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924 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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DENMARK FRIEND OR FOE. JSeyebperhaps was...
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EMIGRATE STILL. If is beginning to "pay"...
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.
Te1e Thanksgiving—And How It Should Be. ...
sects in the chapels of middle-class dissent ; io . d in every conceivable manner not conforming "by the innumerable rest of the community . The Beer Act will check the crowding at public-houses , but how many wall appreciate the abundance of the harvest chiefly by consuming the fermented juice of the barley . How many , with a slight acknowledgment of the form , will use the day for a rush into the country ; and how many , -when it is all over , will forget all about it , or think of it only as a trivial observance , nine-tenths of which are
T ? ant . And the insincere submission of cant deprives tis of faculty of returning thanks . We can only make the sacred observance one more addition to the pharisaical nonsense by which we lower our own character . If there are any thanks which the model man will give with heartiness , it will be in thanking God tliat he is not like other men—which he is .
924 The Leader. [Saturday,
924 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Denmark Friend Or Foe. Jseyebperhaps Was...
DENMARK FRIEND OR FOE . JSeyebperhaps was there a more striking example of national retribution inflicted for apolitical mistake than that which has befallen England ia her relation with Denmark , HOW becoming so important an object of mistrust ; in the Baltic . What would Our ( Cfbvernrnent give for a great hold over the Scandinavian kingdoms ? It would indeed lie invaluable to us ; and what is more , if -England had behaved rightly , the bold would
lave been ready to her hand . Through her G-overnrnent , However , England "behaved all , and her power is absent . The story , indeed , is one of the most instructive in modern history . The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein had been guaranteed , by the Danish crown , . a certain degree of independence ; they were to go together , and they had a right of representation , in the G-erman Diet . There was , however , much jealousy between the Germans of the duchiea and the Danes of
the kingdom—a dispute not assuaged by the fact that there was a Danish party also within the duchies . "When the duchies sought to identify their political organisation with Germany in 1848 , they were put down by the Government of Denmark , with the assistance of the German Governments . The Danes , indulging their national grudge , united with their king to break down the law of Schleswig Holstein and to put down the Germans of the duchies . The king of Denmark has now visited the Danes with their punishment ; by Royal ordinances he lias abolished their constitution and established one for " the united empire . "
There is to be a federal assembly , comprising fifty members , receiving salaries , twenty of whom are to be named by the king , and thirty to bo elected by the States of JDenmark— Denmark Proper to elect eighteen ; Schleswig , Holstein , and Lauenberg , twelve ; and this assembly Jta charged with the double power of acting aa a Parliament , and of framing the Constitution for a future Assembly . The Danes , indeed , have the additional cause for shame at their own misconduct , in finding themselves thus braved by an impotent Court .
Having uaed the Danea against the Duchiea , tjhat Court uses the Czar against the Danes and England . Now in opposing the Czar , wo might lmvo counted upon the Danea as allioa to drive their own Court , if indeed we had acted so aa to win the confidence of the Danes . But wo forfeited their confidence , aa well ns that of the Germans , when we not only witnessed the extinction of Constitutions iu Germany without protest , but lent an active countenance to tho anti-Constitutional treatment of tho duchies . On this subject wo perfectly agree with our weekly contemporary the Mxaminer t whoao
Ministerial leanings do not check the utterance of a generous national feeling : The Germans feel something more than thas sense of self-degradation — this consciousness that neither they themselves , hot their then demi-god , rose to the emergency of a crisis which they and he created . Besides the blush of shame which arises in almost every German face when you speak of their sad misuse of the opportunities of 1848-9 , you ha-ve also to encounter resentment , not alone for the passive indifference of England to th eir patriotic struggles , but for the active part which England and France
took in the affair of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein , which are threatening again to force themselves on the attention of Europe . That question had a far greater significance in Germany than it had out of it . With us it meant the preservation , of the kingdom of Denmark : in Germany it was the symtol of the Unity . " Germany for Germans " was the idea it involved ; and that established , a great point would hare been gained . The loss or retention of the duchies -was then a pivot on which turned other and far greater questions ; it was the touchstone of nationality .
England ami France may have been right or wrong in the policy they pursued—tliat is a matter we have long ago discussed—but their policy deeply wounded the pride of Germany . The professors , the philosophers , the students of Germahy cursed the Western Powers in their hearts , when the Duchies were annexed by a European act to Denmark ; and even other , more sober and less excitable * politicians saw ! in the proceeding the hostility of Trance and England to German unity and nationality . The effects of this opinion the world is now feeling in the present indifference of Germany to the Anglo-French , alliance .
