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656 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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SOMETHING ABOUT THE CZAR. The Daily News...
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WHO IS GENERAL O'BONNELL ? The Nation ha...
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THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR. Mr. John Olive...
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NEW PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS . Tins Polytechnic...
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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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Kossuwi On The British Constitution. Kos...
from that answer , that though Parliament may have the right to speak about war and peace , after these events have actually taken place , that the people has even then no right to petition , because now war is declared---the event has actually taken place ; and still the pretension of having a petition about it presented is characterised as most unusual , and without precedent . Now , sir , I may be very sorry ( as indeed sorry I am ) to have to part with my cheering illusions about the constitutional value of British institutions , and to have to learn that , to use a scriptural expression , there is much of sounding brass and tinkling cymbals in them . Still , I sincerely acknowledge that about this I have no voice in the chapter—it is an internal business all your own . "
Here is his frank prophecy for our consideration : "And yet what is the newest phasis of events ? why , it is the fact that England and France compel Turkey to give over the Danubian Principalities to Austria ! Why that is a fact of such enormity , that if that fact , simply presented in its scandalous audity , does not rouse the British nation , not only to anxious solicitude , but to indignation and anger , why , then , really I am perfectly convinced that the British nation is already set down by history amongst those who have no future at all , but a short vegetation of a third-rate power , yet left for a while , and then doomed to fall as Carthage fell . There may already live some who , before they grow old , may do what Marius did at Carthage—sit on the ruin of your fallen greatness . "
As he proceeds he becomes more and more frank . Here is his notion of the wisdom of our leading journals :- ?—" More yet . By this trick of Austrian perfidy , the Czar being relieved from every danger in that quarter , bis right wing secured , he can and will now detach such numbers of his army hence as he likes , and concentrate them thither where you choose to attack him . He at home , you thousands of miles far off ; you shall be beaten— -remember my word . It is now you are come to the test about what I told Great Britain , that it is not abroad , not in the offensive , that Russia is dangerous , except as a rearguard of other powers : but it is at home , in the
defensive , that she is dangerous . Once brought to that point , it is then that you require allies . Have you any ? You have not . Is Austria , for that purpose , your ally ? "No—a thousand times no . In that quarter , for that purpose-, there are no other allies possible a 3 we—Poland and Hungary ! And yet Britain rejects us ! Well , the doom will fall on the head of him who sinned . With us , you might have shaken hands in the Kremlin of Moscow ; without us you are as incapable to harm Russia as a child . With us , the world would have seen the proud spectacle of Schamy 1 and Omar , and Cambridge and Napoleon , and the descendants of Arpad and of Koscuisko , united on the plains of Russia , to thank the Eternal for the
deliverance of the world ; without us , you are doomed to be beaten , or to retrace your steps in shame . Poland and Hungary are not beggars who mendicate your generosity , they are nations which weigh your victory or your defeat in the hollow of their hands ; as Poland alone has weighed , forty-two years ago , the victory or defeat of Napoleon the Great . But the prattling fools with whom you are cursed tell you that , since you have nothing to do on the Danube—oh 1 - —bitter mockery of treason !—you shall go and take Sebastopol and the Crimea . Before all , I must remind you of that geographical fact , that the taking of Sebaetopol is no solution of the conflict , still less of the pending question . It will not bring ; the Czar d to
own claim your pardon ; quite the contrary ; it ¦ will excite him to raging perseverance . Still less is the Crimea a security for the future ; it is no barrier which defends , it is an acquisition which , requires defence . To take it is nothing ; yet to keep it , that is . the problem . Now , will you stay there to keep it ? I don ' t think so . You go homo and leave the task to the Turks . Many thanks for the gift . I , as the sincerest friend of the Turks , hope to God they will not be such fools as to meddle with that business . Jt is your own laundress work ; do it if you please . Now , as to the doing it ; I don't think you can take Sebastopol by the sea . But I will tell you in what manner Sevastopol is to be taken . It is at Warsaw you can take Sebastopol . "
656 The Leader. [Saturday,
656 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Something About The Czar. The Daily News...
