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liamen * , —if we can call " such . . a thing Parliament , Znot only may Frenchmen be tried in France for political offences committed b y them in Eng-Ltii . —a provision totally at variance with the spirit of our own law ,- —but accomplices in those ofence s , Englishmen ; may also . be tried in France . TCay more : ' Englishmjeii not . charged as accom--olices of Frenchmen ; Englishmen themselves Without any accusation that they are in complicity 'th Frenchmen , may be tried in France ror
political offences committed by them in England , prdvided those offences are against the French ( jrovernment- " v . Lord Malmesbury " thought his noble and learned friend was mistaken ; the bill which had now passed was confined to Frenchmen . " We are surprised to see that Lord Brougham did not lepel the epithet cast at him , of being a " noble and learned friend" to the speaker : we are not raa = anrnrised to see him accept XordMalmesless surprised to see him accept
XordMalmesbury ' s contradiction , although it was totally at variance with the way in which the bill stood when Lord Brougham saw it last ; and the public will put more confidence in Lord Brougham ' s revision of the bill , whatever its date , than in Lord Malmesbury ' s . By the most probable evidence , it appears , that the editor of the Times , or any speaker atapuWic meeting who denounces tile French government , or Lord Harrowby himself maintaining the rights of the press in the House of Peers , might be tried for an offence , and punished under French law—under French law for which Lord Malmesbury is inviting the
English House of Peers , descendants of the Barons , to pass a convenient supplement . But we are not left in doubt , at least , as to the present practice and construction of the law in France ; for we see that the correspondent of the Morning Chronicle is specifically made answerable , not only for his own letters , but for leading articles in that journal ; exactly the law supposed by Lord Brougham , and denied by Lord Malmesbury . And Lord flralmesbury is asking the English Parliament to co-operate with the Legislative Assembly in carrying out such a law .
From the testimony of Lord Campbell , it appears , that " any individual who may be obnoxious to the French government is to be surrendered upon the simple presentation of a document alleging his guilt . " Xord Malmesbury endeavours to extenuate even this atrocious violation of personal right on English soil : the surhe discretion
render , pleads , " would be at the of the [ English ] magistrate . " " The discretion of the English magistrate , " replied Lord Campbell , " could only be exercised with respect to the identity of the person claimed ; if that were established , he must be surrendered . " Such is another incident in the law for which Lord Malmesbury has asked the sanction of an English Parliament !
Lord Campbell cited a case in which a fugitive slave proaocuted in Canada for " stealing ahorse , " Jipou which , in fact , he had escaped , was released by the magistrate , on the plain dictate of English law . Lord Malmesbury has been endeavouring « udden ly to obtain from the English Parliament tho roversal of that just decision ; tho reversal of a right upheld in the best incidents of our history .
But we have not done yet . This measure appears to bo as inexhaustible as Fortunatus ' s cap , ° r as Pandora ' s box , not , indeed , of wealth , nor , m yet , of actual disaster , but of intendod distfrwos , ftnd dishonour proponso . Lord Campbell } v » w struck with the fact , that , undor tho bill , J ierevras ^ to be no reciprocity : tho warrant of ho 1 ' rcnch Minister is to bo conclusive before l ? ° J ngH 8 h Magistrate but tho warrant of tho ' » ghah Secretary of State , or of tho English
J « fiistrato in Franco , is not to be doomed posi'vo ov conclusive ovidenco of tho guilt for tho !?» rpo 8 o of tho extradition . . Lord Chancellor , } f ? ( lon gravely , replies to this objection against " j 'ormnl statute , that "itis understood that thoro lould bo complcto rociprooity betweon thorn , " 110 two countrios , " and that on tho actual
J ° rking of tho French law , wo should havo just lj s . 1 ° facilities for tho apprehension of our nf SIUlllB thoro , as wo gave for tho , apprehension ui ° n ° h crimmals here , " It is for tho English till ! my ' wll ° thor it values as equivalent to Ion gUl ! ranto ° of a statute , or tho sanction of its ) 3 ' cherished traditions , nn " understanding ttt ° tho Govornmont of Louis Napoleon , and Fow ° -J' ? mont of which Lord Malmesbury is A < Woi gn Minister P
/ But there is something more alarming beneath the assurance of the Lord Chancellor ! " The clauses , " he says , " had been framed with a view to obtain this object ; " meaning , by " this object , " the " understanding" in question . From the clauses of the statute , therefore , thus deliberately affirmed , and deliberately submitted to the British Parliament , we have a right to extract the spirit of the understandmg established between the Government of Louis Napoleon , and the Government of which Lord Malmesbury is Foreign Minister—and the body of that spirit we recognise in the provisions already described ,
