On this page
-
Text (3)
-
his he would value but lihtlthe fro, tif...
-
THE LONDON POSTMAN'S DOUBLE KNOCK AT THE...
-
PORTRAITURES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUS...
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.
-
-
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.
French Ships In The Tagus. Why Have The ...
Portugal iii the affair of the Charles et Georges , his j ournals would easily convert it into a triumph over British philanthropy , and another step gained towards liberating the world from England ' s police of the seas .. In this way we may account for the virulent language used by many of the Paris newspapers , within the last ten days , in speaking ot the It is further to be noted that M . Walewski , who has his own grudge against us for the resistance offered by our Parliament to his uncivil demands of January last , has latterly exerted more influence than usual , if appearances are to be believed ,
over the mind of the Emperor . The Foreign Minister of Trance is emphatically a man swayed by passion and pique . If he had had his way six months , ago , the misunderstanding between the French and English Governments would not have been so quickly or quietly arranged . It took all the strong sense and strong will of Louis Napoleon to quencli the numerous sparks which his Minister had scattered , and it was a bitter dose to the Count ' s self-love when he was compelled to indite the conciliatory despatch in reply to Lord Malmesbury ' s ,.- in which he substantially withdrew the offensive and overbearing language regarding the necessitv of a Conspiracy Bill , which Lord
Clarendon had suffered to go unrebuked and unanswered . The seizure of a French ship by the Portuguese no doubt appeared to M . Walewski a propitious occasion for doing something arbitrary in resistance to a policy of which England is undoubtedly the author and primary mover . Were M . de Persigny in his place he would probably have given very different advice to his master ; ¦ bu t while he has been the guest of Lord Malmesbury in Scotland , and still more recently of Queen Victoria , his rival and competitor in imperial favour has been characteristically engaged . in making as much mischief as possible . Hence the appearance of the Austerlitz and the Donawerth in the Tagus .
And what will come of it all ? Negotiations are known to be still actively carrying on at Paris for a pacific solution of the difficulty ; and the Emperor ' s return from Kheims is- favourable thereto . It is said Portugal has offered to give up the captured ship , provided the French . withdraw their vessels of war previously . No doubt this would be to concede nearly the whole question as it stood a month ago : yet what is a small power to do when thus menaced by one of first-class strength . All the fine talk at the Conferences at Paris in 1 S 5 G about leaving questions to arbitration plaiuly comes to nothing when the parties are unequally matched . And
so it will continue to be until a league of constitutional States shall be found for purposes of mutual defence against the bullying and aggressive tendencies of Absolutism . Till this be done , and so long ns England shows by her conduct that she values the friendship of despolic France and despotic Austria above all other things in continental policy , it is vain for the smaller constitutional Kingdoms to expect efficient support at her hands : The intcL-ests of Wallachio . have been sacrificed to please Turkey ; those of Piedmont for fear of giving umbrage to Austria ; must we add those of Portugal sooner than raise a controversy with Franco ?
His He Would Value But Lihtlthe Fro, Tif...
fro , tifl . Octobeu 16 , 1858 j THE lEAP . IB , 1090
The London Postman's Double Knock At The...
