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place which , Mr . Dibbaeli tells us ,, was very voluminous ; but ten months elapsed and one of the victims was tortured into insanity , while the other was half-starved , and in man ? respects infamously maltreated . The incident has been the moat disgraceful one in Lord Palmekston ' s career , and fixes an indelible blot upon his reputation . But , as if the dishonour must be complete , he prevaricated on the evening ot Friday last , and on Monday retreated under cover of the paltriest subterfuge . Upon the
first occasion he said that , before their retirement from office , the late Ministers were reconsidering the case of the Cfigliari , so far as to impugn the jurisdiction of the Neapolitan G-overnment upon that spot of the seas where the vessel was captured . To what did the reconsideration amount ? To a letter written , to a . memorandum , to a statement laid before the law officers of the Crown ? ] N " o such thing . The new Government was taken by surprise . They had determined to admit the Neapolitan demand , and
to abandon a principle of maritime law and usage . But , when their predecessors had declared the question to have been reopened , back went the Chancellor of the Exchequer to Downing-street , with Lord Malmesbury , and there they began , as Mr . Osbokne said , to ransack the pigeon-holes of their predecessors . Mr . Disraeli ' s record of the affair stands thus : — " I am bound to say that a careful examination of all the papers rendered that statement of the noble Lord one for ' which we were entirely unprepared , and I feel it due to ourselves to add tliat a
minute , laborious , and subsequent examination of these documents affords no clue whatever to the information which the noble Lord communicated to the House on Friday night . " Nothing could have been more miserable than Lord Palmerstoh ' m explanation : — " When I stated the other day that the question was still under the consideration of the Government , what 1 referred to was , that we were expecting further documents
from Naples and from the Sardinian Government with respect to the demand made by the latter for the restitution of the Caglinri ; because , if that demand were acceded to by the Neapolitan Government and the vessel were restored , then undoubtedly our claim for the restitution of the two engineers would have assumed a different character from what it had bef 6 re . That is what I referred to , and I think the right honourable gentleman will find—though I know not whether information on this head be before the
Government or not—that Ave wore expecting , so far as I am informed , further documents from the Surdiiiiau G-overnmeu t , with . respect to the claim they were making on the Government of Naples . " This , then , was ' reconsidering' the question . The Government had not taken a step , or written a word . They had not even asked for further information . They had admitted the Neapolitan claim , and had not signified to Naples that it must bo subject to judgment after additional investigation , Lord Pal-MEkston's statement on Friday was something worse than a quibble , and his explanations on Monday must have been ¦ painful to the House of Commons . Lord
JDehky has now taken up tho matter in WrJ the ~~ ri'g } Tt "' tone 7 ~ 'niTd—ib ^ ia— understood King FjsiujtNANJD will bo compelled , by one process or another , to restore the Ongliiwi duel rplenso tho Englishman at-ill incarcerated nt Naples . Iuother days , wo might huvo talked of indemnity , but we shull only bo too grateful , while national honour ia nt its present disooiiut , if our Roman citizens escape with ten . months' of horrible captivity , and it' tho
King of Naples be prohibitedvfrom imitating , the Dey of Algiers . Mr ; BoBBtroK would ) have sent Lord Lyons instead of Mr . Ltoks , and that is the sort of envoy Nei-sow would have recommended . Mr . Hodge , in Piedmont , has reason , we think , to rejoice that Lord Palmerston is no longer Premier of Great Britain . And Greai Britain , we fear , has reason to be convinced that Lord Paj > merston ' s spirit and temper have been so exhausted and demoralized by a dangerous predominance as to . disqualify him from ever again standing at the head of publie affairs .
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CONFIDENCE AND CONFIDENCE . An obscure and somewhat incorrect expression of the Times lias given the French official organ an opportunity of making a seemingly triumphant reply . The leading journal said last Monday : —" Something like contempt will be the feeling of Frenchmen for this frenzy of repression in a sovereign who used to show himself so fearlessly , and who was at least as safe driving his phaeton , like a pr ivate gentleman on the Boulevards as when surrounded by spies and with whole squadrons for an escort . " From this the Moniteur inters that it is meant to be alleged that the Emperor ' never goes out except surrounded by squadrons ; ' whereas tlie writer intended to say , and in so saying would have said no more than the truth , that when tbe Imperial carriage is not surrounded by soldiers it is by spies . There seems to be an error also in implying that the time ever was when the Emperor drove out 'like a private gentleman , unattended and relying on the loyalty of his subjects ; but this error , of course , the Moniteur does not refute . It simply says : — " His Majesty has changed nothing in his ordinary habits , and continues to go out every day without an escort . " This is not strictly true , because a piquet of Lancers often accompanies the carriage ; but it is quite true that since the Coup d'JEtat one uniform practice has prevailed when the Emperor issues from the Tuileries .
