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Leader (1850-1860), 27th December 1851, Edition Town of 2, Page 1235, NOTES ON WAR. BY A SOLDI EH. No. I.—Barr...

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      "Grand And Pjfioulia.Ll Even'l. Such Is ...

      fraud , into purchasing at a tremendous sacrifice , " for one guinea , what is precisely worth s omething under one guinea , though it is nominallyset down at two and " reduced " to one by a sheer eff ort of inventive imagination ; but the " cheapness " is not the less delusive and ruinous . ' Here is a mass of goods worth £ 45 , 000 to be sold for £ 28 , 500 ; a loss of £ 18 , 500 . Now , somebody must sustain that loss . Not the customer , of course , who is to benefit by the transaction . Nor the salesman , who will , of course , make his profit on

      it . Nor the fashionable mercer , who finds it worth while to get rid of lumber for goods more novel . Nor the " warehouseman , " who has another sale hastened to his hand . We are here brought back to the manufacturer , and in his case the avoidance of loss is not quite so clear . We suspect , however , that it will not fall upon the manufacturer who supplies the fashionable mercer . Upon whom then ? Probably upon the less fashionable manufacturer who would have supplied the less fashionable mercer ; only said less fashionable manufacturer will try to save his loss out of his wages .

      Amongst the details we find the following : — " Lyons , Cashmere , and finest Paisley wove long Shawls , four yards , very handsome , cost from two guineas , will be sold for £ 1 . Is . " Here we see that Paisley , at all events , will have to pay . There has evidently been a demand for Paisley shawls at two guineas , and Paisley has been set to work . Now those shawls , the surplus of a former season , are thrown upon the London market , to compete , not only with the two-guinea shawls of this year , but with the one-guinea shawl . Thus is industry -turned against itself ! Paisley is used to being skinned ; but the same process is applied all round , only that in other cases it is not quite so obvious .

      There are two kinds of " cheapness , " be it never forgotten—the legitimate , arising from abatement in the real cost of production ; the spurious , arising from defalcations from the return of the labourer . The latter is a wicked cheapness , and society has to pay for the " advantage" in misery and all its consequences .

      Dec. 27, 1851.] ®F>T &Ta\Ttt. 1235

      Dec . 27 , 1851 . ] ® f > t & ta \ ttt . 1235

      Notes On War. By A Soldi Eh. No. I.—Barr...

      NOTES ON WAR . BY A SOLDI EH . No . I . —Barricades . Invective is useless . > Louis Napoleon has done what it was his nature to do , and it is now the business of all French Republicans—indeed of all Frenchmen who are not prepared to vote that black is white whenever they think there is a prospect of " order" for a few years—to destroy this man ' s power , and reestablish a free Republic . It has been said " all is over for the present , we must wait for an

      opportunity like that of February 1848 . " Suchadvisers forget how much has been learned by the executive and military of France since the February revolution ; the generals and soldiers have demonstrated , by the result of the days of June , and on a smaller scale in this late affair , that , if Louis Philippe had allowed Marshal Bugeaud to have his own way , the insurrection would have been crushed . But Louis Philippe ¦ was an old man—he was placed on the throne by barricades—he was afraid of them . No good soldier in France , or elsewhere , fears them now .

      Louis Napoleon , if left quiet for a few months , will plunge France into a "war , as an employment and recompense for the soldiery , and in the hope of gaining glory and popularity for his government . A war having once begun , all possibility of resistance to his power , or to the power of some military chieftain who may supplant him , or succeed to his vacant place , must be indefinitely postponed . The army would be augmented , and the sabre would rule . War stimulates

      employment , and might bring prosperity to all classes for a time ; Leipsic , Waterloo , and two occupations of Paris are not forgotten or forgiven , the war-mania can easily be rekindled in France ; and many of the most influential and determined opponents of retrogressive and coersive home-policy , and many sincere advocates of peace , would yet give the fullest support to any Government , when the ( so-called ) honour of France was involved in the vigorous prosecution of a war .

