The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

798 truth. Apart from the licence of the novelist, we shall find tho plan notably worked out, the groundwork of the story adopted as the prin ciple of the Whig party policy. With all the talent of the country against them, with almost a complete absence, on their side, of ability, we aro at a loss to discover their secret of sue. cess, except in a power of cohesion, such as that ordinarily attributed to a soaciety enjoying the habitual notice of the detective police. Every act, every hour, furnishes us fresh proof of their system of mutual assurance. The Whig laudations, constantly interchanged, are taken as current coin by masses willing to be relieved the trouble of thought. Ideas are incontinently appropriated. Obstacles are overturned with no merciful hand. Oppo nents, however sincere, or however insignificant, are taught to repent the independence of their judgments by the persecution of their persons, the defamation of their characters, and the embitterment of their existence. No praise is sufficient fur a supporter, no , accusation too foul for an antagonist. Consistency with Whig interests is the conscience, the gauge of morality, with the Whig party. If we look to the speeches of the Reform Club and to the articles of their organ, we shall find the language used towards Sir CHARLES NAPIER when supported, and when de nounced. If we compare the invectives at pre sent launched in the private circles of the Whigs against the Duke of NEWCASTLE, a pri vate person, with the commendatory terms applied to him as a Whig Minister, we follow up the clue to Whig success. If we compare the exaggeration of the feats of the Baltic Ad miral of this year with the measure given to the capture of Bomarsund, we shall see that the successes attained with inferior means by Sir CHARLES NAPIER are unpatriotically depre ciated to furnish a foil for the much easier achievements of the Whig commander. Few persons have of late received such furious commendations as those lavished on Lord PANMURE. The comical and somewhat quarrelsome Scotchman has raised himself, ac cording to the Whigs, a colossal reputation for organisation, originality, and activity. What ever success, whatever honour may be achieved, they are all owing to his astounding merits. He is already by anticipation raised into a niche of Whig idolatry. His appear ance is the signal for enthusiasm—the men tion only of his name draws down over powering applause. Yet there are, in our opinion, some occasions on which that won derful activity has been dormant. There are certain acts not so wonderfully original ; there are some plans not so very wonderfully organised. We need only refer to a letter lately pub lished in the columns of one of our daily con temporaries to show how recklessly one chance has been thrown away for the profitable work ing out of the great Whig measure, the Foreign Enlistment Act. That circumstance has been prominently brought forward and cannot be ignored. Unfortunately there are others more disgraceful, but, from being less known, turned to their own a Ivantage by our present Administration. Not long before the prorogation of Parlia• went the country was informed with much emphasis that her Majesty's Government had determined to avail themselves of the services of Italians in the formation of one portion of our mercenary Legion. The nation was left to infer that this was a spontaneous and original act of Lord PANMIIRE. His energy and inven tive genius was held up to public admiration. Ancient country gentlemen of the Whig party nodded their heads approvingly, and gave an ungrudging support to questionable measures. If the truth were known, however, the idea was not so mightily original, the action not so very energetic. But even if he could claim the plan as his own, the mode in which it has been carried out by the new Secretary for War is singularly apathetic. Lord PANMURE will not presume to deny our statement that the Act had scarcely passed when applications and offers came in numbers from all parts of Italy. While the Opposition were told that their criticisms had interposed obstacles to the re cruitment of foreigners, and while the THE PRESS. Cabinet prospered on the odium thus cast on their opponents, her Majesty's Govern ment were refusing , ,lamest with contumely, Italian offers Of assistance. While we were in formed indignantly that the language of the Opposition prevented all foreigners front en- listing in our service, hundreds, nay, thou sands of hardy soldiers were ready to join out banner men - inured to all the customs and hardships of a campaign. One case has especially been brought before our notice. A Lombard refugee, residing in Portugal, a cavalry riding-master, came to this country on the assurance of employment given by one of our consular agents. Men such as these, let it be known, are scarce. He arrived in London during the administration of the Duke of NEWCASTLE. He was informed . that no immediate answer could be given to his application for service ; but he was requested to leave his address at the office of the War Minister. Ere the lapse of many days the Duke of NEWCASTLE retired. The active Lord PANIIIIIIE succeeded. Day after day the Ita lian renewed his applications; day after day he was put off, while his means were gradually becoming exhausted. Sent from one officer to another, tossed by one minor official to a second, and again to a third, time flew by, and he was starving. At length, some cha ritable ladies heard of his case, and relieved his necessities. He left this country, his little savings gone, sick in hope, wounded in dig nity. What has become of him we know not. But we would ask an impartial observer from what source is more harm likely to accrue to England ? From the arguments of the Oppo sition, or from such activity on the part of Lord PANMIIRE ? With facts like these before us, it is unne cessary to inquire into the justice of Whig puffing! It is unnecessary to decry their merits. We leave them to their fate, " doomed " to the scandal of their own applause." SIR JAMES GRAHAM AND SIR CHARLES :NAPIER. OUR readers will recollect that, pending