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Untitled Article
itrating with him , yet selfishly afraid to Compel . France is preyed on by its Emperor , who is cleverly circumventing the Powers , and making them , through their jealousies , support the man that they would have crushed . On the borders of India , England and Bussia are entering upon a petty war which they fight by proxies , in the names of Dost Mohammed and the Shah of Persia . This is how the doctrine of peace is illustrated just at present to the heathen .
gelical Prussia ; How to circumvent Russia —orthodox Christian Russia—who is trying to cheat us with the connivance of Catholic France ; How to avoid fulfilling in Naples the duty of remonstrance , recently undertaken ; How to hack out froni coercing a king , who will not , like the "Western Powers , even play the game of appearances ; How to cure garotting in the capital of Christian England , byre-establishing a Norfolk Island These are the puzzles for the Christmas party of English high life just now .
Let us propose another pursuit , only it would have a little earnestness in it . Dr . Livingston is preparing for the grand work of an African mission , on a large scale , to evangelize the aborigines . He says that he has found out the way to the heart of Africa . Charity , they say , begins at home . Wo have already had our home missions ; but the
mission we propose as one to convert Europe to Christianity . Could we only find one Power to begin , by acting strictly on Christian principles ! We must confess , however , that with regard to Europe , we are behind Dr . Livingston—we have not yet found out the way to penetrate the belt of pestilence and barbarism that doth hedge every king of them
Sicheli , "who told Dr . Livingston that he would make his people believe by beating them , showed that the spirit of Voi / taibe is not dead , but has emigrated to Africa on purpose to welcome the British missionary . In the meanwhile , although Christians are beaten with sticks in Italy , in England we have outgrown that puerile mode of governing ; cur lower orders are no longer beaten to make them believe , — -and some cynics might
say , because the effects of the beating have ceased among us . The fact was proved , on Thursday , when so many of the unbeaten neglected to come to church . In Christian England , piety and politeness go together . The ruder classes , unbeaten , appear to be unconvinced ; as if the rulers of the world , deprived of the stick or the rack , had not yet hit upon the expedient of illustrating the doctrine of Christianity practically !
So the devil stalks abroad in the streets . Yes . Honest , innocent girls shall be garotted in Oxford-street ; nay , official clerks are equally obnoxious to the attack of . the garotter . The Civil Service is throttled ; and not only finds itself defrauded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer through the superannuation dodge , but seized in the public streets by the other Chancellor of the Exchequer , the footpad . " The London Scoundrel" writes to the Times a letter calling for " blood ! blood !"
a la BobSON ; and the Times is delighted . That is the way to treat publicans and sinners . iN ~ ay , " A Sympathizer , " in the Morning JPost , suggests a newly invented defensive collar , covered , or rather masked with silk , but under that cover friezed with stout needle-pointed barbed hooks , which would transfix the hands that grasped , and parting from the collar remain plaiited in the flesh . If , says the lt
Sympathizer , " they be smeared with animal matter from the dissecting room , the poor " cove" may die pleasantly in his own bed from the poison , unless he go " raving mad " with the pain ! The judges , however , cap even this Christian suggestion ; for most of them , from Campbell to Willes , are proposing to re-establish a Norfolk Island—a place which concentrated and reproduced the most hideous and unnamed crimes that ever
scourged society . That at the present moment is verily the leading idea for chastening the sins of the benighted , the misbegotten , the miseducated , the dwarfish , the outcasts of society ! There must be some little amusement in the midst of these severe pursuits , and the man of taste provides it in the bal masque . It is an amusement which can be shared by thosethat have full purses ; and full purses in this country are the test of respectability .
