The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS

lose the incentives to emulation ! Cases
proving the reverse might be quoted in scores ;
but, even supposing that such were the case,
the schools themselves have suggested the right
remedy, viz., requiring a certain amount of
University honours as a sine qud non for ad-
mission to a full fellowship.
We have every feeling of sincere respect for
the House of Lords, but we think that its
alterations are infelicitous. Unpopular their
character, they are almost certain to prove
unpalatable to the Protestants of England,
and are certainly opposed to sound Conservative
principles. We hope that the House of
Commons will be consistent, and maintain
the clauses which it sanctioned after long de-
bate and calm consideration.

1852 AND 1854.

As the close of the session drew near we
thought it our duty to call attention to the
extraordinary manner in which, under a
Government of unrivalled personal preten-

along, and in a Parliament singularly free
from factious agencies, public business has
been, we cannot say conducted, but suffered
to stand still. No farther comments of ours
could add force to the facts which we laid in
their naked simplicity before the public. We
have reason to believe that the exposure has
not been unfelt ; and in order to make it
complete by contrast we subjoin a parallel
table of results, obtained, not from the records
of the Peel Government of '4l, or even from
those of its successors in '46—'sl, but from
the history of the shoitlived Administration
of Lord DERBY, whose alleged incapacity to
carry on affairs supplied the Coalition with an
excuse for its anomalous existence. We take
the measures passed during the spring of '52
as we find them classed, under various heads.
Five acts affecting religion and the Church :
(1) Division of the Canadian bishoprics. (2)
Facility granted for creating a new bishopric
in New Zealand. (3) An act affecting the
powers of the Indian episcopate. (4) Eccle-
siastical Jurisdiction Continuance Aut. (5)
Act to relieve Nonconformists from the neces-
sity of registering their places of worship with
the bishop or archdeacon.
One act relative to education :—Facilitating
the conveyance of land for school purposes.
Five acts facilitating the collection of the
public revenue :—One regulating the inland
revenue ; one assimilating the various duties
on stamps ; one simplifying the machinery
of the Woods and Forests department; one
amending the excise laws ; and a fifth con-
tinuing the tax on property and professions
for a year.
Four acts relative to finance. These, how-
ever, are matter of routine, and can scarcely be
reckoned among the real work of the session.
Five acts relating to the public health, one
of which gave London a water supply, while
another enabled a stop to be put to the
practice of intramural interments. The other
three are of minor though still not inconsi-
derable importance.
Seven acts relating to public works, all
involving grave questions of local interest,
though to the nation at large comparatively
unimportant. Notice also given of the inten-
tion to build a new National Gallery—a pro-
ject uniformly opposed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
Government, but now popular with all parties.
Eight acts concerning county expenditure,
of which the Irish Valuation Bill, and one to
simplify the collection of county rates, are the
most material.
Four acts having reference to parliamentary
representation, of which two are trivial, and
the other two—those for the prevention of
corrupt practices at elections, and for the dis-
franchisement of St. Alban's—were originally
brought in by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. In this
case Lord DERBY'S Government had only the
credit of taking up zealously, and carrying
through with success, the projects of their
rivals and predecessors.
Seven acts dealing with poor laws and the
administration of charities :—Three of these
are mere continuance acts ; the other four

SATURDAY,

were destined to remedy certain errors of
detail existing in the then law.
Six acts touching trade and manufactures :
One abolishing differential duties on foreign
ships, on condition of reciprocity ; one to
legalise the formation of industrial and pro-
vident partnerships among working men; *
a third reducing the charge on patents from
about 2501. to 25/. ; the rest .of minor conse-

quence.
Two colonial acts, of which one, framed
by Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, gave a constitution to
New Zealand; while another transferred from
the imperial to the colonial treasury the gold
revenues of Australia.
Fourteen acts embodying law reforms ; for
the passing of which, according to the testi•
mony of a hostile ex-Chancellor, " the present
" session (of '52) would be memorable, not
" only in the annals of the reign, but of the
" century." By several of these acts the Court
of Chancery has been reformed; by others the
common-law procedure was remodelled, the
jurisdiction of the county courts extended,
a measure for the enfranchisement of copy-
holds passed, the law of wills simplified, the
property of intestates protected, and a variety
of sinecure and expensive offices abolished.
When these reforms were first introduced, the
utmost incredulity was affected as to their
passing, and the attempt to deal with such
subjects treated as a mere trick to catch votes
at the impending elections. They passed,
however, in their integrity, and without an
amendment.
Of miscellaneous acts, not falling within any
of the above descriptions, twenty-one were
carried, of which the most important was that
relating to the militia, whereby the odious
ballotting system was got rid of, and which
passed the second reading by a majority not
only decisive but overwhelming.
We have thus in all eighty-eight public acts
passed in the short session of '52, without a
single defeat or difficulty being experienced,
although in the face of an acknowledged ma-
jority, and by Ministers new to office. But
this is not all. The proofs of parliamentary
success are twofold—positive and negative—
the carrying of measures, and the avoidance
of defeats. During the months from February
to June inclusive— that is, from the formation
of Lord DERBY'S Government to the dissolution
of Parliament—no single bill or resolution
was carried against the will of Ministers;
although the few months immediately pre-
ceding a general election are, from a cause
sufficiently obvious, generally those in which
the influence of Downing•street is least
strongly felt in the House of Commons. It
is idle to ascribe this state of things to a poli-
tical truce, or compact with opposition. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL and Mr. GLADSTONE are not men
to be restrained by sentimental reasons from
exercising their constitutional privilege of
displacing, or even of annoying, a weak oppo-
nent. No; the solution of the problem con-
sists only in these simple facts, that Lord
DERBY'S Ministry were agreed among them-
selves, that they had both a party and a policy,
that none among them sought to forward his
individual interest by intrigues against a
colleague or with an enemy, that they held
out no exaggerated or delusive promises to
the public, and that, trusting one another and
Parliament, they in turn were trusted by the
nation.

THE' LATE PUBLIC MEETING AT
MADRAS.
BET a single .week had elapsed since the
Government denunciations of the ignorance
prevailing among the people of Madras, and
Mr. LOWE'S declaration on the subject of the
mysterious despotism to which they must
necessarily be continued subject, when the
news arrived from India of a great public
meeting held in Madras, the resolutions
adopted at which at once justify our belief
in the good sense of the people, and show
their fitness for more constitutional treat-
ment than the Secretary to the India Board
would accord them. Their first resolution
was one of total want of confidence in the

* This bill was Yr. Slaney's, but taken up anti carried througu
by Government