On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (5)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
~ ' ' dhflPTT id^THTtTrTl VBAJItU UUUMUU*
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
th 6 ir country ? The clan of Greys have got the irhole patronage of the great colonial empire created by an adventurous and active race ; and it is a great point in the Government of this country that the clan of Greys should hare their w » y . It may be that the Whigs are not very brilliant personages . Certainly , from 1832 to 1841 , they failed in everything ; and from 1846 to 1852 they failed in everything again : and in twenty years they hare not produced a man . But , these are mere intellectual , considerations , of no avail in the practical
politics of an empire "which is quite self-governed , and % hich enjoys an hereditary peerage , and a ^ packed House of Commons—which must , therefore , . consult , the tastes of an intermarried Whig connezioa of great landowners . The country ought ¦ tote happy that such a crisis as our Ministry has gone through has ended irj so quiet an arrangement . A Court favourite , like Lord Granville , complacently mdriiig down , and a rich toady , Hike Mr . Strutt , . serenely taking- a kick oat : —these are instances of purity of political purpose which we must , not
overlook . And deep * , indeed , vould be the national in-Sratitude if we did not ldlolise . Mr . Sidney Herhert , if ai > % proclaimed as unfit for office by the colleagues . whQlnow him best , and who yet confidingly retains his seat on the Treasury benches . As he said of the DerbyiteSjjfWheQ ' Mr . Disraeli sat scowling on that Ijencb , on' each - side of him being arranged those magnificent colleagues of his who once had this free ooliatoy . ui . their grip—Mr , Forbes Mackenzie ,, Major Beresford , Mr . Stafford , and Mr . Walpole ( who had
jnSt given up the statesnaanship of the militia fran-( 6 h ^ e ] R- " | f you Van * to see humiliation , look there !" , 1 ^;^^ r ^^ f ^ : ; 5 ferbert ,: ypa look remarkably ^^ :- ^ T ^; iia ^ : had ten years of the War-office , <*? 4 . yet you f are , not fit—forty years of age , and in the full power of whatever is in you—to manage that office in time of war . Leave public life , then , Mr . Herbert , or talk modestly in public affairs . On the -whole , perhaps , you look more ridiculous than Mr . Walpole looked when he said he didn ' t mean to create a praetorian guard out of a militia .
It is Very strange that our only public affairs , jiiiit' at present , with a war raging against l&Wsia , should concern the private interests of a few " public men , " who are singular in histoncal failures . There are few things in Engliflli annals more raortifying than that a " crisis " in a Government should be dependent upon the Whims of" a broken-down mediocrity like Lord John Russell ^—a man whose impotency destroyed the great 'Whig ; party , and whose fussy vanity is making the strong and honest Coalition ridiculous . Yet , no
doubt , Mr . Urquhart was quite right , in say ing , the other day , that on the re-election of ! Lord John for the City would depend the Coalition ' s retention of power , —the Coalition couldn ' t get on without Lord John , who , for some lunatic reasons , is supposed , very untruly , to be a popular man . And , notwithstanding-, the elaborate indifference of the House of Common * to everything Xord John may say or do—an indifference which is not occasioned by the pre-occupations of the war , fli * i A icn haa now la-sted for eight years—there are portions of the presB who still attach the vastest
importance to poor Lord John ' s incoherent commonplace . The country , in fact , was congratulated on Thursday by the Liberal papers upon Lori John's having told the inhabitants of Guildhall , to whom more communicativeness was shown than to the House of Commons , that a war ought to be followed by x durable and lasting peace ! Yes—it was actually accepted , this innocent phrase of an old g-entleaian who hasn't tlio slightest idea of what Lord Aberdeen is about , as a revelation of British policy ; , and the fire * journalists of a self-governed country are positively inflamed into ecatacy at getting so mucli news of what the Cabinet of Lords ineana to do
for us—really to get durable and lusting peace ! There can be no doubts , after that , as to what the war is about : it is to secure us a poace which shall not only be durable—but lasting , —which is , apparently , regarded ns a good deitl uiore . Jn tho hilarious happiness pioduce ;! by tliis reckless communication , the clever journalists overlook Lord John ' s qualifying suggestion—that wo should have to eonsult France , and Austria , and Prussia , as to the character of the peace we are to secure ;—no thing iB thought of
but that we are to have a durable and lasting : peace ; and Lord John is pronounced a magnificent statesman because lie sees that Russia is an aggressive power , which ought to be checked : —a discovery made , on various previous occasions , while Lord John was in power , —on the last occasion a hint to that effect having been given when Russia marched into Hungary . Those who do not feed their intellect with mere phrases , and who do not worship Lord John because he is called a Heformer—as if the Reform Bill of 1832 was a Reform !
