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Leader (1850-1860), 3rd January 1852, Edition Town of 1, Page 10

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      There was a large meeting of master engineers last night at the Clarence-hotel , Manchester . They re-TjespWed to bring the question between them and the operatives to aft issue at oncte by giving the whole of them a week ' s notice from to-day . They will , consequently , close their workshops on the 10 th instant , unless in the mean time the demands of the men be withdrawn . So then the master * take the offensive and force a strike upon the men !

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      The great event in the news from Paris is the ceremonial at Notre Dame , on Thursday . A gorgeous scene , very theatrical , was this virtual coronation of M . Bonaparte , who proceeded . to the old cathedral through a dense fog and a denser mass of soldiers . The interior of Notre Dame was almost covered with velvet and gold , the- initials " L . N . " being every-¦ wliere . The service concluded with the •* Uomine , salvam , " thus significantly worded : ^ -r " Domine , salvam fac Rempublicam—salvum fac Napoleonem , et exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus . " From Notre Dame the embryo Emperor ^ - \ he French Soulouquewent to the regal Tuileries .

      The Government of Vienna gives its hearty concur * rence to the restrictive measures for the press recently submitted by the Turin Cabinet to the Chambers . " Even if the Chambers should reject the bill , " remarks the Austrian organ , the Correspondenz , " we have nothing to fear , as it is impossible that the return of Sardinia to a sound Conservative policy should be durably affected by such opposition ; the entrance of that kingdom into the great solidarity of Continental absolute powers ( jordnungs machte ) having become inevitable . " Extract of a private letter from- Vienna , dated December 27 , 1851 .-

      " To-day . is the festival of St . Stephen . The shops are shut , and the newspapers not published ; but the Iteichszcitiing has published a single leaf , announcing Lord Palmerston ' s resignation ,, which is stuck up in the Kohlmarkt , and crowds are reading it as something very important . Lord Palmerston is thoroughly detested by the Government here . " .

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      The statutes of the Synod of Thurles came into operation yesterday . Yesterday morning there ' was a fire in the neighbourhood of St . Katharine ' Docks , which destroyed and damaged considerable property . After a most searching investigation into the causes of the accident to the cattle and passenger trains reported elsewhere , the jury returned the following special verdict : — " That the deceased Patrick Moreton met his death by a collision of two trains on the York , Newcastle , and Berwick Railway , and that the collision was owing to the neglect of the company ' s officers in charge of the first train , to send back a fog or lamp signal to the train following , and further to the neglect of certain officers of the company to supply fa £ signals to the guard of the first train .

      "We find the directors and managers of the York , Newcastle , and Berwick Railway guilty of great blame and culpable neglect : — " 1 . In forwarding an enormous cattle train immediately preceding a passenger train , which cattle train passed Christon-bank when the passenger train was within one minute of being due . " 2 . In apponting an unqualified guard to such a train . " 3 . In appointing only one guard to a double train ( 250 yards long ) .

      " Also we find that the production of the printed instructions by the superintendent , as a proof of the general carefulness of the company ' s management , appears to us only an attempt on the part of the company ' s managers to get rid of the responsibility resting on them , and to throw the blame on an . unfortunate guard , while at the price of a few paltry tracts they get rid of the expense of providing a competent individual , whose sole duty ought to be to see , at least once daily , at some central station , that all parties in charge of a train are provided with proper signals . "

      The jury which sat to inquire into the cause of the liawmarsh colliery explosion have returned the following verdict : — " We find that the fifty-two men and boys whose bodies we have viewed , were accidentally killed by an explosion of firedamp in the Warren-vale Colliery , in the parish of Hawmarsh , in the county of York , in the occupation of Messrs . Charlesworth / ' The verdict was accompanied by the following remarks : — " The jury , after a lon ^ and painfu l investigation on the unfortunate individuals who lost their lives in the Warrenvale Pit on the 20 lh of December , having agreed to a verdict of ' Accid en t » l Death , ' feel that , although there is not sufficient evidence for us to return a verdict of manslaughter against any particular person , we should ill discharge our duty if we did not accompany our verdict with

