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feeling of religion whatever ? " and who was very properly saluted by cries of " Question" ; Mr . George Game Day , of St . Ives , who made a good average defence of protection on the old grounds , and who corrected the erring genius of Mr . Long by calling upon the Protectionists to abjure Sectarianism altogether in their conflict ; Mr . Bell , of Kent , who was for going back to 1818 , and who uttered the startling doctrine that 'every British labourer was entitled to demand that nothing which could be produced at home should be introduced from abroad" ; Mr . Reid , an " operative , " who knew that thcworking man wanted protection as well as the landlord ; Mr . Cayley Worsley , who had seen and heard wonderful things .
• ' In travelling up from Brighton a day or two ago , he had met with a sailor , who told him there were thousands of blue jackets who intended working their passage to the United States , and forswearing their allegiance , in the hope that the stars and stripes would soon float over the Union-Jack . { Hear , hear . ) He astonished him ( Mr . W . ) not a little by telling him tha , t a foreigner came into harbour the other day with a cargo of corn , for which he took back gold , and never spent a shilling in this country . He ( Mr . W . ) asked how they lived , and the sailor replied , with an oath , ' On sea-weed and periwinkles . '"
A speech followed by a burst of , we should say incredulous , " Loud laughter . " Mr . Worsley asserted that the tenant-farmer , and not the landlord , suffered by free trade . Colonel Kinloch , a " stanch Scotch Protectionist , " made a curious speech , which ought to have been reserved until after dinner ; and the . meeting was finished with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman . The lesser meeting at St . Martin ' s-hall had Lord Stanhope for president . He told them that it was well known that out of 211 Peers who voted for the repeal of the Corn-laws , only seven did so conscientiously . The meeting was subsequently addressed by Mr . Young , Captain Vyse , M . P ., Mr . Bronterre O'Brien , and others . A tailor called upon them to carry a resolution " to protect the wages of labour , " but he could find no seconder .
The Dinner was attended by all the notables . Mr . George Frederick Young occupied the chair , and in his main after-dinner speech , was cruel enough to find fault with Punch for representing him as Don Quixote ! The Duke of Iiichmond madaa declaration which we trust will be remembered at future elections . He said he never made a bargain for the votes of his tenants , and he should despise a tenant who voted in obedience to his request . He urged the meeting to place the fullest confidence in Lord Stanley and Mr . Disraeli . The Earl of Winchelsea improved upon his morning speech . He connected Catholic Emancipation and Free Trade ! But Colonel Sibthorp made the oration of the evening : —
" He believed the day was near at hand when they would have protection not only in all its splendour , but in all its permanence . ( Cheers . ) He characterised the Exposition as a combination of foreigners to rob them of their rights and their freedom . Let them beware of mentraps and spring guns—they would have all their food jobbed—they would have a piebald generation , half black jtnil half white ( great laughter ) ; but he could assure them th . it his arm at hast would he raised to prevent such a violation . ( Cheers and laughter . ) They might look for assassinations—for being stabbed in the dark ; but , careless of that , he was determined to pursue an even and straightforward course , and lie would say that the dearest wish of his heart was , thai that confounded building called tlw Crystal Palace mii / ht be dashed to ptcees . ( "Hear , hear , " and cries of " ( Jhair- " )
Mr . Booker was saluted with " all the cries of the hunting field ; " Mr . Young , proposing the health of the Labouring Classes and Lord Stanhope , hoped the former would soon be ; convinced that the big and cheap loaf was a delusion ! Lord Stanhope said' * the rights of labour consisted in this—that no men should bo obstructed in their pursuits ; " the I ' ost , Herald , and Standard were duly complimented , anil tho distressed gentlemen returned to their desolate hoine . s . It is remarked by everybody that neither Lord { Stanley nor Mr . . Disraeli was present at either gathering .
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WHMKK SHALL \ VK BURY OUR DKAD ? A long and interesting Report , dated " Whitehall , April 2 nd , 1 N /> 1 , " and signed " Ashley , lOdwin Chadwick , umlT . iSouthwood Smith , " has been presented to Parliament and published , on Kxtrumural Interments in the country towiiH . According to the report , tlic country generally is in favour of an Act of Parliament for prohibiting the burial of the dead within the limits of towns : and certainly the evidence furnished by the corps of inspectors acting under the orders of the Board of Health , of the over-crowded uml disgusting state of our graveyards , suilieiently warrants the conclusions of public opinion . The inspectors have examined the burial places of 200 towiiH , and found them mainly in an bad a . condition nti those of London .
