The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1856. STAMPFI)
UNSTAMPED-FIVEPENCE.

spirit which instinctively perceives that settled
government is essential to its prosperity.
A third cause is to be found in the disas-
trous failure of all insurrectionary movements
of late years. The factions which have endea-
voured to overthrow existing Governments
have disgusted the people by their sanguinary,
rapacious, or incompetent courses ; or by the
fierce struggles for ascendancy which have
broken out among themselves, and have
proved the ruin of the cause they professed to
have at heart. Strangely enough, a kind of
conventional sentiment in favour of insurrec-
tion—not at home, but in foreign countries—
exists in this country, fostered by journals
which find it a convenient mode of keeping up
their traditional liberal policy. The secret
societies which exist on the Continent are no
doubt a source of danger; but they are so far
from meeting with any sympathy among the
community at large, that their very existence
induces the people to strengthen the hands of
their Governments that they may be better
prepared to cope with them.
In Great Britain the calm is not less marked
than in other States of the world. As a
people we have ceased to take any active inte-
rest in politics. Reform has died a natural
death. No new political agitation has the
slightest chance of success. The war engaged
national sympathies, but neither the misma-
nagement of Lord ABERDEEN'S Administration.
nor its sudden reconstruction under Lord
PALMERSTON, after its emphatic condemnation
by the House of Commons, succeeded in evoking
any display of public feeling. Incidents of the
war which in past times would have roused
the land throughout its whole length and
breadth, passed unnoticed. And at this time,
though party combinations still exist, the pub-
lic seem indifferent to all political questions.
It is in such periods of quietude that it is
permitted to the Conservative principle of a
nation to exert itself, and, in the absence of
all desire for organic change, to extend the
force and scope of all its existing institutions.
It is at such a time that embarrassing ques-
tions which have long disquieted society
should be taken up and settled in accordance
with the spirit of the Constitution. In this
manner buttresses may be added to the fun-
damental institutions of the empire, and the
requirements of the people may be satisfied.
at the same time that the foundations of
society are rendered more sure, and new
elements of national greatness and prosperity
are introduced.

Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration, what-
ever may be its secret wishes, cannot act in
this Conservative spirit, or it would instantly
lose the support of the bulk of its following.
ThAt following comprises the advocates of
such vast and varied changes in not only our
Constitution, but our social system, as, if
carried into effect, would accomplish the most
complete revolution that has ever been known,
or that can possibly be imagined. The Li-
beral party comprises the advocates of a
purely secular system of education—of the
separation of Church and State, and the secu-
larisation of Church revenues—of the aboli-
tion of primogeniture—and of a complete
change in our representative system. If the
Administration attempts to legislate in a
really Conservative spirit, it will be restrained
by its own followers. If it attempts to legis-
late in any other spirit, it will be restrained by
the Conservative majority in Parliament. It
is impossible for it to do more than carry on

the routine business of Government. Did it
possess any men of either decided principle or
high and independent character, they would
not consent to remain in so degraded a posi-
tion ;—they would resolve the difficulty in
which they are placed by decided action, or
by withdrawal to ono or other of the parties
which command their warmest sympathies.
But it is notoriously composed of persons who
have no other view than to keep together a
Government in which they can bear a part.

At present the singular spectacle is pre-
sented to us of Conservative principles predo•
minating in the country and the Legislature
while the Conservative party or connection is
in a minority. This is a state of things which
influential Conservatives, whether attached to
the party or not, should seriously consider.
They may be assured that the Conservative
connection alone can give vital effect to those
principles of which that party is the natural
representative and guardian. While it stands
on the defensive it may be able to repel attack,
but it will not be able to strengthen its posi-
tion. What the country languishes for is pro-
gressive Conservatism ; a policy and a power
to render the whole structure of English
society more firm, and to gratify the higher in-
telligence, the social wants, and the imperial
necessities which an age of unparalleled intel-
lectual and industrial activity brings with it.
But this object can only be attained by the
consolidating of Conservative strength. Those
who are Conservatives in sentiment must be-
come Conservatives in connection, if ever
they hope to see their cause gain ground,
and the Conservative principle be made
a real, effective, and acting Power. There
is immense scope for the exercise of po-
licy in administrative direction alone. We
ask those persons who conceive that petty
local questions are all-important—Whether the
amount of encouragement which shall be
given to the Church in the Colonies is nothing?
Whether the class of men who are to sit on
the Irish Bench, and to fill the most important
offices in the Irish Church, is nothing ?
Whether the manner in which the State shall
deal with many matters of Church discipline
and revenue is nothing ? Whether the mode
in which such vexed questions as Church rates
shall be dealt with in nothing? Whether the
form to be given to those new social institu-
tions imperatively demanded by the time, and
on which, under GOD, the future prosperity of
this empire must depend, is nothing ? It is
with a view to Conservative legislation and
government on these and a thousand kindred
subjects, that sincere Conservatives of all
shades of opinion should desire to see an
Administration formed representing their
elementary political faith. A party which
does not continually aspire to the supreme
direction of affairs, and which does not prac-
tically and by all constitutional means pursue
its object, is in danger of wasting away. For
it is only in power that a party can practically
develop its principles and achieve its aims.

