On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (7)
-
cop <^)*p ^jjwp ix h PV
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
public %Mts,
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
Mr . Disraeli made the following statement of a case which is of national interest : — " Lieutenant Wyburd , an English gentleman in the service of the Honourable East India Company , was sent on a diplomatic mission of great peril from Persia to the Khan of Khiva . From that period ten years elapsed before any information transpired concerning him , and no intelligence was received of his having reached Khiva . In 1845 it was announced that he had never reached Khiva , but that he had heen seized by the Ameer of Bokhara and imprisoned ; and , on an inquiry instituted by Government , on the application of his sisters , the petitioners , having been made , it was ascertained that Lieutenant Wyburd had actually been seized by the Ameer , and had been imprisoned ; but it was added that it was now believed he was dead . Some time after the petitioners had reason to believe he was not dead , and made a representation
to her Majesty's Ministers , calling on them to make proper application to the potentate in whose power their brother was , and to assert his claim to be released from captivity as a British subject , and as a British subject in the employment of the Crown ; but the petitioners were always met , not by the present , but under the Government which preceded them , with the assumption , probable enough , that Lieutenant Wyburd was no more . In 1848 , just thirteen years after he was sent from , Persia , it was discovered that Lieutenant "Wyburd was not only alive , but that he had escaped from his captivity in Bokhara , that he had sought assistance from the Khan of Kokan , but that he had been detained by him , and was then in what might be considered as virtual slavery in Kokan . The Khan of Kokan , being on friendly relations with the East India Company , communicated the intelligence to their officer in these terms : — *
" I have seized a Sahib at the fort of Huzrut Sooltan , -who came by the road of Tashkent ! and Dusht-i-Kuzack ; his name is Wypart , an Englishman , he says , and not a Russian , and that he has been travelling many years . He has two Persians with him , named Mohummud and Hussein , who say they wer ^ formerly in Stodart ' s service , and were sold at Bokhara , and purchased by Wypart . These men say their master is English . Now , I have sent Alia dad to ascertain from you whether he is really English or not ; that , should he be so , I may _ treat him with honour ; but , if Russian , that I may punish him " He invited those acquainted with the facts to afford some explanation of their views . Mr . Elliot replied , but Sir James Hogg stated the real difficulties of the case : —
" In the first place , it was at all times difficult to communicate with Kokan . the geographical and political difficulties of doin ^ so were almost insuperable . It was between 500 and 600 miles to the north-east of Peshawur ; the intervening country was a continuity of mountains almost impassable , and the districts on the route were inhabited by barbarous and savage tribes , through whom it was scarcely possible for any traveller to pass with safety to bis life , unless he was protected by the sanctity of his character , and went as a fakir or dervish . The difficulties of an intervention must have been immensely increased by the circumstances which had taken plice on the frontier in 1848 , when Colonel
Lawrence himself was taken prisoner , and remained in captivity till 1849 , when on his r l « 'ase he had despatched his messenger to Kokan . In January , 18-51 , a despatch was sent from the B «> ard of Directors to the local Government , desiring that every possible means should be used to ascertain the safety and secure the liberation of this unfortunate gentleman . An assurance to that effect was given to his sisters , but when they urged the propriety uf selecting an English officer they were told the company would not pledge themselves to Buch a thing , but that the local Government would adopt the beat means in their power to provide for their brother ' s safety . "
A remark made by Mr . Elliot strongly corroborated the views of Sir James Hogg : — " The House must remember the cases of Captain Conolly and Colonel Stodart . Even the letter of the Queen , with her own signature , to the Khan of Bokhara failed to save their lives . Those officers fell at Bokhara , and an officer who went on a similar expedition would fall alao . " The jury on the fatal Clay-croas Railway accident hare returned the following verdict : — " The jury are unanimously of opinion Mi at the deaths of John Meynell and John lilake have beta caused by the reckless iipeed at which Strctton was driving the engine of the luggage train on the night of Monday , the 19 th of May , and
pronounce a verdict of ' Manslaughter' against him . f he jury cannot nuflicicntly condemn the practice of allowing a luggage train to start five minutes after a passenger train without sufficient measures being taken to ensure the former keeping its relative distance from the other , as marked in the 'Time Tables . ' The jury consider the officials guilty of great negligence in not placing a break behind the last carriage of the passenger train on the night the accident occurred . It is also their opinion that a proper person ought to be on duty at the semaphore of the Clay-cross station to attend to the night signals as well as those of the day , and strongly
reprobate the neglect of the precaution . 'Ihe jury consider the practice highly improper of allowing the passenger traiiiu to atop nt stations not named in the time tables . *' Since the celebrated Praslin murder no foreign crime has equalled the depravity and atrocity of the attendant and principal circumstances of the alleged murder of ( iiirttuve I ^ ougnies by hia sister ' s husband , Count Hippolyte Viaart de Bocarme . The deadly poison , nicotine , wa » adininintcred during a dinner at the house of the count , in Huiiiuult , latU November . The trial in now pending before the Court of A * nlzen of Moiih , in Belgium . \ Vc !> liiill Rive full p&riiculurii next week .
