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their total contempt for property , justice , law ., or humanity . Take them in their own acts as painted by themselves ! See Naples- at this moment ! Poerio , who was for his character selected by the King of . Naples-to' be Minister in a time of difficulty—whom Mr . Gladstone has likened , for the moderation and uprightness of his political conduct , to Sir Robert Peel or Lord John Russell—has been imprisoned since 1849 like a common felon , and treated as a wild beast . The allowance which his friends have been permitted to make for his [ comfort has , within the last few weeks , been cut down to the beggarly sum of fourpence a day , barely enough to find fuel , for a man in broken-down health , and in a
dungeon unreformed by any Howard . That is only the latest instance of the obstinate cruelty with which his Sacred Majesty of . Naples , has persecuted his own subjects for adhering to the law , when the king broke it . The throne of Naples is continually insulting and assailing the subjects of its allies . Not long since , the Duke de Lesparre , a French officer sent on a complimentary visit , was put into quarantine as an excuse for barring his access to the shore . The case of Mr . Hamilton , whose school was broken up , and whose livelihood was confiscated by the police , against a special treaty with England , vre have recently described . Mr . Baggio , a British Ionian , has been refused admission into Naples , where he has lonsr had commercial business . Mr .
Carbone , an American , who sought admission to Messina on commercial affairs , has also been excluded , notwithstanding the undertaking of the American Consul in Sicily that he should behave himself . Rome has just inflicted a new outrage on an English subject—Mr . Desain , a native of Gibraltar , imprisoned for seventeen days without charge-or warrant . Spain is another of the arbitrary delinquents . With her broken-down credit , the attempt to get up capital for railways has set her Court and Cortes quarrelling , and the Cortes are dissolved . Her treatment of an ally has been shown in her half-century refusal of a British burial-ground ; her faith in the observance of treaties by her conniving at the slave trade in Cuba . Her Court is
accused of dabbling in railways after the Capelcourt fashion ; of profiting by the slave trade , ¦ which treaties pledge her to put down , and which Christian opinion in Europe stamps with infamy ; and of encouraging a state of society in high quarters which is harlotry without its horrible excuse , and peculation without its official disguises . Spnin develops these traits of her social and political system in proportion as she recedes from the company of constitutional Governments to that of arbitrary Governments .
Austria , which almost rivals Naples in cruelty to prisoners , showed her respect for law by destroying the constitution of Hungary , and is now a begging borrower in the money market of the world , with elaborate apologies for the total- insolvency of her finances . Russia , the great patron and conservator of Europe , is breaking her treaties with all ( he European powers , trampling on international law and justice , in order to . seize Turkish territory as a " material guarantee" for forcing upon Turkey demands which all the other Powers declare to be untenable . Prussia , who might side with England , is trimming in n manner which shown that she would fall into the majority , whichever side that might tnlcc .
Wo do not glance at minor . states—IIcs . se Cassel or Denmark . Suffice it to say that cruelty , lawlessness , breach of faith , immorality in money matters , and in everything el . se , characterise the conduct of the arbitrary Governments of Europe-. They are pushing their principles to extremes , and are at this moment extending their ground on the European field . Here and there constitutional principles . struggle for existence ;; as in Sardinia , threatened by Austria , and by the other Italian CJovernments ; or in Belgium , forced to prop herself up with an Austrian alliance in the absence of bold and open support from England .
if Ave look within the Klnglish dominions , we shall find constitutional principles rapidly losin " ground . It in said that they are declining in the confidence of our upper classes , who enjoy the privilege of governing us ; and that . Russian priuiplos are rapidly stealing over the administrators of the Hill of Rights . IIW far that ; is so , -we cannot sav , but what we do know in , that constitutional principles ^ are declining throughout the Vrtst ^ extent of British territory , and throughout
the vast numbers of the British population . Look at the American colonies ! . By dint of rebellion they have gradually acquired so . perfect a local self-governnierit that it perplexes all but nice politicians to know in what consists their connexion with the mother-country , beneficially to themselves or to us . If there were a hearty sympathy between Canada and England , each could aid the other very effectually , and , for our own part , we should regret to see the connexion severed . Nevertheless , Canadians do look across the border , and there they see a confederation of states united in a species of Zollverein , each possessing great political power and enjoying the varied trade of the whole union ; from which Canada is excluded .
Republican principles have made immense way in other British colonies . In the Cape of Good Hope the long-promised " English constitution " has been obtained . It was -withheld long enough to teach the colonists how much they might get by threatening , to rebel ; it familiarised them with the language of disaffection , and on the border they see the Anglo-Dutch , who emigrated as rebels , recognised as an independent community . The last meeting of the Legislative Council under the old system is reported this week , and-a newsystem has commenced which must lead to still further change .
In Australia , we see the colonists of New South Wales putting a stop to Mr . Wentwortli ' s attempt at establishing a sort of peerage ; we see the golddiggers of Victoria forcing Mr . L-atrobe to give up the fee on gold licenses , and wearing the badge of a red ribbon to mark out those who refuse to pay . In South Australia , "we see the leading colonists arranging a constitution , under which , while the Upper Chamber is to be nominated , the Lower Chamber is invested with a power of converting
the Upper one into an elective body . And throughout , during the squabble with Lord Grey about the convicts , the squabble with the same nobleman about the constitution which he withheld ; the squabble of the gold-diggers with Mr . Latrobe about police and about the licences , there has been a growth of republican feeling , partly suggested by American sympathies , but still more cultivated by the circumstances of the soil on which the colonists stand .
