The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

e ttl; r .- eN - No. 175.—V0L. IV. cal c Vrtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1850. THE speech of Mr. ROEBUCK at Sheffield calls for some notice at our hands. The Honour able and Learned Gentleman has discovered that without party organisation no weight is to be obtained, and no good is to be done. He assures us, from his personal knowledge, that a very small knot of organised men can enor mously influence the Legislature, and, as he is dissatisfied with the two great parties in the State, he proposes to create a third, which, even if it numbers but ten or fifteen members in the House of Commons, may, he thinks, he able to dictate terms to the Government. One of the 1 , -ading objects of his party will be " to " overthrow the aristocratic domination in this " country,' and rescue the people from the slavery in which, according to the Honourable and Learned Gentleman, that domination holds them. Mr•. ROEBUCK is at the same time so candid as to say that the country does not want more Reform Bills. " If an angel of light wver•e to come " down with a Reform Bill in his hand, the " people would receive him apathy." But neither do the people seem particularly anxious to resign themselves to the direction of Mr. ROEBUCK'S select society of Adminis trative Reformers. That stillness in the poli• tical world, on which we have previously com mented as a remarkable feature of our time, is admitted by Mr ROEBUCK, but attributed by him to a different cause from that to which we referred it. We believe it to be due to the desire of the nations of Europe to prosecute the labours of industry in security and peace ; to the develop ment of social arts; to a perception on the part of both Governments and people that their interests are substantially the same ; and to the defeat and disgrace of the party of dis turbance in every country where it has ven tured to raise its head. Mr. ROEBUCK, on the contrary, ascribes this quietude to the oppres sion of the Continental Governments, which keep the people in subjection, and prevent them from manifesting their sentiments. He cannot believe that Europe, having arrived at so high a point of civilisation as it has done, will suffer itself to be sacrificed to base and oppressive despotisms. On this point he may set his mind at rest The communities of modern Europe are far too intelligent and keen-sighted to submit to any Government essentially opposed to their interests and wishes. They may not exercise a direct, influence over the acts of their Executives, but from the relations existing in every civilised society it is impossible that any Government can be independent of the support of the great body of the people. It was the sage remark of MoNTEsouiEu that the most absolute Courts of the orld are com pelled to shape their course by the general current of popular feeling. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1856. STAMPED ....SIXPENCE. UNSTIMPED -FIV EPENCE. The stillness of the political atmospin‘re. according ttl Mr. ROEBUCK, is but " the " torrent's smoothness ere it dash below." He anticipates that the time is coming when " the great nationalities of Europe will rise up " as one man against the oppressive despotisms " which now weigh them down." This is language which the Liberal party in this country have been so long accustomed to use, that they seem to have lost all sense of its danger and its absurdity. Since the settlement of Europe in there have been two great insurrectionary movements, both originating in France. Those risings, however, have been so far from con tributing to the progress of political liberty, that they have had the direct effect of checking it, and have tended to strengthen those prin ciples of absolute government they were in tended to overthrow. The insurrection in Hungary has thrown that country back for half a century. Before it broke forth, Hungary, by the testimony of its most enlightened public men, was rapidly advancing, not only in material prosperity, but in the freedom of its institutions. Unhappily, advantage was taken of that freedom to precipitate a revolution which destroyed the flower of her people, and i❑ the end laid her prostrate at the feet of the power from which she had vainly endeavoured to emancipate herself. What probability is there that the new rising which our Liberal politicians antici pate with so much glee would be attended with any other result ? A Government might be overthrown, but the system would remain unchanged, or would give place to harsher rule. Those absolute monarchies on the Con tinent, which a certain order of shallow politi cians among us are inclined to regard as mere accidents which may be overthrown by a breath, are the result of causes deeply laid in the very constitution of the States, and inter woven with the whole fabric of society. This continual laudation of the sacred right of insurrection is attended by some incon venient consequences. It tends to keep alive a revolutionary spirit on the Continent which is incompatible with practical progress and rational liberty. At the same time it has some effect in rousing the jealousy of the Govern ments so grossly abused, and in retarding the political ameliorations, which with a greater feeling of security they would not be unwilling to introduce. _ But it is in our intercourse with other nations that it operates most perniciously. It is laid down as a fundamental doctrine by a very influential portion of our press, that our diplomacy must be employed for the purpose of propagating Liberal opinions—a policy which is so far from effecting its purpose, that it only operates to deprive England of that moral influence on the Continent which her history and her power fairly entitle her to exercise. At the present moment it is par ticularly insisted that only a person of the most decided Liberal tendencies shall be sent as our Minister to the Court of Naples. The effect of such an appointment would at once be to throw our representative into the arms of a faction, and to deprive him of all influence with the Government. Committed to the espousal of one side in the politics of the Neapolitan kingdom, he would be unable to give those moderate counsels which might allay the violence of contending parties, and bring about a happier] state of feeling ; or if able to give such counsels, they would be received by one side with susnirion. and the other with discontent. He would be placed in a false position from being sent out, not as an able and upright diplomatist, but for purposes of political propagandism. This system has in the eud failed wherever it has been tried. Even second and third. rate Courts will not submit to have a policy they dis trust dictated to them by the representatives of a foreign power. Through this mischievous interference the influence of England on the Continent has fallen to the lowest point, nor is there the slightest probability that it will be regained till the governing party in this coun try ceases to extol insurrection, and our mis sions are employed for their legitimate pur pose of promoting friendly relations with the Governments of those countries wherein they exist, instead of fostering foreign factions and encouraging insurrectionary movements. MR. DISRAELI AND SOCIAL REFORM. Wncs Mr. DISRAELI directed public attention specially towards " Administrative Reform,'] certain politicians took occasion to impugn the soundness of the advice then given with pre scient common sense by the Right Hon. Mem ber for Bucks. Since that time it has been dis covered that questions of administrative and social reform are exactly those to which the public will attend ; and what course is then pursued by the parties who tried vainly to de cry the soundness of the public policy traced out by Mr. DISRAELI ? The question is asked, " What special claim " has Mr. DISRAELI to take up such a question "as social reform ?" The persons asking the question forget that Mr. DISRAELI was the first who tried to give it an emphatic prominence in our political discussions, and the idea of ex amining public questions from the practically " social " as opposed to the abstractedly " po litical " point of view, runs from first to last through all Mr. DisaAELL's literary and Parlia mentary exercitations. llis early successes in the House of Commons were on questions which he debated in that style. He traced the consequences of the Penal Laws (passed originally by the Revolution Whigs), and he exposed the fallacy of supposing that political remedies could cure Ireland; and events since then have completely confirmed his views on what was called " the Irish difficulty." Again, too, we might recal attention to the significant fact that Mr. DISRAELI was the Member of Parliament who threw strong light upon the whole of oit consular system. He showed, on that occasion, the waste of public money, and the political jobbery of the system. He described, also, how, by a different " admi nistrative system," that important department might strengthen the arm of the Executive, and how its resources might be employed for diplomatic and commercial purposes of na tional magnitude. There were many diffi culties in obtaining knowled, thr tion, and the rare research DISRAELI won him Brea' diately secured the ear of mons. He treated the from a " party " but from view, and in elucidating played how deeply he u, springs which are cum strati ye Reform." The tone and matter of their practical character, tr. 1:1) )wledge on that ques- rch exhibiteA.b*Xr. llt prai e,"110:1 bnifie- If the o 4l ' 1,,, .:,,,, whol *A .`-' •,.?` - ma - b l':'11 .:-::: . ' its IPA -1,1 1 •'• Its, r„.. 101) LndErs •• , , 15." - 4 - I.in kected ~ .wr . )f thOallip ..".: . :, !r, rivate. .1--11Lri-N;jo