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Pecember 24, 1853] THE LEADER. 123&
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MINISTERS IN THE NEXT SESSION. Hitherto ...
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PERSIA AS AN ALLY OE RUSSIA. Reports whi...
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OUGHT MAJORITIES IN ATX CASES TO I3E OMN...
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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.
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Ministers, Russia, And Our Court. Axthou...
Turkish question -was not the cause of it— -but that T ord palmerston and his late colleagues remained nn the most friendly footing . "We do not know wh at L ord Palmerston says to that assertion , hut Z " believe that it will turn out that this statement is as unfounded as any which have accompanied it It appears , then , that there has been a serious split in the Cabinet , and that Ministers are studiously att empting to hoodwink and mislead the nubiic on the causes of the rupture . Certain circumstances tend to increase the uneasiness which this dispute and this studied delusion excite . We are assured , by an organ hitherto
well-informed on Lord Palmerston ' s movements , that he differs from the Oriental policy which has prevailed in the Cabinet , and the effect of -which we have described above . Contemporaneously with this dispute in the Cabinet , we see a conspivnw amongst the Bourbon princes to recover the X a w ***** y £ 3 * ... ¦¦ , ¦ . i ¦ , i throne of France—a conspiracy against the throne of our chief ally in the East . It is said also , and this is a subject which is necessarily clothed with much mystery , that Lord Palmerston has been opposed , not only by Lord Aberdeen , but by the Court . The Emperor of Austria sanctions ,
almost with his presence , the conspiracy of the Bourbon princes against the Emperor of the French . The King of the Belgians , who has recently cemented an Austrian alliance , is active in communications with qur Court ; and hints have been very freely current , and have even found their way into print , that the Ministers who have opposed Lord Palmerston in the Cabinet , have done so to indulge the taste of our Court for promoting dynastic projects and restorations . We are as yet without any substantial evidence which would enable us to convert these hints into direct
charges against the responsible Ministers of the Crown ; but when we see the course in the Black Sea tends to sacrifice Turkey to Russia—how a dilatory policy tends to sacrifice the French alliance— how it equally tends to sanction the Bourbon conspiracy—how the Minister who is regarded as the least likely to be pliant in the matter of Coburg projects is compelled to leave the Cabinet—and how the causes of his retirement
are systematically misrepresented by organs which speak under official inspiration ; we are compelled to admit that , although there is no evidence as yet to substantiate a distinct charge against Ministers , there is the evidence of their own acts , their own tendencies , and their own- misstatements , to justify the most serious uneasiness ..
Pecember 24, 1853] The Leader. 123&
Pecember 24 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . 123 &
Ministers In The Next Session. Hitherto ...
MINISTERS IN THE NEXT SESSION . Hitherto the country has been remarkably passive on the subject of Turkey , and it has been more than passive on the subject of the Reform Bill . It is Ministers who have kept up the fire on the Reform , and Russia on the war question . Should the public ultimately be roused , the fault Avill be due , not to that harmless being itself , but to a Czar who is certainly not harmless , and to a Ministry which might have left the subject of Reform alone . Should Lord John Russell , wooing
a second suffrage revolution , incur the censure which Burns passes upon King David , it will be his own fault . The public has borne the provocatives with wonderful patience , but at last it does appear to be excited . The war question is becoming painful for any -Englishmen who remember the old name of their country . Negotiating is all very well , —it is a great modern improvement ; but the countrymen ° f Nelson , Blake , and . Jervin , do begin to ask themselves how it is that Russia should attack our •) % and protfocalmost within gunshot of the
, ¦ Eng lish fleet , and how our fleet , nevertheless , should jjwait the dilatory " instructions" of diplomatists . Ihe English mind is not yet so cultivated as to solve tins problem instinctively ; and the meeting ilt Newcastle in , perhaps , the first glimpse oi ' genuine English feeling that we have had . It was very numerously attended ; all parties wore ^ presented . While the . working classes naturally
constituted tho most numerous section of nn open Public meeting , the middle classes were not absent ; und wo keiieve tliafc all gentlemen of any consojliwnco in tho neighbourhood were on the plat-Iwin . Some had proved tho interest which they took by arriving half-an-hour before the time in ° rder to secure their scats . The resolutions , <; illui £ upon Government to act , were certainly Moderate enough , but , at the same time , full of
Hl English feeling . Now , thin feeling is bepnning to ho awakened ; the lawlessness and brutal ity of Russia have been admitted ; the
justice and moderation of Turkey are equally confessed ; the duty of England to protect an ally and the law of nations are acknowledged ; how , under such circumstances , Russia should be fr ee to cut up Turkey and massacre the Turks in the presence of an English fleet , Ministers , perhaps , will be able to explain on the opening of Parliament . They will then also , of course , explain how the promised Reform Bill stands . The public will expect that it shall at least equal Lord John
Russell s " Parliamentary Representation Bill . " It is true that there . has been no demand for Reform ; but the intellectual friends of Reform say that it is desirable to anticipate popular clamour , and to arrange the question in a quiet way while the public mind is tranquil . Decidedly a just idea ; but how will the public like to be awakened from its slumber , to receive the promised boon o a Reform Bill , announced with a flourish of trumpets , and rise from repose only to welcome an abortion ? Better let the public sleep than that .
