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^, 228 _ 228 THE LEADER. [Satttrpat,
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Erratum in our Last. — In our Postscript...
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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO « ©!)« iUafcer....
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SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1855.
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^1t h I tf % fflt fT W jpUU4.it AUUUil* 7
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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THE GRANVILLE COMMITTEE LE LUNATICO ON R...
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WARNINGS. It is becoming more and more u...
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.
^, 228 _ 228 The Leader. [Satttrpat,
^ , 228 _ 228 THE LEADER . [ Satttrpat ,
^M^, 228 P^/Cg^;U Lj Y^0£I&£§M* £* • 'Xo...
^ m p ^/ Cg ^; u LJ y ^ 0 £ i & £ § M * £ * ' XO CORRESPONDENTS . | Tj v fS § £ sP ~^ £ j 5 tt 6 ng Sb Session of Parliament it is often impossible to ' ""{ Sps §^^ II' * «§ fln 3 r fS * ° correspondence , even the briefest . *^ ? - * ilw ^ iwPE & W'tyS ? De t ^ en of anonymous communications p , l ! il ' Jsr aJJj & i ^ v wThat 3 > ter is intended for insertion must be authenticated « y > --J . yySx . inx shajjame and address of the writer ; not necessarily i- ^ t W * l ijSB' - ffor ptSHcation , but as a guarantee of his good faith . i ^ siiii' / -5 g 55 . " iCoBimuB |« ations should'always be legibly written , and on P- % iiftt & £$ * •***¦ frdesras of the paper only . Iflong . it increases the difS-{ TKi ^^ wy / - ' > a ^ 4 Pi 4 t . YJrtfinding space for them .
Erratum In Our Last. — In Our Postscript...
Erratum in our Last . — In our Postscript of last week ( Parliamentary Summary , House of Lords ) , for the Earl of ClanricarderoaA . the Earl of Clarendon .
Terms Of Subscription To « ©!)« Iuafcer....
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION TO « ©!)« iUafcer . " For a Half-Yea * £ 0 * 3 0 To be remitted in advance . ^ - M oney Orders should be drawn ^ upon the Sxband Branch Office , and be made payable to Mr . Aipbed E . GAiio-WAY , at No . 7 , "Wellington Street , Strand .
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Saturday, March 10, 1855.
SATURDAY , MARCH 10 , 1855 .
^1t H I Tf % Fflt Ft W Jpuu4.It Auuuil* 7
« tthltt Mitim
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there _ nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law o < its creation in eternal progress . —Be . Abkoid .
The Granville Committee Le Lunatico On R...
THE GRANVILLE COMMITTEE LE LUNATICO ON RUSSIAN EMPERORS . " Delibaitt regkes !"—Europe has had to pay heavily for the lunacy of the "" Emperor Nicholas . Science often confirms the intuitive perception of early observers . Many a truth is . stated in very rude language by Hippocrates that is now made out on good scientific grounds . " Delirant reges , " said the poet ; and Dr . Granvtlle reduces the history of the Czar ' s outrage upon Europe for the last few years to a question of pathology . -No sooner is the . Czar ,. dead ,. than vr ^ have a regular clinical lecture on the
hereditary malady of the Russian Imperial family , its causes and tendencies , by A . B . Q-banville , M . D ., formerly physician to Viscount Palmerston , G-. C . B ., and for a time visiting physician , to his Imperial Majesty the Empeeor ov all the Rtjssias . In July , 1853 , Dr . Granville addressed a letter on the subject to Lord Palmerston , predicting that the Emperor would probably die in the July of this year ; with the remark , that
crosses and vexations might precipitate the event . So true was science to itself , that the prediction written in July , 1853 , serves an the clinical lecture over the dead body of the Emperor in March , 1855 : Unarrested by homoeopathic treatment , the Emperor ' s malady took its course , and we may regard the disease in its great symptoms—the extravagant dictates of a pampered will , war , rage , congestive disease , and death . No " case" could be more clear .
