The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-30 00:00:00

532 THE WEEK. TRE week has comprised varied events. Her Majesty's birthday, the Derby, the debates in both Houses on questions of considerable moment, the conclusion of the Neufchatel dispute, and the anticipated arrival this afternoon at Osborne of the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE, are incidents which have attracted, and continue to attract, public interest and attention. The thirty-eighth birthday of her Majesty the Queen was marked by the ceremonies usual upon that auspicious day, which was kept as a public holiday, and, between the inspec tion of the Guards, the review at Aldershott, and the evening's un usually brilliant illuminations, the London public hal sufficient I o amuse them consistent with the full enjoyment of the Darby the day after. Of the proceedings in Parliament, the passage through the Lords of the Divorce Bill was charanterised on Monday night by the defeat of Lord LYNDHURST'S well-meant intention to place the wife upon an equality with the husband as regards the facility of obtaining a divorce, by the rejection of the clause enabling divorced persons to remarry, and by Lord Sr. LtoNattn's carrying a useful amendment, to protect women who have become possessed of property after being deserted by their husbands. On Thursday, the principal point in the debate was the action for vim. con.; and the question was ultimately settled by a compromise between the two propositions of Lord LYND BURST and Lord ST LEONARD'S—abolishing the civil action, and conqi tuting adultery with a married woman a tuisdemeanour. The effect of this enactment will be to put an end to discreditable actions at law ; but how far the Commons will be disposed to adopt so reasonable a proposal remains to he seen. In the Commons, the Bill for the Allowance and Annuity of the Princess Royal has provoked on the part of a few Members some discreditable objections. If Messrs. ROEBUCK, CONINGHAM, and MAGUIRE wish to prove their zeal in the cause of economy, they need not look far for an opportunity. In another page of our journal will be found au exposure of flagrant mis management and extravagance. Let them put their shoulder to Vie wheel here, and they will deserve the gratitude of the public. We are glad that Mr. Bowvea had the good sense last night to with draw his motion for depriving the Princess Royal of her annuity should she ever become the Queen of Prussia. We have no doubt the oJuntry generally will respond to the sentiments expressed by Mr. DISRAELI on the unfortunate results of the surrender of the hereditary revenues of the Crown. The Army Estimates, on Monday night, gave the Premier an opportunity to help them through the House by proposing them in person, and extracted from Lord JOHN RUSSELL a remarkable declara tion against the alarming extravagance of the Liberal Governments. Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S motion for the reconstitution of the Admiralty was rejected, as everyone foresaw; but the anomaly of a civilian ad ministering the affairs of one great arm of the national defences, in tie principles and domestic economy of which he is utterly unin structed, was not satisfactorily explained by Mr. BERNAL OSBORNE or Sir CHARLES WOOD. An essential qualification for high office in a special department, is a knowledge of principles and an intimate acquaintance with details. Who will be bold enough to say that the present First Lord possesses either? The debate upon Brazil, on Thursday night, introduced a question which, though it cannot be settled at once, must sooner or later be submitted to the decision of Parliament. The rebuke administered by Lord PALMERSTON to Mr. ROEBUCK was singularly ill-timed, pre facing a detailed statement of the Act of 1845, just subsequent to the Canton bombardment, and within easy recollection of the dismissal of Sir W. CRAMFrON. Our policy towards Brazil in this matter of the Slave Trade has been altogether exceptional, and is distinct from that we have thought it proper to exercise towards the United States. We trust that the suspension of the Act of '45 will speedily be followed by the establishment of a less overbearing policy towards this weak State. The signature of the Treaty which terminates that tedious and troublesome Neufchatel quarrel has been received with satisfaction by Europe. The blunder of Lord CLARENDON, who in December, 1852, omitted upon the re-establishment of the French Empire to obtain from the King of PRUSSIA the acceptation of the Protocol signed in London in the previous May, is to some extent rectified; and the Plenipotentiaries have at length been landed out of the mire in which they have so long and so helplessly floundered. A few days since we described Mr. H. A. HERBERT, M.P. for Kerry, as " a respectable country gentleman of moderate opinions, " considerable Parliamentary experience, and competent fairly for the " office of Irish Chief-Secretary." We are glad, therefore, to see that Lord PALMERSTON has nominated Mr. HERBERT, for (although we may be deceived iu this respect) we do hope that Mr. HERBERT will make some effort to obtain fair consideration for the Protestant. claimants to official promotion in Ireland. We trust that the new Chief• Secretary will not lend himself to the vicious routine under which Roman Catholic barristers, who never held a special retainer, are promoted over the heads of the eminent Protestant practitioners at Dublin. Nobody better knows than Mr. HERBERT that the leading advocates of the Irish Bar are Protestants; and we hope that he will make the attempt to reform the pernicious system of pro-Catholic favouritism, which has been acted on for so long a time in Dublin. if Mr. HERBERT does not make any step in the right direction, we shall be much disappointed. Let him observe how high legal offices are conferred in England without THE PRESS. SATURDAY, regard to the creed or the country of the candidate. Mr. Baron MARTIN, Mr. Justice IVILLES, Commissioners