The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-15 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 15, 1856. given emergency, he would be prepared to act. Parties were responsible for their opinions, and were enthusiastically supported, or assailed, because all persons believed they would give effect to them if they could. Thirty years ago, a large section of the governing classes were unaffectedly Liberal. They placed before themselves certain unmistake able measures which they were determined to carry, and they claimed the support of the people on these distinct grounds. The people of England believed them, and were not deceived ; the measures in question were car ried, and an amount of confidence and affection was lavished on the Liberal party, of which its later representatives have not shown them selves worthy. They have taken advantage of it in the same sort of way that an expe rienced man about town takes advantage of a confiding youngster—eats his dinners, wins his money, and rides his horses, under the pretence of improving his education. Yet it is possible they may still learn that honesty would after all have been the best policy. When the dupe awa.kens from his delusion, and discovers the imposture that has been practised on him, the position of the knave is not enviable—his character is blown upon, and, however much he may have feathered his neat for the present, his chance of employment is probably extinguished for the future. At the present moment there is in this country a party honestly conservative, and a party, though a small one, honestly radical. But between these two there is a large mob of politicians who are all things to all men,—who call themselves Liberals on provincial hustings, and Conservatives in Belgravian drawing- rooms,—who hold power as the legitimate successors of CHARLES GREY and FRANCIS BUR DETT, but who shrink from progress in their hearts as much RS a METTERNICH or a POLIO NAC. Liberalism has gone far enough to satisfy if not to frighten statesmen brought up under the old regime, and it is no longer now as then that, to use our previous words, " a large section of the governing classes are "unaffectedly Liberal." The sooner the people wake to the perception of this wholesome truth the better—the better both for themselves and for their rulers ; for then a great falsehood will be overthrown which is secretly corrupt ing the character of our public men, and un dermining the national sincerity. As long as a statesman, however decided may be his own private views, knows that he has this vie debateable land to receive him when convenient, from which after a short sojourn he may issue upon either side that suits him, there will be an irresistible tempta tion to play fast and loose with political prin ciples. When men can pass almost without notice from one party to another, what wonder if they avail themselves of so convenient a method of keeping on good terms with both ? And what wonder if we are constantly disco vexing that a Liberal Government may at any one moment consist almost exclusively of Conservatives, or that Conservative opposition may often be reinforced by the votes of Liberals? But just as cerium non animum mu tant qui bang mare currunt, so also do those gentlemen who may have migrated to the shores of Liberalism over the sea of "independ ence " for the most retain their ancient predi lections. What man in his senses, who knows anything of the political world, believes that Lord PALMERSTON is a Liberal, in the sense of the word in which the people believe him to be one ? Since his Lordship found that Liberalism was the thing to pay, he has stu diously fostered the delusion, and we give him full credit for the adroitness with which he has concealed from the popular gaze his nu merous practical contradictions of it. Bit if he has not now nearly reached the end of his tether, it will be the fault of the people them selves. A statesman is made Prime Minister on the ground that he is the leader of a great Liberal party. No sooner is he installed than he Ignores all his former professions, adopts a perfectly passive policy, and declines to propa gate the creed of his supporters. Those sup porters still keep hi m i n p ower , s till b rag o f their Liberal Premi er , an d st ill d ec l are t h a t nothing can withstand their principles. And then, in face of this unique specimen of con tradiction, men pretend to wonder and com- THE PRESS. plain that " Parliament won't work." Surely they must very soon find out the reason now, and see that if Parliamentary Government is to go on it must be conducted on a system of openness. It must be conducted by men who believe in the truth of certain doctrines, openly profess what they believe, and fearlessly act as they profess. Not by men who have neither creed, candour, nor courage. A Ministry must secure the support of a party by first acquiring their confidence, not by offering themselves merely as a refuge from despair, or, still worse, by teaching the people, through their own ex ample, that honesty is a dream, and political truth a phantom ; that to be indifferent is to be comfortable, and to be anxious about cha racter, the mark of a simpleton. But we will not believe so ill of the' people of England as to suppose it possible they would be the wil ling victims of such fallacies. And we have a firm conviction that but a very few more ses sions of Parliament, conducted like the last, will shiver to dust the hollow imposture of the great Liberal Party. OFFICIAL PhONIOTIONS IN IRELAND. THERE is no department of knowledge in which it is so easy to present fallacious statements as in statistics. " Cooking " accounts is a regular branch of art with some sinister arithmeticians of the Sadleir school ; and when tabular rows of figures are offered as evidence, it behoves us to be most cautious in accepting them. An attempt has been made to appeal to figures against the charge which we have recently advanced, that too much of the official patronage of the Crown is bestowed upon the Roman Catholics, and that most dangerous class, "the pro-Romanist" Protestants, of Ireland. We shall expose the fallacy of the reply in a few words. On last Saturday the following table was circu lated under the Irish correspondence of the Times. It affects to represent the proportions of the legal dignitaries in Ireland No. Court. Protest. Cath. 1. Lord Justice of Appeal 1. Lord Chancellor 1. Master of the Rolls . . 5. Masters in Chancery 3. Encumbered EstetesCommissioners .. 1. Prerogative Judge 1. Consistorial Judge 12. Common-Law Judges H 4 2. Bankrupt Court Commissioners .. 1. insolvent ditto 1 .. 3. Taxing Masters 3. Recorders . $3. Assistant Barristers .. 23 .. JO S 8 .. 1•) This table rests on a huge fallacy. 