the question whether the Sebastopol Committee should be an open one or not, Sir JAMES GRAHAM warned Parliament that the press of England would be too strong for "that bauble " the mace of the House of Commons. One so nervous about the broadsheet must have felt increased fear of unlicensed print ing as he found himself on Friday exposed to a destructive literary broadside from Sir CHARLES NAPIER. The letter is all about gun boats, mortars, and bombardments, and its style throughout is explosively appropriate. Opinions will differ widely as to the exact propriety of the course followed by Sir CHARLES NAPIER, but that Sir JAMES GRAHAM is in another of his perennial scrapes, is beyond doubt. No one will be sorry for that. It is not the first time that Sir JAMES has built a pillory for his private accommodation. For it is particularly necessary to observe that Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S character is as much involved as that of his antagonist. People instinctively recoil from " private " revelations ; and, though the tone of Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S letter is open to criticism, one cannot help feeling that there is righteous retribution in Sir JAMES GRAHAM being compelled to en counter one with the peculiar temper of the gallant Admiral. There is no such " dark " incident in the social life of our modern House of Commons as the assault of Sir JAMES GRAHAM on the Recorder of Dublin, in which the wily Baronet availed himself of official knowledge in an extraordinary manner against a Judge whose position deprived him of the defence of those laws which gentlemen have made to meet particular cases. There is nothing in the letter of Sir CHARLES NAPIER half so objectionable as the conduct of Sir JAMES GRAHAM on that occasion. And the astounding treatment of Mt. LAYARD about " poor Captain CHRISTIE " can never be for gotten. Thousands will chuckle at so unpopu lar a man being obliged to appear again SATURDAY, in an unpleasant collision with one of the family whose motto is `• Ready aye, ready." The belligerents at both sides pre sent a singular eontiast. It was said of a h t le m famous London attetio -r, who was one of " the characters" of kis e, that he had the " me.pners of a sea 'top h c the appearance of " a litage-coachmat ,and the general know " ledge of the Ina itget ,of a theatre." Sir CHARLES NAPIEit, in ,1 similar way, reminds one of pmou.Err's novels, while his bearing is a cross between that of the British admiral of the stage and an Irish agitator. Sir JAMES GRAHAM only puts us in mind of one dramatic part. None will dispute his pretensions to play lago, up to SHAKSPEARE and Nature. Such being the antagonists in the present fray, let us see how the Admiral advances to the attack. His first blow is certainly a stunner. " The first year there might have " been some excuse for the Admiralty not " having means, but none the second." All of us have heard often enough how Sir CHARLES asked for gun-boats, and did not get them. tt ut the Admiral enlarges the accusation. The Admiralty might have got plenty of vessels in the river fit to be converted into gun and mortar boats ; but, instead of doing that, they built floating batteries, which could scarcely swim, and cost us a million and a half. Then, applying himself to the results at Sweaborg, Sir CHARLES reminds us that the Allieshad only forty three gun and mortarboats, " though they ought to have one hundred ;" and " Sir JAMES GRAHAM in a letter said two " hundred." Now, we have often been sickened by hearing of " the great official capacity " of Sir hoe GRAHAM. It was originally cried up when, in the Reform Bill era, the Right Honourable Baronet entered upon an Admi ralty retrenchment of the root and-branch kind. Why were not the gun-boats forth coming under this pretentious First Lord ? " Curses are like young chickens, and soon " come home to roost." That phrase of " reason why " will stick to Sir JAMES GRA HAM with a vengeance. For it is plain that under an energetic ad ministrator much more might have been ac complished. With better means, Admiral DuNnes would have effected greater results. On this point Sir CHARLES deals some vigor ous blows ; and we are made to recollect the neglects of our Premier, and his procrastina tion in organising the Scotch and Irish Militia. The phrases used in this correspondence recal the calamity of the Coalition. As we read of " rocks a-wash and reefs under water," we fancy that the nautical writer must have been slyly alluding to Russian sympathisers, Whig mal contents, and PALMERSTONIAN manoeuvring of a divided Cabinet that " drifted" upon diffi culties. Scarcely less curious than the letter of Sir CHARLES NAPIER was a strangely-penned criti cism on it in a leading organ on Friday. It is admitted therein that " Sir CHARLES has some " thing to complain of"—and he is disparaged as not being fit to command. "If any body " told him to do it, he would have done it. " But he just wanted that faculty for giving a " command to himself." That is one of the charges against Sir JAMES GRAHAM in the mouths of politicians. The artful Baronet is unable to stand alone in politics. There must always be a more earnest and deliberate will to guide and control his secondary qualities. He is fit only for a Vice-Minister under a ruler of a party. Thus there was a coalition of similar defects in the natures of the Ad miral in actual command and the First Lord at home. The case is then put—" Had Sir JAMES " GRAHAM been in command of the fleet, he " might have, &c. &c." No; he would have waited for the shifting of the last breeze. Sir JAMES GRAHAM had only one quality for pre siding over a fleet, — He boxed the whole compass of party right through ; but his intellectual vacillation would have made him subordinate even on the quarter deck. He would have tergiversated with the north wind, and tried to play a double game with the tidal influences. At present this controversy is only in the first stages; for all Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S scrapes, like certain diseases, run their course. When he takes up his pen to reply, the quarrel Will have passed horn the acute inflammation