The Press. — London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

THE WEEK. THE elections are nearly over. As we write only nineteen returns are required to make up the entire House. Of the total 654 members, wo have before us the names of 635 who are returned. Of these 451 occupied seats in the late Parliament, and of their political opinions we can speak with tolerable certainty. The new members number 184, anl it is difficult to classify the whole of these with anything like accuracy. The following statement is as nearly correct as we can at the present time make it : OLD MEMBERS : CONSERVATIVER. MBERALS. Voted against Government on Mr. Cobden's motion Voted with Government on that motion Voted with Government on Mr. Cob- Coliden's motion lB6 Voted against Government on that motion Absent 3O Absent 213 NEW MEMBEnS : Conservatives Liberals 282 I 353 The positive loss to the Conservative party in England and Wales may be estimated at four borough and twenty-two county members ; and this loss will be partially balanced by gains in Ireland. On the probable effect of this change in the constitution of the House we have commented elsewhere. Of the fact of a considerable Liberal majority there can be no doubt ; and without ceasing to regret the loss the Conservatives have sustained, and without the least desire to make the best of a bad case, we hold to the opinion that while the Liberal party is predominant in the Legislature it is better that its predominance should be decided than uncertain, as with a large majority it must endeavour to give effect to its principles. To put this point in the plainest light. Suppose that out of the 654 Members of the House the Liberals had hut a bare majority—as 330—they would still retain power ; and under plea of the strength of the Opposition they had to contend with, they would keep in the background all those distinctive questions on which they relied for popular support, reserving them as a means of exciting agitation when their political influence began to wane. No such cunning policy can be followed if the Liberals number 400 out of the 654 Members of the House. The larger their majority, the more decisive is the test to which their honesty and capacity must be exposed. Their principles must now he put to the test of practice. They must be subjected to that severe scrutiny which any real attempt to bring them into positive operation necessarily entails. Will they stand this scrutiny? Will the professions of Liberalism show as well in bills on the table of Parliament as in professions on the hustings? We shall see. it is true that should the Liberals give effect to their professions, some measures may be passed very distasteful to Con servative sentiments. The evil is unavoidable. A Parliamentary majority must be presumed to express the sense of the country, and from that there can be no appeal. It is, on the whole, better that questions which have long existed as a source of discord, should be carried under vigorous protest from the minority than be reserved as the stock-in-trade of mercenary politicians and dishonest. agitators. We firmly believe that no means will be so effectual to rouse the Con servative feelings and instincts of the country, and to bring about a truly Conservative system of policy, as the predominance for a time of the distinctive principles of Liberalism. That state of parties is much the healthier which gives them alternate predominance, than that which keeps them in perpetual equilibrium. In estimating the character of the new members returned to Par liament, it is necessary to recollect that nothi►►g in politics is so difficult to calculate as the nature of an untried House of Commons. Fully one fourth of the whole House will be new, and the absence of a con stitu tional question on the hustings makes it impossible to reckon with certainty on the votes of several independent gentlemen who were not deeply committed in the last House of Commons. We cannot forget how soon the mighty majority fur Earl GREY, in the first Reformed Parliament, melted into nothing. We remember how the intervention of a Church question shivered into fragments the Ministerialists at a time whuh the Conservative party was apparently powerless. It has been said by a philosophical contemporary that " from the time when " Lord PALMERsToN, amidst applauding admirers, shall on the first day " of the next session walk up the floor of the House, his power will " gradually decline." The remark is likely to be verified. Re action must set in after the Palmerstonian movement. The Premier sits in a Cabinet where all the other members are merely " his appendages," and a month's knowledge of the House of Commons will probably disenchant many "Palmerstonians " of the notion that their idol has any legitimate pretensions to be accepted as "another Chatham." It may be said that " his majority will carry "him through." It remains to be seen whether a Palmerston policy will command the majority. Lord ROBERT GROsVENOR told his hearers at the Brentford hustings " not to suppose that all those gentlemen " who called themselves Palmerstonians were Liberals." The Noble Lord was right. It is only by the working of the House that its character can be really ascertained. It is authoritatively announced that Mr. E. DENISON, M.P. for North Notts, will be the Ministerial candidate for the Speaker's chair. Of Mr. DENISON the public knew very little until ho lately acquirel some notoriety as au amateur bell-caster. Had be been appointed 1- -C_~lrs~ LTHE PRESS. SATURDAY, superintendent, or keeper of " Big Ben," the fitness of the choice would have been universally recognised, as the bell is said to owe its lugubrious tone to his skill in mixing the metals of which it is com posed. He has never distinguished himself as an orator, and has never to our knowledge shown the slightest aptitude for Constitu tional or Parliamentary lore. ft is