The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

the assistance which we have given them. (Cheers.)
We have also the representative of the King of Sar
dinia—(cheers)—whose character as a Sovereign, and
the character of whose people, have excited the
warmest sympathy throughout the whole of this nation,
whose conduct has excited our admiration, and whose
good faith has inspired our most implicit confidence.
(Loud eh era.) I trust that these representatives
of our Allies, let them go where they will through the
length and breadth of the land, will hear nothing
which will not entitle them to report to their respec-
tive Sovereigns that, while we place the utmost confi-
dence and reliance upon the constancy with which they
will support us in the war in which we are engaged, that
they may rely with equally implicit confidence upon the
full determination of the people of this country to carry on
the war to a safe and honourable termination. (Cheers.)
No man can doubt that when these four powers are ear-
nest in a cause—when they have drawn the sword with the
fun determination not to sheathe it till they have com-
pleted the purpose for which they began it—(loud cheers)
—no man, I say, can doubt that no human efforts opposed
to their will can be successful in marring their exertions.
(Cheers.) In conclusion, the noble lord proposed " The
health of the Right Ron. the Lord Mayor."

A NeNEROUSLY-ATIENDED MEETING OF ONNTBUS
PROPRIETORS was held on Wednesday evening at
Hungerford Hotel, Hungerford-market, for the pur-
pose of taking into consideration the question of the
proposed formation of a Parisian Omnibus Company
in London. The feeling of the meeting was strongly
against the proposition, and resolutions to that effect
were adopted.
A NEW PREPARATION OF PEAT has just been dis-
covered by a chymist at Cologne. his denominated
" Cialine peat," and is said to excel any other fuel in
the intensity of its heat and flame. The experiments
hitherto made in forges show that cialine will pro-
duce a flame several feet long, while common peat
will only give one seven or eight inches long.
TILE HEAVY GALE which commenced last Satur-
day, and blew with tremendous violence all Sunday
and Monday, caused great havoc on the east coast,
between Harwich and Cromer, where a large fleet of
coasters had taken refuge from the south-west gales
of the early part of the week. Several were lost ; and
out of a fleet of some 4UO sail scarcely one escaped
without loss of cables, anchors, or spars.

THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S RETURNS for the week
exhibit a mortality still below the average, while the
births also were below the usual average. 919 deaths
were registered in the week that ended on Saturday,
November 3, or 109 less than the corrected average
of previous years. The births of 671 boys and 675
girls, in all 1,346 children, were also registered in
London. In the ten corresponding weeks of the
years 1853-54 the average number was 1,440.

THOSE classes who profit by the war appear to be
surprised that the income tax collectors should ferret
them out, for it is reported that a great sensation has
been created amongst the various artisans of the
dockyard at Devonport at being served with demands
for 41. 15s. income tax. During the last twelve
months they have been employed at unlimited earn •
ings, which in numerous instances have made their
incomes rather more than LOU per Annum, and
hence liable to the tax. All parties, of course, have
the right of appeal, but, as the demands have been
made from official documents, none can hope to
escape.

THE NEW ACT UPON BILLS OF EXCHANGE appears
to be defective. A coach and four, it used to be
said, could be driven through most acts of Parlia-
ment, but a whole excursion train, to use a more
modern figure, may run thr. ugh this. It seems
that there is no provision to allow costs. By the
statute a special indorsement is to be made on the
writ of summons giving notice to the defendant that
if the amount of the bill, with the interest and costs
of noting, be paid within the period specified, prooeed-
ings would be stayed. The indorsement, it is considered
by the profession, will not permit costs to be charged
if the amount be paid within the limited period.
The question arises, whether by the Common Law
Procedure Act, which is incorporated with the new
law, or by the judges framing rules, as they are em-
powered to do, a remedy can be found. Some persons
entertain the opinion that costs were omitted. Ons
thing is clear—the lawyers regard the defect as one of
considerable importance.

