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a nother mode ; and if they will consult the opinion of the people in the various forms of its manifestations—in the press , in public m eetings , expressions at local . meetings , in the declarations of local notables—they may learn , without a dissolution , what the result of a dissolution would be . Any man versed in the politics of the eountry , who fixes his attention on the indexes of its present sentiments , can have no difficulty in discounting the dissolution . The chief questions which press upon the
Government and Parliament of the day are the reconstruction of the Indian Government ; the position of this country towards its foreign allies , sincere or false ; and the strengthening of our constitution by admitting a larger number of the people within the Parliamentary franchise . There cannot ; , we say , be much doubt as to the opinion of the country upon these several measures . With regard to the India Bill , to be approved , it should be like Lord Palmeeston ' s .
comparatively simple in its provisions ; allotting to India a Secretary of State , responsible to Parliament , and assisted by men practically informed on Indian affairs , but so appointed as to he thoroughly independent , with a real control and a power of the initiat ive . The country has no desire at present to drive the Ministry into a propagandist policy on the European continent ; but it does demand that our policy should be frank , intelligible , and straightforward ; that it should he such as can be communicated to
the country at each step of the proceedings ; that when we threaten , we should mean what we say ; that we should stand by our friends and let our treatment of foreign subjects be guided by the fundamental principles of our own constitution . A statesman who understands the history of Europe , and will only behnve on each question as it arises in a truly English spirit , conducting the business in a businesslike way , like an old English merchant , would have no difficulty in making the power of this country felt , or in winning the
sup-? or t of his own people . " With regard to a teform measure , the essential point is equally plain . All the indications of the day , —the declarations of the educationalfranchise party , the petitions signed by the most respectable leaders in the country towns , statements at public meetings , and the tone of the press , proclaim that the country "will not be satisfied without a substantial bill , but that the measure need not be complicated ; on the contrary , the simpler the better . Different phrases have been used ; but the general impression manifestly is , that , lishmen
in one way or other , all resident Eug who have the responsibility of householders should be able to give their votes in the choice of the national representatives . Such are the demands of the country ; such is the work of the Liberal party . Let who will bo its leader undertake to see that the work is executed thoroughly , and in the Bpirit indicated , and no party tactics or obstructive , combinations would long withstand the expression of the country ' s will which would be evoked by the exhibition of selfish poposition on the part of an anti-Liberal minority .
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THE INTRIGUE AND THE INDIA BILL . -WE-annQuuoed-last ^ wock-that-thcIlUcn . ljpi . pugh India Bill was in ruins . It is now to ho pulled down and disposed of in lots . The whole of iho dilapidated Alhambro , built up by Mr . Diaraoli three weeks ago , is to bo carted off in a series of ^ solutions , and Lord John ltusscll was at first invited to be tho contractor . But this was iv point beyond his purpose , which , to change tho metaphor , was that of shunting t , ho Ministry to a safer lino of fwls , and preventing d collision between tho
Palmorston and Derby parties . There is very little mystery in this conduct on the part of the Whig expectant . He wants to gain time for himself , and to destroy the opportunity of his rival . His strategy , viewed alone , is not of that disgraceful character which would justify the gossiped sneer that we have a Castlereagh and a Castlereagh ' s wife in London . Granted that Lord John Russell has upset Lord Palmerston's coach , and disappointed the late Ministers ; granted that he has worked a party engine for party purposes ; granted even that lie has struck hands with Mr . Disraeli—though this
would be a violent assumption—there is no excuse for the shriek of virtuous horror raised among Lord Palmerston ' s followers . They have been hit ; they have been balked ; they have been baffled in a factious move , and they know it . Is it over India they groan ? No ; but because the door has been shut in their faces . They were making a party question of India , as Lord Derby made a party question of it before he came into office ; and the probability is , that Lord John Russell ' s expedient will have an excellent result . Lord Palmerston must do something to warm his popularity , and the Indian
Reform will be commenced with more deliberation than by the late or present Government . This , however , has nothing to do with Lord Derby ' s position , than which nothing could be more degrading . He is a Minister governing' by the advice of his opposition ; he is a Premier imploring an independent member of the House of Commons to take the most important business of the session out of his hands ; his leader in the lower house , upon receiving a suggestion that he is not bound by the measure of his own Cabinet , springs to his feet and dashes it to pieces on the floor , even going so far as to hope that he may be relieved of the responsibility
altogether . This situation would be inexpressibly Humiliating to any Government ; but it is doubly so in that of the Tories , who , for the last year , have been attempting to persuade the public that , if once restored to power , they would bring with them a miraculous budget of practical legislation . They brought in Lord Ellenborough as their Indian Minister ; he sends in his bill , by the help of Mr . Disraeli ; the bill is read by Parliament and torn to pieces by the press , and on the first evening after the recess the Tories sent their Tory colleague adrift , and hail a Whiff leader to the rescue .