      There is , therefore , no time to he lost- The army in Paris must be conquered and effectually subdued , if liberty is to be restored to France by the present generation , and this cannot be done on the traditional principles of insurrectionary warfare , by the old system of barricades and firing from houses , as long as the army remains obedient to the actual Government * It would be utterly despicable for the Republicans to calculate on some future defection of the soldiers in Paris as a possible element in their success ; such an event , however advantageous apparently , would leave the Republic without prestige , without glory , safety , or confidence , and would merely confirm the

      belief among the soldiers , among their generals , and among the People , that the army can at any time constitute itself the arbiter of France . Prospect of any defection of tho army in Paris at present there would seem to be none , oven were it desirable . The soldiers must be well aware of the widely spread exasperation against them , on account of tho recklessness and cruelty of their conduct , and the ferocious manner in which unresisting prisoners and innocent non-combatants were butchered in cold blood . They know that they cannot be forgiven for having so well executed the savage

      orders of their master . They have everything to fear from the reestablishment of freedom ; they have everything to hope from Louis Napoleon . No French Republican ought to expect or to wish for any assistance or sympathy from any part of the army until the soldiers in Paris have first been signally and cffeetually conquered . In the hour of triumph it is to be hoped that more enlightened rulers will know how to palliate and excuse the misdeeds of these ignorant men , disgracefully corrupted and deceived , and when , and whom , and to what extent to forgive and to punish Avhen the power of retribution is within their grasp .

      Hut how is the work to be done ? A modern army , lighting in earnest , cannot be beaten by an iiinurgent force with the mime weapons and acting on the same principles of tactics , unless attacked by overwhelming numbers and under some peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances . Without mentioning their greater Btores of material and more powerful artillery , the better-disciplined and more manageable combatants must inevitably carry the day . Were the most favourable opportunity to occur , were the whole fighting population of Paris to turn out under arms ,

      no amount of barricades and barricade warfare ? could prevent their total destruction by determined troops . Barricades must be taken ; and even if not taken , barricades cannot , inarch , they cannot conquer . Men who place themselves behind barricades or entrenchments , confess ( heir weakness and inferiority to their enemies , nnd their inability or unwillingness to meet them in a fair field . Defensive works are ¦ ¦ very valuable when properly employed ; time may be gained by them , often a matter

      of the greatest importance ; barricades might sometimes usefully be thrown up to impede the movements of troops , and in particular to secure a force from being suddenly charged in the rear by cavalry , but a regular system of warfare founded on defensive works is radically vicious . Combatants who defend barricades or entrenchments , knowing well that they are only gaining time for the collection of strength , and that their exertions are only preparatory to a formidable close attack , are performing a valuable and , intelligent service ; but the mere barricade defender , such as has figured hitherto in all Paris emeutes , is placed in a thoroughly false position ; he falls with .

      his pile of dung carts and paving stones , he is a mere obstruction , and binds himself under heavy penalties not to advance even if he succeed in repelling an attack . For a force repulsed from a barricade is by no means beaten , but would , on the contrary , return to the attack with redoubled ardour and confidence , if the defenders could be enticed from behind their entrenchments . The morale of an attacking , will always be superior to that of a defensive , force , and the assailants possess that forward impetus which is really the whole secret of success . But the instinctive isthat all is

      feeling of the mere barricade defender , over when his entrenchments are carried ; he has undertaken to defend his barricade , but if he cannot succeed in repulsing the enemy even with the protection of his barricade , how can he be expected to resist any longer when he is exposed both to the fire and the bayonets of troops , who have gained spirit and confidence by having surmounted so many dangerous obstacles , and who are exasperated at having been so long under the fire of their concealed enemies ? Barricades never will

      succeed , and never have succeeded , in gaining a victory over an army of competent strength , except in the case of the defection or bad conduct of the troops themselves * . Barricade fighting is demoralising in its influences over the minds of the defenders , while it positively inspirits , excites , and exasperates their assailants . It is a confession of weakness and an acknowledgment of superiority . It is a system which attempts to kill without exposure , and to gain victory without an advance and with the smallest amount of danger , and it must fail , and deserves to

      fail . Barricade fighting may , in fact , be considered the climax of trigger-pulling , the reductio ad absurdum of the universal system throughout Europe of arming the masses of an army with muskets . The invention , of gunpowder may well have introduced a revolution into warfare ; but its formidable effects have imposed upon the world an exaggerated notion of its power , and its smoke ; noise and blind destruction have gradually more and more superseded reliance on courage , intelligence , and the glorious inspiration of a good cause .

      On future opportunities this subject will be more fully elucidated , and full explanations given of the rules and methods of war , which the present writer considers to be alone legitimate and reasonable , the due appreciation of which would at once silence those unmanly appeal- ; to the dagger arid the lirebrand which have too often cast a blot on Democracy , and would give hope and determination to the patriot , wearied and bewildered by repeated disappointment and failure . H- V .

      Commercial Intei/Ligence. In" Speaking O...

