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RIPE FOR LIBERTY^ "Are the French ripe f...
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"THE LEADER'* IN EXETER HALL. Those pers...
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Naval And Military News, Fatal Accident ...
¦^^¦ ' ¦^ OT ^ Wt '' - ' ^ ftijSsJ . ^ r l 3 Bf tfreiiisir Enipetoir exertsrindre infltieiiee ^ in / @ r eat ^ BritaIn thati tfce whole body of progressivie fioliticians . H $ / is the inspirer , cdntroller , leader . The war "; is his , and the ! E | ritish army is his contingent . Great Britain has ; rid' longer a pdlicyy Turkey no longer an existence . Constantinople is the Eastern capital of the French Empire- " The entire European side of the Bosphoriis is in French military occupation . The lines of Gallipoli , fortified at the
suggestion of aii English engineer , constitute an impregnable and commanding French citadel . The English hold one acre of ground , containing barracks for about five hundred men ajfd'hbrses , on th . e Pera side—their position is ori'the Asiatic shore * In the city , the police is French ; the public buildings are Frenchabove all , the prestige ia exclusively French . So in Europe—particularly so in Russia . England has lost that which she was thought to prize above « jr £ ry other possession , in the endeavour to perfect ah alliance which may prove an abyss .
The French nation from the first has looked with coldness on the war , and with scepticism on the English alliance . The event in Jersey has come to justify their reserve . A large mass of the population , impregnated with liberal sentiments , had believed ^—that which was truethat the English people , mistaking Louis \ Napoleon for France , really honoured the French nation , and desired to forget the ancient feud . But when the dictator of Jersey , with the sanction of the Cabinet , proscribed the
favourite writers and orators of France , and expeltei thorn like thieves , and when the English press approved the act , adding to it a systematic defamation of the men whom all that is not ephemeral in . France delights to honour , the slight basis of an international alliance crumbled away . The French knew , and every nation on the continent knew , that the policy of Eng land was tlie policy of fear—that she had abused herself to conciliate a powerful
ally-The Government is not alone concerned in these humiliating icvents . The great body of public opinion . is . infected by the same pusillanimity , which ten \ j > ts it to the same abasement . How many popular journals would dare to reproduce their " articles" or their placards of December , 1851 ? How many men , who then were proud ± o deny the reasonings of tyranny , would now confess the convictions which , in spite of * the servile sophistry of the press , must generatmin their minds a secret shame ? ,
We i are-not writing against the French alliancr . Unhappily , England declined the allianoeCproposed by liberal France in 1848 and 1846 , which wo ^ th , © true opportunity for limiting * he power , of Kussia . No doubt it was ' nOfiQ ^ arjtp . recognise , and , when war was inevit-Mflt >\ e , toYeoropetate with official France—despotic o * fvee » What we write against is the hypoeriticaicbv ^ ardice ' of puloUc opinion , We are engaged in a congest with Russia . The Emperor of the French is our ally . The Emperor of Austria and the' King of Prussia are neutrals- ' -well disposed toward bur etielny , The King of
Naples , also , has Russian leanings . Well , let us act with , good faith in , concert with the French Government ; let us watch the governments of Germany . Let us take care that the King of Naples does not injure out cause ) if we have a cause ; but give up this disgraceful pretence of magnanimity , cease these- insults to ^ 'Powers who not just as selfishl y ; as we do , afsiy nothing of men bastinadoed in Naples , if patriots' " ¦ are to l ) e hanged almost weekly in . Mantua ; and women whipped in the public Btiijtoea of Italian cities * without even a iWnfoered ' protest 1 ¦ frbm the champions of ofvfuytoion . Even to whisper would bo
impolitic ; Eet the yrai ; bea fight and not a farce # nd leave Despotism and * Liberty uhinentioned . The war is not between Liberty and Despotism ; it is between Cabinets which have quarrelled .
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Ripe For Liberty^ "Are The French Ripe F...
