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les whih ha Oct. 18, 1851.] Cft* *.t&*tt...
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ASSOCIATION APPLIED TO MIRACLES. Poor Ro...
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CAPTAIN MACONOCHIE. - Birmingham acquire...
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SOCIAL REFORM. "notes of a social, ckcon...
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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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Kossuth And The Hirelings Op Atjstria. I...
wn as we have seen , repeatedly infringed by trea-^ herv and threatened with a violent subversion . We return now to the events of the last revolution . The decree of October 3 , 1848 , by Ferdinand I ., as Emperor of Austria , and not as King of Hungary— -a decree whioh was illegally countersigned bv a court tool , Count Reczey , for the consideration money of £ 1200—dissolved the Hungarian Diet , annulled all its acts , made Jellachich Coniroander-in-Chief of all Hungary , placed the whole of Hungary under martial law , suspended all the institutions of local self-government , gave absolute , irresponsible
power to Jellachich in every matter , ordered all ecclesiastical , civil , and military authorities to obey him , and announced that measures would be immediately taken for annihilating Hungary for ever , by merging into one monarchy all the countries and Peoples under the Imperial Crown . This decree , which was « ' the ultimate subversion of the ancient constitution of the land , " was enacted when the legal Batthyany Ministry , of which Kossuth was a member as Minister of Finance , had ceased to exist in September 1848 . The Hungarian constitution was ,
, therefore , not annihilated from the time when Kossuth took a prominent part in the Government , but six months after the royal nomination of the Batthyany Ministry ( March 30 , 1848 ) , and again , six months before the Hapsburg dynasty was dethroned by the Hungarian Diet in virtue of an old law , which provides that , " in case any King attempts to divide the country , or to incorporate it with his foreign possessions , he maybe dethroned by the Diet , " and before Kossuth was legally proclaimed the Protector or Regent of the kingdom during the
interregnum ( April 14 , 1849 ) . The annihilation of the ancient constitution of Hungary was , moreover , maintained and confirmed by the mock constitution of March 4 , 1849 , which subjected the Hungarians to Viennese bureaucracy , and which swamped their Parliament , without the pretence of law , by the mere stroke of Count Stadion's pen , among a host of foreigners , incapable of legislating well for them . This constitution was again abolished by an Imp 3 rial decree of August 20 , 1851 , declared as it was by Prince Schwarzenberg himself , in his official
notification to the Australian envoys and ambassadors , to have been a mere fiction , and Hungary still groans under the naked rule of gibbets and of bayonets , now full two years since Georgey ' s treacherous surrender near Vilagos , and since Kossuth has ceased in a Turkish prison " to take a prominent part in the Government of Hungary . " ( August 13 , ' 49 . ) As to the Times calling the legally elected Diet of Hungary " an Assembly of the Creatures of Kossuth , " we shall correct this mere lapse of
the pen by an official quotation . The beforementioned decree of the 3 rd of October , ' 48 , commences with the following words : — " We , Ferdinand L , Kmperor of Austria , send our salutation and grace to the barons , ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries , magnates and deputies assembled in the Diet convoked by us in the Royal free town of Pesih " The Emperor of Austria recognizes , therefore , himself , the legal election of the deputies , and the legal capacity of the hereditary legislators of that Diet ; and it must be a matter of
curiosity , by what magic a private individual , poor and humble like Kossuth , should have succeeded in transferring the hereditary Lords , and the elected Commons , of a population of about sixteen millions of men , into his creatures . These selfsame men , magnates . and deputies , proceeded to Dehreczin , when Pesth was occupied by the Imperialists under Windischgraetz , in January , ' 49 and tlu ; y deposed at a later period the Hapsburg dynast y , by a legal majority . Is the Times more Austrian than an Emperor ( if Austria ?
