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Leader (1850-1860), 10th April 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12

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      Our Relations With Naples. The Attempt T...

      been subjected to illegal detention , accompanied by every circumstance of outrage and brutality . After the decisive opinions pronounced by tbe Piedniontese jurists , and by Dr . Phillimore and Dr . Twiss in England , fortified ' as they have been by elaborate arguments and quotations of authority , the question , as one of international law , appears beyond dispute . What then are the rights ot the Piedmontese Government ? Undoubtedly that the Cagliari should be restored , with ample compensation for the pecuniary loss inflicted upon her owners , and that her captain and crew should be liberated with indemnities . There is no limit to the gravit y of this quarrel should the Neapolitan Cabinet persist in its contumacy , -which is scarcely probable . With regard to Great Britain , nothing less will be satisfactory than the unconditional release of Watt and

      Park , not only from the indictments hanging over them , but from all slur whatever , and their thorough compensation for ten months' false imprisonment , for a series of inhuman severities approaching to torture , and for the injury to their health and fortunes . That they have been set free , the one under something like a pardon , the other under a royal release from impeachment , is no bar to an action for damages . If the Government of Naples will not carry the case into the Courts of International Law , and abide by the plain interpretation of a code acknowledged by all civilized powers , the responsibility becomes its own , and the refusal , as Sir Richard Bethell has laid down , " must be followed by hostilities . " Lord Derby's Governmfint has committed itself to this view in

      the event of the illegality . of the Cagliari seizure being established to its satisfaction . Force , said the Minister , -would be employed , if necessary , to effect the liberation of Watt and Park . But if it was justifiable to wrest Watt and Park by force out of their captors' hands , it is justifiable to obtain , by force , reasonable compensation for their false imprisonment . For a less offence Greece was blockaded ; for an offence not more aggravated we have bombarded Canton ; it is high time that a similar rule should be applied to Naples . There is no necessity for precipitation or bluster . If Lord Malmeshury be the diplomatist his friends describe , he

      has simply to lay the British claims before the Neapolitan Government ; to follow them , if rejected , by an ultimatum , and to declare , b y a practical demonstration , that justice will be enforced at any hazard . No section of public men in England —not even the professed advocates of peace—could protest against the employment of a British squadron for the purpose of indemnifying two British subjects who have been infamously and illegally maltreated by a Government deliberately malignant . Naples does not deserve to be ranked as a European power , but upon the admitted principle that it is cowardly on the part of a cripple to strike a

      strong man , it is ignominious on King Ferdinand's part to rely upon his naval and military mediocrity , especially when it is palpable that he leans upon a first class empire in his rear . The Piedmontese Government , at all events , is not disposed to abandon its right over the Cagliari , and Count Cavour will probably persist in regarding it as an international question , to be settled , in the last extreme , by the last resort . Our own claims are not less indefeasible than thoso of Piedmont , and we trust that the foreign policy of St . James ' s will at least -be maintained upon a moral equality with that of Turin .

      . 348 The Lea-Deb. [No. 420, April 10,18...

      . 348 THE LEA-DEB . [ No . 420 , April 10 , 1858 .

      The Banquet Debate. Following The Usage ...

      THE BANQUET DEBATE . Following the usage of great actors , Lord Derby , his own theatre being closed for a while , has appeared , for ' one night only , ' at the civio theatre , by the Bank . Great attraction ! Real Banquet ! Legitimate success ! Under the Management of the Lord Mayor . No money returned . Vivat Regina ! An Easter banquet given at the Mansion House is an institution as firmly founded as the Blaokwall whitebait dinner , or as the Eastor adjournment itself .: _ 80 _ that ,. in 1 . gencral , Jt _ ia _ nothiiig ,. ox . traQ ) i i . di nary if the Ministry of the day finds itself with its legs under the mahogany of the Lord Mayor of the year . But in the present instance there are 391110 incidents of a remarkable kind . The Ministerial

