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      Philosophy Of Anomaly. The British Publi...

      33 L ? £ 3 S 2 S % 3 ttrSS £ ! SHE Pri £ ^ Whether he is right or wrong , as a matter oSSc , nd fairness , in the prayer of the ^ memorud , is not the question ; even » Prince Consort . is not exnefited to b 0 infallible , and we are not entitled to be very angry shquld he happen to be very much in the wroner . What rexes us is the anomaly . That is what we cannot endure . We are utterly unused to that To be sure there are some odd things in the constitution . A Sovereign without power ; a State Church , which here only embraces half the ' population , and , in Ireland , not a third of the population ; born legislators j a House of Commons , which represents but a email quota of the people ; free and indethe elections

      pendent burgesses , and most of conducted by corruption ; a City of London corporation , which has nothing to do with seven-eighths of London ; neld-marshate who never saw a shot fired in anger , or out of the Park—field-marshals incapable of taking the field . Why , it is lather an anomaly to pay jt Prince on becoming the husband of the Queen , who has no power . It is rather an anomaly to have a Prince Consort , paid on becoming the husband of the Queen , refusing to pay taxes on his farms , taking Rangerships of Parks which he seldom sees and colonel of

      never superintends , and becoming regiments which never saw him ; such sinecures—and the word sinecure , not strange to English ears , even in these days , suggesting anomaly—being reserved generally for old and worn out and highly meritorious , and not otherwise greatly over-paid public servants , civilians and soldiers . But we are a practical people . Human nature is an anomaly , and English affairs are anomalous ; and we don't tease ourselves about symmetries and theories when we find a thing works . The British constitution works ; therefore we are content

      with the British constitution . ¦ Why not be as unscrupulous , and display as much common sense in respect to the Prinee Consort ? His Royal Highness is a magnificent anomaly , an alter ego means the preternatural ; and we ought to make $ ne / best of tern , in the English way . A Prussian ambassador- to this country once said " " When I was in England a month I thought of writing a book about her ; when 1 had stayed six motions I saw that that would not be very easy ; and ¦ wlien I h ? . d been there a year I saw that I could say nothing positively , for that it was rather a difficult country to understand . " How we must puzzle Prince Albert ? Let us consider his experiences , and

      we shall find that the wonder is not that he is found n ^ emprdalising the Queen , on the subject of Guards ' privileges , but that he is not ruling at the Horse Guards , and , as chief there , besides being aa alter ego of the Sovereign , tete d ' arme ' e , establishing his will without reference to ' Line' op inion , or public opinion . The concessions made to him have been such that hail he been less strong minded and less sensible than he is , they would have enabled him without noise , without obtrusion , and almost without notice , to have altered the character of the English Monarchy , mad made Queen Victoria what William the Third wasr-rher own Foreign Minister , and her own Commander-in-Chief .

      Hi $ threw moving periods of unpopularity have been i Uiider- these circumstances ,. A fussy Lord Mayor in 1952 , backa 4 by a . popular bishop , proposed a statue to Prince AJbert , to be paid fop by public subscription , to be erected in some part of the metropolis not less conspicuous than that disfigured by the ISfelson column , and to be considered as the commemorative monument of the Great Exhibition of 1851 , the whole credit and merit of whioh were unreservedly assigned to the Prince by his too good natured friends . The suggestion was a silliness as respected the Prince , and was an impertinence to the public . But what happened ? Several thousand Bounds were ranturoualv subscribed , the list beine :

      headed by those chief men of his notion who ought to frfiye , been guordiuus of public decency and the first to oh , 8 ok these personal pretensions of private power . T ^ e Prinpe declined the premature derni-diviiuty , . ftfter undergoing a hurricane of praise from publio meetings and a , storm of abuse from public papers , Hjiflb next misfortune was , to bo found out in the fopt that he asslBtftd the Queen in supervising Fox-oign Q $ ce . correspondence , and . that , generally , he was , at h > r side when , . she , twras . p , o 1 < e 4 business with her #$ ula . tprar The roar qf $ w preeB and espeoially of 314 tfKuwv

