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36 THE LEADEB. [No.355, Saturday,
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LEGAL RESISTANCE IN FRANCE. Ve have pref...
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THE LIVING ROMANCE OF FRAUD. We insist o...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Will The Senate Ratify? By Our Last Advi...
or defeating the boundary . There ia an evasiveness in the mode of restoring the Islands of Buatan , & c , to Honduras , as if it were not a restitution of property misappropriated , but a free gift for certain , purposes of policy . All these are objectionable points which unight very well make the senators hesitate before they give their assent . " We can scarcely understand how Mr . Dallas can have
admitted them into the treaty . We may guess , indeed , at one simple reason . Probably Lord ¦ Cl abend on and . he sat down with , a strong -desire to settle everything ; then , on every ¦ successive point , the party most interested made a proposal , which the other was anxious to accept ; and for once , at least , the Englishman has proved sharper than the Yankee . At all events , GuoaaE M . Daiias has developed strong powers of assent . " We certainly do not state these points as objections ; we only notice them as points upon which the Senate may object . It will give us great satisfaction if the Senate should , nevertheless , give its ratification . The British Minister has
endeavoured to take little advantages here and there ; hut , after all , the largest interests remain , subject to the greatest influences . England has incurred the usual consequence of sharp practice in small matters , and her influence in Central America is decidedly waning . On the contrary , the influence of the United States must continually advance and consolidate itself . On the other side of
the Atlantic it will do so with , more rapidity and with more certainty , in proportion as it brushes these paltry questions out of the way ; and the ratification of the treaty-would secure for the United States new facilities , without creating any obstacles that they could not at the proper time trample down .
36 The Leadeb. [No.355, Saturday,
36 THE LEADEB . [ No . 355 , Saturday ,
Legal Resistance In France. Ve Have Pref...
LEGAL RESISTANCE IN FRANCE . Ve have preferred not to prej udge the question between the party of action and the pa ^ rfcy of abstention in Prance . " We have expressed a simple repugnance to the proposal of taking an oath of fealty to the 33 nipire . It has presented itself to ua as a difficulty , also , that the facilities for fraud enjoyed by the Government will enable it , at the approaching elections , to cast the slur of incapacity upon the body of French Liberals . The points at issue are : —Can a Liberal
nominee , without disgrace , accept an oath of personal allegiance to Louis Napoleon ? and , Can the Liberal voters make a fair show of strength , in spite of the forgeries and false representations that will be resorted to to conceal the extent of their activity ? If these objections can only be quibbled away , we confess that we would rather see the party idle , than see politicians degenerating into casuists , forsaking their morality , their dignity , and their prestige . But , if it be possible for the Trench . Liberals to eater the Legislative Chamber
\ dthout compromising their honour , and if the elections can really be influenced to an appreciable extent by their interference , then , we say , such a result would be for France a sign of returning health and hope . The perplexities of opinion on this subject must , of course , he solved on the spot , by observations taken locally , so that it would be mere assumption , on the part of an English jourttalistto lecture the Liberals
, of Paris . We have , indeed , no right to advise that any set of men > m a foreign country , should imitate the . periodical torpors of certain animals , or feign death wKen they fear an encounter . Still less can we deny that the practice of abstention * has often been carried to the exteat of sullennesa and puerility by those who have no idea of power in any other form than that of supremacy . Such a policy , as the
party of action argues , is not merely hostile to the Empire ; it is hostile to all government , and while encouraged in France , will for ever prevent the growth of a sound and solid constitution . Abstention has been adopted extravagantly by the French Liberals —at the polling booths , and even in the Assembly , under the monarch y and under the Republic , and it is the policy which would best satisfy the Emperor himself . Practically , also , it is urged that action should now be recommended , in order that the minority and the majority should agree . " We think it
may be said that the preponderance of opinion is vastly in favour of voting at the forthcoming elections . The young members of the party have generally , throughout France , determined to procure bulletins , if possible , and offer their suffrages in favour of their own nominees . Many of the elder members have assented to this course , which has thus become the plan of the large majority . Indolence would be mistaken for apathy ; political feeling would stagnate ; the Emperor , commanding a corps of legislative delegates , would have leisure to consolidate the basis of
his throne . Moreover , who knows when a catastrophe may arrive ? The election , even , may bring it about . Thus , were General Cavaignac notoriously chosen by Paris , and ^ wei ? e-the -returns to be falsified , who could measure the results of the public indignation ? When the first elections took place after the coup d ' etat , it was the conviction of every intelligent mind that the returns from the Faubourg St . Germain were falsified ; and the
