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But there are other considerations . The Congress proposed is said to be intended solely with , reference to the affairs of Italy . Are the Italian Princes to be represented therein , or are they rtot ? If i-epresented they vilV' / we may be sure , plead hard for now securities of some kind tor the maintenance of the decrepid power against their subjects ; if not , with what face , or upon what plea of international legality can the great Powers of Europe pretend to dispose of their fate ? In either case we own our unalterable repugnaiiee to the whole proceeding . However shaped or guarded , it will inevitably , and we , must say , justlv be deemed by Europe as one in which
England may have been compromised . Our plenipotentiary will never venture to set his hand and seal to any . document formally guaranteeing the possession " of Italy to its present mis-rulers ; but practically that will be the effect of it . In concert with the-great , military tyrannies of the Continent , England will be-looked- on as planning and plotting how Austria niay be made more permanent and safe in her domination over an oppressed people ; and how excuses may be taken away from those who wish to further their emancipation . We have been from the frrst against all armed interposition by this or any other foreign State in Italian affairs ; and we are so still . Jiut we are all the more
bound to protest against diplomatic interposition on behalf Of -absolutism . Unless , therefore , Lord Malmesburv can obtain stipulations from Austria , that under no circumstances whatever shall Austrian troops be sent into Tuscany , the Duchies , or the . Legations , and that a . violation of such condition shah be . deemed by the other great Powers a casus belli , he had much better never had meddled with tlie proposed Congress , for the Parliament and the people of this country will be certain to repudiate it . -
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¦ . . CRIMES AT SEA . The Times reminds the -public that a captain of a merchant ship was executed , a short time ago , ibra . murder -. committed on the high seas , and the public is generally aware that at present a charge of a'oasting a man to death on board a steamer is undergoing investigation at Livei"pool . 15 i » tween June 1 si , 1857 , and June l $ t , 1858 , the same journal informs us that 150 . patients were admitted into one hospital at Liverpool , who had limbs broken and were otherwise maimed or mutilated bv violence
committed on them on board ships . Such brutal violence is described by our contemporary as eomuion to seafaring men in all ages . On board her BXajesty ' s ships , -apparently , this assumed natural disposition finds * u legal vent in inflicting flogging , holystoning , grog stopping , shot carrying , &c , &c . ; and the 1 , 165 men and boys who arc flogged annuall y in the navy are the victims of the same kind of violent disposition as sends , yearly , 150 men to the hospital at Liverpool . Onboard merchant . ships a handspike oi * a marlinspike serves the purpose
of acat-o ' -nine-tails ^ rtying tip at the gangway , and a formal summons of the whole crew to see the delight satiated which seafaring mow are supposed to have in human sufferings . The impatient skipper or mate seizes the first thing'that comes to his hand , and knocks -down an offender , or hurls at ihim some instrument of wrath , and he gets deservedly blamed , while his , rival who serves the State is justified , or perhaps applauded , for tlio discipline ho onforccs by legal and more measured violence .
Our contemporary imagines that to subject the merchant ships of diH ' orout nations to some common jurisdiction , might check the violence of skippers and mates , but if their violence spring from o , natural disposition in those who , fox * considerable periods , are excluded from the humanising cfibcts of civil society , us the Hogging in our navy seems to showy little could be liopod from extending to ship captains tlic jurisdiction of courts of Admiralty . Qur criminal courts and our extensive police have
had too little success in preventing crimes ashore to encourage us to cxpoot much from bringing all ships under a criminal jurisdiction . Soainon have the reputation of buing superstitious ; what then might bo th . 0 effect of reviving amongst them , could it be revived ^ the ol < l notion , that every ollenco is aurey ^ whet ^ ov subjected or not to a criminal investigation , / whether committed at soa or on shoreto be visited on the offender P Such a creed might bo an effectual restraint on haste and violonco whore no civil magistrate can intoribre .
The eagerness , however , to institute courts to punish offences is at variance witk this creed , and discourages it . Acts such as those which fill the hospital at Liverpool with maimed -bodies , and our men-of-war with scarred backs and degraded minds , are all felt to be forbidden by the Power which calls life into existence , and it would not be , therefore , .. irrational , and mig ht not be diihcult , to implant this " creed hi seafaring men , and keep them , by apprehensions of they scarcely know what , from -committing petty acts of . , violence , as such apprehensions keep men from committing -greater crimes .
