The Press. — London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

IN II 540 ' H "'"THE PRESS. SATURDAY, got ? John, you have misled the innocent Czar amongst you. y aw Prime Minister, who, on the principle of omne ignotum pro Inagnifieo, has written a book upon " Beauty, seems to have gone mad in favour of the " waving line " in diplomacy as well as in sculpture. Could he not have said, " Hands off Nicholas ! Lay no finger on that sable beard, nor "attempt to bonnet him with that cap of Fez. " But no, John—like some of those constables who are accustomed desipere in loco of Petticoat lane and Rag-fair, Lord Aberdeen took his quiet glass with the in- tending burglar, nor interfered with his proceedings till the people-- his " inspector "—came round "the beat, and now he makes up with unwilling clamour for deliberate complicity. And, my dear John, I find it was your loyalty which led you to join this Ministry. John, you are as loyal as the Russian Ambassador's servants I once before referred to, who, when he fell down in a fit of apoplexy, threatened Cooper or Brodie with instant death if they violated their master's skin with a lancet. You are attached to the Crown with that delicate attention which lEsop records of a certain beast of burden which, in imitation of the lapdog, jumped into its master's lap, and grievously damaged him with its hoofs and frightened him with its bray. Would to heaven that such Ministers as you would avoid place, " leave the Queen without servants," and become disloyal ! John, I would rather see you marching, like Mr. Cuffey, to Kennington; common, with " liberty" in your mouth, and gin in your stomach, a banner with a misspelled motto in your hand, a policeman each side of you, and a special constable behind you; nay, I would rather see you, like Smith O'Brien, sitting in the widow Cormack's cabbages, with the flag of Erin folded under—what I cannot call your broadest end—to save yourself from bullets and the rheumatism, than see you going through Arabella-row to the Privy Council, or entering St. James's in the Windsor uniform by the private entrée. But I must stop—l am electrified. Reading down the last news of your proceedings, I came to Gladstone's bonds. " Visions of Pena " sylvania, spare my aching sight ! " P. P. THAT. PETER PLYMLEY'S GHOST TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. DEAR JOHN,—You have been talking with your well-known courage about " principles." You have been producing characters from Holland house and appealing to " the book in breeches." Don't you know (my worthy John) that principles and point-lace went out of fashion together—that you might as well revive Wood's budget, or ex plain Mr. Gladstone's " Church and State," as found anything on Whig political principles since the days of the Revolution? I could as soon have expected to hear that you had come down to the House in the hat and feather, doublet and ribbons, tights and buff boots of Sir Geoffrey Hudson, as that you had set up a talk about principles. What principle there can be in common between yourself and your amiable colleague Aberdeen is a question to be submitted to a council of ethical students with the longest heads and the shortest habiliments in your Alma Mater of Edinburgh; or to the most profound mathematical prizeman the ever displayed a thought ful countenance and a dirty shirt in Can idge. How could you ask him to have anything to do with a Reform Bill? Depend upon it he deals in measures as incomplete as the statues that are the produce of the plunder of the Parthenon—a defiant hero with the spear-arm broken short off—a sage looking (for twenty years at Russia) with both his eyes knocked out. But, John, had you not enough of Reform Bills ? Know you not that your monument is to he found in the taprooms of London (where. the incomprehensible Gladstone has made himself understood at last by giving them taxation "in their own jugs "), enframed between the landlord and landlady, and flanked by Tom Cribb and the late Mr. Thistlewood ? There you stand listening to the Royal assent to the " bill, and the whole bill," while the painter has made to descend upon the heads of you and " Old Glory " a ray of sunshine as solid as a deal plank. Could you not have taken warning by the fate of Charles XII., Napoleon, and Barrington the pickpocket, and been content with the , laurels you had won ? You were no inconsiderable actor in that great revolution when the hordes of Birmingham were to charge (under the command of an attorney), not six and eightpence, but their hereditary oppressors, and the troops of the Crown. Did not your adherents on the field of Piccadilly attack the man that con quered Napoleon, and in smashing their own shackles smash his plate glass as well ? courageously forgetful even of Lord Londonderry's horse, which interfered in politics like Caligula's, and rode down the sovereign people, leaving not " heads " but their opposites rolling in the dust. Have you yearned once more to shoulder your crutch and show how those fields were won? The thing's impossible. Nobody will rise in insurrection to enfranchise the doctors and attorneys ; and who would mind a couple of hundred Baptist ministers arming themselves each with an evangelical breakfast and a green umbrella to raise an entente on behalf of the University of London? The Reform Bill, however, has been blown away by war. One Nicholas, it would seem, set you upon it, and another •cabled you to let it go, and yon are a War Minister ! And you have begun