The Press. — London, England, 1853-07-02 00:00:00

196 Sy;Airr, compelled this time to appeal to the House instead ofto the clock, noved the suspen sion of the writ till the 20th of July,—a course which Lord PALMERSTON, in the absence of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, modified into a proposal of postponement for a fortnight. For surely in *fortnight some candidates could be caught! The energetic remonstnuicea of Lord JOHN MANNERS and Mr. MALINS defeated even this adroit " move" of the noble Home Secretary, who, "on learning," of course for the first time, " that the committee had recommended the issuing of the writ," withdrew his objection, and ultimately the writ was ordered to issue forthwith. _ _ We congratulate the Conservatives of Liver pool on this result, so well merited by their promptitude and constancy. Their city has indeed escaped a multiplicity of dangers. Persisting, from some singular perversity, to return Conservative members, Liverpool has been threatened on various hands with the dis- franchisement of its freemen ; with the ballot ; ►uid with an interregnum of representation at the very time when a new dispensation of the commercial policy of the country is under debate. To leave the second city of the empire unrepresented at such a moment was a step which nothing could justify, and which despair only could have suggested even to the Whigs. It is pleasant to know that the attempt has been so utterly baffled, and that the consequences promise to recoil in discom titure and disgrace upon its authors. THE SAVINGS BANKS BILL. 'NTH measure, which stands for committee on Mon • day, already provokes ►serious remonstrance from those practically knowing the subject of which it treats. It is urged that the proposal to reduce the interest to depositors to V. 10s. per cent. is in fact calculated to destroy the system, fixing on the poor a burden which is only experimentally tried with other classes ; that power is transferred to Goveta went officials from trustees and managers, on whom nevertheless responsibility is left ; that some of the details will prove vexatious and injurious to poor and illiterate depositors ; and, finally, that the stringent and annoying restrictions; and pecuniary risks imposed on managers and trustees will close many banks, and cause gentlemen to resign their functions who now art from philanthropic motives. These are grave objections, urged in no factious spirit, and which, if sustainable, ought to command the attention of the House in committee on the bill. They are argued at length in an able and temperate protest, in the form of •"Objections and Suggestions of the Special Com mittee of Managers of the St. Clement Danes Savings Bank." A NEW "MIRACLE" AT NAPLES. Tux Journal of the T►ro Skates, of the 9th June, three of its principal columns with the narrative of one of those meaningless miracles which, of late years, have become matters of sueh o►dinary occur rence in the south of Eumpe, and even in France. In superstition, as in all else, supply follows demand. The scene of this marvel is Tramutola, a little toe a in the province of Basilicata. The official report is drawn up by the "Archpriest" of the principal church, n the inflated, sacerdotal style of Home, and is attested by himself and the rest of the clergy, who evidently consider the strange tumult of fanatical excitement which they record as a most gratifying exhibition of Christian piety. In former days such a document would not have attracted our notice: we have no desire to hold up to ridicule the poor Neapolitan's faith—strong as an in stinct of credulity, weak indeed as a pnneiple of ac tion. But the close alliance which the Church of Rome has lately funned in all Boman Catholic states with the civil Coventment invests her proceedings with a political interest ; and the wilful blindness affected by many in this country as to all which they do not wish to discover in her makes it a duty to direct the attention or our readers to scenes from which we should otherwise turn away with silent dis- gust. It seems that in the month of May last the anthe► hies of Tramutola, in order to obtain a deliverance from the long drought which was destroying the crops, devised a penitential prxessian of the usages) of THE PRESS. Neri, S. Rocco, S. Anthony of Padua ( the protectors of the town), and Our Lady of the Rosary, which ac cordingly took place on the 17th. In the course of it there were manifested some decided, though to us not very intelligible, symptoms of a disposition on the part of the Virgin to work a miracle, and, at least, on the part of the populace, to believe one. Neverthe less the images were safely replaced on their respec tive altars, and the sermon went on ; but, at its con clusion, "God, who