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BOUEBONIST AND BONAPARTIST PARTIES ENT.--. ; ¦ ;:¦ ; ¦ . • . • PABLTA^ENT. \. .. - . .
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THE NEW BOROUGH FRANCHISE.
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HISTORY , it is said , never repeats herself . For the sake of the hard-toiling , over-taxed , war-harassed many , it is to be hoped indeed she seldom may . But remembering what took place half a century ago , and looking at what is taking plate at the present moment in our own co untry as well as abroad , we are sorely driven to suspect .-that ¦ the philosophic saw is frequently very far from being true . What is our Parliament doing , and with what ideas are the minds of politicians predominantly possessed ? There is the usual amount of commonplace talk about education , church-rates , changes in the liturgy , bribery
at elections , vote by ballot , income-tax , shipping dues , army purchase , railways , and the rest : but the ambitious activity of party cares just now for none of these things . Its public utterances and secret aims are alike concentrated on foreign affairs . As it was sixty years ago , so it is now . Three great influences are struggling for ascendancy on the Continent , — -Legitimate right , popular power , and that anomalous system invented by the first Napoleon , which , professing to he based on universal suffrage , governs by the sword and by espionage as despotically as any of the old absolutisms . The Court and the Conservatives of our fathers' time sided openly with Legitimacy . The sympathies of the people , then as now , were -with their ¦ -brethren ; ' everywhere
seeking to be free from native or foreign tyrants . The Whigs , who followed Mr . Pox , were dazzled and duped by Bonaparitism . In their eyes , Napoleon was a rare instrument for the destruction of right divine , ecclesiastical authority , and democracy , all ¦ of which they abhorred . With them the selfishness and shamelessness of territorial cupidity went for nothing , compared with the humiliation of the ancient dynasties , and the repression of republicanism . The same feelings that animated the Whig party in 1800 , prompted them - -under other circumstances to hail -with delight the enthronement of . Louis Philippe , in 1830 . The Citizen King was for them what the First Emperor had been , an object of equal terror to the dotard despots and
whose heritage in France , in Italy , and in Spain , pur fathers spent five hundred millions of money in the ineffectual attempt permanently to restore ? Far be it from us to argue this great question on the . sordid and blind ground taken by theManchester School . God forbid that we should ever say , " Perish , Savoy ! " lest a profitable commercial treaty should be marred by our interposition ; and " all honour to the Constitution of the United States , " negro slavery included , because a cheap and regular supply of cotton is indispensable to millocmt fortune-making . 3 t is on far different grounds that we deprecate the excitement of animosity between the two countries . It is because we know that the annexation of Savoy is a mere pretence , while the hope of resuscitating Legitimacy by a dynastic league is the re al and actuating motive , that we resist the appeals professedly made on behalf of the inhabitants of Nice and Chambery , But neither do We desire , on the other hand , to encourage a craven tone of deference to the man who , having won the imperial diadem by an act of surpassing treachery to freedom at home , tries vainly to persuade the world that , for sake of realising an abstract idea of Italian independence , he undertook a pe rilous and costly war . We believe nothing of the kind . We believe that his objects in that war were , in the main , personal and egotistical . He wanted distraction for the minds of his subjects at home , and eclat for his name abroad . The humiliation of the Court of Austria , which had snubbed him as a suitor , and deceived . him as an ally , was , in itself , no stoall temptation . The creation of a new , second-rate kingdom , south of the Alps , after the fashion of his uncle and prototype , had also its fascination for one who lives in a world of splendid dreams . To show that he possessed hereditary claims to the sword of Napoleon as well as to- , his sceptre , was perhaps paramount to till other considerations . . But , whatever may have been the . contributory impulses that actuated him , we have little dotibt of their scope and character . The good service , he has rendered to the Italian cause need not , therefore , and ought not , as a matter of fact , to be denied . On the contrary , if its acknowledgment tends , to encourage its continuance , and in so far as it does so , its cheerful recognition seems to us a duty at the . present time . But men who care for " England ' s honour and for England ' s interest , will neither temporise with Bourbomst intrigue ' s nor tmckle / to Bonapnrtist ambition . . Their path lies clear of " both your Houses . "
democratic leaders of the Continent ; and-both were lauded and flattered accordingly by our oligarchic liberals , until the stomach of the country turned against , their unnational policy , and they were compelled to repudiate it , . with many vows of penitent regret . The Court find the Tories were more obstinate , in their addictions , and they were more successful in winning over for a time a certain portion of popular feeling . There were , indeed ; , brief intervals , when they affected a tone of compromise with "the upstart and usurper , " as they alu-at / s loved to call the Corsican soldier and the Orleanist prince j George JIT ., ' by the advice of Lords ¦ . Sm . MOi . 'TH and Castleueagii , signed the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleon ; and WiLLiAar IV ., by the counsel of
the Duke of AVellington , acknowledged , without hesitation , his Most Christian brother of the Barricades . But , at heart , the Conservative party in England has always been Bourbonist , and no interchange of gilded compliments between the Courts of Windsor and St . Cloud , or reciprocation of presents and hospitalities , can persuade the world that those who have been born to the purple , would not rather see- a descendant of S't Louis enthroned at the ' jL ' uileries than any other potentate or power . For salce of this principle of legitimacy , the Tories in Piirluinicufc and Cabinet plunged England into the greatest and
costliest war in which she has ever been engaged , and the pecuniary consequences of which she will never , unfortunately , bo fiblc to forget . And if they had their way they would betray us into the same disastrous and insane , course again . While * Lord PalmeitSTON is ready to condone any perfidy in Napoleonic policy , and to accede : ' to any . projects his Iniperia fvioiid may take into his head , ( that of the Suez Canal only exocpted ) , ' Mr . SrA'MOUH . Fi : r % Qr / uAj .. ; i ) aiulLordELLiiNHoiiouGH express in Parliament what the Carlton Club talks daily over its wine j and Lords Noiimanby and SiujmisnuitY are understood to speak as sponsors for inarticulate royalty .
