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Leader (1850-1860), 12th March 1853, Edition 1 of 1, Page 252

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      Untitled Article

      SHALL ENGLAND EXPEL THE REFUGEE PATRIOTS ? The North American Indians had a practice , resembling that which existed in olden times in Europe , called running the gauntlet . Coulton , the hunter , successfully went through the ordeal ; which consists in this : when a person has earned the respect of his judges by his daring , but has incurred the penalty of death , they allow him a certain " law , " and then permit him to run for his life ; the braves of the tribe being his pursuers . Such appears to be the public law of Europe with respect to great conspirators and revolutionists ; but like all barbarous laws , it is attended with the disadvantage , that it totally

      confounds the dividing boundary between right and ¦ wrong . For example , Lord Brougham reprobates all " conspiracy" lite that which broke forth at Milan , and all " lesser attempts against the majesties or constitutions of foreign states" —even " libels . " According to this view , no person in England , nor any conspirator , must use severe language against any constituted authority , or any person in office ; nor must he try to break down the constitution of any country , or to subvert its government ; nor must he express desires to that effect . Judged by this rule , how are we to estimate the conduct of Louis Napoleon , the hero of the 2 nd of December P He broke his

      oath , subverted his Government , murdered his fellow-citizens , surprised a whole capital in the night ; in short , he illustrated " conspiracy" in its basest , most "wanton , and most sanguinary form . And yet it is the boast of the Leader of the House of Commons , that this country is in most friendly communication with that person , and is consulting him on the state of Europe ! Lord John Russell ' s colleague and nominal superior , Lord Aberdeen , describes the conspirators of Milan as " persons calling themselves patriots , but really assassins in disguise . "

      Government , he says , is sincere and loyal in its determination to carry the law into effect which shall prevent such conspiracies ; to do so , is " a duty of paramount obligation . " " The existing law is sufficient for the purpose ; " and he hopes , therefore , that with that assurance the alarm created by " certain atrocious and sanguinary acts of recent occurrence connected with the residence of those refugees in this country , " may subside . Now , what were the facts . Seventeen persons in Milan surprised an armed garrison , furnished to sustain a three year ' s siege . They

      did so at the risk of their lives : they did so for the purpose of subverting a Government which supports its authority in Lombardy by acts that broke down the ordinary rules of moral conduct ; such , for example , as beating women in public because they did not give information as ftpies against their husbands . Lord Aberdeen characterizes the effort of these seventeen men as " atrocious and sanguinary act ; " but his colleague , late Foreign Secretary , real chief of the Cabinet , Lord John Russell , boasts of being in most friendly communication with the person who had sworn to maintain a constitution , and subverted it : who , at tho head of a great army , assailed them in the

      peaceable citizens , and murdered night , and who oHfablished a tyrannical Government in lieu of one which was , at leant , strict in tho observations of Jaw . Now , this confusion of right and wrong perplexes plain people . But Lord Aberdeen sympathizes , as we infer from the facts , with Louis Napoleon , who broke his oath , subverted a Government , and caused peaceable people i n Paris to be slaughtered ; and tluilSavl intends to employ the law in this country in preventing the " crime" of a manlike Mazzini , who < Wired to free his country not from the impost of ship-money , not from the arbitrary conduct of tkoir own nalivp born king , but from

      spect with Lord Aberdeen . We do - stand how the people of England can permit Lord Aberdeen , not only to support a Charles the First against Hampden and Elliot , but to support the most monstrous exaggeration of a Charles the First agautst the most harmless imitation of Hampden and Elliot . Perhaps Lord Aberdeen will say , that the

      not under the public beating of women , from the wholesale imposition of taxes without any species of voting , from slow hanging , and other intolerable cruelties , under the dictation of an alien tyrant . Now , we do not understand how the countrymen of Hampden and Elliot can have so drifted from their own historic position as to agree in the slightest

      rewhole difference between a consp irator and a " saviour of society , " is success in the conspiracy . We should be glad to obtain an answer to that effect ; because then we might understand that if Mazzini and his compatriots could obtain sufficient help from this country , or any other source , to realize practical success , they would , at least after they had gone through the danger , obtain the sympathy and friendship of Lord Aberdeen . And then probably Lord John Russell would boast that he was in perfect friendship with Joseph Mazzini , and consulting him on the state of Europe !

      We forget , however , that there would be still some difference . Joseph Mazzini has not sworn to maintain a constitution , and then subverted it by a midnight surprise . He has never emulated the tyrants in bloodshed . Seventeen men made a rush to surprise their oppressors ; but when Joseph Mazzini has been governor , as he was at Rome , he did not cause women to be beaten in public , he did not cause his political opponents t

      to be hanged slowly by a new process on he gallows ; and not doing these things he found no necessity to surround himself with , a bodyguard , as the only shield against the assassin . He was guilty indeed of the crime of having no bodyguard , which is acting like a very vulgar person . He took his dinner , we have understood , at an eating-house , which is altogether an unsacred mode of feeding , and marks him out as destitute of all right divine . Sympathy , in Lord Aberdeen ' s mind , is reserved for the great monarch , who causes women to be beaten , who causes his

      subjects to be hanged slowly at a gallows tree ; whose only shield against the assassin is an imxhense body-guard , and whose very kitchen must be under surveillance , lest the hatred of his subjects should visit him in the shape of an unwholesome dinner . When such a man is attacked Xord Aberdeen can express revulsion at " the atrocious attempt on the life of an illustrious prince , the hope of his country . " His country ! Which is thatP If he has anv country at all , it is that very small province which the and its

      consists almost entirely of capital precincts , which is corrupted by the expenditure of official money collected from a great empire . It cannot bo the country of Bohemia , which desires above all things to free itself from a hated subjugation . It cannot bo Hungary , which detests the man who broke the pledge of his race , subverted an independent constitution , seized an independent church , and erased a state from tho list of nations . It cannot be Italy , where every class holds back from his government , and whoso " hope" lay , not in him , but in his death .

