The Press. — London, England, 1853-10-29 00:00:00

-• • 1 Lfs ..1 ' v i ne/ ‘-• ~; - . LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1853. PRICE SIXPENCE. No. 20.—VoL. I. ttt Vrtss. LONDON, SAT LTD.II; OCTOBER *29, IM3. CONFIDING imaginations have composed a new episode to be incorporated in the epic of European destiny. Iler MAJESTY'S Ministers are again congratulating themselves on a pre sent escape from their perplexities, by a pos. Bible solution of the Eastern question. Their when, their where, and their how are not revealed beyond privileged limits ; or ►ether, we should say, with candid accuracy, it is assumed that their p►esent hypothesis of hope is exclusively confined to themselves—and Providence. It is not for us to doubt that Dispen sations may compensate for the efforts of human fatuity, or that what is loosely termed the force of events may not save those who are inco►npetent to save themselves ; but, ex clusive of that agency which Mr. 6LADsToNE would call Divine, and Sir WILLIAM MOLES mourn fortuitous, we may question the confi dence which is based on negotiations only. The English public will not forget that a similar confidence was created by the antici pated consequences of the Vienna note, and that in that instance the consequences were miscalculated, and the confidence without foundation. If it be true that up to this moment "no communication has been made to the Porte, assuring it of England's support," in the war which has commenced ; if 4 .‘ no offer has been made to it of the services of our fleet, either for the purpose of agg►ession or defence ;" if no one of the schemes propounded fix• pacific settlement of the cont.►oversy involves a suspension of hostile preparations by Russia ; ' if, at the same time, Lo►d CLAnEx DoN feels " no hesitation " in assuring the terrorists of Finsbury that " a peaceful solution of this question has been Ow object of her MAJEsTY's iovernment ;" if the g►eat organ of the Cabinet is still commissioned to write up peace at all hazards, and almost at any price, then peace is, by suchagencies, indefinitely prorogued, and we have certainly in the interval unmitigated war. As we await the next despatch es from the 1 , Danube, or the report of hostilities from that more distant frontier where war is not inter cepted by an aeeident of nature, we have the satisfaction of kn o wing that Lord ABEUDEEN, hi his cabinet, is striving to prejudge the con sequences of an engagement. Under these auspices he is again occupied in attempting to procure the SUMO result which he could not accomplish by the Vienna note, after the ex planations of the contending parties with re spect to that note have shown their views to be substantially irreuoneilatble. In any event, he can only attain his end by compelling Russia to recede from the pretensions it has explicitly put forth, or by depriving the Porte of some material guarantee against them. Of these two avenues which alone are open to hun—the sacrifice of Turkey, or the humilia tion of the Czar—we can be certain which his predilections would prefer. but doul►tful to which his despair may impel him; or, even if we possess a Chit' 10 his choice, we may question whether either will conduct hint to his end. Gr►►nting that at some indefinite ►lute, by shifts and quibbles, by meek flatteries, by much labour, and some shame, he tan persuade Russia for a season to relax her grasp upon the prey to which she was elsborately invited — supposing " the Eastern question." with its paramount and enduring importaee, solved in a superficial sense—besides the permanent inducements which au obsequious timidity has offered the Czar to reopen this question at the first opportunity, Lord AnBaDERN Will yet be acconutnl►lc to his eountry for the in terval which has elapsed, and which must yet elapse. between the first errors which pro yoked a war and the final saerifiees which may procure a reset.. In other words. should he attain his object, he is accoui►tal•b' for inter mediate perils, losses, and anxieties which, if he foil, are as ,atbordinnto item in the calami tous crash which he has been preparing for Europe. While the wheel of Fortune i►t thus upon the turn we may hazard coujeetures as to the disposal of her favours which are altogether beslde the, merits of the expect ants. The Ministerial "organ. with a naive affectation of surprise, taunts us with ac- . counting fin• the present complication of affairs on the ground that " Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues have come into power." We retort upon its implied doubt with a pre cise allegation to this unwelcome effect :—That concrete anomaly, " Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues," hats not only, as we have re• peatedly shown, been the provocative as well as the catspstw of Russian aggrandisement , but Russian pretences would have had no play with the