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

194 1.1. .r ~~ . ir ... ~,jt , W 01,.. carry out their decision. But we have some thing further to say with respect to Lord ST. GIERMANR. The originator of the present policy of ab dicating the authority of the Crown in favour of the priests, for the sake of peace, has nut been overlooked by those who have adopted it. Mr. KIRWAN, a stipendiary magistrate, Sta tioned at Mina, in the county of Mayo, was, after an impartial investigation, found to have liberated prisows taken in the act of rioting in presence of the mob, "if not on any ex press contract, at least with the understanding that the peace of the town was to be secured by the influence of the Roman Catholic clergy." For this (we may add proved) inefficiency during the election, he was, by a very mild sentence, suspended from his duties for six months. by Lord EGLINTON. One of the first acts, however, of Earl ST. GERMANS on his arrival in Dublin was to remove the suspen sion and bid Mr. KIRWAN resume his autho- rlty—uiuler the priests ! Again, the priests have been further elevated by the convergence of patronage iu the hands of their nominees. Within the last week Land ST. GERMANS had to give away in one district of the country over which he rules three valuable places, the Clerkship of the • Crown in Dublid, the Crown Solicitorship for ' the east riding of Cork, and the Postmaster ship of Cork, and in each case he nominated Roman Catholics from that part of the island which the late Cork petition against MURPHY and FACAN has rendered famous or infamous. In the ease of the Clerkship of the Crown, a Dublin o ffi ce in point of locality, which had been held by Mr. PiEncm MAnosr, Liberal Protestant," Mr. JAMES NAHLE, of the county of Cork, has been appointed through the influ enee, said the Times, of Mr. URQUHART, M.P. for Westmeath, and Mr. E. B. Room, M.P. for the county of Cork. This statement, how ever, has been denied on the part of Mr. URQUHART, but has been silently acs iiiesced in on that of Mr. Mount:, of whom Mr. NAuLa was the legal agent, as he had t4merly been the .registration agent of the %mum Catholic party in the county. On the promotion of Mr. NAGLE a Vaellney occurred in the Crown Stalieitorship for the euanty of Cork, which was filled by Mr. Nome O'Cossima., as his name implies, another Catholic, and, what is more, also am electioneering agent to the Roman Catholic interest in the county. But two years since he had been, for example, the most zealous employe on behalf of Mr. VINCENT SeUI.LY, in his contest with Mr. }'ERRAND. In the third ease Lord ST. GERMANS has appointed to the Postmastership of Cork a young gentle man—al Mr. BARRY—of about twenty four years of age, and whose own electioneering ser vioes were therefore inconsidentble, but whose father and family had taken an active part in electioneering contests. Summarily, then, we may say that in one spot, almost in one week, public money to nearly two thousand a year (for to this the three salaries amount) has been employed to subsidise the Agitation in terest. These three posts, moreover, are C rown offiees, and two of them directly con cerned in the prosecution of offenders. Mem bers of Parliament procured these offices ; the priests procured the members ; and it is evident that Lord ST. GERMANS is ready to go all lengths to procure priests enough to boast with Doctor (Mole in the farce, " Tis a part of my system." Another part of the same system, which the length to which we have nut permits us only to advert to, is the removal from the list of books which may be read in common by Roman Catholics and Protestants, under the school system of Ireland, the only basaks which bore a religious chanutter, viz., the Easy Lesson on Christianity," and " Evidences of Christianity," of Arc hbishop WHATELEY. A fatal blow may thereby be struck, unless averted, of which thieve is a prospect, at the mixed system of education established by the genius and wisdom of Lord DERBY. It would be a proud day, possibly, to an EmoT or an ARERDREN if they could destroy such a trophy of thair great opponent, But we acquit them, in this instance, of personal motives. They must earn their wages. By the priests they obtained their offices, and they must pay THE PRESS. back their alert patrons in the services they require. Power, influence, and the keys of the local and imperial treasuries must be put in the hands of the priesthood; and, setting aside the Conservative and even Liberal Protestants of Ireland, the priests must be the exclusive middlemen of the country, for less than this will not content them, nor is less their due from their bonds men of the Coalition. ADMIRAL I'ARKER AND CAPTAIN MILNE. Mr. KEATINO has announced his intention of moving that " during the administration of " the late Board of Admiralty the patronage of " dockyard promotions and the influence of the " Admiralty were used and exercised for poli " tical purposes, &c." Now, with regard to these aforesaid promotions, we can only deplore that tho bulky Blue Book which contains the charge and the defence will never be ex amined. The public have read the worse than garbled accounts in a certain newspaper — they have read the ea-parte report—but they will never read the voluminous evidence itself; and none calculate on this more than do the conductors of this prosecution. Our business, however, previous to the debate, is rather with Admiral HYDE PARKER and with Captain MILNE than with any one else. They have given evidence against their brother officers and former colleagues. Let us deal with the Captain first. He declared he knew nothing about dockyard appointments—not he—it was not in his department; and as for the Board minute of the 26th of April, upon which the whole question turns (q. 632), " Until he read " it, when