The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

/Or .Sf - cubic l)r,c11 No. 111. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1855. STAMPED .... SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE4 (Elt Vrtss. of the burdens and difficulties it accumulates on the country which by the strange caprice of fortune it has been called to govern ! LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1855. THE Parliamentary campaign is over—the smoke of battle has cleared away—we can survey the field at our leisure, and now calmly count our gains and losses. To speak of the legislative results of the session would be absurd. Measures have been introduced only to be withdrawn. The principal business done has been to vote supplies, and the great de bates have been upon the misconduct of Government and upon the frequent changes in its constitution. Its ambiguous language and uncertain conduct have received memo rable explanation fiom subsequent events. What have been our gains? We have re placed a Cabinet of all the Talents by a Cabinet of all the Mediocrities. At the head of the Government one Septuagenarian has been ex• changed for another. By adroit management every man of marked ability has been wormed out of the Ministry, and their posts filled by the hungriest place-hunters to stop their clamour, and the most veteran hacks chosen for their docility. Every change has of course been favorable to the ascendancy of Lord PALMERSTON, and he has attained the height of his ambition. He is now indisputably a Triton among the minnows. What have been our losses ? The progress of social amelioration and practical improve ment has been stopped. A considerable increase has been made, both to our direct and indirect taxation ; twenty-three millions have been added to the public debt; all prospect of peace is at an end ; and that promise of Austrian aid which for two years was employed to cheat us, has at length been formally and definitively announced to be without founda tion. Lord PALMERSTON has at last entered on his career—casting care to the winds—as a War Minister. What is this to him but the pleasing excitement of appearing in a new part? Loans, subsidies, foreign legions, armies on land, and fleets at sea, give dignity to the Minister's position. A gay, jovial tempera ment at his time of life is not disposed to look far ahead. Our position at the present moment is very much what it was a year ago. We are still full of expectation. We await intelligence from the Sebastopol army, and we look for news from the Baltic fleet, though we are, with reason, somewhat less sanguine than we were when the Reform Club banquet was given to Sir CHARLES NAI'IER, and the reports came thick and threefold that Sebastopol had fallen The first year of the Coalition involved us in dispute with Russia, the second drifted us into war. The first six months of Lord PatmEnwrox's Administration have been marked by a prodigious augmentation of ex pense, but with no corresponding results. To what point his rule is tending no one can tell, as he has no policy to guide him ; but every rational man feels that it is impossible for the existing system to continue for any length of time. He is now free from the control of Parlia ment, and some influential politicians con ceive that he will in the recess endeavour to reopen negotiations for peace. We do not think so. In such a course there would be responsibility, and he is not the Minister to undertake any responsibility he can possibly shun. His talent consists in evading difficul ties. While the war continues popular he has nothing to fear. He is sure of a majority to support it in Parliament, and his whole idea of statesmanship is to keep level with the public feeling of the day. In the troubled times of the French Revolution he would have been a Talleyrand without his wit; or, had he lived in the congenial age of our cabal, he would have been the patron of Tyres OATES and the " Plaat," have turned Papist under JAMES the SECOND, and been the first to wear Orange favours to welcome WILLIAM Il I. Such poli ticians are most in their glory when the age is most unreasoning, as it is easiest to sail with the tide when it sets in strongly. Trieksy politicians of this order may pass through life creditably in subordinate offices, but are infinitely mischievous when in times of difficulty they rise to superior power. At such periods a nation is safe only when it is under the guidance of men of honest convic tions and firm, strong will, resolved to shape their conduct by principles of duty, and to stand or fall by that course of policy which, looking to the future as well as to the present. their conscience approves. A strong Govern z ent can afford to act in this manner, a weak one seldom or never. The very means by which Lord PALMERSTON gained the Premiership show his unfitness for the post. He jockeyed Lord DERBY; and what is his position at the present moment? Is it one of real dignity and authority as it should he at so critical a period? On the contrary, the party which keep him in power deride him as a charlatan, and watch an opportunity for his overthrow. By inconceivable mismanagement, the war, which should have been on our part a series of rapid and decisive strokes, has degenerated into lengthened sieges and blockades We are, as a nation, capable of immense exertions, but we have to consider what will be the effect on our industry of a war both lingering and expensive. Other considerations press on us. The elements of disturbance are gathering to a head in Italy. It is a serious question what course this country should adopt in the not improbable event of a general revolt against Austrian domination. We have never viewed the contest with Russia as a contest of prin ciples of government, but'to that course we may be driven by the necessity of self-preser vation. War will admit of no mean. We must use against an enemy the sharpest and strongest weapons we can obtain, with a view of bringing it to a close as speedily as possible. It is through German neutrality that Russia finds the means of maintaining the struggle. Confined within the limits of her own tern tory, she would want the first necessaries of warfare—saltpetre, lead, and iron. It is our great misfortune that the war is carried on without plan or object at the time when it has most need to be directed by statesmen of enlarged view and vigorous capacity. We have a collection of Ministers, but no Government in the proper sense of the term. Lord PALMERSTON is in the position of a sailor whistling for a wind. No matter from what quarter it blows so that it fills his sails. Happy carelessness, which can concernedly sport with the fate of nations, and make a jest LORD GEORGE PAGET. THE brutal attack on Lord GEORGE Pamir in the "leading journal " at the close of last week has called forth a modest remonstrance from his brother, Lord ALFRED : TO THE EDTTOIL OF " THE Sir,—l read with feelings of great pain and regret your leading article of Friday last, which I had not an oppor• tunity of seeing until this morning. Had you confined yourself to questioning the propriety of awarding a pension to my brother (Lord George Paget) I should not have considered myself called upon to troutlb you with any remarks ; but as I think you are not justified, in impugning the bravery of a man who, as bodt oaken and men present in the battle of Balakiava have testified, two regiments most gallantly into action, 1 . 1. Mr. P truly stated in the House of Commons, " them • the other side, brought them back again, and throughout the whole affair in the most manner," I cannot allow your observations to pan out notice. It is not true, u yon state, that my brother was pre vented from leaving the army in consequence of a quilled with a brother officer. It had always been his intention to quit the service upon his marriage ; but, as the war broke out about that time, he thought it possible that his rim* went might be selected for foreign service, sates, ran fore, determined not to retire until ha had had an tanity of distinguishing hissain, and of showing tarile was not unworthy to bear a warm which hitherto has nags been associated by the people of this country with cowardice. I will leave it to your own judgment to decide whether such comments as the following, taken from the article in question, that—" • man wonli willingly have shirked the charge ;" " is not known to hay- run away ;"' " was forced to charge the Russian batteries sorely *gibe! his will;"—are likely to inspire fresh heroism in those who go out to fight our battles, and endeavour to discharge their duty, to their country ?—I have the hewer to be, SW. your obedient servant, ALII2IID PAoZT. Harwich, August O. Whether Lord GEORGE was the fittest person in the army for the receipt of this good-service pension, is, of course, open to debate; though we do not think such rewards ought to be lightly questioned. They lose their value when they are subjected to invidious comment. A gift of 1001. a year for distin guished gallantry in the field is, after all, no very splendid boon. Life must be risked to obtain this " signal distinction," as the Times calls it, though we see almost every day much higher rewards conferred for services which must be held every way inferior. But, admit ing the pension was wrongly conferred, who is to blame? Not, surely, Lord GEORGE PAGET, who is at present absent from the country. He had not the pension in his own gift ; if he had, the abuse showered on him would have had some show of reason. But he had no more to do with the bestowal of the pension than had the writer of the stupidly-arrogant article in the Times himself. Blame, if there be any, must rest with the Government. The authorities may be called to account if they have acted unfairly. Lord GEORGE may have acted gallantly, yet not be the most gallant man in the whole army. Why basely , -ek der ciate his services, to load obloquy, blast his reputation, to the derision of the troops because the Government (if admitted) has made an injudil More cruel inuendoes ajgainL never insinuated through the Times boasts of its enormous responsibility should be the tremendous - power—every oni assertions hare a world-wide ly iieek to depre- his name with R, and expo4l ps he too ~ 4 .....> , wit . 4. ' ifthei • . .., 1, ......,.. e ., 1. icious ~, [lst an 141 4 . 74-1!.. .., : , i . i• the !-1 114.,. ."C circu .1,?. t is '4, ;0 greaki. ?1;;.... 19 , , LC, one age 4 • ... / .7, r .'„ zi ,_,. ... 01 =raft, .IL • - vir i , v , Ar5_..1,141,