The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-15 00:00:00

1082 Manchester. His platitudes were applauded, and his half-confidential no-meanings were hailed as familiar revelations of foreign policy. His apology for superficial reasling was also accepted as satisfactory, and W I " green 'Rd " vivacious old age ' was cordially 4tppreciated by Manchester. Ne*t. day another platform was set up for—liosSuni ! The Hungarian exile denounced the statesmen of Europe, and was voluble in what Lord JOHN Ruasint called the ",jargon of nationality." Mr. PHILLIPS, the High Sheriff of Lancashire, presided, and Sir Jolts Parma, Mr. KERSHAW, M.P , along with Messrs GEORGE WILSON, ABSOLOM WATKIN, key. Dr. VAUGHAN, and many other conspicuous local celebrities, lent their approving presence to the tribunate of the political exile. " The " manifesto of LAMABTINE was a marvel of " humbug and of blustering nonsense ;" and in that same Manchester, where Lord PALM EusroN had been so applauded not many hours before, KOSSUTH continued in the Hlowing strain— " Then, again, Lord Palmerston could be quoted to "show that he also considered the integrity of "the Austrian empire as a matter of impor " Lance." Take the ovation to Lord PALMERSTON, and compare it with the reception given to KossuTu, and any reflecting person must see how little to be relied on is a demonstration of the mere platform kind. Sir JOHN PAK!NGTON, a staunch Church and State Conservative, one of Lord DERBY'S Cabinet, is also to have an ovation at Manchester. And \yell does that excellent gentleman deserve any popular honour that could be paid to so earnest and practical a friend to the social interests of the people. But in weighing the worth of these demon strations, it is almost impossible to set them down as representative displays. Lord PAL MERSTON was a leading celebrity of the day, and provincial politicians were glad to see and hear him. Kossum is a capital speaker, and a man of remarkable history, and well worth looking at; and Sir JOHN PAKINOTON is a model English squire, and under Lord DERBY'S Ad ministration made an admirable Secretary for the Colonies. What, then, is the worth of platform ova tions, after all? The Duke of WELLINGTON once profanely called " county meetings farces ;" and after a musical festival at Bir mingham, on the eve of his Premiership, Sir ROBERT PEEL and Sir HENRY (afterwards Lord) HARDINGE were brutally assaulted by a mob of what some persons would falsely call " the people." We live under a form of rule called " Representative Government ;" but the organised platform is gradually obtaining a dangerously dictatorial power in our free community. Lord MANSFIELD said that he was in favour of that popularity which follows, and not that which is run after ; and a " mere platform politician" is a term of reproach amongst real statesmen. It is one of the arts of the Liberals to keep up an organised plat form to counterfeit public opinion, though they secretly despise it. They resemble the great advertising tailors, who affect to boast that they " never wear the clothes of their own houses." They leave that to the " democracy." A genuine reception, not got up for election eering objects, or Ministerial necessities, is to be respected. Whatever represents opinion as distinct from clamour, is of great political value. The great difference between Conser vatives and Liberals is, that the former wish to be governed by institutions adapted to test and register opinion, while the former arc sub servient to the ephemeral sentiment generated by excited masses, and swelling into formid able clamour. LORD CARLISLE AND PROTESTANTISM. THE union of a Protestant pietist and a pro- Romanist politician is something very strange. It is still more singular when seen in a Viceroy of Ireland. And GEORGE HOWARD, seventh Earl of Carlisle, her Majesty's Lord Lieutenant at Dublin, exhibits a most unique instance of that eccentric coalition of op posite characters. His Lordship's verses in " Books of Beauty," and in the still less ephemeral literature of the albums of THE PRESS. fair patricians, together with his sentimental lectures to unlearned societies, all testify to Lord CARLISLE'S possession of a rich stock of that emotional quality which the Edinburgh Review in its scoffing and anti-evangelical days used to call " religiosity." The preachers at Dublin, also, whom Lord CARLISLE has most honoured by his notice, are of a school of divinity which is popularly known in Eng land as " half-methodist " His Lordship's un affected piety we hold in respect, and we do not forget that in his fugitive " Diary in Greek Waters" Lord CARLISLE gave mordant utter ance to his dislike of what Lord JOHN RUSSELL would call " the mummeries of superstition." But never, surely, within our experience did we observe so strong a case of the dangers which a weak, well-meaning man may work to " the true religion established amongst us," as in the career of the noble Whig who does the work of his party in Dublin Castle, and illustrates the pro-Romanist phase of his character in his anxiety to court the Catholic platform in Ireland. For, unquestkulably, if we may judge by the conduct of Lord CARLISLE, the grand fact of the day in the domestic politics of England is the overt reconciliation which has taken place between the Whig party and the Pope. Lord lolls RUSSELL rudely severed that old alliance, but the Stafford house Whigs, with Lord CARLISLE at their head, have for some time past been at work in soldering up a connec tion with the powerful sacerdotal influences which sway the Roman Catholics of Ireland. Twenty years ago there was a " Lichfield house compact." and a similar convention between surrendering Protestants and subsi dised Romanists now exists. The first result of this " arrangement " (to call it mildly) is that the Pope of ROME has again attached a formidable rear-guard to the patty which arrogates to itself the cause of " Liberal Pro• gress." It was observed a century since by the celebrated PULTENEY that " parties, like " snakes, are moved from their tails." The