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June 14 1856.] THE LEA DEB. 565
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THE NEW SORT OF DESPOTISM. It seems that...
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NATIONAL PARTIES IN EUROPE. The flattere...
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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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The Last Despatches From America. Our Ow...
when it was steaming against wind and tide into the mid Channel , might themselves mark the many . American ships which were peacefully traversing our waters , substantial representatives of the immense wealth which ,, constantly repassing between England and America , constitutes the common property of both countries . For this country , a war
with America is next to an economical and social impossibility . We have already stated that Manchester would not tolerate it , and the address from the people of Manchester to the people of the United States is either a proof that we correctly anticipated the sentiments of the ^ Lancashire people , or , if our opponents please , that we can influence the course of opinion in that important county . But , we ask , can England go to _ ___ __ . ¦ _~ - t *_ ^ t- > V * _ L-h _^^ _^^ «—_ « ¦ ¦ ta j ^_ ^ V ^ _^^ ^ L I _>^ ¦ I - " ^ _*_ ^ L-h ^ ^_ 4 _ - ^ ^__* ^— _^ \ - ?
^ ^ war agaLuuii i > u » ujjiiiiuu . ui juaiiuaaiiiit , ululfordshire , AV ^ arwickshire , and Yorkshire , to say nothing of Ayrshire and Ulster , — nothing of Bristol or London ? Lord John KussELii perceives the absurdity , and he at least would not be the Minister to plunge into an American war : so he hinted last night . Probably , on that hint , Ministers will let their own deliberations take a pacific turn .
June 14 1856.] The Lea Deb. 565
June 14 1856 . ] THE LEA DEB . 565
The New Sort Of Despotism. It Seems That...
THE NEW SORT OF DESPOTISM . It seems that a Government supported by eight millions of votes and 500 , 000 bayonets has still something to fear . It still fears History . The other day , the Revue de JParis , a non - political journal , gave a review of the recent historians of C ___ sa : r . The article was perfectly temperate , can-_ fJ _^_ F _^_ _*_! _^ B 4 * _^ * J fc ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ^ 4 —» _^ - «*_ _ _ h ^ _¦ - _ f \ t —* - ^ __ T _ " ^ —4 _ it
trample with a firm foot on the dust of those who , for fifty years , have bled for liberty and truth . The suppression of history in the interest of a despotic dynasty is not so sensibly felt as many other acts of oppression . It does not , directly at least , spoil any man ' s dinner , or injure any man's trade . And therefore
it is a matter ot supreme indifference to the stockjobber , to the voluptuary , to the materialist—those noble spirits to whom the Government of M . Teoplokg and his master seems a blessed calm , after the storms of moral and intellectual life . It is also a matter of supreme indifference to the uneducated classes , careless of all that is beyond their intellect , and wholly incapable of tracing the chain of cause and effect between a brutal _ - _ - » 4 - _ --.. _ m __ - _ -.. __ _ _ - _ I - _ r ** ^ L _ P ~_ _*» f * »^ _ 4 * - * /*• b ^ . _ F V ^ __ 4— 1 ^ _ ^ _ -h ^ «*^ - « _ - v _ 4 __ _ 4 > ¦
*^ *^ ^ " " ^ *^ clIJU atJIJSUUilOL' UCBpUI / lBUl , U 11 U 1 / UC UUXYtilSiU misery to which such a despotism ultimately leads . Yet nothing , not even the most tyrannical outrages on life or property , could more manifestly reveal the abject character of the French Government , or more decisively seal the shame of France . To sentence a nation to be deprived of truth , is to sentence it to brutal materialism forever . The fate of Turkey or IVrnrnnno is less degraded than that of a i
^^* ^^ ^ p ^ b ~ ^^^ B > . r ^ mm ^^ ^^ ^^ " ^^ ^^ *^» ^— ~— ¦ - ^ ^— ^ ^™^» - — ^^ ~^ — _____ great intellectual nation on which such a sentence has passed . But what are they who , writing as free men in a free country , applaud the authors of the sentence , and adore as a new sort of despotism the Government of the modern Tibeeius ?
^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ *** .- ^ ^ ^ uiu , itiiu . ju » i / , ujjlu . \> rii > , ; jx uuitu jiuv ior an historical purpose . If it suggested parallels , so must all history . It was written in the spirit of Roman constitutionalism ; and while it admitted C _ esar ' s great qualities , blamed him for destroying the liberties of his country ; but it was far less strong in a republican sense than the language which the old French monarchy tolerated in
Montesquieu . However , it did not preach those doctrines about the power of the military monarchy at Home which are preached by M . Tboplong- and enforced by his Government . So down came two warnings , one after another ; the third stroke being , as our readers are aware , the suppression of tho journal . With that fine union of fraud with force
which is the only homage French tyranny pays to the shade of French liberty , the first warning was given ostensibly not for the obnoxious article , but for articles which had been published a fortnight , a month , two months before , and which had passed the eye of the censor without even an unofficial warning . In a land where tho court of a chivalrous
and legitimate despotism admired the great philosophers and historians of tho eighteenth century , M . Tnopi-ONa now forbids you to criticize a panegyric of Cjesak . Montesquieu , if he were now alive , would be silenced by the fiat of M . Thoi'lono . And this is what the Examiner calls a new sort of despotism . llavo we not read of something like this suppression of history in the "Annala" of Tacitus ? But in Tacitus it ia not tho first , but the second Emperor of
Rome that suppresses history in the interest of the dynasty . Augustvs leaves ltomiin intellect free ; patronizes tlio republican Livy ; and encourages his stepson to read Cicero . In Home , worried by so many civil wars , and sapped by epicurism and moral corruption , it was still necessary for despotism to proceed with some caution , and to tread lightly on . tho- smouldering ashes of republican honour . In Franco this caution id not necessary . There despotism enn afford to show itself at once in ita true colours , and to
National Parties In Europe. The Flattere...
