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    1m THE LEADER. [Saturday, I

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    ! MORAL OF THE HUME PORTRAIT. * Mb. Jose...

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    Si'iTAMHELDH Wkavbus.—TIicho njisovnblo ...

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    Austria—Fob Am) Against. "Whatever A Few...

    to keep on the occidental side . She was dilatory , and did not do all that the British , and French Governments wanted , keeping back from actual service against the Czar , and only giving her name against him ; but still she could not be said to be acting trea- cherously . The next hope of the friends of the nationalities , accordingly , was that , as , in any . case , Austria did not go the whole length ! of the "Western Powers against the Czar , she and they would split upon the pacification . She would insist , it was thought , on letting off Uussia on a mere treaty of status quo ante , or little more ; "whereas our ministers had pledged them- selves not to make peace except on far more stringent terms , effecting a new order of things in the East . And , splitting on the pacification , Austria , it was thought , would then pursue a course which , would give the democracies an interest in at least the dregs of the war . Even this anticipation , it seems must now be given up . On Thursday night Lord Clarendon announced- that even up to this last point , the conduct of Austria was perfectly , satisfactory , as " within th . e pre ceding ; thirty-six hours , and consequently since the evacuation of the Principalities was known at Vienna , notes had been exchange between her Majesty ' s G-oy eminent and the Austrian Government , which would . show , when-published , that Austria had as little intention as the British Government , of return- ing to the status quo" Supposing this to be ¦ true , it bars all prospect of a split -upon the pacification . To be sure , as Ministers have never distinctly announced the terms on which ifiey would make peace , it is quite as possible that they may iet down their demands to the standard of the wishes of Austria , as that Austria will raise her ideas of q . proper pacification- to the standard of theirs . Bute at all events , if the present information is final , there will be an agreement , and no split . And thus—always barring what may be called the incalculable eventualitiesthe last hope of the " friends of European freedom" from the present war would seein lost . They are at liberty to take all that interest in the war which arises from seeing the Russians well thrashed within certain limits , and the Turks placed in a more respectable position in the East ; but , so far as appears , that larger element of interest which consisted in hope for Italy , Hungary , Poland , and the enfranchisement of nations more our own kith and kin than the Turks , has now wholly departed from it . One point more . Has the conduct of Austria during the war "been a pure speculation of her own , dictated merely by enlightened self-interest , and a progressive sense of tho amount of capital she could make out of the opportunity , or has it been also , in part , purchased by promises and stipulations on the part of the Western Powers ? This is a momentous question . If the conduct , of Austria has been a pure speculation of her own ingenuity , she has made a splendid thing of it . She- has been put forward as the arbiter of the situation till she herself "believes it , till all Europe bqlievcs it , till oven the Turks believe it , and begin to look to Austria as , after all , the real Power to enter into relations with . Thus sho hna recovered prestige in Europe , with all that prestige commands . Besides sho will have the pickings of the war—somo slice of the Principalities , perhaps , if who manages cleverly Not a bad speculation all this , considerinf that all that sho has done lias conHiatox in judiciously doing nothing , and letting her Belt" be puffed , for doing it . But has ifc beoi pure speculation ? There in the onigma . I it Has , nrudont men naturally acquiesce . 1 JkvQtviarWoultl'hQ ouu ally , they any , we coul not refuse hoi ? aid , and drive her off—a- ppvve

    wi ha gc B rn vs \ cl cU ri tl sv qi li < b h tl 13 p v \ i ] n , I , a i s - c i i d ] with 4 £ > 0 , 000 men ! We might , perhaps , have toadied her less ; but if she was bent on going our way , we could not prevent her ! But , if slie has been our ally on predetermined conditions ? There is the point on which our O-overnment might well be catechised . They could not , in common prudence , refuse Austrian help ; but they had a right to look at any conditions annexed to that help , as its price , and refuse them if not suitable . Now the belief in well-informed quarters is , that the price paid to Austria for her help in the war , such as it has been , has been a guarantee by the Western Powers of her Italian provinces . Trance , it is said , is the immediate party to the guarantee—France and Austria being at present copartners in Italy . Great Britain , of course , would not dare openly to appear in such an infamous transaction ;; but we need only remember our diplomacy in the case of the French restoration of the Papacy , to see that after all we mig ht be morally implicated in it . And if so * not only is this war robbed of its supposed anti-despotie and anti-Austrian character ; it becomes positively pro-despotic and pro-Austrian ; and Great Britain , systematically , takes her place among the desi potisms . . ft ' - . — : — .

    1m The Leader. [Saturday, I

    1 m THE LEADER . [ Saturday , I

    ! Moral Of The Hume Portrait. * Mb. Jose...

