The Press.
London, England, 1856-10-11 00:00:00

organising and restoring to power the Conser.
vatives:--

No one could deny that within the last two years the
sttitnde assumed by that party had been such as to re-
dound to their lasting credit. Though they were them-
selves the victims of a factious combination, yet at a time
when they might have repaid like with like they chose for
themselves a nobler part; and, while the issue of the w. r
was still doubtful and the least opposition might have dis-
placed the Ministry, they threw party considerations en-
tirely aside, and forwarded all such measures as were
framed in a patriotic spirit for the maintenance of the
honour of the country. The danger arising from war was
now happily at an end, and they had need once more of
that independent, energetic, and able assertion of princi-
ple which had ever constituted the leading feature of the
Conservatives of England. They had been told by those
with whom, no doubt, the wish was father to the thought,
that the Doe of party had passed, that in fact it no longer
existed, and even its spirit was dead. But he would say
that it but slumbered for awhile—the vital spark was not
extinct, but would again spring into activity. They
needed a Minister who would reorganise the Conservative
party, and, with the confidence of the country and the
support of the majority of the House of Commons, under-
take the administrative business of the empire, reform the
public service, develop the colonial interest, promote the
cause ut industry, and take in hand with patient labour
those measures of social and administrative reform which
the voice of the country and the spirit of the age de-
mended. They required a Minister who would do this
and something more, one who would stand by the Queen
and constitution, who would protect the Protestant institu-
tions of Church and State, maintain intact civil and reli-
gious liberty and the Christian character of the Legisla-
ture. Above all, they required that the national Church
should be protected from aggression and spoliation. The
time was not far distant when the people of England
would arise as a man and demand such a Minister, and
he was confident that they would find him, not among the
all-talented but all-unprincipled members of the coalition,
or the mediocrity of the Whig party, but where they bad
sought and before found a pilot to weather the storm—in
the ranks and among the leaders of a firm, united, Con-
servative party
MAJOR BERESFORD, whose health was most warmly
received, next rose, and reviewed the leading political
questions of the day.
%On that of Church-rates, he had no particular
desire to insist on the maintenance of the present
form, but he should always support them until a fair
and just equivalent was offered :

f, by a trivial alteration, such as by placing them upon
tke landlord instead of the tenant, as has been done with
respect to the Irish Church, the grievance could be remo
died. I should be delighted to see it done to morrow; but,
with regard to the maintenance of the institution itself I
acknowledge myself a strong Conservative—a Tory if you
like ; and I must say that the conduct of the Prime
Minister in dealing with Ws question has lowered him
more in my opinion than any other occurrence.
Against the admission of Jews to Parliament he
would vote as long as he lived.
With regard to agricultural statistics, the measure
proposed last sessiun was most objectionable and
unjust. His own opinion was :

That, if a true and just system of agricultural statistics
could be obtained and published annually, without prying
into a man's private affairs, I am quite confident that the
persons who would derive the greatest advantages from
such a system would be the cultivators of the soil them-
selves. The thing has been tried already, and has suc-
ceeded to a certain extent ; for, of all the people who have
endeavoured to obtain a system of agricultural statistics
the Scotch have been most successful, and no man in this
room can doubt that our Scotch farmers will look after
their own interests quite as sharply as any agriculturist
in Essex or Suffolk ; and they do not hesitate to declare
that they reap a benefit from agricultural statistics. I
think, therefore, that, if they could be obtained in Eng-
land with more satisfaction to the agriculturist, they would
probably be advantageous; but if in your endeavour to
obtain them you are obliged to enter into all the private
affairs of a man, inquire what capital he embarked, what
was the amount of his stock, what his returns, and what
his expectations—an investigation so inquisitorial, and
which would not be thought of with respect to any other
profession, would not fail to become a most intolerable
nuisance.

The question would be brought before Parliament
neat seAsion, and the Conservative members must
take care to have it referred to a select committee
which would take upon it the opinion of practical
ag ri cult uri ts .

He now came to the question of Maynooth, and
after what had taken place last year it was not un-
natural to him to refer to it, and the necessity for
doing so was greatly increased by the tone taken
during this summer by one of the journals profess-
ing to be a Conservative journal, to speak the senti-
ments of the Conservative party, and known to be con•
siderably under the guidance of some of its leaders :
The organ I particularly allude to is the newspaper
called THE PRESS. That is a journal now established
rather more than three years, and is, I must say, conducted
with a great deal of talent and ability ; but it now and
then takes upon itself to speak to the Conservative party
in rather dictatorial terms ; and for the last few months it
has presumed to censure and assail every man who ven-
tured to oppose the permanent endowment of Maynooth,
and to vituperate in no measured terms every attempt to
disturb or alter that endowment. It hsa exercised its in-
genuity, which is pretty considerable, to give to Popery