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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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TERJV 5 S OF SUBSCRIPTION TO "Zfie Seatier . " For a Half-Year .. , £ 0 13 0 To be remitted in advance . 1 ST Money Orders should be drawn upon the Strand ifranch Office , and be made payable to Mr . Alfred E . Galioytat , at No . 7 , Wellington Street , Strand .
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There is nothing so re-volution arv , because there is nothing so unnatural ana convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed -when , all the world , is by the verylaw of its creation in eternal progress . —I ) e . Atusoj , t >
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ARBITKARr GOVERNMENT . The Ministry have carried an unpopular measure by means of a threat of resignation . In the circumstances a threat of resignation is a threat of-dissolution , and a . threat of dissolution 13 overwhelming with a House of Commons comprised of disorganised parties- Arbitrary government is , therefore , for the present fully established in this country . The coincidence
may betoken no great disasters to the constitution , but it must not escape notice that the unpopular measure for which Parliamentary Independence is sacrificed , is a measure for the establishment of a Home Army of Foreign Mercenaries . We are not in the least despairing 1 of English liberties ; but Englishmen should understand the precise tendencies of the politics for the moment in the ascendant .
A Parliament has met and has passed measures . The French Parliament is about to rneet and will pass measures . And as the action of the French Parliament will not in the least indicate a constitutional rdgimc , so in our case we must make this distinction—that we have a Parliament without Parliamentary Government . From first to last , during the fortnight closed
last night , the Government hns obstinately refused to make any statoment of thoir policy , or of the position , or prospects , of the war . Lord John Russell last night was seeming-ly significant , but , after all , he only expressed his individual opinion of what ought to scduco Austria and satisfy Russia . The-Foreigners Enlistment Bill is passed ; but Parliament is not informed oithor of the
number or nation of the mercenary horde we are to let looso in defences of civilisation . The Militia Bill is an act , but Parliament nsks in vain to Ibo informed what forco of natives this bill will supply for the purposes of actual war in the Crimea ; and as to our general military position , wo only get a parenthetical suggestion in a by-tho-by speech o-f Lord John Russ « t'l that our Govern meat is calculating on a
standing army of 200 , 000 men . With regard to our War Finance , we are left in profound ignorance , and all that our Finance Minister does is to send the funds down by perplexing stockbrokers . Of trade , as affected b y the war , nothing is permitted to be said : Mr . Collier is coaxed into a postponement of his motion ; Mr . Danby Seymour is sneered at for making- some valuable statements respecting Black Sea commerce : and the Duke of
Newcastle seemed to resent as an insult Lord Hardwicke ' s questions as to the reality of the blockades in Russian waters . We have had a vast variety of detailed explanations as to the administration of the war in minor particulars ; these have been conceded to the public because the personal vanity of individual Ministers was affected by the universal impression that the war has been mismanaged . And in the profuseness of perplexing and petty vindications of this character Parliament seems
to have been induced into the notion that it was putting the Government to a trial and hearing 1 a solemn defence . The more important Ministers have encouraged the garrulity of their colleagues , and have themselves perseverin gly kept silence on all the great points . No correspondence whatever has been laid on the table . True , there is an Austrian treaty there : the Ministers who themselves have given contrary interpretations may safel y defy the astute House of Commons to make a
meaning out of the awful document . Thus , in all respects , a Cabinet in whieh no one has faith is obtaining unlimited ' " confidence , " and thus we are not only subdued to the endurance of arbitrary government , but to the arbitrary government of men who have not proved any illustrious capacity in their great position . We are not forgetting that we have had several debates , and three important divisions , and that the Government has succeeded in
obtaining majorities in both Houses in favour of their measures , and , by implication , in support of their refusal to consult the Parliament on the national policy . But the majorities , we have already said , were not obtained from the convictions but from the fears of members ; and the explanation of a distrusted Cabinet remaining in office because Parliament believes there is no other
Cabinet possible just now , may be complete without in the least satisfying us that England is in the possession of self-government . Unpopular measures have been passed under a species of compulsion ; while the voting has been one way , all the speaking has been the other way ; members voted for bad measures rather than have no measures . We arc here
speaking , not of the abject Ministerialists , and not of the steady Derbyites—these two sides place their consciences in political trusteeship —but of the really independent sections who ejected Lord Derby and are sustaining Lord Aberdeen—many of whom , on Tuesday , voted with Sir Bui wer Lytton , and none of whom voted for the Government without reluctance .
