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    to keep on the occidental side . She was dilatory , and did not do all that the British and French Governments wanted , keeping back from actual service against the Czar , and only giving her name against him ; but still she could not be said to be acting treacherously . The next hope of the friends of the nationalities , accordingly , was that , as , in any . case , Austria did not go the whole length , of the Western Powers against the Czar , she and they would split upon the

    pacification . She would insist , it was thought , on letting off Uussia on a mere treaty of status quo ante , or little more ; whereas our ministers had pledged themselves not to make peace except on far more stringent terms , effecting a new order of things in the East . And , splitting on the pacification , Austria , it was thought , would then pursue a course which , would give the democracies an interest in at least the dregs of the war . Even this anticipation , it seems ,

    must now be given up . On . Thursday night , Iiord Clarendon announced-that even up to this last point , the conduct of Austria was perfectly , satisfactory , as " within the preceding ; thirty-six hours , and consequently since the evacuation of the Principalities was known at Vienna , notes had been exchanged between her Majesty's G-overnment and the Austrian Grovernment , Vhich would show , when- published , that Austria had as little intention as the British Oovernment , of

    returnnig to the status quo ? ' Supposing this to be true , it bars all prospect of a split upon the pacification . To be sure , as Ministers have never distinctly announced the terms on which they "would make peace , it is quite as possible that they may let down their demands to the standard of the wishes of Austria , as that Austria will raise her ideas of a . proper pacification , to the standard of theirs . But at all events , if the present information is final , there will be an agreement , and no

    split . Andtlius—always barring what may be called the incalculable eventualitiesthe last hope of the " friends of European freedom" from the present war would seem lost . They are at liberty to take all that interest in the war which arises from seeing the Russians well thrashed within certain limits , and the Turks placed in a more respectable position in the East ; but , so far as appears , that larger element of interest which consisted in hope for Italy , Hungary , Poland ,

    and the enfranchisement of nations more our own kith and kin than the Turks , has now wholly departed from it . One point more . Has the conduct of Austria during the war been a pure speculation of her own , dictated merely by enlightened Belf-interest , and a progressive sense of tho amount of capital she could make out of the opportunity , or has it been also , in part , purchased by promises and stipulations on the part of the Western Powers ? This is a

    momentous question . If the conduct , of Austria has been a pure speculation of her own ingenuity , she has made a splendid thing of it . Sho has been put forward as the arbiter of the situation till she herself believes it , till all Europe believes it , till oven the Turks believe it , and begin to look to Austria as , after all , the real Power to enter into i-elations with . Thus sho has recovered prestige in Europe , with all that prestige commands . Besides sho will haye the

    pickings oi the war—somo slice of the Principalities , porhnps , if who managea cleverly . . Not a bad speculation all this , considering that all that sho hua done lias consisted in judiciously doing nothing , and letting herself be puflea for doing it . But has it been pure speculation ? Thero m the onigma . If it Has , prudent men naturally acquiesce . If Miatria-itfOM ^ bo ouu ally , they say , we could not refuse hoi ? aid , and drive her off—a . power

    with 4 £ > 0 , 000 men ! We might , perhaps , have toadied her less ; but if she was bent on going our way , we could not prevent her But , if she has been , our ally on predetermined conditions ? There is " the point on which our G-overnment might well be catechised . They could not , in common prudence , refuse Austrian help ; but they had a right to look at any conditions annexed to that help , as its price , and refuse ' them if not suitable . Now the belief in well-informed

    quarters is , that the price paid to Austria for lier help in the war , such as it has been , has been a guarantee by the Western Powers of her Italian provinces . Prance , it is said , is the immediate party to the guarantee—France and Austria being at present copartners in Italy . Great Britain , of course ; would not dare openly to appear in such an infamous transaction ;; but we need only

    remember our diplomacy in the case of the French restoration of the Papacy , to see that after all we might be morally implicated in it . And if so ; not only is this war robbed of its supposed . anti-despotic' and anti-Austrian character ; it becomes positively pro-despotic and pro-Austrian and Great Britain , systematically , takes her place among the despotisms . ' ¦ "'_•

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    MORAL OF THE HUME POKTRAIT . Mb . Joseph Hume has been forty years in public life , during all that time a consistent Reformer , leading the way in all the Reforms which Lord John Russell enumerates whenever Lord John [ Russell is in danger of being turned out . There is , among the English people , an affectionate esteem for the veteran Reformer ; the Crown respects him ; his life has been so good and so pure that the aristocracy have been conciliated into

    admiring him . His has been a uniquely grand career : that of a patriot whose love of country lias been practical : and who for forty years has worked iu public business twelve hours out of every twenty-four— -and never took one farthing of public money . To him is not only extended the praise due to the wise and the honest ; but-he revels iu that still pleasanter commendation which is claimed by , and is accorded to , complete success .

    An earnest politician , who has disarmed all political enmity—an ardent Reformer , who beholds all his ideas adopted as the commonplace of every competitive faction—his splendid position was on Monday recognised by the nation , represented in popular representatives , and on that day the great old man obtained the triumph of his life . The "Whigs —yes , at last—presented his wife with his portrait !

