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    Aprh* 25,1857.] ' THE LEADER. 397

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    THE PALMERSTON-HAYTER CONSPIRACY. We hav...

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    THE NEAPOLITAN APOLOGY. Tiie King of Nap...

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    THE SIFCLE AND THE TIMJES. We have obser...

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  • 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.

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    England And The United States In China. ...

    really popular Government to enter into any pledge that it will make its actions , in all details , and in secrecy , conform to the actions of Powning-street . Lord Palmeiistoh ' s G-oyernment has done one thing which will tend , in eases of detailed difficulty , to promote a convenient harmony of action on the part of the representatives of America in the Chinese waters . Whatever

    question may "be raised as to the particular fitness of Lord ELGiir for the particular mission , at all events he enjoys a very considerable degree of favour and . confidence on the part of the citizens of the United States . No man , we believe , would be less likely to prefer an improper request to any officer of the American service in China than Lord Elghn ; and no man would be less likely to meet with a refusal .

    To a certain extent the case has already occurred . The Americans have met with difficulties in the waters of China very similar to those which have been encountered by Sir John Bo / wring , and we are not aware that Sir John" or Admiral Seymotte have any cause to complain of the conduct of tlie American officers ; we believe quite the reverse is the fact . It is possible that Lord Elgin may be instructed to enlarge the field of operations in China . On that point , as

    usual , our Government withholds from us every information . The course , therefore , may greatly alter ; but of one thing we feel convinced . The appointments of Mr , Buchanan , hitherto especially taken in conjunction with each other , may be described as strictly tending to the interests of the "United States . He has in some respects

    disappointed the expectations of party ; he has , we believe , exceeded the expectations of his country , although , not our own expectations : It is not probable , therefore , that any appointments which he may make will be other than such as are calculated to maintain the principles of his Government in its relation with the Celestial Empire , and with the other civilized countries whom the Americans will meet

    m the waters of China . That the officers of the United States in China will be well supported "we are certain , for we fully expect that the naval force of the United States in that part of the world will be placed at leasfc upon a " respectable" footing .

    Aprh* 25,1857.] ' The Leader. 397

    Aprh * , 1857 . ] ' THE LEADER . 397

    The Palmerston-Hayter Conspiracy. We Hav...

    THE PALMERSTON-HAYTER CONSPIRACY . We have now more distinct symptoms of the Government policy—of Lord Palmeitston ' s design to jockey the House of Commons . Mr . Haytek . sends a letter ,- addressed to the general supporters of the Government , including Lord Blanfoud , requesting their attendance and votes at the election of Mr . Denison , as Speaker : " An answer will oblige . " This request for an answer is an innovation . It means that the Liberal members are to compromise

    themselves , to accept a compact with the Ministry , to profess the faith as it is in Palmeuston . That is one indication . Then , we have the attacks ou Lord Jo m * Htjssem ,. Thirdly , the Edinburgh article . Now , what can the attacks on Lord John Busskll signify , except the antagonism of the Government to the chief of the "Whig Heformers P' The Edinburgh repudiates political reform

    , which it calls " organic ; " Lord JonN Russell insists upon it , and is industriously abused ; the Liberal party is gracefully invited by Mr . Hay'ieii to supply Lord Palmerstoit with three or four hundred signatures — a requisition to him to retain his post , and to name his own speaker . This studied disparagement of Lord John Husbxll , this now artiiice of the whipper-in , thin blue and buff flag hoisted

    Otherwise we shall have a session spent in passing , or attempting to pass , an amendment in the laws relating to the property of married women , a poor-law amendment , a new batch of legal reforms , a church-rate compromise , and a few other tinkerings of the statutes at large . The old House of Commons tried to do this work , and failed . Probably the new House will , to some extent , fail also . But Lord Paemebston , assuming that he and Mr . Hatter do not break down in their

    above a programme of " practical measures , ' implies nothing less than a resolve , on Lord Palmerston' apart , to effect by cajolery what a despot would effect by coercion , to convert our limited monarchy , in fact , into an administrative monarchy . That is his plan .. Its success depends upon the Liberal members of the House of Commons . The test of their Liberalism must be , in future , whether they will support political reforms as well as the trifles called administrative improvements .

    plot , will continue to stand at the head of affairs , caressing the young Liberals , baulking the deposed chiefs , and twirling Parliament upon his thumb . He can do it , with the assistance of the corrupt in en , the weak men , fche bewildered men , and the insincere menunless the really independent men undertake to operate against a policy so fruitless and so degrading . " We are not writing against

