The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-13 00:00:00

42 rather than from the resources of his own mind. In his conclusions on moral questions a certain timidity is apparent. He has great clearness of view within his mental range, and the candour of his nature gives a judicial tone to the language of his decisions, even when the logical enunciation of opposing arguments is not critically balanced. In some points he is constitutionally orthodox according to the Blackstonean creed, while occasionally he is as heterodox as if he were a Benthamite or a Cabinet Minister selected from the Westmin ster reviewers. Wo shall exemplify some of these characteristics in his volume. At page 44 Mr. Homersham Cox writes : - - By the admirable balance of the Constitution the several branches of the Legislature are kept in mutual check, so that neither may gain supreme power, which is the ambi tion of all ruling bodies, and the greatest source of danger to a commonwealth. And he then cites a long and well-known pas sage from Blackstone. But he never cares to inquire whether this " balance of the Consti tution' be a reality or a fiction, and, although he applies to it the epithet " admirable," our commentator does not investigate whether the important changes of 1831.2 had any serious effect upon disturbing or extinguishing this boasted balance. Upon this question of the reality of the three powers a constitutional writer might dissent very profitably. We know that,in his brilliant anti-Reform speeches, Mr. Canning, in presence of many living per sons, often asserted that the abolition of the rotten boroughs would derange the harmo nious acting of the branches of the Legisla ture. Within recent years, also, distinguished statesmen have declared that the House of Lords had become a mere " Chamber of the " registration to the Commons." We recol lect, too, that Sir Robert Peel once rashly said that " the government of the country " must be carried on through the House of " Commons "—a most dangerous maxim, as in times' when parties are nearly equal a score of unprincipled or malignantly-factious men might decide the destiny of years. Nor can we forget that Lord Derby has repeatedly called attention to the encroachments by the House of Commons on the time and privi leges for legislation which are the co-equal inheritances of the House of Peers. Mr. Cox, also, might have investigated the small pro portion of members to agricultural consti tuencies, and the fact of such a large proportion of the Lower House being subject to urban influences. These are matters which have close and actual relationship to the " admira " ble balance of powers." On the subject of " party" in politics the author is about as un-English in his modes of thinking as if he were a I'eelite. He repeats certain passages from Burke, Lord John Rus sell, and Lord Brougham, and condemns the whole system of " party " in the following words : If I understand aright anything of the teachings of modern history, they are gradually inculcating the lesson that party is a rude and barbarous instrument of legislation, only less bad than that legislation by despotic power which it supplanted. And he concludes the passage with the fol lowing declamatory utterance of a Utopian vision : We may fain hope that the era is coming—is at hand— when party, having done that great task, will itself be at an end. Nor is that too bright a hope of the progress ofcivili tuition which anticipates the time when legislation will no longer depend on the relative strength of conflicting in terests ;—when the interests of the whole commonwealth will be seen to be so inseparably connected that the injury of one is the injury to all—justice to one, justice to all. In all of his remarks on the question of party we can trace the fallacies of a closet-thinker. He does not look abroad into the world, and see the advantages which more than compen sate for the evils of politicians combined into party. Nor does he distinguish between the spirit of faction and the principles of party. The history of the unsuccessful National As semblies of France, and of the anomalous junctions of American politicians, might teach him the value of organisations with principles on our English method. In France and America popular government has been often brought into disrepute by the anarchy result ing from want of party, and the waste of strife engendered by knots of petty pretenders, who would have been only political subalterns where THE PRESS. " party " of a high constitutional school is preserved. Nor does Mr. Homersham Cox seem to be aware that the time of the Legisla ture is actually economised by party arrange ments. Abolish its institution, and instead of great parliamentary battles fought under chosen leaders identified with definite views, you will have a teazing, vexatious system of guerilla politics, under which disconnected skirmishers will harass the public attention until it becomes indifferent to great aims. Those accustomed to political transactions will apprehend the force of these considerations, which have more or less influenced the reasons why all our English statesmen, from Walpole and Bolingbroke to Lord John Russell and Mr. Disraeli, have strongly supported the institution of government by party. In Lord Nugent's " Memorials of Hampden" the origin of our system of political party is referred to the reign of James 1., when some leading members of Parliament occupied themselves with exposing the delinquencies of high officers of State. The passage is worth quoting, in opposition to Mr. Cox's extremely narrow and partial views : It is to this period, and to these men, that we trace the formation of the system of parliamentary party, and the first workings of that spirit of political union on which it depends—a spirit plainly, and in the highest degree important to liberty, and which it has therefore been ever since the great business of arbi trary politicians to discredit in the estimation of the country. A system of association, founded not upon the surrender of principles, but upon the compromise of ex treme opinions, and which, while it affords to the people the only effectual defence against the corrupt influences of a Government, raises up for the sovereign the only lasting security against those violent enterprises which, where Parliamentary party is unknown, are the ordinary and only effectual checks upon regal power.