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a ^ kHhaottwa : ^^ , Mt o ^ - * rhfe&i * & ^ % . wmto& * ri * to ^* f any-w-hfeh Engfendihas gndused sinee * be : da * s . / of terMarauis of Rockiftgham . Mr . Layaxd rises , s&re tie HQU . se goes into committee on . the-estiwm , " . *** «^ ic ^ teft Jor half an hour with un , authbatiuteltectwal « go » r , that * here . was oace a rench rerotetion : other Hiembecs , sush as fear irskine Perry * qn Thursday , suggest that the House ¦ Common * is . on a volcano . But who says " You laW not have this inoney till yon do the public ill . I will divide the House on every vote until > u tell us that you will obey us ? " Why that would
> factious : and Englishmen have lost that art of otioujs . ness wherewith they won respectability vang European nations . The first Minister has no easuses :. he never bints at a policy : when . a question asked , he jauntily evades it : if he base to make 3 peech , he cants : as a rule , he sleeps snorily on the pacious treasury bench . Granted that he is ing some good and grand things in the war—real gorous things—bn . t he tells the House nothing of em ; and if you were to tell him that he won't md unless he gets tl \ e confidence of the House , he » uld reply that he can . do without the confidence of 3 House . As to what is now doing with the war
the new supplies , the new organisation , the xt campaign , — who knows ? The House will down to Spithead to see the new Baltic aet ; and will feel national pride in the ndred Serews—and return to town convinced it surely they will do—something . As to the ace , Lord John , is negotiating on the basis of i Four Points ; what more would a self-governed intry wish to know ? Perhaps England will be lamed of the Peace when it is concluded ; but we ist consider the royal prerogative . And , then , the > use of Commons has its privileges : when the aty hds been , signed by all the powers , the House LHiave the right to move for " papers" and-to have lebate—in fact to have an adjourned debate , if it
es . . [ t is even- an accident—and in political affairs ire is perhaps on the whole more of accident than ence—that the Sebastopol Committee did not bene a Secret Committee , that is to say pmipotent procuring amusement for the mornings of a dis-* aged quorum , and absolutely resultless for that blic benefit which is obtained by private exposure , lien Mr . Roebuck entered the House last night th his resolution for secrecy in his breast-pocket , , took for ^ granted ,. tlxe _ membersi who had voted th him took it for granted , that there would be no t of opposition . The morning papers , aware on ednesday of the intention of the committee , came
t yesterday without any protest ; the public were jsive , and the Government which consists of Lord ^ merston , were rather pleased at the success their management , effecting , thus , a more solute sham than even they could have cal-! ated upon . But it was not to be so . The elite ex-Ministers were not afraid of laying their fence before the public ; they did not choose to ow eccentricities like Roebuck , and Layard , and ummond to be their judges ; they had resolved force publicity . Sir James Graham , who delights opportunities of talking liberalisms which at once ind well and answer Ms purpose , made a speech lich astounded the - Radical Mr . Roebuck and the
beral Mr . Layard : —forcibly and effectually he aptiled to the House to permit no Vehmgericht " uplira . " This was a terrible stroke ; and the way it d was a triumph to tfhe ex-Ministers . It comllcd Lord Pivlmcrston , who cannot afford to be out-• ipped in liberality Toy his departed colleagues , to apt Sir James ' s idea ; it urged Mr . Disraeli , a iiuber of the committee , to reuounco in the Houso opinion which ho seems to have entertained in
5 Committee—his recantation being none the leas nuliating that ho found an opportunity for a idly stab at bad-memoried Sir James Graham for sonsistency about local committees ; and , in the i , after a weary conversation of four hours , it inced Mr . Roebuck , who detected the clear convicn of tho Hotise , to take Mr . Tom Duncombo ' s en advice , and back out of his resolution . So far , nothing is gakwd to the country ; the Duke of jwonstte , it ia understood , means to tell the whole
truth— however thaibmayi affect the system of whose failures he , for * a- * non $ h- ojt two , is the victim . And , thus , though an , old : Czar is dead , and a young Czar w ^ o is cpnacieB ^ ous . TOigns , and there naay consequently be unexp ^ ed ' facilities provided for Lord John in contriving an immediate peace , we are still sure of a retrospective investigation complete enough to provide a daily agitation for twelve moaths against the . reg ime of imbecile ^ aristocracy .
