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which the Sheriff of London advertises . good store of rifle uniforms , comely , of neutral tint , heathlike in hue , with rifle and accoutrements to match . Think of going to one ' s haberdasher for a rifle I The Sheriff will probably turn an honest penny t » v the' " panic . " A respectable firm . is accused of selling gunpowder to the Kaflirs " : the , charge is iridignaiitly denied ; but gunpowder , it is admitted , wag' have been consigned to a merchant at the Cape . It is a sin to prepare against aggression by Louis Napoleon , but to provide Kaffirs
with gunpowder is free-trade ; and to deal in rifles or rifle uniforms , made while rifle talk is in fashion , is shrewdness in commerce ; Commerce being the handmaid of Peace ! The Amazon is destroyed by fire ; numbers moxirn their relatives perishing in that twofold visitation , and a nation mourns genius lost . Inventors of fire-Dreventives rush into
advertisement ; an exhibition of the calamity invites the shillings of the curious , in a great thoroughfare ; and a dreary theatre makes an attraction of a concert for the benefit of the survivors . Parsimony had withheld the means of checking the fire ; rapacity , trading on the awful lesson , offers those means : and a more flaunting rapacity pa * rades the funeral on the boards of the stage , as a makeweight , in the vain effort to attract " overflowing houses . " of fit and
A Government is wanted—a set men authorized to govern this vast empire ; and our constitution turns out a set of gentlemen too heterogeneous for a dinner-party—the Government of a Derby , a Walpole , a Malmesbury , and a Pakington , with a Sugden for " keeper of the Queen ' s conscience ! " It is not a Government , but an experiment—a new way ofpoaching eggs in the crown of a hat , tried on the Treasurybench while England is waiting for a Cabinet . A Church , with the cure of souls that cannot ,
in . this busy , erring world , take care of themselves «—it is a beautiful idea . " A London Clergyman . " is writing to the Post , urging that one of the first subjects submitted to Convocation should be church patronage ; which is so administered now , that the working clergy are starved , incumbents as well as curates , while the few are nurtured in luxury . The priest has forgotten the care of souls in the care of the corporation sole , himself , insomuch that the idea of the living church is merged in the " living "—his own gains ! TrA «\ % i * r "pM / wi / vi-in-m A \ r \ r \ oAma -f-Tmo V \ or »\ r n-r */~ l ia Henr aiea some time oacKana is
y Jorougnam , entombed among English worthies in Westminster Abbey ; being succeeded in the emoluments and titles W the present Lord Brougham . The original Henry enjoys , indeed , a curious posthumous survivorship in one place , University College . At the meeting of proprietors , this week , a companion , who aided in establishing that sole college of free education , but is now dismayed in his utilitarian mind , for that Henry Brougham was not always present in the flesh in . that scene of his most enduring vitality , proposed to oust him . Another companion , who could better appreciate
the presence of a living memory , rebuked the idle pedantry in a strain of clear , generous , goodhumoured , hearty eloquence . And afterwards the same speaker repeated a truth which wavering Reformers would do well to bear in mind" When in this country a groat reform has , once been achieved , it is idle to think of extinguishing it . " So said James Graham . We grasp at " institutions , " and lot the spirit evaporate . But human nature is too strong for the perversest ht at last the
statesmanship—it will get ri g . By blessing of God , neither Whig Russell nor Protectionist Derby is tho typo of eternity ; and yot , bo it remombored , tho present day is always part of eternity , tho ground wo stand on is part of the universo , tho laws of Omnipotence are not sus-{> ondcd for lack of continuance bills , though Pariamont bo dissolved ; nor are tho things that surround us , in thoir substance , other than parts of material truth , although wo may bo confounded by our own habit of looking moro to seemings than realities .
