The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1858 you involved in European implication that in any year you may have your taxes raised, and the demand for your labour destroyed, in pursuit of some phan tom in which your rulers persuade you that you are interested; and your own want of information un fortunately renders you easy victims to the delusions practised upon you. Not five years ago you rejoiced in peace, and there was a growing prosperity evident in every part of the country. Since that time we have sacrificed 40,000 English lives, and have spent 100000,0001- sterling in one short war. You were consenting parties to that war ; your comrades shed their blood in its worthless contest, and you have paid a portion of your day's labour and day's wages ever since to defray the cost of it, and your voice, so far as it was heard at all, was in favour of the war. What is gained by it? Who has gained except the military class and the eaters of taxes ? To working men these wars with Bassia, Persia, and China, bring only taxes, want of employment, precarious and diminished wages, and that pressure upon the means of living which urges them to look to emigration as a remedy for the evils they endure. And it is a remedy, and the only remedy, until great changes take place in public opinion and in the laws and policy of this country. If you emigrate you may reach a country where land is accessible to you, where there are no great hereditary proprietors, as in Scotland, who dare outrage Heaven and mankind by keeping 20,000, or 50,000, or 100,0(X) acres of land depopulated that a handful of men may enjoy the pleasures of the chase. You may flee to a land where laws of primogeniture and entail are unknown, or known only to be abhorred, and where the soil is left free to the industry and enterprize of the whole people. You may find a home where such destruc tive delusions as the balance of power ' are unheard of, and where the toil of the nation of which you become a part is not absorbed to the amount of fifty millions sterling a year to pay for wars that are past, and for preparations for wars that are to come. You may become a part of some youthful and growing pe .ple, with whom a feudal proprietorship of land, national debt, great armaments, oppressive taxes, and a sham representation, are but traditions of a melan choly past, tube studied only as rocks to be avoided in its new and more prosperous career. If Ido not see tow the Government can be called upon to provide the means of emigration, do not suppose I think emi gration unwise. On the contrary, I feel assured tbat, with the past and present policy of England, labour will find its best reward in Canada, in the States, or in Australia. I would prefer that Englishmen should stay at home, that our country should be well governed, that its foreign policy should be just and rational, that its burden of taxes should be light ; but, seeing small chance of such a state of things, I not only cannot blame, but I must applaud, the reso lution of every man who is determined by his Indus. try and his economy to provide the means of convey ing himself and his family to another, and, to him and them, a more happy country. Government can not enable you to emigrate. Many of you can, by severe effort and saving, obtain the means to cross the ocean ; to many, I fear, this is not possible. I can only hope, for them, that our countrymen may become wiser; and that, under the influences of a more sensible policy and a greater economy in the nati .nal expenditure, we may be entering on a period of prolonged peace, during which even the poorest, and most suffering of our population may make somo sure progress in the way of comfort and independ ence." CAPTAIN LEICESTER VERNON ON CHERBOURG. AT the annual meeting of the Royal Ilsley Cottagers' Society, held at Langley-hall, near Newbury, a few days since, Captain Leicester Vernon, in proposing the toast of the " Army and Ntivy," thus sketched our periodical fits of alarm :—He could assert, without fear of contradiction, that the united ser vices have always, however adverse the circum• stances, realized the expectations of their country. England ought to he proud of her army and navy, for they are second to none in the world. That being so, he would ask, how came it that the bold Britons were liable to periodical, he might almost say constitutional, fits of terror and alarm ? It was because the people were always conjugating the verb of self•alarm into every mood and tense. Their first bugbear was Russia, yet, after a two years' war her armies were destroyed, her FeTonghold ruined, her fleets imprisoned or sunk, her finances crippled, and her resources exhausted. That alarm passed, and then came the terror of French invasion, which, however, by dint of geography and by aint of his• tory was overcome. The first assured the people that England was still an island, and the second taught them that it was the habit of England to in vade France, and not France to invade England. They also recollected tbat they had once military occupation of Paris, and that no foreigner ever trod o n British ground except as a prisoner or a guest. No doubt London would be a capital plunder, but the