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central power under the leadership of Prussia . We do not proclaim this adhesion as if there existed in Germany opposite tendencies to combatt , but simply to let all who share our sentiments know that we are ready to go hand in hand with them . We make this declaration fully conscious that unless " we co-operate to bring about the union of all the States ofour common country we shall have toendure the serious consequence to which a longer continuance in our present condition will most assuredly lead " This meeting at Gotha was intended to be a grand demonstration and the signal for a universal agitation , but judging by present appearances it has proved to be only the last act of a play , and the spectators and actors are all off home and to bed .
Changes , but not to the extent anticipated , have occurred iri Austria . Some persons have been shifted in the Ministry , and hopes are held out of certain reforms in consequence . The Vienna Gazette officially announces that Count Recberg retains his place as Minister for Foreign Affairs , and becomes Minister President ; Baron Hubner , Police ; Mr . Von Goluchowski , Minister of the Interior ; Freiherr Von Kemper is pensioned off , and Von Bach is appointed Ambassador to Rome , The Ministersbip of Trade is ; abolished , and the labours distributed among the the Interior , Foreign , and Finance offices . An article in the non-official part of the Gazette pretends to confirm the general and ardent
expectations of the people , and is happy to inform them that the subjects which were under consideration at the Special Conferences" ( mentibned in iny last ) were —The establishment of a board of control for the Finances ; the free exercise of . the Protestant religion ; the regulation of the position of the Jews ; the carrying out of the Communal laws ; and parliamentary representation at a later period in the crown domains . Timid hesitation , says the Gazette . as well as unreflecting haste , are equally to be avoided . It w ould occupy too much space were I to attempt to give even the briefest sketch of these subjects . Indeed it would be useless , for it is much sound , signifying nothing . The people themselves never trouble themselves about these sham questions
strong and healthy to labour in those colonies which require a supply of hands . It is to be hoped that no persons condemned for political offences will be mixed up accidentally and sent off with common gaol birds . Should this report be founded on fact it may prove not only a cheap and expeditious mode of getting rid of useless vagabonds and disagreeable persons generally in Prussia and even all Germany , but also prove a comfort to those countries—England for instance- ^ which lie near and have no system of passports . The Americans have long ago adopted precautions against the economical views of certain Governments in' Germany as regards their criminals .
A slight reduction has taken place in the postage between England and the Hanse towns Hamburg and Bremen ; Letters pay now 5 £ d . instead of , 8 d ., if sent by steamer and prepaid . Newspapers are , however , still charged by weight , which , as regards the English , owing to their size and the stoutness of the paper , is equal to an exclusion from circulation in Germany . Letters from this country to the United States are charged no more than 5 d ., while newspapers are charged only Id . each , no matter what the sise . Why such a difference should exist
it is hard to understand . It would appear as if the English post-office authorities entered into postal treaties without considering the relative circumstances of the different nations . We can send a German newspaper to England for Id ., or at most 2 d ., whereas we cannot receive an English paper here under 3 d ., or at the very least 2 £ d . For the Times or Zondoti News the postage amounts from 3 d . to 5 d ., which , considering the relative value of money , is equal to twice the amount in England . At any rate it is absurd that the postage from here to England should be as high as to America . believe trueis
A statement , which I can hardly , making the round of the German papers to the effect that the English Government is engaging hundreds of carpenters , masons , and locksmiths from Berlin and its environs , upon very advanv tageous terms ^ to erect edifices for Government account ir i the Ionian Islands . A special contract ^ it is said , has been concluded with each . The engagement is for eighteen months , at the expiration of which each will be free to return at the . expense of Government . Should this be true it may not be unworthy of notice by the English press , for several reasons , which I may advance on a future occasion .
