The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

MARCH 17, 1855. CONSERVATIVE UNION. (Front a Correspondent.) Tim legitimate triumph of party is the triumph of principle, and the legitimate object of power is the possession of means to carry out the standard prin ciple. When power is obtained by successful intrigue, deeply devised and cunningly executed, with no higher view, with no more exalted motive than the advantage of personal ambition, there can be no guarantee for upright conduct, as there can be no surety for the nature of the policy that may direct the executive. The sacrifice to principle places the worthy and just on the left of the Speaker —the sacrifice of principle heralds the unworthy and unjust to seats on the Treasury bench. But, although theintegrity of a principle can neither bear change nor diminution, opinion may be modified as to the specific course to be adopted in furtherance of its executive success. It is in harmonising together these slight shades of difference in the pursuit of a comm on and distinct object that lies the tact of the leading . statesman. A diversity, of course, without relaxation of principle, may be the proper subject for deliberation, and be ultimately regulated and determined by the master mind ; but there must not be the slightest doubt of the unity of sentiment in the spirit that pervades such political action. In this case a party is legitimate, free to act with unfettered energy, and is sure to command respect, if it do not insure success. When, however, opposing principles, dissonant opinion, and a scrambling policy combine for a purpose in which common advantage is the dominant motive, and when in that combination principle and opinion are merged in order to remove all obstacle to the possession of the coveted prey, such party may be said to be illegitimate, to be a depraved coalition enlisted for a still more depraved object. Tenure of office can never be of long dura tion with a connection thus disreputably amalga mated, for there will never be wanting a disturbing force within, to disunite and to weaken defence against a concentrated and attacking force from without. The two legitimate and antagonistic parties are designated Conservative and Liberal. This is a vague nomenclature, since each one for convenience filches the name from the other, and the Conserva tive-Liberal and Liberal-Conservative comprise, under a mask purposely adopted to conceal the truth, the most bitter hostility of principle. For the pre sent we will not interfere with the chosen names. The Liberal-Radical appeals to public opinion for his passport to office. He says :—" Man is a being " endowed with understanding, schooled by reason, " and elevated by genius ; and the course of his " prescribed fate is to advance gradually from good " to better, from better to best, until he arrive at " a state of optimism." In fact, he asserts the power of man over his own nature, properly and freely developed, to be sufficient to work out his own social perfectibility upon a basis of action as certain in result as the shaping of matter in the hands of the artificer. This proud system, not discordant with reason, views " corruptibility " as a consequence, anti not a cause of social and political error. It starts with the principle advanced by Lord PALMERSTON, that man is born in virtue and not in sin, and be comes good or evil precisely as either the one or the other prevel ls in his education. There is truth to a certain point even in this. Admitting the pre mises for a moment, it follows that religion is made an adjunct to the system more or less necessary ac cording to the stage of advance towards perfectibi lity, and is not held to be the directing or master power. No, that is reason. The finite is made in dependent of the infinite in its supreme sense, and is not absolutely in wa nt of it for its social and poli tical perfectibility. That can be accomplished by means temporal, without a necessity of the sp tual. The latter may be sty led a happy accidental ornamental, when employed, but, like the Corin thian, lonic, Doric, or Composite capital, not poten tially leagued with the pedestal of reason upon which the social and poli tical superstructure i s raised. The rationalistic Liberal and Radical is, th ere fore, opposed to all and eve r y State religion. " Government," he affirms, " and self-government " especially, is a province purely temporal; therefore " without interference with the spiritual Caesar, or " rather the Caesars , not twelve, but millions, claim " as their own right the superintendence of the poll " deal system which understanding obeys, reason " directs, and genius consecrates. Reason, as the " methodiser and moral an d p olitical regulator,putting "forth its own cardinal principles of intellectual free " dom, will unavoidably arrive at an equality of civil " right, and, abjuring all right by presenplion, will " demand, and must demand, according to its espe " cial theory, to establish democracy in its full force " and bearing. There is no remedy for the extreme, " not even reason can check the onward movement." All this and more may be deduced, or rather be pre eipitated, teem