    ! MORAL OF THE HUME PORTRAIT . * Mb . Joseph Hume has been forty years in ( public life , during all that time a consistent ( Reformer , leading the way in all the Reforms i which Lord John Russell enumerates when- ] ever Lord John R-ussell is in danger of "being , s turned out . There is , among the English 1 people , an affectionate esteem for the ve- teran Reformer ; the Crown respects him ; i his life has been so good and so pure that ; the aristocracy have been conciliated into admiring him . His has been a uniquely grand career : that of a patriot -whose love of country lias been practical : and who for forty years has worked iu public business twelve hours out of every twenty-four— -and never took one farthing of public money . To him is not only extended the praise due to the wise and " the honest ; but-he revels in that still pleasanter commendation which is claimed by , and is accorded to , complete success . An earnest politician , who has disarmed all political enmity—an ardent Reformer , who beholds all his ' ideas adopted as the commonplace of every competitive faction—' his splendid position was on Monday recognised by the nation , represented in popular representatives , and on that day tho great old man obtained the triumph of his life . The "Whigs —yes , at last—presented his wife with his portrait I The ceremony , we are told , was touching . "We can only regard it as humiliating to Radicalism . Is this the future that Radicals , who are following in Mr . Hume ' s footsteps , promise for themselves : to be patronised by the Whigs , and painted by subscription ? "We take for granted that Mr . Hume , - with tho sagacity which has marked his wholo career , purposes to make this his last session . Wo sincerely hope so : his most glorious week should not be marred by less happy incidents to which ho might bo exposed in > tho future ; and wo cannot but think that i statesmen may often imitate with advantage the careful management of laurels which ia exhibited by great actors and singers , Mac-. rcadys and Marioa , who retire in time . ; Mr . Hiimo has always been loading Lord 1 John ; and wo asaumo , us a mnttor of course , - that ho ia now intent on sotting Lord John i a good example — his last . At auqh a f momont , therefore , wo aro reluctant to f use an expression which may nob bo comd plimentary . But without the slightest ofv fenco , wo may venture to point out , for the s' i f i ; t ¦ I f f 3 i * i e t 4 ' II ¦ s d > - n fs is J . o a , s , y h lO

    ¦ if benefit of his contemporaries and diseiples , the great fault in Mr . Hume ' s career . That fault—a generous and perhaps noble faultis in this : that Mr . Hume ' s exertions have been confined to creating capital for the Whigs . Mr . Hume ' s ideas have been in I power;—why has Mr . Hume never been in I power ? Because Mr . Hume , humble and worthy man , never for a moment entertained so preposterous an idea as that the Radicals , could do without the aristocracy . Mr . i Hume's policy—it has been , the Radical | policy always—haa been merely to play | Whig against Tory , and , out of their bids % for popularity , to get the utmost possible ; concession for the people . No other policy was possible at the period of the Reform Bill of ' 32 .: the oligarchical system was then regarded even by the wildest among the Reformers as a sacred portion of the constitution . When . Peel was rising on the reaction of the Eeform Bill era , no other policy wa 3 possible : the Radicals had lost Lord Brougham , were tortured with O'Connell , and had not quite lost the Whigs , and were ( / - . not quite sure of not gaining Peel . But Mr . Hume ' s' determined reliance on AVhiggery has been , since 1846 , . most disastrous to his party ; and his Ministerialism , on the formation of a Coalition unchecked by an organised Opposition , has had the effect , this last session , of handing over the people and popular conditions- —those connected with the war illeluded—to the mercy of a Government whose Conservative instincts were too strong for _ the management of the maladroit Lord John K , ussell . Individually , Mr . Hume may have lmproved bis own comfort in tlie House , and his age entitled him to avoid the vigorous attitude of a Radical leader . But , in spite of himself , he was the Radical leader ; and his invalidy shirking of criticism and condition- ? ing—even on the- estimates—was the excuse for the slothful or treacherous conduct of too many of his friends among the " -popular members . " Mr . Hume-would have carried his points sooner had he observed , through his life , the Parliamentary necessity of the Radicals being organised into a party just as Whigs and Tories are organised ;—offering to his friends in and out of the House , those temptations —office , with its profitable and philosophic pleasures — which create mid consolidateparties ; and promising for himself the patriotic delight of doing the country ' s work in hia own pre-eminently thorough way . Because Mr . Humo never aspired to real power , and never permitted his party to contemplate tho possibility of independence of Whig patronago , he has never been feared , and therefore never adequately consulted or deferred to by the Whigs . And they aro grateful ; they send his portrait to the Liberal Umversity to suggest the amiable example to rising Humes . All honour , say we , with them , to this distinguished man . May thoro bo many Humes as honest and as keen ; but may there never be another so humble . -

    Si'itamheldh Wkavbus.—Tiicho Njisovnblo ...

    Si'iTAMHELDH Wkavbus . —TIicho njisovnblo men linyo mortified their demmulB : tlioy now lutk an hicraiso ot only 8 d . per yunl nil round . If tho masters rulnso tins they throuton u strike . This nnragrnnh roprcsontH their cjiso ;—" In order to show tlmt this domund w » n not . unroiimimiule , thoy rtwQBcntod to tho manufacturers , that tho inniiuf itctnro of one yard of « llk velvet would occupy n miin tho wholo of ft daty—BoinetimoH fourteen or fifteen bourn , and fur this , at th « viroscnt rato of charge , ho would receive only 1 ' . 2 a . iv week . Hy tho proposed inerciHO ho would , supposiiiii ; Imn to bo constantly nt work , receive ISIh . Gil . a w « uk . 'lhoy «<» - inittcd Unit it wn » true they received more tlmn thin lor t'io nupport of thoir I ' umilioH , but that incroiiHO couhl only uo Hceurod by kooping their wives and children conHtnntly nt tho mnchine , Miicrilleing every domestic comfort , imd bringing up thoir children * in u ntnto of the crosscut ignornnoo , mul aeprivinK them of nil nortn of healthful oxoromo . " A niootiiig of flOOO of tho operntivoa was held on Thursday niuht , to hoar what progrosn had been mudo . As a body _ it wna reported tho masters hud not Rivev tvny . Several linns , it wan ullogod , laivo entered into combination ugulnat tlio men .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12081854/page/14/