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_Ugg TUJTE LEA DWB) [No. 299, Saturday,
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PIEDMOJSTTESE POLITICS. {Prom, our Corre...
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, l^fT tff Cf rrtttf jpUZlWlllUl. I
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Leader Office, Saturday, December 15th. ...
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The Fall of Kars.—The Times contains a d...
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INDIA!. The Overland Mail from India has...
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Tub Late Mademoiselle JutiEl—Mr. Morris,...
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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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_Ugg Tujte Lea Dwb) [No. 299, Saturday,
_ Ugg TUJTE LEA DWB ) [ No . 299 , Saturday ,
Piedmojsttese Politics. {Prom, Our Corre...
PIEDMOJSTTESE POLITICS . { Prom , our Correspondent . ) TuRItf > Dec . 4 . CoNSTiTtrTioirAij government ia being put to a very hard trial in this country- ; and after the English people have expended their enthusiasm in welcoming Victor Emmanuel - whom they probably applaud partly as an expiation for their applause of the Emperor Uapoleon III . —it is good that they should know some of the difficulties with which : he , or rather the system which he represents , has to contend . For my part , if I did not fear to be thought eccentric , I should begin my notices of the state of politics in this part of the world by what may seem to be a very
cynical confession . And why not tell the truth ? We are getting too much accustomed to square our phrases to circumstances . Every Englishman aims at playing the diplomatist ; and whilst he hates or despises tyranny , learns the articles of the leading journal by heart , and consoles himself by cant about the gentleman King , and the brilliant prospects of Parliamentary Government in this ill-assorted little collection of States—this miniature representation of Austria—lately entrusted with liberty , called the kingdom of Sardinia . I shall confess , then , that , so far , I have very little
confidence in the ultimate success of any of the attempts made to introduce abroad the artificial system of Government which has so long flourished in . England . It was never , with us , anything more than a prudent compromise between principles and circumstances . The circumstances existed ; the principles started up by their side . There was a contest , in which neither party obtained complete victory . Rather than exhaust our strength in perpetual conflicts , we consented to an arrangement which was consonant to our national character . We resolved to
Trait the result of the action of Common Sense , entrusted with a share of power , upon the mass of absuwiities inherited from feudal times ; and Common Sense has at length nearly got the upper hand . We have been many generations at work ; and , seeing the goal draw nigh , most persona are content to admire the constitution—or rather the absence of a constitution—by which we have been favoured . This is why we think we cannot bestow a greater blessing
on foreign nations than to teach them how to imitate our machinery ; and why our statesmen and diplomatists are always ready to give their , advice , and promise their assistance , to all peoples who will consent to record their political life in an exact imitation of Hauniard j and also why we are aa indignant at liberals who promise to go a step further , as at tyrants who prefer to remain as they are . We have invented a bed of Procrustes , and we hate all who will not lie in it .
One of the points on which Englishmen most m-Bist , and without which they withhold their sympathies froni any attempt at self-government , is the existence of an Upper House . Laws must be passed through a double strainer before they are good for digestion . We never inquire whether there- exists any class from which it is possible to make more than an arbitrary selection to compose this said second chamber ; uor do we reflect that-we have often considered the House of Lords as a nuisance , talked irreligiously- of doing away with it , and' compelled it , by our ill temper , to be very diffident of exercising its right of interference in important measures . In discussing the doings of our continental friends , we
cannot forgive them for attempting to be wiser than we , Their aristocracy is gone . No matter . They must create one for the nonce . Accordingly , -obeying our impulse , and disregarding the suggestions of original minds , all nations who have escaped from government by right divine , hasten to put the idea in action ; and in Piedmont , as elsewhere , we have a constitutional King , a Senate , and a Chamber of Deputies superposed on a aooiety whioh knows them not , and is still full of the habits of passive obedience . No nation left to iteelf , when it became tired of allowing all its business to be transacted by a single man , would think-off substituting anything else than the application of this principle—" Every man is the best judge of his own affaire . " A single assembly , proceeding direct ; from the people ; and obeying ita immediate
impulse , would at any rate be understood . It seems quite oertain to me that the Piodmontese do not appreciate , by any means , the complicated and exotic system with which they ore expected to identify their sympathies . It is ju & t possible that it would be for the advantage of this country , and others similarly situated * to fell into a different state of mind and lenrn to appreciate what now so much puzKlos thorn . Indeed , as all recent experience tells us that . England ie fated to bo the godmother of liberty in Europe , and as theory hoe choaenr to rrtould itself by her example—wo may suppoBe , that in spite of the absence of legitimate matorialri , itis proper , now that the first stop has been taken / to endeavour to accustom the Piedmontese , the Savoyard !) , the men of Genoa ; of Nice , and Sardinia , to tUa ( government of representativee— - " on trial / ' of course , for the electoral body its restricted- —oheoked in
