The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

1038 We must remember these truths when deal ing with the case of an ambitious and 3 outhful country like the " United States." There has been too much incorOMerate spfaking and in temperate writing on OW presett inisundet standing, which some,Reigons are' abtious fk. fan into a flame. WX, firedi Mt . 411 along that the carrying otti of the Fe ign Enlist ment Bill would be ticampied Aatleahip t it difficulties, and some Of Stir wOirst aitticip& tions have been realised. But whatever may have been the mistakes or impolicy of official personages, superior or subordinate, we can Only sineerely hope that a war will not hastily be precipitated between two great nations of the same ancestors and language. It is singularly unlucky for the interests of pace between England and the States that Lord PALMERSTON should be the Prime Minister at such a critical time. At no period of his pro longed career was the Viscount popular with the Americans. During our last struggle with the States Lord PALMERSTON was our Secretary at-War; for this Methuselah of Ministers was one of the official concoctors of the ill-arranged expedition at which the gallant PAKENHAM fell, near New Orleans. Officially antagonistic to the Americans in his early days, when advanced to the Foreign-office, the conduct of Lord PALMERSTON, in relation to the Boundary question, was exasperating beyond precedent. The language, also, in subsequent times, in which the reckless Viscount denounced what he called " The Ashburton Convention," is still remembered, not to his credit, by the most .accomplished statesmen in Europe. Every journalist, also, must recollect that long series of astounding articles in which day after day -the conduct of Lord AsnsturroN was arraigned .In the most insulting invectives. Those speeches of the Viscount, duly chronicled, powerfully fanned the flame of discord in America. They aided Mr. O'CONNELL and his 'repealers in their insolent defiance of the law. They did enormous inischief at the time ; and .the memory of those speeches and those •writings is still rankling inimany an American breast. Nor can we be surprised at the irritated tone of some ill-informed American writers and speakers, when they observe that -this vehement denouncer of the " Ashburton Convention " is now the First Minister in the Cabinet of England. In this respect, however, the Americans, like some Continental politicians, absurdly exaggerate the status of Lord PALMERSTON. He is only a Premier by chance. In no sense, can he be accepted as " a representative man" of England. He never was the chief of a party in Parliament, nor is he now. A clique of Whig families use him as a temporary screen to hide their great monopolising power. We entreat of the Americans to be assured that their old official and personal antagonist does not belong to that order of statesmen whose utterance is the voice of one of the great poli tical confederacies of our Legislature. This Premiership is little better than the " accident of an accident." But, as it is certainly most unpropitious' that Lord PAtmeasroN should be the First Minister at the present juncture, wo must . call the attention of the Americans to certain facts, that reverse the present state of affairs entirely, out of the category of former colli sions with their gallant and aspiring country. in the first and second wars with the States France was hostile to Great Britain; in 1855 France is our ally. In the War of Indepen dence England had to divide its fleets. In the Channel and in the West Indies large French squadrons menaced our mercantile marine ; and in those days, also, a Spanish fleet was in existence, which required our attention else where. Since then our naval power has been augmented to an extraordinary si ze,and our huge ships are infinitely better adapted for blockading the whole coast of America than for taking Cronstadt. The ruin to American commerce by a prolonged blockade of its chief emporia of trade need not be enlarged upon. No doubt, as some of the American journalists assure us, we should have to calculate on buccaneers — fierce, desperate, and piratical—flesh and blood realisations of Mr. FENIMORE COOPER'S nau tical novels. Well, even an armada of buccaneers could not do England the fearful damage that its THE PRESS. own democratic passions in a time of war would cause to the " States." The heteroge nous variety of ,14 - I , elements would then be . glaringly r*Oalt. e' -the eruption of its voief elem a Union would burs l A the wilt ft e o -I Its unsettled sdf questi wotilif gill he " States " asunder. The s o q>f tiolt Ibuld become fearfullj ports s, afi Old assume a geowt plum its -well al 110011tarian aspect. g relations between tN. Notthern and Southern States would in war Ogileygte a far worse state of things than Unit which existed between England and Ireland for the twenty years anterior to 1801. On the other hand, nearly all our serious questions are definitively settled. The " Irish difficulty" has vanished. The New Poor Law, and its consequent "Chartism," have ceased to be effective disturbers. No doubt a war with Ame rica would seriously injure our principal textile manufacture, and we admit that for the inter ruption of amity both nations would pay dearly. But no person can calmly weigh the eventuali ties without perceiving that America would be precipitated upon anarchy. It would take her several years before her establishments could be put upon a war scale, and she would be taught the lesson that even the valour, states nianship, and wisdom of her justly renowned WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, and FRANKLIN might have been fruitless without the help of the House of Bourbon, aided by the degenerate conduct of Lord NORTH. But these painful contingencies need not further be discussed. We only allude to them to show, that if the last dreadful alternative were decided on, England could have no grounds for apprehension, though deeply lamenting a struggle with a people of her own kindred. The present misunderstanding may yet be peaceably settled. It has been partly fermented by the irritating conduct of certain subordinate agents employed by our Ministry, and by American agitators who have taken advantage of the fact of Lord PALMERSTON —the former