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Leader (1850-1860), 28th August 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 870, 8?O THE LEADER, [No. 440, Atjgtjst 2g, 1...

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      Borough Elections. Three Of Our Smaller ...

      mainly -with his lordly brother , who , since the extinction of the more potent influence of the Somers family , considers the nomination of the member for Reigate as one of his political perquisites . Lord Monson . tried "to exercise his pretended right lust time "when Sir Henry Rawlinsoii aud Mi-. Delton resisted the attempt , and the former , after a sharp struggle , was returned . Both these mar-plots being now out of the way his lordship looks upon the course as clear . If Mr . James resolves on going to the poll , we cannot doubt that lie will prove a formidable antagonist ; but it is no park of our duty to prophesy results ; and we know too much of the power of proprietorial influence , to say nothing of corruption , iu a small constituency , to iecl any confidence as to the issue in question .

      As at Guildford and at Reigate , so likewise at Leomiaster there is a lord paramount , who reigns over votes and rules over elections . Lord Bateman boasts that he is absolute sovereign of the suffrages of the pseudo-independent borough ; and lie has in the present instance ordained that liis brother shall be returned as his representative in the Lower House of Land-Lords . Some stupid folks who talk at random about things they don't understand , imagined that Mr . "Wilde , Q . G ., might have a fair chance as a Liberal candidate , because Mr . John G . Phillimore happened to have got in for Lord Bateman ' s borough m 1852 . But a preserve is not the less a preserve because it is sometimes poached on ; nor is it the less hazardous to intrude within the sacred line of aristocratic demarcation because

      one nimble fellow has ( partly perhaps by good luck ) escaped the gins and snares with which all ground of the sort is thick-sejt . For our parts / we like calling things by their right names . We like to see a fair race whenever run ; and we are not factiously devoted to any interest , or sworn to bet on this colour and against that . We have always kept clear of those whom our contemporary the Daily Neics calls " the rival election brokers of Pall-mall ; " and we shall ever feel profound indifference as to the state of the

      Oligarchic odds , and the relative winnings of mere Whiggery and mere Toryism . But we cannot allow close borough contests or rotten borough wrangles to pass for appeals to public opinion . If the three lords we have named were to return three of their liveried lacqueys for Guilford i Leominster , and Reigate , it would prove nothing that thinking men are not already convinced , of . Elections for such constituencies as little express the fluctuations of the national mind as the admission by a docile Chapter of a courtier Dean , in obedience to a conge ( FSUre , expresses the opinion of a diocese .

      8?O The Leader, [No. 440, Atjgtjst 2g, 1...

      8 ? O THE LEADER , [ No . 440 , Atjgtjst 2 g , 1858 .

      The American Link Ant) The Russian Chain...

      THE AMERICAN LINK ANT ) THE RUSSIAN CHAIN , It is a circumstance ratber remarkable and highly interesting to notice , that the mean 3 of intercommunications are making their most rapid strides at once towards the west and towards the east-While tlie electric telegraph is successfully laid to unite America more closely with tlie Old World , the Russian empire is engaged in a vigorous eflbrt to extend the system of iron railways eastwavd and southward . It is true that in the decree of

      completeness and rapidity with which the Russians are now filling up the general scheme of machinery for intercommunication , they are infinitely behind us of Western Europe or of America , and we shall have a word to say on . that presently ; but they are performing one of those duties which appears to be half unconsciously fulfilled in the effort to promote their own advantage , and at the same time extending the machinery available for the human race at large . . If we glance at ^ creator ' s chart wo shall see at once the relation which these two endeavours bear to each other , and . the sequel which they must nave . J

