The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-18 00:00:00

384 THE WEEK. WHEN we wrote last week, we said that 635 members had been re• turned out of the total number of 654. Of the remaining nineteen, we can now enumerate sixteen additional returns, viz., the eight Irish counties of Longford, Wicklow, Dublin, Antrim, Clare, Cavan, Down, and Kilkenny, each sending two members to Parliament. The only election now remaining to be settled is that of Leitrim County, re turning two members, which will be decided on next Monday. Adding the sixteen returns of this week to our number of 635, there remain but three members to be accounted for. Leitrim County, as we have said, is to be reckoned for two, and the remaining one is de ficient owing to a double return for the county of Huntingdon. The sixteen Irish returns of the week have not resulted in any political change, though the eight counties have been hotly contested. As before, nine members belong to the Conservative and seven to the Liberal connection. On the supposition, therefore, that our classifi cation of last week was tolerably correct, thcte are now returned to Parliament 359 members disposed to attach themselves to the Liberal party, and 290 inclined to support the Conservative side. As we have previously said, it appears to be very immaterial whether the Liberal majority be 20 or 30 less or more than the estimate here given. Experience has shown that the weakness of a Ministerial party is often its strength, while, on the other hand, its strength may be its weakness. So long as the majority of a Government is extremely narrow, its divisions of opinion may be concealed by a tacit abandon ment of the distinctive principles of the party. But it does not appear that this can be the case--without total loss of political character — when the majority is so strong as to furnish a fair presumption that the professed objects of the party might, with earnestness, be carried into operation. This is one of the difficulties with which the Ministerial party will have to contend, by reason of that very majority of which they boast. Should they attempt to give effect to two of the main principles of Electoral Reform on which they profess to rely the ballot and degradation of the suffrage—the party of Opposition will have no difficulty, we ap• prehend, in showing that those objects are not only undesirable in themselves, but totally impracticable. Should those schemes be shelved by the Liberal party in the present Parliament, or be practically repudiated by the bulk of Liberal members consenting to support a Government decidedly adverse to them, it is difficult to understand how they can ever be brought forward even as hustings questions again. A considerable majority to a sincere and zealous party must of course be of the greatest advantage in enabling it to carry the measures it has consistently advocated. But a large majority to a party neither sincere nor zealous, with no measures to propose, and with no political object beyond the retention of power, may be very much less safe and convenient than such a narrow majority as affords it a pretence for postponing all important questions, yet which may be rallied to considerable bulk when a question of confidence is raised. Most likely the first session of the new Parliament, short as it must be, will not pass by without ground being broken on both sides. The Opposition will, of course, in the first instance wait on the moves of the majority. They will endeavour to ascertain what is intended. They will give to the Ministerial majority all the latitude of action they can possibly desire. But they may not- improbably show the general inclination of their own policy. It is simply ridiculous to assert that there is or can be any really independent party in this country averse to action in the direction of its own principles. The current of society demands legislative movement. The India of our day is not the India of a century or even of twenty years back. Time has brought out the radical defects of the Reform Bill of 1832. New aspects of finance require new principles of settlement. It is intelligible that a Ministerial party solely anxious to hold together may be indisposed to raise any question which may menace division ; but it is not intel ligible that an Opposition should be actuated by any such interested motive. It would be a singular commentary on the boasted majority of Liberalism in the new Parliament should it turn out that that majority is, as a whole, indisposed to any movement whatever, while to the Opposition minority is left the task of struggling for those measures which will at once assert its principles, and fulfil the social requirements of the age. Since we last addressed our readers the firing of guns and the ringing of bells have announced the birth of another English Princess. All true lovers of our ancient monarchy must rejoice at an event which rivets its foundations still broader and deeper. The more numerous are the sons and daughters of royalty, the more certain are they to contract more and more of national habits and sympathies, and so to avert the ill effects of that almost inevitable isolation which is the lot of Princes. All the children of GEORGE 111. were singularly popular, for they were forced to mix with the nation ; and the influ ence of their memory still hovers round Queen VICTORIA, in addi tion to her personal claims on the loyalty and affection of her subjects. To speculate on the destiny of this numerous offspring, of whom the majority are still children, may appear an imperti nent task. But there are some who, having already begun to talk of the impropriety of the Royal Marriage Act, render a few remarks on this subject perhaps not wholly superfluous. At first sight it might certainly appear that a wealthy English noble of the first rank were a more fitting match for maidens of the blood-royal than some of those husbands who have occasionally been found for THE PRESS. them. Abstractedly we should suppose that the highest Personage in the realm would not dissent