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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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SUBSCRIPTION- TO " THE LEADER . " ONE GUINEA PER YEAR , UNSTAMPED , PREPAID . ( DELIVERED GRATIS . ) J
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STATE OF EUROPE . TNSTEAD of circumstances favouring a mitiga-JL tion of that anxiety which oppresses Europe , and compels us to maintain a / war expenditure in the niidst of peace , it seems as if we were about to encounter an aggravation of distrust , and witness a renewal of those incomprehensible attacks upon England which the French Government from time to time orders to be got up . The public is not informed of any important differences between the Cabinets of London and Paris with respect to the Italian question , and although
we may regret the outbreak of war with Morocco , it would be the height of folly to permit that untoward event to be the cause of international animosity . For many years France has ^ contemplated a conquest of Morocco , and the joint aggression now concerted with Spain can excite little surprise in the minds of statesmen who have watched the progress of events . We may assume that the French Emperor has three objects in view—to employ his army , to obtain greater security for his Algerian frontier , and to counterbalance our possession of Gibraltar and Malta , by Mediter
increasing his power on the shores of the - ranean . It is with the latter object only that we have to deal , as the two former either do not concern us at all , or in a very remote degree . It cannot be denied that an increase of French power , especially in the bands of a Government subject to no constitutional check , is a serious matter , not only for England , but for all other European states ; and it is equally certain that the old scheme of balance , by giving Austria a powerful position , ' hns altogether broken down . Under these circumstances arises orio
practical question of what is to be done ? The Tory party would have sustained Austria—or rather tried to do so—for success would have been , impossible ; a failure , disastrous and well merited , would have been the infallible result . The Manchester party would have'ns renounce our political position in Europe , and simply ask of other Powers permission to spin cotton and smelt iron in peace . The democratic portion of the community would seek for alliances with peoplos , and be prepared to check the schemes of despots by fervent appeals and material aid to the frionds of liberty . Tlio Whig party desire to be at once friendly with the hare and with the hounds . While the Sardinians
wore preparing for their struggle with Austria they deprecated it ; and though they now proclaim the moral right of the Italians to choose their own rulers , they would not . aflbrd them more than verbal support in any dangers that might occur . While we are split into those . divisions , wo cannot wonder that the French press should reply to the hostile criticisms eo freely lavished by some of our papers , by speaking of England in the past
tense , as a power that has been , but is no longer capable of materially influencing European affairs . Our neighbours boast that they are the only people who fight for an idea . We have laughed at the sentiment , and declared that it is only an interest that could induce us to take up arms . Both countries may mean precisely much the same thing by different words , but their relative positions are easily stated to our disadvantage , and Europe led to believe that while France will make sacrifices for honour or
justice , England will only submit to them from necessity or for gain . Even Mr . Cobden has seen the difficulty of maintaining our present attitude , and recommended that we should propose to France a mutual scale of military and naval power , claiming for ourselves , on account of our larger colonies and dependencies , a preponderance at sea . We should , of course , be glad if France would agree to anything of the kind , but her efforts for many years past have been strenuously and avowedly directed to prevent our having that preponderance , and we cannot expect them to cease , unless either a irreat increase of international
friendship diminishes their necessity , or the wasteful war of money expenditure is admitted to be decided in favour of England as the country of the longest purse . These two methods might be combined by judicious measures , but we must remember that no one values . a friendship that is based upon purely selfish principles . ^ If we complain that France halts and hesitates in the movement for the emancipation of Italy , she is entitled to ask what we are prepared to do in support of our own opinions , if she should be again plunged into war and threatened with German hostility and loss of Russian friendship , as was the case when the Villafranca Peace -was
made . Europe is in a state of inevitable change—Austria is falling to pieces , and , with or without revolutions , the German unity question must finfl some sort of solution . In addition to this there is actual confsuion in Italy , and the always imminent confusion in the East . Such a position of affairs leads to the question of whether there are any useful things for humanity that England and France can agree to join in doing . If both would combine to enforce , if needs be , as well as to assert , the doctrine of non-intervention , there would be an active ground for friendship ; while a reduction of the > vine duties would be taken as a practical
proof of good feeling . We know that we shall be told that the state of the revenue is unfavourable for such a step ; but it would be cheaper to lessen tlie chances of war by thus making commercial friends , than to confine our efforts solely to hostile preparations . Some benevolent individual has offered prizes for essays on the advantages of peace between the two countries , and we would suggest an international committee to consider the ocst way of mutually increasing their trade . The French mind is too familiar with the idea of warlike collision , aiid we need some movement to stimulate attention to the more beneficent process of a greater interchange
of goods . Our vast wealth and the costliness of our naval preparations fail to diminish the desire for mai'itime rivalry , becauso every Frenchman has learnt to despise our administrative arrangements . In the Crimea -wo proved that aristocratic patronage jobbing could starve an army , and the moral debasement of the House of Commons Was manifested by the feebleness ^ of its efforts to reform the culpable departments , and by its scandalous toleration of the honours and rewards showered upon guilty and inoompetent persons . Since then our Indian administration has exhibited a series of
disgraceful failures , and the China disaster has proved that our rulers persist in their determination never to put the right men in the right place . Wo may build ships by the dozen , and lavish fabulous sums upon steam rams and Armstrong guns : but bur Admiralty destroys their moral value by making the naval service so unpopular , that in case of war we could not man our ships with crows able to work thorn . The truth is , that if we are to bo respected in Europe , or anywhoro else , ivo must have a thorough reform ; we hayo neither principles , policy , nor administrative skill and integrity . From Calcutta to London there ifl nothing but fatuity and blunderingj and anything like strict personal responsibility in government departments is entirely unknown .
