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_J DBggMBEB 9) 1854.] THE LEADER. H63
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CONCENTRATION OP THE NATIONAL PARTY. The...
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WHAT WOULD MAKE THE WAR HEAL. A ficw day...
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.
_J Dbggmbeb 9) 1854.] The Leader. H63
_ J DBggMBEB 9 ) 1854 . ] THE LEADER . H 63
Concentration Op The National Party. The...
CONCENTRATION OP THE NATIONAL PARTY . There is no necessit y to create a popular party : the popular party exists , and is , what does not always happen with popular partiesreally popular . Favoured by the people , closely connected with the people , especially mangled with the people , it is not a Wilkes faction , not a Foxite clique , not a George Gordon mob , but really the people undivided into classes . It is called into action undoubtedly by various motives . We have many brigades in this great army . There are , in the first place , those long-experienced politicians who have actually foreseen the present position of affairs , have matured the ideas which belong to it , have , before now , distinctly marked out the true line of policy , and are prepared to insist upon a course of action into which the Government has entered very slowly after the necessity , and perhaps without being prepared to carry it to a real issue .
There is also an extremely numerous circle who are now forced to consider the question of the war , and of all that is involved in that question , as a personal matter . In the three ¦ victories ' of Alma , Balaldava , and Inkerman , there was a loss of 7800 in killed and wounded ; every one of the persons Mlled and wounded had some relations in this ' country , and amongst the officers of course there was a large majority that had relations in the wealthy and aristocratic classes of society . Now there is no doubt that if the forces had been much stronger , the Russians could not have inflicted those
three victories upon us ; they would have been crushed , as they deserved to be , and that loss Trould not hare been sustained . It is proved by experience that the English soldier is equal to about two , if not three or more , Russians : if our force had been twice as great as it is , if not three tim « s , the Russians b y this time would be put down ; and many a politician therefore would not have been actuated by the
personal motive—the sense of family wrong and domestic bereavement which now imparts a sting ; of indignation to the belief that Go-¦ vernment has not done what it might . The party consisting of these people is to be found , we say , principally amongst the wealthier classes , and amongst those poor classes with whom the private soldiers are connected ; but it is very widely spread .
Besides these two classes we have the Radical Opposition , -which dislikes the temporising , minimising conduct of Government . We have the Friends of the Pole and the Friends of Italy . And we have another party also disconnected with politics , but largely connected witli important towns . One reason why the forces are weak is , that they aro not supplied with sufficient instruments . Notwithstanding the advance of science in modern warfare , our
troops aro imperfectly supplied with rifles ; every man has not yot his revolver , though that should bo a fixed principle ; ia artillery , wo are inferior to ( he Russians , though we have the Lancaster gun—only just tried . A Nasmyth undertakes to send two hundredweight from , a distance beyond the enemy ' s range ; and a Perkins promises to send a ton flying a distance of five miles from the steam gun . A few navigators nre only now sent to
construct a flying railway from Balnklava to Sobastopol . Workmen are still engaged upon the winter clothing . And theroare many other supplies for tho troops which aro in arroar . Now tho war hnd some tendency lo put a stop to trado ; when conducted with spirit , however , it 1 ms demands of its own , which to a certain extent restore the deficiency in tho ordinary demand ; and if Ministers do their duty by troops abroad , some branches of activity , otherwise thrown out of employ ment ,
will be called into increased use . By procrastinating the aid for the army , Ministers have neglected to set in motion this compensating trade ; and hence the manufacturing 1 districts have not received that stimulus which they should have had for the interest of the troops and of the state . Here , then , is a manufacturing party whose own injury lends force to the sense of the public injury .
Beyond this , there is the working-class , of whom we can speak from a close and recent knowledge on the spot in different parts of the country , who entertain the most generous sympathy with the war—rwho are anxious to see it carried out with the utmost vigour—who mistrust Government , and believe that much of their efforts are now directed to maintaining the Continental system as it is . The workingclasses are inclined to . suspect that our men are sacrificed to prevent the genuine war which would effectually put down Russia 3 and perhaps some other things with it .
