On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
footP Thus qualified to speak in the name of the British nation , Commissioner Cobden would , of course , state the predicament in which he stood—compelled to approach the magnanimous governor , stans pede in uno , in order to present to him the ^ absurd complaints of British ragamuffins claiming preposterous damages ; all of which he would respectfully submit to the better judgment of the governor . Then , the governor would utter some of those wise and humane
sentiments which Mr . Cobden so reveres in the Burmese mouth ; and perhaps , in consideration of Cobden ' s painful position , perceiving , too , the respectful manner in which he still remained suspended on the Burmese judgment , the governor would put his hand into his pocket , give Cobden five shillings , and send him away rejoicing that lie could export Burmese instruction for the benefit of the English people , and save his
country from the guilt of making war upon so estimable a people . In such case , no doubt , we should avoid Burmese wars , or Burmese contests of any kind ; and we should probably also be relieved of any dependencies , with all their embarrassments ; being reduced to that workshop of the world which might so properly be governed by Foreman Cobden civilly waiting upon any customers who pleased to look in .
Untitled Article
THE NORTHERN DYKES AGAINST THE RUSSIAN FLOOD . Thh importance of the Danish elements in the great and multiform Russian question , is now recognised almost universally . It is probable that the perception of the intrigues going on in the heterogeneous dominions collected under the Danish crown may have stimulated the anxieties of our own Ministers , and have thrown afresh light for their dim sight upon proceedings in the n / Mi 4-7- » A -ft- /•*•»* 11 C 3 tinrv liio Tin nt a T » onni n / i-fo 4 */** /» AYV »_
0 UU . U . U . * XLlUCi U . OAJ-lii JJ . 1 O JLS < JbULL&LX PUUIVUVO IV V ^ VXX * - mit wrong upon his subjects in Schleswig-Holstein , the King of Denmark is now attempting to commit robbery upon the rights of the Danes . Although more resembling in its character the will of the Sovereign by whom it was made—Frederick the Third—than a law ; and although relating exclusively to the kings , without bearing directly upon the people , the Lex Hegia by which the succession of the Danish throne has been
governed is of a peculiarly emphatic character ; and its adoption and observance by the Crown and State of Denmark have given to it the solidity and force of law . It cannot be altered ; it must be directly broken , because it contains a distinct and binding clause , precluding any alteration , and putting all successors of Frederick the Third under the obligation of obeying it in every particle . It even goes so far as virtually to release the people from all obedience to any king who shall in any respect depart from or alter it . Every king of Denmark , up to and including the present , on his accession to the throne , has sworn to obey it in all its provisions .
In discussions upon this subject , comparatively slight attention has been paid to the . main point — that relating to Schleswig-Holstein , although that is for Europe scarcely less important in a political view , than the Danish branch of the subject . We have ourselves been guilty of an inadvertence , which most of our readers may perhaps have been able to correct , in ascribing the promise that tho Duchies should not bo divided , to the late king , Christian the Eighth ^ who died in January , 1848 . Such a promiso was never given by him . It was under his reign that
tho first attempt was made to disunite tho Duchies , and to secure a fictitious integrity for the Danish dominions , in spite of laws and territorial boundaries , in 184 G . King Christian the Eighth issued the lettors-patent ( Oflbnor Brief ) already mentioned , declaring the indivisibility of tho Danish monarchy as far as tho Eidor , and thus attempting to separate tho Duchies , who strenuously opposed tho attempt by all legal means in their power . Tho matter was ripo in
1848 , and explode * ! when tho Danes took tho initiative , by resorting to a force which was resisted by force . Tho JDuchios never resorted to revolutionary moans . They novor declared thomboIvoh independent of tho Danish king , thoir " Duko . " In all their acts they always took care to acknowledge him , " Tho Duko , " ns their Sovereign . They resisted tho Danish King ; they fought his troops ; but they remained most scrupulously loyal to the Duko . Both were unfortunately united in tho same jpereon , and in 1848 and 1849 tho king wao under the complete
control of the then all-powerful revolutionary party , whom he subsequently , like all other kings , sent about their business . The declaration of King Christian the Eighth was openly repeated by the revolutionary leaders in Denmark , in 1848 . It was against those revolutionary leadjers that the Bchleswig-Hdisteiners rose in arms , and it was by a mob-coercion at Copenhagen that the assent of the present king was extorted . Troops were ordered to march into the Duchies , and then , and only then , the
Duchies rose , were at first defeated , then victorious , then aided for a time by Prussia and the German Diet , till the revolutionary party of Denmark obtained the help of Russia , Austria , and England ; and the German forces , sent to the Schleswig-Holsteiners to assist them , actually did all they could to prevent the Danes from being beaten ; thus converting their help into something worse than a sham . Having beaten the Schleswig-Holsteiners by the help of trimmers and absolutist allies , the king , as we have auout
already said , senthis revolutionary coadjutors their business , and fell back upon the support of Russia and England . The share which JEngland has had in the transactions of Denmark make it desirable that the British public should understand a little more of this question , especially in the Schleswig-Holstein branch . In 1466 , the representative powers of both Schleswig and Holstein , then united , the assemblv of nobles , by their own free choice , elected the King of Denmark their " Duke , " tinder the condition that the Duchies should for ever remain united
— - Scholde ewig tosamen bliven ungedeelt , " as the low-German text of the covenant-. says- —that their laws and institutions should remain unaltered ; and that the agnatii principle should rule the succession of their sovereign . It was , in short , a relation exactly upon the same principles as . 4 hat in which formerly England stood to Hanover . These conditions were sworn to by the then King of Denmark , as they were sworn to by every one of his successors down to the present king . They are now acknowledged , fully
