The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

- - mind with respect to certain recent transactions in Irish affairs , and we can hardly suppose that even the present Ministry will be unani mous in leaning with exclusive severity on the Protestants of Ireland. The trial which has recently occupied so large a share of public attention and so many columns of the daily press—that, we mean, of Captain THORNE and EvANs for an attempt at extortion—has been ter minated by the conviction of the prisoners, and their condemnation to a year's imprisonment. It would be presumption in us to deny the justice of the verdict. There is, indeed, that indefinable air of " the adventurer" about one of the defendants which would have predisposed us to an opinion of his guilt. " Captain Tl•orne of the " Prince's Club, Leicester-square," has a very odd sound. The Gallant Captain's counsel does not seem to have been able to identify either his company or his club. Confessedly, therefore, we have no pre possessions in favour of either of the defendants. At the same time, we should be failing in our duty as public journalists if we omitted to point out that Mr. CADOGAN, though doubtless innocent of the full offence imputed to him, does seem to have acted with indiscretion in the exercise of his functions. Here was a man in command of the earliest information relative to the Money Market of Europe ; an admitted speculator, and in the habit of visiting his broker three times a day. These facts speak for themselves. The complex ma chinery of modern civilisation demands the management of the most devoted and usefully selected instruments. Without the slightest imputation on his honour, it may be doubted whether the Hon. Mr. CADOGAN came up to the standard. We should much like to see the face of Sir RICHARD BETHELL, if anyone laid a case " for the advice and opinion " of that eminent person as to the degree of reputation which should be assigned to his colleague, Mr. Solicitor-General KEATINGE. In the last session, when the Divorce Bill was before the House, the assistance of the Solicitor- General was not of much use, apparently, to his chief, at the time when Mr. GLADSTONE and others were affording the Attorney-General several opportunities for exhibiting the serenity of his temper and the artless simplicity of his disposition. Mr. KEATINGE has not yet made any name in Parliament; and his most elaborate effort some years ago caused members of the House of Commons to think of " Keating's Cough Lozenges." His speech this week at Reading will not much raise his credit as a speaker. Postprandial eloquence, to be sure, is not severely to be criticised, as those who entertained Sir CHARLES NAPIER at the Reform Club will readily admit. But really the extravagance of the Solicitor-General in contending that the energy of the Cabinet in despatching to India 29,000 men in four months was "without parallel" in the history of England is too absurd. A gentleman of his name wrote the legendary history of Ireland ; and the Solicitor-General is not ill-qualified for attempting a fabulous history of England. His visions, while on his legs, must have been of a most ecstatic character, and he might have forgotten that there was such a person in the world as Sir RICHARD BETHELL. if Mr. KEATINGE would read Lord HARROWBY'S speech delivered on Wednesday, the Learned Gentleman's poetical imagination may become more prosaic. Office produces extraordinary freaks in forsensic per sonages ; and such an hysterical oration as the Solicitor-General's deserved a hurricane of hiccups. We dare say that many of our readers have been either amused or indignant, according to their respective temperaments, by the peru sal of a scene that took place at the Marlborough Police-court on Tuesday last. Two cavalry officers of the class on which Mr. THACKE• RAY has long delighted to whet his wit, were charged with endeavour ing to rescue a woman from the grasp of the police. The alleged offence took place in a locality which is said to be one of the reproaches of London—namely, the Haymarket—at the small hours of the night, and the distressed damsel was alleged by the guardians of the peace to have been " drinking." In this condition it appears that she encountered some young lady with whom she imagined her self to have cause of quarrel, and a very noisy dialogue straightway ensued between them, which unhappily terminated in " the female prisoner" being forcibly conveyed to the station-house. With the gal lantry of their age and profession the two young officers at once inter fered between their natural enemies, the police, and the aforesaid " female in distress," and in return for their chivalrous conduct were carried off likewise to that limbo of choice spirits near the police-court. The whole transaction is trifling and commonplace enough, and cannot be described in any very serious language ; but our reason for alluding to it is that in our opinion the conduct both of magistrate and policeman on these occasions will be all the better fur knowing that it is occasionally scrutinised. On this occasion one of the cul prits placed himself so decidedly in the wrong by the language uttered by him in court that he scarcely deserves to have his cause pleaded. But for the sake of the general public we think it right to say thus much, that in cases of this description the magistrate places himself far too much in the hands of the police. These honest fellows make no scruple of be. having to that unfortunate class which has no protectors with a degree of brutality that is disgusting. And if any unlucky gentleman, more THE PRESS, OCTOBER 31, 1857. sensitive than sagacious, has the rashness to remonstrate, he runs the risk of being locked up all night, and placed in the dock