The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-09 00:00:00

physical force was violently threatened, ban ners were borne exhorting the people to arms, and violence insisted upon as a duty. It was at this time that Lord John Russell chose at Liverpool to consider these meetings as constitutional and right. After Feargus O'Connor had arranged the election of a Convention at Birmingham that should be " stronger than the Law and the Constitution," and at the meeting of which he would tell them, but not till then, what he meant to do, Lord John remarked that " there were " some, perhaps, who would put down such " meetings, hut that was not his opinion nor " that of the Government with which he " acted. He thought the people had a right "to meet." Accordingly, " the people" did meet, and " the Government with which he " acted" sent the metropolitan police to meet them at the Bull Ring, in Birmingham. The following is Mr. Gaminage's description of a portion of the results of the constitutional meetings which Lord John thought it wrong to prevent : Things continued much in this state until Monday the 15th, when the pent-up feelings of the outraged people burst forth with terrific fury. About eight o'clock crowds of people began to assemble in the liull Ring, and the police issued forth in order to disperse them. The sight of this force only tended the more to exasperate the public feeling, and at nine o'clock the cry arose of " Put out the gas !" The utmost confusion ensued. The police were powerless. Some of the shopkeepers had rendered them selves obnoxious to the people, who set the house of Messrs. Bourne, grocers, on fire. The buildings of Messrs. Leggett, wholesale and retail feather and bed•tick dealers, were next in flames. Mr. Banks, druggist, Messrs. Dakin and Naden, grocers, Mr. Horton, silver. smith, next had their houses fired. On Snow-hill fires also raged with fury. The desperation of the people knew scarcely any bounds. They entered the shops, com pletely gutted them of their contents, brought them into the Bull Ring, and committed them to the devouring flames, not permitting an engine to come near the spot. Then catne the riots in Wales, when the Government with which Lord Joey acted transported FROST, WILLIAMS, end JONES, and their Attorney and Solicitor-General, CAMP BELL and WILDE, managed to show that the people had not precisely a right to meet in the manner described. Chartism for some time after this is traced in attacks upon pro perty and prosecutions before the tribunals— in detailing which the writer of this work treats the matter as a war of two high belli gerent powers—a war, however, which we fancy must always end in one result. With the revolutionary mania of 184 S Chartism, of course, identified itself. The very indefinite nature of its final objects left it sufficiently open to every new wind of political doctrine. In that year it made the extraordinary al fiance with the Irish malcontents—Romanism and what the French revolutionists called " Reason " being for the first time united. After the 10th of April, however, and the Whig persecutions which followed it, the history of Chartism ends. Even in Mr. GAM IIAOE'S work it seems to consist of certain personal squabbles and recriminations. On the whole, it is a painful story. The extravagrtncies of people suffering from great evils do not need the stimulus of the profli gacy of a political party seeking to gain place by misleading, and to keep it by punish. ing them. Whenever the episode of the Chartists shall he noticed in our domestic history, the moralist cannot well refrain from the duo condemnation of those who raised, Used, and persecuted them. THE COAST LINE. Is the session of 1853 a Committee of the House of Commons had to decide between two competing schemes for affording railway accommodation to the extensive district of which (speaking generally) the extreme points are Dorchester, Salisbury, Bridgewater, and Exeter, and which extends along some sixty or seventy miles of the south coast. The Committee decided in favour •f the scheme of the South-Western Railway Company, and against that of the Great Western, on the specific pledge of the Chairman of the former, authorised by a meeting of the shareholders, to proceed at onoe with " the Devon and Dorset Railway." IN■milm. THE PRESS. At that tittle the Stock of the South-WeStern Railway stood at 00. In November, when the money was to be raised, it had fallen to 74. The shareholders were out of temper ; a few noisy members of the body persuaded a majo rity of the rest that their atl'airs were not so well managed as they ought to be ; the pledge formerly given under the direction of the Company was repudiated ; the unfortunate district left without accommodation of any sort; and the House of Commons—not to use too strong a word—bamboozled. Happily, or unhappily, the necessities of railway companies render this sort of morality peculiarly hazardous in their case. The South-Western have come to Parliament with a bill this year—expect to come, before long, with another and a most vital one—and the House, for once, has a memory. After much opposition the House consented to the second reading of the bill, hut (significantly enough) referred it to the same Committee which had been deluded by the pledge of 1858. The Committee met on the 24th of March, and came to some resolutions which can hardly fail to have a most beneficial effect on railway companies in general. They " conceive that " the reference of the bill to the same Com " mittee had special regard to the non-fulfil " ment of a pledge given to that Committee, " &c. ;" " regret to find that no provision is " made in the bill now submitted to them for " the redemption of that pledge ;" further, " desire to intimate that, in the absence of any " satisfactory proposal being made on this " point, they will insert a clause binding the " Company to carry out fully the terms of " that pledge on pain of the Company's divi " dends being stopped ;" and, further, " that if " from any cause the present bill should be " abandoned, they will bring the subject be " fore the House to be dealt with, &c. &e." " Made nova virtute" Railway Committee I If some such resolutions had been passed ten years ago the dishonesty, misery, and ruin of 1847.48 might perhaps have been averted. On April 28 the South-Western share holders held a meeting on the subject. Those of their number who are M.P.'s, and feel the unpleasant position they involuntarily occupy, spoke as men of sense and honour naturally would speak. A good deal was said by the miscellaneous orators of the assembly, about the tyranny of the House of Commons—" War to the knife," "No surren der," &c. But eventually, it is unnecessary to say, dividends carried