The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

A CABINET COUNCIL was held on Tuesday afternoon at the Foreign-
office, Downing-street. Fourteen of the Ministers were present.
Lord PALMERSTON briefly explained his reason for wishing this
Council to be held. It was that he might assure himself that every
Member of the Cabinet fully understood the principle upon which it
would in future be necessary to carry on the business of the country,
so far !as legislation 'was concerned. He had given his best con-
sideration to the subject, and had maturely, and he would add affec-
tionately—(a laugh)—weighed the powers and capabilities of those
with whom he had the honour to be associated. In announcing the
conviction that further experiments in legislation must be dispensed
with, he hoped that he should receive credit for doing what was best for
those whom he saw around him. In a word, they were not up to their
work.

The LORD CHANCELLOR quite comprehended the Premier. On the
previous night the President of the Council had been desired to
apologise for the Parke blunder, and to promise to do what was fitting.
That course was exceedingly unkind to himself, and he felt that he
ought to have been supported.
Lord GRANVILLE was sure that he had supported his Noble and
Learned Friend in a remarkable manner. When he (Lord Granville)
came to read the amount of wisdom he had poured forth upon a sub •
ject of which he really knew nothing, he was quite astonished.
The Duke of ARGYLL had also been astonished to hear the Noble
President say so much. It was all wrong, certainly ; but it showed his
lesire to he useful. He (the Duke) would take that opportunity of
asking whether the Cabinet did not think he had castigated the four
Law Lords in capital style, answering their elaborate orations with the
intimation that they were only prompted by the jealousy of a batch of
,irofessional adventurers.
Lord PALMERSTON admitted that it was bold. He should not like
to have said it ; but some people might say anything with impunity.
He was anxious to correct his Noble and Learned Friend, the Chan-
cellor. His remarks were by no means solely directed at his Noble
Friend, although, doubtless, the Parke affair was one of the great
messes of the session.

The LORD C
stuck to.

lit would repeat that he ought to have been

Mr. VERNON SMITH begged that the language used there might be
more refined. It was all very well for the House of Lords, where
people talked about " rows," and quoted vulgar proverbs, but he had
been accustomed to genteel society.
Sir GEORGE GREY hoped that the Chancellor was not going to he
childish. He was mortified at his failure, and naturally so, for it was
. very signal and disgraceful one ; but the well-being of the Cabinet
n•as not to he sacrificed to a crotchet.

Lord PALMERSTON said that the conciliatory speech of the Home
Secretary—(laughter)—explained his meaning, and left nothing to be
lemired. To-night he was going to throw over another experiment.
iSensation.) Yes ; the bill which their friend the Irish Solicitor-
General called the Local Jews.

The Duke of ARGYLL was not surprised. The advocacy to which
the measure had been committed was deplorable.
Lord PALM ERSTON said that it was nothing of the kind, and, consi-
Gering that Robert Lowe knew nothing of the question until be got
it up for the debate, he had been deucedly dashing. He defied the
Noble Duke himself to have been more courageous. But audacity
would not do by itself It would be dangerous to confront the
.inposition the measure had called out, unless they had other and
better champions. And he begged to signify to all and each of his
friends around bim that no one must be astonished or offended
at any similar fate overtaking any measure he might have in
charge. It was contrary to his opinion that any bills had been
:nought in at all. They were a War Ministry, and while there was
war, they had an excuse for neglecting everything else. And a man
who had a good excuse was an ass for not using it
Sir GEORGE GREY was no amateur legislator, and detested the
making acts of Parliament for doing what ought to be left to official
responsibility. The Premier's remarks, therefore, did not affect him.
But he confessed that, of all the Cabinets with which he had been
associated, this one had distinguished itself most by abnegating one
luty supposed to belong to the Executive—that of initiating reforms.
Lord PALMERSTON begged the Home Secretary not to misstate the
case. They initiated lots of reforms, and he had not the least objee-
-ion to everybody initiating as many as he pleased. But he would
have no Government questiono. If the bills could be carried, bon.
If not, so much the worse for an objectionable bill.
Sir GEORGE GREY might acquiesce in a course which necessity
seemed to dictate, but it certainly looked quintessentially cowardly.
Mr. LABOUCRERE agreed with his friend, but sometimes apparent
cowardice involved the highest moral courage. They were convinced
that their retention of office was a national necessity; and lie saw a
ioble fearlessness in their hesitating to accept no humiliation that
!night enable them to persevere in the discharge of their duty.
(Hear, hear).
The Duke of ARGYLL had heard those sentiments at many of their
meetings. The argument was infelicitously put, but the conclusion
was practically, if not logically defensible. But he should certainly
lot take the trouble to attempt legislation, unless he were to receive
support, especially as anything he might bring forward would be—he
said it without a particle of vanity—that which a Government ought to
(ride itself on producing.

