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Leader (1850-1860), 20th November 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1262

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      party , yet his efforts in centralising have been more conspicuous than those of the -whole Feudal party put together . Daring the period he has held office the nations of the civilised world have , by the inventions that have been made , and the opening of new and vast marts , nearly doubled their material wealth ? Prussia has progressed with the rest . She has doubled the mileage of her rail-wars [ since 1848 , a network of telegraphs has been spread over the country , ship-building has greatly increased , mining nas been extended to a degree that few anticipated ten or fifteen years ago , the imports and exports hare been , as compared -with those of ten years , enormous , and factory after factory has arisen as if by magic . "With all this material progress , Mr . von der

      having the least political knowledge or experience , will follow the example of the metropolis , except in some quarters where the Feudal element is very strong . The Austrian editors are growing envious of the present comparatively pleasant position of their brethren in Prussia , while the latter are kind enough now and then to drop a word of- compassion , for their enthralled Austrian brethren . No press has shown more patriotism to their country and devotion to its Government than the Austrian , and no press has met with such unkind returns . The grounds upon which the police confiscate Austrian newspapers are so ridiculous , so utterly puerile , that it is hard to conceive how the Government can think any injury could occur from them . On Sunday

      the Press was confiscated because it described in a humorous feuilleton article the confusion and comical scenes which daily occur in consequence of the introduction of the new coinage . The press police seem to fancy that if the people do not read of these inconveniences and annoyances they do not feel them . A more unaccountable seizure still is that of the Between Acts , which contained a novel wherein an officer was described as having contracted debts to the amount of forty thousand florins . The police probably considered this as an insulting- hint to the officers in Vienna to pay their debts . This feverish anxiety of the opinions of the press does not speak well for the stability of government in Austria ^

      The . Bund , a journal which appears at Berne , in Switzerland , has been prohibited in Prussia , in consequence of an article which it contained reflecting upon the King of Prussia and the Prince Regent . Mr . Bright's orations and extracts from Mr . Carlyle ' s Frederick the Great have been real windfalls to the German journals since the Regency question has been decided . The former gentleman is generally complimented with most space , his subject being one that never fails to delight all but the few reflecting and studied Liberals .

      Heydt ' s name is identified . The Liberals do not question the active and beneficial influence of his administration upon this advance of the country in trade , but they fear Ms principles and the tendency of his energy . The principles which the Minister has adopted as the guides of his policy are in complete opposition to the doctrines of the Gotha Congress , who follow the teachings of Adam Smith and the experiences of the freetrade nations . "With regard to commerce in general , Mr . von der Heydt has shown himself a thorough Protectionist , and by his wavering and incomprehensible policy in the aflair of the transit duties , « &c , he has weakened the influence of Prussia in the countries of the Zollverein . He has all along endeavoured to get

      every railway , telegraph , and bank into the hands of the Government—in one word , he is a State-monopolist . His ) commercial policy , with foreign nations has been decidedly anti-German , and it may be said thereby anti-Prussian , as it will undoubtedly prove in the long run . In the treaty which he made with the Netherlands in 1851 , and in that made with Belgium in 1852 , ad-¦ vantages were granted to those countries which have been steadily refused to German States . As respects the internal traffic , he has most arbitrarily interfered with the rights of property . Take as an instance the fact that he obliged the Cologne and Minden Railway Company , art independent body , to alter their contract entered into with the North . German Railway for their

      common benefit . But what makes the Free-Trade arid Free-Labour men most inimical to this Minister is the new Prussian ordinance pouching handicrafts , issued by him in 1849 , the object of which was to lead the people gradually back to the old tyranny of the guilds or snobocracj-, with the hope , no doubt , that the privileged tinkers , and tailors , and butchers , and bakers , -would , in case of another insurrection , range themselves on the side of the privileged lords . Your readers must understand that in Prussia labour is not so' entrammelled as in o ^ her parts of Germany . A working man is permitted to gain , his living without being a member of any corporation in Prussia . Mr . von der Heydt endeavoured in his ordinance to take away this just right , by requiring

      every workman to undergo an examination in his trade , and by instituting Councils or Boards of Handicrafts QGewerberathe ") , but fortunately the ordinance has become a dead letter , for of the ninety-six institutions of tb-ia kind -which he established only eight are now in existence , and of these eight only one is in activity . The effects of this backward tendency in freedom of labour and free agency may not be greatly felt in Prussia , -where the people have had a taste , if but a slight one , of sweet liberty , and now despise the privileges which the centralising Minister would give them ; but the rest of Germany that still groans under the tyranny of the guilds haa been seriously injured by it , for ninety-nine out of a hundred of those who support the guilds

      point to the Prussian ordinance of 1849 as a proof that the abolition of the guilds has not been found to answer The example of Prussia has made the legislators of Germany still more undecided , and prevents the great majority of the -working classes from deciding for freedom of labour and free agency , in preference to boing at one time nursed , at another coerced , by the State , These centralising and bureaucratic tendencies would have produced still -worse effects in Germany , if luckily Austria , out of rivalry to Prussia , had not begun to evince a leaning to freedom of labour and trade , well knowing that thia was the simple and easy way of gaining every thinking , man of the middle and commercial class for Austria .

