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TZo^MSyMMY L, 185&.] Til LIAB'EIL 423
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A PARTICLE IN PE1UL. When the new French...
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¦THE LITERARY FUND. To the "Summary of F...
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The Late Calamity dt Gilbert-stkeet.—On ...
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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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Scottish Manchis-Es. On Thursday, The 6t...
rard , five hundred and sixty years ago—viz ., holcLig of what is called subject-superiors , or , more opularly , middlemen . In England , when freehold i . transferred ,- the purchaser or successor holds of lie King , just as tlie former proprietor did , wifch .-ut any title from the Crown being necessary , and . o feudal superiors can be interjected between the Ling and the proprietor . In Scotland , however , , ny number of feudal superiors , the one holding aider the . othera may he in a manner proprietors of be same -piq . ee of . property , in common with the . ctual possessor , each deriving some kind of interest rom it , paid by the party immediately under him ,
angnig from a considerable sum of money to the luperior immediately above the actual owner , and lecreasing as it ascends , until one of the territorial nagnai . es may probably receive a white rose at Midsummer , or a penny Scots money ' if asked only . * Practically , however , there is no such difficulty ibout Scotch tenures as this antiquated and absurd system might lead us to suppose . It just amounts ; o this , that every piece of land in Scotland confers :. \ vo rights , that of . superiority and that of property , [ f both are-held by the same . person , the land is in Every respect identical with the English freehold .
If the rights are held by different- individuals , then the Scotch superior is in the same position as the owner of ; i perpetual chief or ground rent from an English freehold , and the proprietor-proper is identical with ihc owner of the freehold paying the chief or ground rent , with this difference , that til e Scotch owner is burdened with a double set of titles , one from his predecessor , and one from his superior , who thus recognizes him as his vassal . But the test of a freeholder is one who is . the proprietor of lands in fee to the extent of forty shillings annually after paying all charges including chief or ground
rent . And m Scolland , the very same test may be applied by extending . the franchise to ¦ those who are proprietors-in fee of property yielding forty shillings annually after paying all . charges including fcxi-duty fo superiors . It seems strange that" any objection to such an extension should proceed from those in . Scotland professing to be Liberals , but when their objections arc based upon such a purely technical , ground as-tliat we have described , we may conclude tiiat it is an interested opposition , which statesmen legislating for the three kingdoms in . the same spirit of equality and justice ought entirely to ignore .
Tzo^Msymmy L, 185&.] Til Liab'eil 423
TZo ^ MSyMMY L , 185 & . ] Til LIAB'EIL 423
A Particle In Pe1ul. When The New French...
A PARTICLE IN PE 1 UL . When the new French bill to repress false titles of nobility is passed a new covp d ' efaf will be accomplished . It is oven . said that the imposing particle tic is to be excised unless the owner can show cause to the contrary . " What a revolution ! The Parisian saloons that have so long echoed that indefinite little relic of old style ( the first that , revived after the Revolution ) , will scarcely condescend to echo the
plain Dumonts and Duponts of the new era . Peter the Great- succeeded , - at some risk , in cutting oil " Hussian hoards ; will Louis Napoleon succeed in cutting out , from tlio French mi ml the personal vanity called " equality , " which shapes itself like the Irishman's answer to , " Is not . one man as good as another < "' ' - "lie is , and be / for . " For meddling with French parts of speech he lias the precedent , of Louis XIV ., who changed " nm" into " rarrnssn "
One should bo a Frenchman , we imagine , to understand this and many other matters . Here is a people ; not on the whole men-milliners or nicnmonkeys—a people full of national force and grandeur , most rich in individual nobility—and yet society is overrun -with men who , with something of the snnic poorest of poor vanities which makes a man use rouge , call themselves Counts and Marquises , and with , sueh manners , " that , you would think Nature ' . s journey men had made them , they
imitate Immunity so abominably . " We see faults enough iu English life to keep from our lips any of the pluases of Ihc . Pharisee , hut , we have nothing like this in Englnnd . Ah Louis . Blann says in hi ' s new work , we have , " a rrsprrt for class ilist " met ions . " An Englishman of inferior rank will often insist on keeping up the distinction between him ami the classes that may be called nobility . One instance illustrative of this almost universal feeling wilh the best Englishmen came under our o \ vn eye , A director of one of our best , London bunks ' — a man of wealth and taste , and with a
Westend' mansion , iHiuried the other day a lady , the daughter of a gentleman fanner . * Some' wellmeaning friend inserted in the Tijucn an announcement of the marriage , with the nllix of "Esq . "
to the names of the bridegroom and the father of the bride . The next day , to correct the impropriet y ^ our friend inserted a plain , stiff notice , announcing the marriage of Mr . , of London , to Miss , of- . Here was a man . whose
wealth could back up pretension , insisting that he did not belong to the esquires of the aristocracy . Yet no man would more sturdily assert the independence of the class into which he would not intrude . The French reverse all tin ' s . They will not allow privileges or peculiar respect to any superior class—they are continually decreeing the abolition of nobility , and yet the individual Frenchman covets every mark or' the old nobility down to the doomed "dc" and the bit of red ribbon at the button-hole .
