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we impose on . Mr . Cobden is , that he should ask for leave to bring in a bill to repeal all Acts which operate " to prevent the training of persons to the use of arms , and to the practice of military evolutions and exercise . " We are quite clear on this point . The people not only have , in a strict , though not in a technical sense , the right to " training to the use of arms , " and . military evolutions , but it is a great national duty . Mr . Cobden proposes to meet an invader with the smiths of the country , but untrained and unpracticed in concerted
movements , the smiths , and even the cotton-spinners of the country , are a mob with which a French army would not find it difficult to deal . Let us make the best of all our present materials of defence ; but do not let us neglect the greatest material of all—the nation itself . To meet the peace-party , we propose seriously to our Government certain practical and popular measures . Something of the kind must be done . It is quite clear that Mr . Cobden and Mr . Charles G-ilpin are bent on deteriorating the nation in a military point of view , that if they succeed , the land and her hih station
independence of Eng g won't be worth ten years' purchase , and that , like Carthage , we shall fall before some nation less the slave of trade and more healthily organized . Therefore we propose that Government should meet the peace-party by a counter policy , which would have the advantage of being inexpensive . We suggest that , without waiting for Mr . Cobden , Lord Palmerston should move the repeal of all drilling acts , that Mr . Sidney Herbert should revive the extinguished rifle corps , that in any scheme of national education provision should be made for military drill , and that
such training should be recommended in all private schools , so that every male , as he arrives at the a ^ e of manhood , may be able to handle some weapon , and act in concert with others . We propose this purely for national defance , not only as strictly a military , but as a- sanitary measure . Among the best elements of . defence , we reckon healtb / and strength . It is impossible that our men should not be more generous , more right-minded and manly , other things being equal , when they have been well trained and accustomed to arms .
We utterly deny that they would be more prone to go to war with other nations , or to provoke war gratuitously . Let the Peace Society , and the schoolmaster , and the press , teach the rising generation the folly * and horror of war , whether wagedindefenceof aristocraticprivileges , or to acquire territory , or even to extend commerce . But let them teach also that submission is worse than war , and that a wealthy and effeminate people , such as we bid fair to becomo in obedience to tlio dictates of the peace party , is a worse evil than submission .
The proposition of Manchester is that , for defence , wo should rely on a hireling soldiery . What has become of the good old English abhorrence of a standing army P The ilrst atop from native mercenaries , would be to foreign mercenaries , then from Swiss to Condottion ; and lastly , to submission and national death . Talk of the " cheap defence of nations" —the only one wo know is tho nation itself—armed and
prepared . . . Wo make these propositions in all sincerity . We have no occult purpose , no deniro twento place the people in a better position to prefer an organized demand for popular rights so long denied ; we only ask that the old right ami Helf-rolianuo of Englishmen may bo restored to ( hem , liberty to boar arms , and liberty to acquire the uho of them in the most ed'eetive way ; and wo base our demand on tlio d (! nirability of attaining two groat ends , —tlio improvement of the- physical health of the people , and tlio preservation of our national independence .
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THE TKNT HOURS' QUESTION ; OR , TllADIfl y \ NI > HUMANITY . TliH operatives of Todmorden have just hold another public mooting on the Ton Hours' . Hill question , in which Samuel and . ToHhua Fielden took part , and tlio Kovci'c'ikIh Brook Tloribrd and J R Stephen" assisted . Tlio friendly feeling manifoHttMl botwnen employers and operatives on this occasion , in another remarkable iiiHtance of the imod uiulorHtamling between hitherto oppoHinis claBHoa . The late Act for the regulation of the hours of labour honourably respected m Todmorden Padiham , and other places , by the
masters , is set at defiance in Hey wood , Stoctport , and Oldham . If the Government have passed a law on the side of humanity , the Government should see it enforced . The meeting made this natural and just demand , and we hope to see it responded to . The whole question turns on this point , whether we are justified in preventing cruelty to animals , and not justified in preventing cruelty to men , women , and children . It is beside the facts of the case to say that animals have no volition , and therefore the law steps in to protect them . In working-class competition ,
where the poor people have no capital , but only imperious wants , they have no volition . They are at the mercy of tliose who use them . If you , overlooking their necessities , say they ought not to suffer themselves to be made tools , it is clear that employers ought not to be allowed to make tools of them , to an extent that involves the deterioration of society , and the steady growth of disease and immorality . Reform can only be effected by reaching the employers . Many of them honourably co-operate with the law , and take the initiative , as the Messrs . Fielden do , in an
advocacy of King Alfred ' s wise division of eight hours for work , eight for recreation , eight for repose . One operative , Mr . Thomas Barker , observed , that" Liberty consisted in order ; there was no order without law , and no law without restriction" —an intelligent notion of the practical workings of liberty and law which would do credit to many employers . Men who think thus temperately , deserve the attention of the legislature when they ask that protection which humanity would grant , and the true interests even of trade would concede .