Government which Lord ABERDEEN, by his intrigues, supplanted. As a foundati on for this presumption we may meal a fact.. During the administrat; of Lord I►E:nuv, a power 104 ambitious as Russia developed cer tain designs upon our American fisheries. The Nesselrode of the United States used me nacing language, which was seconded by the organs of "Lord ABERDEEN and Isis colleagues," depreciating with lively sareasuss the subject of eontention, and imputing forwardness and rashness to Lord M Eslit sir. The Enyliah M i itter (for we may thus distinguish him) persevered. Our s hips rec eived a prompt and intelligible cominissitm, and " the difficulty " vanished. Since then the fisheries in question Lore yielded flan-fish! to British subjects, and the Western► is iso longer like the Eastern question,—a criterion for the pusillanimity of " Lord ABERDEEN and his colleagues." The two ambitious which hereafter may convulse the world have been, stud are, susceptible of two modes of treat ment, and the usensures of two antagonist Cabinets thus afford Englishmen an opportu nity of selection. EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE. A unix tract which was put forth with the above title, some three months ago, attracted a good deal of notice at the time of its coming out, and the sugget4ti 111 l s which it embodied have been approved, in part at least, by the ex-organ of Whiggery, the Edinburgh Rerietr. Hence, though it is quite on the cards that the Refinin Bill of I srit may never see the light, we think it desirable to inquire a little into dm remarkable and novel proposition whieh has been no largely entertained. That proposition is, in few words, to nuke education, knowledge, professional skill, in itself a qualification for the suffrage, indepen dent of, and apart. from, pecuniary manta or soeial station—to confer on retired naval and military otlieers, on clergy of all denomina tions, medical men, barristers, and graduates of the universities, the right of voting as such, and to form them into distinct COO tittletielet4. Hot less than seventy in number, each cimstituency extending over a certain t M et of country, Me t ltu ing persons, so qualified, who may chanee all to reside within it. That this prglect sl ttttt bl eommand Mien t• aunt engage sympathy, ;s not strange. We have, as a nation, long been accused, and not. untruly, of neglecting the claims of itind lest to respect, when unaccompanied with more adventitionli distinctions. That Nome reaction sl ttttt ltl take place against thin prejw (WO seollls not only natural but just. Again, the very fact of an educated gentleman being excluded front that franeltise whieh is enjoyed by multitudes of the ignorant and unin structed is an indisputable anomaly in theory, and practically il tint' Sttbieet of regret. But neither the existence of this feeling, nor its apparent reasonableneas , go far to help us in solving the problem. " How is knowledge to be represented in Parliament ? " Our first objection to the 4 ,lim in question is its absolute novelty and dissimilarity, not in detail, but in principle, to anything actually tit thin 1110Ukellt existing in out political system. The i.xanipie of the universities is constantly cited and rested upon ; but cited. OH it seems to Os, 1110 St, . pliroprildel.what grounds do Oxford and Cambridge y return members? As seats of learning? No; but as distinct and independent. corporations , whose officers have for limb privileges of their own, and which 1 writ to this day possess n shadow of their former separate jurisdiction. They are repre sented ill virtue, not of the intellectual qualifi cations of their component inliit blinds, but of the importance, the wealth, the power, unit the former numerical preponderance of the villa notilities themselves. When, thcrefiire, it is proposed i whieli is nut. Vere) to gist' to literary or seientifie bodies it participation in the frau chisse, the I►r6ectors are merely misled by IL tilitte Ittilliogy. They are intnaltwing into the constit tit' an element wholly new and foreign, not enlarging one which already exists. We do not wish to lay exaggerated stress on this objection ; tart an objection, pro Nolo. it is. No task more hopeless than that of arranging the representation of a country without any basis of prescript' to start from. i Secondly, we would ask, what elass or interest is supposed to be represented by a Meter( geneotts electoral body eoroporo.tl ft( the members of all learned professions? Where, to begin with, is even the educational test ? Ministers of all religious denominations are admitted. 6,,,1 ; but what constitutes a minister 1 There is nothing in our law, nothing in our social system, to prevent the most untaught loon, whose brain has been turned by &nativism and vanity, from drawing together t ha ngon of men even more ignorant himself, if Ito can fi nd such.