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COUNT PERSIGTNY'S SPEECH. T HE failure o...
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A Survey Of The Session. Few Things Are ...
in . Europe . rather than heartily concurs with , and promotes the beneficial movements that are taking place . He has done much to drag England out of a path that was wrong ; but has achieved little to impel her in a course which is right . His remonstrances against the annexation of Savoy , and the trickery with which that event was accompanied were wise and just , but he was equally energetic in urging Victor Emmanuel not to attempt the liberation of Italy , in ..- \ vhich he was quite wrong , and he has thus done much to place tranquillity above right , and to justify the complaint of foreigners that English foreign policy has no lofty aim . The impulse to better things must come from the people ; and we may reasonably expect that his Loedship will continue to give us that best of all aid—timely information of what is going on . .. . If we turn to the negative accomplishments of the session , we find our House of Commons could not reform its own basis in the state of the franchise and representation . It could not defend its rights against the flagrant usurpation of the press . It could not effect any important change in army or navy administration . It could do nothing in the way of Law Reform , not even get through a Bankruptcy Bill . It could not deal with the great question of Public Accounts , and the provision of any sufficient check against the waste and peculation by which at least ten millions are annually lost . It was incompetent to deal with any great social evil . Crime and Pauperism are to go on as before ; some little protection is to be afforded to the poor Bleacher , but Ragged Schools are to be excluded from the educational grants , simply because their poverty does not enable them to come up to the standard of Privy Council respectability . It . can pass Bills against Church Rates , but cannot abolish them , because it allows the House of Lords to be its master and submits to any humiliation rather than engage in a conflict on behalf of what is right . Of the little qualities that disgrace a Legislature it is full . Of the great qualities that give dignity to a Senate it is lamentably defipient . It is a Club of Political idlers , only stimulated to action by selfish considerations . It does hot represent the thoughts , the ideas , or the wishes of the nation . It is merely . a provisional assembly , which , for the sake of public security , ought to be Reformed , and placed upon the just basis of a suffrage extended to meet the requirements of our times .
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¦' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ' ¦ ' " . ¦ ' < f ¦ ' ¦ 764 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . , [ Sept . 25 , 1860
Count Persigtny's Speech. T He Failure O...
COUNT PERSIGTNY'S SPEECH . T HE failure of the harvest in France , and the advantage of taking Europe by surprise , will furnisri two obvious reasons why the Imperial speech factory should now be employed in producing peaceful utterances ; and accordingly , whether the great man himself , or one of his officials , addresses the world at large , we are assured that the era of war has passed away . Among the most curious of these attempts to comfort the nations , is the opening- address delivered by , Count Pebsiony , to the General Council of the Loire . " Without pretending to abolish war , " says M . De Persigny , the Emperor has repudiated fighting for the sake of avenging the defeats of the first empire . " But there were two questions that required a military solution . One was , Jthat of the East , and the other t hat of Italy ; in both , the new empire boasts of success . It is said that by the destruction of Sebastopol , Russia ] was prevented from taking possession of Constantinople , and the affairs of Turkey were handed over to a " united Europe . " There is a portion of truth in this assertion . The war did weaken Hiissia so much , that a period of tranquillity became essential to her , an d her' alliance , in her reduced state , was worth less to France , than that of England . This was certainly a great gain for Europe , and while we may claim some portion of the credit for ourselves , we do not wish to detract from the merit of Napoleon III . " As regards Italy , continues the French Minister , " the Italian States were delivered from Austrian domination , and the principal qbject of the war was thus obtained . " M . De Persigny must presume very much upon his hearers , if he claims for the Empire this eman cipation of Italy from Austrian control . It has , it is true , taken place , or nearly so , as the result of the repudiation by the Italians of the monstrous projects of the Zurich Treaty . By winning the battles of Magenta and Solferino , France rendered an invaluable service to the Italians , which was handsomely paid for by the cession of Savoy , and which , would have been rendered worthless , if the stipulations of ViUafrunca had been carried into effect . With the restoration of the Austrian potentates in Tuscany and the Duchies , and the- admission of Austria to such a confederation as Louis Napoleon proposed , Itnly would have had no independence whatever , and it is untrue to say that the Italians nro now 'jeopardising the independence they
