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misleading , light has been all but . hidden ; and in Its absence the lesser luminaries of Brussels and Turin have naturally attracted more regard . We must do our Belgian brethren the justice ot saying that they have shown . themselves in every tray worthy of the task that has devolved upon them . Writing as they have - done during the last seven years under the muzzle of the imperial guns , they have seldom , if ever , been wanting in courage or candour . Again and again they have been insolently menaced by the authorities of the Tuilenes ; but they have met such menaces with calm intrepidity , and without petulance or bluster they have of their the
most unparelleled the Government and people it has served so faithfully and so well have stood true in its defence , and have resisted at no ordinary peril every attempt to fetter or subvert it . It wpre a very bad compliment to a sober or enlightened nation to ascribe such resistance to an abstract sentiment of pride rather than to a practical sense of justice and of policy . Had their newspapers been reckless and vituperative in their mode of dealing with great public questions , instead of logical and persuasive , firm and dignified , the duty of self-preservation would have long since been heard pleading against , the duty of preserving them . But it is just because the Belgian journals have with a clear instinct discussed the true path of the
national interest , and have steadily abstained from deviating therefrom , that their preservation has come to be habitually bound up with that of na ^ tional existence , and that no party or section of weight or worth pretends to distinguish between the two . They are not regarded— -as in some other countries thoughtless and intemperate journals have deservedly been—as a sort of Bashi-Bazouks equally dangerous to friends and foes , but as the recognised standard-bearers of the national defence , round which individual patriotism trustingly rallies , and to which those in command continually point . We find that we have not room to-day for any comparative notice of the Sardinian press . We shall resume , the subject in another number .
pursued the honest tenour way . . -y Lave seen their dearest privileges , nay , the very rran tees of their existence itself , put in jeopardy the rash violence of men who , driven from ineir own country , have soug ht in Belgium the means of weekly or daily denunciation of the authors of their exile . These organs of the ostracised are vehemently republican , and , as may well tie supposed , vindictively anti-imperialist . But their principles find no echo in the native Belgian press , which is emphatically temperate , with few and obscure exceptions . The confidence which has been generated in all classes of the community in the loyalty of the King and the adequacy of the constitution is reflected in the moderation of tone which characterises the most influential journals ,
whether Liberal or Conservative . L ' Emancipation is , perhaps , the ablest organ of Catholic and Conservative opinions , and enjoys deservedly much influence among the opulent and educated laity ; but while the sympathies of its party tend towards imperialism , it adheres unswervingly to the national faith in self-government ; and though many of its supporters are disposed to favour a protectionist ; policy , it undeviatingly maintains the wisdom and policy of free trade . JJEconomiste Beige , L'Etoile , and Sancho ( the Charivari of Brussels ) may be cited as similar instances , though in a different way . But
the most remarkable , and , in many respects , the most admirable proof of skill and enterprise in continental journalism , is V Indepeiidance Beige , which , without abandoning the maxims on which it was originally founded as a watchful and fearless sentincf of national rights , has aspired to play a cosmopolitan part , and has succeeded for a considerable time in doing so with spirit and dignity . It M'as in . 1845 , if we mistake not , that , under the advice of M . B-Ogier , the present head of the administration , its proprietors were induced to assign to it this new role , and to undertake the