Cop ≪^)*P ^Jjwp Ix H Pv
cop <^)* p ^ jjwp ix h PV
Untitled Article
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN . " Our glorious constitution ! " Hath it not vouchsafed to us great blessings ? Look at the proceedings in Parliament this week , and see how we live politically . There is work to do , and how are we not doing it ! Colonial affairs have heen on the tapis ; and from the statement of Mr . Baillie , an honest independent Member , we find that our Government is accused of having sent to Ceylon a man who made up for incompetency by rash and arbitrary
conduct . The Home Government is charged with continuing that Governor after he had been denounced , although it cannot disprove the accusation . The Colonial-office is also accused of resorting to strange shuffling of documents , and of having thrice substituted the word " Ditto" for another in a blue book ; and that charge was triumphantly reviewed . Our colonies are disaffected , charges of tyranny , neglect , and " enormous lying , " are levelled at Ministers ; but Mr . Hawes did not fraudulently write " ditto . "
Over the foreign department presides Lord Palmerston : there is a great conspiracy abroad , against civil and religious liberty , whereof John Russell is a witness . Lord Palmerston is the Hercules for ever contending on the side of Reform , against Gorgons and chimeras dire ; bat some how he never hits where he intends . He does not " miss the bluebottle and floor the Mogul , " but excels the slave of Absolutism in ever missing the Mogul , and vindicating British might by flooring some miserable bluebottle like Greece . His blows are like those of the Coburg bravo , over
which the brave hero is to leap—desperate to look at , but as easy to surmount as his " spirited " defence of Hungary , or his armed intervention for Sicily . Lord Palmerston smiJes , says smart things , professes handsomely , never flinches , is a most good-natured gentleman and pleasant ; the House questions , shouts , listens , laughs ; and through all the chance-medley Lord Palmerston comes out as spruce and as cool as if he had never left the drawing-room , still " representing" the electors of Tiverton , still representing " England" in the councils of Europe !
In home affairs the most prominent measure of Government is still that eternal Ecclesiastical Titles Bill , which is setting Protestant against Catholic throughout the country , lest Cardinal Wiseman should supersede the verger of St . Peter ' s , Westminster , or make encroachments on beadle rights in the parish of St . Mary ' s , Birmingham . And over all is Lord John Russell , who takes
the Anti-Papal Bill for the broom with which he is to sweep back the tide of Reaction menacing civil and religious liberty ; who colleagues with Lord Grey , trusts in Lord Palmerston , is trusted by the Financial Reformers , promises a Reform Bill for next session , and cannot perHuade the Faithful Commons to keep quiet a little while he gets on with his measure of salvation ! The People of that Ministry—what is it doing ? Not much . The middle class is playing at reform in its Financial Association ; the politicians of the working classes have a scanty following , no mastery , and are probably awaiting for the next period of " distress " to awak e " the millions "— % o awake them from the anarchy of apathy into the discipline of disaffection .
