The Press. — London, England, 1853-08-13 00:00:00

~ ~ ■ . , 111 • , • It .: • \. di i . iv di g $ , ii ,II gi • : , . , . . . 1 LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1853. No. 15.—VoL. I. PRICE SIXPENCE. 1141 Vress. sion. One concerns our home, the other our foreign, interests. With respect to the first, the Leader of the House of Commons deemed it his duty one night to speak of the political spirit of the Roman Catholic priesthood in terms which history and our actual experience alike justify, and which became the Minister of a Pro testant Sovereign. Upon this, the three least esteemed members of the Administration — viz., Mr. KEOGH, and his attendants, Messrs. SADLEIit and MoNsxm.—have the impudence to throw up their offices, which they can no longer hold in connection with a Minister of such Protestant tendencies as Lord JOHN Rus sia'. What happens ? Are they permitted to retire to the obscurity which none of them ought ever to have quitted ? Quito the re verse. The Prime Minister, the same great statesman who so felicitously legislated for the Scotch Kirk, writes a letter to the recusants, declaring that he and " many " of his col leagues do not sympathise with the Protestant sentiments of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, entreating the Popish malcontents to return to his fold, and, with the authority of the Leader of the House of Commons, ()tiering an apologetieal explanation of the odious expressions. They return accordingly, and, to render the recon ciliation real and complete, Lord PALMBRISTON his subsequently never omitted, sa sossision to express the very sentiments► though in language more insolent, which were deemed so obnoxious in Lord JOHN RUSSELL. union of statesmen who on the cardinal points of domestic. or external policy hold oppo site opinions and maintain contrary systems ! And this ' is the conscientious and united Cabinet that is now to try its hand on the English constitution, in anticipation of whose • schemes BRIOUT yields his sullen support, and WILLIAMS, of Lambeth, his vestry rhe toric ; and to sanction whose projects the im pudence of BERNAL OSBORNE is choked with a golden plum, and the conceited pedantry of Motssworrn installed in the council chamber. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1853. ALTHOUGH the voice, or authority, of Queen VICTORIA has not yet prorogued her Parlia ment, the curtain has virtually fallen on the strange vicissitudes of its session. At the LORD ST. GERMANS AGAIN. THE NEW IRISH EDUCATION COMMIS- . SIONERS. Tux new appointments by Lord Sr. Gummi to the places vacated at the Irish National Board of Education record of themselves the , grievous loss sustained by the late resigns- . tions. In place of that famous scholar and divine, the Archbishop of DUBLIN, we find Dr. HuxuN, the Bishop of Limerick—a pre. late who does nut reside on the spot, and whose presence at the Board cannot, therefore, be regularly expected. In lieu Baron Ovum we have Conuniattionpr .. taollolllll3l, who cannot Otto anti this to education, when we see that the "Encumbered Estates Court" is worked so constantly that the health of Chief Commissioner RICHAZINI having given way, he has left for the south of France to recruit his powers. The nomina. tion of two commissioners like these, who must often be " absentees" from the meetings of the Board, is not very, creditable to the ad ministrative skill of Lord ST. !GERMANS. But the appointment of Mr. HATCHIELL in the place of Mr. 13LtocauHNE is so truly absurd, that for some time we refused to credit it. commencement of its career a coalition of Whigs, Peelites, Radicals, and Irish Papists, destroyed the Derby Government on the ground that, in a large scheme of financial reform, Ministers proposed to raise a sum, not amounting to a million sterling, by the extension of a tax unohjectionable in its principle, though hitherto too limited in its application. The Parliament then transferred its allegiance to a new Ministry, formed out of these heterogeneous sections, which not only proposed the old income tax without any mitigation, and with a large extension of its area, but saddled the settled capital of the eountry with a tax of two millions sterling per annum, a tan oppressive in its operettas, and false and injurious in its principle. The Par liament was greatly induced to sanction these measures—some of them highly unpopular in the country—by the prospects held out to them, at the same time, of a large reduction of the interest on the public debt by means of a showy financial project, which is already con signed to Limbo. The carrying new taxes, and especially of the old income tax in its odious form, is, then, the great feature of the session ; for no one will claim that