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    Ko. 440,August 28, 1858.] THE L E A D E ...

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    fi IMTftfttt flf ^hp ¦ 'ftTwfr JtAlUUUl AH iiJC- *V CX4V

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    TH!E Count de Persigny has well set fort...

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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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    Ko. 440,August 28, 1858.] The L E A D E ...

    Ko . 440 , August 28 , 1858 . ] THE L E A D E E , 859

    Fi Imtftfttt Flf ^Hp ¦ 'Fttwfr Jtaluuul Ah Iijc- *V Cx4v

    % mtm at the Wnk

    Th!E Count De Persigny Has Well Set Fort...

    TH ! E Count de Persigny has well set forth , in his speech at the opening of'the Council-General of the department of the Loire , the mutual interest of Fraace and England in the maintenance of the alliance . Tlie'two countries have reached that point at which a closer union is an absolute necessity . * ' So great has become the community of interests , " as the Count truly said , " that , if to-morrow London

    or Paris were burnt down , we should reciprocally have to support enormous commercial losses ; and ., while a catastrophe occurring to Berlin / Vienna , or Sfc . Petersburg , would excite but our sentiments of commiseration , in London , on the contrary , JYench interests would suffer almost as severely as in Paris itself / ' The two capitals are , indeed , as closely fcound to one another as the Corsica , u brothers in

    Dumas ' s story : wound . Paris , and London bleeds . But there is a stronger argument still in favour of |> eace and union between the two nations . As the results of the last great war with France , England . gained the great object of her interest and ambition— maritime and colonial supremacy . la a war . with France we could liave nothing further to seek , and . the most successful issue could only leave us iu possession of that which we already possess . The direct interest of France iu the maintenance of the

    English alliance is well defined by the Count de Persigny . With England , he says , the French are masters of the seas , and have nothing : to fear for their frontiers . No coalition ag-ainst France is possible ; general peace is assured . The good common sense whicli has dictated these conclusions to the Cbuat dePersigay-j makes up for the famous answer to the Mansion House address ; it balances , too , the bellicose nonsense which has been flung backwards and forwards across tlie' Channel since the completion of Cherbourg .

    A constitution has at last been shaped , for the Damibiban Principalities , and although we are not yet officially informed of tlie details , enough lias become known to enable us to form some sort of general notion of the scheme of government determined upon by the Paris Gommissioa . On the face of it , nothing can be rnuch more liberal aud popular tlian the new constitution . Theie are to be two Elective Assemblies , elected by popular suffrage ,

    regulated by a fixed property qualification , not excessive in amount . These Chambers , are each to elect a Hospodar . The Hospodars , assisted by the Elective Assembly , will have the entire control of all domestic legislation , the supreme authority of tlie Porte being exercised only on questions of peace or war . No act of the Hospodars will be valid unless it is countersigned by the Minister , and the Ministers will bo accountable to the Elective

    Assemblies . There is also to be a Federal Council , acting for the Principalities ; but the intended action of this part of the scheme requires explanation . The impression which the scheinc will most naturally make is that of surprise at the very small part which Turkey is to take iu tlie affairs of these important parts of her empire , tuid at the facility whicli has been given to the two Principalities for effecting the federal union of which , beyond doubt , they arc both desirous , and whicli has been so stoutly resisted in all the discussions which have preooded the " Conferences . "

    The Moldo-Wailachians brought into at least a promising state of harmony with , the Porte , it is time that something should bo done to put an cud to the barbarous struggle which ia going on between Turkey and Montenegro . It is scandalous that in any part of Europe such scenes should be cnactod as those related iu the Journal de Constantinople ol the 10 th instant . According 1 to that paper , the Montenegrins , in contempt of solemn promises , Wo , for the third time , broken a truco and descended into the Turkish territory with fire and

    sword . Their ferocity is described as something fiercer and more horrible than that of Caffres . They descended into the small town of Kalachim , which was quite defenceless , and pitilessly slaughtered and despoiled its wretched inhabitants . All the women , says the account , who escaped the first massacre were carried off ; the handsomest were retained as booty , the others were murdered in cold blood .

    Even Prince Dauilo , the implacable foe of Turkey , is represented to have been scandalised by these monstrous doings , and to have issued a proclamation making it death to leaders , equally with subordinates , to attack the Turks , unless attacked first . But is it not the business of Europe to put an end to a state of things under which such atrocities are possible between states ?

    We are opening up China to the influence of Western civilisation , and we are urged on by the temptation of a high material reward , but are we not bound to see that the duties of civilisation are properly performed nearer home , even if the reward be not so direct and tangible ? At the present moment , however , there is certainly no 'comparison between the interest we naturally take in China and in Montenegro . Admitted into China , it is hardly possible to conceive the importance of the

    new career that opens for our commerce . As yet we know nothing more than the bare fact that a treaty has been entered into between the Emperor of China and the representatives of France and England , toy which , the ports of China are all . to be thrown open to European commerce , the practice of the Qhristian religion , is to be freely allowed , and foreign consuls and diplomatic agents admitted into Peking An indemuity—stated at 30 , 000 , 000 of francs—is also to be paid to England and France . A remarkable fact in connexion with these results

    of our operations on the Peiho is , that the intelligence has readied England through the French Minister at St . Petersburg , the Russian Government having , to the surprise of Europe , a regularly organised overland route from Peking by which it is enabled to forestall us of intelligeiicefromtlieCelestial capital by at least a month . We have referred to this important fact in another part of the paper . The view whicli we last week took of the state of

    parties ni Canada appears to be pretty nearly the same as that which is taken by the new Preuiier , Mr . Cartier . In his " explanation" in the Assembly , ho said , that the expediency of a Federal Union of all the Provinces of British . North America will be anxiously considered , aiid communication with the Home Government and the Lower Province entered into forthwith . For the present , the question of the site of the proposed new capital is to be left open , tlie Government not taking any steps without first consulting the Assembly .

