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¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ' v ¦ . 868 ¦.^,.l H ^ ; L^I>|...
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BELGIAN FORTRESSES. After two centuries ...
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SEBASTOPOL, AND "WHAT THEY. AllE DOING T...
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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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Modern View Of Our Ancient Constitution"...
the"Governments of Europe , it not m what it doe * , but what it leaves undone . In the former'it is scarcely better than they , in the latter it is eminentJy advantageous to the people . Till within a late period political writers attributed the-success of the . States to their vast territory . All the evils of society ia Europe , agreeable to a now exploded theory , were attributed to the density of its population ; and the welfare of people in tlie States was attributed less to the absence of
restriction than to their having land at their command and room to grow . But we have lived to see the population of England almost doubled within half a century , and far more prosperous in 1853 than in 179 S . We have , at the same time , a strong hope that the increase and the prosperity wiU continue even in spite of the old feudal regulations which still lock up the little land we own in the hands of the few , and prevent the ever increasing multitude from putting it to the best use . Iu
Europe the land was cleared long ago and roads were generally made ; all thenatural means of welfare existed in abundance , and all that art could ..-do to im-Erove them waslcnown and practised , before America ad an independent Government ; and it can no longer be alleged , since our population has doubled in little more than half a century ,-that an untenantcd wilderness is the necessary condition of the growth and prosperity of a . civilised people .
It is remarkable that this sort of defence should be made for our Goyernniciit after it has beeii reformed , after public attention has been assiduously directed to improving it for many years , and after all concerned m administering it have been better educated and subjected , before commencing their career ^ to a ebmpetit-iv , e examination . The Government has been recruited by clever men from other branches of society to increase its efficiency . Tor servants , the whole community is at its command , and it has freely used the services of all classes . Scientific men have teen employed wherever science
was required . Corruption , it must be admitted , lia » been greatly lessened iii comparison to the corruption which , prevailed under Pitt , under the Heweastles , the Walpolesv the Foxes , the " Harleys , and the Suiidcrlands of former periods . KeyerthelesSj the advocates of the still very imperfect Government are driven " to defend it by depreciating other Governments , and can only say for it that it is not so bad as this republic and that despotism . Its efficiency has been increased * its exertions augmented , the sphere of its duties enlarged , so as to embrace the health and the education of the people ; but the national benefit resulting is not apparent . Nobody ascribes our
success in trade , our improvements in art , our greater skill and knowledge , to the exertions of any Ministry . It gave a little help to the great enterprise which has just added another bond to the union which already exists between the two peoples ; but it was neither the contriver nor the manager of the noble work . With its duties its expenditure increases year by year , but society flourishes , not in consequence of taxation , but in spite of it . To reconcile the nation to the increasing burdens of our Government public writers hereafter will have to find out its positive advantages : it will not be sufficient to prove that it is not as corrupt and as ignorant as the Government of tlie United States .
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¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ' v ¦ . 868 ¦ . ^ ,. l ^ ; I >| l [ No . 440 , August 28 185 R
Belgian Fortresses. After Two Centuries ...
