On this page
-
Text (4)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
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
ruptcy compromised ; and besides the compromised , there is a vast amount of wbat we may call suspended bankruptcy—of floating accounts , which , are not pressed , because it is known that if one house is brought down others will come too . A few houses overtrading in Xiiverpool or New York will drag down others in [ Lancashire and the Empire State . How many people would have conspired to avoid that last pressure upon either house which the
brought it down ? The forbearance of business world is beyond computation . Nevertheless all this amount of bankrupt account will never really balance . It represents the gross of the mistakes or delusions in trade which cannot be realised . It is at once a shadow and an incubus upon the true commerce of the country—upon that which consists in advantageous exchanges to increase the gross amount of substantial property . It would be an interesting inquiry—far more worth a Committee of the House of
Commons than many subjects—to ascertain the probable amount of bankruptcy , overt or concealed , in the British metropolis alone during a given number of years . People perhaps would be shocked to confroat the truth which they can conspire to hush up . But the spendthrift negligence of the commercial world is not less mischievous than that of the foolish heir or the sporting class , whom moralists treat so severely . There is no real difference between an Honourable
Fbakcis Viiii / iEBS , who tries to snatch a profit out of the anticipated feats of a horse , and the speculative attempts of a Liverpool merchant on a shipping business that will never come into existence ; or the illegitimate tampering with Italian railways by a firm whose sole business was to take care of other people ' s money in London .
Untitled Article
COURT VISITORS . These is something evidently of inspiration in royalty . You may test the fact by the commonest application of the rule of subtraction . Take any royal person ; subtract from him the royalty , and see what remains . The families have in some cases , but not in all , arrived at their station by the peculiar ability of an individual ; but since able men seldom recur in families above once in four or five generations , in ordinary cases of succession there must be about four fools to
one man of sense . Since , however , the practice of breeding in and in is known to deteriorate the kind , we must adopt a lower estimate for the established royal families ; and if we allow a tithe as being possibly men of sense , the allowance would be too liberal for the truth . Nevertheless , the possession of royal power and station , with something that is conferred by divine sanction or popular superstition , imparts to the average iool qualities that render tho
possessor distinguished . ! Let any royal person be exhibited , and he is surrounded by a host to worship and admire . The consequences are sometimes amusing . It is said that when her late Catholic Majesty of Portugal visited this country in her youth , and when tho Duke of Wellington went to pay those respects which he never omitted in such cases , her Majesty , with an unaffected playfulness that distinguished her , fastened upon that characteristic of the Duke which was
the most obvious to the eyo of youth , and seized manually upon his nose . The accomplished young man who owns tho snmo crown recently visited this country , and' Sir Edwin La . kbseek was presented as a person whose works the King had been industriously collecting . "Ah ! Sir Edwin , " exclaimed his Majesty , most affably , "I am delighted to
make your acquaintance 5 for I am very fond of beasts" And thus our men of genius and influence will const itute themselves the menagerie for the amusement of infants , so that the infants be royal . As a simple " F . RS ., " Louis Napoleon excited no particular remark ; as a pretender to power , people thought something of him , though they pitied his triviality ; as an actual Emperor , he is admirable . Strip him of the purpleand the " F . R . S . " would be
consider-, ably the inferior of any of the royal gentlemen residing at Claremont ; and yet even the " F . B-. S . " might deserve to be ranked higher in the scale of creation than princes who own a congenial affection for beasts , or sport with the conk of victory . You may test the sense of dignity in the vulgar by another process . ! Let the chosen leaders of a great republic visit this country , and they will be comparatively free from any obtrusion on their valuable time . " We have
two distinguished Americans who have passed the Presidential chair now in London—Mr . Mabtin van Burett , and Mr . Millaed Ftllmobe . Mr . Fillmobe was the last President before the one now in office ; but what then ? Mr . Fillmore is only " the Honourable , " and Honourable only in a republic . It would be quite safe to visit either one . Sir Edwin" Landseee would not be received with the affection bestowed upon beasts , and even if the Duke of Wellington were as famous as his father , his nose would
be safe . Nay , if any English statesman desires to be enlightened upon the subject of the most important Commonwealth of modern times , he could learn much from the mouth either of Fillmore or of Van Buren ; but it is a matter of taste . There is hardly an independent Englishman who would not rather have his nose pulled by an anointed Prince , than shake hands with a gentleman who has been chosen to govern the Great Republic , who has been the guide of its state business and th ^ depositary of its councils . Yet Mr . Fillmore has been invited to
Court , —had an audience on Tuesday , and dined with the Queen on Wednesday ; but then Queen Victoria , is something more than a pageant monarch : her Majesty , is compelled to be a man of business ; and in courting Mr . Fillmore , the Sovereign of England is really paying her compliment to the great and powerful republic .
