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NOTICES / TO CORRESPONDENTS . We do not undertake ioreturn rejected communications . No notice can be taleu of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and wheu omitted it is frequently from reasons quite independent of their merits .
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BRITISH EIGHTS OVER WIVES AKD PAUPERS . The parish is exalted just now . Its guardians and its clergy appear as the defenders of British rights and British morals . Marylebone stands up stoutly for local independence and the right of girl beating . The girls are * abandoned' girls , and the humane .- guardians do not like to abandon the unfortunate so they let them be caned . Discipline must , of course , be enforced ; and what chance had ' master and his two men , unarmed-with sticks , against enemies so formidable as the girls ^
The Poor Law Commissioners have some romantic notions of chivalry , and object to the flogging of females ; hut does not even Mrs . Jameson say that the chivalrous--worship of women was only one disguise of female subjection ? The authorities of Marylehone scorn to veil the slavery of the ' frail sect ' in the flimsy veil of chivalry ; they are for women ' s rights and the equality of the sexes ;
so they give the girls their due—as they would the Devil ; and recognize the equnlifcy of the sexes before the la- \ v of the cudgel . Besides , the Poor LaAV authorities are going heyond their province ; The parish dedicatee ! to St . Mary la Bonne , in which Magdalens are bastinadoed , is imder a local act , and the Poor Law Board have as little right to interfere in the New-road as Trance and \ En < rland
liave to interfere in Naples . The cases are exactly ' . ' parallel . " The worst that Actjti did was to use the stick , and the master is only the Acuti of Marylebone . The guardians have governed their Naples according to their judgment , and if the Commissioners overrule them , what is it but proclaiming the law of the strong over the weak ?—a cowardly law
which the guardians abominate . They vindicate local independence , and in that noble cause they are prepared to fall . If there is a noble spectacle , it is a great parish struggling with adversity ; a brave people " warred on by cranes , " and meeting death rather than deserting principle—or Green , the ' porter that caned the girls .
Pancras is scarcely behind : it has been vindicating social order among its boys a la Naples ; but the vindication of authority and local rights has not been carried so far . St . Pancras vacillates , and only withholds its sternest censure , because , when the children were flogged , no blood was drawn . But what if it bad been ? Is the blood of a pauper boy to be compared with the blood of soldiers , of heroes , and of martyrs , that we should think it so precious ? St . Pancras has not equalled Maryleb . , but it has had its merits .
" Spare the rod , and spoil the child , " said the wisest of men : a teacher who derives his lesson from the source of all wisdom , gives us a further moral on the same pattern" Spare the rod , and spoil the wife . " The magistrates of AVhitehaven have been vulgar enough to commit one Jaios Scott to a month ' s imprisonment for brutally beating his wife . The wife , indeed , pleaded for her husband : she would not press for punishment , she
said , insidiously , if her husband would not treat her so again ; but he refused , and the magistrates were guilty of tho gross persecution which wo have mentioned . Wo say persecution , because Scott had a just reason for tho eager persuasion which lie had used . Ho simply wished his wife to attend a proper place of worship—namely , the place at which he attended himself . " What could bo more proper , more considerate . The wifo rebelled ,
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faltering in a manner that proves either hesitation in the mind of Louis Napoleon , or an imperfect understanding between him and his Ministers , first decidednpon an armed demonstration against Naples , ' then delayed it , and now , without having induced the British Cabinet to decide against it , clings tenaciously to the idea of a compromise . In London , it seeins that a less peremptory tone has been adopted , though the squadron
terfere . The public , consequently , -will not be deceived into the belief that it has nothing to do but to ignore the troubles and agitations of the Continent , in order to escape from all danger and all responsibilitv .