      The Liberals hope much from the Minister of Finances You Patow , -who is a member of the deputation of the Gotha Congress , and who lately , at a council upon the subject of an increase of the tax upon beetroot sugar , publicly proclaimed his adhesion to the principles of free trade . There seems , however , but little prospect at present that the question will meet with any Attention from the now Diet , for'the people themselves take slight interest in . it , as may be seen in the present election

      movements . The province of Pomerania alone , under the influence of Baumstark , one of the most energetic freetraders of Germany , and that of the merchants of Stettin , has inscribed the words Freedom of Trade and freedom of labour upon her banner . In evpry other quarter the agitation , if agitation it can be oalled , is bureaucratic , and , here and there , theological . The elections of delegates are progressing in peace mid quietness , and daily the excitement is decreasing . In the fotfcr electoral districts of Berlin all the candidates are likely to prove Liberals , and the provinces , not

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      THE COMTE DE MONTALEMBERT . Charlks Forbes , Comte de Mostalkmbert , wae born in London on the l . Oth . of March , 1810 . He is the representative of an old family of Poitou , and his father was a Peer of France , and Ambassador at Stockholm from the Court of Charles X . His mother was an Englishwoman . At the outset of his career he was an advocate of the union of Catholocism and democracy , of which Lam ennais was the apostle , and was one of the editors of a journal founded to advocate that union , called L ' Atemr He subsequently commenced a sort of crusade against the University , and opened , in April , 1831 , in conjunction with MM . Decoux and Lacordaire , a school called the Ecole Libre . His opposition to the exist , ing Government brought him at last before the Police Correctionnelle ; but during the process his father died , and as M . de Montalembert then became a peer of France , he claimed the right of being tried by the Upper Chamber , by which he was condemned to a fine of lOOfr . His defence pronounced before the Chamber may be considered as the beginning of his political career , but he was prevented , by his not having attained the legal age of 30 , from taking his seat until 1840 . The condemnation of Lamennais by the Pope greatly increased the severity of M . de Montalembcrt ' s orthodoxy , and , both by writing and speaking , he made himself thenceforward known as the great champion of Catholicism . He published bis famous Life of Elizabeth of Hungary in 1830 . In 1842 he strongly opposed the educational measure of M . Villeniain , and in the

      following year he published his CcUliotic Manifesto . He married , in 1843 , the daughter of a Belgian Minister , Mademoiselle de Me > ode , and after a short absence from Trance he returned to deliver in the Chamber of Peers his three celebrated speeches on the * , liberty of the Church , the liberty of education , and the liberty of the monastic orders . In 18-17 he established a religious association to work in favour of the Sonderbund . lie also made himself notorious for the active part he took on behalf of oppressed nationalities , and on the 10 th of February , 1818 , he had a solemn funeral service celebrated at Notre-Damo to the memory of O'Connell . After the establishment of the Republic , M . de Montalembert was elected a member of the Constituent and

      Assembly , and there acted sometimes with one sometimes with another of the parties that divided the Assembly . lie was opposed to the measure for again requiring . journals to furnish security , to the continuance of tho state of siege , and to the admission of Louis Bonaparte . But at the end of the session he supported M . Dnfauro in a bill for the restriction of the press , and was loud in his approval of the ^^^ XZ Home . He w as re-elected by the department of the tfoubs for the National Assembly . He there distinguished himself principally by the part he took in V ™ 1 *™ 8 ™ law to restrain the suffrage within narrower limits , by his frequent encounters with ^ 'p ^^ l \^ , £ rival in oratory , and by his defence of the Ijre-de nt . When the cottp-d'itat came he protested atrongly agaUut tho imprisonment of the deputies ; but he , ucvert lss , was named a member of the Consultative Co nm , 8 on « WOS UUIUUU a uwiuuiu " » . " ~ . , Q « intntllB electedin 1862 into

      distinction he declined , and was , , j ™ Corpa LegiHlatif . As a French biographer lacomqaHj but happily , expresses it , » tf y ^ prt ^ iUatt prea ^ ^ VOppositionr At tbo hist election , in !«' ' " ^ defeated in Iho department of tho Doubs by the G . nor } ment candidate , and lins since retired from publ c : « o until this article in tho Correspomhnt ^ roug ht h " 8 ™ before the world . Of course M . do lion utaml * rt Unot a Liberal after tho English fashion- Hut » J doubt thatyenra and experience have tang it him som thing . And especially as regards England , noono J now be a more gealous , dlacrlmlnntlnji , and Hrm J ^ to every thing that is English thnnM . de Mental * iber No one , also , can doubt ( hat he is ono of tho fl s »«> in Europe both as a writer and ft speaker j ana oou / his eminence and his groat interest m Mto ~»«™ JJ , education lio is among tho lenders ot mo * ^ Academy , of which ho was elected a mombcr in i « w ~ Continental Review .

