On this page
-
Text (2)
-
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
But their failure Las been still more signal nearer home . They have put Mr . Hale , the inventor of the rockets , in prison , O * tki llfeng th ; of an effete Act of Parliament ; but n 40 that they have got him there , what will they d <| tjrtth him ? Mr . Hale is the inventor of warlike milwfles ; there never was any secret about that . Us is pert sonally acquainted with Kossuth , —*¦« & acquaintanceship which has been sought by others than Mr . Hale , even by persons in the Upper House of
Parliament , and , if we mistake not , high in statesmanship . There never was any secret about the knowledge of Kossuth and Mr . Hale . Kossuth is beset by Hungarian refugees of various kinds , some no doubt of the Von Beck order . He has placed several of his countrymen at work , in trades suited to their knowledge and capacities , by his influence with English employers . Certain artillerymen remained on hand , but he found them cognate employment under his friend , Mr . Hale , as journeymen workmen . They did not satisfy their employer , and they were discharged . After
their discharge , they gave information in " proper quarter , " that Mr . Hale was making the rockets for the purpose of an Hungarian war . The evidence , however , was so bad , that Ministers could not proceed upon the ground of the original information , and were obliged to get hold of Mr . Hale by a circuitous process . At first , the pretence was , that he had exceeded the allowance of gunpowder which a private person might keep . Then a forgotten Act of Parliament was discovered , which makes it illegal to keep fireworks in and about London , so that Mr . Hale is sent to
prison for infringing the law which would put down Vauxhall , and Cremorne , and Guy Fawkes every November . This unmanly expedient shows the weakness of the Government case . The discharged Hungarian workmen were brought forward to give their evidence , and Mr . Hale has been sent to prison for making such materials as are
used at Cremorne , because a vindictive informer says that Kossuth intended to buy the rockets for an Hungarian war . If such ultimate intentions should be proved in Kossuth , how would that establish the case against Mr . Hale on the anti-Cremorne ground ? In this case , Ministers have Succeeded in being unjust ; they have not succeeded in warranting their injustice .
The announcement of a Prussian paper , that Attorney-General Norner and Police Lieutenant Goldheim have returned from London , after having succeeded in the detection of Kossuth ' s operations at Mr . Hale ' s , shows under what influence our Government has been acting ; right or wrong , it is the coadjutor of the Continental Police . Lord
Palmerston avows that he causes suspected persons , whether foreign or English , to be watched . But , thank God , there are still some Englishmen in the House of Commons , and they succeeded , notwithstanding Lord Palmerston ' s doublings and evasions , in forcing him to confess that he had no case against Kossuth , either for imputation or
prosecution . The select committee on the appointments and promotions of the Admiralty , has at last got the complete story out of Sir Baldwin Walker , Sir Hyde Parker , and Mr . Stafford : it is now undeniable that the late Secretary to the Admiralty systematically used hiis authority to promote workmen in the Dockyards with reference , not to their efficiency , but to their votes as parliamentary electors ; further explanation imparts to his evasive replies a character usually deemed
inconsistent with personal honour ; and although it may mollify indignation against himself , the case is only rendered worse by his avowal , that he acted under such pressure from Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli , that he could not help himself . It is unfortunate for the influence of the party attached to Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli , that while they cut so poor a figure in Opposition , their shabby corruptions in office should be again brought to light by thi * inquiry . France is mUm * unsettled just watt by tep « rt »
that there is not to be a little emperor for the present , by the Htflway mania , which is a sort of 40 jtanercia -l < £ f $ fie , ml without HM . prospective 10 * m < £ t * £ and tt&dachfe and by & wages movement fei * less h < J « Jthy than our owsu The men are mCfttd to it by th 0 dearness of provisions and k 4 gfogs , ami it is orach to be doubted whether the AnWs of the masters are itt SO soMd ft state as te
make them very confident in enlarging their expenditure . But the Government is superior to the laws of commerce , and in Paris , where it wants the favour of the people , it is interfering to make the masters yield . In the provinces , where it is more independent , the Government drives the workmen by arrest and imprisonment to unconditional submission . What can be the state of
commerce under such an administration ? The latest accounts from China foreshadow an extraordinary change in the political state of the empire . The genuine Chinese , amongst whom a rebellion has existed for three years , are making such progress that they talk of expelling the Mantchoo Tartars and setting a Chinese upon the throne . There is no doubt that commercial
notions have made considerable progress amongst the Celestial nation whom we associate with our cups and saucers ; and that such ideas would have made even more progress , if they had not been kept down by the special edicts with which the Tartar potentate at Pekin has kept his three hundred millions in the nursery . When once
revolution has set in thus steadily and forcibly , there is no knowing where it may stop : Conservatism trembles to think that the Chinese may break up their time-honoured institutions and leave off breaking their women ' s toes ; a practice which experience has sanctified to that judicious people as the true safeguard of female honour and delicacy .
