The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

DECEMBER 1, 1855. next place, to inform the minds of the people of this country on the subject, and to convince them that there are practical, sound, and solid means by which the great problem in modern politics can be solved. MISTAKES OF SIR CHARLES WOOD. Tnis present Board of Admiralty is certainly unfor tunate in its officers. Mr. OPDORNE, with his forced taciturnity, is an object of universal ridicule, though the Honourable Gentleman may be comforted in thinking that silence is better than to expose him self, like some of his colleagues. Sir CHARLES Woon, also, has come into the most disagreeable collision with the citizens of Cork, and even already the First Lord has got the worst of it. There is something most grating in the curt super cilious way in which Sir CHARLES WOOD tries to deal with men and things. He is not a Whig aris tocrat by birth, being only a new Baronet., and con nected with the families by having (like Mr. L4ROU ciiEuE) married a "Lady Mary." Yet we never hear or see him without thinking of My Lord Duke in GARRICK'S farce of High Life below Stairs. He is not without some favorable points as a man of busi ness. When he gets his cue, Sir CHARLES can work industriously, and is really a smart man, though not at all a sharp one, except in his manner. His talents appear to great disadvantage when contrasted with those of his immediate predecessor, and never more so than in his method of treating the claims of the Cork memorialists. It seems that for nearly thirty years there has been a standing grievance with the people of the south of Ireland, on the alleged "neglect" of Cork harbour by the successive Governments. The subject has been a sore one with both Whigs and Tories ; the complaint has been troublesome and chronic. Sir JAMES GRAHAM, two years since, dealt with the matter most skilfully, and soothed the ruffled feel. ings of the Cork people with tact, temper, and some show of good natured interest in their welfare. He took care, also, to pay some well-sugared compli ments to their local pride; and the clever Sir JMeus made the people of Cork pleased with the Admiralty for the time. Sir CHARLES WOOD has managed matters in a dif ferent style. In his most laconic, curt, manner, he snubbed the Mayor of Cork, when that functionary forwarded him a memorial that part of the Baltic fleet might be permitted to winter in Cork harbour. It would seem that one of the Cork Members of Par. 'lament had an assurance from Dublin Castle that the point would be conceded. Knowing that there was so much irritation on the subject, the First Lord should have been cautious how he refused a respect ful memorial, supported by the local aristocracy and gentry. Sir CHARLES, in his self-sufficient way, desired the Cork people to go to Bath, and was good enough to point out the road that way in the follow ing words : Admiralty, Nov. 10, 1855. Sir,-1 have received your letter of the 1-Ith inst., and you must see, upon reflection, that the stations of her Majesty's ships mast be determined by the dernanis of the service, and that it would not be consistent with my duty to give any assurance that vessels would be stationed at any port merely on the request of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.-1 am, sir, your obedient servant, CIIALUSS WOOD. The Mayor of Cork. That is a bad specimen of an official style. Its air of disdain was provocative, and accordingly no small anger was felt at Cork, and a resolution was come to that the subject of Cork harbour "neglect" should b i brought before Parliament, and we were threatened with the infliction of countless speeches on the subject in the next session. But things have taken another turn. The Dublin correspondence of the journals inform us that., after all, some of the fleet are to winter in Cork harbour, obstante Sir CHARLES WOOD. The process of taking back a budget has long been familiar to the ex• Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he has now to take back his letter. The Chief Secretary for Ire la id has given him what Mr. OSBORNE, in his pun ning style, would call a lesson in horsemanship. Swallowing his words seems to be a favorite accom plishmentswith Sir Cusatts Wool). He was once wit ily compared to the Indian juggler drawing rolls of red tape out of his mouth. He spoke an invective aßaitist the Emperor of the FRENCH, but he swallowed it; a , d after sniihhing the Mayor of Cork, he is Obliged to unsay his words. That is not the mode in which Sir JAMES GRAFI/ M WOD his reputation at the Ad niralty. It is only a poor imitation of the old Whig style of first sneerirg, aof then truckling, assuming a Hotspur fierceness, and then patiently swallowing the leek. THE PRESS. STRAWS IN THE AIR. Ter: Times newspaper has been looked to with more than usual curiosity this week, to see if it would make any remarks upon the pacific negotiations which are known to be proceeding. That journal, however, avoids any direct notice of the great topic of the day, but in its leading articles of Wednesday and Thursday last it plainly indicates the probability of a speedy termination of hostilities. The following extracts are significant : We