The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

THE. PRESS.

SATURDAY,

miserable children without home or parents, just hovering on the brink of crime, but
not yet guilty of it ; others, who have fallen, but not yet detected, and untainted there-
fore by the corruption of prison associates. These it is to whom it should be the aim of
the philanthropist to extend a helping hand, and by benefiting whom he will do the
greatest benefit to society.

It is obvious that, the less boys are corrupted, the easier it is to teach
them habits of virtue and industry, and that, the more we can so reform
previous to their entry upon a criminal career, the fewer we shall have
to reform afterwards ; by which means the evil spectacle of criminals
being placed in a better position than honest people will be very sen-
sibly mitigated. Institutions devoted to the reclamation of vagrant
and destitute boys are now in existence. The reformatory in Belvi-
dere-crescent, Lambeth, was last week brought under public notice by
the admirable address of Mr. DRIVER, the superintendent, to some boys
who were emigrating to Canada And let the public he assured that
the more such gentlemen as Mr. DRIVER, and such establishments as
that which he superintends, are supported, the less will the prevalence
of juvenile crime continue to embarrass and to shame us.

The position taken up by Mr. MARCY on the question of the aboli-
tion of privateers, is neither illogical nor unpractical. Privateers
stand in the same relation, he says, to a regular navy, as volunteers to
a regular army ; and it cannot be expected that a Government which
maintains a very small standing force should consent to denude itself
of all such extraordinary aid as may be afforded by the voluntary
efforts of its citizens. But, furthermore, where is the consistency of
relieving au enemy's goods from the assaults of privateers, if they are
still liable to capture by regular vessels of war? If we are to adopt
that method of annoying an enemy, let us by all means do it with the
utmost possible vigour. If we object to the system, let us be
equally decisive in condemning and removing it. Such are
the arguments of Mr. MARCY, and we cannot deny that from
the lips of an American they sound well. On the other hand, there
is unquestionably much truth in the observation of the Times, that
there is a broad practical difference between the conduct of privateers
and regular vessels of war, which would render the abolition of the
former a decided service to humanity. Whether probable, or not, it
is certainly quite possible that the captain and crew of a privateer
might practise with impunity barbarities and outrages which
no officer in her Majesty's service, or the service of the United
States, would ever dream of perpetrating, or venture to execute.
We cannot, however, agree with the Times that it is particularly the
interest of this country that such a measure should be adopted. War,
no doubt, inflicts some injury on our commerce; bat not a quarter
so much as we could inflict upon our enemies. If " our commerce
" covers every sea," so also could our cannon. And the comparatively
small loss to which we could ever be subjected would be less than the
profit we should derive by becoming, as in the last great war, the
carriers of the world's merchandise. But the strongest objection to
such a complete revolution in the practice of war, lies in the danger
we should thereby incur of protracting its duration. At present a
nation's resources are crippled by the injuries inflicted on its com-
merce, and after a certain time it is sure to be inclined to-
wards peace. But if these means of moderating a war fever
were abolished, nobody knows how long belligerents might persevere.
A further obstacle, as it seems, to the adoption of this principle, is
the difficulty of enforcing blockades which it would inevitably entail.
Indeed, we hardly see what, under those circumstances, would
be the utility of a blockade at all. Would vessels freighted with private
property be permitted to leave or to enter a blockaded port? If so, what
injury would the blockade inflict? If not, we should be merely destroy-
ing private property in a different fashion. For goods shut up in pert
for a year or so together are pretty sure either to spoil, or to outstand
their market; while, at all events, the owner is certain to be injured
by the delay in realising his profits. The arguments are ably stated
on both sides, but the conclusion is still in suspense.

