The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-03 00:00:00

nature when they subject the Member for Aylesburai to treatment so unworthy of his claims. FACTS AGAINST VERNON SMITH. THE eyes of England are turned anxiously to the electors of Northampton. Mr. VERNON SMITH, an old hanger-on upon the Whig clique, is a candidate for that constituency, which, unless all public spirit be dead in that locality, must indignantly spurn his claims. We can state facts against Mr. VERNON SMITH, which, we trust, will not be forgotten by the electors of Northampton. The first fact is, that he voted against an inquiry into the mismanagement of the war. So far as depended on Mr. VERNON SMITH'S poor abilities the people of England would be left without any knowledge of the causes why our soldiers have starved and shivered to death. Can such a vote as Ur. SMITH'S be pardoned by the men of Northampton? In former times that town used to pride itself on its public spirit; and let not the men of Northampton now show that they have dege nerated from the days of old. Th i‘second fact is, that Mr. VERNON SMITH is in his own person the very incarnation of the wretched system pursued in politics by what is known in London as " the old Whig rump." He may perhaps prefer claims to popularity on the ground that he is the solitary commoner in the present Cabinet of Lords and grandees. But then we must disabuse the electors of Northampton. Mr. VERNON SMITH is accepted on account of his connection with the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, through the late Earl of UPPER Ossortv's family, by which Mr. VERNON SMITH claims to be a real pure old Whig. The third fact is, that Mr. VERNON SMITH is no more fit fur filling the office of President of the Board of Control, and directing the affairs of India, than ho is fox commanding the army in the Crimea. Of all the little politi cians of the day he is one of the smallest. His attempts at playing the part of a leading politician have always been hailed with " derisive cheers" in the House of Commons. He has always taken his pretensions from Brobdignag, while he has shown only capacity for Lilliput, and in politics has been a walking copy of " Every Man his own Punch," and caricatured himself with unconscious humour and incredible industry. The fourth fact is, that Mr. VERNON SMITH will be opposed by one who shed his blood for England in the field of glory. Captain STURT fought at the Alma, and is also the nephew of the noble hero who led the grand charge at Balaklava. A hero himself, and with the blood of heroes in his veins, can the men of Northampton want additional arguments for supporting the cause of Captain STURT against the imbecility of the least distin guished man in the present feeble Cabinet of old Whigs? THE AUTOCRAT OF CALCUTTA. SIR HAMILTON SEYMOUR took some pains to explain to the public last year that the true cause of the difficulties into which Russia had got herself arose from the system which com pelled her diplomatists to report to the Czar, not facts, but what they thought would be most pleasing to him, thus keeping him in a state of perpetual delusion till the bubble burst. At the same time he drew a favorable contrast of the conduct of the English Govern ment towards its diplomatists, from whom he said it was equally ready to receive palatable truths. If this be true of our home, it is certainly not so of \t in India, as administered by rho now rules there, and whose conduct seem very much more in *,th those which Sir HAMILTON 'c4 to the Czar. NMI .nimPoliong or unpalatable t , Government at our Governmeml the Nobleman vel i• r principles of con accordance with Unsotra ascribe THE PRESS. We are induced to make these remarks by seeing in an Indian newspaper that Mr. MANSEL, a civilian of the highest standing in Bengal, and late the Resident at Nagpore, has been driven from his appointment, and com pelled by Lord DALHOUSIE to resign the ser vice. His crime, it appears, is, that on the death of the late Rajah of NAGYOBE, ho re ported against our annexing the territory, as being a measure unwise iu policy and unjust in principle, if not a direct violation of our plighted faith. In these opinions we think that there are few who study the question im- partially who will not to a great extent agree ; but, whether or no, it was Mr. MANSEL'S duty to report to the Governor-General, not what he thought would be the most palatable to the latter, but what was truly and really his judg ment and belief. The course pursued towards him by the Governor General is, therefore, rightly received in India as a great blow to the freedom hitherto conceded to high official station ; and the result will necessarily be, that men will henceforth shape their reports en tirely according to the supposed views of the Government of the day, and that the only means now existing of ever learning the truth as to the state of distant provinces will be thus greatly corrupted. By this course, to be sure, the governmental machine may for a time appear to run well and smoothly, but it will be only to create a false security and give rise to greater difficulties in the long run. The least reflection must show that it is im possible for any Government to be forearmed which is not forewarned; and no Government can be forewarned which thus treats the agents on whose entire honesty and openness and truthfulness it is compelled to rely. While Lord DALHOUSIE was thus adding another victim of his imperiousness to the illustrious list which in our preceding issue we named, he has found time, it would appear, to embroil himself with the whole native society at Calcutta, who have in a body de dined to present themselves any more at the Governor-General's levees. Submissive aa the Oriental may be, there are hounds to his submission, and in the wanton insolence of power Lord DALEIOUSIE has exceeded them. Not content with the homage paid to his pre decessors, he has notified that no native, what ever his rank, is henceforth to be admitted to his levees without leaving his shoes in the hall and entering the presence barefoot—a prac tice certainly in accordance with ancient etiquette in the East, but which at the Presi dencies had long fallen into desuetude, and which the almost universal adoption by natives of English-shaped trousers and stock ings, and English dress boots or shoes, ren dered it utterly impossible to comply with. The only means of conforming would be to revert to a costume which the more civilised Orientals, whether in India or