The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-18 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1855.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1855.

"PRESS" OFFICE,
Friday Evening, disgust 17.
WE have reason to believe that the " stir-
" ring and hitherto unexpected intelligence"
which a Government organ of this morning
announced was to be looked for from the
" Crimea in the course of the next few days,"
was not in any way intended to refer to the
action on the Tschernaya, of which intelli-
gence was received this afternoon, nor to
the telegraphic message of General SIMPSON
stating that the bombardment of Sebastopol
was to be reopened on the morning of the
17th (this day). The " unexpected intelli-
gence " anticipated by our contemporary
relates, we understand, to information re-
ceived of the intention of the enemy to
evacuate Sebastopol on account of the diffi-
culty they experience in bringing up their
supplies.
The Russians will, it is supposed, in the
event of their withdrawing from Sebastopol,
fall back upon their Tschernaya position,
which they have been diligently employed
in strengthening for some time past.

It is stated, though we do not vouch for
the truth of the report, that Lord ELGIN is
to be the new Postmaster-General, in place
of Lord CANNING. We can scarcely believe
that Lord ELGIN would consent to accept
so subordinate an appointment, and more
especially as it is believed that he refused to
join the Government at a time when its
tenure of office was believed to be extremely
uncertain.

The information we gave a fortnight back
of the intention to appoint General MARKHAM
to the command of our Sebastopol army,
has, we observe, been adopted by several of
our contemporaries. The retirement of
General ENGLAND, the last remaining
General of Division originally attached to
the Crimean army, has smoothed the way
for General MARKHAM'S appointment, should
General SimrsoN still, on account of the
state of his health, desire to be relieved from
the command.

IT is a great mistake to suppose that the pre-
-4 sent Prime Minister of England has no defi-
nite purpose. Any attention to his conduct

since last Christmas, and to the mode in
which he has discharged the duties of Leader
in the House of Commons, must reveal his
object. Lord PALMERSTON is desirous that his
conduct should furnish an answer to one of
the memorable questions raised by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL. In the course of last autumn
the deposed Leader of the Whigs discussed
the subject, Where was the true history of
England to be found? Our Premier has de-
termined to teach the public that, in his opinion,
" The Comic History of England " is the best
extant, and he is resolved by his acts, his
speeches, and by the selection of his colleagues,
to prove his right to being commemorated as
a great performer in historical burlesque. We
have had a dancing Chancellor in olden times;
but a merryandrew Premier is a still more
comical illustration.

And beyond doubt the actual position of Lord
PALMERSTON contains great elements of comi-
cality. Nothing can be more ludicrous than to
see Whigs and Radicals obsequious in the
train of a politician reared by the old Tory
party. It is truly laughable to see the head
of a " Liberal " Ministry passing measures
and carrying on a war according to principles
long since exploded. The Radicals have
always preached about "progress," and our
Prime Minister gives them plans and schemes
stolen from the dusty pigeon-holes, where
they had been left since the days of the French
revolutionary war. He makes a jest of
modern views of finance, and will not have
any measure unless it be ticketed as " Mr.
PITT'S plan." What a fine stroke of political
satire there is in making the Whig k amilies,
and Independent Liberals, and Scotch Econo.
mists, all adopt and vote unanimously for
even the financial fallacies of Mr. Pin !
But it is even more droll to witness the
jolly tone in which our Prime Minister laughs
at the public and both Houses of Parliament,
and even himself ! He takes them all in as
regularly as the newspapers ; be humbugs
them all round with unparalleled hilarity—
tips the wink to confederates in his secrets
(if not in his Cabinet)—gives the artful leer of
invitation to some of his confiding dupes—
and then, after chuckling over some decoyed
Benthamite, he puts on a sentimental face
while he pretends to heave a sigh over some
ruined Whig reputations. The rollicking air
with which he performs his cajolery is quite
wonderful in its way, and he never seems
more astonishing than when, with a grimace
on his face, he encounters a British public in
its gloomiest mood. For the growls of John
Bull our comic Premier has his wallet of
small pleasantries of an excruciating kind.
Frisky as a statesman, the Viscount is cer-
tainly heavy as a wit, though he tries to make
amends by exhibiting a levity in his character
that is much wanted in his jokes. But his
prodigious performances in luring the Radi-
cals into supposing him to be playing their
game, while he is really plotting to put us
back to the old Tory times, is far more ludi-
crous than any joke which our Premier can
ever remember. _

„....
It is this singular position of our Prime
Minister that explains the qualified support
given to him by some of the Conservatives.
They find it hard to take part against a gay old
Tory of the oldest school, disguising himself
as a ” Liberal," and hoaxing the Reform Club.

