The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

50 It is known that the present Premier of England looks with uneasy glances at the once puissant leader of the greet Whig con nection. The Ministerial parasites scare* hide their attempts to ruin the fi4ure pro spects of the statesman whose name shines brightest in the records of their party for the last twenty years. Silenced English deineo f gogues, famished Scotch economists, and adventurous Irish jobbers, try to whisper down a man who fears them not, and who has in former periods risen triumphant over more formidable foes. Unless we be seriously mis informed, the next Parliamentary session will prove that Lord JOHN RUSSELL is keenly alive to the critical situation in which he stands. He knows as well as we do, that if his career were to terminate now, his star would set under a cloud. We believe that Lord JOHN RUSSELL acutely feels that he has been deceived egregiously by certain influences. Reliance upon old feelings of gratitude in one quarter, misplaced confidence in another direction, have woefully misled him. Nor has anything done him greater injury than the fact that he allowed himself to be persuaded against his own inclinations. We shall not further tread upon delicate ground, but we will state public reasons why we believe that Lord JOHN RUSSELL must in the coining session play a part worthy of his name. In order to calculate how Lord JOHN Ilus- SELL must work to retrieve his position, it is right to state the causes which have done him most damage. He sported with the Protestant • feelings of England in first stimulating a cry against the " insolent and insidious" advance of the Papal power, and in afterwards suc cumbing to Lord ABERDEEN and the alders and abettors of Cardinal WISEMAN. When during the Coalition Lord JOHN Ru3sELL made certain declarations about the rights of Pro testantism, Mr. JOHN SADLEIR (then Lord of the Treasury) took umbrage, and indignantly resigned, along with two of his (political) asso ciates. Lord ABERDEEN told Mr. SADLEIR, that " the opinions of the majority of the Cabinet " did not agree with Lord JOHN RUSSELL ;" and after that humiliating episode, Lord JOHN RUS SELL, with a cowed crest, tried, as Leader in the Commons, t•) look the Opposition boldly in the face. But he could not act a hypocrite's part. Nature was too strong for hire. He had been mortified and derided by his Aberdeenite colleagues. He owed them nothin ; they owed him much. He hail given his name to their patchwork combination, and to their false pretences of " administrative abili ties." When the country was agonised by the " horrible and heartrending accounts" from the Crimea, Lord JOHN RUSSELL brooded over the situation of the country, of the army, and -- of himself. His part was taken His colleagues had affected to disdain him; be retaliated by exploding then►. If matters had stopped there, Englishmen, with their readiness to make allowance for the rights of self-assertion, would not much censure Lord JOHN RUSSELL for having given a demo lishing stroke to routine. But, unfortunately, he inflicted grievous damage on his character by his subsequent conduct. Lord JOHN RUS SELL well knew that Viscount PALMERSTON was no proper chief for the Liberal connection. He consented to abdicate in favour of a states man of chameleon mind ; and his Lordship completed his mischief to himself by making that warlike declaration which amazed people after the diplomatic transactions of the time were revealed. He says himself, and so say his friends, that this most equivocal passage in his career can be explained. As in a revolu tion, so in a negotiation for peace (thus argue his friends), dates are of great importance ; days and weeks ut a crisis are fraught with the eventualities of years and ages. It is not improbaLle that the conduct of the Noble Lord at that time will yet be explained by him more fully than heretofore. It is certain, however, that the conduct of the noble Lord, as now described, has considerably injured his fair fame. THE PRESS. But the most remarkable fact in the history of Lord JOHN RUSSELL is the wonderfully recu perative power 414 wo n* lß t 1 y seen in his career. Fqr several years he was derided as a failure; yet /414.xxisq , said his Reform Speech, pl 1826, " at ho d never heard the questiou of " moderate Re rm so ably treated." For a long time Sir . 14:4 affected to make light of this *oble !s *opts, but Sir Roza ff lived - to wince under I,he galling taunts and the moral supereilioysness tittered in barbed sentences by the epigrammatic lips of the Whig Leader. In 1834-5 the Reform party had quarrelled with Lord BitottonAm ; Earl GREY had retired; Sir F. BURDETT had left its ranks; Lord DERBY and Sir JAMES GRAHAM, in defence of the Protestant Establishment, had joined the Conservatives; the lights of Liberalism were extinct; but said the Duke of WELLINGTON to Mr. ROGERS, " Lord .roux is a host in him " self." It was thought that his career was at end in 1841, when "he was caught bathing" by Sir ROBERT PEEL; but he s'tbsequently held the Premiership lonwr than the anta gonist who had overthrown him with ninety one majority. Such a career of striking poli tical vicissitudes, of crushing defeats and of avenging triumphs, is not paralleled in party annals. It is not likely that a statesman, of whom so chequered and eventful a tale can be told, will now tamely succumb and end his political life under a cloud of disgrace. He is pledged to proceed with a large measure of Reform. The war, which alone prevented him from redeeming his pledge, is at an end ; and whatever cause the existing Cabinet may decide to pursue on that question, we may be well assured that Lord JOHN will place himself in the front rank of radical reformers, mid attempt to play over again the bold game which placed him in the front rank of Liberal statesmen in the Reform crisis, and secured for him a larger share of governing power than has been enjoyed by