The Ministerialists and the Tory Opposition do hot feel the degradation of the assembly in its present position : the one side has private compensation for public insignificance ; the other , hoping for its own turn , does not quarrel with a system which answers its own purposes . The- mortification for the independent members must bo all t > he greater svt this subversion of Parliamentary Government , that it is the result of their own want of
organisation . Mr . Cobden , in a speech in which the man of genius escaped from tho dogma of Peace , and in which he indicates the possibility of Ins participating , with tihe liberal party , in tho conduct of tho war , has Raid that the House of Commons was losing its independence in not making conditions with tho Government . That is precisely the view wo
have ventured so frequently to suggest ; but of what avail is it in . Mr . Cobden to say this and not to act on it ? Will he , or who will , dare to be " factious , " and compel the Ministers to remember that there is an English theory about English freedom ? The Times has said this week , speaking of the failure of the Government in the war : <—»
" These things go to make up an aggregate of helpless disorder and hopeless confusion , which our Government must find speedy means of terminating , or they will infallibly induce the conviction that we may trust the aristocracy to administer the affairs of peace , but must dive to a lower station of society for the tact , the talent , and the energy requisite ¦ for meeting the fierce and urgent emergencies of war . "
There are , we believe , men in the House of Commons numerous enough and able enough to take the government out of the hands of the aristocracy . That , however , is an idea which will not be generally accepted until the progress of the war has thickened the national disasters . But even already members must feel that the Government re in their power , if they choose to exercise their power . We do not doubt that the threat of resignation was a reality : the Coalition would be glad to escape from , the responsibility of a war to which they are unequal . Such threats , nevertheless , should have little influence : for there is nothing more certain than that there must be a -Coalition Government , and we could scarcely have a worse one .
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WHENCE THE FOREIGN LEGION" IS TO COME . Ministers have told us nothing whatever respecting the sources from , -which they hope to draw the Foreign Auxiliary Legion , and their silence on that point is so remarkable as in itself to suggest more than one important interpretation . There are three modes in which the bill can be used , and we are not to suppose that the authors of the measure are blind to the powers which they have asked from . Parliament :.
The first anode would be , simply to enlist the subjects of such Governments on the Continent as would be willing to give their permission for that purpose . There are many Governments which mi ght be willing to do so . Austria , we may suppose , would bring all her own forces into the field ; but we may look for willing supplies from Brunswick , and some of the minor Governments of Germany , which pay some soldiers , and breed more soldiers , but have very littlo means to vender their armies locomotive , or to use them effectively for aggressive purposes . They have already signified their sympathy in tho war , and would probably be glad to enlist in tlic army of the allies , as
identifying themselves with the winning party on easy terms . Switzerland has a habit of lending its soldiers . Belgium might furnish a contingent , though Belgian soldiers do not stand at a high quotation . Portuguese are already volunteering , and would of course be lent by our ancient ally , who is out of harm ' s way , and only desires to conciliate England . Spain would probably reciprocate tho loan she had of Sir JDe Lacy Evans's Legion ; and Spaniards can fight well . Tuscany is about to receive Lord Nornianby as Envoy—and all Italians arc proud fco bo thought Tuscan p .
To tho second use of the bill wo linvo already alluded . It gives Ministers the power of enlisting foreign soldiers—a power they intend exercising . Governments on tho Continent might placo themselves in this position , that they should not bo allies coming into the field -with their armies , that they should , in fact , lend no assistance whatever in the contest , yet that they should not daro bo enemies , and yet dfuther ,, that tho position of neutrals would be abao-
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TO CORRESPONDENTS . All letters for the Editor sh . ovild . be addressed to 7 , Wellington-street , Strand , London . ~ No notico cau be taken , of anonymous communications . "Whatever is intended for insertion must l ) e authenticated t > y the name and address of the -writer ; not necessarily for publication , tout as a guarantee of his good faith . Communications should always be legibly written , and on one side of the paper only . If long , it increases the difficulty of finding space for them . "Wo cannot undertake to return rejected communications . It is impossible to acknowledge the mass of letters we receive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press of matter ; and "when omitted it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the communica tion .
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SATURDAY , DECEMBER 23 , 1854
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December 23 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1211
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 1211, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2070/page/11/
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