The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-24 00:00:00

CONSERVATIVE UNION.

" Sandy" presents his compliments to the editor
of TEE PRESS, and takes the liberty of remarking
that the inference drawn from his communication,
inserted in the last number, is totally foreign to the
intention of the writer and the feeling he endeavoured
to desctibe. Lord Derby's late government of Ireland
was quite sufficient to repel doubts of his Protes-
tantism, but it is felt that the case would be materially
altered were those who abetted in making Sadteir ap-
pointments, and in keeping a Popish writer for the
Morning Chronicle, to be admitted as coadjutors quo
Conservatives. owever admiring and trusting
their great leader, such a union would throw the
truest and staunchest Conservatives all abroad, in-
action and weakness would follow, while union with
Lord Shaftesbury would be hailed with the fullest
confidence and regard.
North o' Tweed, March 20.
-

[We take " Sandy " at his word. Lord Derby's
government of Ireland was sufficient to repel all
doubts of his Protestantism, but would his Protes•
tantism have been less had he lately welcomed home
a political prodigal ? From whom in that case would
the confession, "I have sinned," have come? We
have said, and we repeat it, that we think it for-
tunate that the juncture proposed by Lord Derby did
not take effect, but we came to that conclusion on
reasons altogether distinct from the opinions held by
Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Herbert on certain questions
which, in a Cabinet formed by Lord Derby, could
never have become Ministerial questions. Had those
gentlemen joined Lord Derby they must have con-
formed to a Conservative and Protestant policy, and
in that case, their peculiar sentiments, though fatally
objectionable if suffered to predominate in a govern-
ment, might have been harmlessly entertained by
them in private. No national party in times like
these, when intellect is free and opinion very specula-
tive, can afford to be intolerant or even exclusive. The
Conservative party to be powerful must be constructed
on a broad basis. Union as a common ground of
political principal may consist with great diversity of
individual sentiment. Insist on identity of opinion
too far, and no kind of union would be possible.
Whoever joins the Conservative party, whether in or
out of Parliament, must be supposed to subscribe to
its principles and concur in its objects. And we go
the length of saying, that the more comprehensive
that party is, the more shades it includes of religious
and political opinion lying within the Conservative
pale, the more certain will the high, pure, rational
principles of the party be to prevail, from the impos-
sibility which must then exist of imposing on it
the predominance of any local or sectarian senti-
ment.]

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
TO THE EDITOR OP " THE PRESS."
Sir,—Looking over a volume of " Lodge's Portraits "
a few days ago, I opened casually at the portrait of
Thomas Pelham Holies, Duke of Newcastle. The
memoir there given of that very contemptible states-
man opens with these words :
Without wisdom to guide, or temper to submit to advice;
with an insatiable inclination to govern, but without the
dignity of mind or manners to induce respect ; at once
rash and timid ; ever jealous and suspicious, yet idly and
unnecessarily communicative; fond to excess of the trans.
action of affairs, but incapable of method and arrangement,
ttc., &c.
Can the most casual observer of late political disasters
read the above without acknowledging it, to be a truth
that family character, like family lineaments, is re-
produced in successive generations'—Yours, M.

LETTERS FROM BEYROUT Mete that the proclama-
!ion of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
had taken place in that town, and in all Syria, with
great pomp. At Bryrout the ceremony terminatad
by a discharge of fireworks. The Pacha, not know-
ing what vats meant, sent in great haste to the Fnch
Consul to ask if news of the fall of Sebastopolrehad
arrived.
Tut.; CHESNUT TREE or THE Tun.caus, known
by the name of " the 20th Marcb," has not this year
been below its usual reputation. It is at present in
buds, many of which have already burst into leaf.

'M