The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

1228 THE WEEK. TH ERE are strong' symptoms that the " Palmerston fit" is rapidly leaving the public. Returns from the recent elections show that a healthier action is taking place in opinion, and that the temporary delusion about Lord PALMERSTON being the " man for the time'' is beginning to subside. A year has not yet passed since the last gene ral election, when so many independent Members of Parliament were sacrificed to the Chinese imbroglio. Since then Mr. CARDWELL has been returned for Oxford, Mr. BRIGHT for Birmingham, Mr. W. J. Fox for Oldham, and Mr. MILKER GIBSON has been triumphantly elected for Ashton. It is to be noted, also, that Mr. CARDWELL was returned without a personal canvass, and that Mr. BRIGHT was chosen without opposition. Yet the Liberals clamoured against these gentlemen, and subsequently acquiesced in their return. This tossing to and fro is not creditable to the constancy of character in Liberalism. We are glad to see gentlemen of talent and independence again returned to Parliament, even though we cannot concur in their principles ; but it would have been far better for the character of " Liberalism" if it had never excluded them. A cry went forth from the Treasury, and it was resolved to victimise all independent Liberals ; it succeeded for a time, and the Liberal party was left with official chiefs, and a numerous fol lowing of undistinguished members. Neither Sir JOHN POTTER nor Mr. ASPINA LL TURNER, the new Members for Manchester, have as yet given any proofs of their competency to fill the seats for Manchester from which Messrs. BRIGHT and GIBSON were ejected. As yet none of the new supporters introduced at the last election under the auspices of the Treasury have shown signs of Parliamentary distinction. Mr. MILNER GIBSON is a gentleman of much knowledge, and bis capacity for statement of his opinions has secured him " the ear "of the House. He is not a place-hunter, and it cannot be said that he is " a tribune," as many of his opinions run counter to the coarse prejudices of popular classes in the country. He is a rich Radical, with ready talent in discussion and great experience, and he is certainly a most formidable opponent to the clique known as " the servile Whigs." It is rather strange that the Radical party, which has numbered so many reputations in modern Liberalism, should have obtained such little official power. The Whigs still insist on retain ing the Cabinet exclusively for themselves, and that particular branch of "Administrative Reform" is one peculiarly in the lino of Mr. MILNER Grimm The subject is one of wide importance, and it could be effectively treated only by a leader of the Radical party. The frequency of Cabinet Councils within the last week has excited very general attention, but there is one omission connected with the official report of all these Cabinet Councils held under the Administration of Lord PALMERSTON which must strike every observer. No mention is ever made of the period of time which elapsed from the meeting to the breaking up of each Council. This departure from established custom is somewhat remarkable. The Indian Reformers have hitherto not been very happy in their efforts. They meet not to discuss the great question of the future government of India, but to propose some crude scheme or some hasty crotchet of their own, and tie it up with an extension of the suffrage or the six points of the Charter. This is not the way to arrive at any definite or satisfactory conclusion. Do Mr ROEBUCK and his friends, when they pro pose to make Indian reorganisation dependent upon Parliamentary Reform, really believe that these two great questions have a necessary connection? It is altogether a contemptible effort to excite a reform agitation through sepoy atrocity and Indian misrule. What the people of this country want at this moment is information upon the point of " responsibility "—who is responsible for the present state of India? That is the question the country wants answered ; and we think Mr. COLLETT, at St. Martin's-hall the other night, when he drew the distinction between acts of policy and acts of Administration, hit the blot. There is a separate responsibility attached to each. The civil administration of the East India Company has been bad enough ; but what more particularly concerns us at present is that system of policy pursued in India which by its aggressive wars and ruthless annexa tions has brought upon us this inevitable crisis. If the Indian Re formers would devote themselves to the exposition of this point, the public would derive some benefit from their meetings. The Supplementary Report on the subject of the Purchase of Commissions sent in by . certain officers who dissent from the Report given in by their colleagues some months ago is deserving of con aid erable attention. The present document points out the extreme difficulty of finding any efficient substitute for the purchase system — the fact that promotion by merit is quite compatible with the maintenance of that system—that so far from being opposed to the sentiment of the time, the Indian army has been obliged to adopt it under ; 1 . 