On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    M . L . Bonaparte ' s visit to the new Halles , and his gallant attentions to the ladies of the markets , are the one pleasant feature of the week . Perhaps , the Vive la RSpublique , which was evidently the prevailing cry , was not so pleasant to hid ears ; but the bouquet of violets lent a significant colour to the compliments of his fair entertainers , whom he seems to have entertained on the following morning in truly Elysean style . His written speech wound up as usual with obscure hints at founding a durable social edifice—with the aid of the dames de la Halle , of course ! But the decorating of his " dear Minister , " not without " sawder / ' rose above the domain of ordinary official

    farce . Our old friend of Prussia has been making another tipsy speech at Potsdam to his faithful Treubund , a Tory Club , of the fossil kind . He denies the reports of his becoming this or that , as if the only question were not simply " What next ? " Elsewhere we relate his sayings and doings at Stettin and Stergard . Are they not right royal ?

    Hanover , and the States of Northern Germany embraced in the commercial union , called the Steuerverein , have concluded a treaty with Prussia . This is regarded as favourable to Free trade . It may be , but it is unfavourable to German liberty . Prussia , a despotic power , has thus acquired a hold upon the comparatively free states of the North . Better for commerce ? No doubt . But better for the growth of the human soul ? Questionable . It is another outwork of freedom which has fallen nto the hands of Absolutism .

    Franz Joseph , the young hopeful of Austria , is playing at soldiers in Italy . Perhaps he might do worse . His loan is being actively subscribed by —the monasteries and convents ! He has no People—only an army , a few spiritual directors , and a bankrupt exchequer—rather a flourishingcapital for 1852 . The twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of Nicholas has been appropriately celebrated at Warsaw by the scourge and the torture . Does he to be well ?

    consider his " Ides of March" now past Let him stick to barbarism ; if he encroach upon civilization , all his infallibility ( for he is Papa as well as Kaiser ) will melt away . In Italy the municipalities of Milan and of Venice are preparing to be joyful ( on severest injunction ) at the approach of their Imperial master . Ferdinand of Naples is going to be exceedingly merciful . Having sentenced forty-six prisoners to death on such charges , and in such courts , and before such judges , and by such witnesses as Mr . Gladstone has described , he is

    going to commute their sentences to imprisonment in the subterranean dungeons , a la Poerio . Merciful Bomba ! the best and worthiest of Christian Kings , as M . Gondon persists in affirming , and ^ all loyal believers in " right divine" bound to believe . And if Bomba be the " best , " what must the merely " better , " like Nicholas , and the simply " good , " like Frederick William , be ? A blessing to their subjects . Madrid is in a ferment , it is said , about tho

    Cuban invasion . Spain talks of going to war with the United States . Bon voyage ! Spanish honour and Spanish pride outraged and affronted , may bring the star-spangled banner into Europe earlier than some people imagine !

    Untitled Article

    THE DISRAELI MANIFESTO . Aylesbury has been again the theatre of a representation , by Mr . Disraeli on behalf of the " owners and occupiers of land . " The annual dinner of tho Royal Bucks Agricultural Association , which took place on Wednesday , afforded the occasion , and the Achillea of Protection was not slow in taking advantage of it . The consequence is , that we have had a Hood of magnificent sentences in the morning journals , and a fillip has been given to the almost exhausted intercut in ProteetioniHt politics . Flinging tho common excuse to the winds , that nrrrirultural association meetings are not the proper

    placo for political discussion , Mr . Disraeli , after a long preface , gave a lengthened statement of Inn views upon the " situation" of tho agricultural interest . The whole of what he had to Bay upon the cause of tho repeal of the Corn Laws , amounts to this ; that the pretext for repealing those laws was wholly and solely the alleged inefficiency of the British farmer in energy skill , and enterprise ; whereas tho contrary is tho fact , seeing that British farmers produce more ner acre than uny others in tho world ; therefore , the frnrn l , aw » ought not to have been abolished ! Ho declared that Protection could not be brought back , unless it was proved to be lor tho interest of all classes " and that lie did not feel compelled to sit till and behold the agricultural interest ddap . dated , because only one remedy could be acknowledged . Fusing to . what he called they general question ,

    he stated that the reason why the British agriculturist could not compete with the foreigner was , that " ¦ he is subjected to a load of taxation , which overwhelms his energies , and curtails his enterprise . The ceconomiats had laid it down as a fundamental principle , that raw material ought not to be taxed ; and he found that , while from all other raw material taxation had been taken off , upon the raw material of the agriculturist—the Land—it still remained . Local taxation was the burden they must cast down : —

