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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.
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ference would he unnecessary as long as the nation was engaged alone in settling its political difficulties . Between government and people , no other people and no other government has a right to intervene . But France and Austria have to such an extent intervened between the nations and the governments of Italy , that their armies cover the soil . And this intervention is of a decisive and permanent character . Under its shadowthe governments carry on a system
, of repression which not only abases and benumbs the people , but which has a directly injurious influence on the interest of every commercial and manufacturing nation . The first step in intervention has been taken . There have been remonstrances and representations , which have failed . What we now wish to learn is , whether any further steps are to be taken , whether , in spite of all that Austria or France may determine to do , Great Britain is to consider her part fulfilled ,
and is to leave Italy to settle her own affairs ¦ wi th France and Austria . But we have no chance of knowing , unless information finds its way through illicit channels to the press . " We are to have arbitrary government for six months , and upon the reassembling of Parliament , our Ministers will be " called to account , " That is to say , nothing they have done will be undone ; but if they have disgraced or imperilled the nation , they may be censured . If this were enough to t
content us , it by no means follows that he House of Commons would have the spirit or the courage to censure the Administration . What has been the result to Iiord Palmeeston of his reckless A merican policy ? Instead of censure , he has had applause . And what was the result to IJord John Ktjsselii and to Ijord I / ranDHiTBST of their attempts to obtain an account of our relations with Italy ? They were desired to restrain their curiosity , and to rely upon the Minister . We ask IiOrd Pal 3 IE » ston what are his intentions
concerning the occupation of Greece ? He replies , that when we know what they are , we shall doubtless bo satisfied . We inquire how soon shall we have official representatives in America , and Lord Palmebsxon answers , that he is as ignorant on that topic as ourselves :
We have repeatedly said that the Italians do not hope for assistance from England . For as much of our sympathy as is sincere they give us their gratitude ; they perceive in the common discussions of our press the proverbial English ignorance of foreign politics , but they look to a war of independence alone to release them from the hateful
domination under which they groan . M . ean-• while , however , they detect the evils inseparable from a policy of pretentious intervention , and are rendered almost desperate by hearing the British Premier expressing his confidence in French and Austrian policy . They hear the King of Naples vilified , and the Austrian Emperor flattered , the Pope execrated , and the Pope ' s protector , the instigator of the Spanish coup d'etat , adulated as a good and great prince .
A programme of intervention in Italy has been issued from a very respectable source—Whig , not revolutionary . It is to the effect that a despatch should fee sent to "Vienna announcing that Austria shall evacuate the Bap * l States . If the fortifications of Placeutia be not abandoned , fifty thousand French troops shall be concentrated on the Savoyard frontier . Jf a . single Austrian soldier is Bent to Naples our English fleet Ti \ PP in that bay , and another in the Adriatic and before Trieste . ^ Thia inventive Whig is surely ironical . Or , his sinoerity is of the most simple kind . The French and British Governments are
not actuated by the principles which would lead them into such a course of policy . They have no more intention of putting the Italian princes into such a condition " that their thrones would not be worth an hour ' s purchase , " than Iiord John Russell has of proposing universal suffrage , or Count Cavotjb of giving aid to Mazzini . Their policy is to
strengthen the hands of authority , to guard the torpid peace of Europe , and to keep the revolution at bay . French and Austrian principles are identical . Even if ! Lord Palmebstoh" desired the liberation of Italy , he might as well hope to effect it through the aid of the Emperor of Russia as through that of IiOUis Napoleon .
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A SCOTCH PINE ON DISCUSSION . Some years since there were in Edinburgh three gentlemen who cast at each other such epithets as " calumniator , " " betrayer , " " slanderer , " " snake ; " they were much admired for the skill with which they sought to damage each other , and to wound each other ' s feelings . Lately these three put their heads together , and acted in unison for the purpose of defeating a fellow-citizen : a public writer noticed the conjunction , and renewed the description of the three as they had been painted by each other , describing the union
on that quasi-autobiographical authority as one between a " calumniator , " a " betrayer , ' and a " snake . " On this Astguis , forfeiting his title to be the representative of wisdom , laid a complaint before the penal court of Edinburgh , that they were now called by a fourth person that which they once called each other . And an Edinburgh jury has awarded damages of 400 Z . against the Scotsman for the offence of telling what Johnstone , Douglas , and Maclahen called each other ! That i = » in brief the story of the great Edinburgh libel case .