      WV f **"* * pi-nw , — , u » ^ jnocvftpjij grounds , at ty 4 a interference of the crown wifcft the ojigarqh y when t & pdiaaavery had been fully elabqrated , Wfta . terrifying , flifli ^ . tke Prjnoo seems tp have oalled the W $ gp $ 9 the SKQ ue , and , while awaiting a constitutional Oeftniftpn , „ . his rights , to have abandoned Jus wife—so far , 0 , 0-WWtt $ > VP « W ° W constitutional court law in divorce tfiWwii ftUqwing h » B privilege $ o laps © with disuse , LppcT ^ Tohn RusaflH in one House , and Lord Aberdeen Ija the other , with Lord Campbell to edit thom both , ftf ed , I & a , ajamopr , adinjfctad the whole oasto , and rather 9 omnl 48 ap , tly o , na inoitingly complimented , tho Prinoe . ftft > OeiWH content with ffrnqtionp bq limited . What renultedr The clamour died away : the Prince ,

      conceding nothing , encouraged to advance in hia constitutional approaches , had gained his point ; and , then , most princes would have taken care to turn Whig politeness to account , and annihilated something of the Dogeship of the British Monarchy . Yet there are no signs that he has altered our system , and the facility with which the Queen gave up the happy coalition which her husband was supposed to have been chiefly instrumental in forming , suggests that his Royal Highness' temper and temperament had not been spoiled either by popular inconsistencies or by administrative adulation . On the next occasion of his appearance before the incoherent public tribunal , he had made a speech at the Trinity House . Lord

      Palmerston , not yet steadied into his seat , was struggling with military confusion in the Crimea and popular chaos in Parliament ; and the Prince , with considerate kindness to a new friend , pointed out that a constitutional state carrying on war stands in need of great patience and much endurance on the part of the people , since during war absolutism was rather the best form of government . At the moment , this was perhaps a general notion among the unreflecting mass of the public , and the Prince , only checked here and there , was warmly applauded for his outspokenness . Again he appears to have resisted the temptation . Never was a Parliament more' unruly than Lord Palmerston ' s last session ; and yet the Prince kept his fingers off the bauble , and Mr . Lefevre is

      calmly on his way to a Peerage . A Prince who has had encouragements of this kind , and avails himself of none of them , is not likely knowingly to step beyond his proper functions or exceed his just rights when a deputation from the Guards' club waits upon him , to state their grievances and solicit their brother officer to co-operate with them . Did the public which did not disapprove of his taking a regiment on Wellington ' s death , expect him to discard all the duties of his new position , and to resolve to abnegate esprit de corps ? The Prince was wise and honest enough to refuse Wellington ' s offer—and Wellington in that day could have carried it—of the Horse Guards , and doubtless calciilated that the country would not grudge him a colonelcy , with all the duties thereto appertaining .

      The public and the Prince must take the consequences of anomalousness in their relations , and be prepared for collisions of this character . When they occur , the public and the press will show most selfrespect by not exaggerating the importance of the point in dispute . A " facetious contemporai-y" naturally takes advantage of the fuas to jeer at the anomaly itself , and to suggest that a field-marshal who never was in the wars , had best pocket his pay , and leave military matters alone . But leading journals should not copy facetious contemporaries . Leading journals do not want to get rid of the anomaly , and therefore must encourage it as best they can . Non-Elector .

      .^ 2 G The L Eap E B. [No. 300, Saturday

      . ^ g THE L EAP E B . [ No . 300 , Saturday

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      dtomt ComttiL

      In This Department, As Alii Opinion?, Ii...

      IN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALIi OPINION ? , IIOWJSTIIi EXTRHJtH , ARE AL 1 OWEB AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR KECXSSARILT BOI . DS HIliaKtiH BBBFOKSIB & B VOK NOWbJ

      There Is No Lparn.Ed Man But. Will Confp...

      There is no lparn . ed man but . will confp ^ B he hath , much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and hi 3 judgment sharpened . If then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least ; , be tolerable for his adversary to write ?— -. Milton .

      What Shall We Gain By The War? (To The E...

      WHAT SHALL WE GAIN BY THE WAR ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sin , —Let us now consider the question of the war with Russia , and its probable results from the same point of view as that taken by the hot-blooded section of the War Party , comprising men who heartily sympathise with the cauBC of freedom , and hope , by the humiliation of Russia , to effect the emancipation of oppressed communities , and down-trodden nationalities . But , in addition to sympathy with the oppressed , there is prevalent in many minds an indignation against Russia , as ngainst some monstrous prodigy of cruelty and crime . Doubtless , great historical crimes do lie at the door of Russia , and if nations are to be

      deemed amenable to liuman justico in the samo manner as individuals , punishment may bo righteously indicted pn the present population of Russia . But few , howovor , who can reason on this subject without hysterical exoitemont , will maintain that one generation should bo punished for tho crimes of tho one that has preceded it , or that a whole population should be subjected to every spooioa of miBory in order that some refleoted rays of that misery may faintly fall upon tho heads of their guilty rulers . There is no doubt that the object of , dwelling upon tho orime » of Russia is to foment the martial exoitemont of tho English people . Coo } , motives of solf-intorest , and even earnest wishes for the deliverance of the oppressed inhabitants of mis-governed countries might not avail to etir up the hearts of the multitude . An

      effusion of hatred is needed to raise the excitement to bipod heat . In some measure , then , to counteract this influence , and remove the question of the war from the regions of passion and resentment , it may be well to call to mind that Russia , in endeavouring to overflow its or i ginal boundaries , obeyed the common instincts of semi-civilised tribes occupying ungenial and sterile districts which lie contiguous to such as are mild and fruitful . The aggressive tendency of Russia is not then wantonly malignant — ifc is merely vulgarly selfish . We ourselves , proud as we are of our civilisation , have condescended to pursue the same policy wherever it seemed to be worth our while . Let us divest our .

