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, THE ANGLO-FRENCH UNION,
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PHYSTCAL EDUCATION AND THE RIFLE MOVEMENT.
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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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fra ° Tnentai ; y portion ? Unless we are greatly misinformed there are ^ some among the members ' of the Government who are weak enough to have been duped into the vain , imagination that tliis breaking of their measure to pieces would be ah admirable expedient for at once baulking their adversaries and bamboozling the people . If they be not greatly belied , they have been caught by the specious pretence that the extension of the Franchise is a subject apart from all others , and one which ought to be settled first , before discussing the mode of voting , ox the re-distribution of seats . Nothing can be more untrue or unsound .
An extension of the suffrage in boroughs from J 210 to £ 6 would make the constituency of many large towns—already too numerous—wholly unmanageable , while it wonld fail to render the constituencies of the forty or fifty boroughs that now possess from two to four hundred electors independent . The mischief of overgrown constituencies is quite as manifest in its effect on the representation as the mischief of diminutive ones . We are no advocates for uniformity , and we are quite content that there should always be the degree of diversity that would exist between constituencies of one thousand electors and constituencies of five thousand . But , when we have already in Liverpool and Manchester 18 , 000 voters respectively , in Marylebone and in
Finsbury , 20 , 000 , arid in many counties from 10 , 000 to 12 , 000—it does seem something very like turning the whole subject into burlesque , to hazard the passing of a Franchise Extension Bill , of which the re-allotmerit of seats should form no part . The policy is doubtful enough of conferring the franchise without the protection of the ballot on persons in humble station , in small or moderate sized constituencies , as it is in these that intimidation will always be exercised so long as it is permissible by law . But it were a great aggravation of this evil , as well as of many others , merely to add to the numbers entitled to vote , without at the . same time , arid hy the same Aet , sequestrating close boroughs and dividing a considerable number of the largest counties and
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WE do not remember a time when a distinct declaration of English policy upon an important foreign question , such as was contained in the Queen's Speech on Tuesday was more likely to have a beneficial effect upon the affairs of Europe and our own relations with other States . And although Lord Normandy , combining the . dullness of the dotard with the virulence of the partisan , sought to render service to the wretched cause of the dethroned potentates of Italy , and excite alarm in this country by flaunting pictures of the warlike preparations of France , the straightforward way in which the British Cabinet has met the assembled Parliament will strengthen the popular
berg has a concordat with the Holy Father ; and , in spite of the opinion of the people , the rulers of Saxony and Baden have enrolled themselves among his supporters . The Morocco . war , into which Spain was cunningly assisted by France , may for years render her aid to the Papal confederation of little effect ; but enough disturbing elements remain to make the military and naval activity of France fully explicable without anticipating a quarrel with ourselves . The conduct of Austria may , at any moment , lead to a revolution in Hungary , or further complications in Italy ; and if the French Government is determined to hold its ground , it must be prepared to meet any decision to which the Russian Court may arrive . The Czar is certainly not friendly to Austria , and he has enough to do with his great and difficult measure of emancipating his serfs ; but as an absolute sovereign , affecting to rule by Divine Bight and despising popular will , he must dread the impetus given to liberal principles by the attitude of England and France , and it would be hazardous to predict the course he will take when the inevitable moment comes for the rescue of Venetia and the emancipation of Hungary . It is well that these facts should be borne in mind , because , although they ought not to lead to any desire for the cessation of prudent preparations in this country , they are sufficient to show that France is justified in increasing her armaments without the slightest reference to any probability of difficulties with ourselves . Indeed , if England and France are united in spirit , the physical power which they can wield may be the very means of preventing dangerous enterprises which the absolutist Powers might otherwise undertake , / Morally speaking , there can be no peace in Europe until liberal ideas have triumphed ; but our . looms and forges may be active , and our merchants indulge in their ventures without alarm , if the two most civilized and powerful nations are agreed that a rational doctrine of nori-interventipn shall be asserted and enforced . That more collisions of armed hosts will occur may be the unavoidable result of the transition-state of affairs ; but although England will not have the absolute predominance to realize Canning ' s wellrremembered quotation of ^ Eolus . sitting upon his rock and ruling the storms , there can be no doubt we may have the power to mitigate the evils and embrace the benefits of the strife ; and it has iallen to the lot of few sovereigns to utter words of greater power than those in which Quecfti Victoria has embodied the sentiments of the nation over which' she presides , and claimed for the Italian people the absolute right to determine their own form of government and manage their own affairs . ' ,
