The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

1080 A FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM IN THE CITY Was the subject of a meeting at the MANSION•HOUSE on Monday, convened on the requisition of the Lord Mayor. The resolution, which was moved by Mr. Swart, M.P., in an appropriate speech. and seconded by Major• General Sykes, was negatived after a very riotous debate by a large majority of ratepayers, who objected to an increased taxation for the establish ment of a library at the present time of high prices, high rates, and discount at seven per cent. The motion of course fell to the ground. It came out iu the debate that a public library of 12,0(X) volumes positively exists in Guildhall at this moment—a fact not generally known. THE GREAT DRAINAGE DISPUTE between Mr. F. 0. Ward and Mr. Bazalgette has been brought to a close for the present. At a meeting on Thursday of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, Mr. Bazalgette read his reply to Mr. Ward's charge of last week, and the court after a close contest defeated an amendment of Sir John Shelley that the dispute be referred to a committee of eminent engineers, and carried the original resolution expressive of their confidence in Mr. Bazalgette's proposed system of drainage. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir,—l have read your articles on the policy neces sary to be pursued by a Governor General anxious to carry out a system which shall be wise, just, and beneficial, and I am anxious to offer a few remarks on that section of your theme which relates to " Roads and Public Works." I think, sir, you do well to caution the new Governor-General as to the amount of public money which he ma) think proper to devote, either in the way of guarantee or in a more direct shape. Lord Dalhousie has done some good by directing the attention of Leadenhall-street to the development of railways, and it will have been fortunate for the future of India if whilst permitting the construction of these important works he had in some manner controlled the outlay of money which the engineers and directors in England have so lavishly and wantonly expended under the agreeable assurance of a five per-cent. guarantee. Sir, I think that public works should be encouraged. I believe that at present the only plan must lie in the shape of direct guarantees of interest, until the development of native enterprise shall create new lines on principles which will be, perforce, cheap from the experience gained by a foolish and culpable guaranteed railway company. There are many works, irrigation, har bours, piers, docks, which the wants of both the English and Indian community require. By whom and by what means are they to be constructed? Are they to be placed under the supervision of a distinct board in each Presidency? Is the money to be borrowed by the Indian Government, and the interest to be met by the profits of these when executed, or are English companies and English capital to be called in? If the latter, we must have guarantees. The subject would oblige me to trespass on your space. I should wish to point out how the English people are so far interested in guarantees that they may find in them a future political security for a careful and peaceful attitude towards neighbouring States on the part of the Indian Government. A State that is liable to a heavy guarantee of interest will be more, anxious for the full development of a trade and commerce which flourishes on peace. Let the new Governor-General pursue a policy which shall embrace in a comprehensive manner all those plans which a commission of practical men shall decide on as most useful, whether they be for the supply of water to Bombay, the construction of docks at Calcutta, or the irrigation in the Madras Presi dency. Let those who view these works as necessary at least receive an opinion as to whether their plans are feasible or their conceptions just. In India the State must inaugurate by giving a practical direction to wholesome schemes. Let Lord Canning show himself equal to the task before him, nor refuse the sound advice your articles have given him.—Your obedient servant, S. CARDINAL WISEMAN, it is positively asserted at Rome, is to resign the metropolitan church of Westminster to his present coadjutor, and become Prefect of the Vatican Library. If this statement, wlich has been made several times, should prove col rect., the policy of Rome towards Sardinia is likely to continue more hostile than ever, as his Eminence is known to entertain a strong antipathy to the Sardinian Government, and is believed to be in favour of putting in force the most coercive measures with regard to it. M. PALEOCAPA, the Sardinian Minister of Public Works, has arrived in Paris to confer with M. Les seps on the subject of his plans for cutting through the Isthmus of Suez. Annuls'. TREROUART'S appointment to the command of the " Mediterranean squadron," has given rise to the belief that by this expression a new squadron is meant, which will doubtless, in ease of need, serve as a reserve for the Black Sea fleet, Ibiii. THE PRESS. MR. COBDEN ON THE WAR. MR. COBDEN has embodied his views on the state of the war in a letter addressed to the Leeds