The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 14, 1858. t h e explosion of the other barrel ; but, at all events, even the ramrod would h ave been displaced or blown away. was it so ? In the third place, was t h e n ipple of the loaded barrel capped or not ? If so, it is obviously impos sible that the accident could have happened as described. We may take this opportunity of repeating the caution we offered to our readers this time l o t year: Always bear in mind the possibility of yot.r gun going off acci dentally. This is the only real safeguard. Trust to keeping the muzzle in s sa fe position, and not at all to any artificial contrivances for preventing accidents. Above all, avoid leaning upon firearms. From such acts of carelessness we cannot help thinking it more ilkely that the unfortunate nobleman met his end than by such accident as has been suggested. Although we were aware that the Liberal party felt itself deeply com promised by the events of the present year , we did not k n o w in what a gloomy condition were its affairs until Mr. RALPH OSBORNE at Dover reve aled its dissensions and difficulties. " Unfortunately," said he, " like that noble river which was made mention of in the Queen's Speech, the " Liberal party is in a state of decomposition." Nothing but the portion of the Thames into which the London sewage passes would serve the ex- Secre tary of the Admiralty for a symbol of the foul and dangerous condition of Liberalism. Mr. OSBORNE is partial to illustrations from dirty water. Ile Once proposed "to turn the Serpentine into the Horse Guards," as a step towards military reform ; and after having likened Liberalism to the cor rupted Thames, the Honourable Gentleman recommends the country to swallow Liberalism. Mr. OsnottNE, indeed, never makes a speech without showing that he has a great faith in the assertion that anything will go down with a popular audience. His statements must always be taken cum grano salis, and it is a pity that he never himself supplies us with any of that wholesome and Attic ingredient. Mr. 08DORNE'S late speech was intended to annoy Con servatives; but it is the Liberals who have been damaged by it. He ex hibited the "decomposition " of that party when he said that " unless the " old Whigs and modern Liberals unite we are men of straw." We always thought so; and now we know it from ex-official authority. And who is to unite these discordant bodies? Lord PALMERSTON ? Certainly not; for Mr. OSBORNE tells us " that he always thought his popu " larity was somewhat exaggerated ;" and, besides, "unfortunately, " Lord PALMERSTON is now an old man," and "he has fallen." We can imagine what an unpleasant expression must come over the face of Sir WILLIAM HAarrEn when he reads the recklessly candid speech of the Member for Dover. So great is the "apathy " of the Liberal party at present that Mr. OSBORNE "thinks that the best thing " that could happen would be a dissolution ;" or, in other words, the Liberals have no chance in the present House of Commons. The damned poet always appeals to posterity, and a discomfited Opposition is sure to make threats about the country. The vulgar way in which Mr. OSBORNE spoke about the Conservatives proves nothing but the inherent coarseness of the Member for Dover's mind. After having sat in the House of Com mons for seventeen years, after having listened to such speakers as Lord DERBY, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, Mr. GLADSTONE, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Mr. BRIGHT, and many others, Mr. OSBoRNE thinks it clever and smart and witty to dip his tongue in the kennel, and say, " The Conservative Rump had hitherto borne a great deal of kicking.' After the summary process of ejectment, served by the British people upon the Palmerstonians, "kicking " was the last kind of exercise to which political allusions would be discreet from their lips. Our columns last week showed the number of divisions in which the Liberals were defeated since the present Ministry came into office. Last February Liberalism was a loud Parliamentary browbeater, turning up its nose at everybody not in the Cambridge -house clique, but since then its nasal organ has got a severe tweaking. But we must change the topic, lest the example of Mr. OSBORNE may lead us into a style of language in which we do notindulge. Mr. Osamixn charged the present Government with " making change without " progress, and concessions without grace." When the late Ministry was in office there was " progress " to dissensions with France ; " progress" to keeping on a high income-tax ; " progress " to the absolutism of Lord PALMERSTON; and " progress" to official scandals of the Clanricarde type. The " change " which stopped such downhill "progress" has been approved of by the Crown, by the Peerage, by the Commons, and by the country at large. The late Ministry was, certainly, prepared to make extravagant concessions" to France, but the "grace " with which the Conspiracy Bill was introduced did not reconcile the public to such a worse than equivocal sort of " progress." Lord CRANWORTH attempted some Law Reforms. Was there " grace "in his manner or method in his measures ? When various independent Members of Parliament inquired about " progress," and whether sundry " concessions " would be made, was there " grace" in the way in which the late Premier answered either his supporters or his opponents ? Ah ! Mr. OSBORNE, ... it is really " very a b sur d" i n y ou t o ma ke su ch allusions. Enough of Mr. OSBOR NE . H e h as b een one o f th e mos t notorious of the Liberal failures. He fancies invective to be his forte, but his tone disgusts, 193 coarsene ss s p o il s his borrowed cleverness, his want of sincerity makes his speeches as hard and mouthy as a schoolboy's exercises. He can snap and snarl, but h e i s no t even equa l to t h e l ow b us i ness o f a po liti ca l sco ld, far cann o t p ro d uce P ar li amentary " t h un de r. " lli s resources are no t ge enough for the vocation of' a political pyrotechnist ; when he applies himself to the task of "getting up something brilliant," he is sure to burn his own finger s an d k eep those who dwell beneath the same political roof in fear lest he injure them with a dangerous explosion. The Conservatives need not desire better than that he should have ample liberty for railing. 