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    because Lord Aberdeen 11fCU 4 THE LEADER...

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    MR. GLADSTONE'S MISSION TO THE IONIAN IS...

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    JAPAN. A\ r iio would have thought some ...

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    Manchester Wares. Manchester Is On The M...

    tion of the national expenditure and the advocacy of non-interference in foreign politics ; Now , however desirable these objects may be , they are not an & will never be popular ones ; In . this country , if you want to appeal to popular opinion , you must have facts and not theories ; the evil you ; . denounce must be an actual and tangible jane : —the , good you promise must be ; direct and personal .. Now it is mathematically certain that . the greater the needless expenditure of . the country , the . greater will be the demand on : ita resources ,, and the greater , in consequence , the ^ strain on the labouring classes by whom these

    resources are : produced . However true this may be ilk the abstract , it is by no . means so easy to illustrate , its truth in practice . In our artificial state of ! society the action of economic causes is so complex that it is most difficult to trace their direct results . If you were to strike ten millions off the national expenditure to-morrow , how are you to prove to John Smith the labourer , or Tom Brown the mechanic , that his wages will be the fraction of a . penny higher . To the tinder , who deals with large sums , the effect of any reduction of taxation is palpable and . immediate ; to the working classes , their proportionate share of loss or gain is so small the

    . as to be inappreciable . A saving or a penny in pound is of value if you . have a thousand a yearit is worthless if you have only a shilling a -day . The Gr , y for national economy , however popular therefore with , the trading ' classes * will siever enlist the active sympathy of the masses in its behalf . A cry for increased expenditure , accompanied by an . extension of national works and ¦ charities , would have far more cliance of popular « apport . Much the same remarks apply to the great peace question . However fearful the evils of war mav be . however monstrous its cost , those

    • evils and that cost are felt last and in the least -degree by the operative population . It is the trader wJjOj in the first instance , lias to pay the costs of wrar , and the process by which his loss is ultimately . reimbursed out of . the sweat and toil of the million is too indirect to excite popular apprehension . The question of Reform rests upon , a different footing . There is no doubt possible as to the fact whether . you possess a vote or not . An extension of the suffrage . may or may not be desirable on general grounds * but the classes to whom you propose to > -extend : the suffrage know perfectly what it is you offer , them . A Vote is a bribe clear and intelligible ;

    ai vote gives power ; power is- the first thing needful . What to do with it is a further question . The Manchester party have therefore committed a grave error in advocating reduction of expenditure , and a peace policy , in preference to Political Reform . They have put the cart before the horse , or , rather , left , the horse locked up in the stable . TJie further question—how they fell into this error , or what Leibnitz termed the " y of the why itself , " h not hard to answer . With the working

    -classes , they have had no real sympathy . Their reforms have been middle-class reforms , their wrongs middle-class wrongs , their gods the gods of # he middle class alone . JEVom all popular movements they have held aloof . They have distrusted the multitude , and been in return distrusted , of them . 'Yet the attempt to cawy a popular reform which shall not embrace the people ia as vain as an attempt to build houses without foundations . It is an experiment which has been often tried , and failed as often .

    Antaeus , in the old fable , repaired his dying strength by contact with his mother earth . It is a fable which all popular reformers should bear iu mind . There ia now a great opportunity . There arc great changes in . progress- —great reforms at liand . If the Manchester party throw themselves heartily into the . popular cause , they maybe leaders in that reform , and on those changes they may impress the stamp of . their own policy ... They have had a stem lesson . Lot it nob be said of them , on ' their" return from exile , that if they have forgotten nothing , they have learnt nothing also .

    Because Lord Aberdeen 11fcu 4 The Leader...

    because Lord Aberdeen 11 fCU 4 THE LEADER . [ No . . 4 . 50 * Novehbur 6 , 1858 .

    Mr. Gladstone's Mission To The Ionian Is...

