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    November 11, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1067

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    DOOM OV TILE SPANISH 11ACES. The United ...

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    THE NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURNS. We have rec...

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    Priests And Politics In Ireland. The Chi...

    even greater than in appearance —for the irishops are eschewing politics , not on reli gious , h \ it on political , grounds . Lord Aberdeen , who did service to the " Church" against the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill , and whose known tolerance gives assurance against despotic or bigoted government in Ireland , is supjosed to be on excellent terms with Dr . Cullen , the Primate ; and when Dr . Cullen

    ¦ with the sanction of the Vatican , passes the ¦ word through the hierarchy for " peace and quietness , " it is understood that he means—prosperity to the Government of Lord Aberdeen . Now the national Irish party , trusting the Peelites , but abhorring the Whigs , believe that they cannot get the reforms needed by the Irish people unless they can secure a Parliamentary position , independent of the Government—a

    position in which they may be leagued with English independent Radicals , pledged to popular measures for the empire : —and accordingly , resenting the suppression of Father O'Reeffe , they . talk of aa appeal to Rome . We sympathise in their distresses , hut we do notunderstand their despair . As g-ood Catholics , which we of course assume , they cannot regret a decree which will exclude ministers of religion from the impure world of bribery and bullying : they will not deny that , if politics gain from the participation of priests , religion must , in some sense , suffer—a man cannot

    ¦ up lift the Host with greater reverence for having ; returned a candidate . And as politicians we may venture to suggest to them some consolation . No nation ever did anything by its priests : political liberties were never won by a clergy . An Englishman , even an English Catholic , would , in Mr . Duffy ' s place , rejoice at a conspiracy intended to suppress him . ; he would take advantage of it to effect his emancipation .

    In England , which is not the less a religious country , we long ago relegated our Jos-House men , to their own spiritual studies and exercises ; and - \ ve have gained , in consequence . In Ireland there might for a time be some diminution in that popular spirit which troubles astronomical primates and perplexes commonsense placemen . But if the exclusion of the priesthood from " agitations" -were stringently effected , on hoth sides—if Cullen ceased to

    conspire while the parish oracle was prohibited from his altar-harangue—then the intellect of the country would accommodate itself to the new requirements , and the people would themselves produce their popular leaders' —leaders who would take none the less sound a view of the nation ' s affairs because they had never gone through the dangerously incomplete education of Maynooth . In fact , has not one great evil of Ireland been , that the bold intellects ,

    finding only an alternative of service , have preferred to be the agents of English Government rather than the slaves of foolish , innocent , but perhaps insolent , clergymen ? Popular movements do not disappear with priests . It is philosophically true of all lands , that a clergy never had secular influence ; in Ireland it is a fact that the priests have only had power when they hnvo joined a movement , originated in the popular instinct , and commenced without them .

    November 11, 1854.] The Leader. 1067

    November 11 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1067

    Doom Ov Tile Spanish 11aces. The United ...

    DOOM OV TILE SPANISH 11 ACES . The United States arc not popular at present on this side of tho Atlantic . Two European Governments have already betrayed the fear that really stirs in tho heart of several . The French Government has permitted itself to war upon the private life of an Ainoricsm citizen , because it droads the influence of vitality which America might ; throw into tho patriot party ; and not only Spain , but ovory Spanish Htato , dreads the advanco of tlmt Anglo-Saxon rnco which is over on the march wherever it is heo . Tho

    last fact will account for many otherwise unaccountable intrigues . It is in Spain that the American Minister finds himself most the object of paltry social persecution ; not only because he is an American , but because his avowed sentiments do not differ from those ¦ who desire to extend the Union , its territory , and influence . It is the Mexican and Brazilian Ministers who evince , by their manners ,

    an inscrutable jealousy of the American Minister at the same court . It is Brazil which constantly courts England , notwithstanding English slights upon Brazil , her Government , and trade . It is Santa Anna who is suspected of sending over to Europe for a grand instrument , in the hope that it will stop the southward march of the Anglo-Saxon republicans . And what is the new invention of the

    adventurer , this Trajan ' s wall , this brazen fence of Gog and Magog , to shut out the freemen who are constantly encroaching upon the territories which the Spanish Americans claim and vex , but can neither govern nor settle —what is this grand device to darn the ever-encroaching tide ? It is a Prince . Yes , Santa Anna , it is said , conscious that the Mexicans , though brave , have neither the political virtue * nor the genius , nor the

    practical resolve of the Anglo-Saxon , has applied to the Royal Families to recognise him as King , and to give him as an heir , whom he will adopt , one of their own family . Conceive that ! Imagine the Anglo-Saxon trail crossed , fatally and for ever , by a Prince ! Think of that as a " medicine , " or scare-crow , set up to stop the citizens ! Fancy it effectual ! Not even a Georgius Tertius , but some cadet Enrique , some poor Pedro , or some disinherited Francois ! Will the plan do ?

