On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (7)
-
Ca^s*^ ^^ ^c^^^c d^ ^ ^^ Q^**^ ^z~2& *" ...
-
"The "one Idea which. History exhibits a...
-
I ©ontent*:
-
News of THE Week— Page Delafield : or, t...
-
No. 9. SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1850. Price 6d.
-
Mtm nf tat Wnk.
-
It is melancholy to see such intellect a...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ca^S*^ ^^ ^C^^^C D^ ^ ^^ Q^**^ ^Z~2& *" ...
Ca ^ s *^ ^^ ^ c ^^^ c d ^ ^ ^^ Q ^**^ ^ z ~ 2 & *" ^ IL *^ ^ y ^^ V ^^ V VVV V' *'(< K _
v ^ y
"The "One Idea Which. History Exhibits A...
" The " one Idea which . History exhibits as evermore developing itself into greater distinctness is the Idea of Humanity—the noble endeavour to throw down all the barriers erected between men by prejudice and one-sided views ; and by setting aside the distinctions of Religion , Country , and Colour , to treat the whole Human race as one brotherhood , having one great object—the free development of our spiritual nature . "—Humboldx ' s Cosmos .
I ©Ontent*:
© ontcnt * :
News Of The Week— Page Delafield : Or, T...
News of THE Week— Page Delafield : or , the Road to Ruin .... 198 Religious Federation 205 St . Martin ' s Hall 210 Parliament 194 Germany and Russia 198 Fruits of Competition 205 New Music % ™ The State of France 195 The Agapemone : Judgment 198 Defence of Socialism 205 Progress of Science—The Roman Church ... 195 Zoological Compliments .. ' 199 Communism and Education 205 The Water Question 210 North America 195 Murders and Attempts at Murder ... 19 d Literature— Animal Magnetics " 10 India and China 19 S Public Affairs— Newman's Phases of Faith ........ 206 Portfolio—The Cold stream Guards 198 Palmerston in his Decline 202 Clark's Summer in Spain 207 Athanasius Contra Mundum 211 Resistance to the University Com- Sentiment in Politics 203 Chesney ' s Euphrates 208 The Apprenticeship of Life 211 mission 196 Emigration and "Surplus Labour " . 203 Goodsir ' s Arctic Voyages 208 Oiir Foreign Minister 213 Condition of Ireland 197 Socialism 204 Thk Arts— Vivian Unmasked 2 « 3 Labourers and the Labour Market .. 197 Negro Education 204 Royal Italian Opera 209 My Poets 21 < 5 Reproductive Employment of the Protectionist Resources 204 French Plays 209 Commercial Affairs—Poor 19 ft ftPEu nonxfiTt , Nnveltv Fair at thft T . vftfiiirti 209 Market 3 . Gazettes . & c 214-16
No. 9. Saturday, May 25, 1850. Price 6d.
No . 9 . SATURDAY , MAY 25 , 1850 . Price 6 d .
Mtm Nf Tat Wnk.
Mtm nf fyt Wnk .
It Is Melancholy To See Such Intellect A...
It is melancholy to see such intellect and zeal as the Government can muster , not often bestowed on projects for the interests of the people , lavished without measure upon alien subjects like the Greek squabble , now magnified into a French quarrel . The Franchise Bill of the session is forgotten ; the sanitary measures languish in precarious delay ; but the money claims of a Pacifico and a Finlay are urged at the risk of an European war , and Palmerston is suffered to stake the existence of the Government itself in his support of those two persons . There has been a farrago of diplomatic notes and answers , and
reports and conversations , of accusations and recriminations , ending in nothing but mutual falsification ; and Parliament meets to take up the unavailing strain . No party has meddled without disgrace , annoyance , and injury . Lord Palmerston has effectually offended France . The French Ministers are accusing Lord Palmerston of double-dealing . He makes a " masterly statement " in Parliament , " too late" to do any real good as an explanation , but not too lale to merge the real question in a common party debate ; where " Greek and English , " " French and English , " distinctions are lost in ft Ministerial and
Anti-Ministerial ; " " , in the dust they raise , the combatants are lost . " Begun in an obscure money squabble at Athens , the Greek affair traverses Europe like the cholera , to be stifled in a debate at Westminster ; and Ministers emerge from the tumult as placidly content as a Railway Board when the last collision was " blown over : " they themselves are safe and unhurt . It is really a refreshing contrast , as the
newspaper reporters would say , when we turn from this exchange of politely-worded Billingsgate between the two leading countries of Europe to the exchange of amenities between England and Egypt . Most literally and truly , it is far more profitable and dignified for two nations to be busied in the exchange of hippopotamuses and Shetland ponies , of ostriches and game-cocks , than the bandying of low-lived insinuations .