character for the new Indian constitution. That strange arrangement was passed by a large majority amid universal condemnation. Whig and Tory, East India Directors, and East India Reformers, alike denounced it. But the infliction of new im• posts does not, at the first blush, appear to be a very sure source of strength and popularity. What, therefore, mainly attracts to the stan dard of Lord ABERDEEN the motley legions that gather round him ? It is his yielding to the peremptory condition of Sir JAMES GRA nAu that the existing Government shall make a new assault on the aristocratic constitution of this country. For a " large measure of " Parliamentary Reform " means that, or it means nothing. It means more power to the towns which have already an excess of power, anti more dominion to fluctuating masses of the population, or it is a mere place hunting cry, which latter even the not unequivocal career and the not unsullied conduct of Sir JAMES GRAHAM could hardly induce MS to credit. Whether the Aberdeen Administration may be able to agree on " a large measure of Par liamentary Reform"—whether, if they do, the country will accept this device of faction—are questions for the future. Let us see, now, whether the antecedents of the Coalition during their brief tenure of office have been such as to inspire us with much confidence in a sincere and sustained cordiality among themselves. There have boon tw•o significant incidents in relation to this point during the present sus- Let us now observe the influence of the principle of coalition on our foreign affairs. Bound to the Emperor of RUSSIA by ties of ancient, and perhaps unconstitutional, confi dence, and mixed up, from the first, with Orleanist intrigues, Lord ABERDEEN had no sooner acceded to power than our cordial un derstanding with France melted away. Whis pers to M. BacNow, and private letters to greater persons, conveyed unmistakably the axioms of the new Cabinet. What happened ? The Emperor of RUSSIA, assured of a combination of circumstances which he had long awaited, seeks one of those quarrels with Turkey which are always ready made at St. Petersburg. Lord ABERDEEN is sounded, and approves. The wise English statesman is even in the habit of declaring that the prolonged existence of the Turkish empire is in his mind a public evil. The overt conduct of Russia, long privately encouraged by the English Minister, begins to excite not only the attention, but the alarm, of his colleagues. There are two parties in the Cabinet. Whether the English fleet shall quit Malta—whether the invasion of Turkey shall be considered war by the Porte—whe ther we shall act cordially with France—whe ther we shall insist on the evacuation of the principalities—these are all questions of con troversy in the Coalition Government, and apparently on all of them the chief Minister has been virtually defeated. Peace is to be preserved by an union with that France which, only four months ago, Lord ABERDEEN spoke of with contempt, and ahnost with hatred. It is possible that peace may he preserved, though that is by no means certain ; but are six months of political and commercial agita tion no evil ? What millions have been lost, and what passions have been excited ! As for Turkey, even if her shaken frame survive the storm, she has been deprived of a quarter of a century of existence. And these are the deeds and consequences of coalition—of the Until Mr. HATOHELCK elevation to the office of a chief educator in Ireland we never suspected that Lord ST. GERMANS Wail a practical joker. Those who have heard the Viceroy attempt the part of an orator will readily believe that he could not have much as a wit ; but as practical jokes are within the powers of any man, from a GILBERT GURNEY to Lord ST. GEntaANK, and as fun is "racy of the soil" in Ireland, he has succeeded in amusing the Dub lin public by substituting Mr. HATOWILL for Mr. Ilt.AeasuasE. Of course the mote' of Mr. HATCHEI.L,any more than that of JOE Minium, cannot yet he forgotten by our readers. He was that admirably comical Attorney-General for Ireland who used to amuse parliamentary critics by his great industry in macadamising the English language. One night he con vulsed the Senate, during a discussion on Law Reform, by saying, " I am not here, Mr. Spaker, to mitigate the evils of the Coort of "Chancery in Ireland." To the Conservatives his rising to address the House was always a source of amusement ; while to the Liberals it was "th 3 signal for flight," according to our eontetni orary the Examiner. In plain words, he fell so kw in Parliament that be was an objeet of Sir .IAsiES GBAHAm's pity! " 1 " feel for him," said Sir, .1 AMES, in alluding to Va t s floundering style of the Irish barriste! . who, success