Journalism in these latter days seems likely to become a
ticklish profession. The Times has been mulcted for asserting
the flagellation of a tailor. We ourselves have been hauled over the
coals by a broad-brimmed contemporary for doubting the immaculate
politeness of the Americans ; and now our worthy friend the Scotsman
has got himself into trouble, by telling us a bit of his mind about the
famous Mr DUNCAN MACLAREN. That gentleman originally, and
even now on general questions, a strong Liberal, happened to split off
from his brother Liberals in Edinburgh on the question of Maynooth
and the Scottish Public-house Act. The consequence was that, at
the last Edinburgh election, the bulk of the Liberal party, with their
organ, the Scotsman, and Mr. MACLAREN, found themselves on opposite
sides. Straightway Mr. DUNCAN MACLAREN became the vilest of the
vile. He had deserted his principles, traduced his friends, and de-
ceived his enemies—there was " venom in every word, and a dagger in
every sentence"—with a vast deal more to the same effect. Now,
without attempting to sift the wheat from the chaff in the field of
Scottish journalism, we must nevertheless call attention to the fact
that the Scotsman stood perfectly alone. Every other respectable news-
paper in Edinburgh was arrayed against it ; and though it is all very
well for the friends of this journal, and the party which it represents,
to rave about a vile conspiracy and an interested combination of
factions, yet the public will draw their own conclusions, and will not
readily believe that a journal condemned by the public opinion of a
great city like Edinburgh, can be so exclusively in the right. Mr.
JAMES AyrOUN, whom the Times, laughably enough, mistook for Pro-
fessor ArrouN, has done good service to truth by exposing the in-
trigues which underlie this affair, and bringing to light the backstair
intelligence by which a particular section of the Liberal party wero
enabled to organise their movements and defeat their ancient coad-
jutors by a dexterous electoral coup-cretat. This species of Theban

AUGUST 23, 1856.

warfare must be fatal in the long run to the Liberal party in Edin-
burgh, and is a wholesome lesson to the foolish persons who are con-
stantly prating about the spectacle of Conservative disorganisation.

The complaints of the remissness of the metropolitan police
which have recently appeared in the press, are not, we believe, with-,
out foundation. Their inability to protect the Queen's subjects from
petty depredations, and their invariable absence from scenes of riot
and turbulence when most wanted, has long been the subject of re-
mark in all circles—of grave censure among some, and inexhaustible
facetiousness among others. Their talent for letting ill alone has been
steadily developing itself, and has now reached as far as burglary. Of
their accidental miscarriages, such as the escape of FOSCHINI, 86c., we
say little, because foreigners are desperate characters, and a police.
man cannot be expected voluntarily to endanger his life for the good
of his country. But we certainly think that they might act as a cure,
if not as a preventive : and that, when a house has been broken into
several times, they might be in a position to lay their hands upon the
culprit if they chose Whether any complicity exists between the
police and the criminal population of London we, of course, cannot
undertake to form any opinion. We can only say that appearances
are very much against them, and that if they wish to retain the repu-
tation which they have deservedly acquired, they must act with a
degree of vigilance that will, at all events, prevent persons being
robbed under their very noses.

THE MODERN PROMETHEUS.
Anapa is occupied by the Russians: the inhabitants have fled, and bidden themselves in the
Mlle.—Evening Star, Aug. 12, and Press, Aug 16.
Oh thou prophetic soul ! oh boatswain Chucks !
Whose creed it was—not readily relinquished—
That "Earth's ew•ents Tuns round, like wheels in rucks,"*
Making next week and now terms undistinguished;

" Jura ad verba," Chucks! henceforth I'm led
By thee in this without a why or whether;
Last night, great shade (if such thou be'st), I read
./Esch}lus and the Evening Star together.

lEschylus, Chucks—pardon me, sage profound !
Was a Greek author of some reputation,
Who wrote the drama of "Prometheus Bound:"
The other's but a penny publication.

Prometheus was exposed upon a crag
(I mean the hero, Chucks, and not the frigate,
You sailed in one so named), with not a rag,
For giving fire to man. Great Jove did twig it,

And, never more with such to walk as us,
lie set grim Vulcan and his crew to bind him;
And left him there, all on the Caucasus,
Where no one, Chucks, should ever after find him.

And while this hero-leader fettered lay
Who by his generous deed had earned these titles,
An eagle was let loose, that day by day
Dined " a discretion " on his throbbing vitals.

This thing fell out, Sea-sage ! in the Titan wars,
When everything under the sun was new ;
Lo ! the Greek's story is the Evening Star's,—
It's happening all again;—Chucks ! thou wert true !

The Times is Jove, who kicked once from Olympus
(That is the Treasury) Vulcan—Palm--ton,
But backs him now in every row and rumpus :
KFMTO; Xal Ma is Lord Cl--don,

Power and injustice mingled, one in two,
Who, sent by Jove to see all matters mended,
On the Caucasian hills—who'd think it ?—who ?
Has left Prometheus lonely and unfriended.

Prometheus, Chucks, is Schamyl :—a brave chief
Who brought the fire of freedom to his nation ;
He helped men well ; and now—it's past belief—
There's none will help him in his desolation !

And, Chucks ! oh, Chucks ! unto his feast diurnal
The bloody Russian bird, with eager eye,
Is winging his sure way ;—Chueks, here's the journal,
Look !—" Anapa is held, the natives fly."
• Vide Marryatt's " Peter Simple."

