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    ambition—Oh , yes . We beg his pardon . He actually made Charles Buller , who had the genius of a dozen Charles Foxes , a President of a Poor-law JJoard . , That Lord Hardinge is an able , and a generous man , with a good deal of that heroic element which men worship , in his nature , there can be no question . But there can be as little question , that neither to his ability nor to his heroism does he owe his

    Peerage , his splendid position , the result of the great opportunities which were given him , and his ample fortune . Contrast his fate with that of Sir Charles James Napier . He was always as inferior to Napier as the Duke of Cambridge is to Lord Hardinge : and yet one died , the victim of a third-rate doctrinaire n&ble , Lord Dalhousie , and the other is Commander-in-cMef as a European war is opening . Hardinge was Secretary of State for Ireland , while Napier commanded the garrisons of Chester and Preston : Hardinge , in 1847 , went out as Governor-General of

    India : and Napier , in 1849 , came back from India the scouted general of a sectional command , although in that command he subdued and organized a martial province , and fought the tremendous odds of Meanee . Lord Hardinge , like Lord Hill , got into the high places of British , political , and social life , by consenting to be a good Tory : / by not only caressing the aristocracy with the instinct of a soldier , but by worshipping the chief of the aristocracy . "Wellington created Hardinge : gave him all his chances , offered him all his opportunities : and the sincerest praise that the historian can give to Lord Hardinge is , that he ¦ wa s a good lieutenant , and tolerably equal to

    his opportunities ,- —that is , as a soldier : as a politician , he was an absurdity ; for though , when he became Secretary for Ireland , he took Wellington ' s sage counsel , never to speak of vyhat he did not understand , and never to quote Latin—which was supererogatory advice—he was as much out of place in the House of Commons as a soldier always is in a free and mixed assembly . Wellington had , indeed , the faculty of great men—of discerning great men , aa he evidenced when , Hardinge being still alive , he spoke of Napier as being the only man to repair the disasters of another of hi 3 pupils , Sir II . Go ugh , on the Sutlej . But it is remarkable that he made no discoveries of

    great men , in fighting , or in politics , while his own fame as a general was fresh , and while his oavii position as a politician was uncertain . All his lieutenants were second-rate men : and all Napoleon ' s lieutenants were first-rate men . Lord Hardinge was the only one of his old officers whom he enco \ iraged into politics , after the peace : and Lord Hardingo never was a rival in his path . But Lord Hardinge remains , still , the most successful © f the men presented by Wellington to Great Britain : and the services which Lord Hardinge

    rendered Great Britain in doing for India what Great Britons think it so wrong in Prince Gortzchakoff to do for Moldo-Wallachia , justified hia advancement , and earned his title . His campaign in India was more than brilliant ; it was heroic : and to the end of time British historians will rightly tell heroic youth how Lord Hardinge , the Governor-General , who might have stayed away from the risk to fame and life , rode- into the front of the battle , with his gallant boy by his » ido , won a great victory , and gavo tho honour of it to a subordinate

    And now , as a Europoan Avar re-opens , Lord Jlardingo is Commander-in-chief : Commander-in-chief of that army whioh dare loso none of its prestige-: first man , in a military crisis , of a nation which must go forward or disappear . And ho in tuxty-eight years of age . That in a serious fact . When forty , in tho full Hwiu « r of his energy and Ins intellect , no ono would have dreamed of him for such a pont , oven had thcro been no Wellington his contemporary ; but , in peaco , he pot his post , by seniority : and thoro ho is- in that ]><> st , as war ojiens , at sixty-eight years of age—; ih

    inferior to humiclf at forty , as at forty he wan inferior to Wellington . However , this enlightened country endured a Duko of Yorlc till a Wellington and a Nelson turned up ; and must rejoice in n Hardingo till a Napier be found , or bo employed . In truth , tho selection is limited ; the governing classes rojocfc brains no emphatically that most of tho able men go into commerce finding money to compensate for fiuno ; and tho unhappy quoHtion in—whom would you HubHtituto for Lord Hardingo ? Kuceessful men in thin country have to reach second childhood before they got peerages and

    crosses , and the governing classes would not dream of giving the Horse Guards to mere manhood and brains without a title and a cross . In that respect England is far behind the rest of Europe : merit travels faster even in theRussias ; and certainly faster in the Turkish service than in the British . A war now is to England far more serious than to

