The Press. — London, England, 1858-02-13 00:00:00

orto_ Th( is a to II Can, dec. wit( pop hat as t that tior tarp Met otht hay tlisl first the con ten sho that tun bets stre of I Bret the sup Par. flat 0 lord leuf Ls meat Bopp whic Bidet to ei prod so th ward 11111 explr not t peop overt ester A MOT each parti then ordir the parti biht Mini with rhos( dem( rem prov( If, ot Refoi nxiin they woul rash tilt parci prest open dem( expel be di any( l3( ever eithe es a of so the g of Cf throe stri4 or le, this the E that drive craft, whic loom mow Aft( liill viol et:el Al whol carri that Wits tade no a for t THE PRESS, FEBRUARY 13, 1858. The Liberal party, as at present constituted, is a transparent imposture. They are anxious to keep up their numerical standard ; but that can only be dose by asking no questions and declaring no policy. There are so many men who like to call themselves by whatever is the popular title of the day, that the Liberals can have no difficulty in filling their ranks, as long as they abstain from action. But they know that the first forward movement in the direc- tion of democracy would he the signal for a large secession to the Conservative camp. Members of the Conservative party, on the other hand, have lately been too remiss— have shunned the fatigue of duty, and been disposed to straggle from the line. But the first real danger would at once recall them to their colours, augmented as we have said by a considerable accession from the enemy's quar ters. The present political situation is, we should remember, wholly artificial. When that shall be dissolved, and parties have re turned within their natural limits, we shall be better able to estimate the comparative strength of each. We believe that the people of this country are still separated into two great classes, much more evenly balanced than the aspect of Parliament would lead us to suppose. But the truth cannot be known till Parliament is again divided in accordance with flat classification. _ _ . On the prospect of a new Reform Bill his lordship's views are worth extracting at some length : Lastly, it is of the highest importance that, before any measure of l'arliamentary Reform is brought forward or supported by the Ministers of the Crown, the means by which it is to be carried should be very carefully con sidered. An abortive attempt made by the Government to effect a change in the Constitution must inevitably produce mach evil, and might lead to even fatal results, so that the responsibility of the Ministry that brings for- ward such a proposal would be very great. But, unless am entirely mistaken in the views I have endeavoured to explain in this and the preceding chapter, a measure of Parliamentary Reform, in order to be good and safe, ought not to be limited to merely extending the privileges of the people, but ought also to furnish securities against the overthrow of the balance of the Constitution by the undue extension of democratic power. A hill framed upon this principle must, however, contain among its provisions some that would be unpalatable to each of the two great divisions under which political parties in this country may be classed. If such s bill, therefore, were brought forward by any Minister in the ordinary manner, that is to say, without having secured the previous concurrence of the leaders of different parties, there would be no probability, or rather no possi bility, of its success. If proposed by a Conservative Minister ( which is most unlikely), it would he viewed with jealousy by the majority of the nation ; and those parts of it which were designed as a safeguard against democracy, coming from such hands, without the concur rence of the known friends of popular privileges, would provoke an opposition that could hardly be surmounted. If, on the other hand, any large measure of Parliamentary Reform were brought forward by a NVhig or Radical Ad ministration, without concert with the Conservative party, they must be expected to oppose it, since their opinions would naturely lead them to take this course. but the resistance of this great party could be overcome only by the strenuous support of a still larger and more powerful party. This there would be no chance of forming, in the present state of the country, without obtaining the co operation of the great body of persons who hold ultra democratic opinions; while their assistance could not be expected, unless for a measure from which all that would be distasteful to them had been omitted. Hence it may fairly be concluded, that no bill making any considerable change in our representative system is ever likely to be carried through Parhanment, unless it is either adopted by the general consent of political parties, as a compromise between their conflicting views, or else is of so violent a nature as to secure the energetic support of the great democratic party. There would be no prospect of carrying a new Reform Bill of this last description through both Houses of Parliament without a fearful struggle, or without the use of means of a character more or less revolutionary. Little doubt can be entertained