The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 8, 1856. rmeived a deputation from some of the metropolitan officers. if power is given unto him over sewerage and drainage, if his veto can still keep us surrounded by nuisances—let us first beg him of his royal mercy not to reject the humble petitions of his slaves merely to show them that he can do so. In the next place, we beseech him to do something for us himself. Let him show that he can not only talk but act, not only criticise but invent, not only threaten but strike. So shall he avoid the scorn which follows upon great professions and small performances, and earn the respect of the public instead of the adulation merely of his " little Senate " in Whitehall Place. Our readers may feel some surprise at the appearance of a series of letters in this journal advocating a new settlement, or disturbance, of our electoral system. With the general principle thus put forth we have ourselves little s3mpathy. With think such organic changes are greatly to be deprecated, and we believe that nothing could be more disastrous to our political institutions than that parties should in turn endeavour to mould them, so as to acquire ascendancy in the State. Yet, should an attempt be made, no matter from what source, to force a new Reform Bill on the country, the Conservative party will owe it to themselves to take care that that new bill shall be framed on such a broad and solid foundation as to render any future tampering with the representative system, Impossible. The Conservative party has nothing to fear from a wider expression of public sentiment; nor, we firmly believe, will it ever suffer any future change to he carried out for the profit of a faction. As a measure of precaution, therefore, it may not be unadvisable to look boldly at such electoral inequalities as our able correspondent has pointed out in his letter in this day's PRESS. LIEUTENANT COLONEL SIMMONS and General WILLIAMS have COM menced a controversy in the Times newspaper, which we regret upon many accounts, but which it is to be hoped will have this one good effect, of setting the public right with regard to the whole question of the defence of Kars. Colonel SIMMONS objects to certain expressions in a book published during the summer under the title of " Kars and our Captivity," by Colonel LAKE, which he considers to reflect upon the Turkish General in a manner wholly unjustifiable. It is said that OMER PACHA, had he been " brave and resolute•" might have marched straight upon Kars, driven away the Russians, and relieved the garrison. How far this was possible, we shall endeavour• to show in our next week's impression, by which time we understand that the public will have received further information upon this subject in the shape of a pamphlet in vindication of General KMETY. In the meantime we shall content ourselves with repeating the words used by us on a previous occasion when the letter of Colonel CADELL wss pub• fished in the columns of the leading journal. " So far as military science " is concerned, OMER PACHA has a right to be placed on, at least, an " equality with General WILLIAMS, and why should not his condemnation " of the attempt to hold Kars be received with as much respect as the " strictures of the latter on the attempt to relieve it." The assertion of General WIILLIAMS that OMER PACHA'S campaigns had been all against unarmed rebels, is a piece of sophistry too glaring to require exposure. Granting that eleven out of the twelve had been what he describes, was not the one campaign of 1853 against the flower of the Russian army—were not the victories of Citate and Oltenitza— was not the resuscitation of the entire Turkish army—sufficient to place him far above any rank to which General WILLIAMS'S services entitle him. The latter is a brave man, and a patient and resolute one, but he has yet to establish his character as a master of the art of war. Mr. EDWIN JAMES has published an address to the electors of Hull, which might well be stereotyped as an expression of the Liberal creed at the present time. He is favorable to the ballot and extension of the suffrage, •and is determined to support Lord PALSIERSTON'S Government, which is notoriously hostile to both. He applauds the peace which has just been concluded, but has evidently a lingering hope that another war will spring out of it. The address might very well be embodied in four cries, which we recommend to the consider ation of all Liberal politicians—Reform Hypocrisy ! War Establish ments ! Foreign Complications ! and PALMERSTON for ever ! NAPLES AND PALMERSTON. (AN IM AGINARY CONVERSATION.) Ala—" Sally, Sally, shilly, shally." " Pammy, Pammy, shilly shammy, Pammy, why not name a day ?" " Hurry, Hurry ! I shan't flurry—Naphs, I shall come your way." " Pamtny, why not make your mind up—why embitter thus my cup ?" " Naples, I've so little mind, it isn't worth while making up." " Pammy, Pammy, 0 ! mio speme—you have promised many a year What you'd do for poor Italia when the right time did appear. Listening to the loud rimbombo of your oaths to help me well, 1. have been and gone and done it--is your promise all a sell?" "Fiddle faddle, stick that saddle on the right horse, Naples, now, Kick out Bomba! sound la tromba! zounds ! I don't see clearly how. Sure saltpetre I have threatened, Mr. Petre I've withdrew, Ships I'd send—but tho' I love ye, Naples, I love office, too." " Parnmy, Parnmy, shilly shammy, do riot mock my lingering woe, Play me not thus shilly shally, Pammy, do nut tempt me so. While you're smiling—me beguiling--doing double all you can, Think, padrone—think, dear