The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS, THE WEEK. THE allusions of Lord DERBY to the India Bill in his Mansion-house speech of last Monday, were admirably calculated to calm down the acerbity of hostile criticism which was becoming too prevalent. Since the delivery of that speech the only remarkable feature has been the vexation of a few bitter opponents of the Ministry, that the Cabinet will not make a standing-or-falling question of every clause of the Bill, and resign office rather than allow of the least alteration. The Government will meet Parliament in the spirit of that speech. The very object of the frank and bold proceeding. of casting the Bill upon the table before the recess, was to allow time for criticism of every kind, in order that, when Parliament re-assem!ded, the Government might have gathered the opinions of many competent judges, and might be prepared to act on those opinions. It is probable that, when the second reading is proposed, those clauses which have excited the most hostile remark will be modified, and the whole question placed in such a position as to make it difficult to refuse assent. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there are three parties in the House of Commons ready to unite their forces to defeat the Bill Those who, for good personal reasons, wish to bring Lord PALMERSTON back again ; 2. Those wbo, with Mr. BRIGHT, are against a d want a single responsible Minister; 3 . The adherents of tho,,E4t l India Company, who will oppose this and every Bill. If these.three parties, united, should prove sufficiently strong to defeat the Second Reading, the question would still remain whether Lord PALMERSTON could gain more support for his measure. Should his Lordship not succeed in this, then the effect of both votes would be, a declaration that the House of Commons could not see its way to legislate for India at all this year. The present administration of our Foreign-office has been eminently successful. Lord MALmEsBuRY has cared less for mere diplo macy than his predecessor, and more for practical results. In the few weeks which have elapsed since the accession of the present Government to office, WATT has been released, PARK has been released, and HODGE has been released. Those who had lain for months in prison, and whose very lives were in jeopardy, are now free. The only questions remaining are, the legality of their capture ; and, if it were not legal, then the claim for compensation which naturally follows. And there is no reason to fear that there will be any back wardness on the part of the Foreign-office to enforce the just claims of British subjects, whether at Naples or elsewhere. Unless circumstances should compel a change, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER will probably make his financial statement on Friday next. There is no ground for expecting any novelty, or any startling proposals. The chief difficulty of the case arises simply from the fail• ing due of some of Mr. GLAnsToNE's Exchequer Bonds ; and the general opinion is, that the simplest course will be merely to renew them. Every. one can see that the extraordinary circumstances of the past year must have precluded a surplus; and it will be surprising if they do riot: sooner or later, necessitate a small addition to our debt ; but, wP3ther funded or unfunded, it would be premature to attempt at present to indicate. • 16 Mr. A. H. OAKES has been appointed to the.. vacant Clerkship in the Librarian's department of the Foreign-office. ""The selection was made by competitive examination. Lord CLARENDON, before he quitted Downing-street, had named two candidates, but had not selected the third. Lord MALMESBURY nominated Mr. OASES as the third, and in the examination he proved successful. The following paragraph has just appeared in the Art-Journal : THE WELLINGTON Morrusrmer.—There are strange rumours afloat concerning this work The thousand tongues " are noising it abroad that, notwithstanding the awards of prizes in Westminster-hall, the competition will lead to nothing, except • return to the original scheme of giving the commission to Baron Marochotti ; indeed, it is added, that the arrangement was " in progress " when the competition was mooted ; 'and it is to be carried out now that the competitive designs are either sent home or shelved into one of the ante-rooms of the new Palace at Westminster. We cannot credit a statement so utterly opposed to every principle of honour; we do not believe that any Government would dare to commit so gross an outrage on common decency. We therefore abstain from more than a mere note to state that such a rumour is in circulation. If this story be true, here endeth the third abortive attempt of the Welsh Baronet who recently managed " her Majesty's Works and Buildings." 1. He would cleanse the Thames, and complete the main drainage of London. To do this he set up a Metropolitan Board of Woras, and when that Board of Works had formed some plans, he created a second Board, or Commission of Engineers, to revise and amend the plans of the first Board. The consequence was, that we had two plans and two Boards, each objecting to the other ; and after two years and four months have passed away, we seem as far off as ever. 2.• He would build some new palaces for the Foreign office and the War-office ; and he persuaded the Treasury to allow him to offer premiums, and to fill Westminster-hall with designs. Tho artists naturally concluded that all 'this was real ; but it turned out in the enu to he all a sham. Some premiums were awarded, but the erection of the new offices is to be given to Mr. PENNETHORNE, just as if there had been no competition, and as if sixty or a hundred artists had not spent much time and money on the competition. And now, 3. It appears that the Wellington Monument is going to be managed in the same manner. All these affairs, however, took 'place under the late Government, which must have allowed Sir BENJAMIN in these freaks to fool away from 30,0001. to 50,000/. of the public money. APRIL 10, 1858. We did injustice—i.e., we awarded more or less than justice would have prescribed—to the Saturday Review in our last number. Finding in that journal Lord Jo as pitied for his failure—Lord PALMERSTON scoffed at as one that has been " found out "—and Lord DERBY ridiculed, as " burying Derbyisin in the cross-roads with a stake through it "—we naturally concluded that JOHN BRIGHT was the only hope left to the Reviewer. The Conservatives, the Palmerston Liberals, and the Russell Whigs, being all smothered beneath the Reviewer's rotten eggs, there seemed nothing left but that little clique of " advanced'Liberals " which fights under the banner of BRIGHT and ROEBUCK and MILNER GIBSON. And to that clique we accordingly consigned the Review. But nothing so practical, nothing so near the confines of common sense, will suit that journal. At the very moment when we were placing it under the leadership of JOHN BRIGHT, the Review was showing it s indepen dence of all leaders, and all parties, great or small, by demolishing BRIGHT himself, as it had previously demolished PALMERSTON, and DERBY, and RUSSELL. In its number of last week, the Saturday Review thus puts down JOHN BRIGHT : Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden cannot get out of their heaths their former position as leaders of one of the belligerent classes. . . . Whatever it be that is under discus sion—the defences of the country, or what not—they have an incorrigible propensity to turn it into a due question, and make themselves the leaders of the aggrieved class. .. . Mr. Bright cannot forego the opportunity of proposing a class League, and putting himself forward as the head of it. . . . Every man, he says, who is not prepared to take part in this League, should at once, as the only alternative, emigrate beyond the reach of English expenditure and taxation. There is no help for it but a general exodus from this Egypt. Ages of ever-deepening pauperism are the assured pro spect of those who remain behind. Such is the fulfilment of all the promises made by Mr. Bright and his associates when they were advocating Free Trade. Such is the plenty and happiness from which the working classes were excluded by the barrier of Protection ! This is very fair. It is just and true. But we must come back to the Reviewer himself. We are threatened, in its pages, with a speedy onset of " the great Liberal party," " with fitting leaders and a dis ciplined army." But are these leaders to spring out of the ground ; or to start forward, from Rugby or the Temple, with beards scarcely apparent ? For, seeing that RUSSELL and PALMERSTON, DERBY and Joux BRIGHT, are now alike dismissed in disgrace, it " passes our comprehension," as Sir ROBEhT PEEL used to say, where these " fitting leaders" are to come from. But, never mind ! doubtless, when the right moment has come, the good folks at 39, Southampton-street, will provide us with the " fitting leaders," as well as with the " disciplined army." What have the " Liberals" and the " Opposition" (if there be one) done during the Easter Recess ? Just nothing. They have held their peace, and have attempted neither demonstrations, nor great popular meetings, nor attacks on the Ministry. Nothing can possibly be calmer than the current of our domestic politics ; the world has rolled on quietly, and without the least turmoil, although Lord PALMERSTON, who was written up as being indispensable, is reduced to the ranks of a private gentleman, and actively superintends the affairs of Broad lands instead of those of the Biitish empire. Dangerous as a Minister and delusive as a politician, the ex-Premier is excellent as a country gentleman, and we trust that he may have a lengthened enjoyment of his paternal seat, free from the anxieties of Ministerial toils. Far dif. ferent has been the last Easter Recess from the same anniversary holidays twenty, fifteen, ten, or even five years ago. In those days, if a Conservative Cabinet came suddenly into power, and if an " Easter Recess" shortly afterwards occurred, there was " agitation," and it was announced in " second editions" that all Little Pedlington was on the verge of an outbreak. "Brutus" and " Cassius" gave up pri vate theatricals, and " starred " it in parochial meetings ; " Oliver Cromwell" laid down his needle, took up the pen, and, with the help of " Mr. Editor," addressed himself to an imaginary Charles 1., while " John Hampden" showed extreme readiness to spill in the public cause the last drop of his ink. Such was the case with the " Liberals" during the last few years. How conies it that so greet a change has intervened? The answer is easy : they have exhausted their capital, and they have not resources for further speculations. It is useless for them to talk of a " New Reform Bill," as two can play at that game, and the country would prefer Conservative to Radical Reform. In foreign politics, after the conduct of Lords PALMERSTON and CLARENDON in the Walewski despatch, the Liberals have nothing to say. The " Irish question "is at an end, and on social progress, Administrative Reform, and the national interests, the Conservatives are ready to give battle to the Liberals. The sum of all this is, that the age is moving onwards. Old stereotyped cries have lost their charm, and there are no passwords now in politics. It is an age bent on solid realities. Good government is what the British public wants, and it is cheerfully ready to accept it from either side. Comparing the past and present, it is, certainly, most instructive to observe the change in the times. Not one " indignation " meeting has been held during the recess by the Liberals. In Radical Marylebone the friends of Sir BENJAMIN HALL find it as much as they can do to organize some suiall appearance of support for the demagogic Baronet. The metropolitan constituencies, the great towns of the north, and the hives of manufac turing industry, are perfectly quiescent. Surely there must be some partie.nlar cause for such quiet on the part of the Liberals, as con trasted with their conduct in other " Easter recesses" during the last twenty years. That cause is simply, that four times within eight years the Liberals, with all their boasted strength and arrogant self complacency, have broken down. The fact cannot be gainsaid that the Queen and the country have been obliged to go to the Conserva tives for aid. Lord PALMERSTON has lost his popularity; the prestige of Lord JOHN RUSSELL is dimmed ; the place-hunting " Liberals " dis like Mr. CoaDzx and Mr. Baton, and these latter distrust the ejected