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300 THE LEAP EB. [No. ;366; SatitW^ ¦ ¦ ...
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SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1857.
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v ^ ^ltltlir ^iftttrB. . ^iCMHUU ^wuvhau
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w • There is nothing so revolutionary, b...
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THE OLD PARLIAMENT AND THE NW. It is dea...
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WHO KEEPS UP. THE POPE? The kind of cont...
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.
Latest From The ^ Continent. Qiy Electri...
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . Several communications for " Open Council" are unavoidably omitted this week , on account of tho ereat pressure . of matter consequent on the General Election . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a piess of matter ; and when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite indepen dent of the merits of the communication . We cannot undertake to return rejected communications . Communications should always be legibly written , and , on one side of the papor only . If long , it increases the difficulty of fnidinp space for them . Daring the Session of Parliament it is often impossible to find room for correspondence , even the briefest . — — — —— — ^
300 The Leap Eb. [No. ;366; Satitw^ ¦ ¦ ...
300 THE LEAP EB . [ No . ; 366 ; SatitW ^ ¦ ¦ - -- ~ - - - » ^ — ^ — . _ . . ^ — 7
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Saturday, March 28, 1857.
SATURDAY , MARCH 28 , 1857 .
V ^ ^Ltltlir ^Iftttrb. . ^Icmhuu ^Wuvhau
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W • There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, B...
w There is nothing so revolutionary , because the re is nothing so u . nn . at'ural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very lav of its creation , in eternal progress . —Du . AknoIjD .
The Old Parliament And The Nw. It Is Dea...
THE OLD PARLIAMENT AND THE NW . It is dead , and wemay stamp on it ; but we owe it some gratitude , nevertheless . The defunct Parliament , elected under JLord Derb y ' s influence , voted that influence an anachronism , ratified the Free Trade Laws , opened some breaches in the statute book of commercial restrictions , gave a police to the counties , showed -no unwilling or unpatriotic spirit during the Russian war . But it ; . was an essentially unpolitical House of Commons .
If it treated Toryism as an impossibility , it treated Liberalism as a joke ; it was a foreignpolicy Parliament , and what good has come of its meddling ? Essentially , then , the House of Commons returned in 1852 , claims for its epitaph only one line of conspicuous eulogy ; - —it would not' suffer the principle of government ; to . foe degraded by the officious incapacity of a Protectionist lEarl , and of the forty raw recruits whom he marched to Windsor to be
sworn into the royal service . Even from that panegyric , we are entitled to make some diminution . Any British Parliament , in this epoch , would have done the same . The constituencies wonld never dream of returning a Derbyite majority . So that the Parliament of 1852 did speedily , and did well , what any other Parliament would have done ; and did little else , except in a hesitating , incomplete , insincere , and slovenly manner . The few practical reforms of tho past live sessions are
as nothing in contrast with the time wasted , the periodical cataclysms of talk , the hairsplitting , the official bell-ringing , and tbc perpetual Opposition rataplan .- The Russian war , the liussian peace , the French alliance , the Sardinian alliance , the Swedish alliance , the demonstration against Naples , the quarrel with America , were anion « the great interes ts of the country during the period referred to ; but what was the action of Parliament in connexion with those
topics , as Lord Palmiskstok would call them ? Tho war went forward with some pressure on the administrative departments though with none upon the Cabinet , the Treaty of Tenco was signed , tho French alliance was contracted and worked in several directions with several objects , the Swedish alliance was established and left fallow , Sardinia was lured into the Western League
and emphatically snubbed , Great Britain travelled with France hnlf Avay to Naples and quarrelled on tho road ; she was alienated trorn America and reconciled with her , and , had there been no House of Commons , arbitrary diplomacy could scarcely lmvo been more irresponsible . Possibly tho House of Commons has no constitutional rMit to
interfere ; it may be that to interrupt the Executive would be a dangerous experiment ; but the Senate of America exercises this prerogative , and we do not hear of negotiations becoming indelicate or difficulties insuperable on that side of the Atlantic , any oftener than in the Old World . It is said that the elections have stopped
litigation for a time , Englishmen . being unable to fight more than one battle at a time . A perpetual state of general election might be cheaply paid for by the cessation , of law proceedings ; but we have remarked for many years past that whenever the question of Reform has been brought forward , England has invariably had some other battle in hand . That was the case with the old Parliament .
