The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

THURSDAY.

Fair progress was made with the India Go-
vernment The constitution of the Council
was discussed during nearly the entire evening,
and in the end left in a tolerable state of con-
solidation. Questions whether the members
should be nominated in the Act—whether they
should hold office for a term of years or during good
behaviour—whether they should be allowed to
sit in Parliament—and other matters of organi-
zation, were discussed at ample length, and sub-
mitted to the test of divisions. In every instance
the Ministerial arrangement was finally preferred,
and by very large majorities. "Bill No. 3" is now
recognized as the winning horse, whose rivals
either pay forfeit, or, if compelled on a point of
honour to come to the post, scarcely even take
the trouble to make a race of it.
Atter the Chairman had been ordered to report
progress with the Bill punctually at midnight,
much business was transacted. Several Bills
were advanced a stage, several more introduced,
and some withdrawn. Among the last-mentioned
category was the City of London Corporation
Reform Bill, an inheritance from the Palmerston
Ministry, but which since their collapse had
flitted about the House in a desolate and
orphaned condition, to which an end wa?,
humanely put to-night by the sentence transfer-
ring it to the other bank' of the Legislative Styx.
FRIDAY.

At the early and late sitting further pro-
gress was made with the India Government
Bill. By persevering effort the measure was suc-
cessfully carried through, up to its last clause.
A very good day's work

yittraturt.

History of England during the Reign of George
111. By William Massey, M.P. Vol. 11.
1770-1780. London : J. W. Parker and

Son. •
WE have so recently* had an opportunity of
expressing our opinions upon this very interesting
period of English history, that we feel we have
no ex,:use for detaining our readers very long
upx n the present occasion. The early part of
George reign is necessarily an important
epoch for the political student ; as it is here that
his best and most impartial guide for the first
time deserts him, and leaves him to apply for him-
self the lessons conveyed through the medium
of more remote and indifferent events. Hallam
is now silent. And the principal writer to whom
we have to trust is Professor Smyth, whose pre-
dilations are far too strongly marked to permit
of our accepting him as an authority. The text-
book of his lectures on the period—as Alison does
not begin till twenty years later—is Adolphus's
"History of the Reign of George III.." written
from the Higl.-Tory point of view ; and the tenor
of his remarks is pervaded by an air of special
pleading directed to the confutation of a single
author, rather than by the calm inquisitiveness
of the political philosopher.
A continuation ofthe "Constitutional History"
is gradually becoming one of the wants of the
present day. But we look round in vain for any
one possessed of the learning, impartiality, and
sagacity of its celebrated author. No regular
history can do for us exactly what Mr. Hallam
has done, or else we need not ask for anything
more than Lord Mahon's, who, though not
always equal to the labour of forming original
views, presents us on the whole with a very fair
picture of the period he has undertaken to de-
lineate. But though the leisurely student may
be able to draw his own conclusions from a lucid
and impartial narrator, the world at large requires
to have the abstracting process performed for
them. To get the full value from a Thucydides,
we require an Aristotle ; and to get the full value
from a Hume, we require a Hallam. Who is to
perform that office for our later history, we say,
we do not know. In the meantime, pretenders
of every description are freely permitted to distort
the history of this era into the wildest shapes of
absurdity ; to sneer at the only English sove-
reign who since the days of Queen Elizabeth has
stamped his character on the epoch, and at
one of those great English Ministers, who, at
the head of a great national party, has repre
sented at once the opinions both of the monarch
and the people.
We must hasten to apprise our readers that we
do not mean to include Mr. Massey in the terms
of this description. Ills History approaches
much nearer to the moderate and equitable nar-
rative of Lord Mahon than to the class of mad
declaimers represented by Mr. Macknight, or of
scholastic partizans of whom Professor Smyth is
an example. He is evidently anxious to be im-
partial ; and though we should say he is deficient
in research, he is gifted with a native good sense
that frequently leads him to the truth where a
more pretentious writer would have missed it.
We do not mean to say that lie is an historian of
sufficient calibre to overcome the force of in-
veterate prejudices ; but, apparently, when his
mind is not under the influence of these, he is
willing to see things in a light not always in
hccordance with his own general views. His
character of George 111., and his description of
the " King's Friends," as given in the first
volume of this work, are distinguished by an
effort to do justice to the former and by a much
more sensible estimate of the real, position of the
latter, than we commonly meet with in Liberal
historians. But his intellect is unequal to the
labour a! sustaining him at this elevation of im-
partiality. In his second volume he is gradually
drawn down again to the vulgar level, and per-
mits himself to indulge in much of the abusive
cant which has been levelled against George 111.
On the parliamentary policy of that Sovereign,
we have expressed our views at length in the
article already referred to. It was a legitimate
reaction against the policy of the two preceding
reigns. It was not to be supposed that when the

l'eteis, Feb. 20. I:eview.of Life of Burke.