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Leader (1850-1860), 30th January 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 11

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      • ^ The East India Company. " Speaking O...

      persede it ? Migbt not the natives . fceiteve that they had destroyed oae government , and that another conqueror -was about to replace the power that commissioned Hasten era , Cobnwai / lis , and Wem / esxett ? Will they not apprehend vast and sudden ehanges ? Will not British rule become onee more unfamiliar to them ? It was never before urged by English statesmen that a time of war was a proper occasion for introducing an administrative revolution into the -very country convulsed . But this may not be the worst aspect of the ministerial policy . If the Crown is to act in future without a counterbalance , what

      will be the value of an Indian Council , capable only of advising ? How far would the opinions of a select six appointed from the present Court of Directors avail against the selfsufficiency of the Mr . Vekhon Smith or Lord CiiANMCABDE of the day ? It is rarely that a President of the Board of Control is so modest as the peer who , not many years since , was applied to in Cannonrow for information : " I can state to you my impression , " he said , " but , my dear sir , for information you must go to the Court of Directors . "

      The Company has put the matter very plainly and conclusively . They now act , they say , as a check ; hut the Minister wants a screen , an advising ' , not a controlling council—a council , moreover , which the Minister would not be bound even to consult . These are the main points of the petition , as framed by the Court of Directors ; but the document also contains a variety of practical suggestions . Upon these we will not at present enter . We do not believe that the subject is ripe for legislation , and we trust that every possible effort wiil be made by those who have at heart the interests of Great Britain and of India , to refer the Government measure to a select committee .

      Ho. 410, Januaury80, 1658.] The Deader. ...

      Ho . 410 , JANUAury 80 , 1658 . ] THE DEADER . 107

      M. De Persigny On The British Constituti...

      M . DE PERSIGNY ON THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION . The British Constitution is in one respect defective , according to M . de Persiony . It does not authorize the police * to anticipate crimes , * and punish uncommitted offences . His Excellency imagines it a slight thing not only to restrain men from plots and machinations , but to silence the fanatic and paralyze the malcontent . Now , supposing the existence of that ' inexhaustible sect of assassins '

      to which the French Emperor has pointed , how could the action of the law in . England arrest their operations ? These men do not assemble , with masks upon their faces , in a cellar or a strong-room , and concoct diabolical conspiracies , the oatjis and engagements of which are recorded in rpund robins written in characters of blood . They meet , no oue knows where , and say , no one knows what , and if they create documentary evidence against themselves , it is generally of a kind the most vague and ambiguous . la every Italian or Frenchman who lodges upon a second floor in Birmingham to bo kept under perpetual surveillance P But , it will be said , these

      conspirators manufacture deadly engiaes . So do hundreds of Englishmen continually , almost daily . If there be an official department which , more than another , is solicited to support secret or patented inventions , it is * -the-Ordnflnce-0 flice-or « -tli © -Admiralty ™ r 4 lThe mildest people iu the country have been among the moat persevering ia their combination of infernal combustibles , petards that will-blow a frigate out of the water , rockets that will breach a rampart at ia blow , grenades warranted to scatter death and ruin , whether at the door of an Opera-house or in the casemates of a Cronstadt . Hundreds of theao

      warlike devices are originated every year , and the United Kingdom must be put under martial law before' this peculiar branch of midland manufacture can be successfully prohibited . If , then , Piebbi and Obsiki shells may be filled with grey fulminating mercury without an infraction of the statute , M . de Peesignt ' s case breaks down , in one important particular . His next count is that the refugees recommend assassination . So long as their recommendations are general , our G-overnment is powerless to interfere . _ It is as much the right of every person resident in

      Great Britain to preach the doctrine of assassination , as to denounce it . The doetrine may be that of a monster , a madman , or a coward , and the denunciation may be reechoed by the voices of a vast majority ; but what is to prevent an historian , from praising Bbutfs , or from concluding a biography of Buckingham : with— " So perish all who would man by man enthral ? " Many of our English and Irish demagogues have descended to ravings far more abject and sanguinary , but we have heard of no instructions to Lord Napier to eomplain of the licence permitted in America to that vitriol spouter John Mitchell Irresponsible