singular that his name was never thought of for the important post of Speaker until it was announced that Lo yd PALMERSTON'S choice had fallen on him. Then his peculiar merits were discovered—a portly person being enumerated as one great qualification. Without undervaluing any natural endowment, wo could understand this recommendation better if the officer to be chosen were a Mr. Bumble, whose person was required to show to advantage a richly-laced waistcoat and plush in expressibles. The Premier's choice is dictated by other considerations than either Mr. DENISON'S figure or his scientific acquirements. This gentleman was a member of the Canning connection, and for the last thirty years has faithfully adhered to Lord PALMERSTON. It is well known that Mr. CANNING and the late Duke of PORTLAND married sisters, the daughters and co-heiresses of General Scorr. Mr. DENISON married the third daughter of the Duke of PORTLAND, and his wife was, therefore, a neice of the late Viscountess CANNING. In the short Ministry of Mr. CANNING, Mr. DENISON was made a Lord of the Admi ralty, and he retained his post after Mr. CANNING'S death, until Lord PAL MERSTON withdrew from his post of Secretary-at-War in August, Im2B. Mr. DENISON resigned with the Noble Viscount, and has held no office since, though he has been constantly in Parliament. The Times, in enumerating the names of persons proposed to fill the Speaker's chair, objects to Mr. BAINES on the ground of his age. He is fifty eight. The late Speaker retired at sixty-three ; and should the next Speaker withdraw at the same age, the country would gain but five years' service from the Speaker in exchange for a peerage and pension. There is some force in this argument. But it applies to Mr. DENISON as well as to Mr. BAINES. The former gentleman. who is lauded as the fittest person that could be chosen, is fifty-seven. A hint is thrown out that Mr. BA:NES does not " carry his years well." If this is meant as an insinuation that he is not in excellent health, it is disposed of in a letter by Mr. BAINES, who asserts that he never was better in his life. The truth is, that Mr. BAINES is too pure a Whig to quite suit Lord PALMERSTON'S taste. Mr. DENISON is a Liberal after his own heart. He has always opposed the Ballot, and he absented himself from the division on Mr. LOCK E KING'S motion. From the manner in which the name of Mr. DENISON is put for ward, an impression is conveyed that the Speaker is chosen when Lord PALMERSTON'S choice is announced. It is possible that the Commons may think that they have a right to be consulted on so material a point,—and that they may decide that the member is best suited to fill the Chair who possesses the highest qualifications for the office, and who, from being more nearly in the prime of life, might be likely to occupy it longer than for the term of a single Parlia ment. If such reasons are to prevail in the selection of " Mr. Speaker," assuredly Mr. EVELYN DENISON will not be the man. The Austro Sardinian quarrel does not seem to mend. The animosities of the two States increase rather than diminish, and seeds are sowing which will probably soon be ripened into action. On the one hand we hear that Count Bum., when he dictated his last despatch, was inspired by high authority, that Count PAAR on his return had an interview with his Majesty the Emperor, and made such statements as to the feeling of the Court and Government of Turin as failed to decrease the irritation felt against Sardinia. On the other hand, Sardinia, in a conjuncture so critical, forms a camp of 20,000 men at Alessandria, and Austria replies by an order to strengthen the garrisons of Lombardy. This course of invetei ate opposition can only lead to one result, the old grudges will ripen into new hostilities, and the peace of Europe may once more be broken upon the plains of . Lombardy. Before reaching extremities there is in all such cases of official diffe rences—for there is little national feeling on either side—a medium which statesmen like Counts Bum. and CAVOUR intuitively perceive and should readily follow. The contest is less for territory than for influence in Italy. Austria, jealous of the position Sardinia attained by her services in the Crimea, is resolved to strip her of the influence she was gaining over the minds of Italians. The recall of Count PALS, and the contempt with which the explanations of Sardinia have been treated by the Court of Vienna, sufficiently illustrate this ; while the continued residence at Vienna of the Marquis of CANToNo goes far to prove that Sardinia, unsupported by France or England, is unwilling to push matters to extremity The alleged poisoning case at Hong Kong must, we imagine, be one of the first subjects to engage th e a tt en ti on o f th e ne w Parlia ment. There appears sufficient reason to b e li eve th a t th e b r ead which came from ALum's bakery really contained arsenic ; but if the design was to poison the whole community, it was most clumsily managed. It is supposed that a pound loaf of the bread must have been eaten to produce death ; and as sickness usually came on after eating a small quantity, suspicion was of course excited, and no one was made seriously ill. The charge against ALum himself completely failed. The most suspicious circumstance against him was that he had left for Macao on the morning when the poisoned bread was delivered ; but it was clearly shown that he had only left with his wife and children to place them in a position of safety; that he intended himself to return immediately ; and that he took some of the poisoned bread with him for the use of himself and family. It is proved that all partook of it freely, and that all were sick; whereupon ALUM, suspecting something was wrong at his bakery, determined to return at once, and offered the master of the boat fifty and afterwards ono hundred dollars to take him back immediately. He might NO