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Leader (1850-1860), 13th February 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 156, Untitled Article

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      those again who have filled the office of . Sheriff ; it is proposed that any person pos-. sessing the qualification of a Common Councilman shall be eligible , and he will be elected by the Common Council . Indeed , it is proposed that all the officers of the Corporation shall be so elected , with the exception of the [ Recorder ; who- —as in other municipal corporations—will be appointed by the Crown . The Court of Aldermen would be abolished as a separate body , and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen would no longer form part of the Central CJrirmnfll C ^ niirh Rfivfiral minor

      provisions are proposed , referring to the present privileges of the Corporation to exclusive rights of trading ; but no interference is to be made with the Coal dues , or , in fact , with the other City dues . Sir George Gbe y ' s new bill is chiefly to be admired in those things in which it departs from his former conceptions . " We can scarcely approve of it so strongly on its own merits . It appears to us to be designed without adequately estimating the

      importance of the subject , or perhaps it estimates that importance in a perverse spirit . The object of the bill -evidently is to swamp the Corporation , as far as that is possible . In " former measures , this was done out and out . The Corporation of Iiondon was to be reduced to the level of the provincial corporations , T<hough there really is nothing in common between the . organization centring on Cornhill and those local bodies . If Sir G-eobgke ' s

      former plans could have been executed , we should have had one of the most absurd anomalies that could be conceived in the world : in the middle of this great metropolis we should have had a Corporation like that of TTork or Yarmouth—a sort of country Town Council in the midst of the British capital , surrounded by the other great metropolitan territories with a totally different organization . After a lapse of years it would have been discovered that that new London Corporation -was entirely misplaced ; it would then have "been kicked out ; and the City would have been reduced to a parish machinery .

      This is not reform , but destruction . It is , in fact , doing as much as possible to prevent any kind of municipal organization for this vast metropolis , and the reasons for prevention are only too naked . Ministers , and even members , are fearful of enlarging and strengthening the municipal organization of the metropolis , lest they should establish a body which would rival themselves in power and influence . It is this jealousy that denies justice to London , When they have pretended to supply

      such an organization , they have , in fact , ret used it . They gave to it the present Metropolitan Worthless Bores , with an old debt , undefined duties , no powers , and the privilege of making proposals to be snubbed by the Chief Commissioner of Public " Works ; and that was literally put forward as some approach to a municipality for the metropolis , or the embryo * ot it ! At the very commencement the purpose was detected ; the object was to bring discredit upon the scheme o £ a great metro- > politnn Parliament .

      All sound legislation would go in the oppo-Bite direction . The object should be , while relieving London of those abuses that have ___^ repib ^ into its institutions and practices , to maintain tlio ^ l ^ leto ^ rof ~ tlt " e ^ institutions , —to adapt the machinery to the requirements and opinions of the present day , and thus to improve the City Corporation while preserving it as the nucleus of the much larger municipality which is so much needed . We have considered Sir Giaoiteuo Gkey ' s plan ; we find it to merit approval particularly by what it does not do . A much larger measure for the object -which we have defined

      could be brought forward . The City has a plan of ita own , which remains to be considered .

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      THE STATE OF OPINION IN PRANCE . The nomination of a soldier without proved capacity of any kind , and known only by his readiness to act as deputy in a task which great usurpers have undertaken themselves—the violent dispersion of a popular assembly—to so important a post as Minister of the Interior ' and of General Safety , ' lias naturally attracted considerable attention in Paris . This attention , indeed , has not been unmixed with alarm . For it was evident from , the first that the placing of an absolute nullity—a man-instrument as it were—at a critical moment , in a post of such eminence , could mean but one thing—namely , that the Emperor for the future intended to be his own Minister of the Interior .

      Alarm has not existed in its strongest degree amongst the persons who are likely to feel most directly the severity of the regime in its new phase , which many too sanguine persons believe may be its last . It is to be observed more particularly among the habitual supporters of the Empire , and among people usually indifferent to all political variations except the greatest . If you ask the former what they fear , they readily tell you what they do not fear . They do not fear a revolution , or barricades , or this , or that—but—the future appears less serene to them than heretofore . The fact- is , they do fear a revolution : and it is an observation we

      have made which is not without its value , that during the existence of a government based on violence , whilst all seems calm and prosperous and happy , or at least resigned , there are always two small sections who talk familiarly of ententes which everybody else has forgotten—the fanatics who are ready to sacrifice their lives to recover their dignity as men , and the accomplices of usurpation . In both cases such conversation soon becomes offensive to a man of the world . But we must remember that on . the existence of tliese two sources of action frequently depends the future complexion of history . Whilst-, then , the partisans of the French

      Government are a little more anxious than usual , and more inclined to strong measures—the cruelty and violence of fear are proverbial—we have also to notice , as ive have said , the spread of the same kind of anxiety among the general public . Until very recently the prophecies of the disaffected and the panics of power were both treated with something like derision—just as was good Queen Charlotte when she used her habitual phrase . that 'if the mob knew -what she knew , there would certainly be a

      revolution in England . ' Now , very ordinary people , at moments of leisure , are willing to speculate on the cloud , no bigger than a man ' s hand , which they have at length been forced to notice . This belief in danger is in itself a danger . The knowledge that the Emperor himself was no longer willing to trust the safety of his dynasty to subordinates , but that ho was resolved to govern personally under the ill-favoured mask of General L'Espinassb , appears to have had a worse effeot than any other measure .

