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teen subjected to illegal detention , accompanied by ^ vgrT circumstance of ' outrage and brutality . After * the decisive opinions pronounced by the Piedmontese jurists , and by Dr . Phillimore and Dr . Twiss in England , fortified as they have been by elaborate arguments and quotations of authority , the question , as one of international law , appears beyond dispute . What then are the rights of the Piedmontese Government ? Undoubtedly that the Cagliari should be restored , with ample compensation for 'the pecuniary loss inflicted upon her owners , and ^ h at Tier captain and crew should be liberated with indemnities . There is no limit to the gravity of this auarrel should the Neapolitan Cabinet persist m its
contumacy , -which is scarcely probable . With regard to Great Britain , nothing less will be satisfactory than the unconditional release of Watt and Park , not only from the indictments hanging over them , but from all slur whatever , and their thorough compensation for ten months' false imprisonment , for a series of inhuman severities approaching to torture , and for the injury to their health and fortunes . That they have been set free , the one under something like a pardon , the other under a royal release from impeachment , is no bar to an action for damages . If the Government of
Naples will not carry the case into the Courts of International Law , and abide by the plain interpretation of a code acknowledged by all civilized powers , the responsibility becomes its own , and the refusal , as Sir Richard Bethell has laid down , " must be followed by hostilities . " Lord Derby ' s Government has committed itself to this view in the event of the illegality of the Cagliari seizure being established to its satisfaction . Force , said the Minister , would be employed , if necessary , to effect the liberation of Watt and Park . But if it ¦
was justifiable to wrest Watt and Park by force out of their captors' hands , it is justifiable to obtain , by force , reasonable compensation for their false imprisonment . For a less offence Greece was blockaded ; for an offence not more aggravated we have bombarded Canton ; it is high time that a similar rule should be applied to Naples . There is no necessity for precipitation or bluster . If Lord Malmes--bury be the diplomatist his friends describe , he . has simply to lay the British claims before the Neapolitan Government ; to follow them , if rejected , by an ultimatum , and to declare , by a
practical demonstration , that justice will be enforced at any hazard . No section of public men in England r—not even the professed advocates of peace—could protest against , the employment of a British squadron for the purpose of indemnifying two British subjects who have been infamously and illegally maltreated by a Government deliberately malignant . Naples does not deserve to be ranked as a European power , but upon the admitted principle that xt is cowardly on the part of a cripple to strike a strong man , it is ignominious on King Ferdinand ' s
part to rely upon his naval and military mediocrity , especially when it is palpable that he leans upon a first class empire in his rear . The Piedmontese Government , at all events , is not disposed to abandon its right over the Cagliari , and Count Cavour will probably persist in regarding it as an international question , to be settled , in the last extreme , by the last resort . Our own claims are not less indefeasible than those of Piedmont , and we trust that the foreign policy of St . James ' s will at least be maintained upon a moral equality with that of Turin .
