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their harsh doctrines , and by their defeat of his Mends , the kinder sort of landlords— -of whom we believe there are still many ' , who live at home among their tenantry , aha suffer with them ; and he will vote for the Tory Government , which he still believes to have some consideration for land and ! labour . . He dpes not enter into the question of production , on which all industrial welfare turns ; nor will we enter into that now : we only note , for the week , that there is anarchy in industry at
present ; that the industrial classes both of town and country feel the evil of that anarchy , although they cannot analyze it ; and that at the election , they will either call the theorizing ceconomists of the arrogant necessitarian school roughly to account , or will simply trust to feeling and sympathy , without a philosophical ceconomy that can do no better than enact helpless confusion and self-consuming pauperism . We are not now advising them j we are only reporting their sentiments ; but there is much truth in the instinctive dictates of their rude practical sense .
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THE ANGLO-SAXONS IN ASIA . . It is only at rare and long intervals that English public opinion is brought to bear upon the great features of our Indian policy . And , indeed , it is not often that any facts struggle into light regarding the real government of India , as distinguished from its administration . The general external and internal relations of our Eastern Empire are regulated in England by a system even more mysterious and more irresponsible than that secret diplomacy that is permitted to gamble in our name , With closed doors , and in the worst company , for sueh stakes as the national honour and the young liberties of Europe . The President of the Board of Control , representing the Cabinet , and the Secret Committee of three of the Courtr of Directors , ( who have virtually no power of resistance to the Minister ' s wishes , so that absolute authority is wielded by one man , ) send their secret orders for peace or war , and all other points of imperial magnitude * to the Government of India by every overland mail , without any reasonable prospect of being ever
calledto a reckoning , or being required to give the slightest explanation of the grounds of their procedure . And even if disaster or indignant complaint should force the discussion of some Indian affair on Parliament , it is impossible to get any more information from the Board of Control than the President thinks it prudent to supply . Even to this day , there are several cases of by-gone wars and conquests in which it is unknown whether they were undertaken by the ambitious patriotism of our viceroys and generals , or by
the private directions of the secret conclave in Cannon How . The extortions practised on two English merchant captains by the Burmese Governor of Hangoon six months ago , will probably be the ostensible cause of adding some thirty thousand square miles of territory to our dominion . For the Government of India has not despatched a formidable steam squadron , and a force of eight or ten thousand men , merely for the purpose of chastising the Government of Ava , and forcing them to compliance with our original demMids of apology and compensation , even with a round sum added for the expenses of the war .
Punishment and humiliation , as experience shows , are not recorded and remembered sufficiently in Burmah to serve as a permanent warning and rostraint . The Court of Ava will not bo brought to reason without having felt the weight of our arms once more ; and the British troops will not retire until future interference with our commerce is rendered impossible by the occupation of Bangoon and Martaban , the two principal ports , and , perhaps , the cession of the maritime provinco which so provokingly intervenes between our possessions of Arracan and Tenasserim . The terms offered to the Burmese Government
wore extraordinarily moderate . Lord Dalhousio was censured in some of the Calcutta journals for being unmindful of British honour and dignity ; and was praised by others for liis laudable desire to avoid hostilities . But wo think that the Peaoe Society would take a more than usually superficial view of the case , if they were to vote a medal to the Governor General in honour of his pacific intentions . This appearance of moderation , as the result proves , was the very policy best calculated to lead thq Burmese court into greater ineolenc * , arrogance and obetinooy , and
thus to precipitate a war which had for many years been hanging over successive Indian Governments . And there never has been a period within the last ten years , when troops and steamers could so easily be spared from all the three Presidencies , , It was clearly our interest , ^ therefore , to get the war over , and have
done with it as soon as might be ; and to take care that the quarrel should " be wide enough , and the provocation sufficiently great to justify us in inflicting a heavy retribution , and in exacting a large cession of territory as a security against future annoyances and msnlts . Moderation at the outset would entitle us to make enormous demands at the close of the war .
The Burmese Government , however , has none of our sympathy ; we do not doubt the justice and expediency of its condign punishment ; but there is a rumour current in well-informed circles to the effect that this Burmese war , although its ostensible cause is partially a true one , is intended by its conduct and results to baffle and defeat the long cherished objects of a power of much greater importance than the empire of Asia .
