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THE NEXT WELLINGTON. Tins Great Captain ...
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ITALY AND THE ITALIAN GAUSE Dr ENGLAND. ...
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French Threat Of Invading England On The...
_sjons of Trafalgar and Waterloo Bpedally manufactured for the French market . Subsequently it was under the control of Dr . Yeron _, tne unblushing adulator and accomplice of Louis Napoleon . It is now a semi-independent , semiofficial paper , uttering only such views and sentiments as the Government permits . Under these auspices it is now , by a singular infelicity of accident , the organ for throwing out a threat of
in-. For the French reader it gives such encouragement as would be worthy of the historian aforesaid : — " England has always been conquered when a foreign army set foot on her soil . The Romans , the Saxons , the Danes , the Normans under William , in turns overran Great Britain . The present dynasty of her sovereigns also comes from a foreign land . The dispossession of James II . by William is a sort of fourth invasion . The day has arrived when the fleets of Great Britain would not suffice to prevent a descent on her shores . "
This is as false as it is insolent . " England " has never been conquered . Britain was , as Gaul was , by the _Homanst Britain was , as Gaul was , by Teutonic invaders . The Danes obtained less Sermanent footing in infant England than the formans in France . William did not conquer England , but Harold , and that by the accident which mortally disabled his rival pretender to the throne that Edward the Confessor weakly
made an object of litigation . The invasion of William was the act of the English people : he was appointed by the English , he fought with the English soldiers , he reigned by " the courtesy of England . " England has undergone no Crecy , no Waterloo ; nor will she ever take part in either again , if the French be true to themselves , and cease from crouching to the sanguinary adventurer who is the latest invader of Trance .
The threat may be only an electioneering ruse of that man who is now trying , for the third time , to trick France into being his slave ; but he may follow it out , either if his dupes should require some p ledge in practice , or if his army should grow insolent , and need new riot and blood-letting , or if the indifference of England should convert an idle threat into opportunity . Let him come , then : it can only do us good . It is true , that no living generation of
Englishmen has been accustomed to fight on its own soil in defence of its own home ; but men are not usually less stout in such a battle . It is true that London is exposed , and , in case of invasion , England would have to pay for her blind reliance on peace defences . But although the people is benumbed by the long repose of peace , the spirit is not yet dead ; and if the danger be not too long delayed , the old true , united , national spirit may be roused without stint or fail .
Meanwhile , this base bravado should be useful in arousing the Nation to watch its own Government . With official France for our enemy , who are to be our allies P Are we to quarrel about fish with our brothers iu America , while a disreputable neighbour is snarling threats like these in our ears ?
Ar01404
The Next Wellington. Tins Great Captain ...
THE NEXT WELLINGTON . Tins Great Captain who suppressed an empire has not survived to witness its renewal under the spurious Napoleon . He who aided the Hol y Alliance inputting down a military usurpation , is spared the spectacle of a bastard hereditary usurpation under favour of the Holy Alliance . The circumstances of the world aro different from those when Wellington was al , hia prime , but they are not less menacing . The danger may havo been more ; concentrated , but it is now far moro widely spread , and far more doubtful in its elements . At that time France had suddenl y fiu . kih _mt I _rnrr _* l . li . _^ mi _^ l _/> i _* . ilib > lira tr-i > _uui . Mi wbi . « lk it _liot / ll iiuiu jjiiajii 41 Ilmi _«(» iiivDniwn » unn n
_uu un ; ; _a - , . had endured so long , had visited the world with a burst of anarchy , had q uickly solved that anarchy in a military despotism , and had again visited the world with tho strong hand of a conqueror bent on territorial aggrandizement . Save _IJjo passive anarchy , there was in this nothing very now , _nothing strikingly different from tho character of tho _rfr / ime which had preceded it ; but it is not so now . ' Tho dang ers wh ich tl treaten lho _continued peace of the world , which th ronton the immortalit y of long standing dynasties , aro more scattered , but they are also much more characterized by innovation . It is since the downfall of Napoleon that _Bussiu has expanded from being merely one of the great powers , to ba
The Next Wellington. Tins Great Captain ...
