On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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.

    Untitled Article

    inference were true , it would only prove that the conscience of the philosopher is more tender than that of numbers who spend their Saturday night unaccountably , and then , go to church , to keep up appearances , and " set an example . " A Shelley objects to the institution of marriage— " to indulge his passions , " cries Respectability . He rescues a poor castaway , who is seized with unregarded illness in the streets , and is therefore accused ofnot abhorringthat commerce which he denounced , and which conformists practice . Respectability teaches that men conceal much " , " and that the little which you detect is the ¦ orimarv rock cropping out , but underlying all .

    It is Respectability , then , that teaches scandal how to frame its calculations from the scantiest data . But a real free love of truth rejects this hateful art of constructive scandal , and is willing to trust the truthfulness in all men which lies beneath the inner surface of hardened conformitythe sacred fire beneath the primary rock . As a man may be a democratic reformer , and not desire to subvert society or to devour cities in the flames of anarchy , so even a Chancellor of the Exchequer , ornament of the most respectable ©• £ circles , may listen to the voice of distress , and not contemplate self-indulgence , under the mask of compassion .

    Untitled Article

    THE EASTERN QUESTION : TURKEY AND THE BALANCE OF POWER . { To the Editor of the Leader . ) LETTES I . Sie , —The question of Turkey is of more than . European importance . From the first moment vrhen those distant specks upon the horizon denoted the gathering clouds that have since hung over the capital of the East , the public expectation of the Continent and of Great Britain has been directed with incessant anxiety to the Bosphorus , seeking some tangible ground of hope and some indication of encouragement . And now , the " Dead March in Saul" is already being played over the Turkish Empire ! When

    Lord Chatham exclaimed , that he could hold no discussion " with that man who did not see the interest of England in the preservation of the Ottoman Empire ; " his lordship did not foresee the crisis which would call that sentence from oblivion and attach to it its due weight and importance . Yet in connexion with the balance of power that sentence is of little consequence ; iti derives its practical application from other ancf more reasonable sources . Greece gave the first fatal blow to Mussulman supremacy , founded upon the unconditional accordance of Western support . Ibrahim Pasha followed the bitter stroke with more effective hostilities ; but as a question between Mussulman and Mussulman , not

    involving religious tenets nor ages of glorious memory , the fleets of Europe propped up the decrepitude of Turkey , and condemned to inaction the nervous arm that would have regenerated the enfeebled East . And this , sir , was to preserve the so-called balance of power ! Well—the balance of power so marvellously preserved ; this balance of power for which Europo risked a general war ; this same said balance of power ia now proclaimed dead : the unfortunate victim of aj ' elo done , without example and without parallel ! ample and without parallel !

    Possibly Turkey contained within itself the elements of decay . Founded upon fanaticism and the Hword , and upon doctrines irreconcilable with civilization , its only virility lay in war , its only safety in bigotry . The struggle was for life and death , and Turkey is weakened—nearly destroyed . Yet the members of tho Greek Church . —all fanatics , multitudes plunderers—aro strong , powerful , and tending to a great nationality ! The struggle hero was , or must be , one of lifo and death also . Hut the ruler of

    Turkey , enlightened before Ins time and his people , prematurely eho . se reform ; its consequences face uh now . Mahmoud—that melancholy ima ^ o whic h rises before uh with the blood of the Empire oozing from every pore , was u reforming ( Julian . Tho nuee-eHHor to the power that thundered under tho walls of Vienna and filled Chrintinn kingdoms with terror and dismay , dewired to inoculate Kuropeanium upon tho ireo of Turkish life ami failed ; for with tho blood of tho JaiuHsarics rolled through tho fir utters of Constantinople the last runmiimig hope and strength of tho Ottomans . Lord Palimn-Hton in not the Minister of Russia or of Austria , he iH tho Minister of England . "

    Mahmoud should have lived and died the Sultan of Turkey ; he forgot his mission , he misunderstood his time , anc ^ failed . Broad national characteristics are the life-blood of nationalities . Faithful to his Empire , had Mahmoud raised on high the standard of a fanaticism that had already conquered half the world , allah il allah might again have rung in the ears of the startled Viennese . Reformatory Ministries for Turkey ! and the first great Liberal Minister convicted of peculations that would have overwhelmed the concoctor of the " state lotteries" with astonishment and with dismay !

