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1236 THE XEADER. [^0.363, Saturday
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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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Christmas Games. Is.-Christmas To Be Ove...
strating with him , yet selfishly afraid to CQmpel . Prance is preyed on by its Em- -peror , who is cleverly circumventing the Powers , and making them , through their jealousies , support the man that they would have crushed . * On the borders of India , England and Bussia are entering upon a petty Avar which they fight by proxies , in the names of Dost Mohammed and the Shah of Persia . This is Low the doctrine of peace is illustrated just at present to the heathen . SiCHELi , who told Dr . Livingston that he would make his people believe by beating them , showed that the spirit of Voltaibe is not dead , but has emigrated to Africa on purpose to welcome the British missionary , In the meanwhile , although Christians are beaten with sticks in Italy , in England we have outgrown that puerile mode of govern- ing yourlower orders are no longer beaten to make them believe , — -and some cynics might say , becausethe effects of the beating have ceased among us . The fact was proved , on Thursday , When so many of the unbeaten neg- lected to come to church . In Christian Eug- land , piety and npoliteness go together . The ruder classes , unbeaten , appear to be uncon- vinced ; as if the rulers of the world , deprived of the stick or the rack , had not yet hit upon the expedient of illustrating the doctrine of Christianity practically ! So the devil stalks abroad in the streets . Yes . Honest , innocent girls shall be garotted in Oxford-street ; nay , official clerks are equally obnoxious to the attack of the garot- ter . The Civil Service is throttled ; and not only finds itself defrauded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer through the superannuation dodge , but seized in the public streets by the other Chancellor of the Exchequer , the footpad . " The London Scoundrel" writes to the Times a letter calling for " blood ! blood !" & 7 a Robson ; and the Twnes is delighted . That is the way to treat publicans and sinners . Nay , ¦ " A Sympathizer , " in the Morning Post suggests a newly invented defensive collar covered , or rather masked with silk , but under that cover friezed with stout needle-pointed barbed hooks , which would transfix the hands that grasped , and parting from the collar remain planted in the flesh . If , says the '" " Sympathizer , " they be smeared with animal matter from the dissecting room , the poor " cove" may die pleasantly in his own bed from the poison , unless he go " raving mad " with the pain ! The judges , however , cap even this Christian suggestion ; for most of them , from Campbell to Willes , are propos ing to re-establish a Norfolk Island—a plac which concentrated and reproduced the most hideous and unnamed crimes that ever ecourged society . That at the present mo ment is verily the leading idea for chastening the sins of the benighted , the misbegotten the miseducated , the dwarfish , the outcasts of society ! There must be some little amusement the midst of these severe pursuits , and the man of taste provides it in the bal masque It is an amusement which can be shared b those that have full i > urses ; and full purses in this country are the teat of respectability Curiously enough , when Respectability puts on the mask physically , it takes it off morall Thus it shares the * fast' indulgences which it dares not name , and even remembers with disgust . However , " Christmas comes but once a year , " and Christians " must relax ! Our Btatesmen conform to the national custom ; they have gathered round the roast beef and plum-pudding in ' the family , ' that sacred institution ; and after dinner with the wine and biscuits , they will p at the new Christmas games—How to stroy a Republic , for the vainglory of Evan
ge — to Fj tb ® ki e \ tc E T oi w L oi e h G a n t I t t 1 t t ^^^ mmm ^ mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ^ mmmmt ^ m ^ mmt ^^ mmmm ^^ m ^ mmm ^ tmmmmimmmmmmmmmmmt jelical Prussia ; How to circumvent Russia —orthodox Christian Russia—who is trying jo cheat us with the connivance of Catholic France ; How to avoid fulfilling in Naples the duty of remonstrance , recently undertaken ; How to back out from coercing a king , who will riot , like the Western Powers , sven play the game of appearances ; How bo cure garotting in the capital of Christian England , by re-establishing a Norfolk Island ! These are the puzzles for the Christmas party of English high life just now . Let us propose another pursuit , only it would have a little earnestness in it . Dr . Livingston is preparing for the grand work of an African mission , on a large scale , to evangelize the aborigines . He says that he has found out the way to the heart of Africa . Charity , they say , begins at home . "We have already had our home missions ; but the mission we propose is one to convert Europe to Christianity . Could we only . find one Power to begin , by acting strictly on Christian principles 1 We must confess , however , that with regard to Europe , we are behind Dr . Livingston—we have not yet found out the way to penetrate thebelt of pestilence and barbarism that doth hedge every king of them .