A few inntain ; es will { jive an idoti of the general condition of the inspected district !* . At Great Yarmouth J ) , 2 . 'l « » bodies have been buried in the parish churchyard in twenty years . At Burnlcm and other towns , bodies arc brought into the town from the
country ; and at Norwich the churchyards , which Evelyn declared to be , 200 years ago , a " congestion of dead bodies , one on another for want of earth , even to the very top of the walls , and some above the walls , " have since received no less than half a million in addition ; consequently , in the words of the report , " a very large portion of the soil , for the depth of mariy feet , consists of decomposed human bodies . " Dover , Huddersfield , Portsmouth , and other towns are in the like condition . In Penrith the churchyards contain , some twenty-one , others fourteen and fifteen layers of bodies . The stench arising from these patches of corruption in summer is so strong and baneful , that one instance is reported of the windows of a church opening on the yard being boarded up !
At Banbury and Beaconsfield , we are told that the coffins swim about in the vaults ; the sexton of the former stating that he always got the water out as nigh as he could when the parties were coming out of church . The remedy for these evils the Board of Health find in a general prohibitory Act , giving adequate powers to the local boards for establishing cemeteries , and reserving to the Central Board the duty of supervision . The machinery created by the Public
Health Act would be available for this purpose ; and it is recommended that general district rates be levied under such Act where it is in operation , for meeting preliminary expenses ; and where it is not , those expenses to be charged on the poor-rates . Choice of sites , plans , burial arrangements , all these are to be subject to the approval of the Board of Health . An administrative function , the raising and control of the necessary funds , would be entrusted to the local boards .
Not the least important paragraphs of the report are those which detail the obstacles in the way of improvement . These may be indicated as consisting of enormous expense attending special acts of Parliament ; difficulties of inducing unity of action among the interested parties ; and ignorance among the local authorities . It is also stated that the provincial cemeteries have generally failed hitherto , and that , in spite of the over-crowded state of the graveyards , bodies are continually sent to be buried .
Un . the whole the report contains ample proof of the necessity for burial without the limits of towns ; but it may be questioned whether the centralizing tendency is not too much introduced into the plan recommended to Parliament .
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THE BOARD OF CUSTOMS AND THE LONDON DOCK COMPANY . The Board of Customs do not allow that they were defeated in February last in the vexatious charge brought by them against the London Dock Company . On that occasion the trial lasted eleven days , cost £ 20 , 000 , and concluded by a verdict in favour of the latter . Possibly , both time and money have been spent in vain . Por on Monday the Attorney-General was allowed , in the Court of Exchequer , to take a rule to show cause why a new trial should not be granted to the Crown , because the February verdict , with reference to a certain parcel of twenty-seven
casks of sugar , was incorrect ; and the Dock Company also obtained a similar rule in self-defence . The charge brought against the Dock Company was , that they bad concealed certain goods with a view to evade the duty . Now these twenty-seven cawks of sugar were the gradual accumulation of samples , stowed away , but not concealed , for the Customhouse officers knew well enough of their existence . But it appears that Pouting , a foreman , linding in his possession two boxes of sugar for which he could not account , with the assent of Wickos , a deputy warehousekeeper , mixed them with the regular
sweepings . The I'ebruury verdict was found for the Board respecting these ; two boxes , but for the Docks an to the rest . This wun substantially an acquittal . Now , on the part of the Crown , there is an attempt made to set aside the whole verdict ; and on the part of the Dock Company , to obtain a new verdict which shall distinctly exonerate them from the charge of evading the duty . Sir I ' . Kelly , who appeared on their behalf , argued that an act done by a servant of the Dock Company , with intent to defraud the Company , could not be construed into a fraud by the Company itself against the Crown . No doubt seems to be entertained that there will be a new trial .
