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818 THE LEADEK Fffo/485. JviX9, 1359.
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WELCOMELITTLE STRANGER
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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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Defences And Expenses. , While Tho Chanc...
school -will be the favourite opinions of the trading class , and instead of seeing danger from the muskets of our enemies "we shall be told that our own armaments act as ignorant people used to fancy Hghtning-eonductprs operated , and attract storms that -would otherwise keep away . On Tuesday evening the venerable Lyndhurst indulged the House of Lords with a powerful speech , commencing with the Dutch in the Medway , and ending with vce victisJ as the final chorus in the grand opera of a French invasion . Lord Stratford de Redcliffe followed and resembled the Pekin dainty of" roastedice ; " he was hot and ' cold
at the same time . His thoughts seemed arranged in parallel layers . . Danger and safety , alarm , and confidence , improbability of invasion and need of instant preparation against assault , formed the sentiments of alternate passages in a hysterical harangue , which terminated with a melo-dramatic confusion of the " front of Mars ! " and the swearing book at the Old Bailey ; " So help me , God ! " his lordship exclaimed , "if ever that danger should arise , it would be the brightest day for the glory of England that ever happened , and ever shone upon her escutcheon . " Lord Granville attempted to pour a little mildness over the scene , but Lord
position without anything like the expense incurred under existing arrangements , which every few years collapse or break down . In . the first place , no money ought to be spent upon ships , fortifications , or weapons , which there is good reason to suppose will be old-fashioned and valueless by the time they are finished . Secondly , money should not be spent in accumulating great quantities of articles which the inechanicfjl power of the country can at any time produce quickly . If these- rules were acted upon , so large a saving would be effected that we should not be subject to those fits of retrenchment which every now and then knock down our defences below the safety WpI . There can be no doubt that earthworks
rapidly thrown up , according to the last principles of engineering , are more formidable than the most costly brick and stone fortifications adapted to the methods of attack of a previous date . Success in war is after all very much like success in manufactures , and depends upon the application of the required quantity of capital and skilled labour . The capital we have , and our defence problem really resolves itself into good provision for the supply of skilled labour . The failure of the Government bounty-plan shows that it is not yet solved , with reference to the navy ; and a set . of just regulations that would make that branch of the service —as it ought to be— -very preferable to the mercantile marine , would add more to our power than the possession of a large number of doubtful ships . In their desire to train coast volunteers to the use
of artillery , the Government evince a wise discretion , because , whatever may be the ultimate -form of the gun , the method of using it will he pretty much the same ; but the possession at all points of a large number of good artillerymen will diminish the value of fixed batteries , and ought to lead to a cessation of expenditure in constructions not adapted to the future methods of war . Oldfashioned officers who defended " Brown Bess , "
in obstinate ignorance of rifle science , and Tvho still , like Colonel Dickson , think that venerable weapon good enough for a popular force , will , ' of course , depreciate rifle clubs or any other arrangement wiser than their own notions ; but any one who brings the mind of a statesman to the consideration of military affairs , will see that no regular army could be so great a safeguard against invasion as a nation possessing and knowing how to use scientific arms .
