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April 21, 1860.1 TheLeader and Saturday ...
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COMPENSATION TO INDIAN SUFFERERS. A- PET...
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.POACHING AFFKA.YS. rilUE late Assizes h...
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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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, The Professed Politic:!Ax., After A Sh...
furnish the . working-class with a grievance in the shape ? of a sham measure , which , when its results are known , will widen the breach of distrust that yawns between our ranks ; and . wlim the time of excitenun it comes—and come it surely willr—tlLeiiiasses will move by their own . impulse us a separate order , and not , as we-should wish to see , as a portion of a social whole .
April 21, 1860.1 Theleader And Saturday ...
April 21 , 1860 . 1 TheLeader and Saturday Analyst . 373
Compensation To Indian Sufferers. A- Pet...
COMPENSATION TO INDIAN SUFFERERS . A- PETITION was presented the other evening to the House of Commons , by Lord Stanley , to which we wish to direct attention in anticipation of any discussion on the subject . About the end of last session Government , awarded the sum of one million sterling as compensation to sufferers by the Indian mutiny , and that sum will now Aery shortly bo distributed in India , ' of course out of Indian resources . The demands for compensation amount to about two millions and a-half sterling , including--the claims of the Indian Life Insurance Companies for an aggregate of about £ 100 , 000 sterling , being tin ; extentof
their hitercst i » - lives massacred' dnruitj the ' uisurrection . We think it a case of exceeding ¦ hardship-that these institutions have been refused any share in the million sterling awarded as compensation . We believe it to be . impossible- for any one to lead the petition , and other statements put forward by the insurance offices in support of the claim , without arriving at a conviction that their case has either been wholly . misunderstood , 017 more likely , never seriouslv considered at all ; and that a great injustice will be done to them , and . a grave political blunder committed , if they are not permitted to rank with the other claimants for compensation .
Now this is no -light matter . These petitioners represent from four thousand to five thousand independent Englishmen settled in India , who have purchased life insurances or annuities , of the contingent value of nine millions sterling . How does the Indian minister treat the claims of those men , many of whom fought iiiost gallantly for the maintenance of British supremacy 'during the rebellion , and all of whom it should now be the especial policy of the State to conciliate and encourage ? They have been barely allowed a hearing at the India House . In the face of a
pledge to have the base seriously considered by his Council , the Secretary of State for India has shelved . their claims , without , it is believed , any reference to the members of bis Council at all ; without , in fact , having ever given the matter any patient or conscientious attention . It is on this account that an appeal has been anade to the House of Commons . The petitioners are strong in the justice of their cause , and they feel aggrieved at the scant consideration bestowed on a large Indian interest by the functionary whose especial province and duty it is to give Indian interests his attention .
We do not wish to open ijp the whole case of the petitioners , but there are one or two facts in their favour which lie on the very surface , and to which we invite attention . In the first place , we defy any one to show why , the Indian Service Funds being- indemnified ' for their losses by the insurrection , compensation can be fairly refused to the Life Insurance Offices . Not only so , but we conceive it to be in the highest degree politically '' inexpedient that Government should draw a
dear line of demarcation between their own employes and the independent Indian public at large . This they are now doing in the most unblushing manner . Sir Charles Wood practically tells the Indian civil servant , with his £ 300 a month and £ 1 , 000 11 year annuity in expectation , that tho fund to which ho subscribes will be indemnified ; but to . the provident hard-working railway engineer , or indigo planter , eontributories to an Insurance dfliee , lie haughtily declines to give anything .
It appears also that numbers of policy-holders in these Indian Life Insurance offices being civilians , were , when the storm of rebellion burst over India , invited by the Government authorities to defend treasure or other property belonging to the Stnto , and not a few of them fell with arms in their hands while engaged in that defence . Wo cannot believe it possible that compensation is utterly denied to the Lnsurnnec Offices in respect of such cases ns these . It would bo simplo robbery to make tho shareholders and policy-holders occasionedand
of the L 1 T 0 Insurance Offices pay for loss so ; the hardship is vastly increased to tho lifo offices , whon it is borne in mind that in many camts there was no legal liability on them to pay these chums , tho lives assured being civil-inns , and having undertaken military risk , contrary to the conditions of their policies . Again ; perhaps the durkest incident in tho whole of that terrible history is tho massacre of Cuwnporc . Out of about 1 , 100 Europeans only two escaped ; Whole families perished , numbers of the victims being insured in tho Calcutta ofliees . Thoso institutions nobly fruvu up their books to the Admiimirntor-Gonernl of Keniral , ami invited him to realize sums
ins . ured , for-the ; benefit of any surviving--leg-id heirs who might appear . In many cases there are 110 hen ' s , and considerable sums are , it is believed , in the hands of the Adniinistrator-General , which , unless refunded to the offices , wilt pass to'thn State . Tlie ^ e sums , we presume , will-of course . 'be rrpaid to the Life Insurance Office .- ? , otherwise Government w . ill i > e in' the position of deriving profit arid . ' " advantage- from tiie murderous crimes of its own servants . We have said enough , we trust , to -prove / that the claim of the Life Insurance Societies to be permitted to share in the million sterling compensation are worthy the fair consideration of the . House ' of Commons , and to that tribunal we would confidently leave them .
