that charge , which appears , in fact , to refer to her having made objection at his taking another young woman to a public-house to drink . This case came before the Lord Mayor , on the 19 th of ^ Novemb er . The couple were married in Januarylast , and thus the woman ' s life had been of this
kind for ten months . A six months' holiday is something ; she will at least have repose for that period ; but imagine the six months expiring , with the prospect of such a husband coming back , his temper soured by prison discipline ! Technicality has made lawyers feel much difficulty in pronouncing what is " cruelty " within the legal sense . We presume that the treatment undergone by Mrs . Wright and Mrs . Curtis amounts to that offence , which would , we believe , give them a right at least to divorce
a mensd et thoro , but there would be expenses in the ecclesiastical courts to which either must refer , five hundred pounds a-piece at least . How is Mrs . Curtis or Mrs . Wright to raise five hundred pounds ? Even the Commissioners who have been investigating the law of divorce with a view to improvement , only advocate the separation of husband arid wife on the ground of adultery ; but surely that departure from established law is not equal in effect to the degrading influences of such brutal
treatment as is inflicted by the husband and endured by the wife in horrible cases like that of Wright or Curtis . Granting , however , that a divorce might possibly be accorded , in what court should , it be sought ? In Parliament . After having paid , say , five hundred pounds for relief in the ecclesiastical court , the wife would have to institute a Bill in Parliament for
a divorce , costing , at the minimum , say a thousand pounds . The law , therefore , which is oppressive to the rich is prohibitory to the poor ; and while the wife of a gentleman can claim protection from cruelty , the wife of a tailor must undergo daily torture because she cannot muster 1500 / . to purchase her release .
December 3, 1853.] Th E L E A D E K. 116...
December 3 , 1853 . ] TH E L E A D E K . 1167
Where Is The .Russian Route To India ? M...
WHERE IS THE . RUSSIAN ROUTE TO INDIA ? Many opinions have been advanced , and discussion has much fermented , respecting the probability of an attack upon our Indian possessions by Russia ; misapprehension being a largo ingredienfc in the fermentation . It arises partly from ignorance of the state- of the countries through which a , Russian i ' orca Mould have to march , and partly from a false idea , of the feelings of the inhabitants of those countries both towards the- liuHsians and ourselves . Some of the
leading journals of the day have entered into elaborate disquisitions concerning our means of resisting the invasion of a . Russian army in India ., and the probability that the Sepoys and other native troops in our pay might desert at the approach of an invader . With the- truth of these surimses wo hnvo at present no concern ; for wo liiust finsf , hoo how ( . ho invader could overcome t'ho dillimlty— -nay , Mio impossibility—of finding his way with a great army into tho plains of India ,, either by our north-westorn frontier , or l > y any oi . hor route .
'hero arc two lines of march , which tho caprice <> f speculators has ii . xed upon for the advance of fhis torriblo force , the baro approach of which IH to lay our empire in the dust , more suddenly ha , n tho hordes of Tamerlane , hi id more irrn-Jviovably than tho armies of tho Mogul . Tho ¦ 'I'st of tlieso lies through Georgia and Oireassia , ° n tho wo » s (; sido of Hie Caspiim Sea , und so KjMithwardri through 'IWsia ; tho second is by ' ¦ ho lOast sido of tho Cas p ian through tho wild h « ' < v |>|) oh of jndopondont Tartary , and across tho custom oornor of Afghanistan . " Iho firat of those ia not as smooth , or well
kept , as the road from London to Richmond . Supposing Persia to be friendly , yet Russia does not lie next that country j but between the two there is a . large extent of land , inhabited by races who are of no tame disposition , "but are warriors from their youth , and are the hereditary foes of the Russian Czar . The history of the struggles of these tribes against the overbearing tyranny of their oppressors , is written in the blood of the best and bravest of the soldiers of Russia , whose armies have been shattered time
after time against the impregnable barriers of the Caucasus . Again , it has been presumed that Persia is friendly to Russia , and ill-disposed towards England ; but this is an assumption which it would . 'be difficult to support with any good evidence . It rests upon the idea of the free agency of Persia ; whereas it is notorious that the Court of Persia is under the influence of the Affghans , and has within the last few months received a dictatorial mandate from Herat , to which it has thought proper to pay submissive attention .
