The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

MARCH 17, 1855.

CONSERVATIVE UNION.
(Front a Correspondent.)
Tim legitimate triumph of party is the triumph of
principle, and the legitimate object of power is the
possession of means to carry out the standard prin-
ciple. When power is obtained by successful
intrigue, deeply devised and cunningly executed,
with no higher view, with no more exalted motive
than the advantage of personal ambition, there can
be no guarantee for upright conduct, as there can
be no surety for the nature of the policy that may
direct the executive. The sacrifice to principle
places the worthy and just on the left of the Speaker
—the sacrifice of principle heralds the unworthy and
unjust to seats on the Treasury bench. But, although
theintegrity of a principle can neither bear change
nor diminution, opinion may be modified as to the
specific course to be adopted in furtherance of its
executive success. It is in harmonising together
these slight shades of difference in the pursuit of a
comm on and distinct object that lies the tact of the
leading. statesman. A diversity, of course, without
relaxation of principle, may be the proper subject
for deliberation, and be ultimately regulated and
determined by the master mind ; but there must not
be the slightest doubt of the unity of sentiment in
the spirit that pervades such political action. In this
case a party is legitimate, free to act with unfettered
energy, and is sure to command respect, if it do not
insure success. When, however, opposing principles,
dissonant opinion, and a scrambling policy combine
for a purpose in which common advantage is the
dominant motive, and when in that combination
principle and opinion are merged in order to remove
all obstacle to the possession of the coveted prey,
such party may be said to be illegitimate, to be a
depraved coalition enlisted for a still more depraved
object. Tenure of office can never be of long dura-
tion with a connection thus disreputably amalga-
mated, for there will never be wanting a disturbing
force within, to disunite and to weaken defence
against a concentrated and attacking force from
without.
The two legitimate and antagonistic parties are
designated Conservative and Liberal. This is a
vague nomenclature, since each one for convenience
filches the name from the other, and the Conserva-
tive-Liberal and Liberal-Conservative comprise, under
a mask purposely adopted to conceal the truth, the
most bitter hostility of principle. For the pre-
sent we will not interfere with the chosen names.
The Liberal-Radical appeals to public opinion for
his passport to office. He says :—" Man is a being
" endowed with understanding, schooled by reason,
" and elevated by genius ; and the course of his
" prescribed fate is to advance gradually from good
" to better, from better to best, until he arrive at
" a state of optimism." In fact, he asserts the
power of man over his own nature, properly and
freely developed, to be sufficient to work out his own
social perfectibility upon a basis of action as certain in
result as the shaping of matter in the hands of the
artificer. This proud system, not discordant with
reason, views " corruptibility " as a consequence, anti
not a cause of social and political error. It starts
with the principle advanced by Lord PALMERSTON,
that man is born in virtue and not in sin, and be-
comes good or evil precisely as either the one or
the other prevel
ls in his education. There is truth
to a certain point even in this. Admitting the pre-
mises for a moment, it follows that religion is made
an adjunct to the system more or less necessary ac-
cording to the stage of advance towards perfectibi-
lity, and is not held to be the directing or master
power. No, that is reason. The finite is made in-
dependent of the infinite in its supreme sense, and
is not absolutely in want of it for its social and poli-
tical perfectibility. That can be accomplished by
means temporal, without a necessity of the sp
tual. The latter may be styled a happy accidental
ornamental, when employed, but, like the Corin-
thian, lonic, Doric, or Composite capital, not poten-
tially leagued with the pedestal of reason upon
which the social and political superstructure is
raised. The rationalistic Liberal and Radical is,
therefore, opposed to all and every State religion.
" Government," he affirms, " and self-government
" especially, is a province purely temporal; therefore
" without interference with the spiritual Caesar, or
" rather the Caesars, not twelve, but millions, claim
" as their own right the superintendence of the poll-
" deal system which understanding obeys, reason
" directs, and genius consecrates. Reason, as the
" methodiser and moral and political regulator,putting
"forth its own cardinal principles of intellectual free-
" dom, will unavoidably arrive at an equality of civil
" right, and, abjuring all right by presenplion, will
" demand, and must demand, according to its espe-
" cial theory, to establish democracy in its full force
" and bearing. There is no remedy for the extreme,
" not even reason can check the onward movement."
All this and more may be deduced, or rather be pre-
eipitated, teem rata various speeches of Sir JAXtt

THE PRESS.

