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It haa become necessary to * watch , ¦ wwh the trtmost vigilance faese proceedings in oar courts of justice . Otherwise , Mr > Jab ^ ise may go too fax in treating alleged misdemeanour as felony , Mr . Henry in . construing general arguments into personal libels , and Mr . Bodkhj in hoping that no Government will know its duty so ill' as not to hunt down tlie antagonists of the French Empire with precipitate severity . Then comes , the question of tyrannicide . We need not repeat our belief that assassination is not to be justified upon any grounds whatever . We will not admire Jael , or Ehud , Brttt : us , Ravaillac , or Charlotte Cordat . We do not want to see
earthly justice executed by Harmoj > ius in default of Cromwell , or by Orsini in default of the French nation . We may commiserate the desperate selfdevotion ofMiLANO , and recognise the solitary fanaticism of Pianori ; even the captive who escapes by stabbing his guard volunteers a doubtful responsibility . But this is , and ever has been , an open question—one that may be legitimately discussed , and one that has been decided in the negative or in the affirmative by a hundred different controversialists . Now , where is the liberty of debate to end ? According to Mr . Bodkin and Mr . Henry ,
when Loots Napoleon is , assailed—for the Treasury does not protect the King of Naples from unmis takable and undented instigations to the assassin . This pamphlet , then , " advocates the propriety of assassination , and , in terms not , indeed , direct , but not to be misunderstood , applies this doctrine to the Emperor of the French . " But we have lately received from the ex-Attorney-General a lesson in the art of reasoning . If , said that honourable and learned gentleman ( and the Ministers cheered him ) , M . Walewsxi writes an unpleasant letter , and immediately , afterwards a Bill suggested in that
letter ia announced- by the British Government , it does not follow , by any means , that the one circumstance results from the other . Then , what becomes of Mr . Bodkin ' s logie ? Mr . Adams , not having studied the science of allusive and piercing calmness , more powerful than invective , says , " Here is a- monster of cruelty , loathsome from the odour of human blood , and the excess of inhuman crime , a Tiberius , a Caligula , a Nero . " Who can this be , says Mr . Bojdkin , if not Louis Navoleon ?
Louis Napoleon will be much obliged to him . But , Mr . Bodkin will say , Mr . Aj > ams mentions Paris—where Fibschi exploded his infernal machine ;—bwfc then the parallel , he would add , is not complete , for Louis Philippe did not massacre the people until the conduits ran , not with claret , as at the JEnglish Restoration , but with blood , the Bonaparte baptism . We cannot but regard this prosecution as infamous , and as degrading to our courts of justice . We should say that a grand jury -would throw out the bill of indictment ; Tmt , at all events , it is incredible that a jury will convict Mr . Truelove , especially as M . Zbno Swietoslawski is unmolested , although he is reported to have declared last Monday , at a public meeting , that Oksini was
not an assassin but a patriot . The Treasury wm exert itself in vain if it undertakes to suppress these doctrines by force of law , Xt only covers itself with ridicule , and brings the police magistrates into contempt . Every Englishman who values bis personal liberty or that of the press , will resist , an . innovation so ludicrous and so detestable ; while- the Government can do nothing but make a martyr and a' popular man of Mr . Trublove , instead of leaving him' and Mr . Adams to declaim on the duty of tyrannicide on the plea that , in particular cases , killing is not murder but
execution . Very few Englishmen think so , but all have a right to think and say so if they please . We aro not concerned to say a word in favour of th « prudence or propriety , the wisdom or the courage of Mr . W . E . Adams ' s lucubrations , which , we are informed , a well-known publisher in Fleet-street , of unimpeachably ' democratic' opinions , very judicioiously declined to publish , ia the belief that ~^ Ul 3 hnBir ^« ntphliet ~ at ~ such ^« -motnent- » was ^ neitheir Dolitio nor oouroffeous , but . on the contrary ,
oalculated to lead—if it led to « nything—to moat ridiculous charges and conclusions on the part of the French authorities against the British nation . But the folly of dragging into the light of national susceptibility and continental jealousy a penny indiscretion of a Trublovb , demands our notice as a , atxnarthat shows the direction of the wind . Let ua hope ^ hat- with the new ministry the wind may blow ft * o but not unfriendly , towards , and notjt-om , Imperioll . Franoe ;
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THE IRISH VICE-KING . All parties in Dublin seem to agree in protesting against the removal of the Viceroy . Conservatives and Democrats equally love the tinsel of the Court one party because it illustrates the divine right of kings , the other because it gives employmentjust as in Ephesus the supporters of Diana were divided into devotees and silversmiths . It is curious enough to find Irish patriotism asserting that this refic of a time when Ireland was held by an English army ( the "Viceroy has still a military style , and retains aides-de-camp ) is essential to the dignity of Ireland . If the Scotch had objected to James I . leaving Edinburgh we could understand the national objection , for in that time the King was a power , and their King was a Scotchman ; but the Dublin folk object to give up a Vice-King with nominal power , and that Vice-King an Englishman . Is Dublin so poor that it requires a British Earl to give it dignity and splendour ?
