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from that answer , that though Parliament may have the right to speak about war and . peace , after these events have actually taken place , that the people has even then no right to petition , because now war is declared—the event has actually taken place ; and still the pretension of having a petition about it presented is characterised * as most unusual , and without precedent . Now , sir , I may be very sorry ( as indeed sorry I am ) to have to part with my cheering illusions about the constitutional value of British institutions , and to have to learn that , to Use a scriptural expression , there is much of sounding brass and tinkling cymbals in them . Still , I sincerely acknowledge that about this I have no voice in the chapter—it is an internal business all your own . "
Here is his frank prophecy for our -consideration : "And yet what is the newest phasis of events ? why , it is the fact that England and France compel Turkey to give over -the Danubian Principalities to Austria ! Why that is a fact of such enormity , that if that feet , simply presented in its scandalous audity , does not rouse the British , nation , not only to anxious solicitude , but to indignation and anger , why , then , really I am perfectly convinced that the British nation is already set down by history amongst those who liave no future at all , but a short vegetation of a third-rate power , yet left for a while , and then doomed to fall as Carthage fell . There may already live some wlu > , i ) efore they grow old , may do ¦ what Marius did at Carthage—sit on the ruin of your fallen greatness . "
As he proceeds he becomes more and more frank . Here is his notion of the wisdom of our leading journals : — " More yet . By this trick of Austrian perEdy , the Czar being relieved from every danger in that quarter , his right wing secured , he can and will now detach such numbers of his army hence as he likes , and concentrate them thither where you choose to attack him . He at home , you thousands of miles far off "; you shall be beaten—remember my word . It is now you are come to the test about what I told Great Britain , that it is not abroad , not in the offensive , that Hussia is dangerous , except as a rearguard of other powers ; but it is at home , in the
defensive , that she is dangerous . Once brought to that point , it is then that you require allies . Have you any ? You have not . Is Austria , for that purpose , your ally ? No—a thousand times no . In that CLuarter , for tbat purpose , there are no other allies possible aa we— -Poland and Hungary ! And yet Britain rejects us ! Well , the doom will fall on the head of him who sinned . With us , you might have shaken hands in the Kremlin of Moscow ; without us you are as incapable to liarm Russia as a child . " With us , the world would have seen the proud spectacle of Schanrj' and Omar , and Cambridge and Napoleon , and the descendants of Arpad and of Koscuisko , united on the plains of Russia , to thank the Eternal for the deliver .
ance of the world ; without us , you are doomed to be beaten , or to retrace your steps in shame . Poland and Hungary are not beggars who mendicate your generosity , they aie nations which weigh your victory or your defeat in the hollow of their hands ; aa Poland alone has weighed , forty-two years ago , the victory or defeat of Napoleon the Great . But the prattling fools with w horn you are cursed tell you that , since you have nothing to do on the Danube—oh ! —bitter mockery of treason!—you shall go and take Sevastopol and the Crimea . Before all , I must remind you of that geographical fact , that the taking of Sebastopol iano solution of the conflict , still leas of the pending question . It wilL not bring the Czar
down to claim your pardon ; quite the contrary ; it will excite him to raging perseverance . Still less is the Crimea a security for the future ; it is no barrier which defends , it is an acquisition which requires defence . To take it is nothing ; yet to keep it , that is the problem . Now , will you stay there to keep it ? I don ' t think eo , You go home and leave the task to the Turks . Many thanks for the gift . I , as the sincerost friend of the Turks , hope to God they will not be such fools as to meddle with that business . It is your own laundress workj do it if you ploase . "Now , as to the doing it ; I don't think you can take Sevastopol by the sea . But I will toll you in what manner Sebaatppol is to bo taken . It is at Warsaw you can take Sevastopol . "
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SOMETHING ABOUT THE CZAR . The Daily News , in an articlo of evident authenticity , gives tho most interesting particulars of Czar Nicholas with which tho world has been favoured eince tho epigrammatic gossip of I ) e ( Justine . Our contemporary ' s correspondent says—speaking of the altered manner of Nicholas , after esc aping tho first insurrection he had to encounter : — "Though that revolution did not take pluoo , tinother did , fur Ices expected . Nioholaa became apparently a totally altered man . Tho strength of his will hua novo * shown itsolf more marvellously than in the roalraint which ho iuatnntly put upon hia tempo * and inannora , and maintained for a long course of years . TJioao who liappon to have watched tho insane know that tho moat fonrful of their poouliuritioa , in Pinny cases , ia tho iuatantaneous transition from the brutal