      Irish prints have complimented the Nana Sahtb upon his Cawnpore achievements , an offence against society rather worse than that of the JPhare de la Loire , which has been warned for saying , "According to the despatch agency , the Emperor and Empress were loudly cheered . " W e really think that if Jjottis Napoleon would suppress M . Biti-AiriiT , and teach discretion to his legions , he might safely leave the exiles to discuss European eventualities . If they set forth logical demonstrations that Cesar died righteously , that the Grecian tyrannicides deserved to become the declamation of schoolboys , that the dagger of Virginius mistook its way when it reached the heart of the [ Roman

      virgin instead of nailing the Decemvir to a wall , why , these are old-fashioned antics , and although we have adopted a different morality , to undertake their repression would be absurd . If , as M . de Pebsigny says , schemes of murder are actually prepared in England , he has only to prove the conspiracy , and tlie French Government has its remedy , we doubt not , in our courts of law . Bat how to prove these allegations ? The plot works its way

      to the Emperor ' s presence in Paris itself , with all its praetorians , spies , and secret police , and how is it to be expected that England , with a police machinery employed simply to keep the peace and arrest criminals—not to maintain a foreign dynasty on the throne—should do constitutionally , and in the light of day , what Louis Napoleon can « . ot do , although there is no law to restrain him , and an immense army , a passport system , and a domiciliary police at his command .

      We cannot prevent this sort of contraband from leaving our ports . It should be stopped at the French custom-house . How was it landed in France ? How did it pass the barriers of the capital ? How were Pibrri and OasiNi allowed to pass without suspicion or hindrance ? If French lace and brandy are smuggled to JJondon , we blame , nofc the French authorities , but our own coast-guard . Moreover , it is by no means proved that the

      plot was concocted on English soil . We have the evidence of the French official journals that « inore ^ thau ~ ono ^ simi ] i | 1 t ^ cpuapirapy _ , li 1 agi , since the Coup d'JUtat , been detected in Paris , afc Lyons , and elsewhere . The demand upon our Government is a subterfuge , the French Emperor imagining that an opportunity had arrived for ridding himself of the perils supposed to lurk among the refugees ( sheltered within so short a distance of the imperial frontier . The question , however , is not

      whether a British minister will enter into Hs views , but whether Parliament will sanction an alien law upon a new principle . We have Lord Palmebston ' s admission that every alien act passed within the century has had for its sole object the internal safety of the realm . We do not , and cannot undertake , Lord PAiiMEBsa > OTsr added , to provide for the security of foreign , governments . It * is possible that certain aldermen have been reduced

      by the eloquence of M . de Pebsigny ; but the spirit of the English nation will not be affected either by the broad flattery or the menacing insinuations of the French ambassador . We do not believe the prophets of alarm who warn us of a rupture with France in the event of < mr refusal to entertain the imperial demands , and if such a pretext were announced as the basis of a quarrel , we

      should be convinced that a motive had long ago been in contemplation , and that the French Emperor had secret reasons for supplanting the alliance . Public opinion will narrowly watch the course taken by the British Government . We are required by the French Emperor to sacrifice a fundamental principle of our constitutional law , and who is the Minister that will offer to make this concession ?

      Love Enthroned. Whebe Is The Real Greatn...

      LOVE ENTHRONED . Whebe is the real greatness and beauty of the Royal Marriage ? The politics of it are for the statesmen , not the bride . The pomp is over ; the affianced is a wife , and can , perhaps , better judge how far the magnificence , the jewels , and silks , the escort of guards , trumpets , cannon , and illuminations are the elements of happiness . It is indeed a great truth that the happiness of no human being consists in those things which are to be obtained only by the few ; it lies in elements which are open to every born human being . The deepest happiness , that which assumes

      the guise of grief and makes itself known in tremblings and te ? . i _ , is equally accessible to Virginia , whether she stands barefooted on a rock of the Isle of France , or concealed amid the robes and panoplies of a throne . The real beauty of the naarriage , if we may believe the almost accredited interpreters of the Court , is , that while it is according to the Act of Settlement , while the Church approves , Hjeb , Majesty ' s constitutional advisers commend it , and the municipal corporations of the country give their conseni , it has not been concluded at the sacrifice of

      that which is the dearest jewel that any bride , from the highest to the lowest , can bring as her dowry—her own unbought , unbuyablo affections , If this is tru»—and we believe it—for the Princess Viotobia Adelaide might have stood as a picture of ' the Bride' in her happiest aspect—for the voice of affection could not restrain its call when the bride threw herself into her

      mother ' s arms after the ceremony—the fact constitutes not only the crowning beauty of this Prussian marriage , but a great reform . For it is said that Queen Viotobia has been spared the political duty , as it was onco thought , of sacrificing her own flesh and blood to the agonies of a merely political marriage , and that she intends to save all her daughters from that which has hitherto been thought to be the doom of Princesses . Tbus _ one of the happiest reforms of mmatea ucoi

      modern times lias been py our v ^* Regnant . The announcement ia good news , lot only for the sake of a natural interest an the young Princesses , but for the sake of the whole English family , and for the world at large . In no household can so high a spirit rule as in that whore the affections are allowed their lull development ; and it oon-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 30, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30011858/page/11/