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A NEW THEORY 01? EUROPEAN PUBLIC I^AVV.f
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352 The Leader mid Saturday Analyst . [ April 14 , I 860
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the conditions of obtaining it what they may , they are sure to be fulfilled . The number of paupers , of pensioners , and even o criminals , is well known to be always hi proportion to Refunds on which they can subsist . What we may call the loose or available wealth for depredators in the metropolis keeps in existence a number , very little variable , of pickpockets and burglars . In spite of the short life ot the Sheffield grinders , the men decline to use the means of defending ; themselves from the grit , because , if they lived longer , the difficulty of letting a living would be increased . * The complete answer , of in the is to
however , to all apprehensions of want men now navy be found in the-fact , that a body quite as large as the whole of our seamen was required only a few years ago to make oiir railways , and immediately navvies sprung into existence . Capitalists never want labourers of any description . It is only necessary for them to beckon , and the multitude crowds forward to obtain whatever the capitalist has to give . The Government is the greatest of all capitalists . It has for the national defence the whole national property at its command , and it is only necessary to defer to the usages of civil life to obtain any number of labourers it chooses to
hire and pay . , . , It is a great mistake , founded in complete ignorance , to suppose that the Royal Navy has Only experienced a difficulty in getting men since 1846 . The difficulty has existed upwards of a century , and has increased in proportion as c ivilization has advanced , and the discrepancy between civil and naval discipline has became glaring It was as "teat when the number of emigrants was three himdred thousand a year as when it was seventy thousand . For forty-five years the Admiralty has had the means in its power , by to the of civil lifemid b
adapting the usages on board ship usages , y embarking and educating only blue jackets in our ships ^ of war , keeping the marines as a reserve—to provide men for the fleet and prepare against all emergencies ; but through this long period the Admiralty has neglected this : duty , and relies , as the present Prime Minister still relies , ; on the power which it has nominally and legislatively kept in its hands to seize the seamen when ; jt wants them . To exercise this power is now become . impossible , even in war ; and the poor Admiralty ^ with its huge bounties wasting the public inoney , and its unsuccessful scheme of a reserve , now lies more stranded and
helpless than at any former period . Soldiers enough , marines enoug-h , officers enough , and abundance to spare , it can get ; but seamen it cannot get , and never will get , till the House of Commons publishes the names of the flogging captains , and takes from the Admiralty the power to flogi as it has taken from the judges the power of immoderate hanging . The new schemes hayefailed , like the old schemes ; and they all will fail till it makes service in the navy agreeable to the youthful population of our maritime country . This population must change its character—must lose its facility of moving , from conntrv to country—must lose its love of liberty , and its knowledge of the " anthorized barbarities practised on board our men-of-warmust lose its energy and courage—must become what it has never yet been , the mere slave of power—before it will freely and voluntarily submit to be imprisoned and scourged for lower wages than seamen can get with good treatment in other services .
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COUNT MAMIANI is amongst the best known ' of those Italian patriots who have incurred at times the reproach of being moderates , but now enjoy the full benefit of their adherence to a constitutional and cautious policy . Everybody who is acquainted with the eventful history of 1848 will remember him as the minister of Pio JNoiio , when the holy pontiff , after the assassination of Rossi , granted a liberal administration to his subjects in the few days preceding his flight to Gaeta , and in later years he has played a conspicuous , if not a great , part in the proceedings of the Piedmontese Parliament . He now occupies the post of Minister ofPublio Instruction in the Sardinian , -kingdom , no longer , snipe thcannexation of the Legations , the country of his adoption but of his birth , and as a
member of the Cavour Cabinet has hud his share m the eventmi policy by which the new kingdom of Italy inaugurated' its foundation . Mamiimi is , moreover , well known as a writer of considerable ability , and wo should , be , therefore , disposed to receivo with every favour his treatise E'wi Nuovo Diritto JEuropeo , of which a translation has just boon offered to the English public by Blr . Jeffa , The book , however , does nob fulfil the promise of its title ; so fur from being a scientific examination of the great sources of publio law , and the establishment upon that basis of a now and better code , or the lofficul deduction , from already admitted principles , of a new
rule of conduct for states , applicable to their oxmting relations , xt is merely a bulky pamphlet upon intervention , or vathov non-intervention , the object of which is to show that it is quite right for other powers to interfere on behalf of nations , but very inexcusable to do so on behalf of princes . Wo are far from denying that tho treatise has its value . It is useful as a vindication of tho right of nations to the enjoyment of liberty , a literary demonstration of that right of Italy to independence which she has established by that far more irrefrngnblo argument , tho eword . Ib has its looal utility as an ingenious argument in favour of tho legitimacy of the French intervention on behalf of Sardinia , and a conclusive illustration of tho
