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Austria , and all Europe dunning the Swiss Diet about the safe refuge Mazzini is allowed to find at Geneva , when the same agitator has it in his power to travel unmolested from Rome to Geneva , and hence again to London , again and again , we say , eluding all pursuits , baffling the thousand trammels of passport and police regulations ? There was a hunt after him in 1833 , which lasted more than three years . Proscribed from canton to canton , sure of the hospitality of all honest men , he
tarried in the country so long as it answered his purpose ; quitted it ; returned to it whenever his business required . He has lately been ' subjected to the same senseless persecution ; he has baffled it , given in to it , with his wonted dexterity . He is in London at the present day , or rather , we should say , he was , for ere the ink on this paper be dry he may , for aught we know to the contrary , be peacefully sailing on the placid waters of the Leman again .
But , supposing even Switzerland to have it in her power to exercise over the refugee a control which France and Germany evidently have not , we ask , is it fair to demand of her this hateful surveillance over the unfortunate which the great wreck of decrepit states daily throws on her hospitality ? Are the neighbouring Governments , are the complainants themselves , Austria and Germany especially , at all scrupulous in the fulfilment of their own part of this international compact ? Are royal refugees and plotting aristocratic vagabonds
turned out of Vienna or Venice ; or are- they even prevented from holding levees at Wiesbaden ? The law of nations , strictly interpreted , binds Switzerland to oppose an armament against friendly powers . Even this is not found practicable at all times , as the Strasburgh and Boulogne hero , now so squeamish on such matters , should best know . For one harumscarum expedition that ever set out from Geneva in 1834 , how many adventurous madcaps have given the hundred-eyed coalition of the great despotic powers the slip ?
We understand such matters clearly enough here in England ; and with the exception of the very shabby trick once played at the General Post-office , there is no instance of our Government going out of its way to interfere with political exiles of any country or party . Even the unpopular Alien Bill is seldom resorted to , except in self defence . As for foreigners dealing with our printing-offices , our steam-navigation companies , or our gun-manufactories , what is that to us ? The shops are open for all customers . We are bound to discountenance armaments ; but as to arms—why we are only thankful to any enterprising gentleman likely to increase the demand .
There is no reason in the world why this should not equally be the case with Switzerland . Her neighbours put forth demands for which they offer no reciprocity . Nay , after the b ; vsc intrigues and downright treachery by which Catholic Europe conspired against the peace of that country during the disgraceful affairs of the Sunderhund , nothing can well equal the insolence with which Switzerland is expected to perform the duties of the lower police , to secure sound slumbers to the very Governments who never scrupled , never would scruple , to invade , lay waste , dismember , and parcel the Confederacy —if they only dared .
Yet Switzerland , we are grieved to see , bows down and complies . Nay , she meets despotic arrogance with duplicity and evasion . She ( lares not hold up right against might . She screens her exile guests by denying their existence ; by marching them up and down the country , hushing them up , like an old hen hiding her chickens when the hawk hovers about in the air . The Kpirit of old Switzerland is broken . Her rich possessions on the plain , her flourishing manufactories , her princely caravanserais mnke her ill so a utilitarian . She would show pluck enough if hard driven on Home matter of local interest ; but us to a proud vindication of inalienable hut
unprofitable rights—as to a chivalrous protection of the weak against the oppressor—hah ! The winter is soon over . The flock of English wild geese in about to wing its flight towards its favourite haunts at Vevey or Interluken . The downy birds must not be scared away by the din of political ugitution , by the prospect or brawls , " alarums , excursions . " ' 1 hose poor devils of refugees were never known to . stop at the " Three Crowns" or " Three Kings . " Nay , they would fain find fault with the most loyal titles on our tavern nign posts . " Away with them , and let un have a full nea « on ; let us keep a quiet household , so that our rocks and glaciers , our / culms , ami our horti . s be turned into bread !"
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INCORPORATION OF MARYLEBO > iE . The movement commenced in the Parish of St . Pancras to obtain a charter of incorporation for the borough of Marylebone , ought to succeed . The object is sure to be obtained sooner or later , since the arguments in its favour are of a substantial and enduring kind ; the main argument against it belongs to what we cannot help regarding as a crotchet of the day .
It is on every ground a mistake to suppose that mere outlay of public money is a valid objection to any public institution , unless it be urged on the ground of absolute poverty in the nation . A nation so poor as the Swiss , may be compelled to forego many useful appliances , simply because there is not cash to provide them . In England there cannot be the same reason . That there are poor amongst us in great numbers is miserably true , and the fact ought to modify the incidence of taxation , for state or local purposes ; but the country at large can always afford to pay for that which is worth
purchase . Local government is admitted to be one of our most valuable institutions , and it is not at all probable that the cost of its extension with the growth of our population , can be so great as to counterbalance the advantages . London has topographically outgrown the boundaries of its ancient Corporations , and the onus probandi lies on those who would deny the expediency and justice of placing the important district of Marylebone , already a parliamentary borough , on a level with Londtfn or Westminster as respects the advantages of local government . Economically , we believe that local government will be found to " pay . "
Indeed , we should carry this idea further than most public economists would be willing to allow . We are convinced that it is a great mistake , in matters both of state and local government , when Reformers make so dead a set as they do at mere retrenchment . The amount saved by that kind of process is usually insignificant ; it very seldom tells with much force upon the outlay of the individual contributor . The two great objects to secure are these—a just incidence of the burden , and a > fair return for the money expended in work done . Those objects secured , we are satisfied that
a true public economy not only permits but requires a spirit of handsomeness in the outlay of money . Independently of the pure question of profit , a spirit of handsomeness is conducive to a spirit of zeal and energy in the servant . The love of power , of distinction , of a wide field for activity —every form of what is called public spirit—will give a preference to public employment over private employment ; , even in spite of mere money interest . We saw lately that Mr . George Nichols preferred to take £ 1500 as a poor-law commissioner
to £ 2000 as a director of the Bank of England ; and Lord Ebrington threw up his post as secretary to that commission ia disgust less at the diminution of his income than at the depreciation of his value and rank . A spirit of meanness or mere trading is not wholesome for any community , and the administrators of a corporation may usefully set . the example of a , better spirit . Even the decorative expenditure of a public body is not without its beneficial influences , provided it be not more untasteful than ample .
