The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

co bt (I LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1856. STAMPED .... SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE. No. 148.—VoL. IV. of Vrtss. or better end than the terrified enjoyment which they found in their illicit sport: they are now set in the stocks with strict watch and ward set over them, until some kind of security can be found fur their better behaviour in future. The Law Lords, with birch in hand, maintain over her Majesty's Government in the Upper House the same kind of rule which schoolmasters and ushers exercise over a gang of mischievous boys caught, in flagrante delicto, breaking down a neighbour's bounds to get at sloes and crab-apples. In the Commons, as was to be expected, the activity of Ministers has run more riot still. " An old man," says Dogbcrry, patting Verges on the head in a patronising manner,—" an " old man, your honours, will still be talking." For some wise purpose, doubtless, repose is denied to incapacity. It must be bustling, and its only choice lies between harmlessness and mischief. mediate publication of the Report—no one desired it. The Government might, with out publicity, have acted on those recommen dations of it which were deemed sound,l But this course would have required judgment, and would have entailed responsibility. It was easier to fling the Report on the table of Parliament, and to let the accusers and ac cused fight it out between them. As the re sult, we have another Commission to report on the report of the former Commission. Ono convenience will attend this course : the Government will have a plausible excuse for continued inaction. The Report has made a noise, and that is enough. The inquiry may possibly proceed through as many stages as a law suit—commencing before a country Justice and ending in an appeal to the House of Lords. LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1856. These failings are ludicrous, but they have a grave aspect also. They are of a disquieting nature. They show that the Government collectively, though it wants ability to legis late, does not lack faculty nor inclination to disturb. Presuming too much on the for bearance of Opposition, it has endeavoured thus early in the session to unsettle by petty measures the Constitution of the House of Lords and the foundations of property ; to overthrow the principle of local self-govern ment, and to shirk the duty of dealing fairly with the Report of its own Commission. Great results these from the first month of the session ! The fable is reversed. Moun tains do not labour with mice, hut mice with mountains. Principles of change and disturb ance which the mightiest intellects might hesi tate to adopt, are flippantly avowed by pigmies whose ignorance and presumption are so nearly on a par that we know not which to wonder at most. GENIUS has ways of its own of manifesting its peculiar powers. It is of so volatile a nature that it cannot be shut out or corked up. It will have its way. Aut inveniam aut faciam is inscribed on its front. It creates means for the accomplishment of its ends when the means themselves do not exist. It is as sure in its action as fate itself. The believers in astrology loved to invent fables in which the predictions of the stars came to pass under the most impossible circumstances. In The Tempest, Gonzalo derives comfort from the boatswain having no drowning mark upon him :—" I'll warrant him from drowning, "though the ship were no stronger than a "nutshell." The decrees of nature and des tiny are not to be circumvented. Some way or other men will fulfil the part they were meant to play. The genius for blundering is no exception to the rule. Au ordinarily stupid fellow will run his head against some stone wall which happens to stand in his path ; but if he is a genius in his particular line, he will build swell for the express purpose. A few weeks back the course of the Govern ment was as clear as that of any Government could be. No one bad the slightest desire to interfere with them. The important negotia tion which bad to be carried to a successful close was so superior to all the other subjects of the time that party politics were in abeyance. What was a peace-budget with its savings here and there, and its reductions of duty on this commodity and that, to the issue of a trans action involving Peace or War for years to come? The question to be decided was not whether one interest or another should be most favoured in an homoeopathic degree, but whether an expenditure for purposes of peace should fall to fifty millions, or for purposes of destruction should rise to a hundred millions. The strife of party was hushed, as it well might be, in so grave a conjuncture. The Government found the Opposition ready to smooth its path. It