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Our readers will think that we have made a mistake and put the second class where we should have put the first ; for he will observe that those who do not pay uniformly have a higher allowance than those who do . This is very unjust , but it is an exceedingly small part of the injustice . It is calculated , that in the Civil Service there are more than 16 , 000 persons , with 70 , 000 de-Senden t upon them . The amount which is deucted for their salaries and paid into the
. Exchequer is annually about 55 , O 0 O £ ., and in the progress of the operation of the Act it will ultimately amount to about 94 , 000 £ . a year . Government nas already received 568 , 000 / . The interest on that sum would be 21 , 000 / . a year . Whether you look upon it , therefore , as a matter of revenue , or as a matter of capitalization , the benefit of the fund may be said to amount to 55 , 000 / ., or 21 , 000 / . a year . But what of the repayment to those whose contributions form the fund P They were for some years nothing , and now they are about 800 OZ . a year . The manner , indeed , in which the Government treat these
contributions is extraordinary , and can hardly have received the attention of any real statesman , or he would not have permitted so gross a violation of common honesty . The payment is exacted compulsorily , but instead of being treated as payment towards a fund , it is treated as part of the year ' s revenue for the State , and then the State pays these miserable pittances in return ! In other words , as the members of the Civil Service are not thought to be very provident persons , the benevolent State undertakes to be a second Providence for them , and it effects the operation by exacting from them 55 , 000 / . a year , and then it pays them 8000 / . a year .
Even that is not a statement of the outrageous injustice . The man who is compelled to pay a part of his salary into the Exchequer under the plea of a provision for his latter years , cannot claim retirement as a right ; is not entitled to retire from the public service under sixty-five years of age , unless incapable from infirmity of mind or body to discharge his duties ; and at the same time , if he dies in service , he has no claim whatsoever . This would be an exceedingly stupid bargain for any man to make , but it is to be observed , that the Civil servants have no
choice in the matter : the bargain is forced upon them by the State . We will ask any Statesman on either side of the House , whether he would undertake the responsibility of this extraordinary arrangement P We are perfectly confident of the reply . There is no gentleman that could put his hand to a compulsory bargain of this kind : but those who permit the continuance of such an extortion are responsible for it ; almost as much as those who originated it . The only excuse for its continuance must be , that the
Ministers responsible for it have not taken the pains to understand it . Even yet , however , wo have not exhausted the injustice of the case . The pretext is , that it is necessary to compel these improvident dogs to take care of the future . Now , the average salary in the Civil Service is 141 / . a year , but for two-thirds of the body it does not exceed 86 / . a year . It would be a difficult matter for many men , who cannot keep up the appearance of gentlemen , to provide for the future out of that
amount . We believe , however , that in many cases they would do so . Most likel y they would do it by the most economical of all means for saving , —that is , by insuring their lives , which they could to a very modorate extent out of their small incomes . But the State , which undertakes to compel a provision for the future , actually takes away the means of effecting it , and pockets the money . For it will do observed , that in a considerable proportion of the cases the money
extorted is never returned to him who pays it , in the shape either of annuity for himself , or of poat-obit benefit for his dependents . Mr . Gladstone proposos to establish some kind of life insurance for thoso who pay tho Incomo-tax . It would bo a fair claim on tho part of the Civil Service , that ho should consider this extortion under tho name of tributo to tho superannuation fund as Income-Tax already paid , and should grant an insurance to tho amount from tho time when tho payments began ; and then ho might impose his Income-tax , to begin from the passing of hit ) now Bill . Wo have only stated a few of tho iacts , anxious not to incumber tho moBt conspiouous . We have
said enough to show , that at the present moment the British Government is playing the part of a fraudulent insurance-office , almost as impudent in its project as any that Mr . Wilson could cite , and—alas ! for the Civil Service , —far more successful than any extortionate speculation of that kind has ever been . If Mr . Gladstone would but cast his busy eye for a quarter of an hour on the document * circulated by the Civil Service , their claim would be- satisfied . The very clear and complete statement is nevertheless very compact , and his rapid intellect would comprehend all that there is in the ten pages , within the space of as many minutes .
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MARRIAGE-LAW REFORM . Amongst the strange incidents in all accounts of strange countries , those strike us as the most singular which bear upon the relation of man to woman . Whether it is the institution of the grisette , or its more modern version , that of the Lorette , in Paris ; or that of the cicisbeo in Italy ; or that of the orthodox Mussulman , with his maximum of four wives , in Islam ; or that of
; he organized temporary concubinage of Japan , it all seems to us strange and but half rational . And yet , if our own customs were told to a distant foreigner , as they really are , he would be as much amazed as we can be . But how would he be astounded , if he learned that a commission had been appointed to consider the subject , and that it had proceeded without advising any essential improvement , or even collecting any real information on the subject !
