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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.
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MR . COBDEN'S PEACE PAMPHLET . Evek since the success which attended his agitation as chief spokesman to the Anti-Corn law League , Mr . Cobden seems to have felt it incumbent upon him to invent some new mission for the politicians of the middle classes ; and if he has not been successful in securing the acceptance of his proposed clients , it has not been for want of variety in his offers . He now presents them in the form of a pamphlet , with a new mission and a new machinery . Having asserted that the character of the French people has wholly
changed , that France never desired war with this country , and never will , he proposes to effect a corresponding change in the character of this country . He assigns the duty to the peace party , and teaches them how to do it . From the time of Froissart when the English " loved war better than peace , " down to that of Richard Rush , who says " other nations fight on or near their own territory , the English everywhere , " Mr . Cobden finds that " we have been the most combative and aggressive community
that have existed since the days of the . Roman dominion . " Quite satisfied with the reform effected in the French people , through the great revolution which has converted them , into a landowning , socially-equal , greatly-manufacturing , peace-addicted people , Mr . Cobden sets himself to the Herculean task of correcting that obstinate character . borne by the British people from time immemorial , and specifically—Mr . Cobden is very particular about dates—from the time of Edward the Black Prince to that of William
IV . and Queen Victoria . This would seem rather a wild project , even for people so dauntless in the face of facts as Mr . Cobden and the Peace party , to whom he assigns the duty ; but he knows a way . It is by " rousing the conscience of the people . " This is a specimen of his remarkable presumptions : lie presumes that " conscience" must bo altogether on the side of a doctrine which , with peculiar cxclusiveness , he and his party call " peace , " and that there is none on the side of National Defence ; and he treats the movement on behalf of tho . se defences as tbo result of
Wellington ' s " infantine alarms , " or of " depraved" impulses , or of personal interest in wasteful expenditure . lie not only assigns the duty to the Peace party , hut tells them how to do it . It is by reading history to the people . Mr . Oobden has somewhere picked up a clergyman , who does not neeni to be at all up in hia history ; since , to judge from Mr . Cobdcn ' s respoiiHes , that intelligent , clergyman ' s iinpublished share of the correspondence consists of requests to be enlightened and directed in his reading .
Accordingly , alter the manner of Chesterfield writing to his hod , Mr . Cobden commends to the perusal of his clergyman the Annual Ixcr / isfer , the . Pictorial Jlhtori / <>/ ' . / 'Jj / r / laiid , Mansard , Alison , and AValter Scott ! NVe presume the clergyman does not read French ; or perhaps Mr . Cobden considers that if the inquirer sticks t <> one side lie will na , ve his mind from confusion . It is the more remarkable , however , that the Ktudent should not be referred to French authors ,
Nince Mr . Cobden ' s purpose in to show that when France declared war against England in ' M , it was England that intended war ugninut Franco ; which he makes out . by quoting the French agent in K . nglnnd , and various . KiKjlish speeches . Amongst , those speeches i . s one : by Mr . VVindhain : " It , was , " siiys Mr . Colxlcn , " delivered on tlio 1 st , Fclniimy , 17 *) : ^ ( lio « 14 , , „ , which wnr was declared by France , but , l > H <> ni that event ; was known here . — lie . of / n-nl thai , in all . probability the French had no wish at ( his moment to o to war with this country , as
they were not yet ready to do so ; their object seemed to be to take all Europe in detail , and we might be reserved to be the last . '" So that Mr . Windham ' s presumption of a probability as to the pacific intentions of the French , on the very day when they really did initiate war is , with amazing versatility of logic , advanced among the arguments to prove that it was not France who began ! A large portion of Mr . Cobden ' s pamphlet , written in this style , consists of history for the use of young people , and the peace party .
It is not only historical logic that our missionary employs , but also inducements of the persuasive kind . France , he argues , cannot act like a piratical horde , a race of Pindarrees , she is so civilized . " All nations , from Russia to the United States , bow down to the taste of France , and accept her fashions as
the infallible standard in all matters of design and costume ; there can be no doubt that it is a homage offered to intrinsic merit . Nothing is more difficult to agree upon than the meaning of the word civilization ; but , in the general acceptation of the term , that country whose language , fashions , amusements , and dress , have been most widely adopted and imitated , have been held to be the most civilized . There is no instance
recorded in history of such a country suddenly casting itself down to a level with Malays and New Zealanders , by committing an unprovoked act of piracy upon a neighbouring nation . " No , a well-dressed nation like France cannot be so rude . Besides , France imports " raw material " to a vast extent , and then exports manufactures . Yet it does occur to us that we have read of aggressions on Algiers , of expeditions to Home , of
assaults on . Warsaw too , on Mexico , and even of " piratical" designs on Cuba . Mr . Cobden admits violations of his principle in the cases of Italy , Hungary , and Hesse Cassel . But war is bad because it interupts internal improvements and reforms ; and , he argues , if the French are under one man , there are advantages even in a bad monarch , which we ought not to begrudge the French , after having enjoyed them ourselves .