One of the Irish arguments is , that the abolition is another measure of centralization . In that lightif it can be truly viewed in that light—the proposal has decided demerits to counterbalance the advantages of removing this mimic Court . There has been too much taking into our own hands of the management of Irish affairs , which are iu every way distinct enough from those of England to warrant a distinct administration . Home Office officials , jao matter how closely the telegraph and rail may connect Downing-street and Dublin , are overburdened enough without the additional trouble of managing Irish business , and if our overworked
House of Commons could relegate to Dublin some of its Irish local affairs , it would be a real boon . Indeed , it is questionable whether O'Connell would not have iron a real and very practical Repeal if he had devoted himself to showing Englishmen how a local Parliament in Dublin would save our members many unintelligible debates and much wearisome committee work . Iu this view , any transfer of the Viceroyalty , if understood as a removal of the Chief Secretary ' s work to the Home Office , would be objectionable . But we do not so understand Mr . Roebuck ' s motion . His intent , we take it , is simply to remove the representative of
royalty , not to absorb the separate administration . The Chief Secretary and his staff would remain doing exactly the same kind of work as at present , excepting the appearance at levees and the dancing attendance at Viceregal balls . For instance , there is an Irish Treasury : nominally the Paymaster of Civil Services Office . It is retained clearly for purposes of administration , and not in deference to any popular feeling , for , owing to its obscurity of work , its removal would be scarcely known in Dublin . When the Treasury shows no desire to absorb this Irish branch of itself , why should the Home Office wish to absorb the office that would
do its work for it in Ireland , and with the increased facility acquired through local knowledge ? If , however , we are wrong , if Mr . Roebuck , or the English Government contemplate a centralization of work in Downing-street , then the Dublin citizens are quite right in raising a loud protest , and if the protest is put forward without exaggeration , they will find it echoed in England . The argument that fche Viceroyalty is useful to the tradesmen of Dublin wo may dismiss with a smile . The day is passed for getting up pageants to put money into the pockets ot any tradesmen in any town . The theory of protection to certain sets of workers is too old for the latter half of the
nineteenth century . Somo time ago the laceworkers of England suffered a terrible loss owing to tho new regulation as to military tunics ; somo twenty thousand persons wcro thrown out of employ meat . No reasonable Englishman proposed the retention of the lace on behalf of the women employed in ifca manufacture , and yet tlio Dublin tradesmen , expect that a tinsel Court ehould bo koptup for their profit . If it were true that the Viceroy and his Court gave a good tone to tho society of Dublin ( as some
» ooplo ~ say- ) ,--ono-inight-indulgo , a _ 4 atlo _ j !) 5 ! ntj , monal regret at any Aot of Parliament that would ' eclipsethe harmless gaiety' of Dublin . But those who know Dublin society , aoubfc very muoh whether the removal of the Viceroy would cast ; any gloom over the dinner parties in Morrion-squaro , or the p leasant dances in Ratlunines . True , Lord Carlisle is an excellent dancer i his polking is said , ' on authority , ' to bo faultloss , and his schoM ischo has caused a sensation in Steplion ' s-grecii . Tho bripjhteyed girls of Dublin may ' ehed some natural tears' at losing tho middle-aged Adonis of tho
