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him so long suppress an important letter from his own Government , approaches near to madness . The Government of the United States have recognized the agent of the Nicar ^ guan Government , sent to Washington by General Waxjhw . This is the direct consequence of our recognition of Costa Rica and its agent , wfcli the substantfcl . earnest of a consent to lend matfeets . Our private letters from 4 b » United Sttd » m fill us with apprehensions even more poignant than any which these facts could suggest .
There is one person who could perhaps throw some light upon the subject , and who has never yet been asked to assist in the elucidation , —it is Sir Henry But web . He has been mentioned as one of the persons whom our Government proposed to send to Victoria : they have not sent him quite so far—they have sent him to the Danube , as a member of the mixed commission . The question was put in Parliament , last week , how it was that Ministers could be in active
alliance with Austria and at the same time in active alliance with Sardinia , both upon the ground of Italy . The evidence which substantiates the cogency of this country has come to us from several quarters . We have proof positive that Austria has not relaxed the rigours of her rule in Italy . Felice Orsini , just escaped from an Austrian prison , brings us living' proofs that the character pf Austrian oppression is the same that it was when Gonfalonieri was a prisoner , and not very different from the conduct of Naples to Pokrio and his hundreds and thousands of companions . Yet our Government is in alliance with Austria !
Some of the latest reports represent the Austrian Government as having entered into a compact alliance with Cardinal " Viale-P . be . l , a , the man who negotiated the Concordat , and who , after having " done" the Austrian Government , is adopted by it in order to " do" Aktoneuli , and obtain the Prime Ministership at Home . Austria is understood to be proposing some kind of improvement in the administration of Roman affairs ; just as some person has taken from among the ancient
archives of Rome a letter by Pius IX ., making some objection to the occupation of the Legations by Austrian troops . Now we may regard it as absolutely impossible that Austria can intend any real reforms in Italy ; and if , as appears to be the case , the Governments of France and England have agreed to make Austria a joint commissioner for designing Italian reforms , instead of accepting them after their being designed by others , we may be sure that that those reforms will be annulled in
the very design . Austria has Lately been trying to obtain from Prussia the old demand , a guarantee of her non-German possessions ; and again Prussia has refused ; Prussia , it is said , being in excellent understanding with Sardinia and Russia . Now let us observe—wo find three groups of alliance , all with some bearing upon the state of Italy : there is the position of Austria , France , and England , jointly , planning some reform for Italy , such that Austria would willingly be a partner in ; next , Franco , Sardinia , and England , in an alliance , where it is all but certain that the
alliance is a matter of form rather than of fact , the two Powers repaying their late ully iu tho Crimea with words ; an alliance growing up between Sardinia , Prussia , nnd Russia , nnd a good understanding which ig said to prevail between France , Russia , and Prussia . Franco , then , is in this case " tho fifth element , " which has alliances all round , and which has , moreover , some special position in Italy not yet understood . Is this plan of France understood at our head-quarters P We arc inclined to suspect that it . , although the secret is not imparted to tho English public .
Manin has lately given to the Italian people two most eloquent and most opportune memoranda ; one that a people generously standing forth to assert their rights , ( should not suffer
themselves to he confounded with the assassin who seeks in ihe poniard the sole enforcement of responsibility which the slave possesses against the despot $ the other , that to carry out the emancipation of Italy the Italian people 4 h < rald rally round that Italian Government which has ruled its own people in cooperation with that people , and which has appealed to the -whole ltaMtm race by its * d * as well as by Its words .
These high and powerful appeals are indeed most valuable at the present day . Piedmont we may consider as performing the most important duty which has now to be performed . We only re « ret to doubt whether our own Government is in the same duty . Austria is professing to join in reforms . AV"e have already explained why ; but let Englishmen note the fact which we have mentioned , that the Emperor Napoleon is proposing " international mediation" as the substitute for international conflict—a project that
will enlist many a Court . It will rally round it all the Peace men in all the countries ; but let us ask whether the Governments which profess this international mediation—in other words , an arrangement to settle questions which concern all Europe—represent the " nations" in whose names they speak ? No : it is a conspiracy of courts and bureaux agaimt nations . Before we can have " international mediation , " we must have a direct appeal to the nations themselves . We await with interest to observe whether our Government falls
into this prematui-e project of " international mediation . " The domestic business transacted by Parliament has been en , suite with the general character of the work done during the session . Mr . Lowe has pushed forward his two bills on joint stock and partnership , notwithstanding the attempts of theoretical objectors and the indifference of the great body of the House . Mr . Mialx . has asked for a committee of the whole house in order to
move resolutions condemning the payment of money to religious bodies or religious colleges in Ireland . The House of Commons had , earlier in the session , half consented to let Mr . Spooneb take away the endowment to Maynooth , by referring it to a select committee ; but it has refused to abolish the far greater exaction from the Roman Catholic majority of Ireland on behalf of the so-called " Established" Church . That Church , indeed , has now found an ingenious apologist in Lord Palmerston , who declares that an establishment ought to be maintained by every
nation , and that it must not necessarily depend upon the number of those who gave their adhesion to it . Since the average of men are not so wise as the wisest , Lord Palmerston might have adopted the old Tory doctrine , that the judgment of the few is the best , and that tho minority ought to rule . Evidently he thinks so in Ireland . He does not say so in England ; but his policy at present is tending to preserve the rule of the minority on the continent of Europe , and to create a gradual familiarity with the practice in England itself .
