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The Northern United Reformers have already held thirteen great meetings in their several counties , at all of whieh their principles were unanimously adopted . This fact is encouraging , and we take it to be a healthy and hopeful sign of the times that the address in favour of at least three ' Chartist ' points should be "written without a breath of' Chartist * violence or rancour .
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CONFERENCE OF ITALIAN DELEGATES . The Conference of Italian delegates in . London is , at least , one response from the body of Italy to the proposals made by the Sardinian Government through the Conference in Paris . The Government of King Yictob Emuajnttjel invited the patronage of the Western Powers more especially for a peaceful reform in Italy , which should make some slight approach , towards national government . D'Azeglio laid down a general outline of a scheme which should be thoroughly constitutional , and Cavotjr urged the adoption of that plan with all the force and ability that belongs to nis character . There can be no doubt that it met with the approval of the influential classes in the Italian States , There were three classes that dissented from it—the Clergy , because they dread innovation ; the Absolutist party , allied with the clergy , resembling" our Tories run mad ; and the Re - publican party , our Chartists and e something more / who were all the stronger in Italy because for some years they alone gave expression to the desire for national independence and some freedom of government . It is not for us in this day to join in the howl against tbe Republican party ; although we regret , and have long regretted , that they did not see the wisdom of attaching themselves to the constitutional party which has established so firm a standing-place in the north of Italy . The educated gentry , the middle classes , and great numbers of the professional men , who have studied modern history , desired nothing better than a system in spirit and purpose resembling that suggested by Piedmont . A conference was to have been held in Turin ; but the embarrassed position of the Sardinian Government towards France induced the delegates to change the venue , and they have sat in London . They" have issued their Address , and it embodies a plan of constitutional government in Italy closely resembling our own , —with Crown , Lords , and Commons , Freedom of Debate , of Person and the Press , and Open Trial b y Jury . It is a plan which , as an . outline , we in England cannot but thoroughly approve . There is , indeed , one serious answer which must give pause to every student of history in this country . We possess exactly the liberties which the Italians are now asking , and they have worked well with us ; but it is to be observed , that all the liberties that the English people actually possess they took themselves , before those liberties were ratified in statutes . The statutes consisted of nothing more than the technical recognition of powers ana liberties already existing . Nor can there bo any doubt that if the Italians generally were to adopt the same course by which the English people obtained the great charters of their constitution , they also would obtain their great ohartera . That is a view of the question which may be deeply pondered by . some who have been in love—even , to sicknesswith ' peace ' principles . This does not at all settle the question against the proposals of the Italian Conference . The Italians' vrould have a perfect right to answer , that if in England we have always obtained our liberties for ourselves , wo have in the main beea left to ourselves . Our insular position , the state of Europe at the time when wo secured those liberties , and other circumstanoes , contributed to exempt us from ' foreign interference , and we wore left to deal with our contumacious and royal trespassers by ourselves . The Italians have enjoyed no similar exemption . The state of Europe at the present day — -iB-su ^ -that 4 Iie > oombi » ation-. of-. a-, yery-few-families , r and a very few bureau . ora . tio individuals , can bring together enormous armies , more than sufficient to bear down any province by a dead weight of military force At the presonfc day there are very fbw states in the world who sympathize with Uio constitutional party in . Italy , and these states are at the present BQQnft ©» t scarcely available . There is tho Sardinian state not strong enough to contend against the Imperial enemies that surround it ; Belgium , in tho eamo predicament ; tho United States of America
selfishly indifferent to progress ul Europe ; and England , popularly inclined to patronize constitutional movements , but cool , while our officials decidedly sympathize with the bureaucratic order on the Continent . Thus , by our passive position , we are actually encouraging the encroachments of despotism , and are permitting the outposts of Constitutional Government to be dangerously besieged . If Englishmen understood the interests of their own flesh and blood , they would lend to the constitutional party of Italy something more than a literal or verbal sympathy .
