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Feb. 4, I860.J The Leader arid Sattird&y...
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PRIVATE OR PUBLIC. TT7E regret to percei...
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THE SPIRITUALISTS. I T is a remarkable p...
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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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Tfte Vine Disease And Price Of Wink-. Ri...
or abolish our wine duties . It will be impossible , we believe ^ for the foreign grower to raise his prices iu > consequence of pur little additional demand . Throughout southern Europe the ^ bulk of the population consume wine . The amount produced is very little ,, if any , short of three thousand million gallons , wlnle the total of our imports of wine from all parts of the world does not exceed nine million gallons . ' Supposing the import should increase four limes , of which there is no immediate probability , it would then amount to only thirty-six million gallons which is a And it it be
mere trifle compared to the wine produce of Europe . said that our consumption is confined to the choicer sorts of which the quantity is "inch more limited , it may be replied that in all the neighbourhoods of these choicer sorts wines smular to them are found , and they may probably be increased in quantity . Mr . Lumley supplies a receipt for converting common Spanish wine into Bordeaux , making its value , by a simple process , rise from five ; sous a bottle to fifty . The same wine is bought from the Spaniards for the small sum and sold to them for the large sum . There is , therefore , no reason to believe that the choice kinds of wine cannot be supplied in quantities sufficient to meet the demand . _ of the worldto donbt deny Pro
It is difficult , at this period , or a - vidential government of the affairs of society ; . and the vine disease , promoting a new trade in wine , and making it now peculiarly suitable for us to reduce our wine duties , must be classed with the discoveries of gold and other kindred phenomena , now obviously tending to promote a more extensive and friendly union by trade amongst all the families of mankind . . We . shall best do our part in this great work by studying our own interests , which now counsel us , in the strongest manner , to put an end to the unsocial wine duties , which have made our trade with Southern Europe a " secondary consideration , " compared to pur trade with Australia , America ; , and further . Asia . . :
Feb. 4, I860.J The Leader Arid Sattird&Y...
Feb . 4 , I 860 . J The Leader arid Sattird & y Analyst 113
Private Or Public. Tt7e Regret To Percei...
PRIVATE OR PUBLIC . TT 7 E regret to perceive that the advocates of « losed courts are VV resuming their unsuccessful agitation . We hoped , against our conviction , that the deliberate refusal of the Legislature , hist session , to place any restriction pu the publicity of justice * would have settled the question for oncer and for all . Enthusiasts are , proverbiallv , a stiff-necked generation . And of all enthusiasts , moral enthusiasts are the worst . In the present case , they have gob hold of half a truth , or . rather the fraction of a truth , and are unable to perceive that a part is not the same -thing as the whole . We know , by experience , that for this sort of delusion there is little hope of cure . It is true , most undeniably true , that the perusal of equivocal causes cdlebres , and of our legal Holy well Street literature , is not , to say the least , a generally profitable or beneficial employment , or one that conduces to the morality of its pursuers . Therefore , our amicable enthusiasts assert , morality would be benefited by the suppression of-these reports . It is no use objecting to the form of ' the'syllogism , or to the validity of the conclusion . We are always met with the fundamental assertion , that the perusal of immoral cases is an immoral act , and find , in consequence , that
we are only arguing in a vicious circle . For the beneht , however , of those who have tiiken up no particular hobby tin the subject , and are likely to be influenced by these fine sounding declamations about public morality , it is worth while to stato the real evils , both of secrecy and publicity . Every now and then , there come before our courts of law certain oases , of a character we need not specify , in which , for the ends of justice , extremely disgusting details , and evidence of a very revolting character , have to be brought forward . The purist party recommend that on these occasions the evidence should be taken in private , and the public excluded from court , Now , in the first instance , wo believe the amount of actual evil prod need by the hearing or perusal of these clitsaofcns . es to be grossly exaggerated . On and and
such occasions , the court is always cleared of women bo 3 ' _ s , if grown up men like to remain , they do so with full warning of what they are likely to henr . In cases of this , character , a very . srnalljKjrtionof what is stated incpurt ever appeals in thepublio prints . Even if there were no judgment exercised by the managers of our newspapers , consideration for their interests would cause them to keep out of their columns whatever > vas grossly offensivo to public delicacy . The plain truth is , that nobody " onn " hear the trial of such cases , or " need" peruse thoir reports , unless , either from personal interest in the case or depravity of mind , ho deliberately ro-Rolves to learn the whole fucts . There are persons undoubtedly for whom such details have a strange and peculiar attraction . The class from whom Sterne and Swift and Kabbimis sprang ^ y never bo wanting to supply faithful worshippers of the cloacinian not al
mysteries ; but it may bo questioned whether such persons arc- - ready perverted to the utmost . " Nemo repente fit turpisshnua . " Drunkards don't begin with neat spirits , and in the same way the mind of a man must have lost its purity before ho sits down greedily to revel in the details of debauchery . In fact , the only class who could profit mprally by the cloning of the courts in oases of a disgusting character area net of mornl roprobutea , who « re not nnuoh likely to bo made oHlior bettor or worse ; while the evils which the system would cut nil- on the general public are very obvious . If once um ; courts of law aro closed on any pretenco whatever , wo ahull have constant applications for the extension of the syntorn . Nobody likes , in «» y case , to have thoir private sins published ,--their dirty linen , in fact , not washed , but made fouler mill in public . Whenever a onso arose of Una imtwe , in which persons of' runic nud Htation wvro interested , nil ( he machinery of ( society
There is , however , a higher and more general ground on we should be most reluctant to see the principle of privacy ever introduced among us . We are convinced that the standard of morality is higher in England than in any continental country , and we attribute this fact chiefly ( paradoxical as the expression may seem ) to the publicity of vice amongst us .. There is no mystery about vice inEngland . no attempt to whitewash sepulchres . If an Englishman chooses to be vicious , he does so with his eyes open ; he has not the excuse that , for the benefit of society , the repulsive feat-tires ( t Vice were kept from him-. It is on this ground that we have always opposed well-meant and ill-advised schemes for clearing our streets for sober
which would be put in motion to draw a veil over the disclosures . We should have privacy for the rich and publicity for the poor . Then , too , in such cases you may be certain that there are family quarrels , and that the witnesses are interested parties . If the terror of giving evidence in public were removed , one great , if not the greatest , inducement to truthful ; Speakihg would be removed . More important , also , is the consideration , that the teal gain to public morality coiir sists not in such cases being kept secret , but iu their not occurring ; and the fear of a public exposure under our present system is a most powerful instrument in hindering men from committing gross outrages , and outstepping all restraints of decency .
