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    : ~ \ ' ¦ ~" ii3-.lt t) I! d' ^ft'itt I* 55, & - _ " ' . "' * ¦

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    No . 494 . Sept . 10 , 1859 . ] THE LEADER . 1033

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    SUBSCRIPTION TO " THE LEADER . " ONE GUINEA PER YEAR , UxVSTAJII'KD , ¦ PREPAID . ( Delivered Gratis . )

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    SATURDAY , SEPTEMBER 10 ,. 1859 .

    ARBITRATION OR WAR . The condition of Italy , anil her relations to the rest of Europe , afford an excellent opportunity for testing the much tdlked-of panacea of arbitration , and for holding a new congress upon principles of justice and human right . The Zurich conference lias done all that could be expected : it has both gained trine and lost it— -the one for Italy and the other for the House of llapsburg . While diplomatists were discussing questions they

    had no means of settling , the people of Tuscany , Lombardy , the Duchies , and the Romagna were able to make orderly and constitutional arrangements for the declaration of their will and the assertion of their rights ; and to do this in a manner which has won lor thtjin the respect and admiration of the whole civilized world . But now comes the important question of how Europe will deal with an occasion so full of interest , and one that must entail such lasting consequences upon tho human race .

    If Austria claims from the French Emperor moral aid to carry out the Vi'ilafrancu stipulations , and restore the deposed sovereigns , it is on record that whatever may have been the motives or secret desires of Napoleon HI ., his agents have urged this course so strongly on the Italian people as to create alarm lest he should resort to force . The Italians have done their duty in firmly but respectfully rejecting the advice , and the intention of the French Government is supposed to bo neither to use nor to permit the employment of arms in support o € pretensions that have no moral basis to stand upon . If Austria would acquiesce

    in this state of things , matters might settle down aui ejily for a little while , until some accident gave lo Venetians a chance of regaining their independence , which was infamously , sacrificed by thu First Napolqqii in his Ctunpo Formio Treaty , and afterwards by th , e settlement of 1615 . This , however , is not probable . It _ will only bu from fear or actual compulsion that . House of llnpsburg will abandon the cause of thu justly and lawfully deposed prince *; and a recent telegraph states Jthat she requires a guarantoo that Sardinia shall cease from what who chooses to call

    " accret intrigues in Italy . " It is very natural that the Austrian Court blnmld dooiro a monopoly of " secret intrigues " against tho possibility of good government in Italy . She has carried them on with unflinching pertinacity for more than forty years , and to their continuance who looks for tho chance of regaining the ovil influence sho has for ttyo moment lost . \ Voro Sardinia to agree to the spirit of tltis stipulation , aim must abandon tho cause of the Tuscans , the Parmeso , Modonosu , and tho lloinagnotjo ; she must flatly refuse the

    annoxation which they desire , and she must further formally recognise the right of the Hapsburgs to rule the Venetians against their will . Such a Sardinia as' Austria would have—so small in its boundaries , so surrounded by enemies , and so degraded by the surrender of Italian aspirations—r covild not long preserve an independent existence , and we should soon see a renewal of revolution or war . Under , these circumstances the peace of Europe demands the suppression of Austrian pretensions , and . the support of the Italian -people in their

    legitimate demands for permission to manage their own affairs . The treaties of 1815 can no longer be supposed'to give Austria any right over Italy , beyond what the people of that country choose to admit . A few despots meeting together could not give away the liberties of ' nations for all coming time . These are the sentiments of natural equity upon this subject , and strict law would be no more favorable to " the claims of Austria , for there is no denying the truth of Xi . ord Palmerston ' s remark in IS-U > , when she absorbed the republic of Cracow "that if the Treaty of Vienna is hot good on the Vistula it must be equally bad on the Fo "

    The morality of the case admits of no doubt ; but morality is an article too scarce in the cabinets of kings to render it safe to expect that they will act according ' to its dictates ; and the confesses of sovereigns , like those of Troppau , Laybach , and Verona , have usually ended in monstrous assertions contrary to human right . The dilliculty of getting the great powers to agree to anything that " savours of the principles of freedom is , no doubt , very serious , but if France and England pull well together it-is not impossible that what was done for the Belgians at one-period may be . accomplished for the Italians at . another .

    The Emperor of the French is too inscrutable a man to justify rash ¦ jHHjdicti . ons as to his conduct , but his own interests and safety are palpable on the' side of fair dealing towards Italy , and a firm alliance with this country . With England under the Tories this might have been impossible ,, but the-composition of the present . Cabinet will ensure him . a firm British support in any policy that has the wellbeing of Italy for its end . For centuries the national pride of France has been enlisted in endeavours to oppose the influence of Austria be ^ vond her own boundaries , and in the construction

    of the 1815 treaties the Allied Sovereigns made Austria strong in Italy for the express purpose of weakening France . lf | therefore , . Napoleon III . —secure from serious danger through English support—will bravely maintain the x'ights of Italy against the Hapsburgs , he will succeed in raising the influence of France to a higher point than it attained under Louis XIV . or Napoleon 1 ,, for his plans will rcirain a portion of the European system , while theirs were shattered to pieces , and only left on certain pages of history dark stains of jlooil .

    England cannot see a brave nation struggling for liberty without making its cause her own ; but , in . addition to the attractions of sympathy , we have a positive interest at stake . We can have a solid alliance with a France that does something for tho spread of liberal principles ; but if tho projected interview between Louis Napoleon and Francis Joseph should end in a sacrifice of Italy , we may be sure that some further schemes of evil are afloat ; and , instead of living under the satiafuctory consciousness of peace , wo shall struggle gloomily through the entanglement of un armed and uncertain truce .