upholder of a firebrand policy— being Prime Minister. But we entreat of the Americans to dismiss from their minds those exaggerated notions about Lord PALMERSTON which mischievous spirits amongst them are so anxious to diffuse. Let them recollect that the Noble author of " The Ashburton Convention " received the hanks of both Houses of our Parliament, and hat Lord DERBY, the head of the Conservative party, was Colonial Secretary, when former grounds for bickering were skilfully and suc cessfully removed, at the time when a swag gering course, like the antecedent conduct of Lord PALMERSTON, would have been fatal to the best interests of both nations. The thorny questions arising out of " right of search"—the M'Leod and Caroline steam-boat affair—Ore gon and President Poix's fiery messages— were all peacefully settled, and creditably, to the honour of both countries. When Parlia ment meets, the present Ministers will have to account for, and explain truly, the nature of some of their proceedings in relation to the unfortunate " Foreign Enlistment" project. We trust, in the meanwhile, that the good sense of so great a people as the Americans will prevail above the faction of agitators, who menace them with a series of internal broils even worse than a foreign war. In conclusion, we may remind them that when President Pots, in December, 1845, used the language of dogmatism, if not defiance, that his irritating speech was answered in the next month by the Queen from the Throne, who " regretted the unsettled state of the " Oregon question," and added, "that no effort " on her part, consistent with the national " honour, should be wanting to bring the con " troversy to an early and peaceful termina " tion "—words of seasonable application at the present time. THE NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL. IN our two preceding issues of the l3th and 20th ult. we noted some of the more prominent points which should engage the attention of the new Governor •General, and we shall now advert to the remainder of the more striking measures which all Who Wife the wolfed of India at SATURDAY, ll* heart will look for without failure at his hands. The first of these is a total reform of the Corn pany's JrAicial fijrgtetii, *lrieh in its present state ftffoltils no sectifity fair Orson or property, and it inkitiMpetent and riiifitted to the ends ofjuiiiice in the Idgt deMe. The remedy is obvitfils, filfd dons* ice Me appointment as policiifnu Ptrate4 at t i irtifif`esidencies and at all the iiktger cities and towns in the empire of none but ilign of legal education, and in the se lection as judges for the Mofussil tribunals of barristers who unite a sufficient acquaintance with the native language with that experience as advocates which affords the best, if not the only, effective judicial training. There aro not wanting in India at present men possessed of such qualifications, but whose adiltecement to the Mofussil bench is impossible in conse quence of their not belonging to the favored service; and it is not to be doubted that were such an opening offered there would soon be plenty of other similarly-qualified candidates from the Scotch and Irish bars, and from the bar of England. If a civilian or a military officer can master the language of India suffi ciently to qualify himself for public employ ment in a few months, it is not to be supposed that men so much more highly educated as are ordinarily the members of the bar in this country would find the slightest difficulty in doing so likewise. Indeed, it is not improbable that such a measure might be the means of bringing on to the bench of India in the most legitimate manner many men of the higher ranks among the natives of India. They would probably be led to enter themselves for the bar in India or in England with the very object of qualifying themselves for the judicial office to which some standing at the bar would then afford the necessary introduc tion. The next part of the Indian system most loudly calling for reform is the Police System which not even the stanchest of the Govern-, went supporters ever venture to defend. The model for the reform of this has happily been laid down by the late Sir CHARLES NAPIER, in his Scinde police, which has called forth the warmest encomium, even from men most hostile to him. Lord DALHOUSIE has taken it as his model in the Punjaub police. Sir GEORGE CLERK took it as the basis of his re form of the Bombay police. Lord HARRIS, it appears, proposes to reform the Madras police on the same principle ; and the sooner it is made to supplant the former system in Bengal, the north-west provinces, and the whole of the rest of India, the better for the Govern ment, as well as for the people at large. The finest specimen of a European police force is to be found in the Irish constabulary intro duced by Sir ROBERT PEEL, and the finest specimen of an Indian police force in the late Sir CHARLES NAPIER'S police of Scinde. The question of Education will, of course, come before the new Governor-General, and it is to be hoped that he will take the sound view, and not fritter away the small amount of funds allotted to it by the State in the maintenance of vernacular schools. Of these there are abundance for every requisite pur pose as it is, and it is a mere waste of the public money to foster more. The object of the State should be to impart European, and, above all, English knowledge ; and to that all the money that can be spared for education should be devoted. This, followed by the gradual introduction of the English language into the Mofussil law courts, and the opening up some of the better paid offices of the State to natives possessed of a sufficiently high educational qualification, would very soon alter the face of Indian society, and draw infi nitely closer the bonds of union between it and ourselves. It is the extinction as much as possible of the vernacular language that should be our object, and the substitution , as far as may be, of our own. The spending money to extend their influence and perpe tuate them is the most suicidal policy that we could pursue. Roads and Public Works are matters of obvious importance, but the new Governor- General will do well to act cautiously as to the amount of public money he devotes to gua them, either directly or in the shape of