The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 1, 1857. and electors who never approached the polling-booths at all were recorded as devout worshippers of Lord PALMERSTON'S intimate friend ! The Committee of the House of Commons had no oppor tunity of laying bare this morass of impurity; their labours were con fined to a scrutiny, and they reported without hesitation that Mr. SOMERS was not, and that Mr. WYNNE was, duly elected for Sligo. Lord PALMERSTON'S tenants in this borough do not appear to have re ciprocated his attachment to his nominee ; and, in consequence, the sister country will have the advantage of the presence in Parliament of an able and independent gentleman. Whether this will compensate for the loss of Mr. J. P. SOMERS, is a question we leave to its own judgment. Lord JouN RUSSELL appears to be keenly alive to his peculiar and critical situation. The Noble Lord fears that he shall be forgotten, and, unable to retrieve his position, takes every opportunity to push himself before the public, though only with the effect of showing how acutely he feels his present unenviable position. It is, perhaps, not to be expected that the Noble Lord, whose career has been from the first one of striking political vicissitudes, should now tamely consent to end his political life; but a less petulant and more dignified bear ing than the Noble Lord at present exhibits in the House would bo better worthy of the statesman whose name for the last twenty years has shone so prominently in the records of the Liberal party. Whoever has seen a bit of old wood washed out of the current of a river into a bend of the hank, and has watched its efforts to regain the stream, how it eddies and jerks out to the edge of the current, and is twirled back again to the placid backwater, will be reminded of the present position and conduct of Lord JOHN RUSSELL. The Noble Lord has been washed into the back benches, and every now and then he jerks himself forward in vain to catch the political current. One night he attacks the Opposition and supports the Government ; on another night he supports the Opposition and attacks the Govern ment ; while on the third he holds a passage at arms with Lord PALMERSTON, disputes the opinions of those below the Treasury benches, and opposes any suggestions which may come from the opposite side of the House. We can condole with the Noble Lord for the disappointment he must suffer at this Indian crisis, and the consequent shelving of that Reform Bill he had so carefully prepared ; but we must unaffectedly confess that the weak and petulant behaviour he has lately exhibited in the House is not justified by events, and not creditable to his reputation. The will of Colonel PISACAINE, the chief of the late insurrection in Calabria, his subsequent conduct, and the comments of the English press, furnish food for very serious reflection. It is, no doubt, a melancholy consideration that so much earnest enthusiasm should have been wasted on so bad a cause. But we doubt if it be not something still more worthy of regret to see the leading journal of this country openly deriding the existence of enthusiasm at all. That a man should " fight for the " ()pinions he has formed after six years' study" seems to the Times the most ridiculous of human absurdities. The man is actually a political philosopher, and idiot enough to believe in the importance of truth I Away with him! The spectacle is degrading to the nine teenth century, and the free and independent readers of Mr. Lofty's enlightened journal. Nobody will suspect us of any undue sympathy with the designs of rebels or democrats, yet we must honestly confess there is to our eyes something approaching the sublime in this man's confession of faith, and heroic confronting of death in his endeavour to establish it. Certainly these are days in which we cannot afford to sneer at this tone of mind, and we are sincerely sorry that anything like the article we allude to should have gone forth to the world as the senti ment of the English people. It is remarkable how soon a business people like the English allow the most important foreign affairs to pass out of their memory. In the instance we are about to adduce it will, of course, be said that worse and weightier intelligence from the same continent of Asia monopolised public attention. Yet Canton may be said to have been forgotten before Delhi had become the theme of every tongue. Some people, perhaps, have been foolish enough to believe up to the eleventh hour what the electors of Huddersfield are said to have be lieved in the first, that the Emperor of CHINA had apologised for the conduct of his servant, and that the quarrel was virtually at an end. If there have been any such credulous individuals, they have now been rather rudely awakened from their dream. The Chinese fleet has been destroyed in two severe engagements. The Chinese fought with un exampled constancy. The English have eighty-three men killed and wounded. This is evidently the conduct of a nation which is ashamed of itself; and evidence of the paltry character of our dispute with a conceited deputy, which would never be adopted by the Imperial Go vernment ! The news is not encouraging. Not because we have any reason to fear the ultimate issue of a war with the inhabitants of China, but because it indicates the tendency of Government to put upon events just whatever interpretation may happen to suit them at the moment. Some months ago we had the submission of YEH ; now we have the surrender of Delhi—both pieces of intelligence put for ward u the most reekiega Manner to aid the emergency of the hour. 749 We beg most earnestly to disclaim any party feeling while comment ing or this kind of conduct. If the Chinese war had been