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,AjP»»fc,3p5B:] TSJ XSJAPECR. <m !¦ ' ¦ ...
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THE LATE CASE OF SHOPLIFTING. Aisr excee...
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THE NEW NEWSPAPER STAMP ACT. FACTS AND 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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Sunday Sinners And Monday Dinners. Some ...
. But Ahe last -argument is the best : —The alteration would , after aU , only increase the desecration . of the Sahbath . Hitherto , the custom . has been for drovers ; to bring- their beasts witkin an easy -stage of London b y Saturday might , in order that they might rest on the Sunday , and with the aid of a good feed upon the layers which bound the suburbs of the metropolis on the north , get up a
saleable appearance for next day's market . Sunday has , therefore , been hitherto a day of rest to the drovers up to about ten o ' clock at night , when it was necessary to bring the beasts through the streets into Smithfield before Monday's dawn . What will be the consequence if Tuesday is the market-day ? TVhy thcULthe drovers will trqvel on Sunday and make Monday their day of rest .
Here , then , is a plain proof that the Bishop of London and his sixteen thousand memorialists are attempting , with the best and purest intentions possible , to do that which will tend to destroy the utility of a great public work upon which nearly half a million of public money has been spent ; to subvert and revolutionise one of the largest departments of the internal trade of the kingdom ; and , finally , to increase the desecration of that Sabbath for
^ which they feel a legitimate veneration . Their views are limited by the circle of their own experience ^ and they have not weighed the consequences of that which they are attempting to effect . They know nothing of the innumerable ramifications of trade ; nothing of the delicate and intricate manner in which the parts of the great machine are adjusted , so that the derangement of one is the stoppage of the whole ; they have not even taken the trouble to inquire into the facts with which they
profess to deal , or they would have learnt what nothing but the—sheerest obstinacy can deny , that the Sabbath would be more desecrated by their system than it was before . Those who have given any attention to the subject know full well that the customs of trade are the most sensitive and capricious institutions possible , and much more so when they rest upon the customs of a nation . The removal of a great market for literally a few yards ( we refer to Farringdon Market ) converted it from a property into a waste . Similar instances . might be quoted __ ad
injinitum . A conqueror has found it far easier to subjugate a nation than to change the fashion of its dress , and the Bishop of London will discover that he can more readily convert the Thirty-nine Articles into elastic bands than force the London butchers to buy and kill their meat on a Tuesday . One thing he may do ( if the Home Secretary yields to the pressure ) , and that is , wantonly destroy a valuable property and a public good ; but this , we are persuaded , he is both too sensible and too Christian a man to do . Would that these qualities were always as compatible as they are in , Dr . Blomfield !
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The Late Case Of Shoplifting. Aisr Excee...
THE LATE CASE OF SHOPLIFTING . Aisr exceedingly distressing case has been brought before the police-court . It is that of a lady who was detected in appropriating articles exposed for sale in a lmendraper ' s shop . She is the wife of a physician who is respected in his profession and in society . Wo know that the occurrence has created pain amongst those who had even a slight and distant acquaintance of the family , not only because thoir personal sympathies were aroused , but because the very mituro of the case is in itself lamentable . It is one , for which our lavy and social customs appear to provide no proper treatment ; and , it' is amongst the class of troubles , —like tho taint of illegitimacy , cast upon tho children of a widower who has married his sistor-iri-law , —
agamst which common settee and common feeling equally rebel without sufficient will to grapple with the -difficulty and set it right . It is to be presumed that the lady has bean under the usual influences of education . She is , of course , surrounded by circumstances that render her act quite unnecessary .. It is well known that misdeeds of the kind are committed by persons who are removed from the ordinary impulses of necessity , as it is usually understood . It is remarkable that the propensity does not belong to any
particular class ; and it is by no means limited to a low order either of understanding or of moral feelings on other subjects . It is necessary to bear this in . mind . "We could point out , by name , several people in really respectable , if not distinguished positions , w ? ho have been convicted of stealing ; have in one way or other been punished for it ; have confessed it ; have undergone serious trouble in consequence ; but who still remain in respectable and distinguished positions . Undier some circumstances , however , when the act is
positively noticed , there appear to be only certain modes of treating it : the misdoer may l * e subjected to a medical inquiry , perhaps conveyed to a prison exclusively employed for the custody of persons who are not in their right senses . Or , if evidence of insanity fails , the misdoer may be conveyed before a police-eourt , and subjected to the usual criminal proceedings . It often happens , however , that neither mode of treatment applies . The offender is not insane in . the ordinary sense of the word , but only labours under an
incorrigible silliness on the particular point . Nor is the offender criminal in the ordinary sense of the word , but morally irresponsible . The only recourse to which an intelligent and merciful view of the subject can lead is , "to let him off . " But here arise questions of justice to other offenders , who may be equally irresponsible , but who happen to be necessitous , and whose , moral foible , therefore , is disguised under the obvious motives of poverty ; considerations which suggest a difficulty in extending indulgence to one which is refused to another .
