The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

„0,„,, t t,, ,~ s 'r LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19,1857. STAMPED ....SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE. No. 242.—V0L.V. gly Vrtss. I 0 WON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1857. THE frequent Cabinet Councils which have been held during the past week are not without pe culiar significance. Ministers are conscious of their weakness, and dread the approach ing session. Great differences of opinion are known to exist among them ; and over and above the dangers of disunion, their marked inferiority in debate must cause them the deepest anxiety. Notwithstanding these circumstances, it is probable, we believe, that the composition of the Cabinet will not be materially altered. No man of talent will link himaelf to a broken Cabinet for the sake of a bad cause ; and what ever is to be demanded of the Parliament of 1858, we now see before us the men who are to do it. The Premier doubtless feels grateful that he is not as other Premiers, or even as Lord JOHN RUSSELL. He gives tithes of every principle he possesses, and has naturally gained the support of conflicting sections of politicians ; he has a broad phylactery of Liberalism, and loves applause in public ; and we fear that, if we examine his preten sions a little more closely, we shall find we might protract the parallel. As the Premier, however, is the Cabinet, and as we decline to take the word of either him self or his high priests at such a moment as the present, we must beg our readers to regard his past career with some degree of attention, and ask themselves in what respect it is calcu lated to inspire confidence. It is now nearly three years since Lord PALMERSTON attained the highest object of political ambition. At the period of his ac cession to power the 'Abbe mind was still in a state of bewildered indignation. Whole armies had perished, great battles had been won, and England was not victorious. The incapacity of public men was universally derided, and the nation was prepared to believe any statesman who should boldly assume the helm. With practised skill Lord PALMERSTON seized the opportunity. Ile remembered, if the country did not, that our real difficulties were over—that the blunders of that fatal winter had not been wasted—that troops, commissariat, and transports were now equal to their work—and that whatever reverses might await us, the time was past when they could be laid to the door of the Ministry. By taking office under these circumstances Lord PALMERSTON had all to gain and nothing to lose. The event justified his choice. His followers invented a convenient phrase, and Lord PALMERSTON, we were told, had " con- i1e1q.41.6 l/MlloV 111/ll{.l •••••,...J. , ~ PALMER3TON had all to gain and nothing to of Reform. Yet we woum neg rue r.ugiarin 111111 IIoZGIL ti. 4. 1%.,..4".•,0 ,,, . ••• -.-- - - lose. The event justified his choice. His people to reflect whether this is the Minister those who have been hitherto the objects of followers in v ented a convenient phrase, and in whose hands they will be content to con- denunciation by it in every shape. It is not Lord PALMERSTON, we were told, had "con- fide the management of that vast subject. very pleasant to have its statue taken •: •• its " ducted the war to a triumphant conclusion." The Parliamentary battle of the coming year pedestal among the Bacons and, , : . 1 .. • - But Lord PALMERSTON is celebrated for his will be fought u p on this ground, and the fate and the Somerses, and shove " 1t e :1r ,.., .. 444 14 mastery of foreign affairs—that is to say , the of our Indian empire for perhaps another Franeises and the Ferdinan - - Cr, ma nagemen t o f foreign Courts ; and if he did half-centur y be determined by the issue. among them removed down ..: ig4r not d es t r oy Sebastopol we should at least How have the Ministry established their place. Still, as necessity has ii% . ` .. ' lj -. . , . 141 . 34 4 :LA expect that he made the most of its destruc- claims to confidence? By denying the mag- degradation can be shown to harm ...,- : ;1i;s4; ~:. .! 7 ; tion. So much, however, can hardly be predi- nand') of the crisis till irreparable disasters no fau lt of our own, we may be!'.•74 ‘,. eated of a peace which left Russia virtually had occurred ? By neglecting the transit of bear it patiently as a trial that i• ... . . il . • ' cs <: 1 ., p4 • , . .. - . • mistress of the Black Sea, which left the Prin cipalities unsettled, which abandoned Circassia to her fate, and which robbed us in return of those ancient maritime rights which could never have been surrendered at a less politic moment than when Europe was watching our attitude and rejoicing at our apparent humi liation. _ But whatever his failures in war or diplo macy, Lord PALMERSTON seems to have felt that his failure in domestic legislation was likely to be far worse. The war bad carried him through his first session. How was he to meet his second, or escape the applica tion of a test that would at once detect the insincerity of his professions? Lord .Torre RUSSELL and his Reform Bill were scotched but not killed, and the persevering