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    the uipev incompetency of the hereditary governing classes has been made manifest . The middle class and the people , shunned by the Court and excluded , from power , have at length their opportunity . Plebeian courage already has a chance in the army . Capacity in every rank will have a chance also . A revolution effected by the aristocracy will prove to be the forerunner of greater changes than all the revolutions attempted by the people .

    Physiologists have for the last eighty years warned us that the new forms of unmitigated factory slavery , introduced by manufacturers of this age , would produce physical deterioration among the people , and lower the stamina of the race . . Distracted attention or derisive denials were all thatigreeted the warning . Youug England , out of antagonism to Cotton England , did begin to foster country games ; but the nation was not given to physiological speculation , and Young Englandism proved an inefficacious remedy . At length the

    recruiting sergeant reported that hundreds , with the spirit to enlist , had neither the stature nor the strength which enabled them to serve . Now , the eyes of the people , as well as of the Government , are opening ; in addition to political , we shall have , what are more important , practical and quiet social revolutions . " We shall get something out of the war besides the double income-tax , and we have to thank the incompetency of the aristocracy for more than their competency ever yet conferred or was ever likely to concede .

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    WHY WE SUPPORT ^ SARDINIA . No difference can exist between the Italian patriots and their friends in other countries , except in regard to the instrument and method by means of which the objects of the Italians may be gained . The perfect independence of the whole peninsula , the selfgovernment of the people , and the popular institutions , instead of autocratic , are the objects which they , and which we , and which all patriot parties throughout the world , desire to attain . The only question is , how ? In this country we have strong feelings upon that questionof how , because we have already

    attained the same objects that the Italians desire to attain ; and at the same time some departure from the standards amongst ourselves has recalled our attention practically aud vividly to that how for ourselves as well as ' others . Moreover , as we have observed this week , and often before , the same objects have been attained by other countries in our own day ; by our own colonies most effectually and completely ; and in all cases , notwithstanding diversities of opinion and of secondnry circumstances , the objects have been attained , we conceive , by exactly the Banie means . Tho hoio , therefore , is a

    primary considei'ation . Now in this country we have all of us , of all parties , a strong feeling that the Piedmontese are actually proceeding in the right path to obtain the instrument by which peoples are enabled to declare and to execute their own purpose , whatever that purpose rnay be . We agree with the Italians in desiring independence and unity , whether by federation- or otherwise , but we hold much

    more distinctly to tho prior principle that the people must declaro their own will ; and before they can do that they must have the means of declaring and of working it . A revolution can free them from a superincumbent oppression ; but does not , in any but a small proportion of cases , give them th e £ instruments for securing their liberties . In many cases we believe a revolution to be necessary in order to get rid of the weight which prevonts tho action of tho . people j

    pendence with or without a revolution — seldom entirely without it ; but it may be modified or disguised . Our own revolutions in this country were partial conflicts , rather between classes already sharing the internal power , than the revolt of an entire community against a separate oppressing Gk > - vernment . But still more important than the revolution is it to get hold of the

    inbut , like a surgical operation , although it may free the people from a feebling or controlling disease , it is not the constructive act which will make them strong , —will clothe , feed ; or lodge them , or put them in the way to govern themselves , devolutions have nothing to do with the government of a people , but only with the getting rid of tyrants . A people may proceed to

    indestruments . That , we think , the Piedmontese have done . They have got a representative Government . Communities , therefore , can speak , and do speak ; and the action of Government is at once modified , strengthened , and enlarged , by the co-operation of the people . We see the result in two most important acts of the Government , one of which will perhaps scarcely be appreciated by Italian patriots , because it is not exclusively political ; the other , we are

    aware , is little liked by them . The most trusted leaders of the Italian patriots know , that we who write as we are now doing , are faithful to the common objects , to the personal friendships , to the individual aid which we have rendered , and which we should be prepared to render again , collectively and individually . But not thejess are we anxious to make our distinct English opinion well understood by Italians striving for objects that we possess .

    The Piedmontese , by the aid of their Government , and by the means of their Parliament , are rendering themselves independent of an alien Government—not the less oppressive because its armies are clothed in black , white , and grey , instead of black and yellow . Piedmont has undertaken to deal with its ecclesiastical property . It was a

    defiance of the Pope , and the Pope has accepted the challenge . He has declared thel&w , ab initio ,- 'Inull and void . !' . It is . a . distinct trial of power between Piedmont and the Church—between national independence and spiritual oppression . Piedmont , we believe , will win , because the People , the Parliament , and the Crown are sturdily acting together . Could the patriots have done this alone ?

