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,..,./ THE LEA DEB,. [No. 350, Saturday,
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¦¦ ¦ •¦ ¦ • . . . . ¦ • ¦ , ¦ ¦ .•ti THE...
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. , AN ENGLISH ' INTEllIOli:'- A peep in...
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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.
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T Fe R« A P< La Tl Ai G O: H Tl ^ S C T ...
The professor of political economy , main- v tains that the lending of money at interest , v is a legitimate transaction . That , again , s must be suppressed , the councils of J & vrra 1 S ^ enna haTing > laid it down that _ the t lender of money at interest is a heretic . J 3 ut a churchmen , being sometimes in want of ac- 1 conunodation , have lought the money at a c certain rate , and for a certain time , instead ot t lorroioiny it ; thereby remaining faithful to i their code ! On these points the University 1 and the Chureli have come into collision . 1 So , also in the department of civil law . 1 The professor of tlds science taught that the i Judicial power in Belgium emanates from the j nation , but tliat in a former period there 1 was an ecclesiastical tribunal , with juiisdic- i tion in matrimonial and other causes . Such a tribunal the professor condemned ; , his opinion being an offence to the clergy . He declared , moreover , the superiority of the civil contract over the religious rite in marriage — a principle of the Belgian constitution ; but Pius IX , in answer "to the King of Sabdinia , had asserted the coatrary ; maxim . In truth , the Catholic Ohitrch , professing to uphold a body of immutable doctrines lamilying through every department of human inquiry , demands that science shall be her slave ; and that the Belgian universities shall be transformed in centres of intrigue against the liberal constitution of the State . Tor several days the Legislative Chamber of Brussels debated this important topic , involving the question of confidence in the King ' s ministry ; but , though the Cabinet obtained a majority , the censure has been too powerful not to be heeded . The violence of the Church and the hypocrisy of the Cabinet , had evoked a high spirit , which found its expression in oratory of a land not common in Continental Chambers . The Liberal party throughout Europe is deeply interested in the final issue of this remarkable struggle . ¦ ¦ b i s l 3 f i fc i - l 3 .- s a y e
,..,./ The Lea Deb,. [No. 350, Saturday,
,..,. / THE LEA DEB ,. [ No . 350 , Saturday ,
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¦¦ ¦ •¦ ¦ . . . . ¦ ¦ , ¦ ¦ . ti THE KING OF PRUSSIA'S QUESTION . y Ir Frederick-William were the repre- h sentative man of Prussia , or the Frankfort I Diet tlie representative assembly of Germany , 1 no moxe would be heard of the Neufchatel t difficulty . But the Prussian king , with sub- I lime pedantiy , pretends to judge for ' his t people , ' and , therefore , raises a European 1 question about ' his principality . ' The great t Powers are expected , in due course , to take ] part in this discussion ;— -not that it concerns i them in the least , but tliat it may form the i pivot of a new diplomatic combination . The 1 king ' s advocates , indeed , affect to anticipate a i pressure from all quarters upon the Swiss Fe- 1 deral Gfrovernment , assuming that England , no ; less than the Powers of the Continent , is solicitous to conserve , as far as possible , the political settlements of 1815 . Such an as- ( sumption is purely gratuitous . Whatever may he the considerations that might incline France to act in unanimity with Prussia and Russia , and whatever may have been the vote of the Germanic Diet , it could nob be the policy of Austria to encourage the inarch of a Prussian army across the territories of the Federation to the Swiss frontier . Ten Germanic resolutions would not weigh agains . t the obvious interests and the hereditary jealousy of the Austrian Government . Again , it is represented to the Cabinet at Berlin . by the abettors of the Prussian claim , that the refusal of the Federal Council to liberate toh . 6 Royalist prisoners has deprived it of French sympathy , that England will not , and Sardinia dare not , interfere ; that Prussia , armed witUthe moral co-operation of Europe , may safely persist , and thai Switzerland , thus isolated , must succumb , or suffer for the contumacy of her statesmen . Against this ) - -t ¦ f , A > is n * t te is le v lie a ' e- uo ili- he as- rer ne nd ate ; he f a ; he er- ns . t ivy int . at im , to ved will hat l of ser- ¦ for bhis
! view of the case there are some points to be urged , which are , no doubt , well under- stood at Berne . The nlthnate opposition , of Austria to any active course of policy under- taken by Prussia may be calculated upon , almost to a certainty * The disturbance of Europe by Prussia is the event most likely of all that can be imagined to bring a French army upon the Rhine . The protocol of 1855 may not be accepted , in London , as the apo- logy for a war in Central Europe , provoked y tlie King of Pbussia . in an interest which has never "been more than a fiction . Nor is it to be allowed , for a moment , that the Swiss are incapable of self-defence . They send their soldiers abroad ; but they have others at home , and could arm two hundred tliou- sand men against an invasion of their moun- tains . They prepared , in 1 S 3 S , to resist the whole power of France , and it would not be more hazardous to undertake a defensive struggle with Prussia . Those , however , were the days of magnanimous manifestations on the part of L ouis Napoleonv France had de nianded liis extradition from the Swiss'terri tory . The Swiss asserted their rights as an independent nation . But the refugee , now Napoleon HI-, would allow no sacrifices to be made for Ins sake l > y ; " the only country in Europe where lie had met with support and protection , " and which he called his " second fatherland . " Moreover , we must take into account the probable consequences to the military governments of Europe of a demo cratic war begun in the Swiss Y alley s , but which would create , perhaps ; a rallying point for the disaftected in more States tlian one . The political claims of Prussia will bear examination . We will recite , briefly , the historical circumstances of her relations Ayith Neufchafcel . There being in the sight of Go vernments no statute ) of limitations—thoug Polish , Hungarian , and Italian rights are sup posed to lapse the moment possession ceases —the King of Prussia refers to an ancestral title-deed , bearing the date of 1707 . In that year died the Duchess of Nbhotjiis ,. the last legal representative of the House of 0 RLE an Longueville , to which the sovereignty Neufchatei belonged . Fifteen claimants to the succession appeared , among them Fkederick I . of Prussia . To decide upon their rights , the Tiers JEtats of the Principa lity were convened , but on the day of trial , thirteen of the pretenders retired , leaving the Prince de Cabignan and tlie King of Pjiussia to carry on the struggle . The King preailed " over the prince , it being adjudged that he , as the son of the Princess Louise , aunt of William : III . of England , was heir to the house of Chalons-Ora ^ ge-Nassau , and consequently entitled to Neufchatel . It may be taken for granted that the pedigree was proved , and that the verdict was judicial , though the election was one between the Catuolic ascendancy , upheld by Louis XIV ., and the Protestant ascendancy , upheld by Louis XIV ' s . enemies . But we only refer to these proceedings in order to insist that they have nothing to do with the point at issue , and that it is mere puerility to bring forward that ancient election by legal authority in support of the Prussian pretensions . The Treaty of Yienna , quashing one privilege , affirming another , and creating a third , abrogated the preexisting political settlements of EuTope , so that Neufchatel was assigned to Prussia upon grounds no better and no worse than those upon which "Venice , Salzburg , and the Tyrol were assigned to Austria , Norway to Sweden , Lauonburg to Denmark . Tliat is to say , the treaty restored some ancient titles , and treated others with contempt Tlie only question is , whether Prussia has a right to insist upon the literal execution of
th < me rig Be lie ar < ex in 1 th su th B < of fr w . o \ ec T di re ol ir - n - tl P l t < r t : a » t - -a r r e no g t r - 1 h i - c c t c c s- _ J of 1 - i - ; the arrangements of 1815 . It would be a mere platitude to say that if she has this right , Holland may claim the restoration of Belgium , Turkey of Greece , and Cracow of her independence , and that the great Powers are bound to assist the French nation in expelling Louis Napokeon from the throne . The French nation does not solicit such interference and would not tolerate it . By the same moral law , then , tliat France is suffered to effect the virtual abrogation of the Treaty of "Vienna by maintaining a Bonaparte upon the throne , the inhabitants i of Neufchatel may demand to be released from the domination of a German power , i ¦ whose territories are separate from their . own , and to be allowed to rejoin that free , . confederation to which they naturally belong . ) The Principality was torn from Prussia ; during the wars of Napoxeon , but was ) restored to her in 1815 ; under the guarantee ? of all the high contracting parties , and adi mitted as a member of the Germanic Confede-. ration- In 1848 tliis compact was destroyed , - the Principality detached itself from tlie i Prussiau monarchy , and Frederick-Wiiv liam contented liimself with obtaining a pi-o-0 tocol signed in London seven years later by the a representatives of France , Kussia , and Ausd tria . The assent of England was one of the 1 acts which proved Lord M-ALMESBury an o inconipetent diplomatist . But the will of e the Neufehatel people had been ; clearly I- ascertained , the recent outbreak of the small Lt royalist faction being an immediate and Lt ridiculous failure . To infer from the motheaten title-deeds of 1704 , from the obsolete o g uarantees of 1815 , or from the vague proie tocolof 1 S 55 , that Prussia lias a right to h produce a conflagration in the heart of j _ Europe by invading the Swiss cantons , is h indeed an ironical coimnentary on the value ) . of political engagements . The Neufchatelese » s owenomoreallegiance totheHoHENZOiiLiiiifa il than they owe to the F : lant-agenets . They xt constituted tliemselvcs in 184 i 8 members 3 t of the Swiss Confederation ; the King ot s- Prussia was unable to reclaim them as of Denmark reclaimed Schleawig , and Austs tria Hungary ; and there the question rests . m Eight years elapse and the new Eikon oi bairn masius still mouths at Berlin about « /<« a- principality . '
. , An English ' Intellioli:'- A Peep In...
. , AN ENGLISH ' INTEllIOli : ' - A peep into the domestic doings of an English family has been nllbrdeu this week by a trial in the Exchequer . Some attorney , duly instructed , acts as Asmodeus , unroots the house , penetrates to the parlour , then upstairs and into " my lady ' s chamber , showing us a pretty little girl of seventeen sowing on the bed , while piles of her lover s letters arc being returned , and . " the cart stands at the door to bear away—not her o ^ n pretty self to the scaffold as a ( ngbtoned Feminine reader might anticipate—but all the gifts which her young lover had proluseiy showered upon her . " Bich gifts wax poor when givers _ pro \ e unkind , " as poor Ophelia says , and intms case the giver was " unkind . " Ho talked ot " embarrassments ; " delayed answering letteis , and did not call to see pretty little busAN aa freouently as usual . Hamlet , by the way , acted with like unkindness , but strangely enough , Opitexta , " poor wretch , nw « thought of an action for breach ot J > w . mise : Slie went to her « melodious death , without consulting an attornoy . J »«» , Susan Cbippen was not of the samo suu i missive mind . Her brother O ^ Ba * , « £ , j Laehtes of this English . play , » ' « i b tt . treated badly by young ^ abebbotiibb , nor i lover . Fabebiiotiob had given Gjonoif situation in his place of business at & ow
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121856/page/12/
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