The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

irtv

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1854.

POSTSCRIPT.

THE EASTERN QUESTION.
Yesterday's Moniteur contains an (Alicia' circular,
dated December tlO, addressed by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs to the legations of the Emperor in
foreign countries, on the Turkish question. This
document, whose tone is moderato but firm, after
narrating the difi'erent phases of the question, de•
Glares that Frame, England, Austria, and Prussia,
have recently, by their agreement concerted at
Vienna, solemnly recognised that the territorial in-
tegrity of the Ottoman empire was one of the con-
ditions of their political equilibrium. It proceeds t—
" The affair of Sinope took place against all pre-
vision, Russia having declared that she only desired
a material guarantee for the fulfilment of what she
demanded. To prevent the Ottoman territory or the
ottoman Hag from being the object of a new attack
on the part of the naval forces of Russia, the French
and English fleets have received the order to enter
the Black Sea." The circular terminates by express-
ing the hope that !inside will not expose Europe to
new convulsions.
It is said that the French Government, dissatisfied
with the evasive conduct of Austria, has addressed to
that Cabinet a strong remonstrance, intimating that
any further secession on her part from the proceed-
ings of the other three powers will be taken as an
indication of meditated hostility, the results of which
she must be prepared to abide by, whatever they
may be.
The Patrie and Bulletin de Parts concur in
stating that the Empeo or of Russia had issued orders
for immediate preparations to be made for crossing
the Danube.
The last advices from Odessa report that eight
hundred Turkish prisoners of war were collected
there, and a cartel for an exchange was spoken of.
The camp, within five leagues of the city, had been
ratsed on account of the inclemency of they weather.
The troops are distributed among the towns nearest
the Turkish frontier. The corps under Sacken,
destined to act in the principalities, was unable to
advance, the roads being absolutely impassable.
For the purpose of correcting 'hat it states to be
the " very general misconception " hitherto prevail-
ing in regard to the recent negotiations at Constan-
tinople, the Chronicle of Friday publishes a true
and particular account of these transactions. Ac-
cording to our contemporary,
" It is au error to suppose that those negotiations have
had any reference to the note agreed to by the represen-
tatives of the four powers at Vienna on the titlt of De-
cember. All the recent discussions at Constantinople have
hail reference to a note already framed, a considerable time
ago, by Lord Stratford de ltedcliffe, and which, after being
modified and approved by the Western Governments, was
presented to the consideration of the Sultan's Ministers.
When the collective note of the Mil December reached
Constantinople, the negotiations on this scheme of Lord
de Redelitte were so far advanced, and were proceeding so
favourably, that it was wisely resolved by the ambassadors
of the four powers not to break off, in ravioli of a new
prsiect, an arrangement which had already nearly
reached maturity. Accordingly, the Vienna note was
withheld, and the negotiations on that of Lord de
Itedelifie were continued. It is, therefore, this note
which Turkey is said to have accepted, and which will be
presented to Russia with the sanction of the four powers.
It is understood, however, that Austria considers that the
chances of the project being accepted at St. Petersburg
would be greatly improved were it presented to the
Emperor by Austria and Prussia alone; and, as the
Western Governments have, it is stated, after some dis•
cussion, acquiesced in this view—being a no-re point of
form—it will be presented by the two German powers
only. it is considered, however, highly improbable that
this or any other proposal to which Turkey and the four
powers can accede will meet with the acceptance of the
Czar; and before the note can reach St. l'etersburg the
question of peace or war will, in all probability have been
&ready decided.
"It may be right to add, lest unfounded inferences
should be drawn from the decisive orders recently sent out
to the English and French Ambassadors, that the physical
obstacles to the effective action of the fleets in the Enxine
at this season of the year arc far more serious that is

THE PRESS.

commonly suprsed ; and, in executing the insructions of
the Govennnents, much must of course be left totedis-
cretion and judgment of the ambassadors and admirals.
There is, however, every reason to believe that the instruc-
tions recently sent out were of so positive a nature as to
leave little room to doubt that the fleets must, by this
time, have entered the Black Sea—unless, indeed, the
weather has been so tempestuous as absolutely to prevent
them from leaving the Bosphorus, which is, besides
Sebastopol, the only port In the Entine in which ships of
war can had refuge. In the meanwhile, the Governments
6f France and England were never more cordially united
than at this moment, nor were they ever more firmly de-
tenanted to offer efficient and active resistance to Russian
aggression ou Turkey."

