The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

196 ,-_ ...t.' \+ much as can he squeezed out of the Govern ment for the sixty eight thousand square miles of district property which it retains so jealously in its own hands. There are millions of accumulated capital in India available for investment in any place by which profit can be realised ; but the people do not consider it profitable to waste their fortunes in making roads and other improvements to benefit the Company's lands. In India, as at home, they think it desirable to obtain a permanent title to property before sinking their money in giving to it a higher value. This it is that induces them to leave the Mofussil to Nature and the Company, while in Bombay itself a rich Parsee has no hesitation in laying out on lands and gardens and houses a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Let the tenure of the sixty-eight thousand square miles of dis trict be made the same as that of the nineteen square miles of Presidency, with a court equally independent and honest to guard the possessors against future resumption, and it will be very soon found that there is as much money available for improvements in the one circle as in the other. How indeed could it be otherwise, wheu soil, and climate, and people, and habits, are within both circles precisely the same? JEWISH DISABILITIES THE attention of Parliament must again soon be fixed on the subject of Jewish Disabilities. It is a practical and pressing question. The City of London persists in its choice of Baron ROTHSCHILD as one of its representatives, and while he is excluded from the House of Com mons, the first constituency of the empire is deprived of one of its members. At a meeting of the electors of the City of London this week, a report on the Disabilities of the Jews has been presented. The facts stated are remarkable. The removal of the Disabilities has been actively agitated for the last twenty-five years. In 1830, a bill for the purpose was carried through its first stage in the Commons by a majority of eighteen. In 1833, the principle had so far gained ground that the majority had risen to 137; in 1830 , the opposition had sank down to twenty-two. For seven successive sessions of Parlia ment, beginning with 1847, and ending with 1853, Bills for the repeal of the Dis abilities have passed the Commons House by considerable majorities, and been as regu larly rejected by the Lords. In 1854, the question met with the greatest check it has known since it was first mooted. An attempt was made, under cover of relieving the Jews from the necessity of making a Christian affirmation, to alter the whole system of oaths, and to free the Roman Catholics from the obligation of that declaration imposed on them by the Emancipation Act, as a security for the Established Church. The artifice was exposed, and defeated by a majority of four, and since then the excitement of the war has prevented any further agitation of the ques tion. It will now again be brought before the Legislature. In politics one is perpetually reminded of the reflection of BURKS, that our choice seldom lies between absolute good and absolute evil. The science of politics is a science of compro mise. Sometimes the decision must be made between lesser and greater goods; between lesser and greater evils ; between good and evil so mingled together on each side that it is ex tremely difficult to say which side should pre dominate. On this question we have, on the one hand, the broad principle of Christianity, which is dear to the religious world—and on the other, the fact that the sect which it would be the least dangerous to admit to legis lative privileges is the only one excluded from them. Romanists and Dissenters, let them say what they may, would pull down the Church if they could ; and men of republican tendencies would favour every measure to democratise the Constitution. But the Jew is Conservative in his nature. He has no care to proselytise —no wish to dominate. He is content to serve and wait, to fulfil the duties THE PRESS. of his individual sphere, and, in virtue of that citizenship of the world which he recognises as his part for the present in the scheme of Providence, to cast in his lot with the political fortunes of the country in which he is resi dent. If the sympathies of the Jewish com munity have a wider range, they are extended to kindred and race, not to political influences; and perhaps in this way, by acting as the threads which cement and bind together European society, they play a powerful though not conspicuous part in preventing any mighty rupture of international relations. It is urged that while the Legislature is professedly Christian, a great principle is maintained, To impair the sanctity of the national creed would be an evil superior in mag nitude to any which can result from uphold. ing it. While the words "On the true faith of a Christian " present themselves as a passport to admission to the Senate, it cannot be con tended that all regard to religious principle has been abolished. On the other side, it is argued that a Senate can be but representive of a nation, and that two or three Jews among some hundred mem bers in the Commons House can no more im pair its Christian character than two or three thousand Jews in a population of millions can impair the Christian character of the country. While the question of admitting the Jew to a participation in legislative power has been in debate, he has in reality been ad• mitted to a share in executive power. He is eligible, according to his social position, for all offices of civil magistracy, and is thought worthy of carrying out laws which he is ex cluded from all part in enacting. His good faith is made his bar to legislative power. No one doubts that there may be in the Senate greater infidels than the Jew; but our system accords to hypocrisy privileges which it re fuses to conscience. The practical embarrassment is greater than the difficulty of principle. Baron ROTHS CHILD has been a Member for the City of London for the last nine years. The House of Commons—with great moderation, but with great fairness and constancy—has declared for his admission; while the House of Peers has refused to sanction any measure for the purpose, This antagonism is unseemly—it is unconstitutional. Those absolute powers which any order possesses, and which are necessary to