Mercury. The first part of this document is occupied with a critical examination into the state of our army, and the revelations of the Sebastopol Committee ; but, subsequently, Mr. Cobden proceeds to pass his opinion on the war itself : A war which, in my conscience, I believe to he more nn. necessary, rash, and aimless, than any in our history ; and which, for the visionary objects avowed by its advocates, has no parallel since the Crusades. Mr. Cobden notices the boasting tone of the war advocates, as likely to bring ridicule on the coml. try:— And I must be permitted to tell our war-at any-price party, who talk so glibly of humbling and reducing to abject terms of peace an empire of 00,000,000 of people, by invading their territory at a distance of 3,000 miles, and thus contending with the passive obstinacy of the most stubborn race in existence under the greatest possible disadvantage to ourselves,— who treat with scorn the neutrality of Germany, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Den mark, Holland, and Switzerland, and assume to them selves and France the exclusive honour of—to quote the words of an esteemed friend of mine on a late occasion to his applauding constituents—" thrusting back a bar barous power which is seeking to trample out civilisation and overwhelm Europe,"—l tell this party that they will bring ridicule on this great country, that they will lower our prestige, and perhaps draw upon us slights and in sults, thus hazarding the recurrence of future wars, unless they either moderate their language to the level of their deeds or raise their performances to an equality with their pretensions To test the real opinion of the people, Mr. Cobden proposes that an appeal should be made to the peo ple, to see if they are themselves willing to enlist to carry on this " war of civilisation." He says, that if " it be a people's war, there will be a response to the appeal ; if it be a war of diplomatists and news papers, it will fail." To the thoughtful portion of the people he looks with hope : Before I conclude I would express a hope that the time is not distant when the thoughtful portion of the British public, who in the end determine our national policy, will be awakened to a sense of their responsibility. . . . . And by whom is the prolongation of hostilities advocated ? With the exception of those in office, to whom peace will bring a day of reckoning, is there a statesman of trust or authority in this country who is not in his heart in favour of peace on terms believed to be now practicable ; or can there be found one commanding intellect now employed ( unless under the shield of an anonymous irresponsibility ) in inciting the country to a perseverance in the war? And fur whose benefit are hostilities to be continued? Not for that of Turkey, for every day of their continuance diminishes the chances of her resuscitation—not for the interest of the governing classes of Europe, for they all desire peace—nor for those of the " democracy," whose eminent chiefs have denounced the war as an aimless waste of human blood, in which they have no interest — not even for the benefit of our ally, for we know that the French Government was favorable to a pacification after the Vienna Conferences ; and report says, 1 believe truly, that it is now again disposed for peace. What human interest, then, can possibly be served by the continuation of hostilities ? His concluding paragraph satirises the minds which, like that of Mr. Tennyson, have suddenly abandoned themselves to the war frenzy, as to the last novel stimulant of the hour:— There are minds so wanting in moral continence that they abandon themselves to every popular emotion of frenzy of the hour—who, when all hearts exulted at the signs of international peace, declaimed of the horrors of the war—who, now that the demon of carnage has sway for a season, sing of the " canker of peace," and who would be ready to mop and mow with madmen to-morrow if Bedlam could be but one day in the ascendant. Such are they who now ask us to believe that the spectacle of human passion and suffering which has been enacted during the last year in the Crimea, and which has converted that fair sea into an earthly pandemonium, is necessary for the social regeneration of mankind ; that the purer feel ings and affections of our nature find a healthy develop ment in an atmosphere so foul and unnatural that domes tic cannot breathe it ; that an employment where men bring every faculty to the task of destroying others, and preserving themselves from destruction ; that there is the school to unlearn selfishness and to train us to the disin terested love of our species ! We are asked to believe these things. Yes, when we are prepared to pronounce the New Testament a fable, and Christ's teachings an untruth, we will believe them, and not till then. MR. JAMES WILSON has not resigned the office of Financial Secretary of the Treasury, nor has he accepted the Chairmanship of the Board of Inland Revenue. Mr. J. Wood, who has so long filled that office, has entirely recovered from his recent illness, and will shortly be able to resume his duties. THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH, it is told in Paris, received no less