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but a passing appearance , and that a revived vigour m the English Government might falsify our fears !
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SPAIN THE DEFAULTER . " Spain lias a strong sense of her own dignity When her good ally , Great Britain , asked her through the ambassador at Madrid , to grant a Protestant burial ground for subjects who happened to die in the Spanish capita ) , the request was granted . It was granted after it had been asked for fifty years , and upon condition that the English attending the funeral should make
no sign either that they had a chapel , or that they performed public worship , or even that they had a dead body ; for the corpse is to be conveyed to the grave without publicity . In Spain , the English are said to be heretic , without a faith ; and perhaps to make good their words , the Spanish authorities forbid the English to appear with any signs of faith at the close of life . Such are the conditions when England has a favour to ask of Spain .
Spain has asked a favour of England , or of private Englishmen : it is to advance capital for Spanish railways . The request has been thought sufficiently important for a special agent to come to this country ; he was anticipated by rumour , not at all surprising in the case of a Government like that of Spain . It was said that , as usual , official or royal people would profit bv these projects ; and the traditions of Capel Court and its titled clients were for a time transferred to Madrid and certain distinguished persons , who are understood to have made capital out of the
political vicissitudes of that country . This , coupled with that bad faith which has excluded Spanish Stock from quotation on our Exchange , had cast discredit upon the projects . Some , however , were inclined to give money , and a natural anxiety existed to know who would guarantee the good faith of Spain . Allusion was made on the part of the possible lenders to their own Government , as their protector "; and on this hint , the JEspana , a Madrid journal , which is understood to be the organ of the Minister , Sefior Egana , launches out indignantly at the insult .
" Base is the slave that pays , " and baser still he that gives guarantees or admits the appeal to a foreign Government . If Englishmen are permitted to advance their capital for Spanish railways , it must be without these humiliating conditions for Spain . If we accept the scrap of ground for burial , the conditions may bow us down with our foreheads to the earth ; but if Spain accepts our millions , she must pay us when she pleases , and we must not talk about appeals , or doubt her faith .
Yet Spain has owed us before , and we have had some reason to question her dignity . There was , for example , the capital of the Spanish Pive-per-cent . " Active" bonds of 1834 < , about 30 , 000 , 000 ^ . ; then there was the Spanish " Deferred" Pive-per-cents . of 1834 , capital about 13 , 000 , 0002 . ; Spanish " Passive" bonds of
1834 , capital 12 , 70 O , (; O 0 Z . ; and Spanish Threeper-cents , of 1840 , capital 7 , 000 , 000 / . ; created by the capitalization of interests at par . Wo say nothing of the arrears of interest , sometimes capitalized , sometimes simply over-duo for years together ; but theso are good round sums , by which English trust and Spanish integrity havo been tested .
Nor is money all that Spam owes to England . Spain possesses a Constitution given to her by "England ; for Spain had groaned under the most tyrannical of Governments . The memory of Iviego is still a sorrow to the nation ; Ferdinand tho Seventh is still remembered as the creature of tho Inquisition ; Don Carlos is still living , by his son , ready to restore an Austrian rulo in Spain , lint from all theso things Spain was rescued mainly by tho support of . England . Having accomplished her rescue from usurpation , Spain conceives a contempt even for . her own liberal opinions ,, casts them nsido , oxilos thorn with Espartero , and begins to spurn tuo English
alliance . j Joyond money or free institutions , Spain owes to us something fltill higher—her indepondenco . She wan n province under France , ; it whh mainly by tho help , of English arms that who wan restored to bo . A . mxtion . Moro 1-1 mn _ onco English blood has boon poured upon the iiold of Spain ; but , if tho debt is remomborcd , it is , wo fear , by England only . It would become our dignity to forgot it ; but if so , wo ought to forget also that
there ever has been any alliance between England and that estranged country . The honour and dignity of Spain were once real things . They now exist in the language of Senor Egana . ; but the words must mean something very different from what ¦ we understand in England , when they are applied to a country whose conduct we have described ; and yet , in the incidents we have enumerated , we have not reckoned that most peculiar specimen of Spanish honour and dignity , which we mentioned lately while speaking of a different subject . When
Spain had great cause to fear for the retention of Cuba , England and France proposed a tripartite treaty with the United States , to guarantee for ever the Spanish possession of the island . America refused to forego her right of acquiring the island ; we might have declined to interfere , not only on the ground that America is our ally as well as Spain ; but also on the ground that Cuba , of all places , is the spot on which England has a right to reproach Spain with breach of faith . Spain , for whom we have done
so much , promised to assist us in putting down the slave trade . But how has she done it ? By appointing governors who share with her the profits of the trade ; by giving commissions to officers who rescued captured slavers from their English captors , with insults for the English officers ; and , in short , by obstructing where she should aid , by insulting where she professes svmpathv . Interfere , however , we did ; and then it was that the Marquis of Miraflores ,
calculating on the easy disposition of England , actually went so far as to petition , that even if America refused , England and France would guarantee the Spanish possession of Cuba against annexation , or against the insurrection of its own inhabitants . The Government that for fifty years refuses a burial ground'for the dead English , and then grants it on terms of shameful humiliation—the Government that has accepted English money , and paid debts as we have seen —the Government that asks us for more money ,
and is indignant at a talk of pledges or guarantees —the Government that promises to suppress the slave trade in Cuba , and connives at the traffic , while its officers insult our own—that Government petitions ours to retain for it its island colony against a foreign conqueror , or against the disaffection provoked by its own bad rule . It appears to us that national meanness could not be carried to a more contemptible point of degradation than it has been by the high and honourable , the most Catholic and most religious , Government of Spain .
