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Miuwsir IV 1856. -] ' THE- I.BAD.IS i- 2...
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JSOTIGHS IIO CO&JBESPUNDENTS, No notice ...
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SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1856.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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has not maintained her original pretensi...
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. THE POLICE-BILL RESISTANCE. The resist...
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.
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Transcript
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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.
Miuwsir Iv 1856. -] ' The- I.Bad.Is I- 2...
Miuwsir IV 1856 . - ] ' THE- I . BAD . IS i- 203 .
Jsotighs Iio Co&Jbespundents, No Notice ...
JSOTIGHS IIO CO & JBESPUNDENTS , No notice can be taken pf = anonymous communications . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name aud address of- the . writer ); not necessarily fur publication bul as a guarantee of his good faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . I'll ir insertion in often delayed , owtng to a press of matter ; and vv-lien omitted , it is fi equently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communication , We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Our Titoe-Paob and Index for Vol . VI , ' 1858 , will be given next week During tlie Sessi > n of Parliament it is often impossible tb find room for eorr-espondence , even the briefest . Communication sisould always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only- If long , it increases thftdimt culty of finding oyu . ee for them .
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Saturday, March 1, 1856.
SATURDAY , MARCH 1 , 1856 .
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There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and conVulsive y as the strain , to keep things fixed when , all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Db > . Aamoia ) ..
Has Not Maintained Her Original Pretensi...
has not maintained her original pretensions ^ she has lost in position and prestige . But who has gained ? Austria has gained , by the consolidation of her interests on the Danube f Sweden has gained a territorial guarantee ; Sardinia has gained , as a compensation , for her burdens , dangers , and sacrifices , the frail benefit of recognition—such recognition , probably , as Cracow obtained at Vienna . To France has
RUSSIA ., AFTER THE PEACE . Assuming that the Conferences lead to a general pacification , the result of the war is , that Russia recoils befbre the powers combined in defence of Turkey . She surrenders her ostensible claims , relinquishes some of the fruit of former wars , and accepts , more freely ; than at any anterior period , the control of European diplo > - macy . It is indisputable that , in So ikr as' she
been conceded the initiative m war and peace . Prussia has extended her German dqminntion , enriched her people by the overflow of the carrying trade , and established , in comparison with Austria , a financial superiority so decided that it is her intention to create a navy , and convert into a reality that which , in Secretary Granville ' s time , was a sarcasm . In eight years the flag of Prussia will rank no longer with " the nag of Frankfort . " Whether , however , the pl'uia of Frederick William will be accomplished in Hoistein is a separate question .
Excepting the Government of the Porte , which lias been ruined , and Sardinia , which may have boen betrayed , by the war , Great Britain : is the only power which has not gained a moral or material advantage . In the Crimea , notwithstanding the unrivalled prowess of the troops at Alma , Balaklava , and Inkerxnann , and their perfect constancy amid the most appalling privations that over tried the virtues of an army , her military character has not been raised . Radical delects have boon exposed in her governing and administrative systems ; the
exposure will be a benefit , unless apathy returns with the star of peace ; but , through those defects , thousands of our best soldiers perished , and disasters in the camp were followed by disasters in the field . Diplomatically , England ho . s fallen into the rear of Franco , and has sacrificed great opportunities , at the Bsinw time time , that politically , she has sacrificed great principles . Her influence in Asia , instead of advancing , has retrograded . The full of Kara has been to Russia , what the fall of Canton , in the ( Jhineso war , was to
England . It has confirmed , among the credulous and imaginative populations of the East ^ the rumours of her power . Ten cities of the first magnitude might be stormed in . Europe , [ without producing on the Oriental mind an effect equivalent to that which was the immediate consequence of the reduction of Ears .
It rests with , the Plenipotentia ries , under the presiding , will of the Tuileries ,. to decide how ; far this success justifies Russia , in- maintaining her . Asiatic pretensions . We have no hope that much will be gained by Great Britain , in that direction . Possibly , the question is not one of immediate importance . It must beobvious to all who have marked the course of
the war , that the real struggle between British and Russian power and policy has not yet arrived * . Peace , if now concluded , will leave Russia intact , as the citadel of the military system in Europe . Russia is a young , growing , compact empire ; with a political machinery which cannot be weakened except by
Revolutionand there is not one Government ia Europe that does not regard the unawakened . Revolu tion , watb equal abhorrence and fear . That , then , is the issue of the-war . It settles certain points of diplomacy ; it may affix Its flying seal , to the spurious imperialism of France ; but it leaves ,- unappeased , unexhausted—the Revolution .