BELGIAN FORTRESSES . After two centuries spent in building and besieging , sapping and storming , multiplying and dismantling fortresses , it comes to be a question whether Belgium sliall have any fortifications at all . "War , muT its fashions change , not moro essentially tb , ansociety and its ideas . Iu the days of Louis XIV . the glory of kings depended upon the capture of Vakacunmeay o . r the surrender of Mons ; and the welfare of mankind was , par parent hese , considered as included therein . In the brief intervals of royal quarrel , diplomacy took up the theme : and llemple and Bohngbroke manoeuvred as elaborately with the pen to preserve the fortified towns of ihc Low Countries from the gripe of Franco as Marslinl Saxe or Marlborough ever did sword in baud . Very much the same sort of thing went on during tlie regime of Napoleon , and after his fall the congregated tapists of Europe spent anxious , and sometimes angry , days at Vienna , iu settling how to make a stone fence for the Netherlands which no possible reflux of Trench aggression should over be able to overpass . Millions were spent in keeping the lino of Wder fortresses in repair , and now ,
at the end of forty years , when fears begin , once more to be entertained as to the designs of France , it i & discovered that about the best thing to be done will be to demolish all these costly cnibrasures and useless bastions and to trust wholly to other means and resources for baling out the tide whenever it breaks in . - What with railways on the one hand , and the prevalence of a highly artificial system of industry on tlie other , what with tlie perfection of projectiles which enable an assailing force to destroy any town from a distance of three or four miles , and what with the financial impossibility of
maintaining troops enovigh to garrison a succession of strong places while making a show of resistance in the field , the idea has been finally renounced of making a stand on the frontiers of Belgium , and the woi-kof demolition has actually begun . Among the thrifty and thoughtful people of the Netherlands , the abandonment of the oygoiie policy Of resistance is unquestionably popular . Not that they are tired of the national independence they fought for in 1830 , or that they waut inclusion in the imperial boundaries of Bonnpartist rule ; with the exception of certain fanatics anionu the p
riesthood , wlio hale Leopold because he is a Protestant and Liberal , and the coal-owners of a particular district , who would profit by the free admission of the produce of their pits into the iron factories of the empire , no unpatriotic waverings , we believe , exist in the hearts of the Belgians . They are proud of their nationality ; they are fond of their freedom ; they are content with their Government ; and they do not wish to barter all the benefits and blessings they have proved for the desperate chance of soinethiiig better which despotism promises . But thev know
by sad tradition how ruinous and how unavailing were all the old attempts to save their open and level country from an invading army such as Napoleon III . would launcli across the frontier it * foily-eight hours . They believe that they had far better rely upon the guarantee of Europe for their eventual preservation as an independent state ; and that , while permitting their fields and towns to be swept over by the storm , their nulitary skill and courage ought to be concentrated in the defence either of Antwerp or Ostend , or some other place whither the Court and Chambers could retire , and where they might await succour front Prussia ami from England .
Hence the lute proposition to grant a large sum of money for improving the defensive works at Antwerp . The citadel , as most people arc aware , is of considerable strength , having occupied the French for many weeks in 1831 before it was reduced . There are also lines of old-fashioned construction surrounding the city ; and these the ministerial projet de ^ lot proposed to amend and enlarge , but not sufficienty to allow of much expansion of the town as a place of healthful and peaceful dwelling . For the last-named reason , - the bucghers of the beautiful and prosperous , but overcrowded city , demurred ; and petitioned tlie Legislature that tlicir
hopes of finding breathing room in an expanded circle of suburban buildings should not be crushed by the iron heel of strategy . They did not object to bear their full share of the greater burden that a wider circuit of circtimvallatioa would entail ; but they reasonably contended against tlie permanent imprisonment of their civic industry within limits which their ancestors would liardly have adopted in perjtclutrm , M . Rogier , the head of the present administration , happens to be representative of Antwerp in the Chamber of Deputies ; and his individual sentiments were known to be in
accordance with those of his constituents . The preponderance of military opinion likewise was confessedly in favour of the more comprehensive plan ; and when the Bill caino to be debatcil , it was obvious that the sense and spirit of all parties confirmed the preference so . expressed . Wliy then , it will be asked , did Ministers persist in tlie attempt to carry the less acceptable and less efficient scheme ? And why when beaten , as they were on a division by a