to the human state . You catch their eye , and are horrified at its expression of ferocity and cruelty ; and , before you can withdraw your gaze , it is gone , and all is bland nnd gracious . Thus was it with Nicholas , from the moment when his foot touched the step of the throne . Stern , but no longer irascible , —distant , but never ill-manuered , the brute part of him , known to be so largely inherited from his ancestors , seemed to have burst out " What his government of his dominions has been there is no ne « d to describe . The more hopeless lie becapne of doing effectual good at home , the more he has inclined to the policy of Peter and Catherine . He is aware that the nobles regard the existing system as doomed , and only expect or desire it to last their titne . He is aware that the host of slaves who worship him are no power in his hand , but a mere burden . A man might as well be king in a wilderness peopled by sheep and wolves as in Russia ; nnd no one knows this better than Nicholas . He is aware that he cannot reckon on the honesty of any one functionary of his whole empire . He has invited and pensioned savans and men of letters , and instituted schools , and toiled harder than his own slaves , and he perceives that society grows no letter , bnt rather worse . So he has recourse to schemes of territorial extension ; and there the same evils follow : —his ships are rotten ; his cannon balls are turned into wooden bowls ; his quinine is found to be oak bark ; and while he is paying enormous bread bills , his soldiers are perishing under a bran and straw diet . " Of his fanaticism one does not know what to say . His Empress turned Greek in a day to inairy him ; and this no doubt seemed to him all right and natural . But when he ¦ wa nted his daughter Olga to marry the Archduke Stephen , he offered that she should turn Kornish in a day—should embrace the faith of those . nuns of Minsk who were so very displeasing to his orthodoxy . It is probably in his case the mixture of fanaticism and laxity which is so disgusting in the history of all churches at any time dominant and involved with the state . " In his family , he is no less ¦ unhappy than in other relations . His faithful wife , who has borne with much from him , partly because there was no helping his passions , and partly because he carried on his attention to her through all his vagaries , has been wearing out for many a dreary year under the fatigues of the life of empty amusement which he imposes on all his family . One favourite daughter is dead . Another is the widow of the Due de Lcuchtenberg : and the youngest is Princess-Royal of Wurtemberg . The two eldest sons are always quarrelling , —as is likely to happen if , as is universally understood , the yonnger—( who is a Muscovite savage of the Moscow party)—strives all in his power to supplant his elder brother—who is a much milder and more estimable man—in the succession to the throne . The Czar has till now repressed their feud ; but it has , like his other misfortunes , become too much for him ; and the scandal is fully avowed . If the reign of Nicholas should come to a violent end with his life—his "may not be the only royal blood shed on the occasion . " Thus has the proud man , the Emperor of all the Russias , passed his fifty-eighth birthday , sitting among the wreck of all his idols . They are of clay ; and it is his own iron will that has shivered them all . Instead of achieving territorial extension , he has apparentl y brought on the hour of forcible dismemberment of liis empire . Instead of court gaiety , his childish vanity has created only tho mirth which breaks the heart and undermines the life . Inst cad of securing family peace by the compressive power of his will , he has ltiade his sons the slaves , instead of himself the lord , of their passions . Hated by his nobles ; liked only by those who can give him no aid , and receive no good from him ; drawn in by his own passions to sacrifice them in hecatombs , while they fix their eyes on him as their only hope ; tricked by his servants all over tho empire ; disappointed in his army and its officers ; afraid to leave his capital , because it would bo laid waste as soon as his back was turned ; cursed in all directions for the debts of his nobles , the bankruptcy of trade , and the hunger of his people ; conscious of the reprobation of England and France , whoso reprobation coulu bo no indinurent matter to Lucifer himself ; finding himself out in hia count about Austria , and about everybody but his despised brothers of Prussia and ( aa an after-thought ) Naples ; and actually humbled before the Turk ; what a position for a man whoso birthday onco seemed to be an event in tho calendar of the universe ! Be it remembered , tho while , that ho is broken in health and heart . Ho Btoops as if burdened with yenrs ; ho trembles with weakness because ho cannot take sufficient food . The eagle glance haa become wolfish . Tho proud calm of his fine face haa givon vvny to an expression of anxiety nnd trouble . Let him bo pitied , then , and with kindness . Ho is perhaps the greatest sufferer in Europe , and let liim bo regarded accordingly . But , as wo need not say , ho is totally unfio for the management of human destinies . *
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THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR . Mr . John Oliver , the chaplain of King ' s College Hospital , continues his communication to The Builder , respecting the nursery in Portugal-street , Lincoln ' sinn-fields . He says : — " Those who frequent the nursery observe a very marked improvement in the . health and disposition of the children who have been in any degree regular in their attendance ; whilst those who have the superintendence are encouraged by an unmixed expression of gratitude oa the part of the parents . The poor widow , before utterly destitute and incapable of helping herself , is thankful that she can now , without her family being neglected , earn a subsistence for herself and children . Many a poor mother , too , has been , from the birth
