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
the t © ne of the press of Piedmont is really alarming to those who had begun to hope that the experiment of constitutional government was being tried with suecess in that country . The writers should learn , or be made to learn , that liberty is never protected by laws and regulations . It must rely chiefly for safety on public spirit , on the diffusion of wholesome ideas—on love , generally spread , of what is good , and hatred of what is evil . If those who undertake to form the doctrines of a country throw over at the first opportunity the wholesome maxims of justice , and go trooping after immediate advantage ; if they are ready to flatter tyranny because it is strong and rampant in a neighbouring country , and connive at its immoral schemes of aggrandizement , we may expect soon to see them deprived even of the license to do this wrong , and fall deservedly back to the intellectual thraldom of Loinbardy or France . What is Count Cavour doing ? Does he read the papers which occasionally receive subsidies from , the treasury ? Is he aware that they re ceive , probably , subsidies from a different quarter ? Is he too weak , too indolent , too confident , or too corrupt to check these misdeeds ? Why is the task of explaining their policy left to an opposition paper ? and why is that paper prosecuted ? Is that really true , which some of our letters tell us , that the omnipotent minister has succeeded in persuading the invalid King that the offer of Lombardy—though strangled between France and Southern Italy—is worth thinldng of ? This seems rather the representation of a political enemy ; and we are inclined almost to accept the version of an unprejudiced observer , who tells us that as far as he can make out , the faction of Lucien Mukat is only partially triumphant ; that it is besieging the doors of the palace , but has not yet got a firm footing inside ; that the press is allowed to speak in order to see which way the wind blows , but that- honesty and prudence have yet sufficient sway to render it probable , at least , that before the meeting of the Sardinian Parliament , something will be done to prove that the offers which have been weighed have not been accepted . However this may be , one thing is certain , — if Piedmont assists in spreading tho Bonapartist Plague through Europe , it will not itself remain uncontaniinated ; or , to speak without figures , if Vieron Emmanuel is an accomplice , directly or indirectly , in placing Lucien Murat on the throne of Naples , he will most certainly be the last King of his race ; and tho provinces lio governsalready with so much difficulty held togetherwill definitively separate , and , according to their various affections , go to join more powerful states ! Has not Piedmont a nobler object than to be the cat ' s paw of fraud and violence .
Untitled Article
THE BASIS OF AN AUMY . Much has been written in theselatter daj ' s respecting our military institutions . They have been tried and judged by a high standard , and found wanting . Tho old British courage has rung as truly on the fields of tho Crimea , as ever it rung on tho plains of Prance , or Spain , or Belgium . There has not been even the shade of cowardice ; no , not even at tho Ucdan . Nevertheless , in tho higher branches of military business , there has been great deficiency , much lack of selfhopefulness among the men , much lack of toughness ) and hardness in tho ranks , and , with all due respect to bravo men , deplorable deficiencies among tho officers . Tho great war has wakened us all up to a sense of these tilings ; has set men looking for the causes thereof ; and some good must come both to tho army and the nation from the inquiry and the stir it brings along v / iph it . Perhaps tho causes lio deeper than men can see , or like to acknowledge , -when thoy do
see them . Perhaps it is not only in the foijms of our military institutions that we should look for the evils we deplore . Perhaps the reason why we do not get good officers is not only because co mmissions are bought , sold , and seldom freely given to any but men bearing the repute of born gentlemen . Perhaps our supply of good soldiers does not fall short solely because the pay is not high enough , because the bounty is not high enough , because the military career of most privates ends with the sergeant ' s golden stripes . Perhaps the want of both officers and men may be traceable to other causes , as well as these , causes that lie below forms down in the roots of reality . War is an evil , but not an evil unmixed with good ; for nothing that is inevitable , and clearly written in the tablets of man ' s destiny , 110 work , however sanguinary and horrible , that is there set down for him to do can be wholly bad . Ifs o , should not a nation be always prepared for war ? We do not mean that a nation should be always in an offensive attitude , armed from head to foot , and ready to take the field . Such a state of things would be far more intolerable than any state in which tho British nation has yet found itself . But we mean that a nation should be always prepared , by previous habits , customs , and institutions , either to hold its own against invaders , or to bear its part in any military work necessary for the world ' s true peace , and the upholding of public law . " The page of ! history , " wrote Sir Charles Pasley , fifty years ! ago , " exhibits to nations , if they would attend to it , without being led by vanity and pride , the instructive lesson of one state constantly overpowering another , not by superior freedom , virtue , and patriotism , for the free , the corrupted , and tho enslaved , have equally flourished and equally fallen by turns ; but by having more numerous , braver , better organized ajid better commanded armies , with a more vigorous system of martial policy , and a better mode of repairing disasters in war . " If this be so , how did we stand