The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

No. 176.—V0L. IV. LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1856.

tie Vrcss.

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1556

THE journals which have lately been reproach-
ing the Conservatives with the want of a
party, now discover that something more is
wanted. The country wants a policy, and this
is a want which it seems no one is able to
supply. Liberals gently reproach the Admin-
istration, and publicists gently reproach the
Liberals. Every one has something to say on
the subject, and nothing to propose. The
Government ought to have something to do,
but no one is prepared to say what that some-
thing is. One talks wildly of applying the
" knife and the branding•iron to the accumu-
" lated abuse of ages ;" another speculates on
the " iniquity of the Amorites " in foreign
parts; and another opines that we are to look
out for a man who will bring a policy of his
own with him, as a beggar carries his wallet,
on his back. In good time we shall discover
that the real want of the day is,—a Govern-
ment

Nothing is easier than to make up a Cabinet
equal to the routine duties of office. The
expedient answers very well when only routine
work has to be performed. It would be very
unreasonable to expect decided measures from
men who are incapable of making up their
minds on a policy, and who have no principles
in common. They must exert what skill they
have to stave off difficulties, and prevent the
agitation of disagreeable questions. The
present Government cannot move in any
direction without endangering itself, and it
therefore naturally and prudently resolves to
stand still.

A quarter of a century of power has enervated
the Liberal party, and deprived it of leaders.
It is still strong in connection, but lamentably
deficient in ability and principle. Rather
than lose its hold of power, it has been glad
to accept any heads presented to it by accident.
Recently it exulted in the acquisition of Lord
ABERDEEN and Sir JAMES GRAHAM. It is now
content to accept the Premiership of Lord.
PA LIIERSTON.
The Noble Lord the Member for Tiverton,
with that acute perception of public feeling
which has distinguished his career, discerns
that a Government essentially Conservative is
alone practicable. But neither his position
nor his following allow him to pursue that
policy of active Conservatism which the state
of the country requires. He wishes to rule in
a Conservative sense, but to avoid Conserva-
tive measures. As the inevitable result, his
Government sinks into a mere negation.
The legislation demanded at the present
time is not of a kind that private individuals
can possibly originate. There is no room for
those great and extensive changes which,
Whatever might be said of their prudence, had
the power to make famous those who advocated
them, and to enlist public sympathy in their
support. The policy required at the present day
is ofa more modest character. It chiefly concerns

the administrative business of the empire,—
the reorganisation of public services,—the de-
velopment of colonial power and industry,
and the improvement of our social institutions.
This kind of work can properly be undertaken
only by the Government for the time being.
It may be prosecuted in a very different spirit,
according to the principles of the Government
which undertakes it. If a liberal policy is to
prevail, the changes will be marked, as Mr.
LOWE'S Shipping Bill of last year was marked
by the disturbing influences peculiar to Liberal
tenets. If effected in a Conservative spirit,
the changes may not be less extensive, but will
certainly be less obnoxious and more safe.
Vast reforms have been worked by Conserva.
tives in a perfectly constitutional spirit. Mr.
Prrr was a great financial reformer before he
was a great war minister; Lord CASTLEREAGH
carried the Irish Union ; and the Tory Mr. WIL•
BERFORCE paved the way for that measure of
Negro Emancipation which the present Lord
DERBY had the honour of carrying into
effect. But if a Government be neither Liberal
nor Conservative, if it has no hold on either
side, its action will want that stamp of princi-
ple which alone can enable it to act with firm-
ness and power,
Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration may be
fertile in shifts and expedients. It may show
craft in postponing inconvenient questions, or
in making concessions as often as it is threat-
ened with defeat, but it can never hope to do
more. It cannot take the initiative in legisla-
tion, it cannot grasp the requirements of the
empire looking beyond the wants of the day ;
or, with the wise forethought which belongs to
statemanship, anticipate necessities, and in
the time of calm make preparation for the hour
of trial. How different might have been the
whole course of the Russian war had not Lord
DERBY'S Administration been overthrown by
a vote on some insignificant detail of the Bud-
get which no one now recollects !
In a country so free and active as England
there is no safety for the Administration in
repose. There must be continual movement
on the part of the Government, if only to keep
pace with the movement of society. When
from any cause this activity ceases, the ele-
ments of disturbance are sure to accumulate.
No Government is so essentially revolutionary
as one that is intent on fighting off difficulties
and making things pleasant. As with alliclasses
of the improvident, destruction overtakes it
like an armed man, and its opportunities of
good turn into instruments of mischief.
There is a general agreement that a Conser-
vative Government is required at the present
time. The point to be considered is, how can
such a Government be formed ? This is the
question for politicians to determine. The in-
terregnum is unsafe, and it will show a strange
want of practical good sense on the part of
public men if some means cannot be taken to
end it, and to inspire the Executive with the
power which resides in the nation, and the
sentiment which actuates the great body of
the people.

