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corps , memorialising the Queen respecting certain mditktY regrifeticinh . This id the offence of the Prince . Whfe « heT he is right or wrong , as a matter kif losie jihd fairness , in the prayer of the memorial , is iiotffhffquestion ; even si . Prince Consort is not expected to be infallible , and we are not entitled to be very angry should he happen to be very much in the ¦ wr ong . What vexes us is the anomaly . That is what -we cannot endure . We are utterly-unused to that ; To be sure there are some odd things in the constitution . A Sovereign without power ; a State Church which here only embraces half -the population * and , in Ireland , not a third of the population ; born legislators ; a House of Commons , which represents but a Small quota of the people ; free and independent burge&ses ; and most of the elections conducted by corruption ; a City of London corporation , which has nothing to do with seven-eightha of London ; field-marshals who never saw a shot fired in anger , or out of the Park—field-marshals incapable of taking the field . Why , it is rather an anomaly to pay « . Prince on becoming the husband of the Queen , who . has no power . It is rather an anomaly to have a prince Consort , paid on becoming the husband of the Queen , refusing to pay taxes on his farms , taking Rangerships of Parks which he seldom sees and never superintends , and becoming colonel of regiinehts which never saw him ; such sinecures—and the word sinecure , not strange to English ears , even in these days , suggesting anomaly—being reserved generally for old and worn out and highly meritorious , Kttd not otherwise greatly over-paid public servants , civilians and soldiers . But we are a practical people . Human nature is an anomaly , and English affairs are anomalous ; and we don't tease ourselves about symmetries and theories when we find a thing workB . The British constitution works ; therefore we are content with , the British constitution . Why not be as unscrupulous , and display as much common sense in respect to the Prince Consort ? His Royal Highness is a magnificent anomaly , an alter ego means the preternatural ; and we ought to make the best of him , in the English way . A Prussian ambassador to this country once said : " When I was in England a month I thought of writing-a book about her ; when I had stayed six months I saw that that would not be very easy ; and when 1 had been there a year I saw that I could say nothing positively , for that it was rather a difficult country to understand . " How we must puzzle Prince Albert ? Let us consider his experiences , and we shall find that the wonder is not that he is found memorialising the Queen on the subject of Guards ' privileges , but that he is not ruling at the Horse Guards , and , as chief there , besides being as alter ego of the Sovereign , tete d ' armde , establishing his will without reference to ' Line' opinion , or public opinion . ! Ihe concessions made to him have been such that had he been less strong minded and less sensible than he is , they would have enabled him without noise , without obtrusion , and almost without notice , to have altered the character of the English Monarchy , and made Queen "Victoria what William the Third was— 'her own Foreign Minister , and her own Commander-in-Chief . His three moving periods of unpopularity have been under these circumstances . A fussy Lord Mayor in 1862 , backed by a , popular bishop , proposed a statue to Prince Albert , to be paid for by , public subscription , to be erected in some part of the metropolis not less conspicuous than that disfigured by the Nelson column , and to be considered as the commemorative monument of the Great Exhibition of 1851 , the -whole credit and merit of which were ¦ unreservedly assigned to the Prince by his too good naturecl friends . The suggestion was a silliness as respected the Prince , and was an impertinence to the public But what happened 1 Several thousand pounds were rapturously subscribed , the list being headed by those chief men of his nation who ought to have b » eu guardians of public decency and the first to oheok these personal pretensions of private power , t ^ q Prince doolined the premature demi-divinity , W undergoing a hurricane of praise from public meetings and a storm of abuse from public papers . Hia next misfortune was , to be found out in the not that he assisted , the Queen in supervising Foreign Office correspondence , and . that , generally , he waa at he ? side when ahe transacted business with her ministers . The roar of the press and . especially of tfo ? liberal press , —aghast , on democratic- grounds at tfcip interference of tho crown with . theoligarchy when tiwdiscovery had been fully elaborated , was terrifying , i » $ the Prince seems to have called the Whigs to the m < l « qe > and , while awaiting a . constitutional definition » f hjfi fights , to have abandoned his wife—so far , ao-« K >» di « g to the old constitutional court law in divorce 4 ftft < Kb : allowing his , privilege to lapse with disuse . I # > td jTobn Russell in one House , ana Lord Aberdeen in the other , with Lord Campbell to edit them both , fate ijl the , olamour . admitted the whole case , and rather MW&IajBantly and inoitingly complimented tho Prince « l ^ ( feeing content with functions bo limited . What resulted ? Tho olamour died away : the Prince , con-¦