Those who were present at the debate on Thwsday night , on Lord Godeijieh ' s motion ,, on Promotion in the Army , would-, no 6 be disposed to . deny that the great want of England at ; tfcM . moment is Parliamentary Reform : and judging , by the tests of that semarkable debate , of theispirit in which the existing House of Commons is : likely to deal with the growing popular demands , one may safely predict that , whether we are to haye peace or war , there must soon be a Reform Bill . Lord Goderich , with a timeliness of statesmanlike perception , which justifies the high opinion expressed of him here when it was the
fashion to laugh at him as a feeble young lord affecting sentimental Radicalism , went to- the root of the matter when he proposed to beglafc at * he beginning of the system , and annihilate the aristocratic character of the army . What the . House of Commons meant to do , in answer to the public entreaty to render © rur Government arrangements worthy of our national pretensions to intelligence and liberality , was here to be shown : and the tone of the debate was just , this—that of a club of
aristocrats , rather generous and fair , but still intensely classy , chatting an abstract point of human justice . Considering that that grand army , rotting away under the cold shade of insouciant nobility , would read every word of that debate , and would take the House of -Commons as the exponent of England , it would really have been but decent—for even sham , on such an occasion , would be desirable—if there had been a larger attendance than is suggested by the numbers of the division , But even the 150 or 160 who voted that the "low" classes who constitute the
ranks bad no chance of turning up as many competent captains as would justify a ministerial intimation that , in future , command should , as a rule , be obtained by merit , and not money , condescended merely to vote—they declined to be bored by hearing the case . Lord Goderich delivered his manly , hearty , and occasionally eloquent argument —delivered too fast , and in too high a key , perhaps , but then it takes time to make perfect speakers— : to a couple of hundred men , and they listened and applauded—it was before . dinner _ Jime : __ and the couple of hundred turned up again at midnight from
the gaieties of London , and they relished for the time the felicitous conversation—that is his styleof the accomplished Sidney Herbert . But , when Mr . Herbert sat down , and Sir Erskine Perry got up , they soon intimated that they were not there to hear a debate—they had come to vote and get back to their gaieties , or go to bed—and the scene , the struggle between Sir Erskine and the House , was one of the most degrading to Parliament which I have ever witnessed . The be-dined young Tories roared , bawled , screeched , howled—resolute to put down a man who is only known as having
carved his own way to eminence : and . they did put him down . The House' of Commons is , of course , right to bo severe with the bore when he is mat a propos ; otherwise the bore would be in a perpetual state of afflicting oratory . But Sir Erskine Perry stands high amongst the most intellectual of tho new men of tho last general election : his speech was earnestly wise ; it dealt with new arguments in answer to previous speakers ; it was a fair debating speech , an ornament in tho debate . But he had to give way , crushed and annihilated ; he had been so
unwise as to talk democracy to the army ; and his persecutors roared ironical applause as lie resumed his seat . And the offensive hurry to get a " stoopid question" over was so great , that even Lord Palmerston , following Sir Erskine , barely got a hearing . There was a steady inattentive buzz all through his . twenty minutes' ennt . And between the speeches of Lord Godorich and Mr . Herbert there was an audience barely of thirty members ; for the most of the time only one Minister , Mr . JF . Poel . That ludicrous youth himself spoke to no more distinguished a
House . , J&caxvted that he didn't deserve a better ; that hia . Matter was silly , his style bizarre , bis manners grotesque ; the young fellow is undoubtedly an infliction off his tall stool—and of course he sits , in office , on a tall stool ; but their this »* upid gentleman was the State on the occasion , talking' for his-Sovereign and her Cabinet , and the majority which carried the division—r ^ opds , every , one . of wksufh . wiH beread as oracular-before Sebastopol . Lord Lovaine ' s speech was very peculiar . He ~ is a loud young lord , who , when he has made aphis mind ( so to speak ) to be oxatojateal , eouwys ,. by ibje expression of hi&fcice , a distinct idea that-neia .
