On this page
-
Text (3)
-
- October ]1, 1853.] THE LEADER. 949
-
SECRET DIPLOMACY. The Eastern question, ...
-
THE APPEAL AGAINST CHOLEttA. pQRTSy^s wh...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Tjii; Riioxkairairx Awanoeand The ¦¦ ; •...
females : arid tottering'princes on questions periaining to religion , bur she mil not be free , free to choose eacli man his faith , till she is free to choose her institutions . We shall begin to be--Heve in the sincerity of the Protestant A ^ Uiance when we And it co-operating \ vith the Friends of Italy . Mftzzini , backed by- Lord Shaftesbury ^ would do something for his country ; ive are quite sure that the Protestant Alliance and Miss Cunninghaine never Will .
- October ]1, 1853.] The Leader. 949
- October ] 1 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 949
Secret Diplomacy. The Eastern Question, ...
SECRET DIPLOMACY . The Eastern question , suggestive of many . questions , itiust by this time have made the more reflective of the people of England ask themselves w ) 10 aretheir rulers , and whethery after all their vaunts of liberty , they are better off , in point of self-government , than their ^ iieighbbuis . / VVhat < 16 we know of the affairs of ' 1 , ' urkey a , nd of our present . relation , as a country , to the Foreign Powers with tvhom we haveauthorizedcertain Diplomatists , little known to us ^ to ideal ? . L 6 rd Palmerstoa , the liberal ^^ member ^ fpr Tiyerion , ha ^ told us that he Jhvites ; suggestions and will at all
times listen , if not defer ! to the recommendations of his countrymen ; Lord Palnierston , the . Diplomatist , has not such confidencein ourinstincts or iu our wisdom , and has illustrated tlie ' distinction which he draws between , o . iiracquaintance with Foreign and Doinestic ) affeirs by postponing his applications for our advice till a time when refractory Cabin en , instead of [ wily Potentates , are the parties dealt witli in his department . He , and ins colleagues ^ rapturously cheered by flunkey burgesses , are : talking-outrof-doors liberalism and reforms of the Sewerage , as if Engla nd ignored
the universe arid had no highoi : destiniesrthan to become a ^ lp del of parochial . '; excellence , and no greater duiv than to keep ¦ her citizens ignorant and heal thy . -, Lord John Bussell , who approved of the Queeri ' s superintending Lord P f iluierston ' s despatches ,, is considered ' -. to . ; . be mqre confiding : foi- lie , yindicating tUe honour ; of his country and the determination of tlie Cabinet , talked pompous platitudes at ( rxeenock about England ' s position , and declared her ready , with a well-spurred warhorse , to go forth with a Brumm ' ' * Ha I ha ! " if she could by no possibility avoid it . Mr . Gladstone , who was well d'awn , and who has written in times past very considerable , liberalism to his
present Chief , was more mincing . He would not commit himself to anything except an assurance that his colleagues werfe . " wise and eminent men , ' * and a compliment to the people on their * ' thoughtfully confiding in their rulers . " So far , this is all we know of the " Eastern question . "' A selfgoverning people , a commercial people , and a great Power , know only that Diplomatists are mystically arrauging their destinies , and that their gracious Queen , but not their beloved Houses of Parliament , is probably controlling- the tendencies and correcting the mistakes of the loyal nobleman who'is her , —and they say , our , —Secretary for Foreign Affairs . We have for some time been in possession of this information . .
At one time it was hoped that Mr . Layard , — Ex-under Secretary of State—smarting at the government ' s neglect of la ' s claims , and knowing enough of Nineveh to be conceived , —by some extraordinary process of reasoning — intimate with , Constantinople , would penetrate the mystery and set the people and the Stock Exchange at rest . Independent members , reverencing an ex-official and a travelled liberal , postponed their anxieties and awaited , week after week , the explanations which the author of tlie great book on marbles and mummies , was to start .
