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1020 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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SEA BREEZES FOR THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION...
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NURSERY REPUBLICS. Wia trust that our re...
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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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Mr. Landor's Proposal To Assassinate The...
and has frequently , we doubt not , been discussed in those pretentious senates of elaborate bathos , a majority in favour of the instantaneous d £ 3 & olition of despotisms by the sacrifice of the Client despot " being- always available from the impassioned young men who , after the gin and the-loratory , sneak home in elusion of their infers and their masters . But we little expecgjed the controversy to turn up in a great ^ otlraal which , having eight pages of type , ' must be published with some deliberation : or
that we should have to speculate upon the chances of the war being hurried to an abrupt conclusion , in consequence of an eminent English gentleman ' s appeal to the casual contingent of tyrannicides , "within reach of the respectable circulation of the Daily News , to hurry to St . Petersburg ( he would not refuse a loan for travelling expenses ) and rid mankind of a « rowned Ruffian .
Speaking practically , we naig-hfc suggest , in alleviation of the Homan ardour of the Eepublican veteran , who , grandly consistent ^ repudiates the orthographist among" other constituted authorities , that it would not do much good to assassinate the Czar , It is observable that the crowned Ruffian is beloved of about 60 , 000 , 000 of people , and that the Caligulan process n 6 t being applicable , you would only exchange an did Czar for a young Czar , to whom we should be supplying-the malignant
stimulus arising- out of the fact that we had converted a great villain into a great martyr . If Mr . Landor would occasionally read the mediocre annals of tame , correct-spelling 1 mortals , termed modem history , he would remark that Russia has always been a despotism tempered by assassination ; that the vigorous act to which he would subject decaying . Nicholas has greatly expedited dynastic accessions in St . Petersburg ; and the result nevertheless is that the despotism elaborately
increases and intensifies itself—a consideration fatal to the logic of Mr . Landor ' s murderous appeal . Even tested by his favourite Roman annals , Savage Landor might ascertain that the argument of the poniard is syllog-istically a blunder . The stab of Brutus was scarcely such a hit as he hoped it would have been ; the death of one Caesar gave " the Caesars" a purply life of some live centuries ; humanity descending more and more debased into the Lower Empire just in the measure of the fashion of that
dismal practice , now recommended from Bath , as the only security for the redress of the miseries of mankind . Legitimate tyrannicide , and decree the death of a despot by formal process , and under the sanction of the national laws , and still the gain is not complete . A regicide to whom the honour has been given , we think , of a place in the heroically illogical Imaginary Conversations , said : " Alas ! I fear we did not kill Charles Stuart — we only lulled Charles the Martyr . " Cromwell would have
stamped out " the brood , " —if he could ; as it was , he sent to the block a fciig who had committed crimes , and he thus called into existence a younger and more active Charles Stuart , who had no crimes on his head , and who , therefore , got the upper hand of the Republicans . Dan ton , too , a practical regicide , whom Mr . Landor would respect , died in the conviction that Louis should have been left in the Temple ; martyrs are such nuisances in political mattors . And , of course , the illogicality of assassination is all the more obvious when the
tyrant is sacrificed , not by the hand of one of his subjects , but by the dagger or revolver , of a stranger—nn Anaeharais Clootz . Of course we Englishmen , v' * ° ai > e 8 O hysterically free , and self-governed , despise the Russian races , who leave us to ask of one another the question— ?< Is it right that one man should be feft to cause all these horrors to mankind ?" But when the Russians , who cannot get over
national prejudices , think their political system best , and their religious creed the real thing , are convinced that the Czar is right in this war , ought Mr . Landor , who takes his politics from Brutus , the Dispatch , and other classical authorities , to take for granted that the 60 , 000 , 000 are all wrong ? On the whole , therefore , we venture earnestly to remonstrate with Mr , Landor upon his fierce intentions . " We trust he will not go to St . Petersburg .
1020 The Leader. [Saturday,
1020 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Sea Breezes For The British Constitution...
