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    756 THE LEADER. [No. 333, Saturday,

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    A SCOTCH FINE ON DISCUSSION. Some years ...

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    THE NEW EASTE11N QUESTION. The lulo of S...

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    Foreign Policy. Nearly, Twenty Years Ago...

    ference would be unnecessary as long as the nation was engaged alone m settling its political difficulties . Between government and people , no other people and no other government has a right to intervene . But France and Austria have to such an extent interv ened between the nations and the governments of Italy , that their armies cover the soil . And this intervention is of a decisive and permanent character . Under its shadow , the governments carry on a system of repression which not only abases and

    benumbs the people , but which has a directly injurious influence on the interest of every commercial and manufacturing nation . The first step in intervention has been - taken . There have been remonstrances and representations , which have failed . " What we now wish to learn is , whether any further steps are to be taken , whether , in spite of all that Austria or France may determine to do , Great Britain is to consider her parf fulfilled , and is to leave Italy to settle her own . affairs with TYance and Austria .

    But we have no chance of knowing , unless "information finds its way through illicit channels to the press . " We are to have arbitrary government for six months , and upon the reassembling of Parliament , our Ministers will be " called to account . " That is to say , nothing they have done will be undone ; but if they have disgraced or imperilled the nation , they may be censured . If this were enough to content us , it by no means follows that the House of Commons would have the spirit or the courage to censure the Administration . What has been the result to Lord PalatEBsroN of his reckless American policy ? Instead of censure , he has had applause . And what was the result to Lord John Russell

    and to Lord Lyitdhtjbst of their attempts to obtain an account of our relations with Italy ? They were desired to restrain their curiosity , and to rely upon the Minister . We ask Lord PAxaiEBSTON what are his intentions concerning the occupation of Greece ? He replies , that when we know what they are , we shall doubtless be satisfied . We inquire how soon shall we have official representatives in America , and Lord Palmekston answers , that he is as ignorant on that , topic as our-Belvea .

    We have repeatedly said that the Italians do not hope for assistance from England . Jfor as much of our sympathy as is sincere they give us their gratitude ; they perceive in the common discussions of our press the proverbial English ignorance of foreign politics , but they look to a war of independence alone to release them from the hateful domination under which they groan . Meanwhile , however , they detect the evils inseparable from a policy of pretentious intervention ; and are rendered almost desperate by

    hearing the British Premier expressing his confidence in French and Austrian policy . They hear the King of Naples vilified , and the Austrian Emperor flattered ^ the Pope execrated , and the Pope ' s protector , the instigator of the Spanish coup d ' etat , adulated as a good and great prince . A programme of intervention in Italy has been issued from a very respectable source—Whig , not revolutionary . It is to the effect that a despatch should be sent to Yienna

    announcing that Austria shall evacuate the Papal States . If the fortifications of Placentia bo not abandoned , fifty thousand French troops shall be concentrated on the Savoyard frontier . If a Binglo Austrian soldier is sent to Naples our English fleet will appear in that bay , and another in the Adriatic and before Trieste . This inventive Whig is surely ironical . Or , hia sincerity is of the most simple kind . lhe French and British Governments are

    not actuated by the principles which would lead them into such a course of policy . They have no more intention of putting the Italian princes into such a condition " that their thrones would not be worth an hour ' s purchase , " than Lord John Russell has of proposing universal suffrage , or Count Cavotjb of giving aid to Mazzini . Their policy is to

    strengthen the hands of authority , to guard the torpid peace of Europe , and to keep the revolution at bay . French and Austrian principles are identical . Even if Lord Palmebston desired the liberation of Italy , he might as well hope to effect it through the aid of the Emperor of Russia as through that of Louis Napoleon .

    756 The Leader. [No. 333, Saturday,

    756 THE LEADER . [ No . 333 , Saturday ,

    A Scotch Fine On Discussion. Some Years ...

    A SCOTCH FINE ON DISCUSSION . Some years since there were in Edinburgh three gentlemen who cast at each other such epithets as " calumniator , " " betrayer , " " slanderer , " " snake ; " and they were much admired for the skill with which they sought to damage each other , and to wound each other ' s feelings . Lately these three put their heads together , and acted in unison for the purpose of defeating a fellow-citizen : a public writer noticed the conjunction , and renewed the description of the three as they had been painted by each other , describing the union

    on that quasi-autobiographical authority as one between a " calumniator , " a " betrayer , " and a " snake . " On this Anguis , forfeiting his title to be the representative of wisdom , laid a complaint before the penal court of Edinburgh , that they were now called by a fourth person that which they once called each other . And an Edinburgh jury has awarded damages of 400 Z . against the Scotsman for the offence of telling what Johnstone , Douglas , and Maclaben called each other ! That is in brief the story of the great Edinburgh libel case .