A STRIKE IN MANCHESTER among the operatives is
not improbable. On Wednesday evening last a meet-
ing of factory operatives was held in Manchester in con-
sequence of a number of masters having given notice
to their operatives of an intended reduction of
wages equal to ten or twelve per cent. The attend-
ance was very numerous. After considerable discus-
sion, it was unanimously agreed "that the hands who
have received notices come out as their notices ex-
pire." A provisional committee of seven persons
was also appointed to call future meetings and
manage the turnout. It was agreed that 6d. a week
should be collected from minders and 3d. from
pierces to support the turnouts.

SATURDAY,

tertian ntelligenct.

SOUTHWARK.-Mr. Scovell has retired from the
contest. In taking leave of the electors he explained
that he was unacquainted with the force of the cry of
"an ill-used man," and hence he would not continue
and expensive and uncertain contest. The field has
thus been left open to Sir Charles Napier, who, at
present, appears certain to be returned without any
further contest. The writs for this borough will be
issued on Wednesday next, and the election take
place on the following Monday.

TorsEss.—Lord Gifford has been returned unop-
posed for this borough. The noble lord in his
hustings speech, thanking the electors for the honour
done him, expounded his recreant views of Conser-
vatism by stating that " the Conservative party had
uniformly opposed all progress." It was a singular
coincidence that, at the time Lord Gifford delivered
himself of this pleasant jeu d'esprit. Lord Palmers-
ton was seeking in the foremost ranks of the
Conservatives for a Colonial Secretary.

WELL3.—Captain Joliffe, the Conservative candi-
date, has issued a second address, in which he states
that his canvass has been even more successful than
he had anticipated, and that the promises of support
which he has received leave no doubt of his success.
Mr. Sergeant Kinglake, the Liberal candidate, has
also issued another address, in which he says that
the result of his canvass " has realised all his
expectations."

MIUTH.—Tbe return of Mr. Farrell is very
doubtful. It is not improbable that the borough will
be closely contested, several candidates being spoken
of as in the field.

THE SULTAN has sent to the generals who directed
the defence of Kars, sabres enriched with diamonds,
and decorations to the officers who distinguished
themselves in the affair of September 29. The town
of Kars is exempted from all taxation for three years,
as a reward to it for the devoted attention bestowed
on the garrison by the inhabitants during the entire
progress of the siege.
THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA is stated to have formally
declared to a German power "that the late events of
the war have rendered peace impossible for Russia."
It is certain that the Czar is about to employ the
winter in creating new army corps, and building gun-
boats at Nicolaieff.

THE TOTAL NUMBER OF NEWSPAPERS in the
World has been calculated in the following scale.-
10 in Austria, 14 in Africa, 24 in Spain, 26 in Portu-
gal, 30 in Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in Denmark, 50 in
Russia and Poland, 850 in other Germanic States,
500 in Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly 2,000
in the United States, or nearly twice as many as in
all other nations.

ELISABETHGARD, the place to which the Emperor
Alexander has gone, is situate to the north of
Nicolaieff, in the midst of a fertile plain. It is an
important town, standing on the two hanks of the
Ingul to the east and north of the citadel. The
streets of the town are regular, and the churches
numerous, but the houses are plastered over with
a fine white clay, which is decked in such a way with
quartz and mica as to dazzle and latigue the eye.
To the east of the town is an important suburb, on a
height, surmounted with windmills ; beyond is the
steppe, and at intervals on the horizon may be seen
some of the hills so frequently found in this part of
the world and in the Crimea, in which the ancient
Scythians were accustomed to bury their heroes, and
which resemble the Celtic tombs of Ireland.
AMERICAN SYMPATHY WITH Russia, according to
the American papers, is very sincere. The Russians,
says the New York Herald, receive great supplies of
arms and ammunition from America, and from all
New England. They have bought all the saltpetre
that could be got hold of, through means of agents,
and this has had a great effect on the market.
Powder and arms have been sent to Russia in immense
quantities. A famous clipper-ship that sailed from
New York "for San Francisco and a market,"
some
months ago, took out nothing but Hazard powder,
Colt's pistols, and similar Connecticut " notions," the
market " being the most convenient port in which
they can be landed for the Czar's use. A huge quan-
tity of powder is now being put up in such a way as
to be mistaken for logwood by careless examiners,
and will be sent to Russia from Portland. The salt-
petre that the Russians have bought here all came
from Calcutta; so that the English may have the
satisfaction of knowing that their dominions have
supplied the Czar with this most important mate-
rial of war.

