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Printers could not print without misprints unless they were superior beings . They have all been moral persons ; there is no instance of a compositor employed on any page of that volume wlio has gone astray in Bfe . The publishers have been persons of irreproachable character . The shopkeepers that sell it never make mistakes . The banker who comments on the Bible must of course be perfectly Btrict in all his transactions with his neighbour . The opponents of Mr . Macnaught must must sustain this thesis ; for if they admit of any qualification
of the statement , " where are they to draw the line ? " Admit that the banker commenting on the Bible , as one John Deaw Patji . has done , could be incorrect in his accounts , and they may admit the possibility of human error in connexion with the volume . Admit that the publisher may possibly cheat even in the price of selling the volume , and they must admit that the printer as well as the publisher may be liable to error . Admit that the printing-press can err , and how * can they vouch for the pen ? But if the pen can go astray , may not the penman ; and if the
penman "We will not pursue Mr . Macnatjght ' s tfery natural inquiry further . The Clerical Society cut it short by two modes : they expel Mr . Macnaught from their bod }' , and in order that he might not go forth to scatter hia doubts upon an injured world , they send him out with a mark upon him . He had had
his doubts , had he , of the infallibility of the text ? "Well , they avenged doubt with doubt . The Hev . C . E . Tittebton , curate of St . Augustine ' s , called on Mr . Macnafght's curate , " saying he thought Mr . Macnattght had been very ill used , but that people had great doubts as to Ms moral character " Some insurance-office would not take his
word ; and something is said about a disputed church paving bill . That is the usual form , in which the avenging angel of Calvinism executes his doom . If some unfortunate man , too earnest for the regulation piety , confesses a doubt as to the construction of texts , his fellow members at once conceive a doubt as to his " moral character . " It is doubt for doubt . If he doubts the infallibility of Stephen , as Mr . Macnaugiit did , they doubt the infallibility of his commercial morals ; and surely , they may say , the commercial character of the Reverend John Macnattght is unimportant , compared to the character of Stephen , or of the whole of the
Sacred Volume . In turn , we have our doubt . We doubt whether this mode of meeting a polemical opponent by the trick of backbiting will any longer serve the purpose . On the contrary , the effect is decidedly injurious to faith . The vulgar are beginning to think that truths which need the expulsion of the inquirer , and are supported by the device of backbiting , arc not of the kind which are " great and will prevail . " The true traitors to Christianity arc men like those who travesty the inquisition in Liverpool , and supply tho place of thoracic with petty calumniation .
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WHY IS MEAT SO DEAR ? Why is meat so dear ? Every housekeeper is asking tho question , and answering it -with anathemas against " the butcher , " whoso " little bill" has swelled to formidable proportions for those that can pay ; while for those that have just bo much to spare and no more , tho daily meal grows more scanty . "Why is meat so dour ? For a very simple reason . The butcher has little or nothing to dp with it . The reason is excessive speculation amongst those who deal in tho wholesale animal . When tho dealing was conducted at Smithfiold market , there was a rule
to check this kind of stock-jobbing in the daily food of the people . There was a rule which forbade beasts sold on one day to be resold there before an interval of three weeks . No doubt this rule -was evaded , and sometimes directly infringed ; but it did tend to check the propensity of speculating . "When the market was removed from Smithfield this old rule was not carried with it ; it was forgotten amongst the ancient furniture , which is sometimes left behind in moving ; and hence the new practice .
This practice is carried out more actively and extensively than the public supposes . Not only do the cattle-brokers speculate , but graziers themselves have entered into themarket , as the cotton-manufacturers entered some time back into cotton broking for the Australian market . The manufacturers burned their fingers , and we suspect that the stock-jobbers in beef and mutton will not always get entire profits . The practice has descended even to the drovers . A man who can amass a . little money , will buy stock on its way to London , and enter the market prepared to share all the operations of the " Bulls" and " Bears" of Copenhagen-fields .
The object of these people is of course to keep stock out of the market , and to realize as high prices as possible . The butcher is here but the agent for the consumer , and he is almost treated as an . enemy by the combined jobbers . To him the high price of meat is a nuisance ; it checks the trade , it subjects him to the reproaches of his regular customers . His only protection is that his neighbours in the trade are as badly off as he is .