than eight despatches last Thursday and Friday, from Marshal Pelissier it is presumed, for his Majesty put them all into his pocket without communicating tlitir contents to anyone. '1 HE REV. DR. WHEWEI.L, Master of Trinity Col lege, Cambridge, was on Monday elected Vice• Cha ncellor of that university for the year ensuing. SATURDAY, NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE. The new Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Crimea, Lieutenant• General Sir William John Codrington, K.C.8., is the eldest surviving son o f Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, G.C.8., wh ose principal achievement was the victory of Navarino, when the squadrons of England, France, and Russia acted under his general directions. Sir William was born, we believe, in 1805, and is now in his fiftieth year. He entered the Coldstream Guards in 1821, and rose through the different regimental steps t o the rank of captain and lieutenant•colonel. H e received the brevet rank of colonel in 1840, and be. came a majorgeneral in the brevet of June 20, 1854. During this campaign Sir William has been con spicuous for his energy, activity, and zeal. At Inker. mann, it will be remembered, he was the firstgeneral officer on the field. Great diligence prevails in all the dockyards. At Woolwich there is a vast increase in the amount of shot and shell daily arriving, mortar•carriages and guns of all calibres. A daily proof of ten and eleven inch mortars has taken place during the week. At Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Sheerness great activity also prevails in fitting out gun-boats. Captain Horatio Austen, C. 8., has been granted the vacant good-service pension by the Lords of the Admiralty. Lieutenant-Colonel Mauleverer, C. 8., of the :10th Regiment, has been granted a pension of 1001. a year by her Majesty for distinguished service at the siege of Sebastopol. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Graham, of the Ist Royal Regiment of Foot, who landed at Portsmouth invalided from the Crimea on Sunday week, died at the hospital at Haslar on Friday night. The gallant deceased left his sick-bed to lead on his men to the assault of the Redan at Sebastopol on the Bth of September, by which exposure he incurred illness which has terminated fatally. He had seen thirty years' full-pay service in the army. Captain Julius Roberts, of the Royal Marine Artillery, whose clever inventions in reference to mortars and mortar-vessels, proved so effective at Sweaborg, Sebastopol, and now again (according to Admiral Lyons' despatch of the 18th ult.) at the reduction of Kinburn, has been received in Paris with marked courtesy and distinction by the French Minister of Marine, at the express command of the Emperor. Four regiments of English militia are shortly to be removed from Aldershott Camp to Ireland, and are to be replaced at Aldershott by four regiments of Irish militia. It is also expected that a large force of militia will be kept at Aldershott during the coming winter. The steamer Caradoc, Lieutenant Chandos Stan• hope commanding, is being hurried forward with every despatch for the reception of Lord Canning. The internal fittings of the Caradoc are not termi• nated in consequence of some changes considered necessary for the accommodation of the numerous suite of Lord Canning. The Caradoc, after landing her passengers at Alexandria, will proceed to the Black Sea. The naval dress regulations are still in abeyance. The Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth has lately been at the Admiralty, and after a further consulta tion the proposed changes have been set aside for the present. The defence of the southern coast in at present under the serious consideration of the Admiralty. The port of Shoreham, at the mouth of the Adur, is about to be defended by a fort mounting six heavy guns, with barracks for the men. General Beatson late in command of the Bashi- Bazouks, has arrived at Malta, where he will remain for the present. The Malacca, 17, screw frigate, Captain Farquhar, sailed at daylight on Tuesday morning for the West Indies. Lieut.-General William Buller, formerly of the Coldstream Guards, died on Thursday last, at the advanced age of 82. The gallant general had long been on the retired-list, but in early life had served in Flanders in '93 and '94, and in the West Indies at the Beige of St Lucia and the capture of Grenada. THE EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH, wishing to show his high esteem for General Bosquet, who has had so glorious a part in the Eastern war, has sent Capt. Morand, one of his orderlies, to Marseilles to meet him, with the military medal. Hie EXCELLENCY MR. A. BUCHANAN, the British Minister at the Danish Court, left town on Saturday last for Copenhagen, to resume his diplomatic duties alter a brief leave of absence. THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT IS having a line-of battle ship of 120 guns built in America, and three more are t) be built on her lines in the yards of Pola THE REPLY OF THE HOLY SEE to the memorandum published by the Spanish and Piedmontese Govern ments, on the occasion of the allocutions pronounct d against them by the Pope, will very shortly be made public.