The Press.
London, England, 1857-06-13 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

THE publication of the text of the Treaty of Peace with Persia is the
first official document placed before Parliament concerning a war
undertaken and a peace concluded without the authority of that Par-
liament. If it is not easy to account for the origin of the war, it is
even more difficult to explain the conclusion of such a peace. From the
terms of the Treaty, the advantages gained appear so questionable that
no doubt can exist but that a rational and moderate diplomacy, in the
place of a hasty and ill-considered policy, would in the first instance
have placed affairs upon a more satisfactory and less costly basis. We
are told that her Majesty's Government have not only acted in a
manner " consistent with the true interests and dignity of England,
" but with a generous consideration of the true interests and dignity of
" Persia." Well-balanced phrases, but not consistent with matters of
fact. Without entering into the history of those petty and con-
temptible squabbles at Teheran which led to tho withdrawal of Mr.
MURRAY and the expedition to the Persian Gulf, we may observe
that when FEROUK KHAN arrived at Constantinople exorbitant demands
were made which one by one we afterwards gave up, including
every point of the slightest benefit to this country. " The
" obnoxious stipulations," to use Lord COWLEY'S own words, " not abso-
" lutely necessary to the attainment of peace " involved British
establishments at Karrak and Bushire, and the payment of the
war expenses, which are now relinquished. The dismissal
of SADR AZIM, insisted on from the first as a sine qua non, is
given up, the indemnity to be paid to the people of Ilerat is
thrown overboard, and a special privilege, viz., the right of protecting
native subjects attached to the Mission, is to be surrendered,
under a certain contingency, as an equivalent for Mr. MURRAY being
received on his return to Teheran with honours rather galling to
Persian pride. To conclude, the independence of Herat is guaranteed,
provided in all cases of dispute the friendly offices of England do not
fail to adjust a settlement of the case in point, at best but a
hazardous and objectionable stipulation; and this is the sound and
satisfactory basis upon which our amicable relations are re-established
with Persia, and the independence of Herat secured ! The commence-
ment of the war and the conclusion of the peace, if they have
not met with censure, can lay no claim to approbation. They are
alike consistent with that shortsighted, hand-to-mouth system by
which of late our Foreign Policy has been unhappily characterised,
and as yet exhibit in a remarkable degree how much more easy it is
for Ministers to evade a Parliamentary inquiry than to govern well at
home, or support the interests, the honour, and the dignity of the
nation abroad.

The following extraordinary advertisement appears in a prominent
place of the Dublin Evening Mail of June 6th :

THE LORD LIEUTENANT will receive
Persons who have been presented at his Levees and
Drawing•rooms, and Officers of the Garrison who were not in
Dublin when they were held, at the VICEREGAL LODGE,
upon the Four Saturdays commencing with the 13th of June,
from Four to Seven o'clock.

That is, certainly, the most cavalier sort of invitation that wo ever
heard or read of in Court annals. Observe the elegance of the polite
phrase "persons " applied to " Ladies and Gentlemen " of presumed
courtly consideration, just as in public tea-gardens " persons " are
requested " not to pull the flowers." Then mark " his levees and
drawing-rooms," just as if they were only poor Lord CARLISLE'S, and
not the receptions of " His Excellency" her Majesty's Viceroy. No
date is affixed to this official document ; no place is mentioned whence
it was issued, whether from " the Castle " or " the Chamberlain's
office ;" and no particular dress is indicated for the " persons " to appear
in ! The time chosen for the receptions, too late for luncheon and too
early for dinner, would seem to hint that the " persons " are to be
treated to a " teetotal " entertainment, aided with large slices of
" the cold shoulder." The gatherings announced in this undignified
style are intended probably as precursor associations for the total
abolition of the Viceroyalty. To degrade an Institution first, in
order to destroy it more easily afterwards, is a recognised Machiavellian
art. As long as her Majesty's Viceregal representative holds a Court
at Dublin, the routine of official decorum should be preserved. Lord
CARLISLE may invite " persons " to Castle Howard in any style that
his Lordship pleases. He may do so in billets-doux of his own
flowery composition, or he may order his under-butler to scratch
a line to " the persons," and tell them to " come early and not stay
long ;" but we submit with all respect that " His Excellency the Earl
of CARLISLE, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland," might in Viceregal affairs
follow precedents which statesmen like CORNWALLIS or WELLESLEY
were happy to adopt. But, possibly, wo do Lord CARLISLE some
injustice, and investigation might prove that the uncourtly document
had been penned by an ex-official. Time was when the Irish journals
never appeared without " Lord NORBURY'S Last," and research might
prove that this " advice to persons " was not Lord CARLISLE'S, but " Mr.
11011814AN's very last " !