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Lord Palmerston will be surprised to learn that the isvostchiks (the droshky-drivers, cor-
responding to our " cabbies") chide their horses by shouting his name ; and, when the animals
are very refractory, subdue them by threatening that the noble lord is coming immediately. On
relating this curious fact, I wa.: told by persons fresh from the interior that the same is uow the
case all over Russia, from St. Petersburg to the Don Cossacks, and from Lake Ladoga to the
Caspian Sea.—Morning Post Special Correspondent, St. Petersburg, Aug. 6.
On what foundation stands Pam's statesman pride?
Engage an ivostchik—you'll soon decide !
His fame is destined for a foreign land,
The dread and terror of a droshky stand :
His name, at which Consistency grows pale,
Points the keen lash and warns the whisking tail.

805

AN INTERCEPTED LETTER.

FROM A MANAGER TO A DRAMATIC AUTHOR.
Now that London is drizzling, and all hasten from it,
And nothing's going on but a second-hand comet,
Let me hope, my doar Sir, you'll find time to essay
Something popular, piquant, and neat in our way.
Don't give yourself, pray—while the weather's so hot—
Any needless exertion for humour or plot ;
With the dullest of dramas the public wont quarrel,
Provided no character's healthy or moral
For a heroine—bless you, they're sure to be pleased
If her heart and her lungs are both very diseased ;
And the brightest of triumphs must crown your production
If you'll bring in a case of smallpox and seduction.
In the days when the dramas of Goldsmith were recent—
(A cleverish man, but disgustingly decent)—
He tells us a fit of the gripes used to pay,
To tickle a mob and to rescue a play :
Now the pangs are proloug'd to the patient's last breath,
And the audience must always be in at the death.
Entre noes—it may act as a spur if I add,
I've employed (and, I fancy, the spec is not bad),
Together to write (something like Tate and Brady)
A student from Guy's, and from Wych-street a—lady ;
And a strong corps de bullet I mean to engage
To be seized with St. Vitus's dance on the stage.

DEPARTMENTAL BILLS.

THE heads of departments have been thrown into an extreme flurry
by the receipt of the Palmerstonian circular requesting them to send
in the " particulars of all legislative measures which they are desirous
of having introduced into Parliament." By a singular coincidence
the Premier's missive was delivered among the post letters on the
morning of the fatal " 12th," and its effect upon Ministerial nerves
may be exemplified by the fact that the " departmental " bags at the
close of the day were as empty as their budget of bills at the close of
the session. By daybreak on the 13th all the " Heads " were busily
working away at the concoction of legislative measures, in compliance
with the hint from their chief. The success which has attended their
labours is already remarkable ; and the rough drafts of several bills,
or parts of bills, are now on their way to Brocket Hall. Among other
Ministerial prize essays, the Lord Chancellor has sent in another
scheme for the consolidation of the statute law, of which he has
actually completed the preamble and first clause, as follows :
Whreas, &c., it is expedient that the Statute Law of England should Le simplified
and consolidated.

Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted by &c., and with Stc., that all the existing
statutes of the realm are repealed and shall from the Ist day of April next absolutely
cease and determine.

Having made this unprecedented advance towards the great work
of codification, Lord Cranworth intends to leave the minor points and
adjustments of detail to the discussion in committee.
The Duke of Argyll has drafted a Bill for creating an office in
which shall be combined the functions of Lecture-General, Precentor,
Drum-Major, and Surgeon-Accoucheur to the Cabinet. The first en-
joyment of this important post his Grace proposes, with his wonted
humility, to confer upon Baron Sundridge.
The Home Secretary, in outlining a Bill for London Corporation
Reform, has ventured upon the extreme step of abolishing tiog and
Magog. Sir George, we believe, is well aware of his rashness in the
proceeding, and when the time comes will be found not less
squeezable than heretofore.

Sir G. C. Lewis has transmitted a Bill which Pam declares to be
nearly as unintelligible as his speeches. So far as the measure has
been interpreted by the cleverest Under-Secretary, it seems to com-
prise an entirely new scheme of taxation. All existing imposts are
abolished, and the revenue raised exclusively by a tax upon teeth. So
much per annum is levied upon molars, double the amount on
grinders, with fifty per cent. extra on every detailed case of artificial
dentition. The plan is said to be well calculated to obtain the sup-
port of the Cabinet, having been framed upon the advice and in the
interest of a select circle of old women.