There is no denying , however , that the high price of meat is in part artificial . It is not caused by scantiness ; it is caused by the jobbing . There has been nothing in the grazing trade which threatens any scarcity of meat . If the high price , therefore , occasions great numbers to economize , they need not make up their minds that they must pay high prices , but they must reflect that the economizing in meat tends to bring down the price . Indeed , if all meat consumers could , like the Yankees when they began
their disputes with England , enter into a non-consuming league , they would put such a pressure upon the butchers as would soon briug the jobbers to their senses . The butchers would be not displeased at such a combination ; they would , indeed , co-operate with the consumer , for they have been now for several weeks continuing their business with a palpable loss . At any rate , however , it is always best that tlie real cause of any general difficulty should be as generally understood as possible .
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AFTER LOUIS NAPOLEON—AN EMPRESS REGENT ? Is it pretence or self-deception that induces Louis Napoleon to treat France as though it were entailed in his family ? Does ho actually believe that the Crown of December will pass down a dynasty of Bonapaute Emperors ? That the French nation will forgive its betrayers ? That his throne will stand three days after he has left it ?
Nothing but a most unnatural combination of circumstances has preserved his authority during the four years and a half that have elapsed since the coup d'dtat . It may be , indeed , that Franco is doomed to be governed by an Incubus during tho Jife of Napoleon 111 . ; but no man who comprehends French history or French character , or tho state of French
opinions , conceives for a moment tho possibility of an Imperial House established permanently at the Tuilcriea . Louts Napoleon governs the ignorant part of the population by delusion ; the venal
part by bribery ; . the virtuous part by terror . JLet us relate a story—not of feudalism , but of the nineteenth century , in Prance . JL retired prefect of police in Paris , employed ^ as clerk , a very respectable young married man , who one day , about ten . weeks ago , was missed from his home . His wife came to inquire at the house of the ex-prefect , but he had not arrived . Several days passed , and , as it was known that he was habitually steady , regular , and cautious , his
disappearance caused the utmost surprise . At length his employer , anxious to relieve the distress of the young wife , determined to carry out an inquiry , and , knowing something of French habits of government , commenced his investigation at the Prefecture of Police . The prefect saluted his dear predecessor , expressed his serious concern , called up an official , and directed an immediate investigation . The investigation appeared an easy affair , for he soon said ,
« Tell that her husband is perfectly safe . " That was not considered satisfactory . " Tell her not to be alarmed , for her husband has only gone abroad for a short time . " How could he tell her this ? That would be no consolation to her misery . She desired to know what had become of her husband ; she would not believe he had left her . " He has not left her . He did not go , he was sent . The truth is that was a little of a tattler , and to keep him safe , he has been sent out to Cayenne ; and now , my dear predecessor , I sympathize with the lady ' s distress , but I need not advise you how to take this matter , for you know—we
are a despotism . That is the Empire ' s commentary on itself . We give these facts , pledging ourselves to their accuracy , and are ready to furnish any one who has a reason for inquiring , with names , dates , and verifications . Now , this is the system by which France is governed . Louis Napoleon succeeds in retaining power , because every political and social right in France is , for the present , at his m « mr TTo wiirns ns if thfi French nation He rei as if the French nation
mercy . gns did not possess one statesman , one nobleminded soldier , one man of high culture and spirit , any class of patriots , any set of men preferring law and morality to violence and corruption . If France were in that abject state , an Empress-Regent might nurse the crown until an Emperor of Eighteen should be ready to wear it . But when Louis Napoleon affects to settle the succession of the Imperial line , Frenchmen laugh , for they remember that Franco still survives to resist the perpetuation of her shame .
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TRADES , UNIONS . We publish , in "Open Council , " a letter from the Secretary of tho National Association of United trades , in reply to Mr . Campbell ' s letter from Glasgow . The " papers" referred to consist of communications from Scotland , on the subject of Mr . MacKinnon ' s Committee . In February last , the Central Committee of the National Flint Glassmakers' Society of Great Britain and Ireland which has ' its seat of operation in Glnsgow , hewing of Mr . Maokinnon ' s proposed inquiry , offered their co-operation . Ihe London Association at once invited them to stato their views , and they expressed ,
without reserve or delay , their opinion :--That Courts of Arbitration would bo beneficial , both to employers and employed ; but that the great difficulty would be to insure , in those courts , an adequnto representation of tho working classes . Tho Flint CHassmnkera had , for a considerable period , acted upon tho prmciple ot
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Jtflttft 28 , 185 f £ j Til tEADli ; ( &g
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1856, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2147/page/13/
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