The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-01 00:00:00

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No. 48.—VoL. 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 1854.

i4t Vress.

lidate, at this critical period, her political
strength. It is a loss which would shake to its
centre even a house with a Billing or a Roths-
child at its head ; but Mr. GLADSTONE, until
very recently, looked as if he had just taken a
double fist. Within the
,last week the true
character - or his operations and financial
career has been revealed to the country,—first
by Mr. DISRAMJ, who, in an overwhelming
speech, refitted' all his previous sophistries and
unblushing mistatements, and disclosed the
real condition of the Exchequer, exhatt3ted by
his bubble schemes'; and oh Thursday, last by
Sir JOHN PAKINOTON, who clearly showed to the
House that the famous Budget of 1853 was, in
fact, a fraudulent Budget, and that, in posses-
sion of information which rendered war with a
powerful Sovereign highly probable, the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, for the sake of some
ephemeral popularity, tampered in the most
unprincipled manner with the resources of the
country. The demeanour of this Minister
throughout these successive discussions has
changed in a characteristic manner. First he
bullied, then he whimpered—finally he took
refuge in silence, and devolved his vindication
to the " conventicle rhetoric of Mr. GLAD-
STONE," who might be styled his Right
Honourable and " Reverend " Friend. His
overweening carriage has all vanished, and in
his last state he looks very much like a lame
duck.

LONDON, SATURDAY,

APRIL 1, 1854.

THE chief business of the House of Commons
seems now an evening entertainment, derived
from some strange indiscretion or wild vagary
of those men who, only twelve months ago,
were looked upon by the nation as such au
unrivalled aggregate of Ministerial capacity
that an identity of political opinion was waived,
by consent, to obtain possession of such in
estimable advantages. It is better than any
of the minor theatres. After-dinner speeches
by Sir JAMES GRAHAM, letters written during a
fit of—the, gout by Lord PALMERSTON, solemn
reasons given by Lord Joint Rvassu„ with a
wink of the eye, for the postponement of the
Reform Bill, and weekly estimates of the cost
which the country has incurred for the enjoy-
ment of that unrivalled financier and unexam-
pled stockjobber, Mr. GLADSTONE, mixed up
with interludes of commissariat hay stuffed
with dead lambs, graphic pictures of Irish
labourers .bearing hods heavier than them-
selves, and Mr. Justice SToNoR, altogether
form a vastly diverting medley, which draws,
and, in the absence of the private correspon-
dence of Baron BRUNOW, must convey to the
Emperor of RUSSIA a lively idea of the official
ability and personal influence of the Govern-
ment presided over by his " old friend."
There is not a subject on which two mem-
bers of the Government agree, and every
Minister has got into a scrape. Even those
who were thought safe in time are tainted. Its
is as catching as the influenza. It is said
that a statesman should always identify him-
self with a great principle ; these gentlemen
identify themselves with a great blunder, or
something worse. It is said that if the Cabi.
net had attended in force at the City dinner,
the other day, the toasts would have been
arranged as follows:

When the answer had been received from
St. Petersburg, and the supplies had been
voted, Lord JOHN RIISSZLL was to proceed
with his scheme of Parliamentary Reform.
The delay was to be regretted, but, at the
same time, greatly compensated for by the
introduction, in the inevitable interval, of the
Irish and Scotch Reform Bills. These im-
portant measures seem, somehow or other, to
be forgotten. What a hoax is the whole affair !
Instead of quarrelling in the Cabinet, one
would rather suppose their assemblies were
scenes of perpetual merriment and mockery.
The Roman augurs, when they met in privatO,
could have been nothing to them. There mast
be some bad management which thus contrives,
periodically, to convey to the public the im-
pression that they are at variance. But per-
haps it is the only mode by which they can
contrive to persuade the world that they have
any opinion.

In the meantime public business progresses
bravely. The disfranchising schedules lie on
the table of the House covered with dust ; the
Dissenters are to be admitted to the Univer-
sities when Mr. GIADSTONE pays off the Na-
tional Debt ; Reform and Education are almost
as much in the ascendant as peace and non-
interference. What if that sage measure, the
Oaths Bill, be not passed, the reconstruction
of the civil service will make up for every-
thing, and be the public compensation for all
backalidings, as the reduced price of soap is
to the Birmingham clerk for his doubled
income tax.

