The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-30 00:00:00

1056 THE PRESS, OCTOBER 30, 1858. THE WEEK. TIM most important foreign event of the past week has been the un fortunate misunderstanding between France and Portugal. The question can hardly rest where it is. But we are sorry to see that certain English journals have seized the opportunity to scatter imputations broadside against our own Government, before anything can possibly be known of its intentions. From Prussia there is nothing new of any consequence. The formalities attending the inauguration of the Regency are still in progress, and it is thought that the existing Prussian Ministry will not be displaced. In Turkey there is another hitch about Montenegro. The Sultan seems disinclined to make any concessions ; and we rather sympathize with his sentiments. That Montenegro is a dependency of Turkey can be doubted by no one who impartially studies the relations that have existed between the two States for between two and three centuries. The speech of Mr. BRIGHT to his constituents on Wednesday last has been to many people the event of the week. The gist of his address is exactly what might have been anticipated—an attack upon everything which constitutes an Englishman what he is. But had the millstone which Mr. BRIGHT affects to see round our necks been really there, we must have been sunk in the sea long ago. A people whose strength lies in represen tative institutions are not represented ; the riches which they win by their industry are squandered by a selfish aristocracy; and the crimes and follies of their servants are screened and defended by their rulers ! Now, as Mr. BRIGHT, we presume, will be the last man to deny that progress is pro gress, and that the present generation is an improvement on the last, we must conclude that all these evils were formerly still worse than they are. Will Mr. BRIGHT, therefore, condescend to inform us how this country can have risen to her present height of grandeur, power, and liberty, in the teeth of such tremendous obstacles ? Independently of the direct results which one would think must have ensued from centuries of mis government and corruption, surely the perpetual and helpless contempla tion of so much iniquity must have vitiated the national character, and rendered needless Mr. BRIGHT'S lamentations by destroying the virility which provokes them. But, leaving Mr. BRIGHT to deal with these diffi culties as he pleases, we can do no more in this column than call attention to the salient points of his discourse. Naturally Mr. BRIGHT begins with the question of Reform. Even on this subject his arguments are singu larly wrongheaded. Nobody wants to be told that particular boroughs, if taken by themselves, are less fully represented than particular counties. What we want is a comparison of the entire borough representation with the entire county representation. For Lord Joini RUSSELL'S " dodge " about agricultural boroughs will not hold water for a moment, there being just as many county constituencies influenced by the commercial interest as town constituencies by the agricultural. As to an aristocracy, on which subject Mr. BRIGHT was very eloquent, we are not going to write an essay on its uses here. For that, we refer Mr. BRIGHT to the greatest philosopher of the purest democracy in the word, ARISTOTLE ; to one of the most saga cisus and unprejudiced of modern French writers, DE TOCQUEVILLE ; and to one of the truest friends of the British people, Lord BROUGHAM. In the next place, we cannot but point with the utmost sorrow and indigna tion at Mr. BruGErr's unworthy effort to resuscitate a war of classes by his observations on the country gentlemen. Whatever their shortcomings may once have been, none can now deny them the praise of coming for ward as the sincere and unflagging champions of popular improvement. With the meetings of the last fortnight yet present to our mind, we know not whether to think Mr. BRIGHT'S invective more wanting in judgment or generosity. His scandalous attack upon Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE was conceived in the same spirit. His allusion to American Diplomatists was most illtimed, in the face of Mr. REID'S performances in China. And the whole address was marked by a design to create mischief; of which we trust the Hon. Member may live to repent. When Lord MONMOUTH wanted to regain his political influence in the Borough of Darlford he went down to Coningsby Castle, after a long period of absenteeism, to live and die, he said, among his old friends. What mattered it that he had treated his neighbours like dogs for twenty years ? A few great banquets, a few skilful compliments, and the "old friends" were at his feet again. The exclusiveness of his Lordship, and the doubtful character of his lady visitors, were all forgotten. The Marquis was a fine old English gentleman. His "pluck" in facing people whom he had so long neglected had won the day. His popularity was greater than ever, and the Marquis, whose contempt for mankind was thorough, was amused at his own success. We confess we were irresistibly reminded of the above passage by the Bishop of OXFORD'S recent performances at Bradford. His appeal to " Yorkshiremen "—his delightful assumption of frankness—his bold defiance of his calumniators, all bore a striking resem blance to the successful manoeuvres of Lord MONMOUTH. His coquetting with the Scarlet Lady, and other delinquencies, gradually came to seem like unaccountable delusions to his hearers. The fools who came to hiss remained to cheer, and the sturdy Protestant mob were fairly talked over by the ingenious and eloquent Prelate. After this, let no one lament the decaying eloquence of the nineteenth century. At Ripon, last Tuesday, the Right Rev. Orator had no such opposition to contend with. There he spoke earnestly and well on the serious obligations imnosed on the country by the profession of Christianity, and pointed out the danger of giving the Hindoos our education without our religion ; in proof of which he told his audience that more Deistical works had lately been republished in India than had been published during the same period in this country. In his speech at