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No 494. Sept. 10, 1859.] THE LEADER. 103...
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1859.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, boc-j...
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at ion which they desire, and she must f...
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THE SMETIIUUST JLESSON. The Smethurst ca...
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.
No 494. Sept. 10, 1859.] The Leader. 103...
No 494 . Sept . 10 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 1033
Ad01307
SUBSCRIPTION TO /' THE LEADER . " ONE GUINEA PER YEAR , UNSTAMPED , PKT CFAIP . ( Delivered Gratis . ) ~ XOTrCES ' -TO 0 'ORKE . SL'O ^ LIENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondence . Whatever is intended for insertion 'innst . be authenticated bv the name a'ld address ofi . hu writer ; nof- MocesMitrily for publication , but as a guarantee of his tfood faith . It is impossible to acknowledge the-mass of letters wo receive Their insertion is often delayed , owm- - to a press of matter and when omitted , it is fri-quently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the coirniumic .-i-Wccliiinot undertake to return rejected communications . ~ OFFIC'K , NO .. , CATHERINE-STREET , STRAND , -VV . C .
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Saturday, September 10, 1859.
SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 10 , 1859 .
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There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Boc-J...
There is nothing so revolutionary , boc-juise there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , us the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal proyress . —Dn . Arnold . . r —^ — ¦ - . "
At Ion Which They Desire, And She Must F...
at ion which they desire , and she must further formally recogni . se the . right of thcllapsburgs to rule the 'Venetians against their , will . Such _ a Sardinia as Austria would have— -so small in its boundaries , so surrounded '¦ by enemies , and so degraded by tho surrender of Italian aspirations— - coiild not long preserve an independent existence , and we should soon see a renewal of revolution or
war . Under those circumstances the peace of Europe demands ' the suppression of Austrian pretensions , and the support of the Italian people in their legitimate demands for permission to manage their own aflairs . The treaties of 181-5 can no longer be supposed to give Austria any right over Italy , beyond what the people of that country choose to admit . A few despots meeting together could not give away the liberties of nations for all coming time . These are the sentiments of natural equity upon this subject , and strict law would be no more favorable to the claims of Austria , for there is no donving the truth of Lord Palmerston ' s remark in 1846 ; when she absorbed the republic of Cracow
" that if the Tx-oaty of Vienna is not good on the Vistula , it must be equally bad on the Po . " * The morality of the case admits of no doubt ; but morality is ' an article too scarce in the cabinets of kings to render it ' safe to expect that they will act according to its dictate ?; and the congresses of . sovereigns , like those of Troppnu , Laybucli , and Veror . a .. have , u .-yi . dly ended in monstrous assertions contrary to human right . The dilllculty of getting , the great powers to agree to anything that -savours of " the principles of freedom is , no doubt , very serious , but if I " ranee and England pull well together it is not impossible that what was done for " the Belgians at one-period may be accomplished for the Italians at another .
The Emperor of the French is too inscrutable a man . to'justify rash predictions as to his conduct , but his own interests and safety are palpable On the side of fair dealing towards Italy , and a firm alliance with this country . With England under the Tories this might have been impossible , but tiie composition of the present C ' abincOyill ensure him a firm British support in any policy that has the well being of Italy for its end . For centuries the national pride of France lias been enlisted in endeavours to oppose the influunee of Austria beyond her own boundaries , and in the construction
of the 1815 treaties the Allied Sovereigns made Austria strong in Italy for the express purpose of weakening France . lt \ therefore , Napoleon III . —secure from serious danger through English support—will bravely maintain the rights of Italy against the Hnpsburgs , he will succeed in raising the influence of France to a higher point than it attained under Louis XIV . or Napoleon I ., for his plans will reirain a portion of the European system , while theirs were shattered to pieces , and only left on certain pages of history dark stains of blood .
England cannot sec a brave nation struggling for liberty without making its cause her own ; but , in addition to the attractions of ^ sympathy , we have a positive interest at stake . We can have a solid alliance with a France that does something for the spread of liberal princip les ; but if the projected interview between Louis Napoleon and Francis Joseph should end in a sacrifice of Ital y , we may be sure that some further schemes of evil are afloat ; and , instead of living under the satisfactory consciousness of peace , we shall struggle gloomily through tho . entanglement of an armed und unfcertain truce .
It was with hlowncss and difficulty that the Russia of Nicholas could be brought to recognise the independence of Belgium ; but the new Russia of the present Emperor , mid of tho abolition of serfdom , may not be found unwilling to join iu a recognition of Italian claims . Imperial France is dancing upon a tight-rope , not loss d'lugorous than that recently stretched across the Fulfil of Niagara . Tho army and the people know that the Italian war and policy were failures , if only destined to end in the roiinposition of the yoko of Austria , under tho flimsy ^ disguise of a restoration of her lieutenants ; and if , tho French Government should under any circumstances acquiesce in this disgrace , it will need some fresh and more dangerous excitement to restore its
prastige . Wu will not , however , anticipate tho advent of ftTshmisohiel ' and disappointment . The hopeful view is the most prudent as well ns tho mudfc pleasant ;'
and it would serve Italy , and . promote the alliance with France , if public meetings were held to express- ' sympathy , ' , and give assurance of moral support to those " defenders of liberty who maintain in their own country , principles consecrated in ours by the -expulsion of fhe Stuarts .
