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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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the tastes and desires of an immense aud intelligent nopnlation ? India must no longer be regarded as a field for patronage , but as a field for spreading our commerce , laws , science , and all that we have of good to give : as an inexhaustible field of producing and purchasing power , from whose gifts and wants our industry by land and sea may for ages reap a liberal and everincreasing harvest . " We have from time to time acknowledged the practical benefits which have up to this moment accrued from the British power in India , the excellent spirit which has generally animated the Company and Crown services , the immeasurable superiority of our government over that of the native princes , at any period or in any province , from Akbab , to the late King of Oude , from the Mogul Empire to the district of Mairwara . But , as our correspondent reminds us , we have carried to India the printing-press , the steam-engine , railways , gaslighting , the electric telegraph , equaJjty before the law , liberty of speech , freedom of exchange , and all responsibilities are greater than when these agencies and principles were not in existence or but imperfectly developed . We have to apply the printingpress to the elevation and enlightenment of the people ; -we have introduced railways—let us extend and cheapen them ; we have improved our administrative system at home , let us improve it for the domestic advantage of India . By these measures confidence will be created , which will act with magical influence upon the land and its inhabitants -. — " Until the year 1857 the British Government might boast of having for nearly forty years preserved the entire peninsula of India in peace and security ; and yet confidence in . our inviolable respect for property , and insight into our commercial operations and combinations have been so scantily ex-tended , that beyond the Presidency limits very few natives ever avail tliemselves of investments either in the Government fund 3 or in jointstock companies : very few , indeed , comprehend the nature of such investments . An immense amount of capital is buried and hoarded , and _ an incalculable quantity of gold and silver converted into jewels . " This is an interesting and impressive statement . Inspire the natives with confidence and they will be taught to live better , to adopt a higher standard of social comfort , to appreciate European taste and industry , to cultivate refined fashions , and thus to pour their gold into the markets of the West . To hi g her results the following passage emphatically points : — " There could be no such deadly blow to the indescribably obstructive and demoralizing Hindoo institutions as the gradual growth of a body of men of all castes , elevated simply by their educational acquirements and moral characters to positions of profit and dignity , and to the privilege of familiar and friendly association with the English . The ignorant and undistinguished men of high caste could not long maintain their position in general estimation in the presence of their tried and proved superiors . Nor would the influences brought to bear upon the latter be of less weight and consequence . Intercourse witli the English , and the freemasonry of English knowledge among them-Belves , would destroy the charm and value of caste distinctions ; first one prejudice would be laid aside , then some other concession would bo made , while the conversation , society , and customs of their natural companions would become distasteful and often revolting . Family divisions , social martyrdoms—those bitter cures , those painful antidotes—would become more common . And then the missionaries , both professional and voluntary , would bo able to work with some success among classes to whom hitherto they have had little opportunity of acoeas . " Publio men of Lord Shai'tksuuiiv ' s earnestness , and of Lord Stanle y ' s intellect , only n « ed to have tho way marked by compotent and oxnorienced observers on the spot , and they will join iu tho work ; and if the end be as wo anticipate the country will not bo without a consolation for tho horrors of 1857 .
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THE ARREST OF MR . HODGE . Louis Navoleon ' s Ministers arc attempting to establish a dircot French control over tho law of nations . Apart from their pressure upon tho British zerland , Belgium , Piedmont , and even Austria , whioh , if conceded , would have left a lionnpartist imprint upon tho administration of hrvlf Europe . Their application for the surrender of Mr . Hodge , however , betrayed oithor a total ignoraueo or a total oontompt of international codes . Mr . Honaio , us n British subject , stands charged with un olluuco comrnittod on Piodmontoao son , but ns tho misdemeanour alleged bears a political oharaolor , ho could not bo given up , even to tho British Government ,
except by a voluntary act on the part of the Cabinet at Turin . These points were explained to the Imperial Cabinet , but Louis Napomion repeated his summons , and Sir James Hudson , our Minister at the Court of Victob , Emmamuex , found it necessary to assume a very decided tone . As the case now stands , there is a difference of opinion between Great Britain and France , not between France and Piedmont only . Concerning Mr . Hodge , it is unncessary to say much . He is a young Englishman of good fortune , not well-bred enough to find his associates exclusively among the favourites of success , but connected by relations of friendship with a variety of refugees , and sufficiently indiscreet , it would , appear , to babble his opinions where silence is the only safety . His reported declamations at a restaurant at Genoa , and Ms eccentric habit of entering political gossip in a-diary , condemn him certainly as the very last man to be suspected of conspiracy ; but we know not what other harm they imply . If all except the absurdities of servility are to be punished with imprisonment or penal servitude , the Continent wilJ be converted into one vast ear of Dionysius , and every garrulous tourist accustomed to the free atmosphere of London may find himself in a French or Italian penitentiary . In the ease of Mr . Hodge , he was abroad for a purpose which even in Paris may be considered legitimate . Pulmonary weakness induced him to reside at Nice , whence he was ejected , by a warning of arrest , and made his way , but without any attempt at concealment , to Genoa . There he is , under arrest , in such a state of health that his life has been endangered . Lord Makmesbtjuy has now two cases of international law upon his hands—that of the Cagliari and that of Mr . Hodge . We admit that his situation is painful . With regard to Mr . Hodge , he has to assert a clear British claim and the rig hts of nations at the cost of a little difference with his dear and venerated friend at the Tuileries . The position is excruciating ; but then great Ministers are expected to make sacrifices for the good of their country .
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ANTI-GUERRONNEERE . In London there are several debating societies , at which assemble the aspirants to become public orators ; men who put M . P . after their name—in their dreams ; sucking barristers—and toothless barristers , who are sure to get the ear of that court ; iu short , all who would go to the day-school of oratory , either as students or as schoolmasters . One of these has just received the peculiar and unsolicited favour of a magnificent advertisement , in the very body of the pamphlet written , jper . jproc , by the Emperor Napoleon . The discussions there arc animated , and the gentleman , who enjoys his p int and p ipe , spiced with some really clever talking , now has the added zest of knowing , on the highest authority , that in the simple act of listening lie is literally making the potentate tremble on his throne . Other foreign Governments moot questions with Downing-street ; our ' Ally' addresses his representations to Tooley-street . It is a great complaint from Paris that France is invaded by bad characters from England . We might plead the extenuating circumstance that in most cases the said vagrants arc not of English growth , but in many cases French produce , and almost always tho goods brought by a French , re-export trade . But we have a stronger caso . Mr . Walpomb has scarcely been in ollico a week before ho has serious representations on ' the great social evil , * and one of the facts submitted to his consideration is the nationality of the invaders who have almost taken possession of Rcgqnt-strcct . Talk of hand-grcjtuides !—what death can they scatter in comparison with those ' assassins , ' who arc born in France , trained in France , and sent over , not by alien but by French conspirators , to assassinate , not one man , but society r The repetition—alas ! the successful ropotition— -of-4 hoso-uttemptH ,-not-limited-to-tho . 14 th of January , or to any ono or two days in tho year , ? indicates a great duty to tho French Government . '
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A QUOTATION . "If a country bo well govcrnod , and tho pooplo contented , letters and proclamations from unnappy refugees will bo as harmless as tho torch upon a turnpike-road . "—Loiid Palmjbjiston .
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FAST YOUNG STEAMERS . Thackeeay has said , " We do hot travel now-a-days —we arrive at [ he might have said " pass through . " ] places . " Certainly , when old writers talked of travel improving youth by friction with , new minds and sight of new places , they never contemplatedan express train on the Great Western as travelling . Indeed , that ' visitor from , another sphere , ' whom essayists occasionally employ to make severe remarks on the inhabitants oi the earth , might be called in at present , with some reason , to observe the very fast life of this wild young planet . Omitting the fast careers of locomotives , printing-machines , bankers , and military men , we must observe how the ocean steamers race against time and one another . Fast young packets injure their iron frames and die of consumption in six years , requiring also such enormous dinners and breakfasts of coal , that any people but shareholders —the chartered fools of commerce—would object to « boarding' them . The Coixins ( American ) lnie has broken down ; 'twas the pace that killed . The 'fourteen miles an hour' rate required by mail contracts , totally breaks down boilers in six years , and the replacing costs twenty-two thousand pounds . Meanwhile , the six years' repairing of the continual wear and tear amounts to as much as the original cost of the ship ! A moderate rate of speed —eleven miles an hour—could be kept up by burning sixty-07 ie tons of coal , but to add three miles to the speed compels you to bum sixty-seven additional tons—128 tons in all . To shorten by a fewdays the time of the voyage to New York our companies run large risks , incur large expenses , and sacrifice their shareholders . Perhaps they have no choice , for the ' fast men' Liverpool and New York would certainly not travel by the ' slow and sure * boat . When a few more steamers are lost m this mad racing against time , a reaction may set id , and p eople may come round to the belief that there is a fitting moderation even in the combined practice of raising the heat of the furnace to the verge of explosion , and reducing dividends to zero .
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QUI VIVE ? AND VIVE QUI ? It is not wise to make too much of any single fact in politics , yet we read with interest one feature of the Chalons riot . We quote the Paris correspondent of the Herald : — " Their shouts meanwhile had roused most of the inhabitants , who prudently abstained from showing , and the officers of the garrison , most of whom live in lodgings . Instead of rushing to the barracks , it is asserted that they knocked up the Sous-PreTet , who was sleeping in happy ignorance of what had taken place , and asked him if it was true that the Republic had been proclaimed . The functionary replied , sensibly enough , that it was not , but that in any case it was then : duty to be with their men , and that they should turn out the garrison to repress tho rioting . " What wise men those officers ! They and their comrades have lately declared that " Vive Napoxeon IV . ! " would be their cry were the Emperor killed j yet , when a few provincial rioters declare the Republic proclaimed in Paris , they rush—not to resist —but to ascertain if it be true . Were it true , their voices would have joined the cry , and the Republican Moniteur would declare next day the proclamation of the Republic with ' touching unanimity' at Ch&-lons-sur-Sadne . Supported by men like these mercenaries—men demoralized by the effects on tho French mind of three revolutions and many coups d'etat —• Louis N atoleon hopes to seoure the throne for his son . Where , we ask , was the Imperial enthusiasm of tho inhabitants , who ' prudently abstained from showing' although the Empire was attacked P
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AN UNEXPECTED BENEFACTOR . List us do justice to our Imperial ally . If ho hints at tho oxtradition of some refugees , has ho not done more than any man of tho timo could for the transportation of our tourists to Windermoro , KUlarney , Look Lomond , and Wales P Loicester-. squaro-may ^ nouni , ^ but ,. J 3 gn LQ ^^^ Our country innkeep ers should carefully print at the head of' their bills— " No passports requiredpolice survoilluncQ omitted , " and thus at onco crush tho competition of their unfortunate confreres the hotol-koopers of Paris and Boulogne . Or let them call iu tho aid of the artist and depict the Englishman iu Franco stopped by gendarmes and surrounded by spies , with tho companion pioturo of John Bull' taking his case at his inn , drinking beer without suspicion , and swearing at his over-
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No . 4 . 16 , Maboh IS , 1868 . 1 THE LEADER . 256
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Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1858, page 255, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2234/page/15/
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