The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

JULY 7, 1855. The House then went into a committee of supply pra forma, after which it resumed for the transac tion of business on the paper, and adjourned at two o'clock. Corrtspoithart. A CONSCRIPTION NECESSARY. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—Some time ago you did me the honour of in serting a letter from me, urging the necessity of having recourse to some method of compulsory enlistment. lam alarmed to observe that, although the war is getting every day more exhaustive of our forces, there is not only no indication of having re course to this, but there is no additional activity in raising men by voluntary enlistment. Since Pelissier succeeded Canrobert we have lost some four thou sand men, the French about three times as many, and the cholera season is approaching, to he followed by the winter; and whether that will find us still before Sebastopol or within its walls is immaterial— we shall in all probability still be at war. Now, if the drain from war is to go on in the ratio of the last fortnight, and that from disease and the climate in the ratio of last year, where are we, under the present system, to get the army for .1856? Even France will feel the pinch ; and no doubt her Em peror even now looks with anxiety to the gradual using up of his levies, when he sees England, his ally, unable for her own preservation to bring more than thirty or forty thousand men to the fielu. Can it be expected that Louis Napoleon will go on making up our deficiences, when it is possible —we may say probable—that the present war will develop itself into an invasion of the soil of France by the united forces of Russia and the German States? The knowledge we have of his sagacity forbids any such expectation. If, therefore, it were only to anticipate his inevitable call on us to furnish our due quota of fighting-men, and avoid any perilous discussions with him on the subject, we should immediately take steps to quadruple our army. We are bound to do so by the plainest duty to our ally. We, in our island fortress, are secure from invasion. Louis Napoleon can call upon us with irresistible logic to contribute to the war with Russia an army at least in the same proportion to our population as the army of Pelissier bears to the population of France. He can argue—" You ought to contribute on a much larger ratio, for France requires the bulk of her army at home, to serve those purposes of security and preservation which the winds and waves discharge for you." But, besides that we cannot reasonably expect much longer to fight England's quarrel with English soldiers in the proportion of one to ten of the French, there are vital reasons inducing us to quadruple our army, even although we could rely on an unlimited supply of Frenchmen. I previously mentioned the more obvious of these reasons—l will now state another. Constantinople is a sort of steelyard where the power of European nations is weighed in order to ascertain their relative value in the political markets of Asia. In a time of peace commerce, luxury, and wealth go for something in the balance, but in time of war nothing weighs in semibarbarous Constantinople but fighting-men. Now, in this respect Turkey herself would make us kick the beam. France is ten times more ponderous, and Russia by her own weight keeps the balance quiver ing against all three. That Constantinopolitan opinion is already formed on these data is proved by the letters of the corre spondents in that city of the London papers, all of whom lament the extinction of the prestige of Eng land, and doubtless feel it in their own diminished importance. Now, the public opinion of Constanti• nople travels quickly to Persia, and no doubt now forms an important element with the Shah in judg• ing whether be will adopt our alliance or that of Russia. Undoubtedly the rumour of our declines has crossed to Affghanistan, and the hearts of the mountain warriors already throb with excitement at the prospect of wreaking a long-deferred revenge. But the opinions of Constantinople will also cross the Khyber Pass and circulate in all the bazaars of India, and our Hindoo subjects will learn with astonishment that the power which has been in vincible to them is the weakest in Europe. At first they will not believe the rumour, but if every report confirms it they will at last adopt it as true ; and immediately one half of Hindostan is in arms against u;. There, opinion is worth an army of one hundred thousand Englishmen. It is this representative force which keeps the sepoy to his allegiance. Once destroy the illusion, and he will join his countrymen. It is therefore worth an Indian army—it is worth our Indian empire—to keep up our character in Constantincple. It has already experienced a pe . rllous eclipse. Already the proud name of England is spoken of slightingly by the Turk—already the Persian wavers in his belief of our power, and the Affghan is forgetting the lesson of Nott and Pollock. The world is in arms : we must arm too, and with %mules, not of thirty nr forty thousand men. but THE PRESS. with hosts of two hundred or three hundred thousand English soldiers. Such a force can only be raised by conscription. The inducements to voluntary en • listment may be increased, and might increase the number of recruits, but when the problem to be solved is suddenly and immediately to increase the British army by two hundred thousand men there is no other means than a conscription. Yours, obediently, J. A. G. HYDE-PARK DISTURBANCES. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln my opinion, too much importance is attached to the disturbances in Hyde-park of last Sunday. I was on the skirts of the crowd, and saw some of the prisoners carried away ; and it appeared to me that it was simply a few foolish boys] who had come to form part of the intended mob, some pick pockets to take advantage of it, and some women and children to look at it. The boys threw some stones at the constables, and the pickpockets drove their trade. Upon this, the police endeavoured to take them into custody; they ran away, and some of the women and children were knocked down and trodden upon, by accident, I presume. Many of my friends who were there agree with me in the opinion that the constables behaved with great moderation under consider able provocation, although I confess that others hold a different idea. But this must arise, I think, from the circumstance that the latter did not witness the conduct of the mob, which provoked the action of the police. It struck me that the most appro priate punishment for the majority of those I saw in custody would have been a sound whipping. I remain, your obedient servant, June Bth, 1855. M. (••• Mr. Toulmin Smith's letter is unavoidably deterred, but shall appear next week.) GRAND DEJEUNER AT THE MANSION HOUSE. ON the 29th ult. the Mansion-house was the scene of an interesting ceremonial, on the occasion of pre senting a marble bust to the Rev. Dr. Croly, Rector of the united parishes of St. Stephen, Walbrook, and St. Benet, the gift of his parishioners, congregation, and friends. The Lord Mayor, though the Mansion house is not in the parish of St. Stephen's, with great courtesy, proposed that it should be presented by himself, and issued cards for a dijeuner on the occasion. The bust, a masterpiece of the sculptor, Mr. Behnes, was placed on a pedestal in the long room, where the company assembled. The Lord Mayor addressed the guests to the following effect : They were met to witness the presentation of that bust to an honoured clergyman and friend, the Rev. Dr. Croly, who, for a period of twenty years, had usefully and actively discharged the duties, and sustained the character of the Church, in the parish of St. Stephen. It must be unne cessary to add any testimony on that day to the general sense of the manner in which those duties had been dis charged; the attendance with which the Mansion•house had been honoured on that day, the feeling of the parishes, and, he might add, the feeling of the public, were sufficient evidence. The Rev. Doctor was an Irishman. He (the Lord Mayor) gloried in the recollection of the eminent men, the statesmen, soldiers, and orators, which that country had produced, and who had been the benefactors of the British empire and of human nature, by the talents with which God had blessed them. (Applause.) He must also refer with due praise to Dr. Croly's valuable ser vices as editor of the'' Illustrations of the Holy Land," the work of that admirable artist Mr. Roberts, who had some years ago visited the soil of Palestine, made sacred to all hearts by the recollections of our religion. ( Hear, hear.) Having borne this testimony, after a friendship of many years, to the personal talents and pastoral services of Dr. Croly, he begged now to present to him the bust sponta neously subscribed by the respect, the esteem, and the gratitude of his parishioners, congregation, and many friends. (Applause). Dr. Croly then replied to the Lord Mayor, in sub stance, nearly as follows : My Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Ladies, and Gen tlemen,—l shall not venture to occupy your time with the expression of feelings for which J hope you give me credit, but which it is more difficult to express than to expe rience. Of all men a clergyman is most open to public opinion. In public life the errors of the individual may be screened by partisanship. In private life they may be screened by his privacy. But, the clergyman, whether in his public or private capacity, lives constantly before the parochial eye. I have now been for twenty years the incumbent of the united parishes of St. Stephen's and St. Benet's ; you have thus had sufficient opportunities of judging how far I have done my duty, and the testimonial which you have done me the honour to present this day is the amplest evidence of your good opinion. ( Hear, hear.) Yet those twenty years have not been without their difficulties. Their course has, perhaps, been more dis turbed than in any other parish of the metropolis. We have been involved in long and expensive litigation—l allude, reluctantly, to those circumstances, and merely from their allowing me to give my tribute to the manliness, de termination, and perseverance, which they exhibited Among the parishioners, In the litigation I lII* a contsi►t 643 without bitterness, and a triumph without exultation' After a succession of years, the rights of the parish were restored, the property was placed in the fitting hands, and our noble church, the cluld'auvre of the first architec tural name of England, was rendered, once more, worthy of his name, and of the high purpose to which it was dedi cated. ( Hear, hear.) Your lordship has, in obliging terms, referred to my part in that distinguished per f ormance—" Roberts's Sketches of the Holy Land." I lay no claim to any share in its popularity ; 1 attribute it wholly to the pencil of the eminent artist, who there has brought before the British eye scenes dear to every solemn and sacred recollection. But