    MR . GLADSTONE'S MISSION TO THE IONIAN ISLANDS , Mb . Gladstone ' s appointment as Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary of tho Ionian Islands is a circumstance full of interest to party-men of all shades , and classes in this country . It is a most unexpected card flung upon bio table from a hand wot supposed by any ono clso to hold ifc . Why was it' not played boforo P Ah ! there ' s tho mystery and . the moaning of . the matter , a mystery and

    a ; meaning which , for the world in general , is of no sort of ; moment and not worth inquiring-into . Of course it will be very convenient 1 ' or Mr . Disraeli to be rid of such a competitor in the next Parliar mentary game ; and we can quite imagine how Mr-Gladstone may think it convenient to have the option of dallying , in the iEgeanSea , from . February to March next , and from " March to April , in . case the fate of parties be not settled before . J 3 ut that is his affair , not ours ; and if he has not been able to make up his mind as to which hereditary flag he will

    follow ,, or , if bethinks it unwise to decide before the next great trial of . strength at the hustings-is-known , it is quite intelligible why he should like to fill up his time with : credit and profit , as he now has agreed to dW Acceptance of such au office amounts to nothing respecting party , though it must be confessed that the singular secrecy with which the affair was arranged , and the fact that Lord Aberdeen ' s favourite son accompanies him as Secretary , tends to create the impression that there is rather more in . the matter than ,, at first sight , meets the

    eye ; For the public at large , in this country and elsewhere , Mi * . Gladstone ' s expcditional inquiry wears a very different aspect , and we must say a worthier and more dignilied one . Our relations with the Ionian Greeks during the last forty years have , it must be confessed , brought us neither emolument , comfort , nor fame . We assumed , at the peace of 1815 , the Protectorate of Corfu , Cephalonia , Zante , Santa Maura , Thiaki , Cerigb , and Paxo , containing in all somewhat less than a quarter of a million of inhabitants . We engaged , that their local ffoverninent should be carried on in

    • ^ . . i . » • > . li t . * Ml accordance with their interests and their will constitutionally expressed ; and for the first fi ve-andtwenty years we certainly violated one part of the engagement . hy substituting an English bureaucrat , with absolute powers , for a legislative or responsible body . For a time the people seemed to have remained politically docile and dumb ; but after the Greek revolution was consummated , and . the paraphanesis thrown off of foreign yoke , sympathy and example kindled a flame in the Hellenic mind of the islanders , which nothing we have since done or attempted has had the effect of extinguishing . While

    Lord Seaton filled the office of English Governor ,-the justice of jnany of the complaints addressed to him struck the gallant veteran ' s mind so forcibly that he recommended Lord Derby , then Colonial Secretary of State , to sanction a plan of representative government which he undertook to frame . Lord L ) erby agreed , and a somewhat crude but exceedingly liberal constitution was constructed and launched accordingly . It had not been long at work when the legislature and the executive came to a dead lock . The Ioniuns displayed a the excitability and conceit of their race , as well as all the inexperience of political childhood . They

    had been suddenly called from puddling in the shallows of village municipalities , to sail a fast-going clipper in deep "water , and to work its high-pressure engines . Lord Seaton ' s ultra-liberal constitution was on the point of blowing up , when the imperial Government once more interfered , and unhappily with as little wisdom or prudence in exactly the opposite direction . Lord Grey had succeeded Lord Derby at the Colonial Office , and one of his first acts was , by tlie stroke of his pen , to suspend tho now constitution absolutely for the space or five years . As miglit have been expected , resentment and rase filled the minds of the whole of the Greek

    population . Thoy felt that every promise to them nad been broken * and every natural or traditional right trampled under foot by this ruthless oxcrciso ot arbitrary and foreign power . Plots and conspiracies followed ; ana then Sir Henry Ward was sent out as Lord High Commissioner , under whom a stern and unpitying regime of military repression prevailed for a considerable time . Imprisonments , fines , floggings , amd executions , under sentence of court-martial , became tho order of tho day . Diuaffeolion oould not of course bo extirpated by such means , but it was terrorised into silence . At

    length order and submission were supposed to bo sufficiently ostaUiahcd , and a modified version of tho first constitution was then flung to the people by tho Imperial Government . Is it wonderful that under all the circumstances it should have been recoived without gratitude , confldonoc , or resnoot P Things hn , vo gone ill in Ionia pver since tuo appointment of tuo preaout jGonnnissionor . Sir John Young , who had made a good whipper-in under Sir llobort Peel , and but au indifferent Irish Scorelary under tho coalition , was jobbed into tho oilloo in

