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024 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ap...
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SOCIAL SHADOWS. FT1HEBE is a popular imp...
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THE FATE OF THE INDEPENDENT MEMBER. ; ri...
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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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Delpiios At Fault. Nphrre Is Something V...
As lone as bribery is exercised indiscriminately by Tory , Whig-, and Radical and , veiled with more or less decencyj continues to be one of our institutions , the less that is said about comparative morality the better . I / et others decide between the relative merits oF the man who buys his neighbour , and the man who sells himself—the man who wishes to give beer , and the man who would be glad to drink the giver's health in , it . If the briber despises the bribee , neither is the bribee likely to respect the briber , and if depreciated for selling his vote , may very naturally quote from Tom Disnim—¦ " I been't , you see , versed in high maxims , and sich ; But don't this same honour concern poor and rich 1 "
024 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ap...
024 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ April 7 , 186 a
Social Shadows. Ft1hebe Is A Popular Imp...
SOCIAL SHADOWS . FT 1 HEBE is a popular impression that figures may be made to prove anything , and statistics have certainly become one of the ttiost dreadful bores of the day . Nevertheless , the universe is constructed upon mathematical principles , and the reciprocal attraction of all the Sai / lt ¦ .-Simples for all the Haebt Lackadats might be represented by an algebraic formula , such as the astronomer employs in his theory of the tides . Fortunately individual life escapes this wearisome analysis , and though men and women in huge masses present average phenomena siisceptible of calculation and exposition , the poorest unit of the , lot has in him a capacity for developing some powers and characteristics that set arithmetic at defiance , and prove the-statist-who meddles . \ yith them to be little better than an . ass . Dry members of ^ Parliament * whose words drop from
them as disagreeably as the particles of a sandstorm , and the tiresome order in geiieral , which ought to be held a criminal class , from its vexatious assaults upon human patience arid endurance , are great in statistics ; very many of them members of a society which grubs together figures of afl kinds , just as the antiquarians and collectors of a former date stocked their cabinets indifferently with fragments of Roman pots , noses of old statues , sandals which belonged to JVliuS C ^ sae —if they were not the property of somebody else , halfpence that had seen better days , and the mummies of cats which caught the mice of : the Phahaohs when Moses went to sleep to the lullaby of the Nile . There is a disease of figures as well as a use of them , and in ordinary life it is only prudent to give as wide a berth to a , man who has caught statistics , as to another who has caught the small-pox . : ¦ .... . . ¦ ¦
It is . however , possible to-extract from tabulated records of the various incidents and accidents of social life matter of keen interest , and tedious columns of figures may be made by the wand of intellect to evolve all the phantasmagoria of tragedy , comedy , and romance . We have before us a " Blue Book , " which looks admirably adapted to give anybody the blue devils . It is entitled " Miscellaneous Statistics of the United Kingdom ( Part II . ) , " and in the most repulsive of known methods provides peepholes , serviceable to those who can manage to see through them , by which much insight is gained into the manners and customs of the afoi'esaid "United Kingdom , " which will require a deal of mendirig before it will deserve to be called a " Commonwealth / ' We continually boast of our civilization j don't we lodge our monarchs in the most costly if not the most beautiful of palaces ? Was there evev nation that had so rich an aristocracy , or spent so much upon charities and churches ? Have we not , also , fifty-two millions employed in cotton , spinning , and eight hundred millions worth of national debt P
Out of these and other items which our " Blue Book affords , vre might make a charming picture ) and grow ecstatic over the blessings of . au England with a Parliament unreformed ; but there is a skeleton standing- at our , feast of figures , which tells us how . many of our population are less than nion . Pauperism lias been , to a great extent , starved to death , or exiled from Ireland ; but Great Britain had nearly a million specimens of the article in the thriving year of 1859 , and the United Kingdom altogether 1 , 031 , 759 . In England and Wales , the paupers of 1 S 59 amounted to 4 . 4 of the whole population ; and ' this was something to be proud of , as they amounted to 4 . 7 in 1858 i That wore than one in twenty-five of our population should be paupers , is not quite characteristic of a " happy family ; " but wo don't see much of the dark side of our
aooial picture . Hyde Park is brilliant , Comhill busy , and Pall Mall gay . The total sum actually expended for the relief of the poor is set down at ^ 6 , 740 , 188 for 1859 ; but wo ai'enot so bad as we were , for it amounted to £ 7 , 161 , 250 only two years befor ? . In 1859 we relieved 121 , 860 " able-bodied" paupers " in the Unions of England and Wales alone ; and there is something in the very nomenclature that ought to thrill the , nerves . " Ablu-bodied " Inboiirera , sailors , carpenters , or members of Parliament , appear intelligible articles j but " able-bodied paupers " ts a horrible combination of contradiotory appellations , sufficient to condemn the system which produces such a monstrous growth . Passing from paupors wo come to oriminnls , but ns our statistic manufacturers nre plow in their work , we ennnot speak of 1859 , so
must take 18 S 8 , in which " year of grace , at onr cnmmal courts alone , wo tried and convicted n JUtle army of 19 , 440 persons , and sentenced them to punishments , which experience 1 ms proved huve little deterring ; « md no curative effect . In the same year our jutlgoa condemned to death fifty-three- persons -in England tind \ Vnles , and live in Ireland ,, out of whom only fifteen actually exporiencod the lust roniedy of the law , and i « most p f the remaining oases tho capital sentence was prynounqecl in that spirit of unvcracity Which lingers so obstinately in our foi' « usio « tfthirn . ( . ivKTKLJW luny « go tola ua that" aoQioty prepares , crimo , and the cuiltv nre onlv tho instruments bv which it is executed . " Purnle
and fine linen may not like this unpleasant truth , but the whole community ; is answerable for the / bad circumstances under which a criniinal class . has been produced . In 1858 we committed , b \ summary decision of magistrates , and otherwise , in England and Wales , 118 , 162 persons to gaol , exclusive of those in convict and militarv prisons , and of this large number ' 41 * 826 could neither read : ijor write ; 68 , 227 could only perform these operations imperfectly ; and only 397 possessed what the Blue Book calls superior instruction . Thus it appears that rather more than 93 out of every 100 prisoners had found the shadow of the British constitution so deep a gloom that few , if any , rays of useful knowledge were able to penetrate it . It unfortunately happens that we are plentifully supplied with lunatics , as well as with paupers and criminals . In 1859 j the total number of insane , in public and private asylums , was 36 , 119 , besides 682 " criminal lunatics , " as they are somewhat unphilosophically called ; and this large number does not include the single patients in private houses , of whom no record is kept .