—are disposed to believe that we are at war , at this moment , with Russia , because of the foreign policy of . Lord John Russell during the fifteen years in which he was a . principal . Governor of Great Britain : —a foreign policy which directly discouraged nationalities , and which indirectly encouraged despotisms . But , then , though Lord John Russell Russianised Europe , did be not get the Test and Corporation Act repealed ? and , 5 f he left Nicholas to become dangerous , did . he not abolish Old Sarum ?
Certainly , the olber day , he voted against the removal of Church-rates , and introduced bills to get rid of a universal electoral corruption . But it is a great thing to be a Reformer : —particularly if it doesn ' t involve your effecting any Reforms . And as the Globe says so keenly—wlat is the use of carping at this great man , who gets the cheers of longshoremen in Guildhall , and the favourable «• resolutions " of that most ardent democratic party , the City of London influential " Liberals ! " ?
City Liberals are like House of * Commons * Radicals : their great principle is to keep the Tories out ; and , that accomplished , they forgive any amount of futility in their great Whig leaders . The City Liberals ( peihaps , as a moneyocracy , the most frightfully " aristocratic" set of men in this kingdom ) put up with the destruction of the Jew cause by Lord John : and the Radicals in the House will not the less recklessly subscribe for the next portrait to be presented to his wife , because Lord Palmerston snubs them on their great theory of
the Ballot—answering twenty years' collection of their crack speeches with . " Away with this nonsense !" Sir William Molesworth ( who had his speech well written out , as usual , and was not to be baulked of its delivery ) returned the compliment by confessing that his colleague ' s arguments were so old and used np that they made him sick : —the whole spectacle , that debate , suggesting how happily the Coalition must get on in the safe seclusion of a quiet Cabinet wrangle—each man believing tiro other a fool ! Lord Palmerston's was , no doubt , a poor speech ; Lord
Palmers ton does not excel in philosophical dissertation ; he has merely a genius for action and a taste for common sense , with an immense narrative capacity for statement ; and though his exulting platitudes on Tuesday were loudly cheered by the Tories , who are always hankering- after him , to Mr . Disraeli ' s disgust , as their leader , the silence behind him condemned his logic , and hinted , in addition , that he might just as welL have left the clumsy task of the supererogatory answer to Mr . Berkeley to some other member of the Coalition . But the speech of
'Sjf W . MoLceworth , on the other hand , is scarcely entitled to the rapturous commendation which it received . A speech is , after all , a piece of acting : and Sir W . Moleswcrth cannot make a speech . He writes an odmiraTble logical essay , which would be a hit in a very respectable quarterly , or in a painfully wise weekly paper , but which becomes spoiled by being rocitcd by the writer to a House of Com-, nions * auditory . Sir "William has not the extempore air which Mr . Maeaulsiy can so well assume , and he cannot aflfcet Mr . Disraeli ' s graceful affectations , which civo a conversational tone to studied
phraseology : and , ns you see , : ill through his overelaborated talk , that Sir William is reading off a paper stueic before his mind ' s eye , so the regretted result is tluit he conveys the impression , after tlie first half-hour , of beEng not a boro—for Sir William Molcswortk is a very first-rate man—but wearisome . Hence his speech , despite his i > erfectncss of reasoning and illustration , was a failure—juat aa Lord l ' lilmerskni ' s speech was a fnilure , despite of the happy manner which carried it through cheers . But it is a mistake to suppose that the debate was nt itll interesting j it was not interesting , principally because there was no- interest about it : and but fur
the dramatic episode of two Cabinet ^ Ministers mentioning their candid conclusions about one another ' s pet prejudices , the debate would have been without point . ITor the Radicals , it is to be feared , will hesitate to act upon Mr . Bright ' s suggestions , that Radical principles would progress better if there were a Radical party to make conditions with the Minister , of whom they too laxly become the Ministerialists . Mr . Bright did not put this point quite forcibly enough :