On shore a inan may hope to escape in a crowd from tlte anger or vengeance of a person he . injures ; but shut up in a sliip , the aggressor and the victim are continually in the presence of one another , and the disdain , the contempt , the hatred , they mutually feel is for ever renewed . They continually exasperate one another , and thus the very necessi =-ties of their peculiar lives might teach them , mutual forbearance and mutual deference . Perhaps the law—though , from bringing them more under its jurisdiction , much benefit is expected—may not be blameless for their violence . There can no longer be any question that collisions , or the possibility of collisions , between individuals in civil life is the chief source of the sentiment of justice . If men
had nothing whatever to fear or to hope from one another , it would have no existence , and accordingly it is strong , as anen are free to act and express their thoughts . The authority ' which society , from . a notioli . possibly erroneous , confers on captains of ships , in order-to maintain discipline , removes them fi-om that collision with other ' men , certainly with air their inferiors , which teaches all moderation and 'justice . By classing mutiny with piracy and murder , and treating it as deserving death , arroirarice'is nurtured in commanders , and servility hi all beneath them . An unfavourable opinion is
never expressed of their conduct . They are relhoved , not by natural circumstances , but by _ the law , from those collisions , ami ' . fear , . of . collisions , which keep other men moderate and just . To cease , then , from classifying mutiny- —winch , under some circumstances , when the captain is a drunkard or half mad ,, is laudable—with the most revolting crimes—piracy and murder—and to withhold from captains the unlimited authority the State now confers , on them , might be a better method of lessening crimes at sea , than extending the jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty . /
Something is undoubtedly required . Day by day the evidence is accumulating that many cruelties-. and many crimes are committed by seafaring men . . The commissioners U > -inquire into harbours of refuge , assure us that the character of seamen under the present system is deteriorating ; that they embark in a state of intoxication , that they desert in great number , * , and cause ^ great losses to the owners of ships . From her Majesty ' s nayy , too , desertion is very , great . About onctwelfth of the sailors employed run away every yeai \ In other -employments nion arc . glad to remain as a means of setting a living , hut seamen , who can neither resist their officers nor obtain redress for
wrongs , desert . Our laws and regulations pervert their moral sense , and converting resistance to oppression into an enormous crime , make desertion beneficial and appear like a virtue . The rules laid , down for the royal navy aro adopted in the merchant-service , and the conduct of the State towards the spnmon , whom it long treated most cruelly and unjustly , was mivdu tho guide of private shipowners and shi p captains . This is a serious subject for tho public ; for both our foreign trade and the defence of tho nation depend on the character of its seamen . The several examples referred to . show that tho time is ' cpmo when « reform of tho spirit of our maritime rogula tions must tulcc p lace , and tjioy must ho more imbued Avith tho justice which mon loam in civil life ..
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THE FOULOKN II 0 PJ 5 . Ax . 1 ,. frequenters of the Baths of Ilombourg must bo acquainted with tho name and features of n certain aged baroness , who was always to bo found at the . roulette tables of that world-known { Cui'saal . The oiroumstanoQ of a foolish old woman losing her money at . " , rouge ot noir , " is a thing too common in those iooajities to oxcito attention . Tho solo interest attaching to tho lady in question ,
arose irom the fact that she was known to-be one of the chief proprietors of the public gambling tables . She lived by the folly of others , and yet she was caught herself by tlie xcry snare she baited with . Slie knew that in the long run' must lose ; she knew too that people thought her a fool for playing—arid yet she played : Nature is indeed inscrutable . We believe that some apothecaries drink their own . , medicines ; we are told that some clergymen , read their own sermon 3 in hours of meditation . ISTever , however , were the * feclinrrs with , which , in former days , wo have looked inxw the lady gambler , so vividly recalled , as when we learnt that'Mr . JJeresford llopc was about to stand for the . University-of ¦ Cambridge ' .
