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Leader (1850-1860), 26th October 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 9, DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE, ACCORDING TO THE "T...

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    • (Bnxnnnn Mtmnxu% AND ITS OFFICIAL ACTS.
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      Oct. 26, 1850.] &T>$ &£&&£?+ 729

      Oct . 26 , 1850 . ] & t > $ & £ && £ ? + 729

      (Bnxnnnn Mtmnxu% And Its Official Acts.

      € nm $ mn Dtunrrranj , AND ITS OFFICIAL ACTS .

      This Page Is Accorded To An Auth.En.Tic ...

      This page is accorded to an auth . en . tic Exposition of the Opinions and Acts of the Democracy of Europe : as such we do not impose any restraint on the utterance of opinion , and , therefore , limit our own responsibility to the authenticity of the statement .

      Circular No. 1. Italian National Loan. 1...

      Circular No . 1 . ITALIAN NATIONAL LOAN . 1 . The National Italian Committee , elected by sixty representatives of the people in the Roman Constituent Assembly , and by many other citizens belonging to representative assemblies or holding military or Governmental offices in any other parts of Italy during the late movement by a decree , bearing date the 4 th of July , 1849 , and which is contained in the manifesto which accompanies this circular , have opened a National Italian Loan of Ten Millions of Italian

      LIKE . 2 . The loan is divided into two hundred and fifty thousand shares—fifty thousand of one hundred lire each , and two hundred thousand of twenty-five lire each . The notes are distributed in series , and are numbered consecutively . 3 . The shares are made over to the purchaser immediately upon payment of their amount . They are the property of the holder for the time being , and are transferable by simple delivery of the notes—the possession of which establishes the title to the shares , and to all interest which may become due .

      4 . Interest runs at the rate of six per cent , per annum from the date of the purchase of the shares until payment . The date of the purchase will be written on the notes themselves by the persons entrusted by the committee with their distribution . 5 . The sums subscribed will be employed by the National Committee , according to the powers indicated in the act of the 4 th of July , 1849 , exclusively in the acquisition of materials of war , or of what else may directly

      concern the independence and liberty of Italy . No part of the fund can be withdrawn from the above purposes for personal assistance in any shape . 6 . The money obtained will be deposited in London , at the banking house of Messrs . Martin , Stone , and Martin , 68 , Lombard-street . The committee has the right of changing the place of deposit according to circumstances .

      7 . A commission of six individuals , half Italian and half foreigners , will verify periodically the general state of the debtor and creditor account of the loan . The auditors can in no way interfere with the administration of the fund . 8 . This commission will be named by the representatives of the Italian people , whose signatures are appended to the above act . Until such nomination , the commission pro tern , will consist of the following Italians and Englishmen , viz . : —Colonel Antonio Ferrara , Vinccnzo Cattabeni , and Frederico Petrucelli ; William Shaon , Esq ., William Henry Ashurst , jun ., Esq ., and William Strudwicke , Esq . 9 . All the subscribers of the above-mentioned Act have the right , when they desire it , of exercising a similar power of verification . 10 . A National Government once constituted in Italy , the Italian National Committee will make over to it all the books , the registers of notes , the unsold notes , and the materials of war already acquired , and everything in their hands in any way appertaining to the loan . The commission of verification will at the same time make its report to such Government . 11 . The National Italian Committee and the subscribers of the above-mentioned Act undertake to do everything in their power to procure the recognition of the loan by such National Government , and the fixing of the earliest possible period for the repayment of both capital and interest . 12 . The National Committee promises absolute secrecy witli respect to the names of purchasers who may desire , during existing political circumstances , to remain unknown ; but it keeps a register of their names and of the sums of money paid in , so that , at a fitting time , subscribers to the loan may possess conclusive evidence before their fellow-citizens of not having despaired of the salvation of their country , and of having contributed to hasten its accomplishment . 13 . The notes , formed of paper expressl y manufactured for the committee , have the inscription , in water-mark , " Prostito Nazionale Italiano " ( National Italian Loan ) , and are in tenor as follows , viz .: — " Dio e Popolo . —Phestito Nazionale Italiano . Italia e Roma . Diretto unicamente ad affretara VIndipendenza e la Liberia d '' Italia . A 0001 . Franchi 100 . Iticevuta di Franchi Cento di Capitale , col Mercantile Interosse di mezzo per Cento al mese , a datare da questo giorno , 1850 . Pel Comitato Nazionale , GlUSElTK MAZ 55 INI , GIUSEPPE SlUTORI , MATTIA MONTECCIIl , AURELIO SAFl'I , A . Saliceti . LaCircolare No . 1 , contenente le basi e i particolari dell' Imprcstito si distribuisce colle cedolc . London Af / ent , James Stansfkld , 2 , Sidney-place , Brompton . " Translation . "Gon and the People . —Italian National Loan . Italy and Home . Directed solely to the achievement ofthe Independence and Liberty of Italy . A 0001 . 100 Francs .

