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    998 T HE L E A PER. j ,[&^Pm>AY$

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    THE GOVERNING CLASSES. No. VT. LOUD STKA...

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    The Eaqle's Coat And Avaistcoat. Mr. San...

    Louis Napoleon can appreciate the federation of States and a black coat , the sovereignly of the people , and the white waistcoat . We understand all the effect produced by the " black crow , " but , it isrto be observed , that the same effect could not be produced without the contrast . Mr . Sandfprd is a young man , and , probably , looks distingue " . Theatrical authors and managers know the effect of placing the principal hero amidst a crowd of golden nobodies ,

    himself attired in the plainest garb , — -it is one mode with , a general audience , of emphatically fixing the interest upon personal qualities as contradistinguished from costume and such accessories ; but then , the most beautiful verse , the noblest sentiments , and the most striking situations , are allotted to the coat without spangles , or . to the rustic garb of the tenor . Dress all the persons on the stage on an equality of plainness with the hero , and the distinction ceases . It may even be recovered by the opposite process , and then . again , gold and velvet shall make the distinguished

    statesman . There is some confusion of cause and effect . A powerful country represented by an ambassador singular for his plainness , affects the beholder by force of contrast ; but a powerful country represented by a man distinguished for his genius , for the nobility of his works , and for the splendour of his costume , would not be less worthily represented . Peter Paul Reubens might be as admirable a figure , with his chivalrous and magnificent aspect , as Mr . Sandford , in the coat

    and waistcoat of genteel comedy . While the golden fashion lasts , the Sandfords will always have the advantage of a contrast . Carlyle says , that the fashion of a man ' s apparel is identified by the desire to typify outwardly the bent of his disposition . Venezuela , anxious to be wealthy , anxious to be noble and powerful , although it cannot find a very powerful porter for the purpose , will , notwithstanding , load its ambassador with weapons of state and golden embroidery to exemplify the . aspirations of the republic . But the United States desire to show that they are independent of European court

    influence ; stand apart from them , defy them , are in no degree bound by treaty obligations , etiquettes , or ambassadorial embroidery ; and Mr . Sandford in a coat and white waistcoat , embodies that defiance in . a very striking manner . Each to his taste . There is an advantage in these varieties . The Oriental ambassadors have always enjoyed the privilege of a special costume , and there is no reason why the Occidental ambassador should not have an equal privilege . Jt is only a pity that so much ia made of costumes , for evidently our friends in America altncli as much importance to Una subject as Indies talking over thoir dross and knick-nacks . Would iliat

    sonicthing more really typifying the power of the republic , were devised than tlic costume in question . The bird of Washington does rightly typify the genius of that State whose power soars over land and water , and can defy the elements in their roughest moods ; but wo cannot for the life of us understand how the genius of Americahow the meaning that could apeak under the star-spangled banner , is peculiarly embodied in the shape of a gentleman with a white coal ; and waistcoat , mich as might make liis appearance in the Belle As . semblfa , or the Gazette das Modes .

    998 T He L E A Per. J ,[&^Pm>Ay$

    998 T HE L E A PER . j , [&^ Pm > AY

    The Governing Classes. No. Vt. Loud Stka...

    THE GOVERNING CLASSES . No . VT . LOUD STKATFOHD BE KEDCLIFFR * Just now tho British world is canvas-sing tho advantages and tho dinadvantagen of " secret diplomacy : " and just now , therefore , it may be worth while to coiu-mler tho character and career of the moot diHtinguinlied of Groat Britain ' s * very few diplomatista Lord itedelHFe and Sir 11 . Bulweraro the only two of our diplomatic who have gained anything like . Kuropoan' position : and Lord Rcdeliffo only , of the wholo diplomatic Herviuo , han Heeii or done anything of European import unco . Ho in a representative man of the nyufcom- —the HVHtum of Hocrot diplomacy . What does " Secret Diplomacy" mean ? It moans tho Government of Great Britain , in regard to all affaii-H not strictly domestic , irrenpoctlvo of tho wishes , ideiiH , or cognizance of Great Britons . C » roat BritoiiH would not like that definition : but , < in eonHidoration , they would admit it w a correct definition , ( hoat * Miit lovduhip on tors in thiB porion of j > apern , in liin alphabetical uapoct , aa fciir ( Stratford Canning .