LETTERS FROM VIENNA announce that a reduction
in the Austrian duties, both on pig and railway
iron, was to take effect from the Ist inst. The re-
duction in pig iron is to the extent of 10s. per ton—
that is to say, from the existing rate of about 255. to
153.; while on rails it is to be 21. per ton, or from
about 11. to id.
FROM HAVANNAII we learn that the late Captain-
6eneral Canedo took his departure for Spain, in the
steamer Conde de Reyki, on the 11th ult. No re-
gret was expressed on the occasion of his leaving
the island; but, on the contrary, the hope that he
will never return invested with authority. General
Pezuela had yet done nothing, except make the
necessary appointments to office. He had begun
well.
Tar: TRIAL ov Joint H►NtnY for the murder of
his cousin, the lion. James Hanley, in St. Clnisto-
idler's, had taken place, and resulted in the convia
tion of the unhappy prisoner, who undentent the
extreme penalty of the law.

THE FROST AND THE SNOW.
THE weather has furnished the great staple of the
news during the week. For the first three days the
intelligence which reached us from this source re-
lated to frost, and was accompanied by graphic
descriptions of the amusements which attracted
thousands and tens of thousands to the various or-
namental waters in or near the metropolis, varied by
an occasional record of some accident on, or under,
the ice, though none of the latter were happily of
very serious character. Sunday, as a holiday, was of
course taken advantage of by a vast but plebeian
crowd of skaters and sliders, the aggregate number
being reckoned by the industrious chroniclers of
these events at 79,000. On the two following days
the throngs were more select, though still exceedingly
numerous. The frost also grew more intense. Monday
night was the coldest known for many years, the
thermometer marking a lower degree than has been
on record since the close of the last war. The river
had also become clogged with floating ice, and by
Tuesday evening the blocks had grown so large and
were aggregated so thickly above the bridge-piers
and round the wharfs that traffic on the Thames was
altogether suspended. Next day, however, witnessed
a different scene. The cold relaxed, and public in-
terest thenceforth has been centred in the snow, and
its many striking influences developed not only in
London but the provinces. In the metropolis there
was a heavy fall during Tuesday night and Wednes-
day forenoon. The streets were covered several
inches deep, and when the side pavements were
cleared according to law, and the snow from them
shovelled into the roadways, the latter, with the fur-
ther additions received from the roofs of houses,
presented a mass of frozen material in many
places far more than knee-deep. In this state of
things a slow thaw supervened, not enough to carry
off the snow vitt the gutters, but sufficient to reduce
it in the course of a few hours to the condition of
" slush." The surface of the road below was exces-
sively slippery from the previous frost, so that the
progress, whether of man or horse, wag rendered as
precarious and disagreeable as could well be con-
ceived, from six to eighteen inches of a sort of
ice-pudding having to be floundered through with a
most unstable footing beneath. The street traffic
has accordingly undergone an almost total interrup-
tion. The cabs disappeared from the ranks, and
when summoned out of the yards demanded in some
instances five shillings a mile, and deserved it too.
Omnibuses appeared in scanty numbers progressing
slowly with the aid of four horses, and charging
double fares, or sometimes more. Half-a-crown was
asked on Wednesday evening for an inside seat from
the Bank to Bayswater. On Thursday matters
mended a little by the diminution of the snow-heaps
from natural causes, but with no thanks to the
authorities, who persisted in their system of leaving
London and the elements to fight it out between
them. Travelling was now possible, and vehicles were
obtainable in the streets, though under conditions
of extreme difficulty and discomfort.
In the country, along the lines of railway, the
snow has produced almost everywhere most serious
embarrassments to intercommunication. On the
Great Northern line the rails were impassable be-
tween Peterborough and Normanton during the
whole of Wednesday and Thursday. The North-

