The Press. — London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

" him, but that it would be the worse for them " hereafter, as they would be the sufferers." One of two days after this pretty clear enun ciation on the part of the British Plenipoten tiary, Captain LYNCH offers his services, which are readily accepted, and in two or three days more the treaty is actually signed ; we are quite sure that we are within bounds in stating that in one week from the time of Lord COWLEY'S positive disclaimer of there being the slightest chance of his effecting a treaty with FEROUK KHAN, that treaty was in the lisnds of Lord PALMERSTON, and was brought over by Captain LYNCH himself. It may posaibly be said that Lord COWLEY • was finessing with the Spanish Grandee who asked him about the treaty, but what possible motive could he have had for so doing? Every body knew that he was employed to make the treaty, and it could • only have been to his credit to have been able to state that it was progressing favcurably. Hitherto the affair seems mysterious enough, but there is stranger yet to come. The Times of that date pompously announced that three of the most celebrated Oriental scholars in the world—Colonel 0 USELEY, Colonel OTTER, and Mr. REDHOUSE—were engaged by the British Government, and were actually in Paris waiting to translate this very treaty, and also to assist in communicating between the great personages employed in the negotiation. To our certain knowledge, also, at least two of the attaches or counsellors of the Persian Embassy speak perfectly good French, and are capable of translating the treaty into at least as good Persian as Captain I.onicies. It was not, therefore, for want of efficient inter preters that Lord CowLEr found it impossible to make FEROUK KHAN understand him ; nor was either the British or the Persian Embassy under the necessity of employing a dilettante translator, and paying his services at the very extravagant rate at which Captain LYNCH'S appear to have been estimated. The question is, perhaps, more important than at first sight it seems to be ; it is nothing more nor less than whether Earl COWLEY de serves the magnificent reward which his Sovereign has been advised to bestow on him. If he does, what shall we say of the rewards which have been heaped on Captain LYNCH ? He first receives a sum of 5001. ft om the Bri tish Treasury; in the next place, FEROUK KHAN (who must have known pretty accurately the extent of Captain LYNCH'S services) recom mends his Sovereign to bestow on him the highest honours in the power of Persia to give, •T to create him a Knight of the ancient Order of the Lion and the Sun, and promote him to the dignity of a nobleman of his kingdom. Were ever such rewards bestowed before on the simple translator of a treaty? Nothing can be more natural or more chi valrous than for Captain LYNCH to rush to the rescue of his principal, but it requires the ample respect due to an assertion proceeding from a man of his honourable character to admit his nob episeopari to its full extent; and he will surely pardon the public for having believed (previous to his disclaimer) that, although in these days of jobbery and corrup tion the British Treasury may have paid at so extravagant a rate the trifling services which he is willing to arrogate to himself, it was hardly to be supposed that the Shah of PERSIA would have lavished on him the highest dignities at his command had he not been represented to him by his own Envoy as the real author of a treaty which he justly believes to have saved his kingdom. THE PRESS, JULY 25, 1857. ing the casual reader, but can have no effect upon persons familiar with the subject. All, indeed, that the first-mentioned class need do to escape from the frail meshes of Mr. WILSON'S oratory is to fix their eyes steadily upon the broad features of the case, and bear in mind the simple nature of the remedy pro posed by Lord NAAS. At present the Civil servants contribute to a superannuation fund, which confers only an inadequate advantage upon only a fraction of their number. None receive what they ought, and many receive nothing. The first grievance results from the fact that all theireontributions are thrown into a common exchequer fund, by which means the interest of the money contributed is lost to the Civil Service and pocketed by the Govern ment of the day ; the second from the fact that nobody can receive any benefit from the fund at all unless he reaches the age of superannua tion. To those who die before this time the money contributed for perhaps thirty years is a dead loss, and the economy practised during life bears no fruit after death for any of the bereaved family. Now, it is simply proposed by Lord NAAS to cut down the grievance at a single stroke by abolishing superannuation deductions altogether. That this decisive measure might leave some minor inconve niences to be dealt with hereafter is very possible. Inequalities might still exist, and grumblers might still flourish. But the axe would have been laid to the root of the tree—a broad and glaring injustice which the whole country hates would have been removed—and the various details of the system, if dis arranged for the moment, would naturally right themselves in time without Parlia mentary interference. We do not like the tone of Mr. WILSON'S speech. It is offensive as well as indistinct. The business of investigating every detail of a question affecting so large, so meritorious, arid so important a body, should not be spoken of as " trouble incommensurate with the subject." The Cabinet, no doubt, have enough upon their hands. The dogged hostility of insulted China, and the . disastrous glar e of Oriental rebellion, " with fear of change perplexing Ministries," monopolise the attention of a divided Government. But it would