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THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ROMAN DISCLOSURES . When a people , intelligent , and not dead in its moral feeling , is oppressed for a length of time , it resorts to secret machinery for restoring something like that government of itself which , is prevented by tho constituted anarchy at the head . Such is the state of tho Italian people . The self-government of the Italians is conducted entirely in secret by Italians . The ostensible government of Italy is carried on . by Austria , and its proteges , with military instruments , priestly accomplices , and an army of spies . It follows that occasionally tho self-government of tho Italians , is , as it is called , " detected ; " and one of theso detections has just occurred at Homo . The character of tho persons who have been seized is not to bo denied ; they arc genuine patriots , ' in tho fullest . sense of tho term , as it will bo understood by our readers . Tho principal is a man of excellent abilities , and of singular good faith . By tho pertinacity and zeal of his character , ho has exorcised a decided influence
over his countrymen , and has been detected by tho police onl y through tho treachery of somo who disgrace the name of patriots . There havo been divisions amongst , tho . 1 talians —ovon amongRt tho Liboral party of tho JUlians . There aro somo who aro for Italy a Jicpublic , or at all events for Italy entirely to herself ; and thorn havo boon vnriouH sections of tho
liboral party in favour of this or that compromise , between tho Italian aspirations , and what aro regarded to bo practicabilities . Homo of theno parties havo boon discontented with tho firnnioss , or , as they call it , tho obstinacy of the Italian party ; and it is to bo fearod that occasional patriots , disaffected , towards patriotism , havo Buffered their toinpor , their weakness , or a worso vice , to load thorn into treason . Fow of tho
imprisoned patriots would exchange places w'ti , them . "k One version of the report from Home is tli f these arrests prevented an immediate movement the Eternal City , under the direction of Mazz This is an entire mistake , and , if Mazzini we " to come forward with the proofs , he would h * able to show , to the satisfaction of the most Ams trian mind , that there was no movement directed " by him in present contemplation . But Hazzin has before permitted misconstruction of his in tentions , when he has thought that to exonerate himself might entail difficulty upon friends at a distance , or undue punishment , even , upon those who are indiscreet .
There was some kind of movement in contemplation—a movement of a very partial and inv pulsive character , implicating very few , and en ! tirely , if we may use the expression , of an unau ^ thorized character . The exact seat of this movemerit we do not know , and do not care to know with the date of its probable execution we havo no concern . The suspicions on that subject and
, the detection of Petroni and his friends , have no relation , excepting that of a coincidence in point of time . Our readers will be interested to know who were the patriots newly added to the thou - sands in trouble , in that devoted country , but they will also be interested to understand that the movement which has been prevented was not a national , nor an authorized movement .
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A MONUMENT TO NAPIER . Napieb has gone before the nation was able to express the sense which it really entertained of his value , as a soldier , a general , and a patriot . The nation entertained that sense , and desired to express it ; but , unhappily , the nation is obliged to act by a machine ludicrously named , as if for its non-execution , the executive ; and therefore towards Napier the nation was expressly noncognizant . How many an inferior man performing inferior services , attained , and promptly too , a superior reward . We have Lord Keane , and Lord Seaton , or a Lord Gough , —gallant men all ;
but if a peerage is to be given for such services , how was it that Napier did not pass fromMeanee into the House of Lords ? Was it precisely because his achievements were not limited to dashing exploits , but were to be found in service extraordinary for the combination of its long continuance and its surprising energy ? Was it because , to the vigour with which ho wielded tiic sword , the daring with which he faced the enemy , he added the moral courage of facing abuses in the army , and vigour of tongue or pen to expose those abuses ? Was it becauseto great
achieve-, ments in vanquishing tho foe on foreign ground , he added the patriotic service of showing How the English people can be associated witii its own army in repelling the invador Jrom our own soilP In short , was it because lio was a patriot as well as a soldier , a statesman , and not only a Riibserviont officer . ino » n " cnliffhtened English people , not versed in tno
mysteries of the Horse-Guards , will be very apt to reason upon the propter hoc principio , '" finding that Napier was patriot as well as sow w , was an outspoken Englishman as well as an acting warrior , to surmise that t / iatwas the reason . wny he was disparaged in high quarters , ami witf . sank to the nobler immortality of tho tomb * ath a title beneath that of his inferiors , equal . to * of a Sir Frederick Smith or a Sir I ^ Jlttl
England . , , j ltn He has gone without his duo ^ knovW mont , but something remains to be a * ]{ Thoro is in England a custom of dealing vu « . _ cases . Unless a fashion sets in < lurin £ ; ' ] llm timo of a hero , in which case wo heap up moro than almost any single man can . ''^ jn although instances of elasticity can bo w « . ^ that inspect ,-wo reserve our rovrnu ^
post , mortem examination ot KJ' i 8 > ftfl the such cases sometimes wo givo tho row » o j Chinese do , to tho offspring " m U 1 ° t () min honours and pensions . Bub our common < ' flt ; peculiar : whero tho patriot has boon vo *^ i ) l 0 H 0 very devoted in his service , wo " ft pU » cmoi-o j > orHoniil rewards as if thoro w ^ tilious delicacy lost wo should oliom tf 0 with tho appearance of corrup t oliere . n vV ( , kept Nelson ' s daughter in penury , f i » if ) 0 , i aro at a loss on such oc ; easionn lo T ' ^ no " ^ . hero wo can alwayH full l > W ! l < "P ™! * thor o tf ' 11 wo givo him a monument . Ut coi
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876 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1853, page 876, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2003/page/12/
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