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to passion when he smote them with the edge of the sword ; he knew what lesson they required , what was due to the peaceful settlers , what was essential to the future safety of the province . Ask the Malay chiefs , whom he has conquered ; ask the Dyaks , whom lie has constrained to forsake their old prejudices and pleasures ; ask the defeated pirates , converted bcompulsion into traders , whether he
y f cruel or a selfish man . In these latter days , when every nondescript notoriety earns his testimonial , it would , perhaps , be audacious to suggest a public subscription to redeem the losses of Sarawak aud to reward its Rajah , the highest and noblest type of air Englishman , the representative to our age of those men of genius and magnanimity who filled with lustre the reign of Elizabeth .
Two or three episodes of bloodshed to ten years of happy progress , —such has been the history of Sarawak . British relations are extending thence to all parts of Borneo . The British consul-general and commissioner at Brune periodically entertains the native princes and chiefs , and so good has been the effect , that although the only Englishman in that large , semi-barbaric capital , he is . perfectly free from fear . Such influences , however , seem only to act upon the IVtalays and Dyaks . There has not yet been discovered in the west the secret of conciliating the
natives of China , especially that sordid , cunning , cowardly class engaged in the opium traffic—the class that sought , in darkness and by stealth , to murder Sir James Brooke and his brave companions in Sarawak .
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MANCHESTER AND ITS EXHIBITION . The national importance of the Manchester Exhibition is the reason why Prince Albert will attend to open it in person , notwithstanding the court mourning . He , as the head of practical . art in this country , considers that the gathering in the centre of the manufacturing district is to have some great influence on the nation ; and perhaps
the Prince is not wrong ; perhaps , for he is a far-sighted man , he foresees some of the ulterior political consequences . But to the multitude , high or low , the opening next week will be nothing more than a splendid holiday —a splendid holiday with splendid materials for it . The exhibition is of a kind which has never yet been witnessed . It differs from that in London or Paris as much as the whole
illustration of history differs from a monster shop ; from the Exhibition at Sytlenhaui as much as the collected heirlooms of a state from a combined museum and bazaar ; from the New York Exhibition as much us success from failure . It is intended for the working classes especially ; it was designed to carry to them examples of the arts in combination with manufactures , at different periods , so that they might be enabled to improve their own handling , their own conceptions , by the example of what others had done . It was
expected that this would raise the character of the working man , give a now impulse to his self-education , improve the style of our manufactures , place in many a superior mind of the class that spark which would kindle into a lasting fire , and elevate the man above the level to which he waa born , That waa the intention , and to a certain extent it may be carried out ; though other parts of the plan have expanded to excessive proportions . ETpon the whole , wo may conaicter that the didactic function of the display will bo fat less than the holiday-making .
This will bo enormous . In population , Manchester is tho next town in the kingdom to London ; it is second only in intelligence ; it has even come to consider itself tho centre of English progress ; in many respects it is
before London in the education movement ; and we may say truly , upon an intimate knowledge , that the average of intelligence is far higher than that of London . If you descend into the very humblest abodes , you will find a greater degree of perception ,, more sharpness , less absolute stolidity , than in the great metropolis ; and the working class generally have faculties and energies cultivated by much mental activity and discussion . The display of wealth will bring to them a crowd of ideas certainly not intended by the Council of Practical Art . All that every
Lord can enjoy to his single self , the mass of luxury , the elaborate refinement of decoration , evidences of the furniture which is requisite for the great mansion , where so little will serve for " the house part" even of a dresser ' s cottage , will be shown to the working man bodily ; and there is no study of such things like seeing them . Thousands upon thousands of the democratic men of Manchester will now , for the first time , understand what is meant by the three-piled hyperbole of luxury which is requisite for the English aristocrat . But we do not believe that the balance of the
thoughts suggested in this display ior thenbenefit will be invidious . On the contrary , they will be pleased . Pleasure will be the order of the day . The Manchester lads and lasses have a great genius for holiday-making . Life goes fast among them , and if it is sometimes wasted , they learn how to seize the transitory occasion ; the spin of the machinery , the rapid passage of the Sunday , have taught them that trick . They will receive hosts of visitors from
all quarters of the globe— -from London , from Edinburgh , from the Land ' End , from the Highlands , Wales , the Channel Islands , France , America , Russia , the East , Brazil , and India . Manchester will be a huge hotel ; lodgings will go up tremendously ; monster excursion trains will be daily pouring their numbers into the town ; which by its extent and general distribution is not so ill suited for such a visitation as its manufacturing character might make one suppose .