acquired by the war . " As M . De Persigny knows , the war gave them nothing of the kind , but left them in a condition of unstable equilibrium , in which it was impossible they could rest . When he adds that " . the principle of non-intervention , now a . recognised rule of international policy , exercises a dominating "¦ influence over the further development of the question , " we fear that his affirmations go beyond the fact , as the German States have by no means agreed to adopt so rational a course , and would interfere to-morrow , at least by indirect measures , if Austria should be engaged in a new struggle with the Italian people . M . De Persigny treats the apprehensions that France will attack the Rhine , or invade England , as purely chimerical ; but be curiously adds that the Rhine is no longer a strategic position , and that France , being stronger than a disunited Germany , will never support the project of German unity for any prospect of advantage she might obtain . After this he lays down the doctrine that France would have right to the Rhine , for the sake of preserving the balance of Europe , if Germany should become a single State . This is a confirmation of the views which have often been explained in this journal . The negation may go for nothing , and the sentence be taken for a confession , that if any German Power wants Imperial aid , it may be had at the price of ceding the frontier of the Rhine . The Austrian empire is manifestly decomposing ; the Prince of Prussia has weakened his position in Germany by his approximation to the House of Hapsbuug , and the smaller potentates are occupied with jealousies and unscrupulous intrigues . Under these circumstances , internal dissensions in Germany are highly probable events , and the several parties in the coming quarrel are dexterously reminded that aid is sold next door . Count Pkrsigny ' s notions of political veracity are illustrated by his , comments upon transactions before and after the Italian war . It will be remembered that strong assurances of peace were made shortly before a French array began its march . The Count observes : " If the Emperor kept silence before the outbreak of the war in reference to his . promises to repulse the attacks of Austria upon Ttaly . it was with the motive of leaving the Italians in ignorance of his powerful assistance , which had they been aware of would have spread increased excitement amongst them . " This is at once a strange excuse and a perversion of fact . Silence was not kept , but positive assurances of pacific intentions given to Europe , wliile Count Cavour was"never left in the dark as to the assistance he might expect , and the cession of Savoy as the price of that help was talked of , if not absolutely arranged , long liefore . the war began , M . De Persigny also tells us that nobody was deceived about the Savoy business—a statement so preposterously untrue , that only the Minister of a despot could venture to make it in a . country where the press dare not expose the wickedness of the transaction . The French Empire was per- fectly entitled to name a price for its services , and Sardinia did wisely in buying them . The folly has been in the pretences of disinterested magnanimity that were never felt , and in the paltry shuffling with reference to the just claims of the Swiss . ' . Since 1815 , we are told , France " has been forced to follow the rdle imposed upon her by the Treaty of Vienna—now the political system has been overthrown by Europe itself . " ^ It > not easy to define what a Frenchman means by the role imposed upon his country by the Treaty of Vienna . Doubtless that treaty sought to make Austria a counterpoise to France , but successive French Governments voluntarily associated themselves with European absolutism . It was against the strong protests of England that the elder BouujjONS , after . their ^ restoration , interfered in Spain ; and the settlement oi 1815 did not make the July revolution , and place Louis Philippe oa the throne with a Constitution which , however defective , guve , public opinion no unimportant sway . Nevertheless France did not develop any liberal policy abroad , ana even when the third revolution came , Lamabtinn ' s Republic had not a spark of generous sympathy for the cause of the nationalities . With all its faults , the foreign policy of Napoleon III . has been an immense improvement upon that of the 3 ourbons ,, old or new , and it has no doubt raised France in the eyes of all the world * Her previous inglorious position under Polionao , Mole , Tijiers , Guizot , or Lamartink , was entirely her own fault , and not forced upun her by the Treaty of Vienna , or any other external cause . Now , nccording to the Count , France bus resumed her true pluce— «• her work is achieved , and tne mission of the now empire accomplished . " The JCmi'kho " , notwithstanding this disclaimer , may Still fancy he nus a " mission" tp fulfil , and if the enlargement of feardim ? to « second-rate Power required the ceeeion of Savoy , the union oi
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01091860/page/4/
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