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$)$& ¦ THE LEADER. [No. 295, Saturday
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THE SARDINIAN STATES. THEIR HISTORY, GOV...
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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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A Word To Sheffield. Some Of The Middle ...
Whowere at first enticed into credulity by the rabid reiterations of Mr . TJrquhart , hare withdrawn since they have seen him convicted of : Tittering a false and libellous assertion . Still , a section of men , with a vulgar appetite for violence and mystery , meets at the Town Hall , which is now the Sheffield Theatre , and whither great throngs are attracted , not by faith , but by curiosity .
Of course the " Chief , set up by these enthusiasts of suspicion , is a monomaniac , utterly unworthy of attention . His notoriety arose , in the first instance , accidentally , and has continued , because it has been the business of his life to sustain it . Philosophers have observed > that individuals in his condition often betray two qualities—pertinacity and insensibility . Being , therefore , dogged and dull , and being supplied with a plea of martyrdom , by his dismissal from the diplomatic service , Mr . Urqithaht is haunted by the one incident in his career which makes him " a public man , " and for ever sings his own elegy , with variations of " charges ^ " against Lord PatjMERSTOIT .
Now , Lord PaXiMekston is not a sincere or generous statesman . That was not discovered at Sheffield , or by any of the Sheffield Investigators . But the people of that town , so far as they have listened to these loose-tongued idlers , have thrown away their energy and their vigilance . It is time that a re-action should be organised to represent " political Sheffield " more usefully , and in a better spirit Indeed , such a re-action has already produced effects . Mr . Michael Beat , spoke to the feelings and tothe minds of the working-men who heard Mm , when he deprecated the violence of Councillor Ironside ' s harangue . The worst of the ragged-tongued spouters that foamed on the
platform when the coarsest oratory of Chartism was in vogue , did not surpass the brntality of Mr . Ironside ' s invective . The display was worse than indecent—it was weak , and would bring contempt on a better cause . These personalities we notice , because , as Mr . J . A . I / Ajstgford said , the Sheffield Foreign Affair Committee , which assumed to lead the working classes to a comprehension of politics and diplomacy has degenerated into a cabal of defamation and scurrility . Is this to be the end of all self-led movements on the part of the people ? Is it to be in Sheffield now as it was in every town in England formerly 1 The process , in the unripe time of Chartism , was almost regular . First , the industrious
community in a given neighbourhood acquired ideas , aspirations , hopes . It fixed upon one or more leaders . It formed a Society , a Committee , a League , a Convention . The prominent men worked forward to a certain point : then dissensions sprang up in the council . One man was marked as a traitor , another as a spy . The body of the party , instead of suppressing , by impatience and intolerance , the bickerings of its leaders , broke into sections , and died of the disease of Jealousy .
Will it be so again , and whenever the working- olasses combine ? May we hope not ~ -tlmt the froth has been blown from the surface of that vast politicul socioty constituted by " the people ! " The example of Sheffield is not entirely disoouraging . If Mr . Urquhaut wcro actually a " leader , " and if his " followers " had any force or union , the prospect wotfd be
indeed deplorable . But we cannot cpuceivo that a great town should ever be given up to the . hallucinations of a half-witted mysteryjnonger and the actors of his company . Mr . Samuel Jackson may assure himself that ' . Russia chooses her agents with more discretion titan to pay u fantastic egotist to asperse Kos' tftWWt and Mazzini , He may remember that j JMftm * yeareh & go a similar confusion was excited
in the midland towns by the same unintelligible monomaniac . The importance of the Sheffield agitation consists in this : —that it is a sign of political life , that it proves in the workingclasses a tendency to organise , and to form independent judgments upon political affairs . But what is to be thought of men who applaud while a penny lecturer tells that Shire-motes must be restored—who do not laugh at the muddy mind of a ranter who says that to study principles is a sign of idiotcy—who do oiot scout a shameless adventurer who relates conversations with persons he has never seen , who regrets
the shorn branches of Prerogative , who propose the abolition of parliamentary government , and who mistakes the ridicule of the public for a conspiracy to suppress him . We shall be glad to hear that the last of these follies has been enacted , and that the working men of Sheffield will not , because they extract some common-place information from an individual who knows nothing but what is familiar to every politician , accept him as an oracle . The Oracle of political Sheffield ought not to make Sheffield ridiculous . The courage that is wanted is not recklessness ; the enthusiasm that is wanted is not insanity .
All that the people in the north and midland towns , or elsewhere , have learned from this egregious egotist is reducible to a statement of the circumstances of one incident . That " disclosure" contained some truth , and , as the " divulging" trade promised to succeed , the discarded understrapper of diplomacy imagined a complication of bribes , crimes , mysteries , until the black burlesque " loomed" so hugely and hideously , that none but a purchased paper
would be its " organ . " These matters have been so thoroughly explained in London that it would be impossible in that metropolis to revive the imposture . To all appearance , Sheffield , Birmingham , and Newcastle are disinclined to be deceived . Mr . George Dawson has taken a very creditable part in disposing of the calumnies against M . Mazzttsti . The Birmingham Journalalso has discredited the vapid ravings of the Free Press .