      Already it may be considered that the United Kingdom and the greater part of French , German , Spanish , or Italian Europe—using those words iu their largest interpretation—arc am p ly supplied with railways . In the United Stales tlie network is far j » ore _ extensive , although there are still some interstices to be filled up . It is comparatively a short time since the- means of communication in this country bore no comparison to thoso which we now possess , —since tho anxious correspondent wrote Upon the back of Ins letter exhortations for the postman to haste for his life—exhortations , probably , which the postman could not read , and which ho had little means of fulfilling while ho only rode a

      sorry hack , with no machinery to expedite him on his road . Wo now have the penny post , which , within our own day , has been extended , with some imperfections , throughout what we will call , for the present , the commercial world—that is , the belter portion of Europe and the United States , with all tlie British Colonies in every part of the world . Railways exist in the same regions , and accompanying them is an extension of the electric telegraph , with apparatus by means of which messages are conveyed at the rate of about 500 miles an hour , more or less , the consumption of time

      being almost exclusively in ' the repetition of the message at the various stations . It is this system which Russia is trying ; to extend , and although to this point her efforts have not been \ ery successful , it is manifest that many years will not elapse before we see the network of railways , accompanied by the apparatus of the telegraph , extended throughout every part of the ltussiaii Empire which can offer a sufficiency of commerce to support the work Indeed , the failures which the Imperial Government has heretofore encountered are as instructive as the

      degree of progress which she has obtained . Immediately after the termination of the Avar , the Russian Government fulfilled the project which had long been lurking in the mind of the circle of statesmen that reside at St . Petersburg , by announcing the construction of railways for tup whole of the Russian empire not including Siberia . The primary object of these works was to supply the Government with those facilities that the Romans . constructed

      the moment they obtaiued possession of any large provinces—roads . In the days of Julius Caesar the Roman roads were the best known , and , to our own day , they have remained the most perfect specimens of works executed by any highway commissioner . But Western Europe has adopted the railway , and Russia , in order to have any equality in the race , must do the same . The Russian Emperor , therefore , Called for roads exactly as the first Napoleon called for ships , colonies , imd commerce . But pathways of this kind arc as little to be obtained by the mere

      utterance of a wish , as ships , colonies , and commerce . You cannot call for tliem as you would for a glass of ale at a tavern , and the Russian Government has been told so in very plain language . It lias always been reputed one of the richest iu the world , but it could not spend 44 , 000 , 000 / . out of its own pocket for the purpose ; it has the highest credit in the work ) , yet it could not ' obtain that sum frorri the capitalists of Europe for the execution of its impatient desires . No 44 , 000 , 000 / . for a mere military road from St . Petersburg to Taganrog , Thcodosia , or Scbastopol .

      Tlie Government , therefore , caused a commercial company to be formed , with names which we recognise as comprising some of the most intelligent aud active Russians , and some of tlie hi g hest commercial names in Europe , with branches " in the various capitals . The company consents to raise the money by instalments of only 12 , 000 , 000 / . each , iu shares of 20 / . ; and even of the first instalment it will take ¦ a . payment of 0 / . per share , leaving the 14 / . to be paid up afterwards , though loyal Russians arc expected to pay the , whole down on the nail . As many loyal 'Russians do so as can , and the elTect is , that at the end of the first season about live millions and a half has been obtained on that first

      instalment—enough for the company to manage with to the end of the present season . But these operations have hitherto been very partial ; it has done little more than carry on the works alread y commenced in the upper part of Russia . Should it obtain any large proportion of the 12 , 000 , 000 / . for operations in 1850 , it will have completed the communications between St . Petersburg , Dunaburg , Riga , Warsaw , and the Russian frontier , with only intervals which , as tho report naively tells us , are filled un by an excellent highway of the ordinary kind . The company is bound , in obedience to the imperial wish as tho condition of its own existence , and

      begun the work of constructing the Ion" railway , supplying Southern Russia with these facilities , nn ' d uniting Southern Russia with Northern Russia . But . the larger half of the first instalment is still pending , and the company must raiso it . It can only do so by holding out a prospect of returns ; it must therefore show that the mil ways will have n sufficiency of traflio in proportion to their extension . No one expects the passage , of imperial troops along a great line through unpopulous districts to pay , and the need winch the inhabitants of those inter , mediate districts have for roads is so excessive , that , strangely enough , it forbids the hope of return

