The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

JANUARY 17, 1857.

houses, or waft ships across seas, or fertilise the soil, or set idle looms
in motion, instead of being paid to the tax-collector. The question is
before the country, and we have done our best to throw it into an in-
telligible shape.

The speech of Mr. NIONCKTON MILNER at Halifax opens up one of the
most interesting, yet at the same time one of the least practical ques-
tions in the whole range of ethical or political science. How far virtue
depends upon education, taken in the sense of knowledge, is a question
as old as SOCRATES, if not as the Garden of Eden The more you teach
a man the more you sharpen his intellect ; and the more you sharpen
his intellect the more you adapt him for the conception of those in-
genious devices by which dishonest men live, and for the appreciation
of those subtle arguments by which right and wrong are con-
founded. It is a very remarkable fact that concurrent with the spread
of education has been the increase in the number of educated
criminals. A Redpath and an Agar are difficult phenomena for
reasoners like Mr. MONCKTON MILNES to deal with. - Yet what are we
to say? That education should be checked ? Most decidedly nobody
who advocated such a theory would at the present day have the
slightest chance of a hearing. It is, in fact, imppossible to believe
that the spread of knowledge ought to lead to the increase of crime.
If it does, the fault is not in the knowledge, but in the administration
of that knowledge. All we contend for is, that it does not lead to the
diminution of it; that it is simply neutral ; and, apart from the
cultivation of the whole human nature, may be turned to either good
or bad account, as accident may determine. On this subject of
education we merely encounter the old story, that its advocates run
into an extreme which seems to afford a temporary justification to its
enemies. Let us cease to regard education as a universal case, and it
may then, and then only, become a very general one.

The question of the " working clergy" has been constantly coming
before the public for some months past. The letters of various
" incumbents" which have recently appeared in the Times all throw
more or less light uponl they subject. But the point to be deter-
mined, before the clergy are condemned as a body, is whether on the
average they do as much work as other professions. Now, let us sec
how the case stands. Let us take the four professions, the Church,
the Army, the Bar, and Medicine. In the two latter the title of
bari is er or doctor is purely nominal ; it does not follow that a man
does any work because he is either the one or the other. But if he
does work, be it remembered, he is well paid. He may get
little enough work to do, and on that account he may be poor.
But the supply is regulated by the demand, and when
he enters the profession he takes his chance. In the
army the case is different. Every member of that profession is
liable at any moment to be called upon for a discharge of duties the
neglect of which would involve the loss of his position. In return for
this weight of responsibility his pay is almost ridiculously small. But
what is true of the officer is true with tenfold force of the clergyman.
The officer may be called upon—the clergyman necessarily is. The
most idle members of the clerical profession hove a certain routine to
go through, compared with which the life of an idle man in any other
profession is absolute inertia. What, then, is to be said of its work-
ing members? In fact, the whole charge against the clergy as a body
is so manifestly untrue dist we find it impossible to believe in its sin-
cerity. What motive may have prompted it w 3 do not undertake to
determine. But that more work is got out of the clergy as a body
than out of any other profession ; that the idle ones are less idle,
and the working ores more industrious than those of any other profes-
sion, are matters of public notoriety.

A subscription is being got up at Dublin in behalf of Mr. LiTTLE's
family, who are left in great destitution by his terrible and untimely
death. It is almost superfluous for us to recommend their sad case to
the generous consideration of the public. Were nothing known of the
murdered man, still the position of his relatives would be almost sure
to enlist the sympathy of Irishmen and Englishmen alike in their
behalf. But in this particular case there is the additional argument
that Mr. LITTLE was himself a most amiable, charitable, and warm-
hearted man—that he was the sole support of a mother and sister ; and
the loss of a most affectionate son and brother is aggravated by dis-
tressing circumstances. This simple statement of the case is, we are
sure, all that is necessary.

English landholders are threatened with a" Court for Encumbered
Estates," copied from the Irish pattern at Dublin. Before even taking
such a proposition into legislative consideration, it would be well to
ascertain how far nuch a peculiar kind of judicature is entitled to
confidence. When Parliament assembles we suppose some expla-
nation will be given of the reason why Mr. Baron RICHARDS was
removed from the Chief Commissionership. Legitimate curiosity
might also be satisfied as to the practical working of the court in
question. It is asserted that there are considerable arrears of business
to he settled, and if such be the case, the reduction of the court
would appear to be an equivocal act of economy. Such a court, so
inquisitorial and so summary, ought to be invested with prestige ; and
the removal of a Baron of the Exchequer and a Privy Councillor
from the Chief Commissionership does not strengthen its claims to
forensic respect, or to public influence.