      Untitled Article

      SINGULAR TASTES AND ANTII'ATIIII SS . Srvhral illustrious men have evinced » ™ J * JJ | Jmt dllootion for oortain days in tho your . « « *«» . Napoleon folt ouch a disposition for 110 20 th of J » J « " Charles V ., » said BrantOme , » was p «> ^ « J ' J fond of tho festival of St . Matthlna ( 24 th oi Job u . j > ,, and sanctified It beyond all other days , beenuw i day he was olocted Emperor , on that ( My <*™ "'

      Untitled Article

      126 £ . THE LEADER . [ Ko . 452 , November 20 ^ . 858 .

      Untitled Article

      THE LATE ROBERT O \ fEN . Robert Owes-died . on Wednesday , in the eighty-ninth year of his age , at New town , Wales , whither he had gone on a visit to his native place . His career is thus related :- —At seven years of ag-e he was usher , and at nine under master , of a school in his native town . Next year he proceeded to Stamford to a draper ' s shop , supporting himself for four years , when he went to London . Arkwright ' s machinery was then coming into uSe ; and at the age of eighteen , Robert Owen became a partner in a cotton-mill where forty irien were employed . He was prosperous , ' and rose from one lucrative concern to another till he became the head of the New Lanark establishment , which included a farm of 150 acres , and supported 2000 inhabitants . He married in 1797 .

      able at any period for the combination that was """ strong in him of benevolence and inclination to otA ' * and rule , but these natural dispositions took form und the special pressure of the time . So entire was fT suitability , thus far , of the man to his age that th can be little doubt that if he . had been gifted with ? power in which he was most deficient—reasoning nowot —he would have been among the foremost men of hi generation . As it was , his peculiar faculties so far fell in with the popular need , that he effected much for the progress of society , and has been the cause of nianv things which will never go by his name . " y

      His arrangements for the health of an aggregate multitude , for their comfortable feeding , clothing , leisure , and amusement ; the management of the mill and the farm , the school and the ball-room , everything requiring the exercise of the economic and administrative faculties , was of a rare quality of excellence under his hand . In ten years , while all the world was expecting his ruin from his new-fangled schemes , he bought out his partners at New Lanark for 84 , 000 / . His new partners and ho realised in four years more thnn 150 , 000 / . profit , and he bought them out for 114 , 000 / . These are facts which ought to be known . Front 1810 to 1815 he published his " Essays on the Formation of Character . " About thia time , too , ho formed friendships with Mr . Jamos Mill , Sir James Macintosh , Mr . Malthus , Colonel Torrens , Mr . Ricardo , Francis Place , and Lord Brougham .

      In 1817 he addressed memorials to the sovereigns assembled at the Congress of Ai ? c-la-Chftpelle , confiding their presentation to Lord Cnstlereagh , and became a notoriety . Among' Ms opposing friends ho further mentions the late Joseph Hume , Jeremy Bentham , Joseph Lancaster , Sir Francis Burdctr , Mr . Cobbott , and many other of the leading men of the time , with whom ho waa in constant intimacy . He founded an infantschool at Now Lanark , and among other notable persons who visited it wns the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia ,

      then the Grand-Duke . At that time there was a great commotion about tho doctrines of Malthus , and Mr . Owen relntes that , ? ' In a two hours * conversation with the Grand-Duke , before he left mo , ho said , 'As your country is over-peopled I will take you , and two millions of population with you , all in similar manufacturing communities . '" This was in reference to Now Lanark . Mr . Owen , however , declined , « 8 ho thought his hands were fnll enough then . Ho subsequently visited the various European capitals , and America . of at tbe

      Tho last public appearance Mr . Owen was late Socinl Science Oongross at Liverpool . Ho Btood between Lord Brougham and Lord John Russell . Ho spoke for a fow minutes , whon , his strength failing him , he was removed to tho Victoria Hotel , whore ho remained' for several days . He tlion wont back to Nowtown , where ho died at the Boar ' s Head Hotel . Ho ¦ was a man of ample mentis , nrid disposed of a largo fortune in promulgating his principles . " With Rpborfc Owen , " says tho Daily News , " tlios out one of tho clearest and moat striking signs of our times . Ho was a man who would have been remark-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 20, 1858, page 1262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2269/page/22/