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claim to be their leader , and they will elect him to that dignity . What they disbelieve is that any man , occupying ah Italian throne , and forming a part ot the European system of royalty , statesmanship , and diplomacy , can he the representative of national nineteenthcentury principles . The unsuccessful re-Volts— misfortunes of Italy , attributed to Mazzini as crimes—are the evidences of an
impatience beyond Ms control . How is he , an eaile , in obscurity , compelled to mask his proceedings , and to communicate with , his friends , by processes which are mysterious to the police—how is he to curb the violent and untaught enthusiasm of Massa-Carrara ? Or may not the tocsin be sounded , at any hour , at some distant point of the peninsula , / without his sanction or knowledge ? It is true that he possesses vast influence ; but political leaders are seldom so powerful to restrain , as to impel . " When the event comes , "when
Piedmont and Austria are engaged , when the general body of the Italian nation make new sacrifices for their independence , it will he known to whom , the imputations of selfishness and treachery should apply . The Italians have . learned many lessons : they have learned tobate the French Government , and to distrust the English ; to regard Austria as their mortal enemy , and to ask from Piedmont for proofs of reafc national devotion ; but , on the part of their own leaders , of Garibaldi and of Mazzini , they have never witnesse d any
act of lukewarm patriotism , or of equivocal honour . If they cannot trust the statesmanship of these men , they can trust their virtues . JEven by the test of statesmanship fchey stand well in comparison with the pretenders who have aspired to take from them their moral sovereignty over a great mass of the Italian nation . They have no uSTovara in their annals they have Venice , Milan , Home ; when Italy was last subdued / by the Stranger , it -was by Austria overcoming Pie dmont , " and by Trance violating Home .
" We may well watch , with solicitude , the preparations for conflict along the Sardinian frontier . But of this we may be well nssuied : —that the organized forces of Piedmont are unequal to a contest with the organized forces of Austria ; it is only by rousing the entire nation that Piedmont can make a stand worthy of the Italian cause .
And it is only by proving herself free from the miserable lust of self-aggrandisement that she can ever hope to rouse the people . There is room in Italy for Piedmont 5 there is no room for the Stranger . Every true friend of that long-suffering country will , therefore , encourage her liberal leaders in organizing an army to fight her battle of independence , within and without the Piedmontese frontier .
Whatis it to the Italians that Alessandria is well fortified , if they have no muskets for their share of the struggle ? The struggle is coming , and England , not less than Italy , has positive duties to perform .
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THE CHimCH INSOLVENT . We have been too slow to notice a great explosion in the Church . The Establishment declares itself bankrupt ; it cannot pay even the wages of its servants ; its curates and its incumbents are in . a position to enter a distringas upon its goods , only its goods have been made away with , and carried off into " lay impropriation . " " We are not exaggerating , we are not misrepresenting ; we take the ease upon the showing of the clergy themselves , their loud-spoken attorney the Times , and their prudent adviser the Spectator .
The scandal began early in the month , with a letter from " A Curate" alluding to a particular case— -the case of " the Essex Curate . " This gentleman had been compelled to resign his curacy under the joint effect of peeuniai'y difficulties , ill health , and a screwing agreement with his vicar . The vicar had stipulated that the curate should accept a less salary than the Act of Parliament accords . The
curate held that he was to lave a fixed stipend of 80 Z . a year , with Easter offerings : the Easter offerings never amounted to more than 51 ., the stipend not more than GOl . The curate resigned . On an appeal to the Bishop , the Prelate expressed himself helpless , hut added : " I shall be glad of any pecuniary assistance he may receive ;"; and the readers
of the Times " mercifully sent for the benefit of this poor curate 400 Z . " If we may take this case , then , the clergy of the Church are dependent , partly upon salary , partly upon tho little gains which they can screw out of cacli other , and partly upon charity . Here the Times bursts in with its indignation . In vindication of the poor curate ifc sets itself to paint a picture of ' educated , misery : 'Ono correspondent lately instanced a list of thirty advertisements from clergymen in search of curates . 0 ut of this number ono only offered . 100 / . a year , one 90 / ., one or two 80 ? ., and tho rest rapidly fell from 70 / . down . to 2 G / ., with a small furnished house , tho rector licing non-resident . Ono incumbent offered 501 . a year , with the use of tho rectory-house , th . es curato to buy tho furniture at a valuation cf SCO / . Another oflfored 70 / . in , a parish of nearly 6000 , -whero -there -was daily service . Some appealed to wealthy clergymen for gratuitous osaistanco . Seven offered CO / , a year , or the pay of a schoolmaster .