61

THE METEMPSYCHOSIS OF PEEL.
Quoth Peel the loquacious—" I'm one who supposes
There's a good deal of truth in the metempsychosis :
For I am Ulysses, the polytropic,
And my own words and deeds arc my favourite topic.
Those pretty Circassians who caused me to slip so
Often behind, must descend from Calypso ;
And that dreadful Sourochokotf, *limning to scheme as
Myself very near, is a new Polyphemus."
Say we, in reply—" Well, y m both had your Odyssey's,
And your charming enchantresses, heedless of bodices ;
Yet you differ. With wax did the Hero completely
Fill his followers ears, when the Syrens sang sweetly ;
While you, quite a contrary bias betraying,
Receive whacks on your back, and make answer by braying.
He got windbags from zEolus ; you, garrulous elf,
Are nothing at all but a windbag yourself.

NOTICES FOR THE COMING SESSION.
AmoNo the Notices which have been placed on the paper, in readiness
for the now rapidly approaching session, are the following:—
Mr. ROEBUCK.—TO ask Lord Palmerston whether Sir Robert Peel,
in applying the term " brick" to a certain Russian Governor, who has
since been degraded for smacking people's faces, spoke as the organ of
Ministers or not, and, in the former case, to ask, further, what mean-
ing her Majesty's Government affixes to the term brick.

Mr. COLLIER.—To ask her Majesty's Government the reason why
the Solicitor-Generalship was given to Mr. Wortley, and not to
himself.

Sergeant SHEE.—To ask a question in exactly the same words.
Mr. J. G. PHILLIMORE.—To do the same.

NINE OTHER (CONSTANTLY) RISING LIBERAL BARRISTERS.—The same.

Mr. MIIRROUGH.—To move that " Big Ben " be brought into the
House of Commons and experimented upon by Mr. Denison and Sir
Benjamin Hall, in presence of the House, and to move that a call of
the House be made for such occasion, " as it is most unmeet to indulge
in hasty (metallic) legislation for unborn myriads."
Sir JOSHUA WAT.MSLEY.—TO ask Lord Palmerston whether he will
promise to direct Mr Hayter to keep a House for the next night on
which Sir Joshua proposes to introduce his Reform Bill ; and also to
ask Lord John Russell whether he has any objection to second the
motion for leave to brinr, in such bill.
Mr. ANDREWS (should lw get in for Southampton).—To ask Lord
Palmerston what he means by saying as how I ben't a vit and proper
parson fur to be Member for Southampton, and how he likes my
getting in spoite of him and his letters loike.
Mr. TITE.—To move that it be an instruction to the sweeper at
the corner of Parliament street to hold up his broom when ho sees a
Member of that House desirous to cross, and that this be a signal to
all vehicles to pull up to enable him to do so. With other suggestions
for Administrative Reform.
Mr. APSLEY PELLArr.—To move that the Chaplain of the House of
Commons shall be a Dissenter from the Established Church.
Mr OLIVELRA.—To move that it be an instruction to the Speaker
of that House, at his Parliamentary dinners, to place upon his table no
wine except claret at one and twopence a bottle, until such time as the
wine duties shall be taken off.

Mr. HAYTER.—TO move in the event of the previous motion being
carried, to add to it that pale brandy and a medical man shall be sup-
plied out of the Consolidated Fund.
Mr. MUNTz.—To move that a conference be appointed between
himself and " Mercator," better known as Lord Overtwentystone, upon
the subject of the Currency Question, and that the survivor be ap•
pointed Governor of the Bank of England.
Mr. SPOONER.—To move as an amendment that both the Hon.
Memter and the Noble Lord be committed to the Bank cellar until the
further pleasure of the House is made known, neither at all compre-
hending the subject in question.
Mr BOWYER.—To move that no Roman Catholic culprit shall ever
be hanged any more, except with a procession accompanying him, all
the bells in the town in which he is to suffer tolling, and a general
suspension of business on that day throughout the country. Also,
that any Protestant who shall try to convert such culprit shall be
liable to transportation.
Mr. EwART.—To move as an amendment that no person shall ever
be hanged any more, except persons conscientiously opposed to the
abolition of the punishment of death.
Mr. W. WILLIAMS.--To move for a return of the expense of blow-
ing up Rochester bridge ; and such return to state whether the pow-
der used for that purpose came out of the pockets of the people, and
if so, by what authority
it was so used, and whether it can be used
again.
Mr. V. SCCLLY.—TO move for the recognition of tenant-right,
whether a tenant can write or not ; and also that the landlord he
bound to remunerate the tenant for any improvements the landlord
may have made in the property.
Mr. OTWAY.—To move that no member be entitled to count the
House out without giving a week's notice of his intention to do so.

A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE.
Between Sir Robert mi.—Sir Robert ma.
Who talks of difference, utters heterodoxy ;
Rob's " forbears" (to their honour ! let me say)
Were cotton-men, and he. a " homo flocci.'