The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-12 00:00:00

PUBLIC PERPLEXITY.

WHEN public affairs go wrong, the popular im
pulse in every age and country is to look for a
culprit, to demand a victim ; and under a des-
potism the impulse is reasonable. The people
do not manage their own affairs, and if their
affairs are ill-managed they have a right to
complain, and must be satisfied. In the East
the despot throws them a Vizier's head—in
the West he recalls a General or disgraces a
Minister.

But in proportion as the people take a part
in the Government they must be content to
share the blame of what goes wrong; and yet,
perhaps for that very reason, the people under
a popular form of government are the most
eager to find a scapegoat on whom to lay the
burden of their disasters.

The Sebastopol Committee do their best to
gratify the popular wish. They screen no de-
linquency—they seize on every clue to dis-
covery—but, turn where they will, responsi-
bility and delinquency elude their grasp.
Who is to blame? They (the servants of
Government), such is the popular cry, screen
one another: the forms of office screen every-
body. It is the spirit of routine ; it is " red-
tapeism." A word, especially a new one, is of
great use when a fact is nut to be found.
Those, and they are not a few, who lay the
blame on the periodical press are nearer the
truth ; but the whole truth lies deeper still.
The press is to blame fur sharing, for encou
raging, for turning to its own account the
popular errors and delusions ; but it did not
create them. In truth the self-governing nation
is mainly to blame for the national disasters.
For years past the Government have been
diminishing the army and retrenching every
department connected with it. Why? Be-
cause the army was unpopular, and the cry for
retrenchment general. When the debate with
Russia became serious, no preparations for the
probable result were made. No wonder the Czar
refused to believe we were in earnest; and
why was this? Government feared to incur
the odium of laying on burdens which might,
after all, be unnecessary. When war was
actually declared, an army, which we could ill
spare, was sent out, without any of the acces-

SATURDAY,

sories which are necessary to insure suc-
cess or to avert disaster, on an expedition no-
body had decided whither, to achieve nobody
knew exactly what. And why was this? Be-
cause the popular voice had pronounced that
without delay a blow must be struck—imme-
diate efforts must be made to produce a speedy
result, and it had as yet been impossible
to discover to what point these efforts
could be directed with advantage. The
Government undertook to invade the great-
est military monarchy of Europe with a
peace establishment, and with the ordi-
nary revenue, because popular vanity had
been flattered into a most irrational contempt
of the enemy. In a word, in this and in every
other minor detail they undertook to make
bricks without straw ; and why? Because the
people wished to have the bricks, and did
not choose to wait for the straw or to
pay for the straw. It is easy to say
now that Ministers ought to have withstood
popular clamour. Undoubtedly they ought:
they are to blame as the press is to blame for
sharing, encouraging, and turning to account
the popular delusion. But, be it remem-
bered, the great change effected by the Reform
Bill was to make the Government more depen-
dent on the popular will. Had Ministers en-
deavoured to enlighten popular opinion
instead of bowing to it they would have
proved their own wisiom, disinterestedness,
and patriotism ; but they would have lost
their places.
Immediate success in arms or negotiation
would have justified, or at least concealed, the
rashness of the Government. But difficulty
brought delay, and delay disaster. Under the
most favorable circumstances there would
have been blunders. War is a series of blun-
ders. Want of experience must have caused
blunders. The want of preparation made
blunders, or what passes for blunders, and
those of the most enormous magnitude, in-
evitable ; and from previous blunders a plen-
tiful crop of subsequent blunders springs.
Accusations and recriminations are bandied
about in all directions. No one escapes. Be-
tween the two assertions everybody is to
blame, and nobody is to blame—there is no
such great difference The public, puzzled
but not appeased, maintains " somebody is to
" blame." And this in the minds of many is
settling into a conviction that everybody and
everything is to blame. Whatever is, is wrong.
"Our institutions are to blame;" and this, un-
fortunately, is too true, but not in the sense
in which the assertion is usually made ; and
the remedy proposed by the City meeting
(namely, that the people should take the
direct control of public business) would
only aggravate the evil to an incurable
extent. Government is too weak to carry
on the public business, because the public
already exercises too immediate and too
great an influence on its own affairs.
Public opinion should rule, but not popular
impulse. Public opinion is that opinion
which, when the conflict of the dispute is over,
remains the dominant and generally prevalent
opinion, though for a time it may have been
supported only by the enlightened few. In-
crease the influence of the people by a
more popular representation, and anarchy en-
sues. The people will find the Government
of their own appointment too weak to carry
out the popular will ; and such Government as
will then exist will be transferred from the,
House of Commons to the House of Commons'
masters out of doors. We yield to none in
attachment to constitutional government.
Let us keep it while we have it. The example
of France is before us.

BY CONTINENTAL TELEGRAPH.
P.kms, Friday.
The Moniteur of this morning contains the fol-

lowing :

Adviees have arrived from the Crimea dated 9th
May.

Nothing important had happened.
We perfect our works before the place.

MADRID, May 10.
To-morrow will commence the payment of the
coupons and obligations still in arrear.

MAY 12, 1855.

Vrourbings arlinunt.

VIENNA CONFERENCES.

Earl GREY, on Thursday evening, gave the fol-
low•ing notice for Monday, the 21st inst. :

That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, to
thank her Majesty fur having ordered the protocols of the
recent negotiations at Vienna to be laid before us ; to
inform her Majesty that this house deeply deplores the
failure of the attempt to put an end, by these negotiations,
to the calamities of the war in which the country is now
engaged ; and to express our opinion that the proposals of
Russia were such us to afford a fair prospect of concluding
a peace by which all the original objects of the war might
have been gained, and by which her Majesty and her allies
might have obtained all the advantages which can reason-
ably be demanded from Russia. (Hair.)