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

TAE Muss.

A discussion took place, on the motion fot• an
adjournnient till Monday, respecting the terms on
which officers should be allowed to enter upon full
pay, Mr. PEEL stating that the subject was not
finally decided, and Sir DE L. EVANS urging that
such privileges should be strictly defined, and con-
fined to services really distinguished.
Mr. BRIGHT inquired if the Governinetit had
received information of the affair on the African

coast ?
Sir C. WOOD replied that no despatch on the sub-
ject had been received at the Admiralty.
On the motion that the Metropolitan Local Man •
agement Bill be read a third time,
Lord EBRINGTON took credit for the improve-
ments which bad been made in the bill.
Sir H. WILLOUGHBY approved •of the preamble,
expressing doubts as to the machinery, and hoped
that the principle would be extended to the other
towns in the kingdom.
Sir B. Hsu, replied to certain suggestions of
detail, alter which the bill was read a third time.
Some clauses and alterations were introduced,
and the bill passed.
The house then went into committee on the
Turkish Loan, on which Lord PALMERSTON moved a
resolution sanctioning the joint guarantee of England
and France. In so doing he adverted to the noble
efforts Turkey was making in the cause of her rode •
pendence,_and that it was no disgrace to her to want
money. There was every prospect of ultimate re-
payment: the resources of Turkey were vast, and
capable of great development. The Egyptian
revenue would be specially appropriated to the pay •
went of the interest, and the whole revenue of
Turkey pledged to the liquidation of the debt. The
guaranteeing Governments would take steps that the
amount should be applied to the purposes of
the war.
Mr. Bremen° deprecated a return to the system of
subsidies, and pointed out the difficulties that
might arise from a joint and several guarantee be-
tween the two Governments of France and
England.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER denied that
the guarantee could be in any way considered as a
subsidy. The joint guarantee was given at the spe-
cial request of France, with whom an agreement was
made that each country should bear an equal share
if called upon to pay any part of the debt.
Mr. GLADSTONE strongly objected to the system
of guarantees, alleging that on no occasion were
the countries guaranteeing able to escape the pay-
ment of the debt. If we were called upon to give a
subsidy, let us do so honestly and frankly, not
entangle and inveigle ourselves by a false operation.
No one could see the end of this system if once
began. He objected to 'the perplexities that would
arise from the joint guarantees, and thought the
measnre a retrogade step, fraught with danger. He
dwelt upon the political difficulties likely to arise
in future, the complication which might follow with
Turkey if she forgot or was unable to pay the debt,
and the abandonment of all our precedents of
policy and economy. The Sardinian Loan was so
constructed as to be a bond fide loan, of which the
present transaction bore an appearance. He urged
the necessity of taking from Turkey more tangible
security for the payment of the debt. Some such
security ought to have appeared in the treaty itself.
Lord PALMERSTON said that the object was to give
assistance to Turkey in the manner at once most
useful to her and least burdensome to ourselves.
He stated that conditions of security for repayment
would be made the subject of a future treaty. The
advantages of a guarantee over a loan was, that
Turkey would get an immediate advantage, while
France and England escaped any immediate burden.
Mr. DISRAELI, seeing no difference between na-
tional credit and national capital, characterised the
transaction as a direct advance of money. He
doubted the account given by Lord Palmerston of
the resources of Turkey. He had made similar
statements of those of Greece in the days of the
Greek loan. At the beginning of pecuniary relations
with Turkey, we ought to know clearly the nature of
our engagement, and should have proofs of the ab-
solute necessity. Upon the plea now advanced we
might have to guarantee money to any extent. He
looked tinOn the joint guarantee with alarm in rela-
tion to future misunderstandings with our ally, and
thought that our arrangements for interfering with
the internal revenue of Turkey as security for oar
interest pregnant with danger.
Sir DE LACY EVANS admitted that the house
might object to the imperfect communication given
them, but hoped that no serious obstacle would be
thrown in the way of our assisting Turkey.
Mr. LAING wished for more definite information
on the present transaction. Professing the inde-
pendence of Turkey, we were securing her de-
pendence.
Mr. COBDEN contrasted the assurance given a year
ago of the progress of Turkey with tho account now
given of her necessities. We were establishing a
mortgage over the revenues of Egypt, Syria, and

SATuRbAy,

AMA Minor, depriving Turkey of ber resources, all
with a view to her independence. If she had suf-
fered thus at the end of a year's war, what would be
her condition at the end of six
Mr. WILKINSON thougLt that money should be
granted to Turkey, but would have preferred a
direct loan.
Mr. CARDWELL summed up the objections to the
convention: that it took from the people money over
which it was to have no control; that there was no
necessity for its expenditure ; that it involved a
disguise, a deception ; and the political conse-
quences it entailed upon us of jealousies between
ourselves and France and quarrels with Turkey.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER detailed the
difficulties that would arise in our political relations
if the convention *ere not carried out.
Mr. WALPOLE urged the Government to reconsider
their determination. The argument which they had
just heard was directly against the use by Parliament
of its constitutional powers.
Lord PALMERSTON defended the Government pro-
position as the only practicable one, and urged the
serious inconveniences if it became necessary to
enter into a fresh contention, and made an appeal to
the patriotism of the souse.
The committee divided—
For the resolution
Against it

