The Press. — London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 6, 1858. itself properly dates from 1834, when the Duke of WELLINGTON and Sir R. PEEL were joined by the D ike of RICHMOND, the Earl of DERBY (then Mr. Stanley), the Earl of RIPON, Lord GEORGE BENTINCK, and other distin guished persons. The great cry for Reform in 1830 and 1831 was stimulated by the unpar liamentary manner in which the Wellington Ministry had carried the " Catholic question." Let Conservatives observe that there is no such cry now, nor any decent pretext for it. Let them further observe that the present Ministry (unlike the Grey Cabinet) is essen tially onesided. It has a reckless and non descript Premier at its head, with a thoroughly Whig Cabinet and a great Radical tail behind it. Its policy is mere audacity, and its resources the chapter of accidents. Its pro ject of Reform must either ignominiously fail as a piece of legislation, or, if successful, viould be the certain prelude to social revolution. East India Company protest against the weakly lads which are now sent out to fight our battles ? Why, the climate of India to be sure. And yet the answer is, " Oh, you have " no reason to complain, for we sent no bet " ter"—where ? To the Peninsula. We do not at this moment remember whether logic is among the subjects for examination intro duced under the auspices of this shrewd old gentleman; but it is necessary that aspiring candidates should learn how to disguise a fal lacy a little better than this, if they are to be of any service either to themselves, their nephews, or their party. Thirdly, everything has been done to supply our artillery with horses. We say everything has not been done. No doubt Government is now applying itself to the solution of this difficulty. Lord PANMURE may not be stating a falsehood when he says we are now applying to Australia and to the Cape. But his lan guage is calculated to convey a very false im pression to the public. A Government which had any right to boast of having done every thing which the crisis required would not be applying to Australia and the Cape only now ; they would have done it six months ago. And why did they not? Hero we return again to the fundamental cause They did not com prehend the situation, and they wouldn't sub mit to be enlightened. Inquiry into their management has been shelved for the moment by the adroit manoeuvre of Sir DE LACY EVANS But their temporary immunity is purchased by a heavy addition to the general discontent of the public. What are we to do for recruits ? is now everywhere the cry. One measure seems imperatively necessary—that, namely, recommended by Lord DERBY—to cull out all the militia and send all the regulars to India. When that has been done it will be time to consider the best means of keeping up the supply. But that should obviously be the first step. The Emperor has never demanded more —nor would he be satisfied with less. A high legal authority here made the following observation upon the subject : If two persons in England conspire to ruin the credit cr character of an individual, they are amenable to punish ment. So it ought to be as regards foreign sovereign 4-... but with this exception, that, owing to the inconvenience of a foreign Government becoming the prosecutors, and being subject to being subptened at the demands of the defendants, the English Government should prosecute la the name of the Queen, as an offence committed against an ally ; and that after clear and satisfactory Proofs given, such conspirators, on conviction, shall be compelled to quit England. And here I feel called on to add, in the i n t erests of truth, that on the refugee question the great majority of the French nation is with the Emperor. I now come to a delicate subject—the attitude of the French army. I firmly believe, from all that I have seen or heard, greater importance has been attached to the addresses of certain French colonels than they merit. Soldiers are not public writers, nor are they diplomatists weighing each word. When they write, they write on the spur of the moment. The dastardly attack of the 11th took the army by surprise; it said that the attempt was to destroy the Imperial dynasty, and the army was desirous to show the miscreants that it was deter mined to support the Emperor and his dynasty, and to extremity if necessary. But of this be assured, that every soldier in the French army is most sincerely attached to his Crimean companions, and has not the remotest thought of offending any portion of the English na tion. I find the French Government has been blamed for publishing these addresses in the Mani teur, but ought not some allowance to be made for the peculiar position in which the Emperor was placed by the murderous demagogues now infesting several European States? Ought the Emperor to be blamed for proving to his subjects that the army was determined to support him and his dynasty, and by so doing insure the happiness and tranquillity of France ? Surely not. And it is the opinion of almost every Frenchman that thanks ought to be given to the Emperor for the publicity given to these addresses, as not only tending to distrm the mur derer, but to assure Europe that the assassin's hand, even if successful, would not disturb the repose of Europe. That the Emperor is sincerely attached to England cannot for a moment be doubted. Indeed, he shows it on all occasions. No one has taken a greater interest in the marriage of the Princess Royal than himself and the Empress. The presents to be given to the Royal bride formed the subjects for much deliberation between the Emperor and the Empress—the wish of both being that the gifts should not only be worthy the accept. aim of the Royal bride, but at the same time exhibit the affection and sincere attachment of their Majes ties. These presents, which were sent to England two days previous to the marriage, consisted in the portraits of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, admirably painted by the celebrated Mme. Laurent on the very finest porcelaine de Sevres; a magnifi cent corbeille, also of Sevres china, filled with the most tasteful and beautiful jewellery ; two albums containing the designs of tapestry now being menu- factored at the Ghobelins, and intended for two rooms in the Princess Royal's residence at Berlin; and, lastly, two extremely rich lace dresses—the one in point d'Alencon, the other, en point de Bruxelles. The Empress has lost one of her oldest friends, M. Gabriel Delessert, who for some time during the reign of Louis Philippe was Prefect of Police. The evening previous to the death of this truly virtuous man, the Empress having been in formed that his end was last approaching, imme diately left the Tuileries and repaired