    " Now there is received from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in local taxation the sum of £ 13 , 000 , 000 annually . When we complained urgently of this great assessment , it was said that the land must pay , that a good deal of it did not pay more than other classes of the community . The real property of the country b <) re a great deal of this burden , but that statement was denied as utterly erroneous . I find upon calculation , that of the £ 13 , 000 , 000 per annum received from this united class of property , £ 8 , 000 , 000 were contributed by the land of the United Kingdom . This is a general statement , which no one can contend against . Let me at once show you the consequence of that state of affairs . I will take the rental of the United Kingdom at

    £ 60 , 000 , 000 per annum . This is an excessive estimate ; but I always wish to state the case rather against ourselves , because the reduction of rents in England and distress in Ireland have rendered this a very large estimate to make . We have pretty good evidence that the general income is about £ 240 , 000 , 000 per annum . To take a moderate estimate , we will take only the taxable income of the country— £ 60 , 000 , 000 , or one-fourth of the general income . We will sav , however , that it is only

    one-third . If only one-third of this contributes £ 8 , 000 , 000 of local taxation—a taxation now universally admitted for objects of general and permanent interest , it follows that two-thirds of that £ 8 , 000 , 000 , or I will only say £ 6 , 000 , 000 , must be borne by the land of the country . That appears to me to be an arithmetical proposition which no one can impugn . The land of the country , therefore , every year contributes to the advantage of the country and the maintenance of common and national objects £ 6 , 000 , 000 more than it ought . "

    He stated as a matter of fact , that the revenue of this country was formerly raised by securing a certain market to one important productive interest , and throwing the burden of taxation on and straining that interest in consequence . And then , he said , " the minute you withdrew the artificial assistance you gave to that interest , the moment you ceased to assure them of a certain market , you ought to have adapted your financial system to that change of affairs , and give them relief proportionate to the assistance you withdrew from them , or your restrictions upon the cultivation of the soil must seriously interfere with the profits of the farmer . "

    Of course the grievance of the malt tax did not pass unnoticed . Mr . Disraeli said he was not a man who took " hotheaded views of things . " He thought that if the farmer had an assured market for corn , he ought not to complain of local taxation : — " "But look at the position of the British farmer at the present moment . You have Sir Robert Peel , and his successor , Lord John ltussell , who , when speaking of the statements of agricultural distress brought forward , said they would always recommend the British farmer not to trust too much to his wheat crop . But while you tell him no longer to produce wheat , you maintain those laws which restrict the employment of his capital in the

    production of barley , and if he asks you to give him relief , you tell him it is not fair to the consumer—( laughter ); but on all other subjects the interests of the consumer are now winked at . Who can deny that the law raises two-thirds of the inland revenue of this country from the c ? op of the British farmer by a restriction on his crops ? But who can suppose that , if the present state of affairs had always existed , the duty upon barley would ever have existed ? When that restriction was imposed , the agricultural interest of the country had an assured market and could bear their burdens . The assured market has been withdrawn , and the burdens ought to be withdrawn also . "

    As to the future policy of the party Mr . Disraeli has pointed out nothing very novel , but he has sketched the course to be pursued in a striking fashion . Ho assumes that the objection to taking off the local burdens , land-tax and malt-tax , will be mot by the cry of a deficit ,- and he meets this objection in the usual manner , by asserting that it is for the men in power to devise an arrangement . "I believe that we have a case for the country ; if we can ask for relief on the principle which our antagonists are promulgating ; if we can show that we are subject to an unequal taxation ; if we can show that we are subject to injurious restrictions ; if we can show that we are encountering this unequal taxation and unjust restriction .

    under th < : pressure of distress which no other clans of the community experiences ; then it in for our opponents to devise terms of arrangement . 1 think it most unwise in the landed intereut—and when 1 any the landed interest 1 mciin tho farmer hh much us the proprietor , for 1 innko no difference—they are partners in the great agricultural linn , 1 Hay that it iu a most unwise tiling for the agricultural interest to go to any Government mid say , — We aru suffering ; give uh a fixed duty ; give us a sliding scale , and cure our Buffering . ' Our busiiicHH is to * m y , — ' We are Buffering , and you admit it . The cuuse of It ih exocas of tuxutioii , whieh our energies cannot endure . Wo have restrictions on our industry under which no industry can ^ prosper . We call upon you to givo uh

    iustice , and to place « i upon the same level as our M low citizens . ' Iei " And if " any Government " will not do this then it is for the country party to consider whether thev can longer endure the burdens , without such conce / ions as will give them what they want—" rjoliri « oi justice " and " financial equity . " P "tical Mr . Disraeli ' s peroration nobody will dispute jf the agricultural interest unite , show that its case u founded - on justice , and can be supported bv argument , then they will " gain the sympathies of all . classes of a country where justice has ever been esteemed and reason has ever been honoured "

