The Press. — London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

to go, uninvited, to a poor woman ly ill," on the brink of her confine tuestion her as to the way in which, past life, she may have kept or Ten Commandments. We have no efficacy of repentance brought about pressure of an uninvited monitor or it seems to us, moreover, calculated to , mind of a person in that condition so possibly to produce disastrous con- And should it so happen that was not, but that insanity was, , of such exhortations, the un sufferer might thereby be deprived chance of making peace with her Tf the clergyman select such seasons of his ministrations, we do not hesitate tat we think they ought to be of a and not of a terrifying, character. It different if the patients, or the patient's lye to her condition, both morally and solicited the clergyman to " move her examine her estate both towards Gou and And this difference is especially marked Rubric for the Visitation of the the minister's coming at all into the .'s house is made to depend on " notice' .ven thereof"—viz., of there being a .l—" to the minister of the parish.' where in the Rubric is the minister go through the decalogue, and to answers respecting every sin therein for is only in case of " a neighbour's conscience feeling troubled with any weighty that he " is to be moved to make a special of his sins." But in this case the it far beyond these directions; for the t's " conscience " was not " troubled weighty matter," and therefore she according to the Rubric, to have been to " any" special confession. This olves far more serious consequence than decision which may be taken on the par - case at Maidenhead, for it affects the rule which the clergy ought to adopt in cases. The Rubric has been appealed to iustification of the course pursued by the We are content with the test proposed; lying that test, we are obliged to say, condemns instead of justifies his pro as set forth by himself. SIBLE GOVERNMENT IN NEW SOUTH WALES. things are more discouraging to earnest diligent workers than exaggerated expecta- They see the utmost that they can do, and their "possible" will not give satisfac- They are thus not only cut off from the 'praise, but condemned to the anticipation inevitable censure. Such discouragement make them timid or fretful, and dimi their power of useful exertion. This is true in the political world. The who, to adopt the terse phrase ofJUNIUB, the cause and the country," cannot have distressing damper to his zeal than the ' demands thoughtlessly or malignantly an ability which a thousand necessities to limit. Ilad the English press in , for instance, imitating the exigeant spirit Times, expected Lord DERBY in a few to supply the omissions and rectify the ten years of " Liberal Administration," the well-earned popularity of the pre- Government would have been grievously but their power of usefulness would been seriously curtailed. "Iniquum pete 'turn feras" may be a dangerous text as to demands on public servants. claims for the impossible in legislation mischievous even here, where long experience taught us the delays and drawbacks which on responsible government, much more • so when addressed to legislative assem free communities of more recent origin, constitution has been framed prospectively than retrospectively, with an eye to the future rather than from the experience past. In such communities the friction, speak, of the machinery of government is and the working power, if not propor ly less, yet more fitful and irregular. The clergyman to " dangcrousl) ment, to que during her broken the '1 faith in the e through the confessor. It alarm the mi a s too pon s sequences. repen tance the result happy suffe of all chili Maker. If sickness for 1 to say that o ohi n g, am might be dif friends, alive physically, 8, " to examin( "man." An out in the Sick, where sick person's being " give sick person- And nowhe directed to invite answi bidden ; it " conscience "matter" th confession Curate went sick person' with any ought not, a " moved " t point involv any decisio ticular case general rut these cases, in justifical Curate. W and applyii that it cot ceedings as RESPONS Pm thing and diligen tion. The: feel that th Lion. The; hope of pra of inevital tends to n nishes thei especially statesman • "means th a more dis unlimited made on a conspire I general, fi of the Ti months to errors of not only t a sent Govt 4 lessened, have bee) " ut mqui e applied t( e But if are misch a has taugt attend of are they e blies in ii e whose co rather th mighty of the pa so to sp e greater, tionatel) ■ EMI THE PRESS, AUGUST 21, 1858. fluctuations of popular opinion are more speedily and more directly expressed through the repre sentative body, changes of administration are more sudden and frequent, and, as the supporters of a Ministry are less perfectly organized, the obstructive power of a hostile minority is in creased. When we remember how near Mr. CARDWELL'S resolution brought us to another " appeal to the country," we should not marvel that Parliaments are shortlived in Australia. When we remember the changes in English Cabinets since Sir ROBERT PEEL broke up the Conservative party, we ought not to rail at the restless "in and out" of Canadian Ministries. We have deliberately established responsible go vernment in our leading colonies ; it is most im portant, both to the good understanding between those colonies and the mother country, and to the cause of constitutional freedom throughout the world, that we should neither undervalue their success in self-government nor exaggerate inevitable defects in their modus operandi. They have already done so much, in spite of obvious difficulties, that we may safely calculate on their doing more. We have been led into this train of reflections by a letter, addressed to Lord GREY, which we believe will he as interesting to many of our readers as it has been to ourselves. The writer is the Hon. S. DONALDSON (brother, we believe, to the distinguished Cambridge philologist), one of the most accomplished members of the Legis lature of New South Wales, and more than once a leader in its Administration. He thinks it due to the colony of which he is an ornament that this refutation of an unintentional misstatement on the part of the Noble Lord should be speedily and widely circulated. We are happy to meet his views by giving the letter early insertion : (Copy.) " Killet House, Sydney, New South Wales, May 10, 1858. "My Lord,—A copy of your Lordship's recent publication