1236 The Xeader. [^0.363, Saturday
1236 THE XEADER . [^ 0 . 363 , Saturday
R . I 1 1 '. '. ' I : , , - E - , In ". ...
r i 1 1 ' . ' . ' i : , , - e - , in " . y . y . " - — laj de ELECTIONS UNDER THE EMPIRE . The French nation will shortly be invited to elect a Legislative Corps . The Represeiitative Chamber , as now constituted , is a deception . It is a mere registry of Imperial decrees . Every measure is decided before it is debated . Every resolution is the placet of the Tuileries . There is no longer a deliberative or moderating power in France . The head of the army is the master of the people ; neither senator nor representative enjoys more authority than a private soldier or a police-agent The elections of 1857 , in the opinion of some will give France an opportunity of employing the universal suffrage bestowed after "the coup d ' etat in an attempt to restore the reality of popular representation . The Liberal part ^ , has not yet determined upon the course whicl it will pursue . Three different lines of policy l are proposed for recommendation to tin i electors ; but it is probable that a genera understanding will be arrived at before tin j period fixed for the elections . Those French I men who are not Imperialists may abstai ] * . from voting altogether ; or they may vote o ] I condition that the individuals chosen sha ] ' refuse to take the oath of allegiance to Loux ) Napoleon ; or they may treat the oath as , i f common fame , a fiction , and create a powerft - political opposition in the Chambers . Thes J diverging views are stated with great cleai b ness in a letter we have received from a dis r tinguished member of the Liberal party . Several meetings , we are informed , ha > g been held , at which the leading Liberals < i , Paris have discussed the course of actic s most proper to be adopted with reference i the approaching elections . Some kind < n organized opposition to the Imperial Goverj e ment is determined upon ; but the queatic \ . difficult to decide is , what form ii ; shall tak y and under what conditions it shall be enrric is on . By many the electors are advised to { j . to the poll , but without the indention ; s giving effect to their votes ; they might th p . display their numbers ; the candidates mig : h refuse the oath of allegiance to the Einpir ih and the authority of Louis Napoleon wou xt thus sustain a moral shock . The old chit "I of the party would reappear , remind Euro al I of their existence , and prove that the den t- cratic suffrages of France do not sanction t — government of the coup d'etat . > r , Others maintain that the oath of allcgiar xy to be taken by representatives is , as an oa e- null and void , and not binding on the cc n-1 science . They propose that the Liberal can
dates shall enter the Legislative Chamber "bv complying with the forms imposed upon theni they maintain that , to recoil before an oath at the door of the public Parliament , would no doubt be a respectable proceeding , but very impolitic ; and that to be governed "by technical punctilios of this sort , is to insure victory ^ to their antagonists , and to leave them in undisputed possession of the whole political arena . France can raise no platforms against her Parliament ; whatever battles of opinion are fought , rriust be fought within its Avails . But the more scrupulous members of tlie party declare that their superiorit y consists in their honesty ; that their respect of public faith constitutes the great reproach with which they are entitled to assail the author and the accomplices of the coup d ' etat . If they , take an oath which they cannot venerate , and vow allegiance to a throne which thc-y detest and . despise , they place themselves on a level , in this one respect , with the conspirators of December ; they dare no longer impute perjury , as a crime , to the Emperor , and the men who surround him . Others , again , advise complete abstention from voting , on the ground that to elect candidates without intending them to sit in the Chamber would be childish , and that to elect them on condition of taking an insincere and hateful vow would be immoral . -Moreover , no real election , they contend , can take place . What party , however popular , could hope to compete with a Government whose-authority-, is so centralized and so diffusive , with a legion . .. of police , prefects , sub-prefects , and secret i agents in its pay , the Church in its interest-, the la \ vs perverted in its behalf , the ballot-• boxes exposed to official scrutiny , and per-. haps millions of forged votes ? At the , ' election' of the Emperor , there appeared , for r certain places , more votes than there were 3 voters . Suppose an English borough , watched j by ten thousand soldiers , the returning officer I ¦ ' removable by the Government , the voters inl tercepted on their way to the booths , the f ballot-boxes in the hands of official scrutiq neers- —no journals daring to print a doubt—I what would be the chance of an independent e candidate ? The success of such an attempt - could not be great , while its failure would ii impair the prestige of the Liberal party , the ii immense prestige which belongs to unasccr-II tained numbers , and to power half concealed s in mystery . To this it is replied , that , unless n advantage be taken of the forthcoming opll portunity , the Liberals can make no great ie manifestation for five years . The . indolent r- and the cowardly will rejoice ; the vigorous 3- and the bold will be reduced to despair ; resistance will become a tradition , and sub-• e mission a habit of the French people . Moreof over , as we learn from another source , a large in class of the workmen " are determined _ to to vote ; " so that the party , besides being mof active , will seem to be divided , ii- Of three lines of action suggested , wo m think that to elect a Liberal opposition , e , under condition of swearing allegiance to the 3 d Empire , would be the worst . ¦ It . would - go destroy the moral purity of the Liberal of party ; it would , in one sonae , identity it us with the reigning Government , and sanction ht the Imperial usurpation . It would expose ¦ e ; it to a charge of weakness , because the oppoild sition could not possibly represent the geiio-3 fa ral body of Liberalism in Prance . Tins Just pe objection also lies against the proposal to 10- elect mock candidates , whoso demonstration lie would consist of a refusal to take tho oaths . We fear tho number would bo small ; thougli ice certainly , if Cavaionac were to bo returned th , for Paris , no one could venture in future to ) n- talk of Louis Napolkon ' s popularity in il « . di- capital . But , koeping in view tho imp ost
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27121856/page/12/
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