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    merely because some few months ago It was taken for granted by the said enlightened public that Louis Napoleon contemplated a visit without waiting for an invitation . A great commercial nation , which is very busy about money , and leaves the woi * k of thinking to its leading journals , can only judge of the moment by the appearances of the moment ; and the explanation of tiie present popularity on this side of the Channel of the hero of the

    coup d ' etat of December , 1851 , is not at all disgraceful to the English people . For neither in 1852 nor in 1854 is Louis Napoleon regarded b y us from the French point of view , but strictly and exclusively , from the English point of view . If we did , now or formerly , consider him as a French politician , he remaining the same man— -a despot then and a despot nowwhy , of course , the laqgh at us as an inconsistent people would be thoroughly justified . But , in fact , the English nation did not care

    whether he was a , despot or not—did not even think him , wrong in assassinating the French Republic—and are utterly insensible now to his crimes in maintaining Cayenne , in crushing the press , in annihilating literature , in refusing representation ^ and , at Rome , in robbing a people of freedom , in order that a ( locally ) abhorred Church may ^ prolong a putrid existence * "With all these things the non-intervening English nation has nothing to do ; and , in . truth , does not form opinions about them . The Louis

    Napoleon , who was denounced in 1852-3 by our leading journals , like the Times , and by our parrot statesman , like Sir James Graham , was the man who , suspected of a monomania about Waterloo , was suspected , in consequence , of a sinister intention to invade England . The Louis Napoleon , who is now far more popular in England than 5 n France , is the powerful monarch whose interest , it is calculated , it is to cultivate the English alliance , and whose alliance—which our Queen , head of the

    monarchical society of Europe , is wisely endeavouring to guarantee by extending those courtesies so precious to parvenus—is of vital consequence to England , in a period when England , having assailed Russia , may have opposed to her two-thirds of Europe . Thus , there is no inconsistency whatever in our national conduct ; we may have been , right about the invasion ; we may be right about the alliance ; at any rate we do the best for ourselves under the circumstances , and if there be any shame in the

    reconciliation , it should not be on our side . But the maxim of treating your friend as though he would one day be your enemy , however unjust and unwise in individual concerns , is very applicable to the intercourse of peoples , and should carefully be borne in mind in such a case as this , where the alliance is less clearly between the English people and the French people than between the English people and tho French monarch . For though it is our , and our Court ' s , business to assume , that where wo find a Government it is a Government

    representative of tho national will , yet , as a matter of fact , there are grave doubts whether Franco and Louis Napoleon are precisely tho eaine thing ; dotibts arising from tho circumstance , that notwithstanding tho recent permanent-looking pxestigo of the Emperor , none of tho statesmen , and not even one of tho soldiers , of tlio old regime , have availed thomsclves of the opportunity , to tho latter so fncilo and bo tempting , to take service under tho new man .

    And , even if Louis Napoleon manifestly ¦ were France , our rejoicings should bo guarded—our reception a courtesy—a politic courtesy—and nothing more . Incarnate Russia , the Cznr Nicholas , underwent fating-, nnd Garter investiture , hero , some years ago ; and tho Court and tho nation , in their thoughtless generosity , endured ami proffered compliments , tho souvenirs of which are now somowhat

    ludicrous , if not somewhat degrading . Our Queen , a pure young English matron , suffered the caressing compliments , and tender flatteries of the despot ; and our aristocracy , mindful of possible civilities at the Winter Palace , accepted , if it did not solicit , an Ascot cup ; our mob gazing and cheering the while , and our press adulating him who , really as impotent as his august brother of China , seemed the arbiter of the world , and was the tyrant of Poland , and the poisoner of the " sick man . " Let our mistakes , in that matter , warn us against making too much of the conveniences of the present alliance , or the success of its may be merely temporary Emperor .

    That our Queen is doing her official duty in introducing the Empress Eugenie into that effective solidarity , the solidarity of dynasties , and that Prince Albert is indicating wise forethought in seeking to establish a good understanding between himself and the singular and romantic personage whose genius for fatality has procured Mm so great a station , is obvious . That the nation will not be behind the

    Court , in the required politeness , we do not doubt ; for our two governing classes , our aristocracy of place and our aristocracy of money , suffer from a strong inclination , scarcely checked by the constitutional traditions of their own country , to worship that colossal materialism , hideous and unintellectual , but magnificently " practical , " which has been established in France , and of which the name of Napoleon is the disastrous symbol . For our own part we cannot sympathise With those liberals who see in the courtesy of the Court a treason to humanity : our Court is not Quixotic : and if it were sentimental , our country would correct it . With regard to the present of the Garter , we do not share in the sensitiveness which

    shrinks from the defilement of that chivalric institution . Louis Napoleon has been an English Special j why not a Knight of the Garter ? Has the one thing more meaning than the other ?

