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    Untitled Article

    France , therefore , is to be part of the tactics of the Absolutist campaign . 'No wonder that the Emperor Napoleon is endeavouring to strengthen himself against this combination . The neutrality of Austria , like the " negotiations" of Russia , is But a cover to prepare active ,, comprehensive , and treacherous hostilities . The great point of attack is France , and the Emperor takes his measures accordingly . It is confidently asserted that the French ambassador returned from Fontainebleau with the draft of a

    treaty of i illiance , offensive arid defensive , between France and England .- Nothing could be more legitimate ! , and the people of England , we believe , would hail such a reduction of the understanding between France and England to a definite alliance . "¦• . . It is believed , however , that Our Government does not share the impatience of England ' s naval officers in the Black Sea , nor in the impatience which , is so very generally extended to the people of this country . It is reported of one of the most energetic of British Ministers ,

    that he treats this national feeling with slight ; to a g entleman who was speaking of the growing impat . ence in the country with regard to the foreigi i policy of the Government , Lord Palmerston is said to have replied , — " You see , one cannot extemporise a war . " This is very true , and ve ; y well said ; but * not furiously to the purpose . ' No one wishes a war to be extemporised , —nobody -wishes a war at all ; but what

    everybody does wish , is a decided declaration on the part of England as to what she is prepared to make a stand for . The English people are unquestionably beginning to feel ashamed that the larger share of manful resolution should remain with France . It is felt that to postpone that manful declaration may lead to foolish dreams on the part of our enemies , and may cause us mor ^ trouble than we should have to take if we made them , at once understand that which we regard as absolutely necessary .

    Untitled Article

    THE REFORM QUESTION . WHY WE SHALL NOT HAVE A EEFOKM BILL NEXT SESSION . Parliamentary Reform is discussed at present in a manner which shows that those who are engaged in the discussion wish to shelve the real question . We have a number of suggestions towards a Heform Bill , the object being , not to produce an efficient plan , but to construct such a measure as may be an apology for postponing a real Reform Bill . The object of those who have taken part in the discussion appears to be to find

    the minimum of a measure which may supply a literal fulfilment of the Ministerial promise , while m spirit furnishing an evasion of it . We do not believe , indeed , that all who arc taking part in this discussion are dishonest ; on the contrary , we believe that the disputants might bo divided , speaking roughly , into tM o classes , those who are earnest and honest mon , who are in the liabit of handling such subjects in tho closet , and cannot apply themselves to action , or to the world as it really is out of doors ; and those whose real and

    conscious object is the evasion wo have mentioned . There is , indeed , a third party , represented by a correspondent of tho Times , who suggests an ingenious inodo of rearranging the present constitution of tho House of Commons with tho present franchise , in such a way as to avoid many of the evils that exist . He would proceed priiicipally by abolishing smaller boroughs , and by placing towns and countioH more upon an equality . 1 . lie principal advantage that wo discern from such an arrangement would be ? some avoidance of present scandals , and an increM . se of strength «> that which is called tho " liberal" interest . It

    Would give a triumph to tho Parliamentary agents | lpon that liberal side ; and tho signature- of those wtl . ers which emanate from tho Ivoform Club , Jvith tho initial " ( A , " sufficiently points to the JpghoHt of au authorities on the subject of Parliamentary agoney . Otlior writers are urging an educational fran-< 'I > ino ; as if the world would bo rendered better l y placing tho construction of Parliament more 111 | ho hands of schoolmasters , authors , literati , "ud dilettanti of all kinds ! From the day ft when ' > e oracle constitution of the Abbe" ( Sioyes was I ° N by the French Assembly , it has never 0011 wippoHod that literary men had more than 11 part ; of ( . lie attainments necessary for statesman" J ; and didactic constitutions seldom work well ,

    if they ever arrive at the working point at all . Indeed , the very notion rests upon a fundamental fallacy . The welfare and will of a nation being in question , the object must be to get at the great bod y of that nation , in order to ascertain its convictions and wishes ; andhencej in any representative constitution , the franchise should be national . If you deny the right of a people to self-government y if you proceed upon the assumption that " the elite" of the nation must govern , then you admit the principle of toryism or absolutism , which reposes the origin of power in an aristocracy , an hierarchy , or an anointed autocrat . Much

    may be said for that principle which vindicates the right of power by its own existence and by its own victory over opposition . But to trim between the principle , that that class must govern which can snatch the power , and the principle which claims a voice . for the body of the people , and to labour by nice calculations at finding the exact amount of education or property which involves the ability to choose representatives for selfgovernment , is a compromise worthy of laputa rather than of England . A pedagogue franchise will never work , and can only become , first , a laughing-stock , then an incumbrance *

    The main discussion turns upon the property point , and the great difficulty is to avoid Lord John Russell ' s offered five-pounds franchise . We have always regretted the short-sightedness in the public that did not seize at that when it was offered . It is said , upon authority which induces us to believe the assertion , that Lord John Russell has renewed , in the Cabinet , his proposition of a five-pound franchise , and has been out-voted by the majority of his colleagues . Now , the object of those who stand in the wav of

    Lord John , is to find a decent pretext for not renewing the offer . Journalists assist in this work , and we find two arguments that well exemplify the moral character m which the contest is conducted on that side . One is , that the persons who are now " on strike , " in Lancashire , represent the five-pound constituency , and prove how dangerous it would be . As if the masters were not " on strike" too ! As if the men had not conducted their share of the contest , however mistakenly , with much decorum ! As if , above all things , because a certain class of the people makes a mistake , it has no right to be

    represented in a representative constitution ! The second argument is , that the freemen , who are the chief depositories of parliamentary corruption at the present day , are tenants of five-pound houses , and therefore represent the five-pound constitution — an argument moro transparently impudent than the other . It amounts to asserting that , because a rogue lives in a five-pound house , all men . living in five-pound houses must bo rogues . It is tho kind of argument which proves that every banker may be proved to be a Fauntleroy , every Secretary-at-War a W . B ., every royal person a Nicholas .