SOMETHING ABOUT THE CZAR . The Daily News , in « n article of evident authenticity , gives the most interesting particulars of Czar Nicholas with which the world has been favoured since the epigrammatic gossip of Do Custino . Our contemporary's correspondent says—speaking of tho altered manner of Nicholas , after escaping the first insurrection ho had to encounter : — " Though thnt revolution did not take placo , another did , far Icbs expected . Nicholas became apparently a toUl ' y altered man . Tho strength of liia will Ima never ahown itaolf more marvellously than in th « restraint whloli Jio instantly put upon hia temper And innnn « r » , and maintained for a long course of years , Those who happen to huvo walehod the j nijftne know th « t tho most fo ; ir / ul of their peoulmritlou , In many canes , ia tho hiatuntiinoouH tranaition from the bruinl
to tlie human state . , You catch their eye , and are horrified at its expression of ferocity and cruelty ; and , before you can withdraw your gaze , it is gone , and all is bland and gracious . Thus was it with Nicholas , from the moment when his foot touched the step of the throne . Stern , but no longer irascible , —distant , but never ill-mannered , the brute part of him , known to be so largely inherited from his ancestors , seemed to have burst out " What his government of his dominions has been there is no need to describe . The more hopeless he became of doing effectual good at home , the more he has inclined to the policy of Peter and Catherine . He is aware that the nobles regard the existing system as doomed , and only expect or desire it to last their time . He is aware that the host of slaves who worship him are no power in his hand , but a mere burden . A man might as well be king in * wilderness peopled by sheep and wolves as in Russia ; and no one mows this better than Nicholas . He is aware that he
cannot reckon on the honesty ot any one functionary of Ins whole empire . He has invited and pensioned savans and men of letters , and instituted scliools , and toiled harder than his own slaves , and he perceives that society grows no better , but rather worse . So he has recourse to schemes of territorial extension ; and there the same evils follow ;—his-ships are rotten ; his cannon balls are turned into wooden bowls ; his quinine is found to be oak bark ; and while he is paying enormous bread bills , his soldiers are perishing under a bran and straw diet . " Of his fanaticism one does not know what to say . His Empress , turned Greek in a day to marry him ; and this no doubt seemed to him all right and natural . Bnt when he ¦ wa nted his daughter Olga to marry the Archduke Stephen , he offered that she should turn Romish in a day ^ -should embrace the faith of those nuns of Minsk who were so very displeasing to 'his orthodoxy . It is probably in his case the mixture of fanaticism and laxity which is so disgusting in tlie history of all churches at anytime dominant and involved with the state .
"In lns _ family , lie is no less unhappy than in other relations . His faithful , wife , who has borne with much from him , partly because there was no helping Iris passions , and partly because he carried on his attention to her through all his vagaries , has been wearing out for many a dreary year under tlie fatigues-of the life of-empty amuseinenfc ¦ which ; lie imposes on all his family . One favourite daughter is dead . Another is . the widow of the Due de Leuchtenberg : and the youngest is Princess-Royal of Wurtemberg . The two eldest sons are always quarrelling , —as is likely to happen if , as is universally understood , the younger —( who is a Muscovite savage of the Moscow party )—strives all in his power to supplant his elder brother—wlio is a much milder and more estimable man—in the succession to the throne . The Czar has till now repressed their feud ; but it has , like his other misfortunes , become too much for him : and the scandal is
fully avowed . If the reign 0 / Nicholas should come to « ¦ vio lent end with his life — his may not be the only royal Hood shed on the occasion . " Thus has the proud man , the Emperor of all the Russias , passed his fifty-eighth birthday , sitting among tho wreck of all his idols . They are of clay ; and it is his own iron will that has shivered them all . Instead of achieving territorial extension , lie has apparently brought on tlie hour of forcible dismemberment of his empire . Instead of court gaiety , his childish vanity iias created only the mirth which breaks th « heart and undermines the life . Instead of securing family peace by tlie comprcssive power of his will , he has made his spns the slaves , instead of himself the lord , of their passions . Hated by his nobles ; liked only by those who can r ive him no aid , and receive no good from him ; drawn in by his own passions to sacrifice them in hecatombs , while they fix their eyes on him as their only hope ; tricked by his servants all over the empire ; disappointed in his army nnd its
officers ; afraid to leave his capital , because it would belaid waste as soon as his back was turned ; cursed in all directions for the debts of his nobles , the bankruptcy of trade , and the hunger of his people ; conscious of tho reprobation of England and Prance , whoso reprobation conla bo no indiftercnt matter to Lucifer himself ; finding himself out in his count about Austria , and about everybody but his despised brothers of Prussia and ( ns an after-thought ) Naples ; nnd actually humbled before tho Turk ; what a position for a mom whose birthday once seemed to be an event in tho calendar of the universe I Bo it remembered , the while , that ho is broken in health and heart . Ho stoops as if burdened with years ; ho trembles with weakness because ho cannot take sufficient food . The eagle glance has become wolfish . Tlie proud culm of his lino face luifj given way to nn expression ot anxiety nnd trouble . Let him bo pitied , then , and with kindness . Ho is perhaps tho greatest sufferer in Europe , and let him . bo regarded accordingly . But , as wo need not Bay , ho is totally unfit for the management of human dcetinios . "
Who Is General O'Bonnell ? The Nation Ha...
