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THE LEADER .
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nplIE events of the week are many and , for the _ L most part , of much interest . The opening of Japan—of which , we have within the last few days received detailed accounts—is an achievement in every way remarkable , and alone would have served to make the week ' s record memorable . We have given in another place something of an account of the extraordinary people with whom after so many vain . ' endeavours we are at length permitted to hold intercourse . Letters written under the excitement of ' recent impression have been sent to England
stating that " never was there a people more ready to adapt themselves to the changes and progress of the world'than they are . " About that opinion we Lave our doubts ; and at all events it is too early in . the day to pronounce so decidedly . It is enough , at present , to be sure of the great fact that the ancient exclusiveness of this extraordinary nation has been broken down , and to hope that while we reap the solid advantages of an extended commarce , the Japanese may not have cause to regret the introduction of European influences and European standards of civilisation and morals .
Europe , in fact , 13 not in a condition at the present moment to dictate such standards , even tq countries the social and political systems of which contain as much of barbarism as those of Japan . We of England are not beloved wherever it pleases us to set up our standards . It is because we are so little loved in those Ionian Islands , where we have been trying to force our political system upon a race alien to us , in religion , language , or national habits , that we arc sending Mr . Gladstone out as Lord High Commissioner , in the faint
In Ireland there is a state of things—certainly passing away , but active still—which could by no means be pointed to as the admirable fruit of European civilisation . It is very nearly certain that in Japan such an atrocity as the attempt to murder the Reverend Mr . Nixon would never have been thought of ; very certain is it that no writer in Japan would have been found to comment upon the perpetration of such a deed in the spirit of the
writer in the Nalio ) i of last Sunday , who rapturously described how the landlord ' s " teeth had been drawn . " Nor is it probable that in any Japanese temple a priest could be found who , in his zeal for the aggrandisement of his Church , would so utterly belie its history , so impudently perver t notorious facts , and claim respect for a temporal power which has been a burden on Europe for half a dozen centuries , as Cardinal Wiseman has been doing within the week .
Europe , indeed , has little that it can offer with confidence to Japan in the way of example . The conduct of strong Governments towards weak ones , as in the dispute of France with Portugal , would not suggest very high notions of national honour . Nobody in England was taken in by the announcement of the Moniteur , that the affair of tlic Charleset-Georges had been settled to the satisfaction of Portugal ; wo have the real facts of the case now set forth without reserve in the official Lisbon paper ; and we sec that Portugal , maintaining itself to bo in the right , receiving from France no confutation of the facts , but only threats ^ ' of hostile
measures winch it could not hope to resist , gives up the ship and will pay whatever sum the French Government ohooses to extort . In tiio moan time tlio Portuguese aro indignant at the ^ part . which England has played in the " settlement" of this question , leaving their Govornmonfc to cope with a lawless antagonist , and withholding from it even moral support on a question which is as much English as Portuguoso . Our position is an absurdity ; wo cannot , even protect tlio friends who arc doing work which wo havo forced upon thorn . It matters little tvt the present timo wliothor tho Emperor have law on his side or not ; if ho havo it not , ho will make it .
of his private and personal sentiments ! " It is aid that if the Government is so blind to the suggestions of prudence as to bring Count Montalembert to trial , the Count will defend himself ! In Prussia , the constitution is being worked in such a way as to enable tlie Prince Regent to do what he will with the help of a Ministry of his own . The Manteuffel CaMnet holds office only until their successors are ready to take their places . The Prince of Hohenzollern , who is charged with the duty of forming a new Ministry , is believed to
have liberal and progressive tendencies 1 he is a soldier , however , and bound to the throne of Prussia by peculiar ties , having hi lS 40 surrendered to it his sovereign , rights for the purpose of incorporating the territories of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen with the kingdom of Prussia . Too much , therefore , must not be . expected on the side of popular liberty from his administration . We have also another reason given us from Berlin
for not being over sanguine as to the use which the present Government of Prussia are going to make of the " Constitution . " It has addressed a circular to the heads of tli * police throughout the kingdom , directing them what to do with , reference to the coming elections ; they are to use their influence to direct the electors to return such candidates only as shall be acceptable to the Government , taking care to do their spiriting gently *—that is , withoutr aotual violence . In the name of the constitution .
