The Press. — London, England, 1858-06-19 00:00:00

590 The present house consists of 60 members, returned by 37 constituencies. Among these there is great inequality of representation,—Colne, with its 793 inhabitants, re• turnieg one member ; Portland, with 2,700, returning two members ; while Talbot, with 37,000 people, returns only two. Other inequalities prevail, out not of so exaggerated a kind. The present schedule proposes 38 districts, re turning 80 members ; and the principles on which it is constructed, as explained by its author, are these :-1. It is framed on the basis of population—i.e., the average num ber of people to a member beige about 4 500, that number has been kept in view in resigning the number of members to each district. Thus, St. Kilda, with 14,207 people, will have three members—ayer,ige to one member, 4,735. Beechwortb, with 4,602 people, has one member. The Ovens, with 9,257 people, nas two members—average, 4,628. 2. Out this cannot well be carried out where the country is very thinly peopled; an I, therefore, Gipps land, which is about nine times as large as the districts of West Boulka, Hest Bourke, and South Itourke, put toge• ther, will have one member, though its whole population is only 3,595. 3. Another principle kept in view has been not to change the divisions of the districte, which divisions have been fixed for registration and voting purposes. Thus, the ald districts were subd.s bled into ninety-nine divisions. These are not altered in the new schedule, but are merely regrouped into new e'ectoral districts. 4. Actual disfran chisement, by merging small districts into larger, has been resorted to as sparingly as possible. Thus, where, as in the case of the Murray boroughs, they are made to merge in the Murray district, two members are returned, though the total population is only 5,800, because, under the old distribution, they enjoyed three members. The result is that the new schedule departs from the population basis in only a few iestancee, theslight over-representation of a few districts of great territorial extent being attained by a slight underrepresentation of the large towns. 6lettion `ntelligtittr. EAST NORFnLK.—Sir Henry Stracey, of Rack heath•hall, near Norwich, is the Conservative candi date for the seat for Ea-t Norfolk rendered vacant by the death of Sir E. N. Buxton, the late *Liberal memtier. Sir Henry Stracey, in an address issued on the Bth of May, announced his intention of offer ing himself as a Conservative cand'elate for the division or the first opportunity. On the llth instant Sir Henry's " opportunity" offered itself, and on the following day he issued his address TO THE ELECTORS OF FAST NORFOLK. Gentlemen,—A vacancy in the representation of your division having occurred, owing, to the much-regret'ed death of Sir Edward Buxton, and having recently an nounced my intention to offer myself as a candidate, it becomes my duty to relueat the favour of your vote end interest. Haring already been your representative in Parliament, my political views would probably be known to you. I may add, however, that it is my wish and intention if re turued to support Lord Derby's Government, believing that there is no statesman of the present day of greater administrative ability, nor any truer patriot, than his lord. ship, and that the measures which his Government will prolace will he not only for the social benefit of the people, bat for the honour and general welfare of this country. The declaration I lately made has been so numerously and so warmly responded to that I can entertain no fears of a successful result. —I have the honour to be, brother electors, your obedient humble servant, Rackheath•hall, June 12. HILNItY J. STRACEY. The Hon. Wenman Coke, brother of the Earl of Leicester, will be the Liberal candidate for East Norfolk. He has issued an address stating that his political principles are the same as those of his father. It is understood that the contest will be a close one. THE OXFORD COMMEMORATION. THE University festivities came to a conclusion on Wednesday last. At a quarter before ten o'clock on that morning the doors of the theatre were thrown open to the Undergraduates, and the usual scenes were enacted. The names which met with most applause were those of the Chancellor, :he Queen, the Princess Frederick William, and the Bishop of Oxford. Lord Palmerston, Lord J. Russell, Lord Shaftesbury (whose name called forth allusions to phylacteries), and Mr. Gladstone, gave rise to ex pressions of divided sympathy. The Record and Dr. Pusey, too, elicited, as usual, mingled cheers and hisses ; and the ladies of every shade of com plexion and every hue of dress were a perpetual occasion of noisy demonstrations of gallantry. Among the candidates for degrees General Inglis was the most loudly cheered. Lord Stratford de Radcliffe and Mr. Justice Halliburton also met with a most cordial reception. The Crewiun oration, as it is termed from its founder, was read by Mr. Matthew Arnold ; but, un• fortunately, he was unable to make himself heard. The Latin verse upon Lacus Asphaltites, by Mr. J. H. Warner, of Balliol, and the Latin essay by Mr. W. W. Merry, of the same