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•M-n «a •neavMvrnna - m^ mrm MR. GLADSTONE'S MISSION TO THE J.UJN J.A.IN 1SLAJNDS.
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tion of the national expenditure and the advocacy of non-interference in foreign politics . Now , howeyer desirable these objects may be , they are not aid will never be popular ones . La this country , if you want to appeal to popular opinion , you must have facts and not theories ; the evil jdu denounce must be an actual and tangible one—the good you promise must be direct and personal . Now it is mathematically certain that the greater the needless expenditure of the country , the greater will be the demand on its resources , and the sweater , in consequence , the
strain , on the labouring classes , by whom these resources are produced . However true this may be in the abstract , it is by no means so easy to illustrate its truth in practice . In our artificial state -of society the action of economic causes is so complex that it is most difficult to trace their direct ^ results . If you were to strike ten millions off the ¦ national expenditure to-morrow , how are you to prove to John Smith the labourer , or Tom Brown the mechanic , that his wages will be the fraction of Si penny liigher . To the trader , who deals with large sums , the effect of any reduction of taxation is palpable and immediate ; to the working classes , their proportionate share of loss or gain is so small
as to be inappreciable . A saving of a penny m the pound is of value if you have a thousand a yearact is worthless if you have only a shilling a day . The cry for national economy , however popular therefore with the trading classes , will mever enlist the active sympathy of the masses in its behalf . A cry for increased expenditure , accompanied by an extension of national works and -charities , would have far more chance of popular support . Much the same remarks apply to the . great peace question . However fearful the evils of ¦ war may be , however monstrous its cost , those cavils ana that cost are felt last and in the least
degree by the operative population , it is the trader who ,, in the first instance , has to pay the costs of •< war , and the process by which his loss is ultimately ^ reimbursed out of the sweat and toil of the million is too indirect to' excite popular apprehension . The •^ j uestipn of Reform rests upon a different footing . There is no doubt possible as to the fact whether _ you possess a vote or nofe . An extension of the suffrage may or may not be desirable on general grounds , but the classes to whom you propose to extend the suffrage know perfectly what it is you offer them . A vote is a bribe clear and intelligible ; a vote gives power ; power is the first thing needful . What to do with it is a further question . The Manchester party have therefore committed . a grave error in advocating reduction of expenditure , and a peace policy , in preference to Political
-r » - /•_ _ mi 1 ± . a \ i . 1 C ~ i . 1 K _ ... »« . Beform . They have put the cart before the horse , or , rather , left the horse locked up in the stable . The further question—how they fell into this error , or what Leibnitz termed the " why of the why itself , " is not hard to answer . With the working ^ classes they have had no real sympathy . Their reforms have been middle-class reforms , their wrongs middle-class wrongs > their gods the gods of 4 he middle class alone . From all popular movements they have held aloof . They have distrusted the multitude , and been in return distrusted of -them . Yet the attempt to carry a popular reform which shall not embrace the people is as vain as an attempt to build houses without foundations . It is an experiment which has been often tried , and failed as often .
Antaeus , in the old fable , repaired , his dying strength by contact with his mother earth . It is a fable which , all popular reformers should bear in mind . There is now a great opportunity . There are great changes in progress—great reforms at hand . If the Manchester party throw themselves heartily into the popular cause , they may be leaders in that reform , and on tho&e changes they may impress the stamp of their own policy . They have had a stern lesson . Let it not be said of them , on * ' their" return from cxilo , that if they have forgotten nothing , they have learnt nothing also .
