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October 22, 1853.] THE LEADER. 1021
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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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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The Ftoyeming Classes. ;; ¦ . '¦ ¦ ;. ' ...
ambition—Oh , yea . . We beg his pardon . He actually made Charles Buller , who had the genius of a dozen Charles Foxes , a / President of a Poor-law Board . That Lord Hardinge is an able , and a generous man , with a good deal of that heroic element which men worship , in his nature , there . can be no question . But there can be as little question , that neither to his ability nor to his heroism does he owe his Peerage , his splendid positiqn , the result of the great opportunities which were given him , and his ample
fortune . Contrast his fate with that of Sir Charles James Napier . He was always as inferior to Napier as the Duke of Cambridge is to Lord Hardinge : and yet one died , the victim of a third-rate doctrinaire noble , Lord Dalhousie , and the other is Commander-in-chief as a European war is opening . Hardinge was Secretary of State for Ireland , while Napier commanded the garrisons of Chester and Preston : Hardinge , in 1847 , went out as Governor-General of India : and Napier , in 1849 , came hack from India the scouted general of a sectional command , although
in that command he subdued and organized a martial province , and fought the tremendous odds of Meanee . Lord-Hardinge , like Lord Hill , got into the high places of British , political , and social life , by consenting to be a good Tory : by not only caressing the aristocracy with the instinct of a soldier , but by worshipping the chief of the aristocracy . Wellington created Hardinge : gave 'him all his chances , offered him all his opportunities : and the sincerest praise that the historian can give to Lord-Hardinge is , that he was a good lieutenant , and tolerably equal to his opportunities ,- —that is , as a soldier : as a
politician , he was an absurdity ; for though , when he became Secretary for Ireland , he took Wellington ' s sage counsel , never to speak of what he did not understand , and never to quote Latin—which was supererogatory advice—he was as much out of place in the House of Commons as a soldier always is in a free and mixed assembly . Wellington had , indeed , the faculty of great men—of discerning great men , as he evidenced when , Hardinge being still alive , he spoke of Napier as being the only man to repair the disasters of another of his pupils , Sir H . Gough , on the Sutlej . But it is remarkable that he made no discoveries of
great men , in fighting , or in politics , while his own fame as a general was fresh , and while his own position as a politician waa uncertain . All his lieutenants were second-rate mon : and all Napoleon ' s lieutenants were first-rate men . Lord Hardinge was the only one of his old officers whom he encouraged into politics , after the peace : and Lord Hardinge never was a rival in his path . But Lord Hardinge remains , still , the most successful of the men presented by Wellington to Great Britain : and the services which Lord Hardinge
rendered Great Britain in doing for India what Great Britons think it so wrong in Prince Gortzchakoff to do for Moldo-Wallachia , justified his advancement , and earned his title . His campaign in India was more than brilliant ; it was heroic : and to the end of time British historians will rightly toll hci-oic youth how Lord Hardinge , tho Governor-Gonoral , who might have stayed away from the risk to fame and life , rode- into the front of the battle , with his gallant boy by his aid e , won a groat victory , and gave the . honour of it to a s ubordinate .