. ceding nothing , encouraged to advance in his constitutional approaches , had gained his point ; and , then , most princes would have taken care to turn Whig politeness to account , and annihilated something of the Dbgeship of the British Monarchy . Yet there are no signs that he has altered our system , and the facility with which the Queen gave up the happy coalition which her husband was supposed to have been chiefly instrumental in forming , suggests that his Royal Highness' temper and temperament had not been spoiled either by popular inconsistencies or by administrative adulation . On the next occasion of his appearance before the incoherent public tribunal , he had made a speech at the Trinity House . Lord Palmerston , not yet steadied into his seat , was struggling with military confusion in the Crimea and popular chaos in Parliament ; and the Prince , with considerate kindness to a new friend , pointed out that a constitutional state carrying on war stands in need of great patience and much endurance on the part of the people , since during war absolutism was rather the best form of government . At the moment , this was perhaps a general notion among the unreflecting mass of the public , and the Prince , only checked here and there , was warmly applauded for his outspokenness . Again he appears ti > have resisted the temptation . Never was a Parliament more unruly than Lord Palmerston ' s last session ; and yet the Prince kept his fingers off the bauble , and Mr . Lefevre is calmly on his way to a Peerage . A Prince who . has had encouragements of this kind , and avails himself of none of them , is not likely knowingly to step beyond his proper functions or exceed his just rights when a deputation from the Guards' club waits upon him , to state their grievances and solicit their brother officer to co-operate with them . Did the public which did not disapprove of his taking a regiment on Wellington ' s death , expect him to discard all the duties of his new position , and to resolve to abnegate esprit de corps ? The Prince was wise and honest enough to refuse Wellington's offer—and Wellington in that day could have carried it—of the Horse Guards , and doubtless calculated that the country would not grudge him a colonelcy , with all the duties thereto appertaining . The public and the Prince must take the consequences of anomalousness in their relations , and be prepared for collisions of this character . When they occur , the public and the press will show most selfrespect by not exaggerating the importance of the point in dispute . A "facetious contemporary" naturally takes advantage of the fuss to jeer at the anomaly itself , and to suggest that a field-marshal who never was in the wars , had best pocket his pay , and leave military matters alone . But leading journals should not copy facetious contemporaries . Leading journals dp not want to get rid of the anomaly , and therefore must encourage it as best they can . Non-Electob .
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1 ^ 6 ,. _ . . ? Et . ff LEADER . [ No . 300 , Saturday ,
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WHAT SHALL WE GAIN BY THE WAR ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —Let us now consider the question of the war with Russia , and its probable results from the same point of view as that taken by the hot-blooded section of tho War Party , comprising men who heartily sympathise with the cause of freedom , and hope , by the humiliation of RusBia , to effect the emancipation of oppressed communities , and down-trodden nationalities . But , in addition to sympathy with tho oppressed , there is prevalent in many minds an indignation against Russia , as against some monstrous prodigy of cruelty and crime . Doubtless , great historical crimes do lie at the door of Russia , and if nations are to be deemed amenable to human justice in the same manner as individuals , punishment may be righteously inflicted on tho present population of Russia . But few , however , who can reason on this subject without hysterical exoitemont , will maintain that ono generation should be punished for tho orimos of the one that has preooded it , or that a whole population shoxild be subjected to every species of misery in order that some reflected rays of that misery may faintly fall upon the heads of their guilty rulers . There is no doubt that the object of dwelling upon the orimea of Russia is -to foment the martial excitement of the English people . Cool motives of aolf-intereafc , and even earnest wishes for the deliverance of the oppressed inhabitants ) of mis-governed countries might not avail to atir up tho hearts of tho multitude . An
