Colored News.
London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

*** Our limited space will deprive us of thepleasure of answering
many correspondents at great length, but we shall always make
a point of attending to questions connected with literature and
art.

PRISCILLA ORNON, (BAYSWATER.)—Many books have been
printed concerning the language of flowers, and in many parts
of the country certain colors have still a proverbial significa-
tion such as blue, true; yellow, jealous ; green, forsaken, 8;c.
A quaint old author makes a short dictionary of them as
follows :

Ash colour Repentance
Black colour Mourneful
Blue Truth
Carnation Desire
Crimson Cruelty
Green Hopeful
Mouse colour Feareful
Murry Secret Love
DRAMATICUS (THETFORD.) There are many passages in
Shakespeare which admit of two readings, but we cannot see
the exact point of your question. You ask if " All the
world's a stage and all the men and women merely players,"
who constitute the orchestra and audience ? lYe have no
particular• wish to chop logic at our time of life, but surely
amongst the " players" somebody must be able to scrape the
violin, and in that case part of the orchestra would be formed
at least.
AN AUTHOR, (ABERMARLE STREET.)—We may say of your
volume, as the cockney said of the pyramid at Eyypt—it is
very big. If its merit was commensurate with its size, how
clever you would be; but—truth must out—the work is trash

Orange colour Spitefulness°
Purple Nobility
Sky colour Heavenly
Tawny Forsaken
White lnnocency
Willow colour Despaire
Yellow Jealousie.

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1855,

BEFORE our next publication is issued, the Session of
Parliament will have been brought to a close. We may,
therefore, fairly ask what has been the result of eight long
months, deliberation ? What legislative result has emanated
to the country from sittings protracted far beyond their
usual length. All Englishmen take an interest in public
affairs, and they are naturally asking, with very great
anxiety, what measures have been passed—what imposts
removed—what evils have been remedied—what obnoxious
statutes repealed—and what, to sum up all in one short
sentence, the ministers and parliament have done for the
people ? Numerous as are the interrogatories, the responses
may be uttered in a few intelligible words. The most
astounding of which would be that the collective wisdom of
the three kingdoms has increased the national debt by
• twenty millions sterling ! Added to this it has made Eng-
land security for Turkey to the extent of an additional five
millions. It has also sown, in all human probability, by an
ill constructed convention, the seeds of prospective mis-
understanding both with Turkey and with Prance. Can
we close account with these items. No ! The repre-
sentatives of this happy country, have unscrupulously
added two pence in the pound to our already doubled
income tax, and that John Bull should have a fair taste of
the thumb screw of taxation which is preparing for him,
they have unblushingly advanced the price of his tea and
his . coffee, his sugar and his spirits, by the imposition of
heavy and exorbitant additional duties. Long before the
session was half got through our sapient rulers had
squandered or misappropriated all the money which their
tax-gatherer had been instructed to levy, or the stock
market had consented to loan. " Supplementary estimates "
popped up their hideous heads and with snake like fascina-
tion cajoled into their capacious jaws two or three millions
more. To this end the parliamentary folks have been busy
—very busy indeed, but for results which would have
benefitted the tax payers there is " a beggarly account of
empty measures " indeed. Eight weeks have scarcely
elapsed since. the Premier first " cried havoc, and let loose
the dogs of war," but in that short space of time the first
Lord of the Treasury has thrown over, without the smallest
symptom of compunction, every important measure which
his government introduced plausibly and promised faithfui;y.
It is true that his lordship reserved a sprinkle of enact-
ments as especially necessary to mollify the beast whilst
placing the burthens upon its back. But what even became
of these sops in the pan ? The Scotch Education Bill, the
pet measure of the principal law officer of the Crown, after
being before the lower house from the very commencement
of the session, was sent with all its imperfections on its
head to the upper house at last, and there even the Duke
of Argyll, with that flippancy which is his general char-
acteristic was ready to undertake any crusade from which
a cautious man would shrink, he even declined to enter the
lists in its defence, and it was walked out of the arena pre-
ceded by a majority of one. Another was the Irish
Tenants Compensation Bill, the reinsertion of the retro-
spective clause in which was the price demanded and
promised, for the votes of " the Brigade" when a question
of confidencewas impending, and the Ministry was in danger
of defeat, but which was withdrawn when the danger
was over, in spite of the remonstrances of the gulled and
innocent dupes. But far above all these in nothingness and
insincerity, stand the limited Liability Bill which was
introduced with a flourish of conciliatory trumpets from
the Board of Trade, the vibrations of which had scarcely
died upon the ear when a herald in the person of Mr.
Cardwell blew a blast so shrill and discordant that every.
one stood aghast. Pursuivant Cardwell's notes were to the
effect that it was " far too imperfect a measure to be
allowed to pass this session," and so it shared the fate of
the others. In noticing the final exit of all or either of
these measures, we are far from saying that we regret, or
that there is really anything to regret in, the loss of these
measures, but we must recur to them to show what business
men are entrusted with the destinies of a great commercial
nation. With reference to the time also, which has been

[AUGUST 11, 1855.

expended in voting the supplies (admitted absolutely ne-
cessary to the vigorous prosecution of the war), it is not
with that or the amount of the supplies we would cavil,
far from it, we feel only that it is our duty to point out;
we have throughout the session been hampered with a
government which undertook to "settle" vital questions,
but which was either so negligent of its duty, or so weak
and incapable, and unable to so utterly command the con-
fidence of Parliament, that it found itself compelled to
abandon one bill after another so rapidly that the session
was brought to a most unsatisfactory termination. Finally,
whilst censuring Parliament for what it has left undone,
let us give it all due praise for what it has done. Amongst
the latest abandonments of the session, we noticed, with
extreme satisfaction, Sir William Clay's Church Spoliation
Scheme, and Mr. Heywood's Bill for unsettlino. the Law of
Marriage. For the alteration effected in the Sabbatha Beer
Bill the people have to thank themselves. They spoke
out with an eloquence more touching and effective than has
been heard since the days of Lord Liverpool, but we
sincerely hope that concession on this hand, may not be
attributed to intimidation.