STAMPED ....SIXPENCE.
UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE.

public characters of our time we do not re
member any other statesman falling so soon
and so far in such a brief period. Three years
ago his Grace was Secretary of State, and the
recognised chief of a club of politicians affect-
ing to be a party. He had as many followers
and parasites as his ancestor, the head of the
Pelhams in the last century. People said
that his Grace was dreaming of becoming
Premier, and his flatterers extolled his won-
derful talents for business, and drew invidi-
ous comparisons between his Grace and the
Whig chiefs, whom his Grace circumvented
rather than supplanted.
And what is the position of the Duke of
NEWCASTLE now ? His own tongue last week,
and the pen of Mr. Lofty last Monday, have
given answers to the question. He was once
petted and panegyrised by Mr. Lofty, and he
is now condescendingly pitied. His Grace
had set up to be a great statesman, and he
undertook to conduct a mighty war, and the
result of his preposterous ambition is that his
Grace, as confessed by himself, is now
" separated from all parties," and is told that
he was made " a scapegoat." But great states-
men, endowed with the masterly qualities that
rule confederacies of politicians, are not made
" scapegoats." A Castlereagh in troubled
times might have been made the target for
popular odium, but the Crown and his col-
leagues stood by him. Let the different man-
ner in which CASTLEREAGH asserted his own
cause against CANNING, and the compliant
humility with which the Duke of NEWCASTLE
succumbed to the irregular attack of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, be contrasted, and any one will
perceive the reason why the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE failed to be a powerful statesman when
a pressure was put upon his powers.
We have not the least wish to mock the
Duke of NEWCASTLE in his admitted failure,
not only as a War Minister, but even as a party
leader. We cannot, however, forget the active
part which, most unfortunately in the sequel,
his Grace took in the confederacy against Lord
DERBY'S Ministry. The Duke of NEWCASTLE
was one of the most prominent of those who
refused a fair trial to Lord DERBY. He would
allow the Noble Earl's Cabinet no time. " The
administrative abilities" of the waverers, of
whom his Grace was the ambitious chief, were
so admirable, that a coalition was necessary to
give the country all the advantage of such
master-minds. In order to achieve such re-
sults the Irish Brigade was engaged, and the
public service was scandalised by negotiations
in which it was hard to say whether the buyers
or the bought were most deserving of censure.
Then a JOHN SADLEIR, a third-class Irish attor-
ney, was made a Lord of the Treasury ; then
the most solemn protestations before heaven
were conveniently forgotten for the sake of
partisans without a blush • then Mr. EDMUND
O'FLAHERTY was mak an income-tax Commis-
sioner, and Mr. IirtSELL (without Parlia-
mentary experience) gazetted to the Ordnance,
apparently for no Mir— than becat
he had chanted his -
Rome ; and other acts
over which no veil can

age.

... lt is useless, thel
NEWCASTLE to assum,

innocence. Time has

flier reason than because
religion • isurch of
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866

made by the late Mr. FREI/ERIC LUCAS before
the " Irish Corruption Committee," and the
scandals of the Coalition," if less fatal,
were far dirtier than the blunders of the War-
office. Isolated as his Grace is now from all
parties, the Duke of NEWCASTLE tkaals to tut
the striking prophecy of Mr. Dtstikitu, that
all the noblemen and gentlemed who commit-
ted themselves to the Aberdeen Coalition
would lose chavitetcir. What do hie fortnef
flatterers say and think of the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE NOW

But let us try and derive some advantage
from reflecting on the fate of the Duke of
NEWCASTLE. His Grace's unfortunate career
teaches the great lesson, that politicians should
not desert their natural connections. By his an-
tecedents, and his acknowledged predilections,
the Duke of NEWCASTLE belonged to the Con-
servatives, and in an unlucky hour for himself
his Grace grasped at the honours of leader-
ship in another party. He placed himself be-
tween two fires, without having the stamina
of character that could have stood in such a
position. He might have passed through po-
litical life with a creditable name, if his ambi-
tion had not been so ridiculous. He was
neither an orator, nor a successful chief of
party, and the way in which he reeled before
Lord ;lons RUSSELL deprives him of sympathy
from those who like to see an Englishman ex-
hibiting vigorous self-assertion on proper
occasions.

In those parts of his address at Sheffield
where his Grtice discussed politics he ap-
peared to think that ha made a successful
point in disparaging the claims of " party."
He forgets that his remark can he retorted on
himself and his friends. They were only too
successful in disorganising the natural work-
ing of Parliament, and their labour ended in
discredit for themselves and the public ser-
viee. They were justly punished for their
temerity, and their fate ought to be a warning
to others. Recollecting, also, that the leader
of the House of Commons, during Lord
DEasv's Administration, had directed special
attention to " social reform," it is rather cool
in his Grace to speak about that great subject,
as if it were mooted now for the first time in
1856.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE
CONSERVATIVES.
IN the observations we have previously
made upon this subject we have endeavoured
to . confine ourselves as strictly as possible
within the limits prescribed to us by the title
of our article. The Church of England, and
that alone, has been uppermost in our
thoughts—and if we have led any one to sup-
pose that we have any other design beyond
that of stimulating the Anglican clergy to a
consideration of the present state of politics,
we hasten to assure him of his mistake.
There are persons who seem to think it im-
possible to raise a discussion on the Church
without Maynooth being at the bottom of it.
But Maynooth is but an exceptional and tem-
porary difficulty, about which the Church of
England as a body has no very decided
opinion. Nor has it legitimately anything
whatever to do with our estimate of the rela-
tions which exist between the clergy and laity
of this country. The question there at issue
by no means runs parallel with the contest
between High and Low Churchmen in Eng-
land, which is the only one we have had occa-
sion to consider in the course of our preceding
articles; for many of the High Church party,
of by no means the most moderate school, are
as warmly opposed to that institution as Mr.
SPOONER himself could be—witness such men
as Bishop Btommtn and Mr. SEWELL. And,
indetd, it is almost a necessary deduction
from the High Church theory that wherever
the Church of England is established by law
Roman Catholics should be treated as heretics.
We merely mention the existence of this senti-
ment to show that if any one imagines we
avoid committing, ourselves to the agitation
against Maynooth out of deference to the
High Church party. or that we treat the High
Church party with respect for the sake of dis-