Here then is the national party—the party which ¦ doubts whether Government has done its full duty to the State and to the occasion ; the party we say , does not need to be created , it exists , it is moyingy it speaks aloud . What it needs is not creation , but concentration . It does not require excitement , but direction in its efforts . We do not want speechmaking , but we want a machinery , and a course of action which would bring together the divided sections of the great national party ,
give to its movement -unity , and enable the power in it to produce its full effect . Is it represented out of doors and in Parliament . ? . We do not know . " We can , imagine that we might have patriotic men complaining 1 of the waste of life Radicals denouncing the sacrifice made of our armies to battle out a compromise and save the crowned despots of Europe ; Birmingham men exposing the favouritism , which gives contracts to a few houses , and closes the trade which Ministers declare to be insufficient
for the production of arms ; bereaved families complaining of their loss , and accusing Government ; working-men denouncing a great aristocratic job for the benefit of the aristocracies abroad ; and yet all these classes virtually doing 1 that which they charge Government with doing , because instead of directing all their efforts to the one object which they
have in common , they may be endeavouring to raise above everything else their own special crotchets , and acting more against each other than against Government . Whigs will be sneering at Radicals ; discreet middle-class men will bo looking down upon working-men ; bereaved families will be repelling party associations ; and although everybody is conscious that Government does not do so much as it
might , everybody will copy that same Government . The first thing , then , if anything like unity is to be imparted to this national party is , that its representatives should quietly moot , and without speeches to parade the diversities of opinion amongst them , endeavour to find out the points of action upon which they combine , and to settle them . This will be effected principally by two processes—by simplifying
the objects of notion and agreeing to unite upon them , diversities upon secondary points apart ; and by abstaining from the fussy ostentatious indulgence ) of speech-making * . Action , not speeches , is what wo want . Combination , not emulation , is tho necessity of tho day . Wo want an effectual war , and public opinion might bo made to hoar upon the Government witl » a resistless pressure , if wo could only get gontlomcn to moot in quiet committee .
What Would Make The War Heal. A Ficw Day...
WHAT WOULD MAKE THE WAR HEAL . A ficw days moro will solve our doubts , and may inform us that Ministers really comprehend at last tho nature of the contest in which
taey are engaged , and have resolved to carry it through . Some few circumstances compel va , before Tire have such assurances , to doubt . They tolerated King Frederick William ; they temporised with Austria ; they persist in . throwing out assurances that they dp not intend to take a loan . Now let us see what these * three negative facts prove against them .
A loan would be unnecessary , if Russia were actually to yield , were to confess herself -wrong , give up the points in dispute , and submit to any mutilation or restraint that might be put upon her . Who believes that she would do so ? At the best she can but pretend to yield , and give a mockery of guarantee . Should peace be concluded with Russia before the spring , it must be a dishonest peace ; and the people of England , as well as the nations of the Continent , will be swindled . But if Russia do not ; submit , -the war must proceed ; . and if the war
do proceed , to be more than a mockery it must be extended , must be carried deep into Russia , must cost infinitely more—twice , three times , five , or even ten times as much as the present war . Will Mr . Gladstone charge that upon yearly income . If he do , he and his colleagues must mean to render the war impossible , by placing upon it a prohibitory penalty and making commercial England pay for it out of capital . If such be his intention , Ministers must intend to secure the survival of Russia by the extraordinary guarantee of making her destruction the destruction also of English
commerce . The very worst suspicion is encouraged by their treatment of Prussia—a Government so utterly worthless , so false , foolish , and vile , that common sense could not treat it in any way but one . The King , of Prussia , largely connected with all the German Courts and the Russian Courts , makes public affairs bow to the most trivial of family matters . He finds leisure now to dance " the Torch dance" with the German bride of Prince Karl Friedrich ; and the business of his Court has been suspended by the marriage ceremony . Before that he had busied himself in a series of
trumpery ceremonies , in order to typify his hatred of revolution , German or Spanish . He continues to avow his adherence to " moderation , " according to his own sense of the word —that is truckling to Russia ; while he affects alliance with tho West . Like idiofcs in old times , he uses his repute for fatuity as a privileged means of playing spy with impunity . There is but one way of treating royal Prussia , and that is as the rough husbandman treats weeds—the plough of war should be passed over him , and the weed should bo ploug-hed in . But our Government acts in a manner which
shows a greater caro to spare and preserve royal Prussia than to attain the objects of the war . The conduct of Austria being less equivocal than that of Prussia , her treatment by our own Government is less ugly ; and yot it is bad enough . Of course we arc speaking with imperfect information , but wo suspect tho worst of the terms of tho Vienna agreement . A whole year has been allowed to pass , and Austria , still temporising , signs a treaty , promising to act—next year !
Bankrupt in promises , aho offers a bill at n month's date ; and it is accepted . And the interval is professedly allowed , because there is a probability that Russia may como in and submit The -very expectation is a treachery . It betrays tho half-lieurtodncss of our statesmen . They seek a compromise with Russia ; and for what ? Because if Russia were drivon to oxtromities , and Austria woro obliged to > take a real jiart in tho war , wanting support at home , she must rally round lior 1 kg hor subject nations ; find to do that she must cultivate tUoh <» ood-will , l > y recognising * their political exist-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 9, 1854, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09121854/page/11/
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