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7i2 DWm /L»E&BEiR. :, [Saturday,
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DANGERS TO ENGLAND. Dangers to England o...
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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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Speculations And Projpoaitiunh On Thu Su...
with impunity . " If the mind have not right notions developed at first , it will certainly have wrong one ' s . Hence we may say of knowledge what Sheridan Knowles says of virtue : * Plant ' virtue early ! Give the flower th « ¦ chance yon suffer to the weed V The minds of inostmen are congeries of maxims , and notions , and opinions , and rules , and theories picked up here and there , now and then , some sound , others unsound , each often quite inconsistent with the rest ^ but which are to them identified with the whole body of truth , and which art % he standard by which they try all things . This fact explains a remark in a recent school " report , that it S far easier to make this science intelligible - to children than to their parents ; '• ' —no doubt , just as it is easier tp build on an unoccupied ground , than on one overspread by ruins . And so , not only is ifc possible to teach this subject to the young ; but it is to the young that we must teach it , if we would have this teaching most effective for good . For
farther evidence of the general need for this kind of instruction , it suffices to look around tks ; and test some of the opinions prevalent lately or even now . And here there is much of interest that might be said , did time permit , of still prevailing errors regarding strikes , aad Aachineryj and wages , and population , and protection , and taxation , and expenditure , and " competition , and much more besides . But into this field my limits forbid me even to enter . Let me , however , refer yon to a most admirable series of lessons on The Phenomena of Industrial IAfe , and the Conditions of Industrial Sticcess , which has recently appeared under the editorship of that zealous educationist , the Dean of Hereford . " Dr . Hodgson is not unaware of the prevalence of prejudices against economical science likely to thwart the proposition he makes ; and he boldly grapples with no less a person than Mr . Dickens , as one of the most
powerful literary representatives of these prejudices . The following passage will be read with interest ;—> " Here I cannot but express my deep xegret that one to whom we all owe , and to wliom . ' weallpay , so much gratitude , and affection , and admiration , for all lie has written and done in the cause of good—I mean Mr . Charles Dickens—should have lent his great genius and name $ o the discrediting of the sutject whose claims I now advocate . Much as I am grieved , however , I am not much surprised , for men ot purely literary culture , with been : and kindly sympathies which range th « m on what seems the side of the poor and weak agains ; the rich and strong , and , on the other hand , with refined tastes , which are shocked by the insolence of success and the ostentation incident to newly-acquired wealth , are ever most apt to fall into the mistaken estimate of this subject which marks most that has yet rappeared of his new tale , Hard Times . Of wilful misrepresentation we know him to be incapable ; not the less is the misrepresentation to be deplored . We have heard of a young lady who compromised between her desire to have a portrait of her lover , and her fear lest
her parents should discover her attachment , by having the portrait painted very unlike . What love did in the case of this young lady , aversion has done in the case of Mr . Dickens , who has made theportrait so unlike , that the best friends of the original cannot detect . the resemblance . His descriptions are just as like * to real Economic Science as ' statistics' are to * stutteririgs , ' two words which he makes one of his characters not very naturally confound . He who misrepresents what he ridicules , does , in truth , not ridicule what he misrepresents . Of the lad Bitzer , he says , in No . 218 of Household Words : — " « Having satisfied Mmself , on his father ' s death , that his mother had a right of settlement in Coketown , this excellent young economist had asserted that light for her with such a steadfast adherence to the principle of the case , that she had been shut up in the workhouse ever since . It must be admitted that he allowed her half a pound of tea a year , which was weak in lim : first , because all gifts have an inevitable tendency to pauperise the recipient ; and , secondly , because lis only reasonable transaction in that commodity would have been to buy it for as little as he could possibly give , and to sell it for as much as could
ne _ , possibly get ; it having been clearly ascertained by philosophers that in this is Comprised the whole duty of man—not a part of man ' s duty , but the whole . '—( p . 335 . ) " Here Economic Science , " which so strongly enforces parental duty , is given out as discouraging its moral if not economic correlative— -filial duty . But where do economists represent this maxim as the whole duty of man ? Their business is to . treat of man in . his industrial capacity and relations ; they do not presume to deal with his other capacities and relations , except by stowing what must be done in their sphere to enable any duties -whatever to be discharged . Thus it shows simply that without the exercise of qualities that need not be here named again , man cannot support those dependent on him , or even himself . If it do not establish the obligation , it shows how only the obligation can be fulfilled . * ' Let me once more recur to physiology for an illustration . The duty of preserving one ' s own life and health will not be gainsaid . Physiology enforces this duty by showing Bow it must be fulfilled . But , if one ' s mother were to fall into the sea , are we to be told that physiology forbids the son to leap into the waves , and even peril his own health and life in t , he effort to save her who gave him birth ? Physiology does not command this , it is tvue :
