The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-07 00:00:00

THE WEEK. Ws have seldom bad to record a week more fertile in political events. The Government is unexpectedly defeated by a decisive vote of the House of Commons, and Lord PALMERSTON has announced to that body that its dissolution will take place as soon as the necessary legis lative business can be gone through. It is supposed that Parliament may be dissolved in three weeks or a month from the present time, and that the new Parliament may assemble six weeks later. In less than three months a new House of Commons will, therefore, assemble to decide on the weighty questions of finance and foreign policy of Government now before the country. The three nights' debate on Mr. COBDEN'S motion was illustrated by some of the most eloquent addresses ever delivered in Parliament. The subject was one to demand the exercise of the highest oratorical faculties ; it involved the question of the policy to be pursued towards an ancient empire, with a high degree of civilisation, but totally in capable of competing with us in armed force. The last night's debate was in many respects the most interesting. The speech of Mr. GLADSTONE was, by the confession of all oho heard it, the greatest of his oratorical efforts. Its logic, Christian feeling, felicitous illustration, and passionate eloquence, made one of those powerful impression s on the House which become matters of history. The reply of Lord PALMERSTON was not wanting in energy, though vulgar and almost brutal in tone. Ho called Commissioner YETI "a liar," and gave the impression that nothing would please him better than a wholesale massacre of the Chinese people. He attempted, amid the evident indignation of the House, to fasten on Mr. GLADSTONE a charge of endeavouring, to defeni those practices of Chinese warfare which the Right lion. Gentleman had in reality characterised as detestable acts. The Premier's blustering invectives against combina tion received pointed chastisement from MK. DISRAELI. Mr. COBDEN'S reply was one of his very happiest efforts. His intimation that if that tremendous calamity, which it was always represented would bring heaven and earth together—a change of Ministry— should occur, he was satisfied the country would gain 2,000.00001. in reduced taxation, and that he was quite willing in the interest of the country to dispose of the Premier for that sum, was received with shouts of laughter. His reply to Mr. CHAMBERS, who had taken the chair at the anti-opium meeting, and now spoke with " judicious impartiality "in favour of the burning of Canton, was a masterpiece of good-tempered satire. The anxiety to know the result outside the House was intense. A crowd of respectable persons had collected in Westminster•hall eagerly waiting to question the first members who issued from the doors of the House. The process of counting the numbers lasted some time, but at length hurried steps were heard, and two or three members came rushing out in a state of the wildest excitement, exclaiming at the top of their voices, " Government beaten by sixteen !" Immediately there rose a tre mendous cheer from the crowd, which was again and again repeated. Each leading member of the majority as he came forth was welcomed with enthusiastic plaudits. Mr. COBDEN narrowly escaped being carried round the hall, and Mr. DISRAELI was escorted ,by a crowd of persons cheering at the top of their voices, and waving their hats in their hands. The next morning a Cabinet Council was held, after which Lord PALMERSTON went down to Windsor. The Ministerial papers of Thurs day morning prepared the public mind for a dissolution. But it was not generally believed that Government would resort to this step until Lord PALMERSTON rose in his place, and announced the course he intended to pursue. The ensuing debate was extremely animated ; many of the leading Liberal Members indignantly disclaiming the imputation of faction which had been cast on them by the Premier. With this debate the interest of the session will, we imagine, close. Last night Mr. GLADSTONE'S resolution for the lower scale of the tea duties was negatived in a thin house by a majority of 29. The classification of parties published in all the division lists of the newspapers is very erroneous. A careful analysis of the majority shows that of the 263 members 203 were consistent Conservatives. The members who are usually associated with Mr. GLADSTONE num ber 11 4 . The Liberals and Whigs were 36; that number containing many of the most. eminent names of flu Liberal party, as regards talent, principle, and political influence. The Conservatives who voted with the Government were but thirteen in number, three of them joining the party of Mr. BENTlNCE—himself, and two followers. We believe that the chances of this gentleman being again returned for West Norfolk are extremely small, as many of the most influential members of that constituency have expressed unqualified disapproval of his conduct. One important question which stares us in the face at the present moment is, what we aro to do •with the Chinese difficulty pending the assembling of a new Parliament. The Premier talks veruely of sending out a plenipotentiary to Canton, and so far admits the justice of that vote which he stigmatised as factions. But this state of things can never be allowed to continue. If it were, a Ministry might always remain in power. They would have nothing to do but to accept each successive emendation of thei r p o li cy propose d by Parlia ment, and to continue in office "infamous and contented." But even Lord PALMERSTON'S Ad miuistrition his not, we hope. sunk so low SATURDAY, as this. The delay in sending out a plenipotentiary before the vote of the House of Commons was passed, and the readiness with which it has been proposed afterwards, almost seems as if the Government were willing to accept some such degrading office, and to remain in office as the