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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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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 ,
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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/
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