The gentry near Manchester are hospitable to a degree excelled in no part of this hospitable country , and they will strain every nerve to do justice to this summer , when Manchester is to out-do London for the season . The manufacturers are accustomed to make their money fast ; they are go-ahead fellows with a hearty spirit ; and every house
in the town will be overflowing . The same geniality characterises the whole body , the Million , in that spinning county . Besides the exhibition itself , there will be everywhere a ferment of friendly enjoyment , such as England in modern days has seldom seen . It is Old England in its newest dress ; for after all , great as it is , tho exhibition will bo only a peg upon which to hang all this holiday
gaiety . One thing is wanting : we perceive the absence of the roc ' s egg . Manchester cannot contain the whole of industrial England for whom this exhibition is designed . It will not be possible to collect all that is to be gathered simply from one day ' s visit , or two , or three . The admission will coat something ; and lodgings are at a premium . How is tho working man to meet tho cost ? How
will tho crowds from Birmingham , the Potteries , the Collieries , tho Woollen districts , tho Silk districts , be able to do more than take a scrap from tho great feast ? If this exhibition is intended for industrial England , it ought to be peripatetic , and carried from one place to another . As it ia set down in Manchester this year , it should in tho futuro year bo placed in Bristol , for tho benefit of Southern England ; next year "Warwickshire , for tho benefit of Birmingham and the iron
districts ; at a later date in Glasgow , for the good of cotton ; afterwards in Newcastle , for the solace of the coal and fishing ; and so on unless Lancashire is to be the exclusively favoured child of England . Meanwhile , something of course will be done to mitigate the favouritism . Railway s will seek to turn an honest penny by opening the largest possible amount of traffic ; and excursion trains will be virtually adding many towns to the precincts of Manchester . But by a very simple process this U 3 e of
excursion trains might be largely extended , One difficulty in the excursion train is , to know how to provide for the number at the specific time . If precise numbers could be ascertained and properly distributed over the day , it would be possible to convey immense numbers from Liverpool , Leeds , Sheffield , Birmingham , and Macclesfield , at a charge so low that several visits would be within the compass of the humblest working man and his wife or sweetheart . Now this object might be effected by issuing excursion tickets for particular trains some days after date . Eor instance , on this 1 st of the month might be issued a limited number of tickets
for the 8 th ; another limited number for the second train , on the same day , the 8 th ; and a third limited number for a third train ; in each case with the return . On the 2 nd the same process would be repeated for the 9 th . ~ B y this means , Railway Companies would be able to distribute an immense multitude with something like evenness ; and the issue of these tickets , at a very low price , would still leave a large mass of free traffic at the ordinary prices .
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ARMY EDUCATION . It may well be doubted whether Lord Panmure is really in earnest as an army reformer . We have previously expressed our doubts on this subject . They have just received fresh confirmation from an unimpeachable quarter . Dr . Vaughan ' s letter , on which we made some remarks last week ,
has drawn forth a most important statement from Mr . Gleio , the Chaplain-General of the Forces . It appears that he made a report on tho military schools of Continental nations so long ago as 184-7 , and that Lord Panmure , then Mr . Fox Maule , Secretary at War , kept back tho report from the public and the House of Commons . Happily , it is no longer possible to keep these things m the dark corners of tho War Office ; but ior this we have not to thank Lord Panmure . There are also , it seems , three plans at present
before the Government : one drawn up by Colonel Lefroy , Inspector-General ot Military Schools , and embodying tho views ot Lord Panmujus ; another framed at the Horse Guards , and signed by the Duko ot Cambridge ; a third from tho Chaplam-General of tho Forces , sometime Inspector-General of Schools . Mr . G lkig ' 3 suggestion is , that these plans and the criticisms upon them Bhould bo made public , nncl wo heartily concur in tho suggestion . We shall then be able to gauge tho intentions ot the Government , which we can only do at present by tho inadequate general order on staff appointments
. . Wo have already commented on this order but it is necessary that tho subject should W kept constantly before tho public . Jt is obvious that as things stand , the future eiieioncy of our atntt-officors will depend on tnc oflickmuy of tho examination aa a tost oi ^ military qualifications . It will be romarkeu that tho blot in the scheme ia tho rotaining ot tlio old plan of nomination ; and that tho roinoiiv for that defect would bo tho introduction oi tho principle of competition into tho proposed method pf providing an effective stall .
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CX « THE LEADER . [ No . 371 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 2, 1857, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2191/page/12/
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