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Jj&m&RY 24, 3:857.] ^ VgH ' B ¦ -¦feEj' ...
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NOTIQBS1O CORRESPONDENTS. "lbs Purchase ...
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SATURDAY, JANTJAET 24, 13S7.
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. * There is nothing so revolutionary, b...
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THE EliECTORAL MOVEMENT IN FRANCE. We of...
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SUCCESS OF THE INCOME-TAX AGITATION. Tii...
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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Transcript
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Jj&M&Ry 24, 3:857.] ^ Vgh ' B ¦ -¦Feej' ...
Jj & m & RY 24 , 3 : 857 . ] ^ VgH ' B ¦ - ¦ feEj ' A . P . BA . fcg
Notiqbs1o Correspondents. "Lbs Purchase ...
NOTIQBS 1 O CORRESPONDENTS . "lbs Purchase System . "—Our correspondent ' s valuable communication is unavoidably postponed until next week . " A Britten Officer . " — "We have reason to beliere that the book on . Napoleon III ., by " ABritish Officer , " was written l > y the manager of a savings bank , who holds a commission in a regiment of City "Volunteers ! The writer of the letter on the Oath case at Newcastle has not gent his name .
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Saturday, Jantjaet 24, 13s7.
SATURDAY , JANTJAET 24 , 13 S 7 .
. I „. ' -.*£¦ ? J^Ttulix .!$L1tutc0* J :- *
Ifohlk flairs . .
. * There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, B...
. * There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to "keep things fixed when all the -world is by thevery law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Arnold
The Eliectoral Movement In France. We Of...
THE EliECTORAL MOVEMENT IN FRANCE . We offer to IFreneh Liberals a few more considerations on the great question of tactics which now occupies them , without presuming , as we have said before , to think that we are qualified to direct their course . "What is the real strength of the Iaberal party ? "What is its state of union . ? "What is the chance of enforcing against the Government anything like free voting and fair returns ? These are questions which none but
a ^ Frenchman can answer , and which must be answered before the problem can be solved . A united political effort , even if the results were small , would seem to be a anode of keeping alive the vitality and consciousness of the Constitutional party . And , in . the absence ' of a free press , and the other organs of political life , the loss of this vitality and consciousness is always to be feared . We do not suppose that the hearts and minds of the leading men will ever cease
to protest agamst the infamy of France . But the leading men are few ; the multitude even of those in whom political virtue and the sense of national honour still live may , as history too plainly tells us , sink into torpor , and grow familiar with degradation , unless roused from their growing lethargy by tie stimulus of political effort . A nation which after convulsive struggles to realize a political ideal has sunk down under a despotism , is like an exhausted traveller in the Alps wlio
begins to yield to sleep ; he must be kept awake by his companion , or he will die . A movement of a constitutional hind would reassure and Tally to the liberal standard many moderate French Liberals , who would recoil from any movement of a more violent kind . It would also enlist the sympathies , just or pedantic , of constitutional Europe , which , after all , will have no small influence on the fate of France . The sympathies of this country especially , the classical land of
constitutional movements , would be strongly enlisted by a sight which would recal the memory of the legal resistance of our ancestors to Charges I . and James II . The idea , prevalent among us , that French Liberals have no notion of political action but that of descending into the street on chimerical enterprises , would be dissipated . Nor could anything tend more to shake the hold which
the Prench Government has over public opinion in England than the tampering with electoral freedom , and -with the returns , to which it will inevitably bo driven . "Wo would suggest that , with the view of making this tampering- patent , a demand might bo made , by an independent member of the Legislature , if there bo one , or by way of petition , for proper securities for the correctness of the returns—a demand which the Government miglit find it equally embarrassing
to grant or to reject . Measures might also be taken to verify the returns by personal inquiry in particular districts . Affeer alL . ifc is a great thing when the time comes to have a constitutional rallying point ; and a constitutional rallying point , when the time comes , may be found in any assembly bearing a constitutional name and nominally discharging constitutional functions , even though its members may be principally or entirely the creatures of power . Who would have supposed that the banner of Revolution
would have been first raised against the old monarchy by the Parliament of Paris ? The members of such assemblies , though they may be the base nominees of despotism in the eyes of all the world , are not the base nominees of despotism in their own eyes . To themselves they represent the constitutional majesty of the country . They acquire an esprit de corps and those corporate sensibilities of which men e ven void of honour are
not incapable . They know that they are brought to their places by the necessities , not by the generosity , of a despotism which has not yet the effrontery to declare itself despotic , and that they owe their creator no gratitude , though while he is strong they owe him fear . A few independent members introduced into such an assembly may act upon it , and through , it , with considerable force and effect when the occasion comes .
