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

    besides other facts winch indeed confess the atrocious impotence of the Government . It is at this very season , however , that the Government is contemplating a loan , that annual expedient which every year becomes more difficult , but which must be doubly so under the circumstances described . It is at this season too that the Court is amusing itself by experiments in military costume , which do not answer , wasting money in new military saddles , which are rejected when they are made ; and in trying to force upon the heads of the infantry a Prussian morion , which the men so much dislike that it " wears out with a most marvellous rapidity . Whatever

    the hold of the Government over the people by means of the army may be , it is evident , by this fact , that the hold of the Government over the army is not absolute . In 1821 , the carbonari in Piedmont found no difficulty in procuring the revolt of several regiments ; and isolated as the Austrian army is , strongly as the character of a separate incorporation has been imparted to that immense body , it cannot still be unconscious of its power , —cannot he without its own desires , its own ambition , its own trusted leaders . The army of Austria , by which the provinces have been conquered for the Government , could conquer those provinces for itself ; and its leaders must know as much . While Russia , therefore ,

    has its hand against Europe , Austria has its hand against its own people , its own traders , its own merchants , and its own army . The last , of course , it will continue to gratify and feed as long as it can ; but how can an army be fed out of a bankrupt exchequer ? How can an exchequer be rendered solvent when the very sources of industry are oppressed ? Of these two great powers of Europe , Austria is decidedly the weaker .

    It is evidently the policy of Russia to postpone as long as possible that European war , in the course of which she might augment her possessions at a blow ; and in which , besides snatching Turkey from English commerce to be included in her own prohibitory frontier , she might snatch Hungary or Bohemia from Austria , and the Baltic from Denmark . But it is not at all certain that Austria , even if she were to retain her imperial ambitions , would surrender the contest to her great rival patron . A statesman

    has already been found to promulgate from . Vienna a constitution for all the Austrian provinces ; and although he has been lodged in a madhouse , we all know that if the iirst offenders go mad , benefits sometimes survive for those who may retain their senses . The House of Hapsburg has been fond of power , and probably it will be found to be fond of power on any terms . An alliance with King Leopold , constitutional monarch of Belgium , forbids the idea that even Austria has for ever separated herself from Europe .

    She has done so , indeed , from Switzerland , as Prussia has . With interests hostile to "Russia in Hungary , most hostile to Eussia in Turkey , hostile to European liberty in Switzerland , Austria is siding with constitutional Belgium against Louis Napoleon , who is throwing forth oilers of friendship to Switzerland and to Italy , and Austrian provinces ; and" England is acting witli France , and with Austria in Turkey , all being agaiuHt Russia . Thus events begin to grow complicated . Even if an explosion should bo deferred for the moment , wo are enabled to discern the disposition of several parties jih clearly as we see the distribution of an army in ( he distant night under-a ilasli of lightning which precedes the storm .

    There is ono interest which is sure to gain by any unloosening of the bonds which now hold down Europe , and that is the interest of the nations . When rogues fall out , honest folks have their day ; wbon Austria and Russia , and any of tho crowned heads are disputing , the peoples will put in their claim and will bo listened to . The voieo of Italy , which Austria refuses to hear , may be audible to the ears of France ; and tho voice of Turkey , unheard to Russia , already sounds like House in tho ears of Austria , a « well , an of . Franco and England .

    Untitled Article

    WBA . TU ON THE SURRENDER OF CUBA . Louii Cakltrmc ' s speech in presenting' # & ^ Tamwoa petition on the subject of /^ yefy ^ Cuba ought to rend a lesson to Hovoral" of oti&frienfls who have miaunderBtood our , atgumcmis % n that

    point . Of all men in the world , Lord Carlisle is the one who can be the least suspected of ill feeling or insincerity . His information and literary culture are good , and if nbt always able to arrive at a sound conclusion by main force of lo < nc , he has many aids to work towards it , at least . He is the brother of that lady who has placed herself at the head of the aristocratic

    slaveryabolitionist movement in this country , of that duchess who is the ally of Mrs . Beecher Siowe ; and long associations with the anti-slavery party pledge Lord Carlisle to that side as much as his sympathies would naturally do . But his cultivated mind and thorough sincerity make him able to admit that the course which seems the moat easy and direct may not be the best for its

    purpose . Now Lord Carlisle makes two confessions on very important points , corroborating what we have ur ^ ed on t he same subject to the vexation of some of our friends . Speaking of the imperial policy respecting the British colonies in ^ the West Indies , and the encouragement it gives to the cultivation of slave-grown cotton , he says , '' I cannot deny my own complicity in the adoption of that policy : at this time of day I feel great ht

    doubt whether , in so doing , I was rig or wrono-. " In other words , Lord Carlisle begins to perceive that the free-traders who forgot the declaration of that eminent free-trader , Mr . Deacon Hume , that the West Indies were out of the pale of free trade , did not enlarge the benefits of their own principle , but did expose the West Indies , which ought to have been the school for the free negro , to that half ruin which has attended them , and has made them an

    example to avoid instead of follow . Spain is the possessor of Cuba , and is the ally of this country ; she professes to act with us in suppressing the slave trade , and is under treaties for that purpose . But she has made Cuba a depot for the slave trade . This has been done by peculiar means . General "Valdez was Governor of Cuba , and exerted himself to the utmost for the faithful fulfilment of the treaties ; he became very unpopular , and was removed . General Concha did not quite equal General Valdez , but he

    refused the perquisite which is enjoyed by moat Cuban governors—fees for conniving at the slave trade ; he also became unpopular , and was removed . The governors who enjoy their post in peace , have been thoso who make no scruple to pocket the perquisite , and who enforce internal laws which impede the tracing of newly-introduced slaves ; but they are most popular who , like the present Governor , wink at the utmost developments of the slave trade , and defend the that insult British

    officers of the Spanish navy officers when attempts are made to enforce fulfilment of the treaties . In reflecting on this last trait in the conduct of General Canedo , we must confess that we put no faith in the assurances of Lord Clarendon , that in future that officer may hehave better . To use plain English , we do not believe it . But just now we arc dealing with tho confessions of Lord Carlisle , who , after he has described the facts , speaks thus : —