      COMMERCIAL INTEI / LIGENCE . In" speaking of the present state of affairs in France , the Commercial Journal and Family Herald says that" Until some earnest Frenchman sJioots the present representative of the Corsican family , there is no chance for a peaceful or prosperous popular government in France . " So says the Commercial Journal and Family Heraldof Dublin . This chivalrous view of money matters , however , is by no menus limited to the Irish capital . Much elevation of feeling has lately been imparted to

      the operations of 'Change . We have , for example , seen , the most constituted authority in the world meet a decline of stocks with a charge of bayonets . From our Dublin contemporary it would seem that the evolutions of the Money Market will have to be carried on at the point of the sword . Men will have to seek Pennsylvania bonds , railway shares , and other bubbles , at the cannon ' s mouth . City men will have to arm themselves to the teeth to go upon 'Change , expecting some Brutus f . o give unto Ca : sar the tilings which are Caesar ' s ; and the quota tions will be writ in blood .

      Honour Your Forki Atiir.R.S—(Jlory ! Hap...

      Honour your Forki ATiir . R . s—( jlory ! Happiness ! —great words — great things ! but neither to all men nor to all nations are these possible ; and if we honour but them , neglecting obscure energy , truth , and abnegation , we run great risk of drying vip the source of glory and happiness . If , therelore , we aro truly serious in our devotion to Humanity , we shall feel a deep touching respect even for its " darkest age " —we shall feel somewhat as we do when our fathers take us on their loving knees , and tell us of the days when they were young , wilful , foolish , and erring!—British Quarterly Review , No . 28 . Cati'IIts ami * Ckavkns . — Our use of the word

      " caitiff , " which is identical with " captive , ' only coming through the Norman French , has , in like manner , its rise out of the sense Unit he who U'tH himself be made prisoner in war is a worthless , goodfor-nothing ; person—a feeling so strong in some htatea of antiquity , that under no circumstances would they consent to ransom those of their citizens who had fallen alive into the liands of the enemy . The " captives" were accounted " caitiffs , " whom they could better do without . The name feeling has given us "( 'raven , " another word for coward : the " ( -raven " is he who has craved or craven his life at the enemies' hands , instead of resisting to the death . — From Trench on the . Study <>( ' Words .

      A IiOhstku ' h Sthataokm .---Lobsters , like most other Crustacea , feed principally on shell-fish , which they extinct with their claws , and in the instance in question , the oyster closed its shell as often as the lobster attempted to insert itself ; after many failures , tile lobster took usmall stone , which it , placed between the shells as noon an they were separated , and then devoured the fish . — Thompson ' s I ' assions of Animals . * In July , LSItO , the troops in Paris did not much » x - crvtl J' 2 , 000 m number , and did not light with vigour or goodwill .

      Tlir: 1miopkh Cukiu'.Ncy For Austiua. Th...

      Tlir : 1 MIOPKH CUKIU ' . NCY FOR AUSTIUA . The promising scheme , devised by the Camarilla , for maintaining Imperial credit on the Stock Exchange , by the presence of policemen , has utterly failed through want of loyalty on the j > : irt of the stockjobbers . . Some more effectual means are , therefore , about to be adopted by Baron Krauss to put down those inveterate " S < : hwin _ ( liars " who have actually been making a profit out of the bad character of the Austrian Government . Nothing has yet transpired regarding the monetary Hystem , except that , it is to be exceedingly severe on all parties who Heck to damage tho linancial reputation of the House of llapsburg . Perhaps the Austrian Chancellor of the JKxtshcqut . T intends to try the Chinese method of dealing with parties who demur at accepting << overnment . pro

      mises to pay at the same- rate a « specie . M . de GuigncH , in bin work on China , gives an account , of a Chinese bank note , issued by an Kuiprror of the Celestial Kmpirc , the inscription on which was as follows : — " At the petition of the Treasury Board , it in ordained that the paper money thuH marked with the Heal of the Imperial dynasty of the Mings , nhall have currency and 'be used in uli respects us if it were copper money . Whoever diHobeyn "hall be beheaded . " This is the Ktylc in which the Austrian Government must deal with the refractory « l . oc ; k jobbers . Banishment , from Vienna in far too mild a puiUHhnicnt , indeed hardly any puiiittlunent at all . Thonc who refuHC to take the paper promises to pay oil the Imperial dynasty of the llapsburgH , in all rcH |) cctH as if they were bilver florins , " must be beheaded . "

      ? The Writer Of These Notes Doew Not Pre...

      ? The writer of these notes doew not pretend to any knowledge of ih <> French nation , nnd wishes frankly to avow that , his hopes nnd Hyuipnthien are directed much more towurdH other partH of J'luropc ; he merely alludes to Kroncli affuirH hk illustrative and introductory to the views of modem warfare , particularly with reference to a People ' s war which he wishes to make known .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 27, 1851, page 1235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_27121851/page/15/