The Press. — London, England, 1858-03-06 00:00:00

MP we • -- moment ? Was there CLARENDON'S iIItISLYILLiOI was it legitimately open that there really was on the last horn of tl that Lord CLARENDON St have known from the y the whf_le situation, and liarities, that the despat was certain to be inter] various directions in 3 abroad, and the fact of 3 the French official orga opened Lord CLARENDO! The serious consequ reputation in Europa of 1 unanswered seems nev cipated by Lord CLAP feelings and broad poli CLARENDON never profes was bred to the desk, a Commissioner of Custc wards Envoy at Madri! have imbibed the intrig • the petty diplomacy of where so many repress Powers meet together w Irish Viceroyalty Lord ( with feeble demagogue! and MEAGHER, but he k the formidable oppoi O'CONNELL and SHELL. and with a formidable ad DON has never triumph • pitiable to listen to tb apology on Monday. Ii that " no satisfactory re • given to Count WALEWBI and dignified ans wer m been made in acknowled the despatch had been not have required muc have dexterously intim put by Count WALEWSKI as a complete statemer CLARENDON attempted between the period in BURY'S answer to the Fir and the age in which WI that point can easily br CLARENDON, for was tl addressed by any Frene recently used to his Ma the FRENCH ? " Beeaus RENDON, " there was a 1 " France and England i " Consul, we should not " real friendship bet wel " reply on the same me! " HAWKESBURY." There successfully retorted, f& sons would at once see Count WALEWSKI assurr on account of the adu penned while the two ni sincere friendship. THE CLAIMS OE THERE rarely went int Sovereign a statesman than Lord DERBY to a ment and the country. since 1850 that the Litre. and that the Queen has present Prime MinistE nistry dropped from ex Lard DERBY did not the to form a Government, to the Liberal party, in in public estimation. I Ministry again broke d disadvantageous circun had to enter office whet lition of discordant part him, and, refusing to be ance, his Lordship retir vote of the House of Ca The next Ministry the expected desertion of but when the Queen's in the field, and when a opposed to us, Lord DE patriotic regard for the and the interests of the THE PRESS, MARCH 6, 1858. take office unless his Lordship had grounds for believing that his Cabinet could last at that critical time. Lord Jolt:4 ItussELL had not then compromised himself at Vienna, and Lord PALMERSTON was greedy of office. If Lord DERBY had then accepted the Premier ship, there was only too much reason to fear that faction would have combined against him and not given him a fair trial. Circumstances now have entirely altered, and, with rapid retribution, the House of Commons has revolted against the insulting dictatorship of Lord PALMERSTON. His boasted majority has crumbled under the versatile Viscount, and his reputation for firmness and proud bearing to au adversary has entirely departed. The Liberal party will not give him a Parliamentary confidence, and his diplo matic reputation has been lost. Lord PAL MERSTON'S Cabinet has followed the fate of the shortlived Coalition of Lord ABERDEEN, and it is under such circumstances that Lord DERBY enters upon power. Lord DERBY has now the largest following in both Houses. No two statesmen of the Liberal connection have so many supporters as Lord DERBY, and the crisis is one for which the character and resources of Lord DERBY are peculiarly calculated. The national feeling desires to be rightly represented with dignity a.id firmness. Eng land wishes that her intercourse with foreign countries should be regulated by the mingled firmness and suavity that mark the manners of Englishmen themselves. Truckling on one hand, and bluster at the other, should equally be avoided. Englishmen dislike sneaks and browbeaters. If the deportment of the one be degrading, that of the other class is dis gusting. Tile hectoring arrogance with which Lord PALMERSTON dictated to petty States con trasts most ignominiously with the fluttered manner and faltering demeanour exhibited towards Count WALEWSKI. That peculiar creature " the British Lion " has often been made to perform a strange part by rhetori cians, and metaphorical liberties have re peatedly been taken with it ; but no flounder ing declaimer ever put it in such a fantastic position as it has been placed by Lord PALMERSTON. The subject, however, is too serious for mirth, and the con duct of the late Cabinet was really too mis chievous for being subjected to mere ridicule. Their wrongdoings will be, however, repaired by Lord DERBY and Lord MALMESBURY, and