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but enhancedb #& THE lEADEE, fNo. 369. S...
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CONSPIRACY AGAINST CONSPIRATORS It is th...
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OUR PRINCESSES. We have never shared in ...
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inSTOUY IN 1887.* Some Hew Zealander has...
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The IIome-ix-tiik-East Reformatory.—The ...
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Political Points—The Ballot. The Necessi...
sity will not be diminished , but enhanced , by any extension of the franchise , " We must have secret voting for the sake of purity , of independence , of conservatism . Nearly all the old objections haye been exploded—the un-English character , the impracticability , the imperfection of the Ballot-box . It is now admitted that voting by Ballot is decidedly an English fashion — the practice of our corporations , clubs , vestries , and parochial constituencies ; the imputation of impracticability has been set aside by sheer force of concurrent observation and tes-. _ — a a ¦ - ^ « I « .-
timony ; as to the imperfection of the contrivance for ensuring secrecy , the argument is now reversed . Lord John Russell declares that it is only too perfect ; it arms the elector with an irresponsible power , unjust in its operation to the nonelector . It seems a truism to say that if the non-elector be qualified to superintend the vote of the elector , he is qualified to v ote himself ; but the debate has been reduced to truisms . The Ballot is an article in the
faith of all real Reformers . It is a very small theory of a very small section indeed that represents it as having obtained ; neither a wider nor a more energetic support than formerly . On the contrary , it las struck many new roots among the constituencies , and ye anticipate a renewal of those debates which , when Mr . G-bote was a politician , intimidated the elder brethren of both Houses . Xiord A . LTHOB . P , in 1832 , declared tkat the Chandos Clause would operate as a powerful argument in favour of the Reform Bill ; his descendant marks as a fact that
which , twenty-five years ago , was a prediction . Lord GrRjJT joined in the prophecy ; but we have noXord Geet now—only a sour calumny on the name . Well , were it possible so to analyse the late elections as to distinguish , the votes of tenants-at-will from those of freeholders and leaseholders , what would be the deduction ? That the electors exercised their franchise in harmony with the spirit of the non-electors , or that they smiled sorrowfully at the non- electors , and regretted their incapacity to help them ? The Ballot would enable the enfranchised
and the unenfranchised classes to work together ; open voting divides them ; the voter is responsible , not to the non-voter , but to the landlord . This is the distemper , the defect , the disgrace of our representative system . But the Ballot will not mend ifc , do they say ? It is complete as an instrument of fraud , incomplete as a guarantee of honourable secrecy . Diverging lines never meet , so that there is no danger of a coalition between these ingenious reasonings . Under Hobhouse ' s Act the Ballot is allowed in
parochial elections . " What took place in 1843 , in the parish of St . James ? The electors gave their open , Parliamentary , purchased , or intimidated votes to the Tory candidates ; their secret parochial votes to the Liberals ; and immediately petitioned for the protection of the Ballot in all elections whatever . The nomination system is increasing ; the
petty boroughs are falling into the hands of great proprietors ; the counties are governed by the Guaudos Clause ; the large boroughs are not more free from questionable influences than the small ; strong personal desiros supersede important public interests ; and what la the rem 0 dy ? Among the opponents ot the iiailot haa any ono ever suggested an alternative ? fa
But Enhancedb #& The Leadee, Fno. 369. S...
# & THE lEADEE , fNo . 369 . SAlP ^ . ^ ¦ ¦»¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ ¦' ^
Conspiracy Against Conspirators It Is Th...
CONSPIRACY AGAINST CONSPIRATORS It is the French Government that provokes criticism on this side of the Channel . l \> r our own part , we have been anxious , of late , to refrain from unpleasant comments on
the Emperor ' s administration ; not that we particularly care for Post-office seizuresillustrations of the order that reigns in Trance—but that it does not seem our duty to be incessantly reminding our ITrench friends of their political degradation . " When Prance is satisfied , Europe is content . " ^ m ¦ ' k ' ' m ' ¦ a _ - .. " . "¦
" Within a few days , however , certain transactions have taken-., place which , dt is essential to colour faithfully as a study of the magnificent system of the Empire , Every one has heard of a great conspiracy against the Emperor ' s life , of arrests in Paris , of an attempt to procure the extradition of certain refugees domiciled in Great Britain .
The conspirator is Lotus Napoleon himself . His police have seduced an adroit and eloquent Republican artisan , well known in the faubourgs of Paris , and have suborned him as a decoy to tempt the refugees in London into a plot against tlie Emperor ' s person . We know this man , and if challenged , we will publish his name . He came to London a short time ago , and called upon
some of the principal exiles . At first he pretended to deplore the apathy of France , and affected moderation , in order to elicit some : avowal that might compromise his former Chiefs . This strategy failing , he declared that Pianori ' s was the only practicable method , that the deed must be despatched quickly , that an organisation must be established to render success certain .
All his efforts failed . His pistol , dagger , and poison proposals were distinctly and peremptorily rejected . The exiles have learned caution , at least . The envoy of the Rue de Jerusalem , therefore , returned to Paris , where his defeat procured him a cool reception . He made a second atteinpt j b ut , up on renewing his visits to the refugees in London , was unmasked in the presence of several , stigmatized as a spy , and sent to report a still more ignominious discomfiture to the agents of his magnanimous master , the Einperor jSTapoi / eon the Third .