1. It does not meet the case which we advanced, that a new system of promotion is now being adopted for the convenience of certain persons. The promotions of the last five years should have been taken by the ingenious framers of the table, and they should not have relied on the Protestant nomina tions made during Conservative and Moderate-Whig Ministries. 2. It artfully enumerates only " Roman Catho lics," and swells the list of " Protestants" by inserting all t'ae " pro Itunanists," who, politically speaking, are " more Catholic thati the Catholics." Our charge was that an undue amount of favour was given to the supporters, eiders, and fosterers of the Roman catholic interest. 3. Several offices are tabulated which should be removed from tl'e list. For example, the Lord Chancellor must be (by statute) of the Established Church.l The Government dared not pass over Mr. BLACKBURNE for Judge of Appeal, inasmuch as the English public and the economists in the House of Commons (many of whom desire that there should be only nine instead of twelve Law Judges in Ire land) would never hear of a dowager Chancellor like Mr. BLACSBURNE being passed over, and the country being saddled with a needless expenditure. Nor should credit be taken for the three Encumbered Estates Commissioners being Protestants, since that circumstance was unavoidable. That court was calculated to affect powerfully the Protestant pro prietary of Ireland. An Englishman (Mr. HAR OREAVE) was placed in it, inasmuch as English capitalists were concerned in tho operations of the court: and Commissioner LONOFIELD was chosen on account of his personal connection with the landed interest, as was stated by Mr. HATCHELL in the House of Commons. Baron RICHARDS had special claims on the Whig Government, and was also ex perienced in the practice of Irish Equity. So, also, no credit should be taken for the Prerogative and 1083 Consistorial Judges. The Insolvent Commissioners might, also, be removed from the list, as it was not long since that two Roman Catholics (Messrs. FARRELL and BALDWIN), besides a pro Catholic Whig (Mr. CURRAIe„ were in that court. The Taxing Masters and Recorders are skilfully thrown in to swell the list, and no notice is taken of the Roman Catholic Clerks of the Peace, Clerks of the Crown, Sessions Prosecutors, Crown Circuit Prose cutors, &c. &c. Nor is there any notice taken of the fact, that only four out of the twelve judges have been selected from the Conservative Bar. Neither is any atten tion paid to the number of " Mulgrave Protestants " in the list of twenty-three Protestant assistant• barristers. There are in Ireland a race of Protes tants who live and breathe upon the Catholic plat form ; and we have the authority of the late Sir ROBERT PEEL in locking upon such gentlemen as being " Catholic politicians." We believe that eight units might, at least, be subtracted from the twenty three "Protestants" tabulated in the foregoing table. 5. Let us therefore subtract the specifications as indicated (ante 3), and let us decline to credit the Chancellorship, Judge of Appeal, Prerogative and Consistorial Judges, and the two Bankrupt Court Commissioners (who succeeded two Catholics), and the Encumbered Court Commissioners. We shall then have to reduce the list by nine. " Taxing Masters " we shall not count, es if we went into such calculations we should have to reckon up the Crown Prosecutorships, and Clerkships of the Crown and Peace, held by Roman Catholics ; and seeing that Recorder SHAW was nominated to his office by the old and exclusively Protestant corporation of Dublin, it is scarcely right to give Lord CARLISLE credit for the nomination. We shall, therefore, exclude " Recorders " and " Taxing Masters," and the list of Assistant Barristers might stand as fifteen Protestant Conservatives, against eighteen Roman Catholics and pro-Romanist Protestants. So that the fallacy of the table, wherein credit is taken for offices that could not, except with out rageous audacity, be given to Roman Catholics, is seen at a glance. The artful manner in which tho pro-Catholics are put along with the " Protestants " is a very masterly stroke. But let us supply another table, which shall indi cate how things are going now at Dublin Castle. The Chancellorship must (as stated) be filled by a Protestant of the Established Church, and there has been no vacancy in the Mastership of the Rolls. Let us fix our eyes on those great State otfices in which the policy of a Government may clearly be read. We believe that the ingenious compilers of the table to which we have referred would concur with us in thinking that it out to be enough to look to the departments in which there have been recent vacancies, and which bring their holders into great prominence before the public eye. Take the twelve judges, the Attorney-Generalship, the Solici tor-Generalship, the Sergeants-at-Law, and the Counsel to the Castle, and let us see how the account will stand : No. Offices Protest. Cath. 12. The Twelve Judges 8 .. 4 1. Attorney-General 1. Solicitor-General 3. Crown Sergeants-at-Law 1 .. 2 1. Couusel to the Castle 18 10 .. 8 We think that this table will fully justify the remarks which have appeared in our columns, and we request particular notice to the fact that only four out of the twelve judges have been taken from the Conservative Bar. The latter circumstance is of mora striking and ominous significance, when we see five Roman Catholic Queen's Counsel returned to Parliament mainly by the influence of the priesthood. The representation of the great county of Cork is handed over to two Roman Catholic Queen's Counsel, a course against which the Whig aristocracy and Liberal Protestants of that county remonstrated in vain. But we have said enough to substantiate our former statements. The mysterious death of Mr. Brettell in Paris has excited a great sensation. Mr. Brettell was a gentle man of fortune, and enjoyed excellent health. A few days since he fell dead from his dog-cart while driving in the Bois de Boulogne : I do not wish (says a Paris correspondent of a contem porary) to repeat all the idle rumours that are current, for a few days will decide the question of foul pla: But in the meanwhile I may state that parties who saw the de ceased gentleman a short time before his death assert that he was not in the slightest degree inebriated, as I have seen stated. There cannot be any doubt that Mr. Brettell tell from his carriage in a tit, but with regard to the subse quent events I can give no information. The carriage from which the deceased fell was driven by Mr. Robert Burdett, brother of Mrs. Cuningham, to whom it is stated the fortune of the deceased has been bequeathed. The whole subject is, however, too much mixed up with scandal to warrant for the moment any further notice. A post-mortem examination is now being earned out. • A • L