Western route was blocked up for
Tring and at Crewe ; and for the tt
the only tidings that passed betweei
cheater, and the metropolis were
graph. The London papers of W
did not reach Liverpool until Morsel'
cumstance unprecedented since rail-
tion was first opened between Mid
shire. In Manchester affairs were
A telegraphic message received
night gave a melancholy picture
stoppage and stagnation:—
" There is no express train from
to-night, as the line is closed by .
papers have arrived in Munches'
train which should have brought'
in the snow between Crewe and th,
train arrived here from Birmingham
the early mail this morning. Sew-
south and west are stopped at CI
been no communication from Mt
London beyond Stockport. On ti
Yorkshire lines passenger trains
Middleton, and another beyond Roci
on the Bolton line is stopped ; and
shire line is blocked up beyond Bur
the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lit
stopped at Guide-bridge; and On
are embedded in snow at Glossop.
port and one on the Staleybridge 1
Staffordshire line is blocked up at
snow in some places on the line is
feet deep. In many places in '
yard deep. The trains on the line
ern are all snow-bound. The t
deep between Retford and Newark,
been impassable all day and nib'
and Lincolnshire trains are also snow
line impassable."
Railway matters are, however,
more energetically than civic, and
succeeded in digging out the half-
clearing the encumbered lines.
ing, accordingly, almost all the row
the trains arrived, with some deli
order, at their appointed termini.
' new snow has fallen, up to the hour
to renew the embarrassments
'nurse.

In consequence of the frost
Billingsgate has been supplied
manner. Almost all the fish brougi
been by rail : the supply was limited
and the prices asked were exorbitant
charged from 15s. to .255.
statement was published 1)
that two of the metropolitan poi
frozen to death at Hounslow, br
coatradieted.
The various theatres and othi
ment have suffered to a great e:
the weather—most of the houses
seating little more than empty
nesday Evening Concert at Ex►
discontinued this week, it being
for the carriages conveying the
the building.

LORD PLUNKET, ex-Chancelll/4...
Wednesday morning, at his reside)
of Wicklow. William Conyni
D.C.L., of Newton, co. Cork, w.
nurried, in 1791, Catherine, onl:
M'Causland, Esq., of Strabane,
Donegal, by whom he had a large
filled successively the offices of '
Oeneral in Ireland, he was ads•&
of the United Kingdom in June,
pointment to the chief justices'
Common Pleas. He became .
Ireland in 1830, and held the office
At the time of his death he was
and is succeeded by his son, the '
Killala.

FROM THE LONDO,
Tuesday, Jae.
BANKRUPTS.—Wu. Brusitrr ANL
City, inerchant—Trionas WARD, GOSWiI
WARD THOMAS LODGE, Throßlllolloll.l3l.le
—War. Sims, Itedrutb, Cornwall, lin
Cross-hills, Keighley, Yorkshire, tairo=7
tield Moor, Yorkshire, diver—lsm:
Lancashire, licensed victtudler—Ozorto
Cheshire, grocer—Jolts GRAY. 'tubas, -
RICHARD Buoy:mow, Ardwick, Lancashire,
manufacturer.
SCOTCII SEQUESTEATIONS.
and South letlaig, Arplcshire, fartner,t
Grentown,bank agetit—THosus Mutat
Hainilton, Ltutarskhire, contractors.

Friday, January
BANKRUPTS.—CHARLEY R‘TNIOP
New•road, statuary—Jo*apn Balms,
JoIIN TII.NURY, jun., tilouermterTac;),
GROROZ WREN LS GRAND, LllMbetheiwalk,
EVANS and 0 EOROIR DAVEY, IiISINOrgRD, Irv=
WlLKniaox, Eatou-sluare: coal-merchant.