rata various speeches of Sir JAXtt THE PRESS. GRLEAX to his constituents at Carlisle and elsewhere on sundry occasions. We speak with all respect for the ability of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, but the rationalistic liberalism of his later life, flippant, fluent, and unre flecting, embodies much that his sounder judgment would condemn—ay, deny, when placed in its true light with the inevitable result. Should his princi ples become inconvenient in practice, he would fain cry " Stop !" So said LocKE, when his metaphysical speculations met with an application by the mate rialists not anticipated by him. So said the dying MIRABEAU on becoming sensible of the intent of the revolutionary lawyers. " Stay," said the " etat-mejeur" of NAPOLEON at Smolensko. The impetus in each case had been given—the " stop" was vain. The Radical• Liberalism of political philosophy, to use an apt expression of the Earl of llk:RBY, practically tends " to Amsricanise our institutions." The Conservative accepts the heritage of ancestral customs and privileges according to the several rela• tions of the different classes of the State—in other words, anti-Americanism—to be a fundamental prin ciple of policy, and views in the attachment to the hereditary sovereign and to the royal dynasty the pillar of the fabric which it is his duty not less than his pride to sustain. Above all, he receives as the true doctrine that the progressive march of social man, and the growth of humanity, the subject of universal history, are regulated by principles correla Live with the origin of the creature. Conservatism relies on the aid of that Divine Providence which has supported mankind in their struggle against their own infirmities, makes the Church an integral part of the governmental institutions, and embodies it with the State. Nor is this opposed to the march of social progress, to accelerate which the rationalis tic Liberal assumes to be the end and aim of life. Mr. BRIGHT predicates the end and aim of life to be the possession of much gold—" Rem quocumque " modo "—even to the dishonour of the nation. An intimate union betwixt Government and the Church begets a moral and conservative force that corrects the Radical in his eccentric deviations from the path of endless perfectibility; and, although this path be laid down with mathematical precision by the Radi cal Rationalist, yet is he himself constantly swerving from the right, and so surely is he coerced back to an unpalatable rectitude by his Conservative oppo nents. This obliquity is the result of a principle destitute of any right end, for progress merely inter minable has not a fixed term nor a definite object. Gold, commercial gold, cannot purchase happiness, still less respectability; and Rationalism, defiant of Providence, is neither competent to govern a nation, to develop its energies, or to defend it from aggres sion. Two words comprise the essence of Conserva tism—faith and allegiance. Perfect faith is not tainted by intolerance, neither does true allegiance separate the monarch from the constitution. Man chester Americanism is equivocal on both points. The former words must be taken in a large sense, containing every duty that self•government imposes upon each class of the State. The perfect integrity of this system, faith and allegiance in Conservatism combine to uphold—the change, or otherwise the weakening of this system by attenuation, by an un limited extension of popular privileges, and by dis turbing the balances of power, is the object of the Rationalist. A firm adhesion of its component parts, solidly working together in perfect discipline and essential unity, elevated the empire into a primary State of Europe—a laxity of discipline, parliamentary and governmental, by reiterated dilution of the con stitutional principle, and by an undue economy en forced by a small majority of Rationalists and gold idolators, has ruined the military power of the country, emasculated the executive, has injured the prestige of a high name, and is disgracing the nation to a secondary State. At present England follows France, halting, "non pede libero." There exist the means and the men whereby she may be made to march " pari passu." Do you want the master mind to resuscitate the energies of England, and to re exalt her mighty name! Such directing power is possessed by the Earl of DERBY. Aro her prescrip tive rights to be defended from Americanism and the gold idolators? There stands DISRAELI. But to these two parties, Conservative and Radical, must be annexed a third—the Neutrals. They are Radical in word, and Conservative in deed. They preach one thing, and practise another; they bless the Cross, and bow down to Baal. An undue ambi• tion tempted them to aspire to an exclusive juris diction, and this not by bold means, but by insidious contrivance. They have met with signal yet not unexpected discomfiture. Viewing them as a party, they will damage the one to which they may adhere in a mass and under their exclusive designation. Their motto hitherto has been—" United we live, "divided we die." Be it so. Let them die. And this brings forward the point that it is desirable to