He became the the leader of the extreme Radical party in Hungary , which was undoubtedly prepared 1 t action even before the occurrence of thoHO events , >» the spring , 1848 , which proved bo favournblo to their deHigiiB . " It is an established fact that the Prime Minister , j ount Louis Batthyany , a great patriot but a timid , (¦!¦ , wasted his time with barren negotiations at l »<> Court in behalf of the constitutional party , and ,
. <> r < " « asing to trust the false promises and delu-H > v « assurances of that Court , he refused every purchase of arms in the xpring 1848 , while it could " . « one safely and ou a large scale . Thus he iiuuwl his country unconsciously . The port of . 'V' 110 waH occupied on September 1 , 1848 , by • "iMjIiieh , to prevent any effectual smuggle of "MiHkets ; on the i ) th of the same month , Jellachich : 'H « e < l the Drave , advancing . into the heart of the J . v u (> ' , ?" ' . U 1 ( 1 I ) oor Hungary , preHscd on all sides y Wallachs , Serbians , Croats , and the regular
Imperial army , was surprised weapons , and destined to be crushed , unless she could force a passage by unparalleled valour . She forced it , but the Russian intervention and Goergey ' s treachery , accomplished her definitive subjection , and thus far the Austrian Court carried out the great point of its scheme , that only a few muskets could be smuggled- at an extraordinary sacrifice through the surrounding armies . Could , however , the Austrian Court even with the aid of Russia have conquered Hungary , if her brave sons had been prepared for action so far back as before the year 1848 ? Only 200 , 000 muskets would have enabled her to stand the invasion of both the Austrian and tie Russian despots , Europe would be free , and the Times without orders to write for Austria .
"Before three months had elapsed Kossuth hap gradually undermined all his colleagues and subverted those who had brought him into power . They all successively retired in dismay . " The whole Batthyany Ministry was definitely put aside , as we have seen , by the above-mentioned decree of the 3 rd of October , 1848 . Two of its members , Szemere and Meszaros , continued to act with Kossuth till the fatal end of the War of Independence , the former as President of the
Ministry under Kossuth , the latter in the war department . As for Count Louis Batthyany , this noble patriot took an active share , and was even wounded , in the War of Independence , a short time before his imprisonment , against the laws of God and man , as a deputy of peace , sent by the town of Pesth into the camp of Windischgraetz . His ultimate appreciation of the wrongs of his country and of the legitimate conduct of Kossuth may be found , however , in his last letter to his wife , written only a few hours before his execution .
' • Leave the country , do not accept of one tittle of an indemnification , if Austria should ever feel inlcined to offer it for the confiscation of my property ; conceal from our children the cause and manner of my death , as long as they are under age ; educate them , however , in the love for their native country and in the hatred against the Hapsburj ? dynasty , and when they are of age . enjoin them to revenge the death of their fathta * . ' These are last words of a man whom the Times wants to represent as having taken an unfavourable view of the rising of Kossuth and of . his country against tyranny : —
* ' No one can examine these events dispassionately without arriving at the conviction that the true interest of Hungary and of Austria was to terminate the struggle by an equitable , negotiation , preserving the rights of Sovereign and of people ; but that Kossuth , chiefly with a view to the maintenance of his own supremacy , in and by the revolution , forced matters on to the last extremity , until he arrived at the catastrophe which has ruined and enslaved his unhappy country . "
Why enajaved ? If it was the true interest of Austria to . terminate the struggle by an equitable negotiation , why has she not offered and effected it , vanquished as she was , before she called in the Russians ? Why does she persevere in this avowed subjection , which will never terminate , and sooner or later engender a new outbreak of the struggle ? Was not , perhaps , Kossuth farsighted enough to foresee that this slavery would have been imposed upon his country with or without a struggle , and that a glorious downfall of Hungary , if such was inevitable , was at least an inalienable
inheritance to her children , and an earnest of a glorious resurrection ? Have not a thousand facts borne out the truth of this policy ? Was there no attempt of enslaving Hungary before the struggle ? Was not Jellachich declared rebel by the Emperor Ferdinand himself on the 10 th of June , 1848 ? Was he not confirmed by the same Emperor in full powers on the 4 th of September of the same year , because Radetzk y was again victorious in Italy ; and was he not declared by the same decree to have proved his unalterable fidelity to the House of Austria ? And the decree of the 3 rd of October ,
1848 , was the crowning act of a long course of bloodthirsty treachery , which compelled Kohmith and the Hungarian Diet , if not traitors to law , order , and their country , to take up arms for the defence of sacred rights , prescriptive and statutublu . Here we leave the Times for the present . The facts we have mentioned absolutely defy refutation . The " Society of the Friends of Italy" has done good service in reducing to shame and silence the falsehoods of the reactionist press . The friends of Hungary embrace all that is good and true and generous and national in the English People . If we cannot silence falsehood , we can proclaim the trutli , even in the teeth or the hirelings of despotism . The Times oncers a ( ( , hat portion of the
press which has placed itself in the hands of the exiles . We would rather as Englishmen defend the cause of the exile than pander to the cruelties and perjuries of Despotism . ^
Les Whih Ha Oct. 18, 1851.] Cft* *.T&*Tt...
les Oct . 18 , 1851 . ] Cft * * . t &* tt . 993
Association Applied To Miracles. Poor Ro...
