The Press. — London, England, 1856-10-18 00:00:00

THE WEEK. A GREEK statesman, when asked derisively to name his accom plishments, replied, he knew only how to raise a small State to the rank of a great one. Lords PALMERSTON and CLARENDON can boast an opposite accomplishment. They are masters in the art of making a great State at least appear little. The attitude of England on the Neapolitan affair has exposed us to the ridicule of the whole Conti nent. In condescending to menace a third-rate power, our atti tude was not dignified, but it has become positively humiliating through failure to carry the menace into effect. Each week some change is announced in the intentions of our Government. A month ago, and it was triumphantly proclaimed that the tricolor and the union-jack were hourly expected to be seen flying in the Bay of Naples. Now, we are told that a " new note of a conciliatory character " is to be despatched to his Majesty the King of NAPLES," and that in the event of his refusing to satisfactorily reply to it, the French and English fleets will proceed to-wards, but not to Naples. The distinction is not unimportant, though indeed it is of little conse quence, as it is now pretty well understood that no hostile demon stration against Naples will be permitted. We congratulate the Moining Herald on the improvement in its tone. Its article of Tuesday on THE PRESS was more sensible than we have been lately accustomed to read in that journal. Our contem porary does not dispute the justice of the views which have been put forward in this Journal on the necessity of Party Union, but it asks what is the Conservative Party united on ? This is the Herald's strong point : a party, it says, must have a banner. THE PRESS holds no firm flag, and therefore the party is listless Our contemporary contrasts the political apathy of the present day with the political fervour that prevailed when the Opposition was headed by the late Sir R. PEEL. The Conservative party, says the Herald, had then a " cry," that great desideratum of vulgar or profligate politicians. But after all what did that cry result in ? A cry for a party is worse than useless when it symbolises a policy which cannot be carried into effect. It then leads, as bitter experience has told us, to the disorganisation and defeat instead of the triumph of a party. A scheme of party policy is not to be rashly adopted ; it is not to be forced forward even by what are deemed to be party exigencies. And we believe the good sense of the country will in the end appreciate the moderation and forbearance which refrains from creating political difficulties that it may have the benefit of political excitement. The policy of the Conservative party must always be distinct from that of its antagonists. It does not live by agitation. The primary duty of the Conservative Opposition is to resist changes which it believes to be dangerous ; but there can be no resistance where there is no attack The only banner which it seems practicable for the Conservative party to display at the present time is administrative efficiency combined with practical reform and social amelioration. I f this is vague, the vagueness only arises from the inexpediency of a Conservative Opposition pledging itself to particular measures, while uncertain of the circumstances which may attend its assumption of office. As the Herald has lately dwelt so much upon what it has been pleased to designate the disorganisation of the Con. servative party, we recommend to it some admirable observations in the Quarterly on the disastrous effects of the want of that party combination which it has been the object of our " preachment," as the Herald calls it, to promote. We have high authority for the assurance that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and our faith in the sound sense and patriotism of the Conservative community forbids us to doubt that it will earnestly set itself to work to repair that division of strength which of late years has so seriously reduced its numbers and marred its efficiency. The arbiter eegantiarunt of the daily press again calls us to ac count for our contumacy in persisting to call a spade a spade. Breadth of language is not to be allowed in the same lati tude as breadth of !brim. The indignation of our censor finds vent in expletives. " Shame on the Tory• scribe ! Shame on his polluted mind, shame on the blackness of his ink, and the envenomed point of his pen!" All this is non sense. The very cant of prudery. If young ladies will employ them selves in such occupations as collecting subs :iriptions to promote Italian insurrections, no surprise can be felt that their conduct is made the subject of comment. Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it. If folly grows romantic, we must paint it. The young lady, as our excited censor states, may be of the highest respectability and connections, but how the name of White is to be a guarantee for " the most high-minded and virtuous opinion," we do not profess to understand. Black, Brown, or Green seem to us as names equally respectable, and have no doubt at various times have been ennobled with all the virtues which appear upon tomb stones. It is this very respectability which makes the young lady's escapades the more remarkable. It is not we who stepped into the privacy of domestic life, it is Miss WHITE who has stepped out of it. But really no young lady need be annoyed at finding herself called a Diana Vernon. It is our contemporary's usual ignorance of what does and what does not give pain among ladies and gentlemen winch has produced this solemn diatribe. If he envies the reputation of BEAL: NASH let him acquire his manners and his knowledge and his talent, and learn something of his essential politeness. While lecturing others our opponent sins against rules generally observed in newspaper controversy. He persists in connecting the name of a distinguished pei SATURDAY, sonage with all that appears in this journal. If he were better in formed he would know that THE PRESS is above the dictation of any individual, and that whatever influence attaches to its opinions