The Emperor ' s councillors should be wary in framing the new law . If they once set up a titular guillotine for the decapitation of particles , may not some cunning foes turn , it against the De Persignys and De Cassagnacs , whose ancestors were not quite entitled to hunt with Louis-le-Graud ? Or , still worse , to expect the suppression of titles assumed without right , is it 3 iot a " culpable expectation " aimed at the " Emperor" himself ?
¦The Literary Fund. To The "Summary Of F...
¦ THE LITERARY FUND . To the " Summary of Facts , " published by the Royal Literary Fund , Mr . C . W . Dilke , Mr . Charles Dickens , and Mr . John Forster , have jointly responded in a statement written incisively , and in its simplicity unanswerable . We are glad to receive this "Answer , " since it not only disposes of the defence set up by the committee , but explains the actual , position of the reformers ,-who have been described as hostile to the secretary , hostile to the house in Great llussell-street , hostile to the Literary Fund itself , hostile to all hut the crotchets of their . own . conceptions . Disentangling the matter in dispute from the irrelevancies artfully
associated with it by the Committee , they press upon the main point— "the sharp needle , " hidden by the committee in a " haystack of words , "the fact that the cost of administering the Literary Fund is enormous beyond all precedent , that the Fund has been perverted from its founder ' s design , that its management covers a multitude of shams , and that its utility is grievously diminished by the system which Mr . Dilke , Mr . Dickens , Mr . Forster , and theix supporters arc endeavouring to reform . The compilers of the " Summary , " in reply to the " Case , " will take very little by their motion , for the
" Answer" is , perhaps , the most damaging blow they have received . It analyzes the accounts of the Society , shows what is expended in creating , aud what in distributing the Fund , exposes the notion of the separate House Fund—which never existed , although subscriptions have been placed to its account . —convicts the oilicials of ; ui attempt to exclude the representatives of the press from their meetings , quotes the opinion of Mr . Justice Willcs , that the reformers , by their projects , do 3 iot propose to violate the original charier , and then deals with the personalities in which it has been the pleasure of the Committee to indulge : —
" ~\\' a hiivo purposelj' reserved until now the many small personal allusions to one or other of ourselves , with which the committee have augmented the size of tliuir haystack for tho hiding of the needle . Our reference to them shall be very short , for we feel a natural kind of shame in becoming parties , however reluctantly , to such little-schoolboy practice . Conceive the Most Noble the Marquis of Lansdowne crying out , ' Please , sir , when I got into difficulty , Master Dickens was there , and lie never slopped ine ! ' Or picture the Right Keverend the Bishop of Oxford , ¦ wi th his forefinger in his eve , protesting , ' upon my word and honour , . sir , it wasn ' t me , sir it , was Master Dilkc ! ' Yet this is tho pervading tone ofliiilftho committee ' s pamphlet . "
The " JSununary" blames the " Case lor its remarks upon the house and the secretary in Great Russell-street . On this point it is necessary that no furl her misunderstanding should exist : — " Wl » y , wo . have told the committee 1 , over and over again , Hint , we no more object to a house than we object to a . secretary . Otn- objection iit to a costly house which is put f (> no use , sure « . s- a jilace of meeting Jin' the . coinmittvoji » ' about two / tours a < t « t / , for ? utte < n / s in the yeav } and to it- were to ri / wfio is put to no use , at nil . " We . will quote one additional passage , which is n courteous retort . : —
" Tlio ' oonnnitten usually desire to know , when we pre . si'ii I llie point of that painful needle to them at the annual meet ings , whether wo think thorn capable of eoiTiiplion V Whether we think they misappropriate the society ' a money ? " Whether wo think they lay it out ou thi'insvlvtis V and . so forth—contributions towards tlio
making of haystacks , much in use among the workers in that kind of architecture . We tell them , Certainly not , and we tell them besides , that we do not in the least doubt their being just , and kind , and tender , iu their giving of such relief as they do give . But , we must venture to add , in closing this ' Answer' to their ' Summary , ' that they form a , remarkable instance of the condition into which good-enough men will often lapse , when-they get behind a large table , each with a fatal clean slieet of foolscap , a fatal clean slieet of blotting-paper , and two fatal clean
pens , before him . They have become the creatures of their own conventions ; they cannot separate tbeir personal-dignity as individuals , from the confession that they are glaringly in fault as a body ; they cannot bear to be questioned or opposed ; they have stopped the clock , and say , ' There is no time ; ' they have darkened the windows , and say , ' There is no day . ' But , they are toe- sleepy and too weak for the age , and the age will beat them away . It is as certain as Death , that they must either set their house La order , or fall without their house , or fall with it . "
The case against the management of the Literary Fund is now complete .