Untitled Article
THE PEOPLES DA Y AT SYDE N HAM . As the summer advances , and the beauties and glories of the Crystal Palace are completed , we must enter one more protest , however hopelessly , against the cruel and iniquitous superstition which closes the enjoyments of the Palace to the multitudes of the lower classes on the only day in the week which they have for recreation . The Palace seems made to redress in some degree the inequalities of fortune , to place beauty and grandeur within the reach of the poor , to open their hearts to kindly feelings towards society , and
to wean them from tho brutal indulgences to which , as an almost inevitable alternative , they are reduced . But they are absolutely and hopelessly shut out to flatter the religious self-approbation of people who can enjoy tho Palace all the week , and who make no scruple of keeping their Sunday in all the enjoyments of luxurious houses and gardens , and with capital dinners cooked for thorn as " a work of charity and necessity" by their unresting servants . ' Surely if tho clergy were really ministers of truth and justice they would protest against this hypocritical tyranny , and forbid an offering not" unworthy of Moloch to be made to tho Christian ' s God .
Untitled Article
568 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Untitled Article
« THE STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . f _ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these contributions is limited to the act of giving them publicity . The opinions expressed are those of the writer : both the Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by tile freedom which is left to his pen and discretion . ] Mr . Layard came into Parliament at the very moment when his specialty , the East , was the questio n of the day ; and that would seem to be an astonishing piece of good fortune to a public man ; but , in reality , it has been Mr . " Layard ' s great misfortune . He was suddenly successful : "what other able men gain after ten years' work , he gained by a spring ; and the result has been that he has not attempted that la .
bour which is necessary in those who want to keep a position . The circumstances of his success were adventitious , and he did not understand it : he thought he was being admired as an orator , when he was only being listened to as a witness . He lost his head and went wild , and was spoiled , and the consequence was—several scrapes . Had Mr . Layard , with his intellect and his energy , trained for public life and public speaking , he would have attained , legitimately , to a very respectable position ; but not having laboured , his attempt t o insist on House of Commons position , his evidenc e being exhausted by force of the clamour of an " Association " out of doors , is preposterous .
His speech last night was like his speecli on Wednesday at Drury-lane—indicating an insolent want of preparation for the public occasion . The impression was that he had thrown some remarks together , which remarks he pitched out pell-mell . Mr . Layard ' s manner as a speaker is ludicrous . He does not condescend to study the art of speaking , the management of tlie voice , of the body . He at once screams and mumbles , roars and whispers ; and as to his gesticulation , remember Madame Celeste as a mime in a passion , and you have a perfect notion of Mr . Layard . But not to speak of this , his style is deplorable . There is no construction : no management of points : no art : no elaboration : no contrasts :
no illustrations : —it is the style of an unpolished man , who having too many facts in his head , pulls and pitches them out— " how , no how . " There was a fine occasion for him hist night : a splendid case : but they were greatly misused . There was no real research , no adroit application—in short , nothing new . His material was as old and as familiar as his argument . Well , lie did more than displease by his unregulated manner—his jumble of a speech disappointed ; and you could judge of the effect by the circumstance that , though he commenced in a full House , he finished in a nearly empty House . This ought not to discourage Mr . Layard ; it ought to induce him to study his oratorical business .
The character of the speaking for the couple of hours after Mr . Layard indicated inattention and a sense of unimportance ; not only wsvs the Administrative Reform Association a failure at Drury-lane , but it had solemnised tho failure in the House , and the aristocratic mind was relieved , Mr . Gladstone gave some weight to the debate by contributing a statesman ' s opinion as to the chances of carrying on affairs , without selling the administration of public affiiirs to M . P ' s . Sir Edward L-ytton talks so absurdly like
Sir C . Wood — particularly in tho u >' s , — that one ia not quite clear what ho was driving at j no one would have known but for the fact that his name was connected with an amendment , that lie roao from tho side of his brother novelist and Tory loader , and that the Conservative press is assiduously discovering that tho Torius are the administrative reformers . Sir Edward made himself understood in a heavy attack on Whig oligarchy , which ho went bo far as to call an oligarchy , «•
caste , a govern ing class , but that sort of thing baa been very often done before , and rather better than ponderous and pompous Sir Edward can well manage . I say pompous- for he speaks as you can fancy ho writes , —he puts hia notes of exclamation with great regularity at the end of each of hia aontonooH , and ho commences every nccond word with a capital letter . He takes to all tho resources of tho forcible feeble , but ho rather ivcarios . When ho roao ft crowd of members ( all tho dinners wcro ovor ) rushed from tl » e sjdo gaUcrj bohind him , where they could
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2095/page/16/
-