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r ^^ ityTthe stringent action of Law , ? nd ^ Encumbered Estates Act , are trials which demand indulgence ; the exode of the People , in despair of maintaining existence at home , is he consequence of misgovernment , for which { hose who have governed are responsible . Yet , iV the precise time when these agencies and the astounding flight of the People—of the ratepayers—have placed the whole pronerty of some parts of Ireland in jeopardy , when the distress has not ceased , and the whole
land throbs with the agonies of social change , in steps the Whig Prime Minister and insists on the immediate repayment of the instalments due upon the advances made in the hour of famine . Speaking abstractedly , Irish landlords in general deserve ncTpity , no help , no mercy . But is it the part of a statesman to ruin a nation , in exacting the uttermost penalty at the stipulated time , upon the shortsighted pretext of dealing justly , but rigidly , by one offending , but helpless , class ? Lord Lucan is right in asking forpostponement ;
and the Catholic priests are substantially right in denouncing the landlords , and Lord John Russell is in the reverse of right in the course he has taken ; because there is no sense , no economy , in pursuing a bankrupt to the verge of ruin—nay , beyond it—with the insane notion that you can get a dividend from him when you are depriving him of the means of making one . Unless Ministers are prepared to see a supplemental Encumbered Estates Act in operation in Ireland , and to bring nearly every property to the hammer , they must
not insist on present repayment . If they are prepared to sell up Ireland , why not do it frankly , and without circumvention . Unions which can pay , ought to be made to pay ; but it is inhuman to press hardly upon unions still swarming with poor , and totally unable to furnish the necessary rates . True economy , and real generosity , lie not in a rigid enforcing of the law , but in a wise adaptation of it to altered times ; not for the sake of the Irish landlords , with whom we have no sympathy , but for the sake of the People .
Besides , the question arises , is Ireland an integral portion of this kingdom , or merely a province of the empire ? If an integral portion , then i » times of dire calamity , like the famous famine , relief and assistance are hers by right ; since it is the duty of the body politic to succour the limbs . It is a perfect mockery to talk of a union which exists only on parchment , which is simply political , and , 'in all other respects , an armed
occupation . It is a farce to speak of Ireland as represented in Parliament , and then to treat her as a conquered province . It is not " sisterly . " When you lend a friend money in his hour of distress , what i . s the worth of your friendship if you seek to exact the repayment of the loan before he is out of his distress ? Yet that is exactly the state of the case between Lord John Russell and Lord Lucan , the Treasury and the Southwestern Unions of Ireland . Lord Lucan does
not deny the debt ; he simply asks for time : he does not desire to repudiate ; he demands leave to postpone . His language may be indiscreet , his logic ill applied ; but what statesman , worthy to be so called , persecutes an alllicted nation for the ill chosen words of one man ? Time and help are debts still due to Ireland , from i he har . sh and misgoverning Government of ftngl md—debts larger , and due longer , than the instalments on the famine advunces .