But one of the most manifest advantages of local government is the opportunity which it affords for the political training and activity of every man . It is local government alone which supplies the occasion for constant attention to subjects of polity ; it imparts habits of public action , stimulates public spirit , and . supplies a training school for selfgovernment even in its highest departments .
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THE STJFFKACiK AND THE NEWSPAPER STAML ' . Iv any question of reform hangH upon another , hy its nature and consequences , the free knowledge question hangs upon that of the Huttrage . When the people ask for political knowledge , they are told they have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them ; when they ask for the franchise , they arc told they are too ignorant to have a « h « re in the making of the laws . True , the very parties who tf ive these answers bestow the franchise exclusively on the most ignorant of the working clauses , and violently declaim in favour of the rights of the most corrupt of that body ; but there is a natural connection between knowledge and power which cannot bo overlooked . While we have no fear of mischief from the extension of the franchise to a people still deprived of Public Education , we desire to see their power at once strengthened and enlightened ; hence we cannot understand those Members of th « i
House of Commons who are willing to give the People political rights but who would withhold the freedom of the press . The twenty-seven Parliamentary Reformers who opposed , and the fortyeight who neglected to support the motion of the 16 th of April , for the repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge , are open * to just suspicion , if not of insincerity , at least of incompetency to their own professions . Last year they had the excuse that Lord John threatened to resign if they put him
in a minority ; but as they have now dared to put him in a minority on their own question , they might —in the improbable event of their still finding him on the Treasury bench—not scruple to add one to his expected " defeats from time to time , " when Mr . Milner Gibson shall again submit his motion to the House . About Lord Stanley , of course , or any other " Tory" Premier , they could have no scruple . We must get the repeal of the knowledge taxes out of the next Ministry .
Even if any Member should be nervous about the amount of loss to the revenue from the remission of the paper duty , there is no such excuse as regards the stamp . The net amount of revenue obtained from this source cannot exceed £ 150 , 000 ; and that sum might evidently be retained by a judicious system of cheap postage on all
publications . We , therefere , cordially concur in the demand made by the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee , that the supporters of Mr . Hume ' s motion should , in a body , demand the abolition of the newspaper stamp ; an imposition so indefensible in principle , and so impracticable in its application , that to enforce it is to enforce a censorship of the press , to declare openly that Government not only is but ought to be carried on without even the cognizance of the governed . At the next general election we hope every Liberal Member will be obliged to clear himself from all suspicion of participation in this doctrine .
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THE NEXT BUDGET . What will be proposed by the gentleman who next occupies the unenvied post of Chancellor of the Exchequer ? The question is more easily asked than answered . The " Men of Marylebone " have cut a notch in the stem of the window tax ; Sir Charles Wood has cut another ; so that go it must . ' The substituted house tax is condemned by all London . The farmers at Waitham , with clerical sanction , threaten not to pay the income tax , except under compulsion—a " passive resistance ; " and
Mr . Hcrries lias set Piis mark upon it . "Hopes have been raised , " and the next Chancellor of the Exchequer will hesitate to disappoint them . Many other taxes clamour for repeal , and the next Ministry can hardly afford to be unpopular with any interest . On the other h ; uid , Lord John ' s Durham letter has occasioned an official demand for more troops in Ireland ; more money will be wanted to pay for those troops . Taxes to be struck off , expanses to be stuck on ; what will the next Chancellor of the Exchequer do ? One thing most certainly will he do—execrate his predecessor .
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It I O II X S OP CATHOLICIH M . Tuk Roman Catholics-of Manchester have set an example to their co-religionists of insisting on their rights — they insist on equality with other sects , they deprecate the notion of temporal enerouehn . ent , and they rebuke the unchristian bitterness of enmity which the organization of their hierarchy has provoked Those who havo been led away by prejudice rather that by genuine Protestantism , might usefully keep three points in view . The Roman faith is hut one form of the eternal Catholic religion , which ought to make fellow creatures feel that whatever the errors of their brethren , they are all the children of one God , whom they all brlkve in , and all desire to obey .
It is impracticable to counteract , a moral or spiritual influence , however dreaded , by urcular coercion : you can only counteract bad moral influence : * by butter influences , by education . The true mode of disarming a priesthood of undue authority is to debar it . from temporal power .
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I'AYMKNT 01- MUM IIKKS . Should a dissolution of Parliament twice place during the next few wim-Uh , what in the worst difficulty which the Reform party would have to « truggle against ? Ik it , not the want of proper candidates ? Of wealthy , retired munufneturera or millownorH , and discontentfd cquires or ambitious younger brother * , there U no luck at imy time . Hut there is nlwayB a scarcity of honest , intelligent , and earnest mm , able and willing to give up the whole of their time to the tank of legislation . If we usk the cause of thiH we find thut it in another brunch of that great Money Question , upon which everything neema to turn in Knglund . At prci-cnt , professional men , mid
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2 C 0 ¦«!) * VLtabtt . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1851, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1872/page/12/
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