1 101.111cY 118111 C—while the py:letiee is already creeping intocontinentalarini es . They draw attention to the difference in the case of the navy, in which officers are periodically paid ofl•, and dwell much on THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857. the hardship that would be undergone by a regimental officer who, after a long period of irksome colonial service, should see some officer on the staff selected for promotion over their heads. A still more important point touched upon is the difference between men and officers in England compared with the difference in other countries. Here, as we do not profess to exercise the same rigidity of discipline, respect must be maintained by the existence of social and traditionary relations between the two classes—a basis of order, we need not add, of a much more satisfactory character than one depending on mere military rank. These are some of the principal reasons on which Com - missioners ELLICE, WYNYARD, and BENTINCK ground their dissent from their colleagues. We are inclined, on the whole, to take the same view; and we hope their suggestions may be listened to. It is often extremely difficult to give the exact authority on which statements resting on the most solid foundation have been made. If the real facts be disputed, it is not so easy to apportion to each wit ness his exact amount of responsibility. It is obvious, even from the letter of Mr. ANDERSON, that thero were abundant grounds for Lord DERBY'S believing that he was fully justified in his original assertion about the communication between Government and the Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The main point, after all, is, was any communication made by the Board of Control after the arrangements in question had been concluded? Lord GRANVILLE, when on behalf of Mr. VERNON Spurn he denied the authenticity of the statement made by Lord DERBY, did so upon the ground that no written communication of the sort was ever made by the President of the Board of Control, or received by the Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company. But what do we find ? Though no " written communication" was made, a verbal communication actually took place; and after all the arrangements for the transport of the troops had been concluded with the Government through the East India Board, a special messenger positively came down from the President of the Board of Control to inquire whether such an arrangement could be entertained ! In such a case as this, the details do not affect the fact. Whether Mr. VERNON SMITH used. black wax or red, or sent a letter, or a boy to carry the message, does not relieve hint of the charge of hiving made the inquiry ; and, in point of fact, it is no matter whether the communication was written or verbal, so long as the communication was made. Lord GRANVILLE is an amiable man, and anxious to do his best for the defence of hi colleagues, but in what a position does he now stand? In his anxiety to conceal the shortcomings of Mr. VERNON SMITH, he has relied on the technical meaning of a word, and has emphatically denied, under one term, the occurrence of a circumstance which took place under another. It is impossible to regard without pity the indiscretion which induced him to accept such an obvious subterfuge for emphatic disproof. It is clear that Lord DERBY was substantially right in his statement, and we observe that independent journals which have commented upon the circumstances remain of that opinion. The question of Penal Servitude versus Transportation has been mooted again during the present week. The two great evils of an extensive prison system have both received somo illustration. The inferiority of prison discipline as a means of reformation on the ono hand, and the invidious contrast presented by its gastronomic advantages on the other, have been exemplified by the result of the torture-belt at Dartmoor, and the comparative tables of prison and workhouse diet published in a morning contemporary. Those violent and rugged natures whom our artificial civilisation has driven into crime can only be exasperated by the endurance of penal servitude; and that punishment can only be rendered effective by a system of severity alien to English habits of thought, and injurious to tho national character. While, on the other hand, criminals of this de scription require but the freer atmosphere of a colonial settlement, and the outlet thereby afforded to their superabundant energies, to become honest men and useful pioneers of progress. The irritating and demoralising spectacle of " pampered prisoners " is another powerful argument against any home substitute for transportation. And we most sincerely trust that no true friends of social amelioration will permit this matter to drop. Our colonial facilities should be taxed to the uttermost before we give up the attempt to establish fresh penal settlements. Next to education this is the most important domestic difficulty. Education will improve the soil, but the law must weed the crop ; and our care should be to deport what is worthless or mischievous here to countries where it may become useful and profitable. The great commercial epidemic which burst out in America, and appeared soon after in London, is rapidly extending throughout the whole commercial system of Europe. From New York to London, from London to Hamburg, and from Hamburg to Sweden, and houses up the Baltic and through Germany. it is now raging with extra ordinary vigour. It has seized Berlin, and it threatens St. Peters• burg, and, like another epidemic, may only terminate by losing itself for the time in the Siberian Steppes. In each great commercial city we see tho State called in to give aid to the sinking houses. Without State assistance scarcely a house could hare stood in any of the com mercial capitals. In Hamburg, Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, and London, State aid, or State interference, has been called for and given. In Hamburg a " Commission of Confidence " has been formed to dis tribute the ten millions granted by the Government. A " Commission of Confidence " ! What a comment on that mercantile system which was the boast of Europe and the world. The whole commercial system ii V