The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

AUGUST 23, 1856. have observed that concord among their chiefs and their members was not the rule but the exception. The splendid philippic delivered by Lord GREY against Mr. CANNING, when the great Whig leader believed that his political career would close in Opposition, is a striking commentary on the extreme difficulty of keep ing together a party in opposition for any con siderable period. When our contemporary points to the expe rience of the last session, he must allow us to remind him that it is not every session which presents opportunities for a trial of party strength. Such opportu nities may be dexter ously evaded by a 'Minister who cares nothing fc r either principles or measures in comparison with place. A wadded waistcoat is said to present greater resistance to a deadly weapon than a coat of steel. The Administration during the last session was as supple and as slippery as an eel. %When our contemporaries assert that Mr. DISRAELI does not command the confidence of his party, they should reflect a little what sense they attach to the word party. A party is primarily composed of those persons who, from their exalted rank, their extensive influ ence, their long and consistent attachment to principle, and their commanding ability, are marked out as the natural leaders of any great political connection. It is these persons who must decide on the claims of a chief to confidence ; and we hazard nothing in saying, that never did any leader of Opposition com mand more unreservedly the confidence of those persons to whom the government of a party must be intrusted than does Mr. DIS RAELI at the present moment. It is the natural effect of long exclusion fr9m office, and one of the great uses of party government, to test severely the loyalty of an Opposition. Our opponents must admit that the Conservative connection has stood the trial bravely. Attempts have not been want ing to break it up; that it subsists intact — that it has resisted all Ministerial influences to weaken it—is a full and sufficient answer to that pretended disorganisation of which so much has been said. The efforts to depreciate the Leader of Opposition in the House of Commons are so malignant, that we are compelled to say a few words on his personal position. Mr DISRAELI has not the adventitious advantages which have distinguished many party leaders in this country. He has neither high rank nor colossal fortune to bind followers to him. It is not surprising that the Whig aristocracy, swollen by the plunder of a Church. and by fifty years of the grossest corruption ever recorded in Parliamentary annals, should ac count it an audacious thing for a private gentleman to lead a party in virtue of the claims of intellect alone. We do not wonder that the Whig connection should use all their influence WI get Mr. DISRAELI written down. But we aro surprised to see their ungenerous efforts supported by writers pretending to represent popular opinion. It is not for them, one would think, to depreciate the claims of intellect. Providence has decreed that the world shall be governed by it. The highest minds in an empire are those best calculated to take the lead in its councils, and, whatever principles are for the time in the ascendant, to guide its destinies. There are persons who have usurped the title of states manship by blindly representing prejudices and by endeavouring to give them effect. There are others who have grasped at its honours by consenting to serve any master, by changing their principles with circumstances, and by dextrously contriving to bear a part in all the leading routine of Government. The true statesman is he whose mind perceives the requirements of a people in that age in which he lives, and who is prepared to meet them in such manner as to confirm and con solidate the solid strength of his country, to bind together what is new with what is old, and from the exigencies of his epoch to con tribute to the growth of national empire. There can be no doubt in which class pos terity will rank the Right Honourable Mem ber for Bucks. THE PRESS. ENGLAND AT THE SEASIDE. IT may surprise many persons to learn that Oil pro pensity of our countrymen to rush to the seaside at this time of the year is comparatively of modern. date. The middle of the eighteenth century is the period when this sanitary, or pleasure-seeking cus tom was introduced. At that time several of our decayed coast towns became " watering-places." Singularly enough they declined and revived simul taneously. Bathing-waggons took the place of smuggling loggers, and revenues were raised from cockney's not contraband cargoes. One might now suppose, who sees the myriads at our seaside places of resort, that the practice of going to visit Neptune in summer hail been common to "the good old times." A curious new volume (published by LONG MANS) illustrative of " social history in the southern "counties of England" treats inter alia of this (now) seasonable topic:— Before the year 1750, the sea on our southern coast had ever been as pule, the hills and nndercliffs as grand and capti vating ; but there is in history no record of any summer seaside pleasure-taking, and there never had been con venience for sea bathing, nor hot baths. Which is the most strange, the neglect of the seaside for bathing, or the change that has now obtained? So writes Mr. GEORGE ROBERTS, the author of the " Life of the Duke of Monmouth," in his new work, dedicated "with gratitude" to Mr. MACAULAY. Mr. ROBERTS cites matter to show that the rush to the sea dates from the publication of Doctor RICHARD RUSSELL on "The Use of Sea-water in Diseases of the Glands." This work was first published in Latin in 1750, and produced a great effect on the medical faculty, and its author chose Brighton for his pro fessional residence. Sea-water became the panacea for every ailment. The doctors and their patients were equally enthusiastic about the new remedy. After the passion• for sea-water came the rage for sea-air, and then medicinal waters came into augmented fashion. kr. ROBERTS, however, does not pursue his sub ject philosophically. It is remarkable that the migration to the sea in summer should be contem poraneous, or nearly so, with the construction of the great towns of the north, which, in the latter end of the last century, became the hives of manufacturing industry. Our propensity to rush for air has pro gressed with our tendency to become a country of cities. As our navy became our chief national arm, a love for yachting arose, and the seaside was at once aristocratic and fashionable. Steam bas carried this rush to the ocean still further. The working-man now sends his wife and' children to the seaside, and " cheap boats" and " excursion trains" have introduced great comfort into the humbler circles. Equality of enjoyment was never more universally diffused, though to " keep up position " in England enforces on both extremes an equality, of anxiety, which illustrates PALEY'S notion about the equal diffusion of happi ness amongst all clases. ADULTERATION OF FOOD. THE question raised by the recent Report of the Commissioners on this subject, is as difficult as it is interesting. The