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    June 1^1852.] THE LEADEB, '5 87

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    A NEW MINISTRY ON THE TAPIS. We are not ...

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    M. Le Comte De Malmesbuilyi His Allies, ...

    till Had tile face to aslc the English House of Peers to leave him to settle , in this summary toshion , the matter with the French ambassador , llto leave them power to arrange the laws of this coun try in such behalf ! "We repeat , not only is the claim the most impudent which we ever remember to have been advanced in a British Parliament , but it is also the most remarkable instance of p ersonal unconsciousness , as to the position in which a jfublic man stood , that we ever remember to have witnessed . t ho the scandal had

    In one shorweek , wever , become too great even for the apathy and optimism of the English Parliament . On Monday , jjord Malmesbury was compelled to withdraw the bill , for the present . lie confessed , in the ilather case , that he had sanctioned Mr . Scarlett ' s s urrender of principle through inadvertence j lie now confessed that lie had been mistaken in the French law ; only as Mr . Scarlett had misled him in the Tuscan affair , so the French ambassador had misled him in the Parisian affair . He went so far as to confess , that " even yet he did

    not understand the full bearing of the Jb rench law , " on the strength of which he had been inviting the B ritish Peers to legislate ! "As far as I do understand it at present , " he said , "it would seem to give the French Government a power to reclaim any criminal from any part of the world wherever he committed the offence—though it was not committed on French ground , and though the partv were not a Frenchman . "

    ^ Yes , " said Lord Brougham : " Englishman in London . " " I will beg to suggest , " interrupted Lord Malmesbury , " that we should have no discussion at present upon . this bill . " Certainly not : the less said about it the better ; and , Lord Malmesbury having confessed what he denied Lost week , their Lordships did agree * accordingly , to hush up the matter for the moment . The two eases of the French law and the

    Mather outrage , are not so disconnected as careless observers might suspect . We do not mean to aver , indeed , for we should have no proof of the assertion , that there is any express or organized connexion between the two cases , but we do mean to say that they are separate parts of one great system , which we have long since emphatically denounced , and which is making manifest progress on the continent . The Austrian soldiery occupy Tuscany under a convention which prevents their being withdrawn excepting by the

    consent of both parties ; in other words , Tuscany cannot cast off the protectorate of Austria . We have seen that the arbitrary and deadly rules of the Austrian service are enforced even against British subjects in the Tuscan capital . The law recently passed by Louis Napoleon ' s legislature , renders all persons , whether French subjects or foreigners , in France or out of it , liable to the power of French law , whenever the French Govornment can seize them , cither in person or by proxy ; and wo have seen an English Minister , who boasts of the super-excellent understanding that now subsists with the French Government ,

    asking the English Peers , by a statuto of their own , to meet tho degrading despotism of France halfway , and to extend Napoleonic law to this country . Ifc is quite evident that tho French Clovornmont contemplates a kind of gjrand Police League , including tho whole of Europe , and transferring to the polico law that control of contumacious patriots , which has hitherto been exorcised by Austria , through tho instrumentality of her bayonets ; and France has already found , by tho accidents of our ministerial crisos , a Minister in an English Cabinet willing to bring England within that polico law .

    But , wo say , tho Cabinet which Lord Malmesbury has irremediably disgraced by his public » cts , cannot shu / llo oil the responsibility for its own share in . those acts , by dismissing him . Tho frimo Minister must have known whom ho was Holoetingaa Foreign Minister , since LordMalmes-Imry ' s spocial uuntneas for that post had been publicly challengod : tho Fronch Ministerial press had put forth its damnatory congratulations

    that a personal friend of Louis Napoloofks had been appointed as her Majesty ' s Secretary of Stato for Foreign Affairs , on tho recommendation , of Lord , Derby . If tho accusation implied in that torriblo praise had been false—if Lord Derby had known that his friend and colleague would disprove tho suspicion by his conduct , ho would have boon quite justified in making tho appointment ; but his friend and colleague has trobly voviirmed tho accusation by his conduct , and tho