781 He would be a bold man who undertook, under whatever urgency of entreaty, to select for his dearest friend a hunter, or a Coreggio, or a chef de cuisine, or a wife. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he would find as the result of his disinterested labours that the article was contume liously rejected; his taste, and even his motives, impugned; and the very bonds of friendship between the parties grievously imperilled. Just such a service has lately been rendered by the British Crown to its Canadian dependency, with just such results. The united provinces of Canada having got a Parliament, an electoral system, responsible Ministers, who come in or go out according to the votes of a majority, and all other appurtenances requisite in the menage of a constitutionally governed St a t e , b ega n to want a Capital. This was a very natural want; but serious difficulty arose when the local Legislature attempted to supply it. Various cities com peted for metropolitan honours. Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa, and some other towns, were all "mentioned" for the dignity, and each of the series found advocates sufficiently numerous, not to secure a selection for themselves or any one of the number, but to prevent the selection of their rivals. After infinite debating, and when it had become pretty evident that Canada would go capital less all its days if the choice were left to itself the matter was referred to England, and her Majesty entreated to become umpire to the controversy. This delicate and invidious task was accepted, perhaps unadvisedly ; and the Sovereign, after 'patiently weighing the advantages and drawbacks of every locality, decided in favour of Ottawa. The reasons for selecting this particular site for the Canadian metropolis, it is unneces sary now to recapitulate. They were founded exclusively on the abstract merits of the locality, as regarded its central position, its security against attack, its adaptation for commerce, and other intrinsic capabilities and advantages. Here was the mistake of the Crown advisers at home. The question had never been discussed in the Canadian Legislature upon its merits. It was not in the mere embarra.l de richesse, or from any diffi culty in striking a balance between the conflicting claims of the different cities, that the problem had proved insoluble by the local Legislature. The fact was that the issue was mixed up with long-standing rivalries between the French and English population, as distributed in the Lower and Upper Provinces respectively ; and a selection made, as it necessarily was by the British Sovereign, without reference to these contests, could scarcely by any possibility prove satisfactory to either party. Louis QCARTORZE has bequeathed a proverb to all future patrons, that whenever a place is given away ninety-nine expectants are disappointed, and one ungrateful. In the present case the nomination of Ottawa, out of so many claimants, has, of course, disappointed the advocates of all the rest ; and, as matters stand, the rejected, being a majority, are able to annul the appointment. This is just what the Canadian House of Assembly has done. By the last mails we learn Ithat a vote was passed, declaring Ottawa altogether ineligible as the seat of Government. A Ministerial crisis has been the natural consequence. The Government resigned at once ; and a Mr. BROWN, who leads the Radicals of Upper Canada, has been commissioned by Sir E. HEAD to construct a Cabinet—with very slight prospect of being able to put together a permanent Administration. Grievous epithets have been applied by English journals to this act of the Colonial Legislature. It has been called ungracious , insulting, faithless, and what not. In reality, the vote hardly deserves any worse character than that of childishness. It was, no doubt, very wrong and absurd for the local Parliament to reject the decision pronounced by an umpire whom they had themselves invited to arbitrate ; but the Members were new to their work, and did not perceive that, while voting in accordance with their local partialities, they were ignoring the consequences of their own vote d in a previous session, and cammitting themselves to serious responsib= both towards their constituents and their Sovereign. The alleged " insult " to the Crown need not trouble them much : her Majesty will care no more for the vacillation of a colonial assembly than for the gaucherie of some provincial mayor. But meanwhile the question remains unsettled, when and where is Canada to have its capital ? The news from Calcutta, though only one day in advance of tha t conveyed by the mail from Bombay of the preceding day, is decidedly of a favourable nature. The rebels are now distinctly broken into three divisions, having nothing in common but the desperate state of their case. The Gwalior Contingent, for instance, is reduced to a mere rabble, however numerically strong, and unless encouraged by impunity will probably melt away before the season for active operations again returns. In Oude the rebels are more formidable, but even there a bright spot looms on the horizon. The Begum and 111 Aux SINGH are engaged in active hostilities, and although the latter has recently declared himself on the side of the British, he can scarcely be regarded in the light of a sincere friend and well-wisher. Turning then to Buxar, and the western portions of Behar, we find an armed force under L' TIER SINGH breaking forth from the jungles, and threatening the English residents at Gyah. But how came this to pass ? Colonel DOUGLAS, having succeeded to Sir EDWARD LUGARD, appears to have been more intent on returning to Benares than on carry ing out the designs of his predecessor. Those designs, however, were based apparently on the counsel given by Colonel ARTHUR WELLESLEY to Colonel Sawronius, to destroy the jungle, and drive the enemy into the open country, when he could easily he dealt with. It is evident that an operation of this kind must be attended with some delay, and that patience and perseverance are indispensably necessary to their efficiency. Colonel WELLESLEY particularly pointed out this fact, and dwelt upon the advantage of saving the soldiers' lives at the expense of a certain quantity of bad timber. The past, however, has long ceased to be a teacher of the present, and every empiric thinks himself jusliailli in walking by his own lights. t