Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

3 articles on this Page

SPIIT OF THE PRESS. I

News
Cite
Share

SPIIT OF THE PRESS.   r, <• flair* of    llttillnt k, ,? I" i ?, /? -i ""?'" ,1 11 -m « OP "I" t,, 1/, T FG \LISING Tlir; O .XVEYANCK <" KI.KCTOKS T< I THK '• POLI. [From the Mf>n>nij rStar. Is A iuemt>ev of the LcuUtuturc the sCiVaM o. tiK* j master of the public? Was the Parliament iiui.V t.;r the people or the people for the I'nrliumen'. the "rcatest estate, the Country ov the Commons'; The-c are iji(iitii-ics that flash upon the intelligent min i when a prf»po<al i> made to legalise the payment, by candidates, of conveying electors to the poll. Hitherto it l,a< been done all over the country; but there was no act of Parliament to render the practice legal. The Govern- ment, however, proposes to make it SII, and has '0 far succeeded as to have carrie I it, proposal in Committee, with the iiht modification that the vot t i-not directly to be raid his travelling expenses, but that somebody else is to be paid for conveying him to the poll. No matter, the money is to come out of the pocket of the candidate for whom he votes. if there are re- tainer- iu a borough, or "i.oooin a county, ready to goto poll for :t particular man. it shall lie lawful for that man to "et them carried thither in cabs or omnibuses, in g'S», waS„0|.« or rV.bvav vans. Ileis the individual whose interest is to he served, the affairs of the nation being a vcrv Mib'irdiimtc consideration, and so the law is to permit hilll to till til) the market s.piarc with cartloads of patriots, just as a farmer would bring up cartloads of pigs. It is'reallv toodegradinsr—degrading tfl this fit'rand Hoii- riaViij: tsncli a practice should ever have been tolcraTci. but doubly so when it ;s to receive the sanction and lie Upheld hv the fiat of imperial legislation. The spirit we want "diftV.-ed among constituencies is that of a poor bat honest elector, that we remember to have seen at a < nunty contest. who bad walked a dozen miles to the poll whiie lie could have ridden in the sipiire's carriage, and whü ale his own crust at a beer-shop when lie c(Jul,1 have been entertained at all hotel. This man was on the same side as the squire; he voted with those who dined luxuriously; and 0:1 being asked why lie acted in such a manner, he replied that as an English subject he never had and ne,i er could give a vote that would cost his representative money, and place himself in a.1HtlU grovelling predicament. There are multitudes in this, as in all other countries, whose only notions of right and wrong are derived from the written law, and when these multitudes conic to know that it is their legal right to be arric I to the poll, as cattle are conveyed in railway trucks, they will lie less than evr di-poscd to regard their franchise as involving the exercise of a great duty, to be fulfilled with 1I\;lI\lines5, with independence, and with courage. If we hail not a high estimate of the character of the Queen's present (J,dviers. we might he disposed to ima- gine that this great and scri ins piece of retrogression has heen secretly designed to counteract the repeal of the property qualification for Members of Parliament. The proposal stands, indeed, directly in the teeth of thc principle which induced the Legislature to abandon the property llualiflcation. The argument against that qualification was, that it afforded no security for getting a higher class of members, while it made the right to ,it in the House of Commons a question of money and not of patriotic feeling. Yet, in the same session, aiid if it had been surrptitiously designed, a clause is slipped into an old bill which, if passed into law, will, while the money qualification is removed from the table of the House, create a monsy qualification at nearly all the polling booths of the United Kingdom, and one worse than the other, because involving the necessity of large and immediate casl, payments. It is as if an anti- Reform party in the Commons had determined to make a virtue of giving up the property qualification while secretly contriving that money, move than before, would be made the (est of fitness to enter Parliament. THE SLAVE TRADE. From the Observer.] We cannot take upon ourselves the universal police of the seas. We cannot force other powers to carry out thoroughly the humane principles upon which we act ourselves. It was wise in the Government to re- move what was likely to become a cause of dissension with America, by abandoning formally any pretensions to the right of search, a right always doubtful on one side and always repudiated Oil the other. But to re- move our preventive squadron from the African coast, and to leave the field open to the slave dealers to re- establish their trade at all the points from which we have driven them, would be too great a violence to the moral sense of the country. That would be indeed to render all our former efforts ami sacrifices useless, just when the prospect of complete success is attained. The ultimate extinction of the slave trade will not be accomplice I by forcible measures, but by leading the natives to appreciate the superior advantages of peace- ful industry and legitimate trade. Much has already been accomplished towards this desirable change, but if the slave dealers were permitted, through the immediate wltJllfrawal of our cruisers, again to have free aeee..s to all parts of the coast, there would be an cud to im- provement. and the humanisation of the African tribes would he indefinitely postponed. It would be pro- claiming free license for the revival of the slave trade along the length of Western Africa. Persevering in our present course, there is a good prospect that before the lapse of mall)" years we may dispense with the eUl- ployment