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    sympathies is not likely to go unregarded . The conviction is spreading that the war opening 1 up is the deluge of which many Met . ternic . hs have spoken—of which Napoleon prophesied as the inevitable sequel of that artificial packing of nationalities to which infamous diplomacy resorted ia the celebrated interment of principles accomplished by the Holy Alliance in 1 , 815 . And England , instinctively conscious that Louis Napoleon is a political parenthesis , stnd that Russia represents a mysterious and sacred

    solidarity , of which every other despotism forms a secret part , is feeling that if the struggle comes she must depend upon , nations and not on dynasties . Thus , though M . KossutU will not induce the English public to threaten a revolution unless the English governing class summon struggling nationalities to arms , yet he effects his main purpose in preparing our nation for possible contingencies . 1848 may come again ; and England ' s position will then , indeed , be different . It may be that , in accordance with that low morale which

    permits Lord Derby to play with Protection , and suggests to Mr . Disraeli to raise a Protestant cry , the Tories may , ia the coming Session , talk popular principles j and affect the revolutionary ardour which was taken up by the Whigs when the first French revolution found them out of office—despised by the

    people , and abhorred by the Crown . But our clever and conscientious nobles ^ like Lord Aberdeen , tremble at the storm , that is being raised ; and we have to calculate , in considering the future , what may be the disposition of Louis Napoleon to carry on a war upon principles to the suppression of which he is indebted for his own sullen and sinister success .

    Russia has made , is making , proposals of peace speciously contrived to afford to the European goTerning powers an opportunity of eluding the war . Our own Government wouldnot dare to entertain these proposals until they have repaired their failures . But the Russian armies are , perhaps , now retreating from the Crimea ; this " movement" would support the conspiracy at Vienna ; and , then , our timid and treacherous rulers could escape from a contest to which their genius is unequal—it is so likely that Louis Napoleon would refuse to prosecute

    hostilities beyond the point which Russia concedes of admitting him on equal terms with herself into the possession of Constantinople . Treaties before now have been effected by treasonable nobles in defiance of English wishes : let us be thankful that Parliament is meeting to preserve us from a treaty of Utrecht . Lord John Russell is pledged to the destruction of Sebastopol ; but was not Dunlcerque destroyed ? Kossuth's warning to us against secret diplomacy is permanently serviceable .

    Public opinion in England is omnipotentif organised . There are , in Parliament , as we have frequently said , materials for a National Partv ; but they cannot succeed unless they are backed by a National Party ia the country . "Why not a League ? Not meroly of JVienda of Italy , or Friends of Hungary , or Friends of Poland , but of Friends of England !

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    1 HE LEADER POLICY IN OFFICE . "We shall have to become a Ministerial journal just as Mahomet ' s Mountain was bound to bo converted to the Mussulman faith . It is not that we go to the ofiicial Mahomet , but tho Ministerial Prophet oojnes to us . Government has adopted the Leader polioy—a Winter Session , a Loan , and Militia Regiments sent abroad . So at least tho Times declares as to the Loan , axxd everybody believes ; so tho Globe proclaims aa to tho Mlitia ; and so the Gqzetio announce as to tho Winter Session . If Miniptera adopt our policy in block , all that

    we have to do is to see that they keep up to our standard in detail . If militia regiments are sent abroad , they must be sent to do something , and not to be imprisoned outside Sebastopol , or merely stationed uselessly to prevent the insurrection of the Ionians against Sir Henry Ward , or to give sufficient men for dressing the parade ground at Malta . When we spoke of sending militia regirneuts abroad , it was presumed that they would be sen , t for serviqe .. There is , however , perhaps , some difference between longever , perhaps , some difference between

    longtrained regiments , of the regular army a . nd the new levy of the militia . The latter are not quite weaned from the national feeling , and they could hardly act with . such zeal as the mere mechanical soldier might against , say , any patriot corps , should the blind treachery of officialism betray the Government of England iaijo antknational alliance . The use of militia , regiments abroad , therefore , far more than it did in Wellington ' s day , necessitates the adoption of a really national poUcy ou the part of our Government .

