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dominant in treachery and blood , prove only too well on what a mine of sleeping vengeance France lies prostrate and benumbed . By whom have these seeds of terrorism been sown ? by the Republic that , in ' 48 , in its hour of triumph , and in the face of that starving " mob , " ( to whose spontaneous protection glozing " capital" owed the safety of its
precious coffers , as they mounted guard at the gates of wealth , those famished heroes of a glorious dream , in rags !) — struck down the guillotine , and swept the hand of the executioner from the code , as a monstrous anachronism ? Or by the conquerors of June , the apologists of Haynau , the parasites of the Red Monarchies and the dictators of December massacres ? Let the
public conscience answer . As English writers , we * earnestly repudiate and disavow all terrorism , in whatever shape or from whatever quarter it may come . We are with the combatant—not with the headsman . We will not fling insults at the great Shades of a fierce and fatal epoch ; " born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion , " they fought half blindly in their agony , like dreadful ministers of Fate ; but Humanity , we do yet believe , is not , Ixion-like , bound to a revolving wheel—it marches onward into light , not
backward into darkness . We profess a higher faith in eternal justice , and in the future of the oppressed nations , and our banner is " Excelsior . " But having sympathy for all who suffer , we have admiration for all who struggle , and the hand of succour for all who fight , —in honour . The instruments we disclaim are those by which Louis Bonaparte has triumphed—the instruments of the burglar and the footpad . Who can wonder at the men of ' 48 saying to the people " your enemies generously spared would soon become your persecutors and executioners ?"
The Manifesto of Henry V ., that impossible monarch in partibus , is a document to be read before an archaeological society . It smells of old furniture , and might have been ^ slumbering in Wavdour-street for years . It might be set to music as a Minuet de la Cour , or a Cotillon . For our own days , it has absolutely no sense at all ; and the return" it supposes is a pretty story to excite our charitable smiles . Whatever terrors France miiy fe # r , she needs fear no such revenants as this poor Comte de Chambord .
Well , these protests , Republican and Legitimist , had deluged France , unseen by that vigilant police which has so keen jui eye for : i passport . The poison had struck into the veins of the whole population : feverish symptoms betrayed the evil : what was to be done ? Inoculation was the only cure . Accordingly , in the most official column of the Moniteur , the hostile appeals are conspicuously printed , with brief and fatuous comment by the present owner of " right divine . "
The . Party of Order , the parasites of power in church and on Change , in bunk and shop , awake to find every dead wall covered with " incendiary " placards , recalling " the worst days . " Down go the funds—where they always go—into the pockets qf the great " Bears" of the Bourse , MM . Louis Bonaparte , Fould , and Co . Confidence is shaken , and the shops are fain to keep the shutters elosed , for the Revolution is in the
streets again . It is difficult to weigh the prudence of this bold stroke of policy . Louis Bonaparte probably thinks he is proving , in the sight of all men , that the Republic has " gone to the wall ; '' but the more timid and vacillating of his own supporters nmy well have scruples about the respectability of so strange a pieee of coquetry , and may begin to doubt them ' , antics of jv " monarchy
of chance , destitute alike of principle and con-^ j a j , j ^ isteiicy . " The people will not forget the "* .. * - ^ burning words of Victor Hugo , branding ' " i M \ c usurper of all rights , while it sneers ^ t \ the " connnents" of the JKlysee , and the ¦• f lrtvel of Frohsdorf . Umile de (^ a « din ' s ap-<\~ ¦ / ' jwpuvul of the " bold nnd clever" may well # * ve pause : he accepts it an a complimentary adr j tj licuon to hi » own theory of " Unlimited Liberty , "
and on such a text will no doubt preach again some day or other with revived iteration . Our correspondent speaks of the universal apathy of the electors for the coming vote . So great is the difficulty of getting even supporters to fetir a step in favour of the Empire , that tickets of " Yes" are sent round to each house by the
police , accompanied , no doubt , with significant hints . Notwithstanding all this pressure , a very general abstention from the ballot is apprehended : and in spite of the very general abstention , the Empire is expected to have more votes than even the coup d ' etat . Everybody says , Why not ? a question to which we > find it hard to reply .
The rest of the French news is of the usual staple : enormous jobbing on the part of the hungry " reigning family" and their adherents , who are busy making a purse out of * the pockets of deserving speculators ; and decimation of the disaffected by transportation to Lambessa and Cayenne . France is now nothing but a gambling " hell , "—where it is not a prison . It is pleasant to hear of the congregation of Hereditary Dukes and exiled Pretenders at Venice , reminding us of the Five Kings of Voltaire .