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JAPAN . Who would have thought some time back , looking around the House of Commons anil seeing 1 lie intelligent Liberal Conservative , Lord liriicc , with his vivacious countenance but not . awi ' ul aspect , thut he would be . the man to break down the exclusion , of an empire which had defied all the most aggressive powers of the modern world—England , Russia , and America . It is true th-at Ilic Earl of Elgin was able , to compose the most troublous conllicts of our north-western colonies , but when the
tenacious prejudice which Lord Pa / lmerston seemed to entertain against him had been so Jar waived that lie was scut 1 . 0 China , he still seemed likely to be baffled by the grovelling obstinacy of that degmcled people ; . lie suffered . himself lo be diverted by ihe Indian mutiny ; and certainly few of us . expected , that at the hist , after something like a year ' s delay , lie would produce that brilliant treaty which so far eclipsed the competition of ( lie Kussiaus and of the Americans . . But if unv doubted whether he
did it himself in the Peiho , no one can doubt , tiow that lie has unlocked the gates of tlic Japanese empire and wrung from the double emperor of that amusing country a treaty , not so brilliant as the Chinese , but admirable for a commencement . Japan , which was the opprobrium of modern discovery and enterprise , seems now likely lo be an ornament of modern commerce . " Wo arc not certain vet whether it will be very much more than The exclusion
an ornament , promising as it looks . of Jamm , however , was entirely a modern creation , and lias been , to u great extent , encouraged uy accidcut . The race whose ethnology we have yet to study , owned , or at least claimed , a very long extent of empire , going up in the noil hern J acinc to the Kiirilo Islands ; and it is probable that at this day the people of Jcddo imagine the island oj Sngalin to be included in their empire , lhat lshmu which is—onlv frozen for eicrht months ofthe year ,- — Mis
the Cuba of tlio Amoov- —which would be the - sissippi of Manchoo if it were considerably larger , and in a more fertile and genial region . \> » dc as then- empire was , however , the governors oi what they call the central empire , China , M < i assorted dominion over them , but in vain ; the Japanese repelling the odious voice of t hat , bnsc people , hud currying rebellion against the filthiest race in the world to such aw cxtont that they arc probawy the ckanliest people on the face of tho earth . _ it
is dilRoult , indeed , to imagine any rebellion agiunM Chinese ' influence more complete than < 1 U . "" ,, goes lo suoh an extreme ns soap . Probably t " > rigourous avstcin of exclusion originated in iw hatred and jealousy of tho Chinese , but it has , v , o say , boon aided by accident . With a boanlxl U climate in which tropical plants will grow , though tuc heat isfnr from intolerable , Japan is broken into many islands , is girt in many placos with iron-bound coasts , and often swept by raging storms , Tho moat t-rnyolWtt race alive , accustomod , to magnificent scenery in ww broad prairies and groat river valleys of A" 101 . . "' hnvo pronounced Japnn to bo the region most , liw > a gai'don of any in tho world ,, England alone ex ceptcdj for tlio oyo of the American cm who *
•M-N «A •Neavmvrnna - M^ Mrm Mr. Gladstone's Mission To The J.Ujn J.A.In 1slajnds.
a meaning which , for the world in general , is of no sort of moment and not worth inquiring into . Of course it will be very , convenient for Mr . Disraeli to be rid of such a competitor in the next Parliamentary game ; and we can quite imagine how Mr . Gladstone may think it convenient to have the option of dallying in the ^ L gean Sea , from February to March next , and from March to April , in case the fate of parties be not settled before . But that is his affair , not ours ; and if be has nofe been able to make up his mind as to which hereditary flag he will it unwise to decide before the
follow , or , if he thinks next great trial of strength at the hustings is known , it is quite intelligible why he should like to fill up his time with credit arid profit , as he now has agreed to do . Acceptance of such an office amounts to nothing respecting party , though it must be confessed that the singular secrecy with which the affair was arranged , and the fact that Lord Aberdeen ' s favourite son accompanies him as Secretary , tends to create the impression that there is rather more in the matter than , at first sight , meets the eye . * For the public at large , in this country and elsewhere , Mr . Gladstone ' s cxpeditional inquiry wears a very different aspect , and we . must say . a worthier , and more dignified one . Our gelations with the Ionian Greeks during the last forty years have , it must be confessed , brought us neither emolument , comfort , nor fame . We assumed , at the peace of 1815 , the Protectorate of Corfu , Cephalonia , Zante , Santa Maura , Tliiaki , Cerigo , and Paxo , containing in all somewhat less than a quarter of a million of inhabitants . We engaged that their local coverament should be carried on in
1855 , because Lord Aberdeen wished to provide lor him . There is an elective legislature nominally in existence , but practically as powerless as that of France under Louis Napoleon . They are inces - santly uttering the popular , sentiment of discontent and distrust , in a manner sufficiently provoking to tlicir " Lord High" ruler . For his part he does what he can to mesmerise some of them by an hospitality not the most brilliant , caresses not the ' most genuine , and gratifications , of one kind or other not of tlte most constitutional kind . The general effect of liis administration is the utter pulverisation of all remains of deference for a belief in British policy , and the concentration of all popular hope in he that
some catastrop may open a way of escape from British rule . This is the naked truth , and very humiliating it is , but not less the truth therefore . Sir Bulwcr Lytton fccl-s no doubt that it is his duty to make one last effort to rally the faith of an alienated people in English intentions , and to conciliate if possible the wounded ' national feelings of a wayward , but intelligent and industrious , community , with the maintenance of England ' s paramount authority in the / Egeuu Sea ., ife has sent Mr . Gladstone to inquire and report how this is to be done ; and unquestionably he could not have chosen a better instrument for the purpose . We arc not sanguine as to his success , but we think it' any mini ciui succeed he . will .
