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15<6 THE LEADER. [No. 412, ^ ebbtjabt 13...
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THE STATE OF OPINION IN FRANCE. The nomi...
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THE MUSTER-ROLL OF INDIAN HEROESM. Tj Ti...
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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.
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London Corporation Reform. The Gratifica...
those again who have filled the office of Sheriff ; it is proposed that any person possessing the qualification of a Common Councilman shall be eligible , and he will be elected by the Common Council . Indeed , it is proposed that all the officers of the Corporation shall be so elected , with the exception of the ^ Recorder ; who—as in other municipal corporations—will be appointed by the Crown . The Court of Aldermen would be abolished
as a separate body , and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen would no longer form part of the Central Criminal Court . Several minor provisions are proposed , referring to the present privileges of the Corporation to exclusive rights of trading ; but no interference is to be made with the Coal dues , or , in fact , with the other City dues . Sir G-eobge G-het ' s new bill is chiefly to be admired in those things in which it departs from his former conceptions . We can scarcely approve of it so strongly on its own
merits . It appears to us to be designed without adequately estimating the importance of the subject , or perhaps it estimates that importance in a perverse spirit . The object of the bill evidently is to swamp the Corporation , as far as that is possible . In former measures , this was done out and out . The Corporation of London was to be reduced to the level of the provincial corporations , although there really is nothing in common between the organization centring on Cornhill and those loeal bodies . If Sir G-eobge ' s
former plans could have been executed , we should have had one of the most absurd anomalies that could be conceived in the world : in the middle of this great metropolis we should have had a Corporation like that of York or Yarmouth—a sort of country Town Council in the midst of the British capital , surrounded by the other great metropolitan territories with a totally different organization . After a lapse of years it would have been discovered that that new London Corporation was entirely misplaced : it would then have
been kicked out ; and the City would have been reduced to a parish machinery . This is not reform , but destruction . It is , in ^ fact , doing as much as possible to prevent any kind of municipal organization for this vast metropolis , and the reasons for prevention are only too naked . Ministers , and even members , are fearful of enlarging and strengthening the municipal organization of the metropolis , lest they should establish a body which would rival themselves in power and influence . It is this jealousy that denies justice to
London . " When they have pretended to supply such an organization , they have , in fact , refused it . They gave to it the present Metropolitan Worthless Bores , with an old debt , undefined duties , no powers , and the privilege of making proposals to be snubbed by the Chief Commissioner of Public Works ; and that was literally put forward as some approach to a municipality for the metropolis , or the embryo of it ! At the very commencement the purpose was detected ; the object was to bring discredit upon the scheme of a great metropolitan Parliament . All sound legislation would go in the
opposite direction . The object should be , while relieving London of those abuses that have crept into its institutions and practices , to maintain "" the" skeleton-of ~ the-in stitutionspt o adapt the machinery to the requirements and opinions of the present day , and thus to improve the City Corporation while preserving it as the nucleus of the much larger municipality which is so much heeded . We have considered Sir GEoitens Grey ' s J rian ; we find it to merit approval partiouarly by what it does not do . A much larger measure for the object which we have defined
could be brought forward . The City has a plan of its own , which remains to be considered .
15<6 The Leader. [No. 412, ^ Ebbtjabt 13...
15 < 6 THE LEADER . [ No . 412 , ^ ebbtjabt 13 , 1858 .
The State Of Opinion In France. The Nomi...
THE STATE OF OPINION IN FRANCE . The nomination of a soldier without proved capacity of any kind , and known only by his readiness to act as deputy in a task which great usurpers have undertaken themselves—the violent dispersion of a popular assembly—to so important a post as Minister of the Interior ' and of General Safety / has naturally attracted considerable attention in Paris . This attention , indeed , has not been unmixed with alarm . For it was evident from , the first that the placing of an absolute nullity—a man-instrument as it were—at a critical moment , in a post of such eminence , could mean but one thing—namely , that the Emperor for the future intended to be his own Minister of the Interior .