The Sultan is still trying to raise money , to avert Imperial bankruptcy ; but he is doing so in England , and by a different plan from , that which flattered France and irritated Russia . Amongst non-political visitations at home , the largest are , the unchecked prosperity , and the wide floods . The lowlands of England are lakes , and in some places the flood has fatally crossed the path of the traveller .
What is Lord Derby about , that he does not fulfil his mission of keeping off the deluge ? For what else does he wield the official broom ?
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PARLIAMENT OF THE WEEK . As the great and absorbing event of the week is the state funeral , so it engrosses nearly all conversation in public and private . In both Houses , on Monday , the subject came up . Resolutions concurring in the course adopted by the Queen , and appointing a Select Committee to determine what part the Lords should take in the proceedings , were agreed to without any expenditure of oratory in the House of Lords , on the motion of Lord Derby . In the Commons , however , another course was adopted . Her Majesty ' s message relative to the funeral having been read , The Chanceixok of the Exchequer rose , and , while the House lent him its deepest attention , spoke as follows : —
The Mouse of Commons is called upon to-night to fulfil a sorrowful , but a noble duty . It lias to recognise , in the faeo of the country and the civilized world , the loss of tho most illustrious of our citizens , and to offer to the ashes of the great departed tho solemn anguish of a bereaved nation . Tho princely personage who has loft us was born in an ago more fertile of groat events than any period of recorded time . Of those vast incidents the most conspicuous were his own deeds , and these wero performed with the smallest means , and in defiance of the greatest obstacles . Ho was therefore not only a groat man , but tho greatest man of a great age . ( Cheers . ) Amid the chaos and conflagration which attonded tho end of tho last century thero
roHo one of thoso beings who scorn bora to master mankind . It is not too much to say that Napoleon combined tho imperial ardour of Alexander with the strategy of Hannibal . The lungs of ( ho earth fell boforo his fiery nnd subtle genius , and at the head of all tho power of Europe lie denounced destruction to the only land which dared to be free . ( Hear , hear . ) Tho Providential superintendence of this world neeri ) n seldom more manifest than in tho dispensation which ordained that the French Kmperor and vVellesley should bo born in tho same year ; that in the same year they should have embraced tho sanio profession ; and that , natives of dintant islands , they should both have
sought their military education in that illustrioun land which each in Iuh turn was destined to subjugate . ( Cheers . ) During tho long struggle for our freedom , our glory , I may suy our existence , Wollosley fought and won lf > pitched battles , all of tho highest class , concluding with one of those crowning victories which give a colour and aspect to history . ( Cheers . ) During this period that can be said of him which can be said of no other captain—that he captured ;) , ( M > 0 cannon from tho enemy , aijd never lost n single gun . ( Continued cheering . ) Tho greatness of his exploits was only equalled by the diflieultien lie overcame . He had to encounter at the same time a feeble (
jJovernment , a factious opposition , and a distrustful people , scandalous ullieH , and the most powerful enemy in the world , lie gained victories with starving troops , and carried on sieges without tools ( cheers ) ; and , an if to complete the fatality which in this sense always awaited him , when he had succeeded in creating an army worthy of Jtoman legions and of himself , this invincible host waH broken up on . th « « vo of tii * inrewttiut conjuncture of hit ) life , and ho
entered the field of Waterloo with raw levies 9 ^ afited allie * . ( Cheats . ) But the sta 7 of WelH 1 SConu paled . He has been called fortunate for S , 7 * - divinity that ever favours those who are alike Z * ? a and intrepid , inventive and patient . ( Hear hear rg ^ 10 U 3 his character that created his career . ( Cheers ^ ' < Th ¦ v , achieved his exploits and guarded him from virWf T It was hi * sublime self-control that regulated ldaSf ?" ( Loud cheers . ) It ha , been the fashion of £ te yeU f ' disparage the military character . Forty years nf T have hardly qualified us to be aware how considerable ?^ how complex are the qualities which are necessary for « formation of a great general . It is not enough to sav tw he must be an engineer , a geographer , learned in W , nature , adroit in managing mankind ; that he niusf h able to perform the highest duties of a Minister of Stat to tne nmnDiest
ana sinjc omces of a commissary and clerk ; but he has to display all this knowledge and h must do all these things at the same time and under n traordinary circumstances . ( Hear , hear . ) At the sain ? moment he must think of the eve and the morrow of ] flanks and of bis reserve ; he must carry with him ainmm / tion , provisions , hospitals ; he must calculate at the same time the state of the weather and the moral qualities of man ; and all these elements , which are perpetually changing , he must combine amid overwhelming cold or overpowering heat ; sometimes amid famine , often amid
