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appoints reviewers" so few or so over-scrupulous , that out of a number between ten and twenty thousand stand which were waiting for examination in the middle of November , by the end of that month ten thousand were still waiting . We remember reading somewhere of a duel which was to have been fought ; only the seconds , being in collusion , delayed it so loDg by the over-scrupulous measuring of swords , that the duel was unfought , and the wronged man , awaiting satisfaction , ^ was taken up by the guard .
Surely the Government is misled by a name , and misconceives the contract system to be a means of contracting business instead of expanding it ? A large supply of arms is needed —the Duke of "Wellington calculated that 350 , 000 would be necessary in the peace of year of 1851 , besides a store of 600 , 000—and Government grants contracts to four men at Birmingham . True the rule has been relaxed and a few other makers have been engaged ; but the actual supply from Birmingham is only
1100 a week , and the supply which the town could produce would be 3000 . There are gunmakers also at Coventry , in London , and in other places , so that it is not too much to say that the supply at home could be quadrupled . Why create a monopol y ? The only excuse for doing so is when a demand is limited , and the object is to make it " worth the while" of some ferns to do the work well ; but in this case the demand is practically unlimited . In
such circumstances , the only object of a contract is to fix conditions , not to give an exclusive trade ; and there is no reason why Government should not at this moment have contracts with all makers in the United Kingdom . The makers themselves would multiply under such encouragement . Nay , hateful as the very sound of Government factories is to a Free-trade community , we believe that Government would have been
allowed its gun factory at Woolwich , on one condition . If it had said , we want guns faster than they can possibly be made ; we wilL add , therefore , to the making power by establishing a factory , not to compete , but to aid—then we believe that the manufacturers themselves would have voted for the aid , upon the sole condition that Government had frankly said—We want the arms as fast as possible , for we want them to destroy Russia , the great despot , the arch enemy of constitutional freedom .
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UNITED STATES ELECTIONS . American elections are frequently incomprehensible contradictions to Englishmen , and the last is more than usually tangled . Two years ago , when Mr . Pierce was carried into the Presidential chair on the flood of overwhelming popular opinion , the canvass presented no confusion , and consequently needed no explanation . The contest just over , however , requires comment in order to be comprehended by Britons . A few weeks since we had returns from the
great states of Ohio and Pennsylvania showing results decidedly advorso to Mr . Pierce ' s administration , and the last mail brought intelligible reports from New York , Massachugetts , Illinois , Indiana , Now Jersey , Michigan , and Wisconsin . As this is the first Congressional election since Mr . Pierco ' s elevation to
the chief magistracy of the Republic , and aa all the states named havo returned Opposition members to the House of Representatives , or popular branch of the national legislature , some speculations aa to cause and tendency may bo appropriate . The oampaign was evidentl y contested without special reference to the principles laid down in the platforms of the old political parties . New wsuoa wore raised , and new elements
entered largely into the canvass ; Know-Nothingism—a novel phase of American politics—seems to have met with considerable sucsess at the North and West , gathering force as it went from almost all the other small 'isms of the land . This combination was unknown a year ago except as an impotent faction of what in 1844 was called the Native Ameri « an Party . Now it absorbs all except the Democratic Party , which , it seems to us , often falls into
bad hands , but as often rises above the temporary defeats it suffers from the follies of its friends . Its present discomfiture is justly attributable to the uncalled-for repeal of the Missouri Compromise , by which slavery is introduced into free territory , and the too common practice many of its leaders have of playing the demagogue to ignorant foreigners , to the manifest neglect and insult of intelligent native-born Americans .
Reaction to some extent always follows the first Congressional term of a new President , disappointed aspirants for place , the non-fulfilment of the extravagant expectations of others , and revival of hope in the Opposition being its chief elements . In such cases the recoil , however , is only partial ; a consummation not indicated by this campaign . The change which has just taken place is best illustrated by figures . At present there are twenty-two Democratic congressmeu from New York State ,
and eleven Opposition ; four from New Jersey , and one Opposition ; sixteen from Pennsylvania , and nine Opposition ; and the same proportion from Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , and Michigan . In the next Congress , to assemble in December , 1855 , this will be almost , if not entirely reversed . The Whigs and Know-Nothings of New York have elected tw-entyseven out of thirty- "three members ; the same parties in Pennsylvania , twenty out of twentyiive members ; while the States of Ohio , Illinois , Maine , and Massachusetts do not send a
single member favourable to Mr . Pierce ' s Administration . The K . now-Nothings have every congressman from the last-named State , together with the Governor and three hundred and forty-one out of three hundred and forty-eight members of the Lower House of the State Legislature . Influences of a local nature had weight in both New York and Massachusetts , in New-York the canvass being what Captain Marry att would call a very pretty triangular fight .
