The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-05 00:00:00

JULY 5, 1856. have ventured on the course he has done had he had any reason to suspect that he would have to encounter the hostility of Lord PAL MERSTON'S Government. Were any other confirmation of this view required, we think it may be found in Lord CLARENDON'S reply to Lord LYNDHURST 011 Monday last. When pressed to afford to their Lordships some information of what was going on between the British and Neapo litan Governments, Lord CLARENDON said : "Your Lordships must be aware that to create " the state of things which would render the " withdrawal of those foreign armies safe, " must be a work of time." Here, let all Italy be assured, our Foreign Minister was speaking the exact sentiments of the triple alliance. They have determined that any changes in Italy shall be " a work of time they have—England, France, and Austria equally—pledged themselves to the mainte nance of the existing Italian Governotents. Of this there can he no manner of doubt; and we most sincerely hope that the better class of Italian Liberals, of whom we believe there are many of undoubted honesty, cou rage, and true patriotism, will at length recou• nice the truth, and see that the same men who talk loudest at home about " oppressed nationalities," and "the glorious traditions of " enslaved Italy," are not less resolved than their more candid continental coadjutors to keep down by force of arms, if need be, any attempt at an Italian revolution. If, however, no considerations for their own safety will prevent their plunging into the ruinous career of insurrection, let them pause for a moment while they observe the almost certain calamities they will thereby entail on the beat friend of constitutional liberty which Italy possesses. In case of a general insur rection throughout the Italian peninsula, what would be the position of Sardinia? She could not ally herself with Naples and Austria against those very principles for which she once fought so bravely, and with which she still so warmly sympathises. Yet it would be madness in her to link herself with the demo crats against the combined force that would be brought against them, and could but be doubly detrimental to the cause of liberty by involving herself in one common ruin with all the opponents of foreign domination. Yet, if she adopted the third course and remained entirely neutral, it would expose her to the jealousy and hatred of both sides alike, to which sentiments the absolutists would not find it difficult to give effect, when fortified by the additional power which Governments never fail to derive from unsuccessful re bellions. The Liberal party in Italy should consider well the political career of Lord PALMERSTON and the hypocritical policy of the school of politicians to which he naturally belongs. Let them couple with these reflections the latest language of Lord CLARENDON, the threats of Count BnoL, the resuscitated vigour of the most unstable Throne in Europe. Let them recollect the imminent peril into which a rebellion must bring the only power which has hitherto stood in the gap between themselves and foreign domination ; and if these united considerations do not induce them to hold their hands and to submit to the necessities of their condition, we can only suppose they are suffering from that mental aberration which, according to the proverb, comes upon those whom PRuVIDENCE wishes to destroy. THE BISHOP OF LONDON. Fon some time past it has been rumoured that the eminent Prelate, who since 182 S Las presided over our Metropolitan Diocese, is about to resign, and a calm view of his long career, passed in. stormy times, may not be without advantage. The Bishop (.f LONDON was, in many re spects, one of the first-class public figures of his generation, and from a variety of causes full justice was seldom rendered to his great professional ability, or to his many public services. Born in 1785, the son of a school master at Bury St. Edmunds, his Lordship ski_. ~'`~l. THE PRESS. made his way to the highest offices, without the aid of party, without the patronage of aristocratic rank. He was one of the numerous intellectual offspring of Trinity College. Cam bridge; and from first to last he was distin guished by that mingled vigour and variety of fitculties which are so characteristic of " the crack men "of our universities. He was third in the mathematical tripos (1808), and in two previous years he had successively taken the first medals for the Greek and Latin Ode. He was also Chancellor's Medallist, and in strength and subtlety of mind, and untiring application, he was second to none of his college contemporaries. Applying him self to scholastic literature, he produced those educational works, which exhibit pro found learning without affectation, and which for neatness of annotation, and terse closeness of apt remarks, supply models for classical editors. But his academical attainments, though copious and exact, were the least of this eminent personage's resources. He had an uncommon capacity for affairs ; he could be profound with the few, and practical with the many, and he was pre-eminently endowed with the powers which conduct a man in our free country ad summit fastigia rerum. His firm ness was deeply rooted ; and in conflict with adversaries he was at once coolly persistent and adroit. Though there was nothing af fected in his deportment, his Lordship pos 7 sessed a peculiar versatility in suiting him self to opposite audiences. Preaching to a congregation of shoopkeepers, no one in the pulpit could show more judicious sense in lucidly enforcing the duties of life : and in the Temple Church, he was capable of dazzling legal intellects, while uncoiling the web of infidel sophistry with a sustained subtlety that might throw Mr. GLADSTONE into despair. In the House of Peers, on the other hand, he spoke like an. English senator, often power fully, always persuasively, and was equally ready and guarded in debate. In the variety of his professional range we obtain the cue to his ideas on our Church Establishment. It was evidently his