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990 M^t QLtaUtt* [S aturday,
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JB ^5*c
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——o- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1851. ^
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^tihlir %Mx%.
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There is nothing so revolutionary, becau...
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" In England it has been anticipated by ...
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Til 14 SITUATION IN FKANCK. I'vknth have...
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NOT "REPUDIATION," BUI POSTPONEMENT. Fou...
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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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990 M^T Qltautt* [S Aturday,
990 M ^ t QLtaUtt * [ S aturday ,
Jb ^5*C
JB ^ 5 * c
——O- Saturday, October 18, 1851. ^
——o- SATURDAY , OCTOBER 18 , 1851 . ^
^Tihlir %Mx%.
^ tihlir % Mx % .
There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...
There is nothing so revolutionary , because there ia nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
" In England It Has Been Anticipated By ...
" In England it has been anticipated by some writers , that when the Irish population should be reduced to a certain low level , the inducements to remain would rise so high that the migration would stop , and the remnant Jeft behind would be contentedly and permanently attached to the soil . The Irish authorities , as we are disposed to think very correctly , do not expect the migration to stop as soon as the population has assumed its proper proportion to the Avork to be done . The people who have been in the habit of paying 30 s . an acre would
ENGLISH NATIONALITY MIGRATING TO THE COLONIES . The Irish nation is flowing out of Ireland , and the English are gradually , but not slowly , acquiring the propensity to migrate . ¥ e have already pointed out this move , and noted its inevitable effect on the relations of trade and industry . It may be said that we are very advanced in our views and speculative ; but we find the same views , the same anticipations , in the commercial Times . Our contemporary argues against the notion that the Irish drain will be stopped exactly at the point of a just level in wages : —
not now remain on the land if it were reduced to 20 s . or 10 s ., they will have it at no price . Their minds are completely made up to go after their friends—to go home , that home not being ' Ould Ireland , ' but the ' Far West ! ' The stream once set that way , it will not stop till Ireland is absolutely depopulated , and the only question is , when will that be ? Twenty years at the present rate would take away the whole of the industrious classes , leaving only the proprietors and their families , members of the learned professions , and those whose age or infirmities keep them at home . "
"The Englishman , we are assured , is too much attached to his country and too comfortable at home to cross the Atlantic "; but the Times argues to show that " Geography , tinion workhouses , ocoan mails , and the daily sight of letters arriving in ten days from prosperous emigrants , are f ;« -c unrooting the 15 riti > h rustic from the soil , » nd giving him cosmopolitan ideas . In a verv A- 'W years the question uppermost in his mind will be whether he will be better off here or there t "
Yes , nationality has yielded to that modern test . The sole test of worth , in trade , lies in the question — " will it pay ? " In labour , the sole test ; of home is the workhouse test— " settlement , " they call it . To love your country because it is your country , to serve an lCnglishmun becaiiMc he ih an Englishman —these are superstitions which have passed away . Free-trade in commodities , Free-trade in labour , Free-trade in human muscle , human hopes and
fears , —all these forms of Free-trade have been followed up by Free-trade in nationality . England is , perhaps , the only country in the world of which it may be said that its people are losing their care for it as theirs ; nationality being wholly lost in the jealousies of class against class , of party against party . And the retribution approaches in the shape of an immense social change . The prospect , says tho Times , is far too serious to be neglected : —
" ' I he depopulation of theae ihIoh , supposing the Celtic exodus to rim out its counse , and a Itritiuh exodiiH to follow , constitute about hk tsciiouH a political event as can be conceived ; for a ehnngc ot dy nasty or any other political revolution in nothing compared with » change in the people themselves . All the departments of iiiduntry , the army , the n . ivy , the cultivation of the fields , the ren * . of landed property , the profit of trades , the payment of vatcH and taxc . 'H , depend on tho people , and without the people there must c . unvc a general collapse of all our inBtiiutions . "
One proof of our decayed nationality is the complacency with which the Globe reviews this piONjMct —rejoicing in the ; migration of " <« iles Jolterhead , " —of Socialist , or Chartist , "loafern "—of "those who cannot prosper " or " be content with a modest prospeiity . " Tho Globe does not grieve over tho
departure of Englishmen from the land of their birth , but rather simpers at the prospect of being quit of troublesome spirits . _ But whither are these Englishmen going ? lo North America—to the United States , which have broken with England ; or the British colonies , which are threatening , every now and then , to break off and to be independent , or to annex themselves to the United States ; to the Australias , already leagued against the English Government and its doings ; or to the Cape of Good Hope , successful in rebellion , and still sulky .