upon the subject of ' Parliamentary Government' has this day reached me. " I hasten to represent to your Lordship that you have (I am sure unintentionally) been led into an error with regard to the proceedings of the Parliament of New South Wales under responsible government. " In the note to page 216 you say :—‘ The first session of the Parliament of New South Wales after responsible government came into operation lasted for five months. In that time but one bill was passed—an act to authorize a loan—which went through both houses in about an hour. The remainder of the protracted session seems to have been chiefly devoted to party squabbles and the overthrow of two Ministries.' " Now, as a matter of fact, the first session of the Parliament of New South Wales under re sponsible government lasted ten months. During that session there were passed into law forty-two public and five private bills. Allusion to the value and importance of these measures is made both in his Excellency the Governor-General's speech at the close of the session and in the Speaker's report, copies of which documents I inclose. " I also forward the official report of the house, stating the number of sitting days, 107, and the hours, 773 and 47 minutes, or an average of 7 hours 14 minutes each day. ";As I had the honour to hold the office of Colonial Secretary in the first Administration formed under responsible government, and that of Treasurer in the third, I hope your Lordship will pardon my addressing you, in the expecta tion that you will take an opportunity of cor recting the error into which you have been acci dentally led. " I am quite sure that your Lordship will not allow your high name to be used to give wide circulation to any statement reflecting upon a Colonial Legislature, when such statement is found to have been made under a misapprehen sion of the facts. " I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's obedient and very humble servant, STF.WART DONALDSON. " The Right Hon. Earl Grey." We have examined the copies of documents and the official report, of which Mr. DONALDSON speaks as accompanying his letter, and they bear out his statements in every particular. 795 Had the mistake, of which we thus publish the correction, occurred in some shallow pamphlet, gotten up for an ephemeral party purpose, we should have thought it little worth notice. But Lord GREY'S work on Representa tive Government (more than once noticed in these columns) has, from the independent tone of thought, the clearness and occasional profundity of the views expressed, obtained an influence among reflecting men more than proportionate to its circulation, though the latter has been con siderable. It would be matter for great regret if the high character of the work were to become the means of giving currency to a misstatement affecting a most important question. The advo cates of responsible government have a right to the full benefit of the fact, that its inauguration at Sydney produced, not a long period of fruitless wrangling, but a sort of annus mirabilis in colonial legislation ; that the new stimulus which it supplied produced healthy, and not morbid, symptoms. For ourselves, we most truly rejoice in this corroboration of our a priori belief that Englishmen carry with them into new scenes and distant regions that aptness for self-government which is not merely a distinctive mark of race, but the result of centuries of national training. But the importance of the subject does not stop here. The possibility of such a mistake on the part of such a man as Lord GREY strikingly illustrates a defect which has hitherto been the opprobrium of English Administrations. Our home affairs, our foreign relations, may have been better or worse managed, according as the Secretary for the time being has been appointed with a view to the service of the nation or to satisfy the demands of a clique ; but, at all events, their respective importance has been duly recog nized, and the facts bearing upon them have been diligently studied and discussed. But the Colo nial-office has always been a land of darkness, whose rulers have seldom even appeared to wish for light. We have acted on a most imperfect knowledge of facts, and with a very scanty recog nition of principles. In fact, we have neither known nor cared enough about colonies which to the rest of the world are marvels or portents. And even since we have wisely established that system of colonial self-government which has rendered the inhabitants of New South Wales, for instance, or Canada, substantially the arbiters of their own material interests, we have not suf ficiently regarded the feelings of those our dis tant kindred. We have not sufficiently consi dered that the tie which unites Great Britain to her colonies must derive its strength and perma nence from mutual affection and goodwill, as well as from calculations of common advantage. And, especially, we have undervalued the merits and services of those friends of order and sup porters of British connection, like Mr. DONALD SON, Sir W. MANNING, or their friend and colleague, Mr. DARVALL, to whom it is mainly owing that the progress of our colonies has been steady and peaceful as well as rapid—that Free dom has not run riot, nor Sydney imitated San Francisco. Deriving their influence from the free suffrages of large constituencies, they have exerted it in the independent support of the re presentative of the British Crown against factious or anarchical movements. Such men, we re peat, have been too often overlooked, when mere colonial agitators have received an attention here absolutely affronting to the community which they troubled. We will hope that a better day has dawned on the Colonial-office, and that the present Ministry will adopt a policy very dif ferent from the ignorant indifference exhibited by their predecessors. " The Right Hon. R. Lowt:" was a man whom New South Wales did not delight to honour. Sir E. B. LirrroN may easily find men some honorary recognition of whose services, though little important to them selves, would be welcomed in the colony as a graceful act of justice. BOMBARDMENT OF JUDDAJI. SoNEE of our contemporaries profess to be scan dalized by the bombardment of Juddah, and accuse Lord MALMESBURY of infringing on the Sultan's prerogative and violating the integrity and independence of the Porte. It is possible, indeed, that an error of judgment was committed in the first instance ; but if so, it was on the part of Captain PULLEN. That Gallant Officer may, I