The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

Pr‘" 828 .. 4 ~---~ ... THE WEEK. . wObn ~~iu.~.~,:. SATURDAY, THE PRESS. ALL accounts from the Continent continue to indicate the decline of British influence. Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration has been per fectly successful in preventing a restoration of cordial intercourse with Russia. 'Advices from St. Petersburg note the marked difference between the reception of the British and French Ambassadors. The former has been received with cold formality; the latter with every token of amity and respect. In Spain, the overthrow of the Liberal party has been complete. The National Guard has been dissolved, and the Constitution of 1845 is to be restored. Sardinia is still most uneasily situated, by the concentration of Austrian troops on the frontier,:and by the intrigues of the revolutionary faction ; but the Court of Vienna is the only Continental Court with swhich at present our Foreign-office appears to be on intimate terms. Baron HUBNER has arrived at Na ples from Vienna on a special mission to the King, in order to compose (as it is stated) in a friendly mariner the differences of his Majesty with the Western Powers. The version of the Neapolitan note which we published last week, is, we have reason to believe, in the main correct, though doubted by a portion of the French and Belgian press. It confirms the outline given of its tenor in THE PRESS of 19th of July. As Lord CLARENDON stated at Paris, iu the face of Europe, that the ease of the Government of Naples was so exceptional as to make it ' " R right and a duty" of other Governments to interfere, it does net appear how his Lordship can withdraw from his position without loss of character, while it is tolerably cer tain that France and Austria will strongly advise his Lordship not to attempt to give practical effect to his principle of intervention. The appointment of a diplomatist to the Neapolitan Court in place of Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE has not yet been decided. Our Liberal journals are anxious that whoever is nominated shall be invested with the character of a constitutional Propagandist. This policy has not hitherto been so successful as to justify its continuance. The first object of appointing Ministers to foreign Courts should be, of course,. to maintain amicable relations with the de facto Govern ments of those Courts. If that be done, commercial intercourse, with the spread of our ideas, and the example of ourconstitutional liberty, are more likely to extend British influence, and to weigh with foreign Courts, than any such direct interference with their internal politics as must rouse their jealousy, and cause our Minister to be regarded with suspicion and dislike. British influence is not likely to be " rehabilitated on the Continent," to use the phrase of the Spectator, until we return to the first principles of diplomatic intercourse, and give up all idea of making our missions centres of political propa gandism. The partial insurrections in Italy show the evil that has already been done by flattering the disaffected with hopes of assist ance, always denied to them in the hour of trial. The German Legion is at last to be disposed of. Enlisted now for nearly two years, they have been fed into robust men : add to this an agreeable trip to Constantinople and back, and it must be admitted that they have cost the country a tolerable sum. They are going as military colonists to the Cape of Good Hope. A party of engineers . and artificers will precede them to the settled frontiers to erect the necessary villages and buildings. Every soldier on arrival will be granted so many acres of land. • For the first year of settlement they are to be supplied with stores and provisions, and the gratuity to which the non commissioned officers and privates are entitled to be commuted with six pence a day for three years. One is apt to ask the awkward question, if the Germans who have neither bled nor suffered, but have been rather petted, pampered, and stuffed with beef and beer during the whole war, are worthy of such a reward, what must our men deserve ? At least they should have had the refusal of the offer. This hand some treatment of a Foreign Legion contrasts well and to the credit of Lord PANMIIRE with the beggarly meanness with which Government have met our men's claims on dismissal. There is some difference between the treatment the Tipperary and the Land Transport men met with at the War-office, and the consideration granted to the Ger mans. Our men were stripped of their clothes, cheated of their bounty, and turned adrift' to get their living—some with sixpence, few with half a sovereign in their pockets. The Germans, in the first place given a premium four times the amount given in England. are now given a grant of land in a fine colony, given a free passage thither with their wives 9r • sweethearts, and families, fed and c l o th e d f or a whole year, and t heir full bounty commuted for sixpence a day for three years. What they, on the one hand, have done to deserve such excellent terms, which our men on the other must have failed to do to be treated so scurvily, is at present a mystery. Perhaps Mr. FREDERICK PEEL or Lord PANtatrax would enlighten us. Meanwhile, so far as the Legion is concerned, as Mr. Baron BRAMWELL said the other day in a breach of promise case, " A very good riddance to very," &c. As Miss HARRIET MARTINEAU has published a selection of her articles from the Daily Neal, there can be no impropriety in mentioning what was previously well understood, that the most striking articles in that journal upon foreign politics' were, and are, contributed by that clever and vivacious, though now antiquated, spinster. We mention this circumstance with the more pleasure, as no doubt it will inspire the continental despots—so gallantly attacked by our contemporary—with higher respect for, their fair assailant, and induce them to pay more attention than they have hitherto done t o th e warnings of the eloquent sybil of the daily press. We observe that this week the Daily News has given a precise description of the kind. of diplomatist it will be proper