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SlS^n. 708 THE LEADER. [S aturday, -,.x-...
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' ^'^ M^3? MOSPHEKE OF THE HOUSE OF ::;'...
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THE DOMESTIC MOLOCH. Of all adulteration...
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THE HOT WEATHER. We know, or ought to kn...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Sls^N. 708 The Leader. [S Aturday, -,.X-...
SlS ^ n . 708 THE LEADER . [ S aturday , -,. x- ¥ K £ r ^ k L 9
' ^'^ M^3? Mospheke Of The House Of ::;'...
' ^ ' ^ M ^ 3 ? MOSPHEKE OF THE HOUSE OF :: ; ' l « efe commons . ,, 'Qpy * Sionday night the exuberant merriment "* P ^ $ i 5 lj House of Commons was excited by a - § tj ^ 0 ifl ent made by Sir - " William Molesworth , . /;^^ § jjpaiimssioner of Works , in answer to a .. ^ question put by Lord D . Stuart , as to what 'powers the G-overnment possessed to prevent or remove certain " noxious effluvia" which appear at intervals to render the " honour of a seat" in that assembly an extremely questionable pleasure . Sir W . Mloleswortn
stated in a gay and airy tone that the effluvia in question were inevitable and incurable . 3 ? he House of Commons is subject to the evils incident to any other establishment , domestic or manufacturing , situated on the banks of the Thames between Hammersmith and Black-wall . When , the tide goes out a vast surface of mud is left , enriched by sewage , to be played upon by the rays of the sun ; and the sun in July being equal to penetrating even that atmosphere in which the arrangements of ottr civilisation envelope
our capital city , it appears that an atmosphere of decomposed gases is given out , — piercing the windows and entrances of the contiguous House —so painfully pungent as to drive the most assiduous of our public . men to the Palace-yard cab-stand , and thence - —anywhere , anywhere out of theHouse . It is further stated by the elegant Commissioner of Works , who seems like other delicate men to revel occasionally in exceptional allusions , that the workmen employed in the completion of the new Palace of Westminster are
provided by the constitution , for whom they in turn are arranging , with a single watercloset , tvhich , under certain tidal circum-¦ stanceSj also comes within the influence of the sun , and gives out a second set of special odours , varied like those of Cologne , and easily recognisable by the practised member— -just as in a ball-room may be distinguished the scent of flowers from the perfume of ladies' toilets . Sir William deplored this state of things , but candidly confessed that
he saw no remedy ; and all he could say in reply to the asphixiated entreaties of Lord Dudley Stuart was that he hoped the House of Commons would see the necessity of an early prorogation . Thus our constitutional machinery , it is acknowledged by devoted partisans of our institutions , is dependent for its easy working on the state of the Thames tide . The gloomy hear-hears from the -weakly members
interrupting the more reckless laughter of the more robust portion of our younger conscript fathers , revealed beyond all doubt that it would be less infamous in the country to sentence its chosen law-givers to the subterranean horrors of a coal-mine tlian to demand that they should watch over the common weal in a house smelling as if of the collected dead oats which are thrown during a general election at unpopular candidates .
la the sitting of the morning of that day on winch Sir William made this statement , and in . another morning sitting since , the attention of the House of Commons has been exclusively occupied in considering the clauses of the Bribery Bill , This is a measure constructed with the view of tempering in some way the electoral corruption of our picked constituencies . It is a bill of many clauses , clause after clause attacking some special tendency of our electors to plunge into political impurity . And It is opposed , whon opposed at all , merely on the ground that constituencies out of which the Houso
of Comm ons proceeds arc incurably corrupt . Here , thon , wo have a revelation na to tUo physical and moral atmosphere of the House of Commons . Surely at tho next Academy Exhibition tho inevitable " portrait of an M . P . " will represent a gentleman holding his nope between his fingers !
The Domestic Moloch. Of All Adulteration...