      Received the sum of 100 Francs , to bear interest at the rate of £ per cent , per month , dating from this day of ' 1850 . For the National Committee , Giuseppe Mazzini , Giuseppe Sihtori , Mattia Montecchi , Aurelio Saffi , A . Saliceti . The Circular No . 1 , containing the basis and particulars of the Loan is distributed with the notes . London Agent , James Stansfeld , 2 , Sidney-place , Brompton . " On the face of the notes are two impressions in the form of seals , one bearing the arms of the Republic , the other the inscription , " ComitatoNazionale Italiano" ( National Italian Committee ) ; and on the back is the impression of a broken seal , with the signature of one of the two secretaries of the committee . CiBSARE AGOSTINI , Secretary of the National Committee .

      Democracy In Europe, According To The "T...

      DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE , ACCORDING TO THE " TIMES . " The following extract is from the Paris Correspondence of the Times of the 22 nd instant : — " It is now some time since I communicated information relative to the secret doings of the Red party with the object of reviving the revolutionaryfeverthroughout Europe . The details I furnished were derived from the best possible source ; and I now , though a

      considerable period has passed since I alluded to them , find them fully confirmed in a document , an analysis of which is given in the Patrie of last night . The Patrie guarantees the authenticity of these papers , which would show that the revolutionary party , however passive and apparently subdued at this moment , is yet darkly and mysteriously at work , and on the watch to take advantage of the first moment of weakness of the party of order . * Socialism / observes the

      Patrie" ' Affects to be dead . But we see from , the document before us that it is not the less at work in the bas-fonds of Europe . The Communist element which , up to the present , had formed the nucleus of the secret societies and of political conspiracies , has recently selected as its permanent seats the cities of Leipsic , Konigsburg , Berlin , Prague , Milan , London , Geneva , and Paris . It will be remembered that the chiefs of the anarchical party had resolved to hold a secret congress in London in the early part of June last . The document before us confirms this circumstance . It adds that twenty of them had already arrived in that city , when it was decided that the meeting should be adjourned . The order sent to the principal adherents or Socialism to repair there was countermanded on the 30 th of May . '

      " That counter-order was , it would appear , only with the view of baffling the attention of the Governments , and a secret meeting was held in Paris on the 2 nd of June , where the plan was formed of a general insurrection , amongst the adherents to which the Patrie says" ' Were persons whose names the public would be astonished as well as pained to learn . " ' The ramifications of this vast conspiracy extend to the whole of Europe , and even to the heart of Russia , where it menaces a terrible explosion . The motto it has assumed is singularly significant ; it is " Sans piii 6 ni mcrci . " No one will be surprised , therefore , to learn

      that the leaders of the movement have decided that the chiefs of states shall be assassinated . The association has adopted measures to provide for the women and children of those amongst its members who may fall in this impious struggle against society . In one of the numerous , secondary and secret ineetings held by the initiated under the presidence of the principal agents , the death of the Bonaparlists was sworn , and would be the signal for the destruction of all the Bourbons , and of all their friends and supporters . At this same meeting one of the members ofthe association , raising his glass , pronounced against the august widow of the Duke of Orleans a horrible menace . The threat uttered by one of the German chiefs of the conspiracy was to the effect that " on the field of battle we shall spare no one , and we will strike

      down our dearest friends if they are not unconditional Communists . " After indicating the depots of . arms formed by the Communist conspirators in all the capitals where it has established seats , after enumerating the means employed to ensnare the foolish and the ambitious , after , in fact , indicating all its resources and all its plans , the document informs us that the object of the conspiracy is to arrive , by means of general confusion and a sanguinary combat , at the extermination of all those who possess a fool of land , or a coupon of rente , and that it has sworn the oath of Hannibal against all the monarchies of Europe . Plunder and assassination form the basis of the plan . The document terminates thus , " The soil of Europe is undermined , so as to render a frightful catastrophe imminent . ' "

      In The Course Of Some Hundred Years Of C...

      In the course of some hundred years of constitutional government in England we have acquired deep-rooted and universally accepted ideas and habits of respect for personal freedom , which the governing classes of other European countries have yet to learn . We . ire not democratic in our institutions , nor in our generally received theories of government , but we accept the consequences of a popular victory when it has once become inevitable , and our experience has lr > d us to do so , in spite of the perennial fears of constitutional alarmists , with considerable confidence that public opinion will impose no changes in society to which it may not sufely , if not with probable advantage , submit . Justified by this confidence in the framework , of our own society , and influenced by

      the ideas of personal liberty in which we have been educated , and by a certain independence and love of " fair play " which is said to characterize Englishmen , it has been a principle of our foreign policy , dating from times far less advanced than the present , to afford within our island a safe asylum to the political refugees of every country and of every variety of political creed . A _ Prime Minister may be shameless enough to lay down a different rule for the exercise of our hospitality in Malta and our foreign dependencies , but he would be a bold public man who should venture to propose the abandonment , in this country , of a practice of hospitality which has secured for us the heritage of a fair fame among the nations of Europe which no political antagonism can sully or destroy .