know what we want and what we will have. . . . We know very well that if the Euxine were declared a commercial sea, only open to the merchant ships of all nations, bat to the fleets of none—if the ports and fortifi cations ou its coasts were demolished and dismantled—if the Danube were opened to the commerce of all nations, and its free navigation secured by the cession of so much Russian territory as would be required to guarantee both banks from hostile interference—if the Danubian princi palities were erected into a State, guaranteed, like Belgium, from the attacks of the great powers—if all military or naval establishments on the Aland Islands were to be pro hibited, or, better still, if they were given up to Sweden and Norway, we should have obtained such securities and guarantees as would render peace honourable and desirable, and the prolongation of the war alike a folly and a crime. Perhaps such conditions are little enough to ask; they are most assuredly the least that would be taken. lint it has never been the policy of this country to press hard on a vanquished enemy, but rather to rely—and experience has justified her reliance—on her own power than on the harshness of her conditions.—Tistes, Wednesday, Nov. t4B. The reader may instructively contrast the above with the Times of Oct• 24: Our course is clew•. We must persevere until the aggressive power of the enemy is destroyed. The leading journal, on the contrary, now doubts whether the preparations for the "next campaign" even may not be rendered nugatory : Give us another twelvemonth, everybody seems to say, and you will see what we can do. Should peace be made before that twelvemonth is past, we will venture to say that more pi eparation, more material, and more enthusiasm will be wasted than ever were got together before. That, however, we freely confess, is not a consideration to stand in the way of a real and honourable peace. We have been hidierto fighting, not for honour, but for the liberty and independence of nations. When that object can be really and permanently secured, we are bound to be content ; only, as our preparations for the next campaign are. all but completed, and as we are prepared to launch the bolts of war upon Russia at every point when the elements give us an opening, we certainly shall not quit our grasp till we obtain the most substantial security that she shall not break the peace again, in our time at least.—Time4, Thursday, Nov. 29. The following, from the Paris correspondent of the same journal (Paris, Wednesday), is in the same key : Some three or four years ago an observation fell from a person who is well informed on German affairs, that the French Government appeared to be very well satisfied with the conduct of Austria. This has been so often, and I must add, so vainly said, that it attracted little or no attention at the time. Since then, however, not only has the same remark been made, but it is whispered rather mysteriously, that this time at least Austria is on the point of showing more determination than for a long time past. Austria, then, appears to come forward once more, after a long interval of repose, but in what manner? Has she at last determined to take an active part in the war, or is she inclined to offer her mediation between Russia and the allies? This 1 cannot say; I can only assure you that the move made by Austria will coast derably advance the prospects of peace, and bring them nearer to realisation then is supposed. lam unwilling to offer any conjectures on the subject, but the action of Austria will soon be felt in a manner not unacceptable to this Govern ment and that of England, and, above all, involving no sacrifice of honour or consistency on the Governments who have taken up arms in a just cause. That she is doing much, cautiously but steadily, with the view of persuading, or, it may be, compelling, Russia to come to terms is certain. —Times, Friday, Nov. It is satisfactory to find that when reason is likely to prove predomment, the powerful advocacy of the Times will be enlisted on its side! GENERAL CAN ROBERT'S MISSION. THE following article in the Morning Post of Monday last evidently originates from an official source. It will be seen that it exactly confirmQ the information given in THE l'itEss of leat Saturday on General tiontonEwr's mission to Sweden As the din of active war grows fainter, u the Baltic threatens to freeze, and the Crimea to become impassable, greedy public attention fixes on diplomatic politics, and the " Own Correspondents" of our morning contemporaries prepare for the insatiable appetite of their readers the most prodigious stories of military conventions ooncluded, of treaties entered into, of alarming additions to the war, un- known to everybody except themselves, but which will come out with full force in the spring. The most circum stantial of these accounts has been that which we contra dicted the other day, of the military conventioa which was said to have been successfully concluded by General Can• robert with Sweden. Tho general goes to Stockholm 11 charged with the Legion of Honour, and with good words for King Oscar. His business tone there he is to adjourn to Copenhagen. But what is