The following passage in the speech of Mr . Joshua Fielden , of Stansfield Hall , contains not only wisdom for the operative , but , we think , also for the employer : — " Mr . Fielden urged the audience not to yield to . the temptations of earning a few extra shillings per week at the expense of their health and comfort . Even if they reverted to the old 12-hours system , and all were continued in employment , the result would be that from the increased cjViantity of manufactures thrown thereby on the market , the price of the commodity
would be reduced , on the very principle that the old woman adopted when she said ' when eggs is plenty , eggs is cheap ; but when eggs is scarce , eggs is dear ' . ' ( Laughter . ) If the present fluctuations in the liours of labour were to continue , at one time they would find themselves in heaven—at another sunk down low in the abyss—one moment well-fed and clothed , at another starving and pawning their clothes . Shorter hours would cause a greater number of people to be employed—thus new factories would be built , giving work to more masons , joiners , and artisans of every kindwho , in their turn , would buy more produce , and thus
increase tho demapd . " If tho morality of labour may not yield to the temptation of a few extra shillings , should tho morality of capital do itP If trade is to be exempted from tho necessity of observing the laws of morality and humanity , some other professions wo could name might consistently claim a similar immunity .
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A lt \ P FOR TUK HPIltlT-UAl'lMUlH . From a variety of anonymous Hpirit-ltappers—aomo indignant , Bonin expostulatory , some almost apostolical—we havo received a variety of epistles , moro or Ions grammatical , urging upon us , as seekers after truth , not to bo led by ridicule into disbelief of tho singular supernatural influences to which we on a lato occasion ventured rather sceptically to refer . We have been begged by n huniblo enthiiHniHl ; to go repeatedly to tho professors , with the usMumnco that ultimately we shall become mediums and happy ; and we have been taunted by a wealthy worshipper - -who ' uttends too much to his communications with tlio next world lo pay nny parl ic . ilar regard to his orthography
in thin — with < bo insinuation that as literary men never have guineas , mid as tlio Spirits , not wishing to be reviewed , grant no press orders to anybody , wo hIihII never oven mu > tho phenomena which w « linvo ho uii . scrupulouHly attempted to deride . . Let us admit tho keenncHS of thin irony , and oven advino our readers to consider its otl'ect as mi argument : it is one which , for their sakes , wo havo pul our-Nclvon in a position to support . not
Tlio Spirit-rapping process we do protend , any moro than other conjuring , to explain . The modus operundi in a ni-on-A . ; tho Hupernaturalism wmply a humbug . Tho moving ' ' media" wovo those whom wo hud the pleasure of l ,,. l , ol < li .. L' - oneof u " tt " < ll ( 1 (! rly g '^ 'leman , announced lH"U * ' * ' * f- > ' ill * * i / /• I uh from America , and apparently a capital linguist ( lor J . o talked Cork liko a native ) , anil another , Iiim wifft , a lnily of rather gigantic proportions , whoso principal
comraumcaan affirmative reply . As long as this went on there was nothing to complain , of : but at length the company got tired , and the professors adventurous . A lady thought of her husband ; and the writing " medium" under that husband ' s inspiration was to inscribe the deceased ' s Christian name . Tor this purpose ho went convulsively to work ; he wrote , and proclaimed Charles . Tho dead man called himself John when in this world ! But it is unnecessary at any length to expose an imposture , which is only not ridiculous on account of its possibly serious effects . The sole mystery of the performance is that " raps" occur for which one cannot account , and that there is a motion of ,
tions , naturally enough , were with a previous husband , who not having insured , and regretting his improvidence , waa kindly supplying her a livelihood in this way . The couple , we should say the trio , retired into a private room , where tho lips of the pair still in the flesh were seen parted as if in prayer , whilst a Bible and Prayer-book were placed before them to rouse the imaginations of any spectators who might be susceptible . After a while , certain preliminary noises having been heard , and some motion of the table being visible , we wero invited to join the council and communicate with the dead . Some of the party did so , asking questionsto whicli two " raps" constituted a negative , three