NOVEMBER 10, 1855.

yittraturt.

History of the Reign of Philip 11., King of
Spain. By W. H. Prescott. Two Yols.
London : Bentley.

THEsE two portly volumes contain only the
first twelve years of the reign of Philip 11.,
and hence we suppose the entire work will
Occupy not less than six or eight volumes.
It strikes us that this space is out of all pro-
portion to the ►subject, and we are sure that
the narrative is at times unnecessarily prolix.
Mr. Prescott is diligent and learned ; his style
is lucid, and he manages with admirable skill
to discriminate those portions of his history
which are essentially distinct, and to treat
them in separate books with great advantage
to the convenience and interest of the reader.
Against these merits, however, are to be set
great minuteness in the detail of trivial or
unimportant matters (more noticeable in this
history than in any of Mr. Prescott's previous
productions), and a total absence of those finer
qualities of intellect which in the highest
order of historic composition flash forth to
enlighten the mind of the reader and charm
his fancy. Genius has a kind of transmuting
property, which improves whatever it touches—
" truths divine come mended from its tongue "
—and the events of the past receive new
elements of significance and fascination when
subjected to its scrutiny. A really great his-
torian is always full of original ideas, and the
history itself can never be separated from
the author. But Mr. Prescott is a narrator
merely : beyond his excessive prolixity, he
has scarcely a distinguishing characteristic
on which we can seize. With every disposi-
tion to laud his labours, we can scarcely set
them higher than faithful and ingenious com•
pilations. Like our Lord Mahon, he is pains-
taking in his investigations, and wields a
fluent pen, but we are often compelled to wish
that he better understood the merits of com-
pression.
Every one acquainted with old chronicles
must have observed the space they bestow
on the description of mere pageantry. Their
elaborate word-painting has some value for
the illustration of manners, but it should be
introduced sparingly in a historic narrative.
Mr. Prescott does not seem to think so : the
passage descriptive of the marriage of Philip
with our Queen Mary, will serve to show the
manner in which his narrative is needlessly
spun out
if an hour elapsed before Philip was joined by the
Que 4 n at the entrance of the cathedral. Mary was sur-
roamed by the lords and ladies of her Court. Her
dress, of white satin and cloth of gold, like his own, was
studded and fringed with diamonds of inestimable
price, some of them, doubtless, the gift of Philip, which
he had sent to her by the hands of the Prince of Eboli,
soon after his landing. Her bright-red slippers, and her
mantle of black velvet, formed a contrast to the rest of
her apparel, and, for a bridal costume, would hardly suit
the taste of the present day. The royal party then
moved up the nave of the cathedral, and were received
in the choir by the Bishop of Winchester, supported by
the great prelates of the English Church. The greatest of
all, Cranmer, the Primate of all England, who should have
penormed the ceremony, was absent—in disgrace and a

.
pry oner.
hilip and Mary took their seats under a royal canopy,
with an altar between them. The Queen was surrounded
by the ladies of her Court ; whose beauty, says an Italian
wr;ter, acquired additional lustre by contrast with the
shi dowy completions of the South. The aisles and spacious
galleries were crowded with spectators of every degree,
drawn together from the most distant quarters to witness
the ceremony
The effect of the spectacle was heightened by the
various costumes of the two nations—the richlytinted and
picturesque dresses of the Spaniards, and the solid magni-
ficence of the English and Flemings, mingling together in
gay confusion. The glittering procession moved slowly on.
to the blithe sounds of festal music, while the air was rent
with the loyal acclamations of the populace, delighted, as
ni nal, with the splendour of the pageant.
S 1 ectacular effects of this kind are continually
&tailed at great length. There are readers
whom this trivial minuteness will amuse, but,
for our own part, we have a strong objection
to history written after the Miss Strickland
model.
Mr. Prescott is not fortunate in being com-
pelled to take Philip IL as the principal
ligure of the extensive canvas he designs to
fill. There is no character in history more
thoroughly detestable. He had not even the