to appoint as the successor to the good. natured, indolent, Sir WILLAM TEMPLE, at Naples ; The task which will devolve on the new English Minister at Naples is arduous enough to deter the most ambitious from accepting the office. It is not only that he will have to deal with a monarch who to the impetuous self will and negation of an moral sense of a madman unites all that dexterous and patient cunning which is always found associated with madness. It is not only that he will have to soothe or control this reckless being amid circumstances as liable to explosion as a powder mine : his difficul ties will be incalculably augmented by the insidious and unscrupulous wiles of Austrian diplomacy, and by the equivocal friendship of the representative . of the French Govern ment. He will need to be all eye, all ear, all judgmen►. To a ripe experience of the wiles of diplomatists, and of the waywardness of human nature, he will require to add natural coolness and self-possession, and promptitude and inflexible resolution in action_ Above all, the honour and interest of England alike require that her representative at the Court of Naples, at this perilous crisis, should be sincerely, earnestly, immoveably devoted to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and of national independence. Reading this, we are inclined to make some such answer as BASSELAS returned to IMLAC after hearing an account of the qualifications a poet must possess :—" Enough ! enough ! thou hast convinced me that no " man is fit to he British Minister at Naples." When the man is found, his outfit will be an important consideration, as he will have to provide himself with whatever is necessary to "soothe or control " the " madness" of that " reckless being," the King of NAPLES. He should take with him a stock of coercion-chairs, strait waistcoats, mufflers. &c., and by all means let him be provided with a well-padded cell, in which his Majesty may be confined when all other means of soothing and controlling have been tried in vain. But how if the King should with " dextrous cunning" insist that he is not mad, and that he will not be treated as a madman—what is our Ambassador to do then ? Is he to rival the exploits of our chivalrous heroes of old time, and put a strait-waistcoat on him in face of his court and guards? An expedient presents itself to our mind. A cel4 brated confectioner, in the habit of joining the hounds, near Lender, was accustomed to show off on a hunter with splendid action. " Conj " found the brute," said the purveyor, " I don't know what I shall do " with him." " Ice him, my boy," said an old member of the hunt, with a sly laugh in his eye, "ice him," To the writer in the Daily News, who is so perplexed as to the best treatment for the King of NAPLES—We say, " mesmerise him." Instead of looking out for a diplomatist with impossible qualifications, secure a good " medium," and his Majesty will then do whatever is required of him. See the difficulties that may otherwise arise when the Ambassador goes out with all the resources of a private madhouse, with plenty of keepers, and with the instructions of the Daily News in his pocket. At the first intimation given to the King that he is mad, and must be " treated as sich," he will probably send the Ambassador his passports. The Courts of Paris, St. Petersburg, and Austria, will join in a chorus of " sarve him right ; " and the whole scheme of managing the King as a lunatic will be defeated. No ! Mesmerism is the only plan, and we hope soon to see an article in the Daily News advocating it, and pointing out a proper professor—our contemporary would have no difficulty in tho selection—for the post. There would be more rationality in such a scheme than in sending out an ambassador instructed to treat as a madman the Sovereign to whom he was deputed. It is no wonder that we hear so much of the total loss of British influence abroad, when such principles as the Daily News avows are adopted by our Government. There is one comfort, the bubble must burst soon. It is impossible for such monstrous nonsense long to prevail. We submit to our " Liberals," who seem to think it necessary always to have some foreign butt at which they may shoot, that they have showered abuse enough on King BOMBA. Why not try a further flight for their shafts? There are the Emperor of HAYTI and the King of DAHOMY. White has been the mark long enough. Suppose the Daily News and its coadjutors now change to black, if only for the sake of variety. The Guards' dinner on Monday, as an English dinner, was a failure. The Committee were formed, and the subscriptions collected, for the purpose of giving a hearty English welcome to our Guards. The Committee did their best perhaps, and, like a great many other persons with good intentions, failed. We will not enter into details, or attempt to account for the cause of failure.' 111-natured people say that the whole affair was a job, that certain Surrey garden shareholders got the ear of the leading journal, quieted the LORD MAYOR by assurance of success, and, gently diverting the design of the affitir from Chelsea to Walworth, made an excellent contract, supplied a bad dinner, worked off a large stock of champagne that would not sell, and pocketed a hand some balance. Without going the length of these assertions, we may venture to observe that upon such an occasion there should be no room given for evil report. The public were asked to subscribe to give the Guards a dinner. They did so to something like 10s a head for each man to be dined. For half that sum a thorough good English dinner could have been provided. And here a great mistake appears to hat c been made. The contract was put into the hands of Frenchmen. Now, without casting any severe aspersion upon the character of our gAllant allies, a Frenchman is not exactly the man we should select to /e an English dinner. In the first place, an Englishman's appetite empasses a Frenchman's comprehension. In the next, their tastes materially - differ. If a Frenchman likes our beef well done and cold, he is seized with asphyxia at the mustard, and suffers incredible range in his epigastrium after plum-pudding. Messrs. Chabot provided ~t: -, ~~