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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.
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CQJSTGENTEATION OP THE NATIONAL PAKTY . Theke is no necessity to create a popular party : the popular party exists , * md is , what does not always happen with popular parties really popular . Favoured by the people , closely connected with the people , especially mingled with the people , it is not a Wilkes faction , not a Foxite clique , not a George Gordon mob , but really the people undivided into classes . It is called into action unriA \ Tnn \ Tmr » ¦ m ^ .-v _ ,. _ . _ _ ..
doubtedly by various motives . We have many brigades in this great army . There are , in the first place , those long-experienced politicians who have actuall y foreseen the present position of affairs , have matured the ideas -which belong- to it , have , before now , distinctly marked out the true line of policy , and are prepared to insist upon a course of action into which the Government has entered very slowly after the necessity , and perhaps without being- prepared to carry it to a real issue .
There is also an extremely numerous circle who are now forced to consider the question of the war , and of all that is involved in that question , as a personal matter . In the three victories of Alma , Balaklava , and Inkerman , there was a loss of 7800 in killed and wounded ; every one of the persons killed and wounded had some relations in this country , and amongst the officers of course there-was a large majority that had relations in the wealthy and aristocratic classes ^ of society . Now there is no doubt that if the forces had been much stronger , the Russians could not have inflicted those
three victories upon us ; they would have been crushed , as they deserved to be > and that loss would not have been sustained . It is proved by experience that the -English soldier is equal to about two , if not three or more , Russians : if our force had been twice as great as it is , if not three times , the * Russians by this time would be put down ; and many a politician therefore would not have been actuated by the
personal motive—the sense of family wrong and domestic bereavement which now imparts a sting of indignation to the belief that Government has not done what it might . The p arty consisting- of these people is to be found , we say , principally amongst the wealthier classes , and amongst those poor classes with whom the private soldiers are connected ; but it is very widely spread .
Besides these two classes we have the Radical Opposition , which dislikes the temporising , minimising conduct of Government . We have the Friends of the Pole and the Friends of Italy . And sve have another party Jilso disconnected with politics , but largely connected with important towns . One reason why the forces aro weak is , ' that they are not supplied with sufficient instruments . Notwithstanding ; the
advance of science in modern warfare , our troops are imperfectly supplied with rifles ; every man has not yet his revolver , though that should bo a fixed principle ; in artillery , we aro inferior to the Russians , though wo have the Lancaster gun—only just tried .. A Nasmytli undertakes to sond two hundrod-Aveight from a distance beyond the enemy ' s xango ; and a Perkins promises to sond a ton Hying- ii distance of live miles from the steam gun . A i ' cw navigators arc only now sent to
construct a flying railway from Diiliildnvu to Scbastopol . Workmen arc still engaged upon the winter clothing . And there are many other supplies for the troops which aro iu arrear . . Now the war had somo tendency to put a stop to trade ; when conducted will * spirit , however , it has demands of its own , which to m . certain extent rostoro the deficiency in the ordinary demand ; and if Ministers do their duty by troops abroad , eorno brunches of activity , otherwise thrown out of employment ,
will be called iato increased use . By proems- * treating the aid . for . tike army ,: Ministers have neg-lected to set in motion this compensating trade ; and heace the manufacturing districts have not received that stimulus which they should have had for the interest of the troops and of the state . Here , thea , is a manufacturing party whose own . injury lends force to the sense of the public injury .
Beyond this , there is the working-class , of whom we can speak from a close and recent knowledge on the ' spot in different part 3 of the country , who entertain the most generous sympathy with the war—who are anxious to see it carried out with the utmost vigour— -who mistrust Government ,, and believe that much of their efforts are now directed . to maintaining the Continental system as it is . The working , classes are inclined to suspect that our men are sacrificed to prevent the genuine war which wcntld effectually put < lown Russia , and perhaps some other things with it .
