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Jan. 28, 1860. 1 The Leader andSaturday ...
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THE QUEEN'S SPEECH. rpHE account which M...
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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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Jan. 28, 1860. 1 The Leader Andsaturday ...
Jan . 28 , 1860 . 1 The Leader andSaturday Analyst , 79
The Queen's Speech. Rphe Account Which M...
THE QUEEN'S SPEECH . rpHE account which Ministers have put into the lips of Her J- Majesty of the doings during the last ; six months , and of what they propose that Parliamenfrshould do during the six months to come , is somewhat unequally divided into that which ' concerns our relations with foreign States , and that which affects our own domestic condition . The debate on the Address in the Upper House elicited nothing worth noting from the second and thirdrate organs of the Government there , on either branch of their policy . Lord Grey ' s hyperconstitutional criticism on the administrative steps taken to reinforce our squadron on the coast of China , and for sending an expedition thither in concert with the French , to retrieve the disaster at the mouth of the Peiho , was summarily disposed of by the Duke of Newcastle . ; and not all the rhetorical efforts of Lords Derby and
Brougham could extract from Lord Granville any definite statement as to the intention of the Cabinet with regard to Italy . Very little more to the purpose was Lord Palmerston's general assurance in the Lower House , that we had at all times been ready to negotiate with one or more of the great Powers for the settlement of the Italian question on a constitutional basis ; and that he and his colleagues would never concur or cooperate in the application of foreign force . The real question is not whether England would concur or co-operate in armed intervention to establish ox to suppress liberty in the Peninsula , for nobody wants her to do so . The actual question is _ will England forbid and prevent foreign force being used by other powers to re-enslave an emancipated people ? There is no use trying to blink the matter . This is the question of the hour .
Ministers will have to make a clean breast of it respecting France and Italy : We have now had eight months of suspense , -during which European enterprise has been stifled , and every species of improvement , iii our own and other countries , lias been kept-. ' standing still—because France and Austria could not agree . as to what was to be done with Tuscany ^ and Bomagna . There is an end , indeed , to the tiresome altercation , as far as Napoleon III , is concerned ; and if the Government of England would but declare itself resolved to recognise the . spontaneous union of Central Italy with Piedmont as a fait accompli , the Pope and the Emperor might protest at their leisure ; but peace would be secured , Italy made happy , and the industry of England
liberated from the thraldom of misgiving in which it has now so long laid . It may suit perhaps the unpatriotic purposes of those politicians who seek to rise by toadying the Court and pandering to what-they suppose to be its personal leanings , to oppose the renewal of the entetde cordiale with the present ruler of France . Every sycophant of royalty by hereditary right affects , of course , to despise the regime eatablished by universal suffrage . If they dared speak out , they would avow themselves , one and all , to be Bourbonists to the backbone . For the sake of those that are set on high amongst our people , we would cherish the hope that they will see the wisdom of abstaining from all that would , even by implication , seem to encourage this treason to the national weal . The interests of England , demand—and the spirit of England will inexorably insist upon- —good faith being kept
with France , so long as France keeps faith with . us . We will have nothing to do with her choice of rulers . If she prefers a man of genius , like her present monarch , to a roi faine ' ant of the old" legitimate breed , it is no affair of ours ; and we will not suffer any grounds to exist for the suspicion that dynastic prejudice's govern our councils . Were the people of this country forced to talk of preferences , theirs would be all the other way . Their recollections of Bourbon policy towards England consist chiefly of ingratitude for hospitality / bigotec } aversion to ' Protestantism , perfidy when pretending to act in concert , even about dynastic matters , ' and unextinguisluiblc . jealousy of our national greatness and renown . Whatever be his faults , Napoleon I IT . cannot bo accused of these ; but even if he could , that would not
Induce us to cabal or conspire with rival claimants of the crown he wears . The declaration of Mr . Gladstone on this subject will be received with satisfaction by the country . Speaking in the name of the Government , the Chancellor of the Exchequer unreservedly declared that "tho fears of too close an identity "between tho policy of England and tho policy of Franco , which had been expressed by certain members of the Opposition , were , In his opinion , wholly groundless . There could not-bo too close an understanding between England and Franco , bocauso it lay in the nature of tho case—it lay in the circumstances of the two countries—it lay in the . circuiustiuices of Eurqpo—that it was hardly a possible contingency that 'France and England should , over be associated in policy except for objects that were laudable in themselves , and beneficial for mankind . " Tho commercial treaty just concluded will have to bo defended by its framersi , rather ns a proof of their
