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long as lie obeys the laws , lie must be protected against injury by the full power of bis own State , which shall , through its ambassador , watch over the due observance of the laws in his behalf , and rescue him if the laws be infringed against him . There has been no recent instance of such protection . English subjects have been wronged , and the utmost exacted has been something in the form of a vain apology . An instance is nowbefore the public , that of Mr . Henry R . Newton . It is evident here that the authorities have stated a falsehood to excuse themselves , and that the representatives of Eneland have accepted that falsehood as truth .
In other words , Mr . Newton is injured , and he is refused redress , under cover of a transparent falsehood ; to which the English Government submits ! This is not protecting English citizens , nor is it vindicating the honour of this country , violated in the person of its subject . If , indeed , breaking away from that pusillanimous policy , our Government were to insist upon full justice to every English subject , and were to enforce that with all its power , the name of England would again become a shield to justice , and every Englishman would be in his own person before the nations an example of freedom supported by strength .
The principle of non-intervention , even according to the newest interpretation , appears to us to violate a principle of humanity . If , one individual see a weaker person injured by a stronger , his instincts prompt him to defend that weaker person , and to abide the consequences to himself , whatever they may be . If he should be injured or even destroyed , a great principle has been vindicated , and his life is well
expended . It may cost a man or two occasionally to maintain that principle , but in the mean time the nations that possess such men are stronger and happier . The man that calculates the consequences to himself , and avoids an encounter for the defence of weakness against unjust strength , is a man of lower qualities than the other , and if he avoids material injury , he submits to a lower state of existence for himself . The same principle applies to nations . The
nation which is generous , which is conscious of its strength , confident in its own principles , is prepared to sympathize with other States that reciprocate its sentiments , to share fortune with them side by side , as allies to maintain common battle against aggression , and to uphold the right- Such a determination may at times lead to conflict where unsettled questions meet ; but conflict is not the worst fate for a nation—degeneracy is far worse , and a nation which is crowing indifferent to the success of its own and to iriend
principles , to freedom , to honour , - ship , is gradually sinking to a lower state morally , and must , therefore , through failing powers , seek for itself a lower state materially . Nations cannot avoid the responsibilities of greatness , without avoiding greatness itself ; and if England can see Protestant and Constitutional countries lifcc Hungary , Belgium , and Sardinia fall a prey to * absolutism , spiritual and temporal , she is herself losing her own instincts of freedom spiritual and temporal . is to
] 3 utiftho principle of non-intervention be ours , it ( should bo adopted thoroughly and explicitly : and even ho , it may become negatively the instrument for restoring England to a more upright position , and for doing justice to thoHe States which have- too faithfully relied upon our failing alliance , it might bo done without any too active or cumbersome operations on our part . [ Let uh declare that wo take no part in the internal concerns of any nation whatsoever , and let us crane all reference to the internal aflairH of any foreign ntatc from our Htatute-book . Let uh wholly ignore their internal ufl'uirH , leaving them to enforce their own laws in their own way , upon othersonl
UritiHh mibjecfcH art well uh upon any ; y Necuring for Hrilinh mihjectH that l , hey shall be coerced by none but the known Iuwh ol a country . liuL if so , we ought to declare this new resolve . We ought to proclaim that we no longer sustain an interest in keeping the Pope upon hit * throne ; that wo no longer wish the maintenance ot a Bavarian throne in Greece , or a . Hourbon throne in NapluH , or a Ilapsbiir / * throne in Vienna , or u Jlohenzollem throno in Berlin . We ought to proclaim Unit wo Hhall no longer enforce- a law to prohibit tmlintinent in foreign Horvice , which we ought , to know nothing about . And to enforce , the principle fully , we should prepare to form wllionooB 011 thut basin—to establish an alliance
with states pledged to prevent the intervention of state with state . Such an avowed abstraction of England from the effective resources of those great Powers which are constantly interfering with the internal concerns of foreign states , would in itself be a heavy blow and great discouragement to the power of Absolutism in Europe . But , consistently carried out , the principle of non-intervention calls upon us for another great public act of duty . According to that principle , we should neither make nor meddle with the
frontiers of any foreign state , but should cultivate relations of amity for ourselves , to each government de facto ; arrogating to ourselves , within our own boundaries , the correlative right of doing as we please . According to this interpretation , the English flag should once more protect all under its shadow , so long as they observed the internal laws of our own country . In short , the principle of national independence and non-intervention should make us ignore all distinction between pursuers and refugees , and should make us restore to the fugitive the generous right of
liberty under the British flag ; once more extending to the political slave the hospitality which we now reserve exclusively for the Black . One more duty remains . There is one great series of acts which wholly violate the principle of non-intervention , and belie Lord Aberdeen ' s historical account of English policy abroad . The treaties of 1815 were and are a universal violation of the principle that we are not to meddle with the internal concerns of any foreign state . England should cancel her signature to those treaties . Such a course as we have indicated would be
strictly accordant with the declarations of our new Ministers ; it would be consistent in itself : it would not be an aggressive course , though it would restore to England a position of strength and dignity ; and it would place her in a situation modestly but firmly to uphold within the limits of her own jurisdiction , the great principles of peace and liberty for the whole world .