is due to its being the Organ of a Party. The frequent assertion of an un founded statement shows that our censor's gullibility is only equalled by his rudeness. The new Metropolitan Board of Works has not as yet given any great proof of its ability to answer the end for which it was designed. The fault seems to be—at least, we fear so—in the construction of the Board, which combines the evils both of centralisation and local government, without the advantages of either. There is sufficient local influence to obstruct central legislation, and a sufficiently cen tralised system to weaken local energy. By converting the whole metropolis into one large parish, we do but reproduce on a larger scale all those petty jealousies and selfish interests which are supposed to be the property of many separate jurisdictions. Each delegate has a plan of his own from which he will not recede, and the disputes and delays are in proportion to the magnitude of the proceedings. The east does not care about the west, nor the north about the south. The unity and rapidity supposed to be characteristic of centralised authority are evidently not to be looked for from this metropolitan combination. It seems not improbable that the Government will have to be referred to at last. Sir BENJAMIN intimates as much pretty plainly by saying that if the Board cannot carry out such and such a measure "he will do it for them." The independence of a lody so constituted is obviously little more than a name. The Right Honourable First Commissioner of the Board of Works has, like John Gilpin, " a mounting mind." His plans for the im provement of the public offices are, in the phrase of another of our familiar characters, Pro-di-gi-ous. He has cut out work for all future Boards of Works for the next two or three centuries, if progress is to be measured by our pace for years past, and by the present pro ceedings of the department of which Sir BENJAMIN HALL is the head. Last winter, St. James's-park, opposite the Horse Guards, was turned into a miniature representation of the trenches on Balaklava heights to effect the drainage of the canal in the inclosure ; and this winter, the work is, for some reasons known best to the Board of Works—the veritable Circumlocution Office, by the way—to be done over again. A party of some dozen navvies—the water being drained off—are sent to stir about the mud. The stench is pes tiferous, and as Buckingham Palace is empty, the aforesaid navvies are to be allowed to amuse themselves, and to poison the atmosphere of the whole neighbourhood for some months to come. The work is so insignificant in itself, that the Government might reasonably have contracted for the whole to be finished in a month at furthest. The dawdling of this Government department is an intolerable nuisance, How many years is it since the Houses of Parliament were begun 9 The proposed scheme for the Westminster improvements is so extensive, that certainly no person living may hope to see it finished, and we, who are not sanguine, hardly expect to see it begun. One more provision for delay has already been taken. There is to be a competition open to all the world. This competitive system is of doubtful utility. If a great work is to be executed, the best plan on the whole is to intrust it to per sons of proved competency. The contract and competitive systems as regards Government works have both been pushed too far, and really, looking at the enormous proportions of Sir B. HALL'S prop')sal, we fear that no other result will be attained than the amusement of the Right Honourable First Commissioner. We should like to see a beginning made at once by a new bridge being thrown across the Thames, with the site of Northumberland-house as an approach from Charing-cross ; with new Government offices in continuation of the Treasury south to Great George-street; and with the removal of that hideous nest of blind alleys. harbouring vice and filth not to be described, lying between Queen-street and Park-street on the one side, and the new line of Victoria-street on the other. Till that be done, it seems to us ridiculous to attempt to carry out on a great scale the scheme so magnificently propounded by Sir BENJAMIN HALL. Adroit insinuation is an instrument in anonymous writing very open to abuse. If a notorious scoundrel slanders a most respectable man, how easy to say the accuser is certainly a villain, we have no right to believe what he says, but there are certain probabilities, Sze. And so anybody's character may be taken away on evidence not only inadmis sible in a court of justice, but such as no man would dream of acting, on in his private relations. The supposed connection between Mr. GRELF.T and the leading financiers and statesmen of France is an instance in point. What does it rest upon ? If the anticipation of a verdict in the case of an individual criminal be culpable, what are we to say of the publication of assumptions which may affect the stability of Government and the credit of a whole class of statesmen ? If we are compelled to go back to France (said Grelet) I will disclose several matter; that will compromise the very men who now persecute me, and even great financiers, who now hold their heads high upon the Bourse. Upon which the comment of the leading journal is : They point to the princely fortunes which have been realised in so brief a space from nothing, and promise to reveal what they know of the nwdn operandi. But where is the allusion in URELET'S remarks to rapidly-made fortunes? The ROTHSCHILDS whom he has defrauded are not financial parvenues. The " adroit insinuation " goes beyond GRELET'S words. Further on in the same article we find : The affair, however, will assume a far graver aspect if we are compelled to mix up with it the financial operations of the French empire and the credit iJ the highest names which surround the Imperial Throne. An,' it is added with supreme condescension : (-)./ the individual statesmen let each one think as he rill ; as to the impolicy of the chie financial measures of the empire, we hare already expressed our opinion ; but at leest it THE PRESS. 996