question was, how to get it? When the Allied Sovereigns were in Lon fon, they were taken to the top of St. Paul's to see the panoramic view of the metropolis. Blucher accompanied them. " Fine sight, marshal," said an attendant. " Ya, ya," re plied the old Prussian, with his keen eye firmly fixed on Fleet-street, and the wealth of the world, " Ya, ye, it is a very fine sight, but what would it b. for one plunder !" The next alarm came from America, and there was " a difficulty " with Cousin Jonathan, which, however, passed away. Cousin Jonathan's red-hot politicians sometimes fired broad sid at us, but tho sensible mercantile part of his community took care not to have their guns dis charged against their best customer. Glory was a fine thing, but they saw no groat harm in the almighty dollar. All that was passed and gone ; they were now called upon to be frightened to death about Cherbourg, for that being finished the French have a famous ambush in which to hide a fleet. He remembered that Louis XIV. began Cherbourg, not the harbour, but the fortifications ; France had then Et fleet, but he recollected that it was destroyed by Russell and by Ruoke at the battle of La Hogue, which battle was fought so near her shore that a French army, intended for the invas;on of England, saw the destruction of the fleet. He also remem bered that in the reign of Louis XV. Cherbourg was besieged by the English ; it surrendered at discre tion, and there were twenty-seven ships of all sizes in the harbour, all of which were taken, and the batteries and forts were blown up. Louis XVI. re commenced the works and harbour of Cherbourg, and the French had a fleet there, but he recollected that a Rodney had destroyed it for them in the West Indies. Napoleon the Great carried on the works with vigour; the French had a fleet then, but it was destroyed by Nelson at the Nile and Trafalgar. The works were now finished under Napoleon 111., but he had not, as yet, any fleet to occupy it. They were, nevertheless, told to be alarmed: he confessed that he felt none. When he looked down the Eng lish list of seven or eight hundred men.of-war, and he saw it filled with scores of French names, lie saw what nation built the ships, and what nation took them. He concluded that what British sailors had done before, British sailors could do again. It was the fashion to say, " things are altered ; battles will now be fought by steam," but that was simply absurd. Battles would always be fought by men, and their bstties would be fought by Englishmen ; therefore, he felt no doubt or alarm as to the result. God forbid that there should be war either with France or America. The interests of commerce, the interests of humanity, the interests of civilization, and, above all, the interests of Christianity, were opposed to it. But, should such an unfortunate event take place, then with such an army and navy as they bad, England may say with the poet— The mind we lawny by and the head we bear, Thall never sagg with doubt, nor shake with fear. MR. HENLEY, M.P., AND COLONEL NORTH, M.P., ON " PROGRESS." THE annual meeting of the Theme Agricultural Association was held on the 17th inst., under the presidency of Mr. J. H. Ashurst, of Waterstock. In the afternoon a dinner took place, which was attended by the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P., Colonel North, M.P., Mr. T. T. Bernard, M.P., and a con. siderable number of the gentry and leading agricul turists of the district. Mr.HENLEY, M.P., in responding to the toast "The Members for the County of Oxford." which was enthusiastically druuk, spoke in eulogistic terms of the ploughing match and show. The right hon. gentleman then proceeded to define " progress " in its political sense. He said : There has been a great deal of talk within the last four years of what is commonly called " progress. " Now, in my opinion, the word progress is entirely a catch word. Everybody is calling out for progress, but before we endorse the cry, it is necessary that we should inquire what is meant by progress. Some mean by progress that Bill is to put Ihs hand into Jack's pocket and help himself, without leave or licence ; but it that is to be culled progress then I frankly confess that I am not friendly to anything of the kind. There are other persons who are for another kind of progress. They are always for keeping the ball rolling. They don't know or care whether it is to go back ward or forward, up hill or down hill, or whether when once put in motion it is to roll on until it reaches a place which cannot be named to ears polite, and which, there. fore, I will not mention now. In point of fact, they don't care where it goes sl long as they call it progress. Now, I tell you fairly that I am not for progress of that kind. But if people mean by progress that we are to give a patient and careful attention to all the various wants of society— complicated as those wants are in the different phases of society, and divided and split up as society itself is—if they mean by progress that we are to devote our best care and attention to questions affecting the general well-being of the people ; to destroy by every means in our power everything that we may see wrong, and to