Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 1st December 1855, Edition 2 of 2, Page 10, Erratumin Sir A Elton's letter, last wee...

Page 10
Page 10
10 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (2)
    • -**Y OfifTa) M^I^/^ ^Jwjw' O %l r}7 \ fc ^% \\ & ^ f _ sif/ A^t ' *? *^ ^^ ^ ^ * C^ 5 \Z_) ? .
    • ^ """ ~ ~ ~— ' ¦i^llltlic ^LfflltrBf T W llr ^
  • Text (9)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Ll5o ' The Lea Pe R. [No. 297, Saturday

      ll 5 o ' THE LEA PE R . [ No . 297 , Saturday

      Notices To Co-Respondents. Ko Notice Fan...

      NOTICES TO CO-RESPONDENTS . Ko notice fan be taken of , anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not ^ necessarily for puWfcation , but as a guarantee of his good faitn . Communications should always te legibly written , and on one Side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of lettefls we receive . Their insertion is often delayed owing to a press of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication . / LMiscellaneous paragraph in our last impression , headed "A Frenchman ' s Sketch of Three English Workmen , " should have been acknowledged as a quotation from IlonseJtold Words . The omission was purely accidental .

      Erratumin Sir A Elton's Letter, Last Wee...

      Erratumin Sir A Elton ' s letter , last week . —Seventeen lines from the bottom , for "the dainty dUgast of a favourite ensign , " read " the dainty disgust of a juvenile ensign . "

      -**Y Ofifta) M^I^/^ ^Jwjw' O %L R}7 \ Fc ^% \\ & ^ F _ Sif/ A^T ' *? *^ ^^ ^ ^ * C^ 5 \Z_) ? .

      CJ J $ tw & x .

      ¦ Ii ** Saturday, December 1, 1855.

      ¦ ii ** SATURDAY , DECEMBER 1 , 1855 .

      ^ """ ~ ~ ~— ' ¦I^Llltlic ^Lfflltrbf T W Llr ^

      ^ ufclic Mara *

      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to "keep things fixed ¦ when all the ¦ world is toy the very law of its creation in eternal progress . — Abnolx * .

      [The King Of Sakdistia In England. The R...

      [ THE KING OF SAKDISTIA IN ENGLAND . The reception of the King of Sardinia -will explain much that was incomprehensible to foreigners in the reception of Louis Napoleon . It was not Louis Napoleon that the majority admired—although they professed a personal admiration ; it was the Ally of England—the disposer of great armies—the

      French ruler -who had conciliated English good-will . We are satisfied that had America joined her fleet with ours , battered the Baltic walls , and landed her free-rifles in the Crimea , an equal enthusiasm would have been excited by the President ' s visit . Nay , whatever Government existed in France , its official representative would have been received as a hero . The absence of certain adventitious

      circumstances — Louis Napoleon ' s obscure exile in England- —his nuelo-dramatic adventures- — his striking success — his charming bride , with the vulgar prestige of the Regalia , would have toned down the poptdar excitement ; but the excitement would have been more respectable had it been less exuberant . The serious fault in the manifestation of last summer was its excess . The people ,

      inside and outside the Palace and the Guildhall , went mad , like the devotees of an Indian idol . They will only be more moderate when the Sardinian King is welcomed , because he will bring less pomp into the streets ; his power is not so extensive as to call for flattery ; moreover , his character will be admired rather than his position . lie is an honest hereditary ruler , and not an Apparition . It little for

      speaks the royalty of Europe that Victoh Emmanuel is distinguished , because ho has respected his oaths . It would be ungenerous not to point out , as a Sovereign who , in this respect , resembles him—the King of the Belgians , in whose capital exists the only fraa press on the Continent , excepting that of Piedmont . The Piedmonteso express their idea of European royalty by conferring on their Prince the title of n " Gentleman , " and , construing this appellation to signify a man of honour , who is true to his word and who is liberal in his feelings , Victor Emmanuel deserves it . The Engli s h people will see in him a Ruler who came to the

      throne at a difficult crisis ; who might havo established a despotism , but who preferred the igloxy of an honest name , and incurred the

      hatred of his powerful neighbours by keepino faith with his disheartened subjects . "When he assumed the abdicated crown of his father , the Austrian army , victorious at Novara , threatened the borders of his kingdom ; he made a compact with them , and might have had their assistance in establishing a military government at Turin . The time was ripe for reaction ; for the opportunity of Italy had passed , and it remained only for the people to suffer and unite , and prepare for futtire struggles . Victor Emmanuel was tempted by

      the Imperial Court , and by the Roman Church ; but became their opponent , and established a new basis of revolution in Italy . He has kept to this honourable course , in spite of many personal afflictions , of obstructions , and of dangers . His alliance with the Western Powers was suggested , of course , by interest ; but by interest considered from a high point of view , in which it differs from the concessions of England to the French