GRLEAX to his constituents at Carlisle and elsewhere
on sundry occasions. We speak with all respect for
the ability of Sir JAMES GRAHAM, but the rationalistic
liberalism of his later life, flippant, fluent, and unre-
flecting, embodies much that his sounder judgment
would condemn—ay, deny, when placed in its true
light with the inevitable result. Should his princi-
ples become inconvenient in practice, he would fain
cry " Stop !" So said LocKE, when his metaphysical
speculations met with an application by the mate-
rialists not anticipated by him. So said the dying
MIRABEAU on becoming sensible of the intent of the
revolutionary lawyers. " Stay," said the " etat-mejeur"
of NAPOLEON at Smolensko. The impetus in each
case had been given—the " stop" was vain. The
Radical• Liberalism of political philosophy, to use an
apt expression of the Earl of llk:RBY, practically tends
" to Amsricanise our institutions."

The Conservative accepts the heritage of ancestral
customs and privileges according to the several rela•
tions of the different classes of the State—in other
words, anti-Americanism—to be a fundamental prin-
ciple of policy, and views in the attachment to the
hereditary sovereign and to the royal dynasty the
pillar of the fabric which it is his duty not less than
his pride to sustain. Above all, he receives as the
true doctrine that the progressive march of social
man, and the growth of humanity, the subject of
universal history, are regulated by principles correla
Live with the origin of the creature. Conservatism
relies on the aid of that Divine Providence which
has supported mankind in their struggle against
their own infirmities, makes the Church an integral
part of the governmental institutions, and embodies
it with the State. Nor is this opposed to the march
of social progress, to accelerate which the rationalis-
tic Liberal assumes to be the end and aim of life.
Mr. BRIGHT predicates the end and aim of life to be
the possession of much gold—" Rem quocumque
" modo "—even to the dishonour of the nation. An
intimate union betwixt Government and the Church
begets a moral and conservative force that corrects
the Radical in his eccentric deviations from the path
of endless perfectibility; and, although this path be
laid down with mathematical precision by the Radi-
cal Rationalist, yet is he himself constantly swerving
from the right, and so surely is he coerced back to
an unpalatable rectitude by his Conservative oppo-
nents. This obliquity is the result of a principle
destitute of any right end, for progress merely inter-
minable has not a fixed term nor a definite object.
Gold, commercial gold, cannot purchase happiness,
still less respectability; and Rationalism, defiant of
Providence, is neither competent to govern a nation,
to develop its energies, or to defend it from aggres-
sion. Two words comprise the essence of Conserva-
tism—faith and allegiance. Perfect faith is not
tainted by intolerance, neither does true allegiance
separate the monarch from the constitution. Man-
chester Americanism is equivocal on both points.
The former words must be taken in a large sense,
containing every duty that self•government imposes
upon each class of the State. The perfect integrity
of this system, faith and allegiance in Conservatism
combine to uphold—the change, or otherwise the
weakening of this system by attenuation, by an un-
limited extension of popular privileges, and by dis-
turbing the balances of power, is the object of the
Rationalist. A firm adhesion of its component parts,
solidly working together in perfect discipline and
essential unity, elevated the empire into a primary
State of Europe—a laxity of discipline, parliamentary
and governmental, by reiterated dilution of the con-
stitutional principle, and by an undue economy en-
forced by a small majority of Rationalists and gold
idolators, has ruined the military power of the
country, emasculated the executive, has injured the
prestige of a high name, and is disgracing the nation
to a secondary State. At present England follows
France, halting, "non pede libero." There exist the
means and the men whereby she may be made to
march " pari passu." Do you want the master mind
to resuscitate the energies of England, and to re-
exalt her mighty name! Such directing power is
possessed by the Earl of DERBY. Aro her prescrip-
tive rights to be defended from Americanism and the
gold idolators? There stands DISRAELI.
But to these two parties, Conservative and Radical,
must be annexed a third—the Neutrals. They are
Radical in word, and Conservative in deed. They
preach one thing, and practise another; they bless
the Cross, and bow down to Baal. An undue ambi•
tion tempted them to aspire to an exclusive juris-
diction, and this not by bold means, but by insidious
contrivance. They have met with signal yet not
unexpected discomfiture. Viewing them as a party,
they will damage the one to which they may adhere
in a mass and under their exclusive designation.
Their motto hitherto has been—" United we live,
"divided we die." Be it so. Let them die. And
this brings forward the point that it is desirable to
consider at the present moment. The Neutrals, not
to make use of another name, to be serviceable
either to themselves or the country, must be absorbed
into the one or other of the two great parties—Con-
servative and Radical—and without mental reservi•

259

tion. The slightest approach to jesuitry will be the
signal of ejection on either hand, and they will have
to occupy once more their present condemned posi-
tion. It they have the wisdom to disperse, they may
possibly be reunited under a brighter name and a
spotless banner; they may effect good if they have
the will to be honest; and, without an allusion to the
stool of repentance, the past may be a silent in-
structor without the constantly-recurring mortifica-
tion of a name that can never be dissociated from
party disgrace.