crony—is it actin!, like a man 1" 1069 LORD PLATITUDE AT MANCHESTER. (CORRECTED REPORT.) cannot exactly say with many aspiring orators that 1 am un accustomed to public speaking—•(laughter)—but I may truly declare that I am unaccustomed to submit my oratorical wares to the dealers of Manchester; and as I know them to be good judges of eloquence, especially the unadorned article, I really feel a certain bashfulness— (lttuyhter)—which, however, I will hope to surmount. lam quite aware, Sir, that I owe my invitation upon the present occasion to the position into which it has pleased our Sovereign to raise so humble au individual as myself. But you may ask why, holding the views that I do respecting the duty of a Minister, I should, as Premier, appear in support of an educational movement. Sir, I hold that the noblest thing in the English system is our local self-government, and I consider that while Englishmen will govern themselves, and save the Executive all trouble, they best fulfil their duties as citizens. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, Sir, there is a kind of inconsistency in a Member of the Government interfering on such an occasion. But the world, Sir, is full of inconsistencies. I think it is the eminent poet Shelley, of whom some of you may have heard, and whom I will trouble you not to confound with that confounded proser Sir John Shelley—(laughter)—who remarks that " all is mutable except muta bility." I don't mean a joke, and my ability, such as it is, cannot be called mute. (Laughter.) But I think, Sir, that nothing is consistent except inconsistency, and for that reason I feel not the least abashed at addressing you to-day. (Cheers) Now, Sir, as we are on an educa tional subject, I have something to bring up—(bvighter)—l propose to bring up for a moment the subject of war. People have said that I am a warlike person, always wanting to fight somebody or other. No thing can be more untrue. I am the most peaceable person in the world. But, as the late Mr. Sheridan, of whom some of you may have heard, makes one of his characters observe, " There is nothing so con ciliating to young people as severity,"—(laughter)--and I think that there is nothing so conducive to tranquillity as restlessness. ( Hear, hear.) However, we are at peace now, so we need say no more on that head. If my humble endeavours to induce Franco and Russia to quarrel with us— in a civil way, and for the better development of the energies and resources of those nations—my only object—are not crowned with success, why, we must see what can be done elsewhere. For, Sir, progressive improvement is the great thing after which we must all strive; and nothing improves a country so much as the calling forth all its resources. (Hear, hear.) I venture to promise some pro gress of this kind before many months are over, and I am happy to inform you that the officers in the Queen's service have received hints to be ready to join their respective regiments, and that my good friend Sir Charles Wood has ordered fifty new gunboats, all out of his own head. (Applause.) And now, Sir, a few words upon the sub ject of this institution. I think, Sir, that the doctrine that people should be uninstructed unless they can be educated like senior wranglers is entirely a mistake. Any information is better than none at all; and in saying this, I may add that I practise what I preach, for when questions are asked of me in the House (unless they are ques • tions which I have desired should he asked) precious little information the querists get out of your humble servant. (Laughter.) There is poetic couplet upon the subject which I do not agree with, and I should much prefer it bad it been written thus : A little knowledge is a useful thing; Like tumblers' boards, it helps you to a spring. (Loud awn.) I could illustrate this to my hearers by anecdotes of things that have occurred in Parliament. I could t tell you how clever men, especially Irishmen, have got hold of a little knowledge about matters concern ing which it was very undesirable that the world should have any knowledge at all, and how this has been, if not a Pierian, a political spring for them which has tossed them up into capital berths. ( Hear, hear.) But to take a more extended view of the subject, I would venture to say—learn a little, and the ;ess the better. I assure my hearers, that the science of Government is most easily practised, not in countries where the people know nothing, and the Government is compelled, for its own credit, to manage for them, nor where they know everything, and the Government becames a puppet, but in countries where the people, as in England, know just enough to think that they understand everything, and where a little judicious conduct, on the part of the Ministers, leaves them in power but relieves them of responsibility. (Cheers) What is spitefully called a smattering I greatly admire, and regard as the best education for ninety-nine hun dredths of our people. Smattering and chattering are the safety-valves of our glorious Constitution ; and in Manchester, among your noble machinery, glorious engines, splendid boilers, and unequalled a—a— pistons, you all know the value of the safety-valve. ( Loud cheers.) Having other speeches to make in your town, I shall not occupy your time longer ; but before sitting down I beg to assure you, in the most earnest manner, that nothing can give me greater pleasure than the recollection that I have addressed such an audience as this—(A side. That is—that it's done.) Loud and long continued cheering followed the Noble Lord's speech. THE PRESS.