    Britons are brought up to believe that they are a selfgoverned people : and it is with the utmost difficulty they can be induced to face the facts of their political organization . They are allowed to talk of their political affairs ; and they fell into the-terror of supposing that , therefore , they rnanage ' tKeir eaid political affairs . To some extent they do manage their domestic politics : that is , of the 30 , 000 , 000 of " them , 1 , 000 , 000 are allowed to have votes for Members' of Parliament , which , votes they dispose of to the richest or most reckless candidate ; that is ; they have a press , which

    is permitted to be impertinent , and to bark without biting ; that is , they have the privilege of public meetings , and can generally get what they want out of their Parliament , after about seven or ten years of agitation . But in regard to afiairs not strictly domestic ; they have nothing to do with the position in which thegoverning classes choose to place England in tie universe . Their national notion of such afiairs is translated in the phrase , " foreign afiairs : " and the Governing Classes see so well the advantages to be gained by-cultivating insular pride and insular indifference ,. — that is ,

    ignorance , —that the statesmanship of sublime selfishness in respect to all other nationalities is not only the statesmanship of the governing classes , but the statesmanship of the popular tribunes , —the fact being , that Mi * . Cobden has beert coaxed into most of his recent follies by such subtle managers of democrats as Lord Aberdeen . For many generations in bur history , bur governing classes ' , —the classes who owned the land , — had systems , principles , and persons to sustain or crush abroad : and , perpetually , active intervention , with money , men , or maxims , had to be

    resorted to . And , in these times , appeals to the people were necessary , jfcaxes being necessary ; and the ignorant islanders were asked ^ now to conquer France , their inheritance , now to uphold Protestantism , now to crush an anarchical revolutionary-propaganda . But the policy of the governing classes of England being now the policy of upholding crdwried despotisms , — these classes being travelling classes , and liking easy admission to society in air the capitals , —their cue is to suggest the policy of non-intervention ' . ' : these classes being tolerably safe in saying , " Let tings ahd peoples

    fight it out , " since they know the kings have the best chance ; and the ignorant' islanders easily adopt the cant , and readily sustain the selfish and cowardly cry . The state of the national debt justifies , to a certain point , the terrors which find expression in that cant : and the governing classes , who caused the debt in order to establish continental despotisms , are still perfectly logi al in urging the people , sick from experience Or tradition , of the last war , to be careful n ' 6 \ v to preserve peace—so f ' av as they are concerned , ' peace'being tho condition of the continuation of those '' 'despotisms .

    Henco , despite a reformed House of Commons , and an intelligent , active , and , by interest , liberty-loving press , tho deeply-rooted system of secret diplomacy . The country is not anxious about tho details of the policy of peace , that policy having once been promised by the governing-claaBCB ; aud the press and " popular members" attempt in vain to overcome that barricade which tho Foreign Office is right to rely on , — public indifference . In a great war , in this day , there could be no secret diplomacy ; the people would not then be indifferent , and the government would have to be en

    rap-port with the people . But in " negotiations , an the history of the last six months illustrated , the aecrecy of British diplomacy w impenetrable . The House oi Commons—that it ) , tho few who care to teiiHo a Foreign Secretary—haw the privilege of asking questions ; but Foreign Secretaries havo tho privilege of ndt answering them ; and though the House han ^ h 6 constitutional right of explanations when the negotiations are all over , a clever Mhiifltor has Htill tho option of withholding more than ho tolls—for the sake of tho public service . A Parliamentary explanation from thft Foreign Office

    tollH only so niuch truth as is convenient ; and human memory cannot recal a blue-book which wan not well edited by a prnctiHcd Foreign Office clerk . Then who roadn tho blue-books ) ? Who reads * foreign affairo debaton ? Tho . 'London nownpapera throw away vast capital in attempting' to collect 'infdrnirttion ; and foreign corrottpoudaritH aro very punctual in notifying to thoir jouriialri and tho British public that ' "there is utill a variety of nimoura hero . " TVi fruit , a , nownpapor oorroHpondont , when Hcnt to a foreign capital , in Hrmbbnd by tho Hoorot diplomatist roproHoriting bin own country , and in elaborately not known by the

