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April 28, I860.] The Leaderand'SaturdayA...
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SHALL TO-*!/SAYJ5RS HAVE A STATUE?. rjni...
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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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Ptllabs Of Infamy. Tt Seems To Be Ono Of...
is no special evil of the present day , any more than , ' the' herdingtogether of the civic or rustic poor in promiscuous lodgings or rabbit-hutch cottages . A recent work has shown us how rife adulteration in all its . kinds was in the earlier period of our industrial ' -history ; every man . can add something to the list from his own reading . One of the happiest quotations of Addison " , and the wittiest , occurs in that paper of the Tatler in which he dilates on the subterranean philosophers employed in the transmutation of liquids , and by the power of magical tricks raising under the streets of ioiidon the choicest products of the liills and valleys of France , squeezing Bordeaux but of the sloe , and Champagne out of the apple , and fulfilling , 'in a burlesque way , Viegii / s prophecy , — Incultisque rubens pendebit vitibus irv-a . The blushing grape shall hang on every thorn .
. We could compare the purposely darkened drapers' shops of which . Taylorthe water poet complained , with the " faux jour" of Im . Bkuyebe , though we fear that we do not now-a-days merely run neck and neck in rascality with pur French neighbours , simply because their police is infinitely more efficient , and because we constantly see in the French papers lists of the interdicted and ¦ exposed ; they have a surveillance whose energies are not inter- ' mittent , and the state of the people ' s food has long been considered really worth the attention of the legislature ovlegisliitor . Elsewhere , in the Spectator , Addison speaks of the " apothecary countermining' the vintner . " . As no allusion is made to philosophical mixtures in tliis passage , we presume that he means the wine
unsophisticated apothecary counteracting the natural merchant , for the counterfeiting of drugs was probably then not so common—laudanum really sending you to sleep > and an einetic not imparting . a sudden appetite . Now the countermining in all directions in the dark really deserves the name , and the druggist as often countermines the physician whose prescription he has professed to make up , as the vintner whose compound is unknown ; in short , iii the confusion , nothing is certain but the undermining 1 of the patient . Even if these matters are suddenly bettered , which we hardly anticipate , we shall long have the ' 'smack of a diseased iihagination . We may go on a long while , as a high authority tells us , whilst " our knowledge is not infected ; " but we have drunk , and if we have not " seen . " we have been told of " the spider . "
. . ¦ . ¦¦ ¦ ¦ " There may be in the cup A spider steeped , and one may drink , depart , And yet partake no venoni , for his knowledge , la not infected ; but if one present Th ' abhorred ingredient to his eye , make known AVTiafc he liatli drank , he cracks his gorge , his sides , With violents hefts : I have drunk and seen the spider . " . . —Winter ' s Talc . Some natures may , it is true , be happily insensible to these iinpres
sions , a fact which seems to be indicated by the circumstance that the benevolent providers of the first London drinking fountain selected ( with that singular felicity which marks nearly all combined action in England ) the side of St . Sepulchre ' s grave-yard for the oozing out of the aqueous supply . A draught of this may be better , however , than the port wine or porter of some neighbouring 1 publican , whose compounds poison hospital patients , and so may . send them to the fountain head which * we have just indicated . There was an old joke—we believe of . JEiutoi . i >' s—about " water with a body in it , " ' but we shrunk from particulars .
