The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 26,1857. " ring;" and that " the select committee decided that if firing at an " enemy they would have continued, as the mortar was not in any way " disabled ;" and that the " accident will occupy a week to repair." It is also true that very valuable results, so far as the science of gunnery is concerned, were gained by the day's trial. The initial velocity of the projectile, its greatest elevation, its time of flight, were accurately ascertained, and, stranger still, a photographer present stated that he had obtained a perfect view of its whole course through the air. However, we fear that this mortar is destined to be of little practical use in actual warfare. We do not desire to lay undue stress on the fact th it seven rounds on one day and six on another have stopped all proceedings, or upon the circumstance that as no smith can be certain of a perfect welding, a similar fracture to the last may again occur, even with the same low charge. But it must be remembered that the construction of the platform and the putting together of the mortar is a work of considerable magnitude, which could hardly be completed under a week, and which could not be expected to escape the observation of the enemy. Therefore, to insure the weapon comparative safety from the concentrated fire which would at once be brought to bear upon it, it would be necessary to erect it at a distance of at least 3,000 yards from the place to be attacked. Now if a charge of 701bs of powder gives a range of 2,100 yards, at 3,000 yards at least 801bs. must be used, but we have seen that the mortar has twice broken down with charges of 701bs and 401bs. ! The conclusion is obvious. For our selves, we would back against the mortar two of the now despised Lancaster guns, the only serviceable ordnance of largo calibre yet known which have been secured from the old danger of bursting at the muzzle, and which at a range of 3,300 yards can hit a line-of-battle ship eleven times out of twenty shots. The late Mr. Justice JACKSON was best known in this country in consequence of a celebrated speech made by him in 1836 on the state of Ireland under Lord NORMANDY (then Earl of MutortAvE). After stating one night what the Melbourne Government intended to do about Municipal Corporations in Ireland, Lord John RUSSELL sat down, and the House of Commons s aw a comely gentleman rise from the Conservative benches, and pour forth with singular fluency a de tailed account of Lord MULGRAVE'S doings in Ireland. The speec h produced great effect, and was a success, though his subsequent Par liamentary efforts were not quite so effective. He was a gentleman of very high honour, as was publicly proved by some transactions in his early life at th 3 Bar. " Mr. Sergeant JACKSON " was chiefly eminent as a stater of a case in which tho verdict was to be taken upon facts. He was not an orator, but he was admitted to be an excellent advocate, and he had intense zeal fur his client. His voice was extremely powerful, and his presence was imposing and attractive. After having taken an active part in politics for many years, the Conservative Administration in 1842 raised him to the Bench, and it was universally felt that a more im partial and humane judge never sat in the Irish Judicature. In the trial of the "Young Irelanders " in 1848 the late Judge was perfectly impartial. and even the Liberals and Roman Catholics of Ireland ad mitted that his conduct was entirely unimpeachable and free from any bias of partisanship. Ho was a much older man in years than he appeared, and his death has conic upon the public with sur ' prise; but we were aware for some time of the state of his health, though motives of delicacy prevented us from referring to it. By the usual routine a vacant puisne judgeship can be accepted in Ireland by an Attorney-General, though in England an Attorney General always looks for a chiefship. E'hould Mr. FITZGERALD (Attorney-General) accept the post, there will be a vacancy in the leading Crown officers, and opinion seems to incline to the point that Mr. DEASY, the member for the county of Cork, will be either Attorney, or Solicitor-General. Mr. DEASY is cousin to Lord FERNIOY, an in fluential personage in Irish Liberal politics, and is leader of the Munster Circuit. He practises principally in the Court of Chancery, and he has the reputation of being a widely-read scholar. Several other names are mentioned. Whatever disposition of offices be made, we trust that some consideration will be shown for the claims of the Protestant Bar in any fresh vacancies that may occur. There are now only three Judges on the Irish Bench named by the Conservative party—viz., Lord Chief Justice LEFROY, and Barons PENNEFATHER and GREENE. The other Judges (including Mr. Justice CRAMPTON) were all named by Liberal Ministers, and taken from avowed " Whigs." We refer, of course, only to the " Twelve Judges." Should Mr. FITZGERALD accent the vacant post there will then be seven Protestants and five Roman Catholics in the " Twelve." Considerably more than two-thirds of the practising Bar are Protestants; but the \Vhigs desire to proportion the number of judges, not to the demar cations within the Hall of the Four Courts, but to the ratio of numbers of the two Churches in the whole population of the country. The law reports this week of certain journals have been stained with a mass of unmitigated filth, repugnant to every sense of pro priety and purity of feeling Nothing is more immodest, nothing more unchaste, than the cant which assumes a sense of public duty to necessitate the publication of such details of criminal nastiness as the case of •" The Queen v. Robinson " offered. Those journals, too, which disseminated the filth in its full detail are the first, we remark, to discourse in terms of virtuous horror upon the shocking depravity of the