laid upon the table of the House, he " certainly did not put that interpretation " upon it which he is obliged to do, now that " it is confirmatory of the order of the 19th of " April." Innocent Captain MILNE! iti was a new Board—no member of it except yourself had ever been in office before ; yet you at tend the Board with your cars shut, you receive the Board minute-books with your eyes closed, and then, when there is likely to be a fight, you raise the glorious cry of " Sauve qui pent !" and take to your heels in declaring that it was not in your department. But what would you have said if, in the Gold ner meats case, Sir FRANCIS BARING had said that those stinkpots were in your department —not in his ; how, if he had thrown you over board, as the crew threw your carrion over board, and as you tried to throw your colleagues overboard ? Sir FRANCIS did not do It—Sir FRANCIS would not, could not, do it—but, then, poor fellow, he is only a civilian. What shall WO say of Admiral PARKER? He has lent his sanction to the new system of confidential letter-reading ; though, to do him justice, with some reluctance. No one can read questions 441. 2,3, without a feeling of pity for him ; but his old-fashioned scruples were trampled on by the company he kept, and so now it appears, by his own statements, that while he never brought the subject before the Board, while (question 4071 "he did not think it his duty to speak to Mr. STAFFORD," he Was all the time in communication with some of the super intendents, and writing violent letters about " disgust," and " its being too bad," to a sub ordinate officer. Admiral PARKER, once super intendent of Portsmouth dockyard, first naval lord, encouraged by the Duke of NORTHPMBER -I.IIND to bring the matter before the Board, never opened his lips there—permitted with silent tongue and folded arms the service, as he declared, to be made subservient to party purposes—accepted promotion and a ship for that meritorious veteran, his son—remained in office under another first lord—and then was not ashamed to come forward and say that he held a most responsible situation in the naval service, received its pay. and dispensed its patronage, while he connived at a system he believed to be vicious, and thereby set an example which it would be fatal to follow. SATURDAY, How many of the blue jackets would have done anything like this? Would Jack mislead and betray his messmates ? No ! not if Admiral PARKER flogged him. Epaulettes are glittering things, but they lose their lustre when their wearer tries to fling his responsibility on others' shoulders ; and none of those who have used Admiral PARKER for their own pin•- poses care to defend him now. Besides, even this Government may not be eternal ; the Radicals may have a turn next; another hauldown promotion for Captain PARKER perhaps—Admiral PARKER again re maining; and then let Mr. OSBORNE look out for treacherous squalls; there may be a furious correspondence going on against him now, to be all printed and published in July, '54. THE " CROYDON" REPORT. "Et surtout, monsieur, point de zele," was TALLEYRAND . B final injunction in sending otr a diplomats. Who would suppose a Whig or a Whig functionary could ever need the lesson? But so it is. There is one zealous depart ment, with a more zealous head, of genuine Whig birth, parentage, and education. Lord JOHN begat CHADWICK, and CHADWICK begat the General Board of Health. No one, indeed, ever contested Mr. CHAD. WICK'S zeal. A more zealous man never lived. But it happens, somehow, that this zealous man is always in hot water, alike with his inferiors and superiors in official life. Poor Mr. NICHOLLS, and Sir E. HEAD, and the LEwISES, father and son, could certify to this aptitude in former days. And subse quently, when the mild wisdom of a CARLISLE no longer restrained the General Board of Health, it is written in blue-books, and told in the lobbies, how the zeal of a CHADWICK has successively clashed with the will of a SEYMOUR, the courtesy of a MANNERS, and the doctrinaire Radicalism of a MOLESWORTH. The mystery which links Lord JOHN RUSSELL and CHAnwiex it is not for us to fathom. For the last six months it has been impossible to mix with people whose business lies in and about Parliament, whether in the House or the lobby, without hearing inculpations of one of them. Frequently we might listen to some indignant member, whose constituents were having the Public Health Act applied to them against their will—being inspected, reported on, sewered, water-supplied, surface-cleansed, and rated, to their exceeding discomfort. In the committee-rooms it was denunciation of Mr. CHADWICK'S parliamentary doings; at the Society of Civil Engineers it was uncivil criti cism of Mr. CHADWICK'S engineering crotchets; at the Office of Works it was deputations to be protected from the General Board of Health; at the General Board of Health it was insinua tion and agitation against the lukewarmuess of the Office of Works. At length all this is beginning to find vent through paper and print. Mr. fIAWKSLEY comes forward to charge the General Board of Health with jobbery, and unwarrantable interference in control of local action, by encouraging the appointment of its superintendent inspectors as engineers of local boards, and, by overstretching its power of sanctioning mortgages of rates for improve ment works iu towns where the Public Health Aet is applied. Dr. Anson and Mr. PAGE were charged to report on the recent outbreak of fever at Croydon, and, in the course of their inquiry, have upset the whole engineering theory of the Board of Health as respects the drainage of towns, which the Board are in the habit of promulgating far and wide in the official guise of a Blue-book. This report, which has just appeared, indicates something nevi in the /