The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

194 carry about with them a bait the poor animals cannot resist. They are led, against their will, by their nose. They have a perception of the infamy of their capture, but they cannot resist the lure. They prick their ears at the sound of their master's whistle, but not even his well-known tones can tear the baser sort from the thraldom which holds them. This system is sure to meet with a speedy and disastrous end, because it is degrading to the character of the Legislature, and a,ubver sive of the great ends for which Parliamen tary Representation exists. It is no more possible to maintain the Administration of Lord PALMERSTON than to keep a sieve full of water, or to chain the winds, or perform any other impossible feat. Its existence involves principles of antagonism which must destroy it. It is one of those monstrous births of accidental circumstances which offend against the organisation of nature. To attempt to prolong its life from any notions of fancied convenience would be a crime. It can exist only as a nuisance. It putrifies while it lives. In all the departments of Administration since the commencement of the session there has been a total absence of the candour which was once thought characteristic of the highest class of English officials. Every Minister seems to have taken his cue from the Premier. Facts are denied until evidence is at hand to refute the denial, and then come reluctant and partial admissions, the force of which is attempted to be weakened by the most tor tuous and disingenuous misrepresentations. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER brought forward a budget which he attempted to im pose on the House as a faithful exposition of our financial state. Questioned closely on certain details, he was compelled to make a supplementary and entirely different state ment of the manner in which the deficiency of future years was to be met ; and, after all, he left the House and the country in a complete maze whether an equilibrium between income and expenditure was to be effected by a reduction of estimates, or an increase of taxa tion, or the repudiation of existing financial obligations, or the contraction of fresh debt. His second statement was like the ending of " Rasselas." It was an explanation in which nothing was explained. The duplicity of the India Board is, if pos sible, more glaring still. It is very important that the Legislature should know whether the expedition to the Persian Gulf, involving, of course, war with Persia, was or was not resolved on while the Parliament was sitting last ses sion. If the intention existed while the Minis ter hail the opportunity of communicating with Parliament, he committed a scandalous breach of trust, and threw contempt on the representative assembly of the empire, in refusing to communicate to it circumstances of the highest and gravest national import. Now, let us look at the manner in which the Government has endeavoured to evade inquiry on this momentous point. On Thursday in last week, Mr. GLADSTONE extorted with diffi culty from Mr. VERNON SMITH a statement that the instructions for sending a military and naval force into the Persian Gulf were dated the 26tli of December last, four mouths after Parliament had been prorogued. Mr. BAILLIE bad reason to be dissatisfied with this state ment. He rose, and by questions, which it was impossiLle to evade, put it to the Right Honourable President of the Board of Control whether those instructions had not been sent in July last; and whether they had not reached Bombay on the 20th of August; and whether transports had not been taken up, and other preparations made, on receipt of such instruc tions. Thus challenged, the President of the Board of Control, who had been willing to shelter himself under equivocation, shrank from direct falsehood. The acknowledgment was wrung from his lips that instructions had been sent out in July, but he endeavoured to destroy the force of this admission by adding that those orders were provisional, and that rtiftsai instructions we re not sent out until ir k ,t hl In fact, the decree for the invasion Persia consisted of a regulated series of in. 4truc *OBS ; and Mr. VERNON SMITH would 44. 001/6 us that the " Make ready—Present " formed no part of the direction, • -. 0 7 , ", - i 4 . 7 'lttrinetri4o' ugi V ~( mac THE PRESS. " Fire," in December, because in order of time one command preceded the other. So systematic has the practice of deceit become, that not even the simple Secretary of the Colonies can be brought to answer a plain question in a straightforward manner. On the same evening that the President of the Board of Control was brought to bay, Mr. LABOU CEIERE, in reply to Lord CLAUD HAMILTON, stated that no instructions superseding those of Earl GREY in Nov., 1847, expressly for bidding hostilities against China without pre vious communication with the Home Govern ment, had been sent to the Governer of Hong Kong. Many who heard the denial of the Colonial Secretary knew that it was incorrect, and the following day Mr. Lawn:Timm was compelled to acknowledge the error of his statement. Fresh instructions had been sent out to Sir JOHN BOWRING, "and therefore," said the Secretary of State, " the answer I gave "was not completely and literally accurate." The Admiralty is not behind other depart ments of the Government in attempting to conceal facts of public importance. The First Lord, when questioned as to the condition in which the Meyara troop-ship was sent to sea, first prevaricated, and then, finding that his statements were confuted by facts, endea voured by ribald nonsense, and double en tendres, to distract the attention of the House from the case before it. Like master, like man. The colleagues of the Premier aspire to follow his bright exam ple, and seem to think they admirably cover his retreat by emulating his discomfiture. After his exposure in the House of Commons, the last nail has been driven into his coffin by the friendly Constitutionnel, which, admit ting all the main facts alleged by Mr. DISRAELI vainly attempts to cast discredit on his un impeachable statements by drawing from them erroneous conclusions. Our Paris contem porary must be grossly misinformed if it does not know that the secret treaty was not con tingent on Austria engaging in hostilities against Russia. That