its independence, are not to be wantonly exercised. When they come into collision with the powers of another order equally independent, the grounds on which a stand is made must be carefully scrutinised. In this particular case it can hardly be alleged that the House of Peers is a better judge of what members should be admitted into the Commons House than the Commons them selves. How is the collision to end ? In quiet times it may subsist without danger, but should any political excitement arise, the popular party might insist on the admission of Baron ROTHSCHILD, as essential to the validity of the representative principle, and the Lords might see fit to yield to pressure what it denied to reason. While the City of London persists in its choice, and while the House of Commons supports it, there can be no other way of re moving the inconvenient antagonism between the two branches of the Legislature, than for the Upper House to concede the principle in dispute. That the question may come fairly before the Legislature, it is of importance that it should be debated on its own merits. The point is not whether it is expedient to alter the existing system of legislative oaths, but whe ther it is expedient to admit Jews into Parlia ment? The special issue raised demands a special decision. The case should be argued and judged on its own extremely narrow ground ; and we imagine the discussion would be most conveniently raised by a short Bill setting forth a particular affirmation, or oath, binding on the Jewish conscience, which would entitle any member of the Jewish faith, duly elected and otherwise qualified, to take his seat in Parliament. THE CURRENCY DEBATE. A DULL discussion on the currency was enli vened by some pleasantry from Mr. DRUMMOND. SATURDAY, 111 The currency doctors, as they are irreverently named, contradicted each other on funda mental points, as usual. Mr. MUNTZ, who made the motion, complained that the price of gold was fixed, and Mr. PEACOCKE that it was not fixed. If the latter gentleman was correctly reported, he must labour under a singular confusion of ideas. If a sovereign contained just a quarter of an ounce of gold, then he thought the price would be fixed, but not as it only contained 125 grains. Evidently the principle of fixedness must be the same, what. ever weight of metal a coin contains. If the currency theorists would look a little deeper than they commonly do, they would find that the price of gold is fixed in one sense and nut fixed in another. Really, though not nomi. nally, it must vary in value as the prices of commodities are affected by its relative scarcity or abundance. But as regards fixed money obligations its value is invariable. A debt of a hundred pounds must always represent the same quantity of gold, whether it be scarce or plentiful, cheap or dear ; whether the Bove reign represents a quarter of cqrn or a bushel. Had, previous to the gold discoveries, a great change in the value of the metal, as compared with commodities, taken place, it is doubtful whether the currency laws could have been maintained. As it is, we are in smooth water, and the only question is, whether considerable amendments may nut be made in the practical working of the Bank Charter Act. We think there may be ; but the subject must be approached in a different spirit to that displayed by Mr. MUNTZ on his motion. A copy of the Protocol of Warsaw, relative to the Danish succession and the renewal thereof by Russia in 1852, has been published by order of Parliament. His late Majesty Nicholas of Russia and the King of Denmark thereby agreed that the latter should designate the Prince and Princess of Glncksburg conjointly as heirs presumptive of his crown, in case of the male line of the actually reigning dynasty becoming extinct., and that if, to insure the success of this arrangement, further renunciations should be deemed desirable, it. would be for his Danish Majesty to make himself responsible for the indemnities for just and equitable claims. It is shown that the male lineage of Prince Christian, of Sleswig.Holstein- Sonderburg-Glucksburg,and his consort, the Princess Louise, of Hesse, unites in itself the rights of in heritance (failing the male dynasty now reigning), which devolve on it in virtue of the renunciations of the Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse, and her son and daughter. The Emperor of Russia, as chief of the elder branch of Holstein-Gottorp, was ready to renounce his eventful rights in favour of the Prince of Glucksburg and the male lineage. The eventual rights, however, of the two younger branches of Holstein Gottorp were expressly reserved, and those of the elder branch as well, whenever the male lineage of the Prince of Glucksburg should become extinct. This renunciation was to be conditional on the success of the arrangement. The Board of Trade have issued an account of the Customs' duties received during the past year as com pared with the two preceding years. As regards tea and sugar, the fact of the intended reduction of duties having been arrested, has been followed by a consi derable increase of receipts. Coffee, likewise, is on the favorable side, but on spirits, wine, provisions, fruits, and spices, the payments exhibit a decrease. The revenue from tobacco is maintained with remark. able steadiness. Timber presents a falling off, con sequent upon the check given by the war to public undertakings. The excise statements for the pa st year have also been issued. All the articles show a decrease, with the exception of hops, of which the yield was extraordinary. Parliamentary committees have assembled during the week, and commenced or continued from last session their various inquiries. The committee upon the adulteration of food, drinks, and thugs. this week examined Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor, who gave a lengthened evidence in favour of the exist ence of a vast amount of adulteration of one sort and another. Mr. Alison, the tea merchant, also under went examination ; he denied that tea was frequently adulterated, and doubted very much if sugar wad either. Committees have also sat upon the forma tion of parishes, and on the establishment of a public prosecutor. The members appointed to serve as chairmen of election committees are—Mr. G. M. Butt, Mr. G. A. Hamilton, Mr. Ingham, Mr. Her Seymer, Sir W. M. Somervi lle and Mr. Stuart Wortley.