The Press.
London, England, 1855-07-21 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

THE debates in the Commons have been extremely animated this
week, and have brought forth nearly every orator of note in the Lower
House. Lord JOHN Russau. having fled in terror from the mere flash
and glitter of Sir EDWARD Lyrron's approach in the distance, the
motion, of course, fell to the ground. Yet the speech in which Sir
EDWARD withdrew it was a masterly résumé of the case against the
Government, and seems to have stung the Premier deeply, as he
replied to it in a blatant style very offensive to the feelings of the
House. His defiant " come on " tone was the less excusable, as he
had sacrificed his colleague rather than fairly meet the motion, his
own creatures having been foremost iu the " round robin " movement
against Lord JoHN. An unguarded expression of Sir EDWARD'S was
seized upon, and worried and mangled with spiteful pertinacity. The
retort of Mr. DISRAELI was one of his happiest efforts. There are
passages in it which must be classed among the wittiest and most
eloquent flights of Parliamentary oratory. The strictures ou the
cabal among the Ministerial subordinates, and the allusions to
CANNING'S candid friend, were received with uproario us delight.
Those passages in which the " patrician bullying " of the Treasury
Bench was chastised have never been surpass ed for ()haste but
scathing sarcasm. The discussion on Mr. ROEBUCK'S motion passed
off somewhat tamely the first evening, but the adjourned debate on
Thursday night was interesting as a rhetorical tournament, though it
wanted the excitement of a close party contest. The ATTORNEY-GENERAL
made one of his least successful efforts. He had either the servility
or the indiscretion to attempt defending Lord PALMERSTON, on the
grounds that the Premier had been attending to the Home Depart-
ment, while the army was perishing in the Crimea. It was strange to
hear " a hardbrowed lawyer" propounding such a theory on Minis-
terial responsibility, and the rhetoric of Sir ALEXANDER C OCKBURN did
not make amends for his bad logic. The House is beginning to sus-
pect that he was greatly overrated as an orator, and his moderate suc-
cesses almost tempt one to think that his fame wilt be of the " single-
speech" school. He was followed by Mr. WHITESIDE, who, though less
impassioned than usual, made a successful and brilliant oration.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL attempted one of his " retriever speeches." It
was carefully conned, and bore the marks of deliberate effort in its
cut and polished sentences, which to a practised auditor suggested
the labour of the pen. His sketch of Mr. ROEBUCK, a man of exor-
diums and perorations, and always deficient in the narrative part of
a speech, was really very clever, and was as smart and sparkling as if
it had been written by one of the social essayists of the last cent ury.
" There are the beak and talons of the bird of prey, but the inside is
" nothing but straw," was an amusing description of the Member for
Sheffield. But the sarcasm was also not inapplicable to the Noble
Lord's speech, in which the satirical portions were far better than
the argumentative. Two of the most remarkable addresses
were the brilliant speech of Mr. BRIGHT and the confessions of Sir
DE LACY EVANS. The Member for Manchester inflicted on the
Premier a tremendous castigation, and the manner in which he
contrasted his leadership of the House of Commons with the way in
which Sir ROBERT PEEL, Lord Jour; RUSSELL, and Mr. DISRAELI
discharged their functions, told with great effect. We specially com-
mend to our readers the entire of that masterly passage, in which the
Member for Manchester described the heroic struggle of Mr. DISRAELI
on the fall of Lord DERBY from office :—" Assailed with unusual
" virulence, assailed by those who were anxious to devour him, the
"Right Honourable Gentleman fell; but he left no stain on the
" distinguished office which he had held,"—a sentence which was
hailed with a burst of cheers from the House of Commcns.
The statements of Sir DR LACY EVANS on the present state of the
country, in relation to its military affairs, considerably affect the
reputation of the Premier as a War Minister, and confirm all that we
have said on the non-efficiency of the Cabinet. It is a striking
sympton of the political changes that are taking place when the
Gallant General the Member for Wesminster says—" I am of no party
in this House or the country."

In the debate upon the Turkish Loan last night the Government
were reduced to great extremity, and only narrowly escaped defeat
upon a question of " vital importance," according to Lord PALMERSTON,
by a majority of three! If the object of this Loan is to insure the
independence of Turkey, how can that possibly be attained by foreign
Governments holding liens upon the revenues of the State ? The
plan proposed is one beset with difficulties ; certain to weaken the
influence of Turkey in her own dominions ; it is calculated to endanger
'our alliance with France ; and produce that diticord between the
Western Powers whit Russia so earnestly desires to ivittieset. mgr.,

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