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    • may say as did the Uncle on the eve i fall— " Tout m ' est sounds , et toiM me tier is not our fault if journalists canscommend a courteous welcome to the i guest without proposing a tribute to ay itself . Retracting none of their aversions on the coup d ' etat , they coniat it has produced a " new sort of des-1 "—a sort just as old as that of Domi-What novelty is there in the existing

    iment of France ? Is its swaggering ce new ? or its false pretences ? or its iption lists ? or its censorship ? or its » of mutes ? or its Corps of Valets—or lation and espionage ? Wo;—but its works—suggestive of Cabacalla , dical of that worst age of Eoman decay , ich the emperors found a citv of bricks

    ft it of marble ; the age m which arms , nd civic virtues sank to servitude . After n era was Rome debased and affronted s insolence of every criminal who could 3 I 1 a praetorian guard . one expects the English populace to stand these things , or the English arisy to care for them . The former will the Frenoh Emperor a man whose

    is fighting by the side of our own ; the will forget , in their worship of power , t . Arnaud clutched a marshal ' s baton died , like an Eastern Rajah , with , nds of victims to make his funeral is . But why do respectable journalists jrate the necessities of Louis Napoj visit , and mystify their readers by * of his claims to praise for seeking an h alliance ? The

    PsenchEmpeeoefetle blame to him for it— 'first sought iance of Russia , and being repulsed "by ) iiAS , ll back upon England as a re-, exactly as he took a charming and ese lady to wife after sueing in vain at dozen German Courts . We owe our lerefore , to the pride of the Emperor ) las , precisely as the French Empress ler crown to the pride of certain petty igns of Germany . Imperial Majesty may encounter in

    id some , of those men _ wjho , ^^ exiled for rirtue , retain spirit enough to prefer » banishment to any mean compromise lis authority . He , the public guest , 3 nts certain elements in France ; they public guests also—represent all that ight , manly , and illustrious in their y , and their principles are respected that is earnest , honest , and intelligent jland . " We trust that our public men order their reception of the Imperial as not to offend those classes of the

    l which he does not represent . If the e is to be enduring , it must ultimately 3 ed on another basis ; it must be the of two nations inspired by the same orients and by the same antipathies , dontical interests and institutions at partially in common . Wanting these its the bond is purely artificial ; formed cidont , and by accident liable to be 1 . Louis Napoleon himself , by a turn politics of Europe , may find it convc-; o develop more strongly tho ties witli ho seeks to link his throne with the

    d authority of Austria ; or the Court of bersburg , despising the past , may cento be less fastidious in its choice of tea . The FuenoiiEmperob must loan ve external power ; he resembles a tree it root , balanced by its branches , and led by props . But the time may come in England , the nation will begin to m the value of the Third Napoleon ' s ihip , which has injured her more than titST Napoleon ' s enmity : this is at he opinion of French society .

    EXCLUSION OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES . The middle classes are struck with their own wrongs : they complain that they are excluded from the power of the State , that they are not admitted to the army ; and that they can at the best have sonic of the minor appointments in the Church . The complaint is not strictly true . The middle classes do appoint some of our bishops—when the sons of that class are studious or servile enough to

    work their way from stage to stage , and to mount the highest pulpit ; but then they abandon the class to which they belong , and call themselves of the aristocracy . For verily we doubt whether there is a bisbop that is a commoner by birth , who does not in his own mind regret the fact that the Lady Bishop is only " Mrs . . " The middle classes can get their sons high into office , even as high as a Peel can advance ; if your tradesmen or manufacturer can amass a sufficient sum

    of money to back his son with a university education , or a great fortune , or a landed estate , displacing some old family to plant the new . But then , again , the scion of the middle class is indignant indeed , if he be not counted of the aristocracy . He has only helped to sustain that institution with " blood , " and the abandoned middle classes profit as little as Dido did by ^ Eneas ' s

    marriage with IiAViNiA . And your middle class can purchase commissions in the army—after having got sufficient wealth to pay the purchase-money , and to wield the influence that backs the application for purchase . But then again the child of trade goes to live near Belgrave-square ; and cuts his City connexions . It is the treachery of the sons of the middle class that leaves it without influence , although the individuals tret it .