for though his speech told—his massive intellect is becoming more and more pre-eminent in the House —it was too desultory in style and loose in reference to fix the attention of that large class of members who are not quite equal to obtaining a general impression , but can seize on a distinct phrase—and exist on that Yet , no doubt if Mr . Bright followed up his discovery that a party is an absurdity until it is submitted to party organisation , he would successfully create and lead a confederation of Liberals
who , in the present position of politics , would arbitrate between "Whigs and Tories , and , in the end , obtain power for themselves . No better beginning could be made than , as he proposes , on the ballot . It is the only one of the old democratic questions on which Liberals are really earnest and hopeful ; and it is a question so placed , in regard to the aristocratic parties , that an easy way may be seen to carrying it ;—that carried—if it be . worth carrying—most reforms
following- The Radicals are beginning to find out that they have spoiled the Coalition by abstaining from making conditions with it , and even this session is not too far advanced to permit of the Liberals dictating whether a conference at Te 3 chen , or at Windsor , or in Downing-street , is to override the avowed will of this great people—that the war against Russia shall be a war for human freedom . Saturday Morning . "A . Stbahger . "
Untitled Article
CUt THIS DBFABTHZKT , A 3 AIX OPXXflOlTS , HOWBTKK EXTBKMTK , IK A 1 LOVID AST EXPRESSION , 1 KB KDITOB KBCBS 3 ARILT HOLDS HUCself BKsrossiBU * ok iroms . J s
Untitled Article
ITALIAN REFUGEES . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Paris , 1854 . Sib , —If you love truth and justice , as I cannot doubt you do , you will , I trust , give insertion in your valuable paper to the following rectification of the facts mentioned in some of the London journals : 1 . The 189 Lomhardo-Venetian refugees , against whose property the act of sequestration has lately been cancelled , possess no property , or scarcely any ; this is "why their names do not appear in the lists published by the commissioner appointed for this
purpose , of those against whom the sequestration was carried into effect , and is still in rigour , and whose fortune amounts to several millions . There are , to be sure , homonyms of wealthy individuals such as the Brothers Litla and one Annoni ; but this is merely done with a view to take in the credulous . The poor of that name hav © been exempted—the rich are still under sequestration . The decree of liberation does not mention any name belonging to Venice . 2 . The sequestration had not been imposed against those who refused to avail themselves of the amnesty . The decree was , on the contrary , directed
agrrinst the refugees e >» masse , whether they were excluded or not in the bits of proscription , —in consequence , as therein stated , of the insurrectionary attempt at Milan of 6 th February . This condemnation of all without any proof against a single one , without trial , without sentence—in defiance of public right , and even of the private right of Austria , which does not admit this kind of penalty—has raised the indignation of tlie whole press , and has given rise to protests on tho part of the Sardinian Government , in honour of its new subjects , and of the British Government , which were publicly communicated to Parliament .
3 . Tlie act , therefore , which tnlcea off the sequestration , even if it had been dime in earnest , cannot be qualified as an act of clemency , —n » d , such as it is , fur from evoking in the Lombardo-Venetian territory a feeling of gratitude , must add fresh indignation against a system of division towards tho unhappy subjects , and of deceit towards foreigners . —Accept , Sir , tho assuamnco of high regard , An Italian Kicjuukk .
Untitled Article
£ 6 S THE LEADER . [ Saturday , * ¦ ¦ - " - ' '" - - ¦ ' ¦ —¦——¦ . — _ .
~ ' ' Dhflptt Id^Thtttrtl Vbajitu Uuumuu*
dta Cnnnril .
Untitled Article
There is no leara . ed man but -will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his seasea awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable fox ham to read , why -should it not , at least , "be tolerable for his ad-veraaryto write . —Mil / SOIf .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), June 17, 1854, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2043/page/16/
-