Radicals were bent upon reviving the subject. At this embarrassing conjuncture the Premier's long experience of foreign affairs served him in good stead. No statesman of the present day can surpass him in the crea tion of difficulties with foreign powers—which none can settle but himself. He resolved there fore to appeal once more to the half-pacified indignation of the British Lion.l Preparations were speedily made for being insulted by Persia, and duly outraged by the Celestial Empire. The device—seu ratio dederit, sett fors ohjecerit i//i—succeeded to perfection, and his Lordship felt that he was safe. But "fortune helps the bold," says the proverb, and a still greater piece of good luck was in store for him. When all the mischiefhad been done without any satisfaction being gained by any one except himself, Lord PALMERSTON'S activity was suddenly diverted into a new channel. A richer mine of political capital had been opened ; and in the hideous atrocities of Delhi his Lordship found a welcome substitute for the provoking moderation of China. The Premier's star was evidently in the ascendant. Who could have hoped for s Commissioner YELL and a NANA SAHIB in a single session ? The Premier's piety was touched. He became religious, and made more Evangelical bishops. It is plain that Government shrinks from all domestic legislation. It is not their strong point. And they cannot but feel that another such victory as the Divorce Bill would be their ruin. They now evade the financial c: iris, and tremble at the idea of a new Reform Bill, like insolvent merchants in daily dread of ex posure. The Premier's own name is uncon nected with a single great measure ; and though while he was a mere subordinate the fact was of less importance, he must feel it acutely in his present position. With the aspirations of a Dictator, he finds it difficult not to be a Doge ; and is forced to retard the business of the public to avoid the confession of his own incapacity. The Indian insurrection may possibly save him for another session, and conceal alike his ignorance of 'Finance and his hatred of Reform. Yet we would beg the English people to reflect whether this is the Minister in whose hands they will be content to con fide the management of that vast subject. The Parli - - , enta; battle of the coming year troops 9 By leaving regiment upon regiment unemployed at the Cape? And by boasting through their organs that they are now about to " bring the war to a triumphant conclu sion "? The country has seen something of such triumphant conclusions. We doubt if they will submit to another. REAL CAUSES OF THE REVOLT. THE responsibility that will be imposed upon the Legislature, when it. reassembles, in rela tion to India will be of no trifling nature. It it not too much to say that on the mode in which it may discharge its duties will depend the character of the nation it represents throughout the civilised world. Much has been done in India that is wholly inconsistent with the position which this country has long assumed. Buc, so far, these things have been merely the acts of the Mi nisters and their subordinates, and it would be unfair till the country has had the opportunity of formally expressing its opinion on them to assume that its convictions are in accord with those of its Government in this respect. To judge rightly of the matter, we must consider for a moment what have been our professions as a nation, and what have been of late the Ministerial acts. On no subject have the taunts of our journals been louder towards foreign nations than on the restrictions imposed upon the foreign press. Yet now there is a press law at work against our own countrymen in India, of which it is not too much to say that the most rigid of continental despots would be utterly ashamed. Over and over again have the public dwelt on the cruelty of the military executions in Austria, yet all the military executions there put together fall far short in amount of the number of our own military executions in India during the last few months. Loud-tongued have been our public men on the shameful mode in which the trials of political prisoners are hurried over in some continental States; yet now we have it on the authority of an Indian correspondent of the Times that our only form of trial for persons supposed to have been sepoys is to shout out the word attention, and that we then and there hang every single individual who appears to show by his manner the slightest recogni tion of the sound. The horrors of the first Revolution have been declared to be things impossible to have happened among men in whose veins ran the Anglo-Saxon blood ; yet it is susceptible of proof from official documents that more men have been sent to the gallows in one short month in India than were guillo tined by all the Dantons, Marais, Robespierres, and their followers throughout the whole revo lutionary period in the capital of France. It is not very agreeable in any case for a nation that has held its head so proudly to find itself thus reduced at once to the level of those who have been hitherto the oti of denunciation by it in every very pleasant to have its statue pedestal among the Bacons -