They feel that this aged, though not venerable,
placeman is really doing great damage to the
Liberal party in England.
As a matter of sentiment, many of our Con-
servatives refuse to doll roughly with one
whom they regard as a sort of Parliamentary
grandpapa. They know that what everybody
says is true, that " Old PAM, at bottom, is a
" regular old Tory," and they forgive the irre-
gularity of his political conduct. They will not
fire upon a craft which belongs to their own
squadron, though for the nonce it has hoisted
false colours. Severer courses would be war-
ranted towards him, but it would be sheer
waste of what CANNING called " that valuable
" commodity, indignation," to levish any of it
upon a Cabinet Minister iu a cap and bells.
A solemn lecture, richly deserved, would only
convulse our jolly Premier. It can never be
forgotten that his coarsest broadgrins in the
House of Commons were contemporaneous
with the groans of our soldiers, victimised by
the imbecility of the colleagues whom he acted
with, and laughed at !
To be angry with such a farcical personage
would be absurd. He is to be taken at his
word, and be looked on as a great Parlia-
mentary quiz—making game of everything.
If his position had been deliberately acquired,
he might be entitled to the praise of adroit-
ness But his elevation is traceable to the
rout of the Peelites, the ruin of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, and the dearth of talent amongst the
Independent Liberals. With great connec-
tions, and experience without parallel, it
took our "Brummagem Alcibiades" fifty
years to climb into the Premiership,
though Mr. PEECEVAL, Lord LIVERPOOL, and
several more statesmen under whom he served,
gained that distinction with few of his per-
sonal advantages. But he would laugh
at the idea of his having been passed over so
long, to be elevated to office when he is really
past his work ! He would see a capital joke
in that ; and, when we recollect that he has no
party, the comicality of the Premier's position
is heightened.
Yet it cannot be denied that the vis comiea
of his political career is well kept up. His
capacity for pastime is incessant. If thorough-
going jollity could pilot the State vessel, the
helm should never be taken from our rollick-
ing Premier. The jesting way in which he
encounters a difficulty, and succumbs under
it without a pang of self-reproach, is a rare
sight. The heartiness with which he offers
his hand to friends and foes, treating them
all alike with the same impartial jocularity,
and the sportive ease with which he plays
with principles, 13 amusing as a piece of
character. His mockery of everything dig-
nified or consistent in politics, and his
raillery of those who believe that shams
are to be despised, have all the reality
of nature. The most genuine part of our
Premier is his fickleness. His contempt
for principle is the sole point in which he has
been consistent. To embrace and desert all
connections with jocose indifference, to have
a hand for all and a heart for none, and to
play such a callous part wil
a merry man, such is the
comic and contemptible of
Our Premier has phases
which would almost justify
human nature. No one is
it than Lord PALMERSTON,

sides with laughter when
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774

scorn at the transcient successes of his cha-
racterless career.
An aristocratic wit once well said of him,
Palmerston never knows what he is going to
" do, nor does auy one else ; and he sets about
" pretending to do it as if what he never
" thought of was on the point of being done r
There we have the essence of the man always
assuming the conventional tone of the time,
taking through life the successive hues of the
ten Ministries of the Duke of PORTLAND, Mr.
PERCEVAL, Lord LIVERPOOL, Mr. CANNING, Lord
GODERICH, the Duke of WELLINGTON, Earl
GREY, Lord MELBOURNE, Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
and the Earl of ABERDEEN ! That such an
incarnation of the routine and the official pre-
judices of Downing-street should be accepted
as the chief of our English Liberal party, is
the most ludicrous bit of real history in
modern annals. But its comic effect is
marred when wo recollect that when England
had a facetious Prime Minister before, the
pleasantry of Lord NORTH did not atone for
the calamity of public affairs. So, even
amidst all the jests of our Premier, as the
state of Europe becomes complicated, people
feel doubly grave, even after laughing at the
ridiculous facts that a disguised old Tory
should dominate a Liberal party, and that
the first Lord of the Treasury in time of war
should be only first-rate in the character of
" the Comic Old Gentleman."