The debate which has created most interest this week has just taken place in tho Central Criminal Court . Tho public can feel comparatively little interest in the fate of Italy , iu the relations between our Government and America , in its complicity with schemes for frustrating tho attack upon Absolutism , but it feels tho keenest interest in the fate of tho gambler , forger , and murderer ,
whoso guilt has been so powerfully and earnestly debated by tho most learned of tho law in the prosence of tho British public . Tho evidence brought forward during thetwelvo days' trial was overwhelming . It Btill lacked one or two points ; but if wo are corroctly informed , a littlo more time would liavo brought forward some further facts . It has been reported , for example , wo do not pretend to say upon what authority , that n
person has confessed to having actually made Strychnine pills for Palmer which brings the strychnine in its progress one stage nearer to Cook ' s Bps . The use of strychnine preceded by antimony in Palmer ' s case is interesting , as throwing light upon the processes which the prisoner probably adopted in previous cases . For instance intitecase of Anne Palmer , in whose body that
' ¦ ifheral was found . Its exhibition for sonic time appears to render the operation of strychnine much more rapid and effective . Sonic degree of admiration has been expressed for the firmness with which the prisoner behaved in court , for his display of self-command if notability : this appears to bo a misconception . There should be nothing surprising in the fact ; for a man who could watch the slow death of his associate , in order to
make money by murdering him , should display insensibility to the feelings which were moving the multitude around him . What Palmer did display , however , was insensibility : he did not display any very great self-command , or anything but a certain brutal stolidity , nearly incompatible with his position as a professional man , but very consistent with the pursuits that constituted his real profession .
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IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT . —?—Monday , May 26 th . THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES . In the House of Lords , Lord Lyndiiurst gave notice he should on a future day ask the Earl of Clarendon whether the Hospodars of the Danubian Principalities are to retain their office during the inquiries of the Commissioners of the several Powers .
COUNTRY POST-OFFICES . In answer to a question from the Marquis of Cr . Axkicarde , the Duke of Argyll stated that in one hundred and three of the largest country post-oilices there had been a revision of the scale of payment , ami the : salaries of the clerks had been increased . Ninety-nine other offices are now under revision . EXPENDITURE OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT . A motion by the Earl of Albkmarle , for a series oi returns , ten in number , of the expenditure of the Indian Government , under different heads , civil and military , was ultimately withdrawn , owing to the opposition ot Earl Granvillk and the Earl of Ellenhohougii , the former of whom suggested that application should be made to the Board of Control .
APPELLATE JURISDICTION OF THE iror . SE . The Lord Chancellor laid on the table a l > ill U > make better provision for the discharge of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords , which had liecn framed in pursuance ef the recommendations of the select committee . —The bill was read a first time , and their Lordships adjourned .
DISEMBODIED MILITIA . In the House ok Commons , in answer- to a question from Mr . Gkogan , Mr . Frederick . Peel said that , when a militia regiment is disembodied , no officers continue to receive permanent pay , except adjutant * anil quartermasters , who retain their appointments . W sergeants who had been promoted to the position of adjutants and quartermasters retained their appointments , of course they would be permitted to remain on the permanent staff ; but others who had been promoted , but who did not retain their appointments on the disembodiment of tho regiment , would only receive the nay they were previously entitled to receive .
REWARD FOR GAM . ANT CONDT'CT . Sir Ciuklkh Wood , replying to Mr . Pai . k , said Ihiit tho gallant conduct of Commander Norcock , two > oust guardsmen , named William I ' appin » md Charles Henwood , and a man of tho name of Johns , son of a linvey pilot , in conducting the descent of a boat down a clili two hundred feet in height , launching her , and , under circumstances of great danger , rowing to and savin ;; the sole survivor of a vessel wrecked elo :-c to luivcy . would bo rewarded . . lOINT-RTOCK COMPANIES IU 1 . 1 ..
On tho order for going into committee , on this J » n ' i Mr . Spoonkr inquired the nature of the alteration * made in tho bill , and the reasons for them . He olijcctod to its principle , which he thought , was contrary ' ' ' ' " ' commercial policy of this country ; and lie moved 1 " defer tho committee for six months . — Mr . I-own .-aid he luid made no alteration affecting the . principle of the hill , which had been affirmed by tho llou . so ; and it would he Avnsting timo to discuss its details , which must be iccoii-M ' ulerod in committee . —Tho amendment , was negative " , and tho House went into comniitteo upon the bill , tlie clnunoH of which ( upwards of a hundred in niiinherj wero under discussion for several hours . —T ho lloiist
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506 THE LEA DE R . [^ 323 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 31, 1856, page 506, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2143/page/2/
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