The working classes , destined to be the depositories of a vast power , will do well to take more political exercise . It will give them health and vigour . The present period is an opportunity . A misconducted and aimless war is carried on against Russia . A minister stands at the head of affairs professing sympathy with the liberalism of Europe , ¦ which he has systematically betrayed and persecuted . A lawless and irresponsible Government in France has seduced England iuto the habits of despotism . Wo are losing position and
character . Long hated throughout Christendom , for our abused power , we arc in danger of being despised . These aro points for all classes seriously to consider . But the aristocracy will not consider them . They connive at the lmmiliationof England , because among them exists the ineradicable feudal feeling which makes them look upon the expectant classes of their own country as worse enemies than the military oppressors of Europe . If the middle and the industrious orders of people do not provide agnins 6 '" the dangers of tho future , the aristocracy will not .
Now , political knowledge is not gained fx-om wretched quibblcrs , who prate about the curse of parliamentary government , by a senseless repetition of tales about sealed boxes at the Foreign Office , tho Princess Lieven's bribe , or the terrible secrets that lie under tho House of Commons , one dny to destroy it by a moral explosion . These are the puerilities of political life—the garbage of tho demagogue—tho blight of well-aimed agitation . In Sheffield there exist tho materials , © fT a liberal organization . Let its
people clear their Town Hall of crazy rhapodists and degraded dupes , and convert it into a centre of real political vitality .
$)$& ¦ The Leader. [No. 295, Saturday
$ ) $ & ¦ THE LEADER . [ No . 295 , Saturday
The Sardinian States. Their History, Gov...
THE SARDINIAN STATES . THEIR HISTORY , GOVERNMENT , AND LAWS . { From a Correspondent ^) The army which , in conjunction with every other department of his realm , had been thoroughly organised by Chabl . es Emmanuel , formed the chief , if not the sole , care of his successor . Botta says of Victor Amadecs III ., " Ch ' ei faceva piu . stirna di un tamburino che d ' un letterato , " ( that he cared more for a drummer than for a savant ) . Certain it is that on the maintenance of this army , on his immense retinue , and on the pleasures of the hunt , he squandered all the treasures of the realm , and accumulated , in times of profound peace , a debt of nearly 5 , 000 , 000 ? . Victor never looked beyond the limits of his own kingdom , nor even into the necessities and claims of his
own subjects , whom he left to the tender mercies of the priests , while he , with his court and nobles , busied themselves with the pleasures of the field , and -with sham-fights on parade . A French army had assembled at the foot of tlie Alps before the Alpine king dreamed that any democratic influences could have crept in among his loyal and respectable people . The French nation , too long taxed to pay for the pastimes of their rulers , who revelled while they starved , had decreed that absolutism , coupled with profligacy and imbecility , should end for that day at least . Long and silently they had expounded their
doctrines of the " people's rights " among their neighbours , and just at this juncture in Savoy such doctrines fell on fruitful soil . Not that the Savoyards were disloyal at heart . They were weary and passive , and Montesquieu ' s troops had invaded their territory before Victor had levied sufficient taxes to set on foot his much-vaunted army , who had never yet seen a tattle . By the time it was in readiness , Nice and Savoy had both been conquered by the French , whose unscrupulous agents met , however , at the hands of the brave Sardinians , such a repulse as taught them for a time to cease their marauding expeditions .
Energy and decision might have remedied all . At the head of an army of 50 , 000 every man of whom was devoted to the royal cause , Victok might have recovered his lost territory and defied the invaders ; but he squandered his time in seeking to ally himself with the other Italian princes , all too indolent or too weak to aid him , and when , after witnessing the fate of the Frenci king , he joined the allied powers , and recewd from England such subsidies as were necessary to keep his army in the field , he yet trusted his own and his country's interests in the hands of wily , grasping , treacherous Austria . With Austria tor his friend , who onlv desired to see him reduced to
such extremities as should compel him to buy ner aid by a cession of territory , the King of Sardinia sent out his army under Austrian generals to meet the republican troops , headed by Bonaparte , at Massena ! The Piedmontese soldiers fought bravely ; but against such odds ; with generals who betrayed them to , rather than led them against , the enemy ; with Italians against them—for the Genoese connived at Bonaparte ' s passage along the Ligurian territory—how could success attend them , xae direst , most entire defeats followed one upon tne other . The king lived to sign away at Cheraseo nearly all his hereditary dominions on terra Jirm then died for very shame , leaving to his son tne mockery of a crown , and a blot where Ins own name should have stood beside his ancestors .
That son was no Emmanuel Phimbbrt who should redeem his father ' s name from ignominy and wrest his paternal lands from the usurper . If their passive virtues were not altogether extinct , tho heroism , the grand unflinching steadlastness which had distinguished so many oi uw Savoy princes for nearly eight centuries , bad uicu out altogether from the main line . In truiu j virtue and heroism seemed altogether cxtm < TL Italy , else Bonaparte could not stand out to-uay , for a hero he was not , but seemed to be , surrounded as he was by cravens and cowards vrntw paltry vices made his very crimes appear » heinous than they were . Fax bo it from us to attempt to justify , French insolence and agg **! ^' fraught at » U tiniea with such baneful cttea"
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111855/page/14/
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