The Australias are deeply offended . They are made to endure Imperial taxation—the imposition of exorbitant salaries ; the very sting which provoked the United States to the war of independence , and which helped to exasperate Canada ; to say nothing of similar quarrels with the West Indies . The Australias have been deprived of conyictism ; and then , when they had learned to appreciate the relief from that curse , it has been forced on them again : — " The colonies have a point of unity and agreement , and that point is resistance to the indignity and injury which they suffered from Great Britain . Such things are not long in growing to a head .
?' It was only in September last year that New South Wales founded her Anti-Convict Association ; and this body , after an existence of only six months , has been swallowed up in the League of the four colonies—New South Wales , Port Phillip , "Van Diemen ' s Land , and South Australia—pledged to resist the importation of British criminals into any of them , under whatever designation , and upon whatever terms , to raise funds for the support of the League , and to abstain from employing any convict who shall hereafter be sent out .
•< Among the principal supporters of this League are men of well-known moderation and discretion , who have hitherto kept aloof from political agitation , and who have evidently only been drawn into it by the deepest and most heartfelt conviction . That spirit of enthusiasm which has given rise to so many religious wars seems to be revived in this confederacy . They are animated by the feeling that their dearest interests are at stake , and , though measured and
respectful in their language , are evidently prepared to carry out their principles , at whatever cost . * * * € < It is sixty years since the first of these was founded , and but fifteen since the last ( Port Phillip ) assumed a separate name ; and yet that which the Government of Lord North forced upon the American colonies after a hundred and fifty years of growth , sixty years has sufficed to teach our Australian children . They also have their Congress , because they also have their common grievances and common
fears . It is not we who say this , but the Times . The emigrant , alienated from his home , goes fcjrth to strengthen colonies that are beginning to array themselves against the Imperial Government . See Sir Andrics Stockenstrom ' s pamphlet , directly accusing the Government of garbling documents , of suppressing vitally necessary passages in published papers ; and warning it that it must retrace its policy on the border of the Cape , or carry out the war against the Blacks to " extermination . " Sir Andries is a moderate practical man , publicly elected with Mr . Fairbaiin as the representative of the colony in this country . The ( Jape Colonists have some sense of nationality ;
they can all act together . Yes ; it is in the colonies that the Englishman is driven to learn that nationality which is forgotten at home , and which , by a strange fatality , when it has reached the colony , finds an unyielding enemy in the Government . In the United States the interest of human beings is not accounted subordinate to that of goods , of bureaux , or of 4 t the system . " In the United States the Englishman iinds that the first care is for the People ,- and in the Colonies lit ; finds the resolve to make the
People-tho first cure rather than particular cliques or " interests . " The trading spirit has made nationality a scoff , and this country is threatened with that Social revolution predicted by the Times The state which has consented to forget its nationality jh raising up states hostile tq itself , although peopled hy its own children . So true is it that mere , " self-interest" or mean statesmanship defeats itm-lf . England must recover its nationality , or it . n colonies will outgrow it , and will take the lend of the- world into their own hands .
Til 14 Situation In Fkanck. I'Vknth Have...
