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968 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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HOW SHALL LORI) DALHOII.SIE UK PROVIDED ...
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THE SUFFERINGS OF W0MA2*. " Whatever abs...
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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A "Warning" From Shoe Lane. We Are " War...
J . B . Slick follows this up by the thrilling exclamation , — " Yet this is the man , all powerful , at the head of a nation , burning to * venger Waterloo , ' that a portion of the English press vilifies and abuses almost daily ! " For the " safety of our country" we are insolently told " to mind what we are about . " " Louis JSTapoleon , Emperor , is not a man to be insulted with impunity . " No ; he is a " determined person : " by " holding him tip to execration you peril his life . " If the French choose Tn ' m for their Emperor , " what the devil is it to you P" All parties in France are disgusted at our abuse of him , and— " it ' s truly nationthen
dangerous to aggravate such a ; , lugging in a kindred spirit , he says , " You can neither write down or put down Lord Derby , or Louis Napoleon . We are , it seems , playing with edge-tools ; we are " doing a monstrous ( read mons ' ous ) dangerous thing . " Napoleon the Great broke the peace of Amiens because he could not stand the criticism of the English journals of that day ; and , says Bull Slick , after delivering that choice morsel of historical criticism , " perhaps through your senseless rancour you will compel" Napoleon the Little " to break the peace of Paris , and give England another twentv years' war . "
Our readers will have foreseen that the ministerial champion of British eowardice has been verging rapidly to a climax ; and we hope they are now prepared for this terrific
peroration . " England is vulnerable , and no mistake—and it is easy for Louis Napoleon to find out the sore place , if he is driven to act hostilely . The British press is goading him to do so . Louis Napoleon is supported by the French Romanist clergy . Irish Romanist bishops are proceeding to Paris—for no good to England , beyond a doubt . Ireland , under present circumstances , ruled by priests , is one of England ' s sore places—1798 may be re-enacted . " Suppose a French force made a dash at Liverpool and Manchester , and sacked them both—which could be done in no time , the inhabitants would have to
thank the press for their ruin ; nay , more , London itself might be sacked ; there is very little to prevent such a catastrophe . The red coats have been seen in Paris , and the French forget it not . I hope we shall never live to see the tricolor of France planted in Printing-house-square . " The last hypocritical wish is terrible in its bathos : think of avenging Waterloo by sacking London , and the capture of Paris by the capitulation of Printing House-square !
There are only two other considerations suggested by this delectable composition , —Who is the author , and what is its moral P And certainly the question , who could have written it , is a puzzler . It cannot be Maidatone or Malmesbury , although it lias the fire of the first , and the contempt for the English tongue manifested by the second . Mr . Disraeli is busy ; and besides , too much of an Englishman , at least in an histrionic sense . Lord March could have done it ; and the Marquis of Granby might if he tried hard . The writer confesses to being " half Yankee ; " but
although it has all the insolence , it has none of the genius of JIallyburton . No ; the " half-Yankee " assertion must be merely for effect . We have it : the letter must have been a joint production by the Warwickshire doubles — Spooner and New ( legato ; while the centenarian of Shoe-lane herself must have corrected the proof . { Seriously , gentle reader , do you not , even while you are smiling at friend liombastes , also pause a lit ! le secretly to contemplate that " powerful steam fleet" and hugo praetorian guard " in the hands of one man , " and that man the most
• unscrupulous , the least hound by moral laws , the best perjurer in Europe ! And while you reflect on his means of mischief , do you not remember that the outpost of the British government in garrisoned by his intimato friends , nnd that the British people are still prohibited by law from drilling themselves to the use of arms ?
968 The Leader. [Saturday,
968 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
How Shall Lori) Dalhoii.Sie Uk Provided ...
