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Democracy , the two latter alone retained that onward and aggressive spirit which is essential to the full vitality of every doctrine . It is plain that Lord Palmerston was inspired by that spirit in full force during 1848 , ajid indeed down to the time when he was ousted by colleagues , who think that constitutionalism can be maintained in the conflict of the world by neutrality and supineness . The combat was left between absofierce and
lutism and democracy . It was unrelenting ; for the moment democracy was beaten , but constitutionalism , supine and trampled under foot by both the great armies in that terrible struggle , now lies helpless beneath the triumphant march of treacherous absolutism over the field of Europe . If constitutionalism in Europe is to be rescued from destruction—if the war of defence is not to be fought , literally , in England , as the last standing place , now is the time to make an
advance . Now is the time , most especially , as many great circumstances , not existing in 1815 , conspire to insure success for an empire like England , if she were to exchange a supine for an active policy , and were to place herself at the head of the onward movement in Europe . It might be done now with immense saving , both of violence and of cost . There can be no doubt that the great body « f many great nations under such sanction would act for themselves , with
thenown resources , but in the furtherance of common objects . Not only Italy , Hungary , and several German states , to say nothing of southern Europe and a great party in France , but Turkey , already awakened to European ideas , would bring her crescent scimetar to the cause , and fight for the first time , no longer on the side of Oppression , but of Eight . America having finally consolidated her Republic in 1813 on the other side of the Atlantic , is now a great State ,
present by her flag , and powerful by her will in every quarter of the globe—vindicating her influence , as England used to do in the Mediterranean , by the display of the strong hand , —available , ready and eager to join the ranks of that holy alliance of nations which is to fig out the next struggle for that freedom which alone is order , civilization , peace . These great facts , coming into existence since 1815 , surely constitutes sufiicient " political object " for the contemplation of any statesman who has and
the foresight , the power of statesmanship , the laudable ambition to deal practically with affairs that are coming on , instead of fighting his battles over again , in telling to the stirring world idle tales of his achievements in the past . Of Lord Palmerston ' s intentions we have neither the authority nor the information to speak , but we cannot help coupling with the great facts which we have surveyed , the further facts , not tinimportant , that he is most popular in America , that he is regarded by the despotic party on the Continent as the most ; formidable of the
statesmen whom they have detached from themselves , and , finally , that he is initiating the discussion ol the more logical and more cquitablo arrangements which must inevitably supersede the abortive pacification of 18 . 15 .
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OUR MODERN FEUDAL SYSTEM . It is already notorious that the present flections have been distinguished for more bribery , and , what is worse , more intimidation , than any since the 'Reform Bill . Landlordism in the counties , lady-Derby ites in the Metropolis , bigotry in the boroughs , have put on the screw without ; shame and without remorse . Ah for the Protectionists , their proceeding ** have been marked with a , reeklens unscrupulousness , " too like despair for prudence to smother . "
In Westminster , as we learn by many anerdoten , the . screw of exclusive dealing was openly applied on behalf of Maidstone—applied by ladies , and to tradesmen of high cliara . ct . er . It was the advocate of " Protection for native industry" who was the candidate to take advantage of this screw . We have been given to understand , that , in a Wiltshire borough , which has done itself the most able function
honour to return one of the - aries of the last- ( Government , and one of the most powerful champions of Free-trade , by a majority of seven only , JOOZ . was offered freely during the last hour of polling for a single vote . Family iniluence was aroused in behalf of a youiifj ; man , just out of his teens ; but the electors were obdurately unwilling to believe that the House ol Common * waa a ball-room , or that the
quaUUctttions of a " nice young man" were the necessary qualifications of a representative of important commercial and manufacturing interests . "I will tell you what it is , young gentleman : my predecessor here voted as your father told him to vote ; but he didn't pay his rent . I pay my rent , and vote as I like . " We cordially recommend this brief and significant reply to the electors of East Somerset , who have been favoured with a Circular , of which we have received a copy , and of which we are about to give our readers a few tit-bits . _
. . People who live in the focus of all the great movements that are hurrying the world on to mighty issues , have little or no idea of the extent to which feudalism , without its nobleness , and landlordism , without its legitimacy , still reign and govern in some parts of this island—notably , it would seem , in that western portion of England which never ceases to convince us that " the wise men came from the east . " The author of this circular is , we are informed , the son of a large landholder in the neighbourhood of Bristol —son and administrator . He rules his father ' s
lands and tenants in right military style , as we shall see . His missive reads like the circular of one of Louis Napoleon ' s prefects . It is addressed to the tenants , whom , in a Pickwickian sense , we imagine , he calls " friends and neighbours . " On his return home , after an absence of some weeks , this gentleman is " surprised to find" that many of his " friends and neighbours had been canvassed for "—Miles and Elton !
The sting is in the last two words—and . Elton The " friends and neighbours" had positivelybeen canvassed " in my absence , " for two candidates utterly opposed to each other : Mr . Miles being a thorough-going Derbyite Protectionist , a Farmers' Friend , and all that fatherly line of business ; Mr . Elton being a Peelite , ofthemeekest and mildest complexion , with nothing but good sense and a cultivated intelligence to recommend him to the choice of the county . But think of the audacity of canvassing " friends and neighbours" in " my absence !"