The debate on the motion of Mr. KINNAIRD in the House of Com-
mons on Thursday evening, and the speeches of Mr. VERNON SMITH,
Lord JOHN Russ- d Mr. M, - -

of the Directors, and of the President of the Board of Control.
They each and all allow that the picture of utter and shameless mis-
management drawn by the Bengal missionaries in their memorial is
not overcharged, and they only objeet to the inquiry prayed for, on
the ground that inquiry is useless, as the allegations are con-
fessedly proved. The single palliation offered on the part
of the Directors is, that they are as alive as any one
to the evil, and have written out a despatch in which their
sentiments on it are conveyed. But no one who knows
anything of that body will believe for a moment that it is in earnest,
or that it has any other object in view than to gain time. Its desire
is to stave off an inconvenient inquiry till the storm shall have blown
over which it is unable to face. For who can suppose for an instant
that it has not been all along as well acquainted with the state of
things prevailing in Bengal as it is now ? Many of the Directors have
served in India, and the others know it or have the means of knowing
it thoroughly through the official documents which periodically come
under their review. But what have they done on these, what course
have they pursued towards those who have endeavoured in any way
to put a stop to the infamies habitually perpetrated there ? What
they have done is, instead of rewarding, to punish such persons, and
seek to drive them from their service as men too impracticable, or, in
other words, too honest and enlightened, to aid in carrying out their
rule. In every department of the State, whether high or low, their
treatment of all who have sought to introduce reforms in India has
been the same, even though they have been the very reforms
for which in England they have been glad to take the credit in their
hours of need. Thus Ross, the abolisher of the transit duties,
was told by the then Directors that nothing but his age
and high standing prevented their summarily dismissing
him from their service ; while METCALFE, the Governor
who gave freedom to the press in India, was driven by the
Directors to abandon all connection with them, and the remainder of
Lis life might have been lost to, his country had it not been for the
sagacity of the Ministers of the Crown. What the worth was of the
man thus sacrificed by the India-house, Jamaica and Canada attest.
With respect to Mr. HALLIDAY, it must be clear that strong influences
have been brought to bear to induce him to modify so greatly in his
second minute the views originally expressed in his first, but it is no
use to attempt to stifle discussion in the face of the facts that have
been disclosed. It must be a subject of congratulation to the Conser-
vative party that they cannot in any way be held responsible for the
lamentable state of things in India which this debate has shown to
exist. At the time of the renewal of the charter Mr. DISRAELI and Lord
STANLEY divided the House against the proposition that the inquiry
which had been commenced into the state of India should be so sud-
denly closed. They protested against a farther lease of power being
granted to those who held it, until they should have some better proof
of the uses it had been applied to than the well-prepared official
evidence which had been submitted to the House was calculated, in
their minds, at least, to afford. But Parliament was deaf to the appeal,
and the Company obtained a further renewal of power, which it is now
clear has been shamefully and systematically abused. The debate of
Thursday has had excellent effect. It has at last thrown a fair light and
given us a few tangible facts upon the gross misgovernment permitted
in our Indian empire.