Grovernment incurred considerable risk , although France still lay stunned by the act of stupendous treachery and bloodshed that had been perpetrated . Now , however , the air is heavy with omens menacing to the Empire . The dagger of Verckeu . has proved that the assassination of a great public functionary is possible in the aisles of St . Etienne-du-Mont . What then ? the Parisians inquire . The Orleanists and Bourbonists must have
selected their agents indiscreetly , or so much immunity would not have been enjoyed in another quarter . We have said that the chiefs of the Liberal party , almost without exception , have decided to vote . This is admitted by our friends of the opposite opinion , although they believe that few persons counsel the acceptance of the Imperial oath . They are told that it is
essential to seize upon every opportunity for reviving public spirit , that a demonstration would , at this moment , produce a signal effect upon the country and the Government ; that Louis Napoleon may he driven to employ such artifices and acts of force as will undeceive and disgust all honest men ; that he may even hazard a new coup d ' etat . Nevertheless , it ia maintained by the advocates of abstention that the return of a
hundred or a hundred and fifty candidates would be necessary to create a chance of results so serious . Such an opposition , skilfully led , might render arbitrary government impossible , and , as Louis Bonaparte , if not an arbitrary ruler , is nothing , might render back to France her dignity and her freedom . But not a tenth of this number ,
probably , will be elected . Paris , Lyons , and other large cities will be swamped by the small towns and rural districts , whose prefects and police will gag and hunt the populace in herds to the balloting urns , and will com plete the triumph of the Emperor by forging as many bulletins as are necessary to " the elect of the nation . " Thus , the Empire to
wm uppear De a second tune acclaimed by franco ; the paltry minority will be published ; and " . See kow universal suffrage acts " will be thrown iu the face of tho Liberal party . Let abstention be adopted , however .
and the result will be the same . It ia not the trick of the 35 mperor to be unanimously supported ; if the Liberals do not supply a real opposition , the Government will supply one of a farcical kind , and will point to the humiliating minority . Consequently , whether the Liberals vote or not , Louis Bonapabte will repeat the millionsof-votes deception , the only alternative being whether a few Liberal candidates shall be set
up like puppets , to "be knocked down like slaves ; or whether men of character and authority shall stand forward , and , challenging the Empire to make good its professions , claim the suffrages of the nation . We must content-ourselves , at present , with stating these opposite views . We fully appreciate the advantages of political action , while we recognize , the embarrassments at which many of the Liberals hesitate . On one point , however , there can exist no possible doubt . When the time for deliberation
is past , when the moment for decision arrives , it will be the duty of the minority to aid the majority in a plan for working out the political restoration of France ; or , at least , not to impede its operations , or disavow its principles .
The Living Romance Of Fraud. We Insist O...
THE LIVING ROMANCE OF FRAUD . We insist on it as a proved fact , that no man can tell amongst his acquaintance who is guilty of offences against the law and against the ordinary sense of morality , even to the degree of the gravest crimes . In business , no man can tell amongst his connexions who is honest and who is deceiving : him , cheating hirn even to the extent of felony . It is true that in private friendship you may arrive at such a knowledge of a man ' s character , his feelings , motives , and habits of action , Ac , insomuch that you may be as sure of him as of the sun . But the ordinary tests of acquaintance in this world of politics and of business fail to furnish any guarantee of what we are pleased to call respectability . We trust to false teststo wealth , or to the appearance of wealth , and we are punished for our servile worshipping of wealth and appearances by the deceptions to whicli we expose ourselves . Scarcely a week passes without adding to the number of great swindlers who avail themselves of this prevalent vice in society . This week we have for the first time an intelligible story of the swindler Huntingxon in the United States ; we have clear accounts of the frauds of Paul
on the London Union , and several minor frauds or thefts by the emulators of Robson , with the connivance of the auditor class . This w ^ ek again ve have a clear explanation of tho manner in which Sawabd carried on his depredations . His plan was this . He got possession of some cheque-book ; then he procured the autograph of some person dealing at the bank whence this cheque-book issued . His devices for the purpose were very ingenious . If the customer of the bank was a lawyer , some
friend of Saward ' s went to that lawyer ' s upon business , and managed to obtain a cheque —an honest cheque , which was duly paid , and accounted for . But then the lawyer ' s signature , and his manner of writing words , were drawn forth and imitated in the purloined cheques . Some yokel from the country , or young man just turned loose from business , was employed to present the cheque , one of Sawakd ' s confederates watching tho stranger to prevent his evasion . This mode of business brought in a very handsome income .
Neither of these swindlers , however , had half bo successful , safe , or lucrative engagomonta as those which may be obtained by imitating a more regular form of commerce . One of the shortest modoa to a manufactured
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 10, 1857, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10011857/page/12/
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