Times advocates a wholesale and sweeping enactment against every species of adulter ation, harmless or otherwise. The Commissioners, on the other band, limit their recommendations to interference with such cases as involve either injury to health or pecuniary fraud, the latter consisting in selling the adulterated article at the same price as the genuine. About the first•mentioned species, such as the adulteration of beer and milk, and wine, we apprehend there cannot be two opinions. All deleterious adulterations should be checked by the severest penalties. This point, therefore, we may dismiss without further consideration. But in regard to the second, the case does not stand in quite as clear a light as could be sished. The question is— what is pecuniary fraud ? To sell coffee and chicory mixed for the same price as the best unmixed coffee ? To sell a mixture of silk and cotton for the same price as the best genuine silk? But this is a species of fraud that can very seldom be practised, for the simplest of all reasons. The great inducement held out to the purchasers of adulterated goods, is the difference of price. If it were not for this, they would not go to the shops that advertise such goods. We may have, therefore, legislative enactments against this species of fraud, but they will be almost a dead letter. We next come to the third branch of adulterations, those, namely, which cheapen the article sold down to the real marketable value of its component parts ; and the practical question is, are we to interfere with these? The one side of the ques tion is put with great force and ingenuity by the Times : The committee distinguish in the paragraph we have quoted between simple adulteration and adulteration which involves " pecuniary fraud," and assume that there is only " pecuniary fraud " when the mixed or adulterated article is sold at a higher price than the inferior substances with which it is mixed would bring in the market,—that is to 795 say, they only allow fraud to consist in charging more for an article than its component materials are actually worth. But there not fraud in calling an article what it is not, and selling it as genuine when it is really raised? It will be said, " Oh ! the public virtually know this ; they know that if articles were really genuine they would have to pay more for them, and they would not like to have to pay mare ; so they are substantially responsible for the present com position of these articles." But we reply, in the tint plane, that this is certainly not true of one portion of the public. The classes that can afford to buy the genuine article want to have it, but the present system prevents them. However willing they may be to pay for it, it is not to be had for love or money. Here is an obvious injustice, then. A man wants to buy genuine coffee, and he buys coffee mixed with chicory, roasted wheat, beans, and mangoldwurzel. It is very poor consolation to him to be informed that he has got the chicory, roasted wheat, beans, and mangoldwurzel at the proper market price of those substances ; for even if has got them under the market price he is ill-used, because he did not want them at any price. But in our opinion the Times is begging the ques tion at least as much as the committee. We do not believe that if a man in London wants a genuine article he cannot get it, and we do not believe that many persons buy mixed articles under the impres sion that they are genuine. The poor are not so benighted as to suppose that they alone are per mitted to purchase the best goods at an inferior price. To fancy that they buy them under this price is an outrage on the common sense of the lower orders which they do not in the least deserve ; while, if any educated man choose to give tenpence for an article which he knows no tradesman can afford to sell under half a crown, he must take the conse quences—there is no one to blame but himself. One of the crying evils of the present day is the rage for cheapness. This we should be glad to see checked by any means in our power which would not be a greater evil still. But we are inclined to believe that the perpetual interference with trades men which a general system of inspectors and in formers would produce would make the remedy worse than the disease. A tradesman depends on his character, and the system of competition ought to go a great way to reform the evil complained of. The buyers and sellers at cheap shops are not respectively divided into knaves and dupes, as many people may suppose. When a man can supply his im mediate wants by the outlay of a small sum instead of a large one, he will often yield to the temptation, though knowing he will suffer for it in the long run. Against this sort of folly legislative safeguards are preposterous. Our notion is, then, that the interference of the law will have practically to be limited to those cases of adulteration by which it is certain that health is affected, and that the remaining cases must be left to the operation of the law of supply and demand, however much we may pity the unfortunate people who are victimised by the prevalent passion for a spurious economy. Corresponttnct. THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PEERS.° Sir,—l rejoice to see you advocating so forcibly, logically, and powerfully the necessity of Conserva tive union. I trust you will persevere in the good cause, and go on bravely and feLrlessly. It is, indeed, high time to call the attention of Conserva tives to the fact that apathy and indifference must no longer continue ; but, on the contrary, that the period Las arrived when it becomes not only the policy bfit the duty of all true Conservatives to rally round the banner of their party, and firmly and unanimously uphold, ay, and enforce, the principles of their political creed. Exception has been taken by a respectable con; temporary, for many years a consistent and energetic supporter of Conservative opinions, to the speech made by the right hon. member for Bucks at the close of the recent session of Parliament—and more especially to that portion of it which gave a definition of what a Conservative policy is and should be—special objection was made to the following observations of Mr. Disraeli :—" I bold that to be a conservative principle which regards the parliamentary settlement of 11530 as a satisfactory settlement," the objection being the word "satrsfac• tory "; hut let us look at the context. The right hon. gentlemen went on to say, "I hold that to be a con servative principle which, without any blind or bigoted adherence to the doctrine on all possible occasions, believes that tampering with the suffrage is a great evil to the State. . . . I think it is a conservative principle which holds that in any repre sentative scheme the influence of landed property ought to be sensibly felt." Surely, sir, these words define, as concisely and clearly as worth can, the true doctrine which Conservatives ought to maintain with regard to the franchise as applied to perlia• mentary• representation. At 4 it will be recollected that Mr. Disraeli, when he was leader of the House of Commons, brought in a bill framed entirely upon these principles, which Shad for its object the