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enter upon it until she has paralysed the power of Austria in her more vulnerable' possessions . For this reason , Germany considers that her future destiny is in a great measure involved in the result of the Italian war : and that it -would be suicidal policy on her part to stand aloof and allow Austria to be subdued single-handed , and thereby incapacitated in the contingency which all Germany looks upon as certain to arise , from contributing to the defence of the common country . The Cabinet of Berlin has alone , of all the German Governments , resisted , as far as possible , the popular feeling . It has been wisely anxious not to precipitate matters , althoitgh it lias not shown itself backward in making
such preparations as will enable it , when the time arrives , to play the part in defence of German interests which the great resources of Prussia and the position that she holds in the Confederation , qualify her to perform . But the public feeling in Germany generally , and even in the Prussian territories , which is daily acquiring more force , will scarcely permit Prussia much longer to maintain her expectant policy ; and there is eoery reason to anticipate that not many days will elapse before some decided indication is given by the Confederation of its determination to look upon the course of Austria as vitally bound up with t / ie general interests of the whole German race "
Lord Malmesbury , who wrote these words on the 20 th of May , carefully abstained , as he told Sir James Hudson , from endeavouring to " dissuade the German States from taking such measures as those States considered to be necessary for the maintenance of their several interests ; " as the English Government " could not assume the responsibility of even morally guaranteeing them against the eventualities of the Italian war . " These passages will help to explain the fears expressed by Lord Derby and Sir John Pakington , lest we should , be drawn into the war , and they are believed to coincide with the sentiments of the Prince Consort if not of the Queen herself . Lord John Russell and Lord Pahnerston will
only express the feelings of the British , people if they convey to the German niirid assurances of strong friendship and goodwill , but we trust they will endeavour to dissipate the delusion that the Rhine . must ' 'be defended on the Mincio . It is within their own natural boundaries , and not outside them , that the Germans must seek their strength , and they may rely upon it that any attempt to aid Austria in maintaining a forcible possession of Italian cities , in opposition to the just claims and the will of the Italian people , must prove a source of danger and weakness that all the engineering works of the famed " Quadrangle " will not be able to counterbalance . Germany has an undoubted interest in preventing these fortresses from being permanently held by Prance ; and the best way to accomplish this object is to insist that they shall be surrendered into Italian hands .
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" BEHIND THE CURTAIN . " Ung ratified curiosity is a terrible thing . There are people in the . world , victims to this morbid propensity , who are always haunted by the desire of knowing exactly the very thing which they ought not to know . The external aspect of grandeur affords them no satisfaction unless they can also penetrate into its internal structure . In Soliti cs , in religion , and in love , they are always fting up the pie-crust to see if there is any fruit beneath . When they behold a judge delivering judgment , robed in the awful majesty of law , they
at a Cabinet Council is a subject on which we have bestowed much anxious and , we fear , unprofitable speculation . We all know the general and stereotyped account . We have all rcad ^ from time- to time , how her Majesty ' s Ministers meet in solemn conclave , and then for two , three , nay four , mortal hours , discuss with grave solemnity the interests of the nation - We Know all this , but cannot say that we believe it . In this age of scepticism there is nothing sacred ; and even in Cabinet Councils we have lost our faith . What occurred , for instance , on the first meeting of the new Cabinet ? There was a moment , too short , indeed , when we fondly imagined that our life-long desires might be
gratified . And Granville , honour to his name , showed a laudable disposition to throw open the mysteries of the Cabinet to profane inspection ; but , alas ! he was only the Premier of a day-dream—a sort of amphibious political phenomenon thrown by a convulsion of nature out of his proper element , and destined , like all abnormal phenomena , to astonish the world for a short season and then disappear for ever . Still the day , the hour , the fragment of time , whatever its duration may have been , which signalised Lord Granville ' s Premiership , and gave vis one glimpse behind the scenes , will remain for ever sacred , with the whitest of chalk , in one faithful and grateful memory ^
Our curiosity extends to . the minutest details of these important councils at which the fate of England is decided . What , we should like to krum , is the form of the table round which the Ministers assembled . Surely it must have been round , or how would the question of precedence have been settled ? If it were round , however , how could the extra leaf have been inserted which must have been required for so large a number of councillors ? A leaf inserted would have given the circle too
much of an elliptic form , and a seat at the apex of an e l lipse would savour too much of invidious superiority to a Cabinet wherein all are equal . No- ' . safety is alone to be found in the circle , pure and simple . What , too , is the colour of the table cover ? Let not this be considered a trifling question ! To the philosophic mind it may prove a matter of no small significance . Buff , yellow , or true blue , or any other pronounced colour , would justly prove offensive , to the political convictions of some one of the sections of the Cabinet * What
These are points on which we only profess to have heard vague and uncertain rumours . There are others of equal interest in which we still remain in total ignorance . Who takes the seat with his back to the "window in summer , and to the fire in winter ? Who puts on coals , and rings the bell ? Who , in fact , is the " general utility man " of the ministerial company ? Are we wrong in suggesting the eminent qualifications for such a post of Sir . Charles Wood ? If a member talks too long— say Sir George Grey , '' exempli gratia " who pulls him short ? If an inferior celebrity ,
of course , Mr . Lowe ,. has an opinion—an inconvenient opinion of his own—who moves the termination of the discussion ? If a leading statesman , somewhat past the prime of life , happens to fall asleep , who treads upon his corns , or slaps him on the back ? And if another veteran , not unnaturally confused by the number of companies he has sat amongst under like circumstances , accidentally speaks of Castlereagh and Peel instead of Gladstone and of Cobden , who reminds him that times are changed and that he is changed with them , and that from a Tory he has become a Liberal ?
