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    jvmiZrW&l IffE liEADEB. 56$

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    OSBOENE'S MILITARY STUDIES. Mb. Osdobne ...

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    CHURCH ANARCHY. Hopelessly confused are ...

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  • 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.

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    Kai/Mesbubt's Napqleoniq Idea; "French P...

    wnerit ,- —if we can call such a thing Parliament , _ not only may Frenchmen be tried in Prance for political offences committed by them in Eng-Ian 4 r ^* a provision totally at variance with the spiritof our own law , — -but accomplices in those offe nces , Englishmen , may also be tried in France . Way more : "Englishmen not charged as accomplices of Frenchmen ; Englishmen themselves Without any accusation that they are in complicity with Frenchmen , may be tried in France for political offences committed by them in England , provided those offences are against the French Go vernment . " - . . '

    Lord Malmesbury " thought his noble and learned friend was mistaken ; the bill which had now passedwas confined to Frenchmen . " We are surprised to see that " Lord Brougham did not repel the epithet cast at him , of being a " noble and learned friend " -to the speaker : we are not less surprised to see him accept Lord Malmesbury ' s contradiction , although it was totally at variance with the way in which the bill stood wlien Lord Brougham saw it last ; and the public will put more confidence in Lord Brougham ' s revision of the bill , whatever its date , than * in Lord Malmesbury ' s . By the most probable

    evid ence , it appears , that the editor of the Times , or any speaker at a public meeting who denounces the French government , or Lord Harrowby himself maintaining th _ e rights of the press in the House of Peers , might be tried for an offence , and punished tinder French law—under French ]& w for which Lord Malmesbury is inviting the English House of Peers , descendants of the Barons , to pass a convenient supplement . But we are not left in doubt , at least , as to the

    present practice and construction of the law in France ; for we see that the correspondent of the 3 forning Chronicle is specifically made answerable , not only for his own letters , but for leading articles in that journal ; exactly the law supposed by Lord Brougham , and denied by Lord Malmesbury . And Lord Malmesbury is asking the English Parliament to co-operate with the Legislative Assembly in carrying out such a law .

    From the testimony of Lord Campbell , it appears , that " any individual who may be obnoxious to the French government is to be surrendered upon the simple presentation of a document alleging his guut . " Lord Malmesbury endeavours to extenuate even this atrocious violation of personal right on English soil : the surrender , he pleads , " would be at the discretion

    of the [ English ] magistrate . " The discretion of the English magistrate , " replied Lord Campbell , " could only be exercised with respect to the identity of the person claimed ; if that were established , he must be surrendered . " Such is another incident in the law for which Lord Malmesbury has asked the sanction of an English Parliament !

    Lord Campbell oited a case in which a fugitive slave prosecuted in Canada for " stealing ahorse , " upon , which , in fact , he had escaped , was released by the magistrate , on the plain dictate of English law . Lord Malmesbury has been endeavouring suddenly to obtain from the English Parliament the reversal of that just decision ; the reversal of a right upheld in the best incidents of our history . But we have not done yot . This measure appoars to be as inexhaustible as Fortunatus's cap ,

    or as Pandora ' s box , not , indeed , of wealth , nor , as yet , of actual disaster , but of intended disgraces , and dishonour prepense . Lord Campbell was struck with the fact , that , under tho bill , there was to be no reciprocity : tho warrant of the French Minister is to bo conclusive before the English Magistrate , but tho warrant of tho English Secretary of State , or of tho English Magistrate in Franco , is not to bo deemed positive or conclusive evidence of the guilt for the bora unanconui

    repose of tho extradition , . - ougden gravely replies to this objection against a formal statute , that " itis understood that there should be complete reciprocity between thorn , tuo two countries , " and that on the actual working of tho French law , wo should have just tho aamo facilities for tho . apprehension of our criminals there , as wo gave for tho apprehension ° * * renoh criminals hero . " It is for tho English puWic to say , whether it vahios as equivalent to tno guarantee of a statute , or tho sanction of its Jong cherished traditions , an " understanding between tho Government of Louis Napoleon , and the Government of which Lord Malmesbury is l'ojoign Minister ?