      an expression of our strong disapprobation of the loose rnanner . in . which the works appear to have been conducted nt the above pit . Wo fui therrt-gard the instructions hitherto Riven to the men as quite inadequate to the propersuper--viaion and Mtfe working of them ; and it certainly docs appear to us that it is very desirable J . hat there should be some stringent rules and regulations at every colliery for tho better and safer working of tho coal mines ; and , further , that the proprietors of every mine ought to bo held by the Legislature responsible for the efficiency of their agenta and superintendents . We express our thanks to Mr . Morton , tho Government innpector . Mr . Bir&m , and other witnesses , ' for their valuable evidence , which has so materially assisted us in this painful inquiry . "

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      OUR MINISTERS—WHAT ARE THEY AT ? Unpleasant reports circulate , without explicit or direct contradiction , implying that this country is about to be placed in a position with foreign states , which may again commit us to a " Hol y Alliance " of the Despots , with all its hateful consequencesits tyranny , its demoralization , its National Debt . For be it remembered , that modern European

      Despotism has those inexterminable attendants , Standing Army and National Debt . Those two most detestable burdens upon this country belong to the European system consummated in 1815 ; and we are threatened with a new 1815 in 1852 . An appeal is made . by an esteemed correspondent , whose letter we cordially adopt as the expression of our own sentiments .

      " THE ANGLO-AU 8 TRIAN CONSPIRACY , " Kemp-town , December 31 , 1851 * " Sir , —England isjrnot prepared to forfeit at one fell swoop her position in Europe , and to sink to the rank of a seee ^ aary power . She has been disgraced in the person of her Ambassador ; kept waiting for six weeks in the ante-rooms of the Austrian camarilla , with a royal dessert service of China on his hands , for presentation to that puppet

      of Absolutism , in whose name the sanguinary butcheries of Italy and Hungary have been perpetrated ; but England can never so far submit to Austrian dictation and to Court conspiracy as to tolerate the harlequinade which has been recently performed in the English Cabinet . Was the Court harlequinade previousl y submitted to the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain ?

      "The retirement of Lord Lansdowne , and the refusal of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland to accept the proffered vacancy , at once stamps the coup d ^ tut with its true character of a Court intrigue , in the success of which Papacy and Absolutism are alike interested . Do the Whig * smashers ' really flatter themselves that they can utter a debased Austrian currency for sterling British metal ? " People of England , the time for action has arrived . The peace , safety , and prosperity of the country must be secured by a bold and open popular policy , and not by the secret and foreign intrigues of priests or of courtiers . " I am , Sir , yours obediently , W . C .

      This appeal raises a question most vital to the interests of the country , though officials would keep us in the dark upon it . The indications of the position taken by Ministers are not favourable to the idea that they mean to make common cause with the nation . On the contrary , the signs indicate an alien policy . To see Lord Westmoreland knocking at the door of the Austrian Emperor ,

      and for two months " persevering / ' until the Solomon Gundy of the Austrian Court thinks fit to let him in , is humiliating . Something happens to which Lord Palmerston , the responsible Minister , is not a party , and then Lord Westmoreland is admitted . The papers have quoted the following passage of a letter from Vienna published in the Breslau Gazette : —

      " Vienna , December 23 . —Rumours are current here of negotiations said to have been engaged in by high personages in England with our Court , without the knowledge of Lord Palmerston . Their object ia said to be a rapprochement between tho two Courts , and the retirement of the noble lord from office is announced aa certain to happen ' toon . The flrat index of this rapprochement has been the admission of Lord

      Westmoreland to nn audience , and his invitation to dinner by the Emperor . There are many persona who affirm loudly that England will return to the Continental policy , which does not moan the institution of a military Government repugnant to the habits and tastes of the English , but her adhesion to the counter-revolutionary system , It is t 6 bo commenced by the expulsion of the political refugees , and by supporting all measures that can destroy the European democratic propaganda , "

      The way in which this statement is treated by the Ministerial journals , —among which we include this Times *—is remarkable . The Time * had already denied that the refugees are to be expelled ; or rather it does not do that , but avers that the answer made by the existing Minister will be the same as that made by : theilate Foreign Minister ; but of this Vienna statement it takes nb notice . The Globe treats it with angry contempt , as having been written in London ; of which there , is not the slightest proof . It stands , therefore , as a piece of diplomatic gossip , which is sufficiently important to anger the allies of Ministers ; though they do not seem able to contradict it .

