Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843

But the discount of Cobden's Cocker veracity here established, with which for the present we shall conclude, is far (enormous, almost incredible though it be) from the full measure of his intrepidity in the "art of misrepresentation;" crediting him, as upon fair consideration we are bound, with misrepresenting to some extent from sheer ignorance, from want of that early mental training, or maturer discipline, which alone can qualify for the severe labour of researches into, and the analysation of truth. For, unfortunately for the question he has raised, although not so far entertained by the legislature, the very figures discounted from his colonial fictions tell against, and must be carried over to the debit of, his highly cherished foreign trade account, the cost of which to the country will be approximately verified on another occasion in Blackwood. It is the distinctive mishap of the family of the Wrongheads, the illiterate, one-idea'd class of which he is a member, that they never can contemplate a friendly act without perpetrating mischief, nor intend mischief without unconsciously achieving discomfiture and disgrace. For of the £.1,550,000 colonial overcharge in military expenditure alone of this shallow, unreflecting, and superficial person, not less certainly than £1,200,000 must be charged to the account of foreign trade, the special trade he delights to honour. It will constitute, as he will find, a material item in the general balance-sheet which we purpose to draw hereafter between the advantages of foreign and colonial trade.

Sir Robert Peel is not more correct in his so bitterly reproached "do-nothing" policy about Irish repeal, than in his "do-nothing" emphatic policy about Corn-law repeal. No man better knows how, left to themselves, the Brights and Cobdens will turn out to be Marplots. The dolts cannot see, that however hard the Villierses, and such as them, bid for popularity against them, in apparently the same cause—they have an interest diametrically adverse in the general sense, and on the fitting opportunity will throw them overboard. The most influential part of the liberal press, both metropolitan and provincial, it is well understood, concur with the League to some extent in its avowed objects, without at all liking its leaders, or the means pursued for the end sought, and wait only for the occasion, which will come, for damaging and finally overthrowing them in popular estimation. In Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, that is, in the privately known sentiments of the leading press and other liberal leaders of opinion in each, it is notorious that this feeling and occult determination prevails. Mr Cobden himself, and some of his colleagues, are not unaware of the fact, and have, in the factious and political sense, latterly trimmed their course accordingly. But, notwithstanding, confidence they have recovered not—never will, because apostacy or trimming cannot inspire confidence; they are endured—to be used, and to be laid aside, "steeped in Lethe" and forgotten, as in time they will be.

In this brief article we have treated only of the salient points of the colonial slanders of Mr Cobden and the League. We have challenged them only with carrying to colonial account above one million and a half sterling, with which the colonies, so understood in the true sense, have nothing to do; and we have shown that one million and a quarter nearly of the charge made against colonial trade, legitimately appertains to foreign trade. Hereafter we purpose to investigate the respective charges entailed upon the country by foreign and colonial trade, to apportion to each its share, and to strike the balance of profit and loss relatively upon each. Let it suffice for the present that we have shown Mr Cobden and his figures to be utterly undeserving of credit in a partial point of view only; we could, as we shall, prove them to be, either through idiotical ignorance or stupidly malicious intent, more worthless of credit still in the general and rational sense—in the relative proportions of the totality of national expenditure. The blunderer, ignorant or malignant, classed the expenditure for Guernsey and Jersey, and the Channel islands, under the head of colonial military expenditure, as well as a considerable portion of the cost of the Chinese war, partly repaid or in course of being repaid. He took the exports to the colonies for 1840, when the Chinese war was only in its origin, and expense scarcely incurred; and he adopted the estimates for 1843, when the expenses of the Chinese war had to be provided for, a portion of which was charged under colonial heads. He omitted, as we have said, any account of permanent charge for conducting and protecting the trade with China, amounting to a considerable sum yearly under the old system, and which hereafter will be more—all to the account of "foreign trade." He omitted besides, at the least, half a million for the war with China—all for "foreign trade." We shall have other occasions, however, for exposing his dishonesty, and vindicating the colonies from his calumnies. The only words of something like truth he spoke, were against that bastard and discreditable system, purporting to be a "self-supporting system," concocted by adventurers and land-jobbers for achieving fortunes at the cost, and to the ruin, of the unsuspecting emigrating public, and to the signal detriment and dishonour of the state.

1

1. Geschichte der alten und neuen Literatur von FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL. Neue auflage. Berlin, 1842.

2. Lectures on the History of Ancient and Modern Literature, from the German of Frederick Schlegel. New edition. Blackwood: Edinburgh and London, 1841.

3. The Philosophy of History, translated from the German of FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL, with a Memoir of the Author, by JAMES BURTON ROBERTSON, Esq. In two vols. London, 1835. Reprinted in America, 1841.

4. Philosophie des Lebens von FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL. Wien, 1828.

2

Denkwürdigkeiten von K. A. VARNHAGEN VON ENSE. Mannheim, 1837. Vol. ii. p. 60.

3

Briefwechse Zwischen GOETHE und ZELTER. Berlin, 1834. Vol. vi. p. 318.