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FREE-TRAD ID IN NATIONAL DEFENCE . " ' Bieds in their littlo nosts agroo , ' is an oxample , wo fear , moro poetical than ornithological , " said Hartley Coleridgo ; and wo need not mako very deep researches into tho laws of human action , or a very distant jouruoy on tho continont of Europo , to discover that tho bonovolont platitudes of tho Poaco Society have littlo moro or tho truo , tho timely , and tho practical in
them , than has this hackneyed verse of Dr . Watts , The solemn absurdity of imploring monarchs , who only reign by the grace of gunpowder , to reduce the number of their guardian angels , is well paralleled by the bitter mockery of exhorting nations , stifled , gagged , and bound , to trust for their deliverance to moral force , public opinion , and an intellectual struggle . Moral force with a Schwartzenburg , or a Louis Bonaparte ! Can public opinion be nourished without food ? Can it make itself heard without a tongue P And it is difficult to understand how an intellectual struggle is to be carried on , when nations are forced to be dumb under penalties , and when rulers , on principle , have made themselves deaf . " -. '
. ... Physical force can only be met by physical force : absolutism itself will admit of no other argument . . When a certain point in civilization has been reached by a people , or by other peoples in close proximity to it , despotism becomes possible only by means of physical force ; and the despotic rulers cannot , dare not , suffer the existence of free speech , whiph , if not the only right of man , is at least that one which is absolutely indispensable to . 't he . fulfilment of the mission of mankind , ensuriner the ultimate recognition of all rights
and all duties . Despotism , by the showing of its apologists , substitutes the wisdom of one , or of a few , for the wisdom of the race j strives to confine all thought , even of the rulers , into a fixed channel , and shuts out infinite sources of light by the compulsory silence of a nation . Rulers and peoples alike are blinded and degraded . Slaves and tyrants alike are incapable of being men . " But the public opinion of other nations—the voice of English sympathy ? " Have we not seen its effects in Poland , in Sicily , in Hungary , in Rome , and in Naples P Patriots deluded ,
stimulated to hope and to action by half promises , officious advice , and doubtful hints y sovereigns annoyed by " humane" interference and petty demonstrations ; and both learning , from the results of its lukewarm inaction , to doubt the practical value of English sympathy . It were vain , indeed , to think that such , sceptical coquetting can ever disturb the vigorous absolutist policy , based on strong though malignant faith . For a despot may have a faith ; and the faith which leads him to devote all his energies and
all his resources to a certain intelligible purpose , will never be shaken , but will , on the contrary , be strengthened by every experience of those insipid phrases and formal protests , which his achieved successes wring from our hereditary placemen . The Czar Nicholas believes it to be his destiny to lead a crusade against revolution : he acts on that belief , and he is right to do so . But the English nation also has a destiny and a faith , and would fain act upon that faith , and strive to fulfil that destiny . The English nation
hates Russian and all kindred principles , and would , at the fitting time , welcome any prospect of contest with such principles . How much longer are we to lie beneath the weight of reproach for neglected opportunities P Nothing is to be hoped from the professed principles of our rulers—rather , we might say , our official managers—who , instead of princi p les , have tho traditions of diplomacy . Tho leading Whig and Conservative statesmen agree that war may be necessary to preserve the balance of power , or to defend some tame , pet sovereign from
invasion ; but that , wnon mere morality , or mere men are concerned , no active interference is possible , and that silence should bo observed in respect to tho treachery and massacre which have occurred , for foar of giving offence . And the Peace and Economy School , tho most liberal party that can bo said to be represented in Parliament , protests against attention to foreign affairs , unless what they call British interests are involved . Short-sighted doctrine ! But is there not a gleam of sunlight from tho cloud in that
quarter ? For these Manchester men do hate despotism , woro it only that it interferes with trade ; thoyhavo also a wholesome dislike to our own standing army , for it causes our heavy taxation . And they manifest , not only liboral , but somo really enlightened tendencies . Is not expense thoir groatost objection to war , and increase of tho debt thoir groatost ^ droad P Can thoy nol ; eoo in an independent body of volunteers , the nucleus of a national army , and in tho successful campaign of such a force in some noble cause ,