    But there is something more alarming beneath the assurance of the Lord Chancellor ! " The clauses , " he says , " had been framed with a view to obtain this object ; " meaning , by" this object , " the " understanding" in question . From the clauses of the statute , therefore , ^ hus deliberately affirmed , and deliberatel y subinitted to the British Parliament , we have a right to extract the spirit of the understanding established between the Government of Louis Napoleon , and the Governinent of which Lord Malmesbury is Foreign Minister—and the body of that spirit we recognise in the provisions alreadv described ,

    namely , those permitting the extradition of offenders under twenty different denominations of crime ; permitting Englishmen to be tried in France for offences in England against the French Government ; stretching backtheproyisions retrospectivel y for nine or ten years ; giving the English magistrate no discretion , and so forth . These provisions form the body from which we may extract the spirit of the understanding vaunted by the Lord Chancellor . From gentle and infenu ous Argyll , Lord Malmesbury may judge ow the Engiish public will be inclined " simply to trust in the good faith of the French Government . "

    But we have not done even yet . Supposing a man were wrongly surrendered : what redress would this Government obtain ? " He might , " said the Lord Chancellor , " plead his surrender by the English Government under this treaty as a defence against the charge ; " " , " said Lord Brougham , "he should be sent back . " " That is a valuable suggestion , '' rejoined the Lord Chancellor , snatching at a better reply . " But , " said Lord Brougham , " under the convention a person

    improperly surrendered , and subjected to a political charge ,, shall be entitled to an acquittal , which is manifestly beyond the power of the French law , if it at all resembles ours . " Thus professionally pushed , the Lord Chancellor at fast gave forth this confession ^ : " It will he for the French Government to regulate their own law , as between themselve * and their subjects . " Surrendered , therefore , by English instrumentality , to Parisian justice , the appeal of the wronged Frenchman is to be—to Napoleonic law .

    Thanks to Lord Cranworth for judicially declaring , that the measure , taken with the treaty , " appeared to contain stipulations and promises which were absolutely inadmissible ; 'nor did he know of any power which they [ the Peers ] had , to legislate so as to modif y the terms of that treaty . " As Lord Aberdeen said , " The Foreign Secretary had not been sufficiently impressed with the great difficulties incident to the subject ;" the first and foremost difficulty being that of reconciling any British assemblage to his Napoleonic or Austrian law . .

    The result of the debate , however , may inspire hope into the bosom of a Malmesbury ; for it marks the backsliding of our Barons , when they consented to the second reading of such a bill" to improve it in Committee , " forsooth ! It is a mischief and a dishonour ; every hour that it remained in their House , after it had been exposed , was a submission to shame ; and if that shame inevitably follows from the longer sufferance of its denationalized author in tho Cabinet , tho disgrace upon the English Parliament presses its scorching brand with a heavier weight .

    Jvmizrw&L Iffe Lieadeb. 56$

    jvmiZrW & l IffE liEADEB . 56 $

    Osboene's Military Studies. Mb. Osdobne ...

    OSBOENE'S MILITARY STUDIES . Mb . Osdobne can present a fallacy in so lively a manner , that he will make pooplo love it more than tho truth ; and on the strength of that privilege desiring to rake up authorities against the Militia Bill as tho bill of an adverse ministry , ho drags in tho names of Pitt , Frederic Hill , Washington , and General Grammont ; aetrango assortment—used for purposes as strange . General Grammont is quotod to show , that out of 237 , 000 men of tho National Guard m Pans , on tho 28 th Juno , 1848 , only 8000 " descended into the streets to fight for their homes , a fact which shows that tho middle class of Paris had no clear course boford it at that crisis of its fate . But tho fact shows no moro . A nuhtia must always bo , oxactly in proportion to its extension , a national force . Including all classes without distinction of rank , ifc would then have tho fairest chance of acting according to tho popular opinion of the nation , at the dictate neither of faction nor of individuals . A merely military man , like Mr . Osborne , may regard that incident of a national force aa an objection , but the publio will