earnestness in carrying out the political union of Western Europe , than upon its own intrinsic merits as a step in the direction of free trade . There is something ineffably clumsy and sadly incomplete in the . manner of the thing , which nothing but the incidental , or rather the prospective value , of the thing itself " can indue ' e us to overlook . We bind ourselves not to impose hereafter duties above a certain small amount on foreign wines , brandies , and silken fabrics , in consideration of certain imposts , to be lowered eighteen months hence , on British coal and iron imported into France ; but the other countries , whose products we ' i at the same time , offer to admit at lessened duties , do not agree to make similar concessions in return . i Had we resolved to lower our tariff to all the world , for the sake of our
own revenue and industry , people would have recognised in the act a supplementary and confirmatory attestation of our confidence in the self-sustaining worth of unfettered competition . But the treaty said to have been signed oh the 25 th instant at Paris , hardly admits of such an interpretation . It professes to be a bargain , and as such merely it certainly does not seem to be a ' very good one for us . Perhaps our admission that it is not , may tend to appease in some degree the suspicion and rancour with which it is viewed by certain classes in France . If we . had made better terms for ourselves , Napoleon III . would never hear the end of taunts about his having been ear-wigg ' ed and
cozened by Richard Cobben , acting as an unavowed emissary of perfidious Albion . As it is , however , ministers had much better frankly admit that the true inducements to them to . enter into the contract in question were those , indicated by Mr . Gladstone , On Monday week ,, when he brings forward his Budget , the right hbn . gentleman will have to eonfess that , for the present at least , he has agreed to abandon a considerable amount of revenue , now easily and inoppressively levied , for the sake of trying the experiment whether commercial relations may not be hereafter multiplied between the two countries ; ami that he must , therefore * ask us to submit for a time to some additional
impost , direct or indirect , as the price of an additional guarantee of friendship with France . Turning to the portion , of Her . Majesty ' s speech which relates to internal topics , we have a legislative bill of fare consisting chiefly of law reforms and estimates . for more efficient national defence ^ . We are sorry to observe no ' distinct promise of ah amended MUitia ¦ Bill , " in- every solid requirement of national defence the . public are prepared cheerfully to acquiesce ; but they are rather sick of . the ' spluttering and swaggering of which they have had so much of late , and they are quite determined not to be fooled out of any extravagant sum for
experimental works of fortification , or for the encouragement of any scheme of sham solcliering . The thing they want they are ready and willing to pay for ; but the thing they don't want they won't have at any price . The nation is quite prepared to pay for its defen . ee any amount of money that can be shown to be necessary . It has never been used to rely upon the ' patf onage or protection of any condescending class or two ; and , upon the whole , it would rather not . When volunteer corps are formed , to which the entrance fee is publicly announced to be ten guineas , and the subscription two " -uineas a year ; and when the inducement held out by the that
captains of others to the coxcombs of their acquaintance is " care has been taken that not a single snob shall be admitted , " it seems high time to pause and ask—what does all this mean ; and what is it to end in ? A national army and a national militia , and , as the materials for both , national rifle practice if you willbut a class army , by whatever name called , anti-national in its composition , habits , and tendencies , must not be suffered surreptitiously to creep into existence . Sectarian ascendancy and political ascendancy were found to be intolerable , and tho selfrespect of the middle classes has long ago trampled both under foot . It will assuredly not allow a military ascendancy , en manque , to establish itself .
TUe subject , however , upon which still more curiosity is felt respecting ministerial intentions , is that of Ilefonn . Will they follow tho sinister advice which has been given thorn by somu who would lure them into anv . unpop . ular course , and thun laugh at their discomfiture ; or will they adhere to tho jlain dictates of common sense and common honesty in their modn of ¦ dcnJing with this great question ? Will they begin , by spooiol pleading , as they have been recommended to do by ineu who ought to tho
know hotter ; or will they take tliwir stand fearlessly amid inherent difficulties of tho subject , and manfully try to . overcome them ? In a word , will they bring in one good und comprehensive Bill , providing , as the Bill of 1833 provided , by varied enactments for the varied necessities of tho ease ; or will they nttoinpt to skulk . from the responsibility of carrying a grent measure , by dividing theii * recommendations into two or tliroa sopnrnto Bills— -prepared ( wlmtowr may bo said to tho contrary nt starting ) to be content if they oau carry any one
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 28, 1860, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28011860/page/3/
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