still waits for orders . No political concessions are now claimed from Ferdinand ; the intervention is described as a pure act of humanity ; and it is not impossible that upon this narrow ground an agreement may be effected which will be expected to relieve England from the necessity of challenging Russia , France from the dangerous contagion of civil war , Austria from an Italian crisis , and the " Western allies together from the embarrassment of the Piedmontese
claims . Here , the practical fallacy consists in the notion that , upon the decision of the deliberating Governments , the movements of the Italian people depend . A Congress , convened at Paris , may undertake to give securities for the tranquillity of Europe . But let us be assured that the Italians do not count upon the assistance of official England in their projected struggle for independence . The whole peninsula is preparing for an outbreak ; from Otranto to the Alps , the common enemy may at any moment be startled by an insurrection . Neither the "French nor the Austrian
Governments , neither the British nor the P / iedmoritese , know where the danger is most imminent , and it is the policy of the national party to ieep them in ignorance , further than this , reserve is unnecessary , and would be ineffectual . To tell themilitary Governments that they are on the eve of a revolutionary war , is to tell them nothing . They hear it from every quarter ; they heard it at the Conferences of Paris . It is the rumour of English offices and arsenals . But the Italian nation , also , has its peculiar knowledge . It knows that France and Austria are rivals in
Italy , that England cannot take arms with either of those powers against Piedmont , that Piedmont may be impelled into a national war , that an Italian revolt within the dominions of the Emperor Francis Joseph would be a signal to his Cisalpine provinces , that Sicily , once cut off from Naples , has always the means of overpowering her garrisons , and they foresee that , whatever delays may intervene , their own opportunity will at length arrive . The best information we can obtain from Italy is to the effect that Count
Cavour . fully understands that he may be drawn into a conflict against the stranger , that the national party is resolved to act with the utmost discretion , and that if any miserable failures occur , either in Naples , or on the Austrian frontier , they will probably be initiated hy the police . It is very important , though difficult , to distinguish between a genuine and a forged insurrection . , The Italians understand these artifices too well to be deluded into despair by unsuccessful outbreaks that are only contrived to discourage them .
We join earnestly with those who would discountenance premature attempts which are sure to be abortive . The sign from France means , it is perfectly true , that the influence of the Empire will be exerted against every form of revolution . Lord Palmeustok , itls also true , is by habit an enemy of real liberalism on the Continent . But wo must take into account events and probabilities . As long as we have foreign relations , we must be concerned in foreign politics . Movements will take place , whether wo support them or not . There will be intervention , there will be a crisis , and , in some shape , England will
in-THE SIGN ]? ROM FRANCE . We hare another glimpse into the Neapolitan mystery ' , concerning which misinformation has been unusually profuse . The three Governments- —France , Austria , and Englandhave been engaged in a new course of reasoning with the King of Naples , This time the argument does not appear to have been so ineffectual as formerly . So . far as the cipher of Napoleon is intelligible , it means that if Naples will yield , or consent to consider about yielding , one or two points , France will take care that English intervention does
not become a clanger to the Governments of Italy . The secrecy of St . Cloud does not hide that fact . The alliance is a partnership of suspicion . Nevertheless , the public will do well carefully to disbelieve all the positive . statements afloat as to the settlement of the Neapolitan question . It is not settled . Were King Ferdinand to propose that his plenipotentiary should attend a deliberative Congress at Paris- ^ -a scheme to which Austria and France are favourable— -that would imply , not the adjustment of affairs in Ms dominions , but an avowal that manjr other affairs elsewhere are in a condition so disturbed as to render a
European council necessary for their settlement . Any distinct reference , however , to such a Congress is premature . We have long foreseen ib , but no one is in a position to say when , or with what objects , it may assemble . At present it is more essential to discriminate between fallacious versions of the Neapolitan , affair and versions which , though necessarily less complete in their outlines and details—the quid nunc abhors a vacuum- —may be accepted as authoritative and , so far as they go , precise .
Many circumstances combine to explain the shrinking attitude of the French Government , The man who has " raised to an unprecedented height the reputation and prosperity of France , " finds himself , in October , 1856 , face to face with a panic , with scarcity , with general despondence , and in the near prospect of an insolvent exchequer . The provinces begin to understand how they have been preyed upon for the benefit of the capital ; the capital itself , in addition to the exhaustion of public credit , is reminded ,
morning after morning , by spectral placards , that vast numbers of the working classes are still organized , and that their organization is directed , against the Government . The general population , of all classes , is anxious , restless , conscious of coming trouble . The Empire haunted by the apparitions of Cayenne , Tirst prevaricates , through its police , in reply to M . Louis Blako and then prevaricates through its Mmister of Finance , in reply to the universal murmur , accusing it of hankruptcv In this position , tho French Government
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972 THE LEADER . [ No . 342 , Saturday ,
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so . unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is "by the very law of it 3 creation in eternal progress . —Dk . A 31 KOI . D
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SATTTRDAT , OCTOBEK 11 , 1856 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 972, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2162/page/12/
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