The Commissioners summoned a few lawyers of the " Civil law , " a code constructed for itome in the degenerate part of antiquity , and possessing amongst ourselves an authority on the wane almost to extinction . There is every probability that Ministers will introduce a measure to break up and abolish the courts devoted to the administration of that code ; and yet the lawyers of those courts are the witnesses . It is as though the makers of Chinese shoes or English stays were examined on the anatomy and functions , healthy
or unhealthy , of the human frame . Even in that modicum of evidence the Commissioners had materials that might have suggested the extension of the inquiry—such as the declaration of Sir Stephen Xiushington , that a separation without a divorce almost always results in " immoral" life . But acting on a presumed principle of morals , the Commissioners ignore these consequences as incidents essentially inevitable , and prefer to treat the subject by an ideal standard . It is the common practice to speak and act as
if marriage were the only condition of people in society , except those leading a life of celibacy ; and yet , if we did not see evidence to the contrary in the streets , the very newspapers might teach us better . There is marriage , no doubt ; but also wholesale prostitution , also wholesale irregularities of every kind . The young soul learns with horror and revulsion that which tho " immoral" Shelley denounced as a hideous fact , —that in our society , " love" may be bought and sold , both legally and illegally ; but " old stagers "
like Sir Stephen Luahington and Sir John Stoddart know the fact too well practically to ignore what theoretically they set aside . Look at the papers of the week . In one case we find an officer in tho army seeking divorce from his wife , who has practically ceased to bo his , and has become that of another man . In a second case , we find a commercial man petitioning the House of Lords for his divorco from a wife who is habitually intemperate , and faithless to
him ; but the case threatens to break down , not because there is any doubt of tho facts , but because the Peers soom to have a suspicion that tho divorced woman intends to marry another man , and that tho husband connives ; in other words , tho Peers have a suspicion that while the husband intends to soem tho bachelor ho really ia , the bachelor intends to become formally the husband ho really is ; and tho Peers think it better for " morals" to retain tho threo in tho several false relations at present existing between
them ! ¦ , ¦ , * A far moro painful case is disclosed in ono ot tho polico courts , not for tho firat timo within a
few weeks , and we know that it is by no means a singular example . The story is brief . A young lady is dangerously ill ; her mother , unsuspecting , sends for a respectable medical man ; lie discovers that the young lady would have become a mother , but that violent means had been employed , necessarily with her acquiescence , to prevent that final result . The medical man denounces the crime ; two other medical men are committed to prison on the charge , and the case is sent for trial . In the meantime , one of the medical prisoners goes mad in prison , and the other is rescued from hia violence . All this is
painful enough , but the worst remains . It turns out that the father of the child that was prevented is a clergyman of the Church of England , ministering to a congregation in London City . He is a " popular" preacher . He should have command of means , since he is said by one of the medical men to have offered a bribe for secresy . And yet he , with command of money , suffered the poor girl to be placed in a position so cruel , and did not take the proper steps to secure secresy without violence either to the criminal' law or to nature ! This case , we
say , is singular only in the complication of its incidents ; its main circumstances are far from being without parallel . The marriage-law is open to other severe questions , besides those of neglecting to provide against much , evil that exists , and exists only because the laws are made irrespectively of nature . There are cases of deplorable hardship quite apart from what are called " moral" grounds . The Globe of Tuesday last relates a case m point . A young lady marries a man in full health ; a short time after marriage he loses reason , and is
pronounced to be an incurable lunatic , and she is condemned to perpetual widowhood . So far it is deplorable , yet most true . But suppose the husband should " recover , " who is to guarantee her against being the mother of a progeny of lunatics P Were she to demur , could he not sue for " restitution of conjugal rights ? " and would not the law regard it as more " moral" to prostitute a sane woman to a lunatic — preserving her , meanwhile , in a condition of widowhood for that purpose—rather than to release her from a compact which is practically void ?
Once a political reformer was regarded as a destructive and subversive revolutionist ; now , the title " Conservative" is united to that of " Radical , " in the very Government of the country . Some day the moral reformer may hope to attain the same position ; already , society is beginning to understand that laws intended to create " morals" and " domestic happiness , " create domestic misery and vice ; and also that the prohibiting of the inevitable , or the necessitating of the depraved , are not constituent parts of a sound code .
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REGULATION OF WAGES BY STATUTE . We believe that Lord John Russell was quite sincere in his manful declaration for " tho democracy . " He can view tho people from a distance , and in a kind of Raphaelesquo grouping- ; but when ho comes to details he shows as little facility in handling them as tho landscape painter who can " dash in" a flower bed for a view , could walk amongst tho individual flowers , and classify them botanicany , or grow them horticulturally . A question was before tho House of Commons which affects the rights and welfare of the largest number of the people , in
their capacity of working-classes . The K < 'm ' ral course of the debate showed that the House of Commons was quite incompetent , either to settle the question , or even to understand how it came before tho House ; and Mr . Hume wished the debate to bo adjourned in order that time mitf ht bo afforded to consider tho question . Lord John ltusscll could not agroo to tho adjournment for that reason . Ho took pains to explain that ho agreed to the adjournment for the reasons stated by Mr . James Wilson , who wanted to pass an Exchequer Bill ' s hill that day , to prevent the House from meeting on Saturday ; a very desirablo stop , hut certainly bearing no proportion to tho important questions which tho House was then debating .
Wo are not now going to advocate a reform of tho Combination laws ; wo aro only going to state how the matter stands . It was admirably put by Mr . Montague Chambers , who doeB ample justice to tho choioo of tho men of Greenwich . At Liverpool Abbizob , in ' 47 , eomo work-
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• " Tho Case of tho Civil Servants of tho Crown , having reference to tho Appropriation of tho Abatements made from thoir Salaries under Act 4 , and 6 Will . IV ., cap . 24 , ( for tho purpose of reducing proapootivoly tho chargos incurred in providing for Superannuation auoiya » oos ) , an a Provident Fund . "
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May 7 , 1853 . ] T H E L E A D E R . 447
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1853, page 447, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1985/page/15/
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