THE LONDON POSTMAN'S DOUBLE KNOCK AT THE DOOR OF JUSTICE . TnE postmen hnvo a grievance , or nt lenst a bundlo of small grievances which , when brought together , mako out a enso of formidable dimensions . They appeal to the public for help , finding ( hat the perpetrators of alleged injuslico arc deaf to the voice of reason and humanity . The London district lottcr-carricrs thus stato their case : They arc overworked ., being engaged in their duties from eight in the morning until half-past nine , or sometimes eleven o ' clock at ; night . They arc underpaid , their weekly wages being only 23 s . They have been defrauded
of certain compensation , money , in defiance of tho recommendation of tho Post-bmco Committee of lS 3 ' . t , and by a piece of trickery they have not only sustained a reduction of pay , but have been obliged to submit to an augmentation of labour . They are unfairly treated in tho ordor of promotion ; t ) io alleged rule of " promotion by merit" ia a more sham , other influences boing permitted to operate to plnoo young hands over tho honds of their seniors ; and lastly , tlioy nro intolerably oppressed by tho overbearing conduct of somo or tho superior oifioors . Now , if nil or nny of theso complaints nro well
founded , a strong case is made out for the-inculpation of Lord Colchester , the ornamental Postmaster-General , and Mr . Rowland Hill , the practical manager These public servants receive large sums yearly from the . public . purse , they are thus highly paid because it is assumed their . ; offices , involve great responsibility , and that they discharge their duties faitlifullv . But an accumulation of such complaints as we have enumerated indicates the existence of great negligence somewhere . The public can only look to the heads of this public establishment for its proper and efficient management , and , if necessary , call upon the Government to suspend the governing authorities until they have and set nt
purged away the imputation ot laches , ng thaf which appears to be unmistakably wrong . There can be no possible excuse for underpaying the men who do the work ; there is no absolute necessity for converting them into mere drudges and machines , by requiring such a sacrifice ot their time as to leave nothing for recreation or improvement . There is no reason why the rule . of promotion should not be simple , rigid , and defined . And last of all , there is no justification for insolence , or tyranny on the part of the superior officers to those liumblebut usefulpublic servants .
, , The public do not tax . themselves , or permit themselves to be taxed , merely to afford easy berths for a few lucky people . The public do not desire to countenance ' a system that enables a few to ride in their carnages after showing themselves for an hour or two in their offices ,, and that condemns the many to taskmaster ' s toil for a bare subsistence . Above all and before all , the public will never stand quietly by and see a body of men , calling themselves frceborn , degraded to the condition ot slaves by acts of petty tyranny . founded
The complaints may be well or exaggerated ; at all ex-cuts they must be fully investigated . It is a national scandal to allow these statements in reference to practices in a public establishment to remain unanswered ^ aiid , perhaps , unredressed . , We hold an opinion connected with the Postoffice shared only by few . We doubt the propriety of making the Post-office an instrument for augmenting " the revenue . It is this mistake that causes much of the outcry against the management of this establishment , and lies possibly at the root of many or all of the complaints of the London District Postman .
Portraitures Of The Royal Family Of Prus...
PORTRAITURES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUSSIA . THE PRINCE OP PRUSSIA . Sixce we first sat down to give these portraits to the public , the heir-presumptive to the throne of the Hohcnssollenw , Frederick William Louis , or , in the accepted Court parlance of Berlin , the " Prince of Prussia , " has assumed the Regency . With his advent , the medievalist Kreuz faction vanishes from the scene . It is succeeded , or in the course of being succeeded , by a bureaucratic party of less visionary notions , but which , in questions of populnr " freedom , will prove an equal impediment to progress . The appointment of Flottwcll , for instance , in tho place of M . Von Westplmlen , can only be considered as good if we keep in mind the egregious vagaries into which the clique represented by the latter nobleman occasionally launched . In itself , the introduction of Flottwoll into tho Ministry of the Interior is undoubtedly an act of a strictly conservative policy . With him is to bo fo , und redtape in its most unmitigated form . In his former quality as Minister of Finances , ns well as in his recent office of President of tho Provinco of
Brandenburg , ho always displayed marked bureaucratic preferences . The samo ' is to be said of Messrs . Von WilzlcbcMi , Von Uc ? cht , rilz , Von Schlenittllcr , and of M . Von Seliloinil / -, ( he President of tho Provinco of Silesia , who arc all spoken of as likely to assume higher functions under the Princo Regent . It may be , however , that the Into " Gotha part y "—at least its aristocratic portion—will also furnish a small contingent for governmental use . But then it will bo such safe men ns Hcrr Von Auerswald , Horr Von Patow , Hcrr Von Bethmann-Holh y og , and other satis / aits of tho raugt portion of mild , inoffensive constitutionalism . To enlist them iii tho raiiks of tho Court may bo considered by tho Princo as advantageous to his interests ; for it must be borne in mind that , even now , tho Rcgoncy is hold by him on rovocnblo terms . Probably , if Princo ^ Villinm had the sccptro positively in
his own grasp , he would value but lightly the support of the Conservative-Liberals . We will now return to the delineation of the man such as he has appeared during his long lifetime . We mentioned in our last article the defiant attitude which he assumed in 181-7 , when refusing to takethe oath of allegiance to'that apology-of a constitution which the King at that time had betrayed-The unpopularity ol the Prince , was then culminating towards its zenith . He was looked upon , asthe very incarnation of an absolutist of right divine-This measure of odium , however , became downright , abhorrence when , during the famous days of 1848 ,.
