The Press. — London, England, 1858-03-27 00:00:00

292 whole subject in the two words " Preach," and " Speech ; " for we believe the most effectual re►nedy far empty pews would be provided if the Bishops, instead of going to Parliament, would go to their candidates for orders, and refuse to ordain any man who presumed to offer himself to preach who had not learned how to speak. So much as to one most important point, the manner in whiclt the sermon is delivered. A word or two must be added on the matter of which those sermons are composed. And surely it is wonderful, when we calmly reflect upon the fact, that desiring, as most preachers must, to gain the attention of their hearers, and to do them good, they should so often utterly mistake their way in the choice of topics. Men who have the Bible in their hands, and may select their subjects from any page they prefer, choose, in four cases out of five, to preach upon the lowest topics, and to avoid the highest —to discuss terrestrial and tem porary things, when they might discuss celes tial and eternal ones—to deal with, and often to weary, men's heads, when they might stir their hearts. This is the greatest of all errors, and yet it is also the most common. Most congregations, besides minor subdivi sions, may be divided into the two great classes of the religions and the irreligious. Now, the religious man, wearied with the earthly cares and turmoils of the week, comes to church on Sunday in the hope of being re freshed by " gales from heaven." Hs derives no enjoyment, nor strength, from going anew over all the perplexities and disappointments of the week. What he thirsts for is, some glimpses of the glories and enjoyments of ar•other world. To gain his ear•, and warm his heart, do not talk of men, and money, and gains, and losses, bad tempers or bad con duct ; but transport him to the other side of the dark river, and show him something of those things which are to be his when these wretched earthly strifes are over. And the irreligious man—what will you proffer him ? Good advice ? He will infallibly fall asleep under the infliction. Remaining as he is, you can do nothing with him. The preacher's only hope for such a man is, that he may be enabled to effect a change. But how is a man's heart to be changed ? By good advice? Was such a change ever seen? Is "a heart of stone " to be turned into " a heart of flesh "by moral precepts ? The irreligious man, if he is to derive any good from a sermon, must be arrested, startled, and made to think. Aud how rich an armoury has the preacher, in the Bible, for such a work ! The simple, plain, undeniable truth, that to each man " the end of all things is at hand ;" the reflec • tion, that when the dark river is once crossed, the man of wealth wilt find himself without a penny; the man of luxury, naked and destitute; the man of ambition, with his state for ever fixed—such simple facts as these, placed in various lights, and pressed home on men's consciences with earnestness, may, by GOD'S blessing, awaken the sleeping soul. But mere good counsels for this world's guidance will, as we have said, end iu sleep ; and alter a brief forty minutes the bearers will ask each other —" Haven't we had a long sermon to• day ?" OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. IT is no disparagement to the Noble Lord who now fills the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to say that, on Lord DERBY'S accession to power, there was no member of the Cabinet who had been subjected to more hostile remarks than Lord MALMESBURY It was asserted by those who, for factious purposes, sought to deceive the British people as to the true character of the new Administration, that he was the " friend of Louis NAPOLEON," and that therefore it was useless to expect from him any satisfactory adjustment of the French difficulty. It was alleged—and the statement found ready credence among those whose poli tical knowledge is limited to such au acquaint ance with the events of the day as may be gathered from a rapid perusal of a morning newspaper—th a t his conduct during his pre vious tenure of office justified the belief that be would not now maintain the honour of England with fitting boldness and dignity, and THE PRESS, MARcit 27, 1858. that he wanted both ability and inclination to enter the lists against the hardy champions of the empire. Abova all, comparisons were in stituted between him and his immediate pro. decessor, in which Lord CLARENDON was en dowed with all the qualities of which Lord MALMESBURY was said to be so lamentably de ficient; and the Prime Minister was severely censured for having intrusted a post which, from the circumstances of the crisis, was the most important in the State, to a man whose official antecedents and whose personal qua. titles and predilections utterly disqualified him to fill it. _ _ It might have been expected from these vaticinations that we should, by this time, either have become involved in a European war, or have ignominiously submitted to the demands of France, and surrendered that right of asylum which is the proudest boast of our island home But in this instance, as in so many others, the arrow of calumny has overshot its mark, and Lord MaLathsauttv's reputation has only gained a brighter lustre from the unscrupulous attempts that were made to blacken it. Having been told that they had nothing to expect, the British public are only the more delighted to find that they have received a great deal ; and just in pro portion to the suspicion with which they had been led to regard the new Foreign Secretary is the confidence which they are now, by the natural reaction of generous minds, disposed to extend towards him. They find that, having acceded to office at a most critical conjuncture, under considerable personal dis advantages as well as political difficulties almost unexampled, the Noble Lord has con ducted his country in safety through its hoar of peril;—they find that, by maintaining the supremacy and sufficiency of English law, he has succeeded in allaying the clamours of France for the alteration of that law, and in impressing on the French Government the necessity of bowing to the decisions of our regular tribunals ;—they find that, without blustering about Roman citizenship, he has obtained the liberation of one of the English engineers at Naples, secured the comfort and expedited the trial of the other, and refused