Air . Serwyn was quite right , on Tuesday , in calling the attention of the House of Commons to thie difficulty of obtaining practice ground , and if the Government is really anxious -to make a cheap and reasonable provision for national defence , they will take up this question without delay . Every town in the country and every large parish in London should have one or more places in -which rifle targets could be set up * and where simple evolutions might be taught . This would be a return to tbe old system which enabled English archers to ibe the foremost in the world ; and if the red tape-worms of the Horse Guards attempt to depreciate the plan , we will tell thorn that they have never seen a battle in which the average skill of tlie combatants as marksmen with the rifle
is at all qqwal to what the average skill of Englishmen used to be with the bow . Let us , as a people , acquire this skill in our leisure hours , and wo then needjnot , at a time when wo have not the slightest international disagreement , talk us fiercely and pugnaciously as though the enemy were nt our gates . ¦
Ellenborough blazed forth with all the valiant energy that distinguished Peter the Headstrong in his memorable campaign for the honour and f lory of New Amsterdam . Surely we ought to e able to make powder , bore , cannon , and cast shot , shoulder rifles , and build ships , without this . undignified pother . We do not want the " potent , grave , and reverend signors" of our . Upper Chamber to . masquerade , like More , of More Hall , ' when he sallied , forth , armed at all points , to slay the dragon of "VYantley . It would be well if our French neighbours were certain to enjoy the fun of these exhibitions , and not take in sober earnest the constant assertions that
they are children of destiny , fated to hurl themselves upon our peaceful shores . If John Bull could really be persuaded to assume the attitude which these valiant lords desire , the -words of the old song would be applicable : — " Had you but seen him in this dress , How fierce he looked and big 1 , You would have thought him , for to be ' Some Egyptian Forcupig-. " Such a national caricature is not necessary , and all the preparations which prudence demands may be made without swaggering like a swash-buckler or ranting like a transpontine tragedy-queen . Lord Ellenborough will not persuade the people that"the present war has not the slightest
justification , " nor will they agree with him in deprecating , the mei'e fact of " changing the existing distribution of power in llurope . " History is one prolonged tale of the change of the distribution of power among States . Such changes are the inevitable results of the fundamental laws of human society , which is a thing of vitality and growth , incapable of being crystallised into a permanent unyielding form . vVe recognise these movements as nart of a system which is working well , and we desire , without fuss or frenzy , to be in possession of the p hysical and moral forces that will enable us to play the part of a great nation , upon whose word and deed , no small portion of the safety of civilisation rests .
The misfortune of our present system of military and naval expenditure is , that it rests upon . no principles , but is a bundle of expedients that all parties know to be doubtfuj or unsound . We nave spent , and are spending , an immense deal of mofley on big ships , -whoso value in a naval war js exceedingly problematical . Authorities on naval gunnery tell us that these big vessels cannot approach land batteries without great probability of being destroyed . They also tell us that owing to the increased '• weight of their artillery , and the practice of firing percussion shells horizontally , no sea-fights of the old , kind between ships bloaing
away at close quarters could last many minutes , or even seconds . These circumstances ought to diminish the rage for expending millions upon vessels that may prove of little use . With reference to land -works we may be said , truthfully , os well as Hibernically , to be equally at sea ; ana General . Feel frankly told the , House of Commons tbat it was diffioulib to say whether the fortifications now jn progress , and which are to cost 4 , 000 , 000 ? ., will E goot ^ ftr anything vhen completed . If the House of Commons couU be persuaded to enjoy a JuouJ mtervaj , and lay down a few simple rules for WAr expenditure , wo wwgh't occupy a strong
818 The Leadek Fffo/485. Jvix9, 1359.
818 THE LEADEK Fffo / 485 . JviX 9 , 1359 .
Welcomelittle Stranger
sophic mind speculates with wonder , not unmixed with sympathy . If , however , the little event does not come off ; if any reference to children becomes a forbidden subject ; if an allusion to christenings or baptismal ceremonies is sure to be followed by an hysterical explosion ; if the baby ' s clothes are given to the poor ; if the savour of g in departs from the house ui company with the hope of childbirth , and the pins are pulled pettishly from the bosom of the toosanguine pincushion , then—well then—we are ashamed to confess , that the un-sympathetic , unmaternal , and lin-paternal world is apt to sneer . For the cackling of a hen before ste Lays her egg there is some excuse , but a hen that cackles , and never lays an egg after all , is beyond the pale of pity or of pardon .
