On this page
- Departments (2)
-
Text (7)
-
^^__ l _ M ___—^i^— —~————"^^^ ^ NOT1CKS...
-
THE LE1DEB. 323
-
<gr*\ TffXx s —>4""^^' JV' %sty ^r sty J ^ ^ rs€° c ^ r ______
-
SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 185G.
-
in such a war has been sacrificed to ave...
-
'^uliltc Maim
-
There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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.
^^__ L _ M ___—^I^— —~————"^^^ ^ Not1cks...
^ NOT 1 CKS TO COliRESl'ONDENTS , ¦ KTr * nntice can be taken of anonymous communications . W WhSeveH ° Intended for insertion must be authenticated ^ the name and address of tlie writer ; not necessarily for pubUcatioa but as a guarantee of Ins ood faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we reoliVe Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter and when omitted . it is frequently from reason ™ quite independent of the merits of the commumoation . . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . During the Session of Parliament it is often impossible to find room for correspondence , even the bnelest .
The Le1deb. 323
THE LE 1 DEB . 323
April 5 , 1856 . 1 ., ^^__ _ ___—^ i ^— —~———— " ^^^
≪Gr*\ Tffxx S —≫4""^^' Jv' %Sty ^R Sty J ^ ^ Rs€° C ^ R ______
< gr *\ TffXx s —> 4 ""^^ ' JV' % sty ^ r sty J ^ ^ rs €° c ^ r ______
Saturday, April 5, 185g.
SATURDAY , APRIL 5 , 185 G .
In Such A War Has Been Sacrificed To Ave...
in such a war has been sacrificed to avert a struggle which would have given the leading military Powers the right to intervene , occupy , and dominate in every territory o-f Europe ? It cannot be said that , at this point , the constitutional liberties of England are exhibited in disgraceful contrast with the absolute unity of Trance . Much as the privileged governing class has done to injure the British prestige , by misconducting the operations , by lowering the
four hundred ships of war , propelled by steam , constituted the naval force disposable for th & anticipated campaign , exclusive of at leasb a hundred vessels , similarly armed arid equipped , cruising in various distant waters , and of two hundred large transport steamers taken up from private companies . To man this vast navy sixty-six thousand sailors and marines were required . For 1856-57 , the army , instead of the original 150 , 000 , is estimated at j ^ ^ b ft ¦ ^\ . ^ l m 1 ^ m _ - IM ^ w ~» Ik 7 ol tne
tone of our diplomacy , by subordinating our policy to that of the French Emperor , England , at the conclusion of peace , stands amply arrned , opulent , and formidable . After two years of warfare , we are prepared - after two years of warfare , the French Government finds its capacities exhausted . France and Russia determine , therefore , to cease a conflict which neither could conveniently -prolong , and
sub-^^ ^* * _ o , UUU troops guara ana me uue , 127 , 000 militia , 14 , 500 foreign legionaries , forming a total of 416 , 500 men , which , including the Turkish contingent , could have supplied ? two distinct armies of a hundred thousand men each , to operate on different fields against Russia . We have no reason to be ashamed of our constitutional system . We have not been forced by exhaustion to sign raris
THE WAR AND THE PEACE . The self-governing English nation has concluded a peace with Russia—on what terms the self-governing nation is not permitted to know . It is a curious illustration of the irreo-niof nrrtppss V » v wliif . h our liberties have been
mitting to the will of its ally , the British Government accepts the peace , though peace arrests the march of the national power . Had the war continued , our sufferings , oar failures , our disgraces , seemed past . We had been exposed , we had stripped our administrative system ; we had laid bare its whole anatomy , and confessed to Europe how much , a , ndat what a cost , we could blunder ; but a change had taten place . Surprising forces were ready for the third campaign . Our troops in the Crimea had wintered in comfort and safety . Our Baltic fleet was equipped for real warfare ,
the Jreace or , nowever unsawsiactoxy that peace may be . Austria has reason to be satisfied with tne result of her diplomatic intervention . She has secured her interests on the Danube and in tie Black Sea , has escaped the dangers of a war , and is enabled to reduce her armies . On t"h . e same grounds , Prussia and confederated Germany gain by the general pacification . Sweden and Sardinia are thrown upon the good faith of the Western Powers , since they have both provoked the Russian and German Governments . The Ottoman Porte was scarcely any longer wai
developed , that , while we establish all our Laws on a Parliamentary basis , our Treaties , secretly negotiated , and irrevocably sanctioned , are equivalent to decrees . We insist on the responsibility of the Executive , and we tolerate an absolute diplomacy . The Minister conniving at an unwise or dishonourable Convention , might , indeed , he punished by loss of power ; but the Convention itself could nob be modified or repudiated , but must stand as part of the public law of the world . This secret metnoa oi relations
with , an effective complement or gunboats . T _ ere had been no correspondents , no public scrutiny , to tell all another army that fought by the side of our own had endured ; but it will one day be known that all is not perfect in the organisation of absolute power ; it is already known indeed , that French soldiers , " children of the Emperor , " may starve and tremble with hunger , cold , and fatigue , and that every month of prolonged war must have added to their destitution . This is the iiT-. VioTM-. tr frni-T . Wa write it with no desire IJ VL UVUf il ¦»— -- —
an active participator m me - , w u , uu . u .. u . campaign it must have been trampled do-wn by the belligerent powers ; bankrupt , and- ' helpless , its defensive resources were exhausted ; it gains from Peace only the leisure of decay , while the Christian population , whether or not the reforms are loyally developed , must gradually take possession of the Government , as they have long taken possession of the trade and industry of the empire . As to Russia , the necessity of dissolving the active alliance of France and England—a