    event has gone far to prove that Lord Derby appointed the volunteer agent of the French Government as her Majesty's Secretary of State , in no ignorance , but with a deliberate choice and intention . It may be true that Lord Malmesbury was only intended to act ad interim until the arrival of Lord Stratford ; but at such a time , even a provisional appointment entails its grave responsibility , and Lord Derby must be answerable for the consequences of giving Lord Malmesbury his brief hour , to debase the reputation , to the influence of

    sell the honour , and to prostitute England abroad . ^ Nay , the public has a right to infer the spirit of the Government from the selection of its colleague for so prominent a post at a time so critical ; and the Police League , for which Lord Malmesbury was the ready tool , maybe inferred to have the good wishes of the Derby Cabinet . The British public will remember , even if Lord Malmesbury heGlenelg'd , that the Cabinet which displayed its spirit in selecting him , still retains the conduct of our foreign affairs .

    Lord Palmerston has taken fit occasion to point out a subject of the utmost moment—the position of the smaller Italian States , which claim the immunities of independence , and enjoy the impunities of dependence upon Austria ; a position not only fatal to the growth , but to the maintenance even of the liberty or national independence in Europe . The question , is not to be set aside by the taunt , that Lord Palmerston himself had . interfered in Italian affairs without absolute success . Everybody now knows , and

    we even rejoice to find , that in the last Cabinet Lord Palmerston was not a free agent . Whatever his shortcomings or ambiguities may have been , the question itself still remains unsolved , and still looms every day more menacing to the future of Europe . But that is not all . The Governments of Europe a re more than ever keeping their interests divorced from those of their peoples ; they are step by step re-ar * anging the dynastic geography of the continent ; and j Downing Street , still acting secretly and apart from England , is helping them in that combination . The territory of Neufchatel is at this moment dragged back under the power of Prussia , herself forced to belong to the Austrian Police League . The Downing Street which is aiding

    that oppression , in the name of " England , " and with the power of the Empire , is , in fact , Lord Malmesbury ; and will be , even after he is Glenelg'd , the Malmesbury-making Cabinet . Again , on the other side of the world , important questions , such as the free navigation of the St . Lawrence , are mooted between tho English and American Governments—that is to say , between Downing Street and W ashington . , At present , Malmesbury is able to act in the name , and with the power of " England ; " and , even after he is Gleuelg'd , the Malmesbury-making Cabinet will have the power to act and speak m the name of England , against the people of England and America .

    Talk of the present Government as " Conservative" ! It is the most subversive of old English ideas , tho most arbitary , and the most imbecile , the most hostile to the Peace of tho World , the most derogatory to the good namo of England , the most hazardous to the safety of the Empire , that wo have ever had . However brief may bo its existence it will have lived too long .

    June 1^1852.] The Leadeb, '5 87

    June 1 ^ 1852 . ] THE LEADEB , ' 5 87

    A New Ministry On The Tapis. We Are Not ...

    A NEW MINISTRY ON THE TAPIS . We are not authorized to state that her Majesty has " sent for" Mr . Ex-sheriff Nicoll ; and wo aro convinced t hat tho statement would at least bo promaturo ; but our readers will ho able to j'udge as to tho probability of such an occurrence from what wo are enabled to state . When tho resignation of Lord John [ Russell placed tho conduct of public affairs in tho hands of Lord Derby , the public hailed with satisfaction tho chance which thon appeared to offor itself , ot

    trying tho long promisod revival of tho old nobility and landed interest plan of government . Having for tho timo used up all tho gonuino popular demands which tho old Whigs had been oducatod to accept , tho Whi ff Government ondoavourod to carry on . public business by tho help of falling into this or that " interest . ' At first it was the Irish audO'Connoll interest ; but that not proving epooifio enough , the Illiberal Ministry took up with tho factory interest . Having got all that it wanted out of the Liberal Ministry , tho factory interest became a less