WHO IS GENERAL O'BONNELL ? The Nation has not fulled , to point out to England that tho O'Donnell who is now convulsing Spain is a direct descendant of tho O'Donnell of the treaty of Limerick . The Nation Iobos no opportunity of suggesting the potoiicy of expatriated Catholic Irish blood . The Constitutionnel gives particulars . The family has been conspicuous sinco its settlement in Spain . Tho father of the present man was Director General of artillery , under Ifordhuuul VII . Ho had
four sons , all of whom became powerful . *' Lastly , the fourth son is ho who , at present is giving such a sad example of revolt . He was tlio only ono of the brothers who remained in the service of Quean Isabella on tho death of King Fordlnmid . liulng an oxecllont officer , ho gained nil his grades on the field of battle , and always was remarked as a strict disciplinarian . Ho was , like hia lather , an urtUunt adversary of liberal ideas ; ho had tho character of boing a sovoro man , ami the Basque provinces well remember soino of his rigorous measures . Having
become Lieutenant-General aud Count de Lucena , he had the command of the army of the centre at the moment when Queen Christina divested herself of the regency . When in 1840 , Espartero triumphed , General O'Donnell emigrated to Paris . In 1841 , he returned to Spain and seized on thj } citadel of Pampeluna by surprise , thanks to tho intelligence which he had kept up with a merchant of the place , M . Carriquiry . He held the citadel in the name of Queen Christina , and he was . there when , he learned that Generals Concha and I > iege Leon had failed at Madrid before the energetic resistance of Col . Dulee , his present accomplice , who commanded the halberdiers on duty at the palace when the two
generals presented themselves to seize the young Queen , and to overturn , ia her name , the dictatorial power of Espartero . Some years after , in 1846 , we find Count O'Donnell Captain-General of the island of Cuba . Usually the persons holding that command kept it for three years . O'Donnell lost it a little before the expiration of that time by the order of Marshal Narvaez , then President of the Council of Ministers . He in consequence conceived a hatred against the Marshal , which he did not attempjt to conceal , as he often said to any one who would listen to him , ' that he would never pardon such an affront . ' That resentment led him to organise in the Senate that annoying and irritating opposition which
exasperated General ISarvaez to such a degree as to force him to give in his resignation whep he must have considered himself more powerful than ever . However , two years later , O'Donnell was found in the ranks of the Parliamentary coalition , which had selected Marshal Narvaez as its leader , and which demanded against Bravo Murillo the application of the famous axiom , ? The . king reigns and does not govern , ' The singular variations of Gen . O'Donnell are now known . This intractable champion os absolutist ideas has ranged himself Under the bautier of an exaggerated parliamentarism ; and the former antagonist of Espartero has for accomplices Generals Messina and Dulce , the bond fide creatures of the Duke de la Victoria . "
The Children Of The Poor. Mr. John Olive...
THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR . Mr . John Oliver , the chaplain of King's College Hospital , continues his communication to The Builder , respecting the nursery in Portugal-street , Lincoln ' sinn-fields . He says : — ¦ " Those who frequent the nursery observe a very marked improvement in the health and disposition of the children who have betn in any degree regular in their attendance ; ¦ whilst those who have the superintendence are encouraged by an unmixed expression of gntticude on the part of the parents . The poor vidow , before utterly destitute and incapable of helping hi'rself , is thankful that she can now , without her family being neglected , earn a subsistence for herself and children . Many a poor mother , too , has been , from the birth of her first infant , entirely dependent on the scanty earnings
ot her husband for the support of herself and offspring , 13 now enabled to contribute nearly , and in some instances quite , an equal share . 1 need not say that the condition of such a family is much improved : but I will record the observation of a poor woman who was declaring her thankfulness some few dnys since . She said , with tears in her eyes , And , sir , my husband is so much kinder to me now tlvau he used to be . ' She spoke volumes , and gave mo a subject for deep reflection . Her husband is , I believe , a steady man , but a labourer , and then earning only 12 s . per week . " There arc considerations of a more general character . Who can sav what may bo tho effect on tlie public weal of rightly training tho minds of a number of children from their earliest infancy ? Who can estimate the benefit of leading the poor to think that tho interests of themselves and their
CMluren are reiilly cared for by the rich ? From a practical knowledge of the poor I am convinced that nothing - \ v 511 more tend to a reduction of our parochial burdens , and to rui improvement in tho religious and moral character of tho poor than tho bringing of rich and poor more immediately in contact , and teaching tho latter to respect themselves sis beings intended to occupy an important position in this wot Id , and a glorious equality in tho next ; and I know of no hotter means by which this can bo accomplished than by tin endeavour on tho part of tho rich to gaim tho respect and love of the poor by acts of kindness to their infant offspring . Infant nurseries « re , in my opinion , tho first atop totninia the accomplishment of an object in which , all classes of society are , of necessity , groatly interested . ' *
New Public Amusements . Tins Polytechnic...
NEW PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS . Tins Polytechnic Institution lias passed under new management—Mr . Peppers , the professor of chemistry—and is to bo " dovelopod . " Science is to bo softened with music , in this perplexing establishment-, and tho entrance-hall is to bo filled with ilower-i ) ot « . Those- nrc tho principal points . "To celebrate- " tho now repinid , a conversazionv has takon place , Mr . Walter , M . P ., delivering an " inaugural acldroHs . " There is to bo a " Tomporance Palace . " A contemporary thus puts tho fact : — " An nrrnngoinont i « on foot ninoiigat , tho friends of temporanoo , olVmuk'd by tho anta of wino , & o . nt Sydciihuin , to imrohaso tho Surrey Zoological Gardens , nnd to erect 11 largo building of glastj . Wo liiivtt not yot tho precise purticwlura buloro us , but understand that it ia proponed to rniso 101 ) , DOo /
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15071854/page/8/
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