We have our apprehensions . The fate of this Reform Bill , in connexion with the Eastern question , appears to be curious . There is no statement that Lord John Russell abandoned his position , but we heard , a week or two back , that Lord Palmerston had succeeded in clipping Lord John Russell ' s proposition very seriously . The general tendency of the Ministerial organs indicates that the basis of the franchise is not to
be extended below the ten-pound scale . The grand coup is to consist in the disfranchisement o certain boroughs , whose representatives are to be given to great towns , or , in some cases , to county constituencies . In short , it is only to be a redistribution , with some new checks against corruption , we suppose ; but this is not the Reform Bill that will sati sfy the public . Although Lord Palmerston has taken exception , to particular points in the Bill , he has succeeded in cutting down the dimensions of Lord John's design . The result is , that Ministers are in a strange perplexity : although Lord Palmerston leaves the Cabinet because the Eastern policy is too puny , he has succeeded in crippling their Reform Bill , and
obliging them to adopt his own puny standard . Thus we have an Eastern policy measured by the Aberdeen standard , which is puny ; and a Reform measured by the Palmerston standard , which is also puny . We do not , of course , venture to assert , that Ministers will meet Parliament in what Sir Frederick Trench would call that mutilated and degraded condition ; but the manful way in which he stood by his candles , is not to be expected on subjects like Europe and Turkey . It is to be doubted whether Ministers will be able to struggle out of the nightmare of littleness which is fastened upon them no less by their resident Premier , than by their departed Home Secretary .
But should they have only irritated the country on the subject of Reform ; should they have acknowledged a duty in tho East only to betray it ; the public , though long dormant , will at last rise to demand that its recreant servants be driven from their place , and abler men called to do the work . Tho feelings aroused in Englishmen cannbt be better expressed than in the letter which we received from an esteemed correspondent , Mr . George Crawshay , one of the leading men at Newcastle and its meeting . ( To the Editor of the LeadtrJ )
11 Guteshoad Iron Works , GateBhead-upon- fyne , Dec . 20 tl > , 1853 . " « Sir —To say tho least , it is highly probable that the nation may shortly have to chooso between a Government with a Reform Bill , but without an upright foreign policy , and a Government with an upright foreign policy , but without a Reform Bill . It can do no harm to consider what in auchacaso should bo done . Until Parliament meets , we cannot learn tho facts whioh wo muat know to enable us to decide whether wo will follow Palmcraton or Lord John ; but I havo . not a inomont ' s hesitation in saying tiiat at the pro-Kent tirno overy other question is subordinate to that of onr foreign policy . When tho Reform Bill apponrs , I doubt not but it will bo easy enough to excite tho contempt of tho
democratic party in England towarMBrt ; Out 1 will not antioinaio its i > roviaionn or what itfl value may prove to bo to tho cnuso of liberty . I will stoop to . uo arts . I prefer to express iny conviction plainly , that any Government proposing any Reform Hill , howevor liberal , and leaving us in any doubt as to tho uprightness of ita foreign policy , ought to 1 ) 0 driven from oflieo without delay . Tho paramount duty of tho democratic parly in England is to oppose Russia , and bitterly will they lament tho day when they muTtir themselves to bo diverted from this by any coasulomtion whatever . Reform our hiHtittitimm an wo may , if RiiHuian influence in Hu ' flbral to prevail on tho continent—if Turkey is betrayedwo shall poon have to choose ut homo between enslavement nnd revolution .