    Toleration for Turkey ! Christian virtues and charities conferred b y heathenism , and by a Government whose vitality was drawn from heathen springe . No wonder , sir , the springs refused to run . No wonder effete bashaws and weak sultans . No wonder the Turkish empire shrank , dried , shrivelled up to tbe merest skin and bone , and existed but by the Outward pressure and support necessary to keep its trembling joints within their sockets . And those poor creaking joints and this ricketty skeleton are the remnants of Soliman ! Yes , broad , national characteristics are the life-blood of nationalities . Modern sentimentality seeks national strength , and comprehensive , almost universal , principles .

    Impossible realization . For each land has its church , its religion , and prejudices . Assimilate all these and men have no individual country worth struggling for ; it is the same life in the latitude of Constantinople , of St . Petersburg , of Vienna , Berlin , Paris , and London . If we desire no nationality , let us call upon Lamartine , instal him at the Invalides or Pimlico , and assist in administering the Christianised government and the Ibergallitanian republic ! Turkey has fallen , then , and from the inoculation of Europeanism . The virile infidel , who braved the hammer of Martel , who stood before the greatest armies of the world , has succumbed to doctrinal discourses , and to the theories of civilization . Is this a

    victory or a defeat P In presence of that gigantic Colossus , whose brutal heels have crushed growing nationalities , and whose giant steps have spanned 2500 mtlea . ^ nto Europe , whose fleets ride triurrffihantly the Black Sea , and whose battlements few ** terror upon Constantinople : —in prej « ifogfcjof thi 3 Czar Nicholas , the most wily poli-: * t ? ci ^^ of the present age , who shall affirm that Tu | i » 8 jr weakened , is Christianity and freedom str < j ) i& £ hened , or civilization reinforcedP " History is 4 continually repeating itself . " TIub strange

    jingle of Lavalette , Menschikoff , Eose de la Cour , Stratford de Redcliffe , is but a substitution for Zarik , Roderick , Amblessa , Eudes , Abderame , and Martel . The juggle of words , the jargon of mere phrases , momentarily usurps empire over the sword ; and , oh , strange and significant moral , it is again the pretext of religious fanaticism ; but this time the fanaticism of Christianity , which makes Constantinople the sceno of its impious struggles , and which conducts its obscene wrestlings on tho steps of tho holy sepulchre . Constantinople , the metropolis of Mahomctanisin , the heart of tho prophet ' s faith , with

    its ventricles surcharged and stifled with tho breath of Christian doctrinists ! The temples of this religion of the sword , resounding with tho clamour of diplomatists , tho murmured prayers of thoao Mussulman devotees , broken in upon by tho wordy brawl ings of Christian controversy ; strange- spectacle ! over which tho crescent casts " a pale ray , tho last enfeobled beam of the glorious radiancy of the Ottoman empire . Yes , when Turkey surrendered the initiative of fanaticism , when sho became the object—the battle-ground —of religious diplomacy , forgetting her promulgative mission , hIio proclaimed her own rapid abasement and her speedy full .

    And thus , nir , wo nee reform and toloration struggling with prejudices and blind fanaticism . The infatuated ruler of diversified races , seated in the palace of the dominant faithful , destroying tho keennesH of tho edge of that flaming hword which placed him there . Surrounded by Bosnians and WallacliH , by Servians and Montenegrins , by all tho hot-blooded belief of the children of the Greek Church , with half revolted provinces , active and persevering enemies on Iuh frontiers , exhausted treasuries , corrupt innovating minister , * , the humbled descendant of the conquering Prophet peiHovoreH iu reform and toleration , and signs , in abject dismay , tho shameful treaty dictated by the JtuHsian power , under the

