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Leader (1850-1860), 24th December 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1395, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      It is well known that the Whig leaders are not prepared for this : they formed certain ideas on tho subfect in 1815 , and they have passed the nwiod of life at which ordinary men preserve the ranacity of developing new thoughts . Their fossil intentions may be well meant , but they are unwittingly playing the game of Russian aggrandisement " , while their pet , Austria , is steadily driyino- the Hungarians into revolt , the agents of St Petersburg are traversing the country , and rem-esentino- to the discontented people that _ as England condemns them to be tied to the dying carcass of Hapsburg despotism , their best course

      will be to unite themselves with the Czai :. Our Tory statesmen did not like to see Austria disturbed in Italy—not that they were hostile to the Italians , but because they had ridiculous notions of the value of Austria as a Conservative power . The Whi ° "s have long seen tHat Italy was a cause of weakness to Francis Joseph ; but they have opposed Hungarian independence because it would be fatal to the old-fashioned notion of making Austria a counterpoise to France . If Austria had this scheme

      entered upon a career of progress , mio-ht have worked well , but her conduct has long been utterly hopeless , and entirely directed to combat the enlightened ideas of the age in which her Government is an anachronism as well as a disorace . A thorough and safe friendship with France cannot be made until the Austrian delusion is uprooted from the minds of our statesmen . It is absurd to look upon her as a Conservative power , for the principle of her existence is a chronic dry rot .

      Untitled Article

      THE SLAVERY CAUSE IN AMERICA . American slavery has long been a great crnne , and a reproach against republican institutions , which has caused grief to the friends of liberty , and enabled the abettors of despotism to slander the cause of popular government . It was a bitter and disgraceful mockery for the Declaration of Independence to assert that all men were created equal , and endued with the inalienable right of liberty , while those with a black skin were cruelly reduced to tho condition of cattle , and even a susfor insult

      picion of negro blood was held an excuse and outiwe ^ on the part of those who professed a Christian religion of brotherly love . The greatest men of the United States have always felt ashamed of the " peculiar institution "—Franklin , VV ashin ^ t on and Jofrerson were members of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania , and the latter declared that " God has no attribute which can take part with the American slaveholders . How then is it that the pro-slavery party has succeeded in obtaining so much power in the Union / lne answer is through fraudulent representations and

      the establishment of a fictitious constituency , consisting of three-fifths of the slave population . By this extraordinary arrangement the slaveowners , loner after thoy became a small minority , amounting to about 350 , 000 in 27 , 000 , 000 , have been able to hold their ground . The Southern States have , in fact , an unjust predominance , similar to that which enabled our landed class to "fcposo a maintain a corn law in this country . This has been partlfrom the action of the fictitious

      cony stituency upon the House of Representatives , which is established upon tho basis of numbers , but stiU more from tho provisions of tho constitution with regard to the U poor Chamber . In the Senate , all States nre c . huJ , tho largest and the smallest sending alike two members , and licnce tho policy of the slaveholders has always beon to mnice as many now slave states as possible , and to support every form of aggression and robbery likely to

      further this design . , „ In 1820 , the " Missouri Compromise was expected , by tho admirers of shuffling monsuros , to allay tno virulence of tho quarrel between tho two sootions of tho American community . ¦ Vy tiiis scheme , slavery ww prohibited north of a certain line in Louisiana , and tho ortbrW ot the slavery party wore thus directed south of Uic ireo boundary , and the strife wo nt on , with . various circumstances of oiubittorment , until in 180 J tno Nebraska Bill overthrow tho Missouri Compromise , and loft tho establishment of slavery . in tho new state or states to be decided by their own constitutions . From that time to tho Uarpers Ferry insurrection , tho coniliot has threatened to assume the form of a final struggle , and tho slaveholders will now find that the brutal trial and exeoution of Captain Brown was , what unscrupulous