Untitled Article
THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT . Our summary of Parliament concluded last week with the record of two defeats suffered by Lord Derby ' s party . The noble leader and his diminished band liave fared little better this week . There have been two more defeats ; the first , very serious indeed , was sustained on Monday on THE CANADA . CliBEGY BESEEVES . The House went into committee on the bill , and Lord Debby , who bad not ventured to divide against its principle on the second reading , now came forward with an amendment , the effect of which would be to grant to the Canadian legislature alt that the bill proposed to grant with regard , to all the appropriations of the clergy reserves not hitherto appropriated or allotted , and not hitherto set apart for the specific benefit of the clergy of the two Churches of England and Scotland . Limiting , however , the powers which the bill gave to the Colonial Leg islature to the case of ^ those prospective appropriations , with regard to those endowi
ments that were confirmed by the grant of the Crown , and sanctioned by the legislature , and by tho nomination of trustees for their administration , he begged to call upon their lordships to say that they consisted of a description of property that they had neither the power nor the right to alienate , and if they did alienate them they would strike at the very root of the security of all the settled property of the country . Tho noble earl , having entered at some length into a vindication of his consistency upon this question , concluded by entreating their lordships not to confer on tho Canadian Legislature- a right which tho Imperial Parliament itself did not pOR 8 (! 8 H .
Tho Diike of Newcastle made u spirited roply . Sarcastically styling Lord Derby a great tactician iia well as a great artist , lie told him he should have made that speech on Friday night , and criticised tho position ho and hid pnrfcy bad assumed on this question . Although they wore told that tho principle of tho bill was vicious and acrilcgioiiH , yet ( ho noble ourl and'bin udr horontu wore so conservative of tho Church of England that , to secure a ehamo p / irfcy triumph , thoy rofused to divide aminst tho principle of the bill . Tho noblo earl
was studious to conceal that tho sarno objections which ho urged against tho bill itsolf woro of equal force against his amendment . I Te admitted that ho wa » ready , an an act of conciliation , to permit tho logiulaturo of tho colony to " confiscate" tho whole of tho land appropriated to tho clorgy reserves , but now unsold , amounting to one million and a hidf of acres ; but ho Hays , " Ttat part of tho property which has been sold , that which hua been invented in tho funds must bo held sacred . " ITo brought forward this proposition in tho teeth of the declaration made by tho Uto Lord duuxotUot the otlwr niaht , Wtu » t wyeot for
property , if gtyj& £ > i aij ^ ftufig , must be universal . The principle of the nteasiir ^ Wfore the House was not based upon any question wb ^ tb ^ th ^ &t of 1840 was right or not , but whether they had * r ight to dictate upon this question to t&e Canadian Legiafttufe . "YThv would not the noble lord t » ke warning ) andrwhy , he would ask , did the act of 1840 fijul ? Because it vrM not made with , the consent , the approbation and the approval of the Canadian Parliament © I that day . Keeping up the baft of debate on either side , Lord Wicklow , Lord Desaut , the Bishop of London , and Lord St . Leonaeds , appeared as supporters of Lord Derby ' s views , arguing as he argued , that the reserves were the property of the Churches of England and Scotland , and that , at all events , the rights of existing incumbents should be secured . On the other side
were Lord Whabncmffe , the Bishop of St . David s , the Duke of Abgyix , and Earl Gbet , standing up for the right of local self-government inherent in the colony , and rejecting the amendment as based on no principle , but , as a compromise , sacrificing the principle of the bill , and the principle of the nobler opposition . The Bishop of Oxford then delivered a most striking speech on behalf of the bill . He showed that the reserve fund was not on the same footing with the