Majority
This announcement was received with loud cheers
by the Opposition.
On the motion for going into committee of supply,
Mr. SPOONER moved for a select committee to in-
quire into circumstances connected with the May-
nooth report.
The motion was opposed by Mr. HousitAt.
After a prolonged and confused discussion the
house divided—
For Mr. Spooner's motion
Against
Majority against Government
21
The house adjourned at half-past one o'clock.

The Emperor Napoleon is shortly expected to
leave Paris for Boulogne, where he will be joined by
the Empress, and remain until the tithe fixed for
'Queen Victoria's visit. Their Majesties will proceed
to Calais, *here their illustrious guests will disem-
bark ; and the reviewing of the troops assembled at
Helfaut, and visiting the garrisons, will take up the
time of the august visitors from Thursday the 16th
or August until the ensuing Monday, when their
Majesties and l'rince Albert will proceed to Paris
and St. Cloud. The usual public rejoicings will not
take place on the 15th, the money usually spent on
that occasion (some 12,0001.) being devoted to the
relief of the widows aid orphans of the soldiers who
have failed in the present war. A aeries of very
splendid entertainments will, however, be given by
the Emperor; but these, it is Said, *ill be of a
comparatively private nature. The only public fete
on tleoccasion will be given by the municipality of
Paris, who will offer her Majesty and Prince Albert
a ball or dejeuner.
The subscription for the loan commenced on Wed-
nesday. There were immense crowds at the Trea-
sury and all the mairies. There is not the least
doubt that the subscriptions will greatly eiteed the
amount required.

Advices from Vienna announce a reduction in the
Austrian army occupying the principalities, corre-
sponding to that which hes just taken place in
Gailicia. The troops are embarked in stramers,
and conveyed, some to Hungary ant bonne to
Vienna.

An immense fire broke out during the great fair
at Novogorod„, in Russia. it destropd a great
quantity of merchandise, to the value of 3,000,0410 of
roubles.
The Paris correspondent of the Tiles states
that the report of a recent circular py Count
Walewski is unfounded. No such circulic has been
issued.

From Hanover, on Thursday, it was announced
that the resignation of the Cabinet was hourly ex-
pected. Count Platen, who has arrived pr.om Paris,
would, it was believed, be the new Premer.

It is said that the Pope intends to appoint an
Italian bishop to the "now vacant see o. Constanti-
nople."

TEN THOUSAND LETTERS were landedat Lisbon by
the mail steamer Great Western from the Brazils•
6,000 of these were from Rio de Janeiroalone. They
isiele all punched twice with a chisel, am then thrown
into a window, on a grating beneath witch disinfect-
ing substances were burning to fumigab thew,

JULY 21, 1855.

Sittraturt.

Blaokstone's Commentaries. Systematically
Abridged and Adapted to the Existing
State of the Law and Constitution. With
Great Additions. By Samuel Warren,

D.C.L., &c. London : Maxwell.
IT is great praise when a critic can conscien-
tiously say that a work the title of which dis-
plays so much promise as the present, has
fully, honestly, and thoughtfully redeemed
the pledge. Blackstone extricated the law of
England from the confusion of some six ten
tunes of legislation and judicial decisions.
Subsequent commentators before Mr. Warren
were content to reproduce Blackstone, and
point out in notes or brackets where he was
obsolete or repealed, so that at last the notes
outgrew the work itself, and Blackstone be-
came a rivulet of text in a meadow of annota-
tions. In the meantime the confusion of
legislation went on. A reformed Parliament
arrived in which there was a deadly struggle,
not amongst law makers, but law repealers—
the very " eodifiers " themselves being the
most rapid in altering the code—in fact, a
style of legislation under which, if the dictum
is true that every man must know the law,
every man must have no other earthly pursuit
than its study. With this chaos Mr. Warren
has dealt with a success which, to those who
are familiar with the subject, will fully justify
the attention of twenty years which, in the
intervals of the more active duties of his pro-
fession, he has bestowed upon his task.

We had occasion to say, in reviewing the
collected edition of Mr. Warren's works in
lighter literature, that he presented an ex
ample of the absurdity of the former profes-
sional prejudice that law was inimical to the
more elegant studies or to the higher efforts
of the imagination. This book will do as
much as Mr. Warren's professional success
has done to prove the truth of our opinion.
It bears marks that cannot be mistaken, nut
only of study, research, and care, but of a cor-
rect and analytical judgment, and of that
" legal mind " which finds a grateful pursuit,
not only in investigating the minutiae of the
science, but also the great principles which
should guide that highest human effort, the
making of laws to regulate the rights and
duties of mankind.