      But wo understand that Lord Aberdeen is to employ the law of this country in aiding that crowned assassin against tho Kosciusko of Italy , Mazzini ; in aiding a worse than Charles the First against the Italian Hampden . Lord Abor-< leen avows that intention : are we to understand that the English people will support him ? We do not beliovo the English people will do so . The Anglo-Saxon , as our friends in America truly say , is at present the only real republican in Europe . Englishmen cannot bo so degonerate that they will maintain Charles Hie First against Hampden . They will not place themselves in contrast with the Americans . Lord Brougham

      aIiowh how difficult it would be to put any existing law in force against refugees in this country . ; out lie suggests a much greater difficulty . 11 the refugees were refused rest for the sole of their feet here , they must cross the Atlantic , and , lie Hays , " Would that put an end to conspiracy—to sending succours to Europe—to setting On assassins P The difference would but be between fifteen days ' sail and four or five days ; and the flame risk would be encountered l ) y these foreign Princes and Governments , if they now run any

      risk . There would be no other difference in regard to these schemes of murder or of rebellion . " Of course not . The difference would be that England , wholly degenerate from her own character two centuries ago , would confess herself willing to play the foil for the virtues of her own child in America . . But we believe that Lord Aberdeen ' s threat is

      a brutumfulmen ; and that there is no intention whatever of active meddling . If that be the fact , we do not know what use there can be in pretending that England is going to be subservient to the despotical tyrants of Europe . She had better by far stand upon her own ground , and declare that , while she will not meddle , either for the one side or the other , she has at all events no sympathy for the tyrants , and no regard for the dangers which they call down upon themselves . England does not mean to tear out , in the face of Europe , one of the best pages of her history ; and if Lord Aberdeen only invited us to do so in plain terms , the English people would tell him a Tbifc of its mind .

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      PROPOSED PARTITION OF TURKEY . It is now admitted as a settled fact that Turkey is to fall , sooner or later ; and the question , how will the territory be disposed of , becomes a subject of anxiety for the statesmen of most countries . Our own statesmen do not appear at all provided for the contingency , though it is not unforeseen . Lord John Russell speaks of the event as calculated to occasion " war in Europe , " through the pretensions which a certain potentate will put forth , and which would be incompatible with the interests of the other states , or with " the balance

      of power" in Europe . It is understood that this apprehension points at Russia . The Journal des Ddbats speaks of the same event as certain , and draws attention to a very curious memoir recently published in the Augsburg Gazette , although , written so long ago as February , 1850 , three years back . Whatever may be the authorshi p of the paper , it evidently speaks Austrian sentiments , and , as our French contemporary remarks , it casts no untimely light on the recent movements of Francis Joseph in Turkey .

      The Memoir represents that the circumstances have changed with Turkey since 1815 , and even since 1840-1 , when it was the joint resolution of Europe that Turkey should be maintained . The victory of Austrian and Russian arms in Hungary has altered the relations of races , and has established the predominancy of the Sclaves . The revolutionists in 1848 contemplated a federation , under Gorman and Magyar influences , which should open the path of commerce to the Black Sea ; but the same end can now be better

      attained by a readjustment which shall elevate the Sclaves of Turkey to their true position . The population of Turkey comprises 11 , 500 , 000 Christians ( with a very slight admixture of Jews ) , and 2 , 900 , 000 Mussulmans . The status quo is no longer maintainable . Of the Christian territory Austria and Russia are tho " heirs , " and while Servia and Macedonia may go to Austria , with Salonica , the rest may fall to Russia , with Constantinople and the Dardanelles . Such are the views out forth in tho Austrian Memoir ; and a

      magnificent scheme of railways and colonization is sketched out , which shall render this region a mine of wealth for Austria and Russia , and for commerce ih general . The coincidence of this Memoir with the actual proceedings in Turkey , its publication in tho Augsburg Gazette , and tho suggestion that Austria and Russia , ceasing their rivalry , should divide that which each can provent the other from taking to itself entirely , impart to this Note a special interest at the present day . 6 bats

      The Journal des J ) remarks tho air of " discouragement" which characterized Lord John Russell ' s speech last week in reply to Lord Dudley Stuart ' s question . In 1840 England took arms to reduce Mohammed Ali , in order to sustain the Porte , aud was all firo to defend " tho integrity of tho Ottoman Empire ; " even in 1850 , when the Sultan was menaced by Austria and Russia , an English fleet advanced into tho Dar-( lnnelles to defend him , violating a treaty for tho purpose ; but now , saya our Parisian coutemporary , that article of faith has become no moro than a question of time , and Lord John Russell guarantees the duration of peace only for a little while .

      Thus in Vienna , in Paris , and in London , the extinction of the Ottoman Empire is set down * as an event to be anticipated at no distant date ; but as tho Parisian writer says , tho " annexation" of

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      SATURDAY , MABOH lg _ lg 53 . ____

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      Tnere is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain , to . keep things fixed when atl the world is by the very law ot its creation in eternal progress . —Ds . Aunolv .

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      252 THE LEADER . [ Satubpay ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 12, 1853, page 252, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1977/page/12/