any man of his party. We think it likely that Lord JOHN will, during the ensuing session, attempt the rc• construction of his party, and attempt to combine all the Radical elements existing in the country, in support of some startling scheme of Reform. CHINA. IN our present unfortunate rupture with this Power, there are two distinct questions at issue. The one is, our right to demand repa ration for the seizure of a Chinese crew on board a vessel named the Arrow ; the other, our right to insist upon permission to enter the town of Canton in alleged accordance with the terms of previous treaties. The latter demand is in no way connected with the dispute about the Arrow, but that is consi dered to afford a very suitable opportunity for enforcing a dormant right. In the lan guage of those who defend the conduct of the British authorities, they avail themselves of the first petty dispute that happens to make a final settlement of a long-pending question, and to reverse, once and for ever, the results of Chinese duplicity. In the words of other people, we are only taking advantage of success in a petty wrong to proceed to a still greater, or rather, we ►night say, the perpetration of deliberate injustice to avoid ' being driven to the confession► of a trifling error. It is maintained that the Chinese officers, in pursuit of certain notorious pirates, boarded a British vessel lying in the harbour of Canton with British colours flying, and forcibly carried away twelve of her crew as prisoners ; whereas their proper course was to have de manded the interference of the British Consul. In consequence of this supposed insult, divers complaints were forwarded to the Imperial Commissioner, and on his refusal to acknow ledge his countrymen in the wrong, or make such apology as the British authorities deemed ' becoming, those hostile measures were re- SATURDAY, sorted to which few persons in this country have heard of without reiret. The case, as for Ai w ekn understand it, appears to be as follOws. Tl4O Arrow Was not a Brigsh vessel at ill. pe was built by a Chingse, owned by 4 phin @f e, and engaged in Chinese trade. BO she 1s navigated by an Englishmo, aud h mphased a register from ;in •uglisb. mer pt, which seems to have given her die rig t to heist English A coiourg. This, its the Chinese Commissioner observes, is evidently a most objectionable practice. But even this cannot be pleaded in our justification, as by the Bth of October, the day the seizure was made, the effect of that register had expired. It is said that the Chi nese did not know it had expired —an argu ment the futility of which we have exposed already. But, however this may be, the crew of the lorcha must have known it well enough ; and the fact of their having British colours aloft after the right to do so had ceased, may possibly be indicative of a practice which would naturally lead the Chinese to pay but little attention to the appearance of the Bri• tish ensign upon native vessels. As this is a result for which the one nation is just as re sponsible as the other, we cannot in common fairness lay the whole blame upon the Chi nese. The Imperial Commissioner, indeed, denies that the flag was flying when the Arrow was boarded. But even if it was, our indigna tion ought to be considerably mitigated by re flecting on the improper manner in which she had gained the right to carry it, and that even the sham character with which this transac tion invested her had then expired. The sooner British protection ceases to be thus bought and sold by any petty trader to whom it may be convenient, the better for the honour and dignity of both countries. In regard to the second claim which our representatives have considered this period of violent irritation as a peculiarly favourable moment to advance, we can only say that it seems to us, if possible, even still more base less than the other. Permission for British subjects to cuter and reside in the city of Can ton upon the same footing as they are admitted in certain other Chinese ports had been long sought by this country, and long promised by the Imperial Ministers, contingent on the consent of the people. It was constantly urged by them that nothing could be done in opposition to the popular will ; and when, after reucated attempts, the inhabitants of Canton still refused to accede to this arrange ment, the Chinese authorities intimated that the case was hr the present hopeless, and the claim was with great goad sense formally waived by the British Envoy, Sir GEORGE BON HAM. This was in 1849, and since then nothing further has been done in the matter. It seems difficult, therefore, to understand upon what ground the Chinese are now taxed with a breach of faith ; while. on the other hand, it is both impolitic and iniquitous to endeavour to force them into an agreement from which their national prejudices revolt, at a moment when those prejudices must naturally he more inflamed than usual. A war may be very inglorious, and yet very expensive ; and the natives of the Celestial Empire, with their recent practice in warfare, may be able to protract hos tilities to a most inconvenient length. Just at the moment when the country was con gratulating itself on the return of peace, and the possible relief from many of those burdens which the war had entailed, it is rather too bad to find ourselves plunged into another contest, from which we can reap nothing coin • mensuvate, simply by the hot-headedness of our authorities, and the inveterate love of bluster in our own Government. Let the wrong, if wrung there is, be redressed at once. But do not let us go to war on this paltry pretext for the sake of an ulterior purpose, which is not founded in justice, and is alien to that spirit of moderation which ought to regulate our conduct towards those whom we so boast fully term barbarians. Things almost seem as if we had sought a peg to hang a new war upon. If this be so, woe to the Government which has found it !