Now , before the new Parliament meets , we hope it will be clearly understood that the particular engagement to be drawn on is that which concerns the franchise , the ballot , the electoral districts , and the other essentials of a serious Liberal policy . What else is there to settle ? Mr . Lowe tells us , and the Tories tell us , that
without labouring round any political Cape of Good Hope , we may take the direct route to social improvement by legislating on social questions . We heard of that fallacy long ago ; it has never influenced the Liberal party ; it may suit small feudalists and gentlemen who have grown so great as to be Ministers of State ; but it is rubbish , and must sink in limbo . We are to have a Liberal
Parliament ; the Tory minority y ill be effectually reduced ; the Liberals will be in supreme possession ; and although Lord Palmerstoit may count upon a personal following of considerable strength , that will not enable him , without a policy , to hold his ground against whatever sections may combine to defeat the Administration . With a policy he may . lead
the House of Commons , since we are assured that scarcely one-third of that House will be composed ofc' Tories . Lord PAXMEitsToir has issued a remarkably vague address . Its vagueness may serve one of two ends : it may shelter him against the accusation of having given the lteformers a pledge ; or it may be interpreted by the Reformers as , " You lead , and I follow . " Mr . Disraeli ' s declaration that
Lord PAiiMEBSTON is the Tory chief of a Radical Cabinet was false , as we said last week ; since lie is not a Tory among Tories , nor are his colleagues Radicals among Radicals . But in' the sense that Sir G-eorge Gtrey is a Radical Lord Palmeuston" is a Tory ; not an immovable one , however , but a man who has repeatedly assured his friends—we have
reasons for saying it—that , upon hearing an unequivocal demand for Reform , ho would become a Reformer , and yield to no one in his assertion of Liberal principles . He is a great administrator in fact ; he can administrate an agitation as well as a department ; give him a policy , make him believe in it , and he is tho minister to carry it out . His terms are—office , power .
The cordial Reformers cannot hope to make their way into the Cabinet until a liberal change in the representation has created for them a broader parliamentary basis . They must , therefore , employ the agencies at their command , and it matters not whether , under the force they exert , Lord Palme uston is driven out of Bowning-strcet , or into a new
Bill ior improving tho Representation of the People . If it bo too early to photograph the new Parliament in contrast with tho old , it is not too early to indicate this leading truth , that a powerful Liberal majority being certain , the natural chief of such a majority is a Liberal statesman , a Reformer from conviction or from necessity . Wo aro calculating only for a period of transition—for only such will be filled by tho Parliament of 1857 .
Who Keeps Up. The Pope? The Kind Of Cont...
WHO KEEPS UP . THE POPE ? The kind of contradiction that the Frenr * journals have given to the " Report from the French . Envoy at Rome to thS ' PwndM mster for Forei gn Affairs , " published 1 ) V the Daily News Jast week , is a practical" con . formation of that document . The paper was translated from the French into the English it was retranslated from the English into the Belian and then
g journals , the French panel's are instructed to say that the text is << in correct'' and « altered . " Of course- . it was changed in the process of double translationbut the Daily News reproduces the original text , and gives us the correct re port madebv M . die Rayneval to Count Walewski . The newest objection is that the paper 5 s ' oldbut what th en ? Has Count Wajlewski rejected the report of M . de Ratneval p
His principal assertions are these . The abuses in the Papal Grovermnent are such that he has never yet been able to discover them , only expressing facts which ar « elsewhere traceable to the imperfections of human nature , such , for instance , as the fact that the Custom-house officers " ¦ ¦ will take something to drink from travellers . That there are brigands in the Roman territory is true a just as a diligence may be stopped in France , or a lady of the Queen's ko-usehold
may be robbed of her jewels between . London and Windsor . The Government of Rome is not clerical , since there are only 98 ecclesiastics in office to 5059 laymen . The Pope has done much in the way of improvementsdraining marshes , buying up the depreciated paper currencj r , and endeavouring oven to correct the administration : every one is acquainted with the catastrophe that ensued
and what happened then would be reproduced exactly in our day . Fundamentally the very principle of government is the point in dispute , and not the mode of putting ifc in operation . The existence of the Roman Government would have been of less importance , but " Catholicity itself is at stake . " " Catholic unity would be impaired by the removal of the Popje . " The Italians are
very anxious for a constitution a VAnglaise ; " the example of Piedmont is turning their heads ; " but they want the faculties for a constitutional , government . They are not , like the Piedmontese , capable of military or monarchical principles . Per con-tra , the Piedmontese are not Italians , " they are an . intermediary population , containing much more of the Swiss and French element than
the Italian . " The Italians cannot succeed in their projects without foreign support ; to prevent that support , " the organs of the press in England and Sardinia should cease to excite the passions . " This statement of facts appears to deprive the Roman question of a definitive solution , but M . de Eaynevai . does not think " that all the questions of this
world must necessarily have a definitive solution . " He is for procrastination . r J ) o remove the i French troops from the Roman States would give the coup de grace to the temporal power of tho Popes ; M . de Rayneval , therefore , would leave tho troops in possession , or would only withdraw them by successive- diminutions , imd " after being well assured that it is possible . "
Nearly all tho statements , except those which admit that the Pope is sustained by tho French troops , and that to withdraw them would give tho couj ? da grace to ' liis temporal power , aro statements which may bo exactly reversed to arrive at the truth . The Papal rule is essentially subordinated to tho clergy , its chief officers clerical . The abuses uto obvious—corruptions wholesale , anarchy existing everywhere , save in some degree within tho range of the French and Austrian
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 28, 1857, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28031857/page/12/
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