On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    No. 4.21, Apru. 17, 1858.] THE LEAD ER. ...

  • 

    THE INTRIGUE AND TUB INDIA BILL. 'Wu-ann...

  • 

    BALANCE-SHEET OF THE ANGLO-FRENCH ALLIAN...

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Emancipation Of The Liberal Party In Par...

    another mode ; and if they will consult the opinion of the people in the various forms of ite manifestations—in the pi-ess , in public meetings , expressions at local meetings , in the declarations of local notables—they may learn without a dissolution , what the result of a dissolution would be . Any man versed in the politics of the country , who fixes his attention on the indexes of its present sentiments , can have no difficulty in discounting the dissolution . The

    chief questions which press upon the Government and Parliament of the day are the reconstruction of the Indian Grovernment ; the position of this country towards its foreign allies , sincere or false ; and the strengthening of our constitution by admitting a larger number of the people within the Parliamentary , franchise . There cannot , we say , be much doubt as to the opinion of the country upon these several measures . " With regard to the India Bill , to be approved , it should be like Lord Pai / meeston ' s ,

    comparatively simple in its provisions ; allotting to India a Secretary of State , responsible to Parliament , and assisted by men practically informed on Indian affairs , but so appointed as to be thoroughly independent , with a real control and a power of the initiative . The country has no desire at present to drive the Ministry into a propagandist policy on the European continent ; but it does demand that our policy should be frank , intelligible , and straightforward ; that it should be such as can be communicated to

    the country at each step of the proceedings ; that when we threaten , we should mean what we say ; that we should stand by our friends and let our treatment of foreign subjects be guided by thefundamental principles of ourown constitution . A statesman who understands the history of Europe , and will only behave on each question as it arises in a truly English spirit , conducting the business in a businesslike way , like an old English merchant , would have no difficulty in making the power of this country felt , or in winning the

    support of his own people . " With regard to a Keform measure , the essential point is equally plain . All the indications of the day , —the declarations of the educationalfranchise party , the petitions signed by the most respectable leaders in the country towns , statements at p ublic meetings , and the tone of the press , proclaim that the country will not be satisfied without a substantial bill , but that the measure need not be complicated ; on the contrary , the simpler the better . Different phrases have been used ; but the general impression manifestly is , that , in one way or other , all resident Englishmen

    who have the responsibility of householders should be able to give their votes in the choice of the national representatives . Such are the demands of the country ; Buch is the work of the Liberal party . Let who will be its leader undertake to see that the work is executed thoroughly , and in the spirit indicated , and no party tactics or ob-Btructive , combinations would long withstand the expression of the country ' s will which would be evoked by the exhibition of selfish poposition on the part of an anti-Liberal minority .

    No. 4.21, Apru. 17, 1858.] The Lead Er. ...

    No . 4 . 21 , Apru . 17 , 1858 . ] THE LEAD ER . 373

    The Intrigue And Tub India Bill. 'Wu-Ann...

    THE INTRIGUE AND TUB INDIA BILL . 'Wu-announced—last- 'week-that-tUc-EUcnbQrQMgJji India Bill was in ruins . It is now to be pulled down und disposed pf in lots . The wholo of tho dilapidated Alhambra , built up by Mr . Disraeli three weeks ago , is to bo carted off in a series of resolutions , and Lord John Russell was at first invited to bo tho oontraotor . But this was a point boyond his purpose , whioh , to ohango tho metaphor ,, waa thai ; of shunting tho Ministry to a safer liuo of rails , and preventing a collision between tho

    Palmerston and Derby parties . There is very little mystery in this conduct on the part of the Whig expectant . He wants to gain time for himself , and to destroy the opportunity of his rival . His strategy , viewed alone , is not of that disgraceful character which would justify the gossiped sneer that we have a Castlereagh and a Castlereagh ' s wife in London . Granted that Lord John Russell has upset Lord Palmerston ' s coach , and disappointed the late Ministers ; granted that he has worked a party engine for party purposes ; granted even that he has struck hands with Mr . Disraeli—though this

    would be a violent assumption—there is no excuse for the shriek of virtuous horror raised among Lord Palmerston ' s followers . They have been hit ; they have been balked ; they have been baffled in a factious move , and they know it . Is it over India they groan ? No ; but because the door has been shut in their faces . They were making a party question of India , as Lord Derby made a party question of it before he came into office ; and the probability is , that Lord John Russell ' s expedient will have an excellent result . Lord Palmcrston- must do something to warm his popularity , and the Indian Reform will be commenced with more deliberation

    than by the late or present Government . This , however , has nothing to da with Lord Derby's position , than which nothing could be more degrading . He is a Minister governing by the advice of his opposition ; he is a Premier imploring an independent member of the House of Commons to take the most important business of the session out of his hands ; his leader in the lower house , upon receiving a suggestion that he is not bound by the measure of his own Cabinet , springs to his feet and dashes it to pieces on the floor , even going so far as to hope that lie may be relieved of the responsibility altosrether . This situation would be inexpressibly

    humiliating to auy Government ; but it is doubly so in that of the Tories , who , for the last year , ' have been attempting to persuade the public that , if once restored to power , they would bring with them a miraculous budget of practical legislation . They brought in Lord Ellenborougli as their Indian Minister ; he sends in his bill , by the help of Mr . Disraeli ; the bill is read by Parliament and torn to pieces by the press , and on the first evening after the recess the Tories sent their Tory colleague adrift , and hail a Whig leader to the rescue . The best friends of the Cabinet have little confidence in its existence . Among the old Tory politicians who support it through traditional loyalty , and