Liberals of England now illustrate that axiom; and we direct the attention of the country to the augmented influence which, by the most fatal impolicy, the present Cabinet is organis ing for the convenience and ambition of the Papacy. It is pleaded in excuse for Lord CARLISLE'S systematic courting of Roman Catholics that " his Excellency is under old electioneering " obligations to the Roman Catholic party." The excuse is worse than the accusation, yet it would really seem as if his Excellency still felt the most extraordinary gratitude to the Dublin politicians, who sought to cover the rejection of Viscount MORPETH from the West Riding in 1841. Any one can see that the present system at Dublin Castle is an imitation of the political course followed ny Lord MULGRAVE in the times when, as Sir JAMES GRAHAM phrased it, " there was a short " cut between the Castle and the Corn " Exchange." TALLEYRAND observed of the elder Bourbons, in 1813, that they returned to France " having learnt nothing and for " gotten nothing." Lord CARLISLE, though twenty years older, is not wiser than he was when Lord Morpeth. For our part, we do not grudge a fair bestowal of honours and rewards upon the Roman Catholics of Ireland. As Conserva tives, we recognise their social status; we cheerfully admit the respectability of a large portion of their gentry ; and we admire the many estimable qualities which, in common with the virtues of their Protestant neigh bours, do honour to their country. But we deny that it is wise for one intrusted with the government of Ireland to covet exclusively the support of the Roman Catholic interest. We cannot forget that a strong political and religious animus is manifested against the Protestant institutions of the realm ; and the fact that the gentry of Ireland have been ousted from their fair share of the political representation of their native country, and seats given to an adventurer class, cannot pos sibly be overlooked The excessive political activity of the Roman Catholic priesthood, and their interference at elections, is c..lculated to give great pain to all persons of moderate opinions. We know that SATURDAY, the Roman Catholic gentry are extremely dis pleased at it, and we could wish that more quiet cpurses lyere followed by the Roman Catholic clergy. Lord CARLISLE'S ostentatious patronage c f conventual institutions may pro. cure him many " cheers ;" but we fear that the example of his subscriptions will be turned to an account which, we are sure, his Excellency never anticipated. At Limerick, a few days since, Lord CARLISLE patronised a convent. His subscription was hailed with glee as an additional triumph in a part of the country where, owing to the presence of an active and wealthy clique of seceders from Protestantism, the Roman Catholics have assumed a spirit of propagandism. Lord DUNRAVEN, Mr. MORSEL!, the DE VERE HUNTS, and their relations, are located in Limerick ; and we think, under the peculiar circum stances of the case, that the patronage of con ventual institutions in such a locality was an indiscreet act of a Viceroy at Dublin. It is the glory of the State under which we live that the citizens enjoy more personal liberty of thought and action than the members of any community on earth. But we enjoy these liberties because we are a Protestant empire; and Lord CARLISLE ought to recollect that it was provided by the Relief Bill of 1829 that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Lord Chancellor should always be members of the Established Church. It is an unfortu nate circumstance that, Lord CARLISLE, when Lord Morpeth, should have connnitted him self by seine highly elaborated attacks on the Establishment in Ireland. We cannot forget his Lordship's conjecture that the time might come when the friends of the Church could only point to " its lifeless corse and untenanted armour." The language was seized with avidity - by all haters of endowments ; and we fear that some acts of his Excellency are not calculated to remove most painful feelings from the Protestants in Ireland. His Ex cellency should remember that ho has impe rial duties to discharge, and that an unre strained pursuit of mere popularity is likely to be attended with retributive reaction. Lord CARLISLE should not forget that many even of the " Liberal Protestants " in Ireland conscientiously object to countenance con vents, although they are ready to give land and pecuniary aid to the parochial chapels of their Roman Catholic neighbours and tenantry. POLITICAL IMPOSTURE. THE question of Parliametary efficiency has been widely discussed during the recess, and has not lacked its due share of attention in our own columns. We have pointed to the reconstruction of Party as one essential step towards infusing new vigour and unity into our distracted councils, and have urged the importance of merging minor differences, which involve only questions of detail, for the purpose of securing to the Conservative party a broad basis of action. But it cannot have escaped our readors, that this universal relaxation of party tics is rather an effect than a cause—rather the symptom of the disease, than the disease itself. When the political body is sick, political restraints aro loosed, just as historians tell us that immo rality is never so prevalent as in times of deadly pestilence. As the time approaches for the reassembling of Parliament it may not be amiss, from time to time, to consider the nature of the malady which is at present paralysing the British Constitution, and turn ing Representative Government into a theme for alternate pity and rebuke, so that men point the finger at us, and say, " How aro the " mighty fallen !" If we make all due allowance for the pre judices of veteran politicians, we may still believe that prior to the Reform Bill the two great political parties into which this country was divided kept before their eyes certain definite and practical objects. When a man said that he was a IVhig, or that he was a Tory, it was known at once, not merely what were his principles, but how, under almost any