The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-31 00:00:00

ROMAN CITIZENS.

WITH all our boasts of liberty, enlightenment,
and progress, the time has not yet arrived
when we can afford to neglect the insults of
despotism. The world's horizon is as yet
cloudy and ominous. We may have faith in
the appearance of a brighter sky, but we can-
not tell how long it will delay. The long, low
line of light has not yet showel itself. We
firmly believe that despotism is as strong now
as it was a hundred years ago. Possibly even
stronger, for it is winning over the educated
and literary classes, who heretofore were its
firmest enemies. Furthermore, it is becom-
ing clearer and clearer to the old absolutist
Powers that they are, to use a popular vul-
garism, "all in the same boat." Hence has
arisen a more intimate union between them
than modern history has ever before known,
and a proportionately greater danger to the
freedom of the rest of mankind. " They may
" give one another at odd times a stab with a
" dirk, or a slash with a claymore," as Bailie
Jarvie said of the Highlanders, but they will
join together in the long run against all con-
stitutional Powers.

Nor, if we look " further a field," is the
prospect more encouraging. In the West
slavery is rampant, and is even now gaining
new triumphs. In the East a rebellion more
horrible than our colder imagination could
have pictured has proved how fallaciously we
had relied on the result of missionary labours
and the influence of the Christian religion.
Englishmen, however, notwithstanding
numerous and grave shortcomings, may
still, we hope, justifiably repeat the eloquent
lines of Lord WELLESLEY :

Una etenim in mediis gens intemerata minis
Libertate probil et justo libramine rerum
Servat adhuc hominumque &leak curamque Deomm.
At least, let us hope we still make an effort to
do so. But let us never forget what fearful
odds there are against us.
Lord PALMERSTON is a classical scholar; the
civitas Romana is his special favourite, and,
should he honour our colu tnns with a glance,
will appreciate the above quotation—especially
the last line. Has it, however, never occurred

to him that the circumstances which regulate
his own conduct at home may never be taken
into account by those who are watching us
abroad? He may ave wellent reasons at
i one time for bullyin , and at another time for
treating with defe bee, States weaker than
ourselves. It may e at one moment more
important to him te angle for popularity in
England, at another to cAnciliate continental
Sovereigns. Batthe arßid will reek little of
these distinctions.- tliwty act of obsequious-
ness towards a foreign despot will be accepted
as evidence that England, too, is yielding to
the torrent. Opinions beget events. What
this country is thought to be she may gra-
dually become; and there can be no doubt
that constant vigilance is necessary on the
part of the public to take care Ministers do
not shirk their responsibilities ; that they are
,ever ready to protest against the smallest
encroachments, arid redress the grievances of
the humblest ; and that they shall never be
allowed to weigh the stability of their Cabinet
against the reputation of England.
What has given rise to the above observa-
tions is a circumstance simple enough in it-
self, and to be described in a very few words.
Two Englishmen engaged as engineers on
board a Neapolitan steamer, were taken pri-
soners with a cargo of rebels during the late
insurrection. Though, as may naturally be
supposed, these poor fellows had about as
much to do with the insurrection as a York-
shire ploughboy, they were both thrown into
prison, where they have remained for two
months undergoing the treatment of felons.
The King positively refuses to release them,
and up to the present moment we have bowed
to that potentate's pleasure.
Wo wonder how the Americans would have
behaved to the Neapolitan authorities in such
an emergency. We cannot help suspecting
that some of the " critturs," had they hesitated
to respect the majesty of the Stars and
Stripes, would have made acquaintance with
that celebrated Western magistrate, whose
decrees are more famed for the rapidity with
which they are executed than the deliberation
with which they are framed. But however that
may be, we would ask Lord PALMERSTON one
or two simple questions. Does he know the
Englishmen are prisoners ? Does he care?
If so, why does he not have them released, for
he must know he could if he chose ? Is he
afraid of the consequences? If so, from
whom ? Not from Naples, it is obvious. Then
it must be from the friends of Naples. And in
either case, what becomes of our boasted citi-
zenship ? Is it only safe from the outrages
of the feeble ? Greece " had no friends," and
Lord PALMERSTON could hit her with im-
punity. But it is quite another affair, it
would appear, with the King of NAPLES.
Conservative opinions must always be
to some extent in favour of legitimate
Governments. It is the personal character of
the King of NAPLES that demands our constant
interference. His Government is a regular
monarchy administered by his ancestors for
centuries, and must necessarily be to some ex-
tent adapted to the wants of the people, and at
all events as good as anything likely to be got by
a violent change. It is just because we do not
wish to see a revolution, that we do wish to see
interference, in Neapolitan affairs. Here, too,
is a case in which the honour of England is con-
cerned, and with it that of constitutional go-
vernment everywhere. We commend it to the
attention of Ministers.

