The Press.
London, England, 1853-11-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" Besides, it is usually found in practice that ear,- and
misery of one kind or anetlo:r increase as private property,
beyond a certain amount, incrcases."
But, as it is clear that, next to lif4., property k that
which man clings to with th" greatest tenacity, Mr.
Owen sees that a very strong agent is requisite to
induce him to part with it. So, possessing with his
predecessor and namesake, Owen tilendwr, the power
to " call spirits from the vasty deep," he calls,
and tiny come. Among the more important are
President Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Shelley,
Br. and the late Duke of Kent.
Royal !Imbues% is the most talkative, but he says
Dolling startling. 'l'll#. Poet's eloquent tongue was
mute. They ure all very kind, god-natured, gos-
sippy ghosts, never forget to say good bye, and are
besides not intrusive, for they never enter a room
without first knocking. One Spirit recommends a
cure for a cold. The hike of Kent recommends
two hotels ; and, as a specimen of his Royal 1 ligh-
ness's conversation, we give the following, in which
he answers Mr. 11wetes questions :

' ' Who is the most influential believer in these manifests.
thins in the House of Lords?' Lord Can-
yon give another?" The Duke of cleveland.' The
•in the House of 'ominous ' Yes—Peel." What
l'et.l?" Frederick." Are there any scientific practical
milt believers, who have much influence in soeiety
'Yes.' WIND?" hivid Brewster; and Henry numer-
als-oi, of the t;lasgow Medical Institution." Will 'Or
Joseph l'axbui be useful to me?' Yes, yes, yes." And
Messrs. Henderson Hull Fox Yes, yes, yes.' ' Good
bye." 4 i 04141 bye. trued bye.'
A clergyman in the north of England lately dis-
covered—judge of his horror as well as surprise—
that each piece of furniture in his drawing-raom was
the dwelling of an infernal spirit. With these
evil ones lie held several conversazioni, the
results of which he published ; and if he, a eler •
gyms'', had his conversation with devils, we cannot
• see why Mr. Owen should not relate his experiences
and dialogues with friendly, well-disposed gluwts, all
Christians but two. One thing is deur, and that
is, that these spirits have now become so numerous
that no Minister can overlook their claims in the new
Reform Bill. Any measure which does not recog-
nise the rights of the ghosts will be narrow, illiberal,
and will not represent the spirits of the age in which
we live.

The lholhd. A Reply to the Rev. Sydney Smith and
Lord John Russell. By Edward Capel White

burst.. Jaanbon : W. and F. ;. Cash.
Tins pamphlet. of thirty-two pages purports to lie a
reply to the Hey. Sydney Stnith's inimitable argu-
ment on the ballot. The author devotes tour lines
and three words to answer the chief objection to the
ballot : the rest of it is tilled with desultory dogmatic
assertions, interspersed with such novel views of
morality as this :
Few lal llords or customers would carry their vulgarity
xud lIIVe of domineering to such a pitch ns to usk tiluttits
1E101(1411ton h4SW thry had votcd, they ilia, nn uleorrect
reply would not IN' a ialselumsl."
At page •.!:1 he says :

" It is said. that mud,•► thy• ballot a eitmliaitte would
alzree to pay mit agent a slim of money on condition of his
being returned. Ito, the ballot mould the agent's
ttrotigtboings as will as tlto,o of the emoli.late himself,
mud this, thcreron't', is DO.;did argument against the
ballot."

Ilere he has unconsciously stated the principal
argument against the ballot, and has pe►ssed it by
with a dogmatic assertion. It is this that was in the
mind of 31r. Coppock when he said that with the
ballot he could seeme any borough in the kingdom.
It would reduce the result of bribery to the certainty
of a commercial transaction. A. agrees to give so
much money if he is retunied to Parliament. If he
is returned, well and good, he does not begrudge the
money. and does not care to ►whom it goes ; it is
divided among the venal, whether they voted for him
or not. It is idle to say that these promises would
not be kept; no debts are more punctually paid than
those which cannot be recovered by law. if the
candidate was not returned, no payment would be
made ; and as no promise would he broken, no one
could complain : the bargain would he "no cure no
pay," no seat no bribe. Whether this pamphlet be
regarded as an ironical or as a serious performance,
we can recommend it as excellent against the ballot:
it forcibly brings hetore the mind the moral degrada-
tion to which that measure would lead, and is itself a
striking instance of the weakness of those arguments
which are ordinarily urged in favour of a system of
secret voting.

Erotoistatiost into the Report and Eridettee of the
l'ontmittee on Decimal t'oittoge. 'Theodore W.
Ratlthone, Esq. london :.lances Ritigway.

Mn. approve 4, both theoretically 111141 prac-
tically. of a decimal coinage, but thinks the 'slim re-
commended by the parliamentary committee inexpe-
dient, and otters one of his own instead. lle object 4

SATURDAY,

to the former, that it involves a change in the penny
—the most important of all coins 14) the w4:rkin.„'•
class, that it isolates us from the practice of foreign
nations. that the new coin " mil," besides its " strange,
barbarous" name, is inconvertible into any other de-
nomination, and that the "cent,' besides being liable to
the same charge, is unlike its transatlantic namesake
—thus causing confusion. He likewise dwells on the
inconvenionce of a transition state, protracted, as by
some it is anticipated that this change will be, through
a period of twenty years, and remarks that the unedu-
cated classes will cling to the old denominations
a pertinacity which no legal enactment can bailie.
The rival project broached by Mr. liathbone con-
sists merely in retaining the penny, substituting the
franc, half-florin, or tenpenny-piece for the shilling,
and limiting the decimalisation of the coinage to
these two denominations. He would retain also the
pound (24 francs), though forming no part of a de-
cimal system—only hinting remotely at the possibility
of a future alteration, corresponding to that now pro-
posed in the penny, whereby the pound might con-
tain twenty-five in lieu of twenty-four francs. lint
this scheme is ()pen to grave objections, which we
have before indicated; and, it' the pound remain un-
altered, Mr. llathbone's plan has no pretension to be
called decimal.

with

The Seat of War in the Danubian Principalities.
With Enlarged Plans of the Bosphorus and Dar-
danelles. London : Stanford.

Is this map, by Messrs. Johnston of Edinburgh, the
boundaries are well defined and the names clearly
printed. Sufficient knowledge of the different loca-
lities now made famous by the war may, for ordinary
purposes, be gained from this map. It has a strong
linen back, and folds up in a case easily portable.