the great arbiter of _Thrpijpp , _loojajj _^ g _& ke a menace down the easterjj _^© i ? der of % . e # _? ic ) le continent of Europe . It i f since the dowp _^ H of Napoleon that _the" _Anjeripqp . ie _^ _publjp J _»^ s attained its yast dominions , has acquired it « spirit of territorial extension , and it is within a few years pf Wellington ' s death that the stirring citizens of that
young republic _fyave proclaimed their aggressive policy . The immense gold fields , offering an enormous bait for the migration of the Anglo Saxon family , are the latest dispoveries of the age , and it is within the present week that we see the influence of the Australian mountains of precious metal in drawing to that English colony a strong tide of American emigration .
These are great facts , which suggest some considerations that bear upon the appointment of Wellington ' s successor . For the next year or so , indeed , it may matter little who is at the head of the department trimming the horse-tails of the cavalry , or the knapsacks of the infantry ; but to judge from the movements of the world , a day is not far distant when the personal character of the man at the head of England's military government will greatly influence the future .
Wanted a Cromwell ! Is he to be found amongst the half-dozen candidates already named for the post ? Is the Prince Consort , for example , a Cromwell ? Is the young prince of the House of Gotha , the amiable patron of all civilizing arts , competent to confront the powers of Europe , and to control the destinies of his adopted country with an iron hand ? Is he capable of stemming the torrent of events ? Nobody suspects him of virtues so ungentle .
Is the Cromwell to be found in Lord Hardinge , that distinguished General , who has won his spurs in many climes—who has shown so high and soldierly a pride in the public service—who has been amongst conservative statesmen distinguished by so generous and liberal a disposition ? Assuredly not . Lord Hardinge is the man to perform the services of a department , to undertake the command of a division , or to execute any other allotted duty with grace aud capacity ; but he is not the man to act ft ) r a nation , and to move nations by the grasp of his hand .
The man who stands before the world as suited to the time , is General Sir Charles James Napier , the conqueror of Scinde . For many reasons Wellington is understood to have fastened upon him as the best man for a troubled field ; but we do not lay much stress on that anecdote . Napier has the prestige of a conqueror . Although a veterap , his latest public acts have shown undimmed brilliancy in his faculties . If ho might be difficult to act with official colleagues , as his enemies will inevitably allege , it is because he has manifested a resolute spirit to deal with corruptions in the army . Anel above all he is a national soldier .
Alas ! the people is sunk in apathy , half unconscious of the necessities of the day , or it would now rise and cry out for that—a national commander . That Napier is bo , we have a splendid testimony in his pamphlet on the militia ; as honourable a piece of writing aa ever came from the pen of a Napier . In that page he showed that he perfectly appreciated both what a militia can do , and what it cannot do . He showed that ho knew how to valuo the ardour of the
citizen-soldier fighting for his home ; that ho could command such an arm with knowledge and with relish , and that he would know exactly the kind of service to put it to . But the pamphlet showed much more : it showed that Napier viewed such affairs , not only with the eye of a professional man , not with tho routine notions common in a mero officer of state , but with tho mind of a patriot thinking as well as acting for his country .
These two ( dements in hia character indicate exactly the man we want—tho will to grapple with the abuses that enfeeble our army , that clog it with men incompetent to their duties , that demoralize the officers , that waste the publio money without securing tbo comfort of the soldier ; anel the knowledge bow to bo a , leader of tho people in defence of the nation - ' That ho will be chosen , wo scarcely venture to hope : he is too strong a man for these tame times ; but whooyer may be his predecessor , the stormy horizon inclines us to believe that the day is not far oft when Napier ( if fulness of years and strength bo granted hind may he demanded by events , aud may then bo rated at hit true _value _.
Italy And The Italian Gause Dr England. ...