There were four candidates for Governor , and , strangel y enough , the one friendly to Mr . Pierce was elected , although the Congressional delegation—which if favourable would be the real support of the Federal Government—was chosen from the Opposition . In Albany , the capital of the State , the native Whigs voted for the Presidential favourite , whereas the Irish and German democrats of the same city gave
their support to Mr . Ullmann , the Know-Nothing nominee 1 The sequel to this lies in the facts that Mr . Seymour , the successful Governor , is pledged against that tyrannical gag , a Maine Liquor Law , which gained him Whig sympathisers ; and that the Whigs , being hostile to Mr . Ullmann , represented him as a foreigner , to insure hia defeat at the hands of naturalised citizens ; but to their astonishment this had the contrary effect .
The repudiation of the Know-Nothings by the New York Whigs contrasts strongly with the Whig endorsement of the new party in Massachusetts , Pennsylvania , Ohio , and some of the Western States ; and yet it is not surprising . In 1844 , when the Native American party sprang to groat , but brief power , tho Pennsylvania Whigs courted it , to ensure Honry Clay ' s election , their brethren of Now York disclaiming tho alliance . Mr . Clay was defeated . The Whigs of Now York attributed this to tho Native Americans of Pennsylvania
having voted for him , while the Philadelphia Whigs as confidently imputed his failure to the native vote of New York having been cast for Mr . Polk . This created a breach which has never been solidly repaired j and as the Know-Nothing- party is clearly a revival of the old Native American organisation , spiced with a few new elements , the principal being secrecy , we do not see that the Whigs will gain by becoming its advocates . Mutual distrust already exists , and the Whigs , by courting the new party , merely catch at a straw to save their party from immediate dissolution . Their gain in New York , Ohio , Michigan , and other
States , is not healthful . It is the result of the disaffection we have referred to , and not an endorsement of their principles . The Know-Nothings expect to xule , and will . They are not likely to submit to Whig rule , but the Whigs must yield to them . Such , indeed , appears to be the belief in Massachusetts , for that "Whig State has become wholly Know-Nothing . In this view the Opposition in the next Congress will be formidable on none but the slavery extension , question , and as that is settled for the present , the election , of a Whig and Know-Nothing majority is only a change in the ring of the old saw about the horse and stable-door . If we are correct—and we believe
we are—there are two hundred and two members of the House of Representatives or popular wing of Congress . The returns so far indicate a Whig and Know-Nothing preponderance of some twenty votes . This , combined , is sufficient to defeat any democratic measure ; but as the Knovy-Nothings number twenty-eight or thirty members they hold the " balance of power , " and will assuredly exeTcise it in the way most to their profit . Whichever party offers- fairest will most likely obtain their aid ,
and once they break with the Whigs that organisation will be powerless , the old animosity will revive , and reconciliation be impossible . Here is the vulnerable point of the opposition ; nor is it to be supposed the democrats will fail to assail it . They are somewhat disorganised now , but have not deserted their principles , and may be considered the only united , consistent party in the Republic . There
can be no doubt that they will have settled their differences before the end of 1855 , and therefore the new Congress , having a balancewheel in the recruited Whig vote , may legislate better than the present one has done so far . We do not believe there will be any change in the policy of Mr . Pierce ' s administration , except on the question of slavery , and that change will most likely be in favour of peace and against unnecessary agitation .
From this analysis the late elections present nothing- very surprising . Know-Nothingism is contrary to the g-enius of republicanism , and cannot become permanent or controlling . TUe party carries the seeds of its own dissolution w"ith it , and must injure the combination which favours it . It is made up of the fragments of all factions , and , like unto David in the cave of Adullam , has gathered unto itself " everyone in distress , everyone in debt , " and all tho discontented .
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" THE CAMBRIDGE ROW" AT INKERMAN . One of tho moat startling- subjects of the week hns passed under wlint looks liltc a systematic silence . Wo alluded to tho reports respecting tho Duko of Cambridge . A more pointed expression has been given to the same reports by tho Standard , which says : — ** Wo lmvo some reason for Lettering that the Dulco of Cambridge , than whom a braver soldier never stood on tho field of battle , has had hi » mind most alarmingly overthrown by tho sight of tho cold-blooded butcheries and deliberate aamwiainatlons
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l « Pjscember 9 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . , ™ ^ " ~ TT ~ " *~ r ~ » T"i^— ^—^ ^ IXDO
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 9, 1854, page 1165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2068/page/13/
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