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hand , 'the purest and most elevated of those men who look for a better future for France , were often disgusted by its hollow reverberations of la glovre , la irictoire , lauriers , and gwerriers , and all the stalest echoes of Chauvinism . The purest liberals in France know too well what this worship of glory and victory has coBt to liberty , and iibi libertas iU pettria . They do not forget that the victories of the Empire of Kapo-leoi ? , like the conscriptions of the Empire of the
Cassi-KS , were more disastrous and more fatal than , the terrors of the Republic , and that hecatombs of patriotic youth and manhood , sacrificed to the godless ambition and the delirious vanity o £ one man , were ill repaid by diminished frontiers , by two invasions , by the foreign imposition of a despised dynasty , by the domination of hostile armies , and the Biibmission of an exhausted people . They do not forget the irreparable perversity of the ^ Republicans of 1830 , who , for eighteen
years , wilfull y confounded the cause of the Revolution with the Idolatries of the Empire , and brought hack with tears and acclamations the smouldering ashes of usurpation and oppression to consecrate anew a spurious title , and adorn a more" degrading servitude . They have been taught to forget the impious cant of " holy bayonets . " Holy bayone'ts , forsooth , which , after enslaving Europe in ifche name of Liberty , have garrotted France in the name of Napoleon .
If the Bieele is content with an apotheosis of stock-jobbers , and an apoplexy of stones and mortar , well and good , let it frankly recognise Imperial blessings ; but in the name of that freedom , which , in England , at least , we do not hail as a tocsin of insurrection , let us not hear any more of the odious and absurd cant of France being the " Polar Star of Nations , " the "Apostle of Liberty , * ' and we know not what besides . We love and honour France and the French
nation ; we count it our highest privilege and honour-to have won many friends among that gallant and generous people ; we are persuaded we shall not forfeit the friendships we so dearly prize by refusing to descend to false and fruitless flatteries . When the Bieele compares France to a luminary subject to occasional eclipses , we are moved to respectful pity "b y a comparison we feel to be in one sense just . But we must remind our contemporary that the eclipse of France is as universal as her light : if all Europe reflects the rays , all Europe is darkened by the eclipse .
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" THE WORD" IN THE STREETS . Ej > wa . e , d Sumner arid William Denison , gentlemen of iniddle life , persons of irreproachable character , habited in a black costume that generally commands respect , were plaeed before the magistrates in the Liverpool police-court on Monday last , charged with au offence not entirely new , but very strange in . this Christian land . Tliey had undertaken " to go and preach the "Word of the Son of God" in the open air ; and
literally their attempt to do so constituted the offence for which they were first taken in custody by the police , then lodged in the Bridewell , and then placed before the magistrate for judgment . Of course , in tho first instance , there is an impulse to suppose that the police had been over zealous in their vocation , but nothing is more clear than the fact that Inspector Chew felt himself " compelled to exectito a veiy disagreeable duty . " He pleaded the orders of the Stipendiary Magistrate , Mr . Mansifield ; but hero there
appeared to be some mistake . In November last there had " been , street preaching at tlie same spot in Liverpool ; the preaching collected persons of bad character ; much ribaldry was current ; n disturbance ensued ; and Mr . Mansfield gave orders that if the peace were interrupted , or the public thoroughfare obstructed , the police should take those who occasioned the interruption into custody . The place is near a large lamp-post , opposite ) to tho railway station . The missionaries , who are well known in tho Liverpool mission ,
declared that they wore " ordered , in a certain sense , to begin again , as the weather got fine . " Accordingly they recommenced on Monday ; a crowd was assembled ; thoro was " an obstruction ; " and , on con sidering thai fnct , Mr . Manbi ? ie : l : d " could not say that the police were wrong . " In reality , however , there appears to liavo been no difficulty in passing tho spot ; there was no rioting , except in consequence of tho forcible removal Q * tho missionaries ; and it is difficult to understand what offence was committed . Nevertheless , there wag a reason for tuo
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stincts were , as usual , unnational . The political change which took place 121 INTeufcbatel in 1848 was a means of strengthening the Federal G-overnment ^ eradicating the causes of an old quarrel , and fortifying the interests of the Liberal party in Europe . These considerations had no weight with Lord Malmes-BUEr . We hope that Mr . Disbaeli , should he ever become Foreign Minister—we say again , the comet may eat up the earth . —will be on his guard against G-erman snares . Otherwise he may as well return to his former levities , which were much more entertaining than the sententious affectation of
statesmanship and decorum exhibited last session- —and of quite as much importance to the House of Commons and the world at large . _ Lord MAiiMESBTniY having compromised us , Lord CiAEEisrixxN" seems not to have adopted any very honest principle as the clue to extricate him from the Swiss and Prussian difficulty . It seems that there is to be a compromise ; that is , the weaker party is to be ' sold ; ' the stronger party is to be complimented on its- moderation . Aristotle