    Before its dissolution , the East India Company has performed a graceful and generous act in granting a pension of 2000 ^ a yeav to Sir John Lawrence , to commence whenever lie retires from the service . There is but one voice and one opinion as to the merits of Sir John Lawrence ; there is no man , military or civilian , who has done so much for

    sanguine hopes of good results to come from the freer intercourse with . "Old England" are indulged by all classes ; it would , indeed , seem like a profanation to think of anything but good resulting from the use of such a power . Let us hope that among the good results of freer intercourse between the peoples of the world by the help of the electric telegrapli will be the rapid development of a more liberal Christianity than has yet obtained in the Old World . We shall then not be shocked by such occurrences as the Maidenhead

    confessional dispute . The subject t has , been opened out still further during the week by the publication , first of a letter from the Rev . Mr . Gresley , Vicar of Boyne-hill , denying the statements made by the accusers of his curate , Mr . West ; and next from Mrs . Ellen , of Maidenhead , who reaffirms the correctness of the statement first published in . the Windsor and Elba Express , and publishes a

    report of a long conversation between herself , the Rev . Mr . Gresley , and Mr . ' West , in which it is made to appear that there is no room to doubt that the original statement \ vas correct in spirit if not accurate to the letter . The fact , at all events , is made quite plain that' at Boyne-hill the practice of auricular confession is persisted in , in conformity with the views of S . Oxon ., the shepherd in chief of the spiritual flocks in-. that district .

    The Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the causes of accidents on railways appears opportunely—the frightful consequences of the " accident" on the Oxford and Worcester line having roused the attention of the whole country to the subject of railway accidents . Tlie recommendation of the ' committee-: is simple , and in a vast number of cases where there is danger at present , would be sufficient to give security to the public : it is for the Board of Trade to get power from Parliament to investigate arid report upon any

    accident , and to give the public the means of enforcing penalties against the railways for non-punctuality in the departure of their trains , a fruitful source of " accident" arising out of the endeavour to make up for lost time . In the case of the Round Oak catastrophe , the cause of the disaster appears to have been of a kind to liave been averted by the most ordinary care or forethought . An excursion train , consisting of twenty-nine carriages , closely packed with Sunday scholars and their parents , is being drawn up a steep incline , when some of the irons bv which the carriages are attached snao .

    and thirteen out of the twenty-nine carriages fly down the descent and crash into a train whicli has been following it ; fifteen persons are killed , and upwards of seventy maimed and wounded . It is premature to pass judgment on the case ; but wo have no hesitationm saying that , if it is not proved beyond tlie shadow of a doubt that every care was taken in the adjustment of the coupling-irons and in their adaption to the heavy work they were specially employed upon , the jury should indict a heavy dcodand upon the railway company , aud iu every case of action brought for compensation the highest damages should be given .

    A most important decision has been come to in the case of the Liverpool Borough Bank . The case was simply this :. On the strength of the report issued by the directors of that bank , two gentlemen were induced to purchase ten shares in the bank ; in a fow . weeks the bank stopped payment , and the present action was brought to compel one of the directors by whom the false report had been issued to refund the value of the shares . The case was tried before Mr . Baiibn Martin , and decided for the plaintiffs , and establishes a most important

    preoe-India since the outbreak of the mutiny ; and every one will rejoice to know that his services arc not only recognised but rewarded . In fortune , ho is now in a position to maintain any honour that may hereafter be bestowed upon him ; and it will be a disappointment and mortification to the country if a title is not nildctl to the rewards which as yet fall short of his deserts .

    dent as . to the legal as well as moral responsibility of those who are , by any means over winch they have control , the cause of loss to others who put trust in . the good faith of their representations . Several other cases ot" a rcmarkablo kind have been heard in the Law Courts , ono of the most remarkable being Hint of Krog versus Franklin , in which the plaintiff ) ms got 375 / . damages from the defendant , the captain of a merchant vessel , who hud put him in irons nncl confined him for ten days , for the oiVencc of telling him that his sliip was " a lloating hotel and he tho landlord 1 "

    Day by day we have the pleasing intelligence that the Atlantic Telegraph works beautifully . Her Majesty and the President of the United States have exchanged congratulations along tho mysterious wire , each expressing fervent hopes that the union of the two halves ] of the great Anglo-Sux . on family may be strengthened by this wonderful now tic . America is in n jubilant stale ait tho sucgcss of the third attempt to lay tho cable , and the most

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/3/