without any derogation from the national dig nity. Lord DERBY and Lord MALMESBURY are admirably calculated to adjust the misunder standings between the two greatest countries in the world. High personal spirit has always been prominent in Lord DERBY'S career. It could not be said of the Noble Earl that his Lordship served under ten Prime Ministers, and that he always adhered to office. From 1807 to 1858 Lord PALMERSTON was for about six years out of place ! On social progress Lord DERBY has given proofs of his sincerity in the constructi on o f his present Cabinet, as well as in former pas sages of his distinguished career. No living statesman (after Lord BROUGHAM) has done more to serve the cause of education than Lord DERBY, whose labours on that subject, in try ing times, have left a lasting memorial in the National system existing in Ireland. The great part which the Noble Earl has played in the eventful history of the last quarter of a century is ample guarantee for the energy with which social progress will be aided and sup ported. " STANLEY (Lord Derby) and MA " CAULAY will be the two men of the next gene " ration," wrote Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH in 1832 ; and in literature Lord MACAULAY has, perhaps, realised the anticipation of MACKINTOSH, while in politics no statesman or politician now living has so often governed political events or headed so great a connection as Lord DERBY. Independently of the brilliant personal claims of Lord DERBY, it must be remembered that tho great party of which ho is the chief is entitled to much consideration from the country at large. England never would de sire to see an ascendancy of Liberalism in stalled in office, and her affairs intrusted only to one class of politicians. Monopoly of office by one connection alone would be a curse to the country. In order to keep up the public 219 spirit it is absolutely necessary that the great social law of change and variety should ope rate upon official life, else stagnation would be the consequence. For twelve years, under one form or the other, the Liberals have held office, and their unstable combinations have broken down. Even the popular classes out of doors would not wish to see ostracism in flicted on any class of English public men. " Turn about is fair play" is a maxim that holds good in political as well as social life, and it is for the public advantage that new parties from time to time should enter Down ing -street. These changes and rivalries in power promote progress, call forth new talents, and give legitimate opportunities of intro ducing fresh aspirants into the service of the country. By such means new " men" are brought on the political stage, and good" mea sures " matured for Parliamentary consider ation. Was there animus—to use Lord illustration—in the despatch, or lately open to the interpretation really was animus in it ? It is corn of the diplomatic dilemma .RENDON stuck. Every one must front the political antecedents of nation, and from attendant peen the despatch of Count WALEWSKI be interpreted unfavourably in ,tions in England as well as the fact of its wide circulation in )fficial organ ought certainly have CLARENDON'S eyes. Is consequence to our national Europa of leaving that despatch seems never to have been anti- Lord CLARENDON. For national broad political convictions Lord wer professed much respect. He the desk, and started in life as a of Customs, and he was after at Madrid, where he seems to the intriguing spirit that marks domacy of the Spanish capital, many representatives of European ' together with little to do. In his salty Lord CLARENDON had to deal lemagogues like SMITH O'BRIEN! , but he had never to encounter 'le oppositioo of men like SHEIL. In a great emergency, ,rmidable adversary, Lord CLAREN- Ir triumphed, and it was really sten to the Noble Lord's weak ,onday. It was ridiculous to say sfactory reply " could have been t WALEWSKI'S despatch. A firm answer might immediately have acknowledgment of the fact that had been received, and it would aired much official adroitness to isly intimated that the facts as WALEWSKI could not be accepted , statement of the case. Lord attempted to draw a distinction period in which Lord HAWSES )r to the First Consul was written, in which we are now living. But can easily be turned against Lord for was the First Consul ever any French colonel in the terms to his Majesty the Emperor of " Because," argued Lord CLA• sere was a hollow truce between England in the days of the First should not now, when there is a tdship between the two countries, same