conviction , that if Europe is again compelled to witness an appeal to arms , the friendship between the Governments of London and Paris will be preserved intact . In this country we have a oneeyed party , who cannot see the . connection between the vigorous movements of England to maintain her naval superiority , and the increasing consideration in which she is held by foreign States ; but Lord Normanby , with more absurd and culpable blindness , iguores the general condition of Europe ^ and upon grounds of false reasoning recommends a distrust of France at the very moment when the policy of that great country is more in harmony with English views than at any former period
of her hjs , tory . It may be quite true that French arsenals and dockyards exhibit as muoh activity " as if they were going to war next week ; " but unless a career of diplomacy is t <> be regarded as . a process for losing one ' s wits , Ins Lordship ought tq know enough of continental affairs to perceive that any suspicion of weakness or want of vigilance on the part of France woukl lead to a combined reactionary movement against all the advantages which Italy has gained through Trench assistance , and to air overthrow of that , prestige of success in a good cause , which is a most important source of strength to the Empire of Napoleon III . tf the war preparation ? of France are spoken of , why not those
of Austria P—who * while reducing the number of privates in Ijer army , has so exUargcd its frumowork , that it might on a short notice be made more powerful than before , "What , also , of the yapal League , which is endeavouring to entangle Russia , and which is , to all appearances , rapidly treading the road to strife P At Rome , Count Buoi , —going under ' fho diplomatic veil of *' hencj 5 tin , g his health , "— -reinforces Baron Baqii , and . assists . in plotting reactionary and absolutist schemes . Alread y the Austro « Jfapal party have succeeded with Spain , Naples , ' and South Germany , and they , are alleged to be in league with the ultra-TOQntane bishops in ' franco , who hope to restore the Bourbons to the ' throne . The King of ftavaria supplies arms to a regiment rewvutuci . in his dominions for the service of tho Pope ; Wurtem-
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rpHERE is one advantage that will result from the volunteer - * - system and its rigorous drills , apart from any warning or deterring influence the movement" may produce abroad , which has not hitherto been alluded to by our contemporaries . We allude to the valuable effects that will arise from more attention being paid to physical education . We do not mean to say that the daily marchings and countermarehings , laying down and picking up of rifles , were the first inklings we had that a strong body was a most valuable ally to a strong mind ; and that , in fact , a strong mind doing anything in a puny body was like Captain Cook trying to go round the world in a cranky Thames wherry .
" Mens anna in corpora anno , " being a motto we have had by us on copy slips , &c . ever since the days " of Tiia-i . es of of Solon * . But for the last ten years or so , there has been a growing impression that our educationalists were rather pampering the mind at the expense of its old friend and partner , the body ; and symptoms of a reaction in favour of the latter have been visible , in various ways , to those thoughtful men who do the M blinking" for the nation , and , keejping their fingers oh the people's pulse , report from time to time its indications of health or disease . Muscular Christianity , or the doctrine of giving a man who gives you one blow two in return , which Mir . Kingsley preaches , has been one of tho strongest literary cliag-r nostics of this national alarm ; and the author of ' Tom Jsrown "
has followed up this by showing that the peaco-mnking' upon which Christianity pronounced its eternal beatitude was best scoured by hitting your antagonist as hard from the shoulder and as straight between the orbs of sight as ' possible . Ten years ago or so , the Clubs were filled with ojMorly a , nd rheumatic perennials , who prophesied- that the greatness of tlto English nation had passed away with the wonderful meu— " the three-bottle men' * - ~ -rof Pitt ' s tune ; that young fellows now spoiled their nerves with tea , and other womanish drugs ; that fox-hunting no longer moant a long day ' s hard riding , from ' seven , a . m . to four p . m ., but was a mere steeple-chaso flash of lightning *
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gO The Leader and Saturday Anal yst . [ Jan 28 / 1860 .
, The Anglo-French Union,
, THE ANGLO-FRENCH UNION ,
Phystcal Education And The Rifle Movement.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND THE RIFLE MOVEMENT .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 80, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2331/page/4/
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