The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE WEEK. THE Neapolitan squabble still continues to engage—as we think very unworthily—the attention of Europe. The French Court probably conceives that, as it has addressed a remonstrance to the King of the Two SICILIES, it cannot suffer that remonstrance to remain without effect. Hence the ultimatum, which it is confidently asserted is about to be addressed to the King of NAPLES by the Governments of England and France. It is probable that the King will be induced to make the concessions demanded of him, as he must be aware that resistance to the two great Powers of Europe to the point of rupture, cannot fail to be attended with disastrous effects to himself. Perhaps the Court of France may not be sorry to establish, with the aid of England, a pre- cedent for interference with the Governments of the Italian States. The policy of such interference is open to grave question, and it does not appear how it can be practically carried out without keeping the King in a state of tutelage, and maintaining Ambassadors at his Court as unfriendly spies on his proceedings. Are the actions of the Neapolitan Court to be jealously watched ? Is the Liberal party in Naples to be favoured by the allied Governments ? Will there be remonstrance and interference on every occasion of the King showing a disposition to free himself from this surveillance, and return to his old policy? If so, we may be tolerably sure that the kingdom will not long remain free from internal disorder. But if no such surveillance is intended, of what value will be the concessions extorted from the King on the present occasion ? If the system of interference is to be per severed with, a foreign army of observation in Naples will be the in evitable result It does not strike us that this is a consummation on any account to be desired. If the last Bourbon Kiag is to be driven from his throne, who is to succeed, him ? We may perhaps find in the end that the meddling system so pertinaciously pursued, and loudly applauded by the Liberals in power, is neither worthy the dignity, nor conducive to the interests of Great Britain. We observe it is rumoured in the French press, that Baron DE HUBNER, on his return from Naples, will wait on the Emperor of the FRENCIF at Biarritz. This favours the probability of an accommodation of the quarrel. The Turkish Government has, it is stated, addressed an able memoir to the Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Paris, protesting against the union of the Danubian principalities. The Porte conceives that their union would render them independent of the Sultan's authority, and would have an effect the opposite of rendering them a solid barrier against invasion. The conference to determine this difficult question is to assemble at Paris. The policy of Turkey is straightforward aid intelligible. She desires to hold authority over these provinces, and to prevent them from attaining a position which would render them practically independent of her. A mere nominal sovereignty over countries is seldom satisfactory to either party, and it is to be feared would prove productive of mischief in this case, should the union be decided against. The death of Field-Marshal Viscount HARDINGE has taken the public by surprise. The Gallant Soldier was not believed to be in danger previously to his death being announced. In his long and brilliant career, Lord HARDINGE offers a memorable instance of what may be achieved by ability without family influence or aristocratic connection. Lord HARDINGE possessed military talents, and knew how to use them to the best advantage. From the first day that he entered the army to the last that he was present on a field of battle, Lord HARDINGE was always at hand when wanted. This readiness and zeal in the execution of duties were his chief characteristics. How he per formed those duties the annals of the Peninsular War and the despatches of the Great Duke attest. It was unfortunate that he did not attain the high position of Commander-in-Chief until the vigour of his disposition had become impaired. It may be questioned whether ho possessed great administrative talents, but he will always be kindly remembered as a brave soldier, a skilful officer, a loyal servant, and an amiable man. The address of Lord STANLEY at Oldham is decidedly one of the best he has yet delivered. His mind is one of those which, from the wide range of its sympathies and its catholic tone, has the faculty, in an extraordinary degree, of assimilating to itself information on a vast number of subjects. His industry is astonishing, and his intellect seems to expand with every new subject presented to it. That he is always practical, does not result from inability or indisposition to penetrate to tho depths of social questions, but from a wise determina tion to keep within limits suited to his audience. There are masterly passages in the Oldham address ; among them we may particularise that in which lie reasons that the best preservative against vice is to open the eyes of our labouring classes to the wonders and beauties of the universe in which they live, and that in which he recommends social amusements. " Men " die for want of cheerfulness, as plants die for want of " light." Lord STANLEY has arrived at that point of eminence which is sure to call forth its attendant and its test—detraction. A journal has given a perverted view of one portion of his argument, and then triumphantly refutes its own misrepresentation. Lord STANLEY never said that a meehanic was as favorably situated for acquiring knowledge as one who had his time at his own disposal. His argument was, that a mechanic need not despair of improve ment because his time was short. It is, again, a gross misrepresentation to assert that his Lordship supposed that his hearers would gain a profound comprehension of those subjects he suggested as desirable to engage their attention. Smatterer is an ugly word. But, apart from our particular professions, the best of us is little more. We must take knowledge upon authority ; we must be content with results, and the main use of these results may be less to store the mind with facts which it. can reproduce at SATURDAY, pleasure than to enlighten and