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10M . T H E L-.JE A D E R. [No. 295, Sat...
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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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7tyhe Country—Thanks To The Recess—Remai...
nave been buying for consumption by the trade . These purchases must have helped to keep up the price of cotton ; yet masters say th at the lowness of price for the manufactured goods obliges them to abate wages ; / Thus , the factoryowners appear to be making purchases which raise the price of the raw material before there is any necessity for doing so , and to be hurrying into an immense manufacture of goods , when the lowness of price shows that markets are already overstocked . They are doing this at a time when
the storms of winter , industrial as well as atmospherical , are likely to be severe . Their purpose is at present unintelligible . We can imagine that some , who are indisposed to war , might not be sorry to see the Government impeded by domestic discords at home . We can suppose that some factory owners are dabbling in cotton speculations . But the real source of the difficulty which these men are creating is a mystery . Although we do not charge Government , we repeat , with the conduct of the mill-owners , we do accuse them of
keeping up an example of mystery . The various markets for Manchester goods are not in a worse condition . From India " they write that , although prices are declining in Bomb ay , there is a very fair prospect of an increased consumption in the interior . We mig ht add that the improvements about to be carried out in India must necessarily increase the wealth of the country and its consuming power ; only our Manchester men have too . great a disposition to discount future markets . Fi'om Australia we have the standing accounts—stocks still overloading the import markets of the different colonies ; but they are melting away .
If there is a break in the cloud , however , the atmosphere would be still further cleared by distinctness of policy on the part of Grovernm ent . In India , for example , we have innumerable disturbances . The King of Oude , one of the most profligate tyrants in the world , appears to be instigating the religious differences of his own subjects . . Has he taken Russian money ? The insurrection of the Santals in the Bengal
Presidency , and the mutiny of N ative troops under Brigadier Colin Mackenzie in the Nizam ' s territory , are but specimens of a general disposition to indulge the fanaticism- of the native races . We . already have had measures carried out for consolidating the Government of India ; nothing would contribute to allay these disturbances more completely than to carry out direct English rule instead of keeping tip puppet rulers like the Ifizam and the King of Owe ; but a clear and united course seems to be impossible for the statesmen of our day .
The single fact with reference to the contest in the East is another and a more decided rebuff for Russia in Asia . We have already reported the Repulse by General Wiumams at Kara , Hearing of his straits , and , of his gallantry in maintaining his position , his chief , Omer Pacha , hastened on from Sioukouni-Kale—encountered a large Russian force on the river Ingour , in . Mingrelia— -succeeded in effecting his passage by several parts at
oncesustained battle with the Russians for five hours , and then beat them off ; . continuing his route . The success is a great advantage in itself ; it appears to settle the safety of General Wuxiaws ; $ ut besides those two decided gains , it marks the jket that the Russians do not possess any over * ¦ whelming power or capacity in Asia j and , added to the list of their reverses , it cannot fail to have
. «•« , <> * mum ! effect in Europe , and even in St . » great moral effect in Europe , and even m St . J $ toflfc >* g . Wl to Spaia , | the Government of Esfabteiio lias l ^ nHppAcfl hi a very curious position by' one of , \ ,... ' . . , ¦ ¦ 1 ,,
his colleagues . It has Defused to accept the suggestion of a committee that , in declaring offices of state open to ! all Spaniards the existing privileges of grandees should be distinctly annulled , and the refusal has threatened " to bring about a disruption among the friends of the Prime Minister . When we look to the power which factions exercise in the Peninsula , we cannot fail to be alarmed at any incident which should divide the party of the Government . For although Espakteko has not come up to the expectations formed of him , we do not see any other party than his
likely at once to retain power and to excel him . He appears to confess that he is not prepared to grapple with the obsolete and preposterous claims to dignity which render Spain the ridicule and reproach of Europe . Everybody remembers the story of the grandee who was roasted to death because his dignity prevented him from moving to place a humble screen between himself and the fire . All Spain is roasting to death between the fires of Carlism and Republicanism , but cannot bend from her grandee dignity . It is the very chosen land of Manners : —
" . Let laws and learning , arts and commerce die , ^ But spare o ! spare our old nobility . " ; So our grandee says , and so it is said in Madrid . While Spain cannot hold Spain firmly , how can we expect any improvement in the tenure of Cuba ? We have had our own little grandee exposition at home , but it has been appropriately in the ecclesiastical department . There is a new cemetery at Cheshunt , part of which is allotted to the Established Church , part to Dissenters ; and the Bishop of Rochester was invited to consecrate the orthodox plot of ground . Not , he replied
until it shall be divided from the other part by a strong iron railing . The parishioners have put up posts , but the Bishop is not satisfied with posts . He has waived his claims to the railing in other places ; but , it seems , these concessions have exhausted his episcopal charity . We do not know why he is so inexorable at Cheshunt . Is dissent more rampant there ? Does he fear that without the iron railing he will be unable to keep a division between the souls in the next world ? He should sink a fence downwards as well as upwards ; and , evidently , he should carry it somewhere above the zenith , altogether to preserve that mechanical division which his episcopal
mind requires . Perhaps the event of the week belongs to a future week . There is something in the movements of public men to strengthen the belief that the present Parliament will not keep together . Lord John Russeli / , seeing that he has not long to sit for London , has been settling himself at Stroud—an intelligent place ; and his Exeter Hall demonstration will probably secure him in the favourite constituency of Poulett Thompson and Jellikoer Sjtmons . Mr .