that business? It is merely to give his star; to speak his good words; to assure the King of Sweden of the honest and kindly feelings of his Imperial master towards him, and to the Swedish people; to receive from that monarch the assurance that those feelings are returned ; to satisfy himself that those who accuse the Swedes of being ltussianised belie them grossly, to do the Like in Denmark—to confirm, in abort, the friendliest feel ing between these minor States and the Western allies? This, which is a plain and great object, does not satisfy the gentlemen in question, so they furnish General Canrobert with a convention full of gun-boats, troops, and warlike armarneuta, and throw Sweden at least into instant war with Ru►sia. We believe that a very abort reflection will convince our readers that it is a matter on which they may congratulate themselves that, in all these stories of conven tions and treaties, there is not one word of truth—that General Canrobert took no convention in his pocket, and forced none on the King of Sweden—that he merely occu pied himself with the establishment and confirmation of a thoroughly good and cordial understanding with the King of Sweden. The allied powers are not yet reduced to such straits for men and materials that they roust take the responsibility of dragging into the vortex of strife all the small neighbours of Russia—of kindling a European war, of which the flames may run, heaven knows how wide, and way stop, heaven knows when. That is a far later resource than yet belongs to their tactics The immediate neighbours of Russia might be very willing to form such cunven• tions as that which we have contradicted ; but that material aid is not the kind of support which the allies need in Europe. They would be bound in honour, no less than by treaty, to maintain and to protect these minor States, whatever happened. They would have their demands on Russia multiplied. New conditions of peace would beibrought into the field by the new allies. The war would be swelled in objects and iu bulk. What the allies' really need from these powers is the expression of their moral sense—the declaration that they think with England and with Trance--that, if they acted at all, they would act with them—the verdict of their public opinion— the sentence of their common sense, against Russia. This is the true need of the powers at war with her, and this it is that Sweden has moat strongly shown on the visit of General Canrobert. To expect more than this from a State so small as [Sweden, without pledging ourselves to nature her from all possible evil consequences of her acts—without guaranteeing to her the possession of advantages which we might gain, and which would be the seeds of some future war—would be unjust and absurd—to give such pledges and guarantees would be to leave legacies to our children which we should think of twice ere we committed the act. THE PAPAL 'Nuncio, who had proposed to be absent from Paris this week on ecclesiastical busi ness, in order to avoid coming in contact with the King of Sardinia, an excommunicated person, on a hint from " high quarters " that such conduct would not be satisfactory, put off the consecration which was to call him away, and assisted in person at the presentation of the corps diplomatique to the King Emanuel. Tuu Grand Dukes Constantine. Nicholas, and Michael of Russia have arrived at St. Petersburg. The two last, it. is believed, will return to the arm3i of the south towards the end of December. MONSEIGNOR VECCHIOTTI has been appointed Papal Nuncio at the Hague. PRINCE JEROME NAPOLEON though indisposed and c,mfined to his apartments, on Thursday left his palace for a few hours to visit the King of Sardinia. M. DE Fowrits, Portuguese Minister of Finance and Public Works, has arrived at the Portuguese Lega tion in Paris. The object, of this visit is said to be to arrange matters for the establishment of compa nies to construct railways on an extensive scale in Portugal. AT THE HUME MEMORIAL COMMITTEE MEETING OD Wednesday Mr. Roebuck stated the following as a fact :—" The character of the late Mr. Hume," said Mr. Roebuck, " was rather a peculiar one in Eng land, as he had never sought anything for himself. But there was one thing to which Mr. Hume very properly aspired, and it was a grace which would have done honour to those that conferred it. Mr. Hume desired very much to be made a member of the Privy Council. That was a mark of respect on the part of the country which might have been, cheaply and easily conferred. His friends were in power, and many applications, as he (Mr. Roebuck) well knew, were made to them, but the thing was never done." The ballot for the militia is, we believe, about to be resorted to by the Government. It is to be oar.. ried into effect, without reference to rank, from the age of eighteen to forty. The term of service is to be for five years ; while a fine of five pounds for not serving will be paid to the Government, who will provide substitutes for those who decline to enter the force. Captain Carpenter, late 41st Regiment, who waa severely wounded at the battle of the Alma, has, by the decision of the Court of Chancery, come into poseeseion of 00,0001. 1