this is not its sphere ; but this , at least , it does , —it teaches and trains to the fullest development of strength and activity , that so they may be equal tor every exigency—even one so terrible as this ; and so precisely with Economic Science . " . Again , we are told it discourages marriage : — "' Look at me , ma ' am , ' says Mr . Bitzer . ' I don't want a wife and familv . Why should they ?' " Because they aro improvident , ' said Mrs . Sparsit . 4 Y « s , ma ' am , that ' s where it is . If they were more provident , and less perverse , ma'am , what would they do ? They would say , ' While my hat covers my family , ' * while my bonnet covers my family , ' as the case might bo , ma ' am , ' I have only one to feed and that ' s the person I most like to feed . '— ( p . 330 . ) , " Docs this mean that men or women ought to rush blindly into the position of parents , without thinking or caring whether their children can bo supported by their industry , or must bo a burden on that of society at large ? If not , on what ground is prudent hesitation , in assuming tho most solemn of all human responsibilities , a subject for ridicule and tonsure ? la the condition of the people to bo improved by greater or by less laxity in thia respect ?" We helieve that thia remonstrance with our distinguished novelist is not wholly undeserved—Mr . Dickens being one of those writers of fiction who are just a little bit too dogmatic on certain points now and then .
7i2 Dwm /L»E&Beir. :, [Saturday,
7 i 2 DWm / L » E & BEiR . :, [ Saturday ,
Dangers To England. Dangers To England O...
DANGERS TO ENGLAND . Dangers to England of tho Alliance with tha Men of the Coup d'Etat . By Victor Schoelcher , Koprcsontative of tho People . TrUbuer and Oo . We should have contented ourselves with simply announcing tho appearance of this dismal , and , as we think , ill-timed publication , with a sincere word of sympathy and respect for the writer , did we not feol called upon to seize the opportunity of a distinct explanation on tho part of our journal in reply to tho insinuations of certain of our friends among tho proscribed , -who appear to have formed a singular conception of tho duties of English journalism . " Wo are uciouueu—it Boenus , of tho complicity of silence , of tho worship of success , and of that besotting sin of English
men , two subordination ot groat principles to the national selfishness—because wo have ceased to declaim against tho authors and abettors of the coup d'etat of tho 2 d of December , 1851 . Wo aro conscious of as deep a sense of responsibility to tho cause of human rights and liberties , for every word wo Write , and for every word wo -withhold , as any of our injured clients can bo . JCNqver has the duty of tho English press been more snqrod than since it has . uttered the only free voice on this side of tho Atlantic . But journals , however honest , have their conditions of existence as well as other political institutions . They must reflect tho common nonso of tho community , or of that section of tlie community in whoso name they profess to speak . Above
, they must remember that the science of politics is , as Kossuth admirably said , the science of exigencies . In other words , in politics , as in all human aflairs , there is . a time for all things ; a time to be silent and a time to speak . If we are told that the time to be silent about the eternal pr inciples of right and wrong never comes , we reply that every nation is the best judge of its own rights and its own "wrongs . So long as tie French nation appeared to be the victim of a surprise we protested , with all the energy of unalterable convictions , against the men who had waded to a wrongful usurpation through blood and broken oaths : the men wlio had assaulted , gagged , decimated , and defrauded a gallant and generous people . But the time arrived when , in the eyes of impartial witnesses , that whole people became the abettors . and accomplices of a crime , if it was a crime , of which a
knot of desperate adventurers had been the successful heroes . Call it lassitude , indifference , ' exhaustion , servility , terror , what you will , rightly or wrongly , the French nation has visibly accepted—we do not say applauded —the restoration of the Empire on the ruins of the Republic . We do not forget the violence , the proscription , the tyranny , the venal sabre , and the prostituted franchise : we believe and know that all public spirit , not to say all patriotism , is dead , when a nation ' s rights are sold to mercenary traitors . We remember and we cherish the eloquent voices that have denounced from the depths of exile the triumphant wrongdoers , and sought to call back a deluded and disheartened people to a sense of dignity and self-respect . But , as Tictor Schoelcher himself says , " Facts are facts ,- there they stand :