      minds of the childish , hobgoblin notion of Russia , sp anxiously propagated by weak or excitable minds . Russia is not demoniacal , she is simply human . Certain territories are likely to prove useful to her . She endeavours to clutch them . If we think that her doing so will be prejudicial to our own safety , we are warranted in crying " Hands off ! " and enforcing our exclamation , if requisite , by as heavy a blow as we can manage to give her . But to preach a crusade against Russia as against some common enemy of mankind , is ridiculous . Her vices are European , and , let us add , her power for mischief by no means formidable . She is neither fco be detested nor dreaded , as some would have us believe . France has overrun

      Europe , and might possibly do so again , particularly when Russia shall be reduced to the requisite degree of prostration . But Eussia failed even to penetrate into Bulgaria , though opposed only by the rude soldiery of a nation more barbarous than herself . This is one reason why I maintain that Russia is not to be dreaded . Why she is not to be detested I have partly shown , and must add that , -whatever may be her deficiencies , it is not for us who blandly permitted the atrocities of Juggernaut , who winked at widowburning , who pocketed a revenue extorted , as recent evidence has shown , in many instances , by torture , it is npt for us to throw the first stone at her government , and her people . ,

      Having said this much in explanation rather than in defence of Russia ' s aggressive policy , let us dispassionately consider how the cause of freedom can be advanced by the indefinite warfare we are now waging against that power . Who is the prime mover in the present war ? Napoleon III . Who holds the reins ?—who is master of the situation ? Napoleon III , Who has reaped the greatest benefits from the war , and who can and will stop that war the moment it ceases to be beneficial to him ? Napoleon III . Now , if our heartfelt wish is to encourage and uplift the crushed communities of Europe , it is of vital importance to ascertain what are the opinions , and what the real interests of this

      extraordinary man , who , thanks to the policy of this country , now stands supreme amidst the sovereigns of Europe , and dictates peace or war according to his own will , and with reference simply to his own immediate interests . Let him speak for himself . He announces himself to be the apostle of order . Change " Varsovie" for " Paris" and we may say , " L ' ordre regne en Paris . " " Facit solitudinem paceni appellat . " He plants an armed heel upon the neck of the French nation , and exclaims with dignity , " L'Empire e ' eat la paix ! " Perhaps , for tjje time being , he was the only safeguard against Red Republicanism ; perhaps he was a necessai'y evil , a grim , inevitable nuisance , like the family apothecary , or the confidential solicitor . Perhaps the

      law of self-preservation urged him on , and still instigates his every movement . With this I have nofcLing to do . The fact remains the same that Louis Napoleon is a despot . He rose by despotism , he reigns by despotism , ho lives by despotism . It is his interest to sustain the spirit of despotism throughout the whole globe . Each vibration of freedom , however far off from France , shakes the Imperial throne . It ia with the Emperor a mattor of life and death that the established authorities throughout Europe should remain sacredly intact . Tho case , then , stands thus : —A despot is tho primo mover in tho present war . A despot holds the l-eins , and is master of the situation . A despot has reaped the greatest benefits from tho warand cau stop that war the instant it

      , ceases to he beneficial to him . Now , when will the war cease to bo beneftoial to him ? Clearly at the precise moment when it commences tp bo beneficial to the cause of freedom . For instance ^ tho war is certainly unpopular in many jiarts of Franco . So soon as that unpopularity begins to excite a feeling ot impatient disguab , dangerous to tho utability oi tho Imperial ricjime , Napoleon will make poaco . So soon an tho disturbing influences of war inamfoatly begin to permeate- through tho masses on tho Continent , at present restrained by tho vigour of despotic governments , and mischief appears to bo brewing , Napoleon will make peace . So soon as there la an opening for nationalities to rise , and tho hour anil tno man draw near . Nanoloon will make peace . Wooa

      say moro to prove that flo far as the cauao of freedom is concerned , the . war with Rustiia is a mockery an" «• Bhara ? I am , nir , faithfully yours , Deo . 17 , 18 C 6 . Arthur H . Er-TON .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 22, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22121855/page/14/