The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-21 00:00:00

THE WEEK. THE march of events is rapid. A fortnight ago we listened to the Premier's announcement that ho intended to dissolve Parliament. To-day, the House of Commons, which has lived four years, four months, and seventeen days, and played a part in events which will be remembered as long as British annals remain, will cease to exist. The biographer of this House would have a difficult part to per form. Its character is not easy to describe. • Its representative functions have overpowered all others, so that it might rather be described as manifesting the discordant sentiments of the whole community with strong individual ambitions, than as a body of states men animated by fixed principles, and intent on following settled lines of policy. The writs for the new Parliament are ready. Numbers of them will be issued after the dissolution to-day. The borough elections will be general at the close of next week, and in a fortnight we shall be enabled to form a shrewd guess at the constitution of the new Par liament. It is not likely from present appearances to differ materially from the expiring House. The most eminent Members will certainly be returned. We cannot call to mind one distinguished man who will retire, nor, on the other hand. do we hear of one new distinguished man likely to bo introduced. The party leaders, or " representative men," in this Parliament will be the party leaders in the next; they will retain that influence which their genius and experience give them, and they must mainly form the character of the new House •The established political reputations of our day have not yet begun to retire ; • the rising men, with few exceptions, have not yet assumed prominence. Local influence in the new Parliament will be adequately •represented ; more adequately, we are inclined to believe, than any other element. The metropolitan representation will substantially be unchanged. The vulgar influences of wealth and of hypocritical Itt;dical " cries" will conjointly or separately almost wholly usurp the representation of the world's metropolis. We are sorry to find that, in the city of Londun, not one Conservative candidate has yet come for ward to give the citizens who share his political sentiments the pleasure of recording their votes in his favour. One hard contest will bej in Manchester. Two Ministerialists are likely to contest the borough with two independent Liberals. If LowE and POTTER stand in opposition to GIBSON and BRIGHT, the struggle will he sharp. Generally the borough representation will be keenly contested, much more keenly than the county representation, in which, from the absence of any strong political excitement, the natural and legitimate influences of local position and connection will prevail. The week has not materially changed electoral prospects. The Palmerston cry is running down to zero, and the hopes of the Official Liberals are drooping with it. Some of the most acute begin to turn their eyes towards Lord JOHN RUSSELL. The Liberals, who . a week ago were ready to tear him to pieces, now treat' hint with respectful deference. He is likely to become the star of his • party once more, and:we should not he surprised were he returned for the City at the head'of the poll. The great popular demonstrations of the week have all been in the interest of the independent Liberals—on Monday, at Freemasons'-hall, when a vast assembly was addressed by Messrs. COBDEN and LAYARD—on Thursday, at Guildhall, an enthusiastic • meeting of the friends of Lord JOHN RUSSELL—at. Manchester, in the interest of Messrs. GIBSON and BRIGHT—and at 'Carlisle, when Sir JAMES GRAHAM delivered the most energetic and scathing address that ever fell from his lips. " It was remarkable as showing— ' first, that he has resolved to stand fast by Lord JOHN RUSSELL and the Whig reformers ; and, secondly, as affording evidence that the dissolu ' Con' was a scheme of the Official Liberals to overilelm independent opinion, and to secure Governmental power to themselves for the next generation. ,He noticed how immediately after the Premier had decided on dissolution he announced his intention of sending a Plenipotentiary to China. • The appointment was offered in the first place to the Duke of NEWCASTLE, as we stated last week, and then to Lord Etois. Had ! such a step been announced before the division on Mr.•COBDEN'ti motion, the motion, said Sir JAMES positively, would•have been with drawn or rejected. What, then, is the inference ? Why, that the vote . was a mere pretext for dissolution—that the step had been decided on previously—and- that it was, in fact, a conspiracy to secure for. Lord ti vr.uuTox and hi,: devoted followers a packed House of Ccmmons, which might raise their faction to absolute and permanent ascendancy. The representation of Carlisle is not yet settled, but the Treasury hacks must see that it is vain to attempt to crush a man like Sir JAMES GRAHAM. Does not/be intense anxiety of the Carlisle burgess, Mr. RAILTON, to " keep out the Tories," open the eyes of the public to some secrets The Liberal connection have held away too lorg for the welfare of the community, though not long . enough for the officials who in various degrees thrive by. their propinquity to the public purse. When Lord GitAxviu E next quotes THE PRESS in the Hone of . Lords, we hope he will halo the candour to quote it correctly. As the misrepresentations of the Noble Lord :tre niot'lileely• to deceive our 'readers, and tan interest no one else, we contpt ourselves with begging his Lordship to refer to our issue of 'March 7th, and parti- SATURDAY, cularly 'to that part' of our explanatory article, quoted by him at such length, in which we said " that we had reason to believe " that, the gross inaccuracy' of which Lord DERBY complained' " was to a great extent rectified in our second edition." This statement is widely different from the positive