and positive reguiaung me of a free people with foreign Governments is in diametrical contrast to the practice of the United States , by which treaties are ratified by the Senate , in executive session , with closed doors . It may be a question , whether the American principle be preferable to the European ; but there can be no doubt as to which is the self-governing system . We must take the Treaty as it is given to na n-nA vi ; l > of . liAi" rvr nof . it , V » p n . sn . t . iSTfi . ft'f . orv ¦*¦*»• - •» _« ,
IAX-1 J-LUI |^ T v — - — to taunt the French Emperor with the sufferings of his army ; but we , in England , who have so unshrinkingly exhibited our official frailty , must not be told that a single will , a pervading master mind , imperial unity of conception , imperial celerity of action , result in invariable success ; while constitutional government cannot bear the trials of war . Great Britain expended in support of the Russian struggle as much money as France ,
policy illustrated by her treatment of French and English prisoners combined with the loss of three hundred thousand men , a thousand guns , a fleet , the entire maritime commerce of her southern territories , and her carrying trade everywhere , of Sebastopol , Anapa , Kertch , Kinburn , the Circassian forts , Bomaxsund , and the arsenals of Sweaborg , compelled her to accept the Austrian plan of pacification . Her entire revenues do not amount to a fifth of the jcjngumu oi
\ JLOm UlUvl > »» UVV **^* ' w * . *» . ^^ v av rw -w . .. _•««« . v — . ^ solution of the questions that caused the * war , we shall certainly not regret that peace is given to Europe . A conflict , conducted on such a basis , under such auspices , could be of no permanent or general advantage to mankind . Instead of promoting civilisation , it was demoralising the habits and opinions even of Englishmen ; it was quenching those liberal sympathies which form the support and pro-WAAAffti
though she furnished fewer soldiers . When the war broke out she had not more than a hundred and fifty thousand men in the regular army , and of these twenty-five thousand were in India , eight thousand in Canada , four or five thousand in the Cape ; others were in Gibraltar , Malta , Australia , Jamaica , others in the Mauritius , Ceylon , Singapore , Hong Kong , St . Helena , and the Ionian group . Thus nearlv a hundred thousand British troops , in
united revenues ot a ranee ana . ^ last loan , insignificant as it was in amount , was a failure ; she found it impossible to secure one active ally . Her only success in Asia would have entailed enormous exertion during the ensuing summer . She had but one alternative , which was between peace and ruin . But it was never the policy of the Allies to attempt the ruin of the Russian Empire—a bugbear to the European nations , but not to the governtuo oi ims
JUAAOW VJJL HCVUJLV / JLJLtJ \_/»« . UWV V V * A vy i « w | J ****^ wv » be equally free . It has come to a legitimate end ; its local objects are fulfilled ; it has wearied Russia , satisfied France , terrified the German powers , taught England her weakness and her strength , and it is checkod in time to spare the world a desperate , aimless struggle between military monarchies , in which one ju
February , 1654 , were sprinkled over all parts of the globe , thero being in England only the five or six thousand incomparable guards , and the detaohmenta in depot , yet England sent successively more than a hundred , thousand soldiers to the Crimea , fifty thousand of whom remain , while fifty thousand have been killed * - > r nivii . li < lnrl . Her fleet , thouerh it was not
' ments . K-ocovenng from eneccs : prodigal conflict , prohibited from attacks on ! the territorial possessions of the Turkish empire , Russia may enlarge her commerce ., improve her industry , increase her diplomats influence , establish a political connection with itb . e French empire . She has lost by the war ; but the war has ceased in time to prevent her
cnantjB ungut nave gummureu wi u . ncu laiujju against a hundred chances in favour of the absolutism of standing arrnios . On the one sido would havo been , the vast , loose , heterogeneous mass of nations , some revolutionary , others conservative , without concert or unity , liablo to the rigours of martial law ; on the other side , the arrned and organised despotisms , though divided , would havo recognised a common nocossity , and would , in all human probability , havo reduced tho Continent to tho level of 1810 . Can we regret that tho ono vaguo chanco that liberalism might havo seen
pittod effectively against the enemy's fortifications , no soonor appeared in the Black Sea than a hundred and twenty-seven Russian ships of war took refuge in the harbour oi ' Sevastopol , whenco they never once dared to emerge , whilo tho Baltic navy was , in the samo manner , protected within rocks and gigantic walls . French writers , candid and liberal , havo expressed their " jealous wondor" at tho celerity with which hugo vossels half finished when the declaration of war was inado wore completed and propitrod for sea ;
iloss being irreparable . ' Nat being in possession of the lroaty it I would bo useless to discuss tho details of the ' actual poaoo . But of this we may be oortain , i it is a che « k on Russian , aggression ; it guarantees tho territorial independence of Turkey ; ' but it loaves Civilisation and Liberty , the objects of popular enthusiasm and official bluster , ' to languish as they languished before , or to ! rise by a process which will never bo countenanced by a German Monarchy , by British Aristocracy or French Imperialism .
'^Uliltc Maim
' ^ uliltc Maim
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so -unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed -when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Abnom > .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1856, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05041856/page/11/
-