Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 28th April 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 6

Page 6
Page 6
6 of 24

On this page

  • Text (2)
  • 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.

      Amendment Of The Bank Act, M He Quarrel ...

      of Mr . Tooke , who condemn the Act without giving very satisfactory reasons for the alterations they propose ; but while it < r ' freedom to the Bank , it would leave other banks fettered , and increase the monopoly still conceded to it ; The eleventh section of the same Act enacts , " that it shall not be lawful for any banker to draw , accept , make , or issue in England or ^ Wales , any bill of exchange , or promissory note , or engagement for the payment of money payable to bearer on demand . " This is a monstrous restriction on the natural liberty of existing bankers and of all nien who might like to become bankers , and it would

      be necessary that this restriction should be abolished by leaving the word " not" out of this clause . Such a violation of freedom makes the Act passed in 1844 a greater disgrace to the Legislature than the corn law passed in 1815 . On the same ground the two Acts of 1845 , regulating the issue of notes in Scotland and Ireland , would require , in the former an omission of the word " " in the tenth section ; and the substitution of the word " may , " with corresponding alterations , in the latter to restore freedom to the banking business , and keep the action of the Bank of England sound by healthy competition . AIL the inanv other- little resti-ictions and regulations of the Banking

      Act may be left for future revision ; all that is now necessary is that the Legislature should take into consideration the great ¦ inconvenience it- ' . causes , and make the small alterations we have suggested . . . " # e are aware that hankers and money dealers may not like these changes , but we look' less to their gratification than to get rid of the monstrous invasion of our ancient liberties and our national freedom , which was first enacted in 1844 ! We are not idolaters of Peel nor admirers of Doctrinaires . We speak for free trade

      in banking , because free trade in corn , confirming anticipations , has been amazingly beneficial- Being in the order of nature , the gold discoveries , which have brought the Act of 1844 to shame , have only increased the manifold advantages of free trade : The opinions of * classes , whether bankers or landlords , are to be heard with attention , but laws are : to be made for the public good ; and in the course of our reading and experience we have never met with a single example of its being promoted by a law which , like the Act of 1844 , interferes with trade , and violates the libertv of individuals . .

      394 The Leader And Saturday A [April 28,...

      394 The Leader and Saturday A [ April 28 , I 860 ,

      The Sicilian Revolt. T He Eyes Of The. R...

      THE SICILIAN REVOLT . T HE eyes of the . rest of Italy .-are anxiously turned at the present time towards Naples and Palermo . Every man who thinks , every heart which beats with patriotism , feels that the destinies of new Italy are intimately connected with the struggle which is now going on in the southern portion of the Peninsula . The grand events commenced last year upon the Po , by which the scattered members of Italy , Tuscany , Motlena , Parma , Lombardy , the Romagna , and Piedmont , were united in one body , must eventually embrace Naples . The national

      independence will be a truth and a fact only when Naples and Sicily , numbering some ten millions of Italians , shall be included in the other parts already liberated , and with them form the great Italian kingdom . When Italy is free from the Alps to Cape Lilibceum , then and not before can it be affirmed that . national independence is established . The facts which are now occurring in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies arouse the greater anxiety and attention in that they are felt to be connected with the future fate of the entire Peninsula . Will the present revolution succeed P and whnt are the elements of success which it

      embraces ? - —are questions of constant recurrence and vital importance . By some it is felt that the Neapolitans and Sicilians can never free themselves from the Bourbon yoke unless n helpinghand is held out to them . They say the Government is strong and well armed , the people weak and helpless , and , Worse still , divided into two parties , tho Boyalists and the Liberals , who are at deadly feud between themselves . Then comes tho question , Whence are the Two Sicilies to look for help ? Not from Piedmont certainly . She has sufficient work in prospect , for some

      time to come , in arranging her new territory , setting it m order , and , perhaps we may be forgiven for insinuating , in protecting it nguinst those who havo helped her to win it . The European States regard the aggrandisement of tho House of Savoy with considerable jealousy , and accuse Piedmont of employing unjustifiable expedients to obtain Tuscany and the yEmilin . The Subalpino policy will therefore be compelled to maintain ft "vory strict reserve . Its study must be to demonstrate that it is not ' . Piedmont which absorbs tho other Italian Stntes ,