HOW SHALL LORI ) DALHOII . SIE UK PROVIDED FOR . Wrc shall never be slow to recognise the claims , nor eager to abate the influence , of a true aristocracy . Noblcsso oblige : and those who fulfil the obligation deserve the honour . Jt were ungenerous to deny the presence in our House of Peers , of men who to noble names wed noble lives , well spent in the service of the State : men of blameless honour , chivulrulis activity , and
large-hearted sympathy with the humbler classes of their fellow-subjects . The names of those who have won their spurs in the field , leap to the lips , for their biographies have become a part of the nation's . In the less sounding annals of civil service there are reputations not less faithfully . won , and honours not less gloriously achieved . It is the sign of a great people , to be proud of its great men . Detraction is the cheap resource of blustering demagogues , which those who seek to level ttpwards do well to shun .
If we were asked to select a list of our best men of highest station , we think we could satisfy the most implacable hater of aristocrats , that wealth is not always divorced from worth , nor gentle blood from gallant merit . Witness our Hardinge , Carlisle , Ellesmere , Newcastle , Harrowby , and others ; witness that young nobleman , who , in the early prime and vigour of manhood , amidst universal satisfaction , governs our vast Indian empire . The Marquis of Dalhousie is one of those men of whom all parties and all classes in the nation may be proud : he is an ornament to
any administration , and throughout his public career has ever justified the general esteem . His merits have been recognised by successive Ministers , while the sincerity of his opinions has never been sacrificed , nor his political consisteacy questioned . It was under the vigilant eye of Sir Eobert Peel that he served an apprenticeship in that official department which can least tolerate indolence , or incompetence . As President of the Board of Trade he proved himself equally indefatigable in the mastering details , and able in of the
their exposition . To the supervision Eailway Board , at a time of extraordinary pressure , he brought unwearied assiduity and a vigour of direction that seemed to consolidate the enterprise it controlled . When the Whigs returned to power on the secession of Peel , and the Governor-Generalship of India fell vacant , that splendid prize was , as if by the national dictation , conferred upon a political rival in preference to all mere party claimants . Leadenhall-street ratified , and the country applauded , a choice that reflected as much honour on those who conferred
as on him who received the appointment . And , as we have said , his career in India has been hitherto without a flaw . Now , Lord Dalhousie is a poor man ; and , to such a man , to be poor lends a grace beyond the reach of wealth . It gives new dignity to the work , and new zest to the reward . Some years ago , an office fell vacant , little known to persons unread in Black Books , entitled " the Governorship of Deal Castle , " a valuable sinecure ; the chief , if not the only , advantage of the appointment being a modest sea-side
residence rent free . This Governorship was , we believe , offered to Lord Dalhousie , and accepted . By the death of the Duke of Wellington , the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports , formerly a post of importance , now a mere sinecure with a big name , a bonne louche for tho reigning Minister , tumbled into the lap of Lord Derby . It was reported that , in accordance with a " custom , " the Premier himself would , in addition to his other grave and numerous responsibilities , and his vast estates , undertake the onerous duties of a signalman at Walmer , and appropriate tho comfortable old Castle attached to the office .
After many days , however , of tacit acquioseenco in the rumour , a careless paragraph in a Ministerial journal denies the assumption of tho Wardenship by Lord Derby , except ad interimwail-ing the acceptance of Lord Dalhousio , to whom it had been offered . Now we cannot but consider this desire to provide suitably for a man so deserving as Lord Dalhousio very creditable to any Government , especially to the present one . The country , not unaware , we may suppose , of thoHO qualities of Lord Dalhousio wo have had the pleasure to describe , will gratefully and gladly add its testimony to his deserts .
