[PB, January 2015: This transcript has not been checked closely against the original. The article can be viewed here. A transcription is available here.]
The manifold, cruel, and mischievous injustices arising from a system of persistent class government are made manifest every day. Judges, lawyers, military and naval men of high degree, make laws that suit their own views, purposes, and convenience. They may be styled the "comfortable classes." The judges are consulted upon all matters concerning themselves, which impartial persons should be called upon to determine. They are the servants of the public, and the positions they hold are made for the public good, not merely to give place and pay to those who hold them. What would be thought of a cook or housemaid dictating to her employers how many hours she should work, what holidays she should have, and what wages she should receive?
In all likelihood, she would, figuratively speaking, be kicked out of the house as an impertinent minx and ridiculously self-sufficient hussy. Yet this is a parallel case to that between the public and the judges. The latter were the first to rise for their Christmas holidays and the very last to return to work. After finishing a two months' holiday in October, they enjoyed another one in December, and, in short, more than one half of the year is thus self-appropriated to their own leisure, pleasure, and convenience. And this in the face of the fact 'that hundreds of law cases are postponed from time to time at an enormous cost and inconvenience to the suitors, solely by reason of the prolonged absence of the judges.
Lawyers, one of the most influential classes in parliament, have cleverly contrived to enact laws that enable them to escape the punishment of fraud that overtakes other offenders. For instance, a clerk appropriates to himself five or ten shillings that he ought to have paid into his master's account. For this offence he might be imprisoned for one or two years. The solicitor entrusted with two or three thousand pounds by some client for the purpose of investing in public securities, instead of doing this, puts the money in his own pocket, and probably the utmost penalty he receives is being struck off the rolls!
In all likelihood, if the burglarious interest was as powerful in parliament as the legal, the housebreakers would contrive that the highest penalty for any offence in their line of business should be limited to a fine. The public, in reference to the shameful delays and enormous costs attendant upon what is termed the administration of justice, are told that this being an old country, reforms cannot be made so swiftly and sweepingly as in younger nations. But France, so to speak, was a more ancient country than this when it did away nearly a hundred years ago with the startling and scandalous abuses, of which we still have reason to complain, and probably will for years have to suffer under, until the present vicious system of class government is abolished.
Again, we know that in all things concerning military matters the highest authorities are omnipotent. It is they that have fixed the rates of pensions and rewards allotted to all ranks in the service. And what are the results P Field-marshals, generals, colonels, and others of the higher grades are extravagantly rewarded, whilst the non-commissioned officers and privates, although far more deserving, are dealt with in the most stingy and parsimonious fashion. At present there are hundreds of the former that never heard a shot fired in anger, and have spent the greatest portion of their lives at the card tables of the clubs, enjoying hundreds per annum as pensions, &c.; whilst the treatment of men who have really served their country, fought and bled for it, is exemplified in the following communication from Mr. H. Robinson, M.A,, J.P., of Knapton Hall, North Walsham, Norfolk:
" May I ask for a small space in your valuable paper to set forth the claims of one of the ever-famous Light Brigade, by name James Olley, now residing in this parish? He had one horse shot under him in the charge, but directly caught another, and rode through the whole charge. He received four wounds, and had his left eye shot out. He has a wife and six children, four of whom are under the age of ten, and utterly dependent upon him. His pension is only 8s. 2d. per week, and I have just seen a doctor's certificate stating that he is incapable of continuing his employment owing, I believe, to heart disease. I trust I need only make the case known through your kind agency to obtain sufficient funds to enable him to end the rest of his days in peace and comfort. I may add I will gladly receive any donations on his behalf, and will do my best to see they are rightly applied."
Probably, if the privates enjoyed some parliamentary and governmental influences and powers, the pensions awarded a pack of feather-bed generals, &c., would be materially reduced, whereby those bestowed upon such really gallant and distinguished soldiers as poor James Olley could be greatly increased.
[Source: "The Comfortable Classes", Reynold's Newspaper, 8 January 1888. The article can be viewed here. A transcription is available here.]
[PB, 17.1.2015]