P . S . The cholera is raging with such violence m Mecklenburg that the Government has made a semirofficial appeal to the landowners not to abandon their estates in cowardly fear , but to do their duty to their unfortunate tenants , and assist the moBfc afflicted districts in getting in the crops which are rotting in the fields , for want of labourers .
which are only putforth from time to time to ^ make them believe that the Government is busy about some vast improvement . AH pother about Communal laws may be calmed by quietly granting every one liberty to gain his bread the be «» t way he honestly can , and allowing free ingress and egress from the country . Protestants and Jews merely Tequire to be left alone . It is rather comical to hear that the Government is about to establish a control over the finances now that they have hardly any existence . The last promised reform is of all the most ridiculously prospective ^— " Parliamentary representation for the crown domains at an indefinitely later . " period has been under consideration . " In this , at least , there will be lio excessive haste .
The King of Prussia is sinking from one stage of imbecility to another , and his death is daily expected . The late attack having passed off , no further bulletins will be issued for the present , and the members of the royal family are released from their attendance . The Prince Regent has departed for Ostend . It is to be hoped that the present style of address , when speaking to or writing of the sovereign and the Princes in Prussia , will soon be abolished . No one possessed of a grain of coitmon sense could do otherwise than smile on reading the reports of the King ' s illness . One would have supposed that some Almighty being was lying sick at Potsdam , instead of the indifferent chief magistrate
of a thirdr-rate power . Such terms of address as «• Allergnadigste , Durchlauchtiffste , Konig gund Herr , " almost approach , in sound , at least , to blasphemy . But that it would eeera / like a mockery over the deplorable state of the unfortunate monarch , I would give you the last official report as a literary curiosity of the nineteenth century . XiOrd John Russell is said to have addressed a dispatch to Lord Bloomfleld , soon after the treaty of Villa Franca , expressing a desire to establish a complete accordance between the cabinets of Berlin and London in all European questions . The JQlberJeld Gazette states that the friendly relations between Russia and Prussia , are now closer than ever , and ,
that Prussia , far from being isolated , is more powerful than before for good , and sees in her alliance with England , in particular , a strong guarantee for the maintenance of peace . It is reported by some journals , that Prussia has entered into an arrangement with the Dutch Government , according to . which the latter 1 ms undertaken to set : apart a portion of territory in one or the other of the Dutch colonies as a penal settlement for all Prussian criminals who have been condemned byjthe tribunals , to ten years' imprisonment or ' naore , and who are sufficiently robust to endure the fatigues of a long voyage . This , in plain Ian * fiuago , I presume , means that Prussia has either aola , or made a present of all her criminals to Hol-*» nq , who in willing to receive uuch as are sufficiently
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MM . VICTOR HUGO AND LOUIS BLANC ON THE AMNESTY . The following additional declarations have been published this week . M , Victor Hugo , writing from Guernsey , says : — "No one will expect that , so far as I am personally concerned , I should give a moment ' s attention to the thing called an amnesty . While the state of France remains what it is , my duty will be to protest against ill absolutely , inflexibly , eternally . Faithful to the engagement I have made with ray conscience , I shall share to the last the exile of liberty . When liberty returns , I will return . "
availing one ' s self of it , more especially if it be for the purpose of fulfilling domestic duties not less imperious and sacred than those arising from political convictions . No man , therefore , conscientiously influenced by such contingencies , is obnoxious or to blame for seizing the opportunity , though reluctant to receive the boon . " On the other hand , there are those who , without being in the slightest degree prompted by the silly desire of setting up as martyrs , feel bound to subordinate all personal considerations to what they
conceive to be a public duty consequent upon , their position . If these persons have strong and obvious motives for believing that their return , besides being unsafe , would be of no avail either to their cause or to their country , they are , it seems to me , perfectly entitled to remain where they can speak out their mind , and enjoy the ennobling protection of the law . To serve France in France is for us now plainly impossible . To serve her abroad is the only chance wo have left , at least so long as the policy of the empire remains unchanged .
