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" PIERCE IS THE MAN FOR THE TIME . " The tame and somewhat stagaant atmosphere of English politics seems to prevent Englishmen at present from reading truly that which passes in countries less lost to action ; and the incapacity shows itself in a variety of ways , and at such distant parts , as to attest its deep seat and its extent . The Times thinks that Franklin Pierce ' s first address to his countrymen , as President of the United States , must be read with " a large abatement from the meaning which his language might be understood to convey ; " while the Morning Chronicle thinks that it is all self-neutralized , and declares nothing . ISTow , the language of the document disproves the Chronicle , as the history of the speaker refutes the Times .
General Pierce declares that he will maintain the Union against sectional and fanatical agitations , and that he will enforce the Compromise Acts . In America this will not at all be taken as an admission that he is an out-and-out supporter of " involuntary servitude , " but rather that he is not prepared to interfere with State rights—that he will not sacrifice the political nationality of the whole Union to the agitation of a question not yet ripe for settlement , and perhaps never to be settled by the Union . And he is right : the united nationality of the whole Union is wanted just now for the purposes of the Hepublic and its white population .
Franklin Pierce declares that the American flag , whereever it waves , shall protect the American citizen , who now wanders , be it remembered , in the moat distant parts , not only of America and of Asia , but of Europe . He exalts the star-spangled banner as a standard of hope for " the oppressed throughout the world . " His country " will continue to speak , not only by its words but by its acts , the language of sympathy , encouragement ,
and hope to those who earnestly listen to tones which pronounce for the largest rationalliborfcy . " His Government will not encourage expeditions in breach of international law ; but " uncontrolled by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion , " it recognises as . necessary " the acquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction . " He is in favour of peace , but " prompt reciprocity will bo given ami required !"
Now , can we construe such language except to mean that America will be at peace with those who befriend her , but that woe shall overtake the assailant of an American citizen ; and that , by reguliir process sanctioned under international law , Cuba must be annexed P If this languago re futon tho Chronicle , what ground has tho Times for presuming that it must ho road with " a largo abatement Y" Why wiih Fierce ohoflon , mid by whom ? JTo ways himself ,
" Tho . sentiments I now announce were not unknown bof ' oro the expression of the voico that railed mo Jioro ; " and yet bo was chosen l > y an overwhelming majority of his countrymen . Way , be gave to American opinion a more concentrated form than it bad yet posscHHed . liofore ho was named at tho democratic convention all had been cliviuion ; Imt no sooner was ho named than tho convention was unanimous . On tho other side tho party that opposed him expired in that last cijbrt ; aiul by the death of tho "WTiiga America
was left virtually without any party but that of the nation , which is represented by Franklin Pierce . If opinion on the subject of the Mexican war had become unanimous , if the apprehension of danger from extended territory had died out , still the representatives of those old ideas had a kind of political survival—they are now gone , and the Mexican soldier is the President of the Republic , supported in his administration by the Secretary at War , who made him General of Brigade , and by two of his companions in arms . Pierce , therefore , more than any President since the first , represents , not a party , but the Republic .
What need had a man , thus selected because he fitted the ideas of those who made him really their leader , to trim his language for popular acceptance P Why , his were the very sentiments sought : and if he had altered , he must have disappointed . But if it were politic to speak with an equivocal meaning , has Pierce ' s history marked him out to be not a man of his wordP Eminently the reverse . He attained to the highest position in his native state and in the Union ; and yet , as our readers are aware , he
retired into private life , to repair his own fortunes . At the next period of need for his country , he took musquet as a private volunteer in a regiment bound for Mexico , and was appointed colonel , without his solicitation , by the Secretary of State on the simple knowledge of his character ; and he who entered the Mexican army as a private , returned as a victorious leader to receive the thanks of the Senate . Is such a man greater in his pretensions or words than in his actions P
" No ; but the career thus carried to the prime of life , and then reaching the highest post of honour in the Republic , must have a sequel . The same man that took a musquet and helped to conquer a province for the Union , will scarcely turn back in the career of " expansion" when he has the Union at his back . If he uses words , he means them . If his words are great , his actions will outdo them .
And why is it that Englishmen in the educated classes are so anxious to read him with an " abatement" ? Because , long unaccustomed to action at home , or near it , Englishmen can scarcely enter into the feelings of a man who enters upon action and enjoys it , who feels conscious of power and means to use it , who , addressing his country , is stirred by an active ambition for his country , and who , instead of fearing national movement , looks to it with the eager eye of hope . A Cromwell without a Charles the First to hinder him , a Washington without even a George the Third , is possible in America ; and the nations will be grievously mistaken if they do not recognize the fact that the star-spangled banner is borne by hands which are not new to the field , and have not seen their last victory .