    Lord Palmerstoit . We . are only characterising his scheme of action , and putting it to the Liberal party—will you be jockeyed ? The tone of the Government organs is decidedly adverse to political reform ; all the whispers tell in favour of the Edinburgh theory . " We are approaching a session in which the Premier will attempt to govern by a series of little coups d ' etat , with Mr . Hayter as the St . Arnattd of the great

    conspiracy . - The Quarterly expounds the Palmerstoit idea in a singularly lucid analysis . The Premier , it says , is a traitor to the cause of Reform ; he governs byktrickery and manoeuvre ; he talks of progressive improvement in language which , coming from Tory lips , would be pronounced icy ; his promises of progress would

    not have alarmed Lord Ei / don . The Quarterly points to Lord John Russell as the true Liberal leader ; ifc is respectful to the Manchester party ; but it warns the country against a Minister who treats political independence as parliamentary mutiny , and Reform , to use the words of Mr . Lowe , as " electoral cry . "

    The Neapolitan Apology. Tiie King Of Nap...

    THE NEAPOLITAN APOLOGY . Tiie King of Naples has at last joined issue with the English journals , and denied that he tortures his political prisoners . There being no evidence in his favour , it is necessary to estimate the King ' s -word . What is it worth ? Have governments ever prevaricated ? If so , is Fehdinand ' s government likely to employ that stratagem ? Really , the reader will not expect to have the question answered for him . The Times correspondent says : — " I have come to tho painful conclusion that torture , in its proper sense of the term , is practised in the Two Sicilies . " " It is an evidence of

    my caution that I expressed my doubts as to the application of torture to A . gesilao Mi-TiANO , but those doubts no longer exist . " " That that unfortunate man was tortured is tho opinion of foreign ministers , priests , military men , civilians , liberals , and royalists as well . This X say advisedly . " He may well say so . Miiano ' s face , when he camo upon tho scaflbld , betrayed the horrible secrets of his prison ; it had grown old with physical agony ; on his hands could be seen the marka of the " infernal machine ; " the people knew at once that he had been vilely tortured . Flagellation , semi-starvation , and . other

    atrocities are made use of , not to extort confessions , but gratuitously to gratify his Majesty ' s vengeance . And the Times pictures the system by which society in ^ Naples is preserved from anarchy : " the denunciations of the secret spy—the brutalities of the policethe daily illegalities and acts of injustice which are committed—men snatched from the bosoms of their families on suspicion merely , degraded from their position ,

    imprisoned for months and years without trialthese are facts which no one can deny . " The pubHc does not deny them , but stigmatizes Ferdinand as a tyrant . But what of a certain other Monarch ? Will any one , who has the slightest knowledge of the facts , deny that the last paragraph quoted from the Times correspondent applies to Paris aa literally as to Naples ? Both governments are impeached before Europe ; both have pleaded " Not G-uilty . " and neither is believed .

    The Sifcle And The Timjes. We Have Obser...

    THE SIFCLE AND THE TIMJES . We have observed with more regret than surprise an article in the Siecle , purporting to be a reply to some recent comments of the Times upon the most salient indications of the latest census in Trance . The Times was singularly indulgent and reserved upon this delicate and painful subject , and touched upon its characteristics with all the tenderness and caution which might be expected from a journal to whose enormous power and publicity an almost

    governmental responsibility belongs of necessity , and in whose almost diplomatic reserve upon certain foreign questions we , for our part , very frankly recognise nothing but the just prudence of an exceptional position . Other journals , responsible only to the sincerity of their own convictions and to the sympathies of special readers , may seem to pay a more undivided homage to great principles , but a whisper of the Times , when the note is true , resounds through . Europe like a trumpet .

    The remarks of our Parisian contemporary are signed by a man of talent and generous feeling , whose name we have been accustomed to respect for an honourable and energetic assertion of liberal principles in the teeth of a censorship whose undisguised severities are the least of the dangers which a free expression of opinion incurs under a despotism of equivocations . It is not the

    open " warnings so much as the secret and unremitting pressure of official intimidation that independent journalism has most to fear in the France of to-day . Of this secret pressure operating through the hundredhanded vigilance of that Bureau of Public Opinion over which M . Collet Meyoret so amiably and affably presides , the outer world knows next to nothing . It is rather in the tacenda than in the dicenda of the

    unofficial press that the working of the directorship of Public Safety is to be detected . But we havo regretted to find M . Louis Jouhdan ' s signature attached , to an article so feeble and so fretful in tone as this reply to our leading journal . If it be not a calumny that the Siecle , ostensibly a liberal organ , enjoys the confidence of the Palais Iioyal , we can only say that , for the credit

    of tho journal , it is a pity the hand that pulls the strings is not more adroitly concealed . The influence exercised by the Siccle makes it important to the liberal cause that its sources of information should be untainted by the poison of complicity . Throughout tho war the Sicclc , magnanimous to excess , won much favour in this country by its hearty attachment to the English alliance , contrasted with the shrewish bitterness of the Assemble Rationale . On the other

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 25, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25041857/page/13/