The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS. Jtrla 11, 1853. its own own diseases. With states, as with men, all that physicians can do is to assist nature. To every political constitution is its own nature, its own idiosyncrasies. You cannot amend the abuses that have crept into an ancient monarchy by the remedies you would apply to the system of a young republic. Attempt it, and you do not cure the disease : you destroy the patient. For myself, I stand somewhat distinct from the ordinary relations of party, and altogether remote from the interests of official ambition. The name I have assumed is so far appropriate, that it is obscure to those who may yet well remember the more prominent disputants in the grand arena of old Roman politics ; it is a name incidentally cited by CICERO as that of one among otherF. who had studied the customs of his country, and might, therefore, be competent to suggest an occasional counsel to his fellow citizens. I see before me a nu merousand powerful party, animated by chiefs whose opinions in favour of all that can advance the cause of pure Democracy have been openly proclaimed. Amongst that party, no doubt there arc some more mo derate than others, some who march blindfold towards the goal which those of bolder vision see clear through the mists of faction. But all unite in the march of the caravan towards the heart of the desert; and, if there be those who then discover that the fountain which allures them on is but the mirage, it will be too late to return, and it will be but destruction to pause. To that party the real sense of the country is nevertheless healthfully opposed. But what avails the sense of the country, when it is subdivided into sections, who dispute on the straws which the wind will soon whirl away from their sight? If Eng land is to retain that empire which she owes to no natural resources, but to the various influences of a most complicated and artificial but a most admirable and effective social system, she must gather into one un ited phalanx all who hold the doctrine that England, to be safe, must be great—to continue free she must rest upon the inter mediate institutions which fence round monarchy, as the symbol of executive force, from that suffrage of unalloyed democracy which re presents the invading agencies oflegislative change. Our system of policy must be opposed to all those who, by rules of arithmetic, would reduce the empire in which the sun never sets to the isle of the Anglo-Saxon, and leave our shores without defence against a yet craftier Norman. Our measures of reform must be so framed as to gain all the purposes of good government, yet to admit under the name of return no agency that tends by its own inevitable laws to the explosion of the machinery whose operations you pretend it will economise and quicken. By what plausible arguments were the dwellers in the Pincus admitted to vote in the Athenian Assembly ! They had fought at Salamis. What so just as that they should possess the franchise of the State they had assisted to save? 'Regarded in itself. that extension of suffrage was reasonable enough ; but, as applied to the system of the Athenian commonwealth, all sound historians (mear that it became the necessary destruction of Athens. A power was brought to play against the tendencies that preserved the good that was acquired from the geed f the fatal something that is yet to be obtained. In a word. r those who had no stake in the soil swamped the votes of those who were its natural defenders. Hence, from that moment, arise the dictator and the demagogue—P II RIC I ,Es and et.EoN—the flatterer and the tyrant of mobs ; hence the rapid fluctuations, the greedy enterprises. the domi nion of the Have-nots, the ruin of the fleet, the loss of the colonies, the Thirty Tyrants, the vain re storation of a hollow freedom, the conquest of the Macedonian, the adulation offered to DEM EMI CH as to a god— licence--corruption—servitude—dissolution. Give the popular assembly of Great Britain up to the controlling influence of the lowest voters in large towns, and you have brought again a Pirteus to destroy your Athens. But I see the sole hope for England in the union of those men who will defend England as she is. History has buried in the past all of the old feuds between Tories and Whigs save that mere emula tion for power which hunts out pretexts for unsubstantial differences. Both have now to protect from a common_ foe the . constitution which has been corrected and ennobled by their ancient collisions of opinion. A manly alliance upon the broad understanding that reforms are to cement the foundation of monarchy, and not attempt the anomalous paradox of uniting democratic institutions to a defenceless throne, would at once give to the Whigs all that they require for the resumption of their historical influence,—electoral numbers—and strengthen the liberal disposition of Lord DERBY'S partisans by the accession of all that they need to make the public fully comprehend their views—viz., colleagues experienced in office and eloquent in debate. The Whigs may lose that occasion; the stubborn prejudices attached to obsolete feuds—not strong enough to resist subordination to ABERDEEN and Gt.sustosy—may yet induce them to reject association with men whom atheart they more cordially approve. I f so, the loss is to themselves—their extinction will be dmed. It is the G IWTON Es and the ABERDEENB who) will then ultima o t o ely obtain all the ground that they forfeit. Meanwhile, let not the true Conservati'ves despot—. let them be patient, till the storm which their opponents themselves have invoked scatter the fleet which carries mutiny on board. All wrecks come to the shore—the shore does not go to the wrecks. Nut that I would have you suppose that Fortune is a goddess that favours the inert. They who think that it is sufficient to wait for the ripening season never reap the harvest. Sow first, and then wait. " Time," said Lord PLUNKET, in one of his great orations, "is repre sented with the hour-glass as well as with the scythe." By the one he mows down—by the other he reconstructs. IMITATED FROM LORD DORSET. Old Noah in his motley Ark Had dogs to fawn and dogs to bark. As times and reasons fitted ; For principles were laid on shelf, Each partner acted for himself. The firm was MlCOMlllitted. So complaisant his stoek was found, Mongrel and puppy, whelp and hound, His kennel could afford ye ; A dog to hunt with every pack, A Protestant bow-wow frow Jack, A Popish whine from Geordie. Prepared alike for outs" and " ins." A champion for the side that wins Was ready at his summons : An ancient Tory for the Peers. A Liberal leader for the ears Of sympathising Commons. So have 1 seen i►i toyhhop placed A curious house with figure', grateed To suit each change of weaker To face the clouds stands surly John, Next Phillis smiles to greet the sun, But never both together. NIANILICS. NOTES AND Qt' K It. suggests that the old version of the curious proverb SHAMMING ABRAHAM itt incorrect. It WIIM formerly supposed to indicate the pretence or simulation of sickness. It now evidently signifies the eontinuance in a political club where nine-tenths of the members con sider you a SPY. THE OXFORD NI,Ps. An ill-mattebed pair, nor foemen quite, nor ii iends, Divided Oxfiwd to St. Stephen's sends ; One oft at missionary nue.tings found And one for lame seeuritiem renowned. Oh ! how our tottering credit were restored, Could both united rule the Exchequer Board. And worthy Imm; missiomo7 aid Courert the bonds him GiAorrroNE's art has made. EPIGRAM BY THE CHANCELLOR OF THE ERCHEQUER. My scheme to change the old "South Sens" Has cost a deal of trouble ; And, after all, it only proves A second " South ,440. Bribble." RAVING INTELLIGENCE. Baron BittNOW says that n Mr. Siusr a Biaxial..v HEITHER if he had notT sold The Autocratlong before Ascot. He wouldnot be half . CABINET WORK. In the exhibition of Cabinet work at (lore-house we remarked a singular omission. There was no specimen of that novel descrip• tion which combines any kind of materials by means of Roman Cement. A specimen, we were told, was on its way from Aberdeen, but there was some doubt whether it would bear the carriage. 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