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pression that an Under Secretary cannot understand straightforward questions , since he gives answers the reverse of straightforward ? If France must confess to a President and head of a republic who pursues his own objects by pandering to the weaknesses of his countrymen , must not England also acknowledge a Russell , head of a " constitutional " Government , who connives at the betrayal of constitutionalism in Sicily , and himself fosters the most discreditable outburst of public bigotry since the days of Lord George Gordon ? The difficulty of finding a parallel is when we try to think of a public man who has given , like Cavaignac , earnest of Being a grave and patriotic statesman , even though
abashed before the reigning meanness : there are many worthy men in our Parliament , but which of them has thrown the whole force of convictions , faculties , and influence into acts ; which of them has stedfastly set his face against the established custom that teaches men to act , not according to their own conscience and will , but according to the conscience and will of those beneath them in faculties and spirit ? This dominant pettiness in France exhibits a public Minister dabbling with pretended assassination plots ; and in England it displays " the First Minister of the Crown " tampering with sectarian civil war , in order to divert public attention , and prevent the discussion of measures which would not be trivial or petty .
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THE DRESDEN" CONFERENCES . This vaunted Congress , which is to settle , as the diplomatists hope , the position and the constitution of Germany for another half century , is as yet only at the beginning of its labours . To facilitate the progress of its great work it has broken itself up into five sections or committees . The first committee , which consists of the plenipotentiaries of Austria , Prussia , Bavaria , Saxony , Wurtemburg , Hanover , the Grand Duchy ana Electorate of Hesse , Frankfort , and Saxe- Weimar , is to be presided over by Austria , and is " to deliberate on the
organization of the chief Federal Board , and the extent of the Federal territory . " In the second committee , which consists of Austria , Prussia , Bavaria , Saxony , Wurtemburg , Baden , Mecklenburg-Strelitz , Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Holstein , and Anhalt-Bernburg , Prussia is to have the Presidency ; and the business of this committee is " to trace ^ out ^ th e sphere of action of the chief Federal organ , amKto establish the relations between the Confederation and the individual states . " The third committee is "to sit on commercial affairs , such as trade , customs , navigation , and internal communication : " Bavaria is here to have the
Presidency ; and besides the great powers of Austria , Prussia , Bavaria , Saxony , &c ., a few minor states are included in it . The fourth committee is to be under the Presidency of Saxony , and is " to debate on the Federal Court of Arbitration , and on the practice of the Austrc-regal Court . " The fifth committee " will be occupied with the protocols . " When the five committees have severally gone through their tasks and prepared reports , the results of their labours will be lumped together ; and the grand constitution under winch the German people is in future to live will be forthcoming . What that constitution is to be our readers
already know . It is to be a Dualismus , or balance between two clusters of states , in one of which the dominant power is to be Austria , in the other Prussia . The problem to be solved by the Conferences is , in fact , a problem in mechanics : —Given thirty-eight states of such and such dimensions respectively , to find their common centre of gravity . And the method of procedure will be the same as in such a mechanical problem . First , the Austrian cluster of states will be considered , and their common centre of" gravity found , which , in virtue of the overwhelming preponderance of the Austrian member , will doubtless turn out to be wonderfully near Vienna . Then the Prussian cluster will be treated
in the same way , their common centre of gravity , for similar reasons , turning out , in all probability , to be wonderfully near Berlin . Then the two centres will be joined ; and the last calculation of the Dualismus gone through . Strangely enough , notwithstanding all the noise that Prussia has been making about her superior weight in the German Confederation , this last calculation will exhibit the required point as still lying within the walls of Vienna , precisely as the common centre of gravity of a hall of lead and a cork fastened at opposite ends of a stick will be found to be , after all , somewhere within the ball of lead . The explanation is simple—Russia , Russia , Russia ! Austria has already anticipated the solution of
the question by behaving as the mistress of the Conferences . While poor Prussia , as represented by her minister Manteuffel , showed her consciousness of being a mere cipher , by making a beggarly little meaningless speech , and then sitting down again with her handkerchief at her eyes ; Austria , as represented by her minister Schwarzenburg , gets up like a blunt bully , and speaks forth at full length what she thinks . The following is the most significant passage of Prince Schwarzenburg s speech at the opening of the Conferences :
" Experience has shown that the foundations on which the Confederation reclines are not only good and serviceable , but that they are the only ones which are suitable for a fabric in which a community of states—such as Germany includes—can be expected to live in harmony and in a state of general prosperity . But that experience has likewise shown the shortcomings of the J ? ederal Constitution such as it hitherto has been ; and it has pointed out the spots where remedies ought to be applied . Among these I mention the strengthening of the chief organ of the Confederation by arrangements which will enable it for the future to stem the tide of revolution , and to protect the principle of monarchy .
