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THE AUSTRIAN TEE AT Y. Names must not bl...
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THE LEAP E H. [Saturday,
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PRESIDENT PIERCE'S MESSAGE. Pbesident Pi...
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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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Whence The Foreign Legion Is To Come. Mi...
¦ PPSS' WmrW : $ * 1212 l ?< a » -f f £ y ^ ^ lutely intolerable . Prussia yields the most signal instance of such a power ; but Denmark ; also , like Prussia , displays a Government which claims a precarious alliance with this country , and evidently leans towards Russia ; "while the people , constitutionally , must sympathise , if not with England , yet with the allies . Ministers , therefore , ruig-bt well enlist the subjects of both those powers ; and there are Holsteiners mho would not be sorry to avenge the events of » i 848—especially if England were obliged to -declare by act that she then made a mistake . . Should the Danish or Prussian Government
remonstrate with such an enlistment , our own Government might well say—You are not allied , you cannot be neutral , your own people belie your policy , how then can we respect your arrangements ? The mere hint , we say , that such a use might be made of the bill , would almost be sufficient screw upon the Governments of Denmark and of Prussia to make them know their duty . The third mode opens an extended list . The state of Europe as it is will not be the state of
Europe a short time hence . The continental Governments are taking measures to prepare against a general disruption ; their own relations must be thrown into confusion , the allegiance of many must be rendered precarious , perhaps broken ; the armies of the Continent may be wandering without owners ; those who are now revolutionaries may be merged in the population , and England may well be able to engage fifty , a hundred thousand , a million of men , or any number that might be requisite to
break down and trample under foot the tyrant of the world . Ministers hold the power in their hand : whether the hand i 3 powerful enough to use it is a question , for whose solution time may furnish the opportunity . We profess to be at home constitutionally afraid of a foreign force , and we wish to put restraints upon the Ministers and the mercenaries . For our own part we have little respect in that security which lies in the chains placed upon the enemy . Trust to those , and
you have always the chance of his getting free . The true safety is to be strong yourself . If England fears foreign soldiers , the very fear proves her weakness , and suggests the remedy •—which is , to increase her strength proportionately . We are using up the Militia as a foreign army , we are stripping tho country , we are confessing fear of foreigners in our own pay . Can we defy foreigners not in our pay in the service of the enemy ? We could do so if Ministers did that which the times render necessary—arm the people !
The Austrian Tee At Y. Names Must Not Bl...
THE AUSTRIAN TEE AT Y . Names must not blind us to realities ; the memory of past facts must not -veil to us the perception of present facts ; the preponderance of recent evidence one way must not make us presume that there is to be no evidence the other way , especially when we have had reason to know that the case has not always been onesided . Austria has been for generations the nickname for all that is tyrannical , unjust , arbitrary , sanguinary , cruel , and intolerable . As a state holding by conquest states superior
to herself , Austria has , throughout the greater part of her history , been tho representative of organised usurpation and constituted rapine . Nevertheless , we must admit that Vienna has from time to time beon the scat of groat administrative faculties ; has beon tho abode of princes worthy to rule empires , and ha 9 given birth to statesmanship sometimes suporior to that of Mottornioh . Rudolph was one of the groat names in history , fitted to rank with the Charlemagncs , the Napoleons , tho Coesars , and tho Glives . One of the most earnest , ardent , and successful reformers of modern times , a
man who united in his own measures equivalents of our Reform Bill , our Free Trade , and our Catholic Emancipation—Leopold of Tuscany , was a Prince of the House of Austria , an Emperor of that hated name . Crotchety Joseph was a man of ability and sincerity . Austria , therefore , has not produced only Ferdinands and Metternichs ; has not only presented a hideous realisation of Machiavelli's satire—the Prince . One of the reformers of 1848 was an Austrian statesman j and the Austrian statesmen who now shape the public affairs of that country , appear really able to
comprehend the position in which she ^ is now placed , and to be advancing measures applicable to the rescue of the empire from the destruction which seems to be the doom of absolute Governments . We do not say that we trust Austria ; we do not say that she has yet regained the confidence , or even the hope , of Europe . We do not forget that her acts , as at the present moment recorded , are before us imperfectly , if at all . We see only a part of her action ; but such as we do see we are bound at least to observe with a candid mind , and to take it for what it appears to be worth .