case, and to entreat judges and juries to give us no more of it. Why give us any of it? The publication of such filth is a discredit to the free press of this country. doubt but that he had extraordinary zeal for his party. In the days when we had close professional observation of him, Mr. COPPOCK was distinguished by many good qualities ; and although we had the pre judices of hostile opinions, we were sometimes favourably struck with h►s just sense of things Like other men, he had his weak points. We were always aware that his post was not a lucrative one, and his friends never made any secret of his position ; but, like other Liberal politicians, Mr. Corrocv found great enjoyment in intercourse with the notabilities of Parliamentary life. In the strategy of his peculiar call. ing, Mr. COPPOCR fought an attacking game better than one of retreat or pure defence. He was quick in perceiving " opens," but he wanted subtlety, and he often was encountered with superior skill His thorough identification with his party was his most prominent feature; and in his grave we will do him the justice of saying that we do not believe that any rewards could have tempted him to sell his cause or his colours. We do not disparage him in saying that, as far as we could judge from hostile ranks, his talents as a man of business seemed to us much overrated. It was by his untiring zeal that he won the sort of name he possessed, but we have known him to have made great mistakes. He was far more skilful in dealing with a low than with a high class of what in the courtesy of electioneering are called " difficult cases." On the middle-class politicians of the Libe rals Mr. COPPOCK was very successful ; and his influence with tT - .:1 journalism of his party was wide and various, and had no inter mission. We can easily understand how the crash of the " Surrey Gardens Company," and the strictures consequent on its enormous mismanagement, must have powerfully affected him ; but we would fain believe (and it is the opinion of several) that it was his reputation as a man of business, not his character as a man of integrity, which was most deeply compromised in that unfortunate affair. There is much curiosity, it is said, in Liberal circles to know, " where are we " to find another Coppock ?" and Mr. HATTER will be puzzled, or pre tend to be so. Patriots from the provinces will, doubtless, be forth coming, and Mr. HArrza will be besieged with applications. A further correspondence between Mr. VERNON SMITH and the Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and Mr. VERNON SMITH and the East India Board, has been published this week. The correspondence bears upon the statement recently made by Lord DERBY with respect to the ignorance Mr. VERNON SMITH had displayed concerning certain arrangements for the transmission of troops across Egypt ; but, beyond that, it has no immediate refe rence to the Noble Earl. The question has now passed into another phase. It is no longer a question between Lord DERBY and Mr. VERNON SMITH, hut it is between Mr. ANDERSON, the Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, and Mr. MANGLES, the Chairman of the East India Board. Mr. ANDERSON, in his letter of last week, stated distinctly that, after all had been finished, and the instructions for the transport of the troops de spatched, a special messenger came down from the President of the Board of Control to inquire whether " such an arrange ment could be made." Here is a very distinct assertion. This week Mr ALLAN, of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navi gation Company, on the authority of a communication made to him at the India-house, explains that the inquiry referred to by Mr. ANDERSON was received at the India-house, not at the offices of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company; whereupon Mr. MANGLES, upon being applied to by Mr. VERNON SMITH, denies that any one in the India-house could have had any authority or ground for making such a communication as that Mr. ALLAN declares he had positively received at the India-house. Here, then, is a nest of con tradiction. A ray of light, however, appears. Mr. MANGLES admits that Mr. VERNON SMITH did at that period make certain inquiries of detail relating to the arrangement " which had been concluded " for the transmission of troops across Egypt. It is impossible that the question can stop here. Mr. ANDERSON'S assertion that "a message came down" is distinct. Mr. A statement, though not very distinct, points to the same erd, viz., the despatch of a certain message by the Board of Control ; and Mr. MANGLES admits that at this p eriod, when everyth ing had been concluded, Mr. VERNON SMITH did make certain inquiries. Lieutenant-Colonel .TAmEs, R.E., Superintendent of the Ordnance Survey, has been appointed Director of the consolidated Topographi cal Department of the War-office, which is to include the Topographi cal Branch of the Quartermaster -General's Office, Horse Guards, the Ordnance Survey, and the Topographical Depot established by the Duke of NEWCASTLE in the War Department. The experiments carried on at Woolwich with Mr. MALLET'S mortar, on Friday, the 18th inst., were attended with less success than on the first occasion. Then seven rounds were fired before any contretemps occurred, although the dire , : last charges were 50, 00, and 70 lbs. of powder respectively. On the 18th, although the uniform charge was 40 lbs. of powder, at the sixth round the mortar wam declared hors de combat. At the first trial a range was obtained of 2,400 yards, or nearly a mile and a half; at the last, with a reduced charge, 1,700 yards, or about a mile. True it is, as stated by Mr. MALLET, only "a single wrought•iron external ring of nine inches by " three inches thick was discovered to be fractured, the fracture being through an unsound welding equal ja i area to about one half the 1253