THE DOMESTIC MOLOCH . Of all adulterations of society that one is unquestionably the worst , which some of our readers will denounce us for alluding to . We shall be accused of being revolutionary and subversive , because we point to the existence of a plague spot far more pestiferous than the sources of the cholera , more hideous than the influences of thieving and pick-pocket crime , viler than even the lowest kinds of debauchery
which parade themselves in the street . We say , that infinitely worse than this open defiance of the law , is the hypocrisy which , while denouncing crime , introduces it into otherwise uncorrupted society . We have lately had exposures like that of Alice Leroy ; this week a second plaintiff proceeds against Marmaysee , the defendant in the case of iReginbal ; and these cases are singular only for their publicity . They prove what we have formerly asserted , that amongst the
respectable classes of society exist practices which those classes of society pretend to denounce , but which they indulge under cover . The evidence of this corruption continues to increase to our hands . In a case recently exposed at Clerkenwell , a girl named Bradshawe was entrapped into a house of vice under pretence of domestic service . The
Z / iverpool 3 £ ercury has referred , to a system of abduction organised in several large provincial towns , such as Derby , Leeds , Manchester , Liverpool , < fcc , to entice from their homes , for the worst purposes , young girls of ages ranging from ten to seventeen years . The Morning Chronicle learns " from other sources that there are accredited agents of certain London houses established at the
principal railway stations to look out for victims , who are regularly consigned to them like poultry or cattle . " The profits of places of this kind vary in a scale of indefinite range . In the case of Beginbal , the earnings of the girl were above 201 . a week—a thousand a year ; and our contemporary calculates , with great probability , that Marmaysee would make of tlie
receipts and payments of one girl alone 7501 . a year : —that is assuming , which we cannot , that these receipts would be regular and continuous . But Marmaysee was not the only example of the traffic , though one of the most successful . The police know that there are a considerable number of houses in London devoted to the same kind of trade , which have an infinitude of branches . Statistics would
be baffled in the endeavour to trace the entire number of the persons engaged in it , or their gross receipts ; but the aggregate revenue must be immense—worth that oi" a German principality at least . Nay , if we could follow the species of income-tax which is voluntarily paid , in all classes , wo might see that London returns to the collectors in this kind of revenue far moro than Mr . Gladstone exacts under the name of his hated
impost . But the worst part of the evil we say , at present is , that all this is done under the pretence of a totally different state of things . Speak with some freedom of divorce , pronounce it a thing which might be rendered moro facile , as it is in many of the states of America , and you . will bo denounced by numbers of those respectable persons who are constantly infringing tho laws of marriage , right and left ; divorcing themselves
weekly and daily ; temporarily but lavishly endowing wives whom they accept and repudiate with more than Turkish facility , smd who perpetuate a state of things which not only introduces adulteration into tho very hearts and homes of Englishmen innumerable , but dooms those very wives of tho hour , tho toya and creatures of tho system , to a promaturo mortality . irivo years is reckoned tho term of a successful life in this
profession . At any honest occupation a woman may earn her 5 s ., 6 $ ., or perhaps 10 s ., a week , and die of tedium , bad food , and fatigue at thirty-five . But in this superior trade , she can earn 20 ? . a week , more or less , and finish off in five years . And yet , we say , that this sacrifice of young girls—some of the pick of our female population—is not a sacrifice equal to the still more enormous sacrifice in hypocrisy and bad heart . For pointing at it , for speaking of it out aloud , we shall be called " improper" and
" immoral ; " and yet , we say that there is so much of good feeling in English society , that this heinous system could not continue if it were talked about . There was a yet worse horror in one of our colonies ; but that horror lasted only so long as propriety turned away its modest face from the picture . At last , some honest and bold men put forth their strong hands to tear down the veil . One of these men was Sir William Moleswortl , whose report on transportation in New South Wales outraged the quiet English feeling of decency . Transportation was stopped .
Sir ^ Frederick Pollock takes the exactly opposite course . He advises Marmaysee to plead the " immoral purpose" in bar of tlie action against himself , and gives the advice with the very object of stifling publicity , Declining to accept that suggestion , Marmaysee was punished by being ordered under arrest as the keeperofthehou . se . Yete-vidently his offence was not the existence of such establishments— - which . Sir Frederick can scarcely hope to extinguish- —but the public appeal to law . Sir Frederick would , it seems , prefer silence and no law . Assuredly Tie will not put down vice at home .
The Hot Weather. We Know, Or Ought To Kn...
THE HOT WEATHER . We know , or ought to know by this time , the land where the Cyprus and myrtle are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime . But we never sufficiently recognise that our own private and national virtues are very much the result of a climate producing plants and fruits , such as the cabbage and the gooseberry , of a less gorgeous character . As a sensible people we are indebted , very much , for that well-balanced civilisation to which we so frequently allude , to the circumstance that the quicksilver in our barometers generally stands half way up the tubo . We are such splendid animals , for physical purposes , for the same climactic reasons which explain our superiority over the rest of Europe in our beef , our mutton , and our race horses ; and our steady political progress , or endurance , and our reluctance to rush into revolutions , may be traced to tho state of caloric in our bodies . Tho British constitution , like a fair , quiet , but prosperous , British landscape , is mainly the
growth ot circumstances originating in a very slight degree with the wisdom or ploughing of our ancestors . Physically , tho fact is universally admitted . The hot sun excuses innumerable villains in our dramas and our poetry . The degradation of whole nations has been attributable to tho over facile production , by tho untorturod soil , of simple food—and also to tho want of appetite which the climate suporinducos for any other aliment than , tho unluxurious rico , tho olivo , or tho potato . Wo excuse- a South Amoriciui rovolution as
wo excuse a South American earthquako ; and whon wo talk of * tho unsettled condition of Spain or Italy wo only mean the necessity of despotic treatment for a people who suflcr by the proximity of tho sun , as dogs aro said to suftbr whon tho moon com os nearest to tho earth . But also tho genius of a people h very much dependont upon the stomach of a pooplo , and political conditions aro inseparably
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 29, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29071854/page/12/
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