      company had continued , in tho Egyptian Hall of their proud entertainer , tho performances temporarily Buapendod in tho Hall of St . Stephens . Lord Derby lrna , in fact , inaugurated a supplemental Parliamentary Bitting , down in tho City , where there are really a good many conveniences at hand for doing tho thing comfortably . I ^ To say nothing of tho banquet , it is no doubt a

      treat for Lord Derby and Mr . Disraeli , even for one night , to get up and say whatever they p lease without a thought of the Opposition , but with the certainty of applauding cheers . To Mr . Disraeli such an occasion must , without doubt , be quite exhilarating . With what spirit he can deal with deficient revenue , or in fact with anything that Chancellors of Exchequer find it difficult to deal with , sure of no oppositious Mr . Williams or finely criticizing Mr . Gladstone . The wonder is that , with such manifold and manifest advantages at command ,

      Ministers should not have done more on Monday night last . Still their performance was of a marked character , and indicated what may be expected of them when they are more familiar with their new stage and novel audience . The curtain was sent up with the performance of the Duke of Cambridge in the toast to the Army and Navy . The Duke p layed his part as well as he could nave played it in his own House , and his point about the keeping up of the efficiency of the army without extravagant expenditure brought down a round of applause . After the Duke of Northumberland had delivered his speech about the Navy , came the performance of Lord Derby .

      In moving terms he gave a description of the toils , the anxieties , the sacrifices of a Ministers life , touching the hearts of all his audience by his glance at other ills to which great Ministers are subject—" the obloquy and misrepresentations of political opponents , and sometimes the dissatisfaction of disappointed friends . " And then he told of the great Indian bill which , upon the last night of late sitting of Parliament , he had by deputy presented to the House of Commons . Gracefully he recounted in brief the rise of that wonderful empire of ours in the East , its history to the present time , the story of its progress , with high laudation of the

      energy , ability , and vigour of the men who had established a permanent influence over a population exceeding by tenfold that of their native country , and over dominions bearing a still larger proportion to the narrow circumference of these little islands . " Then he came to the heart of his speech—the change of government demanded for this wonderful empire , and to the bill by which the change is to be wrought . Most modestly he spoke of his bill ; most modestly he set forth the difficulties inherent in the subject , those that were accidental to it ; and modestly he said , " I think he would be a bold , not to say a presumptuous Minister , who could hope himself with the aid of his with

      by , or colleagues , the notice of a few days or even a few weeks , to strike out a scheme which would not be liable to grave objections , or which in its course would not require serious modifications . " Perfect in his part , Lord Derby now prepared to make his grand point . Such as he had described it , was the Indian Bill ; designedly had it been placed before Parliament and before the country on the last night of the sitting , when there was neither time nor opportunity for more than its bare reception ; noio he would tell Parliament and the country—when none were by to say him nay— 'that the only wish of himself and his Cabinet was to evoke discussion upon tho

      subject of the measure , to invite criticism , suggestions , every assistance in fact from Parliament and the country , to make it what he had not the presumption to hope it would be found to be , good for anything . One thing alone he deprecated : that a question dealing with such migjity interests should be made " the snort of political parties , or the battlefield of rival disputants . " Could Lord Derby have said all this half so much at his ease upon his own stage in Westminster P Clearl y the City theatre is an important Parliamentary adjunct , in tho hands of really firstrate actors . Mr . Disraeli showed himself quite alive to its advantages over the old House . His budget—his deficiency—here ho could manipulate

      free-tongued and free-handed . And when tho Lord Mayor said that new taxes were tho thing to meet the little difficulty in tho Exchequer , Mr . Disraeli had his bon mot ready at tho cuo , and JjrQught ^ dowA-tho-houso ^ iight-gaily N * o , whcr , p could he more at his case have announced his intention to take that last step in a Chancellor of tho Exchequer's forlorn hope , —tho putting on of now taxes . In tho Egyptian Hall of the Mansion Houso ho is sure of his round of applause ; in tho other place tho applause is extremely doubtful under such provocation . Tho performance , upon tho whole , may be considered to have gone off extremely well . As for tho manager , tho advent of tho chief actor in tho evening ' s entertainment was regarded by him as a pioco of special good fortuno , the result of an

