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In Vice-Chancellor Page WoocL'b court the other day an illustration was given of the base use to which Australia has been put . The master of a ship which returned from Australia to England , Sued a passenger for 43 Z ., the balance of an account due fox the conveyance of the man ' s wife and family . The passenger had landed at the Cape of G-ood Hope , against the rules of the ship and the leave of the master , and had been left behind , and he therefore declined to pay the passage-money . The master , however ,
insisted that the man had been troublesome , and had lost his passage by his own fault ; and lie sued him in the County Court . There were not enough goods and chattels to pay the demand ; but the man had house property in London , and proceedings were taken in Chancery in order to take that real property . This raised an important question for the first time—whether the Vice-Chancellor ' s Court could entertain a question of debt so far settled in a County Court ; and the Vice-Chancellor took time to consider of it . It is
not our purpose , however , to pursue the point of law ; it is with the personal circumstance of the case that we have to deal . Sometime since , in 1848 , some Chartists were convicted of sedition and conspiracy , and one of their own body turned informant against them ; this was Powell , the defendant in the present case . It appears that he had received from Government 3001 ., on condition that he should go to Australia ; where , it is said , he also had a grant of land . But after he had got to the colony he had a desire to return home ; and hence the case .
Now , it is persons of the class of Powell and his victims , besides ordinary offenders against the penal laws , that the Government has forced upon Australia ; and thus the same process that nas excited disaffection of the mother country , has also provoked a reaction against " low" society . It is partly to mark the distinction between the Powells of the colony and its Wentworths , that the committee of the Legislative Council propose
to establish a local Peerage . WhetJier the project will be sanctioned by the Legislative Council or tlie Crown , we know not ; but at all events it indicates a strong desire on the part of the upper classes of the colony to have amongst them an institution which has been too unreasonably thought incompatible with self-government and democracy , and which would bind the superior classes of the colony to the empire .
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THE PUBLIC HOUSE BLUE BOOK . T iik Parliamentary literature of this country has lately been enriched by the addition of a ponderous blue book on the subject of public houses . The sources of information are various , and the evidence embraces all the subjects which demand the interference of the Legislature . More than sixty witnesses have been examined , and the facts aro furnished by a fair proportion of magistrates , town clerks , brewers , and publicans . The question lias been sifted from every conceivable point of view . Statistics and arguments Lave been produced in favour of and against the existing system ; and the public is now in a fair position to form an impartial judgment . Monopoly dies hard . The groat victory of 1846 was only the commencement of a long struggle , in which the advocaten of a restrictive Hystein will fight the battle , inch by inch . The kings of Burton , and their royal brethren , exhibit no ai tfns of flinching . They voted for free trade in corn : they arc liberal—very liberal , up to their own notions of liberality ; but they maintain the licensing system , as if it were the key-ntone of our national prosperity . For our own parts , we believe that the kings * of Burton might bo defeated , and that Britannia would continue to rule the waves . We do not think that the licciiHing system has the remotest connexion with the empire of the sea , or the personal safely of Queen Victoria . Lot us look at the facts . The licenced victualler is dependent on the magistrate , lie receives -a- ¦ few liftmujoon certain conditions . He binds liim" ^ wl * VotBtJKiJiJio but tho purest liquors , to use no j ' y * ,, r ^^ jghts ;«* r 1 ,, m . | ga 8 ureH but 1 , J » obo of the legal stanj ^ y' 0 j 0 ^~ f ^ l ^ 0 ^^ mor in his house , and to close his l ^ f fL ^^ p i ^^^ y ^^ fg \ i ' ili 0 hours of tho morning and V >! ' '"^ ^^) ' ^^*^ Wi " - ^ ' ^^ f orv : * ^ *^* ° P'H'ish church on \ Jk \^\ r ^ J (^ u ^ fi- ^ j ) ph' / isttnn , fl Pay , and Good Friday . ^^;)^ i 2 » CTrf 7 iii ^ ;; 'tyd ^ oin tfl to bo considered— -tho rea-^ - ^^ ^ rtk ^^ it ^ -j ^ Kie tho magistrate in granting tho " - ^ W ^> J ^ 7 | VP 1 *?^' P owor which ho poHsesseH for enforcintr the conditions . With reference to tho
