Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 27th January 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 79

Page 79
Page 7
7 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • 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

      same bench , tinder feelings , doubtless , of the-. highest patriotism as regards the country , and of an incurable , bnt for the moment suppressed , animosity against each other . ( Zavghter . ^ Now , take Lord Palmerston as a case in point . Lord Palmerston now is a great authority with some people , and they say , ' If he had been War Minister he would have struck terror into 10 , 000 Czars ; he would not haye crossed the Prutn , and , ifhe had , he would have gone back faster than he came ; ' and every description of inflated language is used with regard to this experienced statesman- Now , Lord Palmerston is no great friend of liberty , after all . If he is , he has been wonderfully clumsy in exhibiting it to the country . ( Laughter . ') Aiew years ago there was an insurrection in Hungary , and there appeared for the moment a great probability that Hungary would obtain her independence . The sympathy of this country was almost universal—I do not mean the sympathy of the Government and its lords , but of the people . ( Cheers . ') Russia then entered the Principalities—Russia entered Hungary—and Turkey was advised not to object to Russia entering the Principalities . Our Minister , Lord Palmerston , refused apparently — I don ' t say intentionally , of course — ( laughter)—it is the easiest thing in the world not to see a thing if you don't want to see it—( laughter)—nobody could persuade him that the Russians were going to interfere with Hungary . Everybody else knew it , and his Minister at Vienna specially advised him of it . But did he protest against it when some of its citizens have since been heard by us with admiration ? No . But what did'he do ? He made a speech in the House of Commons on some other subject , and went out of his -vray for the purpose of saying that the invasion of Hungary by the Russians was not contrary to the law of nations ; in point of fact , he justified and sanctioned it . I don't believe that the man who does that is fit to be trusted with the liberties of Europe . " ( Cheers . ')

      Mr . Bright then read , with severe commentary the Queen ' s letter on Lord Palmerston , of February 1852 , arid thought that any person holding office rafter such a letter , was contemptible . He thought Lord Palmerstou and Lord John Russell were mainly responsible for the war , as they had delivered warlike speeches . He then described some former civilities of Lord John Russell towards Russia .

      " Lord John Russell said the other day in the House , showing howmueh this country had done , that 53 , 000 or 64 ' , 000 men had been sent out , which was equal to -ene corpsrd arme ' e of the Russian Emperor ; -and he said that the Russian force was equal to 800 , 000 , or 900 , 000 men . If England was at war with Russia at an equal distance from each other , we , -with our supremacy in maritime affairs , could have transported an equal number of men . But was there ever out of Bedlam a lunacy

      so apparent as that the Government should send out 50 , 0 00 men 3300 miles by sea to invade a country which has an army of . , 000 or 900 , 000 men ? It is stark staring madness . ( Laughter . ) It is not statesmanship , and the men who committed that blunder twelve months n : jo in the swamps of negotiations have made this still rnore fatal blunder . I say that if the constituency of Manchester asks me to put my confidence in statesmanship of thiskind , . 1 am not the _ man at all to do their work . " ( Cheers . )

      Mr . Bright then spoke bitterly against the evils which commerce had sustained , and remarked that even the press was " tainted . " " You know that I have never flattered either Court or Cabinet , and I will not now stoop to natter even the people . ( Applause . ) I know that passion forms no part of reason , and can be no solid foundation for the truth . I behold the abuses in which multitudes would plunge this country . If I cannot save them from it , —if they will not save themselves , —at least I will warn them of their danger , And I will bo no partner in deeds which I am convinced in my conscience will receive , as they merit , the condemnation of posterity . " ( Great applause . )

      It is unnecessary to enter upon the spoeuh from Mr . Cobden , which followed . The speech of last week , which we gave , thoroughly exhausted his arguments . The proceedings were delayed to so late an hour thai ; the press were unable to give a very full account r > f General Thompson ' s speech . The present will bo found as correct a version as could be givcu . Major-Generul Thompson said : — " Manchester know he could be brief . It was not given to oveTy man to renew his strength like the eagle , and , after the lapse of a dozen yoare , which swoops uway

      so large a portion of human being * , to find himself in the same room , -with the same friendly fucos boforo him and nromnd him , engaged all in a work not less important than former works begun in the same place . ( Applause . ) He had beard them culled a minority . Those present wore not afraid of being minorities . There were omens hangng about tuoao rafter * , which told them their minority hod only to do as it had done before . lie would not have troubled them after all that thoy had heard , if ho liad not thought he might be in a position to make Home contribution to their cause . Wo were involved in war . Who had brought UB into it ? . What was . thoir titlo to toring us into it ? Whnt were wo to do now we wero in

      it ? ( Cheers . ) He desired to say by way of apology for himself , that he could not agree with those meritorious friends who thought we might haye done without it if we only chose to do so . Wax was like surgery : the less we had to do with it the better ; but what we had , let it be good . What , then , were the pretensions of the men who brought us into the war ? Compare it with surgery ; for war is a science as well as surgery . ' Did yoa ever perform an -operation ? ' ' Never . '— ' Did you ever witness one ?—' Never ;'— 'On what , then , do you build your prospects of success ?'— 'We are men of education and general reading , and there is an article on surgery in the Encyclopaedia Britannica . ' ( Laughter . )— 1 And on the strength of that you mean to cut for the stone