    " My noble friend will , I nm sure , not deny that gross derelictions of their duty have been frequently manifested on the part of tho Spanish Government . Why , talk of eausos of war with Spain , sure 1 am that this country has been over and over again embroiled in long and ruinous wars on grounds which , in my jud gment , were absolutely paltry in comparison with this . Let mo not bo understood as expressing an opinion that this country ifi called upon to go to war with Spain , even tor the suppression of the nlavo trade . J know the apathy and indifference which prevail among a large proportion of the inhabitants of this country on nil such extonml topics , and that many of those who feel most zealously and ardently on the subject , would

    lie tho foremost to discourage our having recourse to a violent , phyHieal mode of interference . But Spain ought to ho told tlmt if she does not observe hor treaties , — i ( she , almost alone of all the nations of the earth , persists in this infernal trailie , she must , if her possession of Cuba , is ever endangered , be at least prepared to find this country neutral in tho conflict . " In what follows , Lord Carlisle shows that he

    does not speak out of any favour to tho United States , for he launches forth , as if to test his " impartiality , " in an attack on the Fugitive Slave Law ; forgetting tho position of that law as a context with other proceedings in America on tho subject of slavery . His admissions , however , are ouiheiont to show that , in alliance with Spain rflthor than with America , we have givon up tho

    substance for the shadow . To the United States , at all events , thus much must be conceded—that what they undertake they perform . The United States prohibit the slave trade 5 and they prevent it . The Government of Cuba undertakes to prohibit , and connives at it , lends its ports for it , and facilitates it . Yet because Spain has professed more than America , English statesmen like Lord Carlisle have hitherto thought they were serving tho Negro by siding with . " Spam rather

    than America . . . We have too frequently explained why it is that we uphold the policy of leaving this question to the spontaneous set tlement of the Americans themselves . That they perfectly understand the evil we know ; that their best intellects only await the opportunity of removing it , we also know ; that they are of a race to be compelled nobody would believe ; that we , in this country , can understand their difficulties , so well as themselves—that we can teach them their own businessis a delusion to which we cannot lend the

    , countenance of this journal . The address ( which we published by request in our last number ) from certain democrats of this country to the democrats in America , will convince our friends across the Atlantic , that sympathy with the Abolition movement is not confined to brawling dissenters , or to fine ladies , but that it extends to the flower of the working classes . It is shared , indeed , by others still more distinguished . The address to which we allude , although it did not bear the name of the author , in the

    was from a pen so distinguished , very highest classes of literature , that it would demand respect wherever it went , and necessarily claimed admission to our columns . If the promoters of that address are mistaken , it is in confounding general abstract propositions respecting the merits of freedom for all men and all classes , which nobody would dispute , with the application of those principles to particular circumstances . Well as they are versed in European politics , competent as the promoters of the address are to discuss

    the quasi-servitude of the working classes in this country , they are not , generally speaking , familiar with the practical working of slavery in America , and they reason , therefore , rather upon abstract than upon practical grounds . Their opinions merit their respect as the result of intellect and high feeling , and they will receive due credit in the United States , as showing that the principal sentiment is not one of levity or

    bigotry alone in this country ; and their want of acquaintance with American institutions will , we are assured , bo viewed b y reflecting Americans with due allowance . Had all controversy been conducted in the conciliatory and reasonable language of the Address , we know that we should have had a much larger response of feeling from the United States , and a much more intelligible explanation of the reasons why the measure so much desired is deferred . For ourselves we are

    content to leave the issue in tho hands of Time and of God ; quite certain that the spirit of Henry Clay is stronger in the United States than the bigots either of absolutism or of the opposito party . Lord Carlisle's admission , ought to be an evidence to tho friends of abolition that they are not always promoting their object when they are making the most violent efforts to do so .

    Untitled Article

    PROGRESS OP IRISH CONVERSION . LOYAL I 1 US 1 I CATIIOLICB MADE HOSTILE AMEttl-CAN JMIOTJSHTANT 8 . PEiniArs the clangors which threaten the empire from without are not near enough to have their full effect of wholosomoncRS , or elso Lord John 'Russell would have perceived the policy of placing Ireland on a footing of equality with English colonies . 11 is not many years sinco Sir Robert Peel claimed for those colonies the right to bo put upon a footing of equality with " English counties , " and since that day bo much progress has Wen made , that , in practice , English counties mijiht now invert the claim , and ask to be allowed the same degree of political enfranchisement , of local Hefi-governnient , or religious equality , thai , has been secured by tho colonists ol Canada , of Australin , and of tho Capo of Good Hope . Hut if English counties have a right to say that the colonies have outstripped them in conquering their privileges , Ireland ia still far behind whore the colonies stood when Sir Robert Peel became their champion . Wo have repeatodly pointed to what is a rcawou so obvious that

    Untitled Article

    540 THE LEADE R . [ Satcbpat ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 4, 1853, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1989/page/12/