it against indignation, and the Directors are to " make terms." Wa should scarcely have devoted so much time to this not over-reputable affair, but that we are anxious to submit to the House of Commons and to the Government a consi deration which perhaps may be overlooked. Far beyond all other means of defence, we believe the late Duke of WELLINGTON placed " the coast line," with its facilities for con veying troops, and its attendant " telegraph." If any one will look over the map of England, he will perhaps find no other portion of the English coast so unprovided in this respect, as that which lies between Portland Bill, and the mouth of the Exe. And (which is more to the purpose) it contains at least one of the most assailable points in England. At the mouth of the Exe is a fine, broad, almost level beach, a full mile in length; the roadstead is very sufficient ; there are no cliffs, not even a hill, to delay an invading force ; it might penetrate into the heart of Soinersetshire without en countering the slightest natural impediment ; finally, the place is utterly undefended, and is at this moment fully two days' march from any railway terminus whatever. It will scarcely be believed, that if the Government wish to convey troops from Dorchester to Exeter, by far their readiest route is by South ampton, Basingstoke, Reading, and Bristol ; and for concentrating troops upon any point between the two places in question they have simply no facilities at all. What we wish to impress upon the Committee, is,—First, that the coast line, in it; integrity, should be insisted on, instead of (what the Company propose) a divergence to Yeovil ; and, next, that the evident preparations making by the Company for dandling over the work until "the war is finished, or money is cheaper," or the chapter of accidents interferes to help SATURDAY, people who will not help themselves, must be frustrated promptly mid at once. There is no necessity to delay the formation of the line to Exeter, whether from Yeovil or Dorchester, (as the South. Western Company would have us believe) until the line from Salisbury to Yeovil is completed. The whole work ought to be set about at once ; if any part may be safely defbrred, it is that east of Yeovil, which has already railway communication of its own. Whether, as the shareholders seem to suppose, any assistance can be afforded by Government to the Company in the way of facilitating their raising funds for the purpose, we know not. Mr. DISRAELI'S reply to the same request when he was in office .foes not seem pro mising; and, in any case, both the Govern ment and the House of Commons will do well to secure entire bond fides on the part of the Company, both as to the performance of its pledge, and the time to be allowed for perform ing it, before they grant unusual accommo dation to a Company, even while furthering a national object. JEWISH DISABILITIES. LOAD Jonrt RUSSELL was recently interrogated in the House of Commons by Mr. T. Duncombe as to his intentions respecting any future attempts for the re moval of Jewish disabilities. The noble lord's reply on that occasion was considered so unsatisfactory that some further queries were urged on the subject in a letter signed by sundry of his constituents in the city of London. The following is the reply of the noble Secretary for Colonial Affairs : Clieshamplace, May 26. Sir,—l did not answer your former letter of the 19th inst., as I wished to take some time to consider the position of affairs as it regarded the privileges of the Jews. It appears to me that while the friends of religious liberty are unchanged in their opinion respecting the disabilities of the Jews, the majority of the House of Lords are likewise unchanged In their opinion that the removal of those die abilities may be safely refused. The Government in these circumstances would be only throwing away time in attempting to carry a measme which one House of Paths ment is sure to reject. Many liberal members of Parlia ment, while they would support a motion to relieve the Jews from their akabilities, would consider as inopportune a question which would hot advance the object to be attained. I must, therefore, considelthat it would be in expedient to stir the question of Jewish emancipation in the present session of Parliament. That claims so jurt can be permanently rejected I will not believe. But tl friends of intolerance naturally cling to this last vestige of religious persecution, and exult in the facility with which the exclusion of a body not formidable in numbers can be maintained. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, Sidney Smith, Esq. J. Et SSELL. Another Mini Aerial crisis has taken place in Spain. A Madrid lespatch of the oth announces that Espar tero had gI ne to lay before the Queen the re s igna• tions of Madoz, Lugan, Luzuriaga, Aguirre, and Santa Cruz. Their supposed successors are Bruil, Mar tinez, Zabala, Fuentrandres, and Huelvas. From Persia we learn that the heads of the Kkan of Khiva and thirty two of his relatives and followers had reached Teheran, and were exposed to the public at a grand salam held to lb mmemorate the event, at the breaking up of which the head of the Khan was honoured with a royal burial. The trophies were not taken in fair fight, the Kahn being barbarously murdered by sixty Turcoman horsemen whilst sitting under a tent commanding a view of the projected attack by his horsemen of Surruks. After this mishap the Khiva troops dispersed, but being closely followed by 11,000 horse, from Surruks and Messed, several thousand were slain, and 9,000 taken prisoners. THE following are some of the arrangements already completed with reference to the re-organisa tion of the military departments : Mr. Thomas Howell has been appointed Director- General of Contracts. Mr. John Robert Godley, now one of the Income-tax Commissioners, will be Director- General of Stores. No appointment has yet been made to the office of Director General of Army Clothing, but Mr. George Dalhousie Ramsay will be Assistant Director- General of this department. Sir John Burgoyne will retain his office of Inspector-General of Fortifications, and Mr. Monsell remains Clerk of the Ordnance. A letter from St. Petersburg states that Prince Menschikoff, after a short stay in the Russian capital had net off for Finland. CAPTAIN SWEAROP, of the Russian Engineer Artil lery, who was captured at Bomarsund last year, has been granted his liberty to return to Bomarsund with his wife, the latter having been during her stay in this country in a very delicate state of health. M. DE USEDOM, who visited in London on a secret mission from the Cabinet of Berlin, and who has prolonged his tes:denc6 in England for "family reasons,' is about to return to Berlin.