The Press. — London, England, 1858-06-26 00:00:00

60, years only 100 or 200 such arrangements are made. Well, in those 100 or 200 parishes, at least, the Church-rate question would be settled for ever. 2. To permit landlords, whenever Us ay desire it, to have their names insetled in the Church• rate book, and the names of ;heir *touts taken off the rate. The rate Would then be paid by the landlord ; and the tenant, not being charged, would have no right to ateend the palish Vestry when Church-rates were under consideration. There can be no doubt that, in this way, then sands of Dissenters would obtain immediate re lief; and by so much, the existing► warfare would be reduced, and peace become more possible. These two measures might be included in one short Bill, and that Bill might pass, even in the present session. No doubt, some of the Dis senting champions would oppose it, on the ground that it reduced the grievance, and so "took the wind out of their sails." But would the respect able Whigs of the House of Commons take this view ? Would they say—We want the whole grievance kept up, in order that the whole may some day be swept away ? DISAGREEABLE RECOLLECTIONS. IT is just thirteen years since that calamitous period, when the last great breach in the Con servative party commenced, and that party, completely predominant in the House of Com mons elected in the summer of 1841, became shattered, divided, and nearly powerless—not by the assaultsof its opponents, but by the fatuity of some of its principal members. It was, if we remember aright, on One eireilitig in June, 1845, when, after a few hours spent in painful reproaches, directed towards Sir ROBERT Picts., by those whom he had deserted and betrayed, a different L kind of speaker arose. Mr. GEORGE SMYTELE, M.P. for Canterbury, poured forth a glowing eulogium of the Premier. " Proceed," he said, addressing Sir R. PEEL, " in the noble career you have marked out for your self. Be it yours to effect and complete what others .ha yin for years been proposing and dis cussing: Heal the wounds caused by sectarian dissensions. Be the great DOER of your age." The speaker achieved at least one purpose. lie had touched a chord which thoroughly gratifiel Sir R. PEEL. The Premier showed this in an unwonted manner. He condescended to notice the speech of his flatterer, and to return praise for &Rise. He did more. Betbre that summer had ended, Mr. SmTnrit sale an Under- Secretary of State! • te-ctrit to Yet both the Premier and his applauder had forgotten one fact, which was, in truth, the great feature of the case, and the forgetfulness of which deprived the whole picture of any truth or value. Sir ROBERT PEEL did indeed, by his Maynooth Bill and his Corn-law Repeal Bill, settle, for the moment, two questions which had long perplexed and divided public men. lie did, unquestionably, DO, what other men had only been trying to effect. But then he did all this, by suddenly "turning his back upon himself." lie had, for played the part of the Protestant a nd th e ction . sad had, in those characters, drawn together a great party. It was by those pro fessions that he had gained that great majority of ninety-one, which rendered him, indeed, a powerftd Minister. And hence Mr. Swrrint's praise and exhortation should have run thus : " You have now, by your Protestant and Protec tionist professions, gained a position which enables you successfully to betray your party, and to carry all those measures which you have spent your life in op .. g. The key of the position is in your • .ds. That which the Whigs could not do, because ofyour opposition— that which a man of honour would not do, heeause it is treacherous—you now can do. Nettle all these questions, at once and for ever ; &Vast to which no other statesman is com petent. _ A 1111713 your nameon record, as the great DOER of r ir time no other sacrifice is needed, but that Htriparty, and your personal honour." t i t r ias on this occasion, we believe, that Mr. Vim Amid the felicitous remark, that the - Constervitittre leader " had caught the Whigs ‘‘ bathing, and had run away with their clothes.' But Mr. hiscartmtr, at greater length, stripped alnh tin r - r I/ Hi 4 ' the whole • bare, and Placed the great DOER in light of truth. He said : " I moat readily 'admit that the Right Hon. Baronet at the head of the Government is a man Of considerable capabilifiras a legislator; he sea mat taleits fbr Ante, fbr the managee ant of this Ho" and for the transaction of Oficial business. thill, it is impossible for me to, deny that there i 4 100 stanch ground for the re proiches of those who hafting, in *pite of bitter' experience, a 'Nand tient trusted hiM and raised him to power, have tound themselves a second time deluded. (Cheers.) As soon as he reaches power, a change—a salutary change for the country—takes place. The instruments are flung aside—the ladder by which he elimbed is kicked down. (Cheers.) This is not a solitary instance —and I am forced to say that this sort of conduct is pursued by the Right Hon. Baronet on some thing like a system. I shall uot attempt to go over the events of years ago. I shall say nothing more of 1827 and 1829 than this—that one such change was quite enough for one man. . . . You offer to the eager, honest, hotheaded Pro testant a bill to take privileges away from the Roman Catholics of Ireland, if he will only assist you to power. He lends you his aid, and then, when you are in power, you turn round on him and give him a bill for the religious endowment of the Roman Catholic College in Ireland! (Hear, hear.) Is it strange that such proceed ings as these should excite indignation? (Cheers.) Can we wonder at the clamour which has been raised in the country, or be surprised at the petitions which have been showered, thick as a snowstorm, on the table of the House? Is it possible that the people out of doors should not feel indignation at seeing that the very parties who, when we were in office, voted against the Maynooth grant, are now being whipped into the House in order to vote for an increased May nooth rant ? (Cheers.) Show us some clear prince e, with respect to Irish affairs, which hays guid you, both in Office and in Opposition. (Loud cheers.) Show us how, if you are honest in 1845, you could have been honest in 1841. (Cheers.) Explain to us why, after having, when out of place, goaded Ireland into madness in order to ingratiate yourselves with