.Poaching Affka.Ys. Rilue Late Assizes H...
. POACHING AFFKA . YS . rilUE late Assizes have been remarkable for the trials of even more JL poachers'than usual . Their victims have long ' since-been ' put to rest under the village . yew-tree ' . ; the grass is already green above their breasts ; the spring- flowers are already growing above then % and cringing 1 before the winds of this bleak April . Their murderers , chained and sullen , are brooding over their crimes iu the county gaols , and wailing for the convict ship or thejuggling scaflbld i high above the prison-gate . Even during- the time the very judges have
been sitting fresh murders have . -been committed-, -fresh blood has been spilt on the bright English turf ; the very country paper before us even tells us how a Beechwood keeper has just . had his carotid artery , jugular vein mid nerves , and part of liis windpipe carried away " by the shot froin a poacher ' s gun . . Another ' tells us how a poacher was shot atliedhurst , and the loose pellets were found ¦ vyith the scorched wadding ( part of an obscene song ) dropped into tlie lower cavity of the chest;—ahhost daily , indeed , ; ' throughout the season ( from the orange to the green ) soine life is sacrificed for the sake of a hare or : i partridge .
Far be it from us to lament the acquisitiveness that leads men to buy land or to accumulate property . It is that" carth-hung-er , " as Emehsox calls it . that nialced nations iieli , and that inyite ^ our own race to such restless endeavours and to such noble enterprises .: It is the instinct that drives Us to sea and to commerce . It is the impulse that makes its accumulate , and that makes us not only heap up , but preserve what we have heaped up . It is only when greedy , timid , and selfish , that capital and property becomes detestable . If property has claims , it has duties too , and it is when it neglects these that ifc becomes a hateful burden on the html . - ' . Unfortunately it liiW . too often a tendency to become thus grasping , exacting , and selfish . The game laws , when too severely pressed , form one of the worst specimens of this tyrannous selfishness , '
Let us argue by selecting an imaginary instance , that may embody all tlie worst features of the abuses we < poin . t to , and serve as the type of a too numerous clnss . We will lake that illustrious family , the Ulazeaways , of Blazeaway Gastlf , R ; unsdcn
hill . Beautiful place Blazeaway C \ istle—park a perfeut J ' . —a great aviary vibrating with song , —artificial ; water ,. with a ileet ot swans—trees old as the Norman race , half of them with names and le <» -ends of their own ; fifty horsemen might find shelter undyr their branches . Park entered through a Sir CumsTOPiiKit -Whkn gateway , and crowned with the Bi . azkaway arms . As for the woods , they are so full of pheasants , that their bronchitis gurgle is lu-.-ird everywhere ; tlie rabbits run races all day among the furzej the hares big as dogs , canter about the bushes , and the partridges run about tlie stubbles , numerous as sparrows iu « t ' nrm-ynrd . irit of
The worst sort of greediness into which the sp properly can develop itself unfortunately animates the Ulazkaways . ' 1 'iiey ringfence this and they quiokset-hodge that ; and we roally liiihove , if it were possible , they would wall in the very blue air i I self , and have the great bosoming white clouds that flout over the cahtln market ! at the corners with the Blazisaway name and crest , ju . st i \ h if they were JJwzkaway sheetrf or table-cloths blown loose . Wo . believe they would tithe and toll the very oxygon 61 ' tho Ilmiishill air , if they could only get it bottled safely off and ohipped down , under lock and key , in-tho vast Dlassuaway cellar . Sir B . uiTiiohOMFAY JiLA / KAWAY is not u vovy good landlord , but he is an excellent game preserver , and when tho Honourable Mr . I ) i ) , l . Y and tho Kight Honourable Mr . Dauv , two rising 1 young diplomatists , come down pheasant . shooting , tlu'y ai ' wnys , over the Br-A / . i ! AWAY port , tell him us much . U '\ a poor pooplo s cottages are more fevov traps and ague dens , but his plioawnnls are tho fiutest brought to KuiuHtown umikot .
A small army of fat keepers imi'su and pot those nimimomblo pheasants . Dozens of rabbits nry daily boilod mid olinpped up lor the young birds . Hundreds of vg £ * and tons of flour help to hwoII thorn out , much to the envy and mlminition or Iho lean vil ugers , who no moru Uuro touch thoao coi'pnlont birdrt than a Pariah daro cut a HtouU oil" a Unihmin hj \ v . TIiumo Urdu are hiutcI , und they know it , for they tonnunt the funnem and cut everything they { jrow
(\\* HOW . Dilly nnd Dai . lv oitfoy ll «« autumn battuos liioru than wo should . They roliish walking into womU stullod lull ol tln-mi bloutod birds , tamo im 1 ' owIh with thoii' daily feeding , and knocking thorn ovorliUonino-piiiH . Tho fiuup-Miul glory wo do not k < ..., but wo BUMuoHo ' tlioy do , iih thoy arc trained to duo very lar into political millstonOH . It In u tfi-nnU moi . uint lov thorn when tliu kocpor njiilwa up their soory , mid cullii y » t "Tho Uonourublo Mr . Dn . i . v , -Jo- — being about ono a niinuto .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 21, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21041860/page/9/
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