perfectly just, if the Indian mutiny had been perfectly trivial, it would not alter the miserable character of these proceedings. There is something in them entirely at variance with that character for reckless audacity and careless frankness which Lord PALMERSTON'S admirers are wont to attribute to him. GOD grant that the Government vaunts about India may not soon receive as complete a refutation as those about China. The former would of course be disastrous in proportion to the greater magnitude of the event, the larger interests involved, and the more formidable enemy opposed to us. It is the part fof a wise and really brave man to keep out of quarrels as long as he can, but when they occur to look them boldly in the face. Her Majesty's Government have done the reverse. They plunged precipitately into the Chinese contest, but after it had once begun, foolishly endeavoured to deny its existence. What sort of omen for the future does this conduct supply to us? The ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S speech on the second reading of the Divorce Bill was about as disingenuous a piece of pleading as any gentleman in a private or public capacity need wish to use. Luckily, however, his sophistry—if his wretched efforts at argument deserve even so good a name—is as transparent as it is dishonest. If our readers will compare for themselves the passage in the Quarterly Review, cited by the learned gentleman, with the interpretation he has placed upon it, they will not think our language too strong Which is the strained interpretation of the language of the New Testament, — his, or the Quarterly reviewer's, we leave to any candid reader to de termine. The result of the division last night has not altogether sur prised us. But we earnestly hope that the Members of the Church of England and the lovers of liberty of conscience will yet exert them selves to the utmost to accomplish the withdrawal of that offensive clause which would make the marriage of adulterers compulsory upon the clergy. The veracity of the collective Cabinet is of course unimpeachable, but it is a remarkable fact that one or two instances have lately oc curred which exhibit one or two of the Great Incapables in a subdued light of truthfulness. For example, a week since, in reply to Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, Sir CHARLES WOOD, with all the pompous solemnity of in jured innocence, denied that any bombardment of Canton had taken place. It was a base and cruel aspersion upon the humanity of Admiral SEYMOUR to suppose him capable of bombarding a peacable and com mercial city. The estimable First Lord of the Admiralty read letters and quoted documents to prove that the oharge was exaggerated and untrue. It was with no small surprise, then, that, in a Ministerial paper of this week, we read the following remarkable paragraph : THE BOMBARDMENT OF CANTON. The Governments who are parties to the Zoliverein collectively claim from Eng land, through the medium of Prussia, an indemnity for the losses sustained by their subjects at Canton—the bombardment having taken place without previous intimation to their consuls. Of course, Lord CLARENDON will at once dispute this impudent claim, unsupported by evidence, and manifestly untrue. We shall rejoice to find that we have anticipated the reply of the Noble Secre tary for Foreign Affairs to this flagitious demand. But another re markable instance is recorded in the telegraphic despatches from Calcutta. Mr. VERNON SMITH on Monday night, in his languid reply to Mr. DISRAELI, scouted the notion of the rebellion in India being a national movement aroused by oppression, and instigated by dispos sessed sovereigns and rulers. The Right Hon. President of the Board of Control said, " There were not the slightest symptoms of the mutiny " being a national revolt," and that another most consolatory circum stance in the intelligence from the East was " that no native Prince " had been concerned in these transactions." Forty-eight hours did not elapse between this deliberate assertion and the intelligence that the King of OUDE bad been arrested and imprisoned at Calcutta for complicity in the revolt ; and that, so far from the " slightest symptom" existing of a national revolt, there is every reason to believe that the full details anticipated will confirm our worst fears. Now, in the one case, it is quite clear that Sir CHARLES Noon was either guilty of a deliberate denial upon prepared evidence, of what he knew to be a fact, or of the moat lamentable ignorance of details with which he ought to have been fully acquainted. Taking into consideration the idiosyncrasy of the Right Hou. Baronet, we will charitably believe in his ignorance. In the case of Mr. VERNON SMITH, whose lamentable incapability for the position he occupies at this moment causes the most serious con cern to Lord PALMERSTON, we can quite understand the rashness of that utter ignorance which would hazard such a conflicting assertion in the face of so serious a future as the then latest intelligence from India had indicated. Common reflection would seem an intellectual effort quite beyond Mr. SMITH. The country, we feel assured, must congratulate Lord PALMERSTON upon his Cabinet of Incapables. The judgment of Mr. Justice ERLE in BACON'S case has excited considerable discussion. It is asked why Mr. Justice ERLE told THOMAS FULLER BACON that his guilt of the murder was " established beyond a doubt," but that the extreme penalty of the law would not be carried into effect. Sir WILLIAM ERLE is one of our most sagacious Judges, and is not likely to have acted otherwise than discreetly; but nevertheless we should be very glad to learn what there was in BA case to sauce a mitigation of the santrape, 9 in BACQN . II A