Lordship's deep convic tion that great learning, great talent, and great activity, were emphatically required in the Episcopate, if the Church was to be suc cessfully defended He appeared to think that England should make it her policy to attract into the Church those natures of the Copley and Brougham species capable of gaining Lord Chancellorships. A bishop, iu his opinion, should be a statesman, and be distinguished by a ruling mind, which should convert some, and conquer others. Men will differ, according to their pre judices, upon the results of his episcopal career Let it, however, be remembered that he held his high post in times of social dis cord. " The Church " bad a powerful cry against it, at the time of the Reform Bill ; the Dissenters were fiercely active, and lati tudinarians swarmed. The Bishop of LONDON assumed a determined tone. He looked to the internal defences of the Establishment, and he insisted that the clergy should exhibit more professional aptitude. His efforts in raising the theological standard in his diocese made him unpopular with many; but the pre sent generation has largely benefited by his policy. So, also, upon " Church Extension," his Lordship was a great benefactor. He saw plainly how vast was the evil which resulted from the bygone inactivity of the Church in having allowed the manufacturing districts to fall to the Dissenters and " philosophers." The suburban world of London, and all the new centres of population, were, mainly by his exertions, supplied with churches ; and it is certain that dissent receded rather than ad vanced in the mighty diocese over which lie presided His tone as a practical theologian in his charges was obviously taken from his percep lion of the fact that his clergy were divided into two parties, and he desired the ascen dancy of neither, believing that the Church of England should never press too heavily on the followers of ARMINIIIS or CALVIN. In his earlier years he was ranked with the Evan gelicals, and, in the infidel spirit of those days, it was necessary to dwell much and forcibly upon the Atonement. But in subsequent 627 times his Lordship seemed to fear lest the pulpits of an exaggerated Evangelicisin would leave no praetical distinction between the Church and Dissent, and he dreaded the in consistency and fluctuating caprices of an influence " Liberal " in its politics and Biblical in its theology ; loud in assailing " Popery " in the conventicle—equally lax in opening the doors to " Roman Catholicism " in Parliament. An organisation of Protestantism, such as the English Church alone can supply, with the learning, the eloquence, and personal inde pendence of its Ministry, his Lordship deemed absolutely necessary to the conserva tion of our Constitution. Hence, for the sake of toleration of differences, his Lordship dealt mildly with many innovations of which he dis approved in writing. Other reasons, also, influenced him in the comparative leniency of his treatment of high Tractarians. He was repeatedly appealed to in a coarse and offensive manner, and the Marylebone Radicalism (which brays against " Aristocracy " in a vestry, and obsequiously follows it " in private ") raised its hoofs against the Bishop of LONDON. Its lion's hide did not blind his quick eye to the true character of his long-eared and long-winded assailant, which he treated with appropriate contempt. Then Dissenters bitterly remembered how vigorously he had counteracted their influence ; then Radicals counted up his salary to a fabulous figure ; then a cant cry was raised, and his Lordship was " Ben-Hailed " as coarsely, as grossly, and as mendaciously, as if he had been an Irish landlord, or a man of fashion turning a contemptuous stare upon the vulgar pretensions of a brawling upstart. On the whole, the Bishop of LONDON was one of the most brilliant public characters of his time. He was a deep scholar, and " the City " could scarcely produce a better man of business. His style was subtle, clear, and finished ; his personal demeanour was magis terial (as became his station), but he had neither the narrowness of a pedant, nor the super-sanctified tone of some political high priests. He was a most English kind of man ; and in the Commons, or at the Bar, his energy Hof character would have been signally conspi cuous. Official men, indeed, found him too keen, too firm, too practically successful; and statesmen dreaded lest he should have been enthroned in Lambeth, where a serene and graceful mediocrity is more politically safe than the vigour which annoys opponents, while it triumphs over them. In the use of books, and the knowledge of their contents, few iu the Universities, or at the Bar, could excel him ; but he was not book ridden. His will, his nerve, his coolness, his tact, his practised temper, marked him as one of those strong men that cleave their way through difficulties; and as a representative man of our modern English Prelacy, it would not be easy to name his superior in the great art of powerfully influencing the most opposite orders of society. INDIAN PETITIONS. SINCE the passing of the Nawab of SuaAr's Treaty Bill by so large a majority in the House of Commons (a majority which would have been greater by some forty votes but that many intending to vote for it were shut out on the division), some apprehension has been expressed that Parliament is likely to be inundated by a flood of similar petitions from India. We do not ourselves at all share in this apprehension ; but, supposing there to be any ground for it, what a satire does it convey on the boasted government of India by the East India Company ! When one considers the thousands of miles to be traversed by any intending petitioner—the enormous expense he must be put to—the abandonment for the time of his home and family and native cout• try—the immense difficulties of other kinds which he must encounter in the endeavour to maintain his cause before a strange tribuio 1, of which the forms and even the very language are unknown to him—strong indeed must Ls his sense of the injustice done to him, before he could feel prepared to resort to such a