of her first infant , entirely dependent on the scanty earnings of her husband for the support of herself and offspring , is now enabled to contribute nearly , and in some instances quite , an equal share . I need not say that tho condition of such a family is inuoli improved : but I will record the observation of a poor woman who was declaring her thankfulness some few days since . She said , with tears ill her eyes , ' And , sir , my husband is so much kinder to me now tuau ho used to be . ' She spoke volumes , and gave me a subject for deep reflection . Her husband ia , I believe , a steady man , but a labourer , and then earning only 12 s . per week . u There are considerations of a more general character . Who can say what may bo tho effect on the public weal of rightly training tho minds of a number of children from their earliest infancy ? Who can estimate the benefit of leading the poor to think that the interosts of themselves and their
children are really cared for by the rich ? From a practical knowledge of the poor I am convinced that nothing will more tend to a reduction of our parochial burdens , and to nu improvement in the religious and moral character of the poor than tho bringing of rich and poor moro immediately in contact , and teaoliing tho latter to respect tliemsolves « w boinra intended to occupy an important position in this world , and a glorious equality in the next ; and I know of no better means by which this can bo accomplished than by aa endeavour on tho part of tho rich to gum the respeot and love of tho poor by acts of kindness to their infant offspring . Infant nurseries are , in my opinion , tho first slop towards tho accomplishment of an object in which all classes of society nre , of necessity , greatly interested . "
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NEW PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS . Tub Polytechnic Institution has passed under new management—Mr . Peppers , the professor of chemistry—and ia to bo " dovolopod . " Science jb to bo softened with music , in this perplexing establiBhmentj nnd tho entrance-hall is to bo filled with flower-pots . Those are tho principal points . " To colobrntc" tho now rcyimd , a conversazione ha s tnkoa phioe , Mr . Walter , M . I' ., delivering an "inaugural nddruas . " 'J hero is to he a " Temperance- Palace . " A contemporary thus puts the fj ict : — u arrangement ia on foot amongst the friends of tornporanco , oflbndud \> y tho aalu of wine , &c . at Sydonhuui , to iiurohaao tho Surrey Zoological Gardens , and to oroct a largo building of glass . Wo have not yot tho prooiao purl ionium uuforo tut , but understand that it i « proposed toruiao 100 , 01 ) 0 /
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WHO IS GENERAL O'DONNELL ? The Nation has not failed to point out to England that the O'Oonnoll who is now convulsing Spain ia a direct descendant of tho O'Donncll of tho treaty of Limerick . The Nation losoa no opportunity of suggesting tho potoncy of expatriated Catholic Irish blood . The Constitutionncl gives particulars . The family hus boon conspicuous siuco ita aottloniont in Spain . Tho father of tho present man was Director General of artillery , under Ferdinand VII . Ho had four sons , all of whom became powerful . " Lastly , tho fourth son ia ho -who , at proscnt is giving 1 such a sad example of revolt . He was tho only ono of tho brothers who remained in tho service of Queen Isabella , on tho death of King Ferdinand . Being an excellent oflluor , ho gained all liis grades on tho field of buttle , and always was remarked as a strict disciplinarian . Ho was , lileo Mb father , an ardent adversary of liberal ideas j ho luwl tho diameter of being a severe man , and tho IJusquo provinces well remember some of Mb rigorous measures . Having
become Lieutermnt-G-eneral and Count de Lucena , he had the command of the army of the centre at the moment when Queen Christina divested herself of the regency . When in 1840 , Espwtero triumphed , General O'Donnell emigrated to Paris . In 1841 , he returned to . Spain and seized on the citadel of Pampeluna by surprise , thanks to the intelligence which he had kept up with a merchant of the place , M . Carriquiry . He held the citadel in the name of Queen Christina , and he was there when he learned that Generals Concha and Diege X-e ' on had failed at Madrid before the energetic resistance of Col . Dulce , his present accomplice , who commanded the halberdiers on duty at the palace when the two
generals presented themselves to seize the young Queen , and to overturn , in her name , the dictatorial power of Espartero . Some years after , in 1846 , we find Count O'Donnell Captain-General of the island of Cuba . Usually the persons holding that command kept it for three years . O'Donnell lost it a little before the expiration of that time by the order of Marshal Narvaez , then President of the Council of Ministers . He in consequence conceived a hatred against the Marshal , which he did not attempt to conceal , as he often said to any one who would listen to him , ' that he would never pardon such an affront . ' That resentment led him to organise in the Senate that annoying and irritating opposition which
exasperated General Narvaez to such a degree as to force him to give in his resignation when he must have considered himself more powerful than ever . However , two years later , O'Donnell was found in the ranks of the Parliamentary coalition , which had selected Marshal Narvaez as its leader , and which demanded against Bravo Murillo the application of the famous axiom , * The king reigns and does not govern . ' The singiJar variations of Gen . O'Donnell are now known . This intractable , champion os absolutist ideas has ranged himself under the banner of an exaggerated parliamentarism ; and the former antagonist of Espartero has for accomplices Generals Messina arid Dulce , the bond fide creatures of the Duke de la Victoria . "
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656 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2047/page/8/
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