The ease points to a glaring defect in our law . With the object of extending equal justice to all , and of securing exactitude in legal prqceedmgs , we have omitted to provide for cases in which a lenient * not to say a tender , treatment is the best on every ground of scientific accuracy , of expediency , of moral justice , and of humanity , to say nothing of Christianity . For Christian motives are the
last which the English people admit in practical matters . Evidently a provision is required in our statutory system , enabling magistrates and judges to treat certain cases with an absolute and generous compassion , under check , probably , of making a public report on such case to _ some high authority , such as to the Xord Chancellor , to the Minister of Justice , if we had one , or to the Queen in Council .
The New Newspaper Stamp Act. Facts And P...
THE NEW NEWSPAPER STAMP ACT . FACTS AND PUOOUtLG RESULTS . Sir , —Considerable misapprehension appears to prevail respecting tho probable results of the new act to amend tho laws relating to tho stamp duties on newspapers , and this misapprehension extends not only to certain suppositious facilities extended to tho more rapid transfer of iiowb , but also to certain influences detrimental to tho London Press , which the measure is suppoged greatly to encourage . Theso ideas , however , appear to me to bo founded iu a great degree cither , upon fallacious and illogical bascB or upon a too rapid generalisation ; not unfrequcntly attendant upon now and startling propositions .
This generalisation' embraces several assertions made both by tho opponents and tho advocates of tho measure Tljo accusations levelled against tho bill stand somewhat as follows : —
1 . 'Thatthe character trf theljcmAdn ^ T & iB ^ SLljie lowered . 2 . That its circulation , especially its coniiiiy # lrculation , will be most materially injure *! . 3 . That undue advantages -will t > e conferred Tjy legislative enactment upon jfhe 'Counttry Press , in relation -to the London Press , and iihig partly resulting from the regulation of postal transmission . 4 . That the London Press Trill be further subject to the misappropriation of its columns , and to -the loss of circulation consequent "upon such misappropriation both in London and in the Provinces .
5 . That a vast mass of raw and uneducated journalism ¦ will poison the minds of the people , and lower the national taste and Teasoning faculty by ungovernable and telling , because vulgar and suitable , appeals to the passions . 6 . That the Leading Journal will be notably -a great sufferer in all these respects , and that it wrH , in addition , be exposed to a peculiar , unjust , and special impost .
7 . Lastly , there is an idea floating about that fhe Government feel that the influence of the Leading Journal"has increased , is increasing , and ought to be diminished . " Three separate heads concentrated upon one point , which would of themselves have acted so seductively upon Mr . Gladstone as almost to suffice for the production of the bill in question . In my illustration of the practical influences which go far to neutralise the admirably concocted injustices of the Stamp . Act , I shall select the Times , partly because it is the best standard of the present power of the metropolitan press , and partly because special paragraphs of the Act certainly do appear upon the face of them , quite too distinctly levelled , and quite too partially framed .
We may , I think , consider as established , the first proposition upon which nay arguments will be'based , viz ., ; that , should the Times suffer but & slight ,, or possibly no diminution in circulation , its influence , power , and character will remain intaet , and advertisers will still seek to find publicity where they now seek to find it . At present everythjn . g depends upon proving this proposition , since in proving it , our case is clearly made out .
The circulation of the London press in the metropolis and the provinces would be materially affected by the following causes , viz ., difficulty of transmission , and the establishment of a cheap and equally excellent journalism consequent upon undue facilities being afforded in town aud country , to the detriment of the metropolitan press . As respects the first point , a very general opinion is entertained tliat there will be greater obstructions opposed" tothe postal circulation ofnewspapers them is at present the case . The postal service for the press , however , -will be in no respect subject to
greater limitation than at present . A stamp will still frank a newspaper into the country , and will still cover its retransmission through the post from place to place . The only alteration made in this respect indeed will be the making it optional with the London Press either to stamp its impressions and enjoy its present privileges , or to issue them unstamped and frank it for one transmission by a penny stamp . Under the above conditions , however , the Country Press would be enabled to circulato in country towns at an advantage , since , being published in the towns , it requires no stamp for distribution there , while the Times must issue its stamped impression for the country . But railways and tho agency of a great metropolitan house offer at once a scarcel
solution of the apparent difficulty . There is y a town of any importance in the country where newspaper agencies at the stations of the railways aro not established , and there is certainly no country village without its bookseller , who nets there in tho place of such an agent . Tho Times at this moment , although stamped , is sent to nearly every town in the kingdom—and certainly to all those vriiOTO country papers are published—by tho early morning train , and on the passing of tho now act the same system will continue , with this single important modification , that whereas tho Times has . now to undergo tho unnecessary expenso of a stamped impression , it will , notwithstanding mechanical difficulties and stamped and unstamped impressLonal uncertainties , dieponso with tho stomp , and will reach the town as
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041855/page/15/
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