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THE FORCE OF EXAMPLE . " It is not the first time that the right of asylum has been abused in . London , and that it has been attempted to shelter there the provocation to crime . In other times , which are not far distant from us , odious pamphlets have been published in England , under the cover of her hospitality , against the chiefs of foreign Governments . "—The Emperor Napoleon and England , March , 1858 . Some of our contemporaries have , we think , done scanty justice to the gentleman who now occupies with so much propriety and distinction the lofty position of Ambassador from the Court of the Tuileries to the Court of St . James . They have found fault with , the manner in which , amidst profuse compliments to our institutions , M . de Persigny appeared to impute to England a gratuitous disposition to shelter the authors and abettors of assassination . Now we are not concerned to represent the French Ambassador ' s words in any other sense than the distinguished speaker may have intended them to convey ; it is possible that the prevailing ignorance of the French tongue , and the irrational susceptibility of our national character , may have lent a colour to the Ambassador ' s somewhat glowing language which is not attributable to the actual expressions . Turning over the pages of the Mofiiteur , we have been lately struck by a passage which , in justice to M . de Persigny ' s noble sentiments ., deserves to be remembered . The journalistic memory is uncomfortably exacting , and the native modesty of M . de Pebsigny ' s character would , doubtless , recoil from a reminiscence so honourable to his character and to the persistency of his opinions , which it will be found have only in a slight degree varied , in obedience to the change of circumstances and to the course of events , during tbe last eighteen years . What his Excellency at Albert-gate in February , 1858 , has to say on the violation of the right of asylum by refugees , who under shelter of British hospitality devise plots and levy war against a friendly Government , carry murder into its territory , and afterwards publish pamphlets in defence of those lawless acts , is , we shall presently see ( with a very slight difference ) very much what he said in September , 1840 . On the one occasion he is addressing the Common Councilmen of the City of London as Ambassador of France . On the other he was addressing the French Court of Peers as a prisoner on trial for his life . Whether the following report appeared in tho official or the uuoffioial portion of the Momteur , matters little : at all events , it was not inserted * by inadvertence , ' nor do we reproduce it ' inadvertently . ' Lest we should incur the charge of mistranslation , we reprint textually the following extract from the Moniteur of tho 28 th September , 1840 : — Stance de la Conr des Pairs du Ittndi 28 ntptembre 1840 . D . N ' avoz-vous pas ddborquo" h , Vir aereux dons la matinee du 6 aout avec Louis Bonaparte dans U but de dtStruire a main armie le gouverncment dtabli en France pur la Charte de 1830 ? R . Oui , monsieur . D . Loraquo lo oapitaine des grenadiers a ' eat pre ' sentrf pour ontrer a la caserne , no vous 6 tes-voua paa dlancc " sur lui dans Vintention de le tuer f R . Je nMtais pas a cdte * de lui quand il est cntrtf ; j ' etaia aw fond do la cour , proa da Prince : jo me suis pre ' eipite aur lui pour 1 ' urrOter . Sans lo lieutenant Aladenize , qui m ' a arrfito * , j ' aurais tud lo capitaine , —^ D . « Ainai ~ votrQ-iutontioa-, dtait-do lc ^ tuor ?— , — „ , R . Oui , monsieur . D . AJnei vous rcconnaisses bien quo votro intention ( Jtait do lo tuor , ct tuer ainai a ' eat asaasainer . R . Le tuor en l ' uttaquaut en foco ot non on assassin . Mon fusil o " tait charge " , mnia jo mo prcJaontuis dovant lui avoo la buKonnotto . D . Mais l'attnqnor nvoo un fusil et 8 a haKonnotto , loraquo vous dtloz © ntourC * d'homroea dgalomont armeVi , a'dtatt 1 'asaasniner . R . Jo n'al plus rion ft diro ; j ' ai tvpportd ma tflto ioi , D . J ' al oaractrirlsd votro action gomme olio doit retro : UNU TENTATrvm I >* A 8 SA 8 BINAT .
