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

MI.RH 17, 1855

another sort of Coalition, retaining some of
the policy of the defunct Ministry while
attempting to anticipate the mission of its in-
evitable successor. In an avowed Coalition
the evil is caused by suspended action of the
Executive ; but in a transition Ministry the
mischief results from vacillation in design.
In the present half-century we have had three
such Cabinets—those of Mr. ADDINOTON, Lord
GODERICH, and that now in existence. Each
and all of these were discredited from their
birth. The Court could not galvanise the
Addington Cabinet into the resemblance of
healthy life. The Goderieh Ministry, like the
present one, had a quondam Tory Premier,
followed by a tail of " Old Whigs." The
Court for its own convenience tolerated its in-
firmity for a time, and the country acquiesced
without a murmur in its dismissal. Of these
three Cabinets we think that of Lord PALMERS-
TON decidedly the weakest. It is more
oliqueish, and supported by less active influ
ences than either that of ADDDINGTON or Lord
GODERICH. Its hope of weathering the storm
was destroyed by the secession of three such
men as Sir JAMES GRAHAM, Mr. SIDNEY HER-
BERT, and Mr. GLADSTONE.
In the meanwhile people ask how long is
this transition system to continue? In the
cases of all the official blunderers Lord
PALMERSTON has sought " to make things plea-
sant," and he has taken the reputation of the
Duke of NEWCASTLE under his special protec
tion. The Noble Viscount has gained his
point in becoming a Premier, and there is le
ammenament deft* of the Palmerston policy.
Are we to accept the Viscount's recent
recruit, Sir ROBERT PEEL, as an authority on
his foreign policy ? In his speech at Tam-
worth the new Lord of the Admiralty stated
that " no settlement of the Eastern question
" would be satisfactory unless Poland and
" Hungary were restored." We take it for
granted that the Honourable Baronet was ex-
pressing only his own opinion on that occa-
sion. "An Austrian alliance he denounced,"
says the report of his speech. Whether Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S sentiments be telegraphed to
Vienna we are not aware, but it would not be
the first time that Lord Jona RossELL was
startled by news from Tamwerth.
The incident, however unimportant, is
enough to show the uncertainty that results
from a transition Cabinet. No firm foreign
policy can be counted on by our allies when
they see that another Ministerial change is
rapidly approaching. The action of Parlia-
ment is suspended, and an oscillating motion
is given to all our affairs.
In the meanwhile one useful purpose is
performed by our Ministry of 'Transition.
Conservatives can now clearly see the advan-
tages of their own unity, and even the most
sceptical must be convinced that Lord
DERBY acted with admirable sagacity in
declining office until he had allowed his oppo-
nents to destroy each other and exhaust them-
selves. Two mouths since Lord PALMERSTON
had a reputation, but what is it now?

THE NUNS AT SCUTARI.

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Is a recent number of this journal we directed
attention to certain proceedings of the nuns
at Scutari, which had been communicated to
us from an authentic source. Our readers
will have been led to infer from the tone of
the observations we then made that these
women are being employed, not as nurses of
the sick and wounded, which was ostensibly
the character in which they solicited and were
allowed admission into the hospitals, but as
religious teachers, who are prosecuting sys-
tematically and assiduously the work of
proselytism.
Several cases have already been discovered
in which they have succeeded in instilling the
tenets of the Romish faith into the minds of
the soldiers on whom they have attended.
We mentioned an instance which occurred at
Scutari a short time since, as illustrative. of
the dangers to which our suffering country-
men have been exposed by the home Govern
meat. At Kulleli we are given to understand
that perverts are being rapidly made. Miss

THE PRESS.

STANLEY reigns supreme in this establishment,
having at her command a numerous retinue of
the sisterhood, between whom and herself
there exists the most complete confidence and
the most cordial sympathy. A Jesuit priest
lives in the building, and so skilfully have
matters been arranged that there is scarcely
an orderly who is not subject to his authority,
and the minister of his will. The system on
which the nurses were located and are made
use of differs essentially from that established
with so much judgment, and maintained with
such success by Miss NIGHTINGALE. These
women attend not only bad cases, as at Scu-
tari, where there presence is an advantage to
the patient and a service to the medical
officers, but are indiscriminately distributed
for regular and permanent duty among the
various wards to au extent which has occa-
sioned great inconvenience, and will probably
be productive of much scandal. In this, and
indeed in all other respects, Miss STANLEY
has set herself up in opposition to Miss
NIGHTINGALE, but for whose firmness and
vigilance, under very trying and difficult cir-
cumstances, much embarrassment would have
been created.
We shall not be surprised to learn that
some official representation has been made
upon this subject, for it is now a matter of
notoriety that the Romanist party are carrying
out their designs, so far, at least, as Kulleli is
concerned, not only unopposed, but actually
assisted by Miss STANLEY.
The facts to which we have referred are
beyond question, and demand the immediate
and vigorous interference of the Government.

SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

WHILE the intentions of certain isolated states•
men of the present time are under speculative
discussion in the various clubs and social re-
unions of London, it is very remarkable to note
the difference of tone taken by persons when
contrasting the career of Sir JAMES GRAHAM
with the antecedents of Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT
and Mr. GLADSTONE. A leading organ on
Thursday linked together the names of these
three eminent politicians in an article which
sarcastically consoled them for their errors in
reference to the inquiry committee, by con-
fessing that " their characters were too high
" for impeachment," and it subsequently
added, " we are bound to accord them an in-
" scrutable patriotism." Elsewhere it testi
fled also to the " undoubted conscientious
ness" of those three statesmen.
But, without offering any " impeachment "
of his character, we must demur to the per-
sonal pretensions of Sir JAMES GRAHAM being
put in exactly the same scale with those of his
brother seceders from the Palmerston Cabi-
net. It is really a subject fairly open to in-
quiry at the present time, why a statesman of
the energy and eloquence of Sir JAMES GRAHAM
does not stand himself as the head of a con-
nection in Parliament.
Seen and heard on the occasion of one of
his celebrated speeches, Sir JAMES GRAHAM
could scarcely fail to rivet the attention of an
intellectual spectator. His commanding figure
and highly imposing air, with his tone of
measured dignity and display of elocutionary
grace, his felicitous selection of matter and
sustained force of logic, would of themselves
commend the speaker to marked notice from
a competent observer. Nor could such a per
son fail to note the evident proofs of high
mental culture shown in the rhetoric of the
display. The whole speech, from the gravity
of the careful exordium to the close of the
stirring peroration, would be seen to make up
into that " great whole " more often aimed at
than attained by artists in words. " What
" a fine speaker r' would be the not unnatural
exclamation of any auLlitor who listened to
Sir JAMES GRAHAM for the first time ; and an
extraordinary idea of the versatile Baronet's
oratorical powers would be left upon the mind
of a political novice, who might wonder that
such a parliamentary performer had not more
dominant influence in the Senate.

247

Yet further experience of the House of
Commons would show that even to the ora-
tory of the member for Carlisle some weighty
exceptions must be taken. Though too argu-
mentative to sink into a declaimer, he wants
that promptitude and inspiration on his legs
which makes a truly great debater. Excel-
ling in prepared statement, he does not
equally shine when he has suddenly to reply
to a previous speaker of the first rank. Though
in a different school of eloquence, the orations
of the member for Carlisle are nearly as much
" set speeches " as those of the late Mr. SHZIL.
Their frequent recklessness of language is
thus more remarkable, as their careful pre-
paration is so obvious. Seldom has an emi-
nent writer so often committed himself by
unlucky escapades ; nor can we forgot, as
Mr. DISRAELI recently observed, that " iu the
" oratory of terror the Right Honourable
" Baronet is a great proficient." Except Mr.
O'CONNELL, no other public man of the late or
present age has so often employed the language
of intimidation. It was worse than indiscreet,
and undignified in a Privy Councillor, to warn
the House of Commons of the number of
Roman Catholics in the army, when the
Romish Aggression Bill was under considera-
tion; and " the soldier knows the reason why
" he has a better mess," was another unparlia-
mentary offence of the same kind in more
recent times. Thus, also, when inconsistently
pleading for au open committee, after having
first strenuously resisted all inquiry into the
ar-office blunders, Sir JAMES GRAHAM an-
noyed both the House of Commons and the
public press. Imitating, not for the first
time, a well-known and admired passage in
one of Mr. CHOKER'S powerful speeches against
the Reform Bill, the member for Carlisle
talked of " that bauble," alluding to his old
plaything the mace, and threatened that the
public press would vanquish the Commons of
England ! Ho then intimated at the same
time his conviction that the British press
would not keep secrecy, even if warned by
authority that publication of certain evidence
would injure the public cause I We are proud
to say that, in more than ono memorable
instance, the history of English journalism
honourably refutes such a harsh insinuation.
Yet these and other kindred defects will not
be enough to account for Sir Jamas GRAHAM'S
want of ruling authority in public affairs. It
is not merely to such points that the terrible
" but" of his critics in society always refers.
Indiscretions of the tongue like those of Sir
JAMES GRAHAM would in another man be com-
pensated for by his undoubted official apti-
tude, his admitted energy in managing a
department, and industry in mastering the
details of our intricate social problems. Even
such unpleasant incidents as his " dark"
attack on Recorder SHAW might be palliated
by considerations of marked personal an-
tagonism. But a long career of habitual
vacillation, an innate propensity to adopt the
extremes of opposite parties, and afterwards
rapidly recalcitrate, must detract fatally
from the weight of any public character in
England.
Thus, in looking at Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S ex-
traordinary course, we see that he has been a
candidate for contradictory honours. There
is no faction which at times he has not vehe-
mently supported, and afterwards violently
opposed. A century hence, philosophic his-
torians might doubt whether there were not
three or four different " Sir J. Graham's" in
Parliament, during the reigns of GEORGE IV.,
King WILLIAM, and Queen Vicrroaia. They
might plausibly conjecture that no single
statesman could have appeared in such a
political monopolylogue. First, a " Cumber-
" land yeoman, wanting to knock down the
Funded Interest ; then a lacerator of Privy
Councillors, out-Cobbetting Cossurr in his
tirades ; next, a defender of the Irish Protes-
tant Church, in 1835, warning the House of
Commons (vide Hansard) " that Whig princi-
" plea consisted in jealousy of Popery, as an
" instrument of power," and afterwards pane-
gyrising the religion of Rome in 1851, as " the
" faith of Fessuis, and the creed of Sir THOMAS
" MORE, which touched, as with fire from
"heaven, the tongue of PASCAL;' an advocate
for secret investigation when he was himself
charged with opening letters; then a denouncer

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