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    g^g THE LEA3)EB. [Saturday ,

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    THE IMPERIAL VISIT. N"o clear-sighted po...

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    Are We To Have An Aristocracy ? The Time...

    to question . Economy , and still more reason nnd feeling , would very soon demand a further change . To pay half a million annually for n duff and senseless pageant would perhaps seem a small thing to a rich nation . It -would not seem a small thing that our political , religious , and social system should < be made an organised lie . It would not seem a small thing that we should be continually praying to God to endow with wisdom to govern us those whom we will not and cannot suffer to take the smallest part in the

    work of government . It would not seem a small thing that the sacred language of loyalty and love should be daily addressed to those towards whom we can feel no loyalty or love at all , and on whom , directly they try to be anything but a name at the head of the Court circular , the Tories themselves—the canters about " Patriot Kings "—shower calumny and insult . It is , as we say , merely as the social apex of aristocracy that the hereditary in

    monarchy can stand for an hour a country which is not utterly bereft of reason , nor utterly reckless of" veracity , nor insanely prodigal of cash . We have spoken freely , and it is time that people should do so . The Times is trading , in its respectably-roguish fashion , on the feeling of the hour ; but it is far enough from honestly opening the whole question , and it would be ready enough to hang any man who should dare practically to do so . We have " drifted" into a war : let us not drift into a

    revolution . Let us know what we are going to do , anddo it firmly and deliberately , like Englishmen and men . This will be better for all parties . When nations drift into revolutions , a reign of Terror comes first and a BONAPAKTE follows .

    G^G The Lea3)Eb. [Saturday ,

    g ^ g THE LEA 3 ) EB . [ Saturday ,

    The Imperial Visit. N"O Clear-Sighted Po...

    THE IMPERIAL VISIT . N " o clear-sighted politician , on either side of the Channel , will misunderstand the circumstances of Louis Napoleon ' s visit to England . The meaning of the Imperial trip is obvious , and obvious , also , will be the meaning of the public reception . Supplied by ^ ueenJVioTOBiA' ' s _ j ^ Yit ^? Jtt __ with _^__ motive _ for postponing his journey to the Crimea , the French Emperor will supply to the English populace an object on which , to vent their explosive sentiments with reference to their

    " gallant allies . " From first to last , the proceeding will be essentially dramatic . The state actors are learning their parts , the choruses are rehearsing , the stage effects are already prepared . Thus far all is safe : there will be noise and glitter enough ; and those impatient Radicals who meditated a demonstration have been warned that any such att & mpt would be reprehensible and unavailing . The vast body of thoughtful men will not come to the rescue of these undisciplined skirmishers , well knowing that it would be equally needless and uBeless to produce

    discord in a crowd by the utterance of that feeling with which polluted and lawless power inspires every honourable mind . No profound observer fears that the Imperial visit will be a triumph of arbitrary principles ; there is not even the pretence of a triumph j there has been no victory , and , therefore , an exulting pageant would be simply ridiculous . Mobs will press along the thoroughfares ; civic plate will clatter ; and aristocrats will pay their ceremonial homage to this tenant-at-will of a throne on which no ruler has died during a century ; everything which constitutes a real ovation must be

    wanting . Personally , in fact , the French Emperou cannot but feel that he has no genuine friends at the English Court . He must remember , that not long ago it was high policy at St .

    James ' s to keep him in obscurity for the sake of that entente cordiale which was affected by Lours Philippe . The truth is , that our royal personages , in exchange for their social advantages , are compelled to forego somfe of the rights of private life . State visitors , like state speeches , are " approved by the

    Cabinet , " and it is impossible not to feel fothose whose situation forces them to receive any individuals whom , for public purr poses , it is thought desirable to conciliate The ancestral and hereditary house of England , however , is more politic than the Imperial house of Russia , which rejected the advances of a , parvenu . wel

    Nevertheless , a majority of those who - come the French Emperor , will not , even in secret , . shrink from their guest . They form the light elements of society , and are without the balance of sustained convictions . " Good Society , " no doubt , regards him with grateful admiration . The citizen governors of London , it is equally certain , have said in their hearts that his Majesty op France is a mighty prince ; they seize the opportunity for a feast , for thwould

    flattery , and for self-glorification ; ey " wait upon" Emperor ot China , or the Kin g Shoa , with no less humility ; they rejoice in persuading the French public that they are the chief inhabitants of London . But to the intelligent circles of Paris it was evident , when the City Deputation arrived , if it had not been notorious before , that our civic functionaries ^ brm by no means" the most respectable class of citizens . As an administrative body they are condemned , and have only been reprieved by the war from the consequences of reform .