Here then is the national party—the party which doubts whether Government has done its full duty to the State and to the occasion ; , the party \ ve say , does not 'need to be created , it exists , it is moving , it speaks aloud . What it needs is not creation , but concentration . It does not require excitement , but direction in its efforts . We do not want speechmaking 1 , but we want a machinery , and a course of action which weald bring 1 together the divided sections o £ the great national party ,
give to its -movement unity , and enable the power iu it to produce its full effect . Is it represented out of doors and in Parliament ? We do not know . We can imagine that wemight have patriotic men complaining of the waste of life ; Radicals . denouncing the sacrifice made of our armies to battle out a compromise and sav fe ^ i e crowned despots of Europe ; Birrininghararinen exposing the favouritism , which gives contracts to a few houses , and closes the trade which Ministers declare to be insufficient
for the production of arms ; bereaved families complaining- of their loss , and accusing Government ; working-men denouncing a great aristocratic job for the benefit of the aristocracies abroad ; and yet all these classes virtually doing that -which they charge Government with doing , because instead of directingall their efforts to the one object which they
liave in common , they may be endeavouring to raise above everything elso their own special crotchets , and acting more against each other than against Government . Whigs -will be sneering at Radicals ; discreet middle-class men will be looking- down upon working-men ; bereaved families will be repelling party associations ; and although everybody is conscious that Government docs not do so much as it
might , everybody will copy that same Government . The first thing , then , if anything lilce utiity is to be imparted to this national party is , that its representatives should quietly meet , and without speeches to parndo the diversities of opinion amongst them , endeavour to find out the points of action upon which they combine , and to settle them . This will be effected principally by two processes—by simplifying
tho objects of action and agreeing to uuito upon them , diversities upon secondary points apart ; and by abstaining from tho i ' ussy ostentatious indulgence of apecch-making . Action , not s peeches , is wljafc wo want . Combination , not emulation , is tho necessity of tho day . Wo want an clibctu . 'il war , mid public opinion might bo made to boar upon tho Government with ft rosietleas pressure , if wo could only get gentlemen to moot in quiet committee .
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AVIIAT WOULD MAKE THE WAR REAL . A Fi £ W days more will uoxlvo oar doUbta , and may inform us that Ministers really < eomj > rehond at last tho nature of thoieontost in winch
they are ? engaged , and . have reaolwdcto ^ carjjy . ifc through . Some few circumstances tcomffel us , before we havre such ^ assurances , , to < l © ubt . They tolerated King Frederidc William ; they temporised with Austria ; they persist in thr ow * iog out assurances that . they do not intend to take a loan . Now let us see what these three negative facts prove against them . A loan would be unnecessary , if Russia were actually to yield , were to confess herself wrong , give up the points in dispute , . aad submit to
any mutilation or restraint that might be . 'put upon her . Who believes that she would do so ? At the best she can but pretenjql to yield , and give a mockery of guarantee . Should peace be concluded with Russia befoire the spring , it must be a dishonest peace ; and the people of England , as well as the nations of the Continent , -will be swindled . But if Russia do not submit , the war must proceed ; and if the war do proceed , to be more than a moe-kery it must be ext&nded , must be carried deep into Russia ,
must cost infinitely more— -twice , three times , five , or even ten times as much as the present war . Will Mr . Gladstone charge that upon , yearly income . If he do , he and his colleagues must mean to render the war impossible , by placing upon it a prohibitory penalty and making commercial England pay for it out o £ capital . If such be his jnteniion , Ministers jnust Intend to secure the survival of Russia by the extraordinary guarantee o £ making her destruction the destruction also of English
commerce . The very worst suspicion is encouraged by their treatment of Prussia— -a G-ovemoient so utterly worthless , so false , foolish , aad vile , that common sense could not treat it in any way but one . The King of Prussia , largely connected with all the German Courts and the Russian Courts , makes public affairs bow to the most trivial of family matters . He finds leisure . now to dance " the Torch dance" with
the German bride of Prince Karl Friedrich . ; and the business of his Court . has T ) een suspended by the marriage ceremony . Before that he had busied himself in a series of trumpery ceremonies , in order to typify his hatred of revolution , German or Spanish . He continues tp > avow his adherence to c < moderation , " according to his own sense of the word —that is truckling to Russia ; while he affects alliance with the West . Like idiots in old
tim « s , he uses his repute for fatuity as a privileged means of playing spy with impunity . There is but one way of treating royal Prussia , and that is as tho rough husbandman treats weeds—the plough of war should be passed over him , and the weed should be ploughed in . But our Government acts in a manner which shows a greater care to spare and preserve royal Prussia than to attaiu tho objects of the war .
The conduct of Austria being less equivocal than that of Prussia , hoi treatment by our own Government is loss ugly-, and yot it is bad enough . Of course we aro spooking with imperfect information , but we suspect tho worst of tho terms of the Vienna agreement . A whole year has boon allowed to pass , and Austria , still temporising , signs a treaty , promising to act- —next year J Bankrupt in promises , she offers a bill at a month ' s dntc ; and it is accepted . And tlio interval is
professedly allowed , because thcro is a probability that Russia may cojno in and submit ! The very expectation is a treachory . It : botrays tho half-hoarteilness of our statesmen . They scok a compromise with Russia -, and for what ? Because if Russia wore driven to extremities , and Austria wero obliged to take a . real part in the war , wanting support at home , alic must mlly round her ilag hev aubjoot . nations ; aud to do that she must cultivate ijhoir rood-will , by recognising their political exiBt-
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Deoembee 9 , 1864 . 1 T . HE ! LiE . A 3 > E R . „«« ' ^ —~— - . .- _ - »—
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 9, 1854, page 1163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2068/page/11/
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