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THE FRENCH EMPIRE IN EUROPE . It is evident that the French Government is now endeavouring to recover the ground which it has lost both abroad and at home within the last three or four months . The diminution of its influence and prestige is a fact patent to all . The first symptom was the indefinite adjournment of the longtalked-of Conferences of Paris , at which every one foresaw that Napoleon III . could not play over again the part he sustained—chiefly in consequence of England ' s self-abnegation , her preference of the substance before the shadow—of . arbiter of Europe . Most of the points which remained for debate would have been decided in direct opposition to the wishes or the prej udices of France . Much was said at the beginning of the year about the means by which this check , rather to the personal vanity than to the policy of a parvenu sovereign , was to be brought about ; and those who did not see that the whole current of public opinion in Europe had changed its direction , imagined that a positive coalition , headed by England , had been formed . When the attempt of the 14 th took place , for a moment it was supposed that sympathy , of a somewhat blind and unreasoning kind , would give back to France what conviction had taken from it . A few days , nay a few hours , showed how great was this mistake . No better proof could have been given that the ascendancy of the Empire was decidedly at an end . than that the very circumstance which every one believed would do it good turned out at once to be the cause of the heaviest damage it ever received . It is true that the French Government began immediately , with perverse ingenuity , to heap fault upon fault , to frighten its friends and exasperate its enemies . But what else could it do ? The glare of Orsini ' s grenades enlightened it as to its true position . It saw for the first time that everybody in Europe looked upon it merely as an expedient—that if lew wished for its immediate destruction , all were sure it would be succeeded b y something totally different . For a year or two it had been endeavouring to imitate the demeanour of a regular government . But the truth was now revealed to it . As a . dictatorship it began , as a dictatorship it must continue . Acts ot violence were dangerous , but consistent ; acts oi weakness would have been more dangerous still . The only choice was between compression , wmcu must lead to explosion , and allowing the explosion to take place at once . There may have been a middle path ; but was it not obstructed ? Must not the Empcroi have not only changed his nature but obliterated the past , in order to bo able to concede the demands of liberal France P The caresses of a tiger fill us witli dismay as great as its attaw , if it pulls out its claws wo kill it . , England , Belgium , Switzerland , and P « J ° J were suddenly and simultaneously subjected to imperial pressure , which in no one ense > has as ye produced any marked results . In nearly aU cases , fiowovcr , thoro has been hesitation . ium \ nt condescension formed during several years are w easily laid aside . Still , the first campaign oJ uw Emperor against the liberties and watitutiotaj * his neighbours has not been successful . « J > undertaken too roughly , too imperiously , anajv w out-suflloient—prepartttion ^^ -But-it ^ iajto W -., . . ^ . served that he has not yot withdrawn any . ot » demands even upon England . His attack , 1 uw '' of the imperial columns on our squares at w » loo , was impetuous , dashing , almost overwhelming Yet it has been repelled , and wo have been aDi ^ reform in something like order . Arc we p > op » to rosist another ohargo P . „„ i ] , at Faota whioh have recently oozed out prove m Franco is now making great military and uavai j
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treat for Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli , even for one night , to get up and say whatever they please without a thought of the Opposition , but with the certainty of applauding cheers . To Mr . Disraeli such an occasion must , without doubt , be quite exhilarating . With what spirit he can deal with deficient revenue , or in fact with anything that Chancellors of Exchequer find it difficult to deal with , sure of no oppositious Mr . Williams or finely criticizing Mr . Gladstone . The wonder is that , with such manifold and manifest advantages at command , Ministers should not have done more on Monday night last . Still their performance was of a marked character , and indicated what may be expected of them when they are more familiar with their new
stage and novel audience . The curtain was sent Up with the performance of the Duke of Cambridge m the toast to the Army and Navy . The Duke p layed his part as well as he could have played it in his own House , and his point about the keeping up of the efficiency of the army without extravagant expenditure Drought down a round of applause . After the Duke of Northumberland had delivered his speech about the Navy , came , the performance of Lord Derby . In moving terms he gave a description of the toils , the anxieties , the sacrifices of a Minister ' s life , touching the hearts of all his audience by his glance at other ills to which great Ministers are