The Late Calamity Dt Gilbert-Stkeet.—On ...
The Late Calamity dt Gilbert-stkeet . —On the reassembling of the coroner's jury on Monday , it was found necessary to order a further adjournment , owing to the illnes 3 of one of the jurymen , who consequently could not attend . Before the jury separated , there was exhibited a model of an apparatus , invented by Mr . Ho'bbs , the American lock picker , the object of which is to show the exact locality of any fire to the persons in charge of the engines at any of the stations . The
anparatus ( which has been patented by Mr . Hobbs ) is very simple . There is a small case in which an indicator is arranged , pointing to various figures , such as No . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , & c , on the face of the instrument , and in every street is to be placed a pillar , through which the electric current passes , so that by simply touching a button in that pillar all confusion and delay are avoided , and the engines immediately summoned to assistance . This apparatus has been approved by Mr . Brunei , and is to be used on board , the Leviathan . The adjournment of tlie inquest is to next Tuesday .
The Sewage of London . —The preliminary report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the best mode of distributing the sewage of towns has been laid on the table of the House of Commons . " Convinced by the representations of Mr . Goldsworthy Gurney , " says a summary in the Times , " that the mere diversion of the sewage will not purify the Thames from its present foul condition , the effect of past accumulations , the Commissioners recommend the immediate execution of the embankment scheme , propounded by the Metropolis Improvement Commission of 1844 . Advanced terraces being constructed , continuous on the surface , but affording convenient entrances to inner basins for the wharfs above London-bridge , reservoirs are to be formed in tlie embankments adjacent to the mouths of the existing sewers , into which all the sewage
is to be received and deodorized , and from winch—the purified water being first allowed to flow into the riverthe precipitated matter will be pumped into the country or to the sea . The reservoirs and apparatus are to be beneath the surface , and consequently invisible ; so that no nuisance whatever can be apprehended . The subsidiary parts of the scheme are the adornment of the river , the relief of the streets by the terrace carriage ways between London and Westminster , and the connexion by railroad of the existing termini on the southern shore . The cost of the entire works is estimated at 3 , 2 oO , 000 £ , exclusive of any approaches which may be formed in connexion with the new thoroughfares . " The report is signed—" Essex , Henry Ker Seymor , Robert llawlinson , J . Thomas Way , J . 1 $ . Lawes , T . Southwood Smith , John Simon . Henry Austin . "
Dit . Bkhnahd and Mii , Edwin Jamics . —Mr . Edwin Jaunes and a friend entered , on the evening of Friday week , the Cafd Chantaut in Leicester-square , when the former , being recognised , was received with shouts of applause . lie was introduced to the proprietor ( a Frenchman ) , who showed his guest some civilities , and . while he remained there , the Marseillaise hymn was sxuig by tho professional vocalists present . This little incident appi'nrs to have encouraged certain persons to
announce Unit , on the following dny , Mr . James and Dr . Bernard would '" appear , " in order that "the friends of liberty" miglit give them an ovation . Between two and three hundred persona assembled ; but Mr . James and Dr . Bernard were not among them . The latter , it is understood , has expressed great displeasure nt the use which wan made of his name . lie observed that he is not a Nana Sahib or an hippopotamus , that any one should presume to exhibit him for money .
Fivio CiiiiAmic-N at onk BiiiTH . —A woman named " Klspet Gordon , roauliii / r in liotlies , has given birth to tlireo male and two female children . Tho throe- boys were bom alive , and lived till the following morning ; hut tho two girls were , . still-born . The births worn premature , being in tho sixth month ; but all wero full grown for tho period of gestation . One of tho boys actually haul two front tooth when ho cmno into tho world . Tlio woman is doing well . — ¦ llli / in CourcuU .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 1, 1858, page 423, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_01051858/page/15/
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