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fween rich and poor , influential anduninfluential , nfranchised and unenfranchised , are exactl y those which he did not condescend to notice . He las taken a view of English society according to a scientific method , but it is artificial ; and the measures which he has framed on that view have broken to pieces simply because they did not apply . They were not measures , but toys . It is only in this way that we can account for the peculiar selection which he made , as a rising S tatesman , in allying himself to the Protectionist party , which was to him a " territorial aristocracy , " although it was without any power but ownership in land and the influence of wealth .
The mistake , however , which to a mind so technolog ical as his , was as easily made as a slip of the pen , involves the sacrifice of a political life . By virtue of that mistake , he has carried his peculiar faculties to a market where they are not appreciated . He has taken his razors into- the business of stonemasonry , and the result is to be gathered from the unconcealed evidences of imperfect alliance between himself and his colleagues . The only man of real commanding ability amongst them , his colleagues but half adopted him . They accepted the distinctions drawn on the other side between him , as the adversarv of Sir Robert Peel , and themselves .
Although Lord Derby had undertaken to stand or fall by the financial policy of his Government , there is not the slightest proof that he was in intimate relation with his Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and many stories current in the political world indicate the very reverse . The public may be left to conjecture that Mr . Disraeli was " a person" called in to frame a budget , as a carpenter might be called in to frame a box , and that he was viewed with the same alienation by the polite circle around him as the working man would be in a party of ladies and gentlemen . His own language might be understood to echo + lia +. smo-o-fistion . In aDolosrizing for his last
slashing speech on Friday night , he threw out a hint that he had to bear the brunt of the contest alone . With the generous exception of Mr . Walpole , and some minor formal tributes to his abilities , there does not appear to have been any hearty support from amongst his late colleagues . Ine cuts which he levelled at his antagonists were not more bitter than those backhanders which he dealt at his own friends . He evidently counts
Protection amongst the " obsolete policies , " and he proclaims its unsuccess . Author of the policy by which Ministers were to stand or fall , it does not appear that he was able to dictate the time of their capitulation . Lord Derby , who seems to have taken no trouble in the matter , settled tho surrender at his own convenience , and very little thought seems to have been cast on the loss of the opportunity to that Statesman who had
made the opportunity . And yet it is said that Mr . Disraeli remains faithful to his party- —that is to say , that he is still going to work for that party which cannot support him , which cannot appreciate Ins refinements , which cannot secure him his rewards ! Ho condescends to associate with men amongst whom h / is " a person , " to take rank under a man whV can ronort to the vulgar bullying ot Lord Derby , and to be almost of lees account than that reckless " W . B- , " who does not
know how to hide hie paltry electioneering manoeuvres , or to acknowledge themwhon detected . Dinraoli and Derby may bo . placed in exact contrast In a burst of passion , Disraeli assailed all round , transgressed tho rules of parliamentary decorum , but made his power felt , at oveiy blow ; then recovering * with an artistic sense oi good taste , be performs the hint duties of a Minister m announcing hw resignation with simplicity and Bolf-posfl « Haion , and closes with a graceful apology for inn ¦ mistake . Hia Chief inverts that order . Tudillerenl , eithor to the opportunity or to lu . s
opponents , contributing nothing to tho Minj » U > rml position but fiiRsy meddling threat * that he shall rortign , he performs his lant act m a . burst ot vul ^ r anger , ! > md roundly eonfosBiw Mint ho to-K > itfd » . fclio ¦ nuotwuity of . resignation as a personal nllrojifc .
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TIIW liA-TEST POSITION OF THK CUHAN : A 1 WA 1 II ; Pmt « ri ) teNT Fit , mmtokm ' s message to * h ? American Confess diheloses tho ftctunl position ol tho linked Rtateitownrds Cuba ; and those hiimpeah pijWerb which have \** H 'Mimoittinx W *>™ - cIohg tn'd ( Wii ' tff ill * AltiUricana o » il that inland .
The dispute with the Captain-General , respecting the admission of the Crescent City steamer , was but an episode in a long-continued question ; and the President ' s message shows us that , while that episode has not been brought to any satisfactory conclusion , the general question of Cuba remains open , by the express will of the United States , in order to its own ulterior freedom of action . It is probable that the Crescent City episode might have been closed , if the proud Governnient of Spain had conceded sufficient authority to its officer governing the island ; but he cannot treat with foreign powers , and thus the Captain-General cannot arrange the admission of steamers with the President of the United States . So
much the worse for him and his Government . The rebuff given to England and France is more serious in its meaning . Let us observe that in speaking of England , we copy that licence which substitutes the name of our country for certain official people in Downing-street , who are the real parties to the transactions in question . Early in the present year , official notes were received from the ministers of France and England , inviting the Government of the United States to join in disclaiming , now and for the future , all intention to obtain possession of the island of Cuba . The invitation must be regarded as a
cool one . France , governed by an usurper , is not exactly the State competent to decide between the rights of possession or legitimacy ; and England might have known better than to make so simple aproposition . The correspondence recently published , although not completed by the appendix which we believe to exist , shows that ever since 1822 , the continued possession of Cuba by Spain has been a matter of doubt , and even of discussion . That correspondence , and its appendix , have been closed , and it would have been far better to let the matter rest , than by inviting an idle disclaimer , to provoke the distinct refusal of the American Government .
