The Press. — London, England, 1858-01-09 00:00:00

t r t e \ - - -- LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9,1858. STAMPED ....SIXPENCF. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE No. 245.—V0L.V1. Vrtss. and all of them arc provided for at the public expense ; and such a distribution of patronage takes place under a Government which was compelled by public opinion, acting through the House of Commons, to confer rewards (that had been previously refused them) on Sir JOHN WNEILL and Colonel Ter.Lant. The appointment of Lord MULORAVE appears more glaring, when we recollect that Lord PALMERS TON was so miserably niggardly in his treat ment of the illustrious hero now mourned by the country. A pension of one thousand a year for one life, and that life aged sixty-four, was the pecuniary reward recommended by "our modern Chatham " to the glorious HsvELocir. The House of Commons, with more gene rosity and public spirit, interposed, and the hero's son will now obtain the tension. And then comes tire scandalous appoint ment of Lord CLANRICARDE. There are nume rous facts connected with the career of that Noble Lord on which we cannot comment. We are entirely opposed to the introduction of private scandals into political discussion, but really this nomination of Lord CLANRI CARDE is far "too bad" taken by itself, besides being most dangerous as a precedent. Our readers cannot forget an extraordinary article that once appeared against the Noble Marquis in the Times. We do not tax Lord CLANRI CARDE with all of the conduct laid to his charge in the abominable Handcock case, but we do say that the public man who took no notice in any shape of the article in the Times, who made no explanation in the House of Peers, and who had no recourse to any of the various means open to him for the vindication of his character—we say, openly, that such a man is not fit to sit as a Cabinet Minister. After charging the Noble Marquis with certain acts that wo shall not here repeat, the Times concluded thus: — Let Lord Clanricarde explain these things, and it will be well. Let him leave them unexplained, and we think he will do wisely to abstain from again taking his seat among the assembled peers of England. But Lord CLANRICARDE, whose audacity can not be denied, took not the least notice of such charges. If they wore true, his character was tainted, and if they were false, it showed want of self-respect and of true personal spirit (not to be confounded with the recklessness of empty bravado) to allow the propounders of such charges to circulate them with impu nity. We believe that the example of this fatal appointment will be of the most perni cious kind if it still be persisted in. But, from certain symptoms of public opi nion, we think that this last nomination of the Premier may he more fatal to the conti nuance of his own power. A variety of recent circumstances show that the Premier is losing his old shrewdness. Intoxicated with past successes, the Noble Viscount fancies that he can do just as he likes. Lord PALMERSTON is mistaken. Far greater men and more illus trious statesmen have been obliged to cancel appointments which had too strong a flavour. The Premier may plume himself on being able to tell Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Mr. GLAD STONE that " he did not care what they " thought," but, with all his " assurance," even Lord PALMERSTON would not venture to say so much to the moral opinion of all England. And this is the Premier who is to reform our Parliamentary system, and to give India a new code of Government ! The Court of Queen VICTORIA stands illustrious amongst the nations for its speckless honour and purity untainted by the breath of calumn Y r ; JOHN SADLEIR was turned out of th e Lordshis of the Treasury for his false arrest of a voter at the Carlow election ; and after all the " exposures" in which Lord CLANRICARDE has figured, and 'after his shrinking from taking up the gauntlet of the Times, is such a man fit to appear before the Queen as one of the trusty Counsellors of her Cabinet? LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1858. THERE never was a period when it was more necessary than now that Conservatives through ov4o) the country should concentrate their stivngth with energy. The new year is liZely to witness great changes in the admi nistration of Party. The spell of Lord PAL MERSTON is beginning to wear out, and the outrage on public opinion of having appointed Lord CLANRICARDE a Cabinet Minister has made even the partisans of the Cabinet admit that Lord PALMERSTON has gone too far at last. People see that favouritism, jobbery, and ex travagance in the public expenditure are car ried to excessive lengths; and the profuseness of the means by which the Minister has con trived to gather his dependants is at last arousing attention to the extraordinary me thods taken for keeping the Cabinet in power. The return recently issued authenticates