      This is stated at Vienna on the 23 rd : it is on the 22 nd that Lord Palmerston's resignation is announced to the astonished Privy Councillors in Downing-street ; the Ministerial papers cannot deny that the change of Ministers has caused a feeling of the utmost satisfaction in the Austrian capital .

      We notice that the same London Gazette which announces the appointment of Lord Granville to be Foreign Secretary , announces the return of the Russian Baron Brunnow , " after a temporary ab-. sence , " and an audience given to Count Flahault with a present for the Queen from the President of the French Republic . The Austrian Count Buol-Schauenstein ' s return was mentioned last week .

      WhentheStandard remarks the fact that Lord Granville , the new Foreign Secretary , is married to a French wife , who . is a Roinan Catholic , the Times flies into a rage at the violation of private life ; but cannot deny the fact . We had supposed that the lady was an Austrian ; but the main fact holds either way , that Lord Granville is connected by marriage with a " Continental policy , * ' a _ nd to mention the fact is not to go very deeply into private affairs . But the anger is significant .

      Lord Granville is unknown to politics , properly so-called ; his offices have been chiefly of a ministerial and unpolitical kind ; his manners are very pleasing , he is reputed , to be a perfect gentleman , and he is known chiefly in connection with the Court , where he is understood to be in great favour . Prince Albert and he ; were both Commissioners of the Exposition ; that institution in Hyde-park which originated the " foreign" branch of our police , and which is just now the occasion for a very courteous exchange of presents between royal persons and commissioners . ¦ .

      The Morning Advertiser has a very specific account , quoted in another page , implying that Lord John Russell took upon himself the work of procuring Lord Palmerston ' s resignation , in which the other members of the Cabinet acquiesced rather than concurred ; Lord Lansdowne , a noble Earl , and a right honourable Baronet , expressly dissenting . The Marquis of Lansdowne , indeed , carries his dissent so far as to leave office .

      The men with whom the Ministry is recruiting its strength are the Cardwells , Argyles , and intelligent though not leading members of the Liberal Conservative section . We are assured by Ministerial organs of their undiminished " Liberalism " : the word means anything—or nothing . The fact stands , that the Whig Ministers , who have just rebuffed the Manchester men , are retiring more and more from the Liberal position which they once occupied .

      Let the reader survey these indications , and ask himself to what they tend i We construe them to suggest that there is a strong sympathy in our Court with the Courts of foreign powers ; that the sympathy has had its correlative in the antipathy to Lord Palmerston ; that our Ministers , so far from sharing the national feeling against the despotism of the Continent , are rather bent on y ielding to the paramount influence of the hour , to improve it for their own advantage , and , in rendering their official position more compact , to isolate themselves from the country . They are like officers who distrust the crew of a ship , and withdraw to the quarterdeck to entrench themselves on it , to fight their own battle ,

      and to navigate the vessel of the state by force of pistol , however unwilling the people . We anticipated that the' Ministry would henceforth do that Wluch Lord Palmerston had seemed to do , and wo . uld really trim ; we are confirmed by the Ministerial organs : they have taken alarm at the growing , interest of the people in the Anglo-American Alliance , and accordingly we find the Globe trying to persuade its readers that it is not necessary for England to take sides in the conflict of despotism and freedom 1 The Times follows «—• " The advent of a new Foreign Secretary offers some hope that we shall preserve our boasted neutrality without

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      io 0 | tr jjMMt ^ iv ¦ ,-- * [ SATimpAYi

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      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world iaby ^ he very law of ita creation in eternal progress . —Da . Arnold .

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      SATURDAY , JANUARY 3 , 1852 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 3, 1852, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1916/page/10/