      Many previous acts , which had their origin in mere anger , were attributed to a kind of mental derangement ; and the most wild and extravagant projects were said to be openly talked of at the Tuueries . The establishment of the Council of Regency was regarded by some as a kind of semi-abdication . It seems certain that , if instead of seeking out somebody to fight in order to appease the insanity which , when present in a less degree , is palled choler , the Emperor buzies himself in the details of administration , and becomes the chief policeman of his dominions , he will have less leisure and desire to deal with crreat political questions . The poaoc

      of Europe may thus receive an unexpected guarantee There can bo no doubt about the abstract wisdom of this conduct . A revolution may consolidate itself at home by spending its superfluous energies abroad ; an usurpation , though it may fepfosent- ^ the ^ wishes-of-the ^ mobr-has—too-much , work at home safely to undertake a war . Dionyaiua oannot listen m the Syraousan Ear and bo a groat conqueror at the same timo . Yet it seems certain , that martial ideas wore in the ascendant last week . The apology made for them might have boon , a ruse s it may bo a humiliation . Wo must not protend to have dived into all Imperial aroana . A watchful nation will not bo thrown oft" its guard . ' It is a trite observation that a government which fears tlie truth is self-judged ; and no apologist of

      the Empire has ever been able to get over the objection founded on its suppression of all free discussion by means of the press . In most , countries , aud at most periods , however , when such suppression has existed , its jnain object has been , besides preventing animadversion on the personal conduct of the "overnors , to prevent the propagation of theoretical truth . Ideas are the natural enemies of absolutism , and enjoyed the anger of Napoleon the Great on that account . But the new Empire has found out a new secret , or rather has adopted the well-known maxims of the Jesuits . Not content with sunwhat is trueit deliberatel

      pressing , y uses the press to circulate what is false ; and , as if it feared not to be believed on its word , it has invented the plan of misrepresentation by means of the English press . We do not allude now to the practice of publishing French , articles in English journals , tvnd transferring them wholesale to the Moniteur as the voice of English public opinion . There is nothing surprising or uncommon in a foreign government purchasing the support of an organ in this country . J 3 ut especially of late it has become the practice of the Moniteur and all the other French journals to translate articles—from the Times for example- ^ -and

      not only to leave out sentences which limit or completely modify the intention of the writer , but to work up or add others , and so make him say things that lie never thought of . Even in reporting the debates of our Parliament the same system is pursued ; and when the speech of Lord Dbhijy was faithfully abridged by mistake at the beginning of this week , it was deliberately re-written next day ' to correct the false impression that had been produced . ' Even the language used by Lord 1 'axmerston in introducing his bill was altered l > y all the Parisian evening papers last Thursday , aud was very imperfectly given by the official organ of the Empire .

      We are assm * ed that the new Minister of the Interior , who may be called General Espinassk tor form ' s sake , intends to push this system to the-extreme . He has the greatest confidence in what in France is called 'the education of public opinion . ' As much as possible he will avoid acting with severity against persons . The number of enemies to be imprisoned , transported , or exiled to the provinces or abroad , will notprobably be very great ; and the crime for which such punishment will be inflicted will be chiefly the spreading of ' false news' —I hat is , truth disagreeable to authority . It is perhaps

      absolutely impossible to increase the nullity of ' the press—otherwise that would be attempted . At any rate , the absence of anything like disunion will be rigidly enforced . Thus protected against exposure , with spies stationed at every avenue by which the truth might circulate , the system of hypocrisy and forgery we have pointed out may be indulged hi without check or limit . It is evident , however , that a great nation like France , long accustomed to think , can with dilficulty be kept thus in silence and darkness , without suffering disquietude and being liable to sudden panic or despair . Already the desire for war , not merely among the soldiery , has manifested itself j and may easily be mistaken for hatred agninst England . It is rather the vague desire of action which commonly visits men in the midst of forced immobility-. If many liberals oven arc really

      disgusted with us , this is not matter of surprise . "N c learn that in certain Parisian circles the grcutcst indignation has been expressed against wlmt is called the abuse of free speech in England . English orators and writers , in the plenitude of their licedom , will persist in talking of tho ' love and veneration of Franco for its Emperor , ' gratuitously omitting to notice the fact , that Frunce is gagtfi'il and bound , and can make no sign . Wo can under-sUmd the complaint . It will probabl y increase m intensity ; for , 'Lord Palmkuston aiding , Franco will probably soon be told by General Esmnasse than Mo loyalty of England to tho Emperor surpasses oven its own .

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      THE MUSTER-ROLL OF INDIAN HEROISM . Tni 3 ~ proBaJma-beou . _ ft _ socpnd timo warned by Mr . Henry Djiummono . That Member oTTfirtimnciit believes — for wo should bo sorry to doubt his sincerity—that tho ' anonymous writers in English newspapers' are inspired by arroganoo and nuJioo in their criticisms upon public men . I ' »' Y ° spoken of those English papers boforo , and J urm apeak of tliom again , but not nnonymouslj , you shall hear of them by tho names of tho writ «»»¦ So Mr . Djivmmond means to purloin tho conlklcnoo

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      156 THE LEAD E B . [ No . 412 , February 13 , 1858 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2230/page/12/