The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 1, 1857.

and electors who never approached the polling-booths at all were
recorded as devout worshippers of Lord PALMERSTON'S intimate
friend ! The Committee of the House of Commons had no oppor-
tunity of laying bare this morass of impurity; their labours were con-
fined to a scrutiny, and they reported without hesitation that Mr.
SOMERS was not, and that Mr. WYNNE was, duly elected for Sligo.
Lord PALMERSTON'S tenants in this borough do not appear to have re-
ciprocated his attachment to his nominee ; and, in consequence, the
sister country will have the advantage of the presence in Parliament of
an able and independent gentleman. Whether this will compensate
for the loss of Mr. J. P. SOMERS, is a question we leave to its own
judgment.

Lord JouN RUSSELL appears to be keenly alive to his peculiar and
critical situation. The Noble Lord fears that he shall be forgotten,
and, unable to retrieve his position, takes every opportunity to push
himself before the public, though only with the effect of showing how
acutely he feels his present unenviable position. It is, perhaps, not
to be expected that the Noble Lord, whose career has been from the
first one of striking political vicissitudes, should now tamely consent
to end his political life; but a less petulant and more dignified bear-
ing than the Noble Lord at present exhibits in the House would bo
better worthy of the statesman whose name for the last twenty years
has shone so prominently in the records of the Liberal party.
Whoever has seen a bit of old wood washed out of the current of a
river into a bend of the hank, and has watched its efforts to regain the
stream, how it eddies and jerks out to the edge of the current, and
is twirled back again to the placid backwater, will be reminded of
the present position and conduct of Lord JOHN RUSSELL. The Noble
Lord has been washed into the back benches, and every now and then
he jerks himself forward in vain to catch the political current. One
night he attacks the Opposition and supports the Government ; on
another night he supports the Opposition and attacks the Govern-
ment ; while on the third he holds a passage at arms with Lord
PALMERSTON, disputes the opinions of those below the Treasury
benches, and opposes any suggestions which may come from the
opposite side of the House. We can condole with the Noble Lord
for the disappointment he must suffer at this Indian crisis, and the
consequent shelving of that Reform Bill he had so carefully prepared ;
but we must unaffectedly confess that the weak and petulant
behaviour he has lately exhibited in the House is not justified by
events, and not creditable to his reputation.

The will of Colonel PISACAINE, the chief of the late insurrection
in Calabria, his subsequent conduct, and the comments of the English
press, furnish food for very serious reflection. It is, no doubt, a
melancholy consideration that so much earnest enthusiasm should
have been wasted on so bad a cause. But we doubt if it be not
something still more worthy of regret to see the leading
journal of this country openly deriding the existence of
enthusiasm at all. That a man should " fight for the
" ()pinions he has formed after six years' study" seems to the
Times the most ridiculous of human absurdities. The man is actually
a political philosopher, and idiot enough to believe in the importance
of truth I Away with him! The spectacle is degrading to the nine-
teenth century, and the free and independent readers of Mr. Lofty's
enlightened journal. Nobody will suspect us of any undue sympathy
with the designs of rebels or democrats, yet we must honestly confess
there is to our eyes something approaching the sublime in this man's
confession of faith, and heroic confronting of death in his endeavour to
establish it. Certainly these are days in which we cannot afford to sneer
at this tone of mind, and we are sincerely sorry that anything like the
article we allude to should have gone forth to the world as the senti-
ment of the English people.

It is remarkable how soon a business people like the English
allow the most important foreign affairs to pass out of their memory.
In the instance we are about to adduce it will, of course, be said that
worse and weightier intelligence from the same continent of Asia
monopolised public attention. Yet Canton may be said to have been
forgotten before Delhi had become the theme of every tongue. Some
people, perhaps, have been foolish enough to believe up to the
eleventh hour what the electors of Huddersfield are said to have be-
lieved in the first, that the Emperor of CHINA had apologised for the
conduct of his servant, and that the quarrel was virtually at an end.
If there have been any such credulous individuals, they have now been
rather rudely awakened from their dream. The Chinese fleet has
been destroyed in two severe engagements. The Chinese fought with un-
exampled constancy. The English have eighty-three men killed and
wounded. This is evidently the conduct of a nation which is ashamed
of itself; and evidence of the paltry character of our dispute with a
conceited deputy, which would never be adopted by the Imperial Go-
vernment ! The news is not encouraging. Not because we have any
reason to fear the ultimate issue of a war with the inhabitants of
China, but because it indicates the tendency of Government to put
upon events just whatever interpretation may happen to suit them at
the moment. Some months ago we had the submission of YEH ; now
we have the surrender of Delhi—both pieces of intelligence put for-
ward u the most reekiega Manner to aid the emergency of the hour.

