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.

  • 

    1212 T-HIE LEADER, [No. 352, Sa.tTO d^

  • 

    THB FOX. AT THE T UILELIIES. Most person...

  • 

    DR. LIVINGSTONE. Db. Livingstone's great...

• 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.

    The President's Message. , Ins The Power...

    states whatsoever . It is impossible that it should not conduce to the march of intelligence and freedom for the entire world The latest message of President Pierce shows that the existing Government of the Union is alive to that mission , and that it has effectually preserved for the republic the condition of developing itself without restraint or intervention .

    1212 T-Hie Leader, [No. 352, Sa.Tto D^

    1212 T-HIE LEADER , [ No . 352 , Sa . tTO d ^

    Thb Fox. At The T Uileliies. Most Person...

    THB FOX . AT THE T UILELIIES . Most persons , probably , are unconscious of the fact that a most dramatic political event has occurred . The parallel of Charles James Fox has been at the Tuiieries . The mind of IJouis Napoleon has been thrown back to the period of more than half a century ago , "when his uncle received , with profuse demonstrations of respect , a leader of the English parliamentary opposition . If his mind was thrown back at all , it was , in all likelihood , to the notvery distant day s when Louis Napoleon and Benjamin Disraeli were

    soldiers of fortune in London—a sympathizing pair of adventurers . But the ludicrous analogy which has been discovered will xemind every one of the gentleman who began a narrative by saying , " I once met a Frenchman in Paris ; " whereupon a simple-hearted citizen exclaimed , " So did E ! what a curious coincidence ! " Mr . Disraeli has been to the Tuiieries . Singularly enough , Charles James "Fox went there also . Mr . D lshaeli

    is a leader of opposition . So -was ' Fox . Napoleon I . was civil to Fox . jSTapoeeon III . is civil to DisitAELi . Really , it is seldom that a parallel can be carried so far and so triumphantly . It is somewhat disappointing to find , however , that it is a parallel without an analogy .. Charles James Fox , the leader of English liberalism , the representative of English sympathy with the French revolution , the antagonist of the Tory faction , went to Paris after he had retired for a while from public affairs , to collect materials for his historical work . He was then

    proud to wear a blue coat and buff waistcoat in homage to the simplicity of the Jacobins . He had moved , in the House of Commons , five resolutions in favour of recognizing tho ITrench B-enublic . His policy had been to avoid a European war by conceding the right of the French nation to conduct its own internal affairs upon its own principles . The peace of Amiens had been partly brought

    about by his efforts . What had Mr . Dishaeli to do with the peace of Paris ? Fox admired the brilliant military genius of the First Consul—who had not yet so far forsworn himself as to seize the empire . What brilliant genius has Mr . Disraeli to flatter in the person of Napoleon III ., whose ovations are at buli-fightB , and whose campaigns are in the Champ de Mars ? Fox invariably contended for an alliance with France as a

    nation ; Mr . Disraeli as invariably insults the French nation , bv representing the despotism under which it languishes as a political necessity . Fox did not go Paris to receive the inspirations of a foreign government for his own guidance in Parliament ; Mr . Disraeli goes to bargain for French influence in aid of the failing faction that acquiesces in his leadership . To represent the existing alliance as the woxk of Lord Derby is an

    impertmence that might easily be expected from the Tory organs ; but to compare the -visit of 1802 with that of 1856 , and even to suggest that Mr . Disraeli belongs to the same rank of statesmen as Chables James Jbox is an exhibition of servility only equalled by the egotism that accepts it . Happily for him , Mr . Disbaeli lmB an organ to declare his own importance , which ia forgotten by the independent press . "While public

    attention is entirely turned from him and his movements , he holds a little levee of his own , whereat he is called a distinguished statesman , the author of the recent treaty , one of the originators of the alliance , and the unpaid counsellor who stood by , during the war , and compelled Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmebsxon to act in a spirit of honour and moderation . Fox was a patriot in the days when * patriot' w as not a tercn of contempt

    a liberal , when liberalism was not so safe as it now is a statesman , who sympathized with the sufferings of oppressed nations ; and a man of the highest character and the purest feelings , who would have disdained the use of scurrility , and scorned'to be represented \> y a Figaro . To what did Mr . Disraeli owe his political promotion , if not to the poison of his purchased lips ? When did the nation ever receive a

    service at his hands , whether in the shape of a practical reform , or of a defence of useful principles against dangerous experiments ? The only fragment of policy ho ever projected was a Budget which would have thrown the finances of the country into confusion . To be reminded of Fox by seeing 7 iim , would be to be I'emiuded of PascaTj by seeing Pasqutn .