Turkey, have abandoned—or, in other words, to go back into barbarism of dress, for the purpose of render ing a homage as barbarous to the Marquis of DALHOUSIE. The orier does not appear to have been passed without the most serious remonstrance founded on long usage in society and at the Calcutta Court, and at the Court of her Majesty in England. The Governor-General was, however, obdurate, and would insist on the natives coming into his presence barefoot or not at all: they have accepted the alternative, and at the last levee, being the first under the new rule, not a native nobleman or gentleman appeared. NERO fiddled while Rome was burning; and at a time when the most entire harmony and unanimity among all classes is most essential, this mastermind, as he is called by his flat terers, sets the whole body of native society at feud with us on a question of shoes. What with actual war in Turkey, a threatened war with Persia, and the probability of a rene wed outbreak in Burmah, one would have thought we had enough on our hands for one while ; but the Marquis appears to think otherwise, and so, to make our troubles complete, he deli berately alienates and insults the only class in India by whose pecuniary aid we have hitherto been able to conduct our wars, and on whose sympathy with us, and fidelity, we have been able entirely to rely. If the matter were not one too serious for joking we should pro pose as the best solution of the question that • •-• SATURDAY, each party should revert to its earliest known costume, or rather no costume—the natives appearing in the undress of their remotest ancestors, and the Marquis of DALtioustz as an ancient Piot. MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENNTS. Tim appointment of Lord John Russell in his absence as Colonial Secretary was announced on Monday morning by the appearance of the noble lord's address to the electors of London. Further nominations, as they were completed, were first publicly proclaimed in the House of Commons, by Mr. Hayter, in moving for the new writs. Thus was it announced on Monday that Sir G. C. Lewis had become Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr. Vernon Smith, President of the Board of Control; and Sir C. Wood, First Lord of the Admiralty. In the same way, official intelligence was on following days conveyed to the public of the appoint. ment of Lord Duncan as Scotch Lord of the Treasury, of Mr. Horaman as Chief Secretary to the Irish Viceroy, and of Messrs. Keogh and Fitzgerald to be respectively Attorney and Solicitor General for Ireland. On Wednesday there was a Privy Council, at which the late Colonial Secretary, First Lord, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, formally re. signed the seals of office, and their successors kissed hands on appointment. At the same time, a royal deelaraion was made, announcing that the Earl of Carlisle was north- I Dated Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The reconstructed Ministry is accordingly composed as follows : Lord Palmerston, First Lord of the Treasury. • Lord Cranworth, Lord Chancellor. Lord Clarendon, Foreign Affairs. Lord Panmure, War Department. Sir George Grey, Home Department. Lord John Russell, Colonial Office. Marquis of Lansdowne, without office. Sir U. C. Lewis, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Charles Wood, First Lord of the Admiralty. Sir \V. Molesworth, Chief Commissioner of Woods and Works. Lord Granville, President of the Council. Lord Canning, Postmaster-General. Duke of Argyll, Lord Privy Seal. Lord of the Treasury, in the room of Lord Elcho, retired, Lord Duncan. Lord Stanley of Alderley, President of the Board of Trade. Mr. Vernon Smith, President, and Mr. Danby Seymour, Secretary to the Board of Control. The Earl of Carlisle, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Mr. liorsmen, Chief Secretary Mr. Keogh, Attorney-General Mr. Fitzgerald, Solicitor-Uener_ , Respecting some minor appointments, nothing more is known than that they have been offered to certain persons, were refused, and are stall vacant. Thus, it is stated that Sir Robert Peel was offered the situation of Clerk of the Ordnance in the place of Mr. Monsen, but he declined to accept it. Mr. Monckton Milnes has declined the office of Lord of the Treasury, Mr. Laing the situation of Vino- President of the Board of Trade. It is however asserted that Sir R. Peel has accepted the office of Under-Secretary to the Colonies, lately held by his brother, and refused by Mr. Layard. for lreland. VISCOUNT PONSONBY, the veteran statesman and diplomatist, died on Thursday, last week, at Brighton, at the advanced age of eighty-four. The deceased peer was the son of the first Baron Ponsonby, by the fourth daughter of the third Viscount Molesworth. From an early period of his career he was connected with the diplomatic service of his country, and for many years represented the Court of St. James's at the Porte, from whence he returned in 1841, two years previously to which he had been advanced to the dignity of viscount. He had previously been accredited at. Vienna and other Courts. In politics the deceased nobleman was a Whig, and the intimate friend of all leaders of that party. He is succeeded in the barony only by his nephew, William, son of the late Hon. Sir William Ponsonby, K.C.B. LORD KENYON expired at his seat, Gredington hall, Flintshire, on Sunday, at the advanced age of seventy-eight. The deceased, who was the son of the eminent judge, was born on the 22nd of July, 1776, succeeded to the title on the sth of April, 1802, and married, on the Ist of April, 1803, Mary Enuna, only daughter of Sir Thomas Han mer, Bart. He was a Conservative, but took no very active part in publio affairs, an F.S.A. and Custos Brevium of the C ourt of Queen's Bench. Sul B. Rent's bill for the Better Local Manage ment of the Metropolis, which was to have been in troduced by the right honourable baronet to the House of Commons oniTuesday, has been postponed till Monday next, in consequence of the unsettled state of public affairs. Great anxiety is manifested in every district of the metropolis to know the bear ings of this important measure. Tun discovery of new gold-fields is announced by a vessel lately arrived at Lisbon from Rio de Janeiro. Gold has been found in, it is said, " immense quan ties," at Tury Assu, province of Maranham, which exceeds in richness either the Australian or Califor nian mines. The Rio Journal de Commercio of the 18th January contains full particulars of the discovery. '`~. l U a