its operations by a factitious Senate , and a King acting by the medium of " responsible" ministers . If so , it does not appear to me that the persons or classes who principally influence the action of government are going the right way to work to produce the desired result . Talk to a Piedniontese of the middle classes—an instructed , experienced man ; and be sure , if you know how to get at his secret- —for the race is dissimulate with foreignera , especially with Englishmen , who are all supposed to be rabid Constitutionalists- —be sure that you will find in Ms mind , unless he be a member of the progress party who would go beyond the limit which we mark , a lurking regret for old
times . In the first place , the complication of the forms he is called on to understand bores him ; secondly , he does not see the practical benefit . After many umbrages out comes the complaint—the population has scarcely increased and the taxation has doubled within the last eight years , since the unfortunate but glorious events of 1848 . The good people absolutely presumed to identify liberty with economy . They expected retrenchment instead of profusion . They are disappointed , and whilst they are indignant at the men to whom personally they attribute their distress —exactly as they used to complain personally of their old kings when they were greedy—they begin unreasonably to be discontented with the system .
The truth is , that much of the increased expense of the Government is the result of necessity , and ifc is childish to attribute it to free institutions . The debts of the war are not yet , properly speaking , paid off ; and the recent alliance with France and England —after all , a good and noble act—ia an expensive affair . But it seems quite certain that neither M . Cavour , nor his predecessors , nor the persons and classes who support him—perhaps not even the Left Opposition—have ever thought of recommending freedom to the selfish part of human nature by iden tifying it with material advantages ; 01 % if the idea has ever struck them , they have most signally failed in applying it . No one can look beneath the surface of things in this country without perceiving that there is a wide-spread and growing dissatisfaction with
actual financial arrangements—that the unwilling ness of many men to contribute towards public expenses is becoming complicated by bitterness—and that , with very hearty loyalty towards the House of Savoy , is strangely blended a vague anticipation of good from some other quarter . The majority of the Savoyards yearn towards Imperial France or Republican Switzerland ; the Genoese are not at all convinced that a new attempt at a Republic would be a failure ; and even the Piedmontese , growing dispirited as they breathe the fogs which east winds now bring every day from Lombardy , smile rather ironically as burly Englishmen compliment them on their prowess in the East , and are not so proud as we seem to think they ought to be of their Constitution and our encouragement .
I will not yet accept the explanation given by a part of the Opposition here , that M . Cavour and his friends are perfectly aware of the discontent that exists—that they set it at nought—that they are confident that they are the necessary men , and , indeed , the only ones possible at present—and that all they care about is the enjoyment of power and the advantages it gives—that they have no faith in the futurethat they are disciples of Guizot and Rossi , who saw in constitutional forms nothing but convenient machinery for carrying out with a semblance of liberty certain narrow and despotio theories . It seems quite evident that as long as the war lasts , or until ifc becomes a war of principles—which England and France will endeavour as much as possible to
avertno great change con take place in this Government from without . The actual men , or men exaotly like them , must be in power . M . Itatazzi may be immolated as an old Liberal who has lost the confidenoe of his former friends without gaining the affection of hia present allies ; or M . Cavour may attempt to lean a little more towards tho Left ; but this is all that ia possible . M . Cavour , then , should feel that he haa a great duty to perform . He ought not to be content with keeping together a good majority . He is bound so to aot that the Piedmontoae , and the other races agglomerated with thorn under the samo sceptre , should have reason to bo delighted with freo government , instead of almost boiug led to ourso it . Let us not attribute to them our own
sentimentB . They have what is called a free press , oheoked by tho power monstrously left in the hands of the police to seize a number of a papor supposed to contain a criminal article—that is , to aonfiBoate arbitrarily private property ; und checked , also , by fear of condemnation by judgos uncontrolled by a jury They hayo many precious civil and political privileges ' . They enjoy religious freodom . They possess many admirable Institutions , of which Austrian despotism deprives their neighbours over the Tioino . I am willing to believe that all the most gonoroua-spirlted amongst them think these more than sufficient to counterbalance an exhausted exchequer , an increasing public debt , and a vexatious and ignorant system of
taxation . But the majority of men—especially when new to liberty—are ever prone to look to their pockets more than their principles ; and Power , if it does not condescend to this weakness at first , is unfaithful to its trust . Let us welcome Virtue when it comes forward ; but let us always act as if Interest were the sole spring of human actions . The French Republic destroyed itself by supposing , in its enthusiasm , that the brutal peasantry of the departments would be delighted to contribute a few additional centimes for the sake of Liberty .