hutnaniseit, to produce a more reverent tone of feeling, and purer moral sentiments. Lord STANLEY did not deprecate that various reading which is of course essentia to various knowledge ; he only recommended systematic reading. Dr. Aftsor.n, an authority whom even Mr. Lofty might respect, gave it as the strongest conviction of his educa tional experience that a little knowledge of many subjects was not necessarily a smattering knowledge, and that tolerably diffuse reading was much more to be recommended than contracted reading, from the better effect of the former in expanding the mind Lord STANLEY was not addressing an audience of schoolboys. Our own idea of all literary institutes as that of Oldham is, that they are much less fitted for educational purposes than for intellectual recreation ; and supposing that a man has only one or two hours in the (lay he can devote to reading, we think he would do w3ll rather to attempt to gain some general comprehension of many sciences and subjects than to obtain what can at best be but a super ficial knowledge of one. LOCKE himself would not speak " against the taking a taste of every sort of knowledge." Instead. of a man devoting his leisure to one sort of knowledge, he thought it better to give the mind a " fair and equal view of the whole " intellectual world, wherein it may see the order, rank, and beauty "of the whole." We do not suppose Lord SfANLEY had this passage in his mind, yet the spirit of his remarks on the advisability of obtaining a general view of the universe is identical with it. It only remains, therefore, for Mr. Lofty with a wave and flourish ofhis pea to " set down " LOCKE as he has set down Lord STANLEY. We all remember Swirr's famous parallel in the " Tale of a Tub," between human clothes and human character. How honesty is likened to a pair of shoes, worn out in the dirt; religion to a cloak ; vanity to a shirt; self-love to a surtout ; and conscience—but we need not repeat the comparison further. It is a little too Rabelasian for modern taste, a little too coarse for modern modesty, but thoroughly applicable to the defaulters of the British Bank who have so fully acted up to Swirr's comparison. What an excellent man must Mr. CAMERON have been, so self-sacrificing, so zealous in the discharge of his duties, and in fact a man so good altogether that he was—good for nothing. But these ]aches in commercial morality are not re putable, to say the least of it. It would seem that in the commercial world a sin is no sin till found out. The princely British merchant is a practical man who does not fall into hysterics about an abstract principle. What have business men to do with conscience ? S'est enfuite du cceur et lest refugie sur les lerres—and so he buttons up his breeches pockets a little tighter than usual, and flatters himself that PAUL and STRAHAX, and CAMERON and Co , are examples of the abuse, not the use, of the principles which regulate commercial morality. We are not very much in the habit of going out of our way to praise our contemporaries, seeing that they are nearly all exces sively prompt with at least as much self-laudation as is necessary, when they hold themselves to have achieved a feat of any kind. But we really cannot withhold our slight tribute to the Daily News for the elegance with which it is written, and the carefulness with which it is edited. On Thursday, while an announcement of the death of Lord HARDINGE, and an article on his merits, stared in the face of every reader of the Times, the Daily News apprised us that "no immediate danger' was apprehended. The same day appeared a very scurrilous letter from Mr. MORRIS MooRE, abusing Dr. WAAGEN and HERR MUNDLER, and with the chief abuse in French The next day, the letter having been in the meantime translated to the conductors by somebody who understands French, its appearance was apologised for. Then, on the Hardingo day, we are told of the most feeling paragraph we ever heard of, " a " paragraph in which anxiety was felt for the fate of Mr. SALA" (the gentleman who writes nearly all that is worth reading in Household, Words); and then an uncommonly dull person, who seems engaged to puff all the London actors in succession, and does it with a humi lity that almost atones for his awkwardness, introduces the remark able quotation about " a man in his time playing many parts," as an illustration of the fact that Mr. LEIGH MURRAY has acted in a good many pieces. Altogether, as a literary journal, and as a purveyor of news, the D. N. is certainly a curiosity. Those intelligent Yankees who would" whip creation" know at least how to build a steam-frigate. They have just sent us one to look at, the Merrimac, a screw steamer of 3,500 tons, 500-horse power, and carrying 40 guns of the heaviest calibre. She is one of the six frigates recently built, and of the same class, or probably smaller, than the twelve recently laid down for building. The Merrimac, on her arrival, made for the neighbourhood of Spithead, so as to give our dockyard and naval authorities an opportunity of inspecting the style of vessels which would have " thawed up" some of our 84's on the West India station, had impolicy or accident precipitated its into a war. Now there are not many, if there are any, vessels in the British navy, of the same class, a match for the 411 e, rimac. The royal dockyards, if they are not behind the age in ship-building, are certainly not in advance of it. Our Surveyors-General would seem to possess only the imitative talent of a Chinaman. They originate nothing. It is only when every private shipowner and every foreign Power that owns a bum-boat, has adopted a new discovery or improved an old one, that we take it up, content to follow in the rear, when wo ought to lead the van. This is bad ship-building policy for a great naval power. If our navy itfloat be large or small, it should he the most powerful and efficient of its kind. We trust that the Merrimac may stimulate the energies of our present Surveyor-General. He has just been made a K.C.B. for doin. , nothing he can boast of ; let hie► now set to work and promote such plans as will place our steam-frigate navy individually upon an equality with, if not pre eminently over, the vessels of every other Pulver. THE PRESS. 924