      for the . present The want of roads in Cental Russia is so great that produce—grain , for oxnS —rises in pnee 100 per cent , within a distant twenty m , les . Branches , therefore , will be needed to feed tho traihe jjmt the population must be supplied with roads before it can afford to iiaT W them , —another instance to teach martinet ' ljolirivS economists how positively- sometimes supply S precede the demand . The great Kussiau raiW therefore with its capital of 4-1 , 000 , 000 / ., of wfocfc it has raised 5 , 400 , 000 / . / and is tryin- to S 5 , 600 , 000 / ., promises to begin its oration b ' constructing the ends of the great lines wS branches that will connect . Theodosia with ihV <*« , of . Azof and the Black Sea . This , ^ doKcdlv will call forth a traffic that will probably , before no distant date , pay for connecting ihn t \™ ,-., ; i .,. „ ..

      systems . of Northern and Southern Russia . Meanwhile , Austria is ¦ gradually extending rail ways through Hungary ; the iron rail lias been seea in i urkey , and is so much needed by the growing prosperity of Bulgaria , and the fine prospects or S . ervm and the Dunubiah Principalities , that we mav look forward to the extension of the iron network down to tlie furthest shores of Europe , accompanying it ., of course , by the telegraph ; and those are now living who will probably see railway parcels and telegraphic messages exchanged between all quarters of Europe ; Spain , perhaps , being aroon » the latest to develop that system m its most coiifplete form .

      But -wh y exclude Siberia ? There is no more reason for it than for the exclusion of Rome , which a high spiritual power once desired to lriaiiitain . ' Railways will of course extend throughout Italy ,, and in proportion to the commercial value of Siberia will they be extended into that part of the Russian , empire . Barbarous as the condition of Southern Siberia may be , it is gradually being ; filled up with an energetic population which has extended its explorations , perhaps its settlements , . ¦ through the passes of the frontier mountains , obtained some kind of footing oh the Amoor or Sagalin river , and will probably be negotiating at no distant day with the Chinese empire to settle the boundaries between the two . Russia , indeed , has already completed her communications so far in that direction that

      her well organised couriers have outstripped our steamers and telegraphs by a month in ' announcing the Satisfactory conclusions of the French aud English negotiations with Pckiu . There is , moreover , nothing to prevent her ( as Mr . Pelennann , the editor , of the Miltheilwigeii , * German geographical journal , has pointed out ) from so extending her telegraphic lines from Moscow to Kiukhia as to obtain in St . Petersburg

      intelligence from I ' ekiu and Peiho in eight days ; and there is little doubt that before long we shall hear that the necessary works are in progress . In the mean time an Asiatic Liverpool is rapidly growing up . Eight years ago the mouth of the Sagalin , the spct on which Nicolayefsky now stands , vas in the midst of a wilderness , it is now a thriving place of commerce , with steam-boats , Russian and foreign , plying on its-waters , and the Russian . Government

      is bent upon allording it every encouragement- lor years we have heard of the mysterious Nicolayefsky ; it is to be mysterious no longer , but a plain fact—a free port , a market for British commerce ; but , above all , a remarkable illustration of the new policy of Russia , the most interesting feal ure of 1 he change being the perfect openness with which all these advances towards China arc being made . Por ourselves , we are to have consuls in Fckm

      and diplomatic agents , the pioneers ol every commercial communication , railways and telegrap hs included . We have already seen that a railway can only extend itself through obedience to the demands of commerce ; but . when oiice it upm'oiiclics tho frontiers of the Celestial Empire it will find most ot the conditions for its extension , a thick population and abundant produce , which can be increased , and a trailing spirit , while the great obstacle , the , exclusiveness oi the Tartar dominion , will have been trampled down by Russin , broken through by France nnu

      England , and , as it were , dethroned . China wo may already consider as the one spot in the vast coinmcrciul world which is yet unsupplied wilh milwuys and telegraphs , but tho exercise of llw ClirwliiW religion , with the tolerance which these prnicsiplcM are calculated to induce , lias already been ailiiuXtctt . The Chinese mind is opened . , Meanwhile tho cable has been laid through mo Atlantic , the efforts to extend this species ot connexion arc proceeding in the Mediterranean * laying in tho Red Sea is only a question ol tiwe

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 870, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28081858/page/14/