I * leaves rate Revolution , because it has not changed one condition , in the ; state of Europe that renders the Revolution necessary . What has this war had to do with the civilisation to which the appeal was made , Ox with the liberty on which the promises were lavished ? It found Europe bearing the burden of a military and * monarchical system , the weight of which it has aggravated . In France , a lawless ancL violent despotism has been consecrated and strengthened by gratuitous complicity in
England . In England itself , political arid social reforms have been postponed . In Germany , some of the lesser states haire lost a part of their constitutional liberty ; Austria has not abated , but increased , lier pressure on Italy ; the Hungarians have been silenced ; the populations which , in 1848 and 184-9 exhibited a . sympathy with the highest intelligence of the age , lie in languishing expectancy ; in Prussia , where the Government is less oppressive , but not less arbitrary , the privileges of the electoral
body have been attacked . The Ottoman Empire , instead of maintaining its integrity , has lost its independence , submits to the dictation of the Allies , to Austrian encroachments , and to the virtual divorce of the Danubian Principalities . Turkey , as a Turkish power , is bankrupt ; the Christian race is already half in possession . As for the Circassian cause , —whicli , at the outset , excited a ridiculous enthusiasm in Kngland—it has vanished among the clouds of the Caucasus . Persia is subjected , in an increased ratio , to the influence of Russia . The Fins have seen the Baltic fleet corne
and go , two successive summers , "without a gun being fired for their nationality , and k ' the immortal Poles , " who have furnished sentiment for Tivcrton , and satire for the Hou . se of Commons , are once more consigned to th « patronage of the Visionary . No Lord Chamberlain will again marshal the sympathisers on St . Martin ' s platform . The war has been Limited in scope , and can lead only to ephemeral results . Europe- —th at Europe Avhich represents civilisation and liberty—awaits the issue of a nobler struggle . Events , not conspiraciuSjwillcrento the opportunity . Itis impossible not to believe in better national
destiiucs than can be developed under the rule of armies and privileged orders . GUrvermnents —oven the most ephemeral—confide in their
power and in the constancy of fortune , and prepare their successions , as though the throne ro £ ilsurpation stood under the sanction of an > eternal law . Why , then , should Europe des-; pair ? It has more resources than those ot Ternary more rights than those of a Coup cFEtat .
. The Police-Bill Resistance. The Resist...
. THE POLICE-BILL RESISTANCE . The resistance to Sir Geobge Grey ' s Police Bill is a middle-class and country-gentleman resistance . Its single motive is not the avoidance of ' rates—there are other purposes at work ; although probably it is dislike to rates that stirs farmers in the field , and the love of Votes that primarily actuates shopkeepers in the town . The Bill follows up a former Act which laid down the rules for the establishment of police iu counties that voluntarilyadopted it . That act has , therefore , been voluntarily adopted by more than half of England and Wales . It is one of those cases in which an injury is inflicted upon the communities that have adopted the law , -when others refuse to adopt it also . In all counties that still hold out , there are numbers who desire to see the measure extended over their own . districts : Those coxmties -which have a police , naturally become proportionately comfortless abodes for vagrants or the ticket-of-leaye class ; the vaga- " bonds gradually wander into the counties that are guarded only by the inefficient force under the Parish Constables Act- ~ Nevertheless , on that free ground the vulgar tribe of R ' obist Hoods is kept up ,, and thus the neighbouring counties suffer for the ladies of the false economists . Because the West Riding of Yorkshire * in its economical wisdom , refuses to appoint an efficient guard over , highways and property , the next Biding , "which has adopted such a guard , suffers by the contiguity with the thiefpreserve . TSow , there is no question that a minority in the "West Riding feel the inconve nience as well as the disgrace , and they would ' , therefore , gladly adopt tHe measure . Thusj there is the East Kidxnsr in favour of the new
law , and no inconsiderable part of the West , Biding ; or , taking the two Ridings together , a decided majority in favour of an effective county police . Under the practical working of the Act , then , a large majority of the country is favourable to its extension over the whole ; but because a minority divided into ; counties works as a majority , and resists the extension of the law , the country is exposed to the maintenance of the thief-interest . This , is npt self-government , it is the obstruction of self-government .
Again , in towns the real objection is not to the bill . There might be valid reasons why the Secretary of State should not have a control over the police , even to the extent of dictating the uniform and pay . But however jealous the Watch Committee of a corporation might bo about its privileges in these matters , everybody knows that it would care comparatively little for that amoimt of interference , if it were not for another clause in the Bill . The measure will extend to boroughs that prohibition which now prevents policemen from voting at county elections . Here is the great sting .
The common-councillors are really the governors of the force ; although they may not by direct means purchase the votes , or scadi the men down to elections by word of command , any one can see the degree of influence which such a position offers . Now , common-councillors and aldermen nro always glad enough to replace themselves by their friends , or to get themselves in again . The police is a great reservoir of votes for such a purpose ; and here it is proposed to render that force as im « dependent of borough election matters ae the county force . Jlino iiltx laakxyma ! 1 Maaay
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1856, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01031856/page/11/
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