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December 29, 1855.] T HE. LEADEB., 1^9
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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 Spitalfields Weavers. We Are Glad To...
session of the race . There is no necessity for doing so . Government has not exhausted the subject . With regard to inquiries , it has but scratched the surface . It has , in fact , asked such things as Sir Charles Tbevelyan and Sir Stafford Northcote desired to ask—no more ; it has made suggestions such as Sir Charles and Sir Stafford approved . It has used its opportunity for going over a broad surface , but a real public body mig ht beat it by p loughing deeper . And auxiliaries mig ht be found . We have already seen a public officer , of hig h rank , mount the roof of the Admiralty , and look down into the Horse Guards ; how " much more easily might that officer look into his OAvn department ! Mr . Oshorxe is not lost to the public , because he happens to be in the Government . He -would not refuse to answer questions put to him by a member of Parliament . There is no department that would be so instructive as his own . Why do not the Administrative Reformers , then , concentrate their attention upon that one office ? We have no favour for the Admiralty ; and if opportunity existed for investigating another , let that other be taken ; but whether it is the Colonial-office , or the Admiralty , let us have a thorough investigation of some one department . Let us understand how it is composed ; how the business is done ; what are the forms , what the time , occupied by the individual public servants , what their capacities are , what are the mistakes , what are the checks upon * errors , what is the amount of money expended , what the amount of waste in maladministration , what the degree of light periodically thrown upon the department by its accounts and reportsin short , what the department is , how it works , what it does , what it costs , what it mig ht dp , and what mig ht be saved . If the Administrative Reformers set out upon the mission of running the round of all the public departments , thev would have a task before them for many " a year ; but the public would thoroughly support them . While anatomising one department , they would inevitably drag all the others into practical improvements of a provisional kind . This , then , is the course to set out upon—a round of compulsory inquiry into all the public departments , with a view to anatomising thorn , fastening upon one to begin with . The anatomy would be the first step towards the design of a reform . Let us know what the Admiralty is , and then we should learn what would be the proper measures for making it what it ought to be . This is work to be done in Parliament . Half a dozen men could accomplish it if they set about it in earnest , showed a definite purpose , and called for public support . But here a ^ ain the Administrative Reformers have failed in using the opportunities that lie before them . They have endeavoured to act too nrnch as an association simply of the persons engaged . They have not laid their plan of operations before the public ; they have not said : We intend thus to explore the ptibhc offices , and this one in particular ; and we ask y ou to make your members grant us the committee necessary for the inquiry . " They have fallen too much into the plan of endeavouring to compete with some local interest for the favour of the local lawyer , who always settles elections . In fact , they have tried to fig ht the corruptions upon electioneering tactics . r llu » will not do . They will not find the electioneering lawyers support them , except here and there ; they would find support from the public . JNox is it only the vote-holding classes that would lend them an efficient help ; there is also the class that ought to have votes . They might stand before the working classes and say ,
' 'We want to anatomise your Government ; we want to show you how your work is done , or undone ; how your money is taken out of your pockets , and wasted ; we are obstructed by a feeble non-representing Parliament ; you are robbed by bad servants—jobbed away by narrow constituencies , who send members to be the agents for procuring patronage . An extension of the constituencies to purify them is a good thing , and if we get a purer Parliamerit , we should have Administrative Reform . Administration of the public department is also a good thing ; if we get it , it would help us in procuring extension of the franchise and purification of the constituencies . Either helps the other . " The working classes know this , and if they saw a bold spirit in the Administrative Reformers , they would call upon the House of Commons to obey the demands of the Association , or to let them know the reason why . ABRAHAM AND NAOMI . The confession of Abraham Baker is a moral tale of which the autobiographer himself could not read the moral . It is in its way as affecting as Charles Lamb' s Rosamond Gray , but it is -without a Matravis . No novelist could more powerfully depict the Avorking of simple and powerful emotions in the man ' s breastnone could better paint the struggles of a strong love with an understanding too slow to appreliend its own working , or to utter its own meaning ; and too deaf , as it were , to catch the accents of impatient love in another . No story was ever p lainer , except to the very man that tells it . He " took up with this young woman about two years ago " —for , he repeats several times , that he always explained himself , even to her , in the most homely and humble way — too humbly perhaps , not with sufficient confidence and strength of will , —too homely , not with sufficient imagination to conceive the very drama he was acting . They were fellow-servants and had to bear the chances of separation ; but their mutual affection surmounted obstacles with the proverbial power of lovo . Both Avere " seriously " inclined in