In such a conflict . of prejudices and passions , what course ought t \\ a faithful representatives of the people in Parliament and their faithful warders in the press to pursue ? Shall we lend ourselves to dynastic schemers of reaction and restoration , or become the pnssivo apologists of parvenu absolutism ? , Shall wo make a quarrel with the ruler of France about the possession of a parish or two at the foot of the Alps , which its hereditary owner hardly pretends to regret seriously having agreed to resign as a sort of nominal consideration for the splendid acquisition of Lombardy and the Duchies P 8 hall wo stimulate the puguaoity of a generous . and credulous nation to head a second League of Pilnitsj in defence of Germany , before Gormany nfl ' octs to believe herself to bo hi danger , or colls on us for help ? Shall we begin to load the Imck of industry with war taxes to provide an army , ft' licet , imd a commissariat fov the Princos . of the House of Bouiibon ,
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THEBE is no disposition , as far as we know , to undervalue the concession proposed by the new Reform Bill to the industry and intelligence ' of the towns . That three men . should in 'future be able to vote for representatives in . Parliament where two only can iiqav exercise that privilege , is a substantial improvement not to be despised . There arc many places where this addition will probably have the effect of quenching reactionary hopes , and insuring the return to Parliament by a decisive majority of men representing the real wants and wishes of the great body of the people . There arc other places , where hitherto it . lms been found worse than useless to bring forward men ol
earnestness and liberality of : purpose , for which it will become possible for such men to stand . We may add tlint we know ot none ni which -the addition to the constituency is likely to produce an opposite effect j . and us no pretenco is made of finality on the present occasion , and we are only asked to give a receipt on account , it were , mere folly to hesitate about doing so . Throughout the country there is a quiet feeling of satisfaction at the step in advance about to be made , not so much for its own suke as from tli « belief that it will necessarily l < wl in . due tnne to others of importance . In whatever , therefore , we may have to say on the subject , we wish to bo distinctly understood as desiring that , even in its present shape , . the" Hill should pass into
a law during the present session . We cannot , however , abstain from expressing our regret at , certain omissions in the prosoiit measure , wliicli we had not to complain of in that of tho late Government . It sounds very well no doubt , in mi introductory statement , to tnlk of sunnlioity ot design and uniformity of plan ; hut tlic . wants ol an oId and mixed community ' like ouvs arc not ; unilm-m , ami no simple them Uuit
or single specific can bo made applicable to fairly . every man occupying " ^ >» ° " > Personally rated m respect thereof , mill punctually pny ing all i " * ! *»™ f ' which it is liable , should bo clothed with the ininohise » s very just ; and wise . It wpuld bo justcr ami man- still to dispense witli ' tiio conditions regarding personal rntuip , and paymen tol rates , because . from the varying conditions ot : the ™»»™^ which inhabit our towns , there are in many places «« o » aw"MJ nersons whom tl » oso tests will exclude , wlio « ro m every lospoot ^ woilqS SSl tQ . poBsoaa the suffrage anthose of a similar class
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March 10 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Sahirday Analyst . 223
Bouebonist And Bonapartist Parties Ent.--. ; ¦ ;:¦ ; ¦ . • . • Pablta^Ent. \. .. - . .
BOURBONIST AND BONAP ARTIST PARTIES ' IN ' . .-- . ¦¦ - PARLIAMENT .
The New Borough Franchise.
THE NEW BOROUGH FRANCHISE .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1860, page 223, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2337/page/3/
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