But there is this distinction between the People and its masters : thn working classes arc discussing fundamental questions of politics and society ; and distinguished men of the professional classes , such as Mill , Kingsley , and Herbert Spencer , are helping the discussion : they are prepared for a great move when we do move . The Ministry class seeirs to think that all will go on as it does ! They read not the signs of the times , but only the Times ;
and that not closely . They have not even the insight of the reckless politicians who cried " After us , the deluge . " They cheer each other in tiding over session after session , and think that they can put off cyclical events like bills , till " next session . " The actors at the theatres sing " God save the Queen / ' and audiences take off their hats while the form is observed : the Minister class has no longer any care to sing " God save the Queen" its motto is , take care of the places and the Queens will take care of themselves ; so it makes Commissionerships , takes turns in State Secretaryships , and ever as it goes about and about , keeps up a polite burden of " Vogue la galere . "
Untitled Article
HOW SHALL THE WORKING CLASSES GO TO THE EXPOSITION ? The first shilling day at the Great Exposition was a comparative failure as to numbers . All anticipations proved incorrect ; all precautions were waste of labour and police . From some cause or other the multitude did not besiege the Crystal Palace on the first day . We believe that everybody expected everybody else was going , and the result was that nobody went—except those who did . But this result has raised the question—Will the working classes go to see the marvellous sight in Hyde Park ? and a further question—Do they feel any desire to see it ?—and , if so , Have they the pecuniary means of doing so ?
We have no doubt at all as to the first question Great numbers of the better-paid working classes will go . The second requires a fuller reply . Numbers of working men look upon the Exposition as an expensive fancy , in which the middle classes , with Prince Albert at their head , have thought proper to indulge . One view of the interior would convince them of their error . But how are they to get that view ? Numbers , on the other hand , really desire to see the sight , and will feel particularly di >< appointed if they do not see it . And how are they to fulfil their desire ? Are they rich enough to afford one shilling ? A working
man is not like a shopkeeper . A shopkeeper can afford a shilling—a little ex > ra profit will repay him . A working man ' s wage is fixed—the work for which he receives it extremely uncertain . Probably he has a wife , and it may be children old enough to go to a sight like the Exposition . If he propose to take his wile and one child—he must look long at the three shillings before he spends them . If , upon consideration , he find that the three shillings are required to pay the baker or the landlord , farewell to a visit to the Exposition . Taken as a body , then , we believe that the working classes have a desire to see the show , but not the means .
The Exposition will fail in one essential point if the working classes have not the chance of inspecting it . The middle classes do not stand so high in the opinion of those they employ as to be able to meet the assertion , that " the working men cannot afford to go , " with the usual utilitarian reply— " Then they must patiently stay away , and accept the consequence of their position in life . " On the contrary , it is a necessity , as well as a duty , on their part , for them to show that the labourers and handicraftsmen have not been forgotten .
The proposition which Mr . Felkin , one of the chairmen of the jurors , has made to the Royal Commissioners , that memorial medals shall be awarded for skill in workmanship to the workmen , will go a long way in that direction . But prizegiving must , to be of any value , be confined to a few . Now , we want to see the whole body of the working classes who can reach the gates of Hydepark admitted within the Palace of Industry . It might be easily arranged . The workmen could form clubs , say from fifty to a hundred in number , and on an application to the Commissioners an order mi ght be given , charging for it a set sum , but much less than , in either supposed case , fifty
or one hundred shillings . The regulators of admission would be able to revise the names sent in , and to ascertain that they really were those of working men ; an ample security against abuse . We think this plan generally better than gratuitous admission ; for , strange to state , the people of England have a btrong suspicion of the worth of what they do not pay for . In some cases , however , the nil mission might be free . Now , what is there to prevent the enrrying out either the excellent proposition of Mr . Felkin , or that which we have advanced ? Taken as n speculation , the Exposition will be a paying concern . Ils directors can therefore afford to lower the price of admission to meet the case of the poorest
Untitled Article
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there ia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
Public %Mts,
public % Mts ,
Untitled Article
« o SATURDAY , MAY 31 , 1851 .
Untitled Article
512 « ffte Q , ea * $ V * [ Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1851, page 512, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1885/page/12/
-