The precise meaning of which is clearly this : — ' * Men of Germany , we of the Dresden Conferences , are just going to give you your old Federal Constitution over again ; only we will give it you a good deal tighter than it was—tighter over all Democratic tendencies , all attempted movements of reform , and all efforts of Peoples to oppose tyrannic acts of idiotic princes . " Yes : " to stem the tide of revolution , and to protect the principle of monarchy "—these are the words . " The principle of monarchy " ! What in the name of all that is fossil and obsolete is " the principle of monarchy" ? Is there a single sane human being in civilized Europe that believes in the " principle "; or that cares a
button in reality for the rights of any Francis-Joseph , Frederick-William , or Elector of Hesse-Cassel , that walks or eats dinners , on the face of the earth ? At the very utmost , does attachment to monarchy mean anything more anywhere than " We get on very well as we are ; don ' t plague us" ? Then , why talk such gibberish ? Why not speak the plain truth and say , " We , Kings , Princes , and diplomatists , are masters in Germany just now , and treat the People as we like , because we have the command of the armies ; and this is the state of things we wish to perpetuate . " That would be intelligible . But "the principle of Monarchy ! " Bah ! the principle of a Fiddlestick !
It is bad policy in the continental diplomatists to be so constantly suggesting the opposition between Revolution and the Monarchical principle as forming the real question of the day . In this country the Monarchical principle is little talked of ; Royalty is not represented as an a priori , or necessary and logical , prohibition of any movement for reform that the People may originate , but only as a venerable and traditional fact with which it is deemed necessary for order that all movements should endeavour to accord ; and hence , in this country , it is not against Royalty in itself that even the hottest Democrats direct their enmity , but rather against the general incubus of aristocratic rule under which the
country feels itself crushed . Here discontent does not take the form of disloyalty ; there are , of course , speculative Republicans , but there are no personal enemies of the Crown . But abroad it is different . There the opposition between Revolution and the Monarchical pr inciple is studiously kept up ; and the Monarchical principle is the unpopular policeman put on duty on every occasion of collision with the People . Hence the probability is that all over the Continent the unpopular policeman will one
day get himself finally knocked on the head . At least , as all aspiration after even moderate change is there driven to assume the name of Republicanism , it seems inevitable that , when a new battle shall take place and the diplomatists shall be defeated , the Republican flag must be allowed to remain the sole symbol on the field . This is the growing opinion even of men like Professor Newman , who do not personally incline to Republicanism .