have been more decorous and gentlemanlike to have expressed this circumstance by one of those adroit paraphrases in which the pupils of PALMERSTON should be adepts. The argument of Sir FRANCIS BARING, that because a good class of candidates still con tinue to press for employment in the Civil Service, therefore the Civil Service must be itself unexceptionable, shows to what extre mities the opponents of this measure must be driven. Employment in a Government office holds out such peculiar advantages to a large class of young men, wholly irrespective of pecuniary profit, that we have no doubt the dispensers of patronage would continue to be besieged with applicants were the conditions even still more unfavourable than they are. We look forward with interest to the re sumption of the debate on Wednesday next. On the one hand is a grievance so patent that not even the Government journals can be found to defend it—an injustice so crying that the most submissive body of men in the country have become the most obstreperous; on the other, a Government which takes refuge in the labyrinth of official details to avoid the performance of imperial obligations. Here is a question on which the new House of Commons has a fair opportunity of proving its common sense and its candour. How will they abide the test? CIVIL SERVICE DEBATE. THE debate upon this subject on Thursday last was a contest between the asserters of a general principle and the discoverers of par ticular objections. For Rome reason or other best known to themselves the Government are determined to make a great fight about the small outlay demanded for a settlement of this question. Mr. WILSON sought w obscure the main point at issue behind a mass of details which may, perhaps, be successful in mystify- DIVORCE BILL. UNLESS Government and the House of Com mons proceed with extreme caution, the whole relations between Church and State in this country will have to undergo revision. A disposition is apparent on the part of Govern ment to use its numerical strength with des• potic authority, and to ride roughshod over all opposition that may be offered to their measures. How brief that tenure of power must be which depends upon so transient a position of affairs, we need not waste time in proving. We only notice the fact for the sake of calling attention to its bearing on religious subjects. It cannot be endured that the consciences of the British people should be at the mercy of any Government that may acquire a few months' lease of absolutism. It is bad enough that our civil administration should be left to the treatment it is sure to receive at such hands; but religious convictions are sacred, and Englishmen will not permit them to be periodically jeopardised. Although the tone of last night's debate was rather of a practical character, and dealt more with the circumstances under which the Divorce Bill was trought before the House of Commons than with the provisions of the Bill itself, it was easy to see from the language of the Government speakers that they are resolved to take high ground, and brook no questioning. It is peculiarly unfortunate that they should have selected the Divorce Bill for the display of this ill-timed vigour. If ever there was a question which demanded careful consideration in every stage of its progress, and the acceptance or rejection of which would be unconnected with party tactics, the present is the one. Where speed is necessary, the Government loiters. Where they are bound to be circumspect, there alone are they precipitate. They fail to secure victory where it would be accepted as a guarantee of party union ; but are eager to snatch it where it is a gratification of Govern ment arrogance. What can be the object of hurrying through such a bill as the Divorce Bill at this period of the session ? To prevent the existence of notorious scandals for the space of another year. But what are these scandals? The control exercised by the husband over the wife's property, and the trim. con. action, are the principal, if not the only ones. But it would be easy, as was partly suggested by Mr. GLApsTot:E, to remedy these two evils, without touching the question of divorce at all. And, after all, what scandal can be greater than the spectacle of a bill intended to revolutionise the domestic habits and the religious princi ples of centuries hurried through an English House of Comity - ins in the last three weeks of the session? The Government may, perhaps, wish to register a notable triumph before their majority melts away from them. But otherwise their haste on this occasion seems as aimless as it is infamous. We are not surprised at the result of the division. In the present temper of the House of Commons none other could be expected. But we earnestly beg the Conservative party not to let slip the opportunity afforded by the coming discussion of the Bill itself, and prove that their attachment to the Church is un abated, and that whether successfully or other wise, it is, at all events, to them alone that she must look for aid against the more and more obvious designs of her enemies. HER MAJESTY'S STEAM SLOOP Gorgon, Commander George W. Towsey, last from the Mediterranean, was yesterday morning admitted into basin at Woolwich, and placed under the shears in order to land her cargo, which consists of 250 packages, among which are some colossal statues in marble of horses, Sze., weighing eight or ten tons each, excavated by the officers and crew of the Gorgon among the ruins of the ancient city of Halicartiassus, in Asia Minor. Among the smaller discoveries are some highly pre served mosaics, friezes, tkc., the whole of which are about to be deposited in the British Museum. The Gorgon, having been upwards of three years in cm. mission, is under orders to be paid off at Woolwich. 715