Gladstone may , perhaps , count upon retaining his Oxford seat , but in the meanwhile he is saying gopd things—taking up a democratic position on colonial grounds ; a safe range for a Conservative Minister in England . The City of London is ' promising its votes to Lord Paumerston , who is , however , not to be inconvenienced by any uncertainties at Tiverton : he is all but promised a double election , and will have to divide his affection between the Exo and the Thames . Wo would advise him decidedly to remain the ranger of the Exe , until Mr . I \ O . Ward shall have succeeded in rendering the Thames fit to receive him .
The Refugee question is ripening . The great meeting , held in St . Martin ' s Hall , on Monday , was a protest which carried with it the opinions of even the moat moderate adherents to
constitutional ipVitwip ^ es . Mr . Cobden , in a letter to- the ; : OHairman , expressed his strong sympathy ¦ wi th * . the objects of the meeting . Mr . Miall uttered : a feabthat the prestige of England would fall below that of Turkey . Mr . Washington WiiiKS spoke with effect , and roused the spirit of the three or four thousand persons assembled . It was novel and pleasant to see Mr .
Ernest Jokes in possession of the platform , uninterrupted and uninterrupting—forming , in fact , a part of the programme . What if he -were in Parliament ? What if his fiercer coadjutors were with him ? Would the House flame , or would the man take his due position ? "We are confirmed in our faith—there is no danger in . liberty ; men . are made violent by repression . There are to be other meetings on the subject .
The sanitary movement , so far from languishing amidst the anxieties and excitements of foreign war , seems to have derived a fresh impulse from our Crimean experiences of its value . Last year we were still in the midst of the Tubular controversy ; and a commission of eminent engineers protested , by a resignation en niasse , against the adoption of Mr . F O . Ward ' s views by the Government . This year , Mr . Ward tells us , the tubular question may be regarded as settled ; and he therefore opens a new phasis of the movement ^ by propounding the Interception of Town Sewage in Small Tunnels , as the logical consequence of its collection in small Tubes .
Sir W . Cubitt , Mr . Stephenson , and the other " eminent engineers " who opposed the introduction of the tubular system , are now in the field against the extension of the same principle to tunnels . Mr . Ward maintains that the capacity and cost of the North-side Intercepting Tunnels can be reduced cent , per cent ., so as to save the North-side ratepayers above three-quarters of a million sterling , while securing a more concentrated current , and a cleaner scour in the tunnels themselves . Me . Ward relies oh the experience
of Mr . John Roe , the inventor , he tells us , of th . tubular system of drainage , and of all the great modern improvements in the sewerage of towns ; whose observations during twenty years of tie run of the Fleet in all weathers , enabled him to upset the old formula ? , and to effect enormous reductions in the magnitude and cost of sewers . Mr . STcrHENsoN , whose letter we published last week , contents himself with declaring Mr . Ward ' s views " puerile . " Sir W . Cubitt sends to the Times an unexplained adhesion to Mr .
Stevenson ' s side of the argument ; and Mr . Bidder , the partner of Mr . Stephenson ^ , angrily charges Mr . Ward with wilful suppression and misrepresentation of the facts . The City magnates side with the engineering eminences , and have issued a long report against Mr . Ward ' s views . A voluminous statement , impugning Mr . Ward ' s personal good faith , as well as his engineering propositions , has been produced by Mr . Bazai ^ qettis , the engineer of the Commission to which Mr . Ward belongs . Mr . Warp , nothing daunted , makes head against his numerous
assailants ; opposing cool argument to angry aspersion , and -weighty facts to empty epithets . His letters in the Times and Daily News are masterpiece s of controversial composition ; hardly Icsb interesting in a literary than in an engineering point of view . If his facts and figures hold good , and on these hq invites professional investi gation , his case is impregnable ; and the promised , economy , vast as it is , may shortly be realised in the case of the great tunnels , as it has already been witli' respect to the small tubes . For < letaile > wo refer to Mr . Wabb ' s letter , of which we reproduce the substance .
10m . T H E L-.Je A D E R. [No. 295, Sat...
10 M . T H E L-. JE A D E R . [ No . 295 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111855/page/2/
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