of the outward manifestation of profligacy , making men by shutting up public-houses , and moral by taking from them immoral publications . We believe , ourselves , that half the immorality in the world is caused by a romantic , unmatter-ofrfact conception of the pleasures of vice . When men have learnt the plain truth , that vice is as commonplace as virtue , and that neither by virtue nor vice can one rise above the every-day dry details of this dull existence , they will have learnt a lesson worth learning . Few facts teach this . truth more forcibly than a perusal of our Divorce Court procedings . This view of morality is perhaps not an exalted one , but we suspect it is sound .
The Spiritualists. I T Is A Remarkable P...
THE SPIRITUALISTS . I T is a remarkable phenomenon that / at times of great intellectual activity , when men ' s minds are seething and fermenting under the influence of great , events-, ' ther-e- is a certain proiieness on the part of a large section of them to give a ready credence to the preternatural and the supernatural . It is true that there is always a lurking disposition for the marvellous , even in the most enlightene and cultivated intellects , and it is a wise provision of nature that it should be so . This is the stimulus which excites to discoveries , and it is familiar to all ho \ v the fruitless search after the unseenand . the unintelligible has occasionally led to the real and the intelligible . Even in the dimmest ages of ignorance there has been a belief in ghosts , and what is called education rather conceals than eradicates it . People who have- > got to differential calculus , and electric telegraphs ,
and " that wonderful triumph of civilization , sir , " the steam-engine , affect Or really feel a kind of shame at their belief in dreams , omens , and apparitions ; yet we have known men of the highest culture in whose minds faith in these things has Ueen not only hidden , but ; cherished . It is in times of unusual mental activity that the love of the supernatural is most predominant , and it is not very difficult to discover the cause of this . In these times especially , when vast discoveries in science are being made , when light is pouring in through every chink , when man finds Unit his empire over the unknown is daily growing larger and larger , then it is that the million , who . have neither the knowledge nor the patience for nut to be left
regular scientific investigation , are most determined in the rear , and will also have their wonders not less marvellous than those of science . Let Mr . Watt have his steam engine , by all means , they seem to say ; we will have our Coolc-hme ghost . To STEruKNSON bo the locomotive , but give us Springheoled Jack ,-WhuatstoniS and Fajiajpay rnay bring to the service of man the forces of electricity , we are content with table-turning and clairvoyance . There is something in this frame of mind , not exactly to be deplored , but there ia also much which requires the shrewdest and most uncompromising vigilance on the part of those whose duty it is to preserve intact the standard of scientific truth .
Wo believe that at no time more than the present have so many marvellous , theories and speculations upon the unseen been ottered to the consideration of the curious . Mesmerism , we believe , begun it j and then aune clairvoyance . The former was accounted for by the sceptical as a form of epilepsy , and the luttor as a trick ; but although it ia certain that the . specific disease will produce mwny phenomena similar to those which occur during the mesineric , state , and although conjurors have succeeded , by trickery , in deceiving people into a belief that real cluirvoyanco has taken pliico , it is nob to bo denied Unit there is a vast number of intelligent , enlightened , and sincere people whose faith , both in mesmerism and cluh'Yoynnce is unshaken , und who testify , upon evidence which can "etther be ignored nor lightly impugned , to phenomena which aro not to po accounted for by the hypotheses above stutod .
After mesmerism came tahlo-tuvning , which turned the heads as well ns tho tables of thounnnds- — which thousands utill behove in , and which Professor Faraday attempted to disperse by « torumlu which , in our opinion , at any rate , was exceedingly unsatisfactory . Mr . FakapaY , it should bo recollected , owes tho place which lie occupies iu tho first rank of scientific man entirely , to the fact that ho is the' first electrician in tho world . In no other brtuieh ol noionco is his authority fn-et-rate , and it i * through boing unaware of this that so many people ciuno to bo of opinion that hi * theoiy ox " resultant musoulHr force" was conclusive and unauHWwniblo . , But the / ri'wut nmrvol which now occupies every one m wjnu is
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 4, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04021860/page/13/
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