      Nevertheless , if the " information " which our leading journal is in the habit of dealing out in its foreign correspondence to the English public could be credited as , in any respect , a faithful picture of the doings of Democracy in Europe , the time has arrived for us to abandon our old notions of individual rights , and our faith in the safety of an acquiescence with the demands of the popular voice , to lower our constitutional flag , and to abandon , at whatever cost to our good name , " our time-honoured practice of national hospitality , to that stern necessity of self-preservation which knows no law . We have no alternative but to make common cause with Despotism

      in Europe , and hold out the hand to those Governments who promise the most vigorous and unscrupulous war to the growing spirit of Democracy throughout the world . If the extract from the foreign correspondence of the Times of the 22 nd instant , which precedes these remarks , contain even a germ of truth , if it can be conceived to' represent , with the least approach to justice , the principles and objects of the great Democratic parties of Europe , if it be not the monstrous abortion of a diseased imagination , or the foul invention of a calumnious and hireling pen , we know of no medium course ; and in defence of the very existence of society , and of the lives of thousands of innocent and virtuous

      men and women threatened with an indiscriminate massacre , we should be the first to urge a retaliatory and defensive war , " sans pitie ni merci , " without scruple and without law , aimed at nothing less than the * ' extermination " of an organized band of assassins more atrocious and more terrible than has ever been known in history , or imagined in fable . A universal massacre of St . Bartholomew , organized in the nineteenth century , against the middle and upper classes throughout Europe 1 Such is the Times' picture of European Democracy . To condescend to refute it is too revolting a task . We declare it to be utterly and wickedly false . We blush to think of the morbid appetite for horrors , and of the blind

      credulity which must be presumed to exist in an English public , before whom such garbage is placed as intellectual political food . But the system of imposture is too gross ; it must react against those who employ it . It is reacting to the degradation of the public press in the minds of all men who bestow the slightest attention upon foreign politics and news . Once for all , we quote a flagrant example of this " information , " which is distributed periodically through the length and breadth of the land , to poison the minds and confound the judgments of the great uninformed majority amongst us . It is not

      the less disgraceful because it overshoots the mark of public credulity . It is our duty to expose it ; but it is a task too repulsive for frequent repetition . We know of only one dignified mode of constantly counteracting the influence of incessant misrepresentation : it is the course which we have proposed to ourselves to pursue , of presenting to the English public in a continuous form the official statements of the principles and objects of the various sections of European Democracy in their own words . With this illustration of our purpose we will leave the subject , and pass on .

      Revolution has been crushed in every country in Europe ; and yet it is true that Democracy still conspires , and that this is no time for rest . It would seem as if we are living in exceptional times to which the ordinary rules which history furnishes do not apply . Europe has been convulsed with a simultaneous and common movement , which in one country after another has been at length suppressed . It is accepted as an axiom in the history of nations that revolutions only follow each other after a certain interval of rest ; and yet it would be the greatest mistake to imagine that we were now entering upon one of those periods of repose . In this general spnse at least we believe that the rumours which our daily press convey to us are not without foundation in truth , and we will proceed to show the reasons of our conviction .

      What is a revolution ? It is an insurrection of a people , aparty , or a class victorious in the struggle , accepted with all the consequences of complete victory , or a compromise between the different political or social elements at strife , indicative of their comparative strength , and calculated to endure until time shall have worked some essential change in the proportion of their forces . It may be the enthronement of a new transformatory spirit destined to exaggerate and exhaust itself in a given time ,

      as in the revolution which gave us our Commonwealth ; it may be , as in the Parisian revolution of 1830 , a successful resistance on the part of a dominant class—in that case the bourgeoisie of France—to the encroachments of another power in the state ; but in every case it possesses this characteristic , that it expresses the definite issue of a contest of moral as well as of material forces , and tijat it establishes in its favour a public opinion , which it must bo the work oi'time to resolve into its elements and to

      recomyinsc . Su « h ate the conditions of permanence which every revolution , properly so-called , interposes to forbid u too speedy renewal of the struggle . Where are these elements of permanence to be found now in , Europe ? In France , where every party , every class , Buonapnrtist , Orloanist , Legitimist , lied Republican , and Socialist is meditating a revolution of its own ? In Germany , where the popular movement in Baden and Saxony has been suppressed by Prussian arms , where Austria needs all

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 26, 1850, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26101850/page/9/