      but that it is the Italians who , on shaking oiV tho yoke of their taskmasters , choose to range their common country round tho Piedinonteso monarchy . If prudence forbids that Piedmont should nid Naples in winning freedom , and some aid is indispensable , it would follow that

      assistance must be sought from a foreign land . In that case , Southern Italy would belong , with more or less of right , to the power who befriended her , which would be inconsistent with the views of national freedom and independence so ardently nourished by the whole Peninsula . A cljvided Italy , or an Italy subjected to strangers , can never be an independent Italy . If , then , help is not to be looked for from within , and to look for it from without would only perpetuate many of the evils under which they are now labouring , it would seem that the Neapolitans have nothing : but their own efforts to depend upon , saving always the

      moral support of those nations and individuals who abhor tyranny , and love and follow out liberty and enlightened progress . Should the day come that Southern Italy frees itself from the Bourbons , Sicily and Naples would be annexed to the rest of Italy , the Peninsula would suffice for its own protection , and the Italian question would cease to imperil and perplex Europe . Most ardently , therefore , must the friends of Italy desire that the present movement may be fostered and carried on by the people themselves with all the ardour compatible with prudence and common sense .

      At first sight , the kingdom of the Two Sicilies seems as if Heaven had expressly made this natural paradise to be a prey to civil suffering and calamity . The Republics of Naples and Amalfi were no sooner founded than they disappeared for seven centuries ; afterwards , they had-no empire of their own , and that of others was not lasting . Among the continual vicissitudes which they underwent , they had more and more cause to . complain--of each ' . -succeeding change : The monarchy founded by the Normans , after fifty-nine years , passed to the German house of Swabia , who only held it seventy-seven years . The civil

      enlightenment and grandeur which this Royal house was introducing , was extinguished by the pestilential influence of the House of Anjou , and the hundred and sixty-five years of war , both foreign and domestic which they brought with them . No less terrible wars and misfortunes accompanied the rule of the Aragonese , who dominated rather short of sixty years . Finally , arose the abominable Viceregal domination , the like of which the sun has scarce ever seen , and which brought all kinds of wretchedness and misery to a climax during two centuries of provincial servitude . This constant succession of misfortune was due in

      part to the natural position of the territory , which is so temptingly : and invitingly exposed to foreign conquest , but still more to the pretensions of the Roman Curia , who summoned one foreign powei after another , and gave and took the crown from each according as it exhibited more or less deference and obedience to the Papacy . A ray of light broke this thick and inveterate darkness when the Bourbon race , at the beginning of the eighteenth century , were compelled to unite with their people and accede to some of their requests , in order to lessen the intolerable weight of clerical and baronial authority . Charles III ., Avith the counsel arid aid of his . minister Tanucct , did more tlum almost any other prince to curb the clergy and vindicate the liberty of the Crown .

      He introduced many excellent regulations , which were continued by Ferdinand , who did away with feudal servitude , and who-, had it not been for the influence of his . wife and the conservative ministers by whom she surrounded him , would have pursued the path of reform . But the seed sown was not lost . The principles of liberty were more warmly greeted in Naples than in any other portion of the Peninsula , and bore more honourable fruit . Never were more wise and virtuous men assembled together than those who constituted the Parthcnopinn . Republic ; never did a city display more undaunted courage in fighting for its liberty , than Naples in repulsing the cruel bands of the ferocious Cardinal Ruffo ; never did blood more honourable and pure stain thescaffold than that of Mario Pagano , Domenico CntiLLO ,

      Francesco Confobti , Caraffa , and Serio . Under the reigns of Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat , tho Neapolitans obtained such civil laws and franchises as were compatible with absolute sovereignty ; and during these ten years tho Neapolitan military forces so conducted themselves as to win glory and renown in ' foreign lands . The Napoleonic laws and institutions took such deep root that oven when the old government was rostored they were preserved to an extent unknown in any other part of Italy . One reason of a constitution being so ardently desired was to guarantee them . The changes oi 1820 were effected bymeansof Oarbonarism in the army , which was

      rather Muratist than Bburbon , and in consequence of the disposition of tho people , who since their taste of civil government were more desirous than ever of progress . But after the death of Ferdinand , in 1835 , and the accession of his sou Fkanois * the destinies of tho country again changed for tho worse . Priests , underlings , and sbirri , had the management of everything } tho taxes wore augmented ; tUo public debt increased 5 th « deficiencies iu tho treasury supplied by monns of the moat

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041860/page/6/