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"74 THE LEADER. [No. 357, Saturday, — .¦...
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« THE DELICATE QUESTION.' The following ...
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A CASE OF •CONSCIENCE.. One of those dis...
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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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Fwe Could Trust To Any Of The Ordinary S...
ultimately divide the isthmus , such a "work must await a larger development of commerce ; wliile the present commerce would pay for a railway to carry passengers , gold from California , and any commodities suitable to railway transmission . The neutrality of the territory is guaranteed ?> y Great Britain and the United States . Axl improvement in the construction of tlie American Legation in this country , is another evidence of the constantly mcreasing- connexion "between the two nations . The office of Assistant-Secretary has been created , as a means of obviating the
inconveniences that have resulted from interruption of continuity when a new Minister , with a new Secretary , has taken up the business of the Legation . Of course , it was necessary to select the best man ihat could be found for commencing the business of the new post ; and in 3 ! r . Benjamin Moran , the Vice-Consul in London , who formerly served in the legation under Mr . Buchanan , President Pierce has unquestionably found the very man -whose knowledge of the "department , of American affairs , and of English customs , renders him the most suited for tlie service .
The Continent has no events to tell , except the constant struggle now going on between Governments and peoples . If peoples knew -what their Goyennneats were doing , and what they "themselves could do , how soon the struggle would end ! The Emperor of Austria , is making his progress amidst sullen subjects in . the north of Italy , while the Parliament of Piedmont is listening to vigorous debates tetween tlie radical Broctesjo and the Minister
Cayotjb . BaoiTEKio is for being " daringly revolutionary , " and heading the insurrection of all Italy ; and he denounces tlie policy of Gavottr as timid and unpractical . Cavotjb . replies , by showing what lias already been done , and undoubtedly the debate itself , and the reports of it in the journals , are great facts , which are actually telling in other states of Italy at this moment . Vekgeb is not yet guillotined . He has appealed to the Court of Cassation against his sentence ; and the forms of ^ French law compel attention to his
appeal . The trial was a strange melodramatic spectacle—all persons playing their parts as they might in some dramatic caricature of conduct we call French . —Veeger performing the denunciator , the Judge enacting a sort of French Jeffreys , and . the audience joining in like chorus in an opera . The man's crime waa as clear as could be ; there appears to be no occasion for this labour to fulfil justice ; therefore , there is something behind , something which the Government docs not wish to come out .
The most stirring- news from abroad is tha , t ¦ which comes from . the greatest distance . By electricity it ia we leam that the English have taken the fort of Bushire in the island of Karrak , in Persia j while Canton city is awaiting bombardrnent .
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"74 The Leader. [No. 357, Saturday, — .¦...
" 74 THE LEADER . [ No . 357 , Saturday , — . ¦¦ ' ' ' " L' - ¦ - ¦¦ — - " - ^—^— ^———^ m ^ mm ———^——^
« The Delicate Question.' The Following ...
« THE DELICATE QUESTION . ' The following letter appeared in the Morning Star of Tuesday : — ( To the Editor . } Sna *—I think that the class of readers for whom the articles in the Star are chiefly -written , will require that the subject of ' brothels , ' and their ancillary evils , he TtkOT * boldly treated than in the somowhat hasty paragraph of your Monday ' s summary . We hope that you ¦ will deal with the question , largely and fearlessly . I will merely offer a few "words upon it ; if you give them space fa your correspondence they -will commit you to no approval of a view -which , nevertheless , 1 trust to soe you eapouae . Shall I say , at once , that no ona can have , a deeper detestation of the miscTeants who live on brothel profits than 1 have , or that it is equalled only by the
compassion wo all entertain for the unhappy victims of the system . Pw » onalimpu > ta , tio » g form- qo . ready « . unrt of controversial logic , that I may aa well add that I am married man , and the fhther of children , whoso inar-* i * ge » , whenever they pleads to form them , shall find no *» P «« Wt in me , Staving aaid this , lot me proceed to express my conviction thftt at least one half of the prostitution in England Is duo to the social system created « nd festered by the tnatwns of England , which * forbtds to marry , ' The necessity of * keeping up appearances ' prevents a man from , numbing in hia ow » sphejo , until ; dq h . { w attained a ' respectable' income and station . Ho May uiaally achieve this tit thirty , when he will bo very # okamain a house of daughter * But ho Itt a man at
twenty , thilesa he be a Christian ( and there are not too many ywuig Christians ) , he has , during the ten intervening y « ars , either kept a mistress , or resorted to those hau « ts which Sir George Grey is asked to put down . There is no use—and there is folly and falsehood —ia banking the truth . Sappose , sir , th * t « fc twenty one , he had asked for the hand of one of the daughters of Materfaniilias , and had explained , with a gentleman's frankness , that at present he could take only one floor in a house , tot that he had no doubt of his income ' s
