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Leader (1850-1860), 24th November 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 4, conclusions thought out in his closet by...

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      956 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [No...

      956 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Nov . 24 , I 860

      Conclusions Thought Out In His Closet By...

      conclusions thought out in his closet by that * ' solitary Scotchroan . " Adam Smith , whose teachings the ' . historian' of ' ^ Civi lization in England " justly considers have been of : such transcendent value to the human race . But there is another reform of which Mr . Cobden may be considered as the apostle iri theory as well as the author in fact . We allude to breaking down the fatal system of secret diplomacy . And it is remarkable that in his successful negotiation of the French treaty ¦ , Mr . Cobden has at once given a fatal blow to secret diplomacy , and carried yet a step farther his great scheme of Free Trade . Any one who is at all read in the history of Europe must be aware of the mischievous effects of the secret system . Nations are kept in the dark on their most important relations , and dragged into wars absolutely without their knowledge . Or they find themselves committed to a policyas England has found itself before to-day— which the people detest and repudiate , entirely through family influence arid dynastic intrigues brought to bear upon the minions of a court . Have not court influence and dynastic connection been at their baneful work to embroil this country with the France of to-day as it did with the France of 1 792 ? Have we not ¦ narrowly escaped being entangled in German intrigues for supporting German despotisms hateful to the people crushed beneath their rule ? But with efficient business-like , practical men such as ' Mr ... G ' OBDEN for negotiators , instead of pompous place-hunting red-tapists , imbued whh the traditions of . a niediseval regime , we should not incur the risk of these dangers . Both by precept and example , as a theorist as well as a clever negotiator , Mr . Cobden has wrought an immense public good by this practical protest against secret diplomacy , conveyed in one of the most beneficial extensions of Free Trade effected since the abolition of the Corn Laws . And in both measures Sin Cobden has . had the merit of getting the policy of his party adopted by the Government , and that top without being one of its members . Indeed , the relation which Mr . Cobdkn and his party j hare bpme to the Govcrnrnent in this respect resernbles that I which Gabibaldi bears to Vicxon Emmanuel , the one doing all and gaining nothing , the other claiming the ~ eredit aria the glory , and doing next to nothing at all . But Mr . CoBDEif has had the -satisfact ion- —great indeed to a disinterested man only mindful of the public good , but certainly not gratifying ^ f ^ ord inary ambition— --of seeing his non-: interventioH ^ olicj' not merely adopted , but insisted tipon in qoStXa-efs waere _ ke and his " platform" "were systematically 1 ^—and persistently abused . Thus events work , in spite of the ma ^ t formidable and . powerful opposition , and to Mr . Cobden belongs tb ^ rnerit of having seeni and taught , at . a time when so few could appreciate his teachings , that non-intervention would of necessity become the policy of thc , futuro . Of the merits of the neW Treaty just concluded , there is now no loniger any doubt . Into details we cannot enter in the present article . But its provisions are alike beneficiU to England and France , and more or liss indirectly favourable to the trade of the world . Even had it verified the forebodings of its worst-omened opponents in its one-sidedness in favour : of France , we should , have considered it , vijaon the ¦ whole * as of highly , beneficial tendency both to us and the world at large , because of itn influence iu generalising Free Trade . Any short comings in particular items as regards England would have been more than cpunterbalanced by the impetus given to piir cpmnaeroe in other dii'ections . But even the direct advantages are as mutual as they arc considerable . English ships can now transport the wools and jutes of India and Australia to France , instead of the qarrying business being confined to French bottom . ? . The small end of tho , wedge is ;' inserted by this Treaty in a very practicable point . It is another instalment of tho great scheme of Free Rra . de ,. which we should like to see consummated in the entire abolition of all obstacles iu the way of perfectly free production and perfectly free distribution .

      Barbarous Politics. J. Ghd Chesterfield ...