When Blackstone published what was called
by his enemies in derision " the book," the
science of legislation was but little studied or
understood. The " gentlemen of fortune " to
whom he addressed himself were content to
go on as their class had done since the Revo-
lution, and " make new laws without under-
" standing the old." The remedy for crimes
of any amount was hanging ; for debts, or
claims of debt, instant and indefinite imprison-
ment. The policy of making punishments
moderate and certain, instead of excessive
and uncertain, though often broached, had
never secured sufficient followers to obtain
its adoption ; and this policy found in Sir
William Blackstone, not only a commentator,
but to some degree an advocate. Hence the
difficulty in the way of Mr. Warren when he
desired to adapt Blackstone's text. The pro-
gress of legislation, of which this work gives a
most valuable history, had gone ahead of those
opinions—in some instances even to rashness
—and Mr. Warren found himself doing for a
new system of jurisprudence what Blackstone
had done fer the old—there being little in
common between the subjects of either author
but the great principles of English liberty.
The practice of the law bad also changed;
and to the philosophical jurist the prac-
tice is an important and essential portion
of the very nature of a code. In the time of
Blackstone special pleading had grown into a
cumbersome and pedantic science—to those
who understood it, a weapon to defeat rights;
and to those who did not, a maze and a snare.
All this Mr. Warren found abolished. On the
principle that the best thing to do with a sick
man is to kill him, our reformed legislators
have swept away special pleading at a blow,
gone back to the days of the Plantagenets,
and reduced us almost to oral pleadings,
leaving in some cases the issue itself

THE PRESS.

to be wrangled over and ascertained after the
case is called, and requiring judges to legislate
from the bench as questions nominally of
practice, but greatly affecting the result, arise
before them. This system has of course left the
commentator a shorter task to perform in the
portions devoted to pleading ; but other almost
numberless alterations in the very nature and
principle of the law have required Mr. Warren
to substitute for Blackstone 's text new matter
to the extent of full two thirds of his work.
Entirely new chapters also have been added to
the plan of Blackstone, not the least valuable
being that which gives a short and lucid ac
count of the constitution of the Kirk of Scotland
—a subject to which i t is strange that Blackstone
himself did not even advert, seeing that the
affairs of that Establishment come not unfre-
quently by appeal before the House of Lords,
and that the Act of Union requires from the
monarch so strict an undertaking to preserve
it in its entirety. Perhaps the portion of the
present work which contains the most matter
collected at the expense of the greatest re-
search is that in which Mr. Warren takes up the
account of the progress of the laws of England at
the date (1836) where Mr. Justice Coleridge, in
his " Blackstone," left it, and brings it down
to the last Common Law Procedure Act. In
performing this task Mr. Warren had to con-
dense the alterations and additions that have
taken place in our code during the last twenty
years—a period during which the Statute Law
constitutes nineteen folio volumes, and the
rules of court and bye-laws no doubt would
occupy several more. During that period
our gigantic railway system and its necessary
statutes have both arisen nearly together.
Much attention has in the same time been paid
to international law, as affecting, for instance,
copyright and extradition ; our whole maritime
code has been repealed and reconstituted ; the
Constitution itself, as regards Parliament,
altered : the Protestantism of the country re-

asserted by statute ; poor laws, education,
joint-stock companies, almost every social
and commercial subject, have been submitted
to change ; and the legal history of these
bustling nineteen years is given by Mr.
Warren with a conciseness that makes the
late assurances in Parliament of the difficulty
of codification seem greatly exaggerated.
This portion of the work (as, indeed, the book
•generallvl %ill be found of great interest to
the general reader, whether he belongs to the
rising generation desiring to inquire how the
changes came, or whether he may be reminded
by these pages of events to which he was a
witness.

Of certain unsuccessful attempts at innova-
tion in legislation, and of the necessary posi-
tion of the House of Commons to command
the respect of public opinion, Mr. Warren has
some reflections which will strike the reader
as timely and just :

