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    JnafrlfitW] THE IiEAB^Tl. *»&

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    THE GREAT SECRET SOCIETY. This great con...

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    THE SERVICES OE THE AllMY. Fuesh from th...

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    -^ America. Assumin G That Mr. Cka.Mpton...

    getber , and , we are inclined to believe , had ^ y other member of the Government , in the jEfouee of Commons , desired to be more expHeit , it would not have been in his power . ^ 7 e do not think that the real state of mat- ters is known to the general body of the Cabinet— 'to the Duke of Akgyi / I / , or Lord Ct RjUSViijiiE , for instance . Lord CiLABENDON ' s last despatch does not appear to have had an effect , in America , favourable to the pretensions of the British Cabinet . On the contrary , the unequivocal

    contradiction of Mr . Champion ' s statement by Mr . Cass , Mr . Clayton , and Mr . Maect , leaves little doubt which side of the question has been supported , in good faith , by fair avowals , and which by unworthy and unaccountable prevarications . It is very easy , and may seem very successful , to argue that the whole difficulty has been created , for election purposes , by the President and his Ministers . If the sense of the American nation be so distinctly against the policy of the Cabinet at Washington as is affirmed by Lord Cii Abend on ' s advocates , what can Mr .

    Piebce expect to gain at a Presidential election ? It is easy , also , to let the real question slip through a concatenation of impertinent epithets applied to " Pierce " and " Maect ; " but the point is , whether the British Government has not endeavoured , from the beginning , to "defend a false position ; whether Mr . Cjjampton ought not to have been recalled for his rash and unjustifiable conduct ; whether we have not incited the American recognition of General " WaIiKEii by our own relations with the agents of Costa Rica ?

    " We doubt whether the English public has considered the real meaning of a war with the United States . It means the cessation of British trade , to the amount of nearly 30 , 000 , 000 / . ; it means a third of our factories stopped . ;—what else it means we need not say ; we all know what is the condition of England when trade ceases , when the working classes are unemployed , and when the Ministers are incorrigible , as well as incapable .

    Jnafrlfitw] The Iieab^Tl. *»&

    JnafrlfitW ] THE IiEAB ^ Tl . *»&

    The Great Secret Society. This Great Con...

    THE GREAT SECRET SOCIETY . This great conspiracy lias two centres , distinct and independent , sometimes opposed , but often working in harmony . The one has its seat at Paris , where projects and systems are devised ; the other at Vienna , the point of union for the affiliated associations of Italy and Germany . Geographically , the action of these societies mny bo traced apart , but their principles are the same , and they have recognized interests in common . It is

    pretended , when any public reference is made to the secret operations of this political league , that they tend "only to counteract the influence of other occult combinations ; but their real object is to assign the entire management of continental Europe to two or three governments , to neutralize , altogether , the polioy of the secondary states , to constitute and preserve a vast uniformity of despotism . The rapid manifestations of this policy , since the close of the Russian war , attract little notice in England . But they assume

    an alarming aspect when considered in connexion with the known designs of tho French and Austrian Governments . Already , in spite of tho patriotic ejaculations of Vilain Quatohze , Louis NaV'OI / icon haw forced on the Belgian Government a scheme for abridging tho liberties of tho press . An ominous reaction is visible in Sardinia , whore an active persecution is going on , not only against the Liberal journalw , but , against the freedom of religious' thought . Tho member of a Outholio congregation has just bpen

    con-, ; ' . ] i < demned tj > six months' imprisonment for doubting the Immaculate Conception . The proposal of a Concordat in Tuscany , and of a Concordat in Naples , with the scheme , avowed by the Austrian official press , of a Concordat in Piedmont , spreads a gloom over Italy ; the Italians , so far from being animated with hope by the protocols of Paris , perceive that Walewski and Btjol were there the true representatives of European diplomacy .

    The Austrian plan is , of course , to revive the Holy Alliance in such a deceptive form that England may be drawn into its stipulations . The Treaty of April is the first step towards thafc result . It is invariably interpreted by the Vienna press , not as establishing a particular point , but as the declaration of a European policy . It professes to guarantee the territories of the Ottoman Empire ,

    upon a principle according to which the territories and authority of all governments ought to be guaranteed . Austria claims the quid pro quo . She unites with the other powers to serve their object ; they are morally , and by implication , bound to unite in serving hers . Thus Austria has gained , not a security , but an argument . But she has obtained another advantage . Her censored press is the medium of official falsifications . The

    people of Lombardy and Venice , of Hungary and Transylvania , are taught ^ to believe that Great Britain and France have guaranteed the German and non-German dominions of Austria . So that our Government is made the bugbear of nations aspiring 1 to a separate political existence . Who , in the Austrian Empire , can contradict the Austrian lie ? The three Powers , it is affirmed , are agreed nowhere and never to swerve from the Conservative policy enunciated , in the name of the Triad , by the April Treaty—and that