ASSOCIATION APPLIED TO MIRACLES . Poor Rose Tamisier , approved by sceptical doctor , and mere official sous-prefet , is repudiated b y the Bishop of Avignon , who having been so long behind the scenes is blase" to the machinery , and doubts the strength of the illusion to an audience of young Voltaires . But mark the fruitfulness of the Associative principle applied to miracles . We extract the following particulars from La Republique . L ' Univers as usual has pretended to answer them by mere ecclesiastical abuse . The Virgin is said to have appeared ( "without witnesses ) to a novice , and to have ordered a medal to be struck in honour of her visitation . The medal is struck , to the tune of
18 , 000 , 000 in copper : 2 , 000 , 000 in gold and silver are sold at one halfpenny profit on each . Then comes an historical notice by an anonymous priest relating 111 miracles worked by the said medal : of this " notice " 130 , 000 copies are sold . The net result of the medals and the notice , is £ 48 , 000 translated frorrf the pockets of the faithful into the coffers of the miracle-mongers and medal historiographers . The Associative principle i 3 here in full work . An intriguing woman , accomplice to any common speculator , or a visionary prompted by a knave , declares she has seen the Virgin , and so on : her word becomes an article of faith to extract cash from believers—for the good of their souls .
Captain Maconochie. - Birmingham Acquire...
CAPTAIN MACONOCHIE . - Birmingham acquired much credit to itself by the appointment of Captain Maconochie to be the governor of its gaol ; it has resolved to cancel that credit and undo its own renown . Captain Maconochie is the author of the only rational system of correctional discipline now before the public . To put his idea ( very inadequately ) into a sentence , it is this : fixed sentences for criminal offences fail to call forth any reformatory motives ; by sentencing the criminal to earn his release you call into play the wholsesome
reformatory influences of atonement , hope , and industry . The author of this plan , which has , we believe , obtained the sanction of almost all thinkers on the subject of prison discipline , was appointed to be Governor of the gaol at Birmingham ; a place already distinguished by possessing an enlightened law reformer in its Recorder , Matthew Hill . It soon turned out , however , that Captain Maconochie was not to carry out bis own system . Never mind ; the reformer had secured a post at which he might usefully and worthily continue his observations ; and Birmingham had at least the honour of offering a worthy home to the practical philosopher .
But Birmingham is tired of its honourable distinction . Captain Maconochie has had his cong < 5 , without reason assigned . The local papers allude to the matter as a "job ; " and we hear in society many references to particular persons who are to be served by the removal of the truly good public servant ; among them the Deputy-Governor . On these points we await further enlightenment ; only conscious , in the mean time , that a very clear explanation is due from those who have brought upon Birmingham the disgrace of retracting an honourable tribute to public worth .
Social Reform. "Notes Of A Social, Ckcon...
SOCIAL REFORM . " notes of a social , ckconomist . " the cooperative associations ov england . V . " L » ex rut lumma ratio inaita a naturfi quic jubet ca , quoe faciinda sunt , prohibetqunc contraria . "—Cickuo . At the end of the Anti-Jacobin War in 1801 , the National Dent of Kngland amounted to £ 579 , 931 , 447 ; the Taxes to £ Gl , 278 , O 81 . In 1809 , the Dkiit had increased to £ 811 , 898 , 082 , the Taxes to £ 82 , 027 , 288 . 5 s . l'd . Thus the War policy of Orange William had been pursued with fatal obstinacy and success , followed by taxation , pauperism , ignorance , and crime ; when , in 1815 , the intolerable sufferings of the labouringclasses were increased , in a geometrical ratio , to starvation pitch , by a heavy tax upon foreign Corn : low rents and high tuxes being ruinous to the landowners . This was the condition of tho English People when Robert Owen , the founder of modern " Socialism , " or the Science , or Rational System , of Society , first laid a Report ( " New View of Society" ) before the Committee of the IIoukc , of Commons
on the Poor's Lawh , accompanied b y "A plan to relieve the country from its present distress ; to remoralize the Lower Orders ; to reduce the Poor ' s Hate ; and to gradually abolish Pat / f > crism , with all its degrading and injurious consequences . " Starvation , the workhouse , the gaol , and the hangman ( Protection ?) , was the "Plan" adopted by the landmonopolists . The five fundamental facts upon which tho rational , or scientific :, system of society is founded , are these : — " 1 . That man inn compound / jt ! ing , whonechar . icter is formed of his constitution or organization at birth , and of the effects of external circumstances upon ' it from birth to death ; such original organization and external influences continually acting and reacting each upon the other .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18101851/page/13/
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