On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (6)

  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.

  • 

    ht shakes alike false shrines and throne...

  • 

    ,_. " , 31 TtfrilTtlf t ^ HI I UUIU ? -—•

  • 

    ¦ ¦ Critics are not the legislators, but...

  • 

    ¦ • ¦ • —: —? • . • There is a strange, ...

  • 

    Tho University of Oxford haa done itself...

  • 

    In the midst of a dry heap of diplomatic...

• 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.

    Ht Shakes Alike False Shrines And Throne...

    ht shakes alike false shrines and thronesIt 448 THE LEADER . [ No . 372 , Saturday ,

    ,_. " , 31 Ttfrilttlf T ^ Hi I Uuiu ? -—•

    iCiteriittn ? -

    ¦ ¦ Critics Are Not The Legislators, But...

    ¦ Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and V ^^ of ^ ntwre . ^^ rdo npt make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Sevteto .

    ¦ • ¦ • —: —? • . • There Is A Strange, ...

    ¦ ¦ — : —? . There is a strange , sarcastic melancholy in that passage in the forty-third book of Iiivy , where the historian , writing in an age of decadence , apologizes for the ancient feeling with which his narrative of the old times of Home is imbued : " Ceterum et mihi , res vetustas scribenti , nescio quo pacto antiquus fit animus . " The author of the extremely remarkable article in the present number of Fraser , on " Imperialism , " seems to us to betray the anhquus animus of the Roman , in these latter days of expediency and indifference . The stern concision , and lofty austerity of his indignant eloquence , make him the new Tacitus of modern Cffisarism . This is not the department of our paper in which we talk politics , and we dare say our readers would be little disposed to pardon an invasion of the peaceful republic of Literature and Art . We shall therefore refrain from dwelling upon the subject of this article , the more contentedly that our own opinion of Imperialism has never for one moment changed or faltered , not even when all England was outwardly and visibly

    worshipping its success . We must find space for an extract or two , to give a taste of the writer's quality , and very earnestly recommend all our readers to seek and study the paper entire as it appears in Fraser for May . It deserves to be republished in a more permanent form . A certain Prince once hinted that a constitutional government was unfit to carry on a war with vigour and success : But that war is better waged or borne with more constancy by an ordinary despot froMarathon to Sebas

    than by a commonwealth , is a notion belied by all history , m - topol . Was the administration of the Aulic Council in the campaigns of Italy less trammelled by ' red tape' than those of the English War-office in the Crimea ? And as to favouritism , was it a people ' s minister or a king ' s mistress that , after Rosbach gave another army to ' poor Soubise ? ' "Was it a constitutional government or an enlightened despot that sent the dying St . Arnaud as . the price of services in a conspiracy , to paralyze the march on Sebastopol , and entail on the two armies the murderous misadventure of the winter siege ? The English minister was condemned ; the French Emperor was lauded to the skies . But if the French army had been led by the great generals of France then in exile , instead of the accomplice of the Usurpation , the English minister ' s army would have wintered in Sebastopol . ^ whom Louis inherited from

    Compare the generals and war ministers Quatorze Huguenolism and the Fronde , with those whom he made for himself by absolute monarchy before the end of his reign . Or , if the Roman Empire is the type , compare the generals of the Senate with the generals of the Emperors ; compare the conduct of the Senate to Marius and Cresar when in command against the public enemy , with the conduct of the Emperors to Germanicus , Agricola , and Belisarius . Politics is an experimental science ; and those who , in their treatment of it , wish to be specially scientific , are bound to have special regard to facts . Where are the facts that prove that , in their choice or treatment of generals or any other public servants , commonwealths are swayed by private passion or interests , and despots by the public good ? We entreat our readers to mark well the application of the following sentence , in which the writer points out the private , as well as public , demoralization consequent upon the worship of immoral success : —

    The banner of his ( Napoleon I . ) successor , and the restorer of what he called Ins dynasty , hangs among those of the chivalry of England in the Chapel of the Garter ; and therefore wo are required , as-loyal subjects , to suppose that the Garter can bind honour on Louis Napoleon ' s knee . It is weakness to say what this man and his associates are , since not the less they have their feet on the neck of that which was a free nation . Thus much only we would have remembered , that the Imperial friends of order twice , while Franco was at peace under a constitutional monarchy , set up in their own interest the standard of civil war . Twice they conspired against the State and were the ridicule of the world : a third time they conspired with all the forces of the State in their hands , and were miracles of genius . Of how many Iiedpaths may not the ambition have been excited to lofty aims by the triumphal progress of the heroes of the coup d'dtat through the shouting streets of a nation once jealous of morality and honour !