model of a letter as Lord x." There, again, the plea can be retorted, for many impartial per ' once see that the despatch of WSKI assumed additional gravity of the admitted fact that it was the two nations were in real and idship. LAIMS OF LORD DERBY. went into the service of the statesman with a stronger claim 'ERBY to a fair trial from Parlia country. This is the fourth time that the Liberals have broken down . Queen has sent for the aid of the ime Minister. The Russell Mi ,ped from exhaustion in 1831, but did not then feel strong enough , ernment, and a year was given party, in which it did not rise nnation. Early in 1852 the Whig in broke down; and under most Lgeous circumstances Lord DERBY office when an extraordinary coa discordant parties was formed against tsing to be a Minister on suffer lship retired on the first adverse ,ouse of Commons elected in 1852 inistry then broke up on the un tesertion of Lord JOHN RUSSELL ; Queen's standard was unfurled and when a formidable enemy was Lord DERBY, with a loyal and !gard for the service of her Majesty 'tercets of the country, declined to jar eign 6 orrtsponlitutt. PARIS, March 4. • THERE is so little news stirring that the political quidnuncs are driven to draw on their imagination for what the French call the daily ptiture. Thus, we were first gravely told that Count Walewski had already received Lord Malmesbnry's answer to the notorious despatch. Then, when Lord Derby's speech destroyed this ichafaudage, it was said—" It is true the despatch has not arrived, but the British Government have sent a copy of the in. tended despatch for the approval of his Majesty." Indeed, some writers have gone so far as to furnish the public with the principal heads of this important political document. It might be asked, and that very naturally, how was this news obtained ? Have the writers a key to Count Walewski's private cabi net, or has the Emperor confided to them the most secret State papers ? The speech of the Earl of Derby in the Houma of Lords on Monday last has given the greatest satis faction in Paris. It has created a feeling of confi dence in the permanent alliance between England and France never before experienced ; and in every salon or cafe you may hear the wish expressed that his lordship may succeed in his spirited attempt to undertake the Government at such a critical mo ment. As regards the " Conspiracy Bill," of which so much that is false and calumnious is propagated by the Palmerston press, public opinion over here regards it as just that the existing laws on con spiracy against foreign Sovereigns, should be fairly tested in the Bernard case, supposing Bernard be sent for trial before the introduction by Ministers of any new bill, or of any amendment to the existing laws. There is a report very generally accredited that Austria intends occupying Montenegro. I cannot give you this as certain, but the mere on dit has created a great sensation in Paris. The appeal of Orsini, Pierri, and De Rudio, to the Court of Cassation, will not he heard before Friday next. I do not know whether you are aware that, according to French customs, execution immediately follows the rejection of the appeal. Rudio has petitioned the Emperor to save him from the scaffold; and his counsel, M. Mathieu, has re quested an audience of his Majesty to plead his cause, and to implore that the same punishment may be awarded to Rudio as was pronounced against Gomez—hard labour for life. It was re marked that on signing the interrogations of the Juge d'lnstruction, Rudio invariably signed "Count di Rudio," whilst Orsini, who is also of noble family, only signed " Orsini." The prisoners are watched night and day by two guardians. Orsini is resigned to his fate; his conduct is calm and dignified. Pierri is boisterous, and constantly complains of being deceived by Orsini. Rudio frequently speaks of his wife and child, and appears to have great hopes in the clemency of the Emperor. I have good reasons for stating that the number of persons lately arrested is some hundreds under the 1,300 so falsely reported. Those arrested are for the greater part men attached to the ultra- Republican secret societies. You will have seen by the French papers that per mission is given to Generals Changarnier and Bedeau to return to France. The former general has refused the grant. This resolution of the general may be right or wrong; but this much is certain—that the Emperor has shown the presence of the general in France to be a matter of very little consequence, while the general hen no longer the right to consider himself a martyr. 1