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
make the neighbouring nation rouse itself with the appetite of ambition for a chivalrous enterprise . The confidence which is felt in England extends itself to France , no doubt in great part because the Government of that country is in alliance with the English Government . Indeed many expect that the ^ opening contest will read a wlolesome lesson to important States . We believe that a practical experiment will be shown , proving how all sound finance must rest
upon personal and politicalfreedom . -Notwithstanding all the irregularities of America , —the licences inevitable in a new country , -with much of the territory in a wild condition , and apart of the population in a congenial freedom of mind , —there is no country in the world whose national exchequer is so little burdened ) and in such a state of original vigour . Thefe is no necessity to compare it with any of the despotic States ; but we may compare those despotic States with each other .
Austria and Russia have , until lately , been peculi arly contrasted : Russia was supposed to be wise and wealthy in her finances , Austria wasteful and unhealthy . A time is come when money is greatly required by loth , and then we find both driyen ^ to new measures . The expedients recently used by Russia have been remarkable . She entered upon a war to assist Austria in Hungary , and she covered the expenses . of that war , as we have mentioned more than once , by money ostensibly borrowed to pay for the St . Petersburg and Moscow Railway . The Empeior has lately used other expedients to get in cash—expedients which go far to disprove the assertions that he had beenprovidently accumulating a great treasure . He has
resorted to an immense issue of paper , professedly based upon a new deposit of gold ; but it is well known that the accounts were falsified ; that the gold was transferred from one deposit to another , and that in fact the paper was nothing more than paper—" ajsignats" it would be called if he were not a crowned revolutionist—newly added to a circulation that did not require it , and totally violating the rule laid down by the Government itself , that a fixed proportion should be kept between the silver and the paper rouble . Of course there is no guarantee of which a Russian commercial public can avail itself to prevent this real abstraction of its means b y depreciating paper already in commercial hands . But the Czar resorts to other methods of abstraction .
commerce , unless there be security to property and to goods ? Commerce dares not venture upon enterprise in a country where a constructive political offence subjects the owner , without trial , to the total confiscation of his property , at the will of the Executive . But in order to render security for property complete there must be security for persons . No man's property is safe unless some kind of habeas corpus secures his own- freedom to look after it . No State , therefore , can be flourishing and safe in its finances which has not freedom ,
tor commerce , security for property , and wellestablished rights for persons . Political , social , and commercial freedom are the foundation of a flourishing ^ exebequer , and Austria , according to the late reports , - has"made that first step in penitence which suggests the possibility of her recovering from a thoroughly diseased condition to one of greater health . Curious if Austria should become , e converso , the experimental teacher of the world in the philosophy of freedom as the basis of prosperity and stability for States !
An unusually severe levy is made of recruits , and as that will abstract labour from the support of the agricultural families , a peculiar compensation is made to the labouring class : they are only obliged to give to their landlord two days of forced labour , instead of three * 1 n the week ; and thus this method of recruiting the Russian army is effected at the cost of a deplorable infliction on the labouring class , compensated by abstracting 33 *
per cent , from the rent of the landlord I Such are the expedients to which arbitrary Governments are forced when they are deprived of that co-operation which England has from its free people and its wealthy people . England can obtain more substantial aid by a comparatively light tax distributed over the whole population , in such a way as not to impede industry , and certainl y not to abstract rent in such proportion , than Russia can by that gigantic income-tax upon
landowners . Austria las curiously reversed the former contrast with Russia , by resorting to more legitimate modes of managing her finances . Even the lottery loan , — without blanks , but with a u prize" bonus to a fortunate leader , —is not so bad . as the old run of Austrian forced issues and annual bankruptcies . The Government has not issued an additional amount of paper , and sold its railways to the banks , but it has surrendered its right of unlimited issue in notes , and has mortgaged its customs duties for payment of principal and interest on a new
advance at a fixed rate—on the principle of our own advances to Irish and agricultural borrowers . The bank becomes the creditor of the State for the non-consolidated debt to the amount of nearly 15 , 000 , 000 / ., Government paying off 1 , 000 , 000 / . yearl y . If there is no jiiggle in this account , it is a groat improvement . But something more is needed . How can Austria expect any expansion of the resources Irom wlucli her crippled finances are derived without giving freedom to the commerce which yields those resources ? She cannot ; but it is within the bounds of possibility that Austria Jtiay learn , through her exchequer , the force of that truth . Again , lumr can security be given to >
Untitled Article
A COTJt D'ETAT AT PRESTON . Cebtamtlt , the spectacle of a Mayor and three or four of the l great unpaid * frightening themselves into an cruelty at the sight of a crowd , is sufficiently amusing , viewed apart from its consequences ; but when we find that this exciting farce was only prevented by the sheer common sense of that very crowd from terminating in a bloody tragedy , we shudder to think into what feeble and incompetent hands the reins of power are sometimes placed . the
In Postcnpt of bur last impression we notified the intelligence of * very serious riots ' at Preston , the reading of the Riot Act , and the adoption of extraordinary measures for counteracting an alarming aspect of the town . We recorded according to our information , and we certainly felt a deep and serious fear lest the admirable and extraordinary forbearance which the Preston operatives have exhibited during the -whole of their amentable dispute with their late employers , had at length given wajr beneath the pressure of excitement at seeing bodies of strangers imported by the masters into the town . We now write with full
and reliable intelligence as to the matter ; and while we congratulate the public upon the groundlessness of the -fear , we cannot refrain from an expression of disgust at the rash and dangerous conduct of the Preston authorities . It seems that the Mayor of Preston , disturbed by the appearance of a large though peaceful concourse of persons , which had been attracted to one spot by a very unnecessary demonstration
of civil power , and acting ' under the sinister advice of brother-magistrates not altogether free from the suspicion or cotton influence , and of a town-clerk -who fills the not very impartial position of legal adviser to the Masters' Association , did actually read the Riot Act , and put the town into a qttasi state of siege . The military was required to be in readiness for execution , and the public meetings of the operatives were prohibited within the borough .