    diplomatists of the country to whoBe public he is very irregularly accredited . In London , the Forei gn Office has its organs , whom it instructs to mislead ; and the Opposition organs try to generalise their profound ignorance and ludicrous curiosity ; and every now and then they do annoy the Foreign Office with a fact of a theory , which they have neatly translated fj-om a Paris Berlin , or Vienna journal .. Tn . us " secret diplomacy * ' deludes the nation and has it all its own way and this liberty-loving , and more or leas free country , finds , year after year , great gratification in having to

    boast , "We are the only free country in Europe . " Certainly , as now , the public arouses itself when it gets frightened ;—when the secret diplomacy , after six months' negotiations to keep the peace , is bothered and breaks down , it is not much wonder that there are a ; few public meetings , which , of course , contribute greatly to the ' . amusement'of Lord Pahnerston and a lively circle of governing classes in his country breakfast-room . And Great Britons think that they are very magnanimous in crying , "Let us stand up for Turkey , " when they have positively ascertained that they cannot help themselves . That is , —taproom democracy apart , —the majority of Great Britons are

    decidedly still in favour of letting Lord Aberdeen let Kussia do what she-likes . A nation of shopkeepers cannot realize national honour : a fact amusingly illustrated this week in the column ' s . of the shopkeepers ' journal . In" one column appears an attack on Nicholas for attacking Turkey : in another , an article to showthat what Nicholas is dbing in Turkey , Lord Dalhousie , like all other British governor-generals , is doing in Hindostan . The shopkeepers begin to perceive that Great Britain is an empire made up of plunder and oppression of nationalities : and if Nicholas can get hold of Constantinople , why they wish him "luck , " Such a theory comes immensely to the aid of a Peace Society , and of the Governing Classes .

    These are considerations which account for the scarcity of great men in British diplomacy ; arid for the moderate success and minor position of England's , at present , most distinguished diplomatist — Lord Stratford ' de Redcliffe . The first thing for a politician to get hold of , said Fox to Canning , is—a policy . Our diplomatists , for the last thirty years , have never been quite sure that they had a policy ; and hence their enormous and successive failures , personal and national . All our political literature and all our political gossip testify to the consistent and consecutive success of the

    Russian diplomatists : and a conviction has , of lat e years , been growing up that the Russians have some special aptitude for the political swindling termed diplomacy . Various reasons have been proffered to account for the phenomenon ; we have been told that a Russian combines the Asiatic suppleness with the European tradition , the cunning of the savage with the wit of the salons . May not the reason he , that the Russian has a consistent policy , direct , clear , universal , to pursue and to strive after f Those who have studied the Russian system , and

    have got tho key to present Russian politics , coiitend that the Russian diplomatists are , practically , tho fnost straightforward of men . Diplomacy , when you know what you want , cannot bo difficult ; and if you are not ashamed of what you want , your diplomacy >« frank ,-straight , decisive , and not necret . In lato diacunnioiiH , Cromwell has been contrasted by Groat Uritmh idiots with Lord Aberdeen ; and we aro informed , "Ah , Cromwell would havo done ho and bo , and not been long about it . " These insular gentlemen , who aro always wrong in politicsbecause they always tako

    , the wrong point of view , arising- from an oxcusal ) e belief that ' this ) if ) a self-governed country , do not sec that Cromwell had two great advantages , »» » HtatuHman , ovor Lord Aberdeen : ia the first p lace , Jw knew what ho wanted ; and , in the next place , > waH not anhamed to aay what ho wanted . Had Lord ice _ oliflb boon in , tho lluusiun Borvico , he would b * vo l * e aH high a position aniong diplomatics as Baron Jira * eorvieo

    now holds ; had ho boon in tho United States , tho would havo boon as respected and onviod » 1 " j " diplomatists as Mr . Bancroft or Mr . Evorott . »» * » j 'cause ho has boon a Great Brit / iuli dip lomatist , he is l » unmiccoBHful , » in unhappy , atvd a mischiovouH w » Russia ban a policy , tho United BtateH have a polKJ and either policy can bo proclaimed and pursued wi out Hubtorfugo . But Great Britain has no policy ; , what iH tho name thing , hWIuw oho policy afc '" I L ^ and another at another ; and at ttU times tho - » ' v

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 15, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15101853/page/14/