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Aram 7, 1855.] THE IjEAPEB. 317
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STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING IN FRANCE. (Extr...
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BELGIUM. Tub Biiussels Pamphlet.—Cantiia...
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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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.
India And China. Nothing Of Great Import...
The troopers immediately took to their heels , leaving the cattles behind them , to be added to the booty already safely secured . Despite of incidents of this sort now and then occurring , the Punjaub is tranquil and prosperous . " The trade and manufactures of India , for the most part , seem rather depressed . From China we have some important intelligence with respect to the rebellion . The rebels have been defeated at Canton whilst attempting to force the passage of the river at the barrier forts , and were compelled to retire to their head-quarters near Whampoa . Their chief has issued a proclamation to the three treaty Powers ( England , France , and America ) , protesting against the transport of rice , & c-, by the river steamers , and notifying that all foreigners must quit the city of Canton , and that trade must be stopped until the place is in possession
of the insurgents . In the north , the rebels are said to be losing ground . Nankin and Chekiang are reported to be invested by the Imperialists , who are starving out the inhabitants ; and the accounts from Pekin are also favourable to the ruling dynasty . But it must be recollected that the transmission of the news is in the hands of the Imperialists , who , of course , give the best account they can of themselves ; and it is certain that they , in conjunction with the French , have received a signal defeat at Shanghai on the 6 th of January . They endeavoured to take the city by assault , but were repulsed , with the loss , it is said , of 1000 killed and wounded on the part of the Imperialists , and between forty and fifty on the part of the French . The Overland Friend of China , of February 15 , publishes a letter from the spot , which contains the following account of the affair : —
" At daylight , when the French were making the breach in the city wall , the Imperialists were seen suddenly mustered 2000 or 3000 strong , close to the French breastworks , waiting for orders . So soon as the breach was made , and the ladders planted , the Imperialists , to the number of 1500 or 2000 , were led on by the French in good style . The Imperialists were soon in possession of the wall nearly the whole length of the north side ; while a body of . the-French storming ^ party marched from the breach to the north gate , ^ which they soon opened , and invited the remainder of the Imperialists to come in . The latter , after considering for a short while , declined the invitation , and made a rapid retreat to their encampments . About this time the Canton men
belonging to the city made a desperate charge from Jihe west upon the Imperialists , : while the Fokeen men kept up a most destructive fire of musketry against the French from the houses and narrow streets . Together with their bamboo fire-machines and powderbags the insurgents drove the French and their Imperial allies over the wall and through the breach . When the Imperial allies were driven out of the breach , and before the retreating parties recovered from their confusion , the insurgents deliberately commenced hauling up all the scaling ladders , and filled up the breach with mud bags , in the face of their enemies . The Imperialists numbers of them
having gained possession of the wall , formed themselves into gangs ^ proceeded down the streets , and commenced breaking into the houses of the detained innocent citizens , from whom they demanded money , which failing to find or get , indiscriminate slaughter commenced , attended with horrors too disgusting to relate . Men , women , and children—none escaped , until , the Imperialists having set fire to several houses , the insurgents came suddenly upon them , and threw them into the flames to the number of fifty . The French admiral has driven every native off the French settlement , pulled down their houses , and cleared a space for 6000 Imperialists to come and encamp . " The accounts of the state of trade at Canton are not very satisfactory .
Aram 7, 1855.] The Ijeapeb. 317
Aram 7 , 1855 . ] THE IjEAPEB . 317
State Of Public Feeling In France. (Extr...
STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING IN FRANCE . ( Extracts from Private Correspondence . ) Paris , March 28 . .... I ah not quite clear about the state of public opinion on your side of the water with regard to the war . But to me , judging at this distance , you appear sick of it , weary , discouraged . Hero we are , as we have been from the first , utterly indifferent . When the day comes for us to be told " Sebastopol is to be given up , " we shall " grin , and bear itj" and next day if we are told that the war is to be
carried on with more vigour than over , we shallyawn . Wo are thoroughly bored with the war . { La guerre nous ennuie . ) What do we gain by it ? The men of the Bourse will be vory well satisfied if a peace is patched up anyhow . They will " bull" tho market without a thought of dishonour . The soldiers will return , half laughing , half in tears , glad enough to Bleep in their beds ugain ,, ashamed , perhaps , to have Buffered and fought for nothing . The peasants will be told that all is glorious and
happy , and they will believe it . They will have no idea that this war has cost them some fifty millions of francs , to be paid annually , with nothing toshow for it . Ah ! if they only knew ... but they will only find it out when the responsible Editors of this ruinous folly will be no longer within reach of punishment . ' And then , if they demand an indemnity , it will be at the expense of the innocent . . . The general opinion just now is that some means or other will be found for patching up any sort of peace , and that when once we have made up with , Russia , the first pretext will be seized for laying hands on Prussia .
At all events this is a stop to the army . - Others—I mean the Machiavels destaminet—talk of the military weakness of England , and of the programme of 1803 and 1804 . A Russian friend of mine is persuaded that the Emperor Alexander will be compelled by public feeling in Russia to break off the negociations , and to continue the struggle until the Russians have gained some great battle . For my own part I cannot help thinking that an abortive peace , accompanied by general dissatisfaction and jealousy , could never last ; but the next war will be
for more sincere objects , and for more positive ends . The fact is , however , that a war of principles is not at first sight a good speculation . .. . We fancied for a moment that your aristocracy was a little shaken , really shaken , by its own blunders and the public exasperation , but the sudden calm , of your parlia : mentary horizon proves that you are almost as dead as ourselves . Perhaps from the same causes . You are afraid to touch the rotten rafters of your house lest the roof tumble about your head . We are all of us in the same plight , in this dear old Europe . . . . .
( From another letter . " ) " Paris , April 3 . .... Thank you , on behalf of all our friends of every shade of liberal opinion , for that article . You have made amends to us for the unworthy platitudes of other English journals . TTou have expressed the feelings of the whole liberal party on this intolerable saltimbanquerie ; you have had the courage to say what all decent people ( tous les honneles gens ) think here , and you have said it with equal firmness and moderation
" You must perceive that the situation grows worse from day to day . is placed between a disgraceful peace and the continuation of a war with no other issue but disaster . If he makes peace , the army will not forgive him the humiliation , and you know the army is his only point d ' appui . As to the war , our public opinion is thoroughly sick of it ( en est excedee ) , and becomes more irritated every day . The most inveterate optimists had cause-forrenection the other day when they saw six battalions of the Guard , under orders for the Crimea , march from one end of Paris to another amidst universal silence . A
silence significant enough to those who know the instinctive propensity , alasl of this nation to the madness of what fools call the glories of war . If these soldiers were marching in the name of a free government and to the sound of the Marseillaise , the people would not have been so silent , you may believe ! . . . .... You will be sorry to hear that our friend , Eugene Pelletan , has finally left the Siicle . Sorry , not for him , but for the Siiole , which has only existed , as a Liberal journal , on his reputation . What
with the intrigues of some ([ doing liberalism one half of the week , and dining with Bonapartist Ministers the other half ) and the stupid Chauvinism of others , Pelletan ' s position had long been distasteful to himself , and was no longer tenable . There is a talk about an offer made by M . Mires , the proprietor of the Constitutionnel and the Pays , to buy the SiScle , and to carry it on as an organ of moderate opposition . It is only as a journal of opposition that the Siicle has gained its position , and the loss of Pelletan is irreparable .
Belgium. Tub Biiussels Pamphlet.—Cantiia...
BELGIUM . Tub Biiussels Pamphlet . —Cantiiaon . ( From our Correspondent . ' ) Brussels , April 5 . If wo are to believe tho Moniteur , Prince Napoleon has at length yielded to the injunctions of his imperial cousin , and has resolved to authorise prosecutions in his name , at his personal suit , against the publisher of the brochure On the Conduct of the War in the East . The Moniteur adds that tho
representations communicated by the Minister of France to M . de Brouckere , were immediately handed over to the judicial authorities . They were dated , according to the Moniteur , March 22 ; yet from that day to this the prosecution has made no great progress , for I can assure you the publisher has pot yet been , even directly or indirectly , informed of his impending prosecution . You have read , the brochure . It simply but authoritatively records facts already known or suspected , and it comments upon them with discretion .
