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7 So it was with the navy- Our ships were numerous , but of a description useless for the war . ! & > "batter Cronstadt gunboats were required , and ; £ be-e were none . A fleet of them , however , was Built when the war was over . Large and fast ships ¦ were needed to carry troops , and they were hired at an ¦ enormous cost from private shipowners , while the waters of Portsmouth , Devonport , Sheerness , and Chatham were black with floating and useless Rulks . A great outcry has of late been , deservedly zaade on account of Government buying and selling : a lew hundred pairs of boots at a - loss of a few Hundred pounds , and ordering a few light carts to he made For the Crimea that were sold for a
thirtieth of their cost ; but these losses are as ^ a fleafcite to a death-wound compared to the millions of pounds sterling which have been spent through a succession of years in building ships and pulling "them to pieces , without getting from them as much ¦ service as the vojajre of a single collier . Of such scandalous waste the public has a right to complain . There is no reason to expect ^ thing better from the Government , as now constituted , in future . It lies out of the course of social improvement , which . always begins with the multitude striving to better their condition as contradistinguished from the conservative and contented aristocracy ; and to
i nhabited is clearly dictated by nature , and as navigation improved this was wonderfully facilitated . Our Government , however , assumed authority over almost all the waste laud of the world , while , apparently , it did not comprehend the law of nature which it rather thwarted than helped onward . It disposed of this waste in large districts , as'in New South Wales , Swan Hiver , and other places , as suited its own purposes . At one time it thought to diminish crime and raise up an empire by transferring the services of convicts to some favoured classes , and at another it was
terrified from its course by outraged settlers at the Cape of Good Hope and Van Biemen ' s Land . At oi * e time it was led astray by the theory of a Wakeneld , and at another it disposed of the land according to some crotchet of its own . Colonisation has been naturally extended in spite of all the obstructions our very ignorant and selfish bureaucracy has laic ] in its way . The spreading of a crowded population over the untenanted places of the world is a great , natural and necessary work , arid we are told that we should place more means in the hands ' of those who have impeded , but been unable to prevent it .
It requires very little reflection to be convinced that extravagance and inordinate taxation arc the great follies and crimes of modern Governments . Personal liberty is now generally respected , religious liberty , if . not universally acknowledged , is almost everywhere regulated by laws—though the laws be bad ; and freedom of opinion , at least as far as the Government is concerned , is in England sacred . But in England , and every where else throughout the civilised world , Government is greatly
wanting in respect for the property of its subjects . Everywhere the corruption and inefficiency of the governing classes are complained of , and everywhere the taxes they impose and the restrictions on industry which these necessarily carry with them , are fruitful sources of poverty , misery , and crime . Sordid extortion , as contradistinguished from brutal despotism , is the characteristic of modern Governments . Against this the industrious wealth-producing classes everywhere require protection , and hence -we must have Retrenchment as well as Reform . Time has neai'ly worn out old despotism , an d we have to wage war against new corruption .