SATURDAY,
r hours together at
two days mentioned
en Liverpool, Man-
e conveyed by tele-
Vednesday morning
ursday night, a cir-
ailway communica-
Idlesex and Lanca-
e quite as stagnant.
late on Wednesday
e of the universal
,m here to London
snow. No London
ester today. The
t them is embedded
kafford, nor has any
tam or London since
veral trains from the
Crewe. There has
Manchester towards
the Lancashire and
s are embedded at
tochdale. All traffic
nd the East Lanca-
lury. The traffic on
Lincolnshire line is
hree luggage trains
p, one on the Stock-
branch. The North
at Macclesfield. The
is said to be sixteen
Manchester it is a
e of the Great North-
e snow is eight feet
irk, and the line has
light. The Midland
snow-bound, and the
er, managed rather
nd strenuous efforts
alf-buried trains and
By yesterday morn-
routes were open and
days, but in proper
ti. Fortunately little
hour of writing this,
of traffic and inter-
tt the fish-matket at
LI in a very limited
•rought to market has
mited in the extreme,
rbitant, cod-fish being
by an evening paper
police force had been
but was subsequently
her places of amuse-
extent on account of
es on some nights pre •
r benches. The Wed-
xeter-hall was entirely
1g found impracticable
company to approach
for of Ireland, died on
esidence in the county
igham Plunket, P.C.,
was born in 1785, and
only daughter of John
e, M.l'. for the county
large family. Having
' Solicitor and Attorney
vanced to the peerage
le, 18'27, upon his ap-
eship of the Court of
e Lord Chancellor of
office for several years.
was in his 89th year,
to Bishop of Tuam and
)N GAZETTE.
s. 8.
ANDaRIIOI4, Billiter-street,
Goswell-street, hosier—Za-
n-street, City, stockbroker
sendraper—Enweao Ham.,
ador—JOHN Howrrr, Shef-
IJWARD bUNNEIL, Waterloo
10 ROE rEA Rso x, Birkenhead,
time, I Attic/Wine, butcher—
aneasbite, gum and starch
AT.T.AY Rornr.n, ?diddle
ler, deceased—Wm. ooWns,
and 111011A8 WLIIDROP,
wry 6.
SMITH, Gloucester-piste,
as, Nottingham, lumen—
kc_ New-road, coachinaker--
inhale-walk, grocer—Jamul
wilan,insuaasters—Taosas

JANUARY 7, 1854.

Sittraturt,

The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli. A
Literary and Political Biography; addressed
to the New Generation. 1 vol., Bvo., price
16s. London : Bentley.

- - -
A BIOGRAPHY of a man in the prime of life,
extending to nearly seven hundred pages,
and sold for no less a sum than sixteen shil-
lings, would argue that its subject was a very
remarkable person. If a panegyric, he must
have many friends ; if an attack, he must
clearly be a formidable opponent. If we could
suppose " the intelligent foreigner," so often
quoted of late, to be quite ignorant of our
world, we might fancy him, under the circum
stances, exclaiming, " Who is this Benjamin
Disraeli, whose deeds, while yet living, can
fill so bulky a tome, and whose name is the
text of so many articles in newspapers and
reviews ?"
It might be replied, in the first instance,
that Mr. Disraeli is an individual who,
sixteen or seventeen years ago, a trial of
what is in a man, entered the House of
Commons, unknown, we believe, to any in-
dividual in it, the humblest member of the
Conservative party ; that he is now the leader
of the Conservative party in that assembly ,
that ho has even been, for a time, leader of
the House of Commons itself, and conducted
its proceedings with dignity, temper, and
general approbation. It might be added that,
during the whole of this period, it has never
been pretended that he ever forfeited a pledge
or ever deserted his party, while, during the
same interval, there is not one of his rivals
who has not changed both his politics and his
connections.
But then it is urged by his assailants that
there is a preceding period of his life when his
conduct was not so staid, consistent, and
methodical, but much the reverse. This
period would extend, so far as we can collect,
from his twentieth to approaching his thirtieth
year. The researches of his assailants have
made us all familiar with incidents which in
any other man's life would have been for-
gotten, or have never emerged from their ob-
scurity. Everything in this man's life is
ferreted up and mapped out. Who is not ac-
quainted with the newspapers, the novels, the
wanderings of his youth ; of his fierce struggle
to emerge from the crowd ; of his sharp corre-
spondence and his ready controversy ; of his
fantastic politics and party schemes ; of his
feud with O'Connell and his feud with the
Whigs ; of his superfluous energy to get into
Parliament, when, probably, had lie known a
single human being, he might have entered it
without difficulty, and been thanked for his
pains ? All this has been described over and
over again by malignant, but superficial, men,
who fancy they are annihilating him, and is
now reproduced in the ponderous tome before
us, the avowed manifesto of the Puseyite
party, as if all these wildnesses were circum-
stances which affected the moral eharacter of
the individual they assail. We confess we
have long looked upon all these strange adven-
tures in a very different spirit. We feel
obliged to the detractors of a man of genius
that they should have accumulated with so
much industry these records of his early
years. They might otherwise have been lost
to us. With us the contemplation of this
early life amazes the spirit and touches the
heart. We perceive only the restlessness of a
creative mind, the struggles of a strong and
solitary will, the impatience of unrecognised
power, the waste of enormous energy without
a guide, all that turbulence of genius which is
so strange and rare ; and we have no doubt
that the day will arrive when this period of
the life of Disraeli will be pondered over with
as tender an interest as we now muse over the
fitfil or fiery youth of a Rousseau or an
Alfieri,