he gave orders for a relentless massacre as cruel asit was impolitic . Through his obstinacy , the struggle in the streets of Berlin became a very carnage , which ended in the retreat of the royal troops and the precipitate flight of the Prince . Soon after the street battle was over , a curious revelation oozed out , It was reported that the Prince , in the last hours . of the insurrection ,, had proposed to his brother to withdraw the military from the capital , to march with them into Eastern Prussiaand there to await the arrival of a Cossack
, auxiliary corps , with which Berlin was then to be attacked anew . The King and the Queen , not wishing to run this risk , refused compliance . The Prince thereupon hastened to leave Prussia , and take refuge on English ground . His name wasexecrated by the people of Berlin , who bestowed upon him the epithet of the ( C grape-shot . Prince . " Men were exasperated at his escape from the hands of retribution . His palace , however , was spared from destruction by some revolutionists writing on its walls the talismanic words , " National
property . In the early months of the March Ministry , sohated was the name of the Prince that it was not thought safe for him to return to Berlin . Hisprolonged absence was explained by the palace falsehood that " he was charged at the Court of- St .. James ' s with a special mission from the King . " The Government journals , then in the hands of Constitutionalists , also indulged , from time to time , in a sly joke at his expense , gravely asserting that the Prince was " assiduously pursuing his studies . on the representative system as existing in England !" ¦ Time , at last , calmed the angry Waves of the
popular movement . Negotiations were then entered upon for allowing Prince William to return to the capital , in order to take his seat in the National Assembly , to which he had been returned by some obfuscated district of the most benighted part of Poinerania . Before , however , he was permitted tore-enter the Prussian dominions , he had to address , a letter to the public journals , in which he made a sort of recognition of the existing revolutionary state of things . This letter he wrote , no doubt ,, with smothered rage in his heart . When penning it , he probably consoled himself with . the prospect of revenge likely to be aflbrded him , if he , for the time , bowed his head to the tempest . So he signed and scaled the document duly , and transmitted it to the powers whom he so ardently longed to have beneath his heel . Henceforth he impatiently
awaited the hour of revenge , We pass over the curious intrigues which tho Prince , in tho summer months of 18-AS , concocted against the democratic elements ' of the capital , by making uso of certain false brethren of the democratic cause . It is a sad and disgraceful story ,, those intrigues . The most discreditable part in it was played by tho Prince ' s wife , the ambitious-Augusta of Saxe-Wcimar , her unscrupulous husband all the whilo reaping the mean advantages of these accointances . Those princely wiles and dirty stratagems proved but too successful ; and by their means tho unity of tho popular party was broken up . Wo will not dwell on the guilty share which the Princo had in the Berlin coup avii ' tat of Noyomber ,. 1 S 4-S . Wo hasten to that muster coup agninst the liberty of Germany which ho made in tho summer
of 18 * 0 . Tho authority of the National Parliament at Frankfort having been openly defied by the German Prinocs , tho people of Baden and Rhenish Bavaria rose in support of the falling cause of freedom . A great number of tho soldiers of tho Pnlntiimto ,. as well as tho whole army of Budcin , joined t jo movement . The entire country of tli « Grami-iJuifO Leopold , from tho Uodenuoo to tho Neoknr , was in the hands of tho democrat Tho movement asaumed national proportion * . Every one wliostll Cherished n hope V liberty for ? enna « y liasjaned to odor his services < o tho popu ar Government at Carlsruho . To crush this uprising tho Princo of
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1858, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16101858/page/19/
-