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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of his good faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass ot letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owmjr to a press of matter ; and when emitted , it is frequently SSMU " sons quite independent of the merits ot the commumca-We cannot undertake to return rejected communications .
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OFFICE , NO . , CATHERINE-STREET , STRAND , W . C .
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v _ \ _ y •—SATURDAY , OCTOBER 29 , 1859 .
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There isnothing : so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold . ¦ . : . : u «*
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THE CONSERVATIVE DEMONSTRATION . There can be no objection to . a Conservative party , provided it be uniformly beaten at the right time ' . Free discussion is the vital principle of constitutional liberty , and this would be difficult to ensure without the existence of persons tolerably certain to differ upon every important occasion on which change is proposed . The main difficulty of a " Conservative demonstration" is how to avoid letting out its real moral and intellectual character , and . exhibiting it too nakedly as the protest of ignorance against knowledge , or the selfish declaration of privileged classes that they ai-e sufficiently well off ' to deprecate any alteration in a system which produces—for them—so much
wealth and ease . The best Conservative Demonstrator of the day is unquestionably Mr . Disraeli , because he is the greatest master of words to which a double meaning can be attached , and manages to keep his followers together without taking an intelligible part in any of the controversies of the day . The best days of Conservatism were when it was only "Hip , hip , hoorah for Church and State , " and even the semblance of argument was not required from its ardent chiefs . Tlie difficulty of the business has sadly increased with the growth of the intelligence , and even the fat pastures of Essex cannot now produce a race of bucolic defenders of the ancient creed capable of dininsr and talkinor without danjrer to their own
designs . The members of the Binckford Conservative and Agricultural Club weie , however , imprudent enough to hold their annual gathering at the well known Castle Hedingham , at which five local M . P . s were present . The Rev . H . Majendie and Mr . Ashurst Majendie represented the special duty of the time to be the defence of church rates . The latter gentleman -grew nautical in his eloquence , and exclaimed , " Let Conservatives stand by church rates , and if they were the defeated let the good old British man-of-war still have her colours flying , her courage up , and her determination undaunted . " Whether the church or the rates Or the parson was tlie " old British man-ofdefeated
war " the orator did not explain ; but "if , as Mr . Majendie knows must be the case , the " determination is to be undaunted , " which ive suppose means she is to be quite ready to be defeated again . The Rev . J . Cox pronounced the church rate question to be the real battle-ground between Conservatives and Liberals , and appears to have contributed his usual amount of fume and froth to an event always associated with anticipations of fear . These lay and reverend orators cannot fail to know that the most successful " of the church rates , during late years have been made upon the much abused voluntary system , and that the willing aid of its adherents has been a million-fold more important than the paltry tax upon the dissenter ' s pocket and conscience .
The Reform question , though subordinated to church rates , came in for its share of after-dinner eloquence , and Mr . Ashurst Majendie demanded no less than the eternal exclusion of Mr . Bright from her Msijesty ' s councils , because he had observed in his speeches " that one monarch came to a very sudden and unpleasant end nt Whitehall bocause he would not yive up any portion' of his absolutism . " The Essex Conservative must in verity be a specimen of that Essex production to which we are indebted for . much excellent veal , it he imagines that Queen Victoria is going to make a fight against the new Reform Bill or would be in tlie slightest degree alarmed if Mr . Vincent were invited to Custle Hodiugham to dchvor his " Oration on Oliver Cromwell , " which is often
advertised . - Mr Berosford characterised Lord Derby ' s sickly and short-lived Reform Bill as an " extreme strong . " measure , and Mr . Du Cane discovered in the Builders' Strike and the disclosures nt Wakcfield nnd Gloucester grave reasons against '' treating the British constitution as a matter of arithmetic , and admitting the working classes in more numerical masses . He also considered that Mr . Bright had bonefitted the Conservative party not only by his extreme language but by his decided advocacy of the ballot . _ ., . We are not going to defend Mr . Bright , nor lus tondenoy to mistake the small Manchester school for the people of England , but it is amusing to note the grounds upon which he is assailed . Tho numerioiu argument is the great bugbear upon which the Conservatives rely , out they ought to do
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No . 501 . Oct . ' 29 , 1859-1 THE LEADER . 1201
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1859, page 1201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2318/page/13/
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