THE PRESS.

vices of greatness. Nature had cast him in
small proportions, and his parts were only
swollen by the greatness of his position and
by the venom of his bigotry. Of all bad men,
those are the worst who, with a hard but
narrow intellect, and totally devoid of human
sympathies, are ruffed up with an opinion of
their own infallibility, and abandon them-
selves to the worship of some malignant
principle, with a conviction that it alone is
supremely worthy their devotion. Of this
character are bigots in all ages. Philip 11.,
like Robespierre (to whom his character had
strong points of resemblance), went far, be-
cause he believed what he professed. As
Robespierre kept the guillotine in activity for
the sake of liberty, Philip kept the axe and
the auto-dale in constant requisition for the
greater glory of God
Fanatical despots of this kind are a class by
themselves. They have little in common with
the full-blooded tyrants who rush to the
perpetration of atrocities for the indulgence
of their passions, or with the usurpers who
advance to the realisation of their ambitious
schemes by removing every obstacle that lies
in their path. About the worst of these
monsters there is something human; their
passions connect them with the rest of man-
kind. But the hard, suspicious, phlegmatic
bigots who think that duty consists in cruelty
—who thank God as they sign warrants send-
ing their fellow-creatures to the scaffold or the
stake—who have learnt to shrink from charity
as a crime, and to believe that their virtue
increases with their atrocity —have every
avenue choked by which they might be led to
a better disposition. In their• whole lives it
is vain to look for one generous act or human
frailty. A man never becomes so truly fiendish
as when he is removed equally from all
human virtues and human weaknesses.
A weak and indiscriminating criticism has
pleaded in favour of such men that they are
respectable in their morals and habits. Philip
11. was in some points of conduct a model of
propriety : his habits were regular, he was
indefatigable in the transaction of closet
business; his personal expense was moderate ;
his dress neat and plain. " His demeanour,"
writes our author, " was grave, with that
" ceremonious observance which marked the
" old Castilian, and which may be thought the
" natural expression of Philip's slow and
" phlegmatic temperament." This sort of
respectability belongs to the peculiar tempera
ment of the men ; it is the formalism in which
th• most merciless and heartless kind of
inhumanity cases itself; and to our mind
tends only to make the character more tho•
roughly odious and despicable, as it certainly
makes it more dangerous : of all monsters,
those of the respectable and incorruptible
class are the worst. The historical student
is compelled to notice how instrumental the
Church of Rome has been in moulding this
class of character.
Mr. Prescott opens his history with the
abdication of Charles V., and then goes back
to trace the early years of Philip. He was
born in 1527, and, being early introduced to
public affairs, was, when only fourteen, ap-
pointed Regent, with a council to guide him,
during his father's absence from Spain on a
military expedition. Two years later he was
married to the Infanta Mary of Portugal ; and
Mr. Prescott is happy in having to describe
the nuptial pageantry. He tells us not only
that the Infanta wore a dress of cloth of silver,
and that the housings of her mule were of
rich brocade, but that all the officials of
Salamanca met her " in their robes of office
" of crimson velvet, with hose and shoes of
" spotless white." From this union sprang
the unfortunate Don Carlos, whose hapless
fate has suggested to Schiller his noblest
drama. The Infanta survived the birth of her
son but a few days, and the child was thus
thrown early on the care of its harsh father.
Philip's next alliance was with Mary, in 1555 ;
and he seems to have taken extraordinary
pains to make himself popular in England,
though without much success. In the same
year his father resigned to him all his
authority, and at the age of twenty-seven
Philip found himself the most powerful
monarch in Europe.

