On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
does the National debt , which is also " expensive . " A more equal division of property and lighter taxation , would be much more " comfortable , " but are madmen to decree those changes for the sake of comfort ? The institution of Bishops is " expensive , " and not remarkable for gracefulness , but would you pull down those bulwarks of our Faith to make curates more comfortable ? Britons 3 beware ! Interested demagogues are
misleading you , and preparing the downfall of the ancient and honourable company of hatters by specious sophisms of cheapness , comfort , and elegance . Let us withstand them . Let us support the good old English" hat , and despise coxcombry ! Make but one timid concession to this desire of change , alter but the brim of the Hat your fathers wore , and you inaugurate the Bonnet Rouge !
Untitled Article
THE AMERICAN" UNION IN" DANGER . " If the union can be preserved only by the imposition of chains on speech and the press , by prohibition of discussion on a subject involving the most sacred rights and dearest interests of humanity , then union would be bought at too dear a rate ; then it would be changed from a virtuous bond into a league of crime and shame . Language cannot easily do justice to our attachment to the union . "We will yield everything to it but Truth , Honour , and Liberty . These we can never yield . "—Dr . Channing . Had Channing been alive at the present day no one can doubt as to what side he would have taken in the great controversy which is now convulsing the United States : Much as he valued the union he would never have lent his influence to the men who are seeking to crush the spirit of freedom in America by the boisterous and hollow pretence of ultra-patriotism . He was one of those who hold the doctrine that the vote of a majority , though it may enable the Legislature to pass certain laws , and thereby to invest certain proceedings with a constitutional character , can never change wrong into right .
The Honourable Daniel Webster , Secretary of State , in a letter which he addressed to what the American journals describe as " a tremendous and enthusiastic Convention of Patriots /* held at New York , on the 30 th ultimo , argues the question in the thoroughpaced official style . He holds that no man is at liberty to set up his own conscience as above the law , in a matter which aiFects the rights of others . " Such a pretence , " lie argues , " saps the foundation of all government , and is of itself a perfect absurdity ; and while all are bound to yield
' Fharaoh charged all his people , saying , Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river , and every daughter ye shall save alive . ' It was the business of every Egyptian who found a Hebrew boy to throw him into the Nile . If he refused , he offended against the peace and dignity of the kingdom of Egypt , and the form of law in such case made and provided ; but , if he obeyed , he murdered a man . Which should be obeyed , the Lord Fharaoh or the Lord God ? That was the question . I make no doubt that the priests of Osiris , Orus , Apis , Isis , and the judges , and the justices of the peace and quorum , and the members of Congress of that time said , * Keep the King ' s commandment , oh ! ye that worship the crocodile and fear the ca * ., or ye shall not sleep in a whole skin any longer ! ' So said everything that loveth and maketh a lie . "
This is the American question in a plain intelligible form . The honest , peaceful dwellers in the North are told by the slaveholders that they must assist in delivering up the fugitives into the hand of their tyrants , and that , unless they do so , the Union will go to pieces . Channing ' s answer to such a demand would be : —" Then let it go to pieces . " On this very question he said some powerful things many years ago , which are worth reviving at the present day . Take the following passage , for example , from his answer to Clay ' s letter : —
' The constitution requires the free States to send back to bondage the fugitive slave . * * * I know no provision of the constitution at which my moral feelings revolt but this . Has not the slave a right to fly from bondage ? Who among us doubts it ? Let any man ask himself how he should construe his rights , were he made a slave ; and does he not receive an answer from his own moral nature as bright , immediate , and resistless as lightning ? And yet we of the free States stop the flying slave , and give him back to bondage ! It does not satisfy me to be told that this is a part of that sacred instrument , the constitution , which all are solemnly bound to uphold . No charter of man ' s writing can sanctify injustice , or repeal God ' s Eternal Law . I cannot escape the conviction that every man who aids the restoration of the flying slave is a wrongdoer . "
obedience to the laws , wise and well disposed citizens will forbear from renewing past agitation and rekindling the ilames of useless and dangerous controversy . " Had this " Daniel come to judgment , " in Germany , some three centuries and a half ago , he would , no doubt , have tried to show that Luther had no right to set up his individual conscience above the law , and , failing to convince him of his error , would have called upon all " wise and well-disposed" monks and magistrates to assist him in
putting down the Reformers , as men who were " kindling the flames of useless and dangerous controversy . " Officials , like Mr . Webster , who cannot afford to consider a great question like that of slavery through the medium of the conscience , always look upon controversy as dangerous . The § hrase is well-known in this country , but a Homeecretary who should , at the present day , openly lend his influence to stifle free discussion , would be
set-down as an old-fashioned Tory of the Sidmouth and Castlereagh school . That a sentiment so slavish and degrading should have called forth tremendous cheers from a public meeting , as the passage we have quoted from Mr . Webster ' s letter is said to have done at New York , is only another proof that the Americans , in spite of all their boasting , are still a great way behind England m all that relates to freedom of opinion .