doufetful in the act of speech what to do with his leg's and arms . He stands rather on the middle \© f the- flow * , and talks at an imaginary disputant am the rig&t gallery . He never finishes a sentence ; but then he never begins one , except in the middle , so . that not much harm is done . This orator was assuring-the people of England , last night , that there ww no * sufficient intellect , sufficient education , and sugtqieftt gentlemanly wwiiy" * in the ranks of the British army to justify the adoption of the address moved by Lord Goderich . He had been in the " serriee " ---a year or two—a crack-regiment , of course—heiddd not explain why lie did ; not . © o . to the Crimea- ^ and
he spoke with ' « Authority" and " experience "pronouncing the British army the best officered army in the world—for did not Wellington beat all the plebeian ^ marshale in Spaing Hearing- him . aod others who spoke to . the same effect , one fongot that there was such a thing as a Crimean campaign , and put on one side every recollection of "the disasters we have been talking about fora-whole year ; so granfl is the effect of impudent dogmatism . Eortunaifcely the debate included Sir De Lacy Evans ; the great soldier , still a Radical , made a speech which the English soldier ought never to forget . He was-so the he has
bold , so unreserved , so honest to men left behind him , that he . staggered even the Load Lov aines , and obtained an oratorical triumph . While he spoke I don't think more than ten senators remained below in the smoking-room , ' ndfivew voice cheered Mm when he sat down . The speech was based on one fact—stated clearly as a fact by SirDe Lacy Evans , after an experience of thirty years—The system of promotion in the British , awny is a mockery and a swindle—a- man must have gceat connexions to get on . Yet 154 in favour of—onurdering our armies in war-time ! Saturday Morning . "A SteAkobr . "
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(" IN THIS . DEPARTMENT , - AS AJ . JC OPINIONS , HOVBVBB EXTREME , ABB ALLOWED AIT EXPRESSION , THE EDITOB WECE 8 SAKIJW HO 1 D 1 HU 1-SEI . F HBSPONSIBLE FOB NONE . ]
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GAME " LAWS IN A NEW LIGHT . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —On the 4 th December last a highly respectable farmer , possessing a game certificate , walked out , at nine o ' cloclcin . the _ e $ ea * ng 4 tpshoot t & pheasant which a young lady sentwiord was then at roost in " a . tiee on' his own land . He accomplished the feat , and being summoned for the same before a majorvand . a parson , was sentenced to one month ' s imprisonment , and to find sureties afterwards . It seems that the
representatives of the Church and the Army had by some extraordinary circumstance acquired a knowledge of one legal maxim : Cujus solum est qus ' eat usque ad ccelum . Now as the bird ' s perch overhung another person ' s property , the bird , say these wise men , was on that person ' s premises . Of course the mere space is the property of the owner of the land , but the tree , an which was the bird , was on the prisoner ' s own ground . So that * according to the law of these ecclesiastical and military jurists , all that
appears above : the soil ( stopping just short of the stars ) is the peculiar property of the owner of the land —balloons , in transitu , for instance . In this case the tree ofoouBsewaa subjected to a divided ownership , the root going with tho land on one side , and the twigs on the other . So if my dog follows me into Smith ' s house ( by entering which I become the immediate property of Smith ) Smith may seize upon and sell or keep the entire animal ; butif my dog stands with only his forefcet beyond the threshold , lxis head and forequarters become vested in bnutu , and I only retain a property in his lund legs ana tail . At least this ia the law in Gloucestershire , ana no doubt it answers very well in that uncivilised « na
remote district . . . . ¦ . - I look , sir , upon this convictaoa as a boon ^ to the community . We have imagined tho ««» f !»*¦ heretofore simply to aflect low ¦ country rufflana-m and out of livery , who occasionally shot each ^ otter to the public advantage . Bud now that a Beapectablo farmer—a land-owner too—has been aenteneed to a month ' s cruel for an offence no greater than that » t sneezing in a by-place ,- we may expeot some inTeattgation . The case will act like the coming bull wfco is to toss the alderman « nd » topUiai * fiTinf « t hor » oa cattle lihrough the city . I » i » , ; 8 ir ,. » o ..
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1855, page 207, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2080/page/15/
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