    Untitled Article

    CONTINENTAL NOTES . The decline of Bonapartism , in spite of all the efforts of the faction in power to render the Republic odious , to debauch , all the creatures of authority , to suppress all independent thought , opinion , ' and action , is strikingly manifest even in the very departments where the name of the Emperor was most fanatically worshipped in December ' 48 . It is the just and fitting punishment of the man who , raised to power by a people ' s enthusiasm , has forsworn all promises , falsified all hopes , disappointed all expectations . A statistical article in the National proves irrefutably on what a baseless fabric the popularity of M . Bonaparte has been reared , and how vain the illusions created by the votes of some eighty Councils General , who represent absolutely nothing but their own personal interests and passions , except it be extinct privileges and impossible restorations . Not one-fifth , of the adhesions which the 10 th of December , ' 48 , spontaneously recorded , have been obtained for the " Prorogation , though all the force , all the corruption , all the influence of the central Government , all the subserviency of an army of creatures from the prefet to the garde champetre , have been indecently set in motion to further the cause of illegality and of agitation .

    There was a time , says the Republique , when the reactionary party threatened the revolution with the force of opinion in the Departments . It was under this idea of intimidation that the present Councils General ( whose powers are now legally expired ) were elected . But the votes of the 13 th of May , ' 49 , and more recent events have destroyed this illusion . But eighty of these precious Councils General have voted for the revision : and though they exist only by virtue of a provisional decree of the Assembly , they are said to represent France . They denounce the Republic . What substitute do they propose ? An Orleanist restoration ? But there is not the faintest trace of such an appeal in any of their

    deliberations . Do they call for a prolongation of M . Bonaparte ' s term of office , or the Empire , or a military coup d ' etat ? Certainly there were votes that may be construed in this sense . How many ? Five Do they , in the name of France , beseech Henry V . to return to his repentant people , as a living Panacea to all ills ? A respectable minority of three have only served to mark the division of the Leg itimists , whilst the majority confess that their time is not yet come ! What then do the seventy Councils General , who in voting for revision have not given us tho " which , " or the " what , " so anxiously desire ? They do not know themselves ; they dare not speak their minds ; but we may be allowed to conclude that the result of these votes of the " Party ol

    Order " is mere hostility to a regime which they once saluted with acclamations , mere illegality , more anarchy . If they are so sure of a majority at the next general election , why do they not calmly await ' 52 ? But they speak , and write , and act like cluM ' -wi who shout in the dark to hide their fear ; they bluster , they threaten , they conspire , curried uuoui by every wind of faction and intrigue ; t 0 ^ y Orleano-Legitimist , to-morrow Leg itimo-Bonapartia Fusionists ; but always under the JV > g \* ™ . thrones to which they pander , and of the 1 nests , whose usurpations they at once employ and coi

    temn . We read of ten or twelve of the incorrig ible ]»«¦ - graves who have betrayed or ruined cvcry I ) i ° (> llt they have served , meeting at Champ latroux , the - of Count Mole , und constructing a Provisional JJ <> partibt alliance , for muking tho " prorogation ^ easy transition to Monarchy . But the Bluil " ti 1 ( ii apostacies of these intriguers , tho effrontery ol ^ self-contradictions , have disabused tho public mi France . The contrast of the Constitutional ana j ^ publican party , calm , patient , -resolved , throws ^ into stronger relief tho real agitators und anait , The country , divided by monarchical iun > i ^ looks calmly to tho way of escape ; and i » - ^ public has the inestimable advantage of \ )

    approaching erisis . _ M . J . 6 on Fauoher , that model of officiul P ™^ '" „ , veracity , suspends and revokes by tho hcoio j ^ who huvo tho misfortune , or the bad tuBU ! V itr , iry disavow their convictions ; and as thes « a , ministerial act * are generally followed by tho rt » » ^ tiou » of inuny who refuao to »« U their oomcienoe ,

    Untitled Article

    886 © tl * ItSafrtft * [ SATU £ D ^ y

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 20, 1851, page 886, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1901/page/2/