treaty was intended to secure the Italian possessions of Austria from disturbance so long as the prospect of danger existed. Effect was given to its provisions; they answered their end ; they relieved the Governments of the Italian peninsula from all fear of insurrectionary movements; and they secured to Austria that ascendancy in Italy which the Court of Piedmont fondly hoped it had taken effect ml means to destroy when it engaged in alliance with the Western Powers. How shall we account for this duplicity—so discreditable to the Government, and so dis honouring to the national character—per vading every department of the Administra tion? Was it ever known before that the Ministers of the Crown systematically replied to every demand for information by false or evasive answers ? NAPOLEON, when he de signed to paint one of his great adversaries in the most odious colours as a compound of treachery and weakness, stigmatised him as a Greek of the Lower Empire. In the Admi nistration of Lord PALMERSTON there is a com pound of the qualities which marked the de generate statesmen of the Byzantine Court. Falsehood is invariably a mark of weakness, and by the present Ministers it appears to be employed about equally to hide designs that will not bear the light of day, and to conceal acts they dare not justify. LORD PALMERSTON IN A NEW PART. THE world has seen Lord PALMERSTON in many characters—Tory, Whig, Liberal, Coalitionist, and now Whig again. Whoever else might come uppermost, he has contrived to float on the surface of affairs so long as almost to have gained the sanctity of a venerable abuse. It would appear, however, that even the Protean Viscount must feel himself near the end of his stock of tricks when he is driven to assume the shape and title of the Protestant Premier. We do not for a moment nraan that he has not just as good a claim to the character of a Protestant as to the character of a Liberal—that his religion is not every bit SATURDAY, as genuine as his polities ; but we think it betokens something like desperation in so wary a strategist as his Lordship to assume pretensions which are contradicted by his words and actions of but yesterday—which it requires no ransacking of past debates, no adroit revival of some unlucky phrase, no laborious collection of evidence, to expose— which carry their absurdity on their face, and to be believed necessitate the belief of something harder still—that PALMERSTON has been converted by the "Saints," instead of the "Saints" being duped by PALMERSTON. Setting aside just now the possibility of his Lordship's conversion to anything whatever as being a vague speculation and beyond the scope of practical arguments, let us glance at his re cent conduct, in return for which acertain sec tion of politicians have lately bestowed on him so touching a mark of their confidence. We have not far to go. No longer back than last Thursday week his Lordship declared his sen timents on the repeal of the Maynooth Grant in the following terms : . We were told, and I had hoped, that when the Catholic Emancipation Act was carried we should hear no more of these theological and religious debates, and that we should know nothing of the religion of any member unless we fol- lowed him to his place of worship on a Sunday. The Noble Viscount has taken to theology rather late in life, or he would have known that such is by no means the essence of that Protestantism of which he is now hailed as the champion. In another place he defiantly avows that "he cares not what people's reli " gious opinions may be ;" and, to crown all, we find that he has " that confidence in the " people and PRIESTHOOD of Ireland that " he does not fear their loyalty will be impaired "by their errors." This is strong language for an enthusiastic Protestant, and is unquestion ably the most truly liberal sentiment which his Lordship has lately uttered. It appears that a long course of saying one thing and meaning another has by this time relieved the Chief of the Liberals from all responsibility for his language, and that hon. members attach no value whatever to his mere verbal declara tions. It seems strange, however, that tile religious party which especially abhors "mental reservations," and the use of words in " a non-natural sense," should select for their champion one who is such an adept at both. Perhaps, however, the Protestant party would tell us that. we must interpret his words by his actions, and that, though the former sound in one place Erastian and in another Papistical, yet there was in reality no deception, because Lord PALMERSTON had already published his Protestantism to the world in an unmistakeable manner by the appointment of four Evangelical bishops. Unfortunately, however, it so happens that each one of these gentlemen, though we are far from depreciating the purity of his religious convictions, is also eminently distinguished for the propagation of Whig in fluence and the possession of powerful Whig connections. The Bishop of CARLISLE is the close relative of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The Bishop of GLOUCESTER is the brother of an hon. baronet, one of the staunchest supporters of the old Whin. connection. Of the Bishop of RIPON'S antecedents it is need less to speak,—the family of Lord LANGDALE is well known for its Whiggism ; while the activity of the Metropolitan in spreading his political creed is notorious to all the world. Still more unfortunate for such disputants is the fact that there are in the Church of Eng land at this moment divines not less conspi cuous for their Evangelical principles than Drs. TAIT, BICHERSTETH, BARING, and VILLIERS, while thty are as much superior to these in ability and learning as they are inferior in poli tical zeal. These, however, Lord PALNIERSTON did not make bishops. We must leave our readers to draw the conclusion and determine whether, in these appointments, it was the learning or the Whiggery of the candidates by which the Premier was most actuated — whether he was most desirous to strengthen Protestantism by the elevation of its ablest champions, or to encourage his party by the reward of political adheres t Were these facts all the data we had upon the subject, we should still doubt whether the Evangelical party was right in deeming them so significant as to give Lord PALMERSTON a claim to their support. But road in the light of