large additional expenditure which such a venture entailed . By degrees it has come to have separate editions for Germany , for France , for the Baltic , and for Belgium . All these require to be separately edited ; and in addition thereto a great number of correspondents contribute to its amusing columns political and personal information from every country in Christendom . That it is sometimes misled cannot be denied , but it is not the less true that many of the plots of diplomacy and the treacheries of despotism have been first . revealed in its pages . Its annual expenditure , literary and
political , independent of paper and type , is said to be as great as that of many pt our own London daily journals . Nothing can bo more cautious or measured than the language it habitually emjjloys , and nothing in phraseology less provocative of the hostility of the prohibitory past-oflicc . But how efiicicntly it performs its duty to public liberty is . indicated by tho frequent , seizure at tho frontiers of even the edition prepared for tho French market . To offer , its Prettch subscribers copies of tho same imprint that is intended for the free readers of Brussels , Copenhagen , or Amsterdam , would be simply absurd . Not one of them would over penotrato through tho literary lazaretto which Louis Napoleou has established at evory border town ana village of tho
empire . Tho two or threo thousand subscribers in France to K Inddpoudanco Bolgo arc but too thankful to have niuo-tonths of its nows and comments , which they would not bo allowed to have if the obnoxious tilho woro not omitted . Instead of tho impossible oxoorpt boing out out , something thai ; is ? " ? . y . l ? ff ; -J * - 1 t ! y (' ioulu ^; iulerqsLmff to _ -Ei : ou « h rcwlTJms ^ iiseriocl , ' aua thus in gonornTtho ctlilion made up for Frunco is ponniUod to circulate there . Similar euro and taot is usod regarding that which is intended for circulation in Gormany and llussia , and with tho Jiko offoefc . ' ; The cliaprotion and- good ^ mpor , as well as high \ ability , evinced by tho Belgian pross has had its , own roward—it has ensurod the preservation of its troodom . Undor prossuro unprecedented aud al-
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LQBD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE . Lord Stratford de Redcliffb , after a brief sojourn at Paris , has at length set out for Constantinoplei What is his purpose in going thither ? and in what capacity is he gone ? Our French neighbours , who have always looked on him as the incarnation of national jealousy , and the very embodiment of th e inappeasable spirit of anti-Gallicanism they impute to John Bull , are extremely curious to know what the testy old gentleman is really about . ; and failing to glean any reasonable account of the matter from English newspapers or English gossips , they have busied themselves during the past week hi fabricating and retailing conjectural explanations of the cx-Arnbassador s
. _ But has he a mission of any kind that can be termed oificial , after all ? Everybody who knows anything of the usages of diplomacy must be aware that when a sovereign has an accredited representative at the court of another , a second envoy of similar rank can only be sent for some special object with the capacity and with the title of Minister or Ambassador Extraordinary , as the case may be . It was with such functions and powers that Lord Minto was sent to Italy in 18-1 / ; and it was thus that Lord John Russell was sent to Vienna in 1855 .
temper ; and his almost feminine jealousy of ever ; One , whether English , French , Austrian , or Russian who has in his time presumed to advise the Sultai on affairs of weight , has been the theme of ridicule arid reproach amongst all on whose self-love he has trodden . When Lord Clarendon used sometimes . to ask for an answer to some suggestion made in a solemn and verbose despatch six months oldj Lord Stratford would coolly intimate that he had not had leisure at the time of its receipt to enter into explanation o £ the reasons why the suggestion from Downingstreet was obviously inapplicable or inopportune .
His rivals of the corps diplomatique were treated with as little ceremony . He despised their comparative ignorance of the affairs of Turkey , and was too much engrossed with the really honest and cordial anxiety for their extrication from ruin , to waste time in vindicating his own arbitrary mode of procedure , or instructing others how to help him if inclined . No English Minister of the present century ever snubbed so many personages of note at home or abroad . As for Sir Henry Buiwer , he made no disguise of ¦ his contempt for that feeble and frivolous make-believe of a gnat diplomatist .