" Anything mou reckless , anything more desperate than such a course , I cannot possibly conceive . " Such an endless tram of caWnities do I see attending upon it , that I deliberately say that any Government not announcing a foreign policy satisfactory to tn « nation should not be even listened to on any other subject . " I will go farther . I do not think it wise to introduce any measure for Parliamentary reform at all until the question of war or peace with Russia is definitively decided . Any measure worth a moment ' s consideration will have to b 6 carried in spite of the House of Lords and at the cost of a domestic struggle . To enter upon such a struggle whilst we are undecided as to our foreign policy , would be a mistake of the first magnitude . Public attention being diverted from foreign affairs * Russia will gain her ends , and will be in the ascendant long before our Eeform Bill can be carried in both Houses ; and then—we shall get just such a Reform Bill as we shall deserve .
" If it should turn oat that Lord Palmerston opposes Parliamentary reform at present for any such reasons as these , it will be only a reason for believing in the sincerity of whatever conviction he may express as to our foreign policy on . the meeting of Parliament . —Yours , & c , " Geotjor Crawshay . "
Persia As An Ally Oe Russia. Reports Whi...
PERSIA AS AN ALLY OE RUSSIA . Reports which reach this country by various channels , and which therefore appear the more trustworthy , state that Persia has declared war against England . The shark might almost as well declare war against the eagle ; for , a bird in a sea of deserts , Persia can make but a feeble approach towards England . The most she can do is to subserve the treacheries of Bussia , -with , whom we shall have to deal in a direct way . But , absurd as it is , the declaration of wax on the part of Persia does not surprise us , nor is it without significance . There have before been differences with the Court at Tehran , a nd there have also been friendly relations . During the protracted war -which the Persian Government carried on against the rebellious province of Khorassan , by aifarmy under Abbas Mirza , brother of the late Shah , an English officer served with that prince ; whom we remember previously as the companion of Sir John Malcolm , and who astonished that accomplished officer by the audacity of his riding . The Englishman who accompanied Abbas Mirza to Khorassan was named Vernon , and was the last of the English officers deputed to assist in the drill and improvements of the Persian army . Wearied out by the insolent inattention of the officers placed under his tuition , and by the impossibility of getting his money , this gentleman came away from Persia about the year 1849 . He had a successor ; and that successor is rather a remarkable man . It was Count Karaczay , a Colonel in the Austrian army . This officer was formerly employed as Commandant de la Place at Mantua . The Commandant de la Place is charged with the duties that pertain to the keeping of the fortress , town , town-gates , keys , jails , police , & c . For some reason , to us unknown , the Count excited the displeasure of his Government ; and from the language employed , we are inclined to suppose that he was suspected of a leaning towards the patriotic party ; the more probably , since he is by birth an Hungarian . From the sequel , howevor , it is to be supposed that he confessed his fault , and was pardoned ; and the circumstances may account for his having been deputed to a distant mission . He is a very agreeable man , about sixty years of age , an excellent officer , well acquainted especially with tho scene of war in the East , and author of the best existing map of the district of Montenegro and Herzagovine . Ho was sent out about two years ago , with a staif of Austrian officers to iehran , to renew the services relinquished by the knghslinian , Vernon . Persia , therefore , has received into tho stall" of her army mi Austrian infusion , and she is now openly subserving the treacherous advaneos of Russia .
Ought Majorities In Atx Cases To I3e Omn...
OUGHT MAJORITIES IN ATX CASES TO I 3 E OMNIPOTENT ? In a letter , under this heading , published in the Open Council of last week , " Rusticus" proposed for our consideration a problem which we said was of practical interest nnd constant difficulty . The case , as stated by " llunticuH , " is this : " A readingroom or Athenaeum for ' tho intellectual and moral improvement of itn members , ' by reading and lectures , haw just been formed in a town of a population of about 2 B 00 . Hooks lire to be bought for circulation among its members , but tho rule for the selection of them Imu not yet been framed , a minority being of opinion that each member ought to bo at liberty to put in one volume in . turn , if not above a certain price , thereby bc ~
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1853, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24121853/page/11/
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