And now , aa a European war re-opens , Lord Hardingo in Commandor-in- chief : Commander-in-chief of that anny which daro lose none of its prentigo : firwt man , in ;( , military crisis , of a nation which mu « t go forward or disappear . And ho in uixty-eight yearn of ! lg « - That in a HorioiiH fact . Wlion forty , in the full nwiiij ? of Iiih energy and hin intellect , no ono would havo droumed of him for bucJi a poHt , ovon had there been no Wellington his contemporary ; but , in peace , ho got liin ' post , by seniority : and thcro he is—in that I ><> nt , an war opeim , at suxty-eight yoaiw of ago—an
inionor to hhnnolf at forty , hh at forty ho waw inferior to Wellington . However , thin enlightened country endured a Duke of York till a Wellington and aNohion turned up ; and must rejoico in a Hardingo till a Napuir bo found , or bo employed . In truth , tho Holectiou ™ limitod ; tho governing elnsHCH reject bniinn ho emphaticall y that mont of tho ablomon go into commerce finding money to compensate for famo ; and tho mjliappy qucHtion iH—whom would you anbettituto for Lord lardingo' { HucconHful mon in thin country have to reach Hucond childhood before thoy get pooragca and
crosses , and the governing classes would not' dream of giving the Horse Guards to , mere manhood and brains without a title and a cross . In that- respect England is far behind the rest of Europe .: merit travels faster even in theRussias ; and certainly faster in the Turkish service than in the British . . A war now is to England far more serious than to
France or Russia . England will be ruined by war if she does not win in it . And there are no evidences that her present rulers are the men to carry her through the war- In the last war Pitt and Wellington were both young ; but now , not only all her statesmen in office , but all her generals and admirals , are dangerously old men , and the chances are that before she begins to win she will have to kill off all the old statesmen
and all the old commanders . Youth is genius ; it is energy . Age in action is a blunder , because it is not active . The influence of age is visible in the negotiations which have caused the now inevitable war ; could such an influence be trusted in the conduct of a campaign ? To suggest that sexagenarians and septuagenarians are less capable than men of thirty and forty to conduct and manage a great war is no more to insult old age than it is insulted by the remark that beards " grow grey . The men who would have to conduct a war now on behalf of England- —Lord Aberdeen , Lord Hardinge , Sir James Graham , Lord John Russell , and -Lord Palmerston—would break down simply
because a council of war , in which every councillor is seventy , cannot possibly achieve a victory . Experience has its advantages—but only when action is routine ! Nestor talked more wisely than anybody else in the debates before Troy ; but Achilles , a rash young fool , took the city . Austria , it may be said , was saved the other day by the octogenarian Radetzky ; but she was also , before , lost by Wiirmser , fighting against a general ^> f thirty , and against soldiers who had no shoes and no brandy . And if England gives way , first , as Radetzky did , her Radetzkys will never bring her to the front again . For Russia is not Lombardy ; and we are not , like Austria , accustomed to be loser .
Gentlemen of from sixty to seventy years of age are so wise that they cannot be original ; and if England ' s rulers and generals cannot now lift themselves out of routine into a conception of a great campaign , England is lost . And there is no evidence that our Cabinet or our Commander-in-chief have got vigorous ideas about the war . They already talk through a leading journal , to the effect that as a war only brings the belligerents
to a treaty , all the bloodshed had better be " skipped , " and we had better begin with the treaty ! And this is said the same day on which the Czar ' s challenge is bruited forth to Europe , —war to extermination I Starting from such different points of view , — tho Russian seeking the extermination of his opponent , and the Eng lish Government aiming only at the truce of a Conference , which is likely to win ?
England ought to accept the challenge , and exterminate Russia . If aho fights only to conquer Russia in some pitched battle , then to coerce Russia into a temporary truce , called a treaty , she fights under a misapprehension . Russia , as a system which gives to one man tho power which Czar Nicholas possesses and misuses , is tho curse of mankind . We are about to make
war on Russia as a public robber , plunderer , and breaker of treaties . If we beat her in a battle , or battles , and get a new treaty or treaties , wo do not avert , wo only postpone , that danger to Constantinople , which is tho danger to Western civilization . Russia , enemy to God and man , w only to bo conquored in ono way —by being dostroyod ;—La guerre , a Voutrance . !
Warn aro undertaken to procure peace ; that in the boat war which secures tho longest peaeo . Tho oxiHtenoo of" RuHHiiv—m a political Hyfitem- —being incompatible with peace-, ( and them in no peace while each Power upholds viini . standing armion , an tho oxiHtonoo of RuflHia roquiroH of every other Power , ) that war would bo a holy war which annihilated RuHnia . KuHHia ih one man , tho imiHtor of <> 0 , 000 , 000 other men , whom ho opproHHOH and corrupts , or all own to bo oppreHHod ; whom he rotainn in barbarism ; whom ho convortH into tho enemies of the rent of mankind . To dontroy , therefore , tho HyHtom by which thifl ono man Ii . ih power , would bo to bonofit not only WoHtorn Europe , but all tho RuHHinm
. History applnmta all tho conquer accomplinhed by civilized mon over barbariaiiH . Homo bonolited tho world by organizing tho world . William tho Norman
was a hero whom humanity blessed for conquering Saxon England . Henry the Norman was a benefactor for handing over Celtic Ireland to Norman barons . Pizarro and Cortes were heroes for carrying civilization among savages—by force of arms . Penn , the saint , was not the less a saint . that he was a plunderer ,- —of the lands of Red Indians . The world would have been the gainer if the Crusades had been successes . The world has been the gainer that England conquered Hindostan from preceding conquerors .