accordance with their interests and their will constitutionally expressed ; and for the first five-andtweuty years we certainly violated one part of the engagement by ' substituting an English bureaucrat , with absolute powers , for a legislative or responsible body . For a time-the people seemed to have remained politically docile and dumb ; but after the Greek revolution was consummated , and the . para-, phanesis thrown off of foreign yoke , sympathy and example kindled a flame in the Hellenic mind of the islanders , which nothing we have since done or attempted has had the effect of extinguishing . While Lord Seaton filled the office of English Governor , thfi instifie of manv of the comhlaints addressed V 1111 V # ! « . li vx ^ iij l / ilAi 7 %
. ( jlJ ^ S I UwUlVV * IWT «* VS lv «* 'S » . v *» v » wuwv » - « - to him struck the gallant veteran ' s mind so forcibly that he recommended Lord Derby , then Colonial Secretary of State , to sanction a plan of representative government which he undertook to frame . Lord Derby agreed , and a somewhat crude but exceedingly liberal constitution was constructed and launched accordingly . It had not been long at work when the legislature and the executive came to a dead lock . The Jonians displayed all the excitability and conceit of their race , as well as all the inexperience of political childhood . They had been suddenly called from puddling in the shallows of village ' municipalities , to sail a fast-going
clipper in deep water , and to work its high-pressure engines . Lord Seatou ' s ultra-liberal constitution was on the point of blowing up , when the imperial Government once more interfered , and unhappily with as little wisdom or prudence in exactly the opposite direction . Lord Grey had succeeded Lord Derby at the Colonial Office , and one of his first acts was , by the stroke of his pen , to suspend the new constitution absolutely for the space ot five years . As . might l ) a . vc been expected , resentment and rage filled the minds of the whole of the Greek population . They felt that every promise to them iau been broken , and every natural or traditional
MR . GLADSTONE'S MISSION TO THE IONIAN ISLANDS . Mr . Gladstone ' s appointment as Lord High Commissioner Extraordinary of tho Ionian Islands is a circumstance full of interest to party-men of all shades and classes in this country . It is a most unexpected card flung upon the table from a hand not supposed by any one else to hold it . Why was it not played before P All I there ' s the mystery and tlw meaning of the matter , a mystery and
right trampled under foot by tins ruthless exercise of arbitrary and foreign power . Plots and couspiraoies followed ; anuY then Sir Henry Ward was sent out as Lord High Commissioner , under whom a stern and unpitying regime of military repression prevailed for a considerable time . Imprisonments , fines , floggings , and executions , under sentence of court-martial , became the order of the day . Disaffection could not of course bo extirpated by such means , but it was terrorised into silence . At
length order and submission wore supposed to be sufficiently established , and a modified version of the first constitution was then flukig to tho people by the Imperial Government . Is it wonderful that under all the circumstances it should have been received without gratitude , conftdonoe , or respeot F Things have gono ill' in Ionia , evoi ? since the ap * nointment of the present Commissioner . SiY John Young , who had made a good whipper-in under Sir Eobert Peel , and but an indifferent Irish Secretary under tho coalition , was jobbed into tho office in
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1 X 94 . T H E Ii E A D E B . _ Pgg- . aBO ^ oyjSMBER 6 , JL 858 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1194, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/18/
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