approved by ihe Legislature , the first p roof of its efficiency for all purposes of a standing armv p Do they forget that ^ very few years have passed since England vn ^ tually carried on a war in Snain with twelve thousand of her sons , ( it matters not whether it was well or ill-done , ) without costing the country a penny P . .. Are our alliances for ever , to be dvnastiV a « j diplomatic , and never moral , progressive and national P Are we to expend millions of monev and thousands of British , lives to substitute a Ferdinand for a Joseph , but not to lift a finiW
or stir a step , when a People is being murdered to make room for a Pope f Is the Foreign Enlistment Bill to be suspended , even in time of peace , for an Isabella , but never for an Italy ? When dayra again shall break upon the Continent the people of England must be Bet free to show that they can do more than sympathise with the people of other countries . Precedents for a Free Trade in war will be found in the past practice of both Whi g and Conservative governmenta . Why should it not enter into the policy of a more liberal party P
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our " favovbitjb" job " the debby . " The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli has committed the inexpiable sin of writing two or three remarkable works of fiction . He has shown himself endowed with rare gifts of intellect and imagination . But not content with the more tranquil triumphs of the Man of Letters , our new Chancellor of the Exchequer boldly descended into the arena of public and parliamentary life ; and there he has , year by year , fought his way up , steadfastly and unflinchingly , against the taunts of birth , and the sneers of fortune , and the suspicious intolerance of respectable
dulness and conventional distinction , out of the impatient and dream-haunted obscurity of the glowing scribbler of romance into the full blaze of personal and party triumph I There are many who can recal the rhetorical dithyrambics of a young Semitic adventurer , now many years ago , whose transcendental declamation shook with scornful laughter the most matter-of-fact assembly in the world , "The time will come , " said that Semitic youth , burning with the prophetic consciousness of a high destiny , " when you shall hear mel" And , lo ! as we write , the mere man of genius is the Leader of the House of Commons , and a Tory Cabinet Minister !
A great deal of unfair astonishment has been vented on the fact of a man of figures-of-speech , and not of balance sheets , being entrusted with the money-bags of the nation but was there not a fatality in the eelection—that tho chapters in " Sybil , " and elsewhere , on the Hebrews , might be fulfilled ? Yes I this mere man of genius was alone found worthy to lead the forlorn-hope of the disjointed Protectionist forces . By sheer force of character , by ardent and undaunted energy , by unremitting industry , he has dared to
cleave his path to power . However , then , we may dissent from his professed opinions , wo are not ashamed to confess a warm sympathy with the man who was once , as the French say , " impossible , " and is now indispensable to tho jealous caste , of which ho is not so much the instrument as the master . In clubs and coteries tho name may bo received with idle lnughter , and by noodledom with something like indignntion , as a " base exception" to hereditary exclu-Bivcncss ; but we hail with a sort of exultation the apotheosis of tho Prometheus of the Country Party !
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204 T HE L E A PER . tSA ^ xjnDAY ^
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' ware hawk . What next P- ~ " A decree of the President of the Republic offers a reward of 60 , 000 fr . to such person as shall render tho voltaic pile applicable with economy to manufactures , as a source of heat , or to lighting , or chemistry , or mochanics , or practical medicine . Persons of all nations may compete for this prize , and tho competition is to opened- for five years . " Louis Napoleon -means
something . . Wo remember a-medal of Napoleoii the Great reprcaentci as Lovo , with tho eagle by his side , tho thunderbolt in J » a hand . Napoleon tho Littlo has been ransacking the nm-Bcnm , where ho found tho cocked hat and boots , for 10 Jovian bolt : mid , unable to find it , ho is thus advertising for it , under guise of promoting discovery 1 ^ t Parisians take euro ; ho will bo found some day Bitting , bearded and naked , on tho column in Place Veudom hurling tho bolts at all and sundry .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/16/
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