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THE INDIAN REFORM MOVEMENT . At no period of its history , perhaps , has British India been so tranquil as it is at the present moment ; and at no period of its history have the elements of its future internal disturbance been more evident to scrutiny than they are now . The seed of opinion , which the modicum of education accorded to India— either under that name , or in the shape of a free press , or in the still vaguer form of converse with English peopleis beginning to boar its fruits ; and as the tree divides the stones of the wall near which tho
gentle seed is sown , thus also the opinion planted by England beneath the foundation of institutions alien to tho climate , narrow , arid badly constructed , will rend them to pieces , if tho structure bo not mended and enlarged in accordance with the real state of tho country . Whatever the date of tho issuo may bo , it is now becoming evident to tho English publics not lens than that of I ndia , that our tenure in tho Peninsula may depend upon our legislation this year . Down to last wook tho only bodies not awakened to that conviction appear to have boon tho Court of Oircrtors in . LeudenhaJl-Btrcofc , and her Majesty ' s
Ministers . . 'Hut circumstances have changed in Parliament not loss than in India . The Government , which entered office with an extraordinary combination of support , and which reciprocated tho confidence of the parties that assisted in forming it by advancing a highly popular programme of practical measures , omitted from that programme tho important and inevitable subject of India ; and by
their suspicious manner and reserved language , Ministers We called into being an Opposition as widely extended for that special subject as its own support is for all other subjects . In the debate of Friday last week , brought on by Mr . Bright in the House of Commons , and by Lord Ellenborough . in the House of Lords , the general subject of India was touched upon ; but the One question discussed between independent members and Government was this—Should there bo definitive and permanent legislation at once , or should the duration of the renewed charter be
an open question , in order that progressive reforms might be at once commenced P Government does not deny the necessity of progressive reforms , but it alleges that the reforms indeed are mostly of a local character , and that on the subject of government it has made up its mind ; so that it will legislate at once and for a ^ permanency . Propounding that view in the House of Commons , Government was opposed by Mr . Bright , Mr . Blackett , Mr . Phillimore , Mr . Danby Seymour , Lord Jocelyn , Mr . Otway , Mr .
Cobden , Mr . Hume , Sir Herbert Maddock , and Mr . Disraeli ; and Lord John Russell found himself supported hy Sir Bobert Inglis ! When we pass to the more " Conservative House of Lords , generally disposed to support the Government for the time being , we find the Opposition on the same ground maintained by the Earl of Ellenborough , Lord Monteagle , the Marquis of Salisbury , and the Earl of Derby . Lord Brougham ' s remarks scarcely indicate his view of the general subject ; and even Lord Glenelg speaks irresolutely , moderatingly , claiming for the East India Company
in 1833 as a merit , the original proposal to fix no duration for the charter .. Here we have indeed the outward and visible sign of a resistance which Government cannot withstand . We believe we are justified in saying , that on this subject the opposition to Government is furnished from exactly the same sources that furnished them with supporters on other subjects , and that in their support they have not even the whole of that which is their standing opposition ; for against Sir Robert Inglis we must set off Mr . Disraeli and Lord Derby .
It is under these circumstances that the Indian Reform Society has been established . It may be said to have originated spontaneously amongst the independent Members of Parliament who take the initiative in its formation . In the provisional list of its committee we see many whom it will surprise Government to encounter in a position so inconvenient for Ministers . Amongst the recruits from without are persons of authority on Indian affairs ; some of the best informed and most active of Indian reformers ; some connected directly with the East India House ; and some whom it would be a breach of etiquette to
name , but who are generally known to possess an opportunity of influencing public opinion not inferior to the most influential seats in Parliament . In the Society indeed are represented Parliament , Anglo-India , and the Press . There is a danger into which such a Society might fall—that it might become a depository for malcontents ; an engine for the use of those who owe some kind of grudge either to Government or tho East India Company . Such was the fate of the committee which formed itself in 1833 . But there are several guarantees against any such
mischance for tho present Society . In tho first place , many of its members aro persons who would regard it as a groat breach of duty to oppose the Government for tho sake of opposition , and who aro only forced into their present attitude by a very grave sense of a duty yet higher than that which they owe to Government—tho duty that they owe to their country , to tho maintenance of tho empire , to the interests of tho Crown , arid to tho interests of 150 , 000 , 000 of our fellow-subjects in India . Such persons aro neither malcontents
nor can they become so . Again , tho very constitution of tho provisional committee includes men pledged to keep pace with tho most intelligent and approved opinions of tho day ; thus they cannot possibly fall into an instrument for ho tional objects or personal grudges . Thirdly , the specific objects sought by tho society aro so distinct , ho practical , and ho moderate , that tho satisfaction of those objects could subserve no party interests . Their objects in brief are , to securo that the inquiry under tho present committees shall he bo extended as to include more than tho officials and servants of tho East India Cpinpany , to consult the petitions and wihUcb Q
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because tlere is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things nxed when all the world is by the very law oi its creation in eternal progress . —De . Arnold .
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SATURDAY , MAECH 19 , 1853 .
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TO HEADERS AND CORBESPONDENTS . r The Ebv . B . Gbant . —This gentleman , in another letter , desoribes our note of quotations attached to his former communication , as an " elaborate criticism on his short letter , and tells us he considers it a " compliment . " We think the matter had better drop at this agreeable stage , lest we should not nave the good fortune to reach it again , so much to our reverend correspondent ' s satisfaction . " Oxford University Eeform ( Fourth Article—the Commendations of the Tutor ' s Association ) . — " "Working-Chus Questions" ( First Article ) , by Ion , and several other papers unavoidably omitted this week . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them .
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276 T H E LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 19, 1853, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1978/page/12/
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