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Leader (1850-1860), 9th May 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 448

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      Untitled Article

      —— - There is a strange , sarcastic melancholy in that passage in the forty-third book of IiiVY , where the historian , writing in an age of decadence , apologizes for the ancient feeling with which his narrative of the old times of Rome is imbued : " Ceterum et mihi , res vetustas scribenti , nescio quo pacto antiquus fit animus . " The author of the extremely remarkable article in the present number of Fraser , on "I mperialism , " seems to us to betray the antiquus animus of the Roman , in these latter days of expediency and indifference . The stern concision , and lofty austerity of his indignant eloquence , make him the new Tacitus of modern Cajsarisin . This is not the department of our paper in which we talk politics , and we dare say our readers would be little disposed to pardon an invasion of the peaceful republic of Literature and Art . We shall therefore refrain from dwelling upon the subject of this article , the more contentedly that our own opinion of Imperialism has never for one moment changed or faltered , not even when all England was outwardly and visibly

      worshipping its success . We must find space for an extract or two , to give a taste of the writer ' s quality , and very earnestly recommend all our readers to seek and study the paper entire as it appears in Fraser for May . It deserves to be republishecl in a more permanent form . A certain Prince once hinted that a constitutional government was unfit to carry on a war with vigour and success :-But that war is better waged or borne with more constancy by an ordinary despot than by a commonwealthis a notion belied by all history , from Marathon to

      Sebas-, topol Was the administration of the Aulic Council in the campaigns of Italy less trammelled by ' red tape' than those of the English War-office in the Crimea ? And as to favouritism , was it a people ' s minister or a king ' s mistress that , after Rosbach , gave another army to ' poor Soubise ? ' Was it a constitutional government or an enlightened despot that sent the dying St . Arnaud as the price of services in a conspiracy , to paralyze the march on Sebastopol , and entail on the two armies the murderous misadventure of the winter siege ? The English minister was condemned ; the French Emperor was lauded to the skies . But if the French army had been led by the great generals of France then in exile , instead of the accomplice of the Usurpation , the English minister ' s army would have wintered in Sebastopol . Louis inherited from

      Compare the generals and war ministers whom Quatorze Huguenotism and the Fronde , with those whom he made for himself by absolute monarchy before the end of his reign . Or , if the Roman Empire is the type , compare the generals of the Senate with the generals of the Emperors ; compare the conduct of the Senate to Marius and Cajsar when in command against the public enemy , with the conduct of the Emperors to Germanicus , Agricola , and Belisarius . Politics is an experimental science ; and those who , in their treatment of it , wish to be specially scientific , are bound to have special regard to facts . Where are the facts that prove that , in their choice or treatment of generals or any other public servants , commonwealths are swayed by private passion or interests , and despots by the public good ? We entreat our readers to mark well the application of the following sentence , in which the writer points out the private , as well as public , demoralization consequent upon the worship of immoral success •—

      The banner of his ( Napoleon I . ) successor , and the restorer of what he called his dynasty , hangs among those of the chivalry of England in the Chapel of the Garter ; and therefore we are required , as loyal subjects , to suppose that the Garter can bind honour on Louis Napoleon ' s knee . It is weakness to say what this man and his associates are , since not the less they have their feet on the neck of that which was a free nation . Thus much only we would have remembered , that the Imperial friends of order twice , while France was at peace under a constitutional monarchy , set up in their own interest the standard of civil war . Twice they conspired against the State and were the ridicule of the world : a third time they conspired with all the forces of the State in their hands , and were miracles of genius . Of how many liedpaths may not the ambition have been excited to lofty aims by the triumphal progress of the heroes of the coup d'rftat through the shouting streets of a nation once jealous of morality and honour !