    Was it not enough that Mr . Disraeli should seeic in Paris the basis of jugglery he cannot find at borne ? Was it necessary to come forward with melodramatic comparisons , which can only have the effect of degrading him ? If he be . wise , he will institute a valuation of the different methods of advocacy , or of self-assertibiiy and he will

    find that to stand in the light and mimic the attitudes of a great and honoured statesman , may be an easy and a flattering process ; but to the public it is disgusting . IjOuis Napoleon , probably , is well-inclined to th e representative of Buckinghamshire , but , rely upon it , Benjamin Disbaeli has not reminded him of Ciearles James Fox .

    Dr. Livingstone. Db. Livingstone's Great...

    DR . LIVINGSTONE . Db . Livingstone ' s great achievement may be described in a few words : —he has explored tlie whole of the immense region of Southern Africa , from the Atlantic to the Eastern ocean . He has discovered rivers , lakes , cities , nations , even a new climate . First , he penetrated from the Cape of Good Hope upwards to Lake Ngami , and thence , by a direct route , to Linyanti , a point more than twenty-four degrees from the southern extremity of the continent . Being now within ten degrees of the Equator , he struck off to the west , and succeeded in reaching the Portuguese settlements on the coast . Following these indications on the map , the reader will immediately perceive what vnst blanks of geography were removed in the course of this single journey . X ' rom the western coast , Dr . Livingstone returned to Linyanti , and followed the course of the Zambesi river to its junction witli the eastern waters in the channel of Mozambique . Mark these routes upon the map with u red line , and it will intersect Africa from the south hundreds of miles beyond the limits of all former research ; and from ocean to ocean , from west to east , through regions hitherto ns unknown as America before the voyages of Columbus . Moreover , Dr . Livingstone carried with him a proficient knowledge of at least five sciences , so that as he journeyed he made incessant observations , astronomical , geological , and geometrical , marked the varieties of climate , and took botanical and zoological notes innumerable . Still further , ho collected a large store of information connected with the commercial products of the various territories he traversed , the industrial

    habits of the natives , their disposition to trade . He has demonstrated the existence of a great line of water communication from the western settlements northwards begun by the Coanga , continued by the Kasye and completed by the Leambye , close to the na vigable Lake Ngami . Thence another line " of equal importance , tends eastward alon * the course of the noble Zambesi , which , inTact ia identical with the Leambye , and which ' running through the towns of Tete and Sena ' breaks into several channels , forming the Delta of Quillimane , and is emptied into the

    Indian Ocean . Tor seventeen years , smitten by more than thirty attacks of fever , endangered by seven attempts upon his life , continually exposed to fatigue , hunger , and the chance of perishing miserably in a wilderness shut out from the knowledge of civilized men , the missionary pursued his way , an apostle and a pioneer ,, without fear , without egotism , without desire of reward . Such a work , accomplished by such ; a man , deserves all the eulogy that can be bestowed upon it , for nothing' is more rare than . , brilliant and unsullied success .

    More interesting , however , tliaii the geographical delineation of interior Africa is effected by Dr . Livingstone , in Iiis account of its varieties of climate and population . Turn to any Gazetteer , and we find the mysterious expanses of the south described as blazing" in the rays of an insufferable sun , and only tolerable to the tropic constitution

    ot the Ethiopian race . Many circumataiicea combined to perpetuate this illusion . As the Portuguese in the East , during the sixteenth century , were accustomed to describe the Spice Islands as inaccessible desolations , encompassed by roclcs , shoals , and all the dangers of the sea , so the Boer settlers along the outskirts of African civilization were

    eager to buildup a barrier of invisible terrors between the coast and the central kingdoms of the south . Their object was monopoly , of course . Had Dr . Livingstone been persuaded by their representations , ho would never have ventured , into a region swarming with black savages and poisonous snakes , and breathed over by burning ' winds , propagators of pestilence and corruption . But he-refused to take alarm , and pushed on . Sixteen decrees of latitude were found as-hot

    and arid as they had been pictured ; the western coast was indeed a serpent-breeding maze of swamps and . forests ; the eastern coast was often uninhabitable b } Europeans ; but beyond the twentieth degree of south latitude , not only a different race , but a difterent country wns found . It was elevated , it was cooled by pleasant breezes , it abounded in fruit and grain , it was watered b y a perfect maze of rivers and-streams . of all sizes . Some of them were broad and deep , and never dry during the hottest season . This was the true

    homo of the Nigritian family , not of the rusty Bechuana , but of the curly-headed , jetblack Negro , who was once transported from those remote kingdoms to the British West Indian settlements , and who is even now brought down , at times , to the coast , and shipped for Cuba or Brazil . These nations have never carried on , however , any direct communication with the sea , the maritime tribes and colonists having cut them oft '—a policy which it will bo diilicult to carry out after the researches of Dr . Livingstone have

    been made known to tie commercial communities of Europe and America . It will no longer bo possible to delude the natives by nccounta of English cannibalism . The great river discovered by Dr . Livingstone , which intersects the southern region of tho continent from one sea-board to another , traversing in the interior territories abounding in natural riches , and inhabited by on intel-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121856/page/12/