What is the effect of the recent treaty ? It declares that the common object of Austria , as well as the Western Powers , is the restoration of general peace , with sufficient guarantees against the renewal of the present disturbance . There can be no such guarantee without a curbing of the power of Russia ; and Count
Buol and his colleagues must understand that necessity as well as any men in this country , if not better . But Austria has publicly , before Europe , recorded her acceptance of the position thus defined . Should peace not be concluded within the year , Austria will join with the Western Powers , and she pledges herself iu this treaty to join in deliberation for ie effective" measures to attain the common
object . Let us bear in mind that the position of Austria is , in fact , different from that of the Western Powers , inasmuch as she is not yefc at war with Russia , which they are ; and no new act calls upon her to declare war , unless , after giving appropriate notice to the great Power of the North , she herself prepares the way for such an act on the part of Russia as may reasonably justify a declaration of war . Hence the interval of one month between , not the ratification , but the signature of this treaty and the deliberation on ulterior measures . Should
war ensue , the treaty becomes one , ipso facto , offensive and defensive—that is , Austria becomes one in the triple alliance with the Western Powers to act as well as consult—to make aggressive warfare as well as to defend . From the first she pledges herself not to entertain any separate overtures or propositions on the part of Russia . In fact , the joint action of Austria with the Western Powers
commenced from the 2 nd of December . Comparing the position of Austria at the present moment with her position in tho spring 1 , when she was rather slowly acquiescing with the invitations of Prussia to unite in the quadrupartito treaty , —and with her position on the 20 th of April , when she had just gained a head
of Prussia , —wo should observe a constant progross towards the position now assumed j and we must admit that at each stage Austria , when we have least expected her , has maintained her ground ; and after each stage has maintained her advance . We repeat , we do not trust her —wo do not oven yot hope—but wo watch her progress with increasing 1 interest .
In the series of diplomatic instruments on tho part of Austria , we have not yet had one constituting so distinct and active a bond as this . There are some circumstances which tend to confirm the belief of its importance , and of the active sequel contemplated iu Vienna . Tho gift of tho Order of St . Stephen
to the Emperor Napoleon , shows that Austria intends really to be the comrade of France in the present situation , and not only intends it , but means Europe to know that she does so . It is now notorious in London that the Emperor Napoleon has admitted to an English Member of Parliament his willingness to reestablish Poland as an independent State , if that should become necessary in a political and
military sense . The Emperor , who has expressed that opinion , is the person receiving the Order of St . Stephen from the Emperor of Austria . Lord Normanby , who has recently been Minister at Paris , is now appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Tuscany—Tuscany one of the outposts of Austria , though not unacquainted with some degree of constitutional freedom .
Every sign continues to make us believe that Austria is preparing for rough times . It is , however , impossible that she can look forward to times of strife , without being prepared to revise the internal relations of her Empire . The war cannot be limited to the Crimea , or to the year 1854 ; it will extend to other years and other Empires ; and those who intend to
preserve a commanding position , must be prepared to adapt their counsels to the circumstances of the time . Either Austria is gambling in the maddest game that ever was witnessed , or she is preparing for one of the grandest changes that ever has been witnessed in the development of States . Time will tell us whether she is ruled by wisdom or madness-
The Leap E H. [Saturday,
THE LEAP E H . [ Saturday ,
President Pierce's Message. Pbesident Pi...
PRESIDENT PIERCE'S MESSAGE . Pbesident Pierce ' s last Message to Congress is a State medal of that kind which presents all its information on the reverse . It tells us , in a positive sense , nothing new whatever . When it announces that the Republic is flourishing , with a revenue exceeding by 15 , 000 , 000 dollars the expenditure , it only informs us of what we know already . In announcing that crops , although less abundant than they have been , are still amply sufficient for domestic consumption , with a surplus for exportation , President Pierce tells his own countrymen exactly what we have told our readers weeks , if not months , ago . We knew that " . a universal drought , totally destroying the crops , " must have been a great Liverpool-Yankee lie , intended for corn-jobbing purposes on our side . We are informed that the ratifications have been exchanged of a treaty to regulate the coast fisheries of Great Britain and the reciprocal trade between the Republic and the British North American Provinces ; which we knew already . The President relates the affair of the Cyane at Greytown , in soft and plausible terms , so as to excuse Captain Hollins and the Government which gave
him loose instructions , while , by the very moderation of that excuse , disarming any remains of irritation on tho part of Great Britain . All the positive statements of the Message aresuch as could have been much more satisfactorily compiled b y any reader of our own paper . It is in things which President Pierce does not say that wo find the fullest information . For example , tho position of affairs with Spain remains just as it was at tho end of the last session of Congress ; but the new Government established by the revolution gives reason to believe that tho American Minister will find
tho present Government more favourably inclined than tho last to comply with tho just demands of the United States ; a statement from which wo loam . that the Government which has obstructed the Order of tho Lone Star has not yet done anything tovyards settling tho vital question of Cuba . President Pierce expects that tho Government of Espartero will be more willing to soil Cuba at a bargain than the Government of hia prode-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23121854/page/12/
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