assertion Lord GRANVILLE repre sents us to have made. As our space is more valuable than by his Lordship's speech one would imagine the time of the House of Peers to be, we shall not waste it on a question completely disposed of by Lord DERBY'S emphatic exposure of the Coalition canard. The despatch from the French Envoy at Rome to the Govern ment of Paris, published in the Daily News of Thursday, assuming it to be genuine; is a really remarkable production; remarkable alike for the ability displayed in its composition and the unmistakeable purpose which has dictated it. We cannot doubt that this paper must be accepted as a manifesto of French policy in Italy. The object of the framer is to prove that Italian discontent is not produced by remove able evils. It is constantly urged, he says, that the government by priests in the Pontifical States is distasteful to the people. What is the truth? There are not more than one hundred ecclesiastics employed in government throughout the Roman States, though their number has sometimes been erroneously rated at 3,000. Aud where laymen have been substituted for priests the people have themselves petitioned for the restoration of the latter. The taxes are very light, not . being more than one half of what is paid in France. Credit is good, the notes of the bank of. the Pontifical States being now at par. There is little private misery, and the people flock with glee to the holiday spectacles and amusements. Government promotes beneficial public works, and a plan is even nOw on foot for draining the Campagna. Granting the truth of these premises, the writer very reasonably argues that the evil must be more deeply rooted than people generally suppose, and he fixes it in the national character of the Italians, who are unfit for constitutional government, and are rendered unhappy by examples of freedom which they are not capable of imitating. Previous to the great French Revolution, revenues flowed into Rome from a variety of foreign sources which kept the people untaxed and contented ; but, now that stream is dried up, what is to • be done to keep the people quiet? The Frenchman, of course, leaves us to answer the question for ourselves. But the permanent presence of French troops is clearly enough the answer ho intends to be given. Sardinia, we should state, is disposed of by the assertion that her people are not Italians. They are a mixture of French and Swiss, and no argument can be grounded upon their obvious adaptibility to the forms of con stitutional government. Now, it is hardly to be believed that the bold step would have been taken of composing such a manifesto as this, unless the French Government had felt tolerably certain of the dispo sition of the other European Powers. gust not France have had some ground for supposing that England would not interfere ? Does not this document lend additional weight to the assertion of DISRAEI.I at the opening of the present session ? We are not advocates for throwing the Continent into disorder. All we wish is, that the policy of this country should be candid and open ; and that in a matter of such vast importance the people should be kept informed of the conduct of their rulers. Another signal defect of the Treaty of Paris is coming to light. The conquest of Circassia has been resolved on by Russia. 100,000 men are now collected upon the frontier, and this spring a great com bined and unequalled effort will be made to bring this disastrous war of fifty years to a victorious conclusion. When the Treaty of Paris was concluded last April we called attention in THE PRESS of May 10, 1856, to the inevitable results of the omission of Lord CLARENDON to secure the freedom of the eastern coast of the Black Sea, the settlement of the boundaries of Russia in that quarter, the abandonment by Russia of her forts on the Circassian coast, and the independence of Circassia. We.pointed out that the complete conquest of Circassia would now be attempted by Russia, and that the great object of the war, the limita tion and repression of Russian aggrandisement against Turkey, was neglected precisely in that very quarter in which Russia could most easily extend, and we observed that, " as the war between Turkey and " Russia, which terminated in the Treaty of Adrianople, was caused " by the alleged. assistance given by Turkey to the Caucasian tribes, " a like cause may again 'produce a similar result." At this very moment Russia is preparing for the conquest of Circassia—a vessel loaded with stores and ammunition, and carrying a powerful body of Polish troops, has secretly sailed from Constantinople, and landed her • cargo upon • the, eastern coast of• the Black Sea ; and M. de BOUTENIEFF, the Russian Minister at Constantinople, has demanded explanations of the .Porte : so that we have here the ele ments of another serious dispute between Russia and • Turkey, pre cisely as we predicted ten months since.. No better proof.is wanting of the weakness of Lord CLARENDON, in thus handing over to Russia Circassia bound hand and foot. When Baron Barrow, at the COD ferenee, objected to Lord CLARENDON'S argument,' based' on the prin ciple of the neutralisation of the Black Sea, that Russia could• not re build her forts uppn the eastern coast, by setting up • the distinction between simple forts and military-maritime arsenals, Lord CLARENDON adjourned the point for future discussion, but, without ever resuming that discussion, he signed a treaty which sacrificed Circassia, endangered Turkey, and gave to Russia a vast field *for aggrandisement,* and a perpetual cause of dispute against Turkey. • The intelligence from- China confirms the telegraphic despatches of last week. Admiral SEYMOUR has been compelled to withdraw from Canton, first burning the •suburbs, and bombarding a portion of tho town. The detail given in the Chinese papers of these events, cruel and unnecessary because the pbsition was untenable, is on the whole THE 'PRESS: 276