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TllK AIM ) LOUYT OF PALMERSTON . Pai-mkkhton in an established Article of Faith to your Whig and Liberal believers . Wo who don't believe in L ' ulmcrriton , are unorthodox , infidels , iconoclasts . Week after week we- are condemned to register professions of faith , written and real , in our noblo Foreign Secretary . Aggressively worded they are not . content with * ' I believe in Pahnerston : " but assume the minatory , dogmatic , Athanasian formula , " Whoever believes not in l ' almerston is not . a true Liberal : let him be anathema . " 1
Weare in receip t ) of h letter from a courteous and " constant' * reader , " a lover of freedom and a li ; il ( T of jKiiHecution , " severely complaining of our habitual treatment of the object of his admiration . ! ' <¦ cannot tell "the why nor the vvherelore : it » nay be a certain , though secret , knowledge of the diplomatic : movements of that noble lord , or it may be a personal Untied of the man . If the former , why not put . the facts in an intelligible shape before your readers ; if the latter , which I will not hastily believe , it in unworthy of a paper profCtitjiug to bo devoted to the miucinlc of fair pluy . "
Our correspondent only does us justice in not hastily adopting the latter suspicion . There is not a writer in the Leader that would not sooner throw away his pen and abandon a profession as capable as any of honour and independence , than descend to the possibility of such an imputation . Fair play ia not a boast , it is a sacred duty . In the present case we are not ashamed to confess , we do not say an absence of dislike , but a warm involuntary attraction to the private and personal qualities o £ the subject of our controversy . We have not the honour of Lord Palmerston ' s acquaintance . We wish we had ; for from all we know of him by authentic testimony , as well as by
general estimation , we do not believe our country contains a more finished type of that somewhat faded race of beings the frank , fearless , generous , elegant , amiable , accomplished , high-bred , and high-spirited English gentleman . Blest with a happy and richly gifted organization : much enjoying , much admiring , and much admired : a strong clear brain , a bright keen eye , a firm will , a cool and composed judgment , a quick discernment , a brilliant vivacity , an easy and refined wit : all the qualities that make a hearty friend , a delightful companion , a hero of uncounted successes , and a victor of enthusiastic attachments : a man whose manner is a spell , and whose address a fascination : in short , who knows
not" The glass of fashion and the mould of form ? * * * * * What a grace is seated on his brow : Hyperion ' s curls ; the front of Jove himself . An eye like Mars , to threaten or command . A station like the herald Mercury , New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ! A combination and a form , indeed ; Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man . " Such is Palmerston , the English gentleman . But the Foreign Minister , the juvenile-converted Tory , the quasi-revolutionary Whig of some forty years wear and tear . Ah ! here he stands at the bar of public opinion , of conscientious appreciation , of inexorable history .
Large have been his professions , infinite the confidence reposed in them . It is difficult to decide whether the attacks of ungrateful Tories , or the boundless faith of too grateful Whigs have served him best . " It may be a certain though secret knowledge of the diplomatic movements of that noble lord . " No : we are not in the secrets of Palmerston . That we have special reasons for our opinion of his diplomatic " successes " we do not deny . These special reasons , however , as they do not hear any but the most distant allusion , so they are
as nothing in the actual formation of our judgment . They may have led us to concentrate a closer scrutiny upon the changing and restless game of his diplomatic exploits . They may have , unconsciously perhaps , sown the first seeds of suspicion ; but into what a harvest of conviction has the seed sprung up in the course of a diligent study of this Protean career . In a former article we offered an Explanation of Palmerstonism ; for the man has become a system ,, a
system not less fatal to the political liberty , than Jesuitism is to the religious liberty of Europe . We do not care from what point you enter upon the examination of this Minister ' s policy . From ' 28 if you will : and you shall find these five phases in regular succession . Profession of liberalism : excessive activity of protests , protocols , and manoeuvres ; change or backing out exactly at the crisis ; apparent failure ; and then all the bearing of a man who has quite succeeded ; as he has , in the real , though not , perhaps , in the ostensible object .
To seize upon a few of the more salient peculiarities of thin hybrid liberalism , mark well the number and the weight of his official protests , and of his official sympathies . But in a course of policy scattered over so vast a space and time , how can the casual observer trace the system which embraces , and the sequences which connect the more salient acts ? We do not get at the facts rh they occur , to enable us to form a clear judgment of their wisdom mid necessity . It is only in ' 51 that we ( ret , an inkling of the policy of ' 4 <) , through the garbled pagas of n Blue Book full of usterisks . The inLseliief has been done to the satisfaction of all but the sufferers : we lose the tract ; of the past in the confusion of present intrigues .