It is generally admitted that an after-dinner apeech is not be
judged by the strictest rules of either logic or veracity. Excited
himself, the orator ventures on assertions which an excited audience
drinks in without reflection, and forgets next morning. But he knows
that the impression will remain. A new idea has been implanted in
their minds, and it is exactly because they cannot recollect the pro-
cess by which it got there that they aro prevented from detecting its
fallacy. To this twofold temptation of venting his generous ardour
and disseminating his private opinions without fear of refutation
it is no wonder that the postprandial politician should very
frequently succumb ; and a more remarkable instance than that of
Lord HENLEY. at Northampton, last week, we seldom recollect to
have met with. A cooler denial of the patent facts of history we
really never encountered. " There is no connection," says the Noble
Viscount, " between farming and Toryism." He might as well say
there was no connection between himself and his own skin. As long
as human nature remains what it is, the dwellers in the country
will continue Conservatives, and the dwellers in towns
Radical:4. Rural pursuits and the contemplation of nature
have, by universal admission, a tendency to tranquillise and purify the
feelings, to develop a love of stability and affection for existing things,
and, iu a word, to promote those tastes and that tone of mind most
favourable to aristocratic and monarchical ideas. Commercial life, on
the contrary, is more favourable to the growth of a sanguine and rest-
less temperament—ever on the alert for change, ever devising new
channels of business, and a stranger to the softening influence of na-
tural beauties. Each has its good and its bad points. But the dis-
tinction we have pointed out is as old as the origin of civil society, and
has been copiously illustrated by poets, politicians, and philosophers,
from ARISTOPHANES to ADDISON. Before we can throw over the evidence
of three thousand years, we must be schooled by a somewhat pro-
founder teacher than an amiable young nobleman, who has hitherto
shown his regard for the family motto by remaining in retirement.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Mr. MANGLES; will afford the King of NAPLES I There can be no doubt that the introduction of really good beer
an excellent opportunity of calling the attention of the Western into the houses of refreshment throughout this metropolis would bo
Powers to the fact that the alleged misgovernment in his territories is one of the greatest boons that could be conferred upon the working
not at any rate half so bad as the admitted misgovernment in our own. classes, and not, perhaps, upon them only. But we confess that " A
The truth can no bnger be concealed, it rests on official authority— Thirsty Soul" has not succeeded in making clear to us how this result
the authority of the Liouteuant•Governor of Bengal, of the Chairman would be brought about by the abolition of the licensing system.

JUNE 13, 1857.

Nor do we see, generally, how any extension of the system of beer-
houses could tend to produce any such desirable result. Monopoly is
an ugly word, and people are readily set against a system by the
application of it. But the question of pure beer and free trade in
beer seem to us entirely distinct. The depravation of the metropolitan
palate is so complete, that the beerhouse-keeper would not find it to
his advantage to sell pure beer, and at all events we may be quite
sure that in these cases cheapness will carry the (lay against goodness,
provided only the drink be sufficiently stimulating ; while it is quite
Obvious that pure beer cannot be sold as cheap as adulterated beer.
There is one reason, no doubt, that renders the extension of beershops
desirable, and that is, that it is alcohol rather than malt liquor that
produces the largest and the most dangerous intoxication, and that
anything which tends to diminish the sale of spirits must he regarded
as a benetit to the community. But this by no means settles the
question. We have, on the other hand, the indefinite multiplication of
establishments more or less devoted to inebriety, and the injury
inflicted on a body of men like the licensed victuallers, who " have
given hostages " in the shape of large payments to the State, which is
a point by no means to be overlooked by lovers of justice.