    There must be something , then , in the conduct of the class which saps the natural affection of its children , destroys the esprit de corps , and makes those who rise from it ashamed of their origin , and not anxious that their class should rise with them . Possibly we might find the explanation of this uufilial feeling in the general supposition , that

    the spirit of the middle class , its habits of thought and feeling , are more commercial than cl ) ivalrous 7 m ^ re ' si 6 lfislily ; beneficial-thaTj ; honourably generous . Men who have risen to rank by the scales of trade are apt to kick the ladder down when the prize is grasped . To carry with you your middle-class associations into the salons of Belgravia , is like talking about business on Sundays .

    The same class makes it a matter of complaint and indignation , that its aristocracy is not sufficiently valued . Its contractors , its shipowners , its stupendous engineers , are not taken into the Government . True ; but what does the fact prove ? They tell us that if a Lindsay were to govern the Admiralty , we should not have those deplorable mistakes which have rendered large fleets

    of shipping comparatively useless in tho Black Sea ; that if a Salt were placed over a public department , all tho subordinates would be made to know their duty , and tho business would be oxecutccl ; that if a Laino wore in the Cabinet , tho members would keep railway time , and tho country would go as smoothly as the Brighton line . The assurance is not entirely reassuring , for it does suggest occasional collisions . It is true that men in the

    East of London understand business better than men in the West j it is probable that if we had Lindsays , Salts , and Laings , we should have an attendance in tho public offices at buaiuoss hours ; the " Dons" would not come down at three o ' clock in the afternoon ; and customers coming to give orders , or creditors coming to be paid , would not find tho clerks whistling " Peter Dick , " or making arrangements to spend tho day tit Gravesend . For

    all the real power , we are told , lies with your Laings , Lindsays , Salts , Stephensons , and Paxtons . Why , tlien , in Heaven ' s name , do they not take their places ? If they have this power , why not exert it ? Do not let us be told that they are strong men , but are kept out of power , and cannot help it . For the complaint is a contradiction in terms . If the Laings , Lindsays , and Co ., are

    kept out of power , it must be through then own weakness . Either they do not stand by each other , or they do not get others to stand by them . They are nearer to the working classes than " the aristocracy , " they ought to have more support from " the million . " Why do they not besiege Downing-street with the multitude at their back , knock at the door of the office , and make themselves be let in ? There must be some

    serious' error in their accounts , or they would not have the complaint to make . Why are they excluded from the army ? It is not by the system of purchase , because the middle classes possess considerable means of purchasing , if it pleases them . But we suspect their inclinations do not go in the military line . They do not care for soldiering . They prefer a comfortable home , keeping to safe ^ employment or useful labours ; they like production instead of destructionthat is the phrase . Now there are some of the middle class who labour under the

    religious persuasion that soldiering can . be done away with ; that States will upon invitation jdisband their armies ; and that we may discontinue a useless profession . We are bound also to believe in the coming of , the Millennium ; but present facts rather painfully coiivince _ us that it has not yet . arrived . To

    talk about disbanding armies in the days of Sebastopol , with doubtful prospects on the Danube ,- the Vistula , the Rhine , and the Neva , is rather an anachronism . We must , therefore , reckon military strength as one of the elements of the governing power of all States that are to be independent , or to sustain a Government . While it exists it is

    the real arbiter over other powers . Influence may obtain possession of the sword , but once possessed , the sword determines other questions . A hold over the sword , theref ore , is essential to complete any political power . The Crown is said officially to wield the power of the sword alone , but that which is true iu theory , is not in practice . There are the men and officers of the army to be consulted : the aristocratic and wealthy classes officer the British army ; and if it

    were possible for a Charles Stuart to arise , he could no more order the army against our aristocracy and our moneyocracy than he could enforce ship-money against BlAMPDENS . The officers of the army always are the depositaries of the largest , though not the readiest , share of power in diposing of the army ; and , consequently , a great share of military power lies with the class that officer the army . The middle classes abstain from doing so . llioy abstain because they do not share military tastes or chivalrous sympathies ; and they are punished by their exclusion irom the not readilscok to enter

    army which they do y . Hence is it that tho army is anti-national— - because the middlo classes , having no real interest in it , do not enro to insist upon free passage for tho poorer middlo classes through the ranks , or tho direct admission of representatives of thoir own class into tho rank ot officers . Unsympatliising with their own class—isolated from thq support of tho multitude—abdicating tho power of the sworddiscontented with the untradvng parts of Government—tho middle classes have accumulated nn inert force which they have not tho spirit to use ; and they have rendered

    Untitled Article

    pbjl 14 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 34 , 9

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1855, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2086/page/13/