relig ion , and in one respect only does Abraham complain of Naomi ' s conduct , which appears in all things else to have been without reproach . He was kind to her beyond the usage of his class : he helped her mother ; he treated herself with unbroken respect " When avo met avc Avere almost too happy to see each other , " he says ; and he draws no distinction in saying so , between himself and Naomi . But , notwithstanding her " serious" turn and her lovo , she exasperated him with a certain coquettishness . When she was absent , she sent him letters " joking about young men ; " when he had to take a new place at a distance , she told him that as he was goin" so far away they had better part , and she sent me a note and a box with a few things he had g iven her . " He " felt that "— " I went into my bedroom and could not help crying . Three days afterwards , however , she sent him a letter saying that she wished to see him again , and asking him to write two lines to say tliat he had forgiven her . Hi * answer is characteristic . "I complied with her wish 1 told her that I would forgive her everything and wished to meet in peace again . On the Sunday following I would bring my likeness and tAVO books for her . We spent a happy evening and were sorry to part when tei : o'clock came . " Ho was out of work , and Went to live at Southampton for nearly a month . " Naomi lcopt writing to mo and I to her . Hh < wished very much to oomo and live with mo , and «»»< was rather jealoiu . of mo , but her own ^^ •"""] there was no occnuion for it whatever . What time J had to spare in tho evening I went to the clmpoi . He obtained a p laoe with . Mrs . Poyndkk , "'™
through him Naomi obtained a place in the same house ; she obtained it without seeing her mistress , on the strength of a A-ery high character : — " We were very glad to sec eacli other . I told her that as we parted once , I wished to remaiu with her as another fellow-servant . Hor -reply was , Very well . ' ' If Mrs . Poynder should hear of our intimacy as has passed , we must only speak the truth . Wo knew right from wrong in every Christian way , a ? we had always done ever siuco we had known cr . ch other , and hoped that Ave may continue the same . Her answer Avas , in a very Christian-like . lmrnnor , ' Very well . ' " Mr . Poynder Avent to Anglesca ; Abraham Avith him , Naomi remaining Avith her mistress : — " I never in my letters sent her any joke 3 to upset her mind , which she frequently did iu her * when I was at Anglesea . I put my thoughts back to when I was at Bembridge , and thought of it very much , a * Mrs . Poynder had workmen in the house . Naomi oontinued to write in a joking way . I wrote and told her not to send any more jokes , it so A-ery much upset my mind receiving so much from her in that way . She ^ wrote and told me she would not do it again . In the co \ ir 3 e of a short time I asked her if « he would like to' see me any more ; if not , sho would bo kind enough to send my box and a few things to No . 8 , on the Strand . She wrote and told inc sho did not wish , to see me anymore ; neither should she send my things to the Strand . " He did not Avish to go back to meet her , but Mrs . Poynder Avas about to move : " there was much packing to be done , and I did not like to leave her Avithout a man-servant . " Many traits came out which show that for all his exasperating quietude on the surface , Abraham was a real gentleman . He does not appear to have been at all aware of the strugg le that was going on in the girl ' s mind . AY'hen he returned to Southampton , he did not see Naomi until some time after he had been in the house ; as he passed the kitchen door , a fellow-servant said , " Baker , here is some one Avants to sec you . " It never occurred to Abraham , apparently , that Naomi had caused him to be called in . " It is not probable that their fellow-servant did it , spontaneously , because she had seen nothing particular in their intercourse : " I did not judge from their conduct that he was in love with her , or she with him . " And Avhat did Abraham do when he entered the kitchen ? He offered to shake hands with her , and hoped she was Avell ! And this was when he hardly knew what he was about for love , —so much that he Avas on the point of an insane murder . He " spoke tocher several timos—respecting the work ; " what if he had spoken of something else V He says that she had never shown her temper show so much before ; but even in his reproaches he seems never to have been hurried into speaking out . lie said nothing more to her that day , nor the next , but continued , as tho American Indian says , eating his own heart , " until I used that unlawful weapon . " . Who docs not understand tins tale , so simply and so powerfully told by the principal actor ? It is curious that he can describe with the force and clearness of a Godwin or a ( Jkoiiok Sanw the Hi « ns of emotion that he could not interpret ° It Avill be seen that he had deep feeling at his heart—that he had sufficient power ol utterance to make the girl conscious of that feeling ; but that a dreadful reserve , an unconquerable restraint kept him from expressing ; himself or giving utterance l <> any strong wishes or decided purpose . 'Jlio girl 011 the , other hand , it is clear , Lad a strong , «>«« P . »" ' faithful attachment to l ,. m ~ -b .. t f •« ™ as mi patient—sh <> was rxnuperntcd at Iwh coldness iTTc surface H 1 . 0 W .. H only too happy to see him , grieved to part ; yet sho paiteu—3 and r unfed ; sent him back h . » presents > -evoked them ; coquetted "nd B » v « way to ' , h decided wwhcH , when those washes were ' xprised , with a « Chrtetmn-Hko" rtjign ation . , Us clear hatshe was exasperated at Abraham
December 29, 1855.] T He. Leadeb., 1^9
December 29 , 1855 . ] T HE . LEADEB ., 1 ^ 9
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 29, 1855, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29121855/page/13/
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