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hare disgusted and discouraged them ? Let , us counsel our working friends not to believe themselves powerless , but to confide in their own intelligence and character ; to age in their future movements the strength which is inherent in moderation ; to form distinct and rational objects , and _ to pursue them * calmly , resolutely , and in concert . At this moment not one man in the British Empire is suffering punishment for a political offence . All classes enjoy a considerable amount of freedom , and facilities for enlareiaff and securing it . The Premier
himself , tells the people that he cannot defend them against the sectional dogmatists who interrupt their enjoyments and limit their free action , because they are " apathetic , " and will not aid in defending themselves . Certainly , his position is disgraceful to a responsible minister ; but that of the working classes is not satisfactory . Our G-overnment is the inheritance of a few families ; our Parliament is the representative of sectional interests ; our foreign policy is exclusive and illiberal , and all because the English nation - *—does not care .
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LORD PALMERSTON'S DARK HINTS . Abe we to believe Lord Palmebston" or Lor 4 M 3 ENTO ? Lord Pa ^ mers-ton declared on Monday evening , that the British Government in' 1848 abandoned the Sicilian cause because the Sicilians refused to live under the Grown of Naples . But Lord Minto Stated in the House of Lords , upon his return from . Italy , that he had offered to recognize " , on -the part of England , a separate Sicilian monarchy , and had indicated the
Duke of Genoa as a proper king for Sicily . Remembering that this negotiation was discussed at large by the Peers , it is impossible to doubt that the Minto version is the correct one , our own Envoy admitting , that it would be difficult to justify " our stopping where we did . " That amounts to a confeseion of a pusillanimous or treacherous abandonment by the British Cabinet of a people
to whom " every encouragement "—to use Lord Minto ' s words—bad been given . The uEang . of NapIiEs had declined to treat with England on the subject . England , therefore , : recognizing the virtual independence of Sicily , treated , with the Sicilians alone . Then why did she permit them to be massacred ? Wny did , she permit their violated constitution to ! be superseded by a . despotism so fanatic and so cruel as that of Naples ?
Lord Palme bston , by a direct falsification of the circumstances , recriminates upon Sicily . He upbraiaa the Sicilian people for their refusal to live under the Neapolitan crown—a refusal that released England , he says , from her obligations to Sicily—whereas , the agent of his own Government not only encouraged them to repudiate the Neapolitan King , but proposed another king in his place . Instead of disavowing Lord Minto s act , the British Cabinet assumed the entire responsibility , aftd obtained a vote in the House of Lords inj opposition to the resolutions of censure iHftved by Lord Buouqiiam . Borne members of the Honae of Commons
ought to obtain , if possible , a cluo to thia mystification . What docs it mean ? Why did-Lard Palmerston make that statement on Monday ? To impose on the public mind , or to ; justify some double-dealing p lot in contetnplation ? Ho denies that the British Government has entered into any engagements with Austria or Sardinia on the Italian question ; but , in the face of so much insincerity , we have a right to bo jealous , and to ask , on what principle is the foreign policy of this country to De conducted ? Thcro aoema to be an Understanding with Franco , an
understanding with Austria , an understanding with Sardinia . France and Austria , meanwhile , transmit their suggestions to the Holy See , and publish menaces against the Revolution . We , on the other hand , have parliamentary avowals in favour of the release of Italy from foreign armaments ; we have an admission of the political claims of Sardinia ;
yet , though Austria is extending her line of aggressive positions in Italy , though the national ferment is increasing , and though the Piedhiontese constitutionalists are labouring with earnestness , and with apparenfe sincerity , to ouqite all "the forces of Italian patriotism in Support of moderate objects , our Premier utters in the House of Commons a declaration that must excite and
disquiet the nation , and drive the Sicilians , in particular , to despair . A despair that will induce them to cast off all hope of aid and sympathy from England . What then ? They will not , therefore , abandon their national desires , or be reconciled to the criminal usurpations of the Neapolitan King . They will take their own opportunity , and will use their own methods to subvert the illegal absolutism under which they live .