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KMlUKA / nON AILSKRIlvS . A document has been presented to the House of Commons , which discloses the miseries that emigrants suffer fi out the captains ami crews of the . emigrant ships . Mr . Vcre Foster , a gentleman interested in emigration , tock a steerage passage to New York in the ship Washington , in November last ,, in order that he might become thoroughl y acquainted with the subject ,. His diary is published , mul letter . . If the accuracy of that diary can be relied upon , no serious doubt , can possibly be entertained as tothe comparative felicity of brutes and of emigrants in ships commanded and ollicered as wuh the Washington . No animal that we are aware of , except mi emigrant , would have been inducted into a vessel in the manner which tlmt gentleman dcBcribeH
" There was no regularity or decency observed with regard to taking the passengers on board the ship ; men and women were pulled in any side or end foremost , like so many bundles . I was getting myself in as quickly and dexterously as I could , when I was laid hold of by the legs and pulled in , falling head foremost down upon the de ' , and the next man was pulled down upon the top of me . I was some minutes before I recovered my hat , which was crushed as flat as a pancake . " After bruising and half suffocating them , the next step , it appears , was to starve them into submission . This object , indeed , could not be accomplished without the commision of a flagrant breach of contract ;
but that consideration seems to have given very little uneasiness to Captain Page . The contract tickets which the emigrants obtain from the owners of the vessel in which they embark , stipulate that a certain quantity of provisions shall be given out each day ; but , notwithstanding this , for four entire days from the time of their leaving Liverpool , no food whatever was served out to them . A mild expostulation on the part of the passengers , which was addressed to the captain at the suggestion of Mr . Foster , called forth threats of summary vengeance against that gentleman , and induced one of the mates seriously to think of enforcing " discipline" by the application of a redhot iron bar . The remonstrance appears , however , to have had the desired effect ; and we might
naturally suppose that the food which had been withheld from the emigrants for four days would have been added to the quantity thus tardily distributed . Instead of this , only about half the allowance of provisions paid for under contract by the passengers was supplied to them ; and this system was continued during the whole of the voyage . Mr . Foster has carefully noted down the exact quantity of sustenance meted out each day to the emigrants , comparing it with that to which they were entitled ; and , if we can depend upon his calculations , the result of his observations was the detection of Captain Page and his officers in the systematic commission of the grossest fraud . In the diary we read : —
• ' Whenever provisions are served out , a sailor stands by with a rope's end , and capriciously lays about him , with or without the slightest provocation . The captain never appears to trouble himself in the slightest degree about the passengers , nor even ever to visit the part of the ship occupied by them . The first and second mates the surgeon , and the man specially appointed to look after the passengers and the cooks ; all these very seldom open their lips without prefacing what they may have to say with— 'God d your soul to h— , you d
b ! ' or , 'By J- C , I'll rope ' s end you ; ' or some other expression from the same category . " The conduct of the surgeon of the vessel seems to have harmonized happily with that of his brother officers . The medical attendance appears to have been confined to those passengers from whom ho could extort fees—a species of remuneration which he had not the smallest right to demand ; and for any matter which might afflict the remainder he seems to have considered blasphemous execration to be the fittest remedy . Some general idea of the suavity of that gentleman ' s disposition , and of his zeal in the performance of his duties , may be obtained from his own words , as given by Mr . Poster : — " There are a hundred cases of dysentery in the ship , which will all turn to cholera ; and I swear to God that I will not go amongst them . If they want medicine they must
come to me . " The following is a specimen of the consequences which mistakes , however venial , entailed upon the luckless passengers in the Washington . An old man having applied for his allowance of provisions—which , without his knowledge , had already been served out for bin use—" The first mate , " says Mr . Foster , " rushed at him , beat him , and knocked him down , using the most insolent and blasphemous language . " But the officers of the Washington did not trouble themselves to search for pretexts , when , as was pretty often the ease , they were cruelly disposed . An infirm
old man , whilst in the act of " wringing a pair of stockings" in a stooping posture , was saluted by tho frolicsome first mate with a violent kick , which laid him prostrate on the deck , and caused a serious internal injury . Further instances of the mild administration of justice , the temperate preservation of dujpipliiu 1 , and the regard for decency and humanity , which prevailed on board the Washington , are related in the letter and tliary . Nor is there any reason to believe that , the ease ; of that vessel is solitary or exceptional . From inquiries made by Mr . Foster on his arrival at Mew York , it . appears that , so far nt least as regards one of the lines of packets , she . was no unfavourable ; specimen of an emigrant ship .
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DOrNUH IN TllK UNITKI ) STATUS . The Ittiltic , besides an interesting mail , brought over 200 pansengers . She made the transit , in twelve days , leaving New York on the Kith of April and reached Liverpool on the 2 ftth . The ciiHe of . SimuiH , t . lie fugitive slave , captured at lioHt . on , in concluded . Ho hun Ixti-n adjudged , at . nino o'clock ou l . h «> morning of Apiil t lu > 11 th , t . o " owe " Hirvicc to Iiiw mauler , and tukni hack by sea to the place from y hi . h he came . Mvery attempt , was made l > y tho abolitionism to prevent hm am under . Tin ; hulicua
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410 fffjC ilfrtfctfr * [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), May 3, 1851, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1881/page/6/
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