The Press. — London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

268 inconveniences as now arise. The Commis sioners suggest a single officer in preference to a board, and also that this officer should be one and the same for both Houses. The second project set forth in this Report is that which relates to the classifying of the statutes. These, as every one knows, are now ranged merely in order of date. They include many enactments which are in no strict sense laws, but only Parliamentary warrants for the performance of some administrative function. Such are Appropriation Acts, Loan Acts, and the like. These may fairly be omitted from a popular collection of the statutes. So, again, all acts which, though ranked in the " Public General " series, are really local or personal, should be similarly excluded. The rest ought to be divided, printed in separate parts under headings, and thus made easily and cheaply accessible. It is probable that such a classifi cation as the following might suffice; and be it noted that if to consolidate lie the first step towards codifying, classification is itself the first step towards consolidation : ACTS OF 1855 CLASSIFIED AS PROPOSED. 1. Army, Navy, Militia 2. Revenue sad Finance 3O „ 3. Special and Local 4. Colonies 6. East Indies 2 „ 6. General Laws, not included in the above To this resume of the Commissioners' labours we can add nothing, except heartily to com mend their proposals as simple, feasible, economical, and eminently useful. COLLEGE TESTS. THE authorities of Exeter College have insti tuted certain fresh tests to be applied to the holders of their scholarships and fellowships, and for so doing they have been attacked by writers who deprecate tightening the bonds of communion between the University and the Church. The adaptation of Oxford " to the " necessities of modern society " is said to be the natural desideratum of statesmen ; but while we perfectly agree, as we suppose, indeed, every one else must, with this rather super fluous assertion, we must beg to protest against the doctrine that that adaptation is to be purchased by the sacrifice of the religious character of the University. Persons are not wanting who imagine that the present gene ration is mankind, and that the nineteenth century is history—to fancy they can compre hend laws, institutions, and custotns by simply looking at them—quite oblivious of the fact that all which makes them what they are was done centuries and centuries ago, and that it is absolutely necessary to get behind the wall which ignorance has erected between our selves and the past if we would comprehend the true bearing of many difficulties which now perplex us, and especially of that which is the subject of our present article. The founders of our colleges belonged to the Established Church of the day. They knew but one religion. Their creed was not with them a matter of preference, but a matter of course. Catholic was never a distinctive appellation, but a generic title. It meant that they were members of the Universal Apostolic Church. When it was required to describe a corporation in thraldom to Rome, another epithet became necessary. We must not suppose because Oxford was founded "by Catholics for Catholics," that the religious system to which it was allied was identical with that for which Rome would now claim the exclusive title of Catholic. Baliol and Merton were founded for Catho lics, and Maynooth and Oscott were founded for Catholics, yet no one could contend that the purpose of their founders was the same. The latter were founded for a sect; the former, we repeat, for the Anglican Church ; and the whole gist and marrow of the matter lies in the question whether the present Church of England is the legitimate representative of that Church. Now, in the first place, we all of us very well know that the Catholic oreed of the fourteenth century was something very different from the Beraanist Greed of the nineteenth; that the THE PRESS. circle of the former embraced a far wider field than that of the latter; and that it was not in reality till the Council of Trent that the ma jority, if indeed any, of the idolatrous doctrines of Popery were declared to be essential to salvation. We believe that between a moderate Churchman in the days of the Plantagenets, and a high Churchman in the days of ELIZABETH, the difference was more formal than real; and that if WILLIAM of Wykeham could have risen from the dead in the latter period he would have professed himself per fectly satisfied with the disposition of his property. Unhappily, at the present day the Estab lished Church no longer embraces the entire population of the country; and the question arises how to deal with property bequeathed to the public at a time when it did so. Is the national element or the religious element to take precedence? But may we not say that this question has been practically answered already? Church property . was given to the nation as distinctly as college property. It was given, that is to say, to the Church of the nation; and now that numerous sects dissent from the Church, each of those sects has just as much right to demand a share in the property of the Church as to demand a share in that of the University. Such aro the hard facts of the case, from which there is no escape. And the country in the one instance has not shrunk from confronting them. It has decided that certain property, though bequeathed to the nation, was bequeathed on certain understood conditions that the nation should continue to belong to a religion not materially distinct from the religion of the donor. This is the only plea on which the Church of England can retain exclusive possession of her rectories and bishoprics ; and her plea is, we think, equally in accordance with common sense and with history. THE CRIMEAN DISASTERS. MR. COMMISSARY-GENERAL FILDER has put forth an elaborate reply to that part of the finding of the Crimean Commissioners of Inquiry which relates to his conduct, in the shape of " Remarks " on their Report. Whoever may read his " Remarks " will find another exemplification of the old proverb—" One " story is good till another is told." We think he disproves most of the charges made against him, and shows that the defects in his department were inse parable from the uncertainty atteading the place where the army was to winter. When at Varna he wrote (Ist of August) to Lord RAGLAN, stating that if the army was to winter there it was necessary the Commissariat should make preparations accordingly, and Lord RAGLAN replied, " I will speak to Mr. FILDER." On the 13th of September, in a letter to Lord RAGLAN, appropriately dated "At Sea," he respectfully solicited instructions as to " lodging and "provisioning the troops." He writes—" The period "has arrived when there is barely sufficient time left " before the termination of the present expeditionary " service to complete these arrangements." From this and other passages in his