to the resi dence of the invalid at Passy. On entering the sick chamber she held out her hand to the dying veteran, and tried to comfort him. The poor old man recognised the Empress, his eyes brightened up, and, murmuring "Adieu, mon enfant, adieu— soyez benie, benie," died. I believe all the assassins have made a full con fession, in which several persons are seriously com promised. Both the Emperor and Empress are in the enjoy ment of good health. A gentleman, who reached Paris this morning from Naples, says that for the last fifteen years the weather has never been so rigorous as it now is in Sicily; that on the 30th of January all the fountains were frozen, that the orange trees had greatly suf fered, and that great fears were entertained that the olive trees would be destroyed. A letter received to-day from Berlin says that the publication of the Danubian Riverian Treaty had produced a very bad effect in the Prussian capital, and that it was generally considered as a direct pro vocation on the part of the Austrian Government towards those powers who had signed the Treaty of Paris. PANMURE'S "BEST." IT is a very comfortable thing to be an opti mist, or perhaps we should more fitly say a passimist—to believe that whatever is done, is, after all, done about as well as human infirmity permits of. There is always some body to find fault, it may be argued. There is always somebody who is interested in showing that somebody else is an impostor, and that he . could have done his work better. Not only is this a very comfortable, easy doctrine, befitting a people too busy over their private interests to give much time to their public ones, but it is an exceeding plausible one too. We are all fallible mortals. It is easy to be wise after the event. Who knows if the grumbler would have dongbetter than the person grumbled at if placed in the same situation? 'maize' F 'it. We cannot tell. What folly, then, to upbraid Governments with mismanagement or Ministers with inca pacity. This is a kind of argument to which, we candidly admit, there is no immediate reply All that any one who questions its validity can do is to point to the collective sense of mankind. They certainly act as if it was not true, whatever they may think. If John cleans the shoes badly, they try James ; if Molly burns the leg of mutton, they try Polly. They do not trouble themselves much about abstract theories of equality ; they simply look to facts, and in the light which these shed upon their troubles try to discover some conclusion. It is remarkable how some journals, which pride themselves on taking the common• sense view of affairs, have the courage to ignore this popular mode of proceeding. In treating of the conduct of our present Government, they rigidly deny the possibility of amendment in human trar.sactions. Here again, then, we can simply grapple with facts. Is the explanation wrung from Government relative to our supply of soldiers veracious in point of fact? Let us ascertain that, and we shall then have got all which the practical Englishman, poor fallible mortal, requires to justify his proceeding to action. Lord PANMIIRE tells us that we are sending out as many soldiers as are wanted, that they are of just as good a quality as were sent to WELLINOTON in the Peninsula, and that everything is being d►►ne that can be done to supply our troops in India with horses. Now, we will join issue with him upon these three points, merely premising that there is indirect falsehood as well as direct, and that in practi cal affairs its consequences are just as mis chievous. However, in the first instance, we meet the Noble Lord with a fiat denial. Fifteen hun dred men a week it the number demanded by our Indian army. Eight hundred a week is the rate at which recruits come in. Again. It is ♦ery easy to say that the men we send out to Sir COLIN CAMPBELL are just as good as those we sent out to Lord WELLING TON. The literal fact, indeed, we should be inclined to question ; for the sources from which our armies were recruited in those days furnished us with men of stalwart frames, though it might be of indifferent morals. But be that as it may, what is the reason why the jortign 6 orresponbentt. Paws, Feb. 4. THE four great French questions—the Public Safety Bill, the nomination of a Regent, the French refugees, and the attitude taken by certain militaty officers— appear to be much discussed in the London journals. It may not be inopportune to give you the opinions on these subjects of many enlightened Frenchmen, men who are not the decided partisans of the Emperor, who have refused to take office, but who at the same time would defend him, should the Imperial Throne be in danger. As to the Public Safety Bill, the opinion is, that England has no right to interfere with the internal regulations of another country, and that the principle of non-inter vention, so strongly manifested by all political parties in England, ought not to be departed from. Our English laws are made to suit the habits, customs., and necessities of Englishmen—the laws in France are equally adapted to the wants of Frenchmen ; it is therefore violating the fundamental principle of non intervention for either Frenchmen or Englishmen to attack such laws, and particularly in language tending to create disaffection amongst the people. A personal friend of the Orleans family said to me this morning :—" I do not approve these foreign attacks on the French Government. I am a lover of fair play ; and Englishmen, when they find fault with the laws now before the Legislative Assembly for preserving order in France, should remember that they have been forced to enact laws for Ireland of a most stringent nature, and which laws, I believe, are still in force, thou gh seldom put into execution." That there is great good sense in this remark must be acknowledged by every reasonable man, and I can add, from my own personal observation, that the great majority of the French nation is so tired of speculative legislation, that, without examining too deeply the laws for the maintenance of public safety, they approve of them as being the surest guarantee for securing the permanent tranquillity of the nation. As for the decree establishing a Regency, I need only state that the measure has met with general approbation, and the persons appointed to form the Council are, in the opinion of the public, an ex cellent guarantee for the continuation of the Napo leon dynasty. The refugee question, it is generally believed, has not been fairly discussed in England, and intentions have been attributed to the Emperor which he never contemplated. The Emperor requires from England that sovereigns should have the same protection from the laws as is given to the lowest individuals. 1 3 r!'