willeth not the death of the sin " ner, but rather that he should be converted and live, " through the merits of His most holy mother" (we as sure the reader we are translating faithfully ), directed a lambent flame to play on the breast of the Virgin's image. "A miracle, a miracle !" resounded on every side, and, as the groans and cries of the conscience stricken multitude rose from time to time in louder chorus to heaven, the flame waved in larger spires and darted with greater brilliancy. The excitement was intense. It was with difficulty the church could be cleared for the night. On the following day (the 18th) the authorities paid a visit to the image, and the miracle was renewed, with the addition of corus cations from the infant Christ, while a miraculous rain refreshed the thirsty fields. On the 19th a pro cession of thanksgiving was ordered, in which the women, gentle and simple (again we are translating), walked with bare feet, and beat their breasts so as to produce visible contusions. The popular enthusiasm was at too high a point of the thermometer to sub side quickly. At midday, when all ecclesiastical ceremonies in the south of Europe make way for dinner, the first of the congregation who left the church fancied they saw sparks scintillating round an image of the Virgin placed in a small chapel near the door. There was au instantaneous rush to the spot, which was too confined to admit even a small por tion of the eager crowd. The struggle was frightful —the shouts, the screams, the reverend penman pro tests, were beyond his powers of description. The excitetnentmse to delirium—the populace cast them selves frantically on the ground, and with fists and stones beat themselves on the breast till they were covered with blood. In short," says the pious nar rator, with triumphant complacency, "the inhabi• " tants of Tramutola are in such a heavenly state as "it will not be in the power of the arch-enemy to dis " turb for one while." Alas ! Blanco White, who at least equalled in experience the "arch-priest" of Tra mutola, and who certainly surpassed him in perspi cacity and candour, has told us (in Doblatio'a inimi table letters) that never is the reaction of vice and immorality so strong as after one of these outbursts of penitential fanaticism. We forbear to make any comment on the above painful narration, which we can assure our readers we have rather softened than exaggerated in our translation. SLAVE LABOUR. To THE EDITOR UP " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln answer to your correspondent of June IS, signed " An Old Planter," I beg leave to state that the crop of cotton in the United States, in 1843-4, was 2,030,409 bales, the average weight of each bale that year being 3i3 ; and in 1851-2 the crop was 3,015,257 bales, and the average weight 416 lbs., showing an actual increase in cotton as thllows eILOP OF UNITED STATES. 1.1)s. f. 1851.2 1813-I Inerenge 11151-1.. 497.004,355 Ibm. E 9,565,359 being at the rate of about million per annum—a large increase in one article alone. The consumption of the United States was, in 184:14, 360,744 bales, anti in 1851-2, 603,029 bales. But your correspondent must bear in mind that the cmp of 1$4:I-4 was a larger one than even 1M46-7, and about equal to 1849-50. I here give a statement of the crop for a series of years : GROWTH OF COTTON IN TUE UNITED STATES. Bales. 1830-40 1840-41 1841.42 1 o+4l 571 1842-13 1843-41 181445 1845-46 1810-17 1647-48 1848.49 1444940 1850-51 2 353,257 1851.52 The slave population of the States is considerably increased, not only by a stimulated breeding of them on their ow•n soil. but by smuggling them in the most matured state from Cuba. As to Tobacco, in IM4O the crop of the United States was '219,000,00011w., and in INSO, 200,000,0001h5. Rice: in 1840 the crop was 81,000,0001b5., and in 1850, :215,000,0001bs.; and, as to Sugar : in 1840 the crop was I 55,000,0001b5., and in 1850, 281,000,000b5. 1 have not the particulars of the year 1844, but presume the above will answer your correspondent's purpose. CMS. , ATURDAY, rotteVings artiamtnt. INDIA BILL. The debate on the second reading of this bill, which stood over from last week, was reopened on Monday night with a long speech from Mr. COBDEN, who ar gued strenuously and variously in advocacy of delay for the present, and an ample measure of reform in the future. The Government proposed to act, he re marked, while the evidence collecting by the parlia mentary committees was still incomplete ; and even what there was of it could not be called trustworthy. While still assiduously attending on his duties as member of one of these committees, he had himself received the unexpected information that Ministers had already prepared their bill. Thenceforth he had never attended