On this page

• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    that negotiation that ended in the peace of Utrecht . fTwas at test a dangerous and inauspicious concession , demanding every compensation that could be devised , and which the circumstances of the war entitled us to require . France was still our formidable enemy ; the ambition of Louis was still to be dreaded ; his intrigues to be suspected . That an English Minister should have thrown himself into the arms of this enemy at the first overture of negotiation ; that he should have renounced advantages on which he might have insisted ; that he should have restored Lille and almost attempted to secure the sacrifice of Tournay ; that throughout the whole correspondence , and in all personal interviews with De Torcyhe should have shown the triumphant Queen

    , of ( Great Britain more eager for peace than her vanquished adversary ; that the two courts should have been virtually conspiring against those allies without whom we had bound ourselves to enter no treaty ; that we should have withdrawn our troops in the midst of a campaign , and even Beized upon the towns of our confederates , while we left them exposed to be overcome by a superior force ; that we should thus have deceived those confederates by the most direct falsehood by denying our clandestine treaty , and then dictated to them its acceptanceare facts so disgraceful to Bolingbroke , and , in somewhat a less degree , to Oxford , that they enn hardly be palliated by establishing the expediency of the treaty itself . "

    Is this conduct that should furnish an example to any man , much more to an English statesman ? But we forget . If Mr . Disraeli be a statesman—he is not an Englishman ; for although birth may naturalise , in the eye of the law , it cannot naturalise in the eye of fact ; and thus Mr . Diskaeli remains an Arab , we were going to say of the race of IsaMA £ L . although lie has exchanged the

    burnous for the frock-coat , the turban for the round hat , and the Law and the Prophets for the " Craftsman" and the "Patriot King . " Indeed , Mr . Disbaeli is not wholly unlike Bolingbroke—a copy after , and a very long way after , the original . Lord Boljlnobroke was not only a clever man , but a man of genius ; not only a rhetorician , but an orator . He did not deal in mysteries ; he

    never said anything analogous to that famous betise— "the age of ruins is past ; " he was brilliantly practical , even in his intrigues and his treacheries . Eolingbroke had a vaster , sharper , brighter intellect than his Oriental imitator . His reputation as an orator did not rest on unrivalled proficiency in personal sarcasm ; his fame as a man of letters reposed on something more substantial than half a dozen second-rate romances ; his position as a politician rested on real , although perverted , ability ; and , strangely enough , ho was the first to see that reciprocity of trade was more beneficial than restriction . But

    ho was an unsound , because an unconseientious politician , and , in spite of his incontestable genius , ho presents an example to bo industriously shunned . If lie shine brightly in tho past , it is with the halo of corruption ; a beacon of warning , not a watchlirc of welcome . But like assimilates with like , and the imitative must have their model . Mr . Diskaeli—we may have to romoniber it more acutely hoiuo day—selects for his exemplar the man who did sell his country ' s honour , and disgrace his country ' s flag ; and who tried hard to hand over our hard-won liberties to the tender mercies ol tho perjured House of Stuakt .

    Untitled Article

    VICTKIX VICTORIA VICTA . AT THE TOM I ) . The Chapel of tho Invalidos is open ; it ; is day time , but tho dim religious light of a lioninn fano sheds solemnity on tho atmosphoro ; tho organ ia rolling forth a solemn strain , as a lady is walking up tho aislo to pay tho tribute of an inaudible prayer at tho tomb of a departed hero . It is Queen Victoria at the tomb of Napoleox . Somo timo since , in tho prido of triumph , that soldier , who believed military polities * to embrace tho whole science of lifo , gave