amend all imperfections, then I own that I am favourable to progress, and that I always have been. lam not now speaking 919 among strangers, but with men among whom I have lived during the whole of my active life, and I would appeal to any one whether any man ever came to me upon a public matter and pointed out an)thing amiss without finding me ready and willing to give him a helping band in obtaining amendment. I believe myself that we ought to carry on our public affairs on the same principle as we manage our private matters; but I never will put my foot forward, unless I know where I can safely put it. So long as I have my foot on firm and solid ground, I will keep it there until I know where to put it on firmer and better ground. But if any man will show me the firmer and better ground, then I should have no objection to go cordially with him. Colonel NORTH, who also acknowledged the com• pliment, expressed his full concurrence in all that had fallen from his right hon. friend, as he was, and always had been, for leaving things as they are unless they saw that by a change they would be improved. MR. EDMUND CONSTANTINE HENRY PHIPPS, attache to herMajesty'sMission at Mexico, has been appointed attaché at Berlin. THE Hort FRED. W. A. BRUCE, brother of his Ex cellency the Earl of Elgin, the bearer of the treaty between this country and the Emperor of China, arrived in town, on Saturday, from Marseilles and China. The hon. gentlemen, immediately after his arrival, waited on the Under-Secretary of State, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, M.P., at the Foreign office, and had an interview. A few hours later Mr. Bruce left town for Knowsley-park, Lancashire, to visit the Earl of Derby, who arrived there on Saturday from attendance on the Queen at Balmoral. fflttrapolitan. A MEETING OF SCIENTIFIC AND NAVAL GENTLE MEN was held at the offices of Mr. Wm. Rowett, of Leadenhall, to inspect a specimen of hemp cable which he has invented for deep-sea telegraphs, and which he contends is free from the objections that an iron cable is open to. He argues that, in the first place, a hemp cable could be payed out with the utmost ease, and would not be liable to accident from straining; because the hemp would give with the strain, while the strain would be confined to the cable itself, and would not extend to the electric wire which it contained. Moreover, when the strain or pressure ceased, a hemp cable would compress or contract itself, whereas when once an iron cable has been twisted or expanded, it never returns to its former condition. Besides, iron is far more liable to corrupt influences than hemp while submerged ; in• deed, experience proves that sea-water preserves roping where it corrodes or destroys metal, and that circumstance affords another strong reason for pre ferring hemp to iron in laying down deep-sea tele graphs. The sample produced weighs about half a ton to the mile, and in paying out, the strain upon it would be at the rate of 25 lbs. to the mile ; but Mr. Rowett explained that both the weight and specific gravity could be increased to any extent -another advantage which hemp has over iron. It could be so made as to require a day or a week to sink it, and eminent scientific authorities are of opinion that the Atlantic telegraph can only succeed with the aid of a cable so light and flexible that it will require some considerable time to elapse before it finds its level. An objection was raised that a hemp cable would be liable to perish from the influence of the water; but Mr. Rowett anticipates that eventuality by submitting his cable to a mineral preparation that enters into chemical combination with the fibres of the hemp, and renders it nermanently impervious to the actions of animalcules or other perishable influences. It has, moreover, the strong recommendation of economy. It could he laid down for 861. per mile, and foul weather would not impede its progress. Mr. Rowett expresses his willingness to lay down a cable to Newfoundland within four months from the present time, and to sink it without any assistance from Government or any foreign State. THE SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH has now been ex tended to the Foreign-office. The connection was completed on Friday evening week, and messages will now be received direct by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from the various British embas sies throughout Europe, and vice-versa. The Secre tary for India will also receive his despatches from the Governor-General at the India-house direct, a connection with that department being about to be established. THE SHERIFFS ELECT will be presented, according to immemorial custom, to the Barons of the Exche quer on Thursday, the 30th instant, when Mr. Baron Watson will preside. The state procession will, as last year, proceed to Westminster by land, leaving the Mansion-house about one o'clock. In the eve ning the sheriffs will give their inauguration dinner at Tallow Chandlers'-hall, Dowgate-hill, to which a distinguished and numerous party of guests have been invited. ST. MerraEw's DAY AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL WM duly celebrated, according to annual custom, on Tuesday. A