Obituarg.

ISMAEL.

DON CARLOS, brother of Ferdinand VII. of Spain,
and for many years pretender to the Spanish crown,
died at Trieste on Saturday last, in the sixty-seventh
year of his age. The deceased prince passed his
early life in Spain, and married, in 1816, the Infanta
Maria Francisca d'Assise, daughter of John VI., King
of Portugal. On the death of his elder brother,
Ferdinand VII., in 1832, he disputed the succession
to the throne of Spain, and, after a protracted war of
varied success and disaster, retreated into France, in
1839, when he was placed under surveillance by the
Government of Louis Philippe, and confined to the
city of Bourges until 1845, when he retired to Italy.
Don Carlos lost his first wife in 1834, and was
married secondly on the 2nd of February, 1838, by
proxy, at Saltzburgh, and on the 20th of October, of
the same year, in person, at Aspeitia, to the Infanta
Maria Theresa, Princess de Beira, daughter of John
VI., King of Portugal, and widow of the Infante
Don Pedro of Spain. By his first marriage, Don
Carlos leaves two sons, to the eldest of whom, Don
Carlos Luis Conde de Montemolin, he ceded his
claims on the Spanish throne on the 18th of May,
1845. The Conde de Montemolin was married in
July, 1850, to the Princess Maria Caroline Ferdi-
nanda, sister of Ferdinand 11., King of the Two
Sicilies.
COLONEL SIR FREDERICK IiANKF.Y, G.C.M.G., ex-
pired on Tuesday, in Montagu-square, at the advanced
age of 81. The deceased entered the 51st Foot, as
lieutenant, in 1800 ; served on the staff at Ceylon as
an asssistant-quarterma.ster.general ; in 1811 was ap-
pointed deputy inspector-general of colonial troops in
Ceylon, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the
army ; subsequently served at Malta as Deputy Judge-
Advooate ; and at Corfu BS private secretary to Sir
Thomas Maitland. lie attained the rank of colonel
in the army in 1825; received the G.C.M.O. for his
long services as secretary to the Government at
Malta, and from 1818 to 1833 was secretary to the
Order of St. Michael and St. George.
The naturalist, Cu. na MEYER, known to the
scientific world by his travels among the Altai Moun-
tains, and in the region of the Caucasus, died on the
28th ult. M. de Meyer was born in 1790 at Vitebsk.
In 1829 he ascended Mount labronz. He was a
member of the Imperial Academy of Russia, and
Director of the Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg.
SIR GEORGE LARPENT, BART., formerly well known
in political and commercial circles, died on the Bth
inst., at his residence in Conduit-street, aged about
07. Sir George, in 1847, was a candidate, on Liberal
principles, for the city of London, and he ran Mr.
Masterman to three votes. Ho had previously been
M.P. for Nottingham for a short time.
GENERAL PRINCE ANDREW GORTSCHAKOFT died at
Moscow on the 27th ult.
Among the deaths of the past week has been that
of the distinguished water-colour painter, Ma. Corot
FIELDING. He was in his sixty-ninth year.

THE Alma, a new screw steamer, 2,200 tons
burden and 460-horse power, nearly completed, has
been chartered for two years by the Government.
She is to take out troops to the Crimea, and after
that she is to run as a hospital and store ship be
tween Balaklava and Constantinople and Scutari.
CoLosid. SHEWELL, late in command of the Rth
Royal Hussars, is to command the cavalry of the
Turkish contingent, urder Major-General Vivian.
The cavalry divisions will be commanded by Colonel
Smith, late of the 15th Hussars, and Lieutenant-
Colonel William Atayne, of the East India Company"