    " The circumstances were different , " doubt . Mr . Maolaeen had formerly acted with the Liberal party , had used his quill in the Scotsman , and was the champion of free discussion : he was now putting forward one Bkown Douglas to oppose Adam Black , because Black would not abolish the Maynooth grant , or perceive the policy of closing public-houses on Sundays ; so the " snako " trusted the "betrayer , " the " calumniator " took the " snake" to his bosom , and the " betrayer" reckoned on the good word of the " calumniator . " Hence it was very inconvenient to have these old words revived : men

    who are combining for such sacred purposes ought not to be exposed for past transgressions ; the champions of confiscating Popish property and closing the working man ' s beer tap on Sunday , ought not to be reminded , at least publicly , that they had once taken the measure of each other . For if they were publicly reminded , the public might laugh at the queer conjunction , might despise the men , and might hato the concoctor of the combination . Literally , tho charge against the Scotsman was that it had held up that conduct to that fate ! Discussion must not bo free to do that , said tho Judge ; under penalty of 400 / ., said the Jury . So Maglaben obtains , on authority , a declaration of Scottish law , that the public must not bo told what he has said and done lest it render him hated , contemptible , and ridiculous 3 and for tho consequences of describing him in his own acts and words , tlie Jury compensate him with 400 / . damages .

    This is fine law ! It follows that tho moro absurdly a man has acted , the more foulmouthed he and his friends have been , tho less you must characterize their conduct or repeat their words . If an Adam Black interfere in public affairs , his conduct you may fairly discuss , becauso there is nothing in

    what he has said or done which is hateful , contemptible , or ridiculous ; but if Maclaken interferes to pervert the representation of Edinburgh , you must beware how you discuss him , what he is doing , or what he has said ; for to repeat what he once brawled may injure him to the extent of 400 Z . j and to let the public know the sort of man he is may subject you to a fine of 400 ? ., aa a protective duty on morals .

    They do things oddly in Scotland . At a place near Alloa , lately , a gentleman has been fined for inaccurate weights and measures , which allowed his customers too much . Maclaben was not fined for doing or saying what he did ; but the Scotsman is fined for warning the citizens . The case only confirms our opinion that the libel law attempts a protection which , is impossible , and does but defeat its own object . It is a handle for revenge , where no justice is in question : it fails to protect justice ; it is not needed to control real discussion . the

    T ^ ot long since T imes repeated a piece of gossip about a tailor who had been flogged in the Crimea ; no tailor had been flogged , and it is asserted that there was only one tailor there . Now who is to believe that assertion—who is to know ? It is recorded of a royal Duke , that when he visited a lunatic asylum , one of the patients cried " There ' s Silly Billy ; " on which the illustrious admiringly exclaimed , " La ! he knows me ! " The tailor of the Crimea went to the

    Times office and claimed to be the man traduced . The journalists conjectured the moral possibility that there might have been at least one more tailor in the Crimea ; they referred to the spot , could learn the existence of no other tailor , and corrected the blunder . What more could be done ? Yet a jury , under our precious libel law , fined the Times 751 . for having repeated an erroneous piece of gossip , and for not having at once perceived that a Mr . Smith must be the person meant when any one associated the ideas of Crimea , flogging , and tailor . But cut hono ? Was Smith exalted by the money gained ? Will the Times be checked in the exercise of its free discretion when vindicating freedom of

    discussion . ] STo . The true checks on libellous writing are not to be obtained in that way . Public confidence can only be obtained when libel id avoided ; its withdrawal will sufficiently punish the calumniator . We venture to say that our own paper is the one which has most boldly illustrated " perfect freedom of discussion ;" but what enabled us to do so ? We have

    been subjected to attacks , to misconstructions , to misrepresentations ; but slander , libel , calumny , cannot be alleged . And foi obvious reasons . The only chance we had in gaining confidence for freedom of discussion was , to avoid anything that could identify our freedom with low motives or malignity . On tho other hand , no libel law could protect private character against the attacks ol papers systematically slanderous : quite the . oirrvnoA . i-Ytn innpnnk r > f flint stftmil lliaclo tllO revorsetho journals of that stamp made inu

    ; slander worse , or attacked the defenceless , in order to frighten the assailed from appealing to tho law ; and thus the law operated to protect the slanderer if ho would only go iaienough . In short , like all protective laws , it was a hindrance to tho lawful commerce m discussion for the community , an obHtruction to tho honest trader , a protection only to the smuggler . Ifc now figures as a penalty to tho Scotsma / i , a profit to Mr . Maolajuen .

    The New Easte11n Question. The Lulo Of S...

    THE NEW EASTE 11 N QUESTION . The lulo of Serpents * lies off the Sulinu mouth of the Danube , within wight of tho coast . Tho Russians had a small garrison there boforo tho entrance of the combinod

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09081856/page/12/