The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

122 ,=)11W enphemistically termed " influence." Above all, the existing system of double government is left intact ; and, in dwelling on this as the worst feature of a bad plan, we do not necessarily imply any censure on the Court of Directors, whose administration could not, perhaps, have been better than it is, under the peculiar cir cumstances of their position. " One second " rate general," said NAPOLEON the FIRST, "18 " better than two good ones in joint corn " mend." So say we. There have been able men—honest men—men thoroughly in earnest —even (though that be the exception rather than the rule) men versed in Indian affairs, filling directorial chairs, and addressing " our " Governor-General " from Leadenhall-street : there have been Ministers of great energy and activity seated at ti n ' Board of Control : but both the one and the other were ham pered by the necessities of a situation false in itself, and, to the public out of doors, utterly incomprehensible. It is idle for Sir C. Woon to affirm, what perhaps he has brought himself to believe, that the President is responsible for all that is done in British Asia. Tech nically he may be so , but it is as certain, as any recorded fact can be, that this responsi bility has never existed in practice!. Not until Lord Deno?, in his first Ministerial speech on India, told the House of Lords that the go vernment of that dependency was in practice mainly vested in the Board of Control, (lid the public mind begin to be disabused as to the illu sory nature of the directorial system. That use ful piece of knowledge, previous to the year '52, remained to the people of England an unsus pected mystery. How else should the authors of the Afghan disaster have escaped impeach ment? And what more natural than that persons not conversant with Oriental arrange ments should really impute to the vast and costly establishment in Leadenhadl-street—to the dispensers of patronage—to those in whose hands was vested the power of recalling a Oovernor-General some considerable share in the conduct and administration of affiiirt4? But the Directors are not necessarily or fre quently in Parliament. They enjoy in conse quence a virtual immunity fur misconduct. And the President of the Board of Control. until lately, escaped the ordeal of parliamen tary criticism ; partly, no doubt, because of the apathy of tue English public, but partly also because he was popularly regarded, not as the originator of, but merely as participa ting in, acts of supreme authority. Herein lies the real mischief'. Nobody knows—in the phrase lately quoted by Lord JOHN—" under " which thimble is the pea.' It remains to be seen whether Englishmen are so enamoured of secrecy, or so wedded to tradition, as to perpetuate this elaborate mystification. Oxford and Ascot combined to spoil this week's debate ; but we are much mistaken it' Sir C. Woon succeeds this year in even car rying his measure through the House of Commons. THE LATE RESIGNATIONS. " CONCILIATION HALL" has been re-opened at Downing street, for the benefit of Irish mein hems, and will probably be retained as a neces sary appendage to a Coalition Ministry. Its first public sueeess has been so striking as to imply many previous rehearsals. Messrs. MossEt.t., KLoon, and SAnt.Ein have settled again into the quietude of office, whence they had been nearly driven by the outspoken s• No Popery" of the Leader of the House of Commons," and have accepted the passive liberality of AnyttnErN as a set-off against the " extra-Ministerial" bigotry of RrSSELL. Why the author of the Appropriation Clause should have become so violent a partisan of the Irish Church, that, like his opponent, Mr. .- -- 7. . 4 • e tiCAS his convert-zeal outran his discretion, ~ v ...! 4.1 . ¶. ' 4 4*- - • is not easy to surmise. Perhaps, like the .1..- / 4- orw.•• to lean proud of his skill, he wished to show 4 • v, , -: . • • Net • • :s-;!:` • . ~...;. mastery of sophisms by refuting himself; tfp the speech of Mr. Mennoeon, who very 71 --..r.,•* r j e , w ..-- : jl e rogrally observed that " the recent legisla •• „ 404 . % VI" non the subject of the Canada Clergy t ? A -53/ die - C.. ' t t • i i t 0111(.... THE PRESS. " Reserves gave him some encouragement" to expect similar spoliation of the Irish Church must have reminded his lordship how very re cent his conversion has been to his present Conservative love of endowments, and how little his acts have been in accordance with hie present " sentiments." One great advantage possessed by a compo sition Cabinet has been exhibited by the MON SELL correspondence, and the circumstances out of which it arose. There is no shade of opinion for which it cannot find an advocate within its own body, who can put forward his " individual " opinions whenever it is useful, while the political fiction of a Ministry is re sponsible for nothing. Lord JOHN may throw a tub to Exeter Hall, and ABERDEEN insinuate admiration of the "Catholic Defence A ssocia tion." The Cabinet does not express an opinion, whatever " any " or " many" of its members may think. It reminds us of a story by a well-known novelist of two worthy bro thers, who, by a convenient division of creeds, amassed wealth during the religious wars in France. The elder stood by the old faith, the younger joined the ranks of the Huguenots. Tired of unprofitably fighting at opposite sides, they at length united, and sallied forth in conjunction to better their fortune. Then all fell out prosperously ; the elder brother levied contributions on every defenceless Huguenot in the name of Mother Church, and allowed the Catholics to pass on to the younger, who mulcted them in the name of Protestant liberty. But, seriously, who does represent Minis , terial opinions, if any such there be ? The Leader of the House of Commons, in an im portant debate, delivers himself' of " senti " ments" and " reasons" which are not shared by the