    It is , however , not the argument that concerns us , at present , but tho proof which tho advancement of such arguments furnishes , that the object is to find out such a shadow of a lioform Bill as may be a fair pretext for avoiding a real Reform Bill . For our own part wo stand at present aside from this discussion , as premature and out of season . Wo observe that it is chiefly in the bands of closet men or evasionists ; they are discussing , not a real thing but an imaginary measure . Some , we verily believe , encourage the discussion at this season in order to weary attention , and to blunt the public expectation . At all events the discussion before Christmas is

    idle . We shall not enter upon the debate until the approach of Parliament ; , and of the Government measure or tho Government ; retractation , can give a substantial interest to the question . Lot uh , in tho meanwhile , take leave of it ; for the present , Avith one remark , repeating what we have already said . In no instance can history sustain the idea that the liberties and strength of a people depend statutes al

    upon their . J . n | cases the statutes havo recorded liberties and rights already attained , by the sheer strength and will of a people , the statute being nothing more than a record . It is a stipulation rather to save trouble lor i \ minority , which , without that memorandum , might still seek to disturb the judgment of the majority . Trial by jury was obtained by the people before it wan recorded in Magnu Oiiarta . The rights of roprowontation , of frequent

    parliaments , of possessing arms , were obtained by the people , were held in their hands , and had become conditions for the . acceptance of the Crown by William , . before those rights , with many others , were recorded in the Bill of Rights . That principle of political vitality Has not ceased . The people will obtain nothing by the spontaneous concessions of those who do not agree with the body of the nation . Even if the people were to obtain the concession of a Reform Bill , the parchment would be of no use . In short , while a people is supine , and willing to waive the exaction of those things which it thinks it

    ought to have , and can have , it will remain without any increase to its rights . The facility of evading Reform consists in the supineness of the British public .

    Untitled Article

    RUSSIAN" GENERALS . The inquiries touching the commissariat department of the armies of the Czar which we , on a recent occasion , took the liberty to submit to the Russian Embassy , on behalf of certain of our contemporaries who have been ridiculously accused of Russian predilections , have not received any contradictory satisfaction , although they have had the advantage of a continental publicity . Perhaps they may be classed with those quesions which answer themselves , and we will not be so ungenerous as to dispute the wisdom of that silence which is the crowning virtue of diplomacy .

    "XTCr -I- - J j- ill rr > , l , 4 . V We beg distinctly to affirm , that our sole aim in proposing these questions was no other than the commonplace journalistic ardour for information from the most authentic sources . It is true there was a shocking similarity of names on which we , in perfect innocence of motive , appeared to ring the changes with a " damnable iteration . " We have received letters indicating all sorts of wild and injurious conclusions , from the simple accident of _ Z ? r « naw , the convict of Odessa in 1828 , beginning like JBrunow , and only differing in termination as much as oh ! can be said to differ

    from alt ! We positively decline to make ourselves responsible for interpretations which can only spring from the heated brains of partisans with whom Russia is not merely synonymous with robbery , but Brun ^ o identical with Brunow . To be one of two Drornios is a fearful misfortune to any statesman , as Sir James Graham has found ; but we refuse to understand how a distinguished statesman is to be made responsible for the hazard of some thieving rogue or other having been born with the same , or—as in this case—a somewhat similar name . Edmund Burke

    was a great orator and statesman , but he is not to be confounded with his distinguished namesake , Burke , who fills so conspicuous a position in the Chamber of Horrors . Even a bishop may havo many a rascally namesake , as Archdeacon Haro had his ; and wo see no reason at all why , even a namo so pure as Russell should not by some irony of fortvine decorato a dandy for whom Mr . Calcraft will havo to tie the last neckcloth .

    We protest , therefore , against that intemperate abuso of syllables , which Mould even presume to confound Iiis Excellency the Russian Ambassador to the Court of St . James , a gentleman univr ,-i-sally esteemed in polite society , with bis imperfect namesake , the fraudulent ; contractor and convict of 1828 . These similarities of surnames are very common in Russia ,, especially , it would seem , in the higher regions of admin is ! ration . For example , General Gortschakof , Coniniander-in-ehief of tho forces of the Czar in Moldo - Wallachia , the honoured guest , of our military circles a year ago , has the misfortune to bear a name exactly resembling that of a . certain . General , sometime Governor-General of ( Siberia , who wn . s dismissed

    the army for that worst of odences in Russiadefect / ion in a , career of fraud , more than usually magnificent in conception , and imperial in execution . Tho ( jienernl . Gortsehakof to whom wo allude , General-in-chief of ( he Russian infantry , had boon in tho habit , during many years , of drawing from the imperial military ndiuiniHtration large nuuih for the maintenance of a military

    seminary at Tomsk , in { Siberia . One fine day tho lOmpcror learned that thin celebrated seminary , the importance of which had been estimated by its increasing expenditure , had never existed ; in other words , that it was composed entirely of thoso paper bullets of the brain of General Gortsehaliof , which , in the shape of cooked accounts and imaginary disbursements , had been Hodulounly iired upon the Imperial Treasury :.

    Untitled Article

    December 3 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 1165

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 3, 1853, page 1165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2015/page/13/