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Leader (1850-1860), 25th November 1854, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12

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      Where To Get Reinforcements. There Is No...

      If she is a foe , why should we draw the line at Poles ? Have we not also Hungarians and Italians , also Germans , whose numbers cannot be counted ? Now , we repeat what we said last week , that if Ministers palter with the interests of the country , if they allow time for Austria to playlhe traitor , and are ultimately obliged to reinforce British arrai « s with immense drafts of men at an enormous cost of taxes , they will lay imposts on the British people due only to the weakness of the Government and not to

      the necessities of the case . The auxiliaries of which we speak would he self-supporting ; they would , with comparatively little assistance , as a sort of capital at starting , pay themselves—and pay themselves handsomely out of the chosen action . Another proof of the necessity under which Government lies , is a signal infraction of the rule against granting commissions to non-commissioned officers . "Within the last month there

      have heen about a scoie of such commissions given to non-commissioned officers , for services in the East . It is an excellent example ; but we ask whether there are only nineteen noncommissioned officers that deserve commissions ? 'We also ask whether , in proportion , there are more private soldiers and non-commissioned officers than officers who have importuned for retirement—who have come home on the plea of slight wounds , or who have , as one gentleman of the distinguished privileged and moneyed classes is said to have done- —refused to enter

      the trenches ? No ! if a non-commissioned officer or private is wounded he is sent into the 'hospital fop repairs , and returned to the field as soon as possible . If he refused to act he would be shot or flogged . The commencement of a better rule of promotion we are prepared to praise jnost heartily ; but it is confessed that 'the existing rule is absolutely intolerable , and "unless we are to regard the improvement as the first successful insertion of the point of the wedge ^ e can no more accept the gift of a score of commissions to the non-commissioned officers

      as ^ & n instalment than we could accept the point / < 3 c the wedge in lieu of the entire instrument . We must have a distribution , of commissions as the true bounty for drawing our enterprising youth into the ranks ; we must have the subjugated nations of false allies permitted to be our auxiliaries beyond the four seas .

      England's Little Bill. Bein G A Highly C...

      ENGLAND'S LITTLE BILL . Bein g a highly commercial people , we English , may , perhaps , derive a new light on the subject of Continental obligations , if we take account of the money that we have invested in that line . A Parliamentary paper just issued by the Treasury , on the motion of Mr . Hume , gives an account of all money paid or advanced to any foreign state from 1793 to the close of 1853 . The total is 64 , 215 , 000 ^ ., of which about 620 , 0007 . has been repayed . The Greek loan and the Russian-Dutch loan , together about 4 , 639 , 000 / ., occurred since 1816 . The rest , nearly 59 , 000 , 000 / ., is duo to the period of the old war and peace . Kussia has had nearly 15 , 000 , 000 / . of our money ; Germany nearly 8 , 000 , 000 / . ; Prussia , 5 , 670 , 000 / . ; Bavaria , 500 , 000 / . ; Hesse Cassol , 1 , 271 , 107 / . ; Hesse Darmstadt , 263 , 000 / . Wo make no account of the loans to Hanover or Brunswick , which were , to a certain extent , family matters . "We set aside for the present the 4 , 200 , 000 / , advanced to Austria . But hero wo have the

      sum of 15 , 000 , 000 / . advanced to Russia , and the sum of rnoro tlian 18 , 000 , 000 / . advanced to " Germany "—under one name or other lent to our enemies or doubtful allies . Of course wo should not repeat this wonderful example of " a fool and his money , " but can we have nono of it back ? Is it not a good opportunity for levying an execution upon

      some of our debtors ! Perhaps if we were to substitute some other clients in place of the Czar , they might be glad to repay us the money , with interest . We will answer for it that there are German princes in that storehouse of suspended royalties who could raise a few millions on their future revenues , if England would help them to thrones now held by defaulters . Sweden , who owes us nearly 5 , 000 , 000 / . ( 4 , 845 , 571 / . ) , should be reminded of that little bill ; and it might not be amiss even to call a small sum of money to the memory of Austria , who wants it very badly

      just at present , and might perceive from that old memory how much cheaper it is for her to side witl England , whose money she had fingered , than her false ally Russia , to whom she is every year paying cash on account of the Hungarian defence . If the subsidised states cannot make us some little reversion , we should say that they ought to give us a few territories ; and just now , at the depreciated value which crowns and royal domains bear in the European market , we might really get a few states and fields worth having in different parts of Europe for our sixty millions at compound interest .

      Obituary. Napoleon, The Prodigal Of Huma...

      OBITUARY . Napoleon , the prodigal of human life , said of Trafalgar : * The English claim it as a great victory . Bah ! - ^ I won Nelson : the balance is against them . " The great man knew the value pf his class . And thus , this week , balancing losses against won battles , the account is not all on one side . What -with Russian cannon , and the diseases that search out those "who , live at home at ease , England has been grievously maimed of most precious lives these last ten days .