endowments of the Churches of England and Scotland , the gift of private persons , or granted to specific parishes , but a fund nnder the control of Parliament for the maintenance of the Protestant clergy . He claimed for the Canadian Legislature , not a legal right , which laws may enforce , but a far higher right , " that basis of moral right which the written law should embody , " that was the right of dealing with their own concerns which he claimed for the Canadian
Legislature . He then referred to a matter which caused a scene later in the evening . " The right reverend prelate has quoted the beautiful description by Burke of the imperial power of Parliament—its grandeur , and the singleness and nobleness of its aims ; but my right reverend friend went but a little way in that speech , and he had a convenient memory when he stopped where he did . ( Hear , hear . ) It happened that within a week before , I had been reading this very speech myself , and the matter was fresh in my mind , and I ask your lordships to let me read three or four sentences to snow you that the opinions of Edmund Burke were different after all from what you would infer
from that quotation of my right reverend friend . ( Hear , hear . ) That noble man spoke in this way : — ' An ardent love of freedom is the predominating feature of your American colonies , and as ardent and generous an affiepr tion . Your colonies becomo auspiniovuj , restive , and intractable when they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force '—( he seemed almost to have foreseen what occurred on Friday nig ht , and , if your lordships will allow me , I will put in on Friday evening )—( laughter)— ' or to shuffle from them by chicanery , what they think the only advantage worth living for . There is a spirit of
libertystronger in the English colonies than in other people of the earth , because they are the descendants of Englishmen . ' ( Hear , hear . ) My lords , I do declare that , if I may venture to believe that if the faintest echoes of our voices shall approach , those still and calm shades where I rejoice to think tho spirit of that mighty patriot rests , ho would be moved almost to indignation at hearing that his name was quoted , not to assort for those American colonies tho right to manage their own affairs , but was quoted bocause we so distrust them that we will not give them tho power of dealing with the question of the endowment of their clergy . "
The Bishop of Exetee simply said , that tho words bo had abstained from quoting had no bearing whatever on the great principle Burke was laying down , that in all cases the Imperial Parliament sat as it were on a throne , to direct all local Legislatures . But Lord Debby took up the quotation in another spirit . He declared it personally offensive to him ; h ? deuicd that bo was either guilty of shuffling or chicanery ; and be thought the Bishop would feel called upon to offer him an apology . Tho right reverend prelate had said , that when he looked at the noh * rejection of the bill upon its second reading , and at the well-weighed amendment which was subsequently brought forward , he felt how appropriate wero the words of Mr . Burke , that " it waa indifferent whether
tho rights of a country were wrested from them by violence- on u Friday night , or shuffled away by chicanery on a Monday . " Now , Lord Derby entirely disclaimed tho offensive imputations contained in thone words . The Bishop of OxifOBi ) : I must ontreat your lordship *' indulgence while I briefly refer to ono point in tho noble Kuith speech . I think your lordships nmat have remorkod that when I made tho quotation to which ho has referred , 1 did bo with a amilo , and not with , tho intontion of imputing anything to noblo lords opposite . I havo many friends amongst thorn , and nothing could bo further from , mo than tho intention to say anything offensive to them . AH tlmt I meant to « ay was , that you ( tho Opposition ) would huvo boon doioatud in a division on tho etocond
roading of tho bill on Friday evening , and that thinking you could secure tho same effect us would have attended upon huccubh then , by a judicious umondmeut in committee ,, you took that course . Tho Earl of Dorby rose , amidst considerable oonfutdon , and uuid : I accept , of course , at oooo tho explanation nuvdo by the right rovaronU prolate ; but wtyu ho toll * pe
Untitled Article
410 THE % L ,. A ^ ER . i ^ -ga , C Satprpay >_
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1853, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1984/page/2/
-