says " Between unequal powers there are rarely equitable settlements ; " now , between the King of Prussia , and the Swiss Republic there is a settlement promised , which will sacrifice the rights of the one to the vanity of the other . It is easy to maintain that equity lies as often in a compromise as in an absolute decision ; but the King of Prussia . has no real lien upon the principality of Neufchatel . The Treaty of Vienna has long ceased to be the law of Europe ; and he lost
SWITZERLAND " SOLD" AGAIN . It is imderatood that Mr . Disraeli has been priming himself for the Foreign Secretaryship , in the event of a Derby Administration being formed . That contingency is possible ; it is possible that the earth may melt in the heat of the comet of June . But "we must b « pardoned for treating Tory
diplomacy as a matter rather of the past than <* f the future . "We have a memento of it in the JNeufchatel protocol , signed by Lord Maimbsbxitcy . It is true that the protocol contained no direct recognition of the Prussian claims but , when Chevalier Bunsest made his statement , it was indiscreet to record , simply , that such a statement had
peen made . Lord Matlmissbuky , whose only title to 'the foreign Secretaryship consisted m a jery indifferent reputation made by one of his ancestors , committed a gross diploma-X ^^ wf ^ » 1 Wd the Prussian alhdavit to be filed without a rejoinder . It was he that encouraged the demands against Switzorlatid ; he was either ignoran t or weak , or both , but he displayed a decided sympathy with the monarchical cause as oppoaed to that of tho Swiss Federation , and hia
inhis treaty rights just as Holland lost Belgium , and Turkey Greece ; and it was for the Congress , had diplomacy been just , to repeat the judgment pronounced in the cases of Greece and Belgium , and ratified the judgment of the revolution . Supposing , however , the Sultan had been . permitted still to enrol himself as Lord of Greece , and the Dutch king as Prince of Belgium , would that have satisfied Europe ? Yet England seems to be content that Frederick " William
should retain his title as Prince of Neufchatel , though without power to interfere in local affairs . Switzerland is to be gagged by a half-concession ^ Prussia is to be conciliated by the nominal admission of her sovereign claims . That is , the point in dispute is to be decided in favour of Prussia . And this is the result of eight conferences , presided over by the Mephistopheles of French diplomacy . It only remains for Prussia to approve of the bargain , and for Switzerland to acquiesce in the juggle .
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that . . might he in tlieir possession . J mighty open chest was placed at the church door to receive the tribute . In the even ing the people came skulking to gfre ^ their , books , shamefully and furtively a * mothers come to abandon their new-born infants at the turn-table of a foundling hospital . On Holy Thursday , at nine o ' clock in the evening , the auto-da-fe of 1857 took plaee in Fr There
ance . was a pompous ceremonythe ^ books were formed into a pile ;—two copies of Jocelyn , one olLaGMte d ' uuAnqe one of Thiees ' s ffistory of tlie French Mem lutimi , novels by Balzac , Dumas , and Sue MEBiMfeE's Colomb o two volumes of Miceelet , and Jules Simon's Natural Religion with an enormous number of comedies , Taudeville s , and illustrated newspapers . Then , in the solemn eveniug light , the clergy approacheain
A GREAT ACT OF 3 TAITH . The nineteenth , century burns books : we should not like to trust it with men ; otherwise heretics might fare worse than young wives , whose limbs are broiled in the Marquesas . "We can easily imagine Father Altonange piling the fagots of conformity , stripping the rebellious sons aud daughters of the Church to clothe tli « m in tlie San
Benito , painted with devils and flames , and watching them at the stake as the American daguerreotypist watched tho convulsive attitudes of a poor wretch who clung for three dayB to a ii'ock amid the thundering waters of Niagara . This Arcuange ia tho pastor of a French parish ; for some days , inspired by Catholic fervour , ho occupied himself in
drawing up a list of guilty books and journals . VoLTAiitM and the JDelats , GhiOHOE Sand and the Silicic , Balzac , Dumas , and Eughsne Sue . M . Tkiers also fell under what Shebidan would have called the superhuman anathema , with M . de Laaiaiitin : e . llttviug sacrificed hia own bad property , tho Father ordered all persona in tlio pariah to give up any writings by tho condemned authors
procession j two choristers preceded them carrying crosses covered with black veils- ' other attendants bore torches ; and in the sight of an immense crowd , Aechange lighted the pile and offered up the incense of his idolatry . When we speak of the civilization and . intelligence of the age , it-will be necessary in future to state what postal district is alluded to . What is the civilization of a country in which torture is practised , or the intelligence of a country in which a literary
auto-da-fe takesplace ? It will not do to say that King FekdiNand is a monster of despotism , and Father Auchange a miracle of stupidity ; there is many an ABCHANaE and many a Febdijtand doing the work of cruelty and fanaticism in Europe .
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¦ '¦ ¦' : ¦ f 3 m TEE LM 33 , E . fiu [ No . 3 ? 6 , SATmaiAv .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 25, 1857, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2190/page/14/
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