NATIONAL PARTIES IN EUROPE . The flatterers of the French Emperor are in
the habit 01 saymg that he has suoauea the Jievolution—crushed it in France , disheartened it throughout Europe . In this fallacy a confusion may be detected between the idea of a repulse , signifying a failure of tactics , and a total defeat , signifying exhaustion , submission , and ' ruin . The tactics of the Liberal party on the Continent were unsuccessful in 18-18 and 1849 . The Revolution was
temtified with a national cause , and when the Liberal life of Hesse was consumed in separate and unaided struggles . In 1834 , the principal statesmen of Germany , under the presidency of Metternich , met at Vienna , and framed a plot for the suppression of all popular movements in the smaller constitutional states—Baden , Bavaria , "Wurtemberg , Nassau , Saxony , Brunswick , & c . This was at once T _ f * i T * T * 3 f ^ A . \ * tneir oi neir
is as completely subject to the government of the police as in January , 1852 . Every change that has occurred has been an , exaggeration of the Imperial regime . In Germany , are the governments more at one with the nations than when Prussia suppressed the Baden and Saxony insurrections ; when the Holsteiners maintained , unaided ,
the general German cause ; when Austria triumphed in the moderation of her enemies ; and when petty perjuries were committed by petty rulers , in imitation of the grand Hjlpsbfeo and Bonapabte practice ? The Hungarian and Transylvanian populations are simply waiting for a favourable crisis . The Italians are even expected to bring on that crisis , and already absolutism marshals its troops in the field . r I 1 I— - » J . _ — - _ 1 _ 1 — - » j ^ / % m ~ l _* J - ¦ _ _ - ^ 4 ^ _*^ - *¦ Li * ' »«_^^ -V _^ ll / l SX *___ i- '" V
^ * ^ over the chances of the revolution have heen materially improved . We have seen , since 1849 , the partial consolidation , at least , of national parties in Italy as well as in Germany . A gradual approximation of the Liberal sects is taking place . The absence of this political concord was grievously felt when the Schleswig question was decided as one of local interest instead of being valued as
idenan example oi poncy , anu . . fears . The minor states of Europe are the sources of continual alarm to the great Powers . Their populations are close , compact , and pliable . It was not , however , until 1845 that the proceedings of this conference were detected . The secret record was discovered by Welokee , and published at Strasburg . ¥ e are not yet in possession
porarily overpowered . But that it is still vital and formidable is proved by the activity discernible in those military camps , which are , virtuallv , the courts of the French and Austrian Empires . Nowhere do we observe the people more content witli their Governments than before the conflagration of 1848 , or the eclipse of 1851 . The several nations
of the secret stipulations oi Uimutz ana Dresden , but we know enough to justify the suspicion that similar schemes are now on foot at Paris , and at Vienna . A suspicion of this nature , combined with the known fact that mysterious negotiations are going on , should have the same effect on the Liberal party as many political leaders hoped it would m » - _ _ -d _ -M _ - % 1 ft ¦ . ___ 1 _ __ I _ 1 » _ - _ «__ <* I fc Jiecween iuo juidc *
have ceased to fight ior their liberties ; but they have not ceased combining , conspiring , tracing plans of attaclc , discussing common objects . Their rulers enjoy no security , and no rest . Their territories are undermined by political societies—the secret passages of opinion and conspiracy . Not a nation , not a party , not a class , that was baffled in 1848 , has resigned its hopes or its pretensions , or
^ have had m ± » _» . ; _ . __ societies of Frankfort , Baden , Saxony , and the other secondary German states , and even between that of Austria and Prussia , considerable harmony of opinion was established ; but the essential point was harmony of action ; and this was wanting . "When , however , wo perceive , throughout Germany , not one German journal , when the conceit of j the Bcaiiesinuu ui
accepted an amnesty that would devote ita offences in the sight of power , and its rights in the sight of history , to the same ignominious oblivion . In France , sit least four powerful sections meditate the destruction of the reigning dynasty , tho only constituents of which are , the partial corruption of tho army , tho venality of tho trading classes , the apathy and ignorance of some of the rural populations . We were told , soon after tho night surprise of liberty by tho coup-d ' etat of December ,
the local 1 hilistek , u jmrisli , overcomes all . national consciousness , and when Prussian , Austrian , or Wurtemberg ideas aro advocated instead of tho broad and general interests of Germany , it is evident that much progress has still to be made . Of course a people not politically constituted as one finds it difficult to obliterate from its theories the traces of conquest and partition . In England tho provincial journal is essentially provincial in substance-, muoii
that Franco would speedily bo reconciled to her new institutions , that the system of repression Mas merely temporary , and that the Emperor would gradually restore the freedom of speech and opinion , the reality of electoral government , tho domination of the civil over the military power . Instead of this , what have wo aeon ? Not one decree of license has been promulgated from tho Tuileries during tho past four years . There has been an incessant and invariable advance of despotic authority . In June , 1850 , Franco
spirit , and manners . And now moru m this tho cuho in Germany , where the laws oi censorship and the influence of the police ure constantly directed to carry out the advice ot tho liussinn inoinoriul of 1833 , " to take care that tho German press limited itself to ilio discussion of local and provincial mutters only . " It is not to bo wondered at that the people , under such treatment , aro provincialized . The Italians , aa represented by their most aineere and intelligent leadern , appear to bo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14061856/page/13/
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