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    October 28, 1854.] THE LEADER. 1019

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    BIT BY BIT. It "was in March last that G...

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    MR. LANDOR'S PROPOSAL TO ASSASSINATE THE...

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    I-Ioni Soit Qui Mal Y Pense. Loms Napole...

    merely because some few months ago it . was taken for granted by the said enlightened public that Louis Napoleon contemplated a visit without waiting for an invitatiou . A great commercial natkn , which is very busy about money , and leaves the work of thinking to its leading journals , can only judge of the moment b y the appearances of the moment ; and the explanation of the present popularity on this si . ie of the Channel nf the hero of the

    coup d'etat of December , 1851 , is not at all disgraceful to the English people . For neither in 1852 hat [ a 1854 is Louis Napoleon regarded by us fr ^ m the French point of view , but strictly and exclusively , from the English point of view . If we did , now or formerly , consider him as a French politician , he remaining- the same man—a despot then and a despot nowwhy , of course , the lausrh at us as an

    inconsistent people would be thoroughly justified . But , in fact , the English nation did not care whether he was a despot or not—did not even thinkhim wrong in assassinating the French Republic—and are utterly-insensible now to his crimes ia maintaining Cayenne , in crushing the press * in annihilating literature , in refusing representation ,, and , at Rome , in robbing- a penpie of freedom , in / order that a ( locally ) a , bhorred Chureh may prolong a putrid existence . With all these things the non-intervening English

    nation has nothing to do ; and , in truth , does not forivi opinions about them . The Louis Kapo-, leon , who was denounced ia 1852-3 by our leading journals , like the Times , and by ouv parrot statesman , like Sir James Graham , was the man ¦ who , suspected , of a monomania about Waterloo , was suspected , in consequence , of a sinister intention to invade England . The Louis Napoleon , who is now far more popular in England than in France , is the powerful monarch whose interest , it is calculated , it is to cultivate . the English alliance , and whose

    alliance—which our Queen , head of the monarchical society of Europe , is wisely endeavouring to guarantee by extending those courtesies so precious to parvenus—is of vital consequence to England , in a period when England , having assailer ! Russia , may have opposed to her two-thirds of Europe . Thus , there is no inconsistency whatever in our national conduct j we may have been right about the invasion ; we may be right about the alliance ; at any rate we do the best for ourselves under the circumstances , and if there be any shame in the reconciliation , it should not he on onr side ,

    But the maxim of treating your friend as though he would one day be your enemy , however unjust and unwise in individual concerns , is very applicable to tba intercourse of peoples , and should carefull y be borne in mind in such a case as this , where the alliance is less clearly between the English people and the French people than between the English people and tlic French monarch . For though it is onr , and our Court's , business to assume , that where we find a Government it is a Government

    representativo of the national will , yet , aa a matter of fact , there are grave doubts whether Franco and Louis Napoleon are precisely the earno thing 1 ; d > ubts arising from the circumstance , that notwithstanding the recent permanent-looking prestige of the Emperor , none of the statesmen , and not even one of the soldiers , of tho old r 6 gimo , have availed themselves of the opportunity , to the latter so facilo and

    bo tempting , to take sorvico under tho new man . And , even if Louis Napoleon manifestly wore France , our rejoicings should bo guarded—our reception a courtesy—a politic courtesy—anil nothing more . Incarnate Husdiu , tho Cxm Nicholas , underwent luting , mul Garter investiture , hero , some yours ago ; ami the Court and tho nation , in their thoughtless generosity , endured and proffered connnlimt'iits , the souvenirs of which are now somewhat

    ludicrous , if not somewhat degrading . Our Queen , a pure young Euglish matron , suffered the caress . ing complimonts , and tender flatteries of the despot ; and our aristocracy , mindful of possible civilities at the Winter Palace , accepted , if it did not solicit , an Ascot cup ; our mob gazi"g and cheering the Tvhile , and our press adulating him who , really as impotent as his august brother of Cldna , seemed the arbiter of the world , and was . the tyrant of Poland , and the poisoner of the " sick man . " Let our mistakes , in that matter , warn us against making

    too much of the conveniences of the present alliance , or the success of its may be merely temporary Emperor . That our Queen is doing her official duty in introducing the Empress Eugenie into that effective solidarity , the solidarity of dynasties , and that Prince Albert is indicating wise forethought in seeking to establish a good understanding between himself and tbe singular and romantic personage whose genius for fatality has procured him so great a station , is obvious . That the nation will not be behind the

    Court , in the required politeness , we do not doubt ; for our two governing classes , our aristocracy of place and our aristocracy of money , suffer from a strong inclination , scarcely checked by the constitutional traditions of their own country , to worship that colossal materialism , hideous and unintellectualj , but magnificently " practical , " which has iieen established

    in France , a-nd of which the name of Napoleon is the disastrous symbol . For our own part we cannot sympathise with those liberals who see in the courtesy of the Court a treason to humanity : our Court is not Quixotic : and if it were sentimental , our country would correct it . With regard to the present of the Garter , we do not share in the sensitiveness which

    shrinks from the defilement of that chivalric institution . Louis Napoleon has been an English Special ; why not a Knight of the Garter ? Has the one thing more meaning than the other ?