The circle of London wits has lost its brightest star this
week. DOUGLAS JERROLD has passed away. Always brilliant,
and often bitter, his poignancy pleased by its sparkles, and
pained by its corrosiveness. His wit was rapid, electric, and vivid ;
but it was also cynical and narrow, and its sharpness was unrelieved
by poetical colour. A beautiful saying, picturesquely worded, and
touching by its pathos. rarely came from his caustic tongue. With
less gall, his faculty would have shone brighter ; but for a long part of
his life DOUGLAS JERROLD seemed to have aspired to the fame of an
epigrammatic terrorist. Friends and foes alike came in for the strokes
of his mordant humour, and no eminent wit ever uncorked so much
sour champagne; but it must be remembered that though his vintage
was occasionally to be criticised, JERROLD was never caught offering
gooseberry for grapejuice. He had little of the rich humour of
THEODORE HOOK; and he could not be classed with SYDNEY
SMITH, whose benevolence of heart beamed as brightly as his
brilliancy of thought. To etch people in aquafortis was his idea of
drawing from nature ; and not a few persons in literary and dramatic
circles had reason to quail before the dazzling derision of his
scintillating and sarcastic lips ; while some social pretenders will
respire more freely on being delivered from the rack of his excru-
ciating mockery. For many years JERROLD'S airy bitterness re-
tarded his just social pretensions ; but his talents were un-
deniable, and were sterling in their kind, and he had many per-
sonal merits of the highest order. He rose without a patron, and
under unfavourable auspices ; but his self-reliance on his own re-
markable literary powers was fully justified. In an age when popular
authors have injured English style by their diffuseness, JERROLD set
the example of writing with scholarly conciseness ; and with more
leisure for study and reflection, his works would have had a richness
of illustration and breadth of view now wanting in them Some of
his dramatic pieces are extremely clever, and many of his essays are
like Dutch paintings in their finished and fanciful tracery. But his
conversational wit was his main distinction. While its quality was
often too lurid, its quantity was truly surprising. It flashed forth in
sheet and forked lightning. He had nothinc, in common with a jest-
book on two legs ; he was no wag passing off for a humorist ; he was
a true wit, with a peculiar neatness in the turn of his points. For
hours JERROLD could without the least fatigue keep up the small-sword
exercise of conversational carte and tierce. Gentleman PALMER said
of the elder 'MATHEWS before he came to London that " he was the
tallest man and the funniest man you ever saw in your life, and had
" got no mouth at all, but spoke from a little slit in the left cheek;"
and of JERROLD it might be said that " he was

•
"An abridgment of all that was poignant in man,
" and had got no tongue, but two inches and a half of a scimitar,
" which was never idle." This scalping propensity had,
greatly to his credit, diminished much of late years,
and he was a favoured guest in the choicest and most refined
circles. That there was something unhappy in his temperament,
some unexplained cause of aching pain, appears probable. As a politi-
cal writer he failed iu argument, and he was deficient in solid informa-
tion, but his pen was ready in its rancour and satirically light in its
cutting comments. He was never without a bunch of nettles, and he
stung if he could not crush, and punished when he could not convince.
It is to be regretted that he did not more cultivate his vein of humour,
to which he did not do justice. In some of his political writings there
were passages of grave irony not unworthy of Swirl.. Amongst the wits
of the last hundred years, JERROLD will probably be placed midway
between FOOTE and JAMES Small. It is not unlikely that his
reputation will sink with time, but enough will remain to preserve his
name buoyant for many generations ; and though his portable battery
of sarcasm left him with not a few foes, his many good qualities will
be remembered to his honour by a large circle of admiring and tole-
rating friends.

The Deputation of Slave-trade Abolitionists which waited upon
Lord PALMERSTON on Wednesday last, suggested to the Noble Lord
certain measures for the extinction of the slave trade, excellent in
theory, but impracticable. The main features of the scheme
were the blockade of the coasts of Cuba and the conclusion of such
treaties with Spain and other slave countries as would substitute by
emigration free African labour in lieu of the slave labour now imported.
We doubt, in the first place, whether it would be possible to conclude
such treaties; andlin the next, if concluded, we venture to think that

581

those treaties would fail tol!accomplish any practical result, for no
free African would voluntarily emigrate. The free labour must be
made up from the domestic slaves of Africa. Now, the African slave
is by nature but an indifferent emigrant. Freed and removed from
his native soil he accepts his liberty as an immunity from all labour,
and if permitted to remain free would " squat " in the bush and do no
more work than was necessary for his own subsistence. But how is his
freedom to be secured in countries where slavery is permitted to exist ?
Clearly, the time has not yet come when free African emigrants may
be safely landed in Cuba, Brazil, or the Southern States of America.
It is better at once to go to the root of the evil in Africa itself, and by
developing the vast resources of that fine country, and giving em-
ployment to the domestic slaves of the different states and kingdoms
therein, on the one hand to encourage, and on the other, by a strict
blockade of the coasts, compel their retention in Africa in preference
to their exportation abroad. It is to the spread of commerce in
Africa that we must mainly look for the abolition of its foreign
slave trade. Mere philanthropic measures will fail. The native
African better comprehends the material advantages of trade.
Let the Government, therefore, foster and protect our African
traders. Let them, aided by the wealth and power of the
Abolitionists, encourage expeditions to the interior of the country, the
establishment of factories on its coasts, the opening up of the different
rivers, and the maintenance of friendly relations with the different
Sovereigns of the country. They are eager for trade. Their percep-
tion is not so dull but that they quickly discern and readily acknow-
ledge its advantages. Show them practically that it is more to their
profit and prosperity to employ their slaves upon home production than
to sell them to the foreign trader, and in a few years—for time is a
great element in such measures—we shall have little need to watch
Africa or to blockade Cuba.