He told Sir Henry , on his arrival at Constantinople as special commissioner , to arrange the affairs of the Principalities , that he was not to be duped as to the ultimate aim with which he had come thither ; he knew , he said , that the plausible petit maitre was come to supplant him as ambassador , but that he did not intend to permit the guardianship of the Porte to fall into such incompetent hands until they were in a better condition . And it is no secret that , anxious as Lord Clarendon was to get rid of him , he dared not supersede him in the post he had filled so long with matchless energy
and ability . At length , weary of the ingratitude and spite of , Downing-street , and somewhat prematurely confident , perhaps , that , the perils of the Porte were passed , he resolved spontaneously to offer his resignation ; it was eagerly accepted , and Sir H . Buiwer , having more family interest with the present Administration than he had with , that of Lord Palmerston , and being quite as ready to fall in with the views of the one as with those of the other , was appointed in his room . It is said , and not wholly , we believe , without foundation , that expectations were at- one time held out to Lord Stratford of the portfolio of foreign affairs in Lord Derby ' s Cabinet . As the relative and friend of
Mr . Canning , there would have been a peculiar grace in such an appointment by the present Premier , whose first nomination to office was in 1 S 27 , when he was made Under Secretary of State by that illustrious man . But hx politics there is little room for gratitude or sentiment of any kind Lord Derby thought , in all probability , that he was running risk enough by taking oue unmanageable man of genius into his Cabinet ; and his experience of Lord Ellenborough , who stood regarding Indian affairs in pretty much the same position of peculiar aptitude as Lord Stratford did respecting those of Southern and Eastern Europe , Was not cnlculated to encourage him to repeat the experiment . Our own belief is , that however timely the visit
of the ex-Ambassador may be to Constantinople , he has no diplomatic mission there , cither official or secret . We fear that his presence in the Turkish capital has been necessitated by the meanness of tho Foreign Office , which is accused of having refusod to pay certain , liabilities contracted by him without direct authority for the public service during the" war . The utility of ' sonic' of the expenditure was questioned by Lord Clarendon , and Lord Malmcsbury hesitates to run counter to what his predecessor did . To make out a formal case for payment , tho presence of Lord Stratford onoe more among the agents and jobbers of Pora , who formerly obeyed his every behest with alacrity , may possibly have been rendered indispensable . But if so , tho necessity rullocts liitle credit on tlioso who have compelled tho old man to make such a journoy .
Iii the latter instance , Lord Westmoreland , the ordinary representative of Great Britain in Austria , was not , indeed , superseded , but he took for the time a secondary position , and in all matters of moment was bound to defer to the judgment of his temporary chief . , When tho special negotiations were over , for which Lord John ( unluckily for himself ) was induced to visit Vienna , " old hum-drum , " as the musical earl was commonly ' . called , resumed his former part , aud continued to mutter on in a low , inarticulate manner , as he had done before . If Lord Stratford had undertaken any special mission
to the PorJ . o , Uq must , therefore , assume precedency of Sir Henry Bulwcr during his stay at Stamboul . The mystery would then be at an end , ' and tho diplomatic riddle read . But as this is not seriously anticipated by tho most gullible of ( johe-mouches , some other version must bo devised , and an equivocal character invented in which perfidious Albion has sent forth her trustiest envoy . It is to no purpose that his Lordship repudiates all responsibility and authority . His curt disclaimers nro not be * liuvod . Ho travels wii . h a brilliant suite . Ho is
too haughty a man wantonly to visit tho scone in a private ana powerless capacity where for twonty ; y . oa ) i ; s 4 iG-ookGi ? oibo ^) otijivt 7 iaUs' «^ , yv ^ l he » uHcc ) noeaVed aversion ho has so frequently expressed for his successor , and tho ineffable air of superior knowledge , skill , and influence ho has ahva . ys assumed whenever they were brought into contact , renders it , no doubt , somewhat ditlloult to imagine ho \ y they oould gut on amicably togolhor , of all places in tho world , on tho banks of the Bosphorus . With all his good qualities , the veteran diplomatist has never been able to rostmm tbo arrogance aud irritability of his
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§ CpTTI 5 ? r TIN ! VEliSLTX _ llEFjQllA £ — It is not often that the Scottish legal oflieors appointed under successive ministries gain for thoinsolyes , in the short parliamentary career which precedes their inevitable elovation to iho bouoh , any wider reputation than their professional labours have given them boyond the Tweed . Tiio English public know only tho ofllcos known by tho designations " Lord Advocate" and " Solicitor-General for Scot-
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i ^ o ^ 3 . September 18 , 1858 . 1 THE JEAB-BBy ,...,... 967
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1858, page 967, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2260/page/15/
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