it properly. I do not hear of the " ear piercing fife," but of the pocket-piercing estimates—not of the spirit stirring drum, but of tie spirit-encouraging malt tax. How can you, John, be a party to the ingratitude of your Premier to Nicholas ? You must have forgotten when he would have persuaded us that Siberia was as healthful as Funchal, and any phthisicky old gentlewoman as well protected there as if she was combatting for lodgings with her land lady at Torquay; that the Turk was as safe beside Nicholas as an old retired wooden-legged Admiral of the Yellow, whose cottage and pad dock might adjoin the grand demesnes of the Duke of —, who occasionally sent the veteran a bunch of grapes or yesterday's paper ; and that his grace would as soon have attacked the admiral unawares, when his leg was screwed off for the night, seized his cabbage garden, and carried off his milch cow and his last quarter's pension, as the Czar attack Abdul-Medjid. Judge Nicholas by yourself. When he saw the invitations to encroach how could he avoid encroaching? Suppose you had an opportunity of the like kind to turn the cathedrals into literary institutions (free of the poor rates), and draught the country parsons for the militia, would you not adopt it with that alacrity with which you commence projects and give them up ? Do you (my simple friend) suppose for a moment that the stomach of Nicholas for territory is less than that of his subjects for train oil? or that he could resist the temptation your Premier threw in his way any more than his subjects could resist the appetising pre Nonce of the lamps when all the allied powers of " civilisation " met in London, and Alexander's soldiers allayed their craving with the oil, and left Fleet-street in darkness—darkness as thick as you yourself are in as to the results of your war and your finance ? You may have heard, perhaps (at second hand), of the platonic cycle in that famous university where our friend Dugald Stewart quoted a passage of Aristotle's Ethics as " some judicious remarks which he had found in "an old magazine." Now, John, the platonic cycle has come round. Nicholas wishes to do with Constantinople what Henry did with Woburn Abbey—knock the chief proprietor on the head, and send the ladies of the seraglio (like the nuns) to shift for themselves, if they can find any shifts. You are a man of precedents, andhow canyon -gistently 0- him? I know you of old that Whig precedents are ' , oliah, you curse your enemies. lam con , but for obvious reasons would not, that it than Charles James Fox ought consti mister. And if Nicholas has not Whig ' robbery what precedent on earth has he :ma- AT consistently oppose him? I your gods—by which, like Gc vinil i t,Wyou could prove, no Ifni* idi Idsisi ito6;e111 weighl - 1 to - be ' '.. e Mir. 1 ' Pted . "Z: '-'• .-- • ~ -.. ; .4 4, um , Q .\it ,V 4 ~, s -4-5; 2• ;, .:2 C. s.. 111 (1v:ism Tr kT' PLACE IS PLACE FOR (After BURNS.) What though all honest men deride And call us dolts an' a that, Gie' Tories courage, honour, pride, We're still in place for a' that, For a that, an' a' that, Our ten defeats, an' a' that ; The man in place, though ne'er so base, Has got the best for a' that. Wha bends to a majority Gies up his place an' a' that; The Tory slave, we pass him by, And hand our place for a' that, For a that, an' a' that, Deserted bills, an' a that; • Repute's not worth the penny stamp, The gowd's the gowd for a' that. But let us pray that come it may, As come it will, for a' that, That those whose sires our fathers led May lead ourselves for a' that, For a' that, an' a' that, Whigs, parvenus, an' a that ; The taintless flood of Tory blood Is flowing still for a' that. KOSSUTH DEPUTATION TO THE PREMIER. Os Thursday last a deputation from the inhabitants of Sheffield, who had attended or taken part in the demonstration on the preceding Monday in honour of the cause of M. Kossuth and revolution, waited, by appointment, upon the Earl of Aberdeen. The deputation con sisted of Messrs. Whittle, Sheers, Gradgrind, Bounderby, Flywheel, Stubbs, Scraggs, Bumptious, Rivetts, Owlspiggle, Bradds, Bumble, Jawlingbury, Turnscrew, Wrench, and Cleucher. They were intro duced by Lord Dudley Stuart, and were received by Lord Aberdeen with a courtesy which seemed to excite some surprise among them. Lord DUDLEY STUART, in a neat, fluent, and epigrammatic speech of two hours and a quarter, briefly stated the objects of the deputation. He gave a lucid sketch of the history of Europe from the time of Peter the Great, and explained the three partitions of Poland, in 1772, 1793, and 1795, quoting the indignant sentiments of various impassioned members of the Marylebene vestry on the subject. He referred to the speech of M. Kossuth on the Monday, and read several columns of it to the Earl, who, during the process. kept his eyes closed, that his attention might not be disturbed by surrounding objects. Finally, he explained to Lord Aberdeen that the Sheffield meeting had been desirous to impress upon his Lordship that the war with Russia was not being carried on to their satisfaction. Lord ABERDEEN said that it gave him unfeigned pleasure to state that he quite concurred with the views of the deputation so far. The war was not being carried on to his satisfaction either. Mr. WHITTLE was happy to hear it. He knew that Lord Aberdeen was a Liberal Minister and the head of a Liberal Government. He supported the Coalition Ministry. But he would proceed to the matter in hand—the war. The Sheffield meeting deeply re-