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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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intolerable . Prussia yields the most instance of such a power ; but Denmark also , like Prussia , displays a Government which claims a precarious alliance with this country , aad evidently leans towards Russia ; while the people , constitutionally , must sympathise , if not with England , yet with the allies . Ministers , therefore , might well enlist the subjects of both those powers ; and there are Holsteiners who would not be sorry to avenge the events of 1848—especially if England were obliged to declare by aefc that she then made a mistake . Should the Danish or Prussian Government
remonstrate with such an enlistment , our own Government might well say—You are not allied , you cannot he neutral , your own people belie your policy , how then , can we respect y our arrangements ? The mere hint , we say , that such a use might be made of the bill , would almost be sufficient screw upon the Governments of Denmark and of Prussia to make them know their duty . The third mode opens an extended list . The .-state of Europe as it is will not be the state of -Europe ' a . short , time hence * The continental ' •' Governments are taking measures to prepare
against a general disruption ; their own relations must be thrown into confusion , the allegiance of many must be rendered precarious , perhaps broken ; the armies of the * Continent Km ay be wandering without owners ; those who are now revolutionaries may be merged in the population , and England may well be able to engage fifty , a hundred thousand , a million of men , or any number that might be requisite to break down and trample under foot the tyrant of the world . Ministers hold the power in their hand : whether the hand is powerful enough to use it is a question , for whose solution time may furnish the opportunity .
We profess to be at home constitutionally afraid of a foreign force , and we wish to put restraints upon the Ministers and the mercenaries . For our own part we have little respect in that security which lies in the chains placed upon the enemy . Trust to those , and you have always the chance of his getting free . The true safety is to be strong- yourself . If
England fears foreign soldiers , the very fear proves her weakness , and suggests the remedy - —which is , to increase her strength proportionately . We are using up the Militia as a foreign army , we are stripping the country , we are confessing fear of foreigners in our own pay . Can we defy foreigners not in our pay in the service of the enemy ? We could do so if Ministers did that which the times render necessary— -arm the people !
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THE AUSTRIAN TKEA . TY . Names must not blind us to realities ; the memory of past facts must not veil to us the perception of present facts ; the preponderance of recent evidence one way must not make us presume that there ia to be no evidence the other way , especially when we have had reason to know that the case has not always been onesided . Austria , has been for generations the
nickname for all that is tyrannical , unjust , arbitrary , sanguinary , cruel , and intolerable . Aa a state holding by conquest states superior to herself , Auatria has , throughout the greater part of her history , been the representative of organised usurpation and constituted rapine . Nevertheless , we must admit that Yienna has from time to time been the Boat of great administrative faculties ; has been the abode of
princes worthy to rule empires , and has given birth to statesmanship sometimes superior to that of Mottornich . Kudolph was one of the great namea in history , fitted to rank with the Charlemagnea , the Napoleons , the Cassars , and the Clivea . One of the moat earnest , ardent , and , successful reformers of modern times , a
man who united in his own measures equivalents of our Reform Bill , our Free Trade , and our Catholic Emancipation—Leopold of Tuscany , was a Prince of the House of Austria , an Emperor of that hated name . Crotchety Joseph was a man of ability and sincerity . Austria , therefore , has not produced on ly Ferdinands and Metternichs ; has not only presented a hideous realisation of Machiavelli ' s
satire—the Prince . One of the reformers of 1848 was an Austrian statesman ; and the Austrian statesmen who mow shape the public affairs of that country , appear really able to comprehend the position in whi « h she is now placed , and to be advancing measures applicable to the rescue of the empire from the
destruction which seems to be the doom of absolute Governments . We do not say that we trust Austria ; we do not say that she has yet regained the confidence , or even the hope , of Europe . We do not forget that her acts , as at the present moment recorded , are before "us imperfectly , if at all . We see only a part of her action : but such as we do see we are bound
at least to observe with a candid mind , and to take it for -what it appears to be worth . What is the effect of the recent treaty ? It declares that the common object of Austria , as well as the Western Powers , is the restoration of general peace , with sufficient guarantees against the renewal of the present disturbance . There can be no such guarantee without a curling of the power of Russia j and Count
Buol and his colleagues must understand that necessity as well as any men in . this country , if not better . But Austria has "publicly , before Europe , recorded her acceptance of the position thus defined . Should peace not be concluded within the year , Austria will join with the Western Powers , and she pledges herself iu this treaty to join in deliberation for " effective" measures to attain the common
object . Let us bear in mind , that the position of Austria is , in fact , different from that of the Western Powers , inasmuch as she is not yet at war with Russia , which they are ; and no new act calls upon her to declare war , unless , after giving appropriate notice to the great Power of the North , she herself prepares the way for such an act on the part of Russia as may reasonably justify a declaration of war . Hence the interval of * one month between , not the ratification , but the signature of this treaty and the deliberation , on ulterior measures . Should
war ensue , the treaty becomes one , ipso Jitcto , offensive and defensive—that is , Austria becomea one in the triple alliance with the Western Powers to act as well as consult—to make aggressive warfare as "well as to defend . From the first she pledges herself not to entertain any separate overtures or propositions on the part of Russia . In fact , the joint action of Austria with the Western Powers
commenced from the 2 nd of December . Comparing the position of Austria at the present moment with her position in the spring , when she waa rather slowly acquiescing with the invitations of Prussia to unite in the quadruparfcite treaty , —and with lier position on the 20 th of April , when she had just gained a head
of Prussia , —ivo should observe a constant progress towards the position now assumed ; and we must admit that at each stago Austria , when we have least expected her , haa maintained her ground ; and after each stage has maintained her advance . " We repeat , we do not trust her —we do not even yet hope—but we watch her progress -with increasing interest .