The best friends of the Cabinet have little confidence in its existence . Among the old Tory politicians who support it through traditional loyalty , and the indefinite Conservatives who scarcely know how to distinguish themselves from Liberals , the general tone of remark is most unfavourable to the chances of Lord Derby . It is felt that be can only get through the session by making a waiting race of it , by avoiding legislation , by postponing important debates , by standing prostrate , or like the Irish piper , playing first in the rear . He bad a fortnight ' s grace during Easter ; after that he claims a
fortnight ' s additional delay , before resuming the Indian discussion ; during next week he will only scud down Mr . Disraeli with the Budget , which , as the party most fervently hopes , -will be as unlike Mr . Disraeli as possible . Never was Toryism more evidently ashamed of its gamut representative than now , when he is Chancellor of the Exchequer for the second time , and has a financial scheme in his alembic . What will it be ? a Rosicrucian compound , or an infusion of simples , after a receipt prepared by Sir Cornewall Lewis ? It may be either , or both , precisely as Lord Ellenborough s and
India Bill was at once a mass of complexity imperfection ; but , even if the Budget passes , there will bo tho Indian chasm to leap , and , although Lord Ellcnborough ' s Bill may be split into resolutions , and laid aside for next year , Lord Palmcrston will press hia own measure , and ascertain whether his old minority will follow him . We cannot hope that it will follow him so far as to restore tho lute ministry . Wo cannot blame Lord John Russell for narrowing the path of intrigue , and checking tho triumphant return of u Minister who persuades himself that he is indispensable . But least ot all cnu wo comprehend how tho Tory Cabinet is to exist in tins state of perpetual paralysis and hjjb ^ jci ] ity _ . _ „___„__
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BALANCE-SHEET OF THE ANGLO-FRENCH ALLIANCE . This Anglo-French Alliance Rains nothing by being misunderstood . It has boon made tlio subject oi too many horoios on tho purl ; of England . Wo havo heard morq than enough of tho loyalty of our great
ally , and some of us have been persuaded that the balance of results arising from this official partnership has been in our favour . It is time to acknowledge that , if benefits were weighed , Great Britain would kick the beam . From first to last the alliance has been subordinated to objects of French policy ; the Imperial Government , so far '' from having established a claim upon the gratitude of this country , has been placed under the deepest obligations to our arms , to our diplomacy , and to the official and popular hospitality which secured for Louis Napoleon a British reception that -was for him a passport into the palaces of Europe . The enthusiasm evinced on this side of the Channel was an overflowing of blind generosity mingled with a more immoral sentiment—the adulation
of success ; but it was never reciprocated from Paris , and the shouts of our streets came back even in echoes of irony . A change has fallen upon both nations . Public opinion has cooled down concerning the French alliance , ambiguous forebodings are afloat , and an eye is fixed upon the vast French army and the mustering squadrons at Brest and Cherbourg . In France , it has become the habit of imperial journalism to
threaten and vituperate ; but the importance of these manifestations should neither be denied nor exaggerated . Panic is an indiscreet counsellor , and false " confidence is a traitor in the camp . Ve touch on these points , however , not so much with a view to eliciting the future probabilities of French policy , as to remark upon the opportunity afforded by the evaporation of popular sentiment in this country concerning the French alliance , to estimate that alliance at its actual value .
Louis Napoleon's pamphleteer has been vigorously answered by ' An Englishman out of Office /* who takes to pieces his assertions concerning the origin of the practical amity supposed to exist between the Governments of France and Great Britain . Tbe Emperor claims credit for himself for having created good - will where he found animosity , and raises a host of shadows that he may enjoy the glory of their dispersion . He had certainly good reason to be grateful . The unconditional " hospitality guaranteed by our laws had saved him from the vengeance of a power which had not invented Cayenne or Lambessa as the punishments of liberty ; but the question of
gratitude was not the first to be solved . There was the necessity of conciliating his nearest and most powerful neighbour ; there was self-interest to be consulted and common sense obeyed . The Empire was to gain a prodigious support without a sacrifice or even an equivalent . One of the oldest and best-established thrones in Europe was to become the steppingstone by which a parvenu would rise to the rank of brotherhood with Kaisers and Kings . If Louis Napoleon gained his power in France by his own efforts , it was Great Britain that bestowed on him his influence in Europe . In his interest war was made against Russia ; in his interest peace was
concluded at Paris ; and if , as the imperial pamphlet has said , France did not attempt : to take advantage of the Indian revolt to embarrass the British Government by demands and exactions , 'An Englishman out of Office' has a right to reply , that Louis ^ Napoleon might as well claim credit for not picking the pocket of an exhausted wayfarer . What has occn the ' generosity' of France in not breaking the alliance ? Why should he break it P Where would be his interest in breaking it P It has been his salvation , and to violate it would probably be his ruin . So long as he believes it profitable to himself , he will maintain it . Whenever he imagines its loss would bo a gain , he will abandon it . He respects an alliance exactly in the same spirit as he
respects an oath . Louis Napoleon may m one sense have been endangered by the proximity of England , with her nest of exiles , but , in another sense , ho has benefited by the xuulous activity of our police , and the friendly co-operation of our Foreigu-oflicc . This bus not satisfied his alarmed jealousy . Ho would havo the complicity of our tribunals carried so far as to limit the freedom of the subject by a series of preventive arrests , and tlie freedom of tho press , not only by political prosecutions , but by a precautionary censorship . With thatr' -vicw-ho-lias ^ ntttruotod- ^ publio ^ opinioa' — . in Franco to utter ita safe menaoos and irresponsible warnings , and ' allowed' M . Vouillot to prophesy our speedy and supreme humiliation . " Who is it " asks ' An Englishman out of Office , ' " that does
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tfo . 4 . 21 , Aprix 17 , 1858 . ] TH E LEA PER . 373 __ ~ "~ ¦ "r-- . .
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* " A Volco from England in Answer to HEmperaur JVajioldoii lit . et VAnylatorrc . " liy an Englishman out of Oillco . Chapman and Jlall .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1858, page 373, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2239/page/13/
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