      politicians consider worse than a crime— -a mistake . The act for which Brown suffered was most unwise , and founded upon calculations of the most erroneous kind ; but it wasnobly meant , and if it had succeeded would have made his name one of the proudest in the annals of the Union . Moreover , the character of the chief actor cannot fail to win respect in the New England States . He may have been deficient in judgment , but he had that stern love of duty and that fervour of religious conviction which characterise € he hero

      of the Puritan school . To bring such a man to trial , covered with recent wounds and unable to stand in court , and then to hang him , in a paroxysni of cowardly and frantic vengeance , were acts that might have been worthy of Austria and Haynau , but are profoundly disgraceful to America and Governor Wise . Victor Hugo , hoping to avert this disgrace , spoke the voice of civilised Europe in his eloquent letter , and it is satisfactory to learn that similar feelings animate the best minds in the Northern States .

      Governor Wise ' s annual message to the Virginia legislature is a singular specimen of spasmodic terror , and could only be interpreted as an immediate appeal to arms , if the balance of force were not so overwhelming on the side of the northern States as to make such a course ridiculous . He calls the anti-slavery spirit " a fanaticism which maddens whole masses of the country , and which enters into their religion , politics , prayers , courts of justice * and legislatures , and which has trained up three generations in moral

      and social habits of hatred to the masters of African slaves in the United States , and which would have sent rescue to assassins , robbers , murderers , and traitors , whom it has * sent , to felon ' s graves . " This rant of Governor Wise is well matched by the demand of the pro-slavery leaders for a law prohibiting persons of an opposite way of thinking-from entering the Slave States ; and it is to be hoped that these examples of unreasoning fury belong to that sort of madness , which often entails speedy ruin on an evil cause .

      If the slaveholders attempt to carry out their threat of withdrawing from the Union and holding a Congress of their own , they will put American institutions to a severe test ; but we cannot doubt that they would soon succumb before the greater vigour and far larger population of the north . Their slaves would , in such a contest , be a source of weakness , and more than half their free population belong to the class of" mean whites ; " that is , whites too poor to live honestly and decently without labour , and detesting it as only fit for the inferior race . These men constitute a great criminal

      population , who would fight for slavery , or against it , according to the prospeots of pay and plunder , and would embarrass , rather than aid , the operations of the planters . Europe has a strong interest in the settlement of this question , both on the grounds of public morality and political expediency . Liberal institutions and popular Governments will rise in estimation when America has wiped away the foul stain which slaveholding has made upon her banner , and the chief inducements to filibustering expeditions would be ^ removed . We may be near the triumph of right—if not , its advent must be hastened by the death of Brown .

      Untitled Article

      INFALLIBLES AND MUTINEERS . We are much pleased to see merchants , bankers , and others , of the City of London , petitioning the Queon " to exercise nor prerogative of mercy " in behalf of that part of the crow of tho Princess lloyal " undergoing imprisonment in Winchester gaol for nn olPenco against discipline . " Thoy do not " impugn tho justice" of the courtmartial ; they are convinced that the ouenoo arose from no mutinous spirit , but from " momentary disappointment at tho announcement of tho recall under circum

      of an order for luavo very trying - stances . " The Times backs tno petition , and humbly implores for " clemency" as a Christmas gift , to the so-called mutineers . " It admits that what the men have boon " condemned for in batches , without muoh attempt at investigation , was " the mildest act of mutiny which stands recorded in tho causes aelebrea of the liruisu naV "—that it was a mere " row , " which it is " absurd ' to call a mutiny . " It further states that the officers " may have been acting under a series of inisannrohensfons . " But surely , if the officers acted uiSr misapprehensions , If the men have boon

      punished without due investigation as mutineers ^ when they only kicked up a half-drunken ro ; i * s to speak of the remission of the felon punishment to which they have been and condemned , as " mercy ' * and as " clemency , " is a gross abuse of the English language . When the circumstances are considered : that the men had just returned from a foreign station—had done all their -work , and fully prepared the ship to be paid off—that their request for leave , instead of being confined on board the ship almost within sight and hearing 1 of friends , wives , and sweethearts