THE PRESS.

If a fairy had accumulated upon the cradle
of a child every spell which would blast suc-
cess in life, it would seem she need only have
collected the accessories of the life of the
hero of this literary and political biography.
He was the child of a recluse student without
a friend or a connection : he was born of a
race which was then considered infamous : he
had nut what are esteemed the advantages of
a conventional education : he was destined to
a laborious and obscure profession. Out of
this mess he comes forth a Minister of State,
a transcendent orator, a writer of unexampled
grace, a varied and accomplished scholar, and
with a greater personal following than any
man of the day.
He has achieved even a greater triumph.
His writings have absolutely changed not only
the opinion of this country, but of Europe,
respecting the Jewish race. The imputation
which was considered infamous is now held
to be honourable. There is no subject in
which, in ten years, so great a revolution of
sentiment has occurred. At the last contested
election for Buckinghamshire, Baron Roths-
child voted against Mr. Disraeli. This appears
to us to be the most flagrant act of ingratitude
on record, and makes us individually repent
the votes which we have in our time given fur
Jewish emancipation.
But then it is said that, in rising to this
eminence, Mr. Disraeli has been an Ishmael,
and that his hand has been against every man,
and especially, according to this book, " every
distinguished man." We once heard Mr. Dis-
raeli say that, throughout the many combats
and controversies in which he had figured, he
had never been the first assailant ; and,
from the remarkable frankness which dis-
tinguishes his conversation, we believe him.
For " all distinguished men," however, in
the book before us, read " Sir Robert Peel."
On this head we may perhaps have as
much right to speak as the compilers of
the biography, or any other libellers of Mr.
Disraeli. The writer of the present article was
a follower of Sir Robert Peel, and one of those
who did not desert that great statesman in his
fallen fortunes. It was unfortunate for Sir
Robert Peel that Mr. Disraeli was not included
in his arrangements in 1841, for, if so, Sir
Robert would probably have died Prime
Minister of England. The omission, how-
ever, was not unfortunate for Mr. Disraeli ;
for, with that tenacity of purpose and fidelity
to his friends which distinguish him, he would
have devoted all his energies to his chief, and
never, perhaps, have been a chief himself. The
common opinion that Peel did not appreciate
Disraeli is a mistake. The present writer
is aware that Sir Robert wished to offer office
to Mr. Disraeli in 1841. This was prevented
by the political parasites by whom it was the
weakness of the great Minister to be sur-
rounded, and we owe to this circumstance
those immortal sketches of the Rigbys, the
Tadpoles, and the Tapers, which Beaumar-
chais never surpassed. At the same time
we must express our protest against the cant
that a person who believes his claims impro-
perly slighted is not to make his power felt
by the leader who slights him. One thing is
quite certain, that every man under such cir-
cumstances will do so who can ; and if few
succeed it is only because their inability proves
the discrimination of the Minister. Notwith-
standing the fierce struggles of 1845 and 1848,
Sir Robert Peel lived to appreciate Mr. Din
raeli, and, strange to say, his last public act
was to cheer, in the House of Commons, the
author of his downfal. It was when Mr.
Disraeli closed the debate on the famous
Palmerston discussion. This is not rumour
or hearsay, for the writer of this article sate
next to Sir Robert Peel on that occasion. A
few days after, when the horrible tragedy was
over, amid a group of mourning disciples, we
heard Mr. Gladstone urge as a consolation,
" Peel died at peace with all mankind. He
even lived to cheer Disreeli."
There is one great error into which public
writers on Mr. Disraeli are apt to fall. They
attribute his position solely to those qualities
which are obvious to the multitude, and fancy
they are making very shrewd observations when
they inform the world " that he is used but not
trusted; " that he is " a necessary instrument,
" without whom his associates would du if