at the outset of this war ? We may say , almost unprepared . We had gone on doing very necessary work , truly ; amending the Constitution , clearing away obsolete and noxious laws , spreading our commerce far and wide , setting commerce free , educating , by little and little , our masses . But we had forgotten our army ; we had almost forgotten our navy ; and what is worse , we squandered immense sums upon these machines , not for true military purposes , but to provide posts for younger sons , and playthings for our so-called aristocracy . Nor was this all . Wo not only weakened and neglected our military institutions — we divorced them from tho nation . Tho diameter of the soldier , which assuredly should stand high , was contemned and depreciated on all sidoa , what wonder then that it was in many cases not an admirable—nay , a dcspicablo thing . True , in those latter years , public opinion 1 ms changed , and much has been done to elevate the soldier ; but wo have not gono to tho root of tho matter , wo havo not rightly attempted to elevate the character of tho youth beforo ho becomes a soldier . It is thcro that we shall find tho key to tho weakness of our military institutions . " The secret , " says Sir William Naimku , " of making perfect soldiers is only to ho found in national customs and institution . ^; men should como to tho ranks fated by provioiiH habits for military service , in . ' -tead of being . stretched , as it , were , upon 11 in bed of Procrustes , by a discipline which has no resource but fear . " JDoes not thin truth point to the fact that it i . s in tho renovation of our national habits that wo must seek the renovation of our nriny ? Does it not point to something more than increased pay and increased bounty V Does It not warn u . stlinl if wo would have an army at command at any lime , wo j
must have a people accustomed to arms , hardened by athletic exercises , by the free use of tluitlimbs and senses from an early age , at command also ? British manhood , as we have said , is not degenerate ; it only needs that free education of the body -which so many are striving to give to the mind , to make it go as far , and last as long in war , as British manhood ever went in times gone by , and with a far higher character . The primary remedy , therefore , we propose , is liberty of drilling for all young Englishmen who choose to belong to independent companies , duly and publicly formed for that purpose ; compulsory drill for all young Englishmen who do not so choose . Let every youth in the United Kingdom be taught to handle the Miuie rifle , and learn tho simpler tactics . Let them , also , bo taught the duties of their position as Englishmen , and be imbued Avilh the spirit of honour . Let them be inured to hardships , and taught tho virtues of patience , fortitude , and obedience . Let them be instructed in the mysteries of helping themselves , and disciplined into self-possession . This training could be instituted in every village , in every town throughout the country ; and the good that would follow to society is incalculable . Could there be imagined a more perfect sanitary training for the youth of England than military drill and all that it implies ? Would not the adoption of measures like these not only fill the ranks of the army with noble soldiers , but the ranks of society with true and helpful men 1 ^ The basis of our army , as we conceive it , is tho nation , and the perfection of that army will be , in nearly every case , in proportion to the health , strength , and general soundness of the natinn from which it is derived .
Untitled Article
HOW TO MAKE BIJEAD CHEAP The price of bread suggests two questions which are pressed upon us for a practical answer . 1 . Why is bread dear 1 2 . How can it bo made cheap ? We will answer the first question first , since the reply will enable us more easily to understand tho answer to the second question . If England were separated from all the rest of tho world , and if the people knew exactly what they were about , it is probable that at this moment bread ought to be just one-tenth dearer than it is in ordinary years , because the crop of corn is probably onetenth less in quantity than it usually is . If England Averc separated from all the rest of the world , no arrangement by Government , or by Provision Leagues , or by any other machinery , could prevent bread from being one-tenth dearer to the purchaser . In other words , by no exertion could tho people of this country obtain ten-tenths whore thcro is only nine-tenths to bo had . England , however , is not separated from the rest of tho world . Free-trade has permitted tho incoming and tho outgoing of all kinds of grain . Now it happens that in the adjacent country of Franco there is a deficiency in tho crop , tho exuet amount of which is not known . Tho wheat crop is sometimes guessed to bo onotenth deficient , but its quality is good . Tho I < Ycnch people arc not so exclusively devoted to the use of wheat as avo arc ; they also use , especially towards the south , rye , buckwheat , mtu '/ . o , potatoes , and even chestnuts . Whcul will be , dearer in Franco , but it is prohubK ; tliafc ono C'lttjctof the dealings Avill be to maluj a larger number of people nso other kind ) <> '' ' ' " <> , especially those which we have named . Ui'iico , possibly , the price of wheat , will w » L /><• jm ^ ed upwards exactly so much Inn '" ' ' fH "" ' l ( J l " - tion of tho deficiency ; nml , vnn ^ qnmtly , Ifio demand on behalf of Knince > u'H ¦ ¦"« l >« ¦ ' ' . ' U ™ -11 h . h it would otherwise Unv » hann . ' << ' '<< " , '' though it is at present very donl-Mul u . ..... <» m , a dericiencr in non . a , « . rM ol tl . « , .. ' ..-. Im . i ., 1 m U , o east of Knropo ; and thc-io d-hu , ¦ neus w
Untitled Article
ttl ^ ^ ^ SB ^ l - THEXEADJR . 105 S
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1855, page 1055, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2113/page/11/
-