4

Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern. Blackwoods, Edinburgh, 1841.

5

This is Menzel's phrase, not Schlegel's. "Hegel's centrum war ein blos denkendes, auf öder Heide spekulirendes, kleines, suffisantes, selbstgenügsames Ichlein." The untranslatable beauty of the German is in the diminutive with which the sentence closes. It is difficult to say whether Menzel or Schlegel shows the greater hostility to the poor Berlin philosopher.

6

Varnhagen Von Ense, Rahel's Umgang, i. p. 227. "Er war auf besondere Weise Katholisch, und hatte seine Geistesfreiheit dabei gar nicht aufgegeben."

7

The following is Schlegel's philosophy of transubstantiation—"Though it be true, that in the Holy Scriptures, in accordance with the symbolical nature of man, there is much that is generally symbolical, and symbolically to be understood; yet when a symbol proceeds immediately from God, it can in this case be nothing less than substantial; it cannot be a mere sign, it must also be something actual; otherwise it would be as if one would palm on the eternal LOGOS, who is the ground of all existence and all knowledge, words without meaning and without power. Quite natural, therefore, it must be regarded, i.e. quite suitable to the nature of the thing, although per se certainly supernatural, and surpassing all comprehension, when that highest symbol which forms the proper principle of unity, and the living central point of Christianity, is perceived to possess this character, that it is at once the sign and the thing signified. For now, that on the high altar of divine love the one great sacrifice has been accomplished for ever, and no flame more can rise from it save the inspiration of a pure God-united will, that solemn act by which the bond formed between the soul and God is from time to time revealed, can consist in nothing else than this—that here the essential substance of the divine power and the divine love is in all its lively fullness communicated to, and received by man, as the miraculous sign of his union with God."—Philosophie des Lebene, p. 376. On the logic of this remarkable passage, those who are strong in Mill and Whately may decide; its orthodoxy belongs to the consideration of the Tridentine doctors.

8

Philosophie des Lebens, p.407.

9

RAHEL'S Umgang. FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL, vol. i. p. 325.

10

The authorities given by Mr Robertson are, (1.) La Biographie des Vivans, Paris. (2.) An article for July 1829, in the French Globe, apparently an abridgement of the account of Schlegel in the Conversations Lexicon. (3.) A fuller and truer account of the author, in a French work published several years ago at Paris, entitled "Memoirs of distinguished Converts." (4.) Some facts in Le Catholique, a journal, edited at Paris from 1826 to 1829, by Schlegel's friend, the Baron d'Echstein.

11

"Das republikanishe Werk erscheint gewiss nicht vor Zwei Jahren."—Letters to Rahel—1802. Varnhagen, as above. Vol. I. p. 234.

12

"Das kleine Vermogen meiner Frau."—Letters to Rahel. Paris: 1803.

13

Das Wiener Congress in 1814-15, by VARNHAGEN VON ENSE, in the fifth volume of his Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 51. By the way here, Mr Robertson in his list of famous Catholics in Germany, (p. 19,) includes Gentz. Now, Varnhagen, who knew well, says that Gentz was only politically an Austrian, and always remained Protestant in his religious opinions; which is doubtless the fact.

14

Ueber die neuere Geschichte Vorlesungen gehalten zu Wien im Jahre 1810; Wien, 1811.

15

Was Ich Erlebte, von HEINRICH STEFFENS. Breslau, 1840-2. Vol. iv. p. 303.

16

The time is rushing on When France shall be undone; And like a dream shall pass, Pope, monarch, priest, and mass; And vengeance shall be just, And all her shrines be dust, And thunder dig the grave Of sovereign and of slave.

17

Three large volumes of papers relative to the affairs of Greece have been laid before Parliament in 1830, 1832, 1833, and 1836.

18

To this population of 33,909, must be added the troops and strangers in Athens, and at the Piraeus, who are not citizens. They generally exceed three thousand.

19

Twenty-eight drachmas make a pound sterling.

20

This decree was published in the Athena newspaper, and is dated the 20th of April 1843. It does not appear to have been published until some weeks later.

21

This is no exaggeration. We once visited the island of Santorin, which has a population of 9000 souls, who own 46 vessels of 200 tons and upwards, besides many smaller craft. King Otho was sailing about in one steamer at the time, and another was acting the man-of-war amidst a fleet of English, French, Prussian, and Austrian frigates in the front of the Piraeus; yet no post had been forwarded to Santorin for a fortnight. Santorin is about 90 miles from Athens, and yields a very considerable revenue to the Greek monarchy.

22

Several national assemblies have been held in Greece. The acts of the following have been printed in a collection composed of several volumes. The first was held at Pidhavro, near Epidaurus, of which its name is a corruption, in 1822; the others at Astros in 1823, at Epidaurus in 1826, at Troezene in 1827, at Argos in 1830 and the last at Pronia, near Nauplia, in 1832.

23

Annex A, No. 9.

24

The paper from which we have quoted the above passage, is printed as an annex to the protocol appointing King Otho, in the Parliamentary papers.

25

This does not apply to Louis XV. personally.