The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

MR. BERESFORD IN ESSEX.

THE personal courage of Mr. BERESFORD,
and the exploits which gained him his
reward, we cordially admire ; but we regret
that we cannot commend his political discre-
tion. It is possible that we may be mistaken,
but we really feel some difficulty in under-
standing the Gallant Officer's language. We
have a long copy of his address now before us,
but it is taken, W 3 admit, from a Palmers-
tonian print. His views on " Christianity "
and on " justice " seem quite original, and his
tone towards Lord PALMERSTON is peculiar.
He is reporte I to have said :—" If the English
" nation remained true to their religion, and
" flinched not from asserting their Chris-
" tianity . . . . God would assist their
" arms." Our readers know, without our
reminding them, what " Christianity" means,
and what duties it enforces. A little further
on M.r BERESFORD observed :—" lie was
" sorry to hear that there were persons in the
" House of Commohs and out of it who said—
" • For God's sake temper your justice with
" mercy.' " He then proceeded to contend
that in this instance we should do justice
without mercy.
In what part of the sacred code of " Chris-
tianity " did Mr. BERESFORD find that
"justice" and " mercy " should be severed from
each other ? Did not all the preachers on the
Fast-day warn us against vengeance ? When
the British fleet mutinied at the Nore, and
when the country was left in dreadful peril,

979

was "justice " without " mercy" done to the
mutineers? We do not fur a moment place
the acts of the malcontent shipmates of
PARKER and his misguided associates with the
cruelties of NANA SAHIB; but nevertheless
the acts of the mutineers at the Nora sent
the Funds down to 57, and fearfully
shook the Government of England. " Mercy
was tempered along with "justice " to the
rebellious seamen, and they soon afterwards
fought the battle of Campordown in splendid
style. The Sikhs were our enemies a few
years since; they were conquered and sub-
dued; " justice " was tempered with " mercy"
towards them, and they are now our allies in
the field in the day of our trial and our peril.

The Gallant Officer is an Irishman, and his
courage is that of his race and country ; but
temperance of view, under existing provoca•
tion, is not exactly an Irish quality. The
furious retribution and the indiscriminate

vengeance of party against party in Ireland
have been for ages the reproach of that land.
Would Mr. BERESFORD advocate the policy
pursued by OLIVER CROMWELL in Ireland--the
policy of mere extermination? Mr. BERES-
FORD seems to forget that the Sovereign in
whose service Ito has fought so gallantly was
solemnly armed in the august ceremony of
the Coronation with " The Sword of Mercy" as
well as "Justice." To judge him by his words
(if accurately reported) the Right Honourable
Gentleman would break the " Sword of Mercy"
into splinters.
The tone taken by Mr. BERESFORD to-
wards Lord PALMERSTON is certainly very
peculiar. The Premier is ardently lauded by
the Right Honourable Gentleman, and at the
same time the Gallant Member for North
Essex criticised with freedom the conduct of
Lord DERBY. He had deprecated " the idea
"of a coalition between Lord DERBY, Mr.
" SIDNEY HERBERT, and Mr. GLADSTONE, be-
" cause such coalition would have been imme-
" diately followed by an extensive reduction
"in the army." The reason offered is the
assertion of Mr. BERESFORD, but let that
pass; we would rather ask what has the Pre-
mier done in the present yea: but the iden-
tical thing which Mr. BERESFORD " depre-
cated?" The Gallant Officer certainly leads a
forlorn hope in his logic, without gaining
political laurels. He calls upon the country
to stand by " Christianity," and to execute
"justice " without " mercy." He then boasts
of how he " deprecated " proposed unions of
Conservatives, lest the army should be re-
duced, and he panegyrises the Premier, who
did the very thing that the Gallant Major
" deprecated." What a consistent Christian
What a " patriotic " Conservative !

The Gallant Officer, however, was not con-
tent with this wild logic; he went a little
farther. In a vaunting tone the Right Hon.
Gentleman said :—" He would be no party to
" acquiring capital at the expense of his
" country." As if, forsooth, some member of
the Conservative party had attempted to do
so. We think that Mr. BERESFORD ought to
be more discreet in the use of his language.
Englishmen do not like those who fling about
unauthorised imputations. On this recent
occasion Mr. BERESFORD in some passages
seems to have been talking " at " the party to
which ho belongs. That party stood gene-
rously by Mr. BERESFORD when the Liberals
and Palmerstonians used every means in their
power to ruin the public and private reputa-
tion of the Right Hon. and Gallant Gentle-
man. Because Mr. BERESFORD had held
office under Lord DERBY it was resolved on by
the Liberals to make " capital " out of him,
and they did so without either "justice " or
" mercy." For the time the Liberals did ac-
quire some " capital" by their perpetual abuse
and by their scurrilous defamation of Major
BERESFORD, and the Conservatives had to
stand the " expense" of it. Lord PALMERSTON
with a few words might have stopped the de-
famers of Mr. BERESFORD; but we never
heard that the Noble Viscount did so, though
in another case, when the Liberals had
recourse to the same artifices, it was under-
stood that the Premier had actively inti-
mated his disapproval of the use of such
weapons. Nay, further ; it was Sir ALEXANDER
COCKBURN, the right-hand man of Lord PAL-

MERSTON, who was selected specially for the
Parliamentary castigation of Mr. BERESFORD
We do not think, therefore, that it was dis-
creet or generous in Mr. BERESFORD to have
said "He would be no party to acquiring
" political capital at the expense of the for-
" tunes of his country." The Gallant Gentle-
man subsequently disclaimed any personal
application of his language ; but, nevertheless,
as his speech stands, much of it can be inter-
preted only on the supposition that the Right
Hon. Gentleman was aiming his words in
some particular• direction. Already Mr.
BERESFORD has received great applause from
the identical organs most forward in fero-
ciously assailing him four years ago. They
are resolved to get more " capital" out of him,
and their poisoned panegyrics of to-day are
published with the same purposes as their
venomous invectives of 1852-3.

There was a countryman of Mr. BERES-
FORD'S once in Parliament. He was as
brave a man as Mr. BERESFORD, and he was
rather more brilliant "on his legs " than
the Member for North Essex. his name
was SHERIDAN. He had an illstarred
propensity to make speeches sometimes "at
the exper,se "of his party. He used to deliver
addresses that vastly pleased the Govern-
ment, while they wounded the Opposition in
which SHERIDAN professed to serve. The
13ractice damaged SHERIDAN in the estimation
of the chiefs of his party far more than the
malicious detraction of his personal enemies
or the individual scandals popularly associated
with his name.

If a Liberal gentleman were to talk of all
" honest Liberals," his associates would be
little obliged to him for making an antithesis
between " honesty " and " Liberalism ;" and we
do not approve of the mode in which Mr.
BERESFORD talks of " patriotic Conservatives."
His language seems to savour of an insinua-
tion which the spirit and conduct of the whole
Conservative body triumphantly refute and
conclusively repel.
But enough on this subject. We prefer the
speech of Mr. Du CANE to the address of Mr.
BERESFORD, and we think that the tone and
language of Mr. Du CANE were more com-
pletely in harmony with the feelings and
opinions of the Conservative party. We have
nu doubt that Mr. BERESFORD meant well,
but we think that the language of Mr. Du
CANE exhibited more political discretion, whila
his sentiments were as fully " patriotic "
as those of his Right Honourable and
Gallant colleague. Mr. Du CANE is nne of the
most rising Conservatives in the House of
Commons, and his speeches give great pro-
mise of future eminence in debate.