" To any one reading the daily organs of Mr . Elton ' s party , its hostility to the Farmers of England is very apparent ! " So the new House of Commons is , to the local Somersetshire mind , logically divided into Derbyites and Mr . Elton s party—including all shades of red , from Liberal Conservatives to Chartists . " Now then ( the style here rises into the heroic ) is the time for the Farmers to give the lie to the often-spoken reproach that ' they will do nothing for themselves . ' " And how , pray , are they to " give the lie" so signally and successfully ? By allowing themselves to be done for by the self-sacrificing landlords . The next paragraph is a gem : —
" Let every man who wishes well to the cause , not only vote himself for Miles and Knatchbull , but bring with him any neighbour who has no conveyance , and who wishes to vote the same way . ' These last words are no doubt an injunction to bring any neighbour who wishes to vote , and has no conveyance , the same way—* . c , not to abduct him in an opposite direction . Gracious is the conclusion— " I shall be glad to go to the poll with you , and I hope that our friends and tenants who intend to support Miles and Knatchbull will meet my Father "—on the first polling day , at a certain place appointed . Now , what are we to think of this document P
It has been forwarded to us , and we readily give it the exposure it deshwves ; but we are very far from thinking it an isolated , or an extreme , or even a peculiar case . We have- no doubt , indeed we have all reason to believe , the . sumo species oi polite intimidation and neighbourly advice has t > een practised in every county in England where Landlordism is still rampant . Do these landlords believe for one moment that Protection , under any disguise or modification , can be restored , or that the Derby Cabinet ran possibly remain in power till Christmas F No ! they do not ; but they bully and bewilder the dismayed bucolic mind into the belief that the uucstion of
Protection is other than a (( iicstion of rent . And whilst these fanners are thus driven up , or led up , with all the honours of " neighbours and friends" to the poll , think of tho great mass of toiling , taxpaying , bread-eating non-electors , disinherited , disfranchised , disowned ! We are very i \\ r from denying to property its "just and legitimate iuilut'uco ; " wo denounce iU abuuc * only , uud
we do so in all kindness , for it 18 these abuses alone which can bring about the Deluge it so dreads . A system of Landlordism , based on a law of primogeniture , by which eldest sons are spendthrift absentees , and younger sons Protectionist stewards , is a public , as well as a private , wrong . It is condemned .
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ITALIAN MARTYRDOM AND ENGLISH APATHY . We are sick of the laisser-aller , selfish , unbelieving morality of these days . As a nation , we have no moral life , no conscience , no consistency of character , no sense of duty and no faith . Everything is dilettante ; we have prejudices and antipathies , just serious enough to be worked up into election rows , or used as political capital by Derbyite candidates ; but examine them well , and they too are a sham . We have not strength left for a little real , c onscientious
bigotrywould to God we had . Can anything be more transparent than this pretended Protestant zeal against Maynooth ? " It is a sin to support what we believe to be opposed to God , to subsidize the Pope whom we regard as anti-Christ ; therefore down with Maynooth . " Gentlemen , if you were really capable of serious , deep conviction , if you were sincere believers , or even good , genuine bigots , you would know that the question for the conscience of a nation or a man , is not what it is a
sin to participate in , but what it is a duty to do , and you would seek anti-Christ on his Papal chair at Borne , and not at Maynooth . When politics and religion are divorced , one or both must be dying or already dead . Turn to our political parties , —what is the most advanced creed which has a chance of controlling the proximate future of the country ? Free-trade , and non-intervention ; commercial intercourse , and political isolation . We are shopkeepers and not men ! Men have duties , and nations recognise such too , if they be composed of men . Shall we say of other nations , as Cain of his brother Abel , " Lord , am I my
brother ' s keeper ?" Of all political dogmas none is so profoundly immoral , as that , which , tinder the inappropriate title of non-intervention , refuses to entertain the question of a foreign policy , and leaves Priests , Emperors and Usurpers free to corrupt , to bind and torture , and destroy the soul of the world , — content with an increasing trade , and stifling conscience with the convenient theory , that progress is inevitable , and the triumph of liberty one day assured . asidein its
Our country is criminally turning , pursuit of selfish interests , from its duties to humanity . Thought and action should be one , at no long interval . A time will come ere long , when we must be for or against the nations . How are we preparing for that time ? What pledges have we extorted or endeavoured to extort from our newly elected legislators P One man has been bold enough to put the quomdam Home Secretary , who shamed this country by his letter-opening to the ordeal : —like a political Jesuit—in a mist of vague generalities he has escaped the toil . But , elsewhere , nothing visible has been effected : and tho liberal party has been
content to show its own fatuity , by accepting as the ground of battle , a question which no earthly power can raise again ; fighting for free-trado which cannot be lost , instead of pressing forward to questions too long delayed , which it is dangerous and criminal any longer to evade . Whilst thus living in petty interests and absorbed by shams at home , the foreign intelligence ! of the last i ' cw weeks pusses into oblivion . beneath
our vacant or averted eyes . Wholesale martyrdom is taking place in Italy . Men arcs imprisoned by the hundred , tortured to confess , if not by the rack , by the bastinado—their lives trafficked in by corrupt judges , the ransom paid , and yet the lifo not spared . At Milan , one of the , arrested , tho young priest Pezzotti , is said to have strangled himself the-very day of his arrest ; but his firm and placid faith renders his suicide impossible for his countrymen to believe , and tho fact that within one hour of his death they open his still warm and almost palpitating corpse , to snatch from it the papers which he swallowed on being seized , begets a horrible suspicion of the cause and motive of his < lcni \ i .
The arrested are of all classes of society , landed proprietors , bankers , priests , — for there are rcionniug piiosU iu Italy , —and working men *
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682 THE LEADER . CSatprpay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 682, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1943/page/14/
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