    The Loan is only a concession to commori sense and ourselves . It is not the worse because moneyed men in the City happen to be anxious for it . The idea of paying for a great war out of current income is such an absurdity in itself , that the proposition proves how little Ministers intended-that the war should be a great war . It was to have been a kind of yachting and parade affair ; , which might be paid for out of pocket-money . The principle of paying for nothing that cannot be paid for

    within the year would entail ruin on the capitalist , and must have crippled the country , Suppose a man were precluded from purchasing an estate , however valuable it might be , unless he could provide the purchase-money out of his year's income ; or suppose his patrimony were ravaged by flood or pestilence , and he could procure no works for its redemption , no succour for its cultivators except out of current revenue ; the estate would pass by without purchasers , the patrimony would lie waste and desert , and the current income itself would cease- Yet

    such are but slight parallels of the spendthrift pedantry which was to have been penny-wise and not pound-foolish , but million-foolish . Wanting money and power , Ministers are oblig-ed to summon Parliament in order to obtain both . Granting more money and more power , members have a right to know how those two engines are to be used . Are we to continue sending troops to the Crimea just sufficient to keep up the loss by sorties , surprises , and disease ? Are income and expenditure to be balanced in that way ? Are we to protract beyond the necessary period the doubtful alliance of Austria , and to waste

    our blood and treasure xn recovering provinces that may afterwards be given back to Russia , or to Russia ' s servants , in order to maintain the balance of power in Europe ? We do mot desire any pompous or theatrical arraignment of Ministers for the English blood already expended ; we do not care for apologies or explanations ; but we do care to know that , if the present Ministers are to be entrusted with more money and more power than any Ministers since the peace began , they aro prepared to conduct tho war on a scale commensurate with tho power thus given to them , and on principles endeared to this country since the peace ?

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    THE YOLUNTEKR FORCE . We may boast of our greatness , but wo have yet to find whether wo are greater than Xluasia—whether wo ou , n hold her in chock , pr must bo checked by her . We go to boeiogo hor in Sobastopo-l , and sjio bosiegos us . We donounoo her at Vienna , and she circumvents

    us ia Vienna and Berlin too . We are quite sure that we do not possess a single servant East of the Russian frontier } we are not sure that Russia does not possess servants innumerable , not only within the countries where we meet her as an enemy , but ia our ownher servants , not only among the spies , but even ia our highest places and most trusted offices- She is greater than we in these things , precisely because we are greater than ahe is in ocal Government or commerce : we have

    attended to business , commercial and parochial ; she has attended to military business and diplomatic influences . We boast of our strength , and do not find that she yields , as , in deference to our prejudiced pride , she was bound to do at the first stroke . Our difficulty was anticipated b y a writer who wrote from the experien . ee of the past war . " The page of history , " 6 ays Pasley , in his " limi

    tary Policy , " " exhibits to nations , if they could attend to it without being deluded by . vanity and pride , the instructive lesson of one state constantly overpowering another , not by superior freedom , virtue , and patriotism—for the free , the corrupted , and the enslaved , have equally fallen in their turnsbut by having more numerous , bra . rer , better organised , and better commanded armies , -with a more vigorous system of martial- pottcy * and a "better mode of repairing disasters in war . "

    The mistake has brought about its correction . We have permitted the other powers of Europe to acquire a martial organisation so much stronger than ours , that they have insolently endeavoured to use their strength upon us , and ia attempting to > retort the provocation , we find the necessity' of going to school . We have permitted the array of martial strength to be ranged entirely on the side of absolutist royalty , until the total defeat of English principles and commercial extension have obliged

    us to take up arms and resist the power w , e have helped to establish . Whether we will or not , we are obliged to become once more a military nation , "We are compelled to provide an escort for our trade , we are compelled to arm Liberalism , to defend the independence of England , against military tyranny ; and because we have an army inferior to those with , whom we contend , we are obliged to fall back upon the body of the people to eke out the regulars with militiamen .

    Necessity is the great teacher of the remedy for the modern mistake . It was not with a disarmed people und a mercenary army that England was organised when she acquired hey power abroad and her independence at home . The men who won at Cressy and Poictiers were militiamen ; Cromwell ' s army were volunteers ; Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights were given to freemen by kings who had neither exchequer nor arms independent of

    their subjects . Conviction and affection may do much ; but rely on them altogether , and you leave all that you hold dear at tho mercy of rapine and violence . Aa it is with thehouseholder , so it is with the nation : the man . who is not armed to resist violence or oppression is an object of contempt , and , will bethe victim of brute force , unless he learn to beat brute force at its own weapons . In the school of adversity wo are learning national manliness .

    It is consolatory to see with , what cheerful exultation Englishmen accept a healthy vigour which is forced upon them . Men are wanted for tho militia—they come forth : volunteers are wanted from tho militia into the line-n ^ they advance : militia regimeuts are wanted abroad—they are impatient to bo sent . But , with militia regiments sent abroad , wo shall want now forces at homo . Of what ^ kind ? There aro two kinds , not only alternative , hut , callable of combination—a militia fore © and ft

    volunteer force . Tho militia iu \ n some roepRGtjg the most luindy . It is a nursery for tho Une , and it is undor orders ; but oxcoptod from ordi "

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    December 2 , 1854 . ] ffgff IEADEB . 3439

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 2, 1854, page 1139, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2067/page/11/