rising every year . Woold the young people lie allowed to marry , and fight their wayupwards together ? Do you not see the indignation of Materfamilias at so audacious a proposal ? But he knows better , sir . He works till thirty , and than ia an acceptable match , and , in the meantime , unless checked by exceptional purity , or by Christian habits , he visits ' dens of vice , ' or lives with ajemtne entretenue . Materfamilias and her contemporary matrons know all this perfectly well , and are not so unreasonable as to refuse their cards and
hospitalitj' to the man whose life they have chalked out for him . Vice , unless it be shameless , excludes no gentleman from the society of ladies . Well , sir , our young friend has one other alternative . He can marry ' below him '— -there are always good , modest girls ready to accept him at shoit notice . The result is , that he has a -wife who is no companion , and as he rises in the world and mingles "with , his own class , the mistake he has made is perpetually impressed , upon him , and , -with the usual selfishness of man , he probably makes his poor little
plebeian wife comprehend it . And these are the arrangements of civilized society , 1857 years after the Christian era . I no-w leave the subject in your hands , hoping that you will not deal with it conventionally , and that you will assure Sir De Lacy Evans and the ' paxochials' who attended him to Sir G . Grey , that they are "beginning at the wrong end of ' the delicate question . " There are deeper social evils than the police can cure . —Your obedient servant , Jan . 19 , 1857 . In Limihe .
A Case Of •Conscience.. One Of Those Dis...
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE .. One of those distressing cases , in which the natural affections are -warped , and turned into sources of dissension by religious distinctions , was argued last Saturday in the Court of Queen ' s Bench before Lord Campbell and Justices "Wightman and Crompton . In the late Russian war , one of the marines on board the Pique was Sergeant Lauman Race , a Protestant , who had married a Roman Catholic , by whom he had two children—John , now aged about twelve years , and Alicia , ten years and a half old . In September , 1854 , the ship was before the Russian fort of Petropaulovski , in the extreme northeast of Asia ; and , previously to going into that unforunate action which terminated so disastrously for us , Race wrote the subjoined note to his wife , the reading of which , ia court drew tears from the eyes of many of the auditors , and caused Lord Campbell to observe that it was tho letter of a Christian and a soldier : —
" Her Majesty ' 3 ship Pique , at Sea , Aug . 25 , 1854 . " My dear Wife and Children , —I now sit down to write a few lines to you previous to going into action . When you receive this I shall he no more , as it will not be sent to you if I survive . I hope you are all quite well , as I am at the present time . My dears , I write to bid you aa eternal farewell , if such is God ' s will that I am to be cut off ; but I trust id Providence , and hope I may be spared to meet you again ; but as we cannot all expect to survive to tell the tale , and I may be one that is doomod to die ia defence of my Queen and country , therefore , xoy dear wife , it will be a consolation that I died ia defence of liberty , and done my best , as ia duty bound by my oath , when I took to the profession of
arms . My dear Alicia , I hare made my will to you , andl trust you will carry it out according to my wish . I wish , my dear , that you will remain a widow until the children are capable of taking care of themselves . I hope , my dear , that you will not disregard this my last wish , as I should not die happy if I thought a stepfather would bo aver my babes ; but 1 feel confident that you will not forget my last wish . My dear wife , I have not received a letter from you , or any one else , since I loft England . I should feel very happy to hear from you before I am called into eternity : but the Lord ' s will be done : wo must bow to His command . My dear Ally , I am but ill prepared to meet my Maker face to face , but I trust He will have mercy on my poor soul , and forgive me my transgressions , as I forgive nil men
that have done me any wrong , before I die . 1 have settled all my worldly affairs as fur as I can . My dear wife , kisa my doax children for me , aa a last embrace from a lorving fathor , and tell them that his last thoughts were for them , and bring thorn up in the fear of tho Lord . My dear wife , I thtnlc I see poor Alicia by turns weeping for tho loss of her poor old man , and then I see hor rejoicing ? at hia return—but , alas ; such dreams ! My dear , I hav <» written a , farewell letter to my mother , brothers ,, and sisters , and all friends and relations , and I trust you will not bo forgotten by them . My dearest wifo , give my dying love to your mother and sister , and oil your friondu thak may befriend you or my dear children . May wo all meet in heaven ia tho last prayer of one that you know how to priae , although ho -will ho in eternity when you receive this last letter ho over