Yes , we have a suspicion that there was a still more urgent determining cause which disposed the English Government not to let slip the opportunity of a definitive and crushing war with Burmah . The great Western Republic has lately , by various symptoms , shown strong Asiatic predilections . A formidable expedition has just been fitted out , publicly , but we believe not officially , said to be intended for Japan , and no one can say how large a discretionary
power maybe given to its commander . Since the repeal of the Navigation Laws , the trade of the United States in the Indian seas has trebled itself , and their Government has gradually strengthened the naval squadron for the projection of this increasing commerce . The Susquehanna , one of the most powerful steam-frigates in the world , now carries the Commodore's flag on that station . American merchant captains have suffered extortions and ill-treatment to as great an extent , and quite as frequently , as English . American residents at Rangoon ,
traders and missionaries , have on more than one occasion been compelled to seek refuge under the British flag ; and this necessity has been deplored in several of the most important American journals . Of course , if we were to decline or to neglect to insist on fair treatment of foreigners bjr the Burmese authorities , and equitable conditions and facilities for trade , the American Government would at last proceed tor enforce these advantages by its own power , while
we should have no right to object , or to interfere with their operations . Our influence would decline , the Yankees would obtain a foot-hold in ultra Gangetie India , and might establish the nucleus 01 a rival Eastern Empire vis-a-vis to our own . But our prompt chastisement of the Burmese would leave them no ground of complaint ; a decisive conquest would prevent future chances of provocation and temptation ; the possession of all the ports , if not all the coast , would remove the alarming vision of the
starspangled banner pitched on Asiatic soil . Now if the report of this jealousy and distrust of our brethren b y blood and language be true , as it certainly is well authenticated , wo can only regard it as another proof of the unsusceptibility of our hereditary alternative rulers to all the kindling national instincts , and of their inability to work With and by the spirit of the day . America has a growing interest in Asia , —there is no doubt of it . Why should it be feared P Why should it bo thwarted P Joalousy and distrust are the most fruitful sources of intriguo and aggression : confidence begets amity and openin the
ness . The American alliance is a certainty future ; not only do the most farsighted statesmen in both countries proclaim it , but it is dreaded by the absolutist powers , and invokod by every stiflod nationality on the continent . Our own officials shrink from anything so new and powerful . But they cannot ultimately thwart it , anymore than they carl arrest tho progress of the Americans in the oth or quarters or tho world . Ifc can't be done ; then why try to do it P Why attempt it by secret and indirect moans P Ifc is high time that mystifications between England and America should coaso . Whatever maybe tho purposo of tho movements made in the East by the managers of the two great Anglo-Saxon families , tho result can bo rendered hazardous
only by misunderstanding . The tw peoples have similar objects , growing sympathies , ¦ . common ; interests ' ' . ; and at least nothing but good and safety can be derived from a full and frank understanding . That is , undei * all circumstances , the sure and safe recourse between two such nations . Should it not be attained at once , the Americans will bear in mind the distinction which we have alreadypointed but to them between Downing-street and England .
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THE . NEW ARISTOCRACY . Henceforth the towns are to govern the country ; such is the edict that has gone forth from Manchester by the mouth of her most favoured son— -an edict accepted somewhat too readily by the " Liberal" politicians . In his rejected [ Reform Bill , liord John Russell offered a compromise between town and country / proposing to set up a kind of new generation of Whig boroughs to act as a mediating power . But according to a boast ascribed to a leading manufacturer , that position , of the Whig interceders has already been " turned "; for the manufacturers are already buying up the land , have really made great progress in extending their acquisitions , and threaten in a few years , to be in possession of the whole !
We do not know how far this is a sanguine view ; but it has some confirmation in other circumstances . That the manufacturers and large retail dealers represent the most remarkable instances of individual wealth acquired in rapid methods is notorious . On the other hand , the decaying means of the landed aristocracy are equally notorious . The forfeiture of the Buckingham estates , that " princely" domain , is an example imitated on every variety of scale in every country , and in every degree of country gentleman ; while the creation of the house of
Peel is an example also that has had many imitations . The Encumbered Estates Act has had an unexpected result-in Ireland , in the general shifting ^ of property ; and an Encumbered Estates Act in England is demanded , and deprecated , with equal fervour on the two sides * from the expectation that it would have effects not less striking . If the boast of the proud manufacturer does not proclaim a new Domesday Book as a fait accompli , at least it proclaims the will to avenge on the descendants of the feudal Normans
the wrongs of the Anglo-Saxon proprietors . " South Sussex" aspires to reverse the battle of Hastings . In such case , England would be endowed with a new aristocracy ; and it becomes a question whether the change would be one for the better P We are very far from being disposed to think so . It is to be observed that the new aristocracy would take its rise from amongst a class quite unlike that of the old merchant , properly so called . The new class comprises the makers of cloth and cotton goods , and of retail dealers on
an immense scale , with a sprinkling of dealers in money who have profited by ministering to the conveniences of capital . Tho prince merchant , never very well naturalized in England , belonged to another age . He occupied a commanding position ; in his counting-house converged the different branches of trade , which there uniting , made up the entirety called commerce ; and his prosperity was , not only va truth , but obviously and on the very surface , identified with that of the country at large . In more modern timoSj tho position of command has
passed to the manufacturer , or the mere capitalist" ; the function of tho merchant is more and more transferred to tho more agent ; and tho'division of employments has cut up a national order into trading classes , each with a speciality . Thus , national fooling is superseded i > y class feeling : tho manufacturer ' s philosophy attains its consummation in " free trade "; This only aspiration is to bo " let alone" ; take care of tho nation
manufacturers , ho would say , and tho can tako caro of itself—only ho would make tho caro self-acting—lot tho manufacturer take caro ot himself , " No . 1 , " and the nation can tako caro of itself . Henco , in great part , tho decline ot nationality amongst ua—for our commerce lias ceased to ' bo national ; henco tho false Peace witii its ory of " Pouco in trade , and goodwill amongst manufacturers and consumers . ' And this is tno class that is aspiring to become tlw land-owning
class . . I The members of tho class are already ^} m ' ing their mansions , and in a style of ambitious
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: : ' ' 3 ^^ \ .,.- ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ . THE LE ^ DIi : > ; . \ . ^^^ 0 s ^^ y \
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Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 370, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/14/
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