iniquity of any intervention on behalf of the Pope . In fact , it is a good party pamphlet , and if it had presented itself as such , We should , whilst scarcely allowing it to be sufficiently interesting to warrant translation , have cordially recognised , its merits . Unfortunately it pretends to be an essay upon the most serious errors of the existing European law , and a development of the essential and directing principles upon which it is to be corrected , the result bein" - the establishment of anew law , to which Europe is to bow ,, and before which all old doctrines are to pass away . It is no suck " thino-, hnt , as we have said , a pamphlet in everything but bulk ; one of tl ° e most verbose and inflated pamphlets , too , that it has ever been our misfortune to read , Count Mumiani tells us that " Gustavus Adplphusi wiser in this than Alexander , took the treatise De Jure Belli et Pads , instead of the poems of Homer , to lay beneath his nightly pillow . " We don't see that poor Alexander had any choice between Homer and Grotius ; but , leaving the phrase to every one's own interpretation , we think we can assure Count Mamiani , that no great commander will ever put his treatise under his nightly pillow unless , in distress for a bolster , he should pillage some public library . . The object of the treatise , then , is to prove that every state is , self ruling , and as such has an internal and external autonomy , which is violated by any interference upon the part of other nations . Non-intervention is therefore the absolute rule applicable to all disputes between subjects and sovereigns , except the subjects belong to another race , or have never been assimilated with the conquerors , in which case any nation has a right to assist them against their oppressors . In other words , intervention in favour of liberty is right , but in favour of despotism it . is wrong . This claim of an autonomy for every people is not very new , nor is there anything particular in the arguments by which it is supported . It is more to the point , however , than the rest of the book , which is taken up with the usual popular indictment against the Congress of Vienna , and M . Mamiani ' s own views of what a congress should -be , and how a treaty should be made . The Congress of Vienna and its settlement of Europe is , of course , fair game for . the publicists of revolution ; but we cannot say that it meets with that ; fair play from them which is due , we are told , even to his Satanic majesty . Its arraigners treat the Congress as if it had been guilty of every suppression of freedom , and as if the world had been enjoying , before the adoption of its " final act , " a law of perfect liberty . Why , there is scarcely one oppressed nationality which can be said to owe its fetters to that Congress . Venice had been suppressed before Napoleon , the Liberator , had given it to Austria . Hungary and Poland date their grievances from a time long anterior . The Congress ol Vienna has faults enough to answer for : it looked to the fancied interests of the sovereigns instead of those of the peoples ; but the latter don fc owe to it all their misfortunes , and would not get what they most want by its general repudiation . . For future congresses M . Mamiani gives an elaborate recipe .. All the sovereign States are to be invited , and however small are to have equal voices with the Great Powers . The sovereign is not to be taken as the state ; the people are to be consulted , and theiu vieWs represented as well as his . How this is to be done we are not told . Then colonies and tributary people ought at least to be asked their opinions ; and the conclusions of the Congress , as of every special , treaty , are to be heralded by a solemn enunciation of principles , something like , we suppose , the interminable " whereas" which precedes the resolutions of half-a-dozen American " wire pullers . " It we add that when two States have been righting , the winner , however unjustly provoked , is not to recoup herself for the cost she has been put to , and that the peace is not to bo concluded until a neutral power has been asked for its opinion , we give a fair abstract of the author ' s practical suggestions . When wo further add that tho whole tone is arrogant and flatulent , that the writer keeps tolling the reader how closely scientific } is his reasoning , and how great areliis discoveries , that ail writers before him , although well-ineiyiuig men enough and intelligent for thoir age , are farthing rushlights compared with such u shining lamp as himself , and that ho introduces a host of imaginary opponents whom he pounds to a jelly with the greatest eiisu iinnginnble , wo give our reader * a very fair idea of Count Mumitmi's theory of international law . That is its general character ; there aro some litty pages wliicli stand out in special relief for their power , lucidity , and point . ijio two chanters to which wo refer , " Armod Intervention lor Religion / ' and " Church and State , " in which the author discusses and rcfutos tho pretended right and duty of Catholicism to interieroon behalf of the Pope , as well as tho general relation of Catholicism to tho State , arc very well worth reading . Wo cannot but suspect that they wore written twelve years ago , as against tho then intervention of France , so strongly do they contrast in tlioir lucidity and power with tho garrulous declamation of the old man of to-day . A few words aro duo to the translator , We have not tho Italian original by us , and ciuinot judgo of thy fidelity of his version . He ia entitled , however , to tho credit of being oven a greater muster ot the verbose mid flatulent than his exemplar—if , indeed , Count Mamiani ia not indebted for a great deal ot his ftiltod stylo to liis admiring translator . In a most unnooossarily long preface , whioli he has dated tho " Ides of Muroli , " and had bolter have dofon-od to . the Grreolc Kalends , ho has contrived , to talk more fiiHtiun than wo huve ever aeon hoaped up >«» thirty pngeH . It was a pity , bocauao no evidently could do butter , and if , according to his own showing , oiu enough to Unow butter ; for ho lmsjudgodit noooasnry to let tho world know who he ia , and , as tho vanity is harmless , we wiN-jusc state for hia benefit and that ot our renc ] cra , that ho was born intho county of Devon , waa n child cupublo of political impromiiona in 18 . J-,
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* Wdinlnmth ltovhw . No . 225 . Article , " Mortality in Tmdes und Professions . '' f Rights of Nations ; or , tho Now Kmv of European States , ftppliod to tho AftSirs of Italy , By Count Majwuajji . Translated ii-om t ) io Jtulnvn , ariu cdltetCwiih tno ( vuthor ' e ndultiona juid corrections , by ttoawi Acton . lonaon ; \ V . Joft ' a ,
A New Theory 01? European Public I^Avv.F
A NEW THEORY 01 ? EUROPEAN PUBLIC I ^ AVV . f
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2342/page/12/
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