By the same illegal process an Austrian invasion is creeping over Italy . The question is , when does this invasion become a breach of the public law of Europe ? Sardinia has not the power to resist it . The French Government , systematically violent and perfidious in its dealings with Italy , pays the Pope for his Golden Rose hy guarding his palace , while he imitates the policy of ¦ Geegoey the Gbeat . The last invasion of
Italy by France was accomplished with Austrian duplicity , under the Italian tricolor ; and they who remember the prevarications of Oudinot , of De Lesseps , of De CobceliiEs , and even of De Tocqvevi : l : le , in connexion with that event , will know how to value the sympathy of Crasarism in . France with Liberalism in Italy . Legitimately , the Italians can expect sympathy from England alone . But the sympathy tee offer is worse than hostility . It is a pretence and a deception . It has been so whenever we have intervened ; some scheme of delusion and sacrifice may be working even now between our Cabinet and that of Austria . The Piedmonteso senator
Mamiani said , with truth , that , whatever might be the character of Russian or French institutions , the Austrian Government was now the' permanent representative of the despotic principle , the moat crafty , the most dangerous in Europe . She has combined the powers of the Church and State to effect her sole object — that of smothering the human conscience in every province within her sway or influence . The work of three reigns—of Mama . Tiiehusa , Joseph , aud Fba . ncis—has been abolished for the sake of
this consecrated bond , negotiated by an Austrian with a Roman Prieat , which unites the head of Catholic Germany with the Popcdom in radical and unrelenting opposition to Sardinia . It was not only to complete the abrogation of the fundamental laws of Hungary , the suppression of free opinion in Transylvania , and the subordination of the laity to the priesthood in all parts of , thc Empire that the Concordat was estabished .
It was to destroy the Constitutionalism of Italy , the counteracting influoncc of Piedmont and of Western sympathy , that Austria placed her agents , her spies , her police , her Iroopa , at the disposal of the Church . She knows that the power of Great Britain is not likely to be displayed in defence of the people or the laws , flattered and encouraged by British journalista and statesmen . Sicily and Sardinia fl ' ro her examples . For we have quoted Lord PAl-MJCitSTON ' tJ mysterious
allusions to Sicily for the purpose of showing that , as he abandoned the Sicilians out of deference to Austria , so , out of deference to Austria , he at the same time abandoned the Piedmontese . The proofs are contained in his despatches addressed in 1849 to Vienna on the one hand , and to Turin on the other . Since that epoch , Sardinia has recovered and improved her position , and is now in - an attitude of defiance , provoked by the violence
of her great enemy . It has been said that Count Cavoub is responsible for raising the Italian question at the Conferences , and thus creating a European difficulty by alarming the Conservative governments ; but it was Austria that raised the question , by unmasking her designs , by menacing the Sardinian frontier , and by advancing her military oiitposts in Italy . Sardinia replies by protects to the movements of Austrian armies .
The state of English feeling on the subject of Italy is most anomalous . If a young lady goes from house to house in Tuscany , seeking to protestantize the people , and comes . to grief in consequence , there is a vast fervour , and the Alliance , and the Hall , and Lord Shaftesbuby , and Doctor CtjmminG , are ' at work . The Foreign Minister is compelled to hold high language , and Miss Margaret or Lucy becomes a public interest . B * it when an overpowering despotism violates the laws of Europe , allies itself with the
Popedom to suppress every form of religious liberty , and makes a nation its victim , England is not only content to refrain from interference , but permits her diplomatists to intrigue , haggle and palter , to prey upon the Italian nationality , to utter distortions of diplomatic history in the House of Commons , and to go on , week after week , involving lis , it may be , in French or Austrian plots , perhaps corrupting Sardinia ; at all events , dealing with the Italians without justice or candour .
The Piedmontese Government will not , we suppose , flinch at the approach of the inevitable crisis . But the British Government is teaching the Italian nation , in general ; to rely upon revolutions alone , at the same time that it acts in complicity with powers that may be able to quench the revolution in blood , to exasperate the sufferings of Italy , and to postpone her deliverance until the period of a universal insurrectionary war ., ,
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BILL DISCOUNTING IN PARLIAMENT . The House of Commons is trifling with the English people , and Government is trifling with the House of Commons . We do not make thia statement on our own authority ; we take the highest authorities in the House itself . We refer to the short but highly instructive debate on Mr . Joiin Geouqe PmiiLiMOBE's motion for leavtj . to bring in a bill to take away from all archbishops , bishops , and ecclesiastical persons , in Eng ,-and Wales , the power of appointing judges
and chancellors , and vesting such power iii the Loud CiiANCEi-i-on . A debate nroso , rind two broad facts appear to have been indisputably established . In the iirsfc place , thia bill is a paltry fractional measure , which it was a waste- of time to discuss . The ecclesiastical courts are sinks of corruption , antiquated relics of fantastical jurisdiction , with a Roman law , a mediioval organization , practico amd modes oi' procedure entirely discredited atitt fruitful in evil ; There is not an eminent lawyer in either House that has not , in part or entirely , sanctioned the proposal , for abolishing those courts . The Loud Chancki ^ OU had a bill thia year for beginning the qntiro abolition of the system , niul substituting a newplan for managing the discipline of the clergy , which is osteiiHibly the primary object of the
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May 34 , ^ 85 gj ] ___ ® -H E iL fl A "P E U . 493
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1856, page 493, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2142/page/13/
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