From the few figures we have adduced , it will be seen that if all our paupers , criminals , and lunatics were collected together , the world has few cities large enough to contain them , and some notion maybe formed of the amount of real or law-manufactured offences which are committed , when we learn that the magistrates , by their summarv j urisdiction , dispensed , in England and Wales , 260 , 290 punishments in the year 1858 ! In addition to the useless and dangerous classes we have mentioned , are the professed vagrants , whose number may be iniagiued from the fact that 32 , 700 persons were charged with following this occupation in England and Wales during- the year last mentioned , and of these 18 , 528 were convicted , and the balance discharged . The Game laws , as might be expected , contribute a large share to
the black list of penal inflictions , but the statistics show a fluctuation which we do not understand . The total-convictions in England and Wales for 1857 are set down at 4560 , and at . 7379 for 1858 ; while , according to a return recently laid before the House of Commons , they were 2341 in > the year ending 30 th June , 1859 . In the Blue Book these items are made up to years ending 29 th September , while , according to the return just , quoted , arid which was nipved for by Mr . Caird , a different division of time was adopted . But , however the subject is regarded , it is apparent that an immense amount of demoralization , punishment , suffering , and expense is borne . by the public , as the price of enabling the squirearchy to maintain a feudal tyranny over the occupiers and workers of the soil .
If we look to the catalogue of . accidents , we notice that during the three years 1856-S , the railways of the United Kingdom killed 793 persons , and injured i 6 \ S 8 . During the same period , factories killed by-machinery accidents 143 persons , and woundedoften so seriously as to cause amputation—10 , 855 .. If we include accidents not arising . from machinery , the total will be higher , and the killed and wounded in the Factory Battle of Industry will be 11 , 292 . The coal-mining battle has been still more murderous j the slain during the same three years being 3081 , and the maimed and wounded proportionately large . , which
Our population goes on increasing in spite of the deaths , in England and Wales alone reached the prodigious number of 450 , 018 iii 1 S 58 ; and it is remarkable to find that very fe ^ v ( 26 , 847 in 1857 ) die of old age , which is , perhaps , the only natural a « d inevitable form of dissolution . Consumption carries off its 50 , 000 victims annually ; and convulsions , which chiefly atiecfc infants , dispose of nearly half that number . An amazing quantity of children are born into the world to pass out of it quickly , causing only sorrow and expense to others , and being themselves little better than brief receptacles for misery . In 1857 , the number of children
thus out oft * before reaching the ago of five years was 1 / 4 , 004 . If- ; we compare the condition of the people , of these islands with that Of nations which lie beyond their sea-girt bounds , we may hnd pretexts for congratulation ; but when Christian principles have penetrated the heart of mankind , our civilization will appear u , ttle better than a whited sepulchre ; for no pomp of crowns and coronet , no splendpur of palaces , or solemnity of temples , will avail to rescue from condemnation a social and political system wjuoa saerUicecr the many for the benefit of the few .
The Fate Of The Independent Member. ; Ri...
THE FATE OF THE INDEPENDENT MEMBER . rilHE most foolish thing an ambitious politician can do is to fovin •*¦ hi 3 own opinions and frankly avow them . Such a . hubit is , in tma eonntry of free thought and free speech , absolutely suicidal on tne part of a youiig man—that ia to say of one who has not turned sixty . As soon us he i & rash enough to show an umvillingnesH to ju'cepc with absolute ftith all tho clauses of his party ' s -owed , nna nwww upon voting nccortling to his consck'nee , the whole puck of thepnrty lutcks is let loose upon him , and renegade , apostate , traitor , uve amongst the mildest epithets with which his name isvdoeoratoil . xi , indeed , he will entirely abandon his claim to tho elmvauter oi Liberal or Ot . neervative , as the cwo may bo , and turn » V , "P l r C j ° somoremilt from one side to tl » o other , very little will l > e naw . «» the prosumptiun of dinVing from Uie majurity wlnfch afk- » dj , nna the claim to exercise the liberty of private judgment . Mv . *¦»¦ : « AJ £ *
now cWnouneos with unblushing ooohiosa tho dootruios hv twemjfive vcars « igo declared nocesHary tyr the aftlvation of tlio ci-unuj . Sir fcrtwBB Lyoton begi . n political life as n demt . omt , imU now wrftoa brilliant orntipua ognimt domocvacy . That r « m » n Uubio iiu » nation of ChriHtinn ' tovo und humility , the Attounky-Ovse \ uu , wna « rod-hot Tory « t one general ojoctlgn , and n yet liotior .. uu « t *» lit the next ; but no one ttiinU it noudful todonounco oitlier oi uu * distinguished noi'Bons as a renegade , or tq eepavnto thoui by spcn '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041860/page/8/
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