15

" they could ; " " that he is tolerated by them,
" and not cherished." Now, having lived a
long while in the House of Commons
with Mr. Disraeli, though latterly in a hos-
tile camp, and also having had many social
opportunities of formiugajust opinion on this
subject, we must express our belief that the
present influence of Mr. Disraeli is owing
not so much to his public as to his private
lite: If any of the mortifying vicissitudes
which have occurred of late years to
Lord Palmerston were to happen to Mr.
Disraeli, we verily believe that, were he to re
tire below the gangway, there would be seventy
or eighty men of the best blood and the high-
est character in England who would accom-
pany him. Mr. Canning was famous for his
following, which ho hardly deserved, for he
once disbanded and deserted them, but still
his personal friends ultimately carried him
through. Mr. Canning never had half the
pertional following of Mr. Disraeli.
Lord Lyndhurst is considered not a mean
judge of character. He was the first of our
leading men who brought forward Mr. Dis
raeli, and there has subsisted between them
a confidential friendship of upwards of twenty
years' duration. Lord George Bentinek was
not a man who could be practised upon by a
sycophant or an intriguer. His manly and
somewhat blunt nature recoiled from glozing,
and he detected in a moment, and never par-
doned, the man who was not straightforward.
Yet it is well known that the feelings of Lord
George Bentinek to Mr. Disraeli were those of
entire devotion. Lord Derby is a very clever
man—perhaps the clererest man in the coun-
try. His quickness of perception is unrivalled,
and he is not embarrassed with any inconve-
nient degree of sensibility. He is said, too, to
be very proud, and not a little prejudiced.
He was just the sort of man who would be
prejudiced against Mr. Disraeli, who had even
attacked the Government of which he was a
member. It was notorious in the House of
Commons that this prejudice existed. Yet
the moment that the untimely end of Lord
George Ber,inck brought Lord Derby and Mr.
Disraeli together—what happened ? That
which has happened with every first-rate man
who has become acquainted with Mr. Disraeli,
except, unhappily, Sir Robert Peel—complete
confidence and cordial regard. It is the same
with all his followers who are in his intimacy.
They are bound to him by a sentiment of per-
sonal devotion. Now, this is not an effect to
be produced by talents alone, however bril-
liant. Sheridan could never do this, nor even
Mr. Burke. Mr. Canning had very great ad-
vantages. He was the hero of a then very
powerful University, and the brother-in-law of
a duke ; but we repeat lie had not the personal
influence of the libelled hero of the "Literary
and Political Biography." They are qualities
superior to talents, and even genius, that pro-
duce such an influence a noble disposition
which attaches men, and in which all men
irresistibly confide.
The " literary and political " libellers are
very much alarmed at the enthusiasm of the
Oxford undergraduates in favour of Mr. Dis-
raeli. The cheers of Christ Church Quad. ap-
pear to have disturbed the self-complacency of
some of their prime patrons. Now, the under-
graduate enthusiasm seems to us to be the
most natural thing in the world ; nor can we
be surprised that youth should sympathise
with one so capable of charming the imagina-
tion of the " new generation." We 'were not
present at the Oxford triumph ; our fealty is
pledged to another seat of learning not less
renowned ; but of this we feel persuaded, that
Camlnige must be very much changed since
our time if the reception of Mr. Disraeli in the
Senate-house were less fervent than in the
Theatre, or if St. John's and Trinity were to
yield in the enthusiasm so much deplored in
the college of which Mr. Gladstone is a
member.
If the object of the " Literary and Political
Biography," and the sermons simultaneously
preached from its texts by the various Puseyite
organs, be to detach the Conservative party
from Mr. Disraeli, we predict an overwhelming
failure. There are certain politicians who are,
no doubt, in a false Ipositiou, and who would
petters not be grieved to resume one more
natural to them; but they will not be per.

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16

L
I.