But there is more than a family interest in this subject . It appears that this going mad and fanaticism runs in the family . Popular opinion has thought so , and science confirms the judgment . Nicholas only felt the fatal transmission of hereditary insanity ; but least of all are the insane capable of self-cure . The family generally runs mad between the ages of forty-five and sixty . Paul , at first violent and fanatical , became a perfect lunatic at forty-five ; and was despatched at forty-seven . Alexander died at Taganrog at forty-eight , having been for
five years capricious and wayward , knocking down the physician who tried to apply leeches to his temple , and dying of congestion of the brain . Constantine , eccentric and cruel , died at fifty-two—some said of cholera , some said of the * assassin ; but a physician of the Polish military hospital averred of apoplexy , in a passion . Michael , with enlarged liver , deranged digestion , and determination of blood to the head , became irritable , violent ,
tyrannical , and lunatic , and died of apoplexy . The poor creatures had inherited the tendency from their parents—eccentricity , violence , cruelty , insanity , and apoplexy . Such is the regular series of symptoms . It is humiliating to think , not only that Kings , but that even Emperors should be subject to these infirmities . But it is not emperors alone , or royal physicians , that bear the consequences . . Michael ' s liver becomes congested , and he raves before his army . The
veins in Constantine ' s head become overcharged , and Poland suffers horrible oppression . The liver and lungs of Nicholas swell with congested humours and disappointment , and Europe is lighted up with the flame of war . The poor Russian nobleman , whose family estate is reduced to insolvency , —the serf who is carried off to die of ague or the enemy , —the merchant who is called upon to pay taxes out of a till emptied by the exclusion of commerce from his ports , —they might have a right to suffer , as enjoying the privilege of being ruled by these
morbid Czars . But it is not only the Russian subjects that endure the consequences of the malady : the consequences fall also upon us . " We pay taxes because Nicholas was bilious and labouring under the symptoms of pulmonary and cerebral apoplexy , and " the best of the joke is "—as a respectable gentleman once said in detailing the symptoms of which his wife died—that we keep in office men who conspire with our allies to keep this tainted family on the
throne . Great concessions would any Minister —French , English , Austrian , or German —have made to soothe the pampered lunacy of Nicholas . It would really have " paid us" to make some sacrifice to ^ soothe him . England and France might Have subscribed a Tew millions to buy him a new sceptre , or any other bauble , if that could have assuaged his diseased temper . But while the nations would have been willing to make their sacrifice to pleasure him , he would not sacrifice the smallest thing to avoid the
calamity which was fatal to him . and grievous to us . We are speaking most literally . He would not sacrifice the waistband of his pantaloons . It has been stated , on very probable authority , that Nicholas was advised to slacken the extreme tightness of dress which preserved to him the appearance of a " waist " after nature had decreed that it should begin to disappear . As Abernethy said to his young ladies : " Your entrails must go some ' where ; and if you will not let them be where they ought to be , you will push them up into your chest , and squeeze your lungs and heart . " . And it was so that Nicholas served his
lungs and heart , out of vanity that might have shamed a girl , with consequences that have cursed empires . Upon such small things do imperial institutions rest . The button of a waistband may be the point of honour for potentates ; and practical" statesmen , as well as tawdry heralds , keep up the institutions and the lunatic asylums that thus surmount tho world ! .
The fact is that the Russian family is convicted by its own acts and history of incapacity . A monarch should be sage , intellectual , steadfast , clear-sighted , healthy , able to sympathise with the sound instincts of entire
will be supp lied with mad Emperors o the end of the chapter- Paul was mad , and had to be put out of his pain . Alexandeb was mad , and afflicted Europe . Constantine was mad , and tortured Poland . Nicholas was mad , and has outraged the . civilised world . Alexander is the heir to those men . They say that he is " milder , " that he busies himself less with war and intrigue than with cigars and cards . They used to tell us that Edward the Sixth of England
t nations , entirely under his own comma nd , and capable of transmitting a sound constitution to his followers on the throne . In all these respects the Russian family is condemned by the judgment of plain science . The Emperors of Russia are madmen ; they cannot govern themselves , their servants , serfs , or empires ; they cannot breed health y princes for the supply of the Russian throne . Keep them , and that northern part of Europe
was milder ; although Holbein has banded down to us the undeniable testimony of a countenance as l ike that of Henry the Eighth ' s as a shrunken pea is like one of full dimensions . Tytxer has shown that the dreams of tyranny and cruelty were only arrested in Edward b y death . Disposition runs in families ; the insane propensity to worry kingdoms runs the family of Ro-MANOFE . As sure as we continue Alexandeb on the throne , he will give us trouble some
day . As sure as we have been called upon to put a straight waistcoat upon Nicholas , we shall have to call in the keepers to Alexandeb . "Why , then , do we give him scope enough to do mischief , in order that we may prove again that which was discovered in the time of Paul ? If we must have a Russian Imperial family , at least let us have a sane stock . It would be far more humane to end the whole question at once , than to dispose of the poor Emperors indiv idually as
they show themselves ; permitting them in the mean while to become a mockery and a jest to the world . It may be a custom sufficient for R ussia to bowstring her Pauls in detail ; but Europe , having more power , more civilisation , and more collected wisdom , ought to settle the question in a more general and a more humane way—by placing the unhappy family where it can do less misebief , and might have a chance of recovering its sanity . No treatment could be so shocking for the
world as that to which the poor Czars are subjected . Take any man out of Han well , when he receives treatment best chosen for his case , and p lace him upon the throne of Russia with a sceptre in one hand and a sword in the other , and ask whether a more concentrated and sweeping crime could be invented , than thus to place a lunatic where his caprices can molest empires , and where the opportunities of power can pamper the insatiable imagination of a morbid Czar . It is to give lunacy a sublime excess , and to invest it with a power equalled only by that of the Devil .
Warnings. It Is Becoming More And More U...
WARNINGS . It is becoming more and more useful for England to look at her features in the mirror of foreign opinion . There was a time when she could dispense with such coqufctrj ' . Tiio homage of surrounding nations was tho best testimony to her youth and beauty . She felt , too , vitality tingling through her veins ; and self-consciousness made her ready to / woo the world as the fair Stewart wooed the second Charles . She did not care what secrets she revealed . Times are now much changed . A twinge is felt hero—a shooting pain there . Nothing serious , of course—a more temporary derangement—diet and a blue pill , a s (^ on and a bandage , will set all right again . The cheek will appear warmer and the eye brighter
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 10, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10031855/page/12/
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