The journey of Plus TX.. through the Romagna was undertaken
against the wish of the Cardinal Minister ANTONELLI—it may be said,
in the very teeth of his protest. In persisting to make the visitation
progress, the Holy Father had a fair and legitimate object. It had
been the policy of Cardinal ANTONELLI to persuade the Pope that the
Roman people were adverse to the Papal system altogether, and
it was to test the veracity of this statement that the journey was
expressly undertaken. His Holiness is universally acknowledged to
he a kind and benevolent man, and that since his elevation to the
chair of St. Peter the friends of his youth and of middle life have not
found any diminution of personal regard. It may be easily
imagined, therefore, that the journey through the Romagna has been
one continued ovation. At Sinigaglia, the birthplace of the Pontiff,
his reception has assumed the character of a welcome given to a
parent after a long absence. Of the sincerity of this affectionate
greeting, even the most sceptical cannot entertain a doubt. Together
with these complimentary effusions, various hints have been given on
the iniquity of the Antonelli Government, and of the resolve of the
people to separate ipich legislative misdeeds from any personal
connection with the Holy Father. Although surrounded by the
spies of the Minister, who never quit the presence, yet means have
been amply obtained to convey the truth and to establish the justice
of popular complaint. The Pope will return to the Vatican a wiser
man, and with an accession of knowledge not favourable to the
Cardinal son of the Velletic brigand.

A few weeks since we remarked that the Bengal mutinies were far
more serious than the Government felt disposed to admit. The last
mail from India brings us news of the spread of disaffection, of
incendiarism, of open mutiny and bloodshed in one regiment—the
3rd Cavalry—and of the discovery of a correspondence seriously in-
volving the native officers of several other regiments. The Earl of
ELLENHOROLIGH on Monday called the attention of the Lords to the
fact, and the Noble Earl did not trench upon improbable ground when
he insisted that the existing state of affairs indicated danger to our
rule. It would be beyond our limits to enter at
length into the causes which appear to have originated
the Bengal mutinies ; but we may ask, when Sepoys find
their pay reduced, their time of service for pension extended,
their terms of enlistment rendered more general and onerous,
their duties increased, their marches greatly lengthened, and
the consequent deductions from their pay very largely swelled, is it
unreasonable that they should exhibit symptoms of discontent? More
than this, they see their religious feelings daily slighted, the subscrip-
tions of the English officers to their festivals withdrawn under the pre-
tence that they are idolatrous, and the line more and more plainly
marked which separates them from the ruling race. At the same time
the staff of the army is most imprudently reduced, while that army
itself is filled with those adventurous but undisciplined spirits
which in former times looked rather for service in the Punjatib,
in Gwalior, and in (Jude. The safety-valves, as Sir JOHN NIAL-
coLm called the native States, are now closed. Then, again, to
crown all, a fierce agitation against the Company has sprung up in
the Calcutta European world. No wonder that the crisis creates alarm.
Lord METCALFE, that eminent Indian statesman, has told us—and no
one can controvert the truth of his statement—that we have no root in
the country, that the natives are thoroughly disaffected, and that if
our native army prove unfaithful India may be lost in a day. We
hope that Lord CANNING may prove equal to his task; it is no easy
one, and he most assuredly will fail, if he be not prepared frankly to
admit that it is the Government and its servants even more than tho
Sepoys who are really to blame. Meanwhile, we are by no means dis-
posed unconditionally to accept Mr. VERNON SMITH'S statement that
the " disaffection is at an end."