    Unquestionably , the most honourable of their fellow-citizens , the bankers and merchants , have repeatedly declinedTto consort with them , or partake of their dignities . But , so natural is the affinity between plush and purple , that these Fa : lstatjfs of G-uildhall , idolators of embroidery , revere that senate of dumb nominees , which wears silver lace , which registers the commands of its master , and which atones , in the opinion of some , for the age of corrupt parliamentary majorities under Louis Philippe . ¦ " "

    The more dignified classes of citizens will probably receive the guest of the Court with formal honours ; public events , perhaps , demand no less ; but they demand no more ; and , if we mistake not , there were protesting voices even in that civic court , which sat with closed doors , and agreed to hospitable resolutions . But no man is called on to provoke the mob by political interruptions any more thnn he is bound to join the riot of applause , or to aid in those orgies of adulation with which our stall-fed citizens will shake the

    plate on their tables . So far , therefore , the reception of the French Emperob , will only in one sense have a political meaning . It will represent the bias of our statesmen to a French alliance , it will exhibit the uses of our Court , the complicity of our aristocracy , and the popular feeling for a union of Europe against Eussia . The Common Council , which all but suffocated M . Kossuth , and the populace

    which cheered him , would now receive with an uproar of delight the " chivnlric young Emperor op Austria , " were he to attempt the siege of Sebastopol in concert with us . Of such elements is promiscuous popularity—under chandeliers and street-lamps—composed . If there be others , they are the frenzy of excitement , ' which would to roused as well by a donkey in a balloon , and some unexpected brilliancy added to the early London season , to give a sparkling finish to the follies of our Corinthian order .

    the solicitude with which these journalists , who , at the time of the coup d ' etat , hunted to infamy the " one base exception" which approved it , try to fifc on their new opinions , and to save themselves with the world by exercises of casuistry . Just so does a contented old servitor sophisticate with his conscience , and accommodate himself to his master ' s friends ; but let it be noticed that not one of them ventures to write a line of welcome

    But the display , however artificial , would not be complete without a salute from the press . Old Tory organs , of course , with Jacobite tenacity , worship any one who governs without law ; others only fulfil their mission when they fly like feathers in the wind ; but it was reserved for such as affect liberal traditions to make their obeisance awkwardly , as if half ashamed . " What adds to the unreality of the whole transaction is

    without an apology , a reserve , and an explanation . But is it necessary to " make things comfortable" at such a sacrifice ? Were it not better to be excluded from scenic festivities which impose exactions so galling to self-respect ? The credit of statesmanship is now confided to a few men ,

    who are supposed to pray m earnest " God defend the right , " who appeal to honour and justice , and have lost much for conscience ' sake . May we put it to them once more ? Must they offer anyjDther than official courtesies to a ruler who ' gained power and holds it by means which the entire machinery of British law has been invented to render

    impossible here ? The Examiner- —sleek umbra of Whig tables—offers to defend such men against their own conscience . High and virtuous minds , it says , admired what was great in the First ]> £ apoi . eon , and it calls over-the muster-roll of hereditary Whigs . In the First Napoleon ' s character there was a certain greatness ; at least he possessed genius , and had his arms been allied Avith

    ours , we might not now have carried on war for a year with nothing to show for it but a justification in the Moniteur . Charles James Fox , however , would not have admired him for his lawlessness alone , even had he possessed a face like a leaden mask , such as was enjoyed by that solicitor who used to be retained , in spite of his dulness , to stare Erskine out of countenance . But the FiBsr Consul himself never won the best men of

    France to his cause . He left France diminished in territory , disgraced by two invasions , depopulated , demoralised , though he stamped with his name some of the splendid civil projects of the Convention . Even he lived to be detested , to seek safety in the spirit of the Revolution he had betrayed , and to hanker for the friendship of those despots whom he had endeavoured to humble .

    Hitherto , indeed , the French have not suffered in territory during the suspension of their liberties . But they have gamed nothing in exchange for the inestimable rights thus violated and destroyed . They have a Government to which not one illustrious name is attached , and scarcely one unsullied ; their army , though it could emulate Cossacks at home , has gained—the Times admits—not ono decisive victory ; the ablest statesmen

    generals are proscribed , the ablest stand aloof . For it is not forced exile , nor imprisonment only , that deprives the nation 01 its best public men . Those who nro not openly hostile , are cpnspicuous in retreat , and with somo , ubi libertas ibi patria , that they disdain the soil which refuses to nourish political freedom . Thus - has it come that Franco—injured and humiliated—makes war without kindling the enthusiasm of her people . The Nephew at the height of ma

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14041855/page/12/