Til 14 SITUATION IN FKANCK . I'vknth have been too strong for the Prince President , aiul , if the recent reports from 1 'ari . s are to be trusted , he has ^ iven in . The resignation oi hia Ministry in a capitulation ; the rcaolvoto repeal
the Law of May 31 is a reform of conduct ; and the new Ministry will probably indicate a changed spirit in his administration . We touch upon the subject with reserve , because we desire more complete information from Paris , and because we have no guarantee against a new reaction ; but we are aware that many of our readers will desire to know " what we think of it , " —and we will not disappoint them to indulge any pedantic punc tilio of journalism . We think well of it , so far as we can see . The motive of the altered course is plain . We are aware , and , indeed , we stated the fact some time ago , that among the authors of the Law of May 31 , abolishing universal suffrage , were those who said * that , although passed fora temporary purpose , it would not remain on the statute book until the next election . But , it is evident that the President had recently been taught to rely on the restricted franchise . At last he has found that the game was hopeless . He must have desired to exclude his enemies from the Presidential and Legislative election ; but , trusted by no party , he found himself without a chance of making a majority . His only remaining chance is once more to seem to throw himself on the People . The People will be to some extent conciliated , and he does , though to a doubtful degree , recover a portion of the chance which his reactionary conduct had thrown away : his adherents will be recruited by this advance of penitence . But the action of France , once more set free , will be too large to be altogether within management , and the nation will probably be thinking about other things besides the maintenance of M . Bonaparte . That there will be a trial of strength we hold to be beyond doubt ; but that the popular interests will , in any event , gain by the recently adopted step of the President we equally believe . According to the new aspect of the political sky , the trial of strength will be . peaceably conducted ; which is much . Should it be fairly conducted , France will once more resume her place in the ranks of popular nationality against Despot-bureaucracy . Should there be any fresh attempt at reaction , it will be but a fresh impulse to reawakened energies . We say nothing of particular candidates for Presidency or Ministry . It is idle to speculate , it would be presumptuous to advise . We note with satisfaction the influence which has again been recognized in a national crisis—that of Emile de Girardin , —perhaps the boldest , most sagacious , and most able man in France . We have differed from him in opinion ; but we recognize qualities of a greatness that is not likely to waste itself in an idle contest with events . On the contrary , a keensighted interpreter of facts , he is likely to borrow his chief strength from them ; and if the necessities of the time be but allowed fair play , France , we are assured , will recover her freedom , her vigour , and her glory . We do not regard M . Bonaparte as the right man for President ; we think that he should be President who has served his way to that post . But we trouble not ourselves with names or individual pretensions : let him be President who can command the sulira # e of the nation ; let him be Minister who can give action to the energies of the nation .
Not "Repudiation," Bui Postponement. Fou...
NOT "REPUDIATION , " BUI POSTPONEMENT . Four years ago certain sums were advanced by the Imperial Treasury to the Irish Unions , secured upon the rates , and , therefore , ultimately upon the land . AVe saw , in those days of famine , a gigantic scheme of eleemosynary relief carried out ; ana enormous sums spent in the most unproductive ht
way , in order that a whole People mig oe rescued from the jaws of starvation . Reproductive works were studiously avoided , lest a tiling Ministry should be charged with " Socialism . The money , borrowed mainly upon the na ! io »< credit , a surplus being a rarity in those days was literally sown broadcast . Nearly ten mil ions went so . It was understood that they should bo repaid out of the rates , and that , the land ol m land should be mortgaged to that extent , no
stands I lie case now ? The normal condition of Ireland has for j , nr . been that of bankruptcy . Few expect a ^^^ dividend from a bankrupt debtor . Itut m adi <«« to chronic bankruptcy , or rallicr as a consc <| , i - of bankruptcy , Ireland has Hustamed an men a emi K M-ation-depopulation . i « the right word besides this , shi has been subjected to tryHj ; « tremendous social changes , the double ac . io < Htrinirent Poor Law and the sweeping " ; " , * of Hn Encumbered Kslatea Court . The fomiuc **»
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18101851/page/10/
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