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Leader (1850-1860), 28th June 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 607, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Xs Germany—divided into nearly forty separate tafes to oppose the progress of ( he liberticide and anti- progressive army ? But have not recent events sufficiently shown , on the one side , that Germa n bayonets were always ready to crush every popular movement P and , on the other , that the Germans have not yet made up their minds what they want ? We heard in Germany , it is true , during 1848 and 1849 , the cry for " German Unity ; " but the very men who gave utterance to that cry , at the same time evinced the most blameable disposition to extend " German" unity by robbing non-German nationalities !

      But France , that compact nation of thirfy-six millions , will * he suffer such a plan to be carried out ? Will she not , even in its embryo , at once march forth her Republican army to anticipate the enemies of mankind , and thus furnish the peoples o « Germany and Italy I he opportunity of organizing their national forces for an efficient resistance—the only means , indeed , by which the melancholv future can be prevented ? Have we not seen France , in 1792 , victoriously resisting the whole of coalesced Europe , England not excepted ?

      True : but the past few years have sadly convinced us that modern France , whose army is commanded by Generals created under Louis P hilippe ' s corrupting system , is not equal to the making of such a salutary step in time—especially under the presidency of a Louis Bonaparte , whom the fiery French generation of 1792 would certainly not have elected for their chief , nor have allowed

      to restrict universal suffrage , still less to murder a sister republic . What is the position of England—constitutional England P Ought not the nation to turn , with confiling eyes , to her ? Delusion ! Have we not seen the British Cabinet , continually and upon every occasion , assisting the Continental despots , from the le ter espionage up to the Schleswig-Holstein affair?—on the one hand , allowing the

      Holy Alliance repeatedly to violate the treaty of Vienna—as in the annihilation of the constitutional regime of the kingdom of Poland in 1832 , and the destruction of the independence of the republic of Cracow in 1846 , both mutually guaranteed by all the contracting parties of that treaty ; and , on the oi her hand , advising the nations , who groaned under a foreign despotism , passively to submit to the provisions of the said treaty . Thus , when the late Republican Government of Venice applied for British assis . ance , it received from Viscount Palmerston the shamelessencotiragemenfc to surrender to Austria , " because in virtue of that treaty "that so oit violated treaty— " Venice belongs to Austria . *'

      Where , then , are the Peoples of Europe to look for succour against the coining invasion of restored Absolutism ? To themselves . W hen the alliance which the European Democratic Committee proclaims among the Peoples shall be in full practical activity , then , and then only , will Europe be sirong against its combined foes . While the Peoples remain divided , the declaration of Nicholas Dictator is not a threat but a law : when the Peoples shall be united , such a declaration will cease to be a law , or even a threat ; and then only shall we put an end to revolutions .

      Untitled Article

      THE WHIG SCHOOL OF REBELLION . TaiPtED with , oppressed , insulted , evaded , the people of the Cape of Good Hope are believed , by those who know them best , to be inclined to some extreme and dangerous course . We have already explained the position of the Cape , and we now recapitulate in order that the reader may have the convenience of a memorandum to aid him in understanding the further progress of the question just taken up by Lord Stanley .

      It will be remembered that an aUcinpt ^ was made by tho Home-office and the Colonial-office jointly"both Greys , you will observe "—to introduce convicts inco tho colony . The Imperial Government had been under repeated pledges not to intioduce convictK ; in some of the new experiments in tinkering the convict system , a plan was broached for distributing approved convicts in the " free but before the

      colonies , " with their consent ; " consent could be obtained , the Cape colomats received notice that a shipload was coming from Bermuda , The colonists refused their consent ; they refuted to admit the convicts ; they organised an Association , and entered into a pledge to employ no new emigrant while a convict should be ia the port ; they out off intercourse with the Gownment in Cape Town , And supplies . After "

      instructing" Sir Henry Smith to stand out obstinately , he was instructed to yield ; and the couvicts were taken on to Van Diemen ' s Land . Much anger had been created in all the Australian colonies , except " the Scarecrow of Emigration , " Western Australia , by the plans for renewing transportation ; and this anger was complicated with the dispute about the constitution , in which Government had promised , retracted , shuffled , and Compelled , with the most exasperating alternation of instability and obstinacy . During this dispute the promise of a " free , " an " English" constitution for the Cape was volunteered by Ministers .

      It was sent out to he " revised "—by the old Council whom it was to supersede ! But when the Governor collected the Council for that purpose , in lieu of leaving the members to the revision of the draft , he called upon them to pass supplies and get over the linancial arrears of two years . Four of the five " non-official" members remonstrated , on the joint ground that the passing of supplies was not within the province of a Council

      summoned to revise the constitution , and that finance questions would much more properly and effectually come before the next Legislature , the new body . Sir Henry pressed , and the four popular members resigned . A meeting of colonists was held , the draft of a constitution prepared by the four members was adopted , and two of the four , Sir Andries Stockenstrom and Mr . Fairbairn , were sent over here to advocate the cause of the

      colonists . Meanwhile Sir Henry sent home for instructions , and he has been instructed to go on with his Council as it stands—shorn of its four elected members ; a course which has been pronounced , on competent authority , to be illegal . The Government , therefore , is deprived , in the eyes of the colonists , of technical as well as moral authority . That is to say , after its conduct has been oppressive , tantalizing , exasperating , and vacillating , it has now placed itself even beyond the letter of the law .