    walls of the second city of the Turkish empire Having broken the well-tempered Damascus blade of the true believer , having affirmed the worthless character of the dogmas on which the glory of the crescent was erected , the Sultan sees before him rebellious provinces and revolted dependencies , which even threaten to overturn the trembling throne itself . And the descendants of l of

    the prophet , armed no more in the panop y their belief , forget to draw their impatient swords to avenge the divinity of their faith ! The humiliated Sultan stret ches his arms towards the West , invoking the aid of Christianity ! And it is the sword of Christianity which raises the despised crescent , only that , despaired of even by its own followers , it may tremble rapidly to its proximate fall . statesmenut

    Sententious dogmatists , great , - terers of brilliant aphorisms , contemplate history inscribing your frailties upon the ever-enduring tablets of her marble records . " The balance of power , " that unfortunate sentence , which has cost England her hundreds of millions , and made bankrupts of great and powerful states , has hurled the world far back , centuries in arrear of her destined advancement . The infallibility of that principle has been screeched forth , when it

    has been the most infringed . Turkey , Poland , Italy , Russia , Spain , speak to its absurdity and to its impracticability . And now the people , pleased like children with a new toy , still unconvinced , ignorant of the growth of strength , and of the sources of weakness within nations , —unconscious of the pressure applied from without , dreaming of an equilibrium and self-abnegation , which are impossible , continue to hold up the battered doll of non-intervention , as the image which we must henceforth fall down before , and reverently

    worship ! But , sir , this worship of principles has already cost us much : it threatens to cost us still more ; and the object of my next letter will mainly be to indicate the unexpected and melancholy results that non-intervention has always hitherto produced , and to foreshadow , by this indication , what , if applied to our future policy , and especially to Turkey , will be its pernicious and fatal consequences . Alpha .

    Untitled Article

    "A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . What should we do without the Irish members ? The monotony of Budget debates would be intolerable without the Irish members . English members can misconduct themselves , on proper provocation ; but we should have no provocations were there no Irish members . Could Pitt have thought of this when he was petting Castlereagh into passing tho Union ? At any rate the reflection is universal at present ; and though we aft ' ect indignation at the recurring rows—an if we were devoted to public business , and never thought of the House of Commons as our principal public amusement—we have all of us , during the week , been exceedingly obliged to those Celtic gentlemen who have made " a holy show" of themselves , after the manner of their race , in tho Imperial Senate . There we re some fears at the general election , that a grave , sedate , business-like and honourable set of men woro about to be presented in Parliament us the " Irish party ; " but the experience of tho fortnight has manifested tho groundlessness of those apprehensions . It in gratifying to discover , taking tbe public amusement view of public uiluirH , that the Irish members are as silly , as broguoy , as useless , as quarrelsome , nnd as contemptible , as ever tliey wore . That is , in tho mass ; the exceptions are conspicuous , and need no particulurization . And as this is tho exact character of tho

    Irish representation , is it not most insane to entertain any hopes of them , as a manageable confederation , for combination purposes , or of the country which selects them ? They know each other best ; and what can England do but take their accounts of one- another P Of tho hundred of them , about forty follow Mr . Napier , who is ' Jiigot-General to Lord Derby ; and the other sixty say of Mr . Napier and his friends just what most rational Englishmen say—that thuy are at once tho most insolently pretentious and tho most ; manifestly

    incapable of all factions . 1 he sixty were , in tho sitting l > oforo Christmas , the Ir ' wh party , jtar excellence ; and their unanimity , while they kept together , was wonderful . Hut since Mr . Keogli split them up , they have changed sides : all tho " gentlemen , " as these define themselves— -they ask , how is it possible they could work or bo identified with revolutionary Mr . Duffy mid ultramontiii 10 Mr . Lucus P—sit on tho Government hunches : all the " patriots" sit on the same benches with Mr . Napier and his Orangemen -in opposition . Itoth on benches below the gnngwayH , and of oourao .

    Untitled Article

    470 THE LEADER . [ Saturd ay ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1853, page 470, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1986/page/14/