namely , those permitting the extradition of offenders under twenty different denominations of crime ; permitting Englishmen to be tried in France for offences in England against the French Government ; stretching back the provisions retrospectivel y for nine or ten years ; giving the English magistrate no discretion , and so forth . These provisions form the body from which we may extract the spirit of the understanding vaunted by the Lord Chancellor . From gentle and ingenuous Argyll , Lord Malmesbury may judge how the English public will be inclined " simply to trust in the good faith of the French Government . "
But we have not done even yet . Supposing a man were wrongly surrendered : what redress would this Government obtain ? " He might , " said the Lord Chancellor , " plead his surrender by the English Government under tihis treaty as a defence against the charge ; " " or / ' said Lord Brougham , " he should be sent back . " " That is a valuable suggestion , " rejoined the Lord Chancellor , snatching at a better reply . " But , " said Lord Brougham , " under the convention a person improperly surrendered , and subjected to a political charge , shall be entitled to an acquittal ,
which is manifestly beyond the power of the French law , if it at all resembles ours . " Thus professionally pushed , the Lord Chancellor at last gave forth this confession " : " It will he for theJTrench Government to regulate their own law , as between themselves and their subjects . " Surr rendered , therefore , by English instrumentality , to Parisian justice , the appeal of the wronged Frenchman is to be—to Napoleonic law . Thanks to Lord Cranworth for judicially
declaring , that the measure , taken with the treaty , " appeared to contain stipulations and promises which were absolutely inadmissible ; nor did he know of any power which they [ the Peers } had , to legislate so as to modify the terms of that treaty . " As Lord Aberdeen said , " The Foreign Secretary had not been sufficiently impressed with the great difficulties incident to the subject ;" the first and foremost difficulty being that of reconciling any British assemblage to his Napoleonic or Austrian law .
Tho result of tho debate , however , may inspire hope into tho bosom of a Malmesbury ; for it marks the backsliding of our Barons , when they consented to the second reading of such a bill" to improve it in Committee , " forsooth ! It is a mischief and a dishonour ; every hour that it remained in their House , after it had been exposed , was a submission to shamo ; and if that shamo inevitably follows from the longer sufferance of its denationalized author in tho Cabinet , the disgrace upon the English Parliament presses its scorching brand with a heavier weight .
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OSBOltNE'S MILITARY STUDIES . Mk . Osbokne can present a fallacy in so lively a mannor , . that ho will make people lovo it more than tho truth ; and on the strength of that privilege , desiring to rako up authorities against tho Militia Bill as tho bill of anadvorso ministry , ho drags in tho names of Pitt , Frodoric Hill , Washington , and General Grammont ; a strango assortment—used for purposes as strange . General Grammont is quoted to show , that out of 237 , 000 men of tho National Guard m Paris , on tho ' 28 th Juno , 1848 , only 8000 " descended
into tho ¦ atrcota to fight for their homes , a fact which shows that tho middlo class of Paris had no clear course boforo it at that crisis of ltB Into . But tho fact shows no moro . A militia must always bo , exactly in proportion to its oxtonsion , a national force . Including all classes without distinetion of rank , it would then have tho fairest chance of acting according to tho popular opinion of tho nation , at tho dictate noithor of faction nor of individuals . A merely military man , liko Mr . Osborne , may regard that incident ot a no , tional force as an objection , but tho public will
EgfartKtin the very opposite sense . The National Guard , of Paris was a class militia , and it shared in the perplexities of its own class ; that is the exact interpretation of its conduct in June , 1848 . Mr . Pitt is the authority quoted with the least twist by the speaker ; but a p lan for organizing a militia ouoted bv the Whie member for
Middlesex from the Heaven-born Minister of the Tory party , quoted by the retired young * officer who laughs at a Home Secretary's notions of military matters from a most civil Chancellor of the Exchequer , is in itself a joke . Nobody else would value Mr . Pitt ' s authority , which is actually advanced on the subject of " drill "; but Mr . Osborne is an indefatigable collector of facetiae .