" The circumstances were different , no doubt . Mr . Maolaben had formerly acted with the Liberal party , had used his quill in the Scotsman , and was the champion of free discussion : he was now putting forward one Beovn Douglas to oppose Adam Black , because Black would not abolish the Maynooth grant , or perceive the policy of closing public-houses ou Sundays ; so the " snake " trusted the " betrayer , " the " calumniator " took the " snake" to his bosom , and the " betraver" reckoned on the good word of the " calumniator . " Hence it was ver y
inconvenient to have these old words revived : men who are combining for such sacred purposes ought not to be exposed for past transgression ' s ; the champions of confiscating Popish property and closing the working man ' s beer tap on Sunday , ought not to be reminded , at least publicly , that they had once taken the measure of each other . For if they were publicly reminded , the public might laugh at the queer conjunction , might despise the men , and might hate the concoctor of the combination . Literally , the charge against the / Scotsman , was that it had held up that conduct to that fate ! Discussion must not be
free to do that , said the Judge ; under penalty of 4001 ., said the Jury . So Maolarkn obtains , on authority , a declaration of Scottish law , that the public must not be told what he has said and done lest it render him hated , contemptible , and ridiculous ; and for the consequences of describing him in his own acts and words , the Jury compensate him with 400 / . damages . This is fine law ! It follows that the moro
absurdly a man has acted , the more foulmouthed he and his friends have been , the less you must characterize their conduct or repeat their words . If an Adam Black interfere in public nffuirs , his conduct you may fairly discuss , because there is nothing in
what he has said or done which is hateful , contemptible , or ridiculous ; but if Maclaben interferes to pervert the representa tion of Edinburgh , you must beware how you discuss him , what he is doing , or what he has said ; for to repeat what he once brawled may injure him to the extent of 400 Z . ; and to let the public know the sort of man he is
may subject you to a fine of 400 ? ., as a protective duty on morals . They do things oddly in Scotland . At a place near Alloa , lately , a gentleman has been . fined for inaccurate weights and measures , which allowed his customers too much . Maclaben- was not fined for doing or saying what he did ; but the Scotsman is fined for warning the citizens .
The case only confirms our opinion that the libel law attempts a protection which is impossible , and does but defeat its own object . It is a handle for revenge , where no justice is in question : it fails to protect justice ; it is not needed to control real discussion . Not long since the Times repeated a piece of gossip about a tailor who had been Crimea tailor had been
flogged in the ; no flogged , and it is asserted that there was only one tailor there . Ifow who is to believe that assertion—who is to know ? It is recorded of a royal Duke , that when he visited a lunatic asylum , one of the patients cried " There ' s Silly Billy , " on which the illustrious admiringly exclaimed , " La ! he knows me ! " The tailor of the Crimea went to the
Times office and claimed to be the man traduced . The journalists conjectured the moral possibility that there might have been at least one more tailor in the Crimea ; they referred to the spot , could learn the existence of no other tailor , and corrected the blunder . What more could be done ? Yet a jury , under our precious libel law , fined the Times 751 . for having repeated an erroneous piece of gossip , and for not having at once perceived that a Mr . Smith must be the person meant when any one associated the ideas of Crimea , flogging , and tailor . But cut bono ? Was Smith exalted by the money gained ? Will the Times be checked in the exercise of its
free discretion when , vindicating freedom ot discussion . No . The true checks on libellous writing are not to be obtained in that way . Public confidence can only be obtained when libel is avoided ; its withdrawal will sufficiently punish the calumniator . We venture to say that our own paper is the one which has most boldly illustrated " perfect freedom of discussion ;" but what enabled us to do so ? We have
been subjected to attacks , to misconstructions , to misrepresentations ; but slander , libel , calumny , cannot be alleged . And for obvious reasons . The only chance we had m gaining confidence for freedom of discussion was , to avoid anything that could identify our freedom with low motives or malignity . On the other hand , no libel law could protect private character against the attacks of
papers systematically slanderous : quite the reverse ; the journals of that stamp made tlio slander worse , or attacked the defenceless , in order to frighten the assailed from appealing to the law ; and thus the law operated to protect the slanderer if he would only go far enough . In short , like all protective lawH , it was n , hindrance to the lawful commerce m
discussion for the community , an obstruction to the honest trader , a protection only to the smuggler . It now figures aa n penalty to the Scotsman , a profit to Mr . Maclauen .
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THE NEW EASTERN QUKSTION . The Iale of Serpents lies off the Sulina mouth of the Danube , within sight of _ tlio coast . The Russians had a small gnrriaon there before tho entranco of the combined
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756 THE LEAD E R . [ No . 333 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 756, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2153/page/12/
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