These meetings are the natural outlets for the over-excited mind of ihe public , and to interfere with them was as hazardous as ^ justifiable . The meetings of the Preston operatives have hitherto been conducted in a most temperate spirit to say that inflammatory language baa been used at them is simply untrue , and vre have the distinguished testimony of Mr . Dickens in proof of the . singular regularity of the proceedings . It
seems to us impossible , therefore , to conceive a more imprudent act than this proclamation of the Preston magistrates , an act more calculated to provoke ' a . serious riot f and if the town be not at this moment deluged with blood , and if the in * habitants are not * in great terror' at the calamities of a conflict between the operatives and the armed force , it is in spite and not in consequence of the proceedings of the mayor , the magistrates , and the town-clerk . :
The townspeople , with sound Lancashire sense , have not been slow to perceive the real state of the case , and have lost no time in testifying their opinion of it by immediately agitatnig for a stipendiary magistrate . The town hasnad enough of a bencb stuffed with'cotton , and who' can wonder at it P Surely this is an improving incident for the too ardent admirer of the Kberal Cottonocracy to treasure up and remember ! TEney preach freedom , while they bind ud the arms
of the people in cotton ropes . They cry for peace abroad , and move Heaven with their comp lainings at the notion of directing British bayonets against the breasts of myadingllusaians' ; but they would plunge those bayonets lnto'British hearts , they ^ would spill the blood of their countrymen in rivers . And is not the reason of this easy to be understood ? The warinfis # biu * of the oppressed will cost them , monkey ; ^ but " a butchery in the streets of Preston may drive their operatives to work without the ten percent , ' ¦ ' " ' :
Now all this looks very like a coup d ' etat—an imitation , feeble indeed , but still an imitation of the notable days of December elsewhere ; not a coup d ' etat of the Mayor ' s , for he ( poor simple soul !) seems to have been but a cat ' s-paw in the hands of the Cotton Lords and their confidential legal adviser , the town-clerk . There were all the elements ; an object , to be gained no matter how ; strong popular excitement ; a lighted brand to put to the powder—in fine , a coup dhat . Happily , however , the design was frustrated , and no act of slaughter has , as yet , added a new disgrace to the conduct of this dispute on the side of the masters ; the people were too sensible , or too well-advised , to fall into the
trap , and by their immediate dispersion from the scene , their active measures to ensure the preservation of the peace , and their dignified and temperate conduct ever since , have secured for themselves the respect of the nation , while they have exposed the odious stratagem , and covered its authors "with merited disgrace . As to the prohibition of public meetings -within the borou gh , that ia simply an act of inexcusable tyranny , for which it would bo difficult to find a precedent . On the memorable 10 th of April , 18-48 , when the Government thoug ht it necessary to put London under arms , no obstruction was ottered to the assembling of the people upon Kennington Common , although that is a part of the metropolis in every but a legal seuse .
Untitled Article
THE ADMIRAL OF THE BALTIC . Sib Chab&es Naples hoists his flag as Commander-in-Chief of the British fleet in the Baltic , under the most inspiring angaries . He goes to the performance of his duty-with the highest ^ incentives that can stir the ^ heart of man ; he attains the proudest professional distinction' to which" aft officer can rise ^ -th « command of an armamenti , on which the hopes and attention of his " country are centred ; he takes up his commission with the avowed favour of his Sovereign , the confidence of his Government , the sympathy of his
many friends , and the good wishes of' the whole English people . The banquet at the Reform Club was only a specific expression of a feeling entertained by hosts who were not able to be present ? . The Reform Club never , better represented the Liberal constituency of England than on that occasion ; and in the hall where so many unwarlike sentiments have been heard , the heart of England once more expanded itself to its bravest impulses and its heartiest utterances . In the course of the speech-making , which was anything ; but formal , many pungent anecdotes
were told of the sea-captain who was the guest of the night . The chief narrators were Lord Palmerston and Sir James Graham—a popular member of the Ministry , and the chief of the Admiralty . Lord Falmerston told how Sir Charles Napier can cultivate swedes in ploughing the fields of Hampshire , as well as cultivate the Swedes , their alliance and their confidence , in p loughing the waves of the Baltic ; told of his kicking an officer , who crossed swords with him on the quarter-declc , with mare vigour than formality down the hatchway ; of his ^ being taken once for Robinson Crusoe in military
possession of Portugal ; and how the enemy always found him where he ought not to be—for the interest of the enemy . But Lord Palmerston bore graver testimony of Sir Charles Napier ' s qualities , on the authority of a witness well able to iudge , who said that " he never saw a man calculate so many moves beforehand ; " and Sir James Graham with appropriate audacity affirmed that the l old Commodore' had earned the title of - * discreet . ' This is strong , perhaps unexpected , testimony , and it officially removes the doubts which we , in tho exercise of a public duty , have not
hesitated to express . If before the appointment was fixed , looking to tho wide range of choice which an English Government possesses in the number of tried and able officers thoroughly qualified to take a distinguish ed part in our naval operations , our own unbiassed and deferential judgment pointed to
Untitled Article
March 11 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 229
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 11, 1854, page 229, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2029/page/13/
-