nest morning alongside of some abandoned woman, as if they were oid acquaint ances. This alone is sufficiently trying to any respectable man. But the magistrate almost invariably adopts the statement of the police, fines " the male prisoner," and dismisses him with some curt admonition as to the consequences of a profligate life. To these indignities are men of the purest morals and most respect able lives subjected by the irresponsible tyranny of the street con stables and the misplaced confidence of the police magistrate. We intrust a most delicate duty, demanding keen intelligence for its proper discharge, to a class of men that cannot be expected invariably to possess these qualities. And then the magistrate, instead of makin g ; up for the deficiency by examining their statements in the. light of his own superior judgment, flings himself blindly into their arms, and, to save himself trouble, perpetually repeats the hackneyed platitude, that " the police must be supported." The accuracy of our remarks last week on the probable effect of the American cr;sis upon our Money Market has been so far satisfac torily established. All apprehension of a drain of specie from this country to America has ceased. In fact, the tenor of the last intelli gence (17th of October) from America, demonstrates how unfavour able a result will crown even the small shipments of specie which were made to New York on the receipt of tke first intelligence of the crisis. Sufficient time has scarcely elapsed to test to the full extent the mischief done by this crisis to our mercantile community, and it would be rash to assert that the evils of a too-extended trade with our Transatlantic cousins will not yet be felt, and perhaps with some seve_ rity, by the American houses here. Should such disasters occur, they will be the more to be regretted, as the crisis was more or less beyond ordi nary foresight, and had its origin, not in an undue extension of ordinary trade, but rather in wild speculations fostered by the unscrupulous con duct of bankers, who, when the consequences of their recklessness became evident, exhibited a want of tact that only aggravated the severity of the crisis they had themselves brought about. The main danger to our merchants will be that of their correspondents in the United States being either unable to make their remittances, or too anxious to avail themselves of the crisis as a pretext for postponing the pay ment of their debts. But the very fact of the sudden recovery of the exchanges at New York tends to show that there is no want of ability or desire to remit to this country. The suspension of one bank at Liverpool, and the circumstance that one of the Scotch banks has only obtained assistance to enable it to carry on its business under the condition of an immediate liquidation, by no means proves the severity of the effects of the crisis. We have no doubt that the investigation and results will show simply that the business of the banks in question has not been carried on in accordance with ccrrect principles, and will prove the soundness of the discretion exercised by the Bank of England in withholding aid in the one case, and appending a condition to it in the other. There have been rumours of some further difficulties of a similar nature, which happily up to the present time have not assumed a tangible form. We are, of course, not prepared to say that they may not occur, but we feel confident that if they do, their cause will be found in faults of management, of which the public have lately had but too many specimens, and not fr om the effect of the American panic. In a statement last week referring to the recent trials of the mon ster mortar at Woolwich we unwittingly did an injustice to an eminent mathematician, Dr. HART, of Trinity College, Dublin, by stating that the mortar was the sole invention of Captain BLAKELY, of the Royal Artillery. A correspondent this week informs us that the principle upon which these mortars are constructed was simultaneously dis covered by Captain BLAKELY, R A., and Dr. HART. There appears also to be a curious history attached to the practical application of the discovery. The novelty is that every portion of the gun is made to take more nearly an equal amount of strain than in a cast-iron gun, in which the outer portions scarcely help at all, the inner part always splitting first. This is effected by making the gun of concentric cylin ders one over the other, the outer ones being put on hot and allowed to shrink. Mr. MALLET, celebrated for his metallurgical knowledge, having obtained his information from Dr. HART, brought the matter before Lord PALMERSTON ; and Lord PALMERSTON, overruling all the objections of the War Department and the Select Committee, ordered Mr. MALLETS to be attended to; and that gentleman, we believe, obtained no less than 15,0001. from Government to make two mortars. Nosy, itj is only fair to Captain BLAKELY to state that meanwhile, at his own expense, he had made several guns, but, not enjoying the material assistance accorded in other quarters, was unable to obtain the notice of the Government, although one of his guns tried against guns of like size now in the service showed an immense superiority. One of the first iron-manufacturers in England offered to the Government to supply, at 8001. a gun, 10 inch guns on Captain BLAKELY'S plan, which should throw shot weighing a quarter of a ton each. This was during the siege of Sebastopol. It is due to the Whig Government of the day to state that this proposition has not been kept " under consideration," but was pooh-poohed at once. Consistency could not be sacrificed by such a vigorous measure, and after two years 15,0001. have been spent iu the production of two mortars on the same principle. 1061