      ALL DESPOTISMS ALIKK . After all , the French Empire is as the other despotisms of Europe . It loves , hates , fears , acts , conspires with its kind . It apes their state , and surrounds itself with all that is unmanly and debased in their parasitic trains ; while Court preachers find the deepest depth of sycophancy in affecting freedom . It vies with them in ignoble luxury , and in squandering on selfish magnificence and ostentation the public money , which , lavished in imperial grandeur , dwarfs , to the eyes of pleasure-hunters , the paltry hospitals of freedom . It would copy their aristocracies , if an aristocracy could be had for money . It holds their Italian god upon his throne . It has , like them ,

      its State religion , for which , like thorn , it will persecute , and shows already that it will persecute , when it durcs . Like thorn , it is the enemy , though as yet the cautious and stealthy enemy , not only of seditious . newspapers , but of litorary freedom . It tries at present to bribe and suborn intellect ; it will soon lenru and dare to suppress it . The Jesuit , whoso instinct is sure , knows it for his own : and as ho sees it stand on the ruins of French thought and freedom , ho snys in hia heart that the world is his , after all , and that the cause of truth and liberty has had its hour . Surely the man whoso moral judgment it can blind with its tinsel and condescension must be more than a Colt .

      Few perhaps of the English admirers of the French Empire havo made up their minds that it is to last for over . They say Franco has need of reposo for a time . Perhaps Franco says so to herself . And so says to himself the exhausted traveller in the Alpine storm . Ho , too , needs repose for a time , after which ho will rise rofroshod , and push forward to his hospice . But how long a sleep does the traveller need ? How long a disuse of the limbs does tho patient require , in order to restore their powers ? How long an abstinence from political action will confirm a nation in political virtue ? How soon will despotism fit sluves for Holf-govorninent ? It is necessary to decide , that MM . Morny and Fould may know when the happy hour is como Tor restoring tho liberties and tho honour of their country .

      TCIim TOUB LOVERS Olf » IC 81 "O' 1 . 'I 8 M . Tho Jesuit will always love despotism . For him despotism quenched half tho Reformation , holds half Europe in darkness , and robs tho other half of tho aid of mutual light . Jesuitism and despotism have need of each other , nnd each knows it well .

      Untitled Article

      Free thought shakes alike false shrines and arbitrary thrones . It was sound advice that was given to the Epicurean despot of Rome , to encourage the priest and augurs and punish novelties in religion , for the same tended to sedition : and it was sound policy in a Nero and a Diocletian to persecute the truth that makes us free . It was deep wisdom in Napoleon I . to restore , as the stay of his dy nasty , that degrading falsehood which the noblest blood of France had been shed to put away : and it is deep wisdom in the priests of that falsehood to glorify the memory of a saviour and protector who was a Mahometan to . Mahometans , a German freethinker to Germa n freethinkers , and in his heart perhaps the purest practical atheist that has ever plaved a part in history . While liberty was strong , the French priesthood blessed the tree of liberty with their lips , but it was with curses in their hearts : their adoration of the Messiah of Order is blasphemous but sincere .

      The voluptuary , too , will love a form of government which promotes dissipation in order to drug thought , and which not only brings a calm feelingly sweet after the storms of moral and intellectual life , but graces that calm with imperial architecture and imperial shows . What doe # it signify to a gourmand and a melomane that the government does not allow Luthers ? "What harm will it do to him if the next generation is deprived of truth and public morality , and perhaps even of the thirty pieces of silver for which truth and public morality are sold ? An atheist in heart , if not in profession , what does he , the human animal of to-day , care for the fate of the human animals of to-morrow ? The bright scene may change . The Saviour of Society may become a Nero ; the true nobility of the nation may become praetorians ; the Jesuit may become an inquisitor , though now , occupied in struggling with more deadly forms of spiritual evil , he smiles on the voluptuary's unobtrusive creed . But by that time Apicius will have rendered back his grossness to the dust . Only men who believe in God and Spirit can live in the future of their kind .

      The stockjobber , again , adores a power which , for the moment at least , protects his shares ; which does not offend his morality or his public spirit ; and which dazzles whatever is left in him of imagination with the splendid image of success . The stockjobbei ; we say , but not the merchant . Liberty is the only foster-mother of commerce ; and commerce wafts liberty with all her sails . If space permitted , we might be disposed to discuss rather in a spirit of reservation than of objection certain passages in this article , but we shall wait for another opportunity and another place ; for the present we will only say , that it is worthy of a free English heart and brain , and that to read it is like clasping an honest hand , or breathing the air of the mountain-top . The remaining papers of Fraser arc varied and interesting , especially one on Chaulotte Bronte and her sisters , full of fine sympathy ; a merciless exhibition of Mr . Samuel Warren ; and an able criticism of some recentrestorations ' and architectural , renovations in France distinguished , says the writer , by that very vulgar vice , a " precipitate passion for display . " We have little room-to speak of Blackwood . But we must again express

