On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    January 8, 1853.] THE LEADER. 37

  • 

    EUROPEAN POLICY IN AMERICA; AND AMERICAN...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    How To Keep English Working Men At Home....

    better use all the diligence they can in proVdi ™ him at home with those incentives that are C ing him abroad—political recognition and soc *] comfort . J -

    January 8, 1853.] The Leader. 37

    January 8 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 37

    European Policy In America; And American...

    EUROPEAN POLICY IN AMERICA ; AND AMERICAN POLICY IN EUROPE . On all hands , it is confessed that the United btates are entering upon a new phase of their history , and European politicians seem disposed to aid m its development . Last summer it was reported that Lord Malmesbury had committed England to the defenco of Cuba against the United States , in the event of a rupture . There was some ground for the report ; although it turns out to have been very slight . The Foreign Minister did actually propose a tripartite convention to the Government of the United States for the protection of Cuba ; but it must have been seen that the only danger to the Queen of the Antilles lay in the assumed aggressive spirit of the Transatlantic party to the treaty . The Whig statesmen in office , subservient as they were to European powers , instantly rejected this rather insulting offer ; for no statesmen of America entertain the idea of seizing Cuba except in honourable war . Five years ago the views of the dreaded Democratic party had been expressed by General Cass ; and they amount to this : We

    desire Cuba ; its possession is for us a political necessity ; we will buy it of Spain ; should war arise we will take it from Spain if we can ; should it become independent we will recognise its independence ; should a European power attempt to obtain it we will oppose that power ; but while Spain holds it , we will strictly respect the relation existing between us in every way . Then why ask us now to join a tripartite of defence ? Thus was European intervention met by the statesmen of America . England , we believe , will not again engage in any such Quixotic intervention . But

    there are indications-that France is disposed to try her fortunes , and dare the confederation . What will be the result ? The reply concerns us in a twofold degree ; as respects America and as respects our own safety . It would be absurd even to imagine the possibility of war arising between France and the United States ; were it not that the presiding genius of the former is characterised by an incalculable ambition , and that the new spirit of the latter has yet to shpw in its issues . We are compelled , under severe penalties , to scrutinise with anxious care , each symptom of the policy of

    Louis Napoleon ; because by that means alone , can we learn his probable aims . We have seen enough of him to know that he can smile and stab ; that his promises are hollow , and his words delusive ; that , on his lips , professions of peace are more likely to mean intentions of war ; and that , at all events , the more emphatic arc his assertions , the more surely arc they a blind to cover an ulterior and different purpose . And as words , symbols having a certain meaning with ordinary men and honest rulers , arc utterly valueless when ho employs them , ho wo are bound to look to facts ; and we are further bound

    not to disregard the slightest or the most improbable in our estimate of his future . It is precisely at outlandish placet * that we may expect to discern indications of his objects ; and overt acts art ; not all we can truBt to . When we read , therefore , that a French naval force has taken posession of the peninsula of Sanuuia , on the island of St . Domingo , wo have an indication of French interference in West jndian ai fairs . We find Sn . ni an a is possessed of a secure and Capacious harbour , at one of tho most commanding points in the West . Indies . We remember that St . Domingo was once an important French colony ; and that the reigning ( sovereign , Soulouquo , has beenthoinost successful

    imitator of Napoleon 111 . Now , ( he citizens of the United States are extremely jealous of this ( -overt intervention in the affairs of San Domingo . They are . crying out against it ; and , in l , ho 1 Jnitod States , Louis Napoleon has no spare popularity ; and not many friends . In San Domingo there is a liftle republic , called Dominica . ; France proponed to he its protector ; why should not tho United . States bo tho protector of Dominica ? Why need Franco bo called in ; and a naval station bo handed over to her , from which her fleets may issue and harass tho commerce and the coasts of America F Is it likely that Jonathan will stand that Y Ho m already somewhat excited at the bam report ., and haw begun to talk about the Monroe duclrino .

