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686 «t ft t ft t a fc t tV [Saturday,
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(Drgnnimtimis of ijj* i&Wfb, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.
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LAST MEETING OF THE IRISH DEMOCRATIC ALL...
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NEW LAW OF ORGANIZATION. [A gentleman, a...
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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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Adpress Of The Central European Democrat...
alike their enemieo and yours . Until they have fallen , you will have neither independence , liberty , or justice ; and their fall can only be brought about by a sincere and fraternal union of all those who now suffer and pray , and will combat their double oppression . By some of the races by which you art surrounded you have been too long forgotten . They now « tretch their hands to you . Others have been unjust towards you : they can be so no more . They are learning justice and equality in common suffering . Do you the same , and let the strength of all be increased by this mutual reconciliation .
Grave territorial questions are still in agitation among you . Adjourn their solution until after the defeat of the common enemy ; and declare that this solution shall be peaceful . The future belongs not to the Kings , who by brute force arbitrarily partitioned the Peoples at the Congress of Vienna . The future belongs to the allied Peoples , to the Congress wherein all shall be equally represented , and by which the map of Europe shall be remodelled , in accordance with the will of the Peoples , in harmony with their geographical conditions , ^ their language , their traditions , and their peculiar capabilities . The future belongs to Universal Suffrage , the highest law of Democracy , which all will accept . Fear nothing then for the future . Whenever the voice of the People shall peacefully and unanimously declare— " Such is our will , "—that will shall be accomplished . European Democracy will guarantee every right sanctified by duties fulfilled .
Organize yourselves : make common cause with all the Peoples oppressed by the Emperor or the Czar ; by these means jou will enter the European Alliance and destroy an isolation which , if prolonged , would condemn you to impotence . The great "Danubian Confederacy will be a fact of our epoch . Let all your action be governed by this idea . The extremities only of the Bridge of Trajan remain on the shores of the Danube , symbolical of the present condition of things . To reconstruct it and build new arches across , is your task for the future . To the Central Democratic European Committee . Joseph Mazzini . Abnold Huge . IiEDKU BOLLIN . A . DAKRASZ . Who are the Roumains ? what is this "imperishable race " ? are questions which ninety-nine Eeglishmen our of one hundred might be fairly supposed to put , on reading the above appeal . Our foreign secretaries , however , have been compelled to know something of them , and will be so again ; and if we would exercise that influence upon the Foreign-office , which we do employ to some purpose in reforms at home , we also must seek to gain some accurate notions of the Peoples as well as of the Governments with which we have to deal in Europe . But if we have not heard of the Roumain race , we have at least some dim recollection of questions and difficulties between Rtissia and Turkey , about certain Danubian provinces , in which our Foreign-office has had something to say . Well , these Danubian provinces form part of the territory populated with some foreign
admixture , by the Roumain race . The Danubian provinces are known by the names of Moldavia and Wallachia ; they may be found in the map of Turkey , separating it from Austria and Russia ; they pay tribute to Turkey , but are under the protection of the Czar . If we now turn to the map of that incongruous collection of states which is still dominated by the House of Hapsburgh , we shall find , in the south of Hungary and bordering upon Moldavia and Wallachia , two other provinces , of which we have perfjree heard something during the late Hungarian struggle , called the Banat and Transylvania . And turning our eyes eastwards across the frontier into Russia , they will fall upon the name of the border province of Bessarabia . Within the whole of this compact territorial circumference the" Roumain race is the predominant , wherf * it i . s not the exclusive element ; and it numbers some 10 , 000 , 000 souls .
The history of this people is peculiar and interesting . Our readers may have guessed , if they did not already know it , from their name , that they claim to be Romans , their country being the seat of the ancient colony of Dacia , and their language , to this day , bearing ulmoRt as great a resemblance to the ancient Latin as does the modern Italian . Indeed , in some respects the identity is more complete . It is B . iid that the language contains about 25 , 000 words , of which 20 , 000 are of Ltitin origin . We have the authority of Mr . M'Uulloch for decluring that a stranger speaking in Lutiu will generally be understood by the natives .
It will be remembered that in the early part of the Hungarian struggle , some of their greatest difficulties were the resistance of the population of Trannylvania , until they were reduced by the consummate skill , daring , and energy of Bern . The Rouinains of Transylvania resented the claims to supremacy of the Magyars , and ranged themselves with Austria , though hating her sway . Here is one of the instances in which Austria has , hitherto successfully , pursued her strategy of preserving her own unnatural authority by playing , one against another , the antagonism of her rival subject races , and deluding them in turn .
It is time that these jealousies and these claims , inconsistent with true ideas of national independence and of democracy , should cease . And the Central Democratic Committee has accomplished a noble and useful work in publicly recognizing the righteous claims of the Itoiimains , in pointing out to them the true conception of their future mission , and in paving tin ; way for such an understanding between the mibjcct Peoples of the House of Hapsburgh , us may at least defeat the iniquitous policy of keeping together a falling empire by disseminating hatred and jealousies ainongtit different races , which cannot exist to any useful purpose , with any proapeot of their own national development , or of common progresti , except through an enlightened and permanent accord .