    Has Santa Anna any such woman ' s notion or not ? We doubt it . Spanish American imbecility has gone great lengths ; the dread of the Anglo-Saxon Unionist party in the capital of the Montezumas is great ; but the Dictator must have a better knowledge o £ American possibilities than that . Yet we would not venture to assert that the project is without foundation , or without a collateral object . Its possible purpose will be best understood by describing 1 another ,

    There is a great river , which , debouching into the Atlantic , opens the road for the navigator right across the eastern slope from the backbone of America , and places the whole interior , with many tributaries , and some of the most productive lands in the world , at the service of the trader . For years the banks of that river have been nominally in possession of the Iberian races , and the great natural highway of exports and imports is useless . We well remember , some twelve or fifteen years

    ago , an ingenious adventurer who professedly had a grant of tho navigation from the Brazilian Government , -which was at that time not without liberal views and enterprise ; but the project , came to nothing , and tho highway is still unused . Tho enterprising Americans of tho great republic have their oyo upon the wasted stream ; they have resolved that it shall be turned to account ; and before many years have passed , tho -voice of tho Anglo-Saxon mariner will lie familiar to the echoes of tho

    Amazon . It might bo supposed that those who have already any interest in tho stream and its lands would bo rejoiced at the prospect of the indefinite increase to its value— -tho change from a desert to tho banks of a great commercial fitrenm . Not at all : they view tho coming of tho American as tho Red man views the approach of tho White—they do not welcome commerce , which they have bcaruely tho energy to share , but they droad displacement . "What can they do ? Should they resist ? It would be in vain . Should they submit ? It would bo hateful to Spanish pride .

    There is one hope—if they could but give the dreaded Anglo-Saxon work elsewhere . That does not seem impossible . Almost any pretext will serve . Let them say that a secretary of legation in London intended an offence to the Queen . No matter if the secretary is well known to be incapable of any such idle freak—if he is a gentleman , a man of the world , who woulddespise as worse than a niaiserie , as a lachete , any attack on so estimable a lady , whose good name , socially , is not more

    respected in England than in America . Say there was the intent to offend , pervert the facts , tell a little truth to leaven the lie , and there is at all events the chance of a quarrel ; and the chance is worth a Brazil diamond Assert that Mr . Soule is a violent man in league with French revolutionaries . No matter if he is in truth a cautious man , faithful only to old personal and political friendships , and taking" no part in revolutionary moves : he is an American

    Minister , he has to pass through France , and if stopped it ma y breed a quarrel between France and America . England desires to stop the slave trade : if Cuba were annexed , the trade there would be effectually stopped ; but say that Brazil is repelling the trade , that- Spain will repel it , and that Samana is bought to pave the way to Cuba : it is a lie , but it may embroil the British navy . Let Santa Anna ask for a Prince to come out and be dethroned : he

    may be refused , but he may get , the toy ; and a Prince on the Texan frontier would be a great doll for Europe to quarrel about . Any luck , in short , from a tavern squabble to a dynasty , might serve that object of a diversion for American energy from , the Amazon and the Mexican capital .

    The Newspaper Stamp Returns. We Have Rec...

    THE NEWSPAPER STAMP RETURNS . We have received several protests against the gene * ralised conclusions of our article , last week , upon the recent newspaper stamp returns . Our deductions are disputed ; bat it may be shown that the most careful consideration will bear out our observations . "We have to apologise for having put the sale of the Morning Chronicle at too low a figure : by a -typographical error , that distinguished journal was represented as selling' only 100 O copies daily , whereas its actual sale is upwards of 2000 copies daily . On the other h and , we gave tho Times too many copies . But a correction of these figures does not disturb the argument . The Morning Chronicle , which , for years ,

    has been one of the first journals of Europe , and is at this moment , in all that relates to the events of the war , tho best « c «« paper in Europe , sells to all Europe not 3000 copies per day ; and in the presence of such a fact , extending over years , while on the other hand the competing great journal sustains its position with a decreased reputation , it is sheer affectation to deny to the latter journal a practical monopoly in the daily press . Tho inference we drew was that , so long as tho morning proas is a dear press , as the penny stamp causes it to be , in a measuro disproportionate to the mere amount of the stamp , only one morning paper can have a great sale .

    It is objected to our argument—that a first-class weekly paper must charge a high price— -that wo have overlooked tho cheap paper so ably and successfully edited ( aa tho fact is advertised wo intrude on no private aecruta ) by Mr . Douglas Jorrold ; and that wo do not take into account such papers as tho Athcnw . ntn . There is no doubt that Llw / d ' n Weekly Newspaper lias tho largest circulation of all tho weekly newspapers , and that it only chargua threepence per

    copy , and that it » h edited by one of the first , and most deservedly popular , writera of tho duy . JJut there in us little doubt , tlmt the actual profit loft on tho enormous circulation of thai paper dcxjB not equal tlie aetuul proilt left on tho comparatively very Kiimll circulation of a tjixponny paper such aa the Kxttminur : tlio ouno in , tlierofbro , exc « ptlonal ; in no other trado would so largo a capital , and uuch mi amount , of niiergy , bo timployed for so disproportionate . ; u pecuniary result . With regard to thq

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 11, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11111854/page/11/