" Admitting , for the sake of argument , that all that is said of the tyranny , treachery , and wickedness of Louis Napoleon be true ; those are precisely the qualities in despotic monarchs , to which we are indebted for our liberties . Why should not the French be allowed the opportunity of deriving some of the advantages which we have gained from bad sovereigns ? Where would our charters and
franchises have been , if our John s and James s had not reigned , and misgoverned ? Nobody pretends that the French Emperor is quite so bad as our eighth Henry , yet we contrived to owe to him our Protestantism . If half that is alleged against Louis Napoleon he true , the French people will have him at a great disadvantage in any controversy or struggle they may be engaged in with him . "
Quiescence , then , is the Cobden precept ; he trusts not in arms , but in exports and imports ; Wellington , who would prepare to defend our country if attacked , was a dotard ; but Cobden , who relies on commercial and national interest , and a , conscientious dislike of war—who , in 1853 , after Europo has been torn with strife , gravely sets up tlu ; Peace party to teach history and the science of government from his new manual , is the only true prophet and gude ! The logical sequel
to bis argument , would be , to receive our invaders , if they came , n laGilpin , ( Charles not John ) with offers of trade , and with " benevolences" in cash . And extravagant as such an idea , may seem , truly enough Mr . Cobden does clone his extraordinary attack on Wellington and the advocates of national defence , with upholding , sis si better model * in this behiilf , the Quakers who took food to the Irish in the cholera time ! And that is the conclusion of the most " practical" philosophy of the diiy !
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing" so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to Jceep thmgs fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Arnold .
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liir SATURDAY , JANUAEY 29 , 1853 .
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106 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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NArOLKON'S Kill DAL POLICY . Tu ic suldruHH delivered by Napoleon III . to llir Semite , on liis marriage , is a glove thrown in the face of the Tmperisil powers of-Europo . By placing the independence , the qualities of tlio heart , the domestic happinesN above dynastic prejudices , and the calculations of ambition , he says , " I shall not be less strong , because I shall be more tree . " Could he undcrHta . nd this lust averment in all its ( onus he would indeed bo the strongest man in lOurope . Could ho bo free , and know himself to he ho , and place himself at the head of tlio people of Europe , he would be the
strongest man , not only of the day , but of the century . Whether he possesses sufficient power over himself , or within himself , to obtain that post , we do not know . Unquestionably , hitherto he has not shown it . But should it lie within him , beneath the strange husk of selfishness and vulgar ambition which has hitherto characterized him , the third portion of his career may be more surprising to the world than that which nas closed with the Imperial crown , or the previous one which closed in the prison of Ham . At all events , by the step that he has taken ,
and the manner in which he has taken it , he has established a new relation with Europe , and , therefore , opened a new condition of European affairs . Whatever may be the state of his resources in detail , the broad facts which are apparent to every one that reads newspapers , are incontrovertible . He possesses supreme power in France ; he is master of the most efficient army in the world ; he has been repulsed after offers of alliance by the old legitimate powers of Europe ; he accepts , in defiance of them , " the position of a parvenu : " and he not only does so , but he
flaunts the fact in their faces , and adopts the derogatory title that they have indicated by their actions , though they'did not dare use it in their speech . With the power of a strong will , he shows himself prepared , whatever may be the measures used against him , of resorting to still greater lengths than his adversaries can go to . He is prepared to outdo in hardihood every man opposed to him ; and the adventurer who takes that position , possesses an enormous advantage over those who must stand upon their guard , or move upon routine .
A mot is current in Paris , that the passion de VEmpire is succeeded by VEmpire de la passion ; an antithesis which prettily expresses the newest event in Paris , but has , indeed , a meaning , if it be true , terrible to the established order in every State on the most civilized continent of the globe . At present , every constituted authority , every organized order , depends upon the abnegation , not less than suppression , of that which is
understood by the word " passion . " In society , in public life , in Government , the very object of the practical philosophy of the day , is to ignore passion , and to annul the natural impulse and energies of human nature by the force of a mechanical routine . Great strength has thus been derived for the few . The private citizen consents , as with us in England , to forego the natural impulses of his nature , and to submit himself to that which is " usual" round about him . The
workman , for example , puts his own rights and his own sense of them in abeyance ; will not stick up for himself or his fellows when he thinks they are wronged ; forgets the sturdy voice that the English workmen once exercised , and accepts for wagos " the rate of the market , " or for rules " the decision of the trade ; " and thus we have purchased peace in the streets of our towns , at the expense of the total annihilation of the independence for the working-classes . It is the same with
the statesmen : we have no man it is said , becsiuso it is the custom for men to forego the dictsites of their own simbition , their own tastes , their own psissions , and to accept tlie etiquette of the class or the clique to which they belong . By this mesins we have an organized factory system ; customs of towns ; rules of law ; routine of office ; standing armies ; etiquettes of royalty ; etiquettes of parliament ; etiquettes even of battles and intcrnsitional relations , all of which
are stronger than , the men , or even the women , who form individual agents in csirrying forward the whole system . There was something like it in Venice , when every individual was presumed to be a living debt to the State to the whole oxtent of his moans ; insomuch that , if he were wanted , lie might be confiscated or destroyed without u , . second thought . But with us , instead of paying that sacrifice as a contribution towards the positive power of the State , each individual taking si pride in rendering the aggregate state as vigorous , energetic , inexorable , and irresistible , as it could bo ; wo have promoted routine sind etiquette as much as possible , to re-strict power in its positive action , sind to . organize Government into one grand prohibition . It is mi ago of locomotives toinpered by " buffers . " . John Bull has put corks upon his own horns , smd hedged himself into the smallest sind smoothest of psiddocks . Hence it is that , however wo may dissent from l-he rationality of that which rulos , we submit almost without repining to any system as it is ;
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1971/page/10/
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