Warminster, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT travelled over much of the same ground that we have recently vi s i te d in company with so many noble and scientific orators. H e commended works of fiction to the labouring man, spoke like Lord WODEHOUSE of the influence of newspapers, and agreed with Mr. BRIGHT in thinking that newspaper articles should no longer be anonymous. This latter is a question upon which we ourselves entertain no very decided theory. But we think this, that the public is not yet ripe for the change. Something would be gained by it, n o d ou b t, in a literary point of view, for it would operate as a check upon careless composition. But we see no reason to suppose that it would act as any check upon misrepresentation. The publicity of the Bar does not have they effect ; and what the barrister is to his client, that is the individual journalist to those in whose interest hi s j ournal is conducted. Recognizing, therefore, in the journalist a species of advocate, it is foolish to expect from him the serene impartiality of the judge. In fact, if people generally did so, his profession would be at an end. No artificial means, therefore, of restraining him within bounds of which his work is in the nature of things incapable, can result in aught but disappointment. We must also recollect that, after all, the " misrepre sentations" that may happen to be expressed in a leading article are seldom the work of the individual writer. He writes according to his instructions. If the end in view be in accordance with his own principles, that is enough. He can no more investigate the evidence for himself than a barrister can do the work of an attorney. Under these circumstances we think that, in England at least, the benefit accruing to the public from the proposed alteration would not compensate for the inconvenience inflicted on the writer. The journalist is not here what he is in France. When public opinion shall have made him so, it will be time enough to discuss this question. The only other public address of the week is Lord JOHN RUSSELL ., :, at Ardwick, reported in the daily papers of last Monday. His Lordship spoke sensibly on the subject of ragged-schools, the value of which is, we believe, being more fully recognized every day. With ragged-schools, reformatories, and a penal reformatory, which we believe it is contem plated to establish at Parkhurst, our machinery ought to be nearly com plete. On one point to which his Lordship made allusion we believe he was misinformed. The paper-bag manufacture is prosecuted, we believe, in London schools as well as country ones. It certainly is so in one, namely, Mr. DRIVER'S, in Belvidere-crescent. From Weedon to Woolwich is a step that our facetious friends who form the Commission of Inquiry into the Army Clothing System have probably taken with pleasure. It enlarges the sphere of their operation, supplies them with more vaned materials to whet their wit upon, and enables them to court popular applause from a more conspicuous platform. It is, no doubt, in spite of Mr. SELFE S protestations, a highly delightful thing to be a Commissioner for the first time. To crack one's little jokes about routine and red tape with a certainty that they will not be lost, to ex tend one's mimic shield over oppressed virtue, and couch one's bristling bul rush against titled corruption, is a delicious, though apparently a somewhat intoxicating pleasure. Mr. SELFE and his colleagues have got a certain plain duty before them, but for the life of them they can't stick to it. First the Militia must come under their patronage, and a fine opportunity of tickling the British citizen in his most sensitive part must not be thrown away. The Militia receive the cast-off clothes of the Line ! Horrible ! say the Commissioners. They would have us to know, forsooth, that the Militia are highly respectable. The Militia represent a great and important class. And more of the same twaddle. Now, no one conversant with the columns of THE PRESS can doubt our sympathy with the Militia, whose steady champion we have been for the last three years. But we really think the War-office, however fast bound in tapen fetter is competent to settle this question. And as no complaints have been heard from the Militia themselves, we think SELFE and Co. might just as well have kept its remarks to itself. The same holds good of Mr. TURNER'S pompous offer of protection to gentlemen who complained of their salaries— " I will make the King do you grace : I will leer upon him as he comes by." And we only hope Messrs. GRANT and MORRIS may find they fare better than Justice Shallow did. The Clothing Colonel, of course, formed a subject for satire that these eminent wits could not be expected to leave untouched. And possibly if they had succeeded in making a single good joke among them during the whole time they have been sitting we might have pardoned the irrelevancy of it. But they have not. They wish to prove themselves jaunty men of wit and nature and position alike point to a very different estimate of themselves. and their duties. ‘. This merriment of parsons," said old JOHNSON , " Is mighty offensive." Would he had been a listener in the IVeedon and 'Woolwich Committee room s ! pleasure, when The late foul attempt at assassination in the North of Ireland is a matter of more serious import than may at first sight appear. The murder of a gentleman in cold blood before the eyes of his wife and daughter is so horrible in itself, that our readers may, perhaps, he at a loss to under stand our meaning. Unhappily it is too easily . explained. We have reason for believing that the reappearance of a crime, for some years hoped to be extinct, may but too probably be only the beginning of a series. We are assured on most reliable evidence that the revival of the secret societies under the management of the mined upon by th e ru l ers o f the Romish Church, and in the West is already in course of organ i za ti on . Th e priests having found out tha t the defiant and disloyal t one a d o pt e d i n C ar dinal Wismot's progress is a complete failure, have resolved u p o n active measures. Anything is b etter Priests is already deter than contempt. If au om i ss i on to drink the Queen's health provokes