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every addition of freedom . Its Government is as prosperous as tlie whole community . Thus we see that freedom permits a healthy and vigorous growth in the social and political soil , as well as on the ground of agriculbure or trade . Yet so slow are we to extend our ideas , that not only Governments in despotic countries , but Governments in free countries , are afraid of freedom . The country which boasts of its freedom of trade still clings to protection in politicBf ^ Ve have a Parliament elected under a protective tariff for the franchise , and the consequence is an inferior Parliament and a discontented multitude of tlie disfranchised .
The same principle , indeed , holds good throughout all branches of polity ; it holds good in moral legislation as well as in political or commercial . But this view of freedom is yet scarcely beginning to- dawn upon the minds of those that boast themselves most free from antiquated fallacies . Our social laws , framed by honourable members under the wisdom of the dominant party and the
convinced or the expediency . Belgium invites people from all countries of Europe to assist in considering its new opinions , which it has partially carried out with considerable success , and the conclave is attended by notables from England , Switzerland , Piedmont , Tuscany , Holland , the Hanse Towns , France , Spain , [ Russia , and even Austria . All these countries are more or less moving in the same direction— -some of them very mueh less- -but gradually the public opinion of them all is converging upon the belief that commerce can be best cultivated when it is perfectly free .
The argument ruiis thus . If you attempt to pass a law rendering any existing arrangement permanent , you prevent improvement . If you forbid machinery to protect an existing handicraft , you debar the labourer himself from a participation in human progress , and from the chance of bettering bis own condition . The power-loom weaver is better off than the hand-loom weaver . The sempstress can earn twice as much with tlie
sewing-machine as With her unassisted hands , although the labour is less . If you-attempt to protect the trade of a country , you restrain all classes for the benefit of one "; and that one class becomes wedded to old arrangements that ought to be outgrown . It loses by the restraint put upon other classes , and its own gain is a fiction , for which the interest of the entire community is sacrificed . England has established that problem , by the establishment of free trade in coth . Sir
tiA-icES G-eaham made a slip at the Carlisle dinner the other day when , as an agriculturist , he expressed a fear that Russia would adopt free trade , since she must then be so prosperous . Why not ? If all the world were absolutely free , it would necessarily set itself to the largest amount of production . But the climates of the world are So varied , the
gemus of mankind is so altered by climate , that the products of the globe must vary as much as the aspect of the countries . If all races produced their maximum they would all be in the richest state , they would all have the greatest possible variety of commodities to exchange , and trade would necessarily be at its maximum—especially if the intercourse between all countries were absolutely free .
This idea is gradually establishing itself , and in most civilized communities absolute freedom is found to be the best for commerce . The natural capacities , desires , and tendencies of mankind suffice to secure us ample supplies , an < j . so bring about the best order , if they are simply let alone . Sir James G-haham stated at the same Carlisle dinner , that agriculture can
onlyflourish in a soil and atmosphere of perfect freedom . Iiong leases and agrarian stipulations embarrass the farmer ; even social and political freedom are necessary to bring out all his energies . A people becomes free in proportion as it is educated . Let the labourer know , a little more , and he will not be ' put upon' by the fai'mer . The Irish people have received a great access of freedom and education for the
generation now rising to maturity . That generation enjoys much better wages , and agriculture is much mote productive . Ireland ia richer , is tranquil . The King of Piedmont ? lately endowed his whole kingdom with a share of freedom about equal to that which we enjoy in England . Piedmont becomes a contrast to the whole of Italy . Its people are contented , its towns are improving , while those of other States are declining . Its highways are safe , while Homo is torn by brigandage . Its King can scarcely shpw himself without a popular welcome , wh ' ile King ITebdinawd muBt be hedged in lest ho bo shot . Ita revenue is xising with
THE MERITS OP FREEDOM DISCO YERED . Belgium : is awaltened to a sense of the grand truth that commerce can be moBt successfully prosecuted when it is conducted in a state of P-erfect freedom . The Belgian Customs Reform Association has been created solely to present this idea to the Belgian people , who are . ready to receive it , and who reply through their provincial towns that the idea is excellent , and ought to le carried out . The Belgian Government ; patronizes the Association , and £ ST f } 8 UCC ( ^ Belgium still labours under the remains of , protective duties , local Hn ^ i?—l ? H ™ ctions of ™™ y kinds So difficult is it to shakeoff the lumber of old notions and cuatoma , oven when au entire nation , its Government and people are fullv
Hayter for the time being , are a mass of protection as complicated , of fallacies as absurd and as miserable in the result as any law for the protection of the corn trade . The principles which justified free trade as a theory , and by virtue of which it has fulfilled its promises in fact , apply exactly to the whole round of government—not excepting even religion . Let the reader think out the problem for himself .
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924 T H E Iu E A Djj ^ __^_____ j ?* 0 - 3 A 0 / Satub 3 > ay ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 27, 1856, page 924, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2160/page/12/
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