nothing can expunge them ; and the facts are , an impotent Assembly of factions dispersed amidst a jeering crowd : material interests clamouring for tranquillity and' order' at any price : statesmen like M . Guizot venting their weak hate in austere historical parodies : ex-ministers like M . Thiers babbling shy treason and mean slander in the salons \ one half of a great nation vilifying and defaming the other : the inevitable conclusion being , that- where all are intriguers , success is the sole right , and defeat a just expia ^ - tion . Under these circumstances , an English journalist , he his sympathies , his regrets , his convictions what they may , has no right to judge French politics from the point of view of French refugees . It is the function of the future historian to balance causes ; the contemporary journalist is concerned -with visible effects and immediate results . And here we may be allowed to recal what we wrote on a former occasion : —
" France has _ visibly accepted the Imperial regime . This acquiescence may be the result of apathy and-indifference , or of that lassitude which succeeds to the loss of illusions , and that prostration which is not repose . Wita many , no doubt , the impotent hatred of the power that degrades while it protects is only equalled by the fear of flying to the unknown for a change . The single fact we are concerned with at present is the acceptance of the existing Government by the French nation . Where is there any evidence to the contrary ? If there be any public spirit left in France , it points to distant camps as the field of its expansion , la the capital as in the departments there is qniet if not confidence , and cold respect , if not enthusiasm , for the Emperor . Acknowledging this state of feeling and opinion as a fact , it is cot our business to snarl at the elected Chief of the French , nation . It is not oar business to propagate the industry of on dits and inuendoes , with which discarded statesmen and impossible factions seek to avenge the material comfort and tranquillity of subjugation . We have little sympathy for that opposition which is incapable even of the oi aeieaT
aignuy . We adhere to all that this journal has said from first to last on the origin and constitution of the present ruling powers in France . We do not love liberty and justice less , or less abhor perjury and violence , in 1854 than in 1851 . But to declaim incessantly on principles which we all know to be as eternal in their essence as they are variable in their accidental application —which we all know to be set aside by every new and virtuous Government that takes power by assault in a struggle of contending factions—would be to beat the air . It is natural enough that the defeated should feel , and where the laws of their adoption permit , should pour out their undying and irrepressible indignation upon their persecutors ; but are English journalists to throw themselves into the attitude of proscribed and -vanquished victims , and to watch foreign events with eyes blurred and distorted by injuries not their own ? We presume to think not . Our path lies amongst actualities ; our duty as regards foreign politics is that of critical observers , but our point of view , M . Victor Schoelcher must permit us to insist , is national .
Anxious above all to preserve and to strengthen the alliance of the two groat nations , wo accept with deference , if not with sympathy , the Government accepted by the French nation , and which at present has done more to establish and to ratify that alliance than any French Government hitherto permitted to arrivo at years of discretion . If we are indignantly warned against putting our faith in national oath -breakers , we reply that we put our faith in political fatalities and in the force of interests—not in any sentimental clap-trap of tho passing hour . We welcome this magnificent alliance of France and England with our whole hearts , and we find it impossible to forget that certain of our'dispassionate Cassnndras aro tho men who , throughoutjjthe reign of Louis Philippe as throughout tho Restoration , were incessantly vilif ying England , denouncing her goodwill , stirring up the most hostile passions , and fanning tho ( lame of the most fatal animosities . Perhaps wo do little injustice to some of tho refugees in expressing our sad belief that they would be ready to denounce ' perfidious Albion' again as soon as her hospitality was no longer a refuge .
There aro among tho most steadfast lovers of liberal institutions many who accept the coup d'Jtat of tho 2 nd of December as « , political necessity , while they detest the act and tho agency itself . Thoro are others who say that , however loudly it may now suit tho purpose and tho rOle of the men who allowed thoir country to bo sold to declaim about eternal principles , ' tho history of every Government in Franco for sixty years past has been a succession of coups tPdlat , in which tho vanquished party have always been called by the victors ' anarchists , ' by themselves , defenders of ' eternal principles . ' Dnnton said bitterly , that the vices and tho follies of l » is counwould dem
trymen and a king again . Impartial eye-witnesses have lately assureduB of the satisfaction with which tho splendid equipages and gorgooud trappings of tho Court of Parvenus are regarded by that airy and versatile crowd . So dominant arc tho histrionic and upholstering tendencies ! There aro without doubt marked exceptions to this general prononcas to servitude ; there are tribunes of Spartan virtue ready to assume the drapery of Romans at a moment ' s notice : there aro the popular performers of tho favourite parts of Dnnton and Camillo DcHmoulins ; there aro tho Doctrinaires , a melancholy species of Parliamentary posture-minsters ; there arc tho amiable chiinoonsta of a hundred sects , who would set all citizens to dine at a common
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 29, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29071854/page/16/
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