    But the occupation of Samana may be as perfectly regular , in a diplomatic sense , as the occupation of Home . Still Samana is by no means the sorest place in this business . Sonora , a large slice of Mexico , with a long coast on the Pacific , * nd only separated from California by the Gila , I 18 * , been annexed , or declared annexed , to Frair . , with the consent of the French consul . Well , * + hat , if it were the consequence of a fortuitous concourse of Frenchmen , disgusted at Mexica * bad faith and disorder , would not be a verj wonderful fact . Stranger-things happen . But the whole aspect of this event is altered when we £ nd it preceded and heralded

    by the speculations of French writers . We are told by M . Daumartin that it is reserved for France to check the " omnivorous progress of the United States , which threatens the political and commercial supremacy of Europe . " And how is that to be done ? What , as another French writer phrases it , are " the initiatory steps by which Napoleon III . intends to commence an active intervention in the American continent against the further spread of democratic principles ?" Why , nothing more nor less than what it is said Count Raousset Boulbon has done— "by planting vigorous' French colonies in Sonora and Chihuahua , " writes M . Daumartin .

    France , then , has taken two initiatory steps . ' She has made one with a view of getting back Hayti and San Domingo ; she has made another with the object of arresting the advance of Jonathan in the West . Unluckily , however , for Louis Napoleon , the party virtually in power is the legitimate descendant of that whose mouthpiece , President Monroe , declared long ago against the settlement of colonies dependent on European Governments on the American continent . The party acceding to office is not inclined to truckle to old-fashioned

    diplomacy , or tolerate despotic ambition . General Pierce is not likely to take the " checks " of Napoleon III ., without meeting them , and giving the drawer change in full . Congress , no doubt anticipating the views of the Democratic President , is , we are told , about to take high ground with respect to the recent movements of France in Havti and Mexico . So that although the designs 01 the Emperor have hitherto been kept secret , once divulged , they are sure to be frustrated .

    In fact , not only Louis Napoleon , but certain Northern prototypes of his , may be made to feel the weight of American influence in the world's politics . Non-intervention , spite of all the cry about the failure of Kossuth , is almost an exploded doctrine in the United States . The JVew York Herald , edited by a practical man , and not a partisan of intervention , tells us that a sum of money will bo set apart to be used in aiding nations struggling with despotic powers ; and now wo are told that a motion in the Senate has been made to tho same effect . Even should this be untrue , it shows the set of the

    current . General Cass , in his place in th < Senate , insisted that America was one of the family of nations , and that she could not remain isolated , but must "keep on the line of political knowledge , " share the general fortunes , protest against the defiance of the law of nations in tho interest of despotism , and sympathize with , and morally assist , struggling nations . American policy in Europe will therefore bo , as Mr . . Ingersoll intimated at . Liverpool , shoulder to shoulder with England in fighting the battle of constitutional liberty ; if oilicial . Knglaml will be with America .

    One more remark respecting tho apparent policy of Kranee in America . After all , these faraway movements may be a , ruse to attract the attention of England from tho channel and her coasts . Kemomber , the man imitates . Was not Napoleon ' s scpiadron to have made a , feint on Jamaica , in order to draw Nelson off in pursuit , while * tho lOmperor threw his thousands across the channel F Leave the Americans to" deal with him in I ' hoir own hemisphere ; and let us be prepared to greet , him warmly hero ; or , better still , knit together tho two Anglo-Saxon peoples in a , close alliance- the alliance of Freedom--and , if need be , defy tho world .

    MAST imKNT : TI 1 K KM AST <>!< ' ST . . KKASTUS , A POLITICAL SAINT . M it , Aimmidkacon Dionison is fond , of dating his letters according to the saint ' s day on which ho happens to write ( hem . Thus , ho places at the head of a letter with wliich ho has kindly

    honoured us , " Feast of the Circumcision . " Now in the Calendar of Saints one name is omitted ; and as Mr . Denison would doubtless like to have his copy of the work as complete as possible , we beg to supply the omission ; and to suggest that , when Lord Derby returns to power , or Mr . Dudley Perceval takes office , and Mr . Denison is made a bishop , he should date his announcement of the happy event to his new friends of the Morning Herald , and the National Club— " East Brent , The Feast of St . Erastus . " And this will

    be the more appropriate , as the saint m question is a political saint , and as bishoprics are political appointments , and the religion of the Church of England — according to the doctrine of Lord Derby , the Archdeacon ' s modern Father of the Church—is a political religion ; and her ritual , her creeds , her articles , are a compromise . Erastus , we should observe , is properly no saint , but we have thought proper to canonize him for Mr . Denison ' s behoof , as otherwise he might feel delicate in using his name . Erastus is henceforth the saint of the State-Churchmen , whose ranks