As to the second route , that by Tartary and Afghanistan , we have no hesitation in asserting that it is simply impossible for a Russian army to get through such a country in a state of any efficiency . The impregnable nature of the fastnesses , the severity of the climate , the want of provisions , the hostility of the wild tribes of the hills , combine to render such a course impracticable . By no conceivable combination of ¦
circumstances could the tribes which inhabit those districts be brought to -unite in favouring an invader , for many of them are at deadly feud with one another , and all are equally hostile to the stranger . Would their interests be promoted by the success of the invader ? The Russians have nought to offer that they would care to accept . Would their rel- ' giius sympathies be roused ? The disciple of Mahomet cannot fight in the same ranks with a Russian serf . Would their '
revenge be gratified ? The slaughterers of Cabool and the IChyber Pass would be little pleased to witness the defeat of a Russian army on the banks of the Sutledge or the Chenaub . If the Affghans were to allow a free passage through their own territory , tho Khyberces and the AfFreedies , safe in their mountain fastnesses , woidd annihilate the invading army as it slowly wound its way through their terrible defiles .
Our sad experience at Cabool ought to teach us that it is no easy thing for an army , even with the advantage of a wide base for military operations , to thread the country which lies at ' the North of our Indian possessions ; and how much more would the difficulty be increased with an army far removed from its resources , with , no enthusiasm to urge it onward , and composed of a people who are notoriously incapable of resisting the . severities of a campaign .
Doubtless there are dangers attending our [ Eastern possessions , and it behoves us to be careful of our interests in the vast country committed to our charge , but we have no occasion to dread , the interference of Russia otherwise than as an intriguer . Reports , so constantly rife in tho north of India ,, about tho coniing ' of a , Russian army , * are for tho most part idle and . frivolous , ; is the traditional expectation of the coming of Alexander the Great , or of the ; Gog and M . a ' gog . Jf the Russians . should ever ( tome , our troops in India , will ( ail to grasp tho bayonets of their forefathers , and forgetting tho victories of , 1 'lassy or Sobra . on , will fly in terror ; for never yet have they encountered no horrible a , force as they niusl ,
then confront , —¦ an army of ghosts inarched across the starving desert and fatal rooks , and borne by a , supernatural power to fulfil souk ; dread destiny . For never elso v ) ill tho Russians enter India ,. The Continent is closed to them , and Hie only other routo , tho nea , is I , ho path , oi the V \ nglo Saxon .
T .11 K (I < " > V ;Io :I I N I N A C L ...
t . 11 k ( i < " > v ; io : i i n i n a c l a s s : d s . No . XII . LOIM ) II KNRY LIONNOX . In a noli splendid Hiniile , Lord P . roughani j M hin Paley Preface , compares society . —moaning Uu , State ¦ - to a now with more piglings than touts ; and antecedent to l > in oIoveily-roininiHconl ; Lordship , ( Jjlrayhas ! i caricature , significant , : is fc 0 disappointed plneehuntors , in which , tlioro being a Hiirplusagn of piglings , several are attempting nourishment from tho ta . il of tho fainting mother . Such n , ro tho ooineidentally painful awl ludicrous attitude ; uuUu > po of tho yoimgor
sons of the British aristocracy . They are , indeed , aa a class , so completel y the jest of other classes , that they are a jest to themselves . Yet the joke is a serious one to the public , for their contemptible , position , leading to loss of self-respect , leads to defective morale in the public life in which they are actors ; and it ma y readil y be shown that if the Peerage had no youn ger sons , it would be much more pure and patriotic .