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AN HUflll VUBEHOLD-IiANI ) HOCIKTY . Attempts are making to establish an Irish Freehold-Land Investment Society , with a view to promote the creution of a cIhhs of nmall proprietary farmers in Ireland . This is a movement which ought to obtain the aid and encouragement of all Social Reformers . The projectors of the society wisely judge that the present opportunity is highly favourable for such a step . The sales which are continually taking plane under the operation of the Encumbered Instates Act afford invaluable facilities for obtaining land , with a good title , at a
moderate price : a thing unheard of in Ireland , for the last century at least . They propose , " by weekly or monthly subscriptions not exceeding 20 s . per month nor £ 150 for each share , to raise a fund which shall enable every member to purchase or receive an allotment of land , with freehold title , equivalent in value to the amount of his share , and sufficient to qualify him for the electoral franchise . " We have not heard what success the project has met . The Nation has taken it up warmly . If the people would only follow its advice , Ireland might goon have some real weight in Parliament , by obtaining « stake in the country- "
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MB . MXTNTZ AND THE "TIMES . " The member for Birmingham , whose currency notions are those in favour with the men of that borough , has been carrying on a controversy with the Times for the last fortnight , as to the best mode of relieving agricultural distress . Mr . Muntz ' s plan is " to encrease the circulation of the country , so that the average value of the quarter of wheat should be 50 s , or more , if more were necessary to enable the agriculturists to pay a reasonable rent , fair wages , and obtain something for themselves . " He does not pretend to say what reduction this would make in the value of the currency , but he should say
that " it would * not be more than 2 s . 6 d . in the pound . " What a conjuror Mr . Muntz must be ! At present , he says , the farmer is not able to pay a farthing of rent , and yet by merely encreasing the paper circulation to an extent that would only depreciate the pound sterling one-eighth , he would enable the farmers to pay a " a fair rent !" Who is to be the judg £ of its fairness ? " Reasonable wages ! " What are they ? At present the Lancashire labourer obtains 15 s . a week , while the Bucks labourer starves on 6 s . or 7 s . Has Mr . Muntz any scheme for compelling the Buckinghamshire farmer to pay reasonable
wages to his men , even if wheat were 100 s . a quarter ? Before he attempts to discuss the currency question he should look a little deeper into the question . How can he explain , by any currency theory , the startling fact that the landlords of England obtain above £ 30 , 000 , 000 a-year more for the use of iheir land than they did a century ago , while . in several counties the wages of the labourer are no higher than they were in 1750 ? Is that either fair or reasonable ? Were he to try to explain how this has come about he would do more good than by trying to raise the price of wheat in order that farmers might be able to pay " a fair rent . "
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SOCIAL REFORM . EPISTOLJ ; OB 8 CURORUM VIROBUM . No . XXIII . —The Truth about Mai / thus . To Eka 8 mus . Dec . 31 , 1850 My dear Erasmus , — A consideration of the Malthusian difficulty 1 owe no less to you than to \ V . E . Forster , and , indeed , to other friends , who await some Charon to ferry them over that last impediment in their passage towards the field of Communism . Practically , Malthus ' s difficulty amounts to this—that population has a tendency to crowd together on particular parts of the globe long inhabited in greater numbers than can derive subsistence from the land on which they dwell . That is true ; there is that tendency : the question is , whether Malthua accurately appreciates the predisposing causes ; whether the fatal result is inevitable without artificial counteractives j and , if it were bo , whether he or his followers indicate the best counteractives ? Certainly , this triple proposition has not yet been made out . I ascribe the influence which Mai thus has snatched to the facts that there is a kernel of truth in his proposition , when stated in the very simple terms 1 have used above ; that he wrote a very engaging style , with a very free command of illustration ; and that his proposition fitted well into the doctrines of that political oeconomy whose most distinguished professors have recently , by their more enlarged views , pronounced it to be so very imperfect .
Malthus , however , put his proposition much more sweepingly , thus , —that population encreasefl in a geometrical ratio , while the means of subsistence encrease in an arithmetical ratio . A transparent fallacy in the proposition thus stated was noticetl not long since—that the means' of subsistence , namely , the animals and vegetables which serve as food for man , not only encrease in a geometrical ratio , as well as man , but that the ratio in in all cases considerably more rapid . The most distinguished writer on political oeconomy since Adam Smith , whose extraordinary endowments induce him to look down upon his fellow-labourers in the investigation of truth with a sort of intellectual pursepi ide , has treated this detection of Malthus ' s over-
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12 fffle tuaierv [ Satmdat , ¦ ' ¦
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 4, 1851, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1864/page/12/
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