      ?'—' We do . ' —' And how will you proceed ?'—' We shall take a patient and make incision . '— ' But the patient will die ?'— 'We know that , so we shall take another . '— ' But , he will die too . ' '—' Probably he will , but we shall take another and another , and at last we shall find out tne way . ' ( Laughter . ) This was , verbatim , the system avowed for the management of the wax . They had sent a brave army to perish , and they were to send another and another , till at last they were to gain their point . They said they were gathering knowledge , and were very valuable for what they had acquired . They were studying with the utmost zeaL They had finished the siege of Troy , and they had got into the siege of Gibraltar , and when they had got through that , they

      were to go into the campaign of Moscow . Why , they had arrived at the discovery that after summer comes winter . ( Laughter and cheers . ) They had settled the invaluable fact , that if a force was sent into a storrny climate at the autumnal instead of the vernal equinox , it was very likely to be prejudiced in consequence . Would it- be rational that they should be susperseded by somebody who would have all this to learn over again ? ( Laughter and cfieers . ) For his own part , he was also a believer to a considerable extent in the possibility of what was called international law , whereby nations should agree to unite against the wrong doer , and he had thought the case of Turkey came clearly within the law . And why did he mention these differences now ? Simply

      because he would exhort all who might happen to agree with him to allow no such differences to stand hi the way of acting with all who are willing to join to a certain extent . The right principle is , to go with every man who will go with you , and never to divide but when you cannot help it . Supposing , then , it to be settled that Turkey was to be helped , how had the Government gone about the -work ? They-took a pair of compasses , and found the point most distant from the scene of action , and there they sent their troops . And when , contrary to all expectation , the Russians had been -repulsed from Silistria , and nothing seemed wanting but to follow them up and push them beyond the Pruth , they chose the moment , as if for the express purpose of

      relieving the Russians from the consequences of defe . it , to transfer the troops to the Crimea , where Sir Howard Douglas , a good military authority , tells them now , and could have told them then , there would be required a force of two hundred thousand men . They sent seventy or eighty thousand men into a position where an enemy , known to possess eight or nine hundred thousand , was at liberty to bring as many as he chose , by easy marches , all the way fromMoscow . ¦— Every body-knew , who-knew anything , that the worst position into which any army could by ingenuity be thrown -was , to be set to attack a fortress which they were not sufficient to invest , and which consequently kept its communications open with the whole forces of its friends . It was literally the case

      he had described to his countrymen of Yorkshire , of setting a dog to draw a badger from a box , with an interminable succession of badgers to be put in behind . ( Laughter and cheers . ) The people of Manchester claimed to have some influence on th-e Government of the country . They had representatives than whom it was impossible to have more energetic or able . ( Laud cheering . ) Great interests were on their side , and they had only to set their faces like a ilint against going with a multitude to make fool . s of themselves . ( CUoers . ) This was the commercial interest , which was suffering by the transfer of wealth and employment from those engaged in peaceful fabrics to the makers of warlike engines . For instance , lie was told that Bradford was ' very bad , ' and Bradford could not find out the reason why . There was thut other great interest , to whom the raising of the price of bread made the difference between

      comfort and misery . If anybody doubted , look at the report from Cork , in the Times of the 15 th , mid read of the ' pnnic' which took place among the provision dealers and agriculturists . And there was that great interest which was concerned in Parliamentary reform . The war had put down reform , why should not Reformers put down the war ? ( Cheers . ) Could there bo a bettor time for the negroes of the Constitution to press for admittance within its bounds ? ( Cheers . ) To do this thoy must uso the means , and one of the best was to stipport the existing movement for the Ballot . There wiw a youth present from tho Ballot Society who would ' gladly receive their contributions , if tho men of Manchester would lot loose some of tho imprisoned angels . In conclusion , ho would hope to take their opinion again on the subject of tho war in six months' time , and in tho interval may God send a good , deliverance from prcsont dangers . ( Great cheering . )