on this point by those who will consider how great would be the strength of the Conservative party, when reinforced by that numerous and powerful body of men who would be driven into their ranks by the proposal of a highly demo cratic measure of Parliamentary Reform. The danger to which the country would be exposed by a fierce and pro. lunged contest on this question, and the amount of evil it ntubt certainly produce, can hardly be exaggerated. After admitting the defeats of the last Reform I WI, and attributing them partially to the violent opposition of the Tories, ho pro ceeds : At the same time, it would be most unjust to throw the whole blame of the struggle by which the Reform Bill was carried upon the Tory• party. It must in fairness be admitted, that the violence of some of the partisans of the measure war well calculated to increase the alarm which its magni tude might reasonably create, even in men influenced by no selfish considerations, but only by an honest concern for the good of 'the country. Sufficient anxiety was not felt by many of the reformers to reconcile adversaries of this class to what was, in truth, shazardons experiment,— an experiment which I believe it to have been absolutely necessary to make, but of which the result could not fail to be a matter of anxiety, not alone to its opponents, but also to those of its supporters who understood its real character. The error committed by the Tory party, in IR3I, seems therefore to me to have been natural and pardonable ; but it ought not the less on that account to be a warning to them not again to fall into a similar mistake. To avoid doing so they ought to consider dispassionately the present state of the country, and the direction in which the tide of public opinion is setting on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. Looking with this view to the declarations of candidates on the hustings, and to the result of the recent elections, it must be admitted that they afford clear evi dence that a general desire does exist among the people for further changes in the constitution of the House of Commons, though this desire does not at present seem to be very strong or to be founded on a sense of any real evils arising from causes that such changes would remove, and is to a great extent factitious. Lord Grey's estimate of the Tory party in the reign of George I. is substantially the same as that we submitted to our readers some seven weeks since. It was perfectly " natural " that men trained up during the first French Revo lution should be "alarmed" at "the magni tude " of the change proposed ; and, indeed, if his lordship's opinions are so fairly stated as he says in his extract from the North British Review, we do not see that he is justi fied in his warning to their present representa tives : No one will now deny that it was a great experiment. No one will deny that in some respects its opponents judged it more truly, and saw further into its consequences, than its promoters. For ourselves we confess that, ap proving it as we did and do, believing it to have been a just, a wise, and a necessary measure, tracing in the main to its secondary influences the rapid progress of reforms in other lines, we yet see in it several dangers, drawbacks, and extensive seeds of future and questionable change, which we did not see when it was passed. We acknow ledge much weight and wisdom in many of the hostile arguments, which at the time we scouted as the mere dictates of selfishness and folly ; and we look back with something like remorse and shame at the violence of our language, the acrimony of cur feelings, the imperfection of our philosophy, and the shortness of our vision. We were blind to much that our adversaries saw ; we were obsti nately deaf to many representations that ought to have been listened to with deference and profit; and if the thing had to be done again, we should act with greater modesty and temperance, with far less confidence, and far more misgiving.—North British Review, August, 1854. If all political discussions were conducted in this admirable spirit hardly any changes would be formidable. Lord Grey's proposal is that Parliamentary Reform should be submitted to a Royal Com mission, composed of the leading statesmen of all parties. Of so equitable and patriotic a suggestion we can express no disapproval and if Lord Grey, with his long political ex perience, does not think it impracticable, it is not for us to say so. Lord Grey has devoted a considerable por• tion of his work to the question of Ministerial patronage, to which he !seems to look for the restoration of that Government influence which was destroyed by the abolition of close boroughs. This is too extensive a subject to discuss at the close of our review, and we shall, perhaps, return to it hereafter. Wo may state, summarily, that his lordship is opposed to the system of competitive examinations for the Civil Service, and wishes to see more posts to which Ministers can appoint at their own discretion. This is the only chapter in the volume of the wisdom of which we entertain any doubt. In his