The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-28 00:00:00

such considerations were too delicate for Lord
JOHN'S perception. He saw nothing but his
mess of pottage steaming under his nose. He
would have it, cost what it might. The Duke
of BEDFORD was consulted, the Coalition was
formed, the Tory Government was ousted,
and we are now gathering the fruits of Whig
victory. Lord JOHN is returning from Vienna
with the last laurel he has won in diplomacy
on his brow. His first was his memorable
reply to the despatch of Sir HAMILTON SEY-
moun, expressing total disbelief in the proba-
bility of Russian aggression. Still the tute-
lary genius of the State, he comes to cheer
the drooping spirit of the nation—to prompt
his Premier—and, perhaps, from the univer
sality of his talents to find some specific for
curing Lord PANMURE of the gout, and for
propping up the decrepid ricketty reputation
of his party. The " mihi plaudo ipse domi "
will not be wanting to him while he keeps in Sir
CHARLES WOOD at the Admiralty, and Sir G.
CORNEWAI.L LEWIS at the Exchequer. Let the
people scoff as they please, and the nation de-
cline as it may, what are hisses and disaster
to the solid benefits he confers on the fami-
lies included in his compact by his admirable
tact and his insatiable rapacity? His past
successes are beacons to future triumphs, and
perhaps he desires nothing at this moment so
much as some fresh opportunity of posturing
in a new part, and of again appealing to the
City of London.
For the country the prospect is less cheer-
ing. We are engaged in a contest which is
adding at least twenty millions a year to our
national debt—which is arresting all progress
—draining the best life blood of our popula-
tion—yet of which no one can explain the
object or foresee the termination. The
benefits of Whig rule have at last reached
their apogee ; by all means let us erect a
triumphal arch, with a figure of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL for its summit, holding his despatch
to Sir HAMILTON SEYMOUR in one hand, and his
new Reform Bill in the other. No satire can
be too keen for the nation which, pretending
to the title of great, suffers itself to be juggled
of its power by tricks it discerns and mounte-
banks
it despises
By what confusion and mismanagement it
is that the Vienna conferences have come to
i naught, we pretend not at this moment to
know. Their failure is humiliating. They
must have been commenced on insufficient
grounds, or they must have miscarried through
deplorable blundering. We see only that
Austria reaps all the advantages of the war,
while still evading participation in it. Her
forces occupy the Principalities. For the last
two years we have had nothing but assurances
from the men in power of her sincerity„,and
zeal, without one single act to justify tHem.
Is it possible that the Parliament will not now,
when it may be almost said that, from the
failure of negotiations, we are entering on a
new war, demand some distinct explanation of
the policy which is to be pursued?
If a confederation of nations, inspired by
a diabolic cunning, were to determine on the
ruin of the British empire, it could take no
more effectual means to fulfil its purpose
than those which the Administration of "old
" old Whigs," with the persistence of fatuity, is
following out at this hour. Our expenditure,
by admissions on all sides, has become " un-
controllable;" it is the incontestable verdict of
experience that national debt once contracted is
never paid off; the force of our army, reduced