The Press. — London, England, 1857-05-23 00:00:00

MAY 23, 1857. settlement at Liberia is an excellent case in point. The ground has been cleared, the colonists have chosen a lofty position, there is plenty of water, and, with ordinary precautions, the duration of life is by no means below the average. Why should we not make the trial ? Lord PALMERSTON at the present moment has the command of the House. Nevertheless, the Protestant and Conservative party are not only discharging their duty to the country, but they are likewise taking the most effectual means of strengthening themselves as a great political connection, and of acquiring the confidence of the public, when they make a decided and bold stand in behalf of great and well-understood principles, and resist measures calculated indirectly to injure the institutions of the country. It will thus be seen who are the real friends of the Constitution in Church and State ; and the country will learn that a Premier may make evangelical appointments in the Church, that he may raise to the Bench a VILLIERS or a BICKERSTETH, yet may really be playing the Roman Catholic game and sapping the foundations of the Hierarchy of which his Bishops may be considered an ornament. Ministers' Money in Ireland and the mode of dealing with it will illustrate Lord PALMERSTON'S policy in this respect. The reasoning of Mr. NAPIER, Mr. WHITESIDE, Mr. WALPOLE, and Sir F. THESIGER, was conclusive. No onc, after their statements, could deny, no one attempted to deny, that Ministers' Money was a charge upon pro perty; no one could deny that it belonged to the Irish Church, and that it was distributed among some of its most meritorious and hard working clergymen; no one could deny that the trusts created by the Church Temporalities Act had not been, and could not be, satisfied for many years ; and that the application of 1,4001. a year from the funds of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners—funds derived from the Church itself, by the taxation of the clergy and the extinction of ten of its Bishoprics in 1834—would be in point of fact a confiscation of so much of the property of the Church for the benefit of parties, the owners of the houses liable to Ministers' Money, to which benefit they had not even the shadow of a claim. The Conservatives, therefore, were right in resisting the measure introduced by Mr. FAGAN, as a matter imperilling great principles ; and the Conservative supporters of Lord PALmEasToN, we hope, will ask themselves how far they are justified in regarding as a Protestant and Conservative Nlinister the Premier whose first act in his new Parliament is to support a measure involving the principle of confiscation as regards a portion of the property of the Established Church, and introducing a precedent dangerous to the stability and safety of property in general ? The remarks of Sir WILLIAM CODRINGTON on Monday night upon the recent anonymous attacks by a staff officer, in the Times, upon General ASHBURNHAM, were well supported by some admirable letters from eye-witnesses of the gallant officer's conduct in the field. Sir WILLIAM CODItINGTON contented himself with expressing a hope that in future among the qualifications for a staff appointment discretion would be included. Without passing any opinion upon the necessary qualifications fora staff appointment, discretion, we may observe,is also an excellent thing in an editor, and, considering the enormous power of the Times in the circulation of such scandals,we would venture to suggest the appointment of a special editor for the department of scurrilous com munications. In this case of General ASHBURNHAM it has gone forth to the world that the Gallant General is little better than a coward. Now, we maintain that no subsequent recantation, no apologies, no eulogies, can ever wholly efface the injury so inflicted. The more testi monies that flock in to his courage and capacity, the more will lie understand the importance which men attach to the statements of the Times. He can never more call himself a man of unquestioned valour. He has felt the breath of slander, and an uneAsy feel ing that he is suspected will haunt him through life. The magni tude of this injury cannot be exaggerated. And when we con sider the ease and impunity with which it can be inflicted, the responsibility of journalists assumes a serious aspect. Perhaps the English press has even yet scarce recognised the full grgat ness of its position. The power derived from vast sources of infor mation, from the employment of high intellectual abilities and first-rate literary judgment, it understands well; but the moral power which is gradually coming into its hands, as th. 3 guardian of truth and justice and as the controller of popular passions, is not yet entirely comprehended. It has so long been accustomed to act the part of tribune, that it c anno t ad a pt it se lf r e a dily t o more di gn ifi e d magisterial functions. Of General ASHBURNHAM'S appointment we say nothing. We understand he is a good brigade officer, but whether he is anything more, has yet to be proved. The excellence of the appointment, and the circumstances under which it was made, are questions wholly distinct from the one we have briefly discussed. The great meetings held in the City to consider the best mode of disposing of our criminal population, have not been attended with eminent success. They have been conducted by persons wedded to particular theories, and those who dif fered from them have scarcely been allowed