PHILLIPS and MURPHY, and the new Solicitor-General are all Mr. HERBERT'S countrymen. The certificates of priests and adhesion to the creeu of Rome are not demanded as credentials for preferment in English legal appointments. It ig to be hoped that the new Solicitor-General will prove more fortunate than the last. Mr. KEATING is a respectable practitioner, favourably known on the Oxford Circuit. His friends, of whom the Honourable and Learned Gentleman seems to have many, speak of his personal character in highly favourable terms. In the House of Commons, however, the new Solicitor-General has been not much above a mediocrity. He could not be put on a level with Mr. CAIRNS or Mr. MALINS. He appears to be deficient either in vigour of will or in political knowledge. In one or two instances (which we could cite) the new Solicitor positively failed in the House of Commons, and we confess that we do not expect much from him as a legislator; but we are perfectly ready to judge by the results. Mr. KEATING is an Irishman who has received the reward of his talents and industry in England. When shall we hear of gen. tlemen like Mr. FRANCIS FITZGERALD, Mr. NAPIER, Mr. BREWSTER, Mr. WIIITESIDE, and other distinguished Irish Protestant barristers, obtain ing fair play from the clique of jobbers who misemploy the Queen's patronage at Dublin Castle ? The Temperance men, fortifiel by the presence of a Maine Liquor Law champion, the Hon. NEAL Dow, have determined to push their principles down our throats during the hot months. We are to have lectures, and addresses, and public meetings, and preachings, and we are all to be convinced and converted, willy fully, that sherry and champagne, claret, hock, Burgundy, or beer, are not to be com pared to pure pump-water. We fear that the hot weather will be much against the whining and whimpering of these well-meaning enthusiasts, and we venture to warn the honourable gentleman from the other side of the Atlantic, that he will fail to carry a Maine Liquor Law in this country. We don't want it, and we won't have it. English society is every day becoming more temperate in the use of strong drinks, and as the influence of education and instruction extends, drunkenness among the lower orders will decrease. The principle of the Maine Law is a mistake. Putting a prohibition upon any article of consump►ion is the very mode to stimulate the demand. It is moral influence alone which will effect the desired result. Besides, the old error of confounding use with abuse is now so fully understood, that it is rather a ►natter of surprise any body of respect able men, even with pump water on the brain, can venture boldly to reproduce it to the British public. The fact is, the Temperance cry is one of the canting cries of the age. Why are we not to drink a glass of sherry or pale ale, because if we drink too many we shall get drunk? Where is the principle to end? Carried to its full length, with quite as little logic and as much folly, we might be forbade mutton and beef, all the fish, flesh, and fowl of creation, and be limited to pump-water and potatoes under special sumptuary laws. In drinking and in eating, the point of sufficiency is left to our discretion, but it would be a piece of monstrous injustice, on the possibility existing that we might gorge ourselves with the entrées or the piece de resistance, or fill our skin to bursting with good wine, that we should be called upon never to touch either, in order to avoid the evils of both. It is a piece of sheer cant, and although many of the Temperance people are no doubt well-meaning persons, their arguments are quite as weak, and not half so palatable, as their pump-water. The proposed Educational Conference to take place on the 22nd of next month may, perhaps, become an era in the improvement of the working classes—not less memorable than the establishment of Sunday-schools. It may, on the other hand, be destined only to swell the already large number of educational failures. It rests with the committee of noblemen and gentlemen who have consented to act as managers to determine which of these shall be the result. Previous movements have failed from their promoters not sufficiently recognising the fact that the parents of poor children are men and women with strong predilections and antipathies—a strong love of inde pendence, and an obstinate dislike to being " driven " in any direction whatever. Add to these causes the value of the labour sub tracted from the common stock by the child's attendance at school, and we can at once form some idea of the formidable nature of the obstacles to be encountered by the coming Reformers. Industrial education seems to be the only plan calculated to meet these difficul ties. We are quite cermin that some obvious and immediate advan tage must be set before the eyes of the parents before they will consent to part with their children's services. But even when that is done, and the co-operation of the parents secured, we have still another class to deal with. These are the employers. Boy-labour is exceedingly profitable, and more is got out of a boy than out of a man in proportion to his wages. It is impossible to dictate to the employers. Their opposition is an evil which it must be left to time end the spread of higher notions to cure. And here we are led to observe, that if there is one thing more than another which will render worthless all the disinterested benevolence shown by the originators of the Conference, it will be the slightest appear• anee of a dictatorial tone, or the slightest indication of a wish to enforce a uniform and centralised system. Be it for good or be it for evil, this is what. the English people has invariably refused to submit to, and the bare mention of which makes them set up their backs against any scheme with true Saxon doggedness. A 3 Sir Jot" PAKINGTON has given notice that he will bring the whole subject of Education before the House on the 11th of next month, we propose to renew the subject on that occasion.