wrote , as we are only waiting for the morning to dawn to go into Petronpoloka ( Petropaulovski ) , and commence the work of destruction . It is a Russian colony , and we are bound to take it or die ia the attempt . My Sear wife and children , it is late , and . I require some rest before I commence the work of carnage that to-m orrow may bring forth . My dear , I have not set my foot on shore but twice since I left England , and then only for a few hoars on duty . —The last from your affection ate andl & ringhusband , " Lauman Race . " Tire next day Sergeant Race went into action , and was killed . In July , 1855 , the widow received a letter from ttw Rev . Mr . Leach , the clergyman of Little Stoneham , in Suffolk , where she was then residing , statinc
that , if she would send her daughter Alicia to the Sailors' Orphan Girls' School and Home at Hampstead the girl would be kept , clothed , and educated at the expense of the Royal Patriotic Fund , until she sho uld be of a proper age for a situation , when she would be fitted out . She therefore sent her child to that institution , where she has continued ever since . The boy was placed at a similar school at Chardstock , both being conducted on Protestant principles . In . the course of last October ,- the mother applied to liave both her children removed . With respect to the school at
Hampstead , she said she had no fault to find wita the care taken of her daughter ; but that she wanted to place her boy in a Roman Catholic school , and "her clergyman would not provide a school for one child without the others" She also said " she thought it quite as well to bring them up in the same faith as herself . " The boy was accordingly removed from Chardstock ; but the authorities at the Hampstead school refused to give up the girl , on the ground that the child herself refused to go "with her mother . It was to compel them to do so that a writ of habeas corpus -was issued , and that the question was noyr argued in court .
In addition to the assertion with respect to the girl ' s own dislike to leave the school , the authorities stated that Mrs . Race had expressed in a letter her great desire that her children should be brought up as Protestants , " according to the wishes of hex late husband ;" that she had said on one occasion " she was one of those who thought there were as good Protestants as Catholics ; " that , on another occasion , she averred it " went to her heart" to take the girl away from . Hampstead , but that she must do so ; and that it was well known that the father was a member of the Church of
England , and had had his children baptized by a Protestant clergyman . However , it is quite clear that , in the course of last October and November , -the mother made repeated applications by letter to be allowed to remove her daughter . The executive committee of the Hampstead school , on the 8 th of November , 1856 , replied that they had no desire to prevent the mother from exercising her right as guardian over these children , but that , as they thought she was actuated by improper motives , they could not in propriety give her any assistance . The mother replied thus : — " Hampstead , Flask-walk , Nov . 14 , 1856 .
" Honoured Sir , —I want to know "whether you wish me to go to law about my daughter , as I went to fetch her from school yesterday . She refused to come , saying * I can't , mother . Aa I know it is an untruth , which she is encouraged by every person to say so . She has written such another letter like the boy to me , which I know she did not write it without being made to do it . The clergyman of the church said I was to ask one of my friends to ask a lawyer ' s advice how to get her to come home , but I have got no frieuds but you to ask . Ia it your wish for her to turn against me because I am a Catholic , as she is very much altered since her last holiday ? I 'will have her in spite of anj * one , becauso she is mine , as a child of ten years old knows nothing
much about religion . As I gave her in your charge , and I wish you to giro her up , and I will not leave it to the child ' s decision . Have her I will , or else I will die for her . I remain , your obedient servant , Alicia . Race . " Under dato of the 24 th of last November the mother of Sergeant Eace wrote a letter , in which she said : — " I am sure that my eon would , have been most unwilling to have had his children brought up in the idolatrous worship of tho Roman CatUolica . " A letter from tho sergeant ' s brother stated that tho writer did not know what the father ' s wishes -with respect to his children were , but that he ( the writer ) desired that tbay should not go to tho Catholic school . The affidavit of tho Rot . E . II . Bickersteth , incumbent of Christ Church , Hampstead , and honorary chaplain of the school , stated that tho girl had regularly attended divine service at Christ of
Church , and also a Bible class ; that she was u child quick perception , and appeared to have an educated mind above children of hor ago , so much so that for six months she had been a monitor , and had been placed in tho first clasB , among girls twelve and thirteen yonrs of age . Ho stated that on the 13 th of November , 1856 , ho rend over a paper to the girl , in tho prcsGiico of the ladies' committee and tho mother , which contained thoso words : — ?• As you are old enough to judge betwixt right and wrong , and have said you believe you are taken away to go to another school , our duty i * simply to state that wo have no desire to part with yo « i < uw would willingly permit you to remain with us . But wo are bound to eay that your mother does not agree to thia , but wishes you to go home to her . Now , it is < " >' duty to say we do not wish to influence you ono wny or
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1857, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24011857/page/2/
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