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794

subjects, who are frightened at pimples and
pin-scratches, without being alarmed at the
danger daily incurred from epidemics. The
whole question of N Maynooth" is really
fantastically exaggerated. It seems a dom.•
right absurdity to raise a cry against a decent
education being given to Irish priests, accord.
ing to the intentions of GEoaos 111. kind Mr.
Prrr, and yet to feel no alarm at the fact of
the Emancipation Act of 1829 being the law of
the land, at forty Roman Catholics sitting in
the Lower House, and at. the Judicial Bench,
and the Executive, and the honours of the
army being open to the ambition and the
zeal of the Roman Catholic gentry of the
empire !
For, after all, the real point of the Maynooth
discussion turns on the question, whether it
is expedient to expend Protestant energy on
this one subject, which is, after all, a purely
Irish one ? If " Maynooth " were in England,
originated by an English (not an Irish) Par-
liament, and if there were a score of English
Roman Catholics, sitting for English places, in the
House of Commons, we might feel alarmed.
But the present state of things, it is evident,
is incidental to an empire consolidated like
our own ; and there is only one English
Roman Catholic amongst our five hundred re-
presentatives.
For, let Maynooth be abolished, could any
rational person suppose that, as the Church of
Rome in Ireland has survived every kind of
persecution and discouragement since CROM-
WELL'S time, the supply of priests would
cease with the revocation of the grant ?
Under another name " Maynooth" would
revive with the energy of a Puritanised Popery.
fierce, and sternly vindictive, inspired by a
virus at once theological and rabidly political.
It seems a waste of excellent zeal to direct
Protestant enthusiasm against a mere earth-
work of the Romish Church in Ireland, while
breaches in the citadel of our National Estab
lishment are left without repair. We say that
it would be far more judicious to survey our
ECCLESIASTICAL INsTrurnoxs, to renew, repair,
atid extend them. Ample, indeed, is the
work in that direction for our national piety
and hearty Protestant zeal, and we cor-
dially desire to see them applied in that
direction.

But though we think that a most mis-
chievously exaggerated importance has been
given to this Irish subject of Maynooth, we
have a right to demand that, if discussed, the
arguments for and against should be conducts 1
according to the established rules of contrc-
versy. %Ire are sorry to see that the Morning
Herald of Tuesday has misrepresented our
views, and it will be our duty to point out
several serious mistakes into which our con-
temporary has fallen.
We must refer, in the first instance, to its
treatment of ourselves. The Haat garbles
our remarks in answer to the cry of Conserva-
tive disorganisation. In argument. one party
may give a summary of the views of his adver
sary, but he has no right to quote, as the
ipsissima verbs of his opponent, his own con-
clusions from his antagonist's language. Adroit
misrepresentation does not form an adequate
answer ; to garble passages is not to grapple
with logical positions ; but we content our-
selves on this point with declining to indorse
our contemporary's misreport of the tenor of
our remarks.

In special reference to the question of Ma)--
nooth, the Herald's admission on Tuesday is
remarkable

The disease which weakens and threatens to destroy
that party (i. e., the Conservative) is no new shiny. It
has 13,,en operating to our damage for eight•and•tweut7
years.

Then, if the present " disease" be "no new
thing," why talk and write about it, exactly as
if its existence were attributable to the pre-
sent Conservative leaders? Is such a course
Lsir, or candid? Is it proper conduct to ex-
hibit towards any political leader or ally? For
the word " disease " we shall substitute di(iV
esltg, and so far from that difficulty existing
only for " eight-and-twenty years" it has been
operating since the Union with Ireland, and
fk.r man years previous to it. In 1802, Mr.
CA37/11110, sad Lord CASTLZILIAOI,