    policy is in absolute antagonism to the policy of Sardinia . So clear is the Austrian view , " indeed , that her recent negotiations with Prussia liave had the aim of drawing Prussia into an [ alliance guaranteeing the German and non - German territories of Austria . In that direction the Emperor ' s diplomatists are not likely to succeed . Prussia , in the first place , has a traditional interest in refusing the guarantee , since , if the Austrian Empire , German and non-German , were placed under the protection of the public Law of Germany , the non-German to be admitted to the

    territories might claim Confederation—a policy which Prussia has always resisted . Moreover , the insecurity of Austria in her Italian , Hungarian , and Transylvanian dependencies is favourable to the German influence- of Prussia . To this it may bo added that , aa we foresaw when the Cabinet of Berlin was least popular in this country , Lord Palmerston ' s Government , in spite of its new Viennese relations , is reviving its intimacy with tho diplomatists of Prussia , and seeking to restore an influence which would always be exerted against the consolidation of the Austrian authority in

    Italy . What , then , ia the position of Lord I at ,-MEHSTon ' s cabinet with respect to Italy ? By tho treaty of April tho European authority of Austria is undoubtedly strengthened . At the sumo time , the avowed policy of the British Government is favourable to Italian progress . Itsoeina to us that Lord Pai . mur revolutionafraid ot

    btont , afraid of tho , Austria , jealous of France , desires to play tho one against the other , and imagines that the colluHion of tho three Powers would be \ vm dangerous than , tho collusion of two . Tho policy of England , therefore , is at bent negative ; and it may be easily understood , that while England acts as tho drag , and . France and Austria pursuo definite courses of their

    mi » own , the superiority lies with them . " Wfi follow the trail , and watch , and perhaps iaa * terrupt , but Europe gains nothing from our intervention . We do nothing but repeat the hypocrisies of Tbappait and Laybaoh Meanwhile , the secret association of the French and Austrian Governments threatens to take the form of a conspiracy against all that remains of political liberty , of national independence , of religious toleration im Europe . This plot , among the most stupendous ever conceived , has the apparent

    sanction of the British Cabinet , and it is the more menacing because it pretends to be based on the principles of peace , conciliation , and humanity . Suppose the military powers agreed to establish arbitration as the method of settling the disputes of Governments , what is the effect ? Nothing as regards the military Governments themselves , since they , the parties to the contract , may dissolve it at any moment . But , as regards the lesser states , it amounts to a confiscation of their political rights . Under these circumstances , what becomes of the national existence of Sardinia , of her Italian nucleus , of her army ? Her independent action is prohibited . Aid

    this is the result of the war that was to set free and civilize . France and Austria undertake to manage the Old World ; England accepts an ambiguous share in the business ; Eussia and Prussia are invited to join . A suspicious facility of concession has been exhibited by the Belgian and Sardinian Governments . The French Imperial Terror , we may infer , has extorted from Belgium the flattery of surrender . But why has the scourge been restored to the Jesuits of Turin ? Why is the code of Cabaffa . resorted to by the religious reformers of Piedmont to enforce respect to the amazing farce enacted last year at the Vatican ?

    What we witness now , as the sequence of the Kussian war , is the consolidation of despotism in Europe . Two vast jjarties divide the Old World—the populations and the Governments—which are more completely at enmity on every social and political ground than formerly . We , in England , believing all the time that we are the champions of the oppressed , blink at the future , and subside into repose , because gold and pearl fire , red and green lustres , and a milky way of light in the London basin saluted the Peace of Paris under our watery May moon .

    The Services Oe The Allmy. Fuesh From Th...

    THE SERVICES OE THE AllMY . Fuesh from the blazes and spendour of lasfc week , it would ill become the British peoplo to forget their army . Services have been rendered and they should not fade into tho misty obscurity of votes of thanks , or be lost in the effulgence of variegated fire . TheTreaty of Paris was preceded by tho deeds and endurance of tho soldiers of tho British army ; that the treaty was not moro hurtful to liussia and boneficial to Europe , that it did

    not consecrate in some way tho principle ot constitutional and national freedom , is not tho fault of our soldiers . They fought and died on tho bleak plateaux of the Crimea , and in tho trenches before Sebastopol j they were prepared to carry their colours to Nicholaifift or to Warsaw ; they were as roady to do their duty iu the spring of 185 G aa in the autumn of 1854 . Tho disabled should hold a high place in the hearts of our memories , and tbo living should stand in the van of our affection

    and solicitude . It is , indeed , time to rocal tho deeds that havo been accompliahed iu two short years by tho British army . They have done much , but they havo Buttered moro . It was not their fault that at tho outnet of tho war ttwy were only a " band of bravo ineu . " It w » not

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 7, 1856, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07061856/page/11/