    regardit in the very opposite sense . The National Guard of Paris was a class militia , and it shared in the perplexities of its own class ; that is the exact interpretation of its conduct in June , 1848 . Mr * Pitt is the authority quoted yith the least twist by the speaker ; but a p lan for organizin g a militia Quoted bv the Whig member for

    Middlesex from the Heaven-born Minister of the Tory party , quoted by the retired young officer who laughs at a Home Secretary's notions of military matters from a most civil Chancellor of the Exchequer , is in itself a joke . Nobodyelse would value Mr . Pitt ' s authority , which ia actually advanced on the subject of " drill "; but Mr . Gsborne is an indefatigable collector of facetiae .

    The citation of Frederic Hill is simply irrelevant . Mr . Hill proposed a specific plan for raising a defensive force of respectable residents , paid according to time , and well paid ; liable to summons as a sort of military constabulary , and constituting the permanent nucleus of any civil or suddenly raised force . We regard that measure as more complete in itself than the Ministerial measure for the militia ; but instead of being incompatible with the national militia , it would be a practical facility towards the organization , and working of a national body . In the

    meantime , the two measures have scarcely any points of comparison . Washington comes humorously amongst the antiquities of Mr . Osborne ' s " Joe Millers . " He is cited for complaining against a militia . Harassed between his own absconding armies and the English , who were inactive sometimes because they could not believe the extremities of his position , Washington did complain of the militia , because they wished to go home ; he also complained of short supplies and short enlistments . If Mr . Gsborne desires , and if he diligently scours

    Washington ' s correspondence , he may gather authorities for grumbling on almost any other popular question . Washington " complains of almost everything ; and if his complaints were to be final , they might be levelled at very high , institutions . " Washington complains of the paper currency , which got into a very bad state during the war . Mr . Osborne might level that complaint at our bank notes . Washington complains of the American parliament , which was undecided , vacillating , and tardy with its supplies : Mr Osborne might use that authority against representative government . Washington complains

    of the English monarch : Mr . Osborne might discover how to avail h imself of these aspersions as against Queen Victoria . Washington complains of unpunctuality : Mr . Osborno might cite him against Members who cannot make a house . Being an exact master , we have no doubt , though we could not lay our finger on tho passage , that Washington complained of his own slaves : Mr . Osborno might return that shaft across the Atlantic . In fact , tho correspondence of the father of his country is rather full of passages in the complaining vein , and a facetious gentleman like Mr . Osborne might find it an inexhaustible store for his sarcasms .

    But what has all this to do with tho Militia BillP If Washington complained , even he conquered . If Washington complained of a militia trained under English government , Zachary Taylor has made conquests for his country by a militia trained under democratic institutions , which have called to tho active service of their land the immense mass of its young and active

    men . The militia men of America are ready to defend tho principles and institutions of their land equally against every external invader and internal traitor 5 they have proved the true indomitable guardians of liberty ; and if Mr . Osborno wore not prepared to turn liberty into a joko called " Liberalism , " ho might find moro substantial authorities , fresher for hiB purpose , than the " Tristia" of Washington , or tho soldierly reminiscences of Mr . Pitt .

    Church Anarchy. Hopelessly Confused Are ...

    CHURCH ANARCHY . Hopelessly confused are all the relations of tho Church of England , as well to tho State and tho country , externally , as to its members one towards another , internally . There is not only not a oneness of doctrino , which the Bishop of Oxford dooms impossible , —there is not even a decent approach towards unity . Mr . Gladstone admitted ! , in tho Bennett debate , that the Church is " torn and rent from head to foot with her dissensions } " that she is smarting all over with

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12061852/page/15/