686 «T Ft T Ft T A Fc T Tv [Saturday,
686 « t ft t ft t a fc t tV [ Saturday ,
(Drgnnimtimis Of Ijj* I&Wfb, Political And Social.
( Drgatnjaiiiras nf % t | fa # , POLITICAL AND SOCIAL . - •¦
Last Meeting Of The Irish Democratic All...
LAST MEETING OF THE IRISH DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE . Next in importance to Organization is the manner in which Organizations are reported . The public should have reason to believe in the earnestness , modesty , clear purpose , and business ability of all associated political and social bodies . The matter is not too often thought of on this side the Channel ; but it is pleasing to find that some attention is » ndirectly being drawn to it in a sister country . One of the ablest of the Irish newspapers lately gave the report , which J & subjoined , of a meeting of the " Irish Democratic Alliance . " The report is given precisely as we quote it . When it appeared , the paper was taken up and read in an English metropolitan club
by a person not unfriendly to democracy , but who is given to doubt the capacity of the people to emancipate themselves . The comments he made as he went over it , the present writer took down at the time , and they are annexed in brackets at the places at which he made them . The reason for giving the remarks here is to show to those who think this kind of reporting the right sort of thing , what others think of it—others upon whom it is desirable to make a favourable impression . If reports are written merely for personal gratification , there can be no objection to what is said ; but if they are written for a public end , as we assume they should be , then the manner in which they are composed is of consequence . The
report in question commences : — " The usual weekly meeting of the ' Irish Democratic Alliance' took place on last Monday evening , < he 2 nd instant , in their spacious lecture and reading rooms , 17 , Suffolk-street . It having been announced that a motion for the adjournment of the body would be brought on for di & cussjon , there was a large attendance of members . Shortly after eight o ' clock , the chair was taken , amidst loud cheers , by Mr . John Iverach . [ The " attendance of members" could not have been " large" usually , or " adjournment" would hardly have been thought of . They assembled largely to adjourn , but not to carry on ,
the society . ] " The Chairman then returned thanks for the honour conferred on him . fit might be a duty to preside , but hardly an honour to take the chair at the public confession of the society ' s incapacity to carry out its objects ] " The Secretary read the minutes of the last meeting , and also an anonymous letter , inclosing one shilling as a month ' s subscription , which was ordered to be inserted on the minutes . [ The enormous sum of " one shilling " being received from some nameless democrat , the letter is read in public , and ordered to be inserted on the minutes . ]
" Mr . John Dillon then rose , pursuant to notice , to move the adjournment of the body for three months . Mr . Dillon proceeded to say , that the pecuniary circumstances of the body compelled him to bring forward this resolution . " Mr . Fannin said it was clear that the body could not exist much longer , for that the collections were inadequate to defray the expenses . ' He then asked , what was the use of men saying that they wished the association to exist , when they did not come forward and support it ? This body has been before the country more than nine months . [ A society of comparatively unknown men , who had existed only nine months , had done nothing todescrve support . And a society which contented itself with " calling" upon the Irish people from a lecture-room , could not expect a people to come who had so often been
called to so little purpose . A disappointed people must be impregnated individually . No amount of calling will reanimate the Irish people , and they who attempt to restore them to life by it mistake their work . ] We have repeatedly called on the country ; and , as the country did not respond to our call , we would be justified in dissolving the association . 1 am against adjournment . 1 you adjourn , this body will be a stumbling-block in the way of any new association ; therefore , he would move , aa an amendment— ' That , inasmuch as the Irish Democratic . Alliance has not received sufficient pecuniary support—thereby proving either a want of confidence , or an immovable apathy , on the part of the Irish Democracy—we , therefore , deem it our duty to dissolve this body . ' " Mr . M'Keever ueconded the amendment .
" At this stage of the proceedings , the policeman who attends the meetings regularly , entered ( having previously gone out ) , and , addressing the members , said—Mr . Chairman and gentlemen , —I am sorry to have to disturb you , but my duty compels me take one of your members prisoner ; and I call on the ( secretary to give me his name . " Secretary : I will not . [ What objection could there be to give the name when the policeman had got the man ?] " Several Voices : What did he do ? " Policeman : " He lined treasonable language . He said ' To Hell with the Queen . ' ( A laugh . ) I , therefore , arrest you ( laying his hands on a man named William Glyun , 78 , Bride-street ) .