Whigs , but even were he nnreplaced fey E © mw - toun , famous at the billiard-table and in mock chivalry , they would surely not . , refuse to be comforted . People who take a more serious view of Dublin society hold ,, and not unreasonably , that the little Court is productive of a great deal of littleness . The Irish , with their many virtues , have an especial Irish fault—the sacrifices of home comfort for appearances , and this fault has been encouraged by the presence of a Court which gave an excellent opportunity for display . It is natural for the wealthy aristocracy of England to spend their mornings at a Drawing-room or Levee , and their evenings at a Court ball ; but there is no wealthy aristocracy in Dublin . Not a single Irish nobleman resides for three months in the year in Dublin ; it is not the resort in the season of the rich Irish gentry , as London is of the English country magnates ; and , with the exception of Lord Ch-ablemont , the Duke of Leinsteb , and perhaps one or two more , no Irish nobleman retains a town house in the Irish metropolis . The Court , therefore , is chiefly attended by the military officers and professional men—and we can easily understand that the jealousies , and precedences , ana ceremonies of a little Court are not . favourable to pleasant society among the wives and daughters of hard-working professional men . We cannot well imagine our own leaders of the bar crowding and pushing , and sending their daughters to crowd and push , at the levee of Lord Salisbury , who happens to be Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex . If Lord Salisbury established such a levee , we should be somewhat amazed to see him receive our sisters and sweethearts by kissing them on the cheek ; and we can share the laughter of the House of Lords , when they were asked to imagine Lord Cardigan going through that operation with four or five score of ladies , from the widow of fifty to the damsel of fifteen . The most sensible observers of society in Dublin consider that there would be an immediate improvement were the . Court removed . The men of science and of professional eminence would then take natural rank , and the entree at the Castle , accorded sometimes for political or personal motives , would no longer be obtruded as a letter of recommendation . Edinburgh has no Court , yet in literary eminence it surpasses Dublin , while its social circles have long enjoyed a high tone . ' Such an example should give courage to some rational men of Dublin to resist the cry of despair at the threatened departure of the Viceroy . When James I . threatened to remove the Court from London , the citizens humbly requested him not to remove the river Thames . Have the Dublin folk no irremovable natural advantages to counterbalance the possible waning of the full-moon of Lord Carlisle ' s genial face , or tho absence of some Tory peer set over them because he has engaging manners , or * chivalrous' antecedents , or abilities of a singularly unadministrativc order ?
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EXETER HALL AND CHESLYN HALL . Ii ? wo attempt to explain the hidden causes of all the disgraceiiil cases of commercial and professional delinquency with which the town pretends to havebeen shocked for the last few years , from Strauak and Paul down to the Brothers Henry and Cheslyn Hall , we shall find nothing but this one obvious solution — tho passion on all sides for external appearances . The appearauces may vary according to the tastes , habits , education , and environments of the different men , but the motive is in all cases the same In the person of Sir John Dean Paul the appearances took the form of intense respectability—ostentatious piety—regard for tho heathen of all denominations , first stones of chapels , and , white neckcloths of snowy purity shining from" the interior of tho glowing family chariot . Sir John lived up to tho atandardof hi » neighbours , for to have done less would have been mean , stingy , poor , shabby-genteel ; and to have done more would have been brilliant , but unwarrantably extravagant . Not wishing to bo con-IiaeT ^ d ^ WoTdhant ^ rinoo ^ onHhe-one-lmnd ,-oivaw ^_ _ _ ? old hunks' on the other , Sir John very properly , as long U 3 lie was able , maintained his position m sooioty . It was this ' position , in society' that w «* tho predisposing cause , and tho irritant of hi » troubles . If his standard of living had bcon pitched upon a lowov scale— 'if lie had walked about , tlio strcots of London under a decent umbrella—it » o hud removed to a suburban cottage und had turned his buck upon dinner-parties—how long would a run upon tho old bank in tho Strand have been averted , !
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2 Q 6 THE L 1 ABEH . [ Wo . 414 , February 27 , 1858 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 27, 1858, page 206, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2232/page/14/
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