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    BIT BY BIT . It was in March last that Government sent out the fleet under Sir Charles Napier to inflict some degree of chastisement on Russia , and to blockade the ports of that dignified power . Sir Charles Napier's achievements consist in shutting tip a lew harbours on the Russian coasts , and knocking down an unfinished fort in the neighbourhood of Sweden ; and lie comes home to provoko tho public question , whether tho convivialities of the Reform Club dinner affected his head the

    whole of that time , and had prevented him from awaking to his duty ? In the meantime our officials hang over questions about the rights of neutrals when they might cut tho Gordian . knot fay declaring war against weak and contemptible " powers . " But they mean to conquer Prussia bit by bit . As tho judge of a County Court would do , they allow her " time" to run away from her international creditors .

    Tho blockade which wo will not inflict upon Russia is compensated by a blockade which wo do inflict upon our own commercial men . Last session , G-overnment , being ibrfcifiod by Homo very ingenious economical philosophers , invented a new stamp-tax for tho bonelit ol commerce nnd revenue ; and the stamp-tax has proved so difficult of comprehension , that no man can tell what kind of document hia

    bill , drnit , note , or order may bo in Parliamentary language , ennnot toll ' in what class ho m to pay , nor how much , —hardly knows whether a letter from lria wife acknowledging Iuh lvmillanco hIiouM not be tsonlcd , not with ft lcius , but with a Government atanip . In hIiop !; , the Stnnip Act interfered with an innumcrablo class ol' commuincntiona , drafts ,

    securities , instruments , and love-letters ; driving the very bills that are to be taxed out of the London market ; and all because superfine economists think it clever to compass the movements of trade bjr plunging into innumerable details that defy definition aud classification . It is still bit-by-bifc reform in its worst shape—a number of little bits all at

    once . Same spirit in medical assistance for the army . The science of war has been , advanced , the instruments of death have grown much more effective , but the instruments of medicine are still -where they ouglit to have been when Dr . Gu . th . rie was a young man serving in the Peninsular war . We are reforming bit by bit ; and as we are now doing what " we ought to have been doing during the Peninsular war , perhaps we may be able to have a medical corps such as we ought to have now when we next engage in war , in 1880 , with his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias , all the Prussdas , all the Turkeys , and all the inland seas .

    The very intelligence about these events constitutes an arrear . Place any editor over the departments that regulate couriers and telegraphs , and we venture to say that we should have had the news from Sevastopol last week . If Americans had been the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the Crimea instead of Englishmen , we should not have had the news sent to Constantinople and then back to Bucharest ; but a telegraph ¦ would have been rigged in some straig hter line , and the lightning would have been set going without a triangular journey in ship and . in saddle , before arriving at the starting-place o the

    . Real Governments might discover from some unstudied achievements of their own officers that bit-by-bit reform is not always safest and best . It would hardly do to teach a young rider in a steeple-chase that he must take a five-barred gate by degrees , or even to have ascended the heights of the Alma by instalments .

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    ME . LABOR'S PROPOSAL TO ASSASSINATE THE CZAli . Our newspapers are sometimes , and particularly when there is a halt in the news , very eccentric ; and at such times Mr . Landor ' s articles get into broad-sheet print . The other day , a literary contemporary ( the lSxaminer ) generously confident , inserted a Latin ode by Mr . Landor , addressed " Ad Haodum , " which many persons doubtless mistook for Latinity ' To the Editor ; " and this week we find a grave daily contemporary , with a strong tendency to

    convince City men that it is dull , and therefore reliable , bestowing it 3 largest and loudest type on a communication from the same gifted but odd writer , suggesting that there is one profession which has shamefully been omitted from tho supply of services for the war with Russiathe profession of the Bravo . As tliere is a considerable number of ardent liberals , who think that history ends in a year or two , and who are therefore always in a hurry , disposed to cheer tho suggestion , only not infamous because it is insane , of Mr . Landor , tho proposal ought not to Ibo overlooked . For who knows but that our

    classical Republican of Bath , having' at last found his Caesar , may make his arrangements tobe with all urgency n Brutus ? Wo would not insult Mr . Lnndor by supposing that , thinking tho Czar ' s throat ought to be cut , ho would leave tho heroics idiotcy to any vulgar hand . Brutus certainly did liis work , and did not write to tho newspapers touching the necessity of sorno one else doing" it . " Is tlio nsajissiiitttion of tyrants justifiable ?" is n theme for tlio " Temple Forum , " tho Oxford " Union , " and the London " Eclectic , "

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    a October 28 , 1854 . ] T H E L E A D E R . 10 ] 9

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 28, 1854, page 1019, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2062/page/11/