Mr . M'Keever mud that Mr . Glynn being the first victim of the Irish Democratic Alliance —[ The idea of calling thin man a ' victim , " whoso , rud « tongue deserved rebuke or contempt , is the- veriest burlesque of the languugc of martyrdom ]—that w < - should not ditmolve : the more a tyrannical and despotic Government tried to crush Democracy , the more determined and resolute we should be . ( Why , thia " tyrannical and despotic " '
was politeness itself . The policeman who addressed the meeting , must have been exercised in Chesterfield . Why should the Government crush a dying movement ? How could they crush what the speakers declared no longer existed ?] Therefore , let us , in God ' s name , build the bark , and plant her once more on the troubled waters of agitation . [ A bark which had never floated , and which in nine months had never made a single ripple on the waters Of independence !] " Mr . Fitzpatrick said the words were used in a private conversation before the chair was taken , so that the body was in no way implicated therein . { Hear . )
" Mr . Dillon then withdrew his motion for adjournment , and Mr . Fannin withdrew his amendment ; after which , Mr . Thomas Furlong was moved to the second chair , and a vote of thanks passed to the former chairman for his dignified conduct therein . Aktbu & M'Keevek , Hon . Sec . " [ It does not appear that the Chairman had done anything except allow a vulgar brawl to be exalted into a public cause , at the expense of eood taste and the self-respect of the Irish Democratic resolves to continue
Alliance . So this society . The greatness of the Democratic principle could not animate it ; the spirit of proselytism is dead within its members ; the cause of their distracted and degraded land is insufficient to keep them together . The broken bond of union is only retied in antagonism to a courteous policeman , who respectfully asked the name of William Glynn , of 78 , Bride-street , who disgraced himself and lowered the character of the meeting , by bawling " To hell with the Queen . " ]
The eminent service rendered to Irish liberty by the newspaper from which we have taken this report , renders only one theory probable—namely , that it was inserted as Punch would insert it , as a pleasant satire , intending to teach , through a ludicrous picture , what might be taken as an offence if expressed didactically . As it may be useful in Albion as well as Erin , we have ventured to reprint the instance . The scorn ers of the people are active enough in inventing cases upon which to exercise their vocation , without the people themselves supplying the scorners with material . Ion .
New Law Of Organization. [A Gentleman, A...
NEW LAW OF ORGANIZATION . [ A gentleman , a member of one of the learned professions , has addressed to " Ion , " from New York , a letter which is subjoined . It affords a glimpse of the internal life and the progress of Free Thought in America , somewhat different from the popular impression , and we are inclined to think more accurate than the public of this country are aware . It offers , also , some explanations of a new doctrine of Progress , or Science of Society , which has lately excited interest in a few thinkers in thi 3 country , and of which we shall hear more in the future . ] New York , Sixth Avenue , No . 239 , June 19 , 1851 . My dear Sib , —I make no apology for writing to you , perhaps not for the last time , some information concerning Social Progress in America .
I came to this country , as you are aware , intending to join Cabet ' s Icarian community at Nauvoo ; and for thia reason mainly—that in the old country to a man obliged , whether from conscientious scruples or from want of success , to quit the profession in which he has been educated , no resource is left , save in exceptional cases , of which mine did not prove one . I arrived in this city not without expectations , even as far aa the country itself was concerned ; when I met with so kind and flattering a reception on all hands , that I cannot help feRlinRS of gratitude towards a people who present ., also , much indeed—far more than I expected to find—that extorts the warmest admiration . The conviction was made in my mind , and has since been deepened by all I have seen , th . it no writer who has described this city and nation to Kuroppans has done full justice to the progress made both in Idea and Realization by this youngest—but , to my thinking , greatest—of the Peoples .
The progress made by the leading thinkers here in the great questions of Social Reform , would naturally be the object , of my deepest interest . I was remarkably fortunate in this respect . 1 had been here but a few days when I had placed in my hands an original brochure , entitled " Moralism and ChriKtiunity , by Homy James , " any account of which , ho \ Vever , I cannot now give . 1 was indebted for this to perhaps the boldest speculator and most audacious free-thinker I ever met , at all events of the female Hex , and on the ancient side of fifty years of age ( at the least ) . 13 ut then she was a Swedenborgian , and , although I really know nothing of the writings of Swcdcnborg , yet , to judge from the character of his
disciples , one would think there must be ( something in . them worthy of more attention than they have yet received in Kurope . The religion of these people seems to produce on them effects most widely different from those of any of the orthodox with which I had hitherto been acquainted . It Beeins to render them devoted partisans of 1 ' rogresB in every form ; and all manner of reform , coming from whatever , quarter , ia hailed by them with religious enthusiasm as a new proof of the descent of their New Jerusalem ; while , no far from dreading inquiry , be it ev « rno Radical , they hail it with fraternal interest and the profoundest faith , in the impossibility ot its resulting in aught but the truth .
The great questions of Social Keforin have certainly eliciled infinitel y mora attention here than in Eng land . I'ublic opinion in far more advanced upon these , us , indeed , upon nearly all other matters . But the political iiiHlitutionn under which the lust few generations of native Ameiicauu have had the . happineort of living , have certainly rendered impossible tut * extension amongst them of either institutions or principled which involve th « : naerifice of the , individual to the Association . Tlio love of personal freedom in an ineradicable instinct ot
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1851, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_19071851/page/18/
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