The influence of the Crown and of the Imperial Government is waning in our important colonies almost to nothing ; even in Jamaica itself they begin to talk of annexation with ¦ America . The English colonies represent that which Lafayette offered to Louis Philippe—a . nominal monarchy surrounded , if not smothered , in republican institutions . We still force upon them , as if to keep open the sore , Governors who irritate , and that seton the civil list .
We see that the influence of England is declining on the Continent ; that her influence is fading in her own colonies . What is her influence > ipon herself ? What is that England of which we talk politically ? The working classes tire not " England . " They are disfranchised , discontented , unsettled ; they are at this moment quarrelling with the employing class . They are not agitating for universal suffrage , because they do not expect to get it . In order to get it , and something like a comfortable subsistence , they are emigrating at the rate of a third of a million each year to America and Australia . The largest number of the people within the geographical limits of the Uritish island is alienated from
England and its Government . If there is any " English people" which adheres to the Government positively , it consists of the upper and shopkeeping classes—at the utmost , the enfranchised class—about a seventh of the whole . But it does not present the appearance of a consolidated nation ; on the conlraiy , it is divided within itself into several clauses . There is the shoplceeping chiss , not generally well informed , not inclined to earc ^ for _ anything that does not present a profit , not inclined to self-sacrifices , not hearty in supof other
port any class , or of the Government , or of England itself ; at home or abroad . There , is the richer class of capitalists , also pursuing selfinterest , and not much caring Tor anything else . There is the aristocracy , which , disgusted with the loss of political power , is shrinking into a set of country gentlemen with titles , busying themselves about their own estates rather than the . country , and represented in an Upper Chamber , which criticises and softens the ac ( n of Lower . And , finally , there is the bureaucracy , recruited from a miscellaneous professional class , sprung from all
the rest , but separated from all the rest by thf * demon which haunts the Englishman from th cradle to the grave—self-interest . None of these classes care much for the nation . They care somewhat for class , so far as the interests of class directly conduce to the interests of the individual —not further . The capitalists are very zealous about the rights " of capital ; the shopkeepers want quiet and trade ; the aristocracy want to be left alone , to die , we suppose , in peace ; and the bureaucracy take up any humbug of the dav * "L « . 4 . »«„« 1 s-tn si J . « T ~« I ~ XV . ^ m mi . v that lead to briefs offic There
may or e . is n 0 hearty sympathy between the several classes ; they can only act together for what they call a " practical object , " which means some contemporarypurpose , conducive to the interests of each . Love of country , ambition for national power , enjoyment in displaying the national strength abroad these are antiquated sentiments , and every class is more intent upon pursuing individual gains than upon sustaining the principles by which England has attained to her political , commercial , and social existence .
What then is the position of our Government supported as it is hy a seventh of the nation , that seventh broken up by its own personal objec-ts ? The Government possesses the army and the national strong-box , and thus hold ^ the means of extorting from the English people funds for its own support . It seems scarcely to look beyond ' t . to keep office and rub on is the entire aim of an English statesman . To avoid rather than to seek opportunities of signalising his country abroad . But while speaking" in the name of England , —
while wieldingthe army and holding the strongbox , —the English statesman , as we have already seen , finds six-sevenths of the British nation alienated from him , and all the colonies becoming foreign republics . Thus stands the English Government , oscillating between Russian principles ,, which are gaining ground all over the Continent ,, and are beginning-to submerge our own constitutional principles at Court , and republican principles , which have flooded all our colonies , and have submerged six-sevenths of our own nation . If
there is any value in constitutional principles at all , it does seem time at last to make one move , one final attempt to renew life and action in those principles .
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INSURANCE FOR THE WORKING CLASS On many occasions we have been invited to express opinions on projects of insurance for the working classes ; but we have rigi dly abstained from doing so . The subject is one invested with great difficulty . On the one hand , nothing can be more certain than the facts that the working class—the staple of the people—its great producing order , require , more than any other class , the advantage of insurance acrainst those risks
which , injurious to other classes , are fatal to them . But , on the other hand , they have been debarred from the advantages so fully enjoyed by other classes which need them less . Again , on the one hand , it is most desirable that private as avcII as public enterprise should be directed to supply tne want ; and yet the very nature of the business amongst the humbler classes of the community tends to deter large capitalists , to draw in comparatively needy and ingenious men , and so to invest the portion of insurance commerce specially devoted to the working classes with more of an
adventurous character . Now it is very invidious to pronounce judgment on particular schemes . To praise one might imply censure on others ; i " censure some as they deserve would entail upon us the penalties of the law for libel , if it did no 1 entail upon us also the discontent of many amongst that class which is peculiarly fond w lining deceived— tho working class . It itf ibr tlnfl reason that we withheld an excellent letter by '
correspondent who signed himself S . H- ' *• the first instance we cannot do bettor than cxlior ' tho working classes to examine into projects M themselves , and not to bo drawn in unless tJ >; arc thoroughly informed , mul are able rcaljy ' understand tho principle of the enterprise wliMthey join , a * well as the character of its promote ^ Sound political principles are hero of " <> llV 'J " j ^ unless an enterprise be commercially noun < , will not stand commercially ; and those who P » < their money into it Avill find too late that i ' money is not to be had back again in tho 8 | ni |> ° the sum assured—that there has been n hole tho bottom of the box . /« r One of the difficulties which beset insurance w
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121 Q THE LEADER [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 1210, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2017/page/10/
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