Let us add . that the decision must rest , not with wounded susceptibilities , however just , but with those who can form , a cool and impassive view of the true interests of France . It is for these men to decide whether the advantages of a movement whicli might unite all shades of the Constitutional party in France , and command the respect and sympathj of foreign nations , would or would not counterbalance the nominal recognition which such a movement would involve of the
Imperial Government . "We say the nominal recognition , for men elected as Constitutionalists ( and Constitutionalism alone ought to be the banner of the movement } could not be understood as really recognising the principle against which they would come to contend . It is difficult on the morrow of a defeat to reali ze the fact that you have been defeated , and that your antagonist has actually won the day . It seems a transient accident , which will pass away of itself , or which a single effort will throw off , as a man throws off the
nightmare . But Constitutionalism in France has Deen defeated , Despotism has triumphed ; and a long and painful course may have to be traversed before the liberty and honour of France can be redeemed . The first steps in that course will be small , and such as Despotism itself , not yet daring to proclaim the servitude of France , is obliged to permit . But these steps must bo taken . France requires them , and thercforo they are honourable ; and honourable they will seem when the summit has been won .
Success Of The Income-Tax Agitation. Tii...
SUCCESS OF THE INCOME-TAX AGITATION . Tiie " War Ninepcnce is condemned . In the face of the movement commenced by tho Liberal party , and joined , at the eleventh hour , by tho Tories , the Cua . kct . ilt . or 01 ? the Exohequeh cannot venture to propose thai sixteen millions sterling shall bo paid upon the Income-tax during the next financial year .
when the agitation for repeal was initiated by tho Liberals , wo said that , having first elicited tho enthusiasm of tho country at large , it would extort tho assent of tho Tories in Parliament . The declaration of Sir . Tohn Pakinqton has loft no doubt that we had correctly estimated the political situation of Mr . Disraeli and his friends . They wanted a baso of operations , and have
contracted a temporary alliance , for a special purpose , with the Liberal party . Their votes will be welcome , if necessary ; but , we have reason to believe , before their adhesion was signified , the Income-tax movement was a success . The Government must surrender the "War Nmepence ; the House of Commons must deliberate upon the inequalities of the Income-tax . A ratepayers' protest , so violent and so , universal , could not be neglected by the Minister without driving a large number of his own supporters into the hostile lobby .
The Income-tax , then , must be lowered to sevenpence in the pound ; the war ninepence must be repealed . The work of the financial reformers has then to be begun The tax at the reduced rate will come under discussion , to be modified or to be abolished . That the war nmepence is as unnecessary to the Government as it is intolerable to the nation , may be shown without transplanting whole pages of a blue-book . "We shall want millions less of revenue this year than were
wanted last year . We had then to clear off the accounts , of the war ; we have now to rearrange our expenditure upon a peace scale . Lord Panmttse promises a vast reduction in this respect . It will be affirmed , no doubt , that the experience of the past three years has proved the wisdom of being fully prepared to enter upon a conflict with any great power . That , indeed , is a truism ; but it is not advisable , and would he impossible , foi England to keep up military establishments so large as would enable her to
lay siege to a new Sebastopol without a brief delay . The disasters and failures of 1854 were not owing to the deficiency of men and materials , but to defects of administrative organization . Iiet us have the framework of an effective war department , the front and nucleus of an army , and oul * traditional navy , and , with diminished estimates , we shall always be prepared to enlarge our forces and to replenish our Exchequer , to provide for the emergencies of an unavoidable war . "We might have two hundred and fifty thousand men in our barracks , a thousand
siege-guns at \ V oolwich , an enormous surplus in the Exchequer , yet the calamities of that fatal winter in the Crimea might again , and again be repeated . "When we have perfected our machinery , we need not Iceep up a war expenditure in times of peace for the sake of being in working order . "We shall have expended sixty-eight millions sterling during the current financial year . If any Black Sea or Baltic debts remain , they may be consolidated ; we have honoured bills
enough in the name of Sir Co knbwail Lewis . He can expect little forbearanco from the House of Commons , which , according to Mr . Thomas Cuambeks , he cajoled and deceived . It is a serious charge that the Lawyer brings against tho Chancellor , but if the Chancellor surreptitiously introduced certain , words , opposed to precedent , into the Incometax Bill , what was the Lawyer doing when ho allowed the ' clerical error' to pass uncriticized ? What is he in Parliament for ?
To supervise the acts of the Government , or to sleep while jugglery is going on , and then to complain of it in Exeter Hall ? Tho electors of tho Lea should put a question on this subject to their representative . Members of Parliament are too much in the habit of yielding to improper influences in tlic arid of tho result oxit oi
House , complaining doors . Mr . Arai / EY P . kij : latt is an example . Ho placed a very judicious motion on tlio books last session , with referonco to the unequal pressure of tho Income-tax on agriculturo and trades . " I was immediately surrounded by Tories , " he tells us , " who begged mo to desist . " Of course , he could not dis-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1857, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24011857/page/11/
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