of a gieater force than will he wanted for the protection of our lawful commerce. That result would be close at hand if. whilst the American Government take upon themselves to prevent the prostitution of their own t!ag by the Cuban slave dealers, Spain should be brought tofulfd her own solemn and repeated engagements with this country. THE RIGHT OF SEARCH. [From the Daihi Aeics.l General notices of the last American mails tells us tl1at there is no particular news. Yet we have rarely know so interesting a set of newspapers and political letters from that quarter as those which arrived la-t week. They exhibit the rebound of the conversations ill Parliament and the discussions in our newspapers on the events in the Gulf. Wc su-pect thc surprise in America at the way in which the matter was conducted and ended here will be rivalled by the surprise in England at the way in which the news was received in the United States. The whole vocabulary of amazement, vexation, perplexity, ami indignation seems to be ex- hausted by the y.ai?t?j?rtica in the Great Hepuhlic who were expected to unite iu a shout of trinmph and wtio IN (?.?e ti- iiiiitk! izi I of' saM?.cdtL?.n.t.t?at<'?p<)[im'.? 1\dr5: the IHat- rials before bS, however, exhibit nothing of the sort, but. oil the other Land, every eo::eein.1Jh: fLlnn of LiL- satisfaction. We direct attention to this, not becamc we see any necessity, or feel any inclination to spy into the n,:('y I1llJoL1s ot our neighbours, caused h inei,jellt, which are gone ty. but becausc ill the diycnu¡c,1 for. of the uneasiness generated by one aiVair we see more 1101,e than WI: have ever seen before of obtaining our object. Any thinking man. experienced in political afVai.. who would take the tl"Juh!e to re,.d \\hat is said by all parties in the United States about the reported colli ons ill the Cuban Wateis nnl their consequcuces in tl.c respective Cabinet- and Parliaments would, we thiLk kdarc tLnt there i, more prospect at this n11). mei i .-I the ictcicval of; A"riean Ihig. and of tile rele i e <>t the Federal 'I u; from the dishonour of 1. the: c :■ !>. .> from the day when that InstO'ii! 1\ hi, O ,v:i»:;» v [I) hi: peril the union. I'OES CiiKRl'OUKG MENACE ENGLAND I "I 1-\ [l'rem the It 's by no means neecs-ary to consider any amount of pieparation 0:1 the French coast as an intentional menace to orf thcl1"c: but nevertheless we are con- vinced tl .it our concord with France w ill be only the firmer it we take a hint to the efficiency c f o-.r Channel fleet. All who are anx- is felt throughout the kingdom. nui>t he gratified to think that the Queen will see with her own eyes the ii, glilv efforts of France tu rival 115 a- a madtinle puwer, The lesson, though given as a will surely not be lost upon a proud and intelligent Sovereign of Eti»lnud." Alld It will uf course make all the deeper imprcsaion when her Majesty recollects that a great navy i, not to France the necessity of life that it is to Great Britain, whose wooden wall- not merely defend her coasts.but arc indispensable tu her ,)\UIl¡cl\i11 consequence and colonial cm¡irc O: all people on thc face of the earth.' says Mr. liriglits daily organ, '-we have the least reason to affect indignation at the "z-e--e of the ::t i':l \t:t !1¡i. lsi; ll; 1 tI;(:¡ larger than that of any. perhaps than that ?i aU other nation* put together." Ti,e "Titcr, vi th; more peae> ful than patriotic school tind it convenient to overlook the fact that out- navy has grown up with our trade, to which and to the extent of our foreigu dominions, it bears a proportion that divests it of an aggressive cha- racter, and thereby distinguishes it broadly from the navy 01 France. So fur aie we from keeping up a superfluous force at sea, that the inadequacy of our fleets for any emergency of danger is acknowledged by all but those in whose eve- a single ship of war would be a ship too nwdl. Wc are phased to observe from Sir J. Pakington's speech at the Trinity House that lie scarcely requires a trip to Cherbourg to teach hill. the duty of & naval Iilliter of England. WH[G CONSERVATISM. [Fn.c tL, P"J 11C motley aggregate of Parliamentary dupe., and expectant-, who still i a the restoration of a 1'"Lner"tl)\Ù.n despotism, or languish for the reviial of a Kus-ellite oligarchy, are just now in a pitiable plight. 1 he: have rung the changes on Liberal. semi-Liberal, and ¡;ltm.Liheral combinations—have drawn post-obits on the existence of Lord Derby's Government till Hen the exchequer of corrupt promises was exhauste,l- have forgotten old pledges and "bolted" new ories-ill brief, have gone the entire animal in faction, yet all iu vain. As the session draws near and nearer to its close, hope sickens within them an,1 doubt settles into despair. Rather would they endure for a month longer the blended sweets exhaled from the recking banks of the Thames—" the dregs of Liniehouse, and the tribulation of Tower-hill," than realize their defeat and retire to fresh breezes and ever-springing regrets. The inevitable recess oilers no rest to tlieni-otily a pillow of thorns or bed of torture. They will be hag- ridden by the memory of adverse majorities-appalled bv menacing spectres from the haunted chamber of ni t t e e roo Highland moor nor Norfolk stubble-" shall medicine them again to that sweet sleep that they owed "-it seems but '-yesterday"—on the Treasury benches, with CorncwaiI Lewis on his legs and quarter-day in vievr. We could really pity their distress, if they would prescne a little dignity, or even decency, in its mani- festation. At the present time, the praises of Whig Conservatism" are not only absurd, but insolent; they are at once a futile attempt t. falsify the history of a generation, and an affront to the common sense of a now awakened people.

[No title]

.A WAGES CASE AT DErmy.