" I have already acknowledged , which I am sorry to say was wilfully ignored by some of my critics , that Louis Bonaparte could hardly have done for us in the present conjuncture more than he has . But the amnesty is not the payment of the debt he owes to France , and in this payment lies the only means of imparting to the amnesty the character of a sincere and truly national act . Let the most odious practice be abolished which confiscates personal liberty on mere suspicion , and is , in fact , worse than the famous loi des suspects , enacted in the darkest days of the French revolution . Let the principle be laid down that no person henceforth shall be . dealt with as a criminal who has not been previously convicted by a jury of his country . Let the press be ungagged by the withdrawal of the crushing system of warnings , which is meant to annul the jury , and
to make the whole of a man ' s property responsible for a single word . Let a fairly elected representative body speak openly before the country , and no check be put on the publicity of their deliberations ; let , in fine , all those rights be restored to France which constitute civil and political liberty—then the amnesty will be a clear , appreciable measure . Till this be done it remains open to the suspicion of insincerity , and may be taken as an indication of weakness rather than of strength . Whenever all this shall be done , then—and I urge the point , in order to prevent future misapprehension—it may become not only the desire but the duty of those now compelled to be in a state of self imposed exile to return to their country , not indeed to force their particular views upon an unwilling majority , but to have them tested by peaceful discussion , and cither received or rejected on their own merits . "
M . Louis Blanc expresses his opinion as follows : -r- " I have received communications from some of my countrymen who , finding themselves in a most painful condition , and being anxiously summoned home by their families , desire to know , in order to remove all doubts from their minds , whether , according to my views , persons situated as they are would do better not to take advantage of the amnesty . I need not point out to you the importance of the matter , both to the persons alluded to and others who may be similarly circumstanced ; and this makes me hope that my answer will be published in your columns .
" That tho amnesty should be welcomed by hearty and unqualified satisfaction , as far as it extends to the unfortunate men who are to be rescued from their places of deportation or from their dungeons , that is—from a living death—is a matter of course . Who could think without emotion of so many mothers , wives , and children , whose hearts overflowed with joy at tho unexpected news ? But the amnesty may also be fairly hailed as a blessing by many among the exiles , whom thoir forlorn position in a foreign country , or fUmlly ties of a specially urgent character , justify in returning to their native land ; for tho solution of the problem is not one which depends upon the requirements of party compact , but rests on individual responsibility . Persons placed in different circumstances can hardly be expected to view a question of this kind in exactly the same light . Now , the amnesty being unconditional , no sort of stain whatever attaches to the act of
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" JUSTICE TO ITALY . " Under this head Mr . Walter Savage Landor has written an eloquent letter to a contemporary . He sayS . — ?• it is now evident to the most ignorant of the English people , and the most incredulous and opiniative ofthe English Parliament , that the Italian nation is worthy of free institutions ,, and resolute to maintain them . No election in our smallest borough was ever conducted with more temperance and propriety than the Florentine revolution in last April . Modena , Parma , Siena , Pisa , Leghorn , and every other municipality , were equally with Florence , firm , tranquil , prompt , and courageous . The Legations rose also in perfect unanimity from under the heavy
seat imposed on them by the stranger , ana supported by a fat flounced priesthood . A shameful peace delivered up Venice , long half dead ? to be strangled and dismembered by the Barbarian , who had despoiled and mutilated her . It now is manifest that a League of Kings is opposed to a League of Nations , and determined to .. throw every impediment to the progress of truth and freedom . They advance under the pretext of order in opposition to republicanism . And truly no greater curse can befall mankind than the strides of that hellish apparition . But it was no apparition that guiilod the Roman legions . It was no apparition that guided Cincinnatus from the furrow to the Capitol ..
Was Holland turbulent when she established her form of government ? Was England turbuiont when she called for her King the Statholdor of a republic ? Are the Italians , like tho French , incapablo of senrule ? Must they crouch for ever under masters and strangers ? Venice was a republic ; yet was there ever another government in all Europe wnieft flourished in order and plenty a thousand years t Florence was a republic , and sometimes so turpulent as to exhaust her energies , never dangerous to surrounding princes . This little cit # , the wva . 1 of Athens , has produced more men illustrious in tne Arts and Sciences , more men of exalted gwuu * than all tho rest of the Contthent in ninoteon
centuries . " „ , _ .., , _ Mr . Landor demands that tho affUlra of Italy should be left to Italians to manage , and points out
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9 S 0 the Leader . [ No . 49 Q . Aug . gy , 1859 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1859, page 980, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2309/page/8/
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