"If proper means were used , it surely might not be inrposs | ble to revive those noble tbrbbbings in the now torpid hearts of the German people , which if they did . beat 'wildly and injudiciously , still "beat highly . " Do they want Germany for the Germans ?" Then let them allow Hungary to the Hungarians , Turkey to the Turks , and Poland to the Poles ; and applying ourselves at last to the resolute design of reducing the barbarian to subjection , let us , without heeding the effect which the success of any detail of
it , 6 u . ch as the destruction of Sevastopol or Cronstadt , may produce at Vienna or Berlin , persevere till we have reduced the power of Russia to such limits as may be compatible with the interests of civilisation and humanity . Surely the great German people have but to be thoroughly disabused of the fear that we desire only to weaken the maritime position of Russia and not to lessen her general pressure and influence on the continent , even ye-t to rally to the French and English alliance , and aobly accomplish their own freedom in helping to liberate the world . "
Yes , England and the Danes , the "Western Powers and G-ermany , ought to be acting together . The German and Scandinavian courts ought to have no hopes , but in taking the side of the allies against the grand despot ; and . it would be so , if the conduct of our own Government had not given the Danes and Germans equally a right to mistrust us . "We may censure the Banes , bui we have no claim to their confidence . "We may , indeed , blame our own Government , but let us never forget that no Ministers could have acted thus in the name of " England , " unjess passive permission had been given by the ignorant , and content to be ignorant , English people .
Emigrate Still. If Is Beginning To "Pay"...
EMIGRATE STILL . If is beginning to " pay" to stop at home , even in Ireland . That is to say , it pays as compared with the past experience of Ireland . But let us consider a little more closel y the facts that are advanced in support of this new and hopeful assertion , and we shall see that if it pays to stop at home , ifc pays still better to emigrate . It is aa extremely interesting inquiry for the working classes , and
we beg them to look nt it closely . They will find emigration twice blessed—blessing him that goes and him that stays ; and they must continue tho process if they want to get aillthe good out of it they cim . Now for the proofs . Wo have already stated tho total amount of © migration during tho past year : it waB 889 , 937 . There ia somo difficulty in calculating tho exact number of Irish included in that total , since a considerable proportion of tho emigrants from Irolanfl tnko ship at Liverpool , and some go from tho Clyde . Tho
commissioners , however , calculate the aumbers that left Ireland in 1851 at 254 537 in 1852 , at 224 , 997 ; and in 1853 , at 199 , 392 . " Assuming , " says the report , "that the calculations of former years were not quite accurate , we can scarcely doubt that the Irish emigration during 1853 was considerably less than for any year since 1848 . As this decrease is evidently not caused by the failure of the means of emigration , we accept it aa an additional proof that the distress by which Ireland has been so long afflicted is passing away , and that her labouring classes need no longer despair of being able to obtain in their own country the means of an adequate subsistence . ''
Now this is confirmed by the inquiries of the Irish Poor ! Law Commissioners , instituted at the request of the Emigration Board . It is found in Ireland that there has been an increasein the money value of agriculturallaibour , while the wages of artisans have improved in a still higher ratio . Here , then , is cause and effect , established on the authority of two Government boards . About a quarter of a million of souls have gone for . two or three years , and wages have risen a few pence , or a
shilling or two . Can anything "be more satisfactory ? Now , for our own part , we are by no means satisfied . "We do not see why wages should not be raised to a still higher rate ; and we are perfectly convinced that , improved as the condition of the labourer maybe in Ireland , it bears no comparison with the condition of the labourer ia the United States ; while a very large proportion of labourers in the American republic are continually passing out of the class of hired
workers into that of the land owners . Of the population who have added the new states of Michigan , Iowa , Winconsin , Missouri , Kansas , and others to the Union , multitudes were but a few years ago labourers , and now are land-owners— -not tenants , not occupants of conacre , not beggarly farmers straggling with , ruin ; but owners of enough land to live unon , with the certainty that their children will be independent men . " The sky only , " says the poet , " do they change who cross the
sea ! But the poet knew nothing of modern emigration . The man that leaves the life of a beggarly fanner in Ireland , or a precarious labourer in England to find employment in the United States , does exchange not only sky , but soul . He ceases to live in fear of the parish , becomes his own master , looks to have a voice in the election of his representative , and can , if he likes , stand upon liis own land , no one making him afraid . It is just tho same if he goes to Australia , We do not
speak of the gold—men must take their chance at that ; but we are thinking of tho lands to be settled along tho Murray , and wo say that in that island-continent there will exist a numerous class of working farmers , which can be speedily recruited by our working classes , if our working classes please . They have already shown tbat they are not afraid of the voyage , and , they nro right . Within the last seven years the Commissioners of Emigration have chartered 433 sliips ; of that number two have been wrecked under circumstances not very likely to occur again :
though of course the sea will always have its chances . Of the 140 , 000 passengers conveyed by those vessels not one has been lost . Of the ships despatched from ports under the inspection of tho Emigration Commissioners the returns are not quito so favourable . Of the whole 2 , 311 , 175 soula only 1567 havo been lost at sen , and those principally by tho loss of vessola under such circumstances na have chocked tho recurrence of tho disaster . Tho Taylcur , for example , waa indifferently manned , but the Board of Commissioners have resolved that no vessel shall bo cleared out with a smaller crew than four men to each .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 30, 1854, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30091854/page/12/
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