    Mr . Denison—forgetting that a " Churchman should have no politics" —has now joined . No doubt Mr . Colquhoun , and Major Beresford , and Lord Shaftesbury chuckle over their distinguished convert , and are ready to subscribe for a portrait or a bust of Saint Erastus , which might hang in the oratory at East Brent , where the image of One who broke the neck of Pagan State-Church-craft probably now hangs . And let there be added a portrait of Henry the Eighth , of George the First , and of Lord Derby . Mr . Denison thinks that last week we did him

    injustice ; and that our views of his conduct may be something clearer , he forwards us a striking proof of the justness of our criticism—namely , a copy of his address to the electors of the University of Oxford . This letter is , itself , an act of '' political churchmanship . " In it Mr . Denison avows that the Derbyitcs won him by promising to amend the management clauses ; that is , Mr . Denison , accepting the pay , demurs to the control of the state over the teaching . He does not

    object , Erastu 3 would not object , to accept state assistance in the matter of education ; but ho would limit the action of the state to that simple function of paying money to the church . Now state control is an inevitable consequence of state pay . People don ' t pay taxes in order that certain officials may humbly hand them over to tho National Schools . The church at present is a political institution , and it must submit to the laws which govern such institutions .

    3 ut then the new cabinet , which a supporter of Lord ' Derby , without blushing , tells us has been formed by an act of " flagrant political immorality , " will , it seems , bring latitudinarianism . into the church , through latitudinarianism in the schools . Well , upon the principles of Lord Derby is that so inconsistent a thing ? Compromise is only another name for latitudiinirianism : and compromise , f he modern Father says , is tho basis

    oftho church . So that , for a man , who accepts tho stafits quo , to argue against its legitimate fruits , is not only illogical , it is ridiculous . Mr . . Denison , be it , remembered , eagerly connected himself with Derby and Disraeli ; yet now he severs all political connexion with Mr . ( iladstono , on account , of his flagrant political immorality . This nmy be a , political churchman ' s discriminating view of political morality ; but it is not ours .

    And what is most amazing in tho conduct of the political State Churchman of Fast , Brent is that , the whole of his opposition to M r . ( Gladstone , and the whole framework of his objection to I ho Cabinet ., rests on suspicions . JI . e suspects that Mr . ( Gladstone will do this , and not ofler resistance to that . lie suspects thai , the Cabinet wif / brin / r forward educational . schemes , objoct . onablo to himself , lit ? suspects the whole Cabinet , of dishonesty and insincerity . In " » o sweeping < : hiii- /> -e even Prince . Albert ' is included , if wo aro correct in our reading of the following passage , which contains such a , < iuosl , ionablo pun : —

    " Mow laLil . iidiiiariaiiism in I lie Cabinet in lOn ^ laud , whero Ilio Church is closely hound u |> with the State , acts jiowcrMilly , and , no Io speak , immediately upon tho (! liiir « li herself . I ' o . ssihly certain unhappy inlluc . nceH , not exactly j / rniutnc to this country , but which do , niiveHliele . sK , exist , and Nourish amongst , us , and mil ( iikiui , upon strong evidence , to l ) o very favourable , to liitilinliii . iriaiiisni in the ( 'lunch , may havo hail

    somcthintf l . o do with ( lie construction of tho latitudinarian <' uIhimiI , as a powerful means and engine , and a step in Ilial . direction which they most allied . " JSot our poii , but Mr . Donitjon ' ti , underscored

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 37, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08011853/page/13/