    It was with slowness and 'difficulty that tho Russia of Nicholas could bo brought to recognise tho independence pf Belgium $ but the , new Russia of tho present Emperor , and of the abolition of serfdom , may not bo found unwilling to join in a recognition of Italian claims . Imperial ' Franou in dancing upon n tight-rope , not less dunijcrous than that recently stretchod across the Falls of Niagara . ' The army and tho people know that tho Italian war and policy wore failures , if only doatinod to end in the roiinposition of tho yoke of Austria , under tho lliinsy disguirfo of a routoration of her lieutenants ; and if tho French Government should under any circumstances acquiesce in this disgrace , it will need soino frush and more dangerous excitement to restore its

    proHttffe , ' , „ Wo will not , 'however , anticipate tho advent of fresh mirtohici and disappoint muiit . Thu hopofiil view ia tho most prudunt as woll ad tliu most plousuntj

    and it would serve Italy , and promote the alliance with France , if public meetings were held to express sympathy , and give assurance of moral support to those " defenders of liberty who maintain in their own-country , principles consecrated in ours by the expulsion of the Stuarts .

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    THE SMETIIURST LESSON . The Smethurst case has practically decided that henceforth no convict upon whom capital sentence has been passed shall suffer execution if any considerable number of persons doubt that his guilt has been proved and take sufficient pains to make their opinions known . This is the severest blow the gallows has received , and under it , although it may stagger for a time , it must ultimately fall . Those who believe that death penalties for murder conduce to the safety of society , and hold Dr . Smethurst to have been rightly convicted , « an

    scarcely find fault with the-llome Secretary tor granting a respite during hTr- Majesty ' s pleasure , which virtually means a remission of the extreme sentence , because it is impossible . to conceive that a jrood moral effect could be produced by the execution of a man , about whose guilt an active controversy agitated the public mind . It is satisfactory to have got so far on the road to humanity and common sense , but it is impossible not to see the farther operation of the principle that has been established . The fact is that doubts come with civilisation , and the hard positive system that fitted a barbarous age is . ill adapted to a more advanced

    state of society . Our law , in its ignorant savagery , assumes that a jury can in every case arrive at certainty , and declare peremptorily that an accused person is either guilty or not guilty . If juries , in spite of the law ^ ' -will doubt , the judge tells them to give the prisoner the benefit thereof , and declare hint not guilty—a verdict which ; notwithstanding their doubts , may be a deliberate falsehood ; but justice in horsehair does not mind that , and would rather any day sacrifice truth than tolerate divergence from technical rules . The benefit-of-thedoubt doctrine may be pushed too far , and juries would soon come into disfavour if they acquitted

    every criminal whose case admitted any portion of the dubious element . In the practical affairs of life , criminal as well as civil , mankind must constantly be content to act upon something less than either moral or mathematical certainly ; and it is sufficient to justify a verdict of guilty that , notwithstanding ' the existence of doubts , the balance of probability lies so far on the other side that the majority of reasonable men would act in opposition to them . It is true that every accused purson is entitled to the most accurate consideration of the evidence for and against him , but it is eq ually certain that , as society advances , it will entertain a more scrupulous regard lor human life and human rights , and will not consent to the inlliction

    of punishments that admit of no reversal or compensation without requiring more complete- proof than would secure its approbation of a minor penalty . Benthani long ago proposed that no decree ordering " irreparable change in body condition" should be carried out without express confirmation by an appellate judicatory and a justice minister , and we have now arrived at a state confirmation of

    of opinion in which no official a death sentence would satisfy the public that a man ought to be . hanged if a moral possibility—however infinitesimal—of his innocence remained . I ho gallows must therefore bo restricted to the plainest cases ; and as clever criminals usually Hiirround their guilt with circumstances of doubt and mystery that arc not entirely unravelled , they will rarely sullbr the extreme penalty of tho lawwhich will be reserved for Htup . d ruflmns only , until finally irivim up . By help of the Bmothurat

    case wo have got to a pass in which we can rarely oxpuot to hang a clover rogue , and i wo persist in suspending the stupid ones wo shall bo fairly open to thu accusation of punishing folly more aovorehr than crime . Tho admirers of tho gallows who think Mr . Caloralt tho best profuSBor of moral philosophy may lament this conclusion , but faith in brutal punishment is fast dying out—evon Baron Bramwoll will bo ashamed of having ordered a poor little boy to bo twice put to torture for a vonial offonco , and military authorities will aoon be plaood undor legal coercion and doniod tho luxury ui tearing soldiers' backs to piocon in a manner so

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    ¦ OFFICE . , NO . , CATHERINE-STREET , STKANl ) ., "W . C .

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    " " - " NOTICES TO GOKKKSPOiVUENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous correspondenco . Whatever us intended for insertion must bi- authenticated bv the name hikI address of rhe writer ; nut . m .-ress . irily for publication , but as a guarantee of his < , 'ood faith , It is impossible to acknowledge tho mass of letters we-reetiivc Their insertion is often dclaved , owintr to a prois of matter ; anil when omitted , it is frequently from reasons quite independent of the merits of the comnmnieawVcainiot underta ke to return rejected communications .

    : ~ \ ' ¦ ~" Ii3-.Lt T) I! D' ^Ft'itt I* 55, & - _ " ' . "' * ¦

    gublU / ajfairs .

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    Thcreis nothing- so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed when all the world is by the very Uivr of its creation in eternal progress . —I ) R . Arnold .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 10, 1859, page 1033, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2311/page/13/