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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd December 1854, Edition Country of 2, Page 11, &mmti& 2,.1854] . m rn.cE * , b h Aspm^....

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      Public Opinion. That The -War Against Ru...

      sympathies is not likely to go unregarded . The conviction is spreading * that the war opening up is the delug-e of which many Metternichs have fepoken—of which Napoleon prophesied as the inevitable sequel of that artificial packing of nationalities to which infamous diplomacy resorted in the celebrated interment of principles accomplished b y the Holy Alliance in 1815 . And England , instinctively conscious that Louis Napoleon is a political parenthesis , and that Russia represents a mysterious and sacred

      solidarity , of which every other despotism forms a secret part , is feeling that if the struggle comes she must depend , upon nations and not on dynasties . Thus , -though M . Kossuth will not induce the English public to threaten a revolution unless the English governing class summon struggling nationalities to arms , yet he effects his main purpose in . preparing our nation for possible contingencies . 1848 may come again ; and England ' s position will then , indeed , be different . It may be that , in accordance with , that low morale which

      permits Lord Derby to play with . Protection , and suggests to Mr . Disraeli to raise a Protestant cry , the Tories may , in the coming Session , talk popular principles , and affect the revolutionary ardour which was taken ' . up by the Whigs when the first French revolution found them , out of office- ^—despised by the

      people , and abhorred by the Grown . But our clever and conscientious nobles , like Lord Aberdeen , tremble at the storm that is being raised ; and we ha , ve to calculate , in considering the future , what may be the disposition of Louis Napoleon to carry on a war upon principles to the suppression of which he is indebted for his own sullen and sinister'success .

      Russia has made , is making , proposals of peace speciously contrived to afford to tlie European , governing powers an opportunity of eluding the war . Our own Government wouidnot dare to entertain these proposals until they have repaired their failures . But the Russian armies are , perhaps , now retreating from the Crimea ; this " moTement" would support the conspiracy at Vienna ; and , then , our timid and

      treacherous rulers could escape from a contest to which their genius is unequal—it is so likely that Louis Napoleon would refuse to prosecute hostilities beyond the point which Russia concedes of admitting- him on equal terms with herself into the possession of Constantinople . Treaties before now have been

      effected l > y treasonable nobles in defiance of English wishes : let us be thankful that Parliament is meeting to preserve us from a treaty of Utreclit . Lord John Russell is pledged to the destruction of Sebastopol ; but was not Dunkercpie destroyed ? Kossuth ' s warning to us against secret diplomacy is permanently serviceable .

      Public opinion in England is omnipotentif organised . There are , in Parliament , as we have frequently snid , materials for a National Party ; but they cannot succeed unless they are backed by a National Party in the country . Why not a League ? Not merely of Friends of Italy , or Friends of Hungary , or Friends of Poland , but of Friends of England I

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      The Leader Policy In" Office. Wja Shall ...

      THE LEADER POLICY IN" OFFICE . Wja shall have to become a Ministerial journal just as Mahomet ' s Mountain was bound to be converted to the Mussulman faith . It is not that wo go to the official Mahomot , but the Ministerial Prophet comes to us . Government has adopted the Leader policy — a Winter Session , a Loan , and Militia Rogimonta sent abroad . So at least the limes declares as to the Loan , and everybody believes ; so tho Globe proclaims aa to tho JMilitin ; and so tho Gazette announces as to tho Winter Session . If Ministers adopt our policy iu block , all that

      * ve have to do is to see that they keep up to our standard in detail . If militia regiments are sent abroad , they must be sent to do something , and not to be imprisoned outside Sebastopol , or merely stationed uselessly to prevent the insurrection of the Iouians against Sir Henry Ward , or to give sufficient men for dressing- the parade ground at Malta . When we spoke of sending militia regiments abroad , it was presumed that

      they would be sent for service . There is , however , perhaps , some difference between longtrained regiments of the regular army and the new levy of the militia . The latter are not quite weaned from , the national feeling , and they could hardly act with such zeal as the mere mechanical soldier might against , say , any patriot corps , should the blind treachery of officialism betray the Government of England into anti-national alliance . The use of militia

      regiments abroad , therefore , far more than it did in Wellington's day , necessitates the adoption of a really national policy on the part of our Government . The Loan is only a concession to common sense and ourselves . It is not the worse because moneyed men in the City happen to be anxious for it . The idea of paying for a great war oub of current income is such an absurdity in itselF , that the proposition proves how little Ministers intended that the war should be a It to