" Lord Aberdeen and Partition."
" Lord. John Russell and Parliamentary•
Reform."

" The Lord Chancellor and the Ecclesiasti-
cal Courts."

" Lord Clarendon and the Vienna Note."
" The Duke of Newcastle and the Colonial
Bench."
" Lord Palmerston and the Law of Settle-
ment."
" Sir James Graham and the Baltic Fleet."
" The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the
Stock Exchange."
This last gentleman seems in the sorriest
condition, because in his case all who run may
read. In a stockjobbing speculation of ten
millions, notwithstanding the deceptions
which he successfully practised on a large
number of old ladies in the country, he has
contrived already to lose one million and a
half sterling, the exact sum which Sardinia is
in vain attempting to raise as a loan to conso•

These are the men to carry on a war with
vigour and success. "Their unanimity is won-
derful." They quarrelled even about the com-
mander of their first expedition; but time was
so precious, and the occasion so pressing, that
they dubbed even NAprza discreet, and sent
him, in breathless haste, to conquer the Gulf
of Finland, which is covered with ice till the
month of May. What a glorious future !
Walcheren expeditions, and conquests of
Cabul !

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PRICE SIXPENCE.

THE POOR LAW ON COALITION
PRINCIPLES. ..

THE defeat of Government on the Poor-law
Bill, the acknowledged inconsistency and dis-
crepancy of, their. opinions respeeting it, toge-
ther with the suepentld, htit seatcely with-
drawn, resignation of Mr. BAINES, are all
significant facto, anfl not lightly to be peeled
over. They prove three things :—First, the
carelessness with which, in their attempts to
revive a fading popularity, Ministers lay befell
Parliament measures of reform which they~
have never matured, nor even so much as con-
sidered ; next, the feeble tie which blade the"
together, when a cause apparently so slight
can threaten their dissolution at snail a

moment; and lastly, the very little Manage*
which exists on any side (except, Weed:
among the Conservative Opposition) to treat
with indulgence the inevitable errors into
which every Cabinet must sotnetlinee fall. /
The first assertion requires no proof. It
was notorious to all who bad given a moment's
thought to the settlement question that the
real obstacle to dealing with that sub,teet laj
in the case of the Irish poor. All the rest was
comparatively plain sailing. Witness after
witness had stated this befilre the committee
of '47 ; it had been argued in pamphlets, pUt
forward in speeches—even, if we mistake not,
admitted from the Treasury Bench. It is
believed that Lord DILIUIVII Cabinet were not
averse to modify the law of removal, and that
the Irish difficulty alone induced' them to
suspend action in the matter. Be this true of
not, the dilemma in which poor-law relbreners
are placed is obvious. While you admit the
legality of removals as a general principle, the
Irishman has no more canoe to complain than
another. But, as Lord PAussarros puts it
well, if two labourers are working in the tame
parish, and if the ono be entitled to relief as a
right, though born in a different part of Eng.
land three hundred miles oft it molly: hard
that his neighbour should be liable, on be-
coming destitute, to undergo what is virtually
equivalent to a sentence of transportation,
merely on the ground of his Irieh birth. " The
" claim," as he acknowledged, " is irresistible."
The question which it involved wee e very
grave one. Every previous legislator had
conenrred in judgmesit.with Mr. Bantes,,tlatit
it was not ripe for parliamentary handling.,
But if Ministers thought otherwise, why was it
not dealt with in their bill? If, again, the
claim could not be justly resisted—it the Irish
labourer's right were identical in nature and
degree with that of the Englishmau—bat if
from popular prejudice, from the different
social state of the countries, or any other
Cause, that which was abstractedly Sat to
attempt was practically impostlble 'to be
accomplished—what duty dearer than tq
suspend all legislation until the question
could be grappled with' as a whole ? In
truth, the Ministerial muse* was evidently
dictated by a poliey neither very reined
nor very scrupulott. /Irish votes ware to
be gained by rogue ptotakeeAt future
justiee to Irish labour. _ goglish eippooltion
was to be neutralised brlteephag out of sight
the dreaded oontingency of as Wilmot Celtic
p"uperitim. Pity that. *such m ions ht-
tngues could not be carried on In sew-- •