What , we have often wondered , is the rule , when a Minister , not in the Cabinet , is summoned on business before the upper sixteen . Do they stand , or sit on the corner of their chair ? or is there a small stool placed for them , Like that on which the Bishop of Sodor and Man sits in the House of Lords amongst his reverend brothersnot speaking , but being spoken to ? Does an unauthorised person ever intrude upon the conclave ? Is it the case that Mr . Bright ' s support to the present Government has been purchased by the promise that he is to attend the councils as
a sort of dry nurse , deputed by the Manchester p arty , to keep Gibson and Cobden from getting into bad company ? Fancy the feelings of the President of the Board of Trade , at hearing the member for Birmingham knocking at the door , to ask if " Richard was himself again . " If , however , Mr . Bright only stands outside the room there is still ground to hope that he will not be able to distinguish through the door the proceedings of his protege , for though the voice will be as the voice of Cobden , the words will be ever as the words of
Pahnerstone-Is luncheon brought in during the proceedings , or does it stand upon a side table ; and are spirituous liquors drunk , upon the premises ? Does Lord John buy his own oranges , or are they paid for by the nation ? And who is responsible for the commissariat department?—not , we trust , the Duke of Newcastle . Who , too , is to be the funny man of the party ? This , we own , is a startling difficulty . Lord John Russell only jokes by constitutional precedent . Mr . Gladstone does not like a joke , and considers the habit a trivial one . Sir George Lewes , Sir George Grey , and Sir Charles W ood form a dead weight sufficient to crush in its birth the most vivacious of witticisms . Mr . Cobden may be a cause , but certainly is not a source of merriment ; and Lord Campbell requires
a British jury of twelve times huaband-Iiousuuoiderand—father power to appreciate his humour . We suspect that Lord Palmerston will , eve long , find poor Lord Clanricarde a positive necessity . In the midst of so much heavy virtue and serious respectability even a soupcon of disroputabilfty would be a positive relief . ' . . We have ono question more . Are all allusions to antecedent colleagues strictly forbidden t Is the widow ' s code adopted , and is there no mention made of the " dear departed " in the presence of his successor . ? By the way , as we are asking ( on the Jack and hia Cow" principle of our childhood ) , wo may as well ask everything , as wo do not expect to get any answer . Is it the case that Jjorti John Russell insists on having a muaic-stool , which ho can work up at pleasure , so as ulwnys to bring his head above the level of the Premier h r
tailors call a midnight colour , invisible blue , or Oxford mixture , or some other parti-coloured motley shade , would be most appropriate , —say , for instance , blue , of a faint cerulean hue , in / the neighbourhood of the Premier , changing into yellow by the seat of the Foreign Minister , and passing through every gradation till it sunk into drain—the new-fashioned Quakerian drab—in front of the Manchester department . A sudden inspiration seizes us ! Some fifteen years ago , young ladies of domestic tastes were in the habit of working for batchelor cousins * kettle-holders of certainTbriglxt colours , mixed in curiousl y arranged squares , so that by some optical delusion , if you winked with one eye , blue became red , and yellow passed into green . Why do not the ladies of the liberal connexion work such a table cover for the
Ministerial councillors ? It would be at once so suggestive and so appropriate . When , too , Ministers first entered the room , who arranged the order of their scats P Did the Premier shake hands all round , or did Lord John try to get the first word P Did the Chancellor of the Exchequer appear as if he did not quite like his company ? And did Milnor Gibson try to look as if he were used to all this kind of . thing , and wns resolved not to be put upon as the now boy of the party ? Did Lord Granville—we only repeat a rumour—come half an hour before the time to try by experience what it felt like , sitting in the Premier ' s chair P And was ho ejeoted by Lord John , who came a quarter of an hour later , on a like
errand ? Was there no chair placed in readiness for Mr . Gobdon , and did the Preaident of the Poor Law Board insist on having an empty scat beside him for his absent friend as " a matter of principle ? Is it also true that a letter was read b y tho Premier from Lord Shaftcsbury , urging the importance of prayers being performed by a prelate of evangelical principles before the commencement . of ouoh Council ; that Gladstone moved as an amendment that tho Church Cutcchism should be recited , with especial attention to those olauscs which refer to the doctrine of original sin ; and that a protest was entered by Cornowall Lewis in favour of religion being entirely an open question .
begin to fancy how the self-same judge would look placed in the prisoners' dock , and without his wig and ermine . A bishop , blessing his congregation and surrounded with a halo of sanctity and lawn , suggests to them the vision of the placid prelate grumbling beneath tho gout and reverting , perforoe , to tho simplicity of primitive apostolic sustenance in tho form of water-gruel . Not oontent with gazing enraptured on the charms of beauty , they cannot , for their life , help speculating how much is duo to dress , and how little to nature . Sermons , to their minds , suggest tithes and pewrents . The names of Reform and Roebuck
always , inconceivably , lead them into speculations about the fact that virtue is . its own reward , Crinoline is to 'then ) a , source of constant mental irritation . For this form of mental delusion wo have more of pity than contempt ; oven for " Peeping . Tom" himself we have always felt a kind offellow-fbeling . We , too , have our pot desire , winch is never destined to bo gratified . What really takes place
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GLORY OF WAR AND OF PEACE . We learn with groat satisfaction thattlio soldiers 01 tho two armies m Lombardy respect , to tho utmost of their power , the labours of the husbandman , it is recorded to thoir honour that they do not wantonly destroy tho fruits of the earth . Thorp conduce is favourably spoken of because it is less destructive of human welfare than tlio usual conduct of soldiers . Nevertheless , wo read ofthouaunds and thousands of " men being killed ; of Iiundrods and hundreds being maimed and wounded ; of ninny loft to perish ; of many-pan ting with thirst and
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770 THE LEADEK , [ Public
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 25, 1859, page 770, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2300/page/14/
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