      First count that grand proconsul , Cathcart , whose happy opportunity of death symmetrizes his splendid career ; where even in this England , which teems with greatness , can we point out his successor ? He was—in a possible event- — to follow Raglan as generalissimo -who now is to follow Raglan ? The question suggests the extent of the calamity .

      In minor grades niany will be missed ; for though Sparta has as worthy sons , has she worthier ? That gallant Tory , Colonel Blair —even the " Ministerial side" will see a gap there o-n the Opposition benches , where the eye wa 9 wont to stray for the handsome , honest , presence of the member for Ayrshire . Full and hearty were his cheers for Disraeli—his charivaris of Cobden . But who remembei's the

      partisan in the noble fellow ~ vvho fell for England—for the Radicals as « vell as for the order he scorned the Radicals for assailing ? Where will the young Tories seek his successor to lead in the gay uproar of debate ? Sir Arthur Brooke has been struck down at home in his own house . Pleasant model of the patrician county member , his seat will be vacant too , with whatever promptness writs may issue or members may be returned . There is logic in the democratic tendency to make

      the House of Commons really representative of the people . But the young Sir Arthur Brookos are not responsible for the constitutional delusions in which they share , and from which they , too , suffer ; and while the House of Commons is a club , the regret is natural for the clubbable men who , returning officers notwithstanding , axe turned out by Death — " petition . " Sir Arthur , modest silent member , was a gentleman—and hon . gentlemen will lament him .

      Lord Dudley Stuart—how we grieve that wo so often made morxy over his European sallies — was a gallant knight - errant of oppressed nationalities . And us a knighterrant ia only a Don Quixote when he is an anachronism , so the solemn justification

      of the career of the late high-minded member for Marylebone , is that he was needed—that the House of Commons would have been an imperfect assembly without him—and that he did good—good to the House , purified by being lifted from its vestry routine into the haute politique in which that ardent soul lived , —good to the country , which needed such a man , a born statesman as born , lord , to carry it out of insularity , —and good to the

      causes of which he accepted the championship . He had his defects : those enthusiastic men , who are not of the world but of the haute politique , are " bores " sometimes to the multitude who only have time for vestry routine : and he was much laughed at . But never ill-naturedly ; and not a man in England but grieves over the premature close of a generous , chivalric life—not a Pole but counts Poland ' s chances less that Lord Dudley is no

      more . These are the heroes of the army and of politics . Humbler , and less conspicuous , but perhaps more valuable men , have gone too . Of Professor Edward Forbes , the brilliant and devoted student of science—who could make a review article on a pond of mollusca as thrilling and as crowded -with character as a romance—we have elsewhere spoken ; and even in a week noisy with the alarum of war , what workman in civilisation can overlook that death ?

      Lastly— --with the modesty due from pur craft —let us recount the death of a great journalist , Frederick Knight Hunt . There are no journals devoted to the annals of journalists : — it is the only " class" without an " organ ;" and thus a Daily NJews which gives space to mourning for a dead politician , thinks it decorous discretion to be briefly sorrowful about a man who yesterday was the Daily Netos

      But no such restraint fetters a contemporary : and there should be among journalists no affectation in ignoring the genuine importance of a personage who wields the influence of a powerful daily paper . The Daily News represented to Europe the views and feelings of a vast section of English middle-class liberalism ; and in the truest sense , Knight Hunt was a leader of liberals . We differed from him ; and

      deplored what we frequently denominated a mislead ; but never with a doulvt . but that his keen , vigorous , and practical intellect was at work with thorough conscientiousness . But Frederick Knight Hunt—a leader in the press , but a follower elsewhere—was of less importance as a politician than as a " newspaper man . " He was a perfect representative of his class in England : thorough master of his trade : heartily devoted to it ; jealous of its honour ; scrupulous

      for its privileges ; and ardent for its exaltation . He was by no means a great writer , and he wrote anonymously ; so that the " public , " which hears little of its press leaders , will have forgotten him , and the notice of him , another week has passed . But in his profession he should be remembered for a distinction which he sustained over several jeai's—he turned out daily the best journal for news that was to be found in Europe .

      Church Conflicts. Quekn Isabella The Sec...

      CHURCH CONFLICTS . Quekn Isabella the Second , of Spain , has a little recovered her popularity , by an act which will occasion some surprise in this Piotoatant country . Her most Catholic Majesty has lain under some suspicion that , in inaugurating 1 the Constitution , slue intended to defeat it . Sho professed to throw herself " into the arms of her people , " but was supposed to do so with mental reservation , if not with an arrogant sarcasm . The reading of tho written spoeoh might not Iiavo done muoh to remove this bad impression ; the emotion -which she displayed in

      1116 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 25, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25111854/page/12/