We shall not exhaust or further disgust our readers with any of the details , easily to be collected , of filthy compounds , or fatal cases , or wholesale public robbery;—we shall content ourselves with makingonly a few remarks on " parties , " penalties , and publication . Magistrates should be very careful how they _ punish small retailors , except in certain trades where adulteration is easy , as the publicans and bilkers , for instance , and the milkmen . The little shop-, keeper may offend by rather Fthort weight , and in the fashionable neighbourhoods on the outskirts of London , by ox . trnviigant prices wherover he dares asjc them . The greengrocers , for instance , who have little opportunity for other frauds , are in this hitter way terribly extortionate ; but it is certain that the principal . adulterations are
not carried on by this class ; they have few opportunities , and often know too little about what they deal in to understand the master arts of " falsification . " Xpti oven those should be lightly fined , nnd always compelled to indicate the wholesale houses from which they are supplied . Then as to penalty ,, wo sometimes regret that wo tiro too refined for the pillory , or promenading in a cage through the principal thoroughfares ; the notoriety of tho person being much move likely to bo effectual than the mere notoriety-of the name , which will ' bo referred to presently , For the groat detected offenders there ought to bo no miserable potty penalties , no paying 1 ten poumln for a rascality which enables a man to pocket a hundred . Thin is tho very dotage of legislation , known and protostod against ages
—ago , " Ofttimos tho noli offonoe itself Buys out tho law , " says SnAKSi'EARE . Hero the crime pays tho counsel , — " Whoro fraud is groat 1 b furnishoH weapons to do fond Itself . " - —ffwi /' i ' sprcJootfuradoiVK'infjJidHr / ion . Now for tho publication , or exposure . Tho , man whs no moan humorist who proposed to make one of our biinos our antidote , and " advertisement , " so often taken into tho service of imposition , tho ino detected
means of protecting- us ngainslb it . The idea that rogue should pay for his own advertisement as a client ami swindler , is admirable , but it may be done rather too cheap , as fur as first cost Boes . It may bo proposed as an amendment that jfc Bhould be clojio in , nil our principal papers , onco afe loasfc , and in the largest
admissible type , not merely with the offender ' s name , but with a full account of Ms processes of adulteration . We once thought of the church doors ; we remember , however , Sheridan ' s objection at the time of the dog-tax measure ; he thought that it would be necessary to enlarge all the church and chapel doors in the kingdom , for they woiild be no more sufficient'than the parish registers would be for the births of the now imppies . We do not much care about the retailers and puppies , and should be content only to post up the big dogs and the black ones ; but unfortunately the Church Extension Act has nob come into full " pUry , . and we should be obliged to eke out with , the hoardings of what are to be , perhaps , at some future age , public memorials . This leads us to a suggestion of Berkeley ' s , or at least a hint whiuh . inay . be used as a suggestion . He tells usj that in some of the towns of Italy memorial columns were set up to indicate for a continuance those who had deserved ill of their
fellowcitizens ; and he adds , " perhaps a pillar of-infamy would be found a proper and exemplary punishment in cases of signal public villany . " Theremight be many such pillars ; where should tho first be placed ? Doubtless in one of our most public places . Mi < jlit ' we suggest the opposite corner to that where the peaceful Jhxxer is waiting patiently for jSTelsox to come down and NAnkk to sit down , and where all that is wanted is a great churchman in the inost appropriate attitude , and a . representative lawyer on all-fours ( no degradation to the law , only an indication of those -infinite resources which would not have allowed us to put the lawyer on his back ) . What a graceful and beautiful graduation ^—already cotnr rnenced b _ y the national taste , and embracing 1 iill the 'professions !——" un escalier geixtil comma ga ue ' fatigue pas . " What a nice . little tea-party ; the water is near , so . are the dumb waiters , and -the caddy is not far ' -off . .- ¦
But to return to our column at the other corner ; we would w llingly add to the names of our . provi ' sio-u-rcgues- those of scoundrel attorneys who make their living oiit of purely vexatious actions ; there are plenty such , and there is scarcely anything so Hilarious that some of these reptiles will not undertake ; let tlie perverters of justice , take their place with tlie falsifiers of food , We might catch how and then , perhaps , even a barrister , and of flagrant election bribers not a few ; Some people may think it cruel to add to the already afflictions , of -Trafalgar Square , but we say , without any
joking , that good substantial posts , pillars , or columns might be erected , with very great advantage to the public and cost to the inscribed offenders , in some of the more public thoroughfares with the names of those found ' guilty painted thereon : : i . year , after the sentence the name might be obliterated to make room'for some more recent rogue ; -the columns . " ought ,- ' of ' course , to bo sharply looked after by the police , a rather less troublesome purt of their office than . detecting'the criminals . Tins hint , in case our present legislation should prove a failure .
