The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

thousand years, be one of the great ruling powers of the world, but there is every reason to suppose that she will be so, should she discard from her policy that narrow notion which led so rapidly to the dissolution of the great empires of the ancient world—that the progress of rival Stattie afford ground fOr suspicion and chullows hostility THE NEW NATIONAL GAI I WIES. THE opinion of Continental politicians that in England we pay dearly for our liberty is some times brought home to our conviction in a more unpleasant manner than we could wish. Our High Court of Parliament, like our High Court of Chancery, seems able to come to no decision which is not open to endless ap peals, and the result is, that matters of busi neai with which the Legislature is privileged to interfere makes very slow progress indeed. It has been a general impression on the part of the public that her Majesty's Exhibition Commissioners having secured at vast ex perm a clear site of nearly one hundred acres suitable for the erection of a range of splendid palaces devoted to science and art, and Par liament having sanctioned the general design between three and four years ago, mea sures would be promptly taken to prose cute the magnificent enterprise that the cost and labour might not be lost to the present generation. Only on the sup position that Parliament would earnestly carry forward the great work, could the large expenditure of the Commissioners he justi fied. The site has been prepared for opera tions—noble roads have been formed—and architects and builders, so far sz regards the ground, might commence their labours at once. While the public are impatiently expect ing a commencement to be made, an agitation is got up, no one knows how, against all that has been done ; and Lord ELCHO, as its offi cial mouthpiece comes forward to propose that the labours of years shall pass for nothing ; that an outlay of three hundred and fifty thousand 1 ounds shall be thrown away; that a commission embracing the names of upwards of thirty noblemen and gentlemen, with the Prince Concort at their head, emi nently distinguished for social station, official rank, patronage of science and art, and most illustrious achievement in various branches of intellectual pursuit. shall virtually be set aside, and that we shall begin de novo from the year 1850, before any Exhibition Commission was issued. Was ever such a monstrous pro position submitted to the sense of the House of Commons before ? It appears like a bur lesque of legislative privilege. In the first place, what can be said against the site itself? We cannot attribute much impor tance to the argument drawn flora its compara tive remoteness. We believe that people who care to see pictures would go to Gore house as readily as to Trafalgar - square. Few people make a lounge of the National Gallery, and very few go there to whom time is of such pressing importance that they could not go a mile or two farther. Moreover, it being generally agreed upon that any new picture gallery must be built out of reach of the dense atmosphere of the heart of the mietropolis, it practically becomes a question, not between Kensington and Charing cross, hut Kensington and some other suburb ; and there is certainly no other equally accessible In regard to the atmosphere, the proposed site with its frontage to extensive gardens is, at present all that can lbs desired ; but it is urged by the opponents of the Commis sion that a large suburb is sure to spring up in the neighbourhood, which will destroy these advantages, and that it would there fore be better to take possession of Ken sington Palace at once, and make such .additions to that as the design in contem plation may require. But, without going into the question of how far it would 'PRE PRESS. be decent or proper to call upon the Crown to make a surrender of this property, it be id tlr the 'agnitude of the .missioners has, at ' it will effectually the TI (owl resulting fiiitn' ,don will thereby ich suburb as )rehend. ereas, Kensing • the purpose, %% B the comp. ground by the effectual check is pi upon L.,„ _plication of small streets' stick as choke up the outlets of the metropolis, and a great additional stimulus is given to our efforts at sanitary reform. Such are some of the reasons favorable to the present locality. There are others of not less weight to deter us from striving to change it. in matters connected with art or literature in England delays are dangerous. Let the present site be thrown over, and the present scheme of operations permanently in terrupted, and the whole design may languish, none can say how long, or be thrown up in despair, none can say how soon. The point we dwelt upon with alarm in our previous notice was that we were commencing a work t may be said that the mi 'state purchased,by the Comn llevents. this goWd-effolat, that wtvent t i tle griiiith OlMni sue Ldiaeatea - of Al' ch at apps s, further , this '' paoi ' goon he preslnt ehtlipe, t Lond ;ain an additiOal 1 ; whe on gattieils wAise ' If • for ihould partially los * r end. ion of that wide 11Pact bf loyal Commissionerk an s placed upon the multipli Factum nepotibus umbram, but which could not, without promtitude, afford either fruit or shelter to ourselves. This species of disinterestedness is unnecessary, but we conceive the risk of it will be very much in creased by permitting the House of Commons to be continually throwing ill-considered ob stacles in the way of the Commissioners. This board, it must be admitted, forms an unexceptionable judicature on such a ques tion as the present. In matters of art and science the Prince Consort can never be re ferred to without the greatest respect. He has shown himself an unwearied friend to their interests, and a liberal and deserving patron of their professors. The Great Exhibition— the most successful enterprise of the kind iu any country—was principally owing to his exertions. But all classes of