The fact has been so often repeated in correspondence from Paris , in private letters , and in conversation , that it has a certain air of triteness about it ; and perhaps for that reason is not believed . However , there is really no doubt that whenever the Emperor leaves his palace , whether it be to take an airing in the Bois de Boulogne , to range along the Boulevards , or to visit the Faubourg St . Antoine , his route is exactly laid down beforehand ; and in addition to the ordinary police , a number of agents in p lain clothes , some dressed as gentlemen , others in blouses , are ordered to scatter" themselves along the streets among the crowd . There are those who pretend to know that there arc exactly four hundred persons employed in this way ; whilst others say many more . No doubt the number varies with the occasion ; but that such is the system followed every one asserts in Paris . Indeed , old residents will not have failed to remark that , when the Einporor has passed in any particular place , the crossstreets leading « to another point of his route are instantly filled by persons running along with their hands in their pookets , arid with , vacant faces , as if performing a routine duty . They are evidently going to make up a public in a different direction , and to watch if any one raises his hand in a suspicious manner . The slightest observation is suflicicut to assure one that the ' eager populations ' who murmur Vivo I'Empereur when liis Majesty passes , are always composed of tho same yawning ^ listless , ill-looking fellows , amongr whom the Corsican physiognomy greatly predominates . They have been seen at Lyons and Marseilles , and are well known at Compiegne , Fontaincbleau , and Biarritz , aa woll as in < he Strand and at Osborne . Nevertheless , as public notoriety and tho inferences of practised observation are not ) striotl y testimony , wo should not bo surprised if many ianatical admirers of Imperialism refused to boliovo these sad revelations , were wo not able to point to two or three fads which singularly corroborate our account . — Whcn—PTATTOKT-maao ^ his ^ attompt-nearly ' three yours ago , tho Emperor wus to all appearance riding ' like u private gentleman , ' accompanied by au aiilo-do-oamp or two , up tho Clmmps-Elyse ' es . VVIiul ) courage ! What conlldcnco ! A man steps forward with a pistol and ( Ires . At tho saino instant tho intended assassin is struck by a dagger in the loins . Alessandiu , tho polico-agent dressed in plain clothes , has observed liis action , drawn his concealed weapon , and rushed forward . Thoro is
every reason , to believe that , at short intervals ^ from . the Tuileries to the extreme limits of the Emperor ' * intended drive , similar agents were posted , andthat wherever Pxanoki had raised his hand he would , have been similarly prevented . It must be confessed that an escort with , shining lances and clattering sabres is far less efficacious than this one ; and that if nothing else can be said in favour of his Majesty ' s confidence in the loyalty of his people , we had . better be silent . Again , when the attempt of Okslni took place , we have reason to believe that , in addition to an * escort of Lancers , a detachment of the Garde de Paris ,, and an unusual allowance of sergens de vine , the whole secret battalion was present in . the B . ue Lepelletier . Tvfo particular attempt to conceal this striking fact has been made by the Trench Government , for when the Moniteur gave a list of the killed and wounded by the grenades it enumerated " thirty-nine agents of the Prefec ture . " In other words , setting aside the soldiers , full half of the persons injured , and consequently we may infer full half the persons present , were spies collected to simulate enthusiasm , or guard against danger . If we suppose that Oksini and his accomplices knew of the composition of the crowd around them , we may well feel surprise at the audacity with which , they acted . Let us hasten to add , that in addition to the regular agents on that special occasion , many employes in Government offices received intimations to be in the neighbourhood and to join the crowd .
This comedy of courage and confidence , played before actors of enthusiasm , has been continued ever since the fatal night when Lotris Napoleon . pronounced his own outlawry by violating his oath-We do not allude to tbe fact that the Legislative Assembly outlawed him at theMairie of the 10 th arrondissement , because we are chiefly referring to matters known in Prance ; and that terrible vote was so stifled that few indeed are aware of it . But by a great number of persons , especially in Paris , the mere circumstance of the violent assumption of arbitrary power is considered to constitute a man a public enemy . The conduct , therefore , attributed to the Emperor would be simply absurd . If he were to go alone in the streets he might not be immediately run at like a mad dog , but tbe experiment could not often be tried with safety . Some sudden burst of indignation , such as that which seized Barclay ' s brewers when Haynatt came amongst them , would always be feared ; and halfeducated men , who may have lost fathers , mothers , sisters , or sweethearts , perhaps children , in the indiscriminate massacre of the Boulevards , might easily be carried away to administer Lynch law in all its extremity . As the Emperor never has exposed himself to such a contingency , we trust he never will , fanatics may say that this would be the proper termination of his regime ; but no one will deny that it would be a very bad beginning for any other . No taunts , therefore , should provoke Napoleon III . to . trust himself for an instant abroad , beyond the circle of his spies armed with , daggers , in a city which , silent though it may seem , cowed though it may seem , even cheerfully sub * - servient though it may seem , cherishes a blood-feud against him . The Monitewr not only denies what was never precisely asserted , that the Emperor dared not- ga out without an escort , but repudiates the accusation that the police penetrates oy means of its spies into the interior of families , and thus unsettLes the confidence of private life . Of course , it is difficult to discuss this subject in a peremptory manner , be-r cause the very secrecy of tho proceeding precludes the possibility of alleging proofs that would be satisfactory to all the world- But we know that Na » I'oleon III . lias always done liis best to imitate' his uncle ; and tbe part played by spies and informers in the first Empire , is matter of history . We have recontly boon present iu a salon of Paris where a number of old friends were sitting in a oirclochat-. ting on political matters . A strange face appoared . The company broke up in groups and began to talks of tho wea-tW . This shows tho impression that exists . Indocd , it is a common saying that when fcen-people-are-piosout ,-ono-i 3 ~ suro-tonbQ-a , ^ spy . ^ J $ ! P __ know positively of a police-agent who now goe » out disguised as a priest , now as a soldier , anon a » a private gentleman with a decoration in his buttonr hole . The declarat ion of the Monilour that espionage is unknown in franco will assuredly be- received with derision . Tho truth is , that recent events liave entirely dostroyed tho little confidence wliioli the Emperor niay onco hwve liad iu his position , Ho now 8 eofr
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1858, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2235/page/15/
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