England is admired by Englishmen when she exterminates Kaffirs and New Zealanders , whose crime is , that they do not appreciate commercial settlements in their neighbourhoods- France is doing the work of civilization in routing out the Sheiks from Algiers . Brooke is blessed for slaughtering savages in the Indian Archipelago . Yet not one of these conquests has that justification which would attend a conquest of Russia . For Russia — the political system — is the common foe of all mankind . La guerre , then , a Voutrance .
But how annihilate Russia ? We live so much in routine that the idea terrifies . We have no William the Norman , no Clive , no Caesar , no Godfrey of Bouillon among us , to make the deeds of a great nation great . Yet it is not a new idea . Napoleon not only conceived the thought , but he acted on it ; and he would have annihilated Russia , but for three accidents : a winter unparalleled for severity , the fire of Moscow , and a severe diarrhoea . England may take advantage of his experience to avoid all such contingencies .
He would have annihilated Russia , by re-creating a Polish or Sclavonic empire between her and Europe , by giving Turkey vast new territories towards the Danube , by despoiling the Russian nobles , and organizing a new people ; by enfranchising the serfs , and , if possible , by coaxing the Cossacks , and inciting other Russian nationalities into independence of the Czar . And he would have kept a French army long 1 enough in Russia to have ' completed his new organization : and he would have made tho Russians pay the expenses of that army , and of that army getting there .
All that Napoleon did , or sought to do , England could accomplish . If she gives money to Korssuth , Kossuth will create the Sclavonic empire . If ehe gives money to the Circassians , the Circassians will not only repel , but will attack Russia . If she gives money to the Cossacks , their Hetman will do her will . Tho Danubian Principalities are easily convertible into a
strong state : with a better and more real Turkish protectorate ; and our own protectorate of Turkey could be organized more efficiently , by our sinking evciy ship the Czar owns , by destroying Sebastopol , and establishing ( the old system of the Canadian lakes ) a permanent fleet , in charge of tho Black Sea . But Russia would still remain : we have no army to go to Moscow . How did William tho Norman collect an
army ? By promising the country to tho conquerors . Wo got together a Spanish legion upon a-shilling-a-day promises . A Russian legion , with larger promiHCH , would bo collected in a month . Tho religion is not so much in tho English as it was in Napoleon ' s way . An army of conquerors would not bo pious ; but , even supposing them ardent Protestants , —between Anglican ProtoHtantiam and the Greek Church there is no very ferocious difference .
Tho destruction of KiiHuia means tho creation of several now states , who would bo good commercial customers ; and thus not only would tho annihilation of Russia , to which tho Czar challenges iw , bo a blowing to the world , a guarantees to civilization , a benefit to tho RiiHHian population ^ but—it would pay , ok an investment . No argument , therefore , remains against tho project" . ' Except , porhayH , that our # ood ally , Louin Napoleon , would bo too moral to join uh . That ih not likely : tho project muI ; h bin inturoHt , hi « moraln , and the goniuH of bin people , evon better than it would unit England . And even if ho did object , and opposed , England Iuih an ally in refwrve , and a protector agauiwt tho combined world , in tho United StatoH .
Much if ) a project , howevor , which would ill Huit tho ImhitH of mind , and tho incapacity for action , of tho ruloi-H of tliiH onlitf htenod nfttion . They would manage Nicholas a « modern dootorn manage a madman , quiot him by politoneHH . f » o whall wo have a HUoeoHsIon of fitu and a variety of treatioH . It would not bo etiquette to annihilate RuHHia . ; Ruhhui , therefore , will havo her chanco of annihilating England . Non-Ewjctor .
October 22, 1853.] The Leader. 1021
October 22 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 1021
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 22, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22101853/page/13/
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