The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-08 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1854.

in the great Council of the nation. The
nominal Leader of the House of Commons,
who at the commencement of the session was
so bold and brave that nothing less would
satisfy his " historical career" than carrying
on war against the EMPEROR OF RUSSIA and
reforming the House of Commons at the same
time, as an adroit equestrian vaults upon two
horses in the circus, now whimpers like a child,
as each night furnishes fresh proof of the utter
want of power of those who should be all-power-
ful. Lord Join; RUSSELL appears to have suc-
ceeded in nothing but in ejecting Lord GRAN
mut from the Presidency of the Council, and
in preventing Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT from be-
coming a Secretary of State.
The history of the Ministry during the
week has been a history of surrender. Their
only mode of avoiding defeat is to abandon
their positions. The most important mea-
sures which can engage a deliberative assem-
bly have been introduced to the notice of
Parliament, and withdrawn at the first indica-
tion of opposition. A bill is brought forward
to establish a general system of police
throughout the country ; the towns combine
to resist its progress ; the Minister, declaring
the measure of first necessity, yields to the
towns without a struggle. A new measure is
introduced. which applies only to the coun-
ties; the counties murmur, and menace op-
position; the Minister, intimating that rapine
and arson will be the probable consequences
of the withdrawal, nevertheless takes the bill
off the table, and leaves the responsibility of
the catastrophe to Parliament !
After months of preparation and prolonged
delays a day is definitively fixed for the second
reading of the Testamentary Jurisdiction Bill,
the first great step in the reform of the eccle-
siastical courts. The bill is considered crude,
incomplete, and unsatisfactory. Notice of
resistance is given by the Opposition, and the
matured measure, promised for two sessions,
is withdrawn. These are some of the conse-
quences of attempting to carry on parliament-
ary government without party. The system
cannot be persevered in without materially
injuring the English Constitution. There are
many who look with distrust and alarm on
the schemes of Lord Jospi RUSSELL for the
reform of Parliament; there are some who
contemplate with trembling the ulterior ob-
jects, in the same fashion, pursued by other
distinguished members of the destructive
party ; but, for ourselves, we doubt very much
whether the Reform Bills of Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL or the more advanced designs of other
members of the Chesham-place confederacy
are so likely to impair the authority and
influence of our representative system as the
continuance of a Coalition Government ad.
ministering affairs amid nightly discomfiture
and defeat.
A few months ago, when the career of dis-
comfiture commenced, the Ministerial runners
accounted for the perplexing disasters by the
ingenious reason that the country was so ab-
sorbed by the war that it could really think of
nothing else ; the adherents of the Ministry
were so full of the Baltic and the Euxine
that they forgot to support the Government.
According to this principle, the members of
Opposition should have equally omitted to

PRICE SIXPENCE.

oppose. As this happy excuse has long worn
out, the more plausible reason now substi-
tuted is, that the Ministers have attempted
too much. This might account for partial
failure, but hardly for entire defeat. An
admiring House of Commons might suffer
from a satiety of confidence, but they would at
least extenuate their occasional insubordina-
tion by an appeal to a devotion that was
habitual. In the present instance the House
has distinguished itself by successfully resist-
ing every measure of the Government. It is
a virgin session ; and those who remain will
be presented by the Lord President, on the
day of prorogation, with white gloves. The
inventors of the new apology, however, quite
forget that the nominal Leader of the House
announced, at the commencement of the
session, that one-of the principal features of its
management would be the introduction of few
bills at the same time ; and that the Ministry
were resolved not merely to introduce mea-
sures, but to pass them.
The reform of Parliament, the education of
the people, the Protestant character of our
Constitution—these are not light subjects, or
which a prudent statesman would leave in
doubt or uncertainty. They are themes on which
a British Ministry should have made up its
mind. They arc matters which should not be
stirred but for settlement. At present the
depository of political power, the principles
of national education, the relations of Eng-
land with the Church of ROme, are matters of
controversy, not merely in the country, but in
the Cabinet. Definite and decided opinions
on such subjects ought to form the basis of
political parties, and it should be left to the
free discussion of Parliament to decide which
of the contending theories should be reduced
to practice, and govern the State. Nothing of
this sort, however, is now the vogue. Parlia-
ment without party, that happy Government
eulogised a year ago at Manchester by the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, is Parliament
without opinion. What should reconcile a
nation to he governed by an elective body of
some five or nix hundred individuals, but that
those persons represented their opinions ?
Parliament without party is a bad club—a
miscellaneous horde with little mutual sym-
pathy and respect, and with no root or influ-
ence outside its walls. In ordinary times
such an aggregation, however false to its pur-
pose, might be iunoxious and unnoticed ; but
in times of trouble, of danger, of exigency, a
popular assembly with no organised opinions
becomes the weakest of all forms of govern-
ment. We are involved in war, and on a great
scale. Our taxes are much increased, our
revenue is considerably declining; there are
many symptoms of coming trouble. We want
a strong Government; no Ministry can be
strong that does not represent the predomi-
nant opinions of the country; no Ministry
ought to be suffered to exist that does not
represent some opinion. The Ministry of
Lord ABERDEEN represents nothing.