April 28, I860.] The Leaderand'saturdaya...
April 28 , I 860 . ] The Leaderand ' SaturdayAnal yst . 399
Shall To-*!/Sayj5rs Have A Statue?. Rjni...
SHALL TO- *!/ SAYJ 5 RS HAVE A STATUE ? . rjnil-S is by-no . moans an impertinent question at a moment when - *• the fame of " tho gallant Tom" ia eclipsing that of nil the warlike heroes of the world . Wore our fathers , in 1815 , more stirred by the news of WEr . LiNuxoN ' sedefoat ol ' thcCoitsiCAN Boy at Waterloo tlian we , their sons , are now stirred by the accounts of the Battle of Farnborough ? Gisohoethe Fourth embraced the dirty groom who brought him the intelligence , and his faithful metropolitan . subjects lighted up a few extra . caudles , and ran out into the streets < o raise the' voice of rejoicing . We will not imagine Her Gracious Majesty giving way fo ' any such demonstration of doliyht on hearing that 'Von iiAXBRS had gallantly maintained tho honour of Kngland in the V . li . Uut liavo wo not lighted up our candles and crowded the
streets , and shouted anil telegraphed , and altogether worked ourselves up into a atnto of the highest excitement V J > id we do more , or even as much , whon wo heard of tho fall of Sul > n , sto , > "l or the relief of Luirknow ? Was ! U <; i , an or Comx CAAii'jiKi . i .. ' more in men ' s nioiHlirt then than Tom Say mum is now ? Tho 7 W ¦ ¦ sent a special reporter to the Crimuu to chronicle the decda of I lio lJ .-iiish army . It also sent a corrcHpoudunt to chronicle tho doinlw of To . m : S . vYiiiis and the Bii . vicf . v Boy at Faniborotigji . Tho lmml which traced tho « u three columns of gmpliio ( luseription wnn the sanie which so brilliantly described tho Buttle ol' Balakliivn in the Mornhhrj Jicrald . ' So , to bc ^ in with , tho leading jnurnal of England smifc its best mar ^ to furnish the public with-a full , true , and particular account of this great event . Lot us immv h" ' " round tho ring on that marshy slope at Farnljoroiigh , and see who are ooino thither to shod , ¦ tlio % lifc of tl ; oir countenanco and patronutro upon tho HriLiuh . Am . vcl-s . Here are
roughs in plenty , grooms , bottiug-im'i ) , oostorniongers , ( log-funciurH , and thieves , astonishing even Ainuricau oxporionco of Jtowdios and Filibusters . But whom have we in tuo- front row—the ryaorvod Hoats of the arena ? Two noble dukes , three inarqui . ses , liaH ' -adozen noblo lords , a statesman and poet , and a Hprinklinv , ' of clergymen , amo » £ whom stumla prominently forwnnl tho J . % h l ' riost oj the revived sect ol' j nuaculur Ul > rintians . And now Amycuh ami i ' pr-LUX enter tho rin ^ , and hbo each other for the ilrnL tiiuo- ^ -tho one au uml » vni / . od man of live fe « t oi ^ ht , tho oLhor a g'iant of six fool ; t ' wo . When -AmVci / h ami Tor . Mix fought , » h wo ary rounndeU by WAivniU Sicvkun , JOsquiro , of tho Council Oflioo , Wliitohull , it was by Hldll that l ' or . r . L'X ovorreaehed hi » opponent ) , and oauaod all the couutonttiiuo of the latter t < i bo Blruolc witli tho ruyn of Lhe win . In tho ciano of S . vymhm and JThunan thin was deckled hy H > e tossol a ooin , so that tho hws of tho ]» ri » o- Itiuy h nvo rnvthcr been brutaUzed than ameliorated by modern iulluonous . " Hereupon , to , use Uio
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041860/page/11/
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