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TRIUMPH OF THE OPPOSITION IN rilANCE.
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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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tbat he should not betray his contempt for the House of Commons , or allow his wbippers-in to boast so shamelessly of ' those rank majorities which swarm from the hire of the Treasury , and blacken the seats of the Senate . ' The country will tire of his vulgar clarion , and ask what have been the works of a Minister whose mouth is in every man s ear , but whose policy is a blank , and whose supporters constitute a voiceless , shapeless , and senseless mass .
The Court Bully came down to Parliament at the opening of the session , and told the Liberals that he would postpone political reform , in order that he might clear off a large account of necessary practical improvements . His would be a government of conscientious admin i stration and careful economy . It is no such thing . Lord Palmekston defends every job , and insults those who endeavour to explode it . When a member of
Parliament states a grave question seriously , Lord Palme eston ' hopes he has had his swing , ' and takes his own swing in a tone of triumph and defiance very painful to his friends , and most offensive to those who sit around him . We knew that this year the Cabinet would have no policy , postpone reform , oppose the ballot , and shirk the property qualification question ; but where is the retrenchment that was promised , and what if the House of Commons were to be
bullied into silence by the Minister ? Is a politician elected by a great constituency that he may sit in Parliament , cross his hands upon his knees , and not annoy the Premier ? Is debate ' haggling , ' and economy ' boggling ? ' Is a motion of Lord Palmebston ' s clenched fist equivalent to half the arguments in a spirited debate ? Perhaps the noble Lord is a
consumer of hasheesh , and mistakes himself for a bully in a brigadier ' s uniform quelling a mutiny . The House of Commons is composed sufficiently often of * a mob of gentlemen who vote with ease , ' bnt a corrupt and contumacious Minister may go too far . Lord Palmeksxon has begun to lose his hold upon the House of Commons ; he had packed one of the most obsequious majorities that ever aped the attitudes of
independence , but his supporters are falling away ; he has been beaten six or seven times within a fortnight , and from the day on which Mr . Haytjbh gave vent to his oleaginous chuckle— ' something like a House '—there has been reckless trading on the part of the Government . Even the Liberal party will throw a Minister who antics too freely in the saddle ; and if Lord Palmerston cannot school himself into decency , if not dignity , he may find before another session opens that the occupation of a Court Bully ia gone , and tlmfc there are men in the House who willuot be ridden down by a political dragoon .
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THE ITALIA . N INSURRECTIONS . As yet we cannot assume ourselves to be in possession of all the facts connected with the unsuccessful insurrection which has just put all the governments of Italy on the qui vive . Judging from what we do know , however , the conspiracy seems to have been more important , directed to larger objects , and conceived on . a grander scale , than any other since 1848 . We wish we could say that the means had been in any way proportioned to the end—ia other " words , we wish we could absolve the
conspirators from rashness and reckless exposure of human life . However ungenerous it may appear to say so , all these attempts must be judged of to a certain , extent by the success that attends them . Failure not o . nly entails death , imprisonment , or exile , on honourable and enthusiastic men : it strengthens the hands of the odious and degrading tyraunies intended to be overthrown . King Bomba , and the Pope , and the Grand Duke , may have been troubled for awhile . They are now at ease ,. and can revel undisturbed in the pleasures of vengeance .
No one can deny that the scheme of the conspirators—we prefer not to follow our contemporaries , and assume that IMC . Mazzini is the only man interested in revolutionizing Italy—the scheme , we say , was certainly bold , and all its details seem to have been well considered . But the means of execution were so disproportioned , that were it not for the blood already shed , and the blood that will have to be shed in almost every Italian city , from Turin to Palermo , the sense of the ridiculous would painfully force itself upon . us . Arms
seem not to have been wanting , but , irom some mysterious circumstance there were no men to wield them . In every direction where the forlorn hope of Liberalism showed itself , it was unsupported , and was shot down or dispersed with comparative ease . Are we to infer from this , that in no part of the Italian peninsula oppression is so goading as to have prepared the people for revolt ; or must wo not rather suppose that fear of Austria and France weighs too heavily on the minds of tlie masses V
It is possible , if the hints that have come from Paris are to be relied on , that the first blow was to have been struck in . the real stronghold of arbitrary power . We can easily understand that any rising in France , in whatever way brought on , would be the signal for risings evorywhero ia Italy aud throughout Europe . But would it not be more prudent to wait for news from the centre , and not act on the supposition of a
success which the doctrine of chances forbids us to expect ? There ia cerbuiuly something very threatening in the aspect of ' Paris at tho present moment . Wo hear talk of ft new coiij ? d'i-iat—which would , perhaps , nob be much blamed by government journalists on this side of the water . But ft new coup d ' tttat is tho unknown s and might be followed by a dead calm or a tempest , according to . the notion of laws which have not yefc boon ascertained . Such being tho position of affaire , it
Triumph Of The Opposition In Rilance.