    1855 ,, wished to provide for him . There is an elective legislature nominally in . existence , but . practically as powerless fls that of France under Louis Napoleon . They arc incessaui-ly uttering the popular sentiment of discontent and distrust , in a manner sufficiently provokhi * to their "Lard lligh" ruler . For his part he does what lie can to mesmerise some of them l ) y an hospitality not the most brilliant , caresses not the most genuine , and gratifications of one kind or oilier not of the most constitutional kind . The general effect of his administration is the utter pulverisation of all remains of deference for a . belief in British policy , and the concentration of all popular hope lahe that

    some catastrop may open a way of escape from 13 riti . sli rule . This is the naked truth , and very humiliating it is , but not less the truth therefore . Sir Bulwcr Lyttou feels no doubt that it is his duty to make ono last effort to rally the faith of an alienated people in English intentions , and to conciliate iL' possible the wounded national feelings of a wayward , but intelligent and industrious , community , with the maintenance of England ' s paramount authority in tho iEgcuu Sea . ife has sent Mr . Gladstone to inquire and report how ( . his is to be done ; and unquestionably ha could not have cliosea a better instrument for the purpose . \ Ve are not sanguine as to his success , but we think it ' anv man can succeed he will .

    Japan. A\ R Iio Would Have Thought Some ...

    JAPAN . A \ r iio would have thought some time back , looking around the House of Commons and seeing- the intelligent Liberal Conservative , Lord liruec , with his vivacious countenance but not awful aspect , that he would be the man to break down the exclusion of an empire which had defied all < lie most agsrressivc powers of the modern ' world' —England , Russia , and America . It is true that the llarl of Elgin was able to compose the most troublous conflicts of our north-western colonies , but \ vlieu the

    tenacious prejudice which Lord I ' ahiicrston seemed to entertain- against ' . him had Veen so far waived that he was sent to China , he still seehicd likely to be bullied , by the grovelling obstinacy of that degraded people ; he suffered , himself . to be diverted by the . Indian mutiny ; and certainly lew of us expected that at the last , after something like a year ' s delay , he would produce that brilliant treaty which so far eclipsed the competition , of the Itussiims and of the Americans . Bui if any doubted whether he did it himself iu the Pciho , no one can doubt now that he has unlocked the gates of the Japanese empire and wrung from tho double emperor of that um-usinsr country a treaty , not so brilliant as the Chinesebut admirable for a commencement .

    , Japan , which was the opprobrium of modern discovery and enterprise , seems now likely to he an ornament of modern commerce . We are not certain yet whether it will be very much more than an ornament , promising , as it looks . The exclusion of Janun , however , was entirely u modern creation , and has been , to a great extent , encouraged by accident . The race whose ethnology we have yet to study , owned , or at least claimed , a very long extent of empire , « oing up in the northern I acme to the Kurilo islands ; and it is probable that at this day tho people of Jeddo imagine the island ot Sagaliu to bo included in their empire , that island which is—onlv frozen forohrht months oflho veniy—Mis

    the Cuba of the Anioor—which would be Ilio - sissippi of Mancboo if it were considerably larger , and in a more fertile and genial region . U ulo at . their empire was , however , the governors oi what they call tho central empire , China , Jiau asserted dominion over them , but in vam ; Hie . Japanese repelling the odious yoko of that baao people , and carrying rebellion against the flUluobt race in tho world to such an extent that they are probably the cleanliest people on tho face of the earth . XI is difllcult , indeed , to imagine any rebellion ngiunst Chinese influence morO complete than that , wlncii goes lo suoh an oxtroino as soap . Probably » u > rigourous system of exclusion originated m iu ° hatred and jealousy of tho Chinese , Tnit it lius , wo say , been aided by accident . With a boautilul ohmalo in which tropical plants will grow , though t '

    heat is fur from intolerable , Japan is broken into inuiiy islands , is girt in many plnoos with iron-bound « owB j *\\ d often swept by raging storms . Tho most trnyouei moo alive , accustomed to magnificent scenery , in u * o broad prairies nwl great river valleys oi America , lmvo pronounced Japan to bo the region moat Jiko a giu'don of any in tho world , England nlouo oxcoptod : for tho oye of tho Amcnoan own nova

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111858/page/18/