subject—" the obloquy and misrepresentations oi political opponents , and sometimes the dissatisfaction of disappointed friends . " And then he told of the great Indian bill which , upon the last night of late sitting of Parliament , he had by deputy presented to the House of Commons . Gracefully he recounted in brief the rise of that wonderful empire of ours in the East , its history to the present time , the story of its progress , with high laudation of the energy , ability , and vigour of the men who had " established a permanent influence over a population exceeding by tenfold that of their native country , and over dominions bearing a still larger proportion to
the narrow circumference of these little islands . " Then he came to the heart of his speech—the change of government demanded for this wonderful empire , and to the bill by which the change is to be wrought . '' Most modestly he spoke of his bill ; most modestly he set forth the difficulties inherent in the subject , those that were accidental to it ; and modestly he said , " I think he would be a bold , not to say a presumptuous Minister , who could hope by himself , or with the aid of his colleagues , with the notice of a few days or even a few -weeks , to strike out a scheme which would not be liable to grave objections , or which in its course "would not Perfect in
require serious modifications . " Ins part , Lord Derby now prepared to make his grand point . Such as he had described it , was the Indian Bill ; designedly had it been placed before Parliament and before the country on the last night of the sitting , when there was neither time nor opportunity for more than its bare reception ; now he would tell Parliament and the country—when none were by to say him nay—that the only wish of himself and his Cabinet was to evoke discussion upon the subject of the measure , to invite criticism , suggestions , every assistance in fact from Parliament and the country , to make it what he had not the presumption to hope it would be found to be , good for
anything . One thing alone he deprecated : that a question dealing with such mi g hty interests should be made " the snort of political parties , or the battlefield of rival disputants . " Could Lord Derby have said all this half so much at his ease upon his own stage in Westminster P Clearly the City theatre is an important Parliamentary adjunct , in the hands of really firstrate actors . Mr . Disraeli showed himself quite alive to its advantages over the old House . His budget—his deficiency—kere ho could manipulate free-tongued and free-handed . And when the Lord Mayor said that new taxes were the thing
THE BANQUET DEBATE . J ? oi . xowing the usage of great actors , Lord Derby , his own theatre being closed for a while , has appeared , for ' one night only , ' at the civic theatre , by the Bank . Great attraction ! Heal Banquet ! Legitimate success ! Under the Management of the Lord Mayor . No money returned . Vivat Jtegina ! An Easter banquet given at the Mansion House is an institution as firmly founded as the Blaokwall whitebait dinner , or as the Easter adjournment itself ; so that , in general , it is nothing extraordinary if the Ministry of the day finds itself with ita lggs under the mahogany of the Lord Mayor of the yeaTT ^ 'BuT'in ^ t lio ^ res ^^^ incidents of a remarkable kind . The Ministerial company has continued , in the Egyptian Hair of their proud entertainer , tho performances temporarily suspended in the Hall of St . Stephens . Lord Derby has , in fact , inaugurated a supplemental Parliamentary sitting , down in the City , whore there are really a good many conveniences at hand for doing the thing comfortably . fcTo uay nothing of the banquet , it is no doubt a
to meet the little difficulty in the Exchequer , Mr . Disraeli had his bon mot ready at the cue , and brought down the house right gaily . Nowhere could ho more at his case have announced his intention to take that last step in a Chancellor of the ^ xohequ'ei ? s ~ fo ^ taxes . In the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House ho is sure of his round of applause ; in the other place the applause is oxtremoly doubtful under such provocation . _ The performance , upon the whole , may bo oonaidorcd to have gone off oxtromoly well . As for the manager , the advent of the chief actor in the evening ' s entertainment was regarded by him as a piece of special Rood fortune , the rosult of an
interposition of f-ovidence , m fact . It had always bem * £ " % ??* f T J ih ^ wl'e ? he became the head of the City of London hemight have the honour of entertaining the Earl of Derby as Prime MinisW of England , and he was thankful that his nvJZ had been answered . Of course there is no xfaeo tion to the Lord Mayor conceiving himself to h favoured by Providence in this way ; on the con trary , we think that people generally will look upon him as a very happil y constituted man to find such large contentedness in favour so moderate . There is one point , however , upon which some people mav be at issue with him ; whether he has the right to let the Mansion House , even for ' one night only ' for such extra-parliamentary performances as that of Monday evening last—to turn the Festive Eeyptian Hall into a temporary substitute for the shut up Theatre lloyal , St . Stephens .
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. 348 THE LEADEB , [ No . 420 , Apbil IO ^ Isss .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2238/page/12/
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