on any other laws than those of supply and demand . Why should people be hindered from trading in beer ? There is no proof that the number of public-houses falls short of the demand , but the prevalence of a restrictive law occasions an enormous amount of dissatisfaction , and holds out numerous temptations , which it would be infinitely wiser to prevent . It is needless to enumerate the motives . which may influence a bench of magistrates in deciding upon the claims of candidates of whose personal fitness no doubt
first point , it is obvious that the only reasons which ought to guide the magistrate are the wants of the neighbourhood and the fitness of the applicant . On the other hand , Mr . Wyburgh tells us" ( and his evidence is abundantly confirmed ) that the decisions of the magistrates are frequently " irregular , arbitrary , and capricious . " How could it be otherwisef Sow can a magistrate decide on the exact number of public-houses that are required for a neighbourhood P We do not find tliat bakers , grocers , and other tradesmen , depend
exists . But it is maintained that the licensing system is the guardian of sound morality . Nay , is not the very publican enlisted on the side of virtue P Does he not hold his licence on the understanding that he will check disorder ? This argument would be all the stronger if it were supported by facts . The police have power to enter a public-house—" subject to the restriction that it t l h
would be improper to ener uness tere was reason to suppose that there was an offence or disorder committed at the time . But no reason can be discerned why the same power should not be entrusted to the police if the licensing system were abolished . Supposing the only condition of obtaining a license were fitness of character , there is surely nothing to prevent the maintenance of police restrictions , which apply even to private nouses .
Mr . Alderman Wire believes that the licensing system is an effectual check upon drunkenness , and brings forward the instance of Scotland , where , he tells us , the evil is of a twofold character—the increase of drunkenness , and the encouragement of illicit distillation . Again— "in the State of Maine , so great were the evils resulting from the sale of spirits , that they had enacted a law that there shall be no spirituous
liquors or intoxicating liquors sold in the State . " All this may be very true , and' we are mortified to find that morality is so ill able to protect herself . Society has always been infested with a good sprinkling of reprobates and monsters , whom it is necessary to treat as wild beasts or madmen . But no licensing system in the world will prevent occasional outbreaks ; and if English society is still infantine or brutish , the more restrictions we enforce tho better .
^ Nothing , indeed , is more evident than the whole system provokes much greater evils than those it was intended to cure . Wo maintain it , because it has existed since the reign of Edward III ., and because tho kings of Burton delude tho public into tho belief that it tends to sound morality . It is established beyond a doubt , that the people who gain by the system aro the brewers and wealthy publicans , while tho public suffer .
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THE GOVERNING CLASSES . No . IX . THE Hid TIT HONOF . lt ABLE Silt . TAMES GJtAIEAM , BAltT . But that it in considered , in England , extremely indecorous to put into print what every ono of those who would read tho print nay perpetually in private , a very interesting chapter might bo written to show how curiously personal appearanco affects public lifo . Tlmm arc men who owo everything to their " looks : " and there aro men who never get over their " looks . " It ; has always been my opinion that the regime . of tho Throo Days fell in . Franco becauHo Louis Philippe , as 1 >« grow old , grew ho ridiculously liko a . Pear ; and many instanced might be mentioned , only that it would bo impertinence , of eminent Great Britons who havo risen or declined beoauHo of a mouth , or because of a none . This is the runult of a political system which permits of caricatures ; no constitution can stand an II . Jl ., or a John Leech , who bring all political heroes into contempt . Tho mischief is very norious when tho populace judges of a character by " contortion : —as , for instance , in Ireland , whore Peol could never make way bocauao O'Council gave this picture of him to tho
multitude , — " A big-bellied man , -with two left legs " Mr . Disraeli , a man with a splendid countenance and ft graceful figure , was kept down for years in this country because of , the cruel caricatures of Piynch and Lord Jocelyn , one of the handsomest men of the age , has failed in life because he never had th courage to cut off his moustache . These are instances which may be referred to without offence , even to the individuals ; and the cases serve to suggest what ia meant .