      BARBAROUS POLITICS . j . GHD CHESTERFIELD tells us , apivpos of rural simpii-¦ ¦* - *• city and innocence , that two farmers will resort to as rpany dirty tricks- to supplant one another in the good graces of the equire as ever two rival diplomatists could ' resort to , with tho back etairs at their command , to ingratiate themselves with tho monarch or his mistress ; and in 'this loiter sphere of a ' otion liprdipiiEBTjanpiELD had undoubtedly ' some extensive personal experience . And so if is with uncivilised utntee . It must not ba supposed that because , us we had occasion to show in ri xebenty nutabef , political economy is for th ' ofr'Qt time introduced , into Turkey in an qleriientftvy troutiee , tho first , in that lnhuuiusQ . ' ; and written , not by a Turk , but by an Englishman in the

      Turkish language and for Turkish readers , ——it must not be supposed from this that the Turks are ' great adepts in lying and cheating . It must not be supposed because the Chinese make eyes for their junks that they see . their way over the waters ; because they made a counterfeit steamer , with funnel and paddles , but without engine or boiler , and then wondered it wouldn ' t work ; that therefore they are strangers to the mendaceous arts of European statecraft . On the contrary , when , during the late war . the portfolios of their diplomatic agents were captured , a degree of sublimated and intensified lying was revealed , compared with which the deceptions of a Talleyrand , or a MetternicH himself were but venial fibs . ^ yhen , therefore , we speak of uncivilised races , it must not be supposed that the amiable objects of our discourse are the simple-minded and interesting innocents which credulous ignorance is so apt to suppose them . Ignorance and barbarism always hate civilisation for its very superiority , just as the gorilla wages implacable deadly war against his superior , man . What civilised man has to do is , to do the best he can with these sernUbarbarous races for promoting the general good of the world . The state of affairs , not only in Asia but in Africa , and in parts of that great continent of islands at the Antipodes , shows that the stru ^^ le between European civilisation and native barbarism is going on in these quarters more or less actively . There is no doubt of this . It would appear that some of the potentates of Africa are following up . the Spanish war by negotiations with European Powers , which will gradually ' open up" whatever resources there are in that uncivilised quarter of the globe . But it is inevitable that wherever these two principles , European civilisation and barbarism , come into contact , they must ; come into antagonism ; and it is equally certain that the former must overcome and even efface the latter . We do not , however , allow that , according to the stupid interpretation too often put upon the words ; the extermination of savagery means the destruction of the individual savages themselves . A tribe of savages may be extirpated in the sense of being reclaimed by , and even gradually wrought up into , a civilised race . We know there is a species of monomania extant , the peculiar form of which manifests itself in sympathy with savagery as such . It would protect a numerically insignificant tribe of cannibals , or little better than cannibals , in their primitive barbarism , and in the exclusive possession of as much unused territory as would maintain many times their own number of civilised inhabitants , besides yielding valuable produce needed by the whole human race . Vast tracts of fertile ground must forsooth be left wild for the sake of half-a-dozen families of creatures quite as useless to the world at large as the chiinpunzee , and very little higher in the scale of being . Now , so long as these tribes can be kept from systematically murdering every white man , they can catch , all the harm we would do them , and it is harnvin the view of the monomaniacs we have alluded to , is to reclaim and improve them from their savagery into civilised beings ; and that by the most humane and enlightened methods . But we certainly cannot allow that they , clog in the manger like , are to engross to themselves for no earthly purpose , and to exclude the whole world from valu able and fertile territories that ttiev can make no use of themselves and only keep others from using . We hold that the earth is for the use of man ; for the benefit of the race generally ; and we deny the right , or expediency , in any sense , or a hundful of savages monopolising and holding in a stute of wilderness enough rich soil to maintain a nourishing colony . Itiv may be said that this or that score of savages were born on this tract of ground , ana that therefore it is theirs , and they have i \ right to do what they like with their own . We do not admit this . The enrth is for the benefit of | imnkm « J , and a few individuals have no right to exclude thert-at of the world from a thousand times us much land as th j $ lmvo any use for , beyond wandering nbout to scalp anfl , mussuere ull the whites they can meet with . Wo want to *> Maintenance ol boxbnriem . * * ffQr Vt . ( . . In New Zealriml t , , If tl" » collision between euvngory nnd , 'fi ? e / ft / o in f"U ' orc

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 24, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24111860/page/4/