    the indefinite Conservatives who scarcely know how to distinguish themselves from Liberals , the general tone of remark is most unfavourable to the chances of Lord Derby . It is felt that he can only get through the session by making a waiting race of it , by avoiding legislation , by postponing important debates , by standing prostrate , or like the Irish piper , playing first m the rear . He had a fortnight ' s grace during Easter ; after that he claims a fortnight ' s additional delay , before resuming the Indian discussion ; during next week be will only send down Mr . Disraeli with the Budget , which , as the party most fervently hopes , will be as unlike Mr . Disraeli as possible . Never was Toryism more evidently ashamed of its gamin representative than now , when ho is Chancellor of the Exchequer for the second time , and has a financial scheme in his alembic . What will it be ? a Rosicrucian

    compound , or an infusion of simples , after a receipt prepared by Sir Cornewall Lewis ? It may bo cither , or both , precisely as Lord Ellcnborough's India Bill was at once a mass of complexity and imperfection ; but , even if the Budget passes , there will be tho Indian chasm to leap , and , although Lord Ellcnborough ' s Bill may be split into resolutions , and laid aside for next year , Lord Palmcrston will press his own measure , and ascertain whether bis old majority will follow him . Wo cannot hopo that it will follow him so far as to restore tho late ministry . Wo cannot blame Lord John Russell for narrowing tho path of intrigue , and cheoking tho triumphant return of a Minister who porsuudos himself that ho is indispensable . But least of all can wo comprohond how tho Tory Cabinet is to oxisk in Una state of perpetual paralysis and i . ffibficij . ii : vj __ ..

    Balance-Sheet Of The Anglo-French Allian...

    BALANCE-SHEET OF THE ANGLO-FRENCH ALLIANCE . Tjik Anglo-French Alliance gains nothing by being misunderstood . It has boon made tho subject of too many heroics on tho part ; of England . We have heard more than enough of tho loyalty of our great

    ally , and some of us have been persuaded that the balance of results arising from this official partnership has been in our favour . It is time to acknowledge that , if benefits were weighed , Great Britain would kick the beam . From first to last the alliance has been subordinated to objects of French policy ; the Imperial Government , so . far from having established a claim upon the gratitude of this country , has been placed under the deepest obligations to our arms , to our diplomacy , and to the official and popular hospitality which secured for Louis Napoleon a British reception that was for him a passport into the palaces of Europe . The enthusiasm evinced on this side of the Channel was an overflowing of blind generosity mingled with a more immoral sentiment—the adulation

    of success ; but it was never reciprocated from Paris , and the shouts of our streets came back even in echoes of irony . A change has fallen upon both nations . Public opinion has cooled down concerning the French alliance , ambiguous forebodings are afloat , and an eye is fixed upon the vast French army and the mustering squadrons at Brest and Cherbourg . In France , it has become the habit of imperial j ournalism to threaten arid vituperate ; but the importance of these manifestations should neither be denied nor exaggerated . Panic is an indiscreet counsellor , and false confidence is a traitor in the camp . We touch

    on these points , however , not so much with a view to eliciting the future probabilities of French policy , as to remark upon the opportunity afforded by the evaporation of popular sentiment in this country concerning the French alliance , to estimate that alliance at its actual value . Louis Napoleon ' s pamphleteer has been vigorously answered by 'An Englishman out of Office , ' * who takes to pieces his assertions concerning the origin of the practical amity supposed to exist between the Governments of France and Great Britain . The Emperor claims credit for himself for having created good - will where he found host of shadows that he

    animosity , and raises a may enjoy the glory of their dispersion . He had certainly good reason to be grateful . The unconditional hospitality guaranteed by our laws had saved him irom the vengeance of a power which had not invented . Cayenne or Lambessa as the punishments of liberty ; but the question of gratitude was not the first to be solved . There was the necessity of conciliating his nearest and most powerful neighbour ; there was self-interest to be consulted and common sense obeyed . The Empire was to gain a prodigious support without a sacrifice or even an equivalent . One of the oldest and best-established thrones in Europe was to become the

    steppingstone by which a parveiui would rise to the rank of brotherhood with Kaisers and Kings . If Louis Napoleon gained his power in France by his o \ yn efforts , it was Great Britain that bestowed on him his influence in Europe . In his interest war was made against Russia ; in his interest peace was concluded at Paris ; and if , as the imperial pamphlet has said , France did not attempt to take advantage of the Indian revolt to embarrass the British Government by demands and exactions , 'An Englishman out of Office' has a right to reply , that Louis Napoleon might as well claim credit for not picking the pocket of an exhausted wayfarer . What has t > cen

    the ' generosity' of France m not breaking the alliance ? Why should he break it P Where would be his interest in breaking it ? It has been his salvation , and to violate it would probably be his ruin . So long as ho believes it profitable to himself , he will maintain it , Whenever ho imagines its loss would bo a gain , ho will abandon it . He respects an alliance exactly in the same spirit as he respects an oath . Louis Napoleon may in one sense have been endangered by the proximity of England , with her nest of exiles , but , in another sense , he lias benefited by the zealous activity of

    our police , and the Incnuiy co-oporauon our Foroign-ofiico . This has not satisfied his alarmed jealousy . Me would have the complicity of our tribunals carried so far as to limit tho freedom of the subject by a series of preventive arrests , and the freedom of tho press , not only by political proscoutions , but by a precautionary censorship . With ilinL-viow ^ ho « liHs . ^ uslLupJfO ^ Pi ! M ? ° D »» on > ilv France to utter its safe menaces and irresponsible " warnings , and ' allowed' M . Veuillot to prophesy our spcody and supremo humiliation . " Who is it , " asks ' An Englishman out of Oflioe , ' " that doos ? " A . Voice from England in Answer to JJEmporaur MipolJoH Iff . at rAnffteterre . " By an Englishman out oi Oflioe . Chapman and Hall .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17041858/page/13/