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July 15, 1854.] THE LEADER. 661
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ADULTERATION OF SOCIETY. Adulteration is...
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D1VOKCE "NEXT SESSION." Tuia Lord Chance...
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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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How British Officers Are Grown. It Might...
diet the feeling of his people , because a country in which every man must serve for three years in . the ranks is an army . The most striking example to our view , however , is still the American people "with its limited and cheap standing army . The force scarcely exceeding 16 , 000 men on the 1 st of January , 1852 , must be a joke to those who are acquainted with , our Army Iiist . The officers trained at "West Point , can only rise by merit ; and merit can elevate men from the ranks .
Although , by the way , it ia a rather curious fact , that a large proportion of the private soldiers of the American army are emigrants from the United Kingdom . But the true army of . the United States consists of its militia , 2 , 200 , 000 strong . The people of the United States is it its own army , and upon that fltoople cannot be thrust the commercial cost , the political oppression of a huge standing army , aggravated by abuses which shut out the citizens from the rank of officers and
convert the monopolists of that rank into grey-Jiaired pensioners , officially pronounced to be inefficient for their duty . " An armed man , " says Spinoza , * "is more than an unarmed man , in possession of his rights , and those citizens transfer absolutely their right to another , and commit it entirely to his fidelity , when they give him arms . " The nation which has entirely surrendered the hold and practice of arms , has neither insight on that subject , nor voice in military matters , nor power of enforcement if the voice "were raised . ^ V ^ e must therefore accept the officers vouchsafed to us , and rejoice that they are no worse .
How British Officers Are Grown. It Might...
• Syinoisa'a STVcaffee on Politics , translated by W . Maccall .
July 15, 1854.] The Leader. 661
July 15 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 661
Adulteration Of Society. Adulteration Is...
ADULTERATION OF SOCIETY . Adulteration is a process that appears to be carried on in many more kinds of industry than ordinary trade . Some time since , the Lancet performed a public service by exposing the actual quality of goods which are sold under certain names of articles used for food , medicines , condiments , & c , but we very much doubt whether the exposure has had the effect that might have been expected . If
for the moment tradesmen changed countenance , the faces of theii shops have not altered ; firms have not disappeared ; there is no sign that great Italian warehouses , supposed to deal only in genuine jellies , pickles , spices , and preserves , have been blasted by the proclamation that partly selling those things they partly also put off upon the customer glue from the knacker ' s , copperas , vermillion , and earths , literally worth no better than the dirt beneath the feet .
The fact is that in nine cases out of ten fche customer also adulterates , and ifc might be an amusing exposure to follow that process of adulteration carried on all round . Imagine a circle 6 f men comprising the butcher and baker of society , " the tinker , tailor , apothecary , ploughboy , thief , " each dealing with the rest , each adulterating , and each iu turn purchasing adulterated goods . In this case each man makes a dishonest profit iTpon the spurious part of tho article—the copperas which passes amongst tho pickles , the
currant-loaves aixiongst tho tea , the vonnillion amongst tho pepper ; but each losoa exactly the proportion on his expenditure- that ho gains in lna trade , aud thus tho circle , as a whole , actually produce , use , and enjoy leas of food and its condiments than they intend to have . Strange division of employment , by which societ y cheats itself ; atmngo condition of socioty in which each man dnros not denounce his fellow because ho id an accomplice in the crime ! lionlly tho only genuine dealer amongst tho circle appears to be tho thief !
rill . — i _ ^ i j * ¦*¦ *¦ . _ _ Ihe adulteration ia nob only detected in tood , but ia clothing , furniture , houses , in
short everything purchased . Your coat is shoddy cloth , your wife ' s silk gown is cotton ; the house you live in has a flaw in its existence—the house you purchnse has perhaps no drain to its sink ; the digging implements delivered to the army will not dig ; and recently it has been discovered that this adulteration extends even to the instruments of trade—its bills of exchange and its warrants . A statute has been passed this session by-Mr . Gladstone to stop the practice of manufacturing Colonial Bills of Exchange in London itself ; and by a series of eases which have come before * the Court of Bankruptcy , we find that warrants are said to have been
manufactured to the extent , it is affirmed , of 400 , OOOZ . The failure of Messrs . Davidson and Gordon , distillers , led to this discovery . They failed about three weeks ago ; tvvo of the houses connected with them have fallen , and one of these houses is said to have advanced 40 , 000 Z . on warrants that are forgeries . There is precedent for this species of false deposit . "We remember that the illustrious Don Eodrigo de Bivar , the Oid , whose name and exploits are immortalised in
Spanish history and poetry , once raised a loan from , some Jews on the deposit of treasure , which treasure consisted of large box « s filled with stones and sand . In modern times this device has descended to persons who fraudulently fly from their lodgings . . Nay , it appears even the partnerships themselves may be not what they purport to be . There were , for example , transactions between the firm of Davidson and Gordon and that of
Richard Parris and Co ., distillers ; whereas , on inquiry , it appears that Hichard Parris has nothing to do with the distillery at all , but lets out his name at two guineas a week to Mr . de llusett , who has the sole interest in tlie distillery . Nay , we arrive at a further discovery—this Mr . de IRusett , describing himself as a private gentleman , in the Directory is a general merchant , and in fact is a distiller .
