The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

1218

For tho' to our Premier it's very polite,
tie keeps his own counsel as "dark" as night,
Despising his treacherous Parasite.
Scorning its power, and mocking its might,
And taking, perchance, a jocose delight
Tn watching it groping in vain for light,
Fishing for news, but not getting a bite,
Tho' it cunningly labours to incite
Our coy young Premier's appetite
For praise from his two-tongued proselyte,
And almost threatens to turn and smite
If the journal's assistance he won't invite.
So the Times talks nothing but twaddle trite—
That war, in sooth, is a scourge and blight,
But the cause is holy for which we fight ;
That Peace with Plenty's a pleasant sight,
But that black is black, and that white ist white.
This, with a sneer or two at Bright,
And the quantum of Billingsgate requisite
Showered on our generals, wrong or right,
Is all that the Times can dare indite,
Which it does with a gravity exquisite,
For its imprudence is by no means slight,
But, like its venality, infinite.

But what says the Post, our dear old Post,
The paper that comes up with eggs and toast
To the breakfast-tables of all, or most,
Who affect to belong to Fashion's host,
And in doubtful grammar delights to boast
That it's Pam's own paper, who rules the roast—
Oh, what says the dear old drivelliug Post .1

Well, the Post says little of Peace or War,
Till Pam chooses to say which he enters for.
Then 'twill be time for the Post to begin,
Now 'tis engrossed with Lord Durham's twin—
The elder, of course, who will be the Earl,
And who wears (the Post tells us) a gem of real pearl,
And not of the kind that folks call mother,
To distinguish the Viscount from his brother.
It thinks it its duty this fact to state,
As journals quite ignorant of the great
Have had the audacity to declare
That a necklace of turquoise betokened the heir.:
But what say the People? We care not a boddle§
For the Times's fury or Post's weak twaddle ;
Rogues may storm and asses may bray,
But what do the sensible People say?
Well, they say that the War was right and just,
That Wrong must be trampled in the dust;
But that War in itself is no holy thing.
Nor men's lives mere puppets, of which the string
Is held by Placemen at home to guide,
Just as it suits their passions or pride ;
That the goal once reached, each drop of blood
Causelessly shed for party good,
That all the hearths left desolate,
That all who weep the cruel fate
Of son, or sire, or husband slain,
Will cry to Heaven—and not in vain—
If selfish men prolong the fray
When War's sole plea has passed away.
4. Except when the editor of the Times asserts white to be black and black white, in which
case his fiat is ell-sufficient to cause a triinsmutation of those colours.
t See the Morning Post of a week or two back for full particulars of the nursery arrange-
ments of the noble young Lembsons.
I The sixth of a penny.—Sir Walter Scott.

Cabinet Councils were held on Thursday and
Friday afternoons, at the Foreign Office. The
Ministers present were Viscount Palmerston, the
Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl
Granville, the Earl of Harrowhy, Sir George Grey,
the Earl of Clarendon, Mr. Secretary Laboucherb,
Lord Panmine, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Sir Charles Wood, the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith,
Lord Stanley of Alderley, the Right Hon. M. T.
Baines, and the Duke of Argyll. The Council set
two hours and a half on each occasion.

The Cabinet Ministers met on Thursday at the
War Department. There were present Lord Gran-
ville, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Paprpgre. The
meeting sat two hours.

A despatch from Berlin, vie Paris, asserts that the
Emperor of Russia has, through Pount Munster,
returned an answer to the letter of the King of Prus-
sia, advising the acceptation of the tents °tared by
the allied powers. The Emperor Alexstider is said
to state that, if be wished, I e could not agree to the
demands of the Western powers, the nature of
which he was perfectly familar with, although they
had not reached him in an otikial form.

The Swedish Ambassador at Vienna is said also to
have formally announced to the Auxtrian Minister
for foreign Affairs, that his Cabinet adbetes II) the
views of the Western.iplowers in regard to the OUT
vointof guarantoel

_ I