It is clear that in 1840 M . de Pebsiguy differed from the Court of Justice as to what constituted an attempt at assassination . In the following avowal it will be seen that the present French Ambassador as a refugee under the shelter of British hospitality ) not only levied war against a . friendly Government ' . and carried homicidal intentions into France , but on his escape from punishment actually took advantage of British hospitality to write a libel on a friendl y Government , and to defend acts of treason and rebellion against that Government : — D . N'avez-vous pas publie * h , Londres , peu de temps apr £ s les eVenements de Strasbourg , une brochure qui avait pour but d ' en pr&ionjser les auteurs ? R . Out , monsieur . These extracts are surely sufficient to prove that no man has a better ground to denounce the violation of the right of asylum , whether by levying war , or by attempts at assassination , or by libels defending such attempts , than the present Ambassador from the Court of the Tuileries to the Court of St . James . Pascal said that what was truth on one side of the mountains was error on the other : perhaps what was criminal in 1840 may be justifiable in . 1858 , and vice versa . We will not pretend to decide : we only call attention to the force of example .
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THE FORCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES . In a remarkable address to the electors of the department of the Loire , dated ISth May , 1848 , M . de Persigny wrote as follows : — < c With regard to my opinions , I shall explain them frankly to you . I had believed sincerely that between the monarchical habits of eight centuries , and the republican form ( the natural end of all political ameliorations ) , an intermediate state was necessary ; and I thought that Napoleon ' s blood inoculated into the veins of France could better than auy other prepare her for the use of public liberties . But after the great events which have lately taken place , the Republic , regularly esta blished , may rely on my most absolute devotedness . I -will henceforth , therefore , be loyally and sincerely republican . ( Signed ) " Fiaxin-Persigny . " Who can wonder at the confusion of French politics after reading such a declaration , as this ? VT . de Persigny was loyally and sincerely a republican- —we believe a poor one—in 1848 . It is only the unhappy force of circumstances that has converted him into the Ambassador of an Imperial Crown .
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PRINCIPLES OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA . In discussing the reorganization of British power in India , there is some danger that importance will be too exclusively assigned to material establishments . The question of poweris one of policy ; and , asastatcsman once said , no sovereign ever grew old amid the curses of an entire people , and no Government can be durable which erects its special and transitory interests above those of the governed . Oar rule in India must in future be administered chiefly for and partly by the natives themselves ; that principle alone can secure our lasting supremacy . The final conquest of Hindostan will be one not of arms , but of laws . To brigade armies at commanding points , to abolish tho Sepoy artillery service , to raze the territorial strongholds , tho ancient castles of the . barons of India , to watch the plains with cavalry and mount the hills with forts , to render the European clement dominant in the army , to balance the Ghoorka against tho Brahmin and tho Sikh against the Mohammedan , may deter chiefs and soldiers from rebellion , and gain for U 3 a material and temporary ascendancy ; but , whatever we have hitherto ciFcctca for India , our oiForts must now bo redoubled , aua pressed on with tenfold sincerity . All futuro legislation not conceived in this spirit will bo a waste of barren wisdom . We aro notiho masters of India in order thafc its people should be our slaves . In connexion with this subject , wo roturn to the admirable and suggestive letters of our special Indian ooirespondentr-whor-poiufcs-out--th « t-if-Vo ^ \ v , QiUW . ^ --roign with undisputed powor ovor our Indian acquisitions , it is not ncoossary to deprive the nativesof all powor and inffuenco , to break their spirit , to destroy their solf-rclianoc , and to degrade them , 41 la it not quite clear that the Intoreat of tho J 3 "" 8 * nation in tho annual provision made for aomo hundred of young gentlemen , and the fortunes and penaioua acquired by some scores of retired servants of tho ^ ° !~ " pany , ia of very circuniaoribod importance , « nd ol '"" flnUcBimal value , when compared with Its interest mviw development of the roaourooa of a vast empire , aa « »
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r 254 THB LEADER . [ No . 416 , March 13 , 1858 .
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Leader (1850-1860), March 13, 1858, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2234/page/14/
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