Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-26 00:00:00

ENGLAND AND EUROPE.

The following article appeared in the literary
columns of the Journal des Debats of Saturday last,
introduced by a few lines respecting the new " His-
toire d'Angleterre," by M. Emile de Bonnechose. The
article is signed by M. Prevost-Paradol

" England has just caused a strange. surprise not to Europe
only, but to those statesmen who fancied they knew her best,
to those among her great citizens who thought they were per-
fectly certain to lead her. For the first time; perhaps, in her
history she has tilowed a great war to. corrim ence -and continue,
a re-arrangement of territory to be announced and accom-
plished, not only without taking part in it,.birt with the firm
resolution of having nothing to do with it. She has im-
posed this resolution on her statesmen ; she' has watched
them with jealous attention, lest they might be tempted to
disobey her; she has forbidden them to entertain the
sliglatest intention of mixing up with this conflict the name
and arms• of the English people ; and so well has she- sac=
seeded in this difficult design, that the war was 'brought to
close, and peace re-established in Europe, without Eng-
land's taking any greater part in it than Portugal or Den-
mark. .. ,

" The ministers who, true to the tradition of their country,
formed a different idea of her interests and duties, no more
succeeded in moving her than Don Quixote did in carrying
off that celebrated wooden horse on which he fancied. he.
could travel through the vast fields of air. It was in vain
they let off crackers near the ears of 'the peaceful animal,
and put squibs Imder his tail ; nothing stirred hiS inflexible
iinmobility.; and after all this alarm, he found himself in
the same place .as at first. But the question is, whether
England finds herself, at the end of this episode, in the same
place as at .the beginning, and whether she comes out of

this trial asintact as Don-4uixotes steed.
• " First Of all, let us inquire what Were the chief causes of
England's taking so new and decided an attitude in the great
crisis weliave just passed through. Above all, it was thfit
increasing disgust for war, which, in'the nineteenth century,
is both the glory and weakness of civilised communities.
'lt must be admitted that England tieVer manifested greater
Tepupanee to war, or greater• attachment to peace, than
•during the first months sear. It is not only, *as
people are too fond of saying,; the immense development of
.matbrial interest's, that makes -nations, when they have the
,control of ,their own Alestinies,o slow to have recourse to
arms.; it is a general .sentintoit of humanity. ; it is,a greater
reipect for hiimanlife.; "a liVelier consciousness of the

.inanifd

w war, anc

Le responsibility

Attaching to those who let , loose such a scourge npon the
nvlsrld without absolate necessity. If these ideas exorcise at
'the present day a great drifluenee upon the continent itself,'
if the most warlike naticin in the world has felt their con-
straining power, \what -,attion
_must they
_not barn Aipon

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.

PARIS, JULY 24

The Moniteur announces the nomination of Mar-
shal Pelissier to the post of Grand Chancellor of the
Legion of Honour. It is a high place, but the duties
are peaceful. His acceptance of them would lead us
to suppose that, so far as war is concerned, " Othello's
occupation's gone," and that the Marshal is numbered
among the invalides. It looks, too, like a holding
out of the olive branch. In fact, we learn to-day
that a brighter prospect is beginning to beam
upon us. French politicinrs affum that the
English Government agrees to take part in the
Congress, which is t o be held on the proposed
Italian Confederation. I have already told you
that France, or rather the French. Emperor, (for the
terms are not invariably convertible,) was most
desirous that England should enter Congress, but
that England held back. I am now told that our
Government have offered to send a representative,
provided France disarmed ; that the French Em-
peror,. perhaps doubting that the offer would be
accepted, proposed to .do so on condition that
England did the same'; that England, taking him at
his word, consented on. condition of a general dis-
armament by land and sea ;' that France will begin,
and that our Government are at this moment very
11 satisfied with the conduct of the French
Napoleon 111. does not repeat the faults
ncle ; he gives his race-horse full breathing

Emleror
of

time. M. Persigny's arrival in Paris is announced,
and it is thought he is come on that important busi-

A provincial paper has the following :
" The Times contains an article of the most violent kind
against the direction of The press department at the Ministry
,of the Interior, because that journal had been stopped twice
recently. The motive which prevented the circulation of
that journal was the Insertion of articles containing the
grossest personalities against personages who are the highest
placed in the French Government. We cannot understand.
why a journal of the importance of the Times publishes such ,
articles in its columns. , What would it say :if the French
press contained attacks, so violent against Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert'?" .
The paragraph adds that M. de Laguerroniere
might have interdicted the
~Times'" twenty t,imes_if
he had not shown towards it 'extreme forbearance;"
and, further, that he will consider it his duty to act
similarly when " attacks so unbecoming". as those
that led to its,heing stopped Were repeated. This
paragraph, Which was written in, the offiee of M.
de Laguerroniere, where is also Inamifactured the
Parisian correspondence foi the provincial press, to
which it is transmitted in.Havas' lithographic sheets,
and thence copied back into the Paris semi-official
journals &S.-representing the opinion 'of ;the depart-
ments, will doubtless make its appearance in proper
time in the-Patrie, Pays, and Owatitutionnel. What
the "article of the most Violent kind" Is, what
are the 'misstatements contained in it, and who. the
'personage 'the highest. placed in the French
Government,' against whom the violent language
was directed, I have not the slightest notion. I
may only &serve thatowith such a ean9n rate at his
disposal aschis own 'Patric, not to speak ef the others,
M. de Lagnerroniere might have contradictucl the
misstatements he alludes to, repelled the attacks, and
corifonnded-the attacker. The surprising
,pant of this
affair is not so much the stoppage of the
other English papers, as that this paltry annoy=
should 'be. ,so often nractis-