TRIUMPH OF THE OPPOSITION IN FRANCE . Eight millions of votes were claimed for Louis Nafoxeon in 1852 . In 1857 he claims five millions . Confessedly , then , ho has lost three millions of supporters . In Paris , five arrondissements out of ten return Opposition candidates , and this is done in spite of tremendous pressure exercised upon the constituencies . The second elections took place under every possible circumstance of discouragement . The press liad been . * warned ' into almost total silence . A foray had been made among the ten or twelve thousand votera in receipt of roliei from charitable institutions , and they wore driven to the balloting urns with Government bulletins in their hands . Every official was raked out of his bureau ; not a single person
wearing the lace , buttons , or braid of the Empire was left unsolicited—that is to say , uncoerced . Yet , in the tlu * ee undecided circumscrip tions an absolute majority was obtained by the Republican candidates , and this completes the verdict of Paris condemnatory of Louis Napoleon ' s usurpation . The effect of the demonstration has been such that the insincere critics of the French Government in England have suggested to Lottts Napoleon that he must effect another
coup d ' etat , and abolish parliamentary institutions altogether . This , then , is to be the crown of the edifice . The elect of eight millions , seeing the eight reduced to five , and the educated classes dead against him , is to repudiate the principle of election and to become a French Mogul . Nothing could be more consonant with his system . He is an Emperor of Zouaves , and without an army of Algerian mercenaries would not remain Emperor for' a day . It is the misfortune of France that her new sort of despotism is accompanied by a show of universal suffrage and representation .
The show having been converted into a reality in Paris and the leading towns , we hear a proposal to ' take away that bauble , ' that Cavaignac and Caenot may not stand too near the throne . Louis Napoleon may well be alarmed by the prospect of standing face to face with the five distinguished Liberals , Cavaignac , Carnot , Gtoudchaux , Olivier , and Darimon , at the head of a small but brilliant phalanx from the provincial cities . Angers , though infested by the imperial police , polls more than four thousand votes for the Opposition to less than two thousand for the Government . This is the beginning of the beginning , if not of the end . We would ask the original
believers in ' the Imperial Infant' what they think of his dynastic expectations ? At what price might that reversion be purchased ? It is difficult for Englishmen to conceive the violence that has been practised by the Government , in order to influence the second Paris elections and regain the ground lost in the first . A vast number of arrests were
made , upon no colourable pretexts whatever . Every possible expedient was put in action to prevent the distribution of bulletins in the banlieue . Two gentlemen of high character , M . Catalan and M . Frederic Morin ( who has been imprisoned three times on political charges ) , were arrested for circulating the Mtafette , although its language has been indifferent aud feeble . But it was in the provinces that the Government let loose its most rabid and reckless mercenaries . The law was violated without
concealment by mayors , prefects , and magistrates of all descriptions . At Cadillac , in the department of the Gironde , a respectable citizen was arrested for endeavouring to placard the walls with the name of a Liberal candidate , and for distributing bulletins . At Forte" Maco , in the Oise , a voter , supposed to be influential , was dogged during the two days of the election by two armed soldiers . At St . Etienne , where M . Pjblletan and M . Sain were the Opposition candidates , the latter
was subjected to persecution aud menaces almost incredible ; he was threatened with arrest ; five police agents followed him to the theatre ; his most intimate friends dared not speak to him in public , aud even feared to visit him . Frequently , when tho peasantry arrived with their bulletins ready , the police said , " Those bulletins are good for nothing ; hero are others . " Thousands who would have
abstained were warned to vote under vague threatB of tho most terrible consequences . These facts wo state simply , without attempt to enhance' their force : but the statements
are perfectly reliable , and are no more than illustrations of others which the Times , the Daily News , and all respectable daily and weekly journals in Eugland have admitted to be true . Not one among our contemporaries , possessed of the least character or influence , has denied or doubted that Louis Nap 6 leon makes nse of these methods of coercion . And yet the eight millions have diminished to five . There is an independent Opposition in the Chamber . The Times affirms that the Empire cannot coexist with a real parliamentary Opposition . One must be crushed . If the Opposition , for how long ? If the Empire , how soon ?
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y , 381 , Jtoy 11 , 1857 . ] T H jB __^_ g _ AJD . B . 661
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2200/page/13/
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