The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-02 00:00:00

MAY 2, 1857. must not in China attempt to repeat the old story of aggrandisement in Hindostan. The immediate point for consideration is how we shall soonest put an end to the conflict. if local prejudices and provocations compel us to action, then let the war be pushed with vigour and success; but as peace must come some time or the other, let us weigh well the basis upon which we are disposed to form a solid and durable peace, that shall preserve to us the reasonable privileges of trade, and to the Chinese security from unjust aggression. When TAYLOR—popularly known as the devil's chaplain—once solicited the appointment to a certain proprietary chapel, he was met by the objection that they desired to have a preacher of strong Calvanistic doctrines. He replied promptly, " I know all the doctrines, and I'll preach whichever you please." Is not Lord PALMERSTON'S position at this moment pretty nearly that of the candid divine ? He knows all the doctrines, from the dogmas of the Duke of WEL LINGTON'S time to the last latitudinarianisms of Whiggery. The man who has changed compliments with NICHOLAS, and coquetted with KOSSUTH, must needs have a wide range on his gamut. The Duke's henchman, Lord JoHN's Lieutenant, SYMES' sister, PERRY'S mother, &c., must have claims to experience at least, and may well say that he knows all the doctrines; and of his readiness to teach the popular one, who can doubt ? Besides, has he not declared it at Tiverton ? Have we not heard that when Reform is agreed to without, he is quite prepared to ratify the decision within the House? The fact of how popular will is to he tested and ascertained, being one of the difficulties he has not troubled himself to touch on. No ! like TAYLOR, he regards Radicalism as only ono of the doctrines he is perfectl y willing and ready to preach. TAYLOR, too, may have had his leanings ; he may have liked this or that line of belief, he may have felt mere kindly disposed to one class of argument or opinion than the other ; and we have little doubt that the Noble Lord may have weaknesses of the same sort. His friends, in all the indiscretion of friendship. tell us that he really has such leanings; they hint that, though fond of disturbance abroad, he desires peace and a strong Government at home ; and that as to " Liberal " policy, he is quite satisfied to take it out, " where it can do no mischief to home affairs." Now, we own we are not of this opinion ; we think better of him than that ; we discard the dishonesty of this suspicion, and firmly believe that levity is the true clue to his nature. The same flippancy that prompts him to reply in the House, assists him when he indites a despatch to a Foreign Minister. He is very light-hearted, and of easy conscience. Principles have no terror for him. There is no stern obduracy in consenting to affright. In a word, he knows all the doc trines. and the session will show if he be not ready to preach that demanded of him. The Transit is doomed to be the lnite noir of the Admiralty. Her engines turn surly in one instance, she grinds a hole in her forefoot on another, and now she is driven into Corunna to refit after one week at sea. But although the incapacity of a Whig Admiralty Board is sufficiently notorious, we do not see how they are to blame for the two last disasters to the Transit. The former was clearly the fault of the officers in charge. It was a lulTherly act to allow the ship to foul her own anchor in a tideway ; and the latter to some extent is simply a result common to ships newly fitted and encountering bad weather in the Bay. Whether it was necessary to take refuge in Corunna must be settled between the captain and the Admiralty ; but we recog nise in the Times' letter this week nothing more than the ordinary inconveniences attending a first week of foul weather. That letter is clearly the production of a soldier unaccustomed to the pleasures of a gale of wind ; and, in spite of all his lugubrious and foolish predic tions, the friends of those on board may rest assured that the Transit, if no better, is certainly no worse than the greater number of her Majesty's or merchant ships, and that, in spite of all her misfortunes, she has as good a chance as the best of them of not only weathering the Cape, but of reaching Hong Kong in perfect safety. THE PRESS. THE PREMIER'S ACADEMY SPEECH. [As the dinner at the Royal Academy does not take place this year, we have much pleasure in giving publicity to the address which it had been the intention of the noble head of the Government to deliver upon that interesting occasion. We have introduced the cheers and other demonstrations which we are sure the speech would have elicited.] Mr. President, my Lords, and Gentlemen. The living and the dead are but as pictures, and it is the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil—two remarks which I believe I have read in one of Shakespeare's plays. We find ourselves surrounded by pictures, and the quotation is therefore perfectly applicable ; and as it is a difficult thing to say anything new where people have met for so many years for the purpose of complimenting one another, one is grateful for a citation that launches one at once in mediae res. As for a painted devil, I ought to add that I do not at this moment see one, and I am rather glad of it, for the individual referred to is one whom I have always been desirous to—to—to disfranchise, if my noble friend the Member for London will allow me to make use of the word. (Laughter.) Still, lam quite sure that if it had been necessary for any of th 334 accomplished artists whom I see around me to paint that—that— individual, they would have succeeded in the effort, and I am sure, as impartial and right-minded men, would not have painted him blacker than he is. (Applause.) Mr. President and Gentlemen, I pro fess myself without affectation to be a great admirer of the noble art to whose interests these dinners are devoted. If I might say so, lam a kind of dabbler in it myself. I recently had to sketch a view of operations in China, and, although it certainly was objected that I had rather brought the background into the foreground and introduce d in some false lights—(Hear, hear —there was no denying, I believe, the strength of my treatment, or the brilliancy of my colouring. So that I may call myself an artist—in fact, if you will allow me to say so, I am a wholesale artist, for I made an exhibition of myself. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I was detained so long at my office—l won't say whether I was engaged in the details of a Reform Bill or not, because I think with so many good pictures around me it would be an insult to hint at amended representation.—(loud cheers)—but I was detained so long that I have not had an opportunity of looking round the rooms. But if your canvass has been as lucky as mine, you will have no cause to grumble. (Hear, hear.) I don't see a picture of my noble friend the Member for London. There was one a year or two ago, which was exactly like Mr. Charles Kean. I think you ought to have one of me, this year, that should also be like Mr. Charles Kean, because he has been playing with great éclat my character of Richard 11., which you know I took at the time of the Sebastopol rebellion. (Great laughter.) I think you should paint my noble friend as Bolingbroke, because people say that he would like to dethrone me, poor Richard. (Roars of laughter, in which Lord John Russell joined.) When I say " poor Richard," it reminds me of proverbs, of which you know I am rather fond, and there is a proverb that occurs to me when I think of my noble friend the Member for London, namely, that you shouldn't sell the bear's skin before you have killed him. However, a truce to politics, which, indeed, I should not have introduced at all, but that my noble friend keeps glancing so continually at that picture of King John putting his name to a little matter, and I can't help thinking that my noble friend will have something to say about that parchment the King is signing. (Laughter.) lam very glad to see that you, Mr. President, have invited several other friends of mine. I see my friend the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, and I am pleased to behold him taking a little pleasure, for his work is cut out, I can tell him. To adopt an artistic phrase, " with figures, and a storm coming on "—that de scribes where my friend will be. (Laughter.) Ah ! he won't laugh, and you may paint him, if you like, as " Ulysses opening the budgets, and raising the wind." ( Laughter.) By the way, it was not Ulysses, but his men, and as my classical friend is particular about Greek mutters, I correct myself. I observe, too, that you have got my friend the Lord Chancellor, and I wish that some of the sculptors would take him in hand, and make him their apprentice, because then, perhaps, he would learn to cut a prettier figure than at present. (Applause) However, he means to be a good boy this half, and to do away with the scandal that says that in his place in the Lords he resembles the pro portions in Falstaff's tavern bill—a halfporth of law to an enormous lot of sack. Who else da I see ? My friend the Whip, who made the blunder on Thursday, and appointed the wrong time for the meet. He has got hard work before him, too, for he has to learn the names and ways of a load of men whom he never saw or heard of before, and he has to convince every one of them that he is the finest fellow in the world, and destined for office, if he will only take care to vote right and regularly. He'd make a good study for Noah, driving the queer beasts, two and two, into the Ark —(laughter)—if any of you are in that line of art. Well, Mr. President, we have had a remarkably good dinner, for which we are very much your debtors, and I notice the delicate attention of putting a willowpattern plate before me. It reminds me, as it was intended to do, of my dear friends the Chinese, but for whom I might have been hanging my harp upon a willow of my own. They are a very delightful nation, but you must observe that they do not understand perspective ; and I am quite sure that, as artists, you must all feel that it is our duty as a civilised people to give them that knowledge in common with other blessings, and there fore that you will all Sympathise in Dr. Bowring's war. I will only add that if I can promote the prosperity of art in any way during the coming session it will give me very sincere pleasure to do so ; and, though I can't supply you with any /ay-figures, I'll make as many bishops as I can for you, and you know 'Tis from high life high characters are drawn ; A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn. (Applause.) Mr. President, my Lords, and Gentlemen, I beg to return you my best thanks, and to express in all seriousness my hope for the prosperity of the Royal Academy, whose works no good judge can condemn, though they ought all to be hung as soon as possible. (Long and rapturous cheers, especially from the Lord Chancellor, who has compre hended this last joke ) REPRESENTATION OF CALNE. General Williams, of Calne and Kars, Is a shockingly obstinate son of Mars, And won't give way to entreaty ; A strong objection he seeing to feel To resign the borough to Frederick Peel, Or the city to General Kmety.