servants-of•all-work of the House of Commons instead of their masters. The full details received this week of the status quo up to the middle of January before Canton, confirm our opinion, previously expressed, that we had by the bombardment of the city, and the burning of the suburbs, so goaded the Chinese into intense detesta tion and implacable malice against; us, that no atrocity appeared unjustifiable in their eyes to revenge the ravages and horrors we have inflicted upon them. An entire crew of eleven persons on board a packet-steamer brutally butchered by disguised " braves," and half the English of Hong Kong poisoned with arsenic in their morning rolls, is one result of this feeling ; and when we remember the power ful control the Tartar authorities have by means of their highly-disci plined secret police over the persons and property of the relatives of those Chinese resident in Hong Kong, Macao, or Singapore, and the vast stimulus by these means given to the commission of horrible crimes for the extermination of the English, we may well anticipate with some anxiety the intelligence of the ensuing mail. Hong Kong is positively under martial law, and so great is the fear of Sir Jon BowatNo of an attempt by the resident Chinese either to fire the city or massacre the English, that the patrol is authorised to shoot every Chinaman seen about the streets between sunset and sunrise. All Chinese boats are compelled to lie off shore all night, and every possi ble precaution the ingenuity of Sir JOHN BOWBING and his Attorney- General, or the skill of the naval officers on the spot can devise, is put. into operation to maintain the security of the town and our possessions of the island. Such are the first fruits of that policy towards the Chinese people and the Tartar Government which her Majesty's Ministers approve. Ono would think that nothing more would be desired to gratify the most insatiable thirst for mischief. But the war is no longer to be confined to the Canton province. Our entire trade is also suspended. The Government at Pekin, it is confidently reported, have published edicts, closing the five ports against our merchandise, and, by authorising its troops and squadrons to attack the English, have virtually declared war against us. Thus is that huge conception of mischief, fostered by the Government, and put into execution by Dr. BowalNu, expanding throughout the length and breadth of the Chinese Seas, and compelling us to the alternative of either undertaking a serious war with China upon a vast and expensive scale, or, as Lord. PALMERSTON intimated, the Government had suddenly come to the resolution on Thursday evening of dispatching a Plenipotentiary to patch up a peace. In the history of unjustifiable wars nothing is on record surpassing the late abominable transactions at Canton. Hostilities with Persia may, we presume, be considered at an end. A treaty of peace was signed on Tuesday afternoon between FERONIE KHAN and Lord COWLEY. It is a treaty hastily patched upon the face of an Eastern war, the most expensive and least satisfactory we have entered into for some years past. It would be, perhaps, premature to remark upon the terms of that treaty ; but the country may rest. assured that we have gained nothing by force of arms that we could. not have obtained by diplomacy—that we have established at Teheran upon a firmer footing than hitherto the supremacy of Russian influ ence, while we have opened the country to American enterprise. We trust, however, that the stipulations of this treaty will be found clear and concise. defining the limits of Persia and Affghanistan, securing the independence of Herat, and establishing our future relations upon a satisfactory ba-is, while the most exact specifications of everything necessary to render these stipulations effectual may not have been omitted. The first meeting at Paris of the Conferences appointed to arrange the affairs of Neufchatel may he regarded as a promise of the speedy and final settlement of this delicate question We regret that no part of this hope can be grounded upon the diplomatic skill or political ability of our resident ambassador, Lord COWLEY. The evacuation of Greece has been finally completed. The last detachment of the allied troops had left by the 2tith ult. The representations of Count BroL to the Court of Turin upon the abusive tone of the Piedmontese press, have, we are inclined to believe, received the influence of the united action of the French and English Cabinets. A favourable change of feeling between the two Courts may shortly be anticipated Count CAVOCR, assured that he can no longer count upon the support of Lord PALMERSTON'S Govern ment, will cease to offer a futile resistance to the pressure of the Court of Vienna. The Leading journal professes also to be the National journal, to abjure party, and to be actuated only by the purest motives. It is well known that self-laudation, steadily persisted in, will usually succeed in convincing the world of a man's excellence. And upon this rule the Times has acted. In the teeth of glaring contradictions and inconsistencies, it has succeeded purely by the force of impudence in persuading the country that it is the only independent paper. This once effected, the remaining part of the imposture becomes easy ; and purely fictitious accounts of the state of public feeling are foisted on its gaping admirers, who totally forget, even if they had ever wit enough to comprehend, its numerous and shameless tergiversations. When Lord PALMERSTON first came into office, the Times was for five or six months violently opposed to his Administration. Nothing he could do was right—nothing he could say was tolerable. Suddenly a change came over their spirit : Lord PALMERSTON was the man of the age. Nobody like the Bottle-holder! And pray what was the reason of this wondrous metamorphosis? Mr. --. 11 "BEIRT LOWE had been made Vice. President of the Board of Trade ! THE PRESS. 228