Lord PALMERSTON was unfortunate in annoying his friends, as he
seemed to have done in several instances, but a little anger there was
better than a good deal of awkwardness elsewhere.

Sir CHARLES WOOD was not going to be personal, but, as he had
been a good deal laughed at, he should like to ask, in all good humour,
who it was that first decided that the new Crimean Commission must
sit with closed doors, and then decided that it was as absolutely
necessary that the sittings should be public.
Lord PANMURE thought that he had suffered enough from mis-
takes—he would not say whose—in that business, to allow him to ask
that the subject be dropped.
Lord PALMERSTON said that there was no need for soreness. The
change was only another proof of the willingness of her Majesty's
Ministers to do whatever was agreeable to anybody. A door must be
open or shut, as the French proverb said.
Sir CHARLES 'Noon wished to ask when a door was not a door.
(Impatient sensation.) Well, he would give notice of the question for
their next meeting.
Lord GRANVILLE concluded that they had accomplished the object
of their assembling. There could be no doubt that the Cabinet was in
rather an awkward position—something like that of the King that
reigned, but did not govern—but then, as reigning would do for them,
why—
Lord PALMERSTON : Vive la Reine !

THE SHIPPING DUES BILL.
Tho' we're patching up Peace with the Russians,
Mid ourselves we are quarrelling still,
And we've had some amusing discussions
On Bobby Lowe's Shipping Dues Bill.
In vain Robin droned in the Senate,

In the Times Robin scribbled in vain—
For a leader more dull, who could pen it ?
Who could speak in less logical strain ?
Bob thought that his Bushranging pleadings
Had grounded him well in the law ;
But Thosiger followed his leadings,
And proved in each statement a flaw.
The Commons were sore discontented

With the shallow pretensions of Bobby,
And Pam, driven nearly demented,
Called the culprit out into the lobby :
" Why the deuce need you meddle with shipping,
With law, corporation, or due ?
My Ministry's surely caught tripping
Enough without succour from you.

" I deserve to be kicked for believing
You could father a measure of worth ;
My dullness is quite past conceiving.
But I'll strangle your whelp in its birth."
So on Tuesday Pam told us quite gaily
" The bill had been carefully weighed,
That the Cabinet sat on it daily,
But, ahem ! he was rather afraid—
" And thought the most dignified course
For the Government now to adopt,
In fact, they would net now enforce
This bill, which had better be dropped."
Disraeli withered with scorn
The imbecile holders of place,
Who sat there and writhed so forlorn,

Without honesty, genius, or grace ;
Without genius to govern the realm,
Or grace for their faults to atone,
Or honour to give up the helm
Into manlier hands than their own.
While the House with approval gave ear
To the eloquent leader 'a harangue,
A creature they call Labouchere,
With the look of a dog you would hang,
Rose, and froth'd up his syllabub spite,
So trashy, so sour, and so weak,
Pam groaned that " the shame of that night
Was as nought till his sub rose to speak,
" With that wonderful instinct of hate
For genius which dullards must feel,
As the rusts which foul vapours create
Ever seek the most glistering steel.
" Alas ! but my Cabinet's full
Of men whom the people well know
Are as Labouchere, spiteful and dull,
And as vain and as empty as Lowe."

THE NEW WHIG ROADS.
Two schemes for new roads our Whig Government frames
(How odd the near likeness of names is !)
This leads to the Peers through a Parke, hight Sir James,
And that through the Park of St. James's.

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