from the proposition. But the almost fatal objection to a change not perhaps otherwise to be deprecated, consists in the undue influence which could hardly fail to accrue to those few great families who might be honoured by a royal alliance. The fact of any English House standing in such a re lation to herself would rather tend to fetter her Majesty in the choice of her servants. Favouritism is a name odious to British ears ; and rather than incur such a charge, her Majesty would doubtless prefer to do violence to her own judgment. This, however, is a very remote question; and we beg to offer to Queen Vicromk our tribute of congratulation and thanksgiving, unqualified by the presence of any political of controversial element. A continuance of the peace of Europe depends upon the future relations of Austria and Sardinia. To speak in plainer terms,—it has to be decided whether a Government, purely constitutional, can exist in close proximity to a despotic State, or, taking the converse, whether absolutism can persevere in its rule, with a liberal and flourishing State abutting upon its frontier. Let the present state of affairs be fairly analysed. The Emperor of AUSTRIA, a young soldier, full of high courage and youthful generosity of heart, animated by an earnest desire to increase the prosperity of his Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, visits his Italian dominions, proclaims his liberal intentions, acts up to them with scrupulous fidelity, and fails to produce the favour able effect which might have been reasonably anticipated. Tho contrast between perfect freedom in Sardinia with its necessarily limited form in Lombardy, checked the feelings of the Lombardo. Venetian people. Fully sensible of the nature of the trial more or less remote, M de Burn, was tho first to signify dissatisfaction, and, pro tanto, M. de CAVOUR declined to recede from his position. In point of fact Austria proclaimed her inability to remain in her present position, while Sardinia declared her determination to maintain her independence. Such is the exact state of things. The intention of Sardinia, prematurely announced, to establish a camp of 20,000 men upon her frontier has been replied to by Austria, and a division of General GYULAI'S force is to be assembled for exercise upon her Lombardo frontier. The continued scarcity of money and depreciation of the Public) Securities—at a time when the new gold-fields of California and Aus tralia have trebled the former production of gold, and evince not the slightest signs of exhaustion—naturally excite some marvel. Com mercialists have not yet assigned any plausible explanation of the phenomena. The money oracle of the Times strings together a num ber of alleged circumstances, and supposes that, taken altogether, they may account for the fact, though no one of then► alone might exercise great influence. This is illogical. A steady and continuous action of any kind argues a persistent cause, and not the force of a number of accidental incidents. Besides, some of the alleged causes can obviously have no connection with the effect. Monetary de rangements, it is said, arc usually owing to a failure of crops. Of course, in the event of any great deficiency in our annual harvests, there must be an efflux of specie to pay for the pur chase of food, and the same action must in degree take place in all countries when there is a failure of any crop on which the people are dependent. But in such cases the derangement, or the specie scarcity, must be felt almost entirely in the countries where the failure occurs. It is not credible that a failure of the wine in wine counties, or of silk in silk producing lands, should cause a continuous drain on the specie of Great Britain. A contrary action would seem more natural. The true explanation of the phenomena must, we believe, be sought deeper. We doubt whether the effects'of the free-trade system, as regards specie transactions, have yet been fully experienced, and we think it not unlikely that the continual drain on our coffers may result from that natural tendency towards equalisation of prices through the world which the soundest economists predicted as the effect of corn-law repeal. Add to this the enormous augmentation of Government expenditure for the last three or four years, and conse quent diminution of the amount available for industrial enterprise, and the fact of the scarcity of money may cease to excite surprise, though it is not to be viewed without some degree of uneasiness. The general order upon staff military education, published this . week, may be regarded a s an earnes t o f t h e po li cy t h e D u k e o f CAMBRIDGE is resolved to pursue for the benefit of the army. That military system according to which the British army would be officered simply by the most industrious students, we are heartily opposed to. We believe that such would tend to the depreciation of a class of qualities which experience has shown to be the mainstay of our military prestige ; but we cordially approve of the general order recently issued by his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. It was shown in the late war that our staff was not exactly what it ought to have been. It is needless to re-enter upon details ; and we fully believe that a stop better calculated to insure the efficiency of our armies in the field, as well as advantage and convenience to our Generals in command, has seldom been adopted, than that which the Duke of CAMBRIDGE has now had the prudence and the courage to resolve on. The people dwelling in these islands remind one of Corin thian brass—a fusion of many metals, more precious than any of its constituents. Mr. BROWN, whose liber tlity was celebrated on this occasion, is an instance in point. What finer proof of the results of our social system can there be than the fact that a man whose innate powers have raised him from the rank and file of merchandise, should have been greeted as the " fine old English gentleman"—that expression not being here used to indicate long descent, but the SATURDAY -