Mr . Webster ' s only argument in favour of the Fugitive Slave Bill , is that " it is the law of the land , and as such is to be respected and obeyed by all good citizens . " He can recognize nothing but law and constitutionality . The individual conscience , the sentiment of justice , sympathy for the slave who has escaped from the tyrant s whip , all these must be set aside lest the integrity of the Union should be endangered . The absurdity of such a doctrine is well illustrated by Theodore Parker , in a late discourse " On the Function and Place of Conscience in . Relation to the Laws of
Men . " " A law vns once enacted by Kinpf Pharaoh f ° r the destruction of the Israelites in Egypt ; it was the official business oi all citizens to aid in iheir destruction : —
Untitled Article
THE GERMAN QUESTION . What is to be done in Germany ? For the last eight days we have been diligently reading the intelligence and speculations of the German newspapers relating to the Austrian and Prussian quarrel , and we must confess our utter inability to make even a plausible guess at what is likely to be the ultimate issue of affairs . In this dilemma , our intelligent and trustworthy German correspondent has sent us an interesting letter on the present aspect of affairs , which we have much pleasure in giving to our readers .
Bonn , Nov . 19 , ISoO . —The Rhine steamers , as they pass under ray windows , are glittering with Prussian helmets ; the roads are alive with parties of peasants , in smocks , on the way to the station of their Lamhvehr Regiment ; farmers , pipe in mouth , trot their horses to head quarters , to be drafted for the artillery service : students leave the university to join the ranks . Near Fulda , where holy Winfred , the English Apostle of Germany , lies buried , Prussians and Bavarians , like Greeks and Trojans , bid each other defiance , stand to their guns , nay , have already exchanged six shots . "Wars and rumours of wars . Yet , somehow , nobody believes in them ; and grave men , as they meet , smile sadly and shake their heads , as if saying , " It is all sham , and we shall have to
pay the costs . " If indecision , doublc-mindedness , and the barren desire for saying both " yes and no" at the same time , were not sufficient reasons to account for failures and miscalculations of every sort , one would have to say that a peculiar fatality attended every step of the Prussian Government , or , to be more precise , of his Prussian MajeBty . Two years of seesawings , waitings upon Providence , waitings upon the reconciliation of " yes and no , " of forward words followed up by backward movements , resulted in Count Brandenburg ' s returning from Warsaw
with humiliation in his pocket , and a broken heart under his uniform . Then , at last , Radowitz , even Radowitz , the ideal , ever postponing politician of the future , and keeper of the King's conscience , thought that the hour for decision ( or for assuming the air of decision ) had arrived . He proposed the mobilizing of the army and Landwehr , as an answer to the Warsaw insults . The King voted with Radowitz , and decided against Radowitz ; had it expressly recorded on the minutes of the Council , that he shared the convictions of his foreign Minister ,
but submitted to the vote of the Cabinet ; that , in fact , his vote was " yes and no ! " Radowitz . no doubt glud enough to back out of a situation which had " come upon him , " which he had neither prepared nor provided forresigned ; regretted by nobody , ideologist , politician ol the future as he is , by some even irreverently called n Great Sham . The electric wires took the news of the all-for-peacc decision of the King ' s Government ^ to Vienna , and , naturally enough , brought back new impertinences and humiliating demands . Naturally enough
Mephistopheles Schwarzenberg , seeing how well his diplomacy had answered , how correctly he had judged of his opponent , could not but improve the occasion , and administer kick second where kick first had been taken in so Christian a spirit . "Why should he not ? What had he to lose , or to be mindful of ? Suppose it brought war and desolation upon Germany , what of that ? Are not the young Emperor and his Croat officers eager to distinguish themselves ? Indeed , in one sense , the
match between Schwarzenberg and Prussia is a very unfair one : the former being entirely reckless of consequences , unmindful of subjects , of bankrupt exchequer , of Russian triumphs , German defeats , Sec . ; while poor Christian-like Prussia , like poor honest Martha of old , has to be " mindful of many things : " of Chambers , of subjects' pockets and opinions , of " fair fame , " of German interests , and have even a conscience in the matter .