consider at the present moment. The Neutrals, not to make use of another name, to be serviceable either to themselves or the country, must be absorbed into the one or other of the two great parties—Con servative and Radical—and without mental reservi• 259 tion. The slightest approach to jesuitry will be the signal of ejection on either hand, and they will have to occupy once more their present condemned posi tion. It they have the wisdom to disperse, they may possibly be reunited under a brighter name and a spotless banner; they may effect good if they have the will to be honest; and, without an allusion to the stool of repentance, the past may be a silent in structor without the constantly-recurring mortifica tion of a name that can never be dissociated from party disgrace. Obituarg. ISMAEL. DON CARLOS, brother of Ferdinand VII. of Spain, and for many years pretender to the Spanish crown, died at Trieste on Saturday last, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. The deceased prince passed his early life in Spain, and married, in 1816, the Infanta Maria Francisca d'Assise, daughter of John VI., King of Portugal. On the death of his elder brother, Ferdinand VII., in 1832, he disputed the succession to the throne of Spain, and, after a protracted war of varied success and disaster, retreated into France, in 1839, when he was placed under surveillance by the Government of Louis Philippe, and confined to the city of Bourges until 1845, when he retired to Italy. Don Carlos lost his first wife in 1834, and was married secondly on the 2nd of February, 1838, by proxy, at Saltzburgh, and on the 20th of October, of the same year, in person, at Aspeitia, to the Infanta Maria Theresa, Princess de Beira, daughter of John VI., King of Portugal, and widow of the Infante Don Pedro of Spain. By his first marriage, Don Carlos leaves two sons, to the eldest of whom, Don Carlos Luis Conde de Montemolin, he ceded his claims on the Spanish throne on the 18th of May, 1845. The Conde de Montemolin was married in July, 1850, to the Princess Maria Caroline Ferdi nanda, sister of Ferdinand 11., King of the Two Sicilies. COLONEL SIR FREDERICK IiANKF.Y, G.C.M.G., ex pired on Tuesday, in Montagu-square, at the advanced age of 81. The deceased entered the 51st Foot, as lieutenant, in 1800 ; served on the staff at Ceylon as an asssistant-quarterma.ster.general ; in 1811 was ap pointed deputy inspector-general of colonial troops in Ceylon, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army ; subsequently served at Malta as Deputy Judge- Advooate ; and at Corfu BS private secretary to Sir Thomas Maitland. lie attained the rank of colonel in the army in 1825; received the G.C.M.O. for his long services as secretary to the Government at Malta, and from 1818 to 1833 was secretary to the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The naturalist, Cu. na MEYER, known to the scientific world by his travels among the Altai Moun tains, and in the region of the Caucasus, died on the 28th ult. M. de Meyer was born in 1790 at Vitebsk. In 1829 he ascended Mount labronz. He was a member of the Imperial Academy of Russia, and Director of the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg. SIR GEORGE LARPENT, BART., formerly well known in political and commercial circles, died on the Bth inst., at his residence in Conduit-street, aged about 07. Sir George, in 1847, was a candidate, on Liberal principles, for the city of London, and he ran Mr. Masterman to three votes. Ho had previously been M.P. for Nottingham for a short time. GENERAL PRINCE ANDREW GORTSCHAKOFT died at Moscow on the 27th ult. Among the deaths of the past week has been that of the distinguished water-colour painter, Ma. Corot FIELDING. He was in his sixty-ninth year. THE Alma, a new screw steamer, 2,200 tons burden and 460-horse power, nearly completed, has been chartered for two years by the Government. She is to take out troops to the Crimea, and after that she is to run as a hospital and store ship be tween Balaklava and Constantinople and Scutari. CoLosid. SHEWELL, late in command of the Rth Royal Hussars, is to command the cavalry of the Turkish contingent, urder Major-General Vivian. The cavalry divisions will be commanded by Colonel Smith, late of the 15th Hussars, and Lieutenant- Colonel William Atayne, of the East India Company" Service. AN AMATEUR soiree musicale will be held on Tues day, March 20, at the Hanover-square Rooms, for the relief of the sick and wounded at Scutari. The pro ceeds are to be presented to Miss Nightingale. THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL reports that the health of London has undergone some improvement. The 1,377 deaths that were registered in the week ended on Saturday exceed the average number (1,220), but are less by 183 than the death's in the preceding week. Persons of the age of sixty to eighty bare experienced the greatest relief; their deaths fell in the two weeks from 362 to 280. Ow Saturday the Great Britain steamer received on board, at Queenstown, drafts from the 17th, 2lat, 30th, 400, 57th, 02nd, and 03rd regiments. She takes to the Crimes altogether 1,600 men Med 140 Olicrts, and fifteen fiance: