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

NOVEMBER 8, 1856. We can proceed no further at present. We shall next show the collisions which have taken place in consequence of the different view of the functions of the Exchequer en tertained by the Comptroller and the Treasury, and of the manner in which they have operated upon the public service. ROMANISM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Ir the world is governed politically by a very - little wisdom, its moral government is con ducted by an equally small share of reason. Men do not change their opinions because they are false, but either because they are intolerably inconvenient, or because they like something else better. Paganism might have endured to the present day had its extinction depended upon the writings of the philoso phers. To the wise men among the Greeks the truth was foolishness. The example of one good Christian life did more than all the treatises of CICERO, and one martyr than a million syllogisms. By those who forget the very limited sway which intellectual enlightenment exercises over human actions, the recent Inquisitorial edict of the Boman Church will seem an un intelligible phenomenon. That in an age of railways, newspapers, and telegraphs, men should write gravely of necromancy and a com pact with the devil, and claim unlimited authority over the consciences of others, must appear to such persons inexplicable. We do not ourselves experience the same difficulty in the matter. Moral and material progress are two totally different things ; and if the latter has any effect upon religious belief, it is rather to render men indifferent to the existence of error, than to sharpen their sense of its enor mity. A prejudice is involved in the contrary supposition which we should do well to dis card at once. We might then approach the consideration of the religious questions of the day with a fairer chance of their solution. But to the man who believes that a right under standing of earth must inevitably lead to a right understanding of heaven, the present aspect of the Roman Catholic Church will present for ever an insuperable stumbling block. The pretensions and the conduct of the Papacy, is no subject for jesting. We are bound to consider not to how many of man kind such an edict as the late one does seem ridiculous, but to how many it does not. The active work of the world is not done by the deep thinkers. ARCHIMEDES could not save Syracuse any more than LOT could save Sodom. A certain rude, unreasoning fanaticism, brutal and degraded, if you will, has always ridden rough-shod in times of commotion, over the men of mere intellect. In the days of the Commop wealth the sceptics were beaten out of sight by the fanatics. Yet the creed of a man like HARRISON was not one whit less irrational than that of TOMMASO VINCENZIO AIRALDI. If the Roman churchmen, proverbial as they are for sagacity and worldly wisdom, believe that such a document will answer any useful purpose, we Englishmen may sit in our chairs and laugh at it if we like, but their only feeling on the subject will be, " let those laugh who win !" Are they winning? Whether Popery has increased in this country during the last few years in point of numbers, we are unable to determine. But if it has not become more powerful, it has undoubtedly become more notorious. The assumption of titles and the deliberate division of the country into so many Roman Catholic sees, though not proving, in our opinion, that Romanism has advanced, are unquestionable proofs that Rome is making vigorous and widespread efforts. As Englishmen, we may be proud of those national traits which enable us to defy all that the subtlest intellects in Europe can devise against us, without forgetting that where the same barriers do not exist, the same efforts may be successful. It would, in our opinion, be the height of madness to ignore the progress which Romanism is making in various parts of the Continent, and especially THE PRESS. in the Austrian dominions. The new Austrian marriage law, which hands over to the Church the entire control over all matrimonial engage ments, is only one fresh instance of the rapid strides by which Rome is regaining her ascend ancy. For let Liberal propagandists say what they will, Austria is not that enfeebled and declining power which they love to paint her. Granted that she exists by the support of an enormous standing army; by whose suppot does that enormous standing army exist? A military force of this character is as much the master as the servant of the Government which employs it. And were not that Govern• merit suited to the requirements of the country, and therefore in one sense of the word popular, such an army could never hold together. A weak, despotic, and unpopular Government can only be maintained by mer cenaries. Austria then is not compelled to cling to the Pope's gown for protection. Our opinion is that she is by no means thrusting his edicts down the throats of an unwilling people. In his present success we see only the natural result of that over-confidence among Protest ants which believed that Popery was killed instead of being only scotched. And again and again we would have them remember that documents such as have recently been ex citing the merriment of the British press, de serve to be considered with more seriousness. Such is the constitution of the human mind that passion is more able to promote error than ridicule is to destroy it. We have often regretted the prevalence of the Horatian maxim, that jokes are more efficient than argument ; they may sting, but they do not persuade. To our opponents they bring irri tation without conviction ; to . ourselves triumph without victory. THE PREMIER AT MANCHESTER. THE proceedings at Manchester in which Lord PALMERSTON exhibited his histrionic powers were very amusing. When the " im mortal Boz," for one night only, by " particular desire," figured 'at Drury Lane with the Administrative Reform Association,the Premier quizzed his " private theatricals," and Mr. Boz replied by some Sam Wellerisms and sneers at the " Comic Old Gentleman." Lord PALMERSTON bore the infliction of Mr. Boz's disapprobation with mirthful levity; and though a crowded audience cheered his cen sor, Lord PALMERSTON'S long experience of life told him not to care about what popular " meetings might say or do. And now, down at Manchester, the Premier is feted in the capital of Radicalism. So much for the popularia aura! On the one side there was nauseous provincial adulation of a real live Premier, and some of the devotees to the new object for idolatry at Manchester, showed the Americanised character of a portion of that community. No one toadies an English " Lord " like an American, and the Whig-tail at Manchester, in that respect, shows its con geniality with the Democrats of the United States. For our own part, we heartily admire and respect the community of Manchester, and we do not forget that there is a powerful Conservative interest in that great city. We know that at the last election the proportions in the constituency of Conservatives to Radi cals stood as four to five; and many years will not elapse before two Conservatives sit for Manchester, unless there be great local mis management of the Conservative resources. This present visit of Lord PALMERSTON may be taken as partly personal, and partly political. It has long been known that a certain Unita rian clique at Manchester has entertained a great personal dislike to Mr. BRIGHT; and it is very remarkable that some of that particular connection have been forward in getting up this reception of the Premier. Any one mixing in the higher commercial circles of England must have often heard the most peculiar way in which certain Unitarian Libe• rats at Manchester have talked about Mr. BRIGHT, and these persons have gladly seized the first opportunity open to them of giving 1059 an effective side-stroke to " Bright and Co.' Nothing better could present itself to them than a reception of the statesman who once sneered at Mr. BRIGHT as " the honourable " an'l reverend gentleman." It is worth notice, also, that the moral tone of Lord PAntErts - ros, in his addresses at Manchester, was exactly calculated to please his Unitarian patrons in that quarter. The stereotyped Unitarian formula of " Frogresaive " improvement is the law of our moral nature " was harped upon iu his three speeches ; and our readers must recollect that our Premier long since told England that " all children "were born good." Take the speeches as re ported in the Timed of Friday, and let them be read with reference to the " cant of per fectibility " so much in vogue amongst Uni tarians, and the result will show the charac teristic looseness of Lord PALMERSTON, and the superficiality of his philosophy. In perusing these artfully ambiguous speeches we ct.uld not help recalling what one of Lord PALMERSTON'S shrewdest literary cen sors wrote some years ago :—" Of the sort of " quasi-philosophical language, the slang of un •' defined but developing democracy, which " pleases the crude, unformed minds of those " who are self-chosen to decide on public " affairs, Lord PALMERSTON is a master. He is " clever at setting traps for such vain and " voluntary dupes. Vague and vapid gene " ralities become, under the magic influence of " his congenial intellect, high-sounding and " inspiring principles." His ovations at Man chester justify that description. The logic was cloudy generality, and the rhetoric was of the sort known as " superfine slipshod." He mixed up courtly platitudes with well-sugared Liberal cant. It passed off well enough with audiences not familiar with his artifices ; his buoyant, animated manner gave it an appear ance of intense Liberality; but read afterwards it is a mass of mawkish condescension and electioneering claptrap. Conscious of the weakness of his position with the mercantile and industrial interests of England (for his reception at Manchester was organised by a clique, and is not a boni-fide " popular" ovation), the Premier makes a desperate attempt to cajole those classes whom he cannot convince. Was it not because the Grey Liberals feared in 1846 to intrust tho Foreign-office to Lord Pstmeasrox that the achievement of Corn-law Repeal was given to Sir R. PEEL, and not to Lord JOHN RUSSELL? Is it possible that Free-trade Manchester can forget that memorable fact" And does Lord PALMERSTON think that he can make the great interests of the empire forget the extraordi nary personal escapades connected with his name, not to speak of the unparalleled dis respect which his Lordship showed to his Sovereign in transactions to which we need not more specially revert ? Yet this is the statesman who now seeks to frighten these great interests about the inse curity of the present peace If the peace be insecure, whose fault is that of having made a hollow truce ? And why was the army reduced so suddenly, and some of its corps "disbanded," as Mr. F. PEEL phrased it? We see plainly by those speeches that Lord PALMERSTON is at his old pranks. How aptly do these harangues at Manchester illustrate the felicity of Prince METTERNICH'S description of the speaker—" a diplomatic demagogue.' The Times of Monday had the following : FRENCH DIPLOMATISTS AND THE Cwt. The Observer of last Sunday contains the following, dated St. Petersburg, Nov. 1 :—" Count Walewski, the French Foreign Minister, a Pole, is to have the Polish estates of his family restored to him again for his services to the Czar in the late war." The Constitutionnel of Thursday replied by the following paragraph :—" The London journal, the Observer, announces that the Emperor Alexander, in order to recompense Count Walewski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for the services rendered by him to Russia during the war, has restored to him the estates which they say belonged to his famil3. M. Walewski possesses no estate in Poland, and the Russian Government has never confiscated any lands belonging to his family. The intelligence given by the English journal is, therefore, in every sense incorrect. It is to be regretted that journals which ought to have self respect should make them selves the echoes of calumnies."