    ALL DESPOTISMS ALIK 15 . After all , tho French Empire is as the other despotisms of Europp . It loves , hates , fears , acts , conspires with its kind . It apes their state , and surrounds itself with all that is unmanly and debased in their parasitic trains ; while Court preachers find the deepest depth of sycophancy in affecting freedom . It vies with them in ignoble luxury , and in squandering on selQsh magnificence and ostentation the public money , which , lavished in imperial grandeur , dwarfs , to the eyes of pleasure-hunters , tho paltry hospitals of freedom . It would copy their aristocracies , if an aristocracy could bo had for money . It holds their Italian god upon his throne . It has , like them ,

    its State religion , for which , like them , it will porsecutc , and shows already that it will persecute , when it dares . Like them , it is the enemy , though as yet the cautious and stealthy enemy , not only of seditious newspapers , but of literary freedom . It tries at present to bribe and suborn intellect ; it will soon lonrn and daro to suppress it . Tho Jesuit , whose instinct is sure , knows it for hia own : and as ho Beea it stand on the ruins of French thought and freedom , ho says in his heart that tho world is his , after all , and that tho cause of truth and liberty has had its hour . Surely tho man whoao moral judgment it can blind with ita tinsel and condescension must be more than a Colt .

    Few perhaps of the English admirers of tho French Empire have made up their minds that it is to last for ever . They say Franco haa need of repose for a time . Perhaps Franco says ao to herself . And bo auya to himself tho exhausted traveller in tho Alpine storm . Ho , too , needs roposo for a time , after which ho will riao refreshed , nnd push forward to his hospice . But how long a aleop does tho traveller need ? How long a dlauao of tho limbj does tho patient require , in order to restore their powers ? How long an abstinence from political action will confirm a nation in political virtue ? How Boon will despotism fit slaves for aelf-govornment ? It is nccoaaary to decide , that MM . Morny and Fould may know when tho happy hour is come for restoring tho liberties and the honour of tholr country .

    ov dkspotism . The Jesuit will always love despotism . For him doapotiam quenched half tho Boformation , holds half Europe in darkness , and robs tho other half of tho aid of mutual light . Jesuitism and despotism hava need of each other , and each know : ) it wo ] l ,

    Free thoug arbitrary . was sound advice that was given to the Epicurean despot of Rome , to encourage the priest and augurs and punish novelties in religion , for the same tended to sedition : and i t was sound policy in a Nero and a Diocletian to persecute the truth that makes us free . It was deep wisdom in Napoleon I . to restore , as the stay of his dynasty , that degrading falsehood which the noblest blood of France had been shed to put away : and it is deep wisdom in the priests of that falsehood to glorify the memory of a saviour and protector who was " a Mahometan to Mahometans , a German freethinker to German freethinkers , and in his heart perhaps the purest practical atheist that has ever played a part in history . While liberty was strong-, the French priesthood blessed the tree of liberty with their lips , but it was with curses in their hearts : their adoration of the Messiah of Order is blasphemous but sincere .

    The voluptuary , too , will love a form of government which promotes dissipation in order to drug thought , and which not only brings a calm feelingly sweet after the storms of moral and intellectual life , but graces that calm with imperial architecture and imperial shows . What does it signify to a gourmand and a me'lomane that the government does not allow Luthers ? What harm will it do to him' if the next generation is deprived of truth and public morality , and perhaps even of the thirty pieces of silver for which truth and public morality are sold ? An atheist in heart , if not in profession , what does he , the human animal of to-day , care for the fate of the human animals of to-morrow ? The bright scene may change . The Saviour of Society may become a Nero ; the true nobility of the nation may become praetorians ; the Jesuit may become an inquisitor , though now , occupied in struggling with more deadly forms of spiritual evil , he smiles on the voluptuary's unobtrusive creed . But by that time Apicius will have . rendered back his grossness to the dust . Only men who believe in God and Spirit can live in the future of their kind .