At length the questioning , and what must be called tlie answering-, came ; a full house , representatives of the people , listened . They heard contentedly a shambling interrogation , and , still smilingly , a shuffling reply . Since then they have drawn their predictions from the morning ' papers , and diverted their'doubts by grouse-shooting . Diplomacy , they know , is a secret and a gentlemanly ¦ craft . They are too well-bred to interfere with it ; and there certainly is an apology for thoir acqniuacenco in the Indifference of their constituencies .
i'o us it seems tlmt thin staring , quidnunc way of looking at a great question , this submission to an entire dependence on the wisdom and uprightness of a bureau is an absolute symptom of national decline We cannot understand a free people being loss interested in the relations of their country than a constitutional Queen , nor underst and wh y , when diplomatists can safely bow to
the interference of a royal mistress , they . cannot also give ear to the voice of * an , educated nation They area , oi merely the servants of courts land caHnietsl , They i are , according to our iaa ^ M ? nal sel if-delusibn ,. the servants of the people . ¦ $ & jser-Yante ^ tliey ; snbuld be responsible : and we forget , wfiatt tlre ^ full well remember s that secrecy is irresponsibility . It is , however , our own fault . England has lost her solicitude for everything that does not visibly affect her' interests , and . bunded b \ r selfishness as well as ignorance , knows not
what her own interests are . ¦ She lias but one priiiciple- ^ that war is to be avoided ; biit one object—the acquisition '' of Wealth ; and" what have these to do with tlie advances of distant despotisms and the craft of secret diplomacy ? Hereditary hlOnstrchs may be anxious to maintain a useful , or a proud position , in the world ' seyes a comfort- ' able people requests and ^ leaves God to save its Queen , and valuing ^ its birthright of independence oiily as a means of being idle , forgets that , the estate has beeji entailed ^ and asks , if . pressed , Wha ^ posterity has done for it ? ' . Diplomacy triuniphs , diplomatists prosper , and courts are le look into
Well pleased ; the peop on , enquiring the use of the cplleetive" Wisdbm , understanding that the Eastern ' Question is important ^ and being iritermed that the Earl of Clarendon managesthat department . They will prime another independent member soon , and ih February , if the crisis is over , we shall know what dangers we have been rrihtii ^ g , and be able to guess What treacheries our secret servants have been endeavouring to perpetrate , and what further Contributions Russia has made to the chapter of " accomplished facts . '* Meanwhile the Cabinet is not divided ; but amatfeur- and talkative diplomatigts say that Turkey is to be .
The Appeal Against Choletta. Pqrtsy^S Wh...
THE APPEAL AGAINST CHOLEttA . pQRTSy ^ s which , alarmed , ^ ur ancestors were not always phantoms . Visitations of calamity have not ; always been , wrongly called judgmenis . 11 often happens that the scepticism which first laughs at the portent , or denies the judgment , discovers in the one a sign , and in the other , the consequence of infringing a law belonging to the code which sustains the divine government of the universe . It happened a week or two back , that a girl in . Berlin placed her candle near to tlie spout of a pump , and she was horror-stricken by a sudden gush of { fame , apparently from the midst of the water , as though she had set fire to the stream . A local writer observes , that if such an occurrence had happened two centuries back , all the Jews in the place would have been tortured , for having poisoned the springs , and cursed the city with cholera . It is probable , also , that they would have been fined for that offence , and thus the
exchequer would have benefited through the supposed infliction upon the people . For it was always the most refined species of torture for the Jew to squeeze money from him . Fifty years back probably the story would have been denied , as incredible , ' and the girl would have been laughed at for her delusion . In the present day we look a little deeper , and discover the source of the flame in some buried corruption which
sends up hydrogen gas with the water ; and we discover in the filthy neglects of a community , how * it lias been stirring up for itself the sources of disease . It is not always that hydrogen gas presents itself exactly in the proportion to take fire , but it can be detected by the senses brooding over many a collection of stagnant water , and pointing to the existence of gases oven more noxious to human life .