had only to ask and to have. It had only to be moderately discreet to be certainly prosperous. Its instincts, however, prevailed over its interests. We should libel it to say that it vesignedly adopted a dangerous policy. Its members seem to have employed the re cess in manufacturing halters, which at the commencement Of the session they might fasten round their own necks. There was no call for life peers. No one save a few theorists of incorrigible flightiness imagines that the institution would save or even serve the State. The worthy BARON PARKS did not happen (fortunately for him self) to be a Wilkes in popular estimation. Whether he was made a peer for the term of his natural life, or with remainder to his heirs, was of no sort of consequence. The LORD CRANcattoß and his colleagues have trailed the Crown through the mud for no other We have seen the measures promised from the Throne. The Partnership Amendment Bill is confessedly the property of Mr. CAIRNS, appropriated, without acknowledgment, by the Vice-President of the Board of Trade. The Shipping Bill is another exemplification of the old story—what is good iu it is not new, and what is new in it is not good All that part of it relatil e to the relief of shipping from passing dues belongs to the measure an nounced by Lord DERBY'S Chancellor of the Exchequer; while that part of it which would confiscate the property of corporations pro ceeds on a ground which would render the tenure of every kind of property insecure, and would introduce into our legislation a principle of direct, open, and shameless spolia tion. The speech of Mr. Lowx on Monday night has wonderfully enlightened the House on his character. He is found out. In no assembly of English gentlemen can the pnn ciples he enunciated ever be listened to with tolerance. The atmosphere of the House of Commons does not suit him Before he can hope to accommodate himself to it, be must begin his career anew, and learn more accu• rately the nature of that " property" which he pretends to define. The property of corpora tions, he tells the House, is "M. PROUDHON'B " property—le vol." This is language which the House of Commons has not been accus tomed to listen to, and which it never will listen to, while its British spirit remains, with out indignation. The House could not pos sibly accept legislation on so delicate a subject from the hands of Mr. Lowx. We have, besides, a new Police Bill, which has already had the effect of exciting the greatest consternation among the leading boroughs of the kingdom. The great object of the Municipal Reform Act was to establish local self-government. The main purpose of this new Police Bill is to overthrow it. The Ministry has conceived the pleasant notion that principles of legislation are to be dealt with as ninepins, and that the only use of setting them up is to knock them down again. In the Crimean Report we have the same meddling spirit at work. The Commission was appointed by Government ; to Govern ment it was responsible. Its office was primarily to supply the Government with in formation by which it might regulate its pro cedur.3. Confined within its proper limits, it might have been useful. A prudent Ministry would have sifted its evidence, and would have called for explanations from inculpated parties. There was no necessity for the im- THE CONFERENCES OF PARIS. RUMOURS are rife of a hitch in the Conferences. They have certainly been suspended ; some negotiators have appealed to their Govern ments lbr fresh instructions ; some have even returned home to seek renewed inspira tion ; the public secui ities are agitated ; scrip falls and rallies ; and there is doubt, and some dismay, especially among those who know very little, and yet have much at stake. There is something in all this, and yet not a great deal. In a few days the " hitch " will have been removed ; and in other few days a new " hitch " may probably arise. There will be more delays, fresh fluctuations in the funds, more instructions, misunderstandings, and understandings. Diplomatists must be kept in practice ; financiers in good wind ; and the great public of several countries must be satis fied that the ultimate result has not been so easy of accomplishment as they supposed But that ultimate result is inevitable, and, compa ratively speak: — *- Nothing can settlement humiliatin; . _ ratively speaking, it will be immediate. Nothing can prevent Peace, and it will be a settlement honourable to the Allies, not humiliating to Russia, an& a • Europe. 'Cr'''. Zr 14 ‘- - • iß'' 1 ' PT! 4:t: 'A r . 0 ,- • SADLE IR, HIS ENGL s t?il .at" ''' . .! . .i '' -e AND IRISH A vil.':: 101 ) , jam,i c o..:icr' 4 4 IT is only now that the pall - • • ' T 4 '4 l t 't ' thoroughly aware of the d: r" ij .i 1 . yomi , of the Irish intrigue which . me " 4t4.N. I:L,— - ' .