    profitable connexion to that distmgnished ^ pariy ; and latterly , the interest most cultivated _ has been that which may be called ^ the Electionagency interest , to which Lord John ottered a great tribute or sacrifice in his last " Parliamentary Representation Bill" for promoting election contests and other business profitable to tne interest in question . This speculation having come to an end , as we have said , public attatfs were transferred to Lord Derby , who immediately issued circulars by his agents to " the ^ old nobilitv" interest , the landed interest , the shipping

    interest , and several of the larger commercial interests , which rested their expectations of profit more immediately on a renewal of Protection . But the " old nobility" dodge has not succeeded ; the youngnobilitynot answering to sample . " Ilunnymede , " who proves himself able to appreciate the spirit of the old barons , is a gentleman who traces his descent from " Venice ; but our young nobilitv cannot be induced to stir up their

    ambitions higher than Newmarket or the clubs . The reader will perceive the reason for the allusion with which we commenced , when he observes how necessary it has become to extend the basis of political combinations ; and we are betraying no secret when we say , that if the next Ministry , to follow out the direction and tendencies of its predecessors , must issue its manifesto , announcing its anxieties on behalf of interests more specific than any which have hitherto been

    addressed by political leaders . Free trade has had its day , is accomplished , and has no longer any official vocation ; the old corporate interests are superannuated ; and it is evident that the dominant influence of the day is the retail interest , as represented by the advertising classes . The next Ministry therefore , extending its basis beyond even the bounds of Manchester , will take Regent-street , Fleet-street , and Cornhill , into the coalition . It was probably from some vague intimation of the kind , but confounding persons , that a foreign journal recently spoke of Lord John Russell's address " to the electors of the Strand . "

    As at present advised , we shall not be rash in anticipating that the address of the next Minister will commence by avowing that no statesman can safely disregard the " genius of the epoch ; " and that accordingly he has accepted the gracious commands of his Sovereign on the basis of recognizing the claims of " the Eureka shirt" interest , and of giving that position in the council ' s empire which it has already attained in public confidence to the [ Registered Paletot .

    At this delightful season of the year , too large a number of tho population is rendering its testimony to the practical benefits of Eowland s Kalydor for that to be any longer excluded from official alliance , especially since Macassar has already established itself on tho Treasury bench . If our national institutions have found their maintenance less in the obstinate adherence to old abuses than in gradual and conservative

    reforms , tho now ministry will place its trust for the future in " Mineral Succedaneum , and will expect to consolidate the shattered parts of tho empire with " Anodyne cemont . " Tho progress of Insurance Companies will bo alluded to with proper emphasis and amplitude , and no doubt will bo suffered to remain an to the intontion of tho ministry to canvass for the support of all those valuable institutions .

    Our import trade has always formed a paramount object of attention with tho statesman , but it will bo reserved to the new Cabinet to greet with its proper recognition , " The Standard , or Natural Sherry . " which has already taken its place amongst public influences . The Chancellor of tho Exchequer will not fail to form his budget with an eyo to tho « Money to bo advanced to anv amount , on tho most roasonablo terms ;"

    while Newfoundland and tho salt-fish interest will rojoico to see tho first admission of Harvey ' s Sauco into a ministerial programme . It has boon rumoured in circles usually well informod , that tho now ministry ia not regarded with much favour at Court , but will havo to oncountor diiliculties such as those that Sir Robert Peol overcame , —a rumour , tho truth of which may bo estimated by the fact , ' that tho new ministry will not bo witliout tho support of " ahe

    Old Windsor soap . " ; Political questions havo como to an ond ; out tho formation of this ministry , —a happy sequel to tho idea of the Crystal Palace , —solves Ijao question of tho dead-lock , and supplies us at

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19061852/page/15/