If we break the laws by which life is sustained , we Shall bo punished for it—there is no escape from that sentence . If we construct society , and the homes in which society lives , in such manner that we leave in existence , or create , brutal ignorance , mercenary disregard of the welfare of others , crowding of the poor , and accumulations of domestic filth ; and if , above all , we regard these defiances of sense- and duty with indifference , then wo harden ourselves into disobedience against the
laws which cannot bo broken with impunity , and th ' o judgment comes upon ' us in the shape-of cholera . This is only u description of what wo have actually been doing ; nor do Wo awake to it for the first time . The great black ditch which runs through the low grounds at Batfcersea , has been black and noisome year after year . It has been denounced many times ; but besides leaving that ditch as a notorious conduit of pestilence , we have l « ft the population in a condition of such
stolid ignorance , that ' . there is found a farmer Graham in that neighbourhood to defend the old black ditch , and to assert some right which he has in its passage through those . grounds . It is moral as v ^ ell asi mate ^ at futh that we have suffered to reippfain , aM Ve are-undergoing the punishment . T Nor is Farmer Graham alone . It has been remarked that cholera , as well as typhus , plague , and other pestilences , which are less feared because
they , are . mqr ? familiar , although more fatal , take their centres in those parts of our towns that are the most crowded with the poor and ignorant . Under some supposed necessity , we blindl y adhere to such rules of law making and public polity as pre-supposed the necessary existence of very poor persons in the midst of wealth ; and we have deferred the task of enlightening the ignorant on the laws of divine government until we can settle the exact form in which we shall mingle with practical instruction a particular instruction ou " the Three Persons , " or the accurate explanation of " Baptismal grace . " We have , it is true , made no progress whatever towards settling these very recondite questions . The more we e xamine , the more we differ on the ' oilier ' hand , we have made
some progress , not m arriving at final Causes , but in understanding the march of the laws which regulate life . Nevertheless we postpone the duty of enlightening the people upon these laws , which we begin to understand , and which are essential to our obedience under tlie divine rule , until we have settled how we shall teach those very obscure points , towards which we have not made the slightest 1 progress in ¦ comprehending ourselves . For that perverse transposition of duties we are undergoing a judgment in the shape of the visitation which is now upon us .
It is not only in poor neighbourhoods that pestilence appears to lodge and flourish with a peculiarly favourable development ; there are spots also in better parts of the town which have been visited in a similar manner . We say that there is an appearance of " caprice" in this course of the pestilence ; but there is no caprice in the laws of nature . There is a reason for it , perhaps a reason ' not very difficult to discover . It lias been suggested in more than one of these cases , that the site which appears so peculiarly unhealthy is an old burial ground , in some instances
the burial ground where people were interred in the time of the plague . Here the soil , however long decomposed , has biden preserved as it were in an enclosure ; and as a grain of musk will diffuse its sensible particles for an indefinite period , so the many . grains of corruption here impacted are ever diffusing a noxious atmosphere . Where there are not any of these traditional repositories of corruption , there are depositories of another kind . Houses , —nay , we suspect whole rows , or even
districts , are built upon swampy ground , where the infirm earth has been strengthened by throwing in rubbish , the rubbish often comprising corrup " tible refuse . Here again a compost is laid down to be for ever a storehouse of pestilence for those who are miserable enough to live above it . Not only this has been done , but it is doing at the present moment . There is in the suburbs of London a pond lying upon " eligible" building ground ; it has been suggested that this pond should be drained , but the commercial views of
the person in possession are different ; ho proposes to fill it in with rubbish—to make a mash of refuse , corruptible or not , in this pond , and then to build human habitations upon it ! To us , who have been taught to watch the laws which regulate health or death , this act appears on impious defiance of divine laws ; and surely the judgment will follow : the habitations will be the ubode of premature death . Nor is it only these mercenary traders who are at fault : their responsibility is shared by Kociety , by the Legislature , by Ministers who know better and yet connive at these social crimes .
When the visitation comes upon us , wo oro panic-stricken ; we run helplessly to the public officers , whom we have reviled for " centralising' ' their power ; we rush into church to offer up prayers to bo delivered from a punishment which wo . have incurred by our own disobedience . That is jiofc the spirit to meet the infliction . The punishment we must undergo , and we shall undergo it the lens terribly to ourselves , if our spiri t do not succumb under the burden . If wo have any reliance it must be in those laws which we have infringed . If we have any help to ask , the petition must bo presented in the form of our own enlightened industry to restore the free working of
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01101853/page/13/
-