In ^ short , you must not take for granted anything that you see about you . If you buy an ounce of mustard , it is probably turmeric that you have bought ; if you see a man set down in the Directory us a general merchant , he is perhaps a distiller ; if " Richard Doe and Co . " appears over the door , it is probable that there is no " company , " and that Richard lloe is the real " firm ; " if you have a warrant for the delivery of wines or spirits , there are , perhaps , no spirits or wines . There appears to be no appeal from this universal adulteration , for the same vice
encounters you in tho tribunal to which you would appeal . Go to Parliament for newlaws to protect trade against our vices , and you find Parliament itself adulterated . Purporting to represent the people , probably tho member sits there by having purchased hia vote from a fraction of tho people ; for tho " independent" electors aro purchasable . Having sworn to his qualification , the member perhaps possesses none : and lie lias taken oaths at which most men in the House laugh , —amongst other things solemnly swearing not to aid and abot in placing on tho British throno the extinct descendants of tho
Protcnder . One asks whero all this ia to stop ; an important point ; for if ono could find any unadulterated part of society , that might furnish a firm rock upon which to stand to recover tho rest .
D1vokce "Next Session." Tuia Lord Chance...
D 1 VOKCE " NEXT SESSION . " Tuia Lord Chancellor has withdrawn tho Divorco and Matrimonial Causes Bill—a retractation iu many respects , and by many decrees , the cruellest which Govornniont Ima
committed . Of all irritating endurances a matrimonial " cause , " or a cryingly urgent divorce unaccornplished , is about the worst ; and we have reason to know that many a weary heart , long sick with hope deferred , or with no hope at all , did at last learn a false hope from Lord Cranworth ' s bill . The bill was infinitely less of a boon than many supposed ; yet relief it would have brought to some—and it is withdrawn .
Not that evidence of its necessity failed . In this very week of the retractation we have two divorce cases , and scarcely a single case occurs without exemplifying the necessity of amending ; the law . we do not now speak on theoretical grounds ; we are not raising any question of first principles , or quarelliiLg with the morals with which society professes to be content ; but we take them as we find them , and judge of these cases only by the ordinary standards of received morality , good feeling , and common sense . Take tlie case of " Caton's divorce , " before the House of Lords—not a new one . The
couple were married in 1831 , we are told , and " lived happily" till 1841 ; the lady was then under some suspicion , but her conduct was suffered to pass as " levity , " and she again Ured with her husband until 1843 . A child was born in 1845 ; its father was understood to be a . French officer , the paternity of Mr . Cato-n being disproved by the fact that cohabitation had ceased since 1843 . A bill for
divorce is before the House of Lords now , in 1854 . Thus a lady , virtually without a husband , accepted one irregularly ; and that offence is visited with condign punishment ten years after the fact . "What was the life practicable for either of that doomed couple during those ten years ? In " Stacker ' s divorce" case , the facts , although not subject to much legal doubt , are not so perfectly "undisputed . Here the husband was a schoolmaster . The couple
were married in 1839 ; the wife left her home in 1843 , and lived , with an usher , under feigned names . "Witnesses declared that the husband and wife had " lived happily ; " the lady ' s sister , however , who gave her evidence with great candour , said that the husband was " very violent with his tongue , " the wife ' s " meekness" only made it worse—she was " exceedingly kind : " she did " nothing to give rise to his irascible conduct , which she received very quietly , and tried to appease him ; but she did not often succeed . " N " let us suppose this a correct account , and let us ask our readers whether , in their
experience , or in their imagination , they cannot foresee one very probable—let us say one ^ very common result of " irascible" conduct , irnconciliatcd by meek attempts to appease ? "We know what the effects may bo , especially upon a truly serious and affectionate disposition first chagriu , — -then , estrangement , —indifference , —repugnance , —horror at the position which subjects a woman to receive the manifestatioas of love from one who is the object of repugnance Such si position can bo felt by tho woman alone . It is rarely that tho sentence of a court oil that most indecent and hideous of
all proceedings , for the " restitution of conjugal rights , " coerces a man into such a violation of natural feeling . The woman who undergoes it is subjected to legal prostitution . Supposing , however , that ia this caao the huabiuid wns not irascible , at all oventstlioy part — they aro separated de facto , under circumstances which , according to principles accepted by our legists , render their ro-uuion impossible . Yet to obtain a release the husband must bring an action for criminal conversation in n court of law , a auit for separation in tho Ecclesiastical Court , and a bill into Parliament . Mr . Stockor is a schoolmaster , suid however successful he may have
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15071854/page/13/
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