SEA BREEZES FOR THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION . Surely the English People is the most impotent giant that ever existed ! It is unable to do that which fragments of it can do . Like the servants of Fortunio in the fairy tale , it can only do its work when it is mutilated ot in fetters . Its total incapacities for some things have been declared in the pleasant verse of JPuncTi , where John Bull confesses his powers and his impoteneies" I hare bridges , I have locks , I have warehouses and ' ; ¦ docks , ; 1 ¦ • . ¦ ¦ . ' - ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . . - ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦ . ¦¦ All most perfect in their plan and constitution ;" and " I am better off than any man that I know ;'' yet I . " cannot build a public institution , " or make a statue . There are things which , are in his powei to do , physically and intellectually , yet which , strange to sayj he can only accomplish -when he is cut up or sent abroad , and cannot do when he is whole and at home . "Who was it that went to war with Russia ? "Was it Lord Aberdeen ? No
man would deny it more distinctly than the noble Earl . "Was it Lord Clarendon or Sir William Molesworfch ? Hfo , for they opposed it and have praised it . Now , Sir William would as soon think of eulogising his own edition of the Works of Hobbs as be guilty of self-nraise on a public subject ; and yet he has praised the war : ergo , it is not his . The
despatches of Ministers show that they did not contemplate it . Where then do we find tfle first declaration of the necessity ? In the public journals . ! NW we are not going to he guilty of self-praise ; the public journals could not have originated this great and just war , if they had not been supported , instigated , and anticipated by the real author . Who then was the real author ? It was the
English People . The English People , therefore , can go to war . Delenda est Russia can be its decree ; it can interfere to save Turkey , but it cannot help itself to the representation which is the inborn right of the . Englishman ! It secures independence for Turkey , but leaves its own free and independent electors a ridiculous mockery . An election has just occurred which ought to make any Englishman . blush
m this year of grace 1854 . Lord Dungarvan and Mr . Nicoll proposed themselves as candidates for the borough of Prome . The viscount is a member of the aristocracy , Mr . Nicoll is a man of tlxe people , and what is the joint number of their supporters ? At nine o ' clock 123 electors have rushed to the poll ; by noon the number has swelled to 298 ; and four hours later mine more electors have thrown themselves forward to sustain
Dungarvan , and two hare hurried to the support of Nicoll . It is the first battle of the Alma at an English election . Three hundred and ten , it appears , is the number of adult male inhabitants of the town of JVome ; at least that is all the numbers recognised by Parliament . In a Parliamentary sense it has no other inhabitants . It is , therefore , a paltry place to have its own special representative in a United Kingdom containing 26 , 000 , 000 of inhabitants .
Wo are , however , a free and an energetic people , and the inhabitants of lYome showed their courageous resolution—they rioted .
What was the good of that we cannot for the life of us understand . We have no doubt that the English blood was stirred , and that some of the mob felt determined to stan d up for their rights ; so they stood up to be cut dowa like celery , by the swords of a small body of yeomanry ; " , " says the Electric Telegraph , " are now parading the streets , and charging and dispersing the people . " What a characteristic picture of England , free-governed , and self-governed ! There is
still the stuff of their race . Englishmen can stand up for ; their rights , "but they do it in small parcels , exactly so apportioned and assorted , that when they stand up the yeomanry can cut them down , and throw them by . In order to stand up to show what he can do , the Anglo-Saxon , as we said last week ,, is obliged to cross the sea , and there he learns to " talk sense ; . ' * There is one text in a
profound moral writer , which the popular politician , should never lose sight of . When the foppish footman in the Precieuses Ridicules declines to jay the porters of his chair , on Pistol ' s principle— " base is the slave that pays , " one of the porters remonstrates . ( Moliere could take the measure of the " moral force" party . ) The other , seeing how powerless argument was , seizes one of the chair poles . "Ah ! " cries the aristocratically repudiating footman , " you talk sense . " And he
ays . The G-eelong volunteers show Sir Charles Hothanx their rifles , and the inhabitants show him their own energy of self-government developed in every form of local organisation . "Ah ! " cries Sir Charles Hotham , "I am charmed at your self-reliance , * ' and he wishes they had more rifles . An address is read from the clergy , and Sir Charles * ' receives it with , extreme pleasure , " because the clergy " claim , no special privileges in this country . " The Licensed Victuallers approach , and he is struck with " the influence the Licensed
Victuallers exercise over society . ' Plainly , Sir Charles would not pass a Beer Act ; he is for voluntaryism , and against a State Church ; he is for placing the rifle in . the hands of every able-bodied man . In short , he is for doing exactly that which the colony has done for itself already . How strange ifc is that Englishmen cannot do these things when they are counted by millions , or when they are in our own bracing climate ; tut that they must split themselves into little sections and go to the hot
region of Australia . J ? or our own part , we have an idea that all these things can be done without tlie voyage , and that the Anglo-Saxon , looking after his own interests , making his governors admire him as Sir Charles Hotham admires , would be more respectfully treated by his officials , more faithfully represented by his members in Parliament , more justly governed by laws for the interests of the greatest number , more free in his actions , industrial and commercial as well as political , and , therefore , better off .
Nursery Republics. Wia Trust That Our Re...
NURSERY REPUBLICS . Wia trust that our readers will not have been bewildered or dazzled by the idle reports which have mingled with the winds of the Atlantic , and have persuaded foolish people that there is some project for " annexing San Domingo to the Union . " American imagination , indeed , is sometimes impatient , expansive , sand far-seeing to such extent , that
ifc dospisea the elements of space , time , and probability , and there are persons oven in America , -who are already indignant on behalf of the North , that the South should bo fortifying itself by San Domingo . It is as if Scotland should vehementl y protest against England for adding to the injustice inflicted through tho Union , by annexing Madeira to
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 28, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28101854/page/12/
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