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Jan. 7, I860.] The Leader and Sattirday ...
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THE LAST DECADE
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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.
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Lord Macaulay —The Politician". The Publ...
party considerations from an earnest pursuit of truth , would have ' - risen above his party . Mr . Macaulay ' s fervour sank him in error even below the common level , He was freely elected for Edinburgh , in 1839 , on the first opportunity after his return from India , and he was freely rejected after the change in his opinions was known . A difference between him and his constituents abont ' church matters helped to heap on him what he regarded as a slight and contumely , but it was chiefly the consequence of his political tergiversation . His subsequent re-election for Edinburgh , amidst ¦ a general decline of confidence in public men , was entirely due to his great literary reputation . It was not the condonation of his : infidelity to political principles . For that he was fully punished ; he was honoured for his great literary achievements ..
Mr . Macaulay and his party fell together , and should be memorable warnings equally to aspiring young p oliticians and ancient leaders . They cannot escape the natural punishment of infidelity to principles , and the loss of confidence it causes . Either politicians are so ignorant of the laws which really govern the opinions of mankind , or they are so utterly regardless of them , that there is scarcely one who has not pledged himself to principles he has been obliged to disavow . They appeal for popular support by one profession , and retain office by another . The general infidelity of members of the senate ami members of the press to their political professions , destroys all reason for surprise at the want of confidence in public men , and at the decay of their influence . The Whigs were nominally on the side of free trade , but , occupied in resisting the just claims of the people , preferring shabby
intrigues to actual services as a means of success , they allowed the Tories to carry off the credit of fiscal and commercial reform . Mr . Macaulay , instead of being the first leader of the onward inarching people , as in 1 S 8 G , was the humble admirer of Sir Robert , Peel , a more adroit compromiser than himself . He has not even left any memorial of his abilities as a politician , other than bis speeches . ' His Code for India—the very notion of such a thing being absurd—was a complete failure . lie was not instrumental in repealing the Corn Laws , ami , except making a speech at Edinbm-gh , in which ., he avowed himself a partisan of the whig compromise of a fixed duty , he fook ho part in promoting that indispensable policy . On . no-great-measure is . his name engrossed , while even that of so humble a dependant on aristocratic patronage as Spiung Rice stands on the first bill for releasing the press from fiscal restrictions . Lord Macaulay , the author , will form the subject of an article next week .
Jan. 7, I860.] The Leader And Sattirday ...
Jan . 7 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Sattirday Analyst * 9
The Last Decade
is that of reaction , if only external events are viewed ; but we flow know that ideas ultimately triumph ; and no country is without indications of the development of thought . In Prance , freedom was crushed fora time , in a manner which needs no repetition . here ; but with / all its crimes and faults the despotism of the Empire has been very preferable to the low-minded tidcltery of the Louis Philippe sort of constitutionalism , or the irreclaimable stupidity of the elder Bourbon race . In Russia * " signs of advancement are equally conspicuous ; the Crimean war broke the proud cold heart of the mischievous and inhuman despot who misdirected the energies of his people ; Poland and Hungary were partially avenged in the blazing ruins of Sebastopol , and a new Czar , of more beneficent views , undertook the noble task of emancipating the serfs , The Court of Austria ,
true to the traditions of Hapsburg perfidy , revelled in the violation of the oath of the young Emperor to maintain a free constitution in-his dominions ; and ; when liberty raised her head in Hesse Cassel , in Hamburg , or in Italy , Austrian troops were ready to trample upon popular rjght , and encourage any sovereign , who had sworn to a compact with las' people , to join the Court of Vienna in perjury and crime . Wurtemburg , Bavaria , and Saxony , were the earliest in the decade to form a league with Austria for the suppression of constitutional right ; Francis Joseph decreed , in 1 S 51 , that the Cabinet should be exclusively responsible to himself ; and the following year the Austrian Pro-consul , the Grand Duke of Tuscany , overthrew the constitution he was pledged to maintain , and thus
prepared the way for the abolition of his dynasty and reign . Abetted by Austria , the Papacy lias rejected all friendly counsel , and rendered service to the ultimate progress of humanity by demonstrating the sanguinary and barbarous character of priestly rule . In 1852 , the Emperor of Austria abolished trial by jury , and , in the following year , the Porte having rejected the . ultimatum . Russia , the House of Hapsburg was unfaithful to its saviour the Czar ; and more distinguished by its atrocities in the Principalities than by services lMmde ^ to the European cause . In 1 S 54 , in accordance with the Austrian party in the Federal Diet , the King of Hanover suppressed the constitution of' 48 ; and during these reactionary events Prussia behaved with that half-hearted cowardice which curiously distinguished the recently reigning
descendant of Frederick the Great . . Other . important European events occurred during the Decade winch the limits of this article prevent us from noticing , but On the whole it must be characterized as exhibiting a decline of political excitement , naturally following the overwrought condition of ' 48 and ' 49 . Impelled by its own necessities of . ¦ gratifying military ambition , and perhaps also * urged by the fear of Carbonari ^ consp iracies , the French Einpire has commenced its assaults upon the treaties of 1815 , at present with decided advantage to the progress of liberty ; and when the old year closed it was in a collision with tlie Vatican that may prove fruitful in events for human good . In England , during the early years of the Decade , the National Reform Associa-Joshua ' held i