Thus Schwarzenberg , with becoming nonchalance , administered kick second . But it proved too much . Th spirit of the country was roused , the Press was unanimous in indignant remonstrance , officers in high command talked of resignation , the Prince of Prussia was for saying either " Yes or No , " Brandenburg ' s death spake like a voice from the Destinies amidst the stifled growlings of the furor borussicus , and shook the Royal nerves . Then the King ' s Government recalled its recent decision and acted upon Radowitz's advice , after having
refused to sanction it . The entire forces of the country were summoned , Line and Landwehr , near half a million men , fine fellows all ; summoned from the plough , from the workshop , from the study , from , the counting-house , at the cost of two millions sterling—to make a show and " save the honour of Prussia " ! Alas , for such honour , that is mindful of saving itself at the expense of its cause > and washes it hands when it ought to be doing its work . " Que mon nom soit fle ' tri ! " that is the conception of honour required just now in whoever would lead on Germany to new and better courses , a lead which Prussia , after
having boldly assumed it , has now avowedly and pusillanimously relinquished . And so poor Germany , cursed in its leaders almost from the beginning , without champion , without Gonfaloniere to carry its standard on high , the play ball and prey of Schwarzenbergs and Hassenpflugs and thirty-two anointed Incapables , will have to " jumble and to stumble , " who knows how many years longer , till it finds its " stable equilibrium . " The peasant toils painfully and admirably from morn till night , and lets neither the earth nor himself be idle all the year round . The student and scholar labours as faithfully and religiously in his field to bring to li ^ ht what is true ,
and to spread knowledge which is good . The artizan and tradesman is intelligent and industrious ; tlie youth enthusiastic in his aspirations ; the soldier brave and loyal : —and they who are called "by the Grace of God , " as they say , to take care of the higher interests of this people , to see that their labours be not neutralized and made ineffective by artificial divisions , barriers , and mutual weakenings , by a system of hindrances instead of helps ; whose special vocation it is to open and maintain a fit and worthy arena for the peaceful development of a worthy and peaceful people , —are spreading confusion through the laud by their personal squabbles , jealousies , and trivialities !
There will be no fighting . There is nothing to fight for . Prussia fighting , not for its own specific ' honour " and share of influence , but for right and justice against faithlessness , treachery , and stupidity ; for the healthy and just instincts of the German people against wicked diplomatizings and ridiculous pretensions of Kings and Kaisers , ' who have learnt nothing and forgot nothing ;" in short , for wisdom , which looks to the coming times , against imbecility , that looks only to what it calls " the success " of the present half hour : would have as great and heroio a cause to draw the sword for as the Great
Gustavus Adolphus had ; much greater than her own Great Frederic had . But Prussia defending , in Hesse-Cassel , for instance , not a noble and just people against a frivolous tyrant and mischief-loving Minister ; but the maintenance of the " Etappcn-Strasscn , " the right of road ; fighting at Frankfort , not for the solemnly promised " Unitary Government with popular representation , " but for an additional half or three-quarter vote in a conclave of princes , where the old game at chess , " a quatro" or " a trentc-dcux , " with nothing but stalemates in prospect , is to be resumed again : where ia the People , or even the Government , in our day , that can take heart to Jight for such a casus belli ?
In the meantime Prussia has summoned not only her army , but also her Parliament , which is more than either Austria or Prussia dare do ; while Wurtcmbcrg has just dismissed its Estates because they refused to supply the sinews for a fratricide war . Thus Prussia , alone , continues on terms of trust with its own People ; as , indeed , of the whole of its internal administration nothing but t ^ ood can be said . The Parliament , then , which is to meet at Berlin next week , the first Prussian Parliament regularly called since the constitution has been settled and adopted , meets at a critical moment , and has a fireat opportunity to show what stuff it is made of . J . N .
Untitled Article
Nov . 23 , 1850 . ] 1 &t ) $ $ Lea $ tet + 829
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 23, 1850, page 829, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1860/page/13/
-