Mr . Alexander James Bercsford Borcsford Hope is the Saturduy llcview , or the Saturday Review is Mr . Hope . We know not wliich is the proper way to wprd . it . ' Whether the 'body'is greater than the . soul , the purse tlian t ! ie pnpei-, we must leave to metaphysicians to decide . . But considering that body and soul arc inseparably connectedthat just as the soul could never have existed without the body , so the paper eouM ¦ ne ver have siibsistetl without the purse . —wo are . justified- in assuming , for all practical - -purposes ,, .-that Mr Hope ( for thesaike of brevity we . drop the ; prefixes ) and the Saturday Review are oiic . Throughout the brief term of its existence , Mr . Hope ' s ohran has lived and'flourished bv decrvih . tr cvervthiner .
Every generous aspiration , every liberal project , every earnest effort has been the object of their constant depreciation . It is easy enough to sneer at everything when you proptiso -nothing ; When yoii present no point of attack , you can ¦ hit right and left without danger . The post oi ' t ' ie universal critic , who cannot be criticised ,-is . a pleasant and a lucrative one . What can induce the representative
of'tlie Saturday' Tievieio to Uvive tli . j position ' of judge for that of culprit ? Why anou ' ld-the . bull who is in his'glory in the china * hop dosert its precincts ,, of his own accord , for the perils of the arena ? Mr . Hope would have dune more wisely if he had followed the-example oi'Xoah Cl . aypi > k » , and kept to knocking . down :-imll rhildren , without exposing his own person . At all events , it is a comfort to have fresh proof of the existence
of a retributive justice . A considerable number of ''(' ambri ' ilgii graduates ( and , we suppose , ¦ contributor .- ! to the Saturday Itevieiv ) have , we leurn , presented a requisition to Mr . Hope to stand . for the University at the next election . " Considerable" is-a relative terra . We quite agree in thinking that s ^ von is n larger number of supporters-than ,-we . should think , Mr . Hope could halve reasonably reckoned * > n- Seven is a mystic number . Seven men can certainly be termed a pviblic . Mr . Hope has twit ' ii as manv supporters as the tlic tailors of Tooley-street , and an odd man into the bargain . 1 ! ' Mahomet had collected
waited to announce his ' croud till he had a body of believers , Mahomjtani .- ' . in would never have existed . The faithful uovun are Mr . Hopes Fatimali , and it is tp them , in coiwuijuuncu , tlmt the virgin charms of the-Hope creed aiv firflt oxpowdi The address pf Mr . Hope to his conrti « kTal ) l . ' body of supporters has been published , ; solely , : >> yet , in the columns of tho S-itM'thji ¦ Review , nnU has not , in consequence , attmctod much or pub kattention , Fearing however ,- as wo d <> , tlnit tnc movement of this " Unml of IIopo " may shortly uio , and give no sign , we make haste to call attention to tills manifesto of our modern " ^ oung Jmjblimd "—this last speech and c . mfewjon ot tiw ¦
Saturday lteview . , , ' .. ,. Mr . llope is attachod to tho KriMi constitution in all its aspects . Its ijionarnluciil , ' ' * P " nristocmtic , and its highly - wdned ( lyino mftioal fonturos , aro all oq ually ohjuets ot ins tender solicitude . Tho chancellor * wig n »« tho beadle ' s Btafl * avb aliko dear l <> !»""• J ^" casions , howovor , will ari . se wliou one sect on of the body politic must bo projorivil Id a - other . Tlie W Zealand oamubal lovocl I t missionary ' s teaching dearly , aru . l , uhwl bo lovoa iu dearly tho taste of that liwcioun 1 U' « I » . U ( n V : fin , i would iwk Mr . ^ ol ) o , could bi > th tiwtun I » o . ^ " * '"^ at once ? The answer to this liijlK'rto iwuh ^ problem U containod in the prophetic utuu u oo , that the moinbor for Maidntonu w tho " ; 101 l ° . amelioration and tho antagonist ot « " « " »" , ' oniiniiiii
What n pity thut so boautiiul a « ' . « ; . •; be wasted on seven uupportord . Mr . i ' * , , . ' " Old Patriarch , " in-his dwpmt mood . s , novui J duood a sontlmunt so swootly sonoi'i > nn , so utauj
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¦ 4 02 ' . ' •¦ ¦'¦ ¦ . '¦' ' . ¦ . ¦ : " ; ¦ ' V ' : . - - : ' ¦ - THE LEA BE B . ^^_^^ ¦ '
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Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1859, page 402, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2287/page/18/
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