1075

The volumes of Mr. Prescott are too exten-
sive for us to travel through. The chief sub•
jects embraced in them are the wars of Philip
with the Pope and with France, the com-
mencement of the great struggle in the
Netherlands, the war with the Turks, and,
lastly, the domestic relations of Philip and
the dark history of the unfortunate Don
Carlos. The narrative on all these subjects,
mostinteresting in themselves, is precise,
and in parts only too copious. Some im-
portant passages which were shrouded in
mystery before have been cleared up by Mr.
Prescott's diligence.
In the narrative of the war with France a
spirited account is given of the fall of Calais.
The loss of this place was the great obstacle
to the conclusion of peace when all the belli-
gerents were tired of the struggle. When the
Congress met, the English envoys declared,
" If we return without the recovery of Calais,
" we shall be stoned to death by thie people."
The death of Mary did not improve the pro-
spect, for it was currently reported that the
new English Queen " would cut off the head
" of any Minister who should abandon Calais."
In this perplexity Philip, who strongly desired
peace, determined to bring the question to an
issue :
Philip ordered the Spanish plenipotentiaries to write
his final instructions to Feria, his Minister in London.
The envoy was authorised to say, that, although England
had lost Calais through her own negligence, yet Philip
would stand faithfully by her for the recovery of it. But,
on the other hand, she must be prepared to support him
with her whole strength by land and by sea, and that not
for a single campaign, but for the war so long as it lasted.
The Government should ponder well whether the prize
would be worth the cost. Feria must bring the matter
home to the Queen, and lead her, if possible, to the desired
conclusion ; but so that she might appear to come to it by
her own suggestion rather than by his. The responsibility
must be left with her. The letter of the plenipotentiaries,
which is a very long one, is a model in its way, and shows
that, in some particulars, the science of diplomacy has
gained little since the sixteenth century.
The English Government yielded, and made
the most singular compromise ever devised to
soothe the wounded vanity of a people :
The English Government at last consented to an ar-
rangement, which, if it did not save Calais, so far
saved appearances that it might satisfy the nation. It
was agreed that Calais should be restored at the end of
eight years. if France failed to do this, she was to pay
five hundred thousand crowns to England, whose claims
to Calais would not, however, be affected by such a pay-
ment. Should either of the parties, or their subjects,
during that period, do anything in contravention of this
treaty, or in violation of the peace between the two coun-
tries, the offending party should forfeit all claim to the dis-
puted territory.
The loss, keenly as it was felt at the time,
was a fortunate one for England, as Mr. Pres-
cott justly states that Calais was held by the
English only as a door by which they might
at pleasure invade France.
This peace was no sooner concluded than
the troubles in the Netherlands commenced.
The bigoted and repressive rule of Philip was
intolerable to the free spirit of the men of
Flanders. The Duchess Margaret of Parma,
Philip's half sister, was appointed by him
Regent of the Netherlands; and while the
gloomy monarch was enlarging the powers of
the Inquisition in Spain, and superintending
autos-da-fe, the Regent Margaret was endea-
vouring to withstand the progress of the
Reformation in the Netherlands, and to
satisfy the demands of the people for tolera-
tion. With great difficulty some concessions
were wrung from Philip—as that the Inquisi-
tion should be abolished in the Netherlands,
and a general pardon be granted at the discre-
tion of the monarch, but it is instructive to
mark the bigot's mental reservations :
Slight as these concessions were, and crippled by con-
ditions which rendered them nearly nugatory, it will hardly
be believed that he was not even sincere in making them
This is proved by a revelation lately made of a curious
document in the Archives of Simanctui.
While the ink was scarcely dry on the despatches to
Margaret, Philip summoned a notary into his presence,
and before the Duke of Alva and two other persons, pinata,
solemnly protested that the authority he had given to the
Regent in respect to a general pardon was not of his own
free will. " lie therefore did not feel bound by it, but re-
served to himself the right to punish the !guilty, and especi-
ally the authors and abettors of sedition in the Low Coital
tries."
Faithfully did Philip keep his intents n
ot
s.
interference lie wanted. The Duke of Alva
The religious riots gave him the preten
was soon after sent to the Netherlands