    Secondly , Piedmont has taken her position amongst tho Governments of Europe in alliance with France , England , and—word hateful in Italian cars!—Austria . But what is the effect ? Tho effect is , that an immense accession—incalculable in its moral influence —has been made to "the councils of Europe . Piedmont has acquired the power of taking her stand in that council , expressing her sentiments , modifying its action . She , at all events , out of all Italy , stands independent ,

    valued by other European Governments . She is , if not technically , virtually , a power in Eurox > e . Small as she . is , yet with her courage , her representative institutions , her combinations between Crown , Parliament , and Peoplo , and tho army which is governed by those three , sho has secured exactly those things which tho Italians desire , and with them the instrument for developing her liberties , her independence , and her self-government ,- as she develops her own capacity for the same .

    We arc iar from saying that Piedmont presents a perfectly popular constitution ; far from believing ttiat the views or interests of the Court can bo identical with those of the Republican party . But wo do say , that

    the wisest patriot in the world , with the finest constitution for Italy , and the one most likely to command the assent of the whole peninsula , would find himself reduced to the position of a closet philosopher , unless he possessed the-means' of bringing out the body of the people and giving them a handle by which to hold public affairs . Now , in Piedmont they have that handle , and we in England , who have gone through the same labour ourselves—who have 8 * en the labour

    performed in our colonies—are much disposed to think that there is a greater advance towards political power for the entire people in Piedmont , than in any other part of Italy . Nay , that in Piedmont , if the people have sufficient intelligence , will , end fidelity , they have already acquired so much as must be with perfect certainty the means of procuring them all the rest . And the

    public spirit already shown by the people of Piedmont , by the Parliament , and—let us say it without any ungenerous qualifications —by the statesmen and by the King , convinces us that Piedmont only wants sons worthy of those parents to be henceforward a free country , a power in the world , independent alike , by her own strength of head , and heart , of Pope and Emperor .

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    TO BOMARSUND AND BACK . What is the truth about Sir Charles Napier and the Baltic expedition ? The plain truth we do not know : truth is always difficult to arrive at i and Sir . Charles ' s , recent explosion has introduced new complications and obscurities . But we will state a few facts , in the simplest manner we can , and the reader will form his own opinion . Sir Charles Napier sailed from England

    oh the 9 th of March , having' made a-very foolish speech at the Reform Club , which was not improved by his signal at Copenhagen" Sharpen your cutlasses . " The blockade waa proclaimed shortly afterwards , and maintained , as closely as ever blockade was , till the end of November . Ten vessels , we . believe , actually got up to Cronstadt , but these were small coasting vessels , which manage td crawl up inside the reefs , and with cargoes of so little worth that the fleet declined to exasperate the Finns by seizing them . The only manner in which the blockade has been

    ineffective , has been through the overland Prussian trade , and through the blockade being entirely suspended in December and January . In May and June the fleets were principally off Hango and Barb Sound . At the end of the latter month the French squadron joined , and the united fleets proceeded to Cronstadt . The cholera having broken out , it was thought best to withdraw from so perilous a neighbourhood . In July each of the fleets was divided , nine French line-of-battle ships and ten English proceeded to the Aland Islands ; nine English and one French liner went to Nargen , an island

    about seven miles from Revel , and about twentyseveu from Ilelsingfors . Here our squadron lay for three months—Revel on one side , with a camp above it containing- some 20 , 000 men , and Hclsingfors just in sight from the mnstheads . Frigates and steamers of tho alhed fleets were continually cruising off the latter port . No Russian liner , no frigate , lett either port till November , when a small squadron reconnoitred tho anchorage the Allies had left at Nargon , and then proceeded . to Cronstndt . The other section of the allied fleet , under Sir Chaiimss Napieu , proceeded to J 3 oniarsund , which ,- with tho aid pf 10 , 000

    French troops , was captured in a very expeditious and easy manner . In October , the two squadrons united , tho French troops having previously retired , the fleets withdrew to Kiel ,

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    Febbtjaky 10 , 1855 . ] THE ; LEa 1 ) I ! B . 183

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 10, 1855, page 133, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2077/page/13/