Times nail

b•y ole wlib is himself

;very Aeng.ago
,figuved among the-most ardent adva-
cates of:the -freedom of the press, ofeverrother
the,fierce protest against the coup d'etat
mblican Pays, in which he was then one
of the leading writers, is fresh in oar memory, and
contrasts strangely with, the censorship of to-
daY. The Poyaitrotested and-denounced, and then
remained mute. It was thought that the Demo-
era-tic protestor had retired to' the desert to mourn
'over the -violence which he had .forcseen and de-
outsx.:a.-;. or Altiit he 'w-onld be seen taking his stand
some day at the foot of the plaster statue of the Be-.
public in the :Place..Bourgoyne, and then, wrapped:
up_in his own virtue, like the just-man of Horace, or
in the proof-sheets of the Pay's; immolate himself,
like "Cute of Utica, unwilling to survive the triumph
of ansar,over -the cause he loved, and for which he
had shed .so much ink. That, plaster statue disap-
peared in time, but it witnessed no. sacrifice, and the
Cato' of the Faubourg Montmartre lived on and
flourished.
It is -only when we contrast the tolerance of others
from whom not much tolerance was to be expected
with the officious 'and unasked-for zeal with which
the ci-divant Liberal journalit carries out his inqui-
sitorial functions that we are confounded. M. Salles,
M. Petit, M. La Tour Dumoulin, the predecessors
of M. de Laguerroniere in the direction of the press
at the Ministry of the Interior, did not systemati-
cally practise such annoyance, even -in days of
trouble. If an error of, mere fact occurred the
means of rectification were tendered when rectifica-
tion. was necessary, or . the reply was
rgiven m the
semi-official papers. As I-haive already said, General
Espinasse during lis tenure of office, to which he was

fretulom

. .
named. for .special and exceptional reasons,. carried
on no such system. I never concealed my opinion. of
his Ministerial acts ; he has died the ,death of agallant
,soldier, and I owe him -this tribute of justice.
M. de Lasuerroniexe intimates- that he will on
future occasions interdict the Times when what he
-pleases to term "violent -articles" appear in it • I
have no doubt he will, so long as 'he has the power.
It, is a characteristic of Liberals who have undergone '
the metamorphose 'through which the former coad-
kitor.of M. de Lamartine has passed to be far more
.intolerant than their superiors. I am certain the,.
Emperor is not aware, of this nervous officiousness of
his neophyte, and would estimate it at its proper
value. His Majesty has too much', to occupy him
-without descending to the details of a subordinate
.branCh of a Ministerial department.
'I may add that since Tuesday no stoppage has
occurred with the Times, though its delivery has
been .once or twice retarded. ' Perhaps M. de La-
uerroniere suspects that the English residents in
Paris get their papers all the same, and that his
plan, if.a, little vexatious, is in reality useless.
AS I .am oil the subjectiof the presS, I must 'not
omit ,to -say a word respecting the strange article
which appeared in the Journal des Dlbats on Thurs-,
day last, and which excited great attention from the
tone it exhibited towards England as to her policy
on the Italian question. After reading it, people
looked more than once lit the-top Of these pages to see-
d it was really the D:Thats or the Patric.
You may be surprised that a journal so serious, s(
moderate, and so superior in every respect. as the
Debats, should give . such an , interpretatiOn to the
-measures of self-defence taken .by England.- You
will not be surprised,
_however, when I give, the ex-
planation. The article in question was 'written 133--
an individual who is at the same time a_ part pro-
prietor of the Debatsi and .whO fills certain funs-'
tions connected with the Imperial Government.
His connexion with the Debats, though not with its
editorial department, enables him occasionally to
procure the insertion of an article even when in
opposition to the views of the regular writers for
that.paper. The article, for Which they are not in
the least responsible, and with the views . ex-
pressed in which they do not coincide, appeared in a
part of the paper which does not usually contain
the regular articles of the Redaction, and it was
merely signed by the " Secretaire de la Iteclaet
The author, a government functionary, as I have
said; is the same person who wrote the absurd story
some time since about the formidable fortifications of
Perim, in the Red Sea. The object is, of course, to
enable people to say--" Sec what such a paper as the
Journal des Debats says on the armaments tng-
ekbv
iiensdad, a
onapnetdrh”e_g
Di a
niebsda
Debats,
1, el::
tlailizidai:.;;;Eno.ltheish neutrality; when so moderatheean.
journal takes views of
indeed
warnings, there4am
semi-official papers g -home and
COI- • ' ' •
abroad. -