a hearing. We do THE PRESS. not mean to deny that there is much in 1(r. PEARSON'S pro posal that is worthy of consideration. That our criminals should be made self-supporting is obviously a reasonable proposition. The only question is, whether while we make them profitable to the (com munity we do not also make their period of incarceration lucrative to themselves. Whether we can punish a man without at the same time rendering him unproductive is the first question to be solved ; and the second whether his productiveness to the community will not always turn out to be profitable to himself. Whatever a man learns in prison is so much deducted from the penalty of his crime. We may turn and twist the point as much as we like, but the broad conclusion still stares us in the face. If the man who commits an offence against the laws is to be taught a trade for nothing, while the honest man has to pay an apprentice's premium , how can we wonder at the increase of crime among us ? The Learned Gentleman who returned thanks for the Literature of the Colonies, at the dinner of the Royal Literary Fund on Tuesday last, expressed himself on the subject of American society in a manner that deserves attention. He drew a broad line between freedom and equality ; and, though this is a distinction which various Conservative organs have already felt it their duty to point out, yet, coming from one of Judge HALIBURTON'S experience and abilities, it assumes an almost original value. The fact is that liberty is natural to man, but equality is not. As fast as factitious equality is created, the old natural distinctions begin to reassert themselves, and happy is the country where those distinctions are of sufficient antiquity to be based on something else than riches. Mr. Justice HALIBURTON tells us there is no freedom of opinion in the United States ; that no man is at liberty to give expression to thoughts contrary to those of the majority, and that if he did so he would be lynched. What subject of an Eastern despotism could be a more thorough slave to brute force? On the effect of the American system upon literature and the refinements of life, the speaker dwells forcibly. In truth, we can have no poetry and no romance where there is not love and reverence from man to man ; and these sentiments can never be entertained either towards an equal or towards a tyrant. They are the offspring in all countries of what is called the Heroic Age, and in Europe are traceable to feudalism, chi valry, and royalty. Here is at least one reason for being grateful to our ancestors which the fiercest Radical would find it difficult to gainsay. The mutinous disposition of the native regiments in India, is a much more serious fact than the Government or the press of this country are disposed to admit. Our position in India at this moment is one of considerable difficulty if not danger. The native troops are undoubtedly disaffected towards the Government, and disaffection is contagious. One regiment, the 19th, has been disbanded, and by the latest accounts it was believed that it would be necessary to subject another to a similar punishment. But what is the origin of all these disturbances, is asked on every side? We do not believe that the cartridge question is the sole cause of complaint. It is only one item among many, but the one which by arousing religious prejudices produces that unanimity necessary to resistance. And the Sepoya have just cause of complaint against the Government. They are now subjected to far longer marches, to more extended foreign service, and by consequence to greater expense, and—a more important fact to Sepoys—a more unusually long separation from their families than formerly. Add to this their dread of having again to enter Affghanis tan (a point much mooted of late in India, and a destination of which the Sepoy has a childish fear), while their whole system of treatment has been gradually assimilated much to that adopted towards European troops (a system to which they are especially averse), and it will he admitted that the Sepoy has some grounds of complaint, and that his disaffection is not a mere whim of the moment which a little more tact on the part of the authorities might have overcome. Undoubtedly great carelessness and greater indifference to the pecu liar prejudices of the race have attended this cartridge question, and the difficulty of the dilemma in which the authorities now find them selves, is to act with firmness, and to restore tranquillity without blood shed; for if blood be shed upon a question involving religious prejudices, and anything like the cruelty recommended by the Times correspon dent be carried out, the most disastrous results may ensue. Much may be done with the Sepoy by mild but fitm moasures ; but if, when exasperated by fancied wrongs and breaches of faith on the part of his employers, he is subjected to a brutal policy, his Asiatic blood takes time, and. like a Malay, he " run a muck," no matter what be the result. The necessary measures to be adopted now would seem to be an immediate and secret inquiry on the part of the Government into the causes of complaint, to remove such as are inconsistent with the principle of fair dealing with the troops, and to provide for any diffi culties that may occur by despatching to India a large reinforcement of British troops It is useless to deny the fact that our vast anne xations of late years require a proportionate increase of British troops to maintain our ascendancy against all emergencies. 505