« nsoie progress , even in economy , Government must -be more largely imbued with the popular element . It is not usual for honest men to plead for valets plundering their master that he is wealthy and can afford it ; but 36 \ m Bull , it is said , is getting very rich , and therefore lie is fair game for the bureaucracy . His vessels , filled with valuable cargoes , cover every sea ; his estate yields more and more every year to his untiring industry ; his labourers : iare no longer half-starved paupers ; his outlying 'wastes , crowded by industrious settlers , no longer require lus care , but contribute' to his wealth ; and he must not complain that those who have
hitherto wasted his substance and impeded Ins exertions should insist on having a much larger share of his increased wealth . That they mis-; applied 16 , 000 , 000 / . a year before the Kussian war is pleaded as a justification ' for their now having 32 , 000 , 000 / . a year to misapply in a similar manner . Honest servants do not make greater demands on their master because he gets rich , though they may naturally expect , if they be deserving , additional rewards ; but to help themselves and increase the amount of their takings because he is wealthy , is little less than dishonesty . We must remind those , too , who plead for
¦ hig her wages and the employment of more valets , that in the progress of society all necessary work or service is done on lower terms . It is now well Jknown , thanks to the repeal of the cora-laws , that dear bread was an artificial contrivance , and that in the progress of society , contrary to the teaching of MalthuS i Ricardo , and others , the cost of producing subsistence and raw materials declines . The merchant , the manufacturer , the citizen , the farmer , are < 3 ontiuuaUy devising improvements and supplying all the wants of society cheaper and better . This ought also to be the case of Government . All the circumstances which facilitate the equable and
constant , and yet increasing supply of subsistence , clothing * &c , &c . ; all the circumstances which bring men under the cognisance of one another and into communication , such as the perpetual daylight obtained by gas , our railways , our press , promote the order of society and notably lessen the police and municipal duties required of Government . Instead , therefore , of making greater , it ought to make lesser demands on our resources , and , like all Ahe ^ classes of society , become move efficient and perform better services for a less remuneration . We are forced also to say , in opposition to those who will insist on taking away the property of the industrious classes by unnecessary taxation , that
our viuets—to . give them their proper name—far from having contributed to spread commerce over every sea , or to protect it , have exposed it to difficulties , have thwarted it by wars , and resisted aa long as possible , aud to the utmost , the abolition of the restrictions which hemmed in trade . For getting rid of the laws which pauperised the workmen and stopped trade , and spreud want and discontent through the community , Mr . Bull is in no degree indebted to the classes who nowolaim aniaorcasing share of the wealth , to tho production of . which they contribute nothing . it is found too , when the subject is examined , that the bureaucracy Jifls much more impeded than promoted colonisation . Tho diffusion , of popixlation from crowded countries to countries thinly
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THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON'S LETTER . The Emperor Napoleon has not maintained the position which was made for him by his own Ministers ; but instead of obstinately adhering to the scheme of " free African emigration , " which his Government seemed to defend agamsi ; the protest of Portugal , he has declared that . " liis ideas on the subject arc far from being settled , " and that if labourers recruited on tho African coast arc not
allowed the exercise of their own free will , if the enrolment is only a slave-trade in disguise , " he will have it on no terms . " It is impossible not to regret that the Emperor did not take this course at an earlier stage of the affair . That tlie Government of Portugal lias acted in good faith can scarcely be questioned ; that it has been perfectly regular in all its proceedings few could venture lo assert . Even tlie champions of Don Pedro ' s Government supply an explanation which , to a great extent , confirms the complaint of the French Government . It is now said that the royal Government at Lisbon
as that of Portugal , there would have remained no obscurity in the case of Mozambique , the Clmrleset-Gcorges would not ' have been sought ,, its waters for the purpose of carrying on an ambiguous traffic and -France would not have thought it necessary ' in the maintenance of her own dignity , to adopt measures so injurious ' to the . . dignity of Portugal so little calculated to maintain reverence for puSiic law in Europe . _ _ T *_ .. * . _ . 1 i . 1 1 J l . _ . _ . . » ~*
We gladly pass however from that bygone stao-c to the actual position which France has assumed . Tn order to understand it , our readers shoul d remember what has before passed on the second subject of the Emperor ' s letter . Some considerable time back it was reported in this country that negotiations had ' . been opened with Iho French Government , which were calculated io remove the difficulties arising from the incautious adoption of