In the series of diplomatic instruments on the part of Austria , wo have not yet had one constituting so distinct and active a bond as this . There are some circumstances which tend to confirm the belief of its importance , and of the active soquol contemplated in Viouna . The gift of tho Order of St . Stephen
to the Emperor Napoleon , shows that Austria intends really to be the comrade of France in the present situation , and not only intends it , but means Europe to know that she does so . It is now notorious in London that the Emperor Napoleon has admitted to an . English Member of Parliament his willingness to reestablish Poland as an independent State , if that should become necessary in a political and
military sense . The Emperor , who has expressed that opinion , is the person receiving the Order of St . Stephen from the Emperor of Austria . Lord Normanby , "who has recently been Minister at Paris , is now appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Tuscany—Tuscany one of the outposts of Austria , though not unacquainted with some degree of constitutional freedom .
Every sign continues to make us believe that Austria is preparing for rough times . It is , however , impossible that she can look forward to times of strife , without being prepared to revise the internal relations of her Empire . The war cannot be limited to the Crimea , or to the year 1854 ; it will extend to other years and other Empires ; and those who intend to
preserve a commanding position , must be prepared to adapt their counsels to the circumstances of the time . Either Au&tria is gambling in the maddest game that ever was witnessed , or she is" preparing for one of the grandest changes that ever has been witnessed in the development of States . Time will tell us whether she is ruled by wisdom or madness .
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PRESIDENT PIERCE'S MESSAGE . President Pierce ' s last Message to Congress is a State medal of that kind which presents all its information on the reverse . It tells us , in a positive sense , nothing new whatever . When it announces that the Republic is flourishing , ¦ with a revenue exceeding by 15 , 000 , 000 dollars the expenditure , it only informs us of what we know already . In announcing- that crops , although less abundant than they have been , are still amply sufficient for domestic
consumption , with a surplus for exportation , President Pierce tells his own countrymen exactly what we have told our readers weeks , 5 f not months , ago . We knew that " a universal drought , totaHy destroying the crops , " must have been a great Liverpool-Yankee lie , intended for corn-jobbing purposes on our side . We are informed that the ratifications have been exchanged of a treaty to regulate the coast fisheries of Great Britain and the reciprocal trade between the Republic and the British North American Provinces ;
which we knew already . The President relates the affair of the Cyane at Greytotvn , in soft and plausible terms , so as to excuse Captain Hollins and the Government which gave him loose instructions , while , by the very moderation of that excuse , disarming any remains of irritation on the part of Great Britain . All the positive statements of the Message are such as could have been much more satisfactorily
compiled by any reader of our own paper . It is in things which Prosident Pierce does not say that we find tho fullest information . For example , the position of affairs with Spain remains just as it was at tho end of the last session of Congress ; but the now Government established by the revolution gives reason to bolievo that the American Minister will find the present Government more favourably
inclined than the last to comply with the just demands of tho United States ; a statement from which wo loarn that the Government which has obstructed tho Order of the Lono Star has not yet done anything towards settling tho vital question of Cuba . President Pierce expects that tho Government of Espartoro will bo more willing to soil Cuba at a bargain than tho Government of his nrede-
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. 3 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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P lutely signal f 121 pr *** &x lZZ I , *» sie-nal
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 23, 1854, page 1212, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2070/page/12/
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