letters, Mr. FILDER evidently supposed that the "expeditionary service" in the Crimea would be over before the approach of winter, and that the troops would be, as he wrote, " cantoned in Turkey during the winter." Lord RAGLAN replied, "I cannot give these orders at the "present time." When it was at last found that the army would have to winter on the heights at Bala klava, it was impossible for the Commissary-General, or for any one, whatever his genius for administra tion, to save the troops from great suffering. The Crimean Commission was a clever movement to divert inquiry from home. It was the " head" at the War-office that was at fault, and that being so all infe rior parts of the great military machine went wrong by an inevitable necessity. But if blame could be thrown on Lord RAGLAN, or Mr. FILDER, or Captain CHRISTIE,—or if the public could be taught to be lieve (as it wag hoped they would be), by the mere fact of sending this commission to the Crimea, that it was there the blame lay,—then the mismanage ment at home might hope to escape scrutiny. In reality the whole case is comprised in the answer wrung from the Duke of NEWCASTLE before Mr. ROEBITCK'S committee. He had, he said, prepared for two contingencies—for the army wintering in Sebastopol, or wintering somewhere on the shores of the Bosphorus. The chairman observed !—" You " made provision for two contingencies which did not SATURDAY, " occur; did you make provision for the army win. " tering before Sebastopol, which was the contin " gency which actually did occur?" The Duke NEWCASTLE'S admission was one of the most rnemk rable ever made by a British Minister—" No! Here was the root of the whole evil. Our Wat Minister, who surely ought to have been best in formed as to the prospects of the army, never con templated it would have to winter where it did winter, and made no kind of provision for it. In the face of this fact, how pitiful are the accusations tlit a cavalry commander refused to let his horses be employed as pack-mules, and that the chief of the Commissariat neglected to serve out white bread and fresh meat to the troops daily. Confusion and disaster there, were inseparable from the want t foresight here ; and large allowances should be made for the unexpected circumstances in which all the authorities found themselves, and the unprecedented difficulties they had to contend with. Our Govern ment, instead of sending out a commission to rake out charges against its officers, should have taken the manlier part of saying—" We never expected the " army to winter where it did; we made no provision " for it; and though there may have been faults . " detail, the great fault of not foreseeing, and not " providing for, the contingency which occurred was " ours, and we will abide the blame." But see how the case stands now. The House of Commons he refused to censure the Duke of NEWCASTLE for the enormous oversight of not calculating on the proba bility of the army having to winter before Sebas topol ; while Mr. FILDER and others are to be censured for being unable to repair the effects I that oversight! These petty persecutions are dis graceful. They resemble the pertinacity of Mr. LAYARD, who, while other members of Mr. ROEBUCK'S committee were endeavouring to arrive at important facts, badgered witnesses with queries whether Lord RAGLAN had not kept for himself a certain win!' house at Balaklava! A fair perusal of Mr. FILDE remarks will dispose the reader to concur in the justice of that much-abused gentleman's defence:— That, under such a mass of difficulties as I had to con• tend with, my proceedings should have been altogether exempt from error, is a merit that I will not venture claim ; but, after a careful review, L still believe them have been in the main correct, as far as the then existing circumstances could guide my judgment. The PJ Tuesday. THE PEACE CONFERENCE. lenipotentiaries held their tenth sitting on Baron de Manteuffel and the Prussian Ambassador at Paris took their seats for the first time at the conference table. The definitive treaty of peace is prepared. Le Nord states that the question of the Asiatic frontier is resolved as far as concerns the restitution of the districts occupied by the Russians. The latter will restore Kars, the Turks will evacuate Mingrelia, and the status quo ante will be restored. The Independence Beige affirms that, with respect to the Principalities question, the bases of the future arrangement are agreed upon. Those bases are the continued separation of the two Principalities, the hereditary hospodariate, ministerial responsibility, and deliberate assemblies, with slight political powers, but having permission to exercise a rigorous surveil lance on the expenditure of the revenue. As soon as the ratification of the treaty has taken place, the extraordinary Plenipotentiaries will lea' Paris, the resident Ambassadors, with Baron Brunow being left to determine the execution of details. The eleventh sitting was fixed for Thursday. Mr. Layard, M.P., was reinstated on Thursday as Lord Rector of Marischal College and Uuiversity Aberdeen. In the morning he was entertained at public breakfast, and had a most flattering reception , On the subject of Peace he said : There is every probability that by the end of the wont we shall have a treaty of peace signed. Very few pu blic men desire war, and peace in the abstract is certainly more to be wished for ; but I have no confidence that the present peace will be upon the whole a satisfactory one' and there is scarcely a man to be found, from the Land ' 1 end to John-o-Groats, but would like another year of war— ( great cheering)—snd for these reasons :—First, the political aspect of the question does not warrant us to ex. pect a lasting peace ; and, second, now we are fully pre pared for it, another year's war would show the world that there is that in Englishmen which would conquer every difficulty. (Cheers.) If we have peace now, matters will be left iu pretty much the same state as that in which we found them. (Hear.) Trae, we have protected Twit., against Russian aggression in the Black Sea; but, ao far as the great questions of civil and religious liberty are con cerned, they remain pretty much the same as they were before the war began; and therefore, I think, the peace will be premature. The Anti-Church-Rate Party have issued certain resolutions approving of Sir George Grey's proposed amendments to Sir W. Clay's Abolition Bill, now before the house, and promising all their support. win. ntin. :a of Brno. War Ol- eo!). did I the that is be the and and it of nade the used tern. rake aken I the [skin is of not was how I has the •oba- :has- ) be s of dis- Mr. jCIE'S atilt Lord )ER'S the con- ether re to m to sting g on ador t the tiatic Won atter cella, ;pert iture the , the ility, were, veil- liken eave now, ryas 7sity, at a tion. Lonth üblic aiuly 1 the one var— the o ex- , pre- that °Very will h we irkey o far con- were ,ease tam osed noW