      for the whole of Sunday , had been sanctioned by their own officers , and was , as must have appeared to them , most arbitrarily , first in fact denied , and the partial permission af terwards withdrawn , —and that under such extremely irritating circumstances— -they acted " like a . parcel of riotous school-boys "—to remit the punishment to which they have been condemned would be neither clemency nor mercy ; It would be confirming an

      injustice . The men , on the showing of the Times ^ have been most unjustly and cruelly treated , and they will degrade themselves and degrade humanity if they accept as a boon what they may and ought to claim as a right . If ever there was a case in -which a civil court would give damages for false imprisonment , judging equitably , without reference to barbarous technicalities , this is such a case ; and the so-called " mutineers" will not act wisely and resolutely , will ' not protect themselves and the rest of the seamen from similar

      treatment hereafter , and will scarcely deserve to be protected from a repetition of such treatments if they do not demand compensation for injustice , instead of accepting mercy as a Christmas gift , which is to buy their sanction to their own continued degradation . There is much more at stake in this matter than at first appears . It is not a trifle , we think , to find our language so abused and ideas so perverted as to call the remission of this felon outrage on 108 brave seamen " mercy and clemency . " It is still less a trifle , when we know that this terrible perversion takes place with a view to preserve the power of imbecile Admiralties over the seamen ,- and continue the barbarous system they love . Already , it lias done the nation and and is

      great dishonour great injury , pregnant , with ruin to the Navy . The subject becomes of vast importance when we know that the object of this perversion is to keep alive the notion that authority is infallible . To confess , by offerring compensation to the outraged seamen , that authority can do wrong , is to shake the -whole system , and expose civil society , it is supposed , to the danger which Protestant religious society incurs of wanting an infallible head . The outrage is followed up by the perversion , in order to impose , if possible , a falsehood on the nation . The attempt is now , however , as palpably silly as it is erroneous ; for authority , in civil or military matters , is continually , proved to be much more fallible than authority m religion .

      The Times will probably class our remarks sneeringly amongst those " in our periodical literature which tend to give us "better laws and a better constitution . " We admit that thoy have such an object , and deserve the censure of a journal which , worse than its . own "duck-logged drummer , ' is not only now always behind the regiment , but always making a " thundering " noise to frighten it from its onward march .

      Untitled Article

      A DEBT OF GRATITUPE . In an obscure corner of an obscure penodioal , we caught sight the other day of an obscure paragraph , containing a list of a number of obscure individuals to whom testimonials had boon presentod by obscure admirers . Everything connected with the matter , was obscure , wo oven obscur

      fancied that our eyesight had grown e , when last , lowest , and least upon tho list , we read JLe amo ' ofCox / of JTinsbwy . Surely our eyes deceive us . This cannot bo the great Cox , the old original Cox , tho Cox of history our own Cox . How are tho mighty fallen ! Behsanus at the gaS of Komo , Vmpson bound to the mill ; Louis Philippe as Smith of Newhavon ; were not moS instructive example * of tho vanity of hunm

      greatness , than Cox , the senator ana »«»""""> parading at a pot-house in 1 ' ootonviUe , * o »*| - moniftlised with a teapot , and puffed in tho pen * ultimate paragraph of a penny pap «»' The heartless and ungrateful world may have

      Untitled Article

      Nh ; 509 . Pec . 24 , 1859 ] THE LEAD EH 1395 ,. ... . . 1 hi mi M i lic ^ nggBcra ^^^^ w . ' " "' ** ^^^ w ^^^ ^ ' ¦'"' ' — **" - - "' ™* iim' —™ ¦¦¦ ^ ¦¦ ¦^» j . —i ¦* i -y ^ - "' - "" . ' ¦ . ¦¦ ' ™ '" * M 3 MBaiiaig * ^^^ F ^ ^^^* *" - **"" ¦ " " "' ¦ JMM > PMPPg I I i ' « P »—niniiwaiwa——

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1859, page 1395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2326/page/15/