college, upon the removal of the seat of Empire to Byzantium by Constantine, were no unfavourable specimens of the Latin scholarship of Oxford ; while the English essay by Mr. L. Morris, 8.A., Jesus College, showed consider. THE PRESS, Jr NE 19, 1858. able thought as well as command of language. The Newdigate English Verse Prize, by Mr. F. L. Latham, scholar, Balliol, upon the discovery of the North West Passage, was received with considerable applause, as was the Gaisford Prize, a Greek transla• ticn from that inimitable scene in Henry IV. where Falstaff adopts King Cambyses' vein. This, which was an admirable rendering of the original, was effectively recited by the author, Mr. R Broughton, scholar of Balliol, and brought the business of the morning to a successful termination. DEATH OF THE LORD JUSTICE CLERK. THE Right Hon. John Hop,, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, died at his residence, in Moray-place, Edinburgh, at half-past eleven o'clock on Monday evening. His lordship had felt poorly for some days, and on Saturday had gone to visit his country seat in Ayrshire, returning on Monday. He had just finished writing in the evening a letter to Mrs. Hope announcing his safe return, when he was seized with a shock of paralysis, after which he never recovered consciousness, and expired in a few hours. The learned lord was the eldest son of the late Right Hon. Charles Hope, of Granton, Lord President of the Court of Session, and was connected through both pirents with the Hopetoun familj. He was born at Edinburgh in 1794, and passed the Scottish bar in 1816. For a series of years he filled the honorary position of Dean of the Faculty of Advocates; and in 1841, when h's father retired, and the late Right Hon. David Boyle was appointed to the conjoined offices of Lord President and Lord Justice General, he was chosen as Lord Justice Clerk. In that impor tant judicial office he presided over the second divi sion of the Civil Court, and practically had the leading part in the ditties of the Justiciary Bunch, having presided at nearly all the trials of imdortance that have taken place in the High Ci4urt of Justiciary for the last seventeen years, as well as taken his share in the business of the Circuit Courts. On the meeting of the Court of Session on Tuesday morning the intelligence of his lordship's death produced a profound sensation. The judges all assembled in the First Division Court room, when the Lord President intimated that, in compliance with the request of the Vice Dean and Faculty of Advocates, as well as in accordance with the feelings of his bisetliren and himself, there would be an entire cessation of business for the day. His lordship also took occa sion to pay a tribute to the memory of the late lord, who had, he said, distinguished himself as a most able, upright, and indefatigable judge. With regard to the important vacancy created by his lordship's death, the general expectation is that the Lord Ad vocate, who is usually considered to have the firs title to such legal promotion, will, notwithstanding his repeated refusal of an ordinary judgeship, avail himself of his present privilege. LAND JOBBING IN THE UNITED STATES.— The affairs of a concern called the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad having lately led to a deman 1 for inquiry which could not be resisted, a committee of the Legislature was appointed to examine and report, and the. whole history of the concern is now em bodied in an official report of 400 pages. From this it appears that the comnany obtained their dona tions of land by the direct bribery of the entire Government of the State. Thirteen members of the Senate received bonds of the company to the amount of 35,0001., in sums varying from 2,001/. to 3,0001. each. Sixty members of the House of Assembly received sums ranging from 1,0001. to 2,0001. each. Only four members voted for the bill without pay. The Governor of the State received 10,0001., his private secretary 1,0001., the Lieutenaut-Governor 2,0001., the Bank Controller 2,0001., and the clerks of the house from 1,0001. to 2,0001. each. In addi tion about 50,0001. was distributed among a set of persons termed " out-siders "—lobby agents, ttc.— Times. The commission of lunacy appointed to inquire into the state of mind of Sir Henry Meux at the time of his adding certain codicils to his will, brought their sittings to a close on Thursday last. The counsel employed on each side were as follows: Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Bovill, Q.C., and Mr. Bodkin for the petitioners, Lord and Lsdy Malden and Mrs. Arabin ; Mr. M. Smith, Q.C., and Mr. Quain for Sir William and Lady Bowyer Smijth ; and the Attorney-General, Mr. Wilde, Q.C., Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., and Mr. Hawkins for Lady Meux. The main question at issue was whether the codicil to his will by which Sir Henry Mettx bequeathed his entire property, valued at 40,0001. a year, to his infant son, and on his death to Lady Meux, to the exclusion of his other relatives, was valid or not. About forty witnesses were examined altoge ther; and at the conclusion of the inquiry, which lasted nine days, the jury reported as follow- : That they were all agreed as to the fact of Sir Henry Meux being insane, but they could not come to any agreement as to the particular time when the insa nity first showed itself. The court then broke up. evrrtsgoraenct. CONSERVATIVE REACTION. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—An interesting chapter in a work devoted to the history of parties might be written on the decline of the great Tory party in England. Early in the present century (1809) a small knot of men occupied seats in the House of Commons whovebryy soon became distinguished for tile freedom w i t h country yal and n questions. Parliament They ee- ie e d o s a l m iic o h ktlnieoywn iu di s th the name of' "Economists." It is no derogation of this pnlitical and economical sect, so far as their real merits are concerned, to say that their confi dence in their own ju lgment, as estimatel by them selves, wa.s considerably above their real deserts as practical statesmen. They carried about with them a kind of economical and critical foot-rule, by which, in their own fashion, they gauged the mental and legislative capacity of most members of the Legislature. Perseveringly and energetically they worked their way, being especially sedulous to win over as many young men of talent to their views as possible. In 1819 the successful result of these efforts was reflected in the bill for tha resump tion of cash payments, commonly known as " Peel's Bill." On the passing of that measure, the first Sir Robert and the late Sir Robert were found in oppo sition ; the statesman whom the father had trained to follow in the footsteps of William Pitt seceded from the Tory policy, and walked side by side with Mr. Huskisson. The old Tories, backed by an im portant portion of the landed interest, were in oppo sition to what might be called the young Tories instructed by the Economists. A serious breach was thus made in the Tory party. It was widened by the part Mr. Huskisson took on the question of Free Trade, which he,in part, subsequently regretted, but which was finally adopted by the late Sir Robert Peel. The two questions of currency and corn continued to divide the Tory party less or more until tho memorable di-ruption in 1846, which ()centred on the motion for a repeal of the Corn Laws. The effects of these questions on the mind of the country, and in their varied modifications on the state of the Tory party, would to any political student form a useful subject of inquiry ; briefly, to the Tory party they were seriously disastrous. The late Sir Robert Peel, so early as 1824, in a debate on the silk trade, declared in favour of the free principle as applied to commerce—a proof, among others, of how his mind was influenced by the teachings of the " Economists." The next two important questions may be classified under the popular heading of "Civil and Religious Liberty." The Roman Catholic Relief Bill of 1829, and the Reform Bill of 1832, were sources of great discord. The leading Tories main tained that the " Emancipation of the Catholics" struck at the very root of the Protestant Constitution ; they held that, under the pretext of equality, the Roman Catholics really desired ascendancy, that from the very tenets of their religion they were, in con science, bound to obey the Pope, rather than the Queen. The leaders of the Tory party, under the plea of " State necessity," granted " Catholic Emanci pation," to the great annoyance of many sincere and ardent Protestant Tories. These proceedings weakened the Tories, and strengthened in a mush greater ratio the Whigs. The passing of the Reform Act was popularly believed to be the death knell of the Tory party. It is not my present business to discuss the merits et' any of the merits named ; I wish only to call attention to the circumstance that after several shipwrecks on the stormy sea of politics, after having been repeatedly shattered, and by their opponents, times out of number, declared to " have been anni hilated," an unmistakeable reaction has set in, and the Tory party is once more in office. The effect with which this reaction has taken place may be judged by the confessions of the principal opposition organ in the press. In a leader in the Times of Monday lass, devoted to the interests of the Peel party, arc the following passages :—" The late debate was to decide whether the conduct of the national affairs was to he left in the hands of a Tory Go vernment, or restored to the party which has guided the destinies of the country for nearly the last quarter of a century." This is just an d candid. In a quarter of a century the Whigs, supported by the Radicals, have been success ful in ruining their own reputation. The verdict of the country and of the Parliament has been recorded against them. Having read the events of the hour critically, after disappointment had found its usual reliefin &neer, and rea-on had regained her seat, the Times editor observes --" l'he time, too, t has come when the Peelites should be absorbed into o the two greet partit s which seem likely once m ore stand in well-defined antagonism." Of the one party Lord Derby is the leader; of the other, Palmerston