PROJECTED INVASION OF CUBA.
THERE is good reason for believing that
another " filibustering" expedition is preparing
in the Southern States of America against the
island of Cuba. The affair is proceeding in
strict accordance with established precedent.
Men meet to subscribe dollars, to charter

626

vessels, to purchase arms and ammunition,
a►nd to enlist desperadoes, with no more
attempt at concealment than if they were
arranging a " nigger" auction, or planning a
new settlement in a swamp of the Mississippi.
The project, of course, reaches ths ors of the
President, and also? of course, he issues his
proclamation against it, which no one beemo tx,
think it worth while to treat with the slightest
respect. " A hundred subscription-books are
" open," says a Southern journal, " and nearly
" half a million of dollars have been subscribed
" and paid in. Up to this time these public
" movements have encountered no obstacles,
" nor will they in future."
The pretence for this piratical aggression
would seem strange proceeding from any other
country. The policy of the Governor of Cuba
is described as brutal and barbarous beyond
parallel. And for what reason, does the
reader imagine? Simply because the African
population is treated with more leniency than
pleases the slave States of America. Mar-
riages, it is alleged, are allowed between
coloured people and whites; and negroes are
enrolled in the militia. Such relaxations are
urged to be inconsistent with " the long
" continuance of the institution of African
" slavery"; and the southern Republicans are
preparing for the conquest of the Queen of the
Antilles, lest " unmitigated African barbarism
should overtake and encompass one of the
fairest isles that gem the bosom of old
Ocean."

As the " filibusters " thus far have closely
followed the example of the Lopez enterprise,
we hope that their expedition may be attended
with precisely similar results. After what has
passed, and the warnings they have received,
these pirates are in no respect entitled to
merciful consideration. They should be hunted
down as pests of society, and common enemies
to the peace of all nations. It is for the better
portion of the American community to show
by some decided and public expression of
opinion that they hold these villanous expe-
ditions in abhorrence, and that they are willing
and able to assist in bringing the ringleaders
to justice.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE AND MR.
EDMUND O'FLAHERTY.

Ova readers may not have forgotten the name
of a gentleman who, if not one of the most
prominent, was one of the most active mem-
bers of the Irish Brigade, and who took an
active part in negotiating its junction with
the Coalition. In duo time he was appointed
an income-tax commissioner for Ireland—a
post he had to resign on his office being
abolished. It now appears that Mr. EDMUND
O'FLAHERTT, who was so fortunate as to attract
the particular regard of the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE, has left the country under circum-
stances requiring explanation. Bills to a con-
siderable amount are in circulation, which
are said to have been issued by him, bearing
the names of persons who never signed them !
Amongst these names are several of high
political notoriety. Strange, indeed, is the
discernment which chooses Mr. SroNoa for a
judge and appoints Mr. EDMUND OTL&HEETY
a commissioner of the income tax!
If Mr. O'FLsimarfs acts concerned only
that person himself, we might leave them
to a graver tribunal than that of the jour
nalist. But we are now enabled clearly
to estimate the value of his evidence upon a
transaction concerning the character of the
present Government. It will be recollected
that, when the Coalition first came into
power, the Earl of &MINTON alluded to the
appointment of Mr. KEOGH, the Solicitor-
General of Ireland, as " one of the least re
" putable acts of the Government." The
words came with great force from the lips of
one who knew Ireland well, and had earned
such distinction in his popular Irish Vice-
royalty. The Duke of NEWCASTLE attempted
to diminish their effect by asserting that Lord
Ditasr's Ministry had offered odic° to Mr.
KxOGH, a statement immediately denied in
the most positive terms by the Earl of DERBY.

THE PRESS'

Thereupon Mr. Kzoos raised a discussion on
the subject, and asserted that Lord Naas hao
asked him to take office under Lord DERBY.
But the difficulty was how to persuade peo-
ple that Mr. lic..eoon had really been offered
place under Lard Losaay, and it is now
important' to observe the part played in titug
matter by Mr. g DmuND O'FLatizarx.
To Mr. liEooit's hardy assertions Lord Nlap
emphatically roiled by letter—" I distinotii
" deny that, either directly or indirectly,
made an offer to yourself or your friends, or
" that I had, or tbat I assumed I had, any
" authority ao to do." Any one who knew
Lord Naas would of course be satisfied with
his written denial, afterwards repeated in the
House of Commons. But the Coalition was
in difficulty. It came into power by aid of the
Irish Brigade, then led by Mr. SADLEIR (since
cashiered), and Mr. Kxoou. A witness was
found to depose to a conversation with
Lord Naas in a railway carriage (!), in which
the Noble Lord was represented to have said
that he had offered office to Mr. KEOGH. The
circumstance was very extraordinary that Lord
Naas, a Conservative, should have made such
a statement to a third party, of opposite poli-
tics. The testimony, however, was hailed
by the Coalitionists as fortunate, and pre-
tended to be accepted as incontrovertible. It
was certainly well-timed. Mr. KEOGH used this
evidence in his exculpation, and, reading it
aloud, asserted, with arrogant air and sten-
torian voice, that " it left the Noble Lord in
"no very enviable position." And the present
Solicitor-General for Ireland vouched for his
witness as " a gentleman of honour, veracity,
and high character"!
The gentleman so described by Mr. WILLIAM
KEOGH was Mr. EDMUND O'FLAHERTY !

A few weeks passed by, and the convenient
friend was not forgotten. He was on visiting
terms with the Duke of NEWCASTLE, who has
himself related the interest he wok in his
affairs. In various modes Mr. E. O'Fiataxan
had rendered himself most acceptable to the
Coalition. He solicited " private and confi-
" dential " subscriptions for Mr. KEOGH, and
received a hundred pounds from that sympa-
thetic politician, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT. The
income tax was extended by Mr. GLADSTONE to
Ireland, and temporary provision was made for
Mr. OTLAMERTY. His allegations against Lord
NAAS were his credentials to promotion ! His
ready memory found a prompt reward, and, by
a righteous retribution, Mr. EDMUND OTLA-
MEATY has now left his patrons and ducal ally
" in no very enviable position."