Prime Minister nor by many of his colleagues ; whereupon he is cheered by his opponents, astonishes his supporters, and is snubbed by his chief. From what source is Ministerial wisdom to well out upon us ? Are we to receive the exposition of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, or that of Lord ABERDEEN, Or wait to he informed haw many are in favour of each ? Or must we accept the duality offered to us by Lord ABERDEEN, and distinguish the Leader of the House of Commons from the member for the city of London ? Mr. MONSELL assents to this subtle distinction, and hints, not oh seurely, that he will not in future regard what the latter says, unless he knows him to ex press the opinions of the former. But how is he or any one else to ascertain what character the noble lord supports in any debate ? Cos tume might do something ; a Ministerial uniform (were anything connected with the present Ministry deserving of the name) might distinguish the actor from the individual. The noble lord might then, without misleading friends or foes, be officially unmeaning and void of offence towards all men, and after a change of dress pour forth his personal indig nation against the ingratitude of the heads of a Church he has petted so long. A difficulty certainly might arise when, as in the present instance, the two parts are to be sustained in one speech. A Scottish proverb, known, probably. to Lord ABERDEEN, says, " A crack lets the licht in " Perhaps. by the light thus admitted into a Cabinet full of fractures, his lordship may now discover that it is not easy to keep his subordinates in order." Mani festly, from the tone of his letter, he is wiser than when he replied to Lord DERBY, and has found that he has at least one of whom he may speak as such. Lord JOHN has learned from experience that " when two ride a horse. one must go behind ;" and perhaps all may have a glimmering impression that they came together hastily, and upon a wrong basis ; that the " idem nolle" is not a sufficient bond of party, more than of friendship, without the idea relit ;" that negative premises cannot lead to an affirmative conclusion; or a sur render of individual opinions make up a policy. SATURDAY, THE PERVERSE UNDERGRADUATES. As the merchant in the Arabian Nights, throw ing about his nutshells, unconsciously brained a giant, so the cries of the Undergraduates' gallery at Oxford have similarly shattered the repose of statesmen. To judge from the peevish " leader " in the Peelite organ of Wednesday last, the honest ardour of its youth is "to prove the deathblow" to their Univer sity. The " youthful laureates in white cra vats and lavender-coloured gloves," with those who cheered them " at the highest pitch " of their voices," have incurred awful repri sals, which are to be visited on their Alma Mater. It is not too much to conjecture that the pitch of their voices would have sounded less discordant had they swelled a different tri umph. But that the gentle sages who guide the helm of state should have been ruffled so seriously requires explanation. Whence this petulance at trifles? - - • Tantcene animis ecelestibus irte?" Or have these grave professors any serious oc casion to be thus irritated? . . We are not ourselves disposed to exaggerate the importance of such manifestations, even if we. mark their apparent tendency. Time was, and that within our own remembrance, when the sympathies of the Oxford youth were other wise enlisted. A propagandist movement, which had carried away their seniors, included them mediately in the train of its litscinations. ultra-Tractarian fever prevailed, and be wildered many an ingenuous mind. The feeble it left shattered and exhausted, exem plau•s of morbid tastes and hysterical virtues, drying and dwindling till they were gathered in the Roman harvest. Others it swept on ward to a vaster abyss— "To hear a voice, Believe no more; And hear an ever-breaking shore That tumbled in the godless deep." With almost all, it had a depressing in• fluenee, seducing them by its subtleties from the region of secure truth, and secluding them by its temptations from the sphere of confident action. Now, thanks to wise councils, and, above all, to the healing influence of time, " nous arms ohange tout eela." A few of the meek-eyed dwellers in the past—dispersed curates and philosophising tutors—may regard the late outburst of their pupils as extraordinary. But, we can say without affectation, it was expected by us. We observed what was going forward—that the blighting influences were decaying, and that a new race was spring ing up in Oxford, genial, generous, and robust. From the echoing roof of the Sheldonian Theatre the shouts of Tuesday and Thursday told us their tastes and their aversions ; and our Contemporary may infer whether they are likely to sympathise with its task of tortuous advocacy or of envious detraction. We may further remind the provoker of this explanation of a parallel, in one respect, to its inopportune menace. When Lord FEVERSHAM replied to a celebrated question, " Oh, it's " only the soldiers shouting for the acquittal of " the bishops !" " Call you that nothing ?' said the King. " But so much the 'worse for them r The parallel may be still more com plete in another sense, that the shouters are again the depositaries of the future. THE IRISH INCOME TAX. THAT the Irish members who could not get leave to resign are without influence in the Ministry can be asserted by no one who ob• serves the peculiar notion of equality with which they have indoctrinated the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. In that gentleman's " vo• "luminous," but not "luminous," speech on the Budget he proposed, iu extending the income tax to Ireland, to place the two countries in this respect on an equal footing, and the words were received in their Eng lish acceptation. Now. however, it ap pears that the CHANCELLORS equality is not equality at all, but conuists in this : what F