Service.
AN AMATEUR soiree musicale will be held on Tues-
day, March 20, at the Hanover-square Rooms, for the
relief of the sick and wounded at Scutari. The pro-
ceeds are to be presented to Miss Nightingale.
THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL reports that the health
of London has undergone some improvement. The
1,377 deaths that were registered in the week ended
on Saturday exceed the average number (1,220), but
are less by 183 than the death's in the preceding
week. Persons of the age of sixty to eighty bare
experienced the greatest relief; their deaths fell in
the two weeks from 362 to 280.
Ow Saturday the Great Britain steamer received
on board, at Queenstown, drafts from the 17th, 2lat,
30th, 400, 57th, 02nd, and 03rd regiments. She
takes to the Crimes altogether 1,600 men Med 140
Olicrts, and fifteen fiance:

Yittratart.

The Literary Life and Correspondence of the
Countess of Blessington. By R. R. Madden,
M.R.I.A. London : Newby.
MR. MADDEN should have selected as the
motto of this work the significant adage,
" Save me from my friends!" He would thus
have fitly expressed the moral of the publica-
tion, so far as it involves the unhappy lady
who is the principal object of his labo rs.
But this is a matter beyond our province. It
is no part of our duty to sit in censorship
upon the errors of friendship. That which
concerns us, and our readers, is the moral of
the book as it relates to literature and society.
Nothing can be more satisfactory than the
principles Mr. Madden lays down at the
outset for the government of biography :
The great aim (he observes) is to make the truthful
portraiture of the person we describe, and present to the
public, stand out in a distinct shape and form, distinguish-
able from all surrounding objects, an instructive, directive,
suggestive, encouraging, or admonitory representation of a
character and career, as the case may be.

Again :
If he [the biographer] has to deal with the career of one
who has played an important part in public life, or in
fashionable circles, and would attain the object I have re-
ferred to, he will have to speak freely and fearlessly of the
miseries and vexations of a false position, however splendid
that position may be ; miseries which may not be escaped
from by any efforts to keep them out of sight or hearing,
either in the turmoil of a fashionable life, in the tumult of
its pleasures, or in the solitude of the dressing-room, the
stillness of which is often more intolerable than the desert
gloom, the desolation of Mar Saba, or the silence of La
Trappe.
This is excellent, and full of promise.
The biographer's duty is to give a truth-
ful portraiture of the person he describes ;
and if that person occupied a false position,
he is to speak freely and fearlessly of its
miseries and vexations. Nothing can be more
satisfactory. Let us see how Mr. Madden has
discharged this duty.
Whoever has been acquainted with the
notorieties of London life during the last
eighteen or twenty years, must be familiar
with a large house standing within gates in
Kensington Gore, where a once beautiful
woman, who enjoyed what may be called,
without offence to the living or the dead, a
special reputation, resided in the latter part
of her career. Out of those gates might be
seen emerging on opera nights the sumptuous
carriage which conveyed the lady to the well-
known box, from which she was rarely absent
on those occasions ; and in the descending
crush, when the entertainment was over, her
liveries might be distinguished from a thou-
sand in the hall below by their brilliant singu-
larity. Out of the same gates might also be
seen issuing daily a cabriolet of rare perfection
in form and colour, picked out with exquisite
delicacy, carrying behind a tiger so tiny that
he might have served for the chariot of
Titania, and looking in his miniature cords,
top-boots, and looped hat, exactly as if he had
just been freshly pranked out by the fairies to
wait upon their queen. Within, sat the model
of a fashionable athlete, combining something
of the beauty of Adonis, a little materialised
by voluptuous living, and the indolent strength
of Hercules ; luxurious to effeminacy in his
air ; original and distinctive in his style and ap-
pointments, from the liberal display of chest,
the careful tie, and fancy-coloured gloves, to
the snowy reins, which he handled with
admirable grace and mastery.. Over that
mansion and its inmates hung a cloud of
mystery. But as the darkest cloud is said to
have a silver lining, so the interior of Gore
house was understood to be resplendent with
a secret glory of its own. There were, of
course, many strange stories current touching
the antecedents that had led up to this esoteric
magnificence, and many speculations con-
cerning the means by which so much splendour
was sustained. Year after year the mystery
grew deeper and deeper ; Penis, of a class who
might be supposed to have no legitimate busi-
ness in such quarters, watched in vain at the
gates for an opportunity of penetrating the
paradise within ; the cabriolet no longer
appeared—except occasionally on a Sunday;
and ominous rumours portended a coming
catastrophe. At last it cam
e. The inmates