The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 3,1857. to endure. It i 3 right, therefore, that we should call the attention of our readers to tllO OPINIONS expressed by Ministers upon the INDIAN REBELLION. storming of the advanced position of the rebels outside Delhi, anticipated their speedy de struction from the weakness of their position The Noble Lord said : The walls of Delhi, as the House is no doubt aware, are not regular fortifications, but are merely upright walls, not possessing any of the defences which are usual in the case of fortifications. The relative positions which our troops and the rebels have held for the last three months is a sufficient comment upon the Prime Minister's statement. On the 15th July, in reply to Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Lord PALMERSTON, admitted that Government " should act " if there were any real cause for alarm. Nothing appa rently could move these practical statesmen ; they appeared powerless to affect anything but mischief. They scorned the advice of for-seeing men, ridiculed their asser tions as doubtful in their truth, and rejected their propositions as dangerous in their appli cation. On the 16th of July the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, on the Persian War debate, assured us that the outbreak " had its origin " in religious feelings of wounded supersti " tion," that it was " quite unconnected with " any political calculations," that the popula tion at large had not joined the mutinous soldiery, and, concluded the Right lion. Gen tleman, with practical sagacity : A rising of this kind, which fails in its commencement, and does not spread like a conflagration, may be regarded as having already failed. On the 27th of July Mr. VERNON SMITH assured us " that there was not the slightest " symptom of the mutiny being a national " revolt ;" and the " most consolatory eiretun " stance " was that " uo native Prince had been " concerned in these transactions." Nay, he defied any one to show that any one of the native princes, our gallant allies, have sullied their glory by betraying ua at this juncture. With reference to the annexation of Oude hiving any influence upon the present rebel lion, Mr. V. SMITII could see " no connection" between the two events, nor "could he imagine that any could exist." Nay more, he expressed the most lively confidence in " the Oude Sepoys " proving themselves - - as satisfied with the measure of annexation as the rest of the population undoubtedly are. On the 12th of August the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER cheered us with the gratifying assurance that the finances of the East India Company " were ample," and that the present diff►culties, great and formidable as they were, were not of a "financial kind." On the same day, Lord PALMS nsTom, in reply to General Sir DE LACY EVANS, who advocated the immediate despatch of troops across the Isthmus of Suez, informed the House that such a measure " would be attended " with great inconvenience and considerable " expense," and said further, with reference to the measures the Government " thought necessary " to meet the difficulties with which they had to contend, that " they were not " going beyond ►chat they considered the ex " isting necessities." Mr. VERNON SMITH also assisted the Prime Minister in his refusal to use the Suez route by offering an additional reason against the despatch of troops : believe (said Mr. Smith) the passage of the Red Sea at this season of the year would he attended with the most injurious consequences to the health of Europeans! Mr. SMITH added that the Government were " acquitted in_ their own consciences of any " neglect to avail themselves of the best means "of pouring troops into India." A miserable fabrication to deceive the credulous ! We need go no further into this mass of imbecility, ignorance, and neglect. The public can judge from these samples of the claims to practical statesmanship of this Cabinet of In capables. No one can accuse us of a desire to hamper the Government in dealing with this rebellion. From the first we have urged upon them the most vigorous measures, and warned them that the movement was not to be despised. But they systematically depreciated the danger, distorted facts, rejected the advice of experience, and for months repudiated the only means by which the insurrection could have been restrained, and the country saved the suffering, the affliction, and the disaster it has been compelled through their incapacity MR. OSBORNE'S LAST SPLASH. WHEN a water-dog has been kept for a month without diving or fetching, it is most amusing to witness his joyful alacrity in plunging into a pond, after being unmuzzled. In he goes with a souse, and out he bounds, splashing over all his friends, without any regard to sex, age, or station, or the least respect for silken petticoats, or white continuations. Mr. OSBORNE'S great splash at Dover exhibited similar rude delight. Tied up for a long time, at last the silent Secretary, whose bark has been so rare of late, got an opportunity of jumping into a subject, and he certainly (lid contrive to spatter the Cabinet in a style that Sancho or Tray could never have surpassed. It was really a very laughable and perfectly characteristic exhibition. It is so long since Mr. It. OSBORNE has performed on the public stage, that we shall dwell on this mirth creating actor's reappearance. His long speech at Dover had all the point less attempts at wit which invariably dis tinguish his elaborate performances. It had industrious jocoseness, some habitual slang, a few laughable attempts to soar, and not a few ponderous sinkings. The farmyard bird attempting an aquiline flight is not more absurd than Mr. OSBORNE in aspiring to carry the laurels of an orator. his physical vivacity is no substitute for airy grace, and when he affects the light tone of a political wit he always reminds us of a strolling player stamp ing through the part of Lord Foppington in a barn. Mr. OSBORNE'S light comedy is superla tive in its heaviness. He wants the feathery touch of a graceful comedian ; he thumps where he should tickle, and he scolds where he should merely sneer. Rollicking