historical, geographical, and scriptural illustrations were essential to the volumes, and those necessarily involved much time and considerable labour. The volumes are now in the libraries of kings, of colleges, and of learned societies. Their value, I understand, has largely increased ; a new edition is even now preparing. It was a work strictly ecclesiastical ; yet I am not aware that it ever attracted the slightest notice from any of the higher order of the Church ; but there can be no disappointment where there is no expec t a ti on. On such subjects I feel perfect indifference. I have never received any ecclesiastical service from ecclesiastical hands. My present benefice was given by lay hands, but hands which would make any gift au honour, by two of the first men of the age—Lord Lyndhurst, on the recommenda tion of Lord Brougham.. Your lordship has made some remarks on preferment. T feel all the delicacy of the subject, and shall make no further observation, than on its effect, as relating to the two great branches of the Church. I never heard of any Irishman rising to any dignity in the English Establish ment. I acknowledge the courtesies and civilities with which we are received; but, between the two countries there is obviously a great gulf, to be overpassed by no wing, at least of the present age. lam no railer against the au pretnacy of this illustrious country. There lives no more ardent admirer of England. I fully acknowledge her title to Irish homage, by the right of wise laws, eminent ability, and unwearied benevolence. I care not for the calumnies of party, nor for the discontents of disap pointed men. But her ecclesiastical policy was of another order. In the last century, no Irishman was supposed capable of wearing even an Irish mitre. The vacancies on the bench were regularly filled up with old Fellows of the English universities. The experiment satisfied nobody. It is true that the universities were relieved, but Ireland was encumbered ; the Church mur- mured, the men were miserable; they surrounded their palaces with a circurovallation of connections, imported like themselves; they knew nothing of the country, and died enormously rich, and utterly forgotten. The consequence was inevitable. Eloquence, almost the indigenous product of Ireland, vanished from the Church, and its noblest spirits perished in obscurity. About fifty years ago a wiser policy was adopted. Irish men were appointed to Irish mitres ; and the result is, that now Protestantism no longer stands with drooping eye and dejected heart, idle, and shivering on the soil, but has broken ground for the Reformation. In fifty piers more, perhaps, another step will be made in advance ; but which I have not the present rashness to define. How different was the conduct of England, with respect to the civil ability of Ireland. She has never hesitated to borrow that most effective of all wealth, intellectual wealth, from Ireland. She was only too glad to see within the walls of her Legislature, in days scarcely preceding our own, the Asiatic splendour and grandeur of Burke, that oracle of political philosophy; the universal brilliancy of Sheridan. the profound logic of Plituket, and the vehement and half-inspired passion of Grattan. Even then her intellectual treasury was not exhausted ; she had in reserve the " electric light " of Curran, a light still flashing from his tomb. She has still many a man," who wants only the large opportunities of this great country," to expand to the noblest proportions of mind. Nay, whom have we, even at this moment, but a man of Ireland at the summit of the State, summoned to meet the exigency of the empire, and summoned by acclamation. Such a country is not to be despised. But, does not every heart under this roof tell me that that this muster-roll of glory is incomplete without one name more, the name which irradiated our age, and which will send its lustre down to a far posterity ; the man, whose magnitude of mind we can measure only by the misfortune of his loos, the foremost soldier not only of his day, but of his age, not only of his country, but of the globe. Oh, for another Wellington! ( Hear, bear.) And now, my Lord Mayor, 1 accept from your bands this bust—an admirable performance of art, and which must add even to the reputation of its artist, Mr. &lines. I accept, also, the lithographic portrait, not less admirable in its kind, the work of Mr. Baugniet, and desire to express my beat thanks to you, and the Lady Mayoress, for this reception of my parishioners, my friends, and myself ; an act of which this occasion is, I believe, the first example, even among the many acts of honour which the Mansion house has witnessed. I regard the act of this day as a true, permanent, and substantial honour. In no other form than in that bust would the generosity of my friends have been accepted. I have, thank God, Agur's prayer. But on these topics I cannot speak; those marble lips speak for me, and more significantly than my own. That bust will be, while I have the power of exertion , a stimulus to duty ; and, while I have the power of feeling, a source of gratitude. (Applause.) The Vice-Chancellor Stuart, and several other speakers, subsequently addressed the company. The proceedings must have been highly gratifying to Dr. Croly from the warm and generous testimony borne to his genius as an author , to his gifts as an eloquent preacher, to his services as aparochis clergyman, and to his honourable and disinterested conduct throughout the vexations litigation in which the parish bad been involved.