of course At homo , with all our short-comings , we certainly do better with our constitutional powers . Even with a'cgard to abuses in the army—tho most unhopeful of chronic abuses— -we arc never wholly without hope of amendment . Tins week , the Duke of Cambridge has chcorcd us with the spectacle of a Commander-in-Chief reprimanding a Court-martial for not sustaining the character of the army . A . young ensign—after being warned against indulgence in U 10 uiigcutloinauly practice of " practioal joking "—had the temerity to go to another ensign ' s apartment , upsot his furniture , and oauso his bed to take fire : the Court-martial before whom tlio chief ,
of tho chargos were established lot tho young " gonlloman" off with a ropvimand . Tho Duke of . Cambridge has not sot aside tlio judgmonfc , but he has oallod upon future Coui'ts-juartial to take bettor oaro to punish men brought before thom for similar oonduot , which , he says , ts unbooomhig tho oharactor of an " ouloorand a gentleman . "
In his own oonntry , within a wook , wo have soon what "law and orcloi * " aro iu his lunicU . The Count do Montulomborfc is to bo proseouted for spoukiug warmly in praiao of English institutions — pruiso whioh tho Emperor construes into moaning treason to his power " undor tho Constitution" of Frauoo . What is to bo said of tho law ov jastioo of a country in whioh a high legal functionary dares , in his addross at the opening of the law-courts , to tell- t'ho judges that " abovo all things thoy must romember that they vender juslioo in the name of tho Emperor , and that they must strivo to bo the ropro-Bentativos not only of hia public authority , but also
In connexion with tho grout bauk-failuros wa havo hud Mr . Humphrey Brown before thq Biuikruptcy Court , "lookingin as good hoalth and spirits as tho gvoatost ol' his admirers could doairo . " Tuo aasignoes oflcrod no opposition / and Mr . Brown , who will bo roliovod from tho woiglit of a " mountain of projuJioc , " as hut oouusul said for him , passed without a u'onl . of comment from tho bonoh .
hope that lie will find means of pacifying and reconciling the Ionian republicans to tho British power . Wo have givcu them free representative institutions , but wo would forbid them to use thorn iu the wav dictated by their political wants and wislios , which all tend towards tho incorporation of tho islands in the kingdom of Grccoo . It would bo to deliver them over to tho powor of Austria , wo say ; wo do not admit that ifc would bo to sacrifloo an important stratogic position in tho Mediterranean .
Nor ooulil wo offer a 9 a pattern of high civilisation tho prosonfc state of our " religious world , " whoro tho word of poaoo is mado a nover-ooasing battlo-ory of rival Churchoa and rival oreads j ono Church building up four foot walls between its dead and the mortal remains of disaontera from tno lettor of its ordinances ; the other ravishing little helploss cliildrou from . thoic parents ! kooping , because it holds that out of its palo there is no hope of salvation , and makes murder oven a meritorious aoL whou ooinmittod for tho purposo of bringing a soul to paradise .
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— , „ , T ,- 7717 1 itfratURE— INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESSREVIEW OF THE WEEK- * aoe West Indies 1184 , LI"RATURE The English Language in India . 1200 Home Intelligence . §« $ ? • \\ f 3 | Memoir of the Rev . H . S . Pole- £ 0 ^ Indiau i ? rO g ress 120 o The Education Movement 1180 eS * :::::: :: " ::::: " : "" " : " ^ ! fc& &eners" ::::::::::::::::::: S Great Indian peninsula Ban-England and Japan . *•» . ¦* : - " 80 p « £ 11 S 5 Tentsand Tent Life 1187 _ W "' i « n ^ fW" fr ° m 1181 Brazil 11 S 3 Gordon of Duncairn ..... 1187 gd £ - . ¦;;;; ™{ Tr ? £ A 1182 PUBLIC AFFAIRS- British Columbia and Yancou- China * « . TV ^ va ? and ' Miiitarv ' ' " 1182 Ministerial Movements towards ver ' s Island .. 1187 MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL—? cd ^ Sta and S ^ en"iteatl » :::::: 118 S Reform 1193 My Escape from the Mutinies Employment for Surplus Capital 1202 PoliticalIForashadowings . 1198 Manchester Wares 1193 ; i" Oudli .... 1183 General Trade Report ... ^ . ..... 1202 EccSsMcal Items .. 1199 Mr . Gladstone ' s Mission to the ! The New El Dorado 1188 Home . Colonial , and Foreign Kc form Conference 1109 Ionian Islands 119 J , , Magazines . ......: ; ............. 1189 Produce Markets 1203 KeUaneous .... ¦¦ ::::::::::: " .: ¦ .: 1185 Japan ... liui ; Books Received this Week .. 1190 Railway Intelligence 12 W Foreign Inteixigevce AVho Shall Rule tho Roast ? 1195 arts- Joint-Stock Companies .... . ........ 1204 JfOREiGisr intelligence . ^ Liability of Directors 1196 ¦ THE ARTS- Money Market and Stock Ex-SSJSASStei-:::::::::::::::::::::::: liU S rSyr . v ::.::::.::.:::: ; .::::::::::: SS ? i *«*<** . " < " ¦! ^ - ^ - ~ »"" " 12 M
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1179, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/3/
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