men, and all shades of opinion, are combined in the pre sent commission. Art, science, literature, and politics, have their representatives. The leaders of the two great parties, both in the Lords and Commons, are members of it ; so that its decisions must be uninfluenced by political bias. And, if we will not listen to the opinions of such men as these, what respect can any decision of the House of Com mons itself expect to meet with? We hope the present s►te may bo preserved, and the grand scheme, first sketched by Lord DERBY'S Government in 1852, be promptly carried out in a manner worthy the intelligence and wealth of this country. IMPERIAL POLICY OF PROTESTANTISM. THE debates which have taken place on Irish Education and Maynooth have been amongst the most interesting and important of the present session. Under different titles, the relationship of the Roman Catholics of Ireland to the State is substantially raised in both discussions. It would tend to clear up the difficulties attending a complicated problem, if in our concep tions of the word " State " we enlarged our views to the consideration of the " British Empire." In its prodigious expansion towards the close of the last century, the Union with Ireland was a main consideration. By ab sorbing the Irish _Parliament we obtained a firm Executive and a united Legislature, re sulting in supreme command of the popula tion, from which our armies were largely recruited. For that mighty boon of the " Union " a great political price had to be paid. We were saddled with the Roman Catholics and the troublesome polemical questions entailed by junction with the sister country, where they form at present a clear (though lessening) majority of the population. It was worth paying the price even of "Catholic Questions " for the sake of having ono vast SATURDAY, empire, with eight hundred miles of Irish seacoast, completely under our authority. We could scarcely have kept the East Indies, with thein• . of whit e men, and ' t wo ld have con fron tecl It conquering enert been carri e d by t Ind the con sum to 3H. li e l s ie possibly ha ve pass its had not been xt& .th the Irish Catholict— -They were promised "Emanci pation"; they did not, therefore, actively sup port Mr. GRATTAN and the Whigs in the oppo- sition of the latter to the great measure of Mr. PITT; and hence the Roman Catho lics obtained a constitutional locus standi in our imperial system. We are far from underrating certain dangers to be appre hended from the presence of a Roman Catholic party in Parliament. But the danger is not new to us. We have seen Mr. O'CONNELL and his Tail assuming triumphant. airs, and we have seen the law of the land crushing the wild attempts of " Old " and " Young Ireland." We have beheld the Queen received with enthusiastic loyalty by the peo ple of Ireland, in spite of all the efforts of demagogistn to sow anarchy. In short, we. have seen the imperial policy of Mr. PITT' splendidly triumphant in giving us a united empire. The question is now raised, " Shall our . " course be retrograde, and shall we undo the " beneficent and grandly comprehensive aims. " Of Mr Prrr ? The time has come when we must answer that question with the candour that belongs to unreserved sentiment, and with the calm. emphasis of high political truth. We say, frankly, that a sense of former obligations, the results of experience, and aversion to opening the fountains of discord in Ireland, forbid us to entertain thoughts of a retrograde policy. It is our deep conviction that such a policy would be sure to be baffled; statesmanlike spirits would not help ua ; we could not carry it out even if wo wished to do so; and in striving to go backwards, wo should be op posing ourselves to a whole host of sound and sagacious politicians. In the past generation we think highly of the wisdom of Lord CASTLE REAGH ; and we submit that on Irish ques tions the deliberate opinions of the Duke of WELLINGTON, and his scarce less illustrious brother, the Marquis WELLESLEY, are en titled to profound respect. But we are far from being enslaved by deference to great his toric names. We look at the present with eyes wide open to the emergencies of the time, and we form our opinions on politics from the exist ing condition of affairs. On this whole question of the relation of the Roman Catholics of Ire land to the empire, we rejoice that our convic tions are in favour of the wise and healing views of the Earl of DERBY, of the Earl of &MINTON (than whom an honester Viceroy . never ruled Ireland), of Mr. DISRAELI, of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, and other sincerely ardent champions of the cause of Conser vatism, and the Protestant institutions of the realm. Nor can we pass the name of the Earl of DERBY without reminding our readers what special weight should be attached to his re spected authority upon any question relating to Protestantism. The vigorous course of Lord. DERBY in 1834, and in subsequent years, suc cessfully defended the Irish Church ; and so long as the United Church of Great Britain and Ireland stands unbroken, we have not the least dread of the advances of Roman Catho licism. The certain presence in every parish in Ireland of an educated Protestant clergy . man, with the performance of our established public worship, is the g reatest of all securities against the advances of the Church of Rome. It is necessary that those points should be remembered when we discuss the education proposals of Mr. WALPOLE and the views of Mr. SPOONER about Maynooth. We shall con sider these subjects separately. 1. We think it plain that Mr. WALPOLE has laid the Church Education Society under great obligation by his admirable advocacy of its cause. We could desire that all Irish ques tions were discussed with similar temper. Mr. U . nont e c t iiii:Rsuniptic re ce WWI* coul ,poonairrmlbi • such li " Mill ' 1 ''' r s not I design; Mr, TT a :111 of lAA! CA - 1 REAI Union "' u . iof p certlo4 :, " igemen ously eAered into wi ....