In Paris , however , this wretch was more successful than in London . Trading upon the confidence of his former associates , he ensnared a number of them into a conspiracy , possessed himself of tlie necessary evidence , and enabled the police to justify , in the sight of the law , a swoop of preventive arrests . We are correct , we believe , in stating the whole number afc not loss than four hundred . Now , these seizures are not made among incendiaries ; the Imperial Government has little to fear from revolutionary mountebanks ; it leaves them to discredit the Liberal cause
by folly and extravagance . The plan of the French police is , to arrest every man , who may he expected to exerb a moral influence at the approaching elections —and , iu Paris as everywhere else , it is moderation that is feared by authority .
Our Princesses. We Have Never Shared In ...
OUR PRINCESSES . We have never shared in tho popular antipathy to the marriage of our Princess Royal with the young Princo of Phussia . The law compels her , under existing circumstances , to accept a foreign husband ; and it is far better that she should become the wife of a Prince destined probably to ascend a first-class Protestant throne , than that she should wear the tinsol coronet of Scbwerin , Hechlingen , or Nassau . Half the petty courts of Qormany are tattered and miserable burlesques of sovereign grandeur . But if the Princess Royal is married to a
Prussian Prince , with magnificent expectations , is that a reason why tho House of Commons should vote her a stupendous dowry , in tho shape of a permanent charge upon tho public revenue ? Wo hopo we arc
right m treating the 70 , 000 * . acheme aTT fable ; it might occur , even to very iS economists , that , whereas the Qtjekn ' s W purse is only 6 O . 000 Z . a year , it would K monstrous anomaly to bestow a more gieantS grant of pin-money upon the Princess fioyal Indeed , it will become a very serious q uestion how far the nation is to be applied to f 0-pensions for the younger branches of fC IJoyal Family . We must hear notawoid about economy , however , from those who persist m upholding the principles of tie Uoyal Marriage Act . That is the law which converts our princesses into our dependents
Instouy In 1887.* Some Hew Zealander Has...
inSTOUY IN 1887 . * Some Hew Zealander has invented a chronicle of thirty years unacted history in Eno- - land . We always cast an eye of suspicion upon statesmen in corners who build up ideal systems ; they usually exhaust themselves in ideals of parallelogramie communities ; but here is a practical man , with thirty years to do his work in , and England , the Colonies , France Russia , and China ,: to dispose of as he pleases . ' At . the end of that time , in 1887 , where are we ? We are so far improved in humanity , that , upon another PaiiMer . disgracing another
Eugeley , we put him to bed , and administer small doses of strychnine until he dies in epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications . They who kill with antimony , with antimony are killed . We keep at the Home Office a complete apparatus of murderous retaliation—especially in the poisoning department . Our lesser criminals we herd in desolate islets , or work in chains ; some we condemn to descend into a coal-pit , never again to emerge . We nest—somewhere about the year
1870—touched up our representative system , and then asked , what is to be done with our Princes ? One we made King of Australia , another King of Canada , deporting two batches of our aristocracy to enrich the blood of our dependencies . Large portions of the North American Republic thereupon attached themselves to Canada ; the Blacks rose and slaughtered the slave-holders . The Chinese knocked their dynasty on the head , tlie British annihilated tlie . Russians in the
Baltic , the Hungarians welcomed hack XossUTir , and expelled the Austrians ; but , most wonderful of all , Louis JNapoleozn" died , the Empress became regent , and the " child of France" was taught to anticipate a matrimonial alliance with one of Queen Yictojiia ' s daughters . And this is all that a prophet can prophesy to happen within thirty years !
Instouy In 1887.* Some Hew Zealander Has...
* Probable History of the Next Thirty Years . Low «¦ W >
The Iiome-Ix-Tiik-East Reformatory.—The ...
The IIome-ix-tiik-East Reformatory . —The annual meeting of tho friends of this institution was held on Tuesday at the Home , Old For < l , Bow , when , in the absence of the President ( tlve Earl of Shaftesbury , who
forwarded 10 ? . towards the emigration of the most deserving inmates ) , tlie Rev . G . T . Driftield , the Rector of Bow , presided . Previous to the meeting , a numerous party of ladies and gentlemen , including a large number of tho clergy , assembled at the Home , and went through tho different departments , expressing their approval of tho entire arrangements , and thoir admiration of the cleanliness and orderlv behaviour of tho boys . l « o report stated that during the fifteen months sixty-hvc boys had left tho Homo , of whom ten had absconded before tho probation and nine after , twelve lmd lcit voluntarily , three been dismissed , one put in prison , nnu had thus ictt
two in tho workliouse . Thirty-seven boys tho Home under circumstances which were not encouraging , but over '¦ which the committee had no control . Uesides that number , eight had been taken homo ami provided for by their friends ; seventeen had left lor situations , and seven had behaved so well that they Haa been Bent out to Canada n few days sinco at the expense of tho institution . Tho report gave several cases ot boys having mot with groat success after leaving , nna concluded with an earnest appeal to tho charitable lor an increased amount of support , tho institution being » n debt to tho extent of a few hundred pounds , and tho expenditure exceeding tho receipts . ' - " ' ¦ rt s * t
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 18, 1857, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18041857/page/14/
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