    The stockjobber , again , adores a power which , for the moment at least , protects his shares ; which does not offend his morality or his public spirit ; and which dazzles whatever is left in him of imagination with the splendid image of success . The stockjobber , we say , but not the merchant . Liberty is the only foster-mother of commerce ; and commerce wafts liberty with all her sails . If space permitted , we might be disposed to discuss rather in a spirit of reservation than of objection certain passages in this article , but we shall -wait for another opportunity and another place ; for the present we will only s ; iy , that it is worthy of a free English heart and brain , and that to read it is like clasping an honest hand , or breathing the air of the mountain-top . The remaining papers of Fraser are varied and interesting , especially one on Charlotte Bkonte and her sisters , full of fine sympathy ; a merciless exhibition of Mr . Samuel Warren ; and an able criticism of some recent restorations and archit cctural renovations in France distinguished , says the writer , by that very vulgar vice , a " precipitate passion for display . "

    We have little room to speak of Blaclcwood . But we must again express our gratitude for " Mr . GilfiPs Love Story , " which fills us with increasing admiration as it proceeds . "A Hun to Nicaragua" is an original view of Central American politics , from an actual eye-witness of General Walter ' s operations . We must extract a sketch of that typical adventurer : — A glance at the personal history of the remarkable man who conducted this daring enterprise may not be uninteresting . General Walker ' s father had been a banker in Scotland , and emigrated to the United States in 1820 . Walker himself was born in 1824 , but manifested a roving disposition . At an early age he graduated successively in law , physic , and divinity ; travelled for a year in Europe ; returned to the States , and became the editor of a newspaper in New Orleans ; thence proceeded to ban Francisco in California in a similar capacity , which he relinquished to take command of the Sonora expedition . On his return from this he entered into the arrangements

    above stated with Castillon . In stature , General Walker is but little over five feet four . His features are described as coarse and impassible ; his square chin and long jaw denote character , but his lips are full , and his mouth is not well formed ; his eyes are universally spoken of as the striking feature in his face—of a singularly light grey , they are so large and fixed that in a daguerreotype the eyelid is scarcely visible . His manner is remarkably self-possessed , and some of his most intimate friends , who have been with him throughout the most trying scenes of his Nicaraguan experiences , have assured me that under no circumstances have they ever observed him to change countenance , even to laugh , or to alter in the smallest degree his slow and precise mode of diction . He is at all times taciturn , and when he does speak it is directly to the point He manifests a contemptuous indifference to danger without being reckless , and altogether seems better qualified to inspire confidence and respect among lawless than to shine in civilized society .

    men _ u .., Ho is ascetic in his habits , and his career hitherto bus shown him to be utterly careless of acquiring wealth . Highly ambitious , it is only due to him to say that Ins aspirations , however little in accordance they may bo with the moral code in voguo ot the present day , are beyond riches . Like the Emperor Louis Napoleon , ho bus a fixed faith in the star of hi / destiny , and like him ho doubtless will bo branded by the civilized nations of Europe aa an unprincipled adventurer or a heaven-born hero , according as ho fails or succeeds in his daring enterprise .

    Tho University Of Oxford Haa Done Itself...

    Tho University of Oxford haa done itself honour this week by the election of Mr Matthew Arnold to tho vacant Professorship of Poetry . As u true poet , a fine critic , and , moreover , as the son of a man whose name is precious to Oxford , and honoured as universally as it is known , wo arc sure Mr . Mattiik * Arnold will justify the choice of the large majority which has placed him m the chair lie is so well qualified to fill . We say this without tho slightest disrespect to his competitor , tho llev . J . IS . Bode , justly esteemed . lor his pcisonal character , and for his high attainments in classical scholarship .

    In The Midst Of A Dry Heap Of Diplomatic...

    In the midst of a dry heap of diplomatic and political news in tho Times o last Tuesday , appeared the following short paragraph : — M . Alfrod do MuHHot , ono of tho youngest and moat distinguished members oi French Acadomy , died yoatorduy , after a short illnosa . ^ Two paced of tho vilest earth arc all that rcmaiua even , to a King when on tho breath is out of his body ; and two , or ut the most three , lines are all « ¦ can be spared to a poor poot-n mere child of grace and genius , whoso lamp life ia shattered , and whoso light in tho dust lies dead—when tho movowonis of a Grand Duke and of tho Crddit Mobilior have columns at . their sorvio . Nevertheless , aa it is tho fashion of Courts to go in mourning for their gi ones , wo may bo allowed in this place to oiler , from beyond tho sea , t « - tribute Qf respect to the memory of a ppot , Awrwso vi \ Mubsist whs ow

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09051857/page/16/