No summons to appear before the examining magistrate has been issued , and as to the person who is the object of the prosecution , he is so little disturbed by the threats of the Moniteur Francais , that he has this very day announced a new edition of the brochure , with explanatory notes . Perhaps if Louis Napoleon were aware of the perfect calmness and resignation of the Brussels publisher , he would regret this ill-advised step , which can only lead to
very scandalous revelations . The best joke in the note of the Moniteur is the ground of the prosecution : " that it has been calumniousJy attributed to a general oflBcer . " " Calumniously ? " Who proves it to be calumnious ? "Attributed ? " By whom ? Not by the publisher ; and surely he is not to be made responsible for what public opinion has pronounced on the personality of the anonymous author , testing him by the principle fecit cui prodest .
As the complaint has been lodged a fortnight , it will probably remain a dead letter ; our magistrates have not yet received , by the grace of a coup d ' etat , the right to falsify facts , and to sophisticate laws for the behoof of the imperial regime : they have not yet learned in the school of M . Troplong to render services instead o judgments , and you may expect to find the Chambre du Conseil replying to the demand for a prosecution , by & jin de non recevoir . The press has a right to express its opinions ; and although the French Emperor has succeeded in clipping the wings of the press in Belgium , he has not yet deprived us of the right of discussion altogether . Perhaps the Moniteur will be obliged one of these days to confess its mistake , and to own that these proceedings were ridiculous . Fortunately , a defeat can do the official French journal no great harm ; it has no esteem to forfeit in Europe . . . . .
The article of the Leader on the visit of Louis Napoleon to England has been much approved in Belgium . All the Belgian journals—even the Napoleonist hufependance—admire it , and the Observateur , the most influential organ of the Liberal party , has promised its readers to reproduce the article in its own columns . It will appear this evening , no doubt . A propos of the visit of Louis Napoleon to England , a Brussels journal , the Sancho , publishes a singular anecdote from the memoirs of M . Dupin . "It appears , " says our contemporary ,
" that on the night of February 10 , 1818 , there was an attempt to assassinate the Duke of Wellington as he was returning to his house in the Champs Elyse " es . * A judicial inquiry , ' says M . Dupin , ' was commenced , and resulted in suspicions attaching to an old soldier by name Cantillon . ' " The pistol shot which had been fired at-the Duke ' s carriage struck too high , and went through the panels above the head of the victor of Waterloo . This circumstance gave rise to a number of epigrams , among which the following was remarked : —
" Mai ajuster est un de * faut ; II l ' a manque ' , et voici comme : . L'imbe * cile a vise * trop haut , II l ' avait pris pour un grand homme . " This affair made a terrible noise . The Bourbons , who had been twice brought back by the Duke to the throne they had twice deserted , were bound by the commonest gratitude to show their indignation at the . cowardly attempt . Let us hear M . Dupin again : — " A certain Marinet , who had boasted to Lord Kinnaird that he knew of a conspiracy to assassinate Lord Wellington , was , in spite of hia revelations , arrested and tried with Cantillon . Both were tried by the Court of Assizes on the 10 th of May , 1819 . The affair lasted five days . The prisoners were defended by M . Dupin , and acquitted . "
M . Dupin adds that " the ball had not been found . " „ t _ . fc The Emperor Napoleon I . heard of the affair at St . Helena , and chatted about it with M . do Las XJases . He justified Cantillon ' s attempt , in these words : " Ho had as much right to kill that oligarch as the latter had to send mo to St . Helena . This apology for political assassination was not confined to words . I » i his will the great man testified his admiration of the devotedness of Cantillon by a legacy of ten thousand francs * . . . - . • After many political vicissitudes tho fcecond Empire arose " like a thief in the night . " The nephew , -who has accustomed Franco to stand and deliver , remembers that tho uncle left a will to recompense the devoted services of his adherents . Franco—not only rich enough to pay for her glory , but also to pay
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041855/page/5/
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