the thunder ot artilery . ( Hear , hear . ) Behind all this too , is the ever-present image of his country , and the dreadful alternative whether that country is to receive him with cypress or with laurel . ( Hear , hear . ) But all these conflicting ideas must be driven from the mind of the military leader , for he must think—and not onl y think •—he must think-with the rapidity of lightning , for on a moment more or less depends the fate of the finest combination , and on a moment more or less depends glory or shame . ( Cheers . ) Doubtless all this may be done in an ordinary manner b y an ordinary man ; as we see every day of our lives ordinary men making successful Ministers of State , successful speakers , successful authors . But to do
all this with genius is sublime . Doubtless , to think deeply and clearly in the recess of a cabinet is a fine intellectual demonstration , but to think with equal depth and equal clearness amid bullets is the most complete exercise of tie human faculties . Although the military career of the Duke of Wellington fills so large a space in history , it was only a comparatively small section of his prolonged and illustrious life . Only eight years elapsed from vimiera to Waterloo , and from the date of his first commission to the last cannon-shot on the field of battle scarcely 20 years canto counted . ( Hear . ) After all his triumphs he was destined for another career , and , if not in the prime , certainly in the perfection of manhood , he commenced a civil career
scarcely less eminent than those military achievements which will live for ever in history . ( Hear , hear . ) Thrice was he the ambassador of his Sovereign to those great historic Congresses that settled the affairs of Europe ; twice was he Secretary of State ; twice was lie Commander-in-Chief ; and once he was Prime Minister of England . His labours for his country lasted to the end . ( Hear , hear . ) A few months ago ho favoured the present advisers of the Crown with his thoughts on the Burmese war , expressed in a State paper characterized by all his sagacity and experience ; and he died the active chieftain of that famous army to which he has left tho tradition of his glory . ( Cheors . ) There was ono passago in the life of the J ) uk
of "Wellington which should hardly be passed on such an occasion , and in such a scene , as this . It is our pride that ho was ono of ourselves ; it is our pride t-f » n . l- r > ir Arthur Wellesley sat upon these benches . Tested by tho ambition and the success of ordinary men , his career here , though brief , was distinguished . He entered Koyal councils and held a high Ministerial post . Hut his IIouso of Commons success must not be measured by his Hi' < "j « l the Privy Council and his Irish Secretaryship- ne achieved a success hero which the greatest Minis ' '""' the most brilliant orators can never hope to rival . "" was a Parliamentary success unequalled when he row . Ilia seat to receive the thanks of Mr . Speaker for ft glono " ¦ victory ; or , later still , whon ho appeared at the bar oi house and received , Sir , from ono of your pn- / ' e 8 HO 18 > f () r memorable lanp-uatre . tho thanks of a gratelul counuy
accumulated triumphs . ( Hear , hear . ) Tliero is on < <« solation which all Englishmen must fee untU ¦ bereavement . It is , that they were so well ami *> - pletely acquainted with this great man . Never < i « n l ^ son of such mark live so long , and ho much in un . i eye . I would bo bound to say that there ih not " £ « _ , man in this House who Ijuh not Been him ; n »»> y " ] im , , who have conversed with him ; Home thero are w % touched his hand . His countenance , his lorm , J 11 H " , ft his voice , aro impressed on every memory , « s ^ most in every ear . In the golden saloon , and m ¦ ^ . ^ market-place , he might be alike observed . ' » , „„ , generation will often recall his words of kindncs ^ (){ people followed him in the streets with a liugeri" ! ,. ( , ¦ ^ reverent admiration . ( Hear , hoar . ) Who , u ><| . '„; , ! , ever forget that classic and venerablo head , time , and radiant , as it wore , with glory P
« Stiliehonis iipox , ot cogmtii lulmt CanitioH . " . ,. |] , jrt To complete all , that we might have n l »« f ' ^ f . '' . " | , " liimsovereign master of duty in all his muiulol < i "" " . j' | lliiitarV self gave us a collection of administrative tin _ ^ literature which no age and no country * , ,:, -,. | j ,,, e »« fortunate in all things , VVellesloy found in . » ^ , )„ . historian whose immortal page already ra ((; ,, ,,. rH . elassien of that land which Wellesley save I ^ ,, The Duke of Wellington left to his country " ( li ( . , | , o legacy-greater even than his g lory . ¦ " «» . ) n , | u « l contemplation ofhis character . 1 will nol HftY j ^ „„ ,, Hll ; revived tho sense of duty in England i w b , „ that of our country . Hut that his conduct .. W ^ « , ()| ll ) | life with a purer and moro »» ft »< : ull " V ^!!! li , nft" « ' « ' fT His career rebukes restless vanity , and «> l >»"" v JlOt tM gulw uMlitwiw of . u morbid ogotwm . a " «
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1102 THE LEADER . [ Saturday
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1852, page 1102, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1961/page/2/
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