A CANDID CABINET MINISTER.
THERE are few men in public life who occupy
so peculiar a position as the Noble Lord holding
the Privy Seal. It would be impossible,
we believe, even for his most intimate friends,
to say whether Lord HARROWBY is a Whig or a
Tory. He has for a quarter of a century
changed about between both with such sys•
tematic facility that nobody can anticipate on
which side ho will show his front. Nature
never intended the Noble Earl for an opera-
dancer, and yet his pirouettes in public life arc
not unworthy of a political Coulon, or a Par•
liamentary Vestris. His style of statesman•

ship is calculated for the " double-shuffle " I
interest, which is alarmingly strong in thin
equivocating age. The late Earl of HARROWBY
was an amiable and most accomplished man,
and a most graceful speaker. But ho was a
born waverer, and his son, the present Peer,
recollects the family motto, " Servata fides
cineri." Like his father, Lord HARROWBY is
privately conscientious but polktically am-
biguous. But we have far more faith in the
Noble Earl's candour than in his common
sense.
Thus on Wednesday the candour of the
Noble Earl was most edifying. Ho confesses
that " we were taken unprepared " in our con-
test with Russia. Whose fault was that? Did
the " modern Chatham" give his colleagues or
the public any sound advice on our want of
preparation, and was not Lord PALMERSTON
deeply to censure for his tardiness in en-
rolling the Militia while he was Home Secre-
tary ? Lord HARROWBY forgot while he was
speaking at Sandon that the Premier under
whom his Lordship serves has a sort of
reputation as a War Minister to keep up.
Nothing could be more awkward than some of
the Lord Privy Seal's confessions. "As soon
" as the Russian war was over what was the
" course we pursued? ' Get rid of the income
" tax, cut down the army, cut down the navy,'
" was the cry, and in compliance with that
" demand the Government di I reduce the
" army, until when this mutiny broke out we
" were entirely unprepared for it, and we had
" hardly a soldier in the country."
Lord HARROWBY evidently supposes that by
open confession the Ministry may he absolved
from its enormous errors, but Lord PAL-
MERSTON will probably think that such confes-
sions ought to be of the auricular kind, ad-
dressed only to the Ministers in Downing-
street, and that such a style of discourse could
only end in " cutting down " the Cabinet.
The veteran Canningito may on this occasion
be tempted to quote his old chies famous
lines :

Give me the avowed, erect, and manly foe,
801 l I can meet, perhaps may turn his blow ;
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save—save—oh I save me, from the candid friend.
Yet, even in the candour of the Lord Privy
Seal there is the taint of wavering. Why (lid
he not confess himself about the Persian war ?
Even in his intensely conscientious balancing
to and fro Lord HARROWBY pauses, ponders,
and then refuses to take up a line. The late
brilliant orator Mr. WINDHAM was declared to
be useless in politics, " because he was always
"trying to weigh principles in diamond
" scales," and a carat more or less at either
side would make him hesitate until the
moment of action had gone; and thus WIND-
HAM only won the fame of being a dazzling
speaker, but indecisive politician.

So with Lord HARROWBY. He has never
realised the great expectations formed of him
in early life. At Oxford his talents were the
theme of all his friends, and in Lord
BROUGHAM'S speech on the Reform Bill there
was a warm panegyric on the Lord SANDON of
that day, and deservedly so. For the know-
ledge of Lord HARROWBY is various and wide.
He is an incarnate cyclopedia, and he has read
inore than he can assimilate or digest. ROBERT
HALL said of the learned Dr. KIPP'S, the
editor of the Biographia Britannica, that " he
"had put so many books on the top of his
"brain, that he had lost the faculty of original
" thought." And HORACE WALPOLE observed
of KIPPIS that " his big book was an apology
" for everybody." Lord HARROWBY is the Dr.
Kippis of the Cabinet, but he has too much of
the " Dominic " in him for statesmanship.
Why did he not speak out like a man against
the cry for " cutting down the army and navy "?
If the Noble Earl had then resigned, what a
position he might hold now! But, alas! he
trusted his wavering instincts, and they mis-
led him, and he can now only fall back on his
candour, and make a public confession of
the want of foresight of the Cabinet.
We hope that he will not waver in his peni-
tential utterances By all means let the Noble
Earl stick to his candour, and try whether he
can stick in the Cabinet also ! What a lec-
ture Sir ROBERT PEEL would have read to a
junior colleague, who betrayed himself, like