The " detrimental" is a stock character in the fashionable novel , and also in politics , and it is because the younger son has small chances as to heiresses , that lie is turned into the government of this free people . The younger son has no taste for politics ; but what else is there for him to do but govern England ? Assuming tha t the British aristocrac y includes the great landed commoners , there are many thousand younger sons in eac h generation to be provided for ; and the Church , being limited , besides being dull , and
the Bar requiring cleverness , besides being unfashionable , and the army being poor , besides ta king one out of London , what is a detrimental to do but take a precis writers hip , attache-ship , private secretaryship , good clerkship , or colonial appointment ? Notwithstanding our Venetian constitution , our nobles consider commerce vul gar ; they marry merchant princesses , when they can get them , but disdain to become merchant princes ; and no University man ever thinks of pushing on to independence through a counting-house . Public life , —and Mog ^ s , of the
Colonial , fully believes -that hy is a statesman when he ponders at ten a . m . over the Times , —is ail that i 3 left to the young gentleman who is of a good family . The detrimental , when you meet him hanging about the club all daj , will tell you that a feller must live , you know ; and it is only- because he sees no other chance in life that he bo 2-es all the kith he hath to bore the minister . A young English gentleman of this class is as line a fellow as there is in Europe , from twenty to twenty-five years of age ; unconscious of the constitutional delusions on which Ins '' governor ''
has thrived , he never thinks a meanness , and would scorn to measure his private career by considerations with respect to a taxed bub complacent public . But he gets into debt , of course , and then the public must pay . Public offices must be filled , and-he does not see why he should not have an easy 2001 . or 300 / . per annum , which , with what the disgusted and over-bled governor still consents to allow , will keep him till—till something turns up . Certainly lie has no particular qualifications for anything in general . lie has read Paul do . Kock , and
lias French enough for a precis writer , —which in periphrase for copying dork , who knows the difference between grave and uoute accent . Mo'd bepuzzled to tell you where the Mauritius in , and would bo longer than \ Xi ({ mint in rounding the Cape , if you put a globe before him . . But , never mind , he'll go to the Colonial Oflice , with pleasure , and gets accustomed to Crey's or Newcastle ' s autography , with givaL quicknew . A . s to education , has he not forgotten as much Creek an Liddell remembers , and can fie not vory nearly translate his chief ' s Latin quotations , in the
Mouse ? His general " information" is extensive : he can tell you all about lials JYlabillo and tho Argyll Itooins , and why Colonel Wool gave up his . stud ; and he in con vinoed , over his cigar , in tlio evening , that Palanquo ik a wonderful cook , and that tho French people an ! not ( it for liberty , sir , not a bit of it : wiiilo ho in Hun : that the British Constitution is stunning . lie has made u |> hi . i mind about tho Manchester , school : low , sir , narrow-minded , think of nothing lint money ; and he lias a hankering after pitching into Cobden , and no doubt would , but that , lie tliinlcu Bright might conio up . On Lho whole , porhapn , lie in
ii , very ridioulouii animal . I'lni British ariMtooniey in , obviously , not clover . Except Lord John K . uhmoII , no younger'Hon ban dintiiifriiiohed fiiin . sell" for year . ) , and the present Iiouho of Derby ofl ' er . i the only really prominent eldeMt Hona , for Hovei'al { foiieratioiiM . . In politics the Cannings , Peels , and DiMiaelif ) gel . the fii ; i ( , jilaees , and olnewhe . ro i , ln > arintoeraey in utterly unillustrioiiM . Throughout tho PeiiinMular war only I ' aget , of the whole peerage connexion , got a lir . il . position ; and , in India ' m military Horvico , no lordly niuno i : i known , ninee Wolle . Hley . in diplomacy wo may count Lord William Hnntinck , an tho only groat jnau that hahJ turned up , from tho peer-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03121853/page/15/
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