tion , under the presidency of Sir Waxmsley , an mmense number Of meetings in favour of the Reform scheme of JVlr . Hume ; and although there is little excitement , all parties are now agr eed that an extension of the suffrage must take place . In lb 5 O a , remarkabje meeting was held at the London Tavern , attended by Mr . Cobden , to protest against a proposed Russian Loan . This opposition upon moral grounds to a scheme that promised to benefit the money mongers , excited the wrath , of their supporters , but it was a valuable fact , as the first effort of the land to connect moral obligations with pecuniary transactions with foreign states . In 1851 KogsuTH was liberated from his confinement at Kutayeli , and soon after commenced , the most remarkable series of addresses in this country and in America ever delivered . by a foreigner . blowsin
In France , Protectionism has received some severe ; England , it attempted to raise its head when the Tories first camo into power , and lately the shipowners have uttered plaintive cnes ; but free trade has become a part of . the national litb of tins country , and ' efforts to return to ignorant ways belong to the category ot curiosities and not of important facts . In industrial life wo have made great progress , lhe Deca « . be « -an with the formation of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 , an event of world-wide significance , which crowded into a few months a century of teaching in all the higher branches of manufacture , and gave an impulse to practical [ art education winch is already bearing abundant fruit . The Great Exhibition led to the Crystal Palace , which will yet realize the magnificent expectations it originally excited , whenever the shareholders are wise enough to elect a body of Directors sufficiently intelligent to wiold the resources phiced at their command . boast of revelations
THE LAST DECADE . T O thoughtful minds the discovery of a new world would not be a more startling incident tlinxi the entrance into a new period of time . Metaphysicians may tell us that time has only a relative existence , and , guided by Hebrew bards , we may speculate on the conditions of immortal existence , when time shall be no more ; but while the changes of our own constitution , the movements of the earth , and the revolutions of planetary bodies affect our senses and influence our lives , we cannot be other than profoundly impressed when any important chronological division is finally closed as a fact , and can only be viewed by the eye of memory , or re-opened by the historian ' s , pen . With"the ' last stroke of midnight , on the 31 st December , not only an eventful year glided into the regions of the past , but a Decade , the tenth part of a wonderful century , took Its place among the long cycles of ages whose dimly deciphered records mark the procrress of thq human race , . ' .-
.. In-whatever way the Decade of the Eighteen Fifties is contemplated , it stands out in bold and brilliant , if . not colossal characters ; it has been great in its manifestations of life and activity , and magnificent in its contributions to the regions of the dead . In Europe , it lias witnessed the portentous re-appearance of the Napoleonic Empire , and one war , which rolled back fi > ra season thei barbaric pride of Russian conquest ; and another , which half-crushing the venomous Empire of Austria , has rescued a largo portion of Italy from the serpent fnngs of Hamburg rule . The East has had its full share of erisjs and collision . An immense , slow-moving , civil war- has shattered tho Tartar dynasty in China , while the insolent fanaticism of the Mongolian race has provoked first oiio collision and then another , with tho civilizing forces of England and France . Japan has nobly cast aaide her ancient prejudices , opened her ports to our traders , and shown her tendency to European progress by ' employing the
telegraph wire , which never before convoyed messages in bo primitive a speech . India has suffered a military revolt which will long bo memorable for atrocity on ono side , and heroism , not inferior to Thormopylco , on the other . She has also passed away from the great company of merchant princes , whoso conquests and administrations , with all their faults , will long bo chronicled in story as ¦ among the proudest exhibitions of British energy and skill . The political progress of Europe hns not equalled the oxpoetations excited towards the close of the previous decade , and .. it ia melancholy to think that only a small portion of her two hundred ¦ and . sixty million ^ nre in possession of liberty—while more than half are subject to the three great militnry despotisms in Kuasia , Austria , and Franco . Most of the political history of tho period
In pure science , if tho Deaado cannot startling of general laws , it has accumulated a great store of facts . Astronomers have brought home new planets " from their wanderings m tho regions of celestial * paco , and Sir Davxp Biuwbtkr tells us that by the discovery of Neptune , the solar system has boon extended one thousand millions of miles beyond its former limits ! In geology the mysteries of ages have been rolled back ; important qvidenco accumulated of the antiquity of the human race , and fresh gold heldafound according to sciohtilio predictions—have alread y exereised a powerful inlLuonco upon prices and trade . Iu phywiology great advance hns been made in microscopic investigations , and in the theory of tho functions of nerves and tho spinal curd ; and in chemistry , in addition to a host of compounds that have open . diHeovored , new dyes and tiow processes . introduced , wo haveit jo comparatively cheap method of producing the useiut meta umiuiuni , that will probably atfocfc important manufactures and mld tQ tho conveniences of domo . stio life . Iu gcognii . hy we haie tuo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07011860/page/9/
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