History , indelible history , informs uh that I ' almerston protested against the absorption of Poland , and the infraction of the Treaties of Vienna . France ! would have moved to her defence , but I ' ahncrHton proteutod : und where is Poland now 1 Palineruton
Well , here we find an " " supplied a pleasant Jittle neutral kingdom ; and Palmerston supplied with a " royal" mediator in many future mystifications . He amazed all Europe in the autumn of 1840 , by that Syrian war and complete abasement of Mehemet Ali . Very dashing , no doubt : the results problematical to Turkey , to Egypt , and to ourselves . Remember how he encouraged " the benevolent Pius" in ' 47 , and through Lord Minto shouted Italian independence from Florentine windows ! Remember how he stimulated Sicily , upon the faith of treaties , and in the hour of need left her to the tender mercies of Filangieri .
Uncle with protested against the incorporation of Cracow , in the teeth of treaties . Whose is Cracow now ? Palmerston protested against Galician massacres . Palmerston protested against the attack on Rome , but approved of the restoration of the Pope . The same Foreign Minister sympathized with Poland , with Hungary , with Italy . Are his sympathies or his protests the more fatal to their objects ? Oh ! but what bold things he has done 1 He set up the neutral kingdom of Belgium ?
He did not protest against the Russian invasion of Hungary , for one sovereign power has the right to interfere in favour of another ; but he held out false hopes to the Hungarian Constitutionalists in case of their success against Austria and Russia . He suggested to Russia to withdraw so soon as her righteous work should be accomplished . Remember how he struck at Russian influence when he backed Don David Pacifico ' s little bill with a tremendous fleet . Yes ! and threw Greece into the very bosom of Russian protection . How boldly he adopted Mr . Gladstone s pamphlets on the Government of Naples .
Yes ! and while his own brother is representing us " near the Court of the best of Kings , " Palmerston presents a note to whom ? to Bomba ? to Novarro ? to Peccheneda ? expressing the horror and indignation of England . Ridiculous notion ! He sends a copy of Mr . Gladstone's pamphlets to the President of the resurrectionist Diet of Frankfort , composed of thirty-seven delegates of bureaucracy and despotism . He requests this select Diet , representatives of Freedom and Progress , d la Warsaw , Berlin , and Vienna—a Diet which has already carried reaction back beyond ' 14—to appeal to the tender mercies of his Sacred Majesty of Naples ! Was not this bold ? almost too ' bold even for so liberal a Minister .
He gets a handsome rebuff for his pains ; sum intervention is unwarrantable . " What a glorious fellow is Palmerston ! " say Liberals at home ; " but positively his hatred of despotism carries him too far . " Ah ! yes , indeed , it carries him too far ; it carries him where English applause and Russian connivance meet . But ought we not . to support our Minister , whom every reactionist . journal on the Continent vilifies ? Such abuse as that is meat and drink to him . Honest English
Liberalism applauds . Nesselrode , Schwar / . eul ) ertf , Mynteuil'el , Metternich , wink approval . Diplomacy , Palmerstonisin , duplicity ( the words are synonymous ) flourish . The name and ellicacy and office of diplomacy nourish . All who enter into that inner circle " have eaten the lotus and lbrget their country . " In that estimable fraternity which Nelson judged so truly and well . Palmerston is " perpetual grand . " What is wanting to his praise ? Has he not promised us a peaceful and tranquil ' 5 ' 2 ? Ay ! even to Naples ?
Now , who pretends to deny the skill , the tact , the sagacity , the immense official experience in all the mysteries and details of the " office , " the practised ambiguity of glance and hand , the i . uniliar ease in the conduct of affairs , and in waiving aside the daring attacks of outward antagonists in tho (' ominous , all which our present Foreign Minister brings into the service of his country ? We do not even doubt that he may believe it to \> c , lor tin ; good of his country and lor tho happiness of the
world that diplomatic Nolidarity should he paramount , and bureaucracy the controlling power <> 1 Europe . But we do not the less for our partpersist in asserting our conviction , that , the . system of which Lord I ' aluier . stou is the incarnation , is fatal to the development ol the lree energies of the Continental nations , and tends to make Knglaud the sport of Absolutist mystification , and tho hIuvo of bureaucratic intrigues . If tho tuat by
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the Oct . 18 , 1851 . ] jgfl g a * a& * r , 991 _
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 991, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1905/page/11/
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