majority of fifty-three to thirty-nine , did they not retire ? The answer is simple , and it contains a striking and instructive lesson in the working of constitutional government . It is this : The Rogier Cabinet was formed , not very long ago , upon the overthrow of one which had justly forfeited the national confidence on a great social and religious question , into whose merits it is unnecessary to enter hero . So deeply was the nation stirred on that occasion , that , for the first time since 1830 symptoms of political disturbance manifested themselves ; and had mutters been pushed to
extremities a popular outbreak would probably hWn « sued . At the right moment the retro " raX -S tration yielded , ° and a thoroughy liS o t " - formed , under the presidency of" ( he onomS ? * learned member for Antwerp as wVKSd t ^ l general calm was thq ^ immediate consequence ' r ,, jjicions of clerical reaction and absolutist tendeuc £ died away , and with them tlie bitterness of « ' ? strife Trusted and respected , the n ^ * M > £ was allowed to move on its progressive course S prudence and moderation . Certain sm-. 11 ^ L sions , rather of form than of . ub . W ** » to iH
-ance on the subject of incendiary libels a < W he head of the empire ; concessions wE iff if by M .. Vilain XIV would have caS l ^ nl misgmng and ill-will . The affairs of the coun rv m snort , have been managed with prudence honour ' and success . Hence the llogicr Cabinet are popular , and no section of the Conservative Oppositions strong enough ^ displace them . Nor aoes Kin l ; Leopold desire a change of hands . He is well satisfied with the present meii ; but , like all his family he hnsji love of meddling in affairs where the hulnour of the many ought rather to be consulted than his
individual wil , and m which , . when these happen to differ , royal obstmacv is a suicidal blunder His Belgian Majesty has seldom erred in this way 0 u tluv point ju question , however , he chose to be wilful , and the result is that he has got snubbed by his Parliament , and baffled for the present in a favourite scheme . He would insist upon M Rosier bringing forward his shabby and stunted planfor
ioruiying ^ Antwerp . booner than break up a Liberal Govcinmcut oil a mcasvn-c not strictly speaking political , M . ltogier and his colleagues generously submitted to boar ilie temporary wef ^ lit of an unpopiilm-ity they dh ] not deserve ; but tlie majority- of the Chamber discerning where the blame really lay * rejected the project of the King , at the same time making it plain , by the tone of tlie debate and the composition of the majority on a division , that ¦ they did not mean to ' censure , the Ministry .
Sebastopol, And "What They. Alle Doing T...
SEBASTOPOL , AND "WHAT THEY . AllE DOING THERE . Six years -ago . the title of this article would have excited but very scant attention . To advanced geographers , and it may be to- . a- - few of the belter informed officials at the Forcign-oflice , the name of this place might have carried some more distinct idea than as representing a rem ' oi c sea-port on tlie Euxine ; but , even at that recent period , there were not many people in England who recognised in that formidable outpost of llussiau despotism and aggression the most decided and significant step which had been taken in furtherance of the will of
Peter the Great . In six years , however , a nation may learn much ; especially when the lesson lias been enforced as-emphatically as-that which lias 'taught us the importance of Sebnstopol . Evanescent as may be the impression made upon the national mind by the infraction of the boundaries of the Dainibian Principalities , by the massacre of Sinopc , and even by that long sictje which cost so much of our bravest blood , and so large a proportion of our national prestige , the importance of Sebastopol is brought home to our very doors by the income tax we pay , and by 1 lie millions added to the sum total of our national debt .
If , as n nation , we are proverbially slow in . apprehending the results of wW we do , it is certainly another of our characteristics thut we have a fondness-for having our money ' s worth . ' for our money . After the Treaty of Paris had been signed , and clever Russian diplomatists had outwitted Englislj and French representatives who did not uiulcistaiia so much as the geography of the territories viiicn they were dealing with , what might be estimated as the precise gain which had accrued to England from the expenditure of so much blood and so mucli treasure ? "What but this : thut , the regressive policy of Russia was at length paralysed , at least m one direction ; that the Black Sea by becoming » neutral water , would henceforth present an niipassable barrier to those hands which arc ever graspio
ing towards Constantinople anil the high roiiu the Ea « t . This would indeed he a valuable return for our prodigious outlay ; but wlwiL we are aisposed to fear is , that we have paid the consideration without , attaining the object in view . There can be no doubt that it has always been J matter of paramount , importance with the llu 89 "" Court to keep such a domination over the BhicK ou *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 28, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28081858/page/12/
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