In regard to many statesmen , living and dead , you think of their policy and not at all of their persons But Sir James Graham is so intensely associated with Sir James Graham , to the exclusion of any other association , that , in turning attention to him , you consider only the statesman- —there being indeed little statesmanship to consider . The impression he has made on his time ia altogether an impression of physique : and the epitaph which one of his present colleagues proposed should be written on him , in due season— "He had the largest appetite of any man of his day" —explains to the philosophical , nearly all his
celebrity . As John Kemble said , when asked his opinion of the new Hamlet , "Why , sir , he seems a remarkably tall young man "—so the usual enquiry made about Sir James Graham , when an habitue * of the House of Commons goes down to his cousins or his constituents is , " a very big man , isn't he ? " Sir James Graham is a very big man ; and he has got to a first place in politics , just as he would get to the first place in a crowd—by weight and breadth : becoming Peel ' s lieutenant , as Xittle John became Robin Hood ' s . That is to say , born into the Governing Classes , and
having only mediocrities to compete with , he got first among the mediocrities—in other words , next to the champion Peel — merely by the greater force and stronger endurance derived from a massive chest and an animal head . That is , by work : for a great administrator is only a great worker ; and the great workers are only found among'the strong men . " Perseverance" is the virtue recommended to young men by their friends ; but perseverance means simply endurance : and it would consequently be as rational to recommend , " JLarge lungs , my boy . "
That Sir James Graham ' s chest without Sir James Graham's acres would not have sufficed to make him a right honourable and a ruler , is evidenced in tho different career of Mr . Ford , of Doncaater , Sir James ' s image , as Sir James knows to his cost ; and it is said even a cleverer man—the Dromio of tlio Antipholus . But with such acres and such a chest , a good name and a smooth voice , the success of Sir James Graham in public life was assured ; and tho success would have been more complete , had Sir James learned soon enough to rely simply on those natural advantages , instead of endeavouring to become a man of genius . Not content with tho reputation of being a great administrator , ho has ever aimed at the p osition
of a great statesman ; and though he knows the tendency of tho multitude to confound the one character with the other , he has ever been discontented that not one of the many parties whom he lias joined would accord him chieftainship . In public lifo in Eng land , an investment of labour is always certain oi' its rcsultB . Government ia a profession—a guild , monopolized , almost entirely by tho land—and when a man with " title and an estate gives himself up to tho House of Commons , the House of Commons gradually giv «» itself up to him , Hoonor or later . No irinn has woito ( l harder than Sir James Graham in legislating ; and let tho governed bo grateful . In this country , every heir to a largo estato goes to Parliament , as he goen to »
good club ; and all the best of tho hoiw , " ft ( jr «• '' ' lH 0 U or two , in which they destroy their stomachs , and discover that society is a delusion , slide to their huiM and take to governing the self-governed country an t »« boat-going excitement , — more gen tlemanly than t »» turf , safer than , the table , easier than the sessions Sir . Tamos Graham , born in 171 > 2 , reached J »« majority and bis property in duo course , and by - >< Ct
tuuito system which suggested beef » ml houiu '> ' borough returned him in celebration of thohnpor ^ event , and from 182 fi to 18 / JJ 3 Hir James < 3 ral ' ' ^ incessantly devoted himself to his country . i » - « "'^ in his thirty yearn of government liavo Hat a ><> ^ 100 , 000 hours in tho bad atmosp here of tho Jiou ^ Commons , have H » t twenty years iu Govorl " " onri bureaux , seen 1000 deputation ** , written many ij" ^ of letters , and made Hpeooheo « o immerouH , that i
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1092 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 12, 1853, page 1092, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2012/page/12/
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