      interposition of Providence , in fact . It had always been his prayer , he said , that when he became the head of the City of London he might have the honour of entertaining the Earl of Derb y as Prime Minister of England , and he was thankful that his prayer had been answered . Of course there is no objection to the Lord Mayor conceiving himself to be " favoured by Providence in this way ; on the contrary , we think that people generally will look upon him as a very happil y constituted man to find such large contentedness in favour so moderate . There is one point , however , upon which some people may be at issue with him ; whether he has the right to let the Mansion House , even for ' one ni ght only ' for such extra-parliamentary performances as that of Monday evening last—to turn the Festive Egyp . tian Hall into a temporary substitute for the shut up Theatre Royal , St . Stephens .

      The French Empire In Europe. It Is Evide...

      THE FRENCH EMPIRE IN EUROPE . It is evident that the French Government is now endeavouring to recover the ground which it lias lost both abroad and at home within the last three or four months . The diminution of its influence and prestige is a fact patent to all . The first symptom was tile indefinite adjournment of the long . talked-of Conferences of Paris , at which every one foresaw that Napoleon III . could not play over again the part he sustained— -chiefly in consequence ot England ' s self-abnegation , her preference of the

      substance before the shadow—of arbiter of Europe . Most of the points which remained for debate would have been decided in direct opposition to the wishes or the prejudices of France . Much was said at the beginning of the . year about the means by which this check , rather to the personal vanity than to the policy of a parvenu sovereign , was to be brought about ; and those who did not see that the whole current of public opinion in Europe had changed its direction , imagined that a positive coalition , headed by England , had been formed .

      When the attempt of the 11 th took place , fora moment it was supposed that sympathy , of a somewhat blind and unreasoning kind , would give back to France what conviction had taken from it . A few days , nay a few hours , showed how great was this mistake . No better proof could have been given that the ascendancy of the Empire was decidedly at an end than that the very circumstance which every one believed would do it good turned out at once to be the cause of the heaviest damage it ever received . It is true that the French Government began immediately , with perverse ingenuity , to heap fault upon- fault , to frighten its friends and exasperate its enemies . But what else could it do ? The glare of Orsini ' s grenades enlie

      lightened it as to its true position . It saw for I first time that everybody in Europe looked upon it merely as an expedient—that if few wished lor its immediate destruction , all were sure it would 00 succeeded by something totally diil ' crcnt . lor a year or two it had been endeavouring to imitate the demeanour of a regular government . But the truth was now revealed to it . As a dictatorship it began , as a dictatorship it must continue . Acts ot violence were dangerous , but consistent ; acts ot weakness would have been more dangerous still . The only choice was between compression , wmen must lead to explosion , and allowing the explosion to take place at on . ee . There may have been a middle path ; but was it not obstructed / w «« not the Emperor have not only changed his nature K ., f ^ Ki : i » i . « f « rl flm nnaf iii mvW to be ftblO tO

      COHcode the demands of liberal France ? The caresses of a tiger fill us with dismay as great us its atlnoK , if it pulls out its claws wo kill it . , England , Belgium , Switzerland , and I " "" ?" wore suddenly and simultaneously subjected to imperial pressure , which in no ono case 1 has as yw n-oduccd any marked results . In nearly all cases , lowevor , thoro has boon hesitation . JiaWia u » condescension formed during sovoral years are not easily laid aside Still , tho first campaign ol tnj Empqror , flgainsU »> . Q ^ his neighbours has not been suopossliu . ury * undertaken too roughly , too imperiously , « uu | wiu out sufficient preparation . But it is to uo served that ho has not yet withdrawn any ol ' » demands even upon England . His attack , like >«

      of tho imperial columns on our squares » . --loo , was impetuous , dashing , almost ovcrwhol 1 ing Yot it has boon repelled , and wo have boon ablo w re-form in something like order . Arc wo prormica to resist another oliargo P . 1 . * Facts whioh have recently oozod out prove >« Franco is now making groat military and uav «> I »

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10041858/page/12/