      ^ reat war . was have been a kind of yachting and parade affair , which might he paid for out of pocket-money . The princip le of paying for nothing that cannot be paid for within , the year would entail ruin on the capitalist , and must have crippled the country . Suppose a man were precluded from purchasing an estate , however valuable it might be , unless

      he could provide the purchase-money out of his year ' s income ; or suppose his patrimony were rava ged b y flood or pestilence , and he could procure no works for its redemption , no succour for its cultivators except out of current revenue : the estate would pass by without purchasers , the patrimony would lie waste and desert , and the current income itself would cease . Yet

      such are but slight parallels of the spendthrift pedantry which was to have been penny-wise and not pound-foolish , bat million-foolish . Wanting money and power , Ministers are obliged to summon Parliament in order to obtain both . Granting more money and more power , members have a right to know how those two engines are to be used . Are we to continue sending troops to the Crimea just sufficient to keep up the loss by sorties , surprises , and disease r Are income and

      expenditure to be balanced in that way ? Are we to protract bevond the necessary period the doubtful alliance of Austria , and to waste our blood and treasure in recovering provinces that may afterwards be given back to Russia , or to Russia ' s servants , in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe ? We do not desire any pompous or theatrical arraignment of Ministers for the

      English blood already expended ; we do not caro for apologies or explanations ; but we do caro to know that , if the present Ministers are to be entrusted with more money and more power than any Ministers sinco the peace began , thoy are prepared to conduct tho war on a scale commensurate with the power thus givon to them , and oa principles endeared to this country since tho peace ?

      The Voluntekk Force. We May Boast Of Our...

      THE VOLUNTEKK FORCE . We may boast of our greatness , but wo have yot to find whether we are greater than Russia—whether wo can hold her in check , or must bo checked by her . We go to besiege her in Sebustopol , and she besieges us . Wo dononacu her at Vienna , and eho circumvents

      precisely because we are greater than she is in local Government or commerce : we have' attended to business , commercial and parochial ; she has attended to military business and diplomatic influences . We boast of oar strength , and do not rind that she yields , as , in deference to our prejudiced pride , she wag bound to do at the first stroke . Our difficulty was anticipated by a writer who wrote from . the experience of the past war .

      us in Vienna and Berlin too . We are quite sure that we do not possess a single servant East of the Russian frontier ; we are not sure that Russia does not possess servants innumerable , not only within the countries where we meet her as an enemy , but in our ownher servants , not only among the spies , but even in our highest places and most trusted offices . She is greater than we in these things ,

      " The page of history , " says Pasley , in his " Military Policy , " " exhibits to nations , if they could attend to it without being deluded by vanity and pride , the instructive lesson of one State constantly overpowering another , not by superior freedom , virtue , and patriotism ^ -for the free , the corrupted , and the enslaved , have-equally fallen in their turns- — but by having more numerous , braver , better organised and better commanded armies , with a more vigorous system of martial policy , and a better mode of repairing disasters in war . "

      The mistake has brought about its correction . We have permitted the other powers of Europe to acquire a martial organisation so much stronger than ours , that they have insolently endeavoured to use their strength upon us , and in attempting" to retort the provocation , we find the necessity of going to school . We have permitted the array of martial strength to be ranged entirely on the side of absolutist royalty , until the total defeat of English principles and commercial extension have obliged

      us to take up arms and resist the power we have helped to establish . Whether we will or not , we are obliged to become once more a military nation . We are compelled to provide an . escort for our trade , we are compelled to arm Liberalism , to defend the independence of England against military tyranny ; and because we have an army inferior to those with whom we contend , we are obliged to fall back upon the body of the people to eke out the regulars with militiamen .

      Necessity is the great teacher of the remedy for tho modern mistake . It was not with a disarmed people and a mercenary army that England was organised when she acquired her power abroad and her independence at home . The men who won at Cressy and Poictiera were militiamen ; Cromwell's army were volun-r teers ; Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights were given to freemen by kings who had neither exchequer nor arms independent of

      their subjects . Conviction and affection may do much ; but rely on them altogether , and you leave all that you hold dear at tho mercy of rapine and violence . As it is with the householder , so it is with the nation : the man who is not armed to resist violence or oppression is an object of contempt , and will bo the victim of brute force , unless he learn to beat bruto force at its own weapons . Iu tho school of adversity we arc learning national manliness .

      It is consolatory to see with what cheerful exultation Englishmen accept a hoalthy vigour which is {" breed upon them . Mou are wanted for the militia—thoy como forth : volunteers are wanted from tho militia into tho liue- *~ - thoy advance : militia regiments aro wanted abroad—thoy aro impatient to be sent . Bu <) , with militia rog-inioiite sent abroad , wo shall want now forces at homo . Of what kind ? Thoro aro two kinds , not only alternative ^ b , t # capable of combination—a militia force amtlj ^ volunteer force . Tho militia is in aomp reapefltp tho moat luvndy . It is a nursery far the ; !*<( # , and it ia under orders j but oxcopted from , oikut

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 2, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02121854/page/11/