, L^Ft Tff Cf Rrtttf Jpuzlwlllul. I
Ajgfeript
Leader Office, Saturday, December 15th. ...
Leader Office , Saturday , December 15 th . THE AUSTRIAN PEACE "SUGGESTIONS . " The Paris correspondent of the Post writes — ' ' The best information in nay possession at the present moment , as to the peace question , is this : — Russia has not officially commissioned , or countenanced , any propositions . Austrian diplomacy has made suggestions , which have been submitted to Paris and London . The Cabinets of France and England have requested that the said propositions for peace should be stated more clearly , and that they should also be fully sanctioned by Russia before any attempt is made at negociation . At this stage of the affair , Austria is supposed to have communicated with St . Petersburg , and so matters remain . Meanwhile , every little German Court is busy ia talking , and the large one 3 in writing . Tou must expect to hear the movements of German diplomatic gentler men converted into ' missions . ' We are at a period when the public read with great interest a romantic newspaper , literature founded on fiction . Russia is making immense preparations for the spring campaign ^ The Allies are doing the same . The Governments of France and England are perfectly agreed . Such are the data on which the public may really speculate ( with the probability of arriving at correct conclusions ) if they care not to be deceived by the exaggerated importance which is given to the most shadowy hopes of peace . "
The Fall Of Kars.—The Times Contains A D...
The Fall of Kars . —The Times contains a despatch from its Vienna correspondent ; dated 11 a . m . Thursday , stating that nothing was then known in that city of the fall of Kars . We { Globe ) fear ; however , that this gives no ground for hope that the intelligence of the capitulation which has been published is otherwise than too true in every respect . —The fact is not announced in the Mohiteur . . At Trebizonde , says a despatch just received from Frankfort , it was rumoured on the 21 st of November that Omar Pacha had attacked Kutais . The reinforcements he had received were not very con . siderable . The Shah Bender of Trebizonde has placed between 400 and 500 beasts of burdenafc the disposal of the Porte . The Circassians ( according to a letter from Redoubt-Kaleh , in the Post Gazette of Frankfort ) have not fulfilled the expectations of Omar Pacha by co-operating with him , and the relations between him and Schamyl are not friendly ; . indeed , he feara that , if he were to march on the capital of Georgia , ScUamyl would attack him in the rear .
India!. The Overland Mail From India Has...
INDIA ! . The Overland Mail from India has arrivedi It brings news of the Santal rebellion , which is not yot subdued , though the career of the insurgents Beams drawing to a oloso . Martial law will bo proclaimed The signs of disturbance in other districts of India continue .
Tub Late Mademoiselle Jutiel—Mr. Morris,...
Tub Late Mademoiselle JutiEl—Mr . Morris , « i lodging-house keeper in Plymouth , in whose residence Mademoiselle Julie died from the injuries she had received on tho stage , has refused to give up tho body on account of damages dbne'to tho bed on which the poor girl had lain . Tho case was brought boforo the Mayor , and Mr . Morris was forced , though moat roluctantly , to resign his hold on . tho corpse , A stormy meeting of the Gryetal Palace Company took place yesterday , and- wo * adjourned for throe weeks .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 15, 1855, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15121855/page/10/
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