      Untitled Article

      CONTINENTAL NOTES . The cold has been more intense this week in Paris titan , in London . A Bill to call out 140 , 000 men of the elass 1854 , has been adopted by the Corps Legislate M . Pierre Dufaure , Count de Montmirail , av retired cavalry officer , formerly aide-de-camp to the Dolce de Nemours , was the other day convicted on the charge of having circulated false news at the Bourse , and spoken against the Emperor . He was sentenced to six months * imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs . M . Eggis , a writer in a theatrical journal , was expelled from Paris the other day with unexampled haste . He had been for some time a cher ami of an actress st the Francais , who had formerly a liaison with "his betters . " An intimation had got abroad that certain letters of hers in his possession were likely to be published . The police made a descent upon the house , seized his papers , and ordered him to leave Paris in four hours . ¦ The municipality of Bordeaux , in consequence of the dearness of wine , has entered into an arrangement with a company for establishing places for the sale of beer at 30 c . the quart , and it has reduced the octroi duties on beer to one-third of the former charge . The Emperor has ordered a bust of Marshal St . Arnaud to be placed in the hall of the Council-General of the Gironde . A tax upon paper is apprehended in Paris , whieh will raise the yearly subscription to every Paris journal at least five francs . A meeting of printers has been held to petition against it .

      Untitled Article

      We deeply regret to hear of tie total destruction by fire of the beautiful Theatre de la Monnaie , the operahouse at Brussels . In two hours it was reduced to . ashes . The fire is said to have been caused by an escape of gas .

      Untitled Article

      Baron de Koller , Austrian Ambassador at Hanover , is now rumoured to be the new Internuncio at Constantinople . The First Chamber of Prussia has passed , with a very large majority , the bill opening the Prussian coasting trade , on a basis of reciprocity . In the report on the bill , a complete adhesion was given to the doctrine of free-trade in its fullest sense , accompanied by a statement raisonne that protection iu Prussia had been the

      exception and not the rule , and that where it had been -adopted it had been forced upon the . Government by the legislation of other States . M . de Vanderheydt , the brother of the Minister of Commerce , and deputy for Elberfeldt , took exception to the doctrines laid down in the report , which , he said , had been smuggled into it by the free-trade party . " England had grown great under protection , and Prussia had adopted that policy in her rising iron and cotton manufactures . " The vast majority of the Chamber , however , concurred in the doctrines of

      the report . The Royal House of Sardinia has been heavily afflicted of late . On the 12 th of this month the Qoeea Dowager , widow of Charles Albert , died , after a week ' s illness , at the age of fifty-five . While the Chambers , theatres ,., and . pnblje places were still closed out of respect to her memory , the " QueenV " wT « rTi « i"juBt"been ' confined , became seriously ill . On the 20 th , the day when the Chamber was about to renew the discussion on the Suppression of Convents Bill , U * e news of bear death arrived , and the sitting was at once suspended . All classes of the people , without distinction of opinion , expressed or silently manifested the sincerest sympathy with the TCjjn g in his heavy afflictions . The Queen , wiio was justly beloved , and who was only thirty-four , was the daughter of the Austrian Archduke Reinier , sometime Viceroy in the Lombardo-Venetian provinces . Her feveris be

      death , caused immediately by puerperal , - lieved to have been hastened by grief at the < deatfc of the Queen Dowager . But the afflictions , or at least the anxieties , of the King are not yet at an end . The Duke of Genoa , who behaved so gallantly in the war of independence , and who , it may be remembered , visited England two years siaco , i *» in a most precarfou * state of health ; it is even feared that he ia fulJiug into a consumption . Ho is devoted to his profession as a soldier , and chafea at his inability to accompany tho Sardinian contingent to the Crimea , Tho Ultramontane priestly party has had the cowardly cruelty to improve tho calamities of tho royai fouiily , and to declare that " tho fiugor of God ' had made itself visible in these successive blow * to tho enemies of tho Church . The royal family has retired To the vUla of Moncaliori . The Chambers have adjounteu tar a ,

      ° it fs ' stated that Hanover , Brunswick , Badeu , end tho two Hesse * have declared for Austria . f * xony and Wurtcmborg arc against tho mobilisation of tho federal contingents , and Bavaria Is undecided . - ; Duke George of Mocklcnburg-Strclitz , who is married to a grand duchess of Russia , and who has several time * fulfilled missions to tho Gorman states in the interest of Russia , has lately quitted St . Petersburg , and w dailv expected at Berlin . ^ Baron Ilubnor has delivered to Louia Napoleon MX auto' -rnph letter from the Emperor of Austria .

      Untitled Article

      ; ¦• - ¦ ¦• . . .. - 1 . . Jactaby 27 , 1855 . ] T H E Jj E A P ~ E B ,. ? 9

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 27, 1855, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2075/page/7/