We regret to state that her Majesty's ministers are somewhat in the position of a too-confident and disappointed mother . The circumstances of the ministerial marriage are too fresh in men ' s memories to need recapitulation . Ihe Capulets and Montagues had made an end of their quarrels . Both prince and people were weary of the feud , and unless a reconciliation had taken place , there would soon have been an end of both Cnpulet and Montague . Common danger makes common friends . So the high contracting parties took counsel together , and the end of their deliberations-was , that" Juliet" Palmerston should
be espoused to " Romeo "Russell . The sacrifice was great ; but the necessity was great also . There were hitches , it is true , about the settlementqttestions about the dowry . The Montagues remonstrated against the old nurse Cranworth being kept on the establishment ; and the Capulets demanded a satisfactory compensation for the outraged memory of " Mercutio " Smith . The negotiations nearly went off upoii the grave question—whether the name of Capulet or Montague should appear first upon the contract . It was , indeed , a " mariage de convenance ' if not , as unfriendly critics said , a marriage " a la mode , " after
the style of Hogarth . Matrimony , however , is said to thrive better without love ; and the number of one ' s progeny is not measured by the depth of one ' s conjugal affection . The hopes of the rival relatives were all based upon the prospect of an heir . The fruit of this ill-assorted union between ihe Montagues of Woburn and the Capulets of Cambridge House , was to be a genuine and illustrious Radical . It is true that both the parents were advanced in years . But -what of that ? ^ If Isaac was born from Abraham and Sarah , might not the union of Palmerston and Russell beget a Cobden ? The betrothal was followed by the
nuptials , with perhaps indecent haste ; and the marriage ceremony was scarcely announced ore the birth of the coming offspring -was trumpeted forth with a suspicious celerity . Evil tpngues , however , who asserted that the rapidity of the matrimonial proceedings was necessitated by the honour of their parents and the legitimacy of their progeny , was silenced by the fact that the promised child was a long time a coming . Every preparation had , indeed , been mnde . The swaddling clothes , destined to control the too impetuous movements of
the infant prodigy , were laid out and exhibited to the anxious friends , who trembled for the issue of the hot blood of * the male and the eternal youth of the female parent . The cradle was prepared in which the child was to be lulled to Bleep . The pap-boat was ready loaded -with milk , fit for a Whig suckling , instead of the storng meat of Manchester . The office of teaohing the young idea to sprout had been entrusted to tlie congenial care of Gladstone . The congratulatory articles wore readywritten to announce the ministerial birth . Alns lor
WELCOME , LITTLE STRANGER , A youthful , wife and cxpeotant mother , panting for the honours of maternity , is an object familial to us all . The premonitory symptoms of the happy event are matters of common knowledge . We all have heard the delicate inuendoes by which the coming birth is heralded , the gentle allusions to an addition to the family , the half-expressed half-implied desires as to the sex of the interesting offspring , the perpetual discussions as to the name of the hoped-ior infant , " M . or W , as the oaso may bo . " The baby's olothes huddled beneath the sola at the approach of visitors j the mysterious visits of the bespoken nurse , redolent of gin and sniallclothes ; tbe fond anticipation of coming paternity , apparent on the face of the expectant father ; the classic pincushion , adorned with the olassjo formula ; are not these all things of daily notoriety P Things , too , on which , th . o unmarried and
phllohuman hopes I Neither ministers nor mothers are exempt from the universal law , that all mortal tilings are but vanity j jmd at last the fatal truth oozed out that there was to bo no birth at all . All was over . Confirmed and hopeless sterility is to be the fate of the ministerial matrimony . It is an unfortunate circumstance that reciprocity is a feature of these political acts of procreation . A child can repudiate his parents , as well as a parent repudiate Ins child . Mr . Cobdon lias repudiated the parentage of the Montague and CapuuJfc connexion . We does not even wish for any parent , and , like Topsy , he " ' spoots ho j growed so . " In default of legal issue , the Ministry have been obliged to follow the Roman system of adoption . The cradle and the pap-boat , the swaddling clothos and the pincushion are transferred to the adopted
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 9, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09071859/page/14/
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