effusion of hatred is needed to raise the excitement to blood heat . In some measure , then , to counteract this influence , and remove the question of the war from the regions of passion and resentment , it may bo well to call to mtad that Russia , in endeavouring to overflow its original boundaries , obeyed the common instincts of Bemi-eivilised tribes occupying ungenial and sterile districts whieh lie contiguous to such as are mild and fruitful . The aggressive tendency of Russia is not then wantonly malignant — it is merely vulgarly selfish . We ourselves , proud as vye are of our civilisation , have condescended to pursue the same policy wherever it seemed to be worth our while . Let us divest our minds of the childish , hobgoblin notion of Russia , so anxiously propagated by weak or excitable minds . Russia is not demoniacal , she is simply human . Certain territories are likely to prove useful to her . She endeavours to clutch them . If we think that her doing so will be prejudicial to our own safety , we are warranted in crying " Hands off I" and enforcing our exclamation , if requisite , by as heavy a blow as we can manage to give her . But to preach a crusade against Russia as * against some common enemy of mankind , is ridiculous . Her vices are European , and , let us add , her power for mischief by no means formidable . She is neither to be detested nor dreaded , as some would have us believe . France has overrun Europe , and might possibly do so again , particularly when Russia shall be reduced to the requisite degree of prostration . But Russia failed even to penetrate into Bulgaria , though opposed only by the rude soldiery of a nation more barbarous than herself . This is one reason why I maintain that Russia is not to be dreaded . Why she is not to be detested I have partly shown , and must add that , whatever may be her deficiencies , it is not for us who blandly permitted the atrocities of Juggernaut , who winked at widowburning , who pocketed a revenue extorted , as recent evidence has shown , in many instances , by torture , it is not for us to throw the first stone at her government and her people .. Having said this much in explanation rather than in defence of Russia's aggressive policy , let us dispassionately consider how the cause of freedom can be advanced by the indefinite warfare we are now waging against that power . Who is the prime mover in the present war ? Napoleon III . Who holds the reins ?—who is master of the situation ? Napoleon III . Who has reaped the greatest benefits from the war , and who can and will stop that war the moment it ceases to be beneficial to him ? Napoleon III . Now , if our heartfelt wish is to encourage and uplift the crushed communities of Europe , it is of vital importance to ascertain what are the opinions , and what the real interests of this extraordinary man , who , thanks to the policy of this country , now stands supreme amidst the sovereigns of Europe , and dictates peace or war according to his own will , and with reference simply to his own immediate interests . Let him speak for himself . He announces himself to be the apostle of order . Change " Varsovie" for " Paris" and we may say , "L ' ordre regne en Paris . " " Facit solitudinem pacem appellat . " He plants an armed heel upon the neck of the French nation , and exclaims with dignity , " L'Empire e ' est la paix ! " Perhaps , for the time being , he was the only safeguard agaiust Red Republicanism j perhaps he was a necessary evil , a grim * inevitable nuisance , like the family apothecary , or the confidential solicitor . Perhaps the law of self-preservationurged him on , and still instigates his every movement . With this I have nothing to do . The fact remains the same that Louis Napoleon is a despot . He rose by despotism , he reigns by despotism , ho lives by despotism . It ia his interest to sustain the spirit of deepotism throughout the whole globe . Each vibration of freedom , howevor far off from France , shakes the Imperial throne . It is with the Emperor a matter of life and death that the established authorities throughout Europe should romain sacredly intact . Tho case , theu , stands thus : —A despot ia the prime mover in tho present war . A despot holds the reins , aud is master of the situation . A despot has reaped tho greatest benefits from , tho war , and can stop that war the instant it ceases to be beneficial to him . Now , when will the war cease to be beneficial to him ? Clearly at the precise moment when it commences to be beneficial to the causo of freedom . For instance : the war is certainly unpopular in many parta of Franco . So soon a » that unpopularity begins to oxcite a feeling of impatient disgust , dangerous to tho stability of the Imperial regime , Napoleon will make poivco . So soon as the disturbing influences of war manifestly begin to permeato through the masses on tho Continent , at presont restrained by tho vigour of despotic governments , and mischief appears to bo brewing , Napoleon will make peace . So soon ns there is an opening for nationalities to ri « e , and the hour and the man draw near , Napoleon will make peace . Need 1 say jmoro to prove that so far as tho cause of freedom is concerned , tho war with Russia is a mockery and a sham ? I am , sir , faithfully yours , Deo . 17 , 1865 . Akthub H . ELTON .
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There is no learned man . but -will confess lie hath xnxich . profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If . then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable fox- his adversary to write ?—MitTOM .
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 22, 1855, page 1226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2120/page/14/
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