Alarm has not existed in its strongest degree amongst the persons who are likely to feel most directly the severity of the regime in its new phase , which , many too sanguine persons believe may be its last . It is to be observed more particularly among the habitual supporters of the Empire , and among people usually indifferent to all political variations except the greatest . If you ask the former what they fear , they readily tell you what they do not fear . They do not fear a revolution , or barricades , or this , or that—but—the future appears less serene to them than heretofore . The fact is , they
do fear a revolution ; and it is an observation we have made which is noi without its value , that during the existence of a government based on violence , whilst all seems calm and prosperous and happy , or at least resigned , there are always two small sections who talk familiarly of emeutes which everybody else has forgotten—the fanatics who are ready to sacrifice their lives to recover their dignity as men , and the accomplices of usurpation . In both cases such conversation soon becomes offensive to a man of the world . But we must remember that on the existence of these two sources of action
frequently depends the future complexion of history . Whilst , then , the partisans of the French Government are a little more anxious than usual , and more inclined to strong measures—the cruelty and violence of fear are proverbial—we have also to notice , as we have said , the spread of the same kind of anxiety among the general public . Until very recently the prophecies of the disaffected and the panics of power were both treated with something like derision—just as was good Queen Charlotte when she used her habitual phrase that ' if the mob knew what she knew , there would certainly be a revolution in England . ' Now . very ordinary people ,
at moments of leisure , are willing to speculate on the cloud , no bigger than a man ' s hand , which they have at length been forced to notice . This belief in danger is in itself a danger . The knowledge that the Emperor himself was no longer willing to trust the safety of his dynasty to subordinates , but that bo was resolved to govern personally under the ill-favoured mask of General L Espinasse , appears to have had a worse effect than any other measure . Many previous acts , which had their origin in mere anger , were attributed to a kind of mental
derangement ; and the most wild and extravagant projects wore said to be openly talked of at the Tuileries . The establishment of the Council of Itegehcy was regarded by some as a kind of semi-abdication . It seems certain that , if instead of seeking out somebody to fight in order to appease the insanity which , when present in a less degree , is called choler , the Emperor buzies himself in the details of administration , and becomes the chief policeman of his dominions , he will have loss leisure and desiro to deal with great political questions . The peace of Europe may thus receive ait unexpected guarantee . There can bo no doubt about the abstract
wisdom of this conduct . A revolution may consolidate itself at homo by spending its superfluous energies abroad ; an usurpation , though it may TejSfesen ^^ work at homo safely to undertake a war . Dionysrus cannot listen in the Syraouaau Ear and bo a groat conqueror at the same time . Yot it seems certain that martial ideas wore in tlio ascendant last week . The apology made for thorn might have been a ruse ; it may be a humiliation . Wo must not protond to have dived into all Imperial arcana . A watchful nation will not bo thrown off its guard . It is a trite observation that a government which fears tho truth is self-judged ; and no apologist of
the Empire has ever been able to get over the objection founded on its suppression of all free discussion by means of the press . In most countries , and at most periods , however , when suet suppression lias existed , its main object has been , besides preventing animadversion on the personal conduct of the <* qvernors , to prevent the propagation of theoretical truth . Ideas are the natural euemies of absolutism and enjoyed the anger of Napoleon the Gkeat on that account . But the new Empire has found out a new secret , or rather has adopted the well-known maxims of the Jesuits . Not content with
sunpressing what is true , it deliberately uses the press to circulate what is false ; and , as if it feared not to be believed on its word , it has invented the plan of misrepresentation by means of the English press . We do not allude now to the practice of publishing French articles in English journals , and transferring them wholesale to the Moniteur as the voice of English public opinion . There is nothing surprising or uncommon in a foreign government purchasing the support of an organ in this country . But especially of late it has become the practice of the Moniteur and all the other French journals to translate articles—from the Times for example—and not onlv to leave out sentences which limit , or
completely modify the intention of the writer , but to work up or add others , and so make him say things that he never thought of . Even in reporting the debates of our Parliament the same system is pursued ; and when the speech of Lord Derby was faithfully abridged by mistake at the beginning of this week , it was deliberately re-written next day ' to correct the false impression that had been produced . ' Even the language used by Lord L'almerston in introducing his bill was altered by all the Parisian evening papers last Thursday , and was very imperfectly given by the officiaL organ of the Empire .
We are assured that the new Minister of tho Interior , who may be called General Espinasse for form ' s sake , intends to push this system to the extreme . He has the greatest confidence in what in France is called 'the education of public opinion . ' As much as possible Ire will avoid acting with severity against persons . The number of enemies to be imprisoned , transported , . or exiled to the provinces or abroad , will not probably be very great ; and the crime for which such punishment will be inllicted will be chiefly the spreading of ' false news '—I hat is , truth disagreeable to authority . It is perhaps
absolutely impossible to increase tlie nullity of the press—otherwise that would be attempted . At any rate , the absence of anything like disunion will be rigidl y enforced . Thus protected against exposure , with spies stationed at every avenue by which the truth might circulate , the system of hypocrisy and forgery we have pointed out may be indulged in without check or limit . It is evident , however , that a great nation like France , long accustomed to think , can with dilliculty be kept thus in silence and darkness , without suffering disquietude and being liable to sudden panic or despair . Already the desire for war , not
merely among . the soldiery , has manifested itsou ; and may easily be mistaken for hatred against England . It is rather the vague desire of action which commonly visits men in the midst of forced immobility . If many liberals even arc really disgusted with us , this , is not matter of surprise . We learn that in certain Parisian circles the greatest indignation has been expressed against -what is called the abuse of free speech in England . English orators and writers , in the plenitude of their freedom , will persist in talking of tho ' love and veneration of Franco for its Emperor , ' gratuitously omitting to notice the fact , that France is gagged and bound , and can make no sign . We can understand the complaint . It will probably increase , in intensity ; for , Lord Palmeuston aiding , Franco will probably soon be told by General Espinassu that the loyalty'of England to tho Emperor surpasses even its own .
The Muster-Roll Of Indian Heroesm. Tj Ti...
THE MUSTER-ROLL OF INDIAN HEROESM . Tj Tif ^ r ^ s ' s ~ lW" 3 ~ b * oon ^ a ^ sooond"tiin o-warned-l ) y-Mi :-Henuy DnuMMONn . That Member of Parliament believes—for wo should bo sorry to doubt his sincerity—that the ' anonymous writers in English newspapora' are inspired by arrogance and malice in their criticisms upon publio men . " 1 h » vo spoken of these English papers before , and 1 will speak of thorn again , but not anonymously , you shall hoar of thorn by tho nainos of tho writers . So Mr . Dkummond means to purloin tho confidence
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 13, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13021858/page/12/
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