To this glittering catalogue of the accomolielied acts of
the Legislature, during the period with which we are here
concerned, may be added a mere passing allusion to mea-
sures attempted, but unsuccessfully ; proposed and re-
jected, by either House of Parliament, or both ; or at this
moment occupying the grave attention due to subjects of
serious magnitude. Some of the former, if adopted.
would have virtually changed our form of Government,
and in the opinion of the vast majority of the nation in-
volved us in confusion and ruin. Measures of such a
character and tendency have been proposed in, and as
peremptorily negatived by, the popular branch of the
Legislature. Never before was so visible as now, the
truth of that apophthegm of the great Lord Burleigh, cited
by Blackstone, that " England could never be ruined hut
by a Parliament," and of the saying of Sir Matthew Hale,
that, " if by any means a misgovernment should fall on it,
the subjects of this kingdom are left without all manner of
redress." On the moderation, foresight, and patriotism of
our remodelled House of Commons now really depend,
under Providence, the welfare and very existence of our
empire. If ever the day shall unhappily arrive when
either of these august houses has become deficient in re-
spect for the other; no longer exhibiting the dignified
deference and forbearance due from two such great legis-
lative assemblies towards each other ; and both, or either,
careless of their high and delicate relations to the Crown ;
if either become insensible to its glorious position and
immense responsibilities, our dismayed descendants will
read, or we ourselves may be fated to read, inscribed over
the portals of our national greatness, Ichabod ; the glory
is departed. In vain will then be the sagacity of oar
statesmen, in vain the valour of our warriors, in vain the
benignant and equitable sway of an enlightened constitu-
tional sovereign.
The House of Commons. however—the very focus of the
national will and intelligence—depends, for its character,
on those who call it into existence : in other words, on
those who exercise the elective franchise. Ours is a land,

691

to use the happy language of an accomplished living
" all the institutions of which seek the genial sun-
shine of public opinion, and must languish without it ;"
and the cultivation and right direction of that public
opinion is thus of unspeakably momentous concern, and
must be sought for in Christianity: whose strengthening
and hallowing influence can alone give vitality to our in-
stitutions, making us safe and happy among ourselves, and
respected by all other nations.

There is, of course, in such a work as this no
party or political allusion, phrase, or sugges-
tion; yet, as a picture of the Constitution, it
is one great Continuous argument for en.
lightened Conservatism. Like every work
that has proceeded from the pen of its accom-
plished author, the basis of its teaching is
Christianity, which Mr Warren ever treats in
the spirit of the dictum of Sir Matthew Hale,
as " part and parcel of the law of the land."
Indeed, there could not be placed in the
hands of the inquiring student a book more
sound and safe, and, at the same time, more
full. In one particular Mr. Warren's work
will be found more beneficial than that of Sir
William Blackstone. It is quite devoid of
the unreasonable optimism of that distin-
guished writer. Due praise is given to the
excellencies of our Constitution, and care and
power shown in bringing out its beauties; but
we find nothing of the great judge's self-
complacency where he passes without repro-
bation the law which made it capital to steal
to the value of tenpence in a dwelling-house,
or considers the statute of jeofails a sufficient
suppression of " superfluous niceties." Mr.
Warren's "Blackstone," which extends to 834
pages, is truly what it professes to he, accu-
rately adapted to the existing law, and con-
taining large additions to the text. For
educational, general, and even professional
reading it is a complete and valuable text-
book, forming as concise a compendium of
our jurisprudence as the "Code Napoleon " of
the law of Franco.

Ballads. Romantic, Fantastical, and Humorous.
By William Harrison Ainsworth. Illustrated

by John Gilbert. London : G. Routledge
and Co.

WE have often desired to see Mr. Ainsworth's
lyrics collected, and not long since expressed
our belief that such an anthology would be
certain of a wide popularity. The means of
forming a more accurate judgment is now
before us ; and a re-perusal of the whole has
confirmed us in our early estimate of the
peculiar utialities of vigour, elasticity, and
originality of treatment by which these pieces
are distinguished.
Mr. Ainsworth distributes his songs and
ballads under three heads. His arrangement
appears to us arbitrary and injudicious. It
limits beforehand, so to speak, the kind of
enjoyment the reader is to expect, and does
injustice by implication to several pieces which
combine within themselves the characteristics

special to each of the three divisions. Some
of these bounding verses do not properly come
under any of these heads, but, bursting the
confines of definition, soar into regions of fancy
where it becomes difficult to seize and fix them.
Others suspend the judgment of the reader
between their pathos and their gaiety ; and,
in short, they would all have been better left
to make their individual impression, without
being coerced by a classification of any sort.
But this objection applies merely to the form
of presentation, and does not in the least
diminish the intrinsic interest of the book. It
is an objection, too, which, we are bound to
say, becomes rapidly absorbed in perusal. We
soon forget in the fascination of these remark-
able lyrics the order in which the author has
marshalled them.

We have ventured to call these lyrics re-
markable, and we think there are ample
grounds for the distinction implied by that
epithet. In the first place, the style and
manner possess the very rare merit of ori-
ginality. Fresh, racy, and vigorous, we cannot
trace throughout the numerous varieties they
exhibit the slightest reminiscence of any other
writer. The melody is everywhere new, and the
treatment of the subjects is always marked by
a strking appropriateness of diction and images.
In the second place, the structure of the verse
is very perfect in its way. It " steps in
music." With measures, frequently difficult,