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HOW TO KEEP ENGLISH WORKING MEN AT HOME . Since the summer , the English employer has found golden Australia introducing a new competition in that labour market where America had already appeared ; and while the official emigration during the last seven years has increased from 93 , 500 to 366 , 000 , there is every reason to believe that the attraction of labour for the most valuable of our colonies will continue throughout the coming year . The official
emigration during the last eight years has carried 2 , 000 , 000 persons ; by far the larger part , however , from Ireland . But that considerable abstraction from the labour of the country lias now placed our industry in such condition , that their future draft will tell with a hundred-fold effect . That Ireland cannot readily spare much more of her labour , is shown by the increasing comfort of the people , which proves that production is now gaining in the ratio upon population . Ireland , therefore , is not likely to supply that
constant surplus of labour which has operated so greatly in keeping down the valuo of English labour in the English market . On the other hand , the excessive increase of activity in every branch of industrial enterprise—cotton , cloth , and iron , coal , < fcc . —has already brought the demand of labour to that point at , which any increnue of orders on the Hide of the employe ^ or any further abstraction on the Hide of labour , miiHt begin to exhibit an immediate result in an enhancement of price , or wages . Already
conceNHionB have been made to the collierH , and although we do not hear of considerable advances in any other trades , it is unquestionable that there is an upward tendency m manufacturers , and that even in the agricultural districts , the firwt proee . HH towards am enhancement of wageH han been seen in the absorption of able-bodied pauperism . There are manifestly two motives to emigration , which operate upon the large numbers hitherto transported from our shoresthe desire to rise in the social Hcale , and the
desire for the enjoyment of greater political rights ; and both these motives operate moHt forcibly upon the very pick and flower of our working obiBBOS- Many ai skilled artisan , well informed , prudent and coiiHcicntiouH in his work , foelM that in thin country the prospect , of lining to ii condition of independence is almost closed against him ; Hoon ho finds numberfl who have already occupied a position in the scale of employerw , descend in the acido of competition to
his own level . At the same time he sees that , amidst the many reforms which cabinets offer from time to time , and of which instalments are promised every ten or twenty years , it will be long before his class in general can attain the possession of Parliamentary rights , and looking at his children , he foresees that their most likely chance is to remain among the unenfranchised , and he knows it is not so in America . There , strong-armed industry can soon secure a man at least an independent livelihood ; and the
boundless lands are open to his children . There , residence and the performance of the simplest duties obtain for him the full enjoyment of political rights , guaranteed by the old traditional English right of possessing arms . A very few pounds will carry him across the Atlantic . A comparatively easy effort will transfer him from a state of hopeless poverty and political disfranchisement , to one of hopeful activity and political manhood . While sheer distress has driven forth numbers of our best Englishmen , there is no
official emigration to the United btates . JLhe very poorest cannot go , the least intelligent db > not know how to find the way , and the consequence has been , that we have literally transferred the very best of our working classes to the United States . The full attraction of Australia has but recently existed . Until within a few months , the demand for labour by the colonyhas exceeded the demand for labourers in this country . Some time ago the length of the voyage was one deterrent , and the chief attraction offered consisted in the generally comfortable
and peaceful condition of the colonies , witii tne offer of a passage partly , if not entirely gratuitous , conducted through a machinery specially adapted to select emigrants . Thus colonization also has drawn forth the pick of our people , though it has not , like America , appealed so decidedly to political motives . Within the last half year , however , the attraction of the gold has been added . Here was a guarantee for much more than the expenses of the voyage , and the official emigrant has now been accompanied by a
great emigration of volunteers , at their own expense . These are drawn principally from the humbler ranks of the middle class , or the very best of the working classes . Those who emigrate are filled with the anticipation of realizing comparative wealth by exertion ; and if they think of politics at all , it is with a conviction much justified , that the land to which they are going is in process of being filled by men who will have the
means in their own hands of taking their own political privileges . For Australia , therefore , the attractions are , access to wealth through exertion , and political enfranchisement . If English , capital desires to keep a sufficiency of labour , and especially of intelligence , in its own service , it has now come to a point at wliich it must compete with America and Australia in both these attractions . It must offer social
comfort to the working man , and political freedom . The subject is well worth the consideration of the employing class generally . It is assuming a real practical shape . Gentlemen of manufacturing dignity may think it undesirable to extend the franchise too far—to give men who are uneducated the trust of choosing a legislator—to grant any power whatever to those who have no stake in the country . But these- nice refinements will soon eeaso to be available if the present transition of labour goes on , as the best authorities
think it will . The gold attraction has but recently told , but it in increasing with the arriving accounts of every mail from Australia , and inasmuch as in its very nature it furnishes the guarantee for the expense of the outward voyage , the difficulty of finding the means avails but little to hinder the labour . If , therefore , the prosperity should put , nome check upon the emigration to America , it is not likely at proHent very materially to check the outlet to . Australia , and tlmt outlet , as we have Heen , operates most powerfully
upon the moat valuable classes . Political incentives are thufl become economical injuries . Nice theorists of a . conservative-utilitarian . school may think it prudent to postpone franchise extension \ mtil we have had education ; or to make it gradual , with some property tax . But if they do , all wo can nay is , that they are likely enough to find the population going , and the " capitalist clans would find it a very hard business for them if they had nothing left in the labour market but the enfranchised constituency . If they wunt to keep the labourer at home , therefore , thoy hud
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36 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 8, 1853, page 36, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1968/page/12/
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