    The ceremony , we are told , was touching . We can only regard it as humiliating to Radicalism . Is this the future that Radicals , who are following in Mr . Hume's footsteps , promise for themselves : to be patronised by the Whigs , and painted by subscri p tion ? We take for granted that Mr . Hume , -with the sagacity which has marked his whole career , purposes to make this his last session . We sincerely hope so : his most glorious week should not be marred by less happy incidents to which ho might bo exposed in

    the future ; and wo cannot but think that statesmen may often imitate with advantage the careful management of laurels which ia exhibited by groat actors and singers , Macrcadys and Marios , who retire in time . Mr . Hume has always been loading Lord John ; and wo asaumo , us a mnttor of course , that ho is now intent on sotting Lord John a . good example — hia last . At smih u momont , therefore , wo aro reluctant to use an expression which may nob bo complimentary . But without tho slightest offence , wo may venture to point out ,. for the

    benefit of hia contemporaries and diseiples , the great fault in Mr . Hume's career . That fault—a generous and perhaps noble faultis in this : that Mr . Hume ' s exertions have been confined to creating capital for the Whigs . Mr . Hume ' s ideas Lave been ia power;—why has Mr . Hume never been in power ? Because Mr . Hume , humble and worthy man , never for a moment entertained so preposterous an idea as that the Radicals could do without the aristocracy . Mr . Hume's policy—it has been the Radical

    policy always—haa been merely to play Whig against Tory , and , out of their bids for popularity , to get the utmost possible concession for the people . No other policy was possible at the period of the Reform Bill of ' 32 .: the oligarchical system was then regarded even by the wildest among the Reformers as a sacred portion of the constitution . When . Peel was rising on the reaction of the Reform Bill era , no other policy

    was possible : the Radicals had lost Lord Brougham , were tortured with O'Connell , and had not quite lost the Whigs , and were not quite sure of not gaining Peel . But Mr . Hume ' s' determined reliance on Whiggery has been , since 1846 * most disastrous to his party ; and his Ministerialism , on the formation of a Coalition unchecked by an organised Opposition , has had the effect , this last session , of handing over the people and popular conditions- ^ -tkose connected with the war

    included- —to the mercy of a Government whose Conservative instincts were too strong for the management of the maladroit lord John Russell . Individually , Mr . Hume may have improved his own comfort in the House , and his age entitled him to avoid the vigorous attitude of a Radical leader . But , in spite of himself , he was the Radical leader ; and his invalidy shirking of criticism and conditioning—even on the- estimates—was the excuse for the slothful or treacherous conduct of too many of his friends among the " popular members . "

    Mr . Hume "would have carried his points sooner had he observed , through his life , the Parliamentary necessity of the Radicals being organised into a party just as Whigs and Tories are organised •—offering to his friends in and out of the House , those temptations —office , with its profitable and philosophic pleasures — which create and consolidate parties ; and promising for himself the patriotic delight of doing the country ' work in hia own pre-eminently thorough way .

    Because Mr . Humo never aspired to real power , and never permitted his party to contemplate tho possibility of independence of Whig patronage , he has never been feared , and therefore never adequately consulted or deferred to by the Whigs . And they aro grateful ; they send his portrait to the Liberal University to suggest the amiable example to rising Humes . All honour , say we , with them , to this distinguished man . May there bo many Humes as honest and as keen ; but may there never be another so humble .

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    Si'iTAi-rnci . ns Wkavkks . —TIicho miserable ) men liavo mortified their dcmundu : tlioy now rutk an ineraiso of only 8 d . per yunl nil round . If tho masters refuse this they tlironton a strike . Tliis nnrngrnph represents tlieir ( niho ;—• " In order to uhow tlmt this donmnit wan not . unroiimimible , they roproHcntml to tho manufacturers , that tho innimfiicturo of one yard of ullk velvet would occupy a iniin tho wholo of ndaiy—( sometimes fourteen or fiftcon lioui'H , anil fur this ,. at tlio present rulo of charge , ho would rocoivo only l'Js . ' * week . I 5 y tho pnmosod incre .-iBO ho would , supposing him to

    bo constantly ut work , rceoivo 1 ( Jh . ( id . a week , 'lhoyiidinittcd tlmt it wnu true they received mores tlmn thin i » v tho tmpport of thoir I ' umilioH , but Mutt iucrcimo cotthl only bo Ht'ourod by ko « ping their wives and children constantly nl tho machine , ( sacrificing every domestic comfort , and bringing up thoir chlldron in u ntnto of tho grossest ignorance , and depriving thom ofitllfiortM of healthful oxorowo . " A niooting of 11 O 00 of tho oporntivcB was hold on Thursday niuht , to hoar what progress hnd been irmdo . As u body It tvn » reported tlio musters hud not givei wiy . Sovoral liritts , it wub « U « god , luivo entered into combination against tlio men .

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    _ 7 iS 8 THE LE A D E R . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 758, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2051/page/14/