      our gratitude for " Mr . GilfiFs Love Story , " which fills us with increasing admiration as it proceeds . " A Hun to Nicaragua" is an original view of Central American politics , from an actual eye-witness of General Walker ' s operations . We must extract a sketch of that typical adventurer : — A glance at the personal history of the remarkable man who conducted this daring enterprise may not be uninteresting . General Walker ' s father had been a banker in Scotland , and emigrated to the United States in 1820 . Walker himself was bom in 1824 , manifested a roving disposition . At an early age he graduated successively in law , physic , and divinity ; travelled for a year in Europe ; returned to the States , and became the editor of a newspaper in New Orleans ; thence proceeded to ban Francisco in California in a similar capacity , which he relinquished to take command of the Sonora expedition . On his return from this he entered into the arrangements

      above stated with Castillon . In stature , General Walker is but little over five feet four . His features are described as coarse and impassible ; his square chin and Jong jaw denote character , but his lips are full , and his mouth is not well formed ; his eyes are universally spoken of as the striking feature in his face—of a singularly light grey , thev are so large and fixed that in a daguerreotype the eyelid is scarcely visibc . His manner is remarkably self-possessed , and some of his most intimate friends , who have been with him throughout the most trying scenes of bisNicarnguan experiences , have assured me that under no circumstances have they ever observed him to change countenance , even to laugh , or to alter in the smallest degree his slow and precise mode of diction . He is at all times taciturn , and when he docs speak it is directly to the point . Ho manifests a contemptuous indifference to danger without being reckless , and altogether seems better qualified to inspiro confidence and respect among lawless men than to shine in civilized society . A . __

      _ . _ , Ho is ascetic in hia habits , and his career hitherto has shown him to bo utterly careless of acquiring wealth . Highly ambitious , it is only duo to him to say that Ins aspirations , however little in accordance they may be with the moral code »* J ° 6 " ° the present day , are beyond riches . Like the Emperor Louis Napoleon , he has a fixed faith in tho star of hi / destiny , and like him ho doubtless wj ll bo branded by . the civilized nations of Europe as an unprincipled adventurer or a heaven-born hero , according as ho fails or succeeds in his daring enterprise .

      Untitled Article

      The University of Oxford has done itself honour this week by the election of Mr Matthew Aknow ) to the vacant Professorship of Poetry . As a true poet , a fine critic , and , moreover , as the son of a man whose name is precious to Oxford and honoured us universally us it is known , we arc sure Mr . Mattiikw Arnold will justify tho choice of the large majority which hua placed him in the chair he is so well qualified to Ml . Wo say this without the slightest ujbrespect to his competitor , the ltov . J . E . Bomo , justly esteemed . ior his pcisonul character , aud . for his high attainments in classical scholarship .

      Untitled Article

      In the midst of u dry heap of diplomatic and politioul news in the Times ol last Tuesday , appeared the following short paragraph : — M . Alfred do Mussel , one of tho youngest and most distinguished members 01 French Academy , died yesterday , after a short illnoss . Two puces of the vilest earth arc all that remains even to a King when one tho breath is out of his body ; and two , or at thu most three , lines arc all timi can be spared to a poor poot-a mere child of grace and geniu . s , who . se lump o life i » shuttered , and whose light in ilia dust lie . dcud-when ^ . o ^ of a Grand Duke and of the Crdtlit Mobilier have columns at thoir wavicc Nevertheless , as it is tho fashion of Courts to go in mourning lor thou gi - ones , wo may be allowed in this place to offer , from beyond the sou , tno «• • tribute of rospoot to th . o memory of it pool . Alfred dm Mu W \ W WO

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      r-4 t ^< , are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not Cnt make ? aw 3-tb . e | interpret and try to enfoTc £ them .-JSdinbur ff 7 i Xevtetv .

      Untitled Article

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2192/page/16/