—p. 21. The ballot is a subject of which people are weary, and philosophical arguments in favour of secret suffrage are read with impatience on a question utterly exhausted, and involving no appeal to national associations of a gene rous kind. The author does not perceive that the " Know-Nothing Society " in America, with its powerful influence, proves clearly that ballot is a complete failure. According to English modes of thinking, a secret society, however worthy may be its objects, is decidedly unconstitutional as to its means, and it would not be difficult to show that the adoption of the ballot would give a quasi legitimacy to the organisation of secret political societies. Neither does Mr. Cox perceive that the power of " fashion " could virtually repeal a statute in favour of secret voting. When gentlemen of spirit would wear their colours in their hats, we may be certain that other classes in the community would soon follow their example. On the nice questions involved in " delega tion " and " representation " the essayist writes with ability, but he is evidently not familiar with parliamentary life, of which he has only a casual spectator's knowledge. He does not seem to be aware that if constituen cies often press on their members too impera• tively, on the other hand their representatives have considerable reciprocal influences to bring to bear. After five years an intelligent member of Parliament ought to know the county and city for which he sits better than any other individual in it. On particular questions gentlemen are often sent into Par liament in a style partaking of delegation, but on imperial subjects they are practically free. It is manifest, however, that the danger of mere delegation is to be apprehended from self-constituted democratic societies, such as we have seen more than once in the last sixty years. Many parts of this essay are written with fluency of rhetoric, and as a specimen of his more popular manner we shall select Mr. Homersham Cox's tribute to an English news paper : An English newspaper is certainly a marvellous produc tion. The immense amount of intelligence which issues every morning from the press has, for the most part, been collected from innumerable sources in all parts of the king dom but a few hours before. From the senate, the forum, and the mart, from the highways of commerce by sea and land, from the thronged streets and crowded ports, from every great haunt of men, every seat of political events throughout the globe, and by the most refined mechanical means, the information of the daily sheet has to be col lected. How many agencies, political, material and intel lectual) are at work to produce it 1 and every one of them SATURDAY, I is a condition essential to its production. An English newspaper is an example of the combined effect of free in. stitutions ; for were nut the national institutions free, free criticism, the very life of the press, would be impracticable . —of immense energy ; for the powers mental and me• chanical, which are at work the livelong night to produce the morning newspaper, are taxed to their utmost ;—of division of labour; for unless the labours of reporting, editing, and printing, were divided according to a system, carried, apparently, to the pitch of perfection, the most vigorous mew, and the most robustpowers of endurance, would be inadequate to the accomplishment of the re. quired task ;—of the resources of vast capital ; for of every part of the civilised world the news is collected, digested, and recorded ;—of extensive learning; for nearly every branch of history, law, political economy, literature, esthetics, ethnology, statistical lore, and constitutional and moral philosophy, is laid under contribution ;—of me chanical genius ; for the most subtle contrivances are tie. cessary in order to effect the printing with sufficient rapidity ; and, lastly, an insatiable public appetite for political knowledge ; for it is this universal demand which alone sustains the exertion of those energies by which a newspaper is produced. If the author had practical knowledge of journalism he would have dwelt on the exces sive rapidity with which at the latest hour important matter must be treated. Little do readers of newspapers know the pressure upon the mental powers demanded in producing the English journal. We recollect how Lord Lyndhurst once paid a public tribute of his admiration to the versatile and ready talent which the Loudon journalists display. We had marked some other passages for extract, but want of space compels us to pause. Mr. Homersham Cox will probably not rest content with his present performance. We think that he is better suited for scientific than popular subjects; his habits of thought have apparently been acquired in the closet, and we doubt whether politics are most appro priate to his powers. Much of Blackstone's work is now obsolete, and Stephen's commen taries are, by their expensive price, removed from popular circulation. " Blackstone on the British Constitution," including the whole of the first and the conclusion of the fourth volume, would be a useful popular work, if edited with competent literary illustration, partaking of a legal character. Mr. Cox's reading has lain amongst our political text writers, and he would be equal to editing such a volume. But in that, or any similar production, he should be more sparing of quotations from Lord John Russell, whom he has cited almost as deferentially as the noble member for London would upon quoting from " my Lud Somers, sir." A Month in the Camp before Sebastopol. By:a. Non-Combatant. London : Longmans. Ix a hundred and twenty-five some what widely• printed pages our Non• Combatant gives a simple, unpretending, honest sketch of his experience of camp life for a month before Sebastopol, and in turning over its pages we find neither pretence nor speculation, but cheerful common sense, good English, and no small amount of sagacity in the remarks. Our Non-Combatant, who is a Templar (but not Mr. Kinglake), left England in September for the vacation, and bent his way (not with out forethought for kit and contrivances) to wards the seat of war, which he reached on the 3rd of October. The first introduction to the " enemy's country " and Balaklava harbour he tells us will be forgotten by no c e who had a sense for the noisome ; dead horses, bloated bodies, and fragments of animals in every stage of decomposition were floating about the harbour, sticking starkly up and smelling accordingly. " Tis a pity,' remarks Non-Combatant, because here are main " tained two hospitals fur poor fellows from " the camp ! " Balaklava is a straggling, filthy town, and not above the level of general wretchedness is Lord Raglan's house ; and here he sees the first campaigner, in the shape of the sentry at the door:— Before the door paced to and fro a sentry, whose get•up was not at all out of keeping with his situation. He had a soiled red coat ; its ragged worsted tags were the reverse of ornamental, and its open collar showed neither stock nor shirt. His rusty black trousers gaped vainly here and there for buttons, and were tucked up unceremoniously at the heels to keep dry. His boots were the colour of the dust they trod on ; so were his Saxon locks, and sunburnt face. Nevertheless, there was that about his quiet, honest bearing, which would, 1 think, have proclaimed him, even without the distinctive red, a British soldier. Being a lucky man, with many friends, he gets up to camp the same day, and meets with T