    away his step-daughter , Hobtense , against her will , to one of his brothers . The brother is gone ; the poor lady survives only in the chivalrous melodies which mark her genius , and the " national" ditty of the Bonapartists . Some years after that unhappy marriage , the inflexible Napoleon , hunted down , threw himself on the generosity of the Prince-Regent George . . As well might ho have thought to throw himself on the island of Atlantis . The " Footman" regnant immortalised his meanness by caging his conquered adversary . Louis Philippe , the King of the retail-shopmen , imagined it a stroke of policy to conciliate the Bonapartists by reimporting the bones that Sir Hudson-Lowe had ^ eft entombed at St . Helena . The mortuary merchandise arrived ; but no sooner were the bones in France than they were rejoined by the spirit , and thus revived that influence which , when the adulterated King of Commerce was shaken from his throne , re-established the Empire once more upon the ruins of the Republic . A chapel is the tomb of Napoleox , now authentically recognised as " the First , " and the great successor of Geoeoe the Fourth , the guest of Napoleon ' s successor , " fidei defensor" in Protestant England , comes walking up to the Pxipal shrine while the organ peals forth the British anthem ' * God save the Queen . " Was it the Genius of the Poetical Justice who awoke the voice of that instrument , or was it the Spirit of Satire , diabolically playing on the sacred keys a lugubrious dance of death with more morals in it than that of Holbein ? in the ball-room . The day closes , the gay and smiling band , small in number , for whom all around leave ample space , have spent the sunny morning in the forest of St . Germain , before the quiet but luxurious dinner at St . Cloud ; and now they swim into the atmosphere of light which fills the great pleasure-palace of Versailles , the air vibrating under the music of master-hands with gaiety and passion . The lovely Empress must not dance , although so beautiful and graceful -. the hopes of a dynasty impress their august veto upon that young Spanish lad } ' of disputed parentage , and she can but smile upon the scene which others enjoy . The dance begins in stately fashion : E ' mperor . and Queex load it , Prixce and Princess take their places , courtiers follow in duo degree , and etiquette reigns at the inauguration of the ball . But with dancing tho blood warms , with the brilliancy the head grows fervid , with the ease , the frankness , and tho facility- that wait upon every wish , vigilance is lulled asleep , guardeduess forgets itself , and pleasure rules . Children , however exalted in rank , however cultivated , aro free from tho restraints that visit older years , and they at least may set the example of enjoying in a freer fashion . The Phinci : of "Wales and his sister waltz , for the Empeuom has asked to see them . Stop a moment : who is it that has asked ? Do you not remember , some years back , loitering in Leicester-square , wandering sometimes to Kensington Gore , not unknown to scientific societies , a grave man , down-looking , whoso countenance was as much the subject of controversy as his genealogy ; whoso escochoon was said to be l ) utch , and mind dull , although his name was Napoleonic ami his aspirations imperial ? It was deemed to bo presumption in him to " mix " with tho select society at tho scientific meetings ; he was admitted on easier terms into the circle of social refugees at' Gore House ; he was thought to bo only in his element on tho pavement of Leieoater-squnro . It sometimes happened , no doubt , that ho waa standing on the pavement amongst the

    spectators kept back by the police , as Queen Victoria passed . Now if that silent man had then said , " I will invite that woman to be my guest ; I will give an entertainment such as she has never had before ; Qnd , verily , I will put my arm round her waist , " the hearer . would have laughed at his nose . Yet that has been done ; Yes , children with their irresponsible unrestraint often set an example into which , their seniors are hurried ; and after Wales and the Princess Hoyal had whirled round in the waltz , then did Imperial France , olim "Louis Napoleon , " put his audacious arm round the waist of Royal England . Queen Victoria lent herself to the seductive impulse , and her beaming countenance showed without disguise that verily she was pleased to be where she was—whirled in circles resting on the arm of the Chevalier . And what did Prince Albert do ? Smile , of course , a half-paternal approbation at seeing the mother so like the daughter . What did the Empress do ? Smile , of -course , approbation to see her husband holding Royal England in his grasp . What did anybody do , but fall in with the spirit of the hour , and Louis Napoleon was master of the situation . It is not many years since that we heard a distinguished representative of practical science in this country declare that never more would war disturb the peace of Europe . That same eminent person , justly deserving of his country's praise , has assisted in organising an army against Russia . Yea , the same prophet of quiescence shall be found countenancing the project of Ditstdonald for exterminating the enemy by unknown agencies . Not long since , we heard a man quite as eminent , though not in practical science , declare that the part of the individual in public life had ceased—that civilisation had so completely established its order and routine , that the influence of any statesman individually would never more show itself in the world . Men yet more elevated have been heard to declare , in places not more private than the House of Commons , that " the system" would run its course , whatever " individuals might choose to do or think . Routine and civilisation should have assisted at the ball of Versailles—should have seen Windsor Castle invited to learn the art of giving feasts from Leicestersquare , and have witnessed how graciously , how frankly , how enjoy in gly Queen Victoria entered iuto the spirit of the hour—Jamais en Prance , jamais L'Anglais ne regnera . "] tfais FAnglaise ? " She reigns , and she is in France ; she reigns , "but does not govern ;" and there , are those who kneel to rise . Were all in that gay scene equally without thought ? Was every spirit carried away by the charm of the hour , or was there not a spirit which never forgets itself , whether watching the slow and reverent steps of the lady up to the aisle oi tho chapel consecrated by Home , or her womanly form resting on his strong arm , whirling her in the thought-escaping waltz ? " God save the Queen !"

    Untitled Article

    THE LAST OF YOUNG IRELAND . Suppose that Austria were remodelled in constitutional federalism—suppose a Parliament at Vienna — suppose an Hungnrian M . P . who edited a national journal at lest a throwing up his seat and announcing that in consequence of Vienna eontnuusntion haying utterly degraded his country into a P ^ vuxw ho had resolved to abandon the . cause of nationality and emigrate to A »« cncn--j ould not tlu , ovent be reg r ^ d « . « ^ ' «^ , ^ \ ^ ^? sSto " *' - ^™

    Untitled Article

    Sbictmbeb 1 > 1855 . ] THE LflABB B ,. ^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1855, page 839, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2104/page/11/