If the People can rightly understand the events that are passing around them , they will see that any effectual improvement of their condition must be sought at other hands than those of Government . Every week should prove to them , just now , that the Government of our day is not only unwilling to grapple with the necessities of the time , but is positively incapable of reading events . For months the principal daily papers have been filled with copious and specific reports on the state of industry , and of those numerous classes that form the bulk of the People ; but any corresponding measures are at a standstill . Not a day passes without reiteration of such facts as [ Country Edition , ]
those now exhibited in our own pages respecting the decline of wages in the agricultural districtsin Lancashire , Devonshire , and Norfolk : compare these with the present improvement in manufacturing towns—the poor relief diminishing , for example , in Birmingham , In spite of the prosperity which Leeds shares with the cloth districts , it still shows an increasing tendency in its poor-rates , which must be the result of indifferent administration : compare that fact , again , with the statements made at the meeting in Leeds on reproductive employments , by Mr . Wilkinson , the clerk of the Sheffield union . One of the most instructive facts in the country is the success of the Hollow Meadows farm , an industrial off-set of the Sheffield workhouse . The experiment receives due attention from the Social Reformers of Leeds ; but what official recognition has it ? J ~ " ' It is in Ireland , under theiforce of mortal necessity , that Government has been obliged to show some activity : the revolution is making way under the Encumbered Estates Act . Some eight or nine hundred estates have already been doomed to transfer under that statute , and wholesale " confiscations" are decreed . These confiscations were foreboded : they are now understood to be real steps in the extrication of Ireland . The universities are mustering their forces to resist the Government Commission of Inquiry . In vain has the Premier explained that the Commission is to do nothing , but passively to receive information voluntarily afforded . The very passiveness of the method exasperates the university authorities ; it forces them to resist the gentlest possible form of inquiry . " Do not even look at us , " they say , like a spoiled child , " some of us will scruple to come before you , and you will then have one-sided accounts ; " a complaint which shows thatthey dare not take security for bringing the whole truth before the Commission . Surely they cannot understand the fatal consequences of the course they are now pursuing ? The inquiry may , perhaps , force constitutional changes upon them ; but whether it does so or not , they cannot avoid it . If they try to resist it , even indirectly , they will drag upon themselves still more formidable changes than those contemplated by the orginators of the Commission . The day is gone by when mere supineness could be a position of safety . We live in a period of anachronisms ; as in the picture of the old masters figures of different epochs meet together , so in the picture of the week's news , for example , we see Vice Chancellor Knight Bruce professing to put down the sectarian absurdities of the Agapemone by reviving the judgment in Shelley ' s case ; while the Royal Court is cultivating the more pious spirit of the future by healthfnl exercises and the enjoyment of family sympathies on the once tabooed " Sabbath . " It is , indeed , a novelty when we look to the Court for signs of advancement in genuine wisdom and piety , Yet so it is .
Lord Normanby is not recalled from France : so there is to be no war this time . Indeed the recall of M . Drouyn de Lhuys , however justly it might have been provoked by Lord Palmerston ' s false dealing , seems never to have had any very serious intention . At the most dangerous moment it was remarkable with how much sangfroid the transnsitive
action was viewed by those se exponents of public fear , the gentlemen on ' Change . The funds scarcely varied . The French Opposition journals state , and the Conservative seem rather naively to allow , that the whole affair might have been got up—probably with the assistance of Lord Palmerston , or , say only his permission—in order to divert French attention from the new law
against the suffrage . Poor Lord Brougham ' s rabid abuse of the " miscreant" Mountain , because it did not cheer the chance . of war , goes absolutely for nothing , since nobody seems .. to fiave believed in the chance . Not even the French Ministers , for while one of them denounces " perfidious Albion " in the Assembly , another telegraphs to the departments that " nothing will come of it . " It is just possible the two did not understand each other , after the fashion of English Ministers . Or possibly General de la Hitte was too fierce , which might be one way of accounting for the conduct of the Moniteur in not publishing his
communication . But men are already forgetting the affair in the interest of the debate on the law of disfranchisement . M . Victor Hugo has branded the law with one of his most eloquent speeches ; Cavaignac and others denounce it ; but neither rebuke , nor argu ^ ment , nor warning from any , will prevent the Government from carrying this anti-constitutional project . Already a majority of 461 to 239 has asserted the urgency of the measure ; and there can be no doubt of its passing . What next ? Will the nation suffer four millions and a half of citizens to be deprived of the franchise ? Rumours
of revolt are rife enough . One was to have been on Sunday ; but Time disappointed the prophets . These rumours have not been without purpose , tending , with other incitements , to bring about a premature movement , and find a pretext for proclaiming the country in a state of siege . The Moderate press urges the Government not to wait for attempts ; since they will not come fast enough in spite of provocation , —the provocation of continued repression and insult , —carried out systematically ; " nothing , " says the National , " being forgotten except humanity . " Notwithstanding " quiet" yet lingers in France .
Rome , too , is very quiet . Arrests continue and new guillotines are made , in . order to preserve the happy state . And Pio Nono blesses his subjects ; and scatters dispensations , which eager French soldiers scramble for and pick up , and surrender scoffingly ( having no need , of them ) to any devout bystander . The poor Pope , hardly escaped from Gaeta to be imprisoned in Borne j for they
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 25, 1850, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25051850/page/1/
-