ARBITRATION OR WAR . The condition of Italy , and her- relations to the rest of Europe , afford an . excellent opportunity for testing the much talked-of panacea of arbitration , and for holding a new congress upon principles of justice and human right . The Zurich conference has done all that could be expected : it has both gained time and lost it— -the one for Italy and the other for the House of Hapsburg . While diplomatists were discussing questions they
had no means of settling , the people oi luscany , Lombardy , the Duchies , and the lloniagna were able to make orderly and constitutional arrangements for the declaration of their will and "the assertion of their rights ; and to do this in a . manner which has won for them the respect and admiration of the whole civilized world . But now comes the important question of how Europe will deal with an occasion so full of interest , and one that must entail swell lasting consequences upon the human race .
If Austria claims from the French Emperor moral aid to carry out the Villafranca stipulations ) , and restore the deposed sovereigns , it is on record that whatever may have been the motives or secret desires of Napoleon HI ., his agents have urged this course so strongly on the Italian people an to create alarm lest he should resort to force . The Italians have done their duty in firmly but respectfully rejecting tho advice , and the intention of the French Government is suj > posod to be neither to use nor to permit the employment of arms in support of pretensions that have no moral basis to stand upon . If Austria would aequieaco
in this state of things , matters might settle clown auietly for a little while , until some accident gave ie Venetians a chance of regaining their independence , which was infamously sacrificed by Iho First Napoleon in his Cnmpo Formio Treaty , and afterwards by the settlement of 1815 . This , however , is not probable . It will only bo from fear or actual compulsion that tho House of Hapsburg will abandon the cause of tho justly and lawfully deposed princes ; ami a recent telegraph states that she requires a guarantee that Sardinia shall cease from what she chooses to call
" secret intrigues in Italy . " It is very natural that the Austrian Court should desire a monopoly of " secret intrigues" against the possibility of good government in Italy . She has carried them on with unflinching' pertinacity for more than forty years , and to their continuance she looks for tho chance of rogaining tho evil induenco she has for the moment Tost . AVere Sardinia to agree to the spirit of this stipulation , she must abaiidon the cause of tho Tuscans , tho Purmoso , Modencse , and tlio liomnguese ; she must flatly refuse the annex-
The Smetiiuust Jlesson. The Smethurst Ca...
THE SMETIIUUST JLESSON . The Smethurst case has practically decided that henceforth no convict upon whotn capital sentence has been passed shall suffer execution if any considerable number of persons doubt that liis guilt has been proved and take sufficient pains to make their opinions known . This is the severest blow the ^ allows has received , and under it , although it niay % tacger for a time , it must ultimately fall Those who believe that death penalties for murder conduce to the safety of society , and hold Dr . Smethurst to have been rightly convicted , can scarcely find fault with the Home Secretary for
granting a respite during her Majesty ' s pleasure , which virtually means a remission of the extreme sentence , because it is impossible to conceive that a good moral effect could be produced by the execution of a man , about whose guilt an active controversy agitated the public mind . It is satisfactory to have got . so far on the road to humanity and common sense , but it is impossible not to see the farther operation of the principle that has been established ; The fact is that doubts come with civilisation , and the hard positive system that fitted a .-barbarous age is ill adapted to a more advanced
state of society . Our law , in its ignorant savagery , assumes that a jury can in every case arrive at certainty , and declare peremptorily that an _ accused person is either guilty or hot guilty . If juries , in spite of the law , will doubt , the judge tells them to give the prisoner the benefit thereof , and declare him-not guilty—a verdict which , notwithstanding their doubts , may be a deliberate falsehood ; -but justice in horsehair does not mind tiiat , and would rather any day sacrifice truth than tolerate diverr gence from technical rules . The benofit-of-thedoub . t doctrine may be pushed too far * and juries would soon come into disfavour it' they acquitted everv criminal whose case admitted any portion of
the dubious element . In the practical affairs ot life , criminal as well as civil , mankind must constantly be content to act upon something less than either moral or mathematical certainty ; and it is sufficient to justify a verdict of guilty that , notwithstanding ' the existence of doubts , the balance of probability lies so far on the other side that the majority of reasonable men would act in opposition to them . It is true that every accused pi .-rsou is entitled to the most accurate consideration of the evidence for and against him , but it is equally certain that , as society advances , it will entertain a more scrupulous regard for human life and human rights , and will not consent to the infliction ot punishments that admit of no reversal 6 r compensation without requiring more complete proof than would secure Us approbation of' ' a minor
penalty . Bontham long ago proposed that no decree ordering " irreparable change in body condition" should be carried out without express confirmation by an appellate judioatory and a justice minister , and we have now arrived at a state of opinion in which no oilicial confirmation of a death sentences would satisfy tlio puWio that n man ought to be hanged if omonil possibility—however infinitesimal—of his innocence remained . Iho irallo > vs , must therefore be restricted to the plainest cases ; and iw clover , criminals usually surround *! . »; .. miiit . with circumstances of doubt and
mystery that arc not' entirely unravelled , they will rarely suffer the extreme penalty o the lawwhich will bo reserved fbr stupid rulhans only , until finally given up . Hy help of the Smethurst case wo have got to a pass in which we can rarely expect to hang a clever rogue , and » we persist in . suspending the stupid one * we shall bo fairly open U , the accusation of punishing folly more severely than crime . The admirers of the gallows who think Mr . Calcrafl the best professor of moral nhilosonhv may lament thin conclusion , but faith
in brutal itunishmont is lust dying out—even wuron Hroinwoll will be a .-ihiuncjd r of having ordered a , poor littlo boy to bo twice put to torture fora venial ollbnce , und military authorities will soon bo nlauod under lugul coercion and denied tho luxury of touring soldiers' bucks to pieces in a manner so
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10091859/page/13/
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