acknowledged , by the Powers , as is shown by the London Protocol ; and more emphatically by the recent notes interchanged by the different Governments ; and they are especially recognised by Russia in Nesselrode's note to Baron TJrgern-Sternberg , dated May 11 , 1853 . But it is found expedient to alter them ; it is found requisite by the " Powers , " and by England , too . We need not dwell upon the motives of Russia , which we have already defined . That Austria should support them is but natural . Prussia has no principle but that of a dog bullied or coaxed into obedience . Franco does not
understand the question at issue , and is always ready to support any measure tending to restrict and lower any truly national German state , be it a republic or an empire . England , it would appear , has not heretofore deemed it convenient to oppose Russia in anything ; and so for the mistakes of this diplomatic England of Downingjstreet , real tax-paying , working England , has to pay , now that , after all , the Great Boar must be muzzled . For we did not speak unadvisedly when we said that Denmark is tho Turkey of the North ; and tho Duchies offer tho only opportunity to prevent Russia from converting the Baltic into a Russian lake . But the Sultan of
this Northern Turkey , unliko his Southern prototype , is ono of the traitors content to bo tho tools of Russia . It would bo superfluous to draw inforencos from all this . They aro patent to overy ono wlio has followed Russian policy during tho last ten or twenty years . That policy is slow , but sure . " Have you bought a Russian dictionary yctP " is tho question asked by tho German patriot of
tho Schleswig-IIolsteiner or tho Dane . The question for an Englishman is , whother thoso dispositions of states , this shuffling of territorial authority , which has proved so profitable to throo or four men , tho crowned bullies or tho crowned fools of Europe , is to continue " In tho present epoch , " said our contemporary , tho Daily News , a few years back , —
" In tho present epoch thoro is no way of foundingempires and of settling countries—thoflo at lcimt which aro within thirty or forty hours of London and of Paris —suvo by respecting the rights , consulting the interests , nnd gaining tho adhesion of tho peoplo of thoHo countries Partitioning and pnrcelling out of countries , like a Christmas cake , betweon King This and King
That , with so much as an appanage for a son , and so much more for the dowry of a daughter , was all very well four hundred years ago , when the people were the princes' property as much as their own dominions and chattels . But in our age , and in such longitudes , this will no longer do . " We are assured that the whole of Holstein , and the greater part of Sehleswig , would never
submit to any such disposition ; and we are confident that we onl y anticipate the judgment of the British public in saying , that in this country we can have no interest in forcing upon the Schleswig-Holsteiners any alien holders , least of all a Dane who is betraying his own state , or a Russian who is trying to steal from Europe its territories as well as its freedom .
Untitled Article
THE CHURCH IN" THE COLONIES . Little did we believe , when we first lent our humble support to the movement in favour of honest churchmanship , when we had to chronicle the freezing antagonism of the archbishops to what we believe to be the honest , because the only logical , principles of Church polity , that the day would come when Dr . Bird Sumner and Dr . Musgrove would advocate the application of those principles to the Church in the colonies . ^ We remembered how hostilely Mr . Gladstone ' s bill was received ; and although there were signs of concession during the last sitting of the Convocation of Canterbury , those signs were somewhat counterbalanced by the proceedings of a northern potentate , Dr . Musgrove , Archbishop of York . All this time , however , the two archbishops actually had a bill in their desks for conferring , not only a constitution , but a thoroughly democratic one , on the colonial churches . "Why they produced that measure so late in the session does not appear ; but our readers already know that , last Monday week , the Lords passed a bill for the regulation of the Church of England in
the colonies and British possessions . _ That bill provided for the meeting of assemblies of lay and clerical representatives , members of the Church of England , elected by a constituency composed of all members of that Church who had signed a declaration to that effect , and had attained their twenty-first year . These assemblies , under the presidence of the bishop , were empowered to make regulations for the management of their own affairs , but binding only on actual ministers and members of the Church .
It was also provided that the votes of the three orders , as we may call them , in the Assembly , should be taken separately , and , therefore , the bishop had practically a veto . Moreover , the regulations might be disallowed by the archbishop and the Queen in council ; and the Assemblies were expressly forbidden to pass any regulations at variance with the Prayer Book , the Thirty-nine Articles , or the oaths at ordination . Thus , there were special and ample checks to the operation of the bill . The Lords , after some opposition from Lord Harrowby , agreed to the bill , and sent it down to tho Commons . But meanwhile Lord
Harrowby had conjured up a fatal and facile enemy to the measure in tho person of Sir James Stephen . The necessity of the measure is described as urgent by its friends . In point of fact tho Church in the Colonies labours under disabilities from tho construction put on imperial acts , and it is unablo , in consequence of doubts , to regulate its own affairs . For instance , tho Bishop of New Zealand finds that he cannot legally make arrangements for the convenience or tho native converts in his diocese . Other colonial bishops , notably in Canada and Australia , experience tho same difficulty . Anyway , if there no constructive imperial stumbling-blocks , common
senso will dictate their removal . Not so thought tho Low Church and Dry Church party . They saw in tho bill an attempt to relievo churchmen in tho colonies of those burdens so grievously felt at home . They B ^ yf an effort to emancipate tho Church — a great experiment in Church liberty—and thdy resolved to frustrate it . So Sir James Stephen was got to writo and give tho bill a bad character . Wli »* did ho doP With las well known powors oi
sophistication ho misstated tho purport and bearing of tho measure ; he doclarod that it was attack on tho " sacred principle of col onial self-government ; " ho put forward such reasoning ns this —tho bill copies the technical phraseology of royal charters , and thoflo royw ohartero give law-making power * , ana contain
Untitled Article
758 THE LEADER . [ Saturbay ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 6, 1853, page 758, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1998/page/14/
-