    October 28, 1854.] The Leader. 1019

    October 28 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1019

    Bit By Bit. It "Was In March Last That G...

    BIT BY BIT . It "was in March last that Grovernment sent out the fleet under Sir Charles Napier to inflict some degree of chastisement on Russia , and to blockade the ports of that dignified power . Sir Charles Napier ' s achievements consist in . shutting up a few' harbours on the Russian coasts , and knocking down an unfinished fort in the neighbourhood of Sweden ; and he comes home to provoke the public question , whether the convivialities of the Reform Club dinner affected his head the roliole of that time , an . I had prevonted him from awaking to his duty ? In the meantime our officials hang over questions about the rights of neutrals when they might cut the Gordiaii knot by declaring war against weak and contemptible " powers . " JSut they mean to conquer Prussia bit by bit . Aa the ji . 'lge of a County Court "would do , they allow her " time" to run away from her international creditors .

    Tho blockade which we will not inflict upon Russia is compensated by a blockade which wo do inflict upon our own commercial men . Laat session , Government , being fortified by some very ingenious economical philosophers , invented a row stamp-tax for tho benefit ol commerce and revenue ; and tho stamp-tax has proved wo difficult of comprehension , that

    i'O man can toll what kind of document bin bill , draft , note , or order may bo in Parliamentary language , cannot tell' in what cIuhh lie is to jay , ^ ov how much , —hardly known whether a lotter from his witb acknowledging hits rcnniUuiieo h 1 iou 1 < 1 not bo settled , not with a luaw , hut ; "with a Governnu'nt stamp . In whorl , tho Ht-anip Act interiores with an inuumcTublo class of coinnmiuaitiona , drafts ,

    securities , instruments , and love-letters ; driving the very Bills that are to be taxed out of the London market ; and all because superfine economists think it clever to compass the movements of trade by plunging into innumerable details that defy definition and classification . It 5 s still bit-by-bit reform in its worst shape—a , number of little bits all at once .

    Same spirit in medical assistance for the army . The science of war has been advanced , the instruments of death have grown much more effective , but the instruments of medicine are still where they ought to have been when Dr . G-uthrie was a young man serving in the Peninsular war . We are reforming

    bit by bit ; and as we are now doing what we ought to nave been doing during the Peninsular war , perhaps we may be able to have a medical corps such as we ought to have now when we next engage in war , in 1880 , with his Majesty the Emperor of . all the Russias , all the Prussiasy all the Turkeys , and all the inland seas .

    The very intelligence about these events constitutes an arrear . Place any editor over the departments "that regulate couriers and telegraphs , and we venture to say that we should have bad the news from Sevastopol last week . If Americans had been the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the Crimea instead of Englishmen , we should not have had the news sent to Constantinople and . then" back to Bucharest ; but a telegraph would have been rigged in some straighter line , and the lightning would have been set going without a triangular journey in ship and in saddle , before arriving at the starting-place of the

    . Real Governments might discover from some unstudied achievements of their own officers that bit-by-bit reform is not always safest and best . It would hardly do to teach a young rider in a steeple-chase that he'must take a five-barred gate by degrees , or even to have ascended the heights of the Alma by instalments .

    Mr. Landor's Proposal To Assassinate The...

    MR . LANDOR'S PROPOSAL TO ASSASSINATE THE CZAR . Our newspapers are sometimes , and particularl y when there as a halt in the news , very eccentric ; and a-t such times Mr . Landor ' s articles get into broad-sheet print . The other day , a literary contemporary ( the Examiner ) , generously confident , inserted a Latin ode by Mr » Landor , addressed " Ad Hoodum , " which many persons doubtless mistook for Latinity " To the Editor : " and this week we find a . grave daily contemporary , with a strong tendency to convince City men that it is dull , and therefore reliable , bestowing its largest and loudest type on a communication from the same gifted but

    odd writer , suggesting that there is one profession which has shamefully been omitted from tho supply of services for tho war with Russiathe profession of tho Bravo . As there is a considerable number of ardent liberals , who think that history ends in a year or two , and who are therefore always ia a hurry , disposed to cheer the suggestion , otnly not infamous because it is insane , of Mr . Landor , the proposal ought not to bo overlooked . For who knows but that our classical Republican of J 3 ath , having at Jast found his Caesar , may make his arrangements to be with all urgency a Hrutns ? Wo would not insult Mr . Landor by suppling- that , thinkingtho Czar's throat ought to bo cut , he would louvo tho liui-oie Miotoy to any vulgar hand . IJrutus certainly cli < l his work , and did not

    write to tho nmvsjmpors touching tho necessity of Homo ono cJso 'loi >> # it . " In tho ii . ssiiHSinatioii of tyrants justifiable ?" is a thoino for tho " Tomplo Forum , " tho Oxford " Union , '" and th < j London " Eclectic , "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 28, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28101854/page/11/