      Emperor , and the subterfuges of self-deception by which men persuade themselves , when they natter a crime , that they act from policy . At the public receptions of the King of Sardinia , Englishmen may resume their customary style of oratory , and may , unless the French Ambassador be present , refer to " the blessings of civil and religious liberty . " Victor Emmanuel is called by his subjects a gentleman ; he attained the throne without bloodshed , and trusted neither to darkness nor to terror . "When

      he opens the Chambers at Turin , his address is not a mockery : the discussions that follow have real significance . In the capital and in the provinces strangers may converse on the policy of the kingdom without incurring fine and imprisonment . The press is comparatively free , and though impure influences are afi work in tlie capital to promote dynastic schemes in that and other states of Italy , a general health of opinion prevails , and no midnight coup d ' etat is expected . If , therefore , the Sardinian King ' s welcome be less clamorous than that of the French

      Emperor , it will be more sincere . The only painful episodes in his career havo been family bereavements . Post prandial eulogists rn ay pronounce the words liberty , fidelity , honour , and perhaps they Avill not hiss Lord John Russell if he compliments Victor Emmanuel on the advance of civil and religious freedom in his territories . But the moral of the visit will be this : that

      the French alliance has not wholly demoralised the English people . They are hospitable , and desire to be cordial to an ally . There is something still among them which has an affinity with the good faith and manly spirit of the King of Sardinia , and if this moral power coidd be brought to the front , if it could lead instead of being lost in the confusion , it would hear us through all our difficulties . And this suggests another element of enthusiasm that will be wanting when the guest of tho week arrives . We are not in the war season . The

      capture of Sebastopol , the sxispense of anna , the inevitable delay that must elapse before the next campaign , and the public doubt on tho question between Peace and War—deprive tho occasion of a meretricious gloAV , and will render the King ' s welcome at once more sober and sincere . London will bo displayed to him under a more natural nspect than that which Louis Napoleon saw . lie will discern the real working of the popular mind , and bo enabled to discriminate between opinion and the froth of opinion . "

      No doubt it is one object of his visit to the French and British capitals , to sound the dispositions of the allied governments , towards himself and towards his projects—if ho have any . In Paris , of course , he will learn

      nothing that it is not intended that he shoiild know , and , possibly , he may gain some false impressions . Brit he will be able to estimate a Napoleonic vow—on Mutratissi for instance or on the politics of Rome , or the machinations of Austria . Clearly , his interests are not identical with those that are favoured in Pari ? . The popularity of his Government is a

      reproach to France—for the self-lovmg nation , which claims the initiative in Europe , has seen itself morally eclipsed by a second-rate people in the Italian peninsula . Moreover , if any dynastic change is encouraged in Italy , it must tend towards Bonapartism , and should the King of Sardinia ' s ambitious views be furthered , it could only be as a set off against his support of French policy .

      In England , whatever language the Cabinet may hold , public men are neither so astute nor so reserved . They will probably express themselves freely on the subject of Italian politics , and there is no doubt that the King will be warmly encouraged . But they are the best friends of Italy who consider its broad interests without reference to dynastic schemes . It will not be as an ambitious Italian that Victor Emmanuel will he

      received , but as an useful and courageous ally of England , who has hitherto been a loyal King , and a wise Reformer . *

      Religious Protectionists. The Irish Atto...

      RELIGIOUS PROTECTIONISTS . The Irish Attorney General is proceeding against a person whose name is presented in many forms , one of the latest of which is Pet " - cherine , a Russian member of the Roman church named after the Russian St . Vladimir , who is accused of burning the New Testament in public . The prosecution is instituted for the defence of religion ; whereupon ensuesariotin the streets of Dublin , and an outburst of demonstrations in Ireland , during which respectable persons put forth declarations that they rejoice in the burning of the Protestant Bible . St . Vladimir would have got off with the assurance that he had not been burning Bibles , but some other kind of book ; and that if there

      were any Protestant Bibles m the heap , it was by mist .-ike . We cannot sec the policy of tying Petcherine down to his own crime . He was recreant against his act of heroism in disclaiming the aggression on the Protestant volume , and he might have been allowed to go ; whereas , with the official vindication of Protestantism , the Attorney General has revived the anti-Protestant bigotries of the Irish , has assisted St . Vladimir and the Russian interests by aggravating a paltry scandal into a national feud , and has evoked from a multitude of the Irish a new flame of hatred against all that is English . Where is the advantage ?

      Petcherinh committed an unwarrantable aggression ; but all churches are aggressive The Porrc has just obtained the permission of the Emperor of Austria to render the clergy throughout the Austrian dominions independent of the civil power . The Catholics of Bohemia have imprisoned a frinr converted to Protestantism , Borjunski , on the pretext that the man was mad .

      At Bologna , a Dominician , who is a member of the Holy Oilice , has demanded tho surrender of a man seized by tho police because he belonged" to the Inquisition ;—a demand which the Prolcgato has ratified . Tho Roman Catholic Church therefore is aggressive m Bohemia , treating Protestantism jus lunacy ; i < proclaims itself inviolable by the toinporiu power in Bologna , claiming to deal with its own servants independently ; it assorts its . supre macy over the whole Austrian Empire ; un « will , if it can , eat up any other State—Ireland included . It is not , therefore , that we clis-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 1, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01121855/page/10/