749

We beg most earnestly to disclaim any party feeling while comment-
ing or this kind of conduct. If the Chinese war had been perfectly
just, if the Indian mutiny had been perfectly trivial, it would
not alter the miserable character of these proceedings.
There is something in them entirely at variance with that
character for reckless audacity and careless frankness which Lord
PALMERSTON'S admirers are wont to attribute to him. GOD grant that
the Government vaunts about India may not soon receive as complete
a refutation as those about China. The former would of course be
disastrous in proportion to the greater magnitude of the event, the
larger interests involved, and the more formidable enemy opposed to
us. It is the part fof a wise and really brave man to keep out of
quarrels as long as he can, but when they occur to look them boldly
in the face. Her Majesty's Government have done the reverse. They
plunged precipitately into the Chinese contest, but after it had once
begun, foolishly endeavoured to deny its existence. What sort of
omen for the future does this conduct supply to us?

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S speech on the second reading of the
Divorce Bill was about as disingenuous a piece of pleading as any
gentleman in a private or public capacity need wish to use. Luckily,
however, his sophistry—if his wretched efforts at argument deserve
even so good a name—is as transparent as it is dishonest. If our
readers will compare for themselves the passage in the Quarterly
Review, cited by the learned gentleman, with the interpretation he has
placed upon it, they will not think our language too strong Which is
the strained interpretation of the language of the New Testament,—
his, or the Quarterly reviewer's, we leave to any candid reader to de-
termine. The result of the division last night has not altogether sur-
prised us. But we earnestly hope that the Members of the Church of
England and the lovers of liberty of conscience will yet exert them
selves to the utmost to accomplish the withdrawal of that offensive
clause which would make the marriage of adulterers compulsory upon
the clergy.

The veracity of the collective Cabinet is of course unimpeachable,
but it is a remarkable fact that one or two instances have lately oc-
curred which exhibit one or two of the Great Incapables in a subdued
light of truthfulness. For example, a week since, in reply to Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON, Sir CHARLES WOOD, with all the pompous solemnity of in-
jured innocence, denied that any bombardment of Canton had taken
place. It was a base and cruel aspersion upon the humanity of Admiral
SEYMOUR to suppose him capable of bombarding a peacable and com-
mercial city. The estimable First Lord of the Admiralty read letters
and quoted documents to prove that the oharge was exaggerated and
untrue. It was with no small surprise, then, that, in a Ministerial
paper of this week, we read the following remarkable paragraph :

THE BOMBARDMENT OF CANTON.

The Governments who are parties to the Zoliverein collectively claim from Eng-
land, through the medium of Prussia, an indemnity for the losses sustained by their
subjects at Canton—the bombardment having taken place without previous intimation
to their consuls.

Of course, Lord CLARENDON will at once dispute this impudent
claim, unsupported by evidence, and manifestly untrue. We shall
rejoice to find that we have anticipated the reply of the Noble Secre-
tary for Foreign Affairs to this flagitious demand. But another re-
markable instance is recorded in the telegraphic despatches from
Calcutta. Mr. VERNON SMITH on Monday night, in his languid reply
to Mr. DISRAELI, scouted the notion of the rebellion in India being a
national movement aroused by oppression, and instigated by dispos-
sessed sovereigns and rulers. The Right Hon. President of the Board
of Control said, " There were not the slightest symptoms of the mutiny
" being a national revolt," and that another most consolatory circum-
stance in the intelligence from the East was " that no native Prince
" had been concerned in these transactions." Forty-eight hours did
not elapse between this deliberate assertion and the intelligence
that the King of OUDE bad been arrested and imprisoned at
Calcutta for complicity in the revolt ; and that, so far from the
" slightest symptom" existing of a national revolt, there is every
reason to believe that the full details anticipated will confirm our
worst fears. Now, in the one case, it is quite clear that Sir CHARLES
Noon was either guilty of a deliberate denial upon prepared
evidence, of what he knew to be a fact, or of the
moat lamentable ignorance of details with which he ought to have
been fully acquainted. Taking into consideration the idiosyncrasy of
the Right Hou. Baronet, we will charitably believe in his ignorance.
In the case of Mr. VERNON SMITH, whose lamentable incapability for
the position he occupies at this moment causes the most serious con-
cern to Lord PALMERSTON, we can quite understand the rashness of
that utter ignorance which would hazard such a conflicting assertion
in the face of so serious a future as the then latest intelligence from
India had indicated. Common reflection would seem an intellectual
effort quite beyond Mr. SMITH. The country, we feel assured, must
congratulate Lord PALMERSTON upon his Cabinet of Incapables.

The judgment of Mr. Justice ERLE in BACON'S case has excited
considerable discussion. It is asked why Mr. Justice ERLE told
THOMAS FULLER BACON that his guilt of the murder was " established
beyond a doubt," but that the extreme penalty of the law would not be
carried into effect. Sir WILLIAM ERLE is one of our most sagacious
Judges, and is not likely to have acted otherwise than discreetly; but
nevertheless we should be very glad to learn what there was in BA
case to sauce a mitigation of the santrape,

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