It may , indeed , excite a moment ' s doubt in minds even indisposed to cavil , that this graceful abandonment of a " custom" should have boon so long concealed from the public approval , and attention may J > o directed rather to . Calcutta than to Walmer . But let that pass for tho moment " What we have to insist upon now is—why not abolish Hinecures so useless as the Wurdonsliip of tho Cinquo Ports and the Constableship of tho Tower ; and if your zeal for tho public service be so sincere that you cannot send a Tory to Calcutta without recognition of an officer so eminently deserving as Lord Dalhousie , is there not
many a field of active national usefulness open to the abilities of such a man , to whom idleness were almost disgrace . Not to mention many other great public exigencies for which even the genius of official Toryism may appear barely sufficient , is there nothing in the way of a thorough reorganization of the Poor Laws , of the Eailway Administration , of the Mercantile Marine , that would do more honour to the energetic capacities of a Dalhousie , and to the disinterested publ ic spirit of Lord Derby , than this questionable perpetuation of a barren sinecure long since condemned by public opinion , and , in that regard , doubly unworthy of the present Governor-General of India , be his successor who he may .
The Sufferings Of W0ma2*. " Whatever Abs...
THE SUFFERINGS OF W 0 MA 2 * . " Whatever absurdities may have been spoken about Woman ' s rights , " says "E . C ., " a correspondent of the Times , " a deep feeling of shame must attend the contemplation of Woman ' s wrongs ; " and the writer claims the assistance of that journal in exposing the injustice of the law which , makes a woman lose all hold over her own property if she be married , or which makes the
unpropertied woman , however virtuous , thrifty , and solicitous she may be for her children , see all her earnings swept away to supply the vices of a debauched husband . We are too apt , in reading communications of this kind , to let our minds rest only on the ultimate fact , without calling to our perception the misery which is inflicted in the process towards that ultimate fact . We do not discern , as we should , the condition of
the woman who toils against hope , who carries back in her hand the humble exchange for bread and clothes to her children , who sees them snatched from her by the man that once said he loved her—we do not feel the gloomy uncertainty , the sinking heart , the exasperation , the rage , all rendered vain by the hopelessness—we do not attain to the distinct perception of this scene , happen as it does , to a greater or less extent , in thousands of houses right about us , every week , every year . civil disabilities
But independently of these , there are certain personal rights which would not last a day after woman should be politically enfranchised , or man should attain to the full sense of the justice which he owes . Occasionally the wrong bursts forth in some flagrant scandal , as in the recent " tragedy" at Paris ; but if such overt tragedies are exceptional , how much less exceptional are the cases which , never come before the public eye ! Even when they do display their horrors , one feels that there is something more . In this Paris case , we hear not the beginning . A man is murdered , and a romance ot real life flashes upon the public ; but tho narrative has not the completeness which belongs to
fact not less than to fiction . We find two English gentlemen in Paris , with , habits of frequent association ; one of them , tho younger man , has a wife , amiable and engaging ; in a child-bed fever the lady declares to Jior husband that her infant child is not Ins , but his friend's ; tho two men meet immediately afterwards , and tho husband kills his rival and flies , and the lady is lodged in a madhouse , lliai is very frightful , but it is far from being all . There is a practice of hushing vip the truth about these matters , though the truth is K «^ »; J better to be known than half the truth witu a
complement of false inference . . nl One fact is remarkable : at the desm > ot tiio physician , the husband had consented that when his wife became dangerously ill , tho friend should be summoned , and that Ik ; should tend her several days and several nights . Surely tho n »<> « necessity for such attendance must havo siu , gested to any man of tho world enough to y i n - vent that surpriHo which can nlono justify or - tonuato the murderous attack V A man wl < > w prepared to take vengeance into his own lliU 1 . rigorously , usually courts exp lanation ucio
events come to such a pass . u But still that is not all . It in l . : ™ Vi ' known in Paris ,, that the intimacy wlin'Ji lea this fatal result had been tho Hubjeot ol i < - " » . Wo do not say those things- to iifpnivu t « ' burden of the fugitive , but wo say them I < " » thov tend to expose that barbarous i ™ . " a such affairs which makes tho point at i ** i mere matter of quarrel botwoon two in < " » out any regard to tho intero » I . H or fooling <> . woman . Sho is tho helpless plaything o 1 ol < imukhouh : Tho very candour oi u wind i
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 9, 1852, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09101852/page/12/
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