The refusal is rendered the more significant by the very arguments with which Mr . Filbnore accompanies it against the seizure of Cuba . These arguments show that he himself is opposed to the movement which is taking place within his own country . He is so opposed to it , that he cannot refrain from recording his arguments in his last great official document . Yet opposed to it as he is , we see that he is unable to act upon . his own conclusion . He is unable to promise for the United States that they shall not take Cuba ; and when we couple that very proper scruple on his own part , with the facts that he is the accidental President of the Union , that lie is the President of a beaten party , and that he is about to surrender the Government to a man elected by a
party entertaining tho very opposite views , wo perceive that his pleading proclaims the losing cause . He is a reluctant Witness that the determination to take Cuba is not to be resisted . In England this subject has been discussed too much from an English point of view . Because , with our convictions at the present moment , it would be wrong in us to seize a foreign Stole- — hold
we doing so , nevertheless , in practice—we that the Americana must bo equally wrong , and wo presume that they must do so through sheer grasping and dishonesty . Now tho fact is , thaf a large amount of earnest political zeal , almost a political fanaticism , engages n great proportion of the Americans moving in this matter . I hey arc for extending their institutions , not only to exult their own country , but to benefit the pooplo
who reeoivo them ; and recent experience haa justified that propaganda ™ . The American mstitutiona arts a benefit to tho countries who receive them ; and they are viewed with eyes of envy by States more distant than Cuba . The recently published correspondence shown that there hits long been in Cuba a party desiring union with a State where every citizen m free , anil whore enterprise prospers . in the
Correspondence now published Now York Herald re lutes the grand pretext of many Knglinhmen lor resisting the annexation of Cuba —the notion that it would facilitate tho slave trade ; whorenn the very reverse is true . Under the exiritlng government ; of Cuba , tho hIave trade is now proceeding at a , nipid pace . Tho forfeiture ofuri American ship , in the United States , for tho eriirie of Helling it Mo tho hIhvo trade , confnmted with tho denling of Mie Cuban
Government , If not the Government of Madrid , in that traffic , hIiowh on whieh side lies tho mncere desire ibr slavo-tr / odo extinction . There can be no doubt
So President Fillmore ' s arguments against propagandise of free institutions read like the lecture of a man retiring into private life , and conscious that he speaks to deaf ears . In fact , the American Republic is strong ; it has the ambition to make its power more widely felt ; and it only awaits the opportunity . .
that if Cuba were annexed to the United States , the external slave trade would cease from that day . The English arguments , therefore , can have but little weight in America , where their fallacy is perceived and daily illustrated by facts ; and where the position of our Government can be ascribed to nothing but a desire for hostility with the great Bepublic , whose alliance would be the most valuable to us . .
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AMERICAN SOUVENIRS OF NAPOLEON III . When Louis Philippe was at the height of his power , he received , accommodating himself to the situation with his usual ease , a visitor whp might have embarrassed other men—an American lady , whom he had formerly , hut vainly , invited to be Mrs . Louis Philippe , and who must have survived all regrets , if she ever had any , at not being in Queen Amelie ' s place . be called
Louis ' Napoleon may , perhaps , upon to entertain , from the same country , another guest , not so easy to bow out . In recalling associations so pleasing , we might have hesitated to allude to this possible visit , had not the circumstances been published by the Brooklyn Daily Advertiser , the editor of which knew Louis Napoleon during his residence in IS ew York many years ago . The writer is very specific in his recollections : — " At that time he , " that is , Napoleon 111 ., now by the grace of God , Emperor of the French , " was very poor and "—we write it respecting a royal with great regret— " very dissipated . "
person We may , indeed , entertain some doubts respecting this assertion , since it is notorious , not only that royal persons never are dissipated at all , but that they never can have been anything but virtuous , —can have done anything that should throw discredit on " the grace of God . We may remember , however , that it is only an American who writes this monstrous assertion ; and he proceeds , with republican rudeness : —
" He " that is , the Emperor , " was notoriously profligate in his habits . He lived in a lodginghouse in Heade-street , then kept by a gentleman who now occupies a high official position under the French Government . " Such are the ups and downs of life ! The lodging-house keeper 13 now glad to accept the favour of his poor tenant , for the-lodging-house keeper is exalted amongst men , and the poor tenant has become the Dictator of a great State . But let us proceed : — - " Notoriously profligate in his habits , and without the pecuniary ability to indulge to the full bent of his inclination , the culpable propensities
which characterised him , he was "—it becomes agonizing to write these statements respecting a real emperor— " frequently expelled from certain places in which he ' obtruded himself . " Parisians , who have witnessed the moat striking of all obtrusions , will hear of these expulsions with surprise ; but this we inusi remember , Louis Napoleon was formerly dealing with Americans . "And more than a dozen times , " proceeds the
American editor , "he was the occupant of a cell at the old gaol in the Park . " Hero the Yankee libeller betrays the cloven foot . It is true that writers have said , even in Franco , that Louis Napoleon wan once in ; i prison at Hani , for a disereditable and sanguinary riot at Boulogne , where he coolly arid gratuitously shot a lieutenant with bis own band ; but we all know how false
these things are : 11 am is not in France , but is a little village in the neighbourhood of Richmond , in England , and there is no prison near it ; and the story of Boulogne in about nx true an tho victory whieh the English elaim at Waterloo . " Not , long prior to his leaving the United States , " continues our American editor , "he was committed bhim
arrested for a misdemeanour y at the disreputable house of a woman whose establishment he often visited ; and the writer of this article was employed professionally by him to nave him from the threatened consequencesi ot hit . reek lessiuws and indiscretion . Of course hie liimeriiil Majesty eannot remember these things . ThJv have been cancelled by the Second of l ) e-. einhci-. The Ifimperor dates from December , 1 H 52 , and Louis Napoleon was but the grub of the Emperor moth .
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December 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1231
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 25, 1852, page 1231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1966/page/11/
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