to assent to the extradition of Mr. HODGE. And seeing that all this has been done quietly and without fanfaronnade, the English people ask themselves,—Why was not all this done before? and why were we called upon to distrust the man who has done all this? The fact is, that the foreign policy of Eng. land is now conducted on sound principles— principles which commend themselves at once to the judgment of every thinking man, and upon which it is hard to understand why Ministers have not uniformly acted. In his speech of the 27th of February, 1852, Lord Dzaav laid down these principles in words which cannot be too often quoted or too can?, fully borne in mind:— I believe (said the noble lord) that peace will be best maintained by observing to all foreign States, whether powerful or weak, a calm, temperate, deliberate, and con ciliatory course of conduct, not in acts al me, but in words and expressions also ; by a Ihering, with strict fidelity, to the obligations imposed on us by treaties; ant! by respect ing the independence of nations, whether great or small, as well as by admitting their full right to regulate to their own will the internal affairs of their own administiation. In the conduct of our affairs with other nations, there is more dignity, if any of the subjects of the State conceive themselves injured by a foreign power, in acting with forbearance than with violence. The digni fied course, in public as in private life, is, in case of neces sity, to require as well as to offer such reparation as in our conscience we deem desirable. Such is my opinion as regards our own fellow-countrymen. On the other hand, I am convinced that if we have reason to complain of the course taken towards us by a foreign country, the best course to adopt is calmly, without malignity or vituperation or intemperate language, to submit our cause to the honour and justice of the tribunal to which we make our complaint, and to require (rain that tut' ial that rimed of justice which we should be prepared to concede ourselves. It would almost seem that, during his late communications with foreign Powers, Lord MALMESBURY had these words in his mind : they certainly furnish the clearest exposition of the principles by which he has been guided. Let him continue to conduct the foreign policy of Englai,d upon this basis, and, in spite of the malignity of detractors, he will go down to posterity us a Minister who rescued the honour of his country from the peril in which it had been involved by a reckless Administra- Lion, vindicated the majesty of English law from the aspersions which had been cast upon it by an offended ally, and preserved peace without making a single dishonourable con. cession or using a single undignified menace. THE RESULTS OF FREE TRADE. No. 11. WE could ;lot expect, nor did we desire, that our article of last week, on the utter failure of the Free Trade prophecies, should pass un noticed. We knew that the plain, undeniable facts which we had brought together, consti tuted a case so utterly crushing, as almost to compel a groan or an exclamation from any Leaguer upon whom they fell. It has not surprised us, therefore, to witness contortions and other signs of pain, both in the Whig daily organ, the usually calm and " cucumber journal" the Globe, and also in the latest of the newspapers of Manchester origin, which naturally feels bound to do battle for its creators and patrons. The Globe's answer is a very simple one. " We never held out any exaggerated hopes; "we did not promise low prices, reduction of " pauperism,' &c. We are quite aware of that. The Whigs and their organ cry out before they are touched. Our censure fell upon the League and the Peelites ; and the Globe has therefore rushed needlessly into the fray. The Whigs, left to themselves, would never have repealed the Corn Laws. Mr. BAINES of Leeds, himself one of the League, has left on record the narrative of a visit to Lord NIEL BOURNE, in which the Whig Premier asked the deputation,—" Well, gentlemen, and what is "it you really want ?" And when the men of Manchester answered, " Total repeal," his Lordship replied, with an inward chuckle of derision, " That, you know, is wholly out of the " question." The Whigs, left to themselves, would never have repealed the Corn Laws. Lord JOHN RUSSELL only declared for total repeal at the eleventh hour, and when he had good reason to know that Sir ROBERT PEEL was himself meditating a similarly-wonderful conversion. The truth is, that the Anti-Corn-Law League dragged both PEEL and RUSSELL after them — made use of them, and then cast them off. So much the more needful is it to show, as we have already partly done, that the whole League game was a - delusion and a fraud. " We never said," complains the Globe, " that " bread would be cheaper, or that trade would "be increased." The charge is not, that the Globe or the Whigs did say so ; but that they winked at the devices and frauds of the League, and when a convenient time came, took advantage of the clamour created by them. As to the facts which we alleged, they are quite notorious and undeniable. The large loaf of Free Trade and the little loaf of Pro tection were paraded at every contested elec tion for four years consecutively. That the bread of the labourer was " taxed " and made dear, for the advantage of a bloated aristo cracy," was the doctrine preached throughout England. That the people of the Continent were longing to take our manufactures, if only we would take their corn, was urged with equal industry. And that pauperism must almost wholly disappear, if we had but "cheap bread,' and " more trade," was considered to be almost a truism. Any one who doubts the fact that these were the standard arguments of the Free-traders, need only get Mr. BAPTIST NOEL's " Plea for the Poor," and there he will find them at full length. The daily organ of the League, however, has a conclusive argument, which he seems to think must settle the whole question. He does not deny—he cannot deny—that bread is not cheaper, that our trade with the Continent shows little or no increase, or that pauperism has augmented rather than diminished. These., facts are beyond contradi c tion. " But then," says the advocate of the League, " there is " one little piece of political history which " Tux Passs has entirely forgotten." And what is that' Why, forsooth, that the House of Commons, in 1852, actually paned a &sag tion