the Regis plan in Paris . The idea was , that it the French colonies of tropical America , and of southern Africa , needed supplies of imported labour , they might be furnished cither from British India m the shape of Coolies , or from some other part of the Asiatic region where there exist races habituated to a spontaneous self-exportation for purposes of industry . The Australian colonies have even been moved to
something like a rebellious demonstration , in order to check the influx of Chinese emigrants , who import with themselves the most nmboiiiiuuble customs to which mankind has ever . degenerated . Since the voluntary abolition of slavery in the British West Indies , the necessity for a recruit meat of labour has been severely experienced , and various modes of ¦ supplying it have been aitempted , but none has , upon the whole , been found to yield the amount of labour required in a form so available'as the migration of Coolies from India . The Coolies are a hill race , probably of very ancient origin , not embarrassed bv many of the customs winch so greatly
fetter the industry of the . Hindoos proper , lhey arc tractable ; and really the greatest diliiculty which has Keen felt in their management ' has ' arisen from the imperfect modes of selecting them , and from their liability to disease'in nil her widespread forms . Individuals who are too old for the service , palm themselves off upon the collectors of emigrants in India , in the hope of bettering their condition , and finding too late , that Ibey are not so well suited to the labour which they are expected
to perform , they grow desponding , and sometimes sicken even to death . The want of cleanliness and of intelligence in the individuals themselves—qualities which no superintendence can actually supplyalso subjects 1 hem to serious inroads when other accidents bring disease amongst them . All these evils arc aggravated iiv those eases , tar ironi lew , m which the Coolies repent , afier they have arrived at the promised land , and desire to return home bclore they have fulfilled , not only the stipulated , twin of service , but those reasonable conditions ^ lii 0 ^ which they could not have been transported at a I . These are ' difficulties almost inherent m the natmo lllCnl ; ill u Ulljiuu'i- 'V i ""'" 1 " " I'l l 1 which demand
of the tropical colonies ; countries a considerable supply of industry , whoso climate forbids the employment of the Caucasian nice , and which depend therefore upon races mchjfoi ous in countries exposed to a vertical sun . ^ » iho present moment there arc few countries eoim \ u under that category which arc not . eil-hor peu |) lec by barbarous races , or races in a stale ol ilogono acy , and therefore unsuited to tho \ wy \ xmo or stem j ' industry . It is the natural capacity of tho Isejtoao live and labour under a tropical sun which has made him the object , of avidity to the employ ™ o labour in tho West Indies ; anclit » ho 1 ; Jg U the i
state of Africa—H woru poiui ««« «»» - ; „ lo a country so savage-winch , by tin . | a \ } o the Negro for tho exercise of a lreo cMj , 1 « JJ made him at once tho material mid the nicen eo tho slave trade . It is a grave moral and c question , how fur tho attempts to supply 1 il m n tho West Indies from other sources may no t " io even greater evils . Unquosl . onubly he Guohts iuo less suited to tho climate , loss » l > lo to to uw labour , more exposed to sickness j and 1 y fa " evidence of those untoward fuels by 1 . ho 1 « H - JJJ . portion of dospondenoy , sickness , and 4 i . all .. «> sl . anUy amongst their numbers *» J J nit . v of Las . tfasas which suffffoslod Iho Btdtth ul on
of TWocs for even iho lnUigonour tnuw - West Indies under tho exaction ol ^ ' ~ y ^ JjS and tho attempt-to substitute Cop'ios ioi Wofai ou has to a certain extent jiwtifcd tuo /» 7 » J' ° ~ sidcration of Las Cabas , by allowing thn . 1 . tin- ' » W is still tho animal better suited to tho iogiou .
had . not only forbidden the practice of permitting the transhipment , of Africans from Mozambique to Kdunion , but , had removed the Governor who had carried out those equivocal proceedings . Such , indeed , would , have been a vory sound course for tho Portuguese Government to tako ; Imt something was also due to those foi'digners wlio had visited the port of Mozambique , who had conformed to the regulations which they found in force thore ^ and who could by no possibility have connnandod information to correct that which was spontaneously
given to them by the local authorities . Before Portugal could be considered to have fulfilled her entire duty in that caso , steps should have been taken to notify all who were interested in tho matter that the local regulations had been changed in conformity with the enduring prinoiplos at ; tho scat of Government . It is from the absence of any such procautions , combined with some other oversights , jbhat the ease of Portugal is as weak as it has been ; nevertheless it is impossible for us to shut our eyes to the fact that , if the JSmperor Napoleon had applied his vigorous understanding to the question as strenuously as he now does , and had earlier consulted with tlie Government of thia country as well
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199 / 5 THE LEADER . ( No . 451 , November 13 , 1858 . . ^ — ^^ — ^ ^ i ^ . ''
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1858, page 1226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2268/page/18/
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