    France or Russia . England will be ruined by war if she does not win in it . And there are no evidences that her present rulers are the men to carry her through the war . In the last war Pitt and Wellington were both young ; but now , not only all her statesmen in office , but all her generals and admirals , are dangerously old men , and the chances are that before she begins to win she will have to kill off all the old statesmen

    and all the old commanders . Youth is genius ; it is energy . Age in action is a blunder , because it is not active . The influence of age is visible in the negotiations which have caused the now inevitable war ; could such an influence be trusted in the conduct of a campaign ? To suggest that sexagenarians and septuagenarians are less capable than men of thirty and forty to conduct and manage a great war is no more to insult old age than it is insulted by the remark that beards -grow grey . The men who would have to conduct a war now on behalf of England—Lord Aberdeen , Lord Hardinge , Sir James Graham , Lord John Russell , and Lord Palmerston—would break down simply

    because a council of war , in which every councillor is seventy , cannot possibly achieve a victory . Experience has its advantages—but only when action is routine . Nestor talked more wisely than anybody else in the debates before Troy ; but Achilles , a rash young fool , took the city . Austria , it may be said , was saved the other day by the octogenarian Radetzky ; but she was also , before , lost by Wiirmser , fighting- against a general of thirty , and against soldiers who had no shoes and no brandy . And if England gives way , first , as Radetzky did , her Radetzkys will never bring her to the front again . For Russia is not Lombardy ; and we are not , like Austria , accustomed to be loser .

    Gentlemen of from sixty to seventy years of age are so wise that they cannot be original ; and if England ' s rulers and generals cannot now lift themselves out of routine into a conception of a great campaign , England is lost . And there is no evidence that our Cabinet or our Commander-in-chief have got vigorous ideas about the war . They already talk through a leading journal , to the effect that as a war only brings the belligerents

    to a treaty , all the bloodshed had bettor be " skipped , " and we had better begin with the treaty ! And this is said t he same day on which the Czar ' s challenge is bruited forth to Europe , —war to extermination ! Starting from such different points of view , — the Russian seeking the extermination of his opponent , and the English Government aiming only at the truce of a Conference , which is likely to win %

    England ought to accept the challenge , and exterminate Russia . I she fi ghts only to conquer Russia in some pitched battle , then to coerce Russia into a temporary truce , called a treaty , she fights under a misapprehension . Russia , as a system which gives to one man tho power which Czar Nicholas possesses and misuses is the curse of mankind . Wo are about to make

    war on Russia aH a public robber , plunderer , and breaker of treaties . If we beat her in a battle , or battles , and get a new treaty or treaties , we do not avert , wo only postpone , that danger to Constantinople , which is tho danger to Western civilization . Russia , enemy to Cod and man , in only to bo conquered in one way—by being destroyed ; — La guerre a P out ranee f

    Wars are undertaken to procure poaco ; that is the bent war which secures the longest peace . The existence of Russia—as a political system—being incompatible with peace , ( and there is no peace while each Power upholds vast standing armies , an tins existence of Russia- requires of every other Tower , ) that war would bo a holy war which annihilated . l , tu . HHia . Russia in one man , the master of ( 50 , 000 , 000 other

    men , whom he oppronHCH and corrupts , or allown to bo oppressed ; whom ho retains in barbarism ; whom ho converts into the enemies of tho rest of mankind . ' To destroy , therefore ! , tho system by Avhioh this ono man has power , would bo to benefit not only WoRtorn Europe , but all tho Russians . History applauds all tho conquests accomplished by civilized men over barbarians . Rome benefited tho world by organizing tho world . William tho Norman

    was a hero whom humanity blessed for conquering Saxon England . Henry the Norman was a benefactor for handing over Celtic Ireland to Norman barons . Pizarro and Cortes were heroes for carrying civilization among savages—by force of arms . Penn , the saint , was not the less a saint that he was a plunderer , —of the lands of Red Indians . The world would have been the gainer if the Crusades had been successes . The world has been the gainer that England conquered Hindostan from preceding conquerors .