England, you are now throwing England into a flame in order to ingratiate yourselves with Ireland. Let us hear some argument that, as Ministers, you are entitled to support, which shall not equally show that you were the most factious and unprincipled Opposition this country ever saw. (Loud cheers.) . ,t :,wm.J. This speech never received the hiaatittetnpt at an answer. But it sank deep into the hearts of the people; and when, the very next summer, the members of the House of Commons went to their constituents, at least one hundred followers of Sir Rouzirr PEKL were reckoned among the rejected ones! • . hi Dn.', b»-! Why do we harp upon these strains now ? Because, although Mr. SMYTHE is gone—and we believe he was " a wiser and a better man" before he went—we sena to hear his periloakimments again in a jouniat:whieh, like him, dibeiitaelf Conservative..bisfte 03 otai vlibornL • The Standard, which at least priteliatiS and desires to support the present Government, argued, once de t*Acer: the past week, in the tone of Mr.' SkrritttE d 7 in (re have been accus tomed for thelast twetity years to deem one party in Eng/6nd the CONSERVATIVE PARTY, and the opptlifie party the LIBERAL. But the Standard - assure. us in its last Tuesday's number that "we have been making a prodigious mistake " for the last five and twenty years," for that it is from Lord DERBY'S Government that we are to expect " a long string of liberal measures." But Englishmen, Conservative Englishmen, do not want—they dread " liberal measures." Take, for instance, the very measures which the Standard promises, as follows : " The final settlement of the question of Jewish disabilities is another claim to the national respect. For years this remnant of intolerance had belied our vaunted love of religious liberty. A differ ence of feeling had been long springing up be tween the Upper and Lower Houses, which at one time threatened to bring the action of our Con stitution to a dead lock. By a prudent epirit of compromise the privileges of either House have been maintained, and the desire of the nation spirit in Jewish demands Tsai "gridlifthe desire of the nation" we utterly deny. As far as we know anything of the desire of the mitten by its petitions—that desire has been expressed this very year in opposition to the Jewish shims. Tie petitions &pipet esaseesion . are more numerous than those in favour of it. But where does the Standard learn that, in the matter of Church-rates, as well as in Jewish dementia, " concession to the spirit of the age" is to be the policy of the present Government? To the deputation of Churchmen in defiance of Church -rates, Lord DEBBY'S language was Mu and satisfactory. In the House of Commons, with one single exception, every member of the Government voted in defence of the Church. Who eim venture, therefbre, to tell Conserve tiVee, in the . columns of the Standard, that Church-rates, as well as Jewish claims, are to be "conceded" ? We believe nothing of the kind. We have not the slightest notion that such men as Lord DERBY, Lord SALISBURY, Lord MALMESBURY, and Lord CHELMSFORD, will ever submit to carry out the behests of JOHN BRIGHT. We trust to their really Conservative principles ;_ and we trust also to their common sense. They have seen the results of two great " concessions to "the spirit of the age." They saw a powerfnl Conservative Government broken up, in 1830, simply by its "concessions to the spirit of the age." They saw a still more powerfid Conservative Ministry again dissolved, in 1846, and, as before, not by its firm adherence to Tory principles, but by its "concessions to the spirit of the age." The plain fact is, that a Conservative policy is, to maintain, to defend, to stand in the old paths. So asserting and adhering to its proper policy, the Conservative party may gain &majority, in Parlia ment, and in the country. It had such a majority in 1828, and, a ft er a long struggle, it gained such a majority again in 1841. But the moment $ Conservative Government begins to vaunt its • Liberalism—the moment it begins to play into the hands of Papists, Radicals and Dissenters, — that moment its strength is gone. The people cannot understand the propriety of a Govern ment's coming into power on one policy and then" deserting it for another. They said, in 1845-6,, "If we are to have a Whig or Liberal policy, " let us have a Whig or Liberal Government.", And so they will say now,—" If JOHN BRIGHT "is to rule, let Jonx BRIGHT take his seat in " Downing. street." We lay the more stress upon these alarms, fbolish as they may be, because we cannot fbrgd that all the perils and losses which have befallen the Conservative cause, for forty years past, have been self-inflieted.. Lriet at the long and quiet sway of Lord Lilet`nittillbok at the firm do minion of the Wellinbato! - Ministry of 1828, veil begs* it to concede-4°ok at the upward course he Conservatkvi • • • &in 1835 to 1841, when boldly asserted ,", rple—and then look, again,* its rapid de se and fall immediately it began 'a course of concession. , :tip kad:na was it in the neighbouring kingdom, through its whole deplorable history of 1789 to 1794. In that history we see as amiable but weak monarch, led by Ministers whose only panacea always was concession. Th e fashion of yielding was set, and whole classes rnshed into it. Thus, its LAMARTLNE tells us (in his "Heroic Chiiiiicters"), 7 , ollx9 971r i 4 , ii„jj "The French Rev.:Anion inn geitertals thought of the aristocracy. Philosophy in the salons, it had become revolt in the streets. The Cote droit in the National Assembly com prised those whom we might have looked upon as the natural enemies of the movement — the nobility and many of the higher clergy. Reprit de corp., was not weighed, when there was a question of coalition with the tiers ant. The tionimorencieg, the Noailles, the Monte , - quieus, the Riirabeaus, &c., all concurred in . .. . 6 . " . . with - - - - - - has been gratsJi.ol. , A 416-40shwe i Church- totes and with the Proporty Qualification the Go- vernment has bees satiated with the same spirit of concession to the ipisi of the, age. Thus, in the courOe of three or tour Months, these great questiokt, width have 4 ahg afitated the country, 11 4 till ha,. b r i:lve4l, d tha hot by a hasty or Orude Its on, but a44.tdatice with an equablt tiamk or fights of all classes AM( of ,litioy Set.' ' ' r'' 4 •., i • That At immealleion of the Jewish demands Al