the fact of an enormous increase having taken place in the Civil expenditure. From 1852 up to the present time there has been a constant advance. Taking 1852 as a starting point, there was, up to 1856, an increase under the head of " Public Works" of 270,769. Under " Salaries " the increase has been positively enormous, amounting to not loss than 485,243/. ; under "Law and Justice" the increase is 962,709/., and under " Education" 408,181/. ; under Class 7 (" special or temporary") the increase is 225,4711., a vast augmentation for such a class ; under " Superaunuations " the increase is 13,176/. The total increase under the head of " Civil Services " has been 2,305,5491. ; but against this has to be placed decrease under the colonial head of 49,0431. —making the exact net increase amount to 2,316,5061. And we have a party in office who boast emphatically of being " economists." The Premier must recollect who it was that taunted the Wellington Ministry in 1830 with " canvassing for political support by extrava " gance in official patronage." The official jobbery of the party now in office !s still worse. The Phipps family is a case in point. The Marquis of NORMANBY is our Minister of Florence ; his brother, Colonel PHIPPS, is a C. 8., Keeper of her Majesty's Privy Purse, and Treasurer of the Household to the Prince Consort; the Gallant Officer's son is Page of Honour• to her Majesty, by which he will obtain a commission in the Guards, and the Colonel's son in-law (Captain SAYER) is Deputy-Assistant-Quartermaster-General at the Horse Guards. Another brother of Lord NORMANBY (Hon. E. PHIPPS) is Commissioner of Encumbered Estates in the West Indies; and the youngest brother of all (Hon. and Rev. A. Peipps) is Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. As if all these good things were not enough for one family, Lord PALMERSTON appoints the young Earl of MULORAVE to be Governor-General of Nova Scotia! Here we have one family loaded with Court and official patronage. The Phippses may boast that each CONSIDERATIONS ON REFORM. WE cannot concur with the Times of T hurs day, that "all discussion as to the details of " the now Reform Bill is premature." It is admitted that Sir ROBERT PEEL and some of the Conservative leaders erred in 1830, in leaving the Whigs to organise their scheme silently, while the Conservative party was not prepared with any definite views on how far change might safely be introduced. Tha t fault cannot be committed again. Conserva tives have now the experience of the last twenty-five years to guide them, and they are acquainted with the bearings of the question. The injustice done to the representation of the landed interest, and to the Conservative body generally, under the existing system, is understood, and it is not likely that any violent aggression upon existing Conserva tive power would be allowed to pass the Legis lature, but still it is absolutely necessary on this question to be forewarned and forearmed. We have no confidence in the present Govern ment, and it is impossible to say what danger would be incurred if we were to wait in apathy until the new scheme was propounded, and then suddenly enter upon its discussion, when the publie mind had not been enlightened by previous discussion. At the close of the article in the Times de precating discussion on Reform it is said, " With a further extension of the county " suffrage, aided by the watchfulness of party, " intimidation will be pretty well extinct.' This language is open to variety of construc tion, and it may mean this, that by increasing the county voters, and lowering the franchise, it will be possible to obtaiir,as marked an ascendancy for Liberalism in the counties as now exists in the towns and boroughs. We must ask, on the part of the Conservative body, whether it is intended that any equiva lent will be given in that case for the increased Liberal power in the counties ? There is danger that the Ministry may propound an unfair measure, which, though not aiming at. revolutionary projects, would undermine the Conservative interest. Such a measure would be greedily adopted by the followers of Mr. BERKELEY for ulterior purposes. They would use it as a for another and more Constitution would be all power would be gi , and England would cendancy which would which would inevitably to shake it off. country would be having a satisfactory cannot be too strongly public mind that all should be taken that should he of a kind safely accept as a ........-. r __... bridge for advancing to aggressive position. The be paralysed on one side, given to the Libe • • ,d be subjee , . .:. - # .ould be in •-' c . ?_,.-^,;)% 2 ibly lead to ~ . - ‘l. --,....- --..,,-i. I. that evn. ' '1" .32- " )e as far • • • rt ',. 111 1 1l etory settle . ... 4 " '..', VI -*7 Afri 1 rongly impr: ~, 'V ' ll ..gr, eu t all reaso , ~. .. ;:',.. 1 ; 4 ,"- hat any ne :": ; ,• ._.••o l "%i* . nd that the 0. . n 1 1 . 1 ' / . settlement of a question