    England is admired by Englishmen when she exterminates Kaffirs and New Zealanders , whose crime is , that they do not appreciate commercial settlements in their neighbourhoods . France is doing the work of civilization in routing out the Sheiks from Algiers . Brooke is blessed for slaughtering savages in the Indian Archipelago . Yet not one of these conquests has that justification which would attend a conquest of Russia . For Russia — the political system — is the common foe of all mankind . La guerre , then ,

    a Poutrance . But how annihilate Russia ? We live so much in routine that the idea terrifies . We have no William the Norman , no Clive , no Caesar , no Godfrey of Bouillon among us , to make the deeds of a great nation great . Yet it is not a new idea . Napoleon not only conceived the thought , but he acted on it ; and he would have annihilated Russia , but for three accidents : a winter unparalleled for severity , the fire of Moscow , and a severe diarrhoea . England may take advantage of his experience to avoid all such contingencies .

    He would have annihilated Russia , by re-creating a Polish or Sclavonic empire between her and Europe , by giving Turkey vast new territories towards the Danube , by despoiling the Russian nobles , and organizing a new - people ; by enfranchising the serfs , and , if possible , by coaxing the Cossacks , and inciting other Russian nationalities into independence of the Czar . And he would have kept a French anny long enough in Russia to have completed his new organization : and he would have made the Russians pay the expenses of that army , and of that army getting there .

    All that Napoleon did , or sought to do , England could accomplish . If she gives money to Kossuth , Kossuth will create tho . Sclavonic empire . If she given money to the Circassians , the Circassians will not only repel , but will attack Russia . If she gives money to the Cossacks , their Hetman will do her will . Tho Danubian Principalities are easily convertible into a

    strong state : Avith a better and more real Turkish protectorate ; and our own protectorate of Turkey could be organized more efficiently , by our sinking every ship the Czar owns , by destroying Sebastopol , and establishing ( tho old system of the Canadian lakes ) a permanent fleet , in charge of the Black Sea . But Russia , would still remain : wo have no army to go to Moscow . How did William the Norman collect an

    army ? By promising the country to the conquerors . We got together a Spanish legion upon a-shilling-a-day promises . A Russian legion , with larger promises , would bo collected in a month . The religion is not ho much in tho English as it was in Napoleon's way . An army of conquerors would not bo pious ; but , even supposing them ardent Protestants , —between Anglican Protestantism and tho Greek Church there is no very ferocious difference .

    Tho destruction of Russia means tho creation of several now . states , who would be good commercial customers ; and thus not only would tho annihilation of Russia , to Avhioh tint Czar challenges us , bo a blowning to the world , a guarantee to civilization , a benefit to the Russian populations , but it would pay , as an investment . No argument , therefore , remains against tho project . Except , perhaps , that our good ally , Louis Napoleon , would be too moral to join us . That is not likely : the . project mats Inn interest , his morals , and tho genius of his pooplo , oven butter than it would suit England . And oven if he did o ! ject , and opposed , England ban an ally in reserve , and a protector against tho combined world , in the United States .

    Such in a project , however , which would ill suit tho habits of mind , and tho incapacity for action , of tho rulers of this enlightened nation . They would manago Nicholas an modern doctors manage a madman , quiet , him by politeness . » So shall wo have a succession of fits , and a variety of trontios . It would not bo otiquotto to annihilate Russia ; KuHHia , therefore , will havo her ehanco of annihilating England . NoN-EucoiOtt .

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    October 22 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1021 ' . ¦ ¦ . - . ' — ¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ —¦ ¦ - - ¦ : L-l ^ lZ- »^ l-l . ;^ -J ^^ -- ^ -- ^ M « i ^^^« IWWMMMM « WWWWii » WWB « WI ^^^ MMl ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 22, 1853, page 1021, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2009/page/13/