in his mirth, he always rants in his affected heroics, and even when he has been well primed he is sure to go off at half-cock. There is a capital character in one of CON on,EvE's comedies, called Witwould, placed in artistic contrast with Truewit. In Witwould the brilliant dramatist gave the exact anatomy of a smart pretender. His fussy vivacity, his " breaky " style, his desperate attempts after point, his false congruity and inexact analo gies, his mere mannerism of wit, while pos sessing no genuine imagination, are all ex quisitely drawn in a style that never has been excelled. The Secretary to the Admiralty is the Witwould of the Liberal party. He laboriously toils in vain to be accepted as a Sheridan, or Tierney, or Sheil. His attempts are obvious ; his successes are not visible. He can at times, to the utter disregard of Parliamentary man ners, screw himself up into a sort of small browbeater, but his malevolence is too mala droit to do mischief except to his friends. His feeble virus is suffocated under his load of verbosity, and his concocted poisons exhale harmlessly in ephemeral flatulence. ‘Ve recol lect having seen once "Joe Miller's Cookery Book," and amongst other things it contained a recipe for " Sawdust Pudding." The basis of the condiment was sawdust, and certain quantities of lemon, cloves, sugar, allspice, and nutmegs were to be added, not forgetting a mug of yeast. A schoolboy, home for the holidays, made up a pudding accordingly, and administered it to a Yorkshire rustic, anile in sex and years, but far sharper than the pre sent Secretary to the Admiralty pretends to be. " Dang it, measter," was the venerable dames criticism ; " this here pudding is dB " splutter and flash. They spoiled the yeast." We always think of sawdust pudding after one of Mr. OSBORNE'S speeches. Their yeast—or vivacity—goes for nought. The speaker wants imagination, deep thought, and high intellect. He has a large stock of small cleverness, but its pattern is extremely coarse ; and we never saw a machine invented for turning gingham into satin, though Mr. OSBORNE tries to do it. Nothing differs more from a diamond than its paste counterfeit. The poignant wit of SHE m- DAN, or the caustic common sense of TIEhNEV, are reproduced, only in a Witwoulds bur lesque, when Mr. OSBORNE opens his jaws. 955 Even if Mr. OSBORNE were either a wit or an orator, his fatal indiscretions of tongue would ruin him as a candidate for high official employment. He scarcely ever makes a speech without committing either himself or his friends. Imagine the rich absurdity of Mr. OSBORNE saying, " I have not the honour of " possessing a seat in the Cabinet ; I ant not " highly connected enough for that.' Indeed ! We recollect the late Mr. BERNAL, father of the Secretary to the Admiralty. He was an amiable and most accomplished gentleman, and a virtuoso of no ordinary kind. He was the intimate friend, if we mistake not, of the present Premier, and he was for thirty years Member for Rochester. Mr. Osnoas has married an Irish heiress, the last representative of a family cf considerable distinction in Ireland, and honourably known in the annals of the Irish Parliament. Mr. OsuonsE himself has been for seventeen years in Parliament, and what an account he gives of himself when he says that he " is pot highly connected enough " for a seat in the Cabinet " into which Mr. SMITH and Mr. BAINES have been received ! Oh, Mr. OseoRNE, when will you come to years of discretion ? Observe, also, the hint to Sir COR:IEWALL LEWIS, Sir CHARLES WOOD, and others, that it is because they are " highly connected " that they have seats in the Cabinet ! He had the indiscretion, also, to rake up Lord DERBY'S speech about " the appendages " to Lord PALMERSTON ; and, carefully avoiding all allusions to a New Reform Bill, this subor dinate of a Whig Cabinet actually panegyrised Lord ABERDEEN as "a true and honest Re " }Omer, who has, I believe, been much mis " understood." That was a bright ,not, a genuine good thing, and all the wittier as it was not intended. Well might the speaker say that " his colleagues would probably " doubt whether he had spoken with too much " reserve." Mr. OSBORNE has exchanged Middlesex, and there is an old English proverb about sending a certain bird to Dover,— And the same he will come over. The Secretary to the Admiralty has not be come a swan after his trip to Dover. We were, ourselves, recently visiting the Cinque Ports, and we were shown the Margate Pump, " a model," says the guide-book, "of the " celebrated lantern of DEMOSTHENES at " Athens." After the spouting of Mr OSBORNE, WO think not of DEMOSTHENES, nor attic salt, but of the brackish effusions of the Margate Pump. LIBERALISM IN ESSEX. IN the world of politics, as in the world of nature, we meet with striking opposites and startling contrasts. It would be idle to hope for either equality or uniformity. A man who would keep pace with the current of events, and be conversant with the ever•ehanging phases of popular opinion, must neither be dainty nor proud. He must not expect to be always in communion with the learned, the powerful, and the great. He must read much that is dull, and listen to much that is insipid. It is one of the conditions of a representative form of Government that there should be mediocrity as well as genius in public life— that there should be adventurers as well as statesmen, and demagogues as well as patriots. It would he absurd to calculate upon a race of Chathams or a generation of Burkes. We must take the good with the bad, the rough with the smooth. The stranger in the gallery of the House of Commons receives painful illustrations of this view. And so is it in arenas less imposing than the Senate. In one week you have to deal with Mr. DISRAELI and Sir G. C. LEWIS, with BERNAL OSIIoRNE and Sir EDWARD LYTTON. It is something, doubtless, in this anxious season to hear the opinions and become acquainted with the policy of our great men—those who form popular opinion and lead political parties —the organs of the Ministry or the chiefs of the Opposition. But we cannot always be in this " seventh heaven." We must descend, and oftentimes by a rough process and an abrupt transition. A