The citation of Frederic Hill is simply irrelevant . Mr . Hill proposed a specific plan for raising a defensive force of respectable residents , paid according to time , and well paid ; liable to summons as a sort of military constabulary , and constituting the permanent nucleus of any civil or suddenly raised force . We regard that measure as more complete in itself than the Ministerial measure for the militia ; but instead of being incompatible with the national militia , it would be a practical facility towards the organizathe
tion and working of a national body . In meantime , the two measures have scarcely any points of comparison . Washington comes humorously amongst the antiquities of Mr . Osborne ' s " Joe Millers . " He is cited for complaining against a militia . Harassed between his own absconding armies and the English , who were inactive sometimes because they could not believe the extremities of his position , Washington did complain Of the militia , because they wished to go home ; he also com--r \ "l * ii »^ za * - ! TvP olii ^ t » 4- oiin-nlioo on / 1 cnni » f . OTilie'f' . fYifam'f ' . H
UllflUvUi \ JL OJLL \ SJL % / UUUMliVO U 1 AV 4 . UXJ . UJ . w vujkiuvufcwu vv > If Mr . Osborne desires , and if he diligently scours Washington ' s correspondence , he may gather authorities for grumbling on almost any other popular question . Washington complains of almost everything ; and if his complaints were to be final , they might be levelled at very high institutions . Washington complains of the paper currency , which got into a very bad state during the war . Mr . Osborne might level that complaint at our bank notes . Washington complains of the American parliament , which was undecided ,
vacillating , and tardy with its supplies : Mr , Osborne might use that authority against representative government . Washington complains of the English monarch : Mr . Osborne might discover how to avail himself of these aspersions as against Queen Victoria . Washington complains of unpunctuality ; Mr . Osborne might cite him against Members who cannot make a
house . Being an exact master , wo have no doubt , though wo could not lay our finger on the passage , that Washington complained o ^ his own slaves : Mr . Osborno migjbt return that shaft across the Atlantic . In fact , tho correspondence of tho father of his country is rather iull of passages in tho complaining vein , and a facetious gentleman liko Mr . Osborno might find it an inoxhaustiblo store for his sarcasms .
But what has all this to do with tho Militia Bill P If Washington complained , oven he conquered . If Washington , complained of a militia trained under English government , Zochary Taylor lias made conquests for his country by a militia trained under democratic institutions , which havo called to tho active service of their land tho immense mass of its young and active
men . Tho militia men of America are read y to defend tho principles and institutions of thoir land equally against ovory oxtornal invader and internal traitor ; they havo proved tho true indomitable guardians of liborty ; and if Mr . Osborne wore not proparod to turn liborty into a joko eallod " Liberalism , " ho might find moro substantial authorities , frcshor for his purpose , than tho " Tristia" of Washington , or tho boIdiorly rominis ( jonccB of Mr . Pitt .
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CHUItOH AN Alt CIIY . Homxessly confused are all tho rolations of tho Church of England , as well to tho State and tho country , externally , as to its mombors ono towards another , mtornally . Thoro is not only not a ononcfls of doctrine , which tho Bishop of Oxford dooms impossible , —thoro is not even , a decent approach towards unity . Mr . Gladstone admitted , m tho Bonnott debate , that the Church is " torn and rent from head to foot with her dissensions ? " that eho is smarting aU . over with
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June 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 563
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1852, page 563, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1939/page/15/
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