another meeting of the committee, feeling that the question had been taken out of their hands, but would gladly resume the investigation if the amendment proposed by Lord Stanley should be carried. Viewing in its practical bearings the present system of Indian administration, he expressed his wish to have some reality with which Parliament and public opinion might deal. As matters stood they met with nothing but shams. The Board of Directors was nothing except a screen behind which the Board of Control issued its ordinances, yet that screen sufficed to shield the Board from all real responsibility. If India were governed as it ought to be—in the name of the Crown—an enlightened pub lic opinion could never be diverted from the true perils of the ease, or be misled by false issues. He confessed that other colonies, whose government had been always carried on under the same authority, had been misgoverned, but still public opinion had been a check to the evil, and a guide and prompter of what good had been effected in the colonial system . . _ . " If there were any hope for the amelioration of India, it must come from the same source ; and he wanted the Indian government to have such a tangible, visible form that the public opinion of this country might be able to reach it, and that there might be no mask or screen before it as now. (Hear.)" Descending to particulars, Mr. Cobden enlarged upon the absurdity and injury which grew out of the inter ference of the secret committee : " Ile should like to have the cross-examination of every member of the house, and to ask them what did they know of this secret committee. It was composed of three gentlemen from the Board of Directors to whom all the communications from the Board of Control were made. It was in the power of the President of the Board of Control to set down and pen a despatch to this secret committee. ordering the annexation of Uinta. And they were bound to obey, however much they might disapprove of such an order. (Hear.) They were obliged to send out the order, and the Court of Directors themselves would know nothing on the subject till perhaps the public papers brought back the news from India, for the secret committee were sworn to secrecy. (Hear, hear.) Mark how this worked in respect to the government of India. The Court of Di rectors were made responsible for not constructing railways and canals in India. But how could the court carry on works of public utility if they haul nee power to compel the commander-in-chief of the arms or the. Government not to' waste in war the substance and resources which should go to the construetion of public works ? (Hear, hear.) Suer pose that some of the twenty-four directors should tot down. haying the 4,000,0001. surplus which the honourable member for Guildford spoke of, for the purpose of de vising plans of railways and other works for India. Sup pose that they had the maps and plans before them, anti that they had called in the assistance of able engineers, at that very time a letter might come from the otficeof the President of' the Board of Control requiring them to send out an order to Lord Dalhousie to fit out an expedition to Rangoon for the conquest of Burmah, and, when that was done, then adieu to the railways and the fabulous 4,000,00U1. Under such circumstances they did not deserve the name of a tiovennuent. And what could be the motive for in ducing these twentyfour gentlemen to endure being taunted with the evils of a system where they were held to be responsible and vet not trusted with power? (hear.) The reward which they received for submitting to this hu miliation was the patronage of India, and this was another evil arising from the system of double government. As the Court of Directors were paid by patronage and not by stipends, they of course disposed of that patronage to their friends in this country. He wanted to see a larger number of the natives brought into the employment of the tioven►ment." Pursuing the subject of patronage, and collecting many opinions as to the probable, and many facts as to the actual, evils arising out of the present system, Mr. Cobden proceeded to examine the results of the past Indian administration in a financial point of view. After declaring these to be highly unsatisfactory, he remarked that the prospect for the future presented nothing but heavier defalcations and an increasing debt yet this very proof of existing incompetency had been converted into an argument and warning to Parliament not to meddle rashly with the system out of which it had sprung. Sir C. Wood, he ob served. had contended that the state of the Indian revenue was not such as to encourage them in as. sinning possession of it on behalf of the Crown, and, after dwelling upon the probabilities of matters