ITALY AND THE _ITALIAN GAUSE Dr ENGLAND . We have . from time to time > _fcept our readers in formed of the proceedings p f a _Society which hS ' we believe , t _^ e peculiar distinction of being _« ft only _Aesociation in this country devoted _W ciall y to the _consideration pf qwio _& s offeZi politic _&~ the Society pf the _friends of _gg This Society , having now concluded the first vS _£ of its existence , has put forth its first Annual Report , ra which an official statement is given _S the and expenditure of the
progress SoeiJ _~ during the past yea ? , and of its present aims and views with reference to the Italian question There are various points incidentall y touched on in this Beport , wliich , we think , Englishmen may consider with advantage . The _tieporf thus sketches the contrast between the actual conduct of England , in reference to the recent Italian Bevolution , and the co nduct which might have been expected from England considering her historical antecedents : '
"In every national movement , call it _< Revolution ' or what we will , there is a right and a wrong , a progressive tendency and a retrogressive tendency—not vaguely scattered either among the contending elements , so as to he discovered only by long calculations but embodied , for the most part , with palpable and in ' _stantaneous clearness , in the well-marked separations of men and parties . And w . hat else can be the duty of nations looking on in such a case , but to discern the
right , and to back it—to ascertain on which side the progressive energy is at work , and to let the whole strength of their sympathies go to the service of that side . Nor was Italy a very complex case . The Papacy Jesuitic activity , and tyrannical government of the worst species on the one side ; native patriotic leaders , and the whole Italian people on the other—such was the simple state of the problem tbat had to be considered _, with regard to Italy . For an Englishman , one would have thought , choice in such a case was not
very difficult . Given such a balance of parties , one would have thought , and the whole island of England , could free and Protestant earth have moved , would have thrown itself unasked into one of the scales . Yet it was not so . The existing power in every country being naturally assumed as the representative of order , and the Papacy being the existing power in Italy , even our liberal newspapers would sometimes , as in a fit of morbid candour and conservatism , make themselves the
apologists of the Papacy . And if , even between the two great antagonist tendencies , our journals and onr politicians hesitated and appeared dubious , much more did they hesitate when it came to he a question in what section , in what class of aims and opinions on the patriotic side , the real strength and hope of Italy lay . Certainly , if ever a foreign political party has had to win a good opinion in England , against all manner of
prejudice and opposition , that party has been thc National Party among the Italians . Look , for example , at the conduct of the Times , and those whom it represents , with regard to this party . That journal , more expressly perhaps than any other , stands committed to the opinion that the hope of Italy , and even of Europe , lies in tho abolition , root and" branch , of thc sccu . ar Papacy . Surely , then , if any party in Italy more than another should have the sympathies of the Times , it is circum
that party which is signalized by this very - stance , that it is the only native party in Italy that has the phrase , ' Abolition of the Secular Papacy distinctly inscribed on its banner—the party which , in its brief day of power , actually did thc _utupendoua thing thus talked of art desirable by our p olit ical dilettanti ; anel tho only party , an far as the world known , t how
that would to-morrow do the thing again . _Y « this party tares in tliat quarter is but too well known . Thc conduct of tho Times and of those who think wittt it , in regard to tho National Party in Italy , he compared only to that of a man who tirst advertise" _»' and wide for a copy of a hook , only one copy of which i known to he extant , und who then , when the _pawf * of that solitary copy conies to his door to make liim gratuitous present of it , drives him away with _nisu
and abuse . " T _y ,-x There is a great deal of truth in this , n _™ little sympathy tho common " No-Popery J _<\ ing lias had from ue , our readers very well l £ V There is no fear , therefore , that we shall be m » token when we say that , wh en taken in a aom sense , this very " No-Popery" cry is tbe no » u _* and tho heartiest form of native _Kng _bnh _toi _^ _bativonoss . So long as " N o-Popery _^ u _^ proscription of Roman-catholics , pains au « I . ties on acts of _JJ-oman-catholio worship , or » ¦ _Jlowan-eathoUe _propagandise , the civil exm - of the 4 _»«* _iiw _» _hiwu-tfleevoH , or the Y _& _itnerv' ' over Popish _vestmento _^ -so lon g m " 2 io * _W
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18091852/page/14/
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