      The Kafir war belongs to another series of misgovernment , which has consisted mainly in a mixed process of exasperating the Aborigines on the frontier , and indulging them . Sir Henry Smith has at times cowed them with his bullying , and cajoled them with his pantomime , his child ' s storybook style of eloquence , and his " stick of peace . " Among other vagaries , it wac his notion to make the Karirs give up a part of their territory , that he might form military settlements upon it . A pasto

      toral race , with a territory subject partial droughts that visit the hills and the valleys at different seasons , the Kafirs need a wide expanse of land for the pasturage of their herds . Thus , in their mode of life , they were virtually made acquainted with the evils attendant on an overpeopled condition ; they encroached back upon their old lands ; Sir Henry Smith bullied—in vain ; and then opened " the Kafir war . " The colonists are called upon to sacrifice their property , their time and safety in the field ; England ia called upon to the taxes .

      pay ^ . . , „ „_ , _ .: _ .-When the two Commissioners of the Colonists come to London , they are received with an appearance of fairness ; until , in the fulfilment of their duty , they endeavour to extract an explicit assurance ; they then learn that the Constitution question shall be settled when the border war is over ; and almost in the same breath they learn that , in the endeavour to outdo the refractory Aborigines , it is in contemplation to extend the sort of occupation which provoked the present war , possibly even

      to the Equator ! Thus is to be prolonged an intolerable nuisance ; and the only assurance obtained for the colonists is , that they shall have their political rights when the nuisance is at an end . Fairy tales scarcely contain any procrastinating condition bo fantastical and perverse . Under these circumstances the Cape Commissioners , it is reported , are disposed to abandon their suit for justice in Downing-street , and return to the Colony , where their influence may be useful in mitigating

      the natural bitterness of the Colonists . We have now recapitulated , as briefly and plainly as we can , the posture in which affairs stand immediately before tho debate notified by Lord Stanley for Monday night . In justice to the colonists , the English tax-payer should understand the grounds on which he is called upon to pay for the Kafir war . He should perceive , alao , that he may be called upon to pay for still heavier military and naval expenses in putting down the oolonisU . The result of the convict question was , Co teach the oolonista the tirobabU « uooess of energetic

      rwistwould break up the Whig Cabinet ; and the portion of the British People which possesses political power cannot make up its mind to do without tho Whig Cabinet ; so the portion of the British public which possesses political power , and also the great body of the People which possesses no political power at all , will have to pay fines for enjoying the luxury of Whig rule , in the shape of expense * for the Kafir war , and probably for putting dowa the colonists when they next rebel .

      ance ; but Lord Grey m ^ y he more obstinate than he was in that instance . Were there any genuine national feeling in the English People , such treatment of an intelligent and patriotic community like that at the Cape would not be tolerated ; but it is tolerated . Were there any national feeling , the British People would insist upon removing a Minister who has behaved as Lord Grey has done ; but to dismiss Lord Grey

      Untitled Article

      ENGLAND FOR THE RICH . What a comfortable discovery for an indolent , selfish , rich man is the doctrine of averages ! What a marvellous effect it has in disposing him to look with philosophic composure upon the most glaring anomalies of modern civilization ! Radical demagogues and Socialist lecturers may seek to disturb his digestion by expatiating on the wrongs of 30 , 000 London needlewomen , the sufferings of half a million handloora weavers , doomed to maintain a wretched existence on 4 s . or 5 s . a-week , or the

      starvation . of five millions of " the finest peasantry m the world , " but he has discovered an antidote to all these annoyances . By the careful investigation of certain political arithmeticians , it has been ascertained that the annual consumption of tea , coffee , sugar , and various other articles of general use , during the last fitly years , has increased more rapidly than the population , and , therefore , he concludes that the people must , upon the whole , be better off . Granting that there are several millions in the United Kingdom who do not taste whol

      butcher ' s meat above two or three times in the e year , he falls back upon the comfortable reflection that these must be only exceptional cases , as the total quantity of animal food consumed in the country is understood to be much greater now , in proportion to the population , than it was fifty years ago . Should any one suggest that this may possibly be the case , and yet that a very large class of the people may be worse off now than the same class was at the beginning of the century , because the distribution of the food is more unequal now than it was then , he will at once charge you with

      bein # a Communist , and give up the discussion . In connection with this doctrine of averages the Economist opens up a useful subject of inquiry , by its mode of showing that this country , taken as a whole , is quite as prosperous as any of our colonies . After finding fault with those who are continually drawing comparisons between England and Auotralia , or New Zealand , to the disparagement of this country , it proceeds to prove—what nobody can deny—that Great Britain is the finest place in the world for a rich man : —

      " It seems to be forgotten , " says the Economist , " that of the thousand human beings every day added to our community , even under the abominable laws which cut off their supply of food , a very lar ^ e proportion , as ia shown by tl . e continual increase oi the niMdle clusa , grow up in comfit , live in opulence , and bequeath opulence to u more numerous posterity . We have a-. me doubts , were the prosperity of the prosperous eludes taken fully into consideration in our old country , whether it > s not as prosperous and as flourishing as the newest and most flourishing settlement . The population hits doubled * inee 1801 , and at the name time much" more than doubled its conveniences and comforts . The doubled population are better supplied than were their father * with only half ihcir numbers . By the companions dmwn between old and new countries , not a IP tie injustice is done to the old country , wlm-h >• not so bud , alter all . as people would mnko it to be . An immense multitude of opulent persona live , thrive , and increase in England , whatever may be the eondilion of the labourers . " Here is a writer whom the doctrine of averages stems to reconcile with all that is wrong id our sooial condition . " Whatever may be the condition of the labourers . " ho com « to the satisfactory conclusion that " the old country Is not so bad . after all ° because a large number of persons grow rich i " it . Tried by the same rule tho torn-law was not bo bad . after all , " seeing that " m iarowee multitude of opuleftt persons" had ikeu-Mr Zmm greatly increSesd by iU **¦*•« the rest of the community may have suffered .

      Untitled Article

      June 28 , 1851 . ] ^^ 0 VLeatiet . 607

      Untitled Article

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), June 28, 1851, page 607, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1889/page/11/