Curiously enough , when Respectability puts on the mask physically , it takes it off morally . TbuB it shares the ' fast' indulgences which it daTea not name , and even remembers with disgust . However , "Christmas comes but once a year , " and Christians « must relax ! " Our statesmen conform to the national custom ; they have gathered round the roastbeef and plum-puddin g in ' the family , 'that sacred institution ; and . after dinner , with the wine and bisouitB , they will play at the new Christmas games—How to de-Btroy a Eepublic , for the vainglory of Evan-
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ELECTIONS UNDER THE EMPIRE . The French nation will shortly be invited to elect a Legislative Corps . The Representa ,-tive Chamber , as now constituted , is . a deception . It is a mere registry of Imperial decrees . Every measure is decided before it is debated . Every resolution is the placet of the Tuileries . There is no longer a deliberative or moderating nower in France . The head of the army is the master of the people neither senator nor representative enjoys more authority than a private soldier or a police-agent . The elections of 1857 , in the opinion of some
will give France an onportunit }' of employing the universal suffrage bestowed after the coup d * etat in an attempt to restore the reality of popular representation . The Liberal party has not yet determined upon the course which it will pursue . Three different lines of policy are proposed for recommendation to the electors ; but it is probable that a general understanding will be arrived at before the period fixed for the elections . Those Frenchmen / who are not Imperialists may abstain from voting altogether ; or they may vote on condition that the individuals chosen shall
refuse to take the oath of allegiance to Louis NapoIjEON ; or they may treat the oath as , in common fame , a fiction , and create a powerful political opposition in the Chambers . These diverging views are stated with great clearness in a letter we have received from a distinguished member of the Liberal party . Several meetings , we are informed , have been , held , at which the leading Liberals of Paris have discussed the course of action
dates shall enter the Legislative Chamber bv complying with the forms imposed upon them they maintain that , to recoil before an oath , f the door of the public Parliament , ^ ' ^ doubt be a respectable proceeding , but rerv impolitic ; and that to be governed bv technical punctilios of this sort , is to insure victory to their antagonists , and to leave them in . undisputed possession of the whole political arena . France can raise no platforms against her Parliament ; whatever battles of opinion are fought , must be fought within its walls .
But the more scrupulous members of tho party declare that their superiority consists in their honesty ; that their respect of public faith constitutes the great reproach ^ vitli which they are entitled to assail the author and the accomplices of the coup d ' etat . If they take an oath which they cannot venerate and vow allegiance to a tlirone which they detest and despise , they place themselves on a level , in this one respect , with the conspirators of December ; they dare no longer impute perjury , as a crime , to the Emperor , and the men who surround him .
Others , again , advise complete abstention from voting-, on the ground that to elect candidates without intending them to sit in the Chamber would be childish , and that to elect them on condition of taking an insincere and hateful-yow- ' -would be immoral . Moreover , no real election , they contend , can . take place . What party , however popular , could hope to compete with a Government whose authorifcy is so centralized and so diffusive , with a legion of police , prefects , sub-prefects , and secret
agents in its pay , the Church in its interest , the laws perverted in its behalf , the ballotboxes exposed to official scrutiny , and perhaps millions , of forged votes ? At the ' election' of the Emperor , there appeared , for certain places , more votes than there Mere voters . Suppose an English borough , watched by ten thousand soldiers , the returning officer removable by the Government , the voters intercepted on their way to the booths , the ballot-boxes in the hands of official
scrutineers—no journals daring to print a doubtwhat would be the chance of an independent candidate ? The success of such an attempt could not bo great , while its faillire would impair the prestige of the Liberal party , the immense prestige which belongs to unascertained numbers , and to power half concealed in mystery . To tliis it is replied , that , unless
advantage be taken of the forthcoming opportunity , the Liberals can make no great manifestation for five years . The indolent and the cowardly will rejoice ; the vigorous and the bold will be reduced to despair ; resistance -will become a tradition , and submission a habit of the French people . Moreover , as we learn from another source , a large class of the workmen " arc determined to
vote ; " so that the party , besides being inactive , will seem to be divided . Of three lines of action suggested , we think that to elect a Liberal opposition , under condition of swearing allegiance to tho Empire , would be the worst . It would destroy tho moral purity of the Liberal party ; it would , in one sense , identify it with the roigning Government , and sanction tho Imperial usurpation . It would expose
it to a charge of weakness , because the opposition could not possibly represent tho general body of Liberalism in France . This last objection also lies against the proposal to elect mock candidates , whose demonstration would consist of a refusal to take the oiiths . Wo fear tho numbor would bo small j though certainly , if Cavaionac were to bo returned for Paris , no one could venture in futn . ro to talk of Louis Napolkon ' s popularity in t-ho capital . But , keeping in view tho
iiupossimost proper to be adopted with reference to the approaching elections . Some kind of organized opposition to the Imperial Government is determined upon ; hut the question difficult to decide is , what form it shall taico , and under what conditions it shall be carried on . By many the electors are advised to go to the poll , but without the intention of
giving effect to their votes ; they might thus display their numbers ; the candidates might refuse the oath of allegiance to the Empiro ; and the authority of Louis Napoleon would thus sustain a moral shock . The old chiefs of the party would reappear , remind Europe of their , existence , and prove that the democratic suffrages of France do not sanction tho government of the coup d ' etat .
Others maintain that tho oath of allegiance to be taken by representatives is , as an oath , null and void , and not binding on the conscience . They propose that the Liberal candi-
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. ¦ ¦ ¦ " ' ¦ ¦ .. "¦ - ¦ ' . . ¦ . " . T 1236 THE LEADER , r * o . 353 . Sa ™^ ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1856, page 1236, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2173/page/12/
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