RIPE FOR LIBERTY ^ " Are the French ripe for liberty ? " The question might be answered by another , after Locke's plan of bottoming— " Is the French nation in its infancy ? " But the question of ripeness is put by a writer in the Stick with so much force , and so much bitterness in the sarcasm of the circumstances , that we cannot dismiss it as
selfanswered . France , indeed , is in that state when its actual condition can only be discussed collaterally . Writers are compelled to point their expressions in a glancing way , to write at a subject , instead of upon it ; hence , the French writer dares not give the answer to liis own question ; he can only turn it in all sorts of ways . The proposition , he says , would be " too perilous " to be solved directly : —
" We are therefore compelled to-cast about to fin < 3 middle terms of expression , as for example , these : ' Given a people , with its aptitudes , its history , and its decree of civilization , to point ont by what signs it may he known ¦ whether ornot this people be ripe for liberty . '" " Whenever a nation calls for free institutions , -the answer infallibly is , " Wait ! the time is not yet come . * ' Yet nations have attained to liberty who were , according to some tests , not so ripe as
the French . For example , here is the English nation , which is said to have deserved Its free institutions , yet it has its Hyde Park riots , and always has on hand some agitation or other . " If we Frenchmen , " says the writer , " were to agitate one-twentieth part as mnch as the English do , we should be treated a 3 incorrigibles . " The Americans are ripe for liberty , although they nurse among them those institutions which Mrs . Beeciier Stowe denounces . The
Swedes are ripe , although but , recently eman-. cipated from that vassalage to Russia which enabled the potentate even to dictate laws . Try the question by domestic tests . Has France been dismembered , like Sweden ? Has she suppressed liberty in other countries ? She aided the emancipation of the United States ; gave codes of equality t ° Germany ; protested in favour of Poland j planted civilization in Egypt , & c . ; and , at this very day , the French bourgeois , who is called selfish , proffers his savings to the defence of civilization , while his son falls by the side of the sons of the noble and the peasant on the heights of the Malakhoff . "
The writer anticipates one objection to his whole position . "It will be said , that in Franco there are incorrigible minorities : " this Is really the bane of tho country . Now , we have the more right to say so , sinco our own condition is not very different , and perhaps not altogether so much safer , as wo arc fiun to tb , ink it , Franco is the prey of her minorities ; the only sign of deficient ripeness for , liberty lies in tliat . That man who claims liberty for himself and his own opinions , is not oyqn , at this day , prepared to concede tho sa . m , o libprty to a party opponent with the same freedom to the opiuions which ho condemns . If this country were to sanction tho
violation of tho law of h ( tbeas corpus in tho person of a Tory , wo should soon seo that great safeguard of liberty for all Liberals trampled under foot . If wo wore not prepared to defend tho Archbishop of Canteubuhy , tlie liev . Baptist Noel , or Ordinal Wiseman , in , expounding their own opiuions , wo should soon cease to see Lord John Russell vindicating tho right of non-conformity fearlessly to expound its own doctrine . Apart from tho direct conflict of opinion , or tlio more possession of place , tho majority is always prepared to protect tho minority in tho . exorcjao of its civil rights ; aud wo 4 Q . UQt value iU © victory in argument
Which is obtained for H 3 by the dragoon or the constable : ' But we have not made less mistakes than France . We can only fcoast ' , that we have endured our sufferings earlier , and have enjoyed a longer time , since we struggled through the great contest between" the principles of selfgovernment and of government by arbitrary power . It is , however , the rising of the star for Fra ' nce , when her own patriots know and avow that their country has been the prey of the minorities that have divided her . Frenchmen , in fraternal contest , have been content to perform over again the fable of the lion and the tiger , leaving France to be carried off by the wolf .
The answer to the question ! that is the point . We are not quite sure that the eloquence of the French , writer will extort one from those who are in authority . We have no expectation of a new charter for France , by Divine mercy , or Imperial grace . The question whether a people is ripe for liberty has been asked several times in the history of different nations ; and to say the truth , we scarcely know one instance—if onein which it has been answered in any but on ©
way- The question was put in England somewhere abo-nt the time of Cromwell ; we think , also , in a modified form , somewhere about 1830 , when France and Belgium entertained questions of the kind ; it was put years before in America ; , it has been put veiy recently in Italy , and practically answered in oirepart of the north of Italy-It is ! a curious coincidence which we have observed , that tlie one mode by which , a people prove themselves to be ripe for liberty is—by taking it .
"The Leader'* In Exeter Hall. Those Pers...
"THE LEADER' * IN EXETER HALL . Those persons who hissed Lord Joiin Russell afc . the city dinner the other da }' , would have as . much difficulty in accounting for their motives , as those who . applauded his lecture in Exeter Hall : on Tuesday night .. Lor d John finished , by disparaging , the- power of reason which cannot lead * , us up to > the highest truth . Christianity alonej he argued , can do that , but it must be a Christianity uaembittered by the gall of sectarian and . polemical controversy . The applause \ s & 3 loud \ and enthusiastic , such as the . feeling deserved .. Yet we canuot handle these matters at all without employing our reason ; we camxot separate truth from error without polemics ; and we
cannot even compare tho conceptions of religious ideas , except through those earnest diversities of creed which sect embodies . We cannot have a blessing without tho price for it . In fact , howover , it was not this imperfect utterance of the truth which stirred Lord John- Russejll , or which called forth the strongest sympathy . Exeter Hall was filled with accredited Christians under tho patronage of Lord Shafteshukv , the Honourable as well as Keverend Montague Villjers , and many " persons of distinction j " persons who occupy tho best places in church , as they do in Exeter Hall , or in any buildings , where they take part with their humbler fellowcreatures . Tho exhortations to Christianity *
therefore , whioh wore no doubt sincere in Lord John , wore also a tribute to the place and occasion , and the applause was a matter of course . Earlier in the body of tho same lecture he expounded a truth—imperfectly , no doubt , and yet , earnestly and forcibly—a truth which is not often expounded in Kxoter Hall , and which , nevertheless , must have taken fast hold of tho inmost heart of his hearers . Hia text was tho
0 b 3 tacles which have retarded moral and political progress . Ho told tho old story of Galileo aud illustrated by familiar examples tho mode in which constituted opinion has forbidden tho utterance of new opinions * . Tho conviction of Gamlko , that tho earth moved , was condemned as opposed to revealed doctrine . Tho story-had buon told over and over again ; while »* U » coranaoncoment of
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111855/page/12/
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