the furniture of which one cannot see the cause . Upon this evidence the jugglers make their appeal , and upon no other . For our part" we should be unwilling . to deprive them of their plunder , which those whom they take in can very well spare , if a stupid curiosity were the solo cause of their success . But the fact is , they havo made converts , or rather fools , of grown and nominally educated men ; and the delusion of adults has had such an effect upon them that even madness may result in many cases from the belief in this nonsense with which they have haunted
the minds of their children . Young girls and boys have been nominated as future " media , " , as a consequence , have had their nerves shaken and their sleep destroyed with perpetual visions of ghosts , and all sorts of imagined communications from spirits . This makes the matter so serious , that though we began in irony wo must end in earnest . The Spirit-rappers' pretensions appear , to say the least of it , to bo a nuisanco ; and if a nuisance , they ought to be " put down . " Let there be a judicial . , and if required , a scientific investigation of their claims : an ordeal of inquiry is but an act of justice to professors of truth .
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A . ( HA . IK . ) BRUSH WITH THE EMPEROR . When an 'Emperor , nobly declining official alliances with blood royal , marries for lovo and true religion , congratulating his subjects that they havo a Catholic and a beauty to sit with him on the throne , he has perhaps a natural right to expect that bis friends and partisans will pay him the compliment of supposing that be lias the wisdom as well as the tastes of a Solomon , and is able to judge ni correctly of female excellence as of imperial interests . Louis Napoleon ,
at any rate , is under this impression , for which wo can scarcely blamo him ; and , acting with bis usual impetuosity upon it , ho bus soothed bis feelings , which , wo aro told , were wounded by some remarks of our Paris Correspondent on bia bride , by a general eeizuro of those copies of an evening contemporary which contained them . Wo havo been studying tho passage , in hopes that wo might find some excuse for being apologetic , or at any rato somo graceful and dexterous escape fro * a tho impropriety ot caricaturing a" lawful wif « 3 " -to use Mrs . Potts ' * by-thistime classic expression . Wo have I . een trembling lor tlio security of the adventurous Frenchman who ventured to differ with bis monurcU on so delicate a matter of opinion .
and wondering whether this week would bo without its correspondence , in consequence of our usual .. dormant finding himsell without bis bead . But on looking back oareiuUy—as wo eevlainly might havo done at lirat—to seo what was tho extent , of our ollVnee , and what , the uioiv Btrous calumnies <> u the Imperial Pamela , that , we had been instrumental in circulating , and that our Bonaparlist Kurdish contemporary hud done us the honour to «{ uoto , we 7 ind that , hmIohhwo can alter a fact , and for that purpose write a falsehood , wo must let , tho matin- rest where it in , only hoping that , tho Kmperor has by tins l . me recovered bis temporarily vxMU'd serenity . Tho wny m which wo wounded tho iMvnch royal feeling wo are told , W , ih this : We nes ted our i ' ari :. ( WrespondentV . word for the colour of the Kn . pr . WH hair- Ho h . u . 1 it w ,. h rod : but
,, ot how red . Tho Htep from ll . o horr ., 1 red to tho lovely golden , in short , tho link between beauty and , » rli , L , in Hlightand nubtin ; yet who would dare to apply thoepithet " carn . l . s" to the voluptuous beauty of ( liorgiono , to Titian * Voniw rimnff ' "«»» " " " ' ( o J * ' *™ " *'" Laura P " Mllovst ronsso" wan the oxpresHion ol our correHpondent . Nowthcroitm rod , uodotibt , that , would iiiHtify olVenco , an it iHMUppoHcd In indicate a poverty of blood and a lowdovolopinent , though this will probably bo found to bo a piuoly arbitrary assumption : there in a red , too , nuch an wo may attribute to a fallen angel : but . thero i « alwo a red which
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February 5 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 135
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1853, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1972/page/15/
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