lordship's general views we fully concur. He is a disciple of De Toc queville and Remusat, and, as such, a sincere and sagacious friend to constitutional princi ples. Men sometimes require to he reminded what these principles are. Every Government which is not absolute is not necessarily con stitutional. ' The term represents more than a mere negation. It signifies a Government composed of constituent parts. The elements of the English Government are the Crown, the aristocracy—titled and untitled—the middle classes, and the lower classes. To each of these only so much representation can be ac corded as is consistent with the due promi nence of the rest. At present every one of the four has only a limited share ; and so to increase any one of them as to make it virtu ally superior to the others, would be to over throw the Ealanee and to repudiate Constitu tional Government. We can understand those who do repudiate it, either from the kingly or the popular point of view. But what we can• 161 not understand is that class of politicians who, while professing to think Constitutional Government synonymous with rational free- . dom, uphold changes which render the estab lishment of democracy curly a question of time. The eyes of all such must be opened by his lordship's essay, of which not the least valuable passage is that wherein the peril of " little changes" is pointed out with that clear and forcible logic which attests mastery of the subject. That man must be either knave or fool who, after reading these pages, would seek to mend the Constitution by mul tiplying mob constituencies. 7'eneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment : or, Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds. By C. Piazzi Smyth, F.R.S.S.,ISte. Loudon : Reeve. A LEARNED professor undertaking a "light book of travel " irresistibly reminds a reader of those elephantine gambols by which Johnson's domestic endearments are reported to have been characterised. Instead of an affectionate embrace in the one instance, you got a hug worthy of a brown bear, and in the other you are struck breathless by a scientific diagnosis that is meant only for a lively saran of original genius and untiring industry. Our learned author, who conducted the ex pedition the events of which are related in the volume before us, is amusingly tech nical in all his terms. He starts from the " parallels " of the trade-wind, talks of " cumuloni," and of " cumulostrati " clouds; calculates in millions the number of " we dusie" to a given "stratum," and the number of " diatomes " in the stomachs of the medusa; ; describes the sea " scintillating with stellar " looking points," and the moment he enters his hotel on shore notes the " vesicular basalt" wherewith it is paved, and, with the keenest of eyes, detects a "parasitic or "terminal crater," a " volcanic blowing cone," and a " sympathetic eruption." Not that this detracts from the interest of the book Tout an contraire, it gives a scientific zest to it, which though occasionally apt to pall, will be as cepted as the amiable weakness of a distin guished saran, from whom a learned essay upon the outer ring of Saturn, or cn the vol canoes of the moon, might be more reason ably expected than a light and descriptive account of a two months' " residence above the clouds." But the account of the astronomer's experi ment, although in great part interspersed with the incidents of travel, is mainly devoted to the chief object of the expedition, which was to ascertain in what degree astronomical ob servations can lse improved by " eliminating " the lower third part of the atmosphere." Newton, in his " Optics," was the first who sug gested the probability that a serene and_ quiet air, pre-eminently fit for astronomical observation, would be found to exist " on " the tops of the highest mountains above the " grosser clouds." But the probability sug gested by that master-mind was disregarded and denied until this expedition was under taken, the result of which has been practically to confirm the remarkable prescience exhibited by Newton. "Pascal's suggestion," observes Mr. Siny th, "of a mountain ascent, barometer in " hand, produced an epoch in the science of " pneumatics. Newton's idea of going up " with a telescope may be of more signal ad " vantage still to astronomy, if it be energe " tically carried out into practice." The truth is, the atmosphere at the tops of high mountains has been " sadly misunder stood." The cold, wet mist invariably enve loping mountains at a certain altitude has led to the hasty generalisation that " the summits " of mountains are misty and wet in direct " proportion to their height." The result of the expedition treated of in this volume satisfactorily dissipates that notion, and tends conclusively to prove that, above the level of these " grosser clouds " alluded to by Newton, moisture " suddenly and greatly decreases to " more than African dryness." Such an atmo sphere is of course most favourable to astro nomical observation, and science in all r ro be bility will now be greatly benefited by the discovery of this fact.