The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-13 00:00:00

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Last night's Gazette announces that the Queen
has been pleased, by letters patent, under her royal
sign manual and the Great Seal of the Order, to give
and grant the Prince of Wales full power and autho-
rity to wear and use the Star of the Order of the
Garter, and also to wear and use the Collar and all
other Ornaments belonging to the said Most Noble
Order, and to sit in the stall assigned to the Prince
of Wales, in the Royal Chapel of St. George, at
Windsor, and to exercise all rights and privileges
belonging to a Knight Companion of the said Order,
in as full and ample a manner as if his Royal High-
ness had been formally installed.

RICHARD ROPER, the corn-chandler who is charged
with arson and attempted fraud, underwent his final
examination before the Greenwich magistrate yester-
day. The prisoner, who was committed for trial on
both charges, on bearing the decision of the magis-
trate, made a low bow, and said " Thank you."
THE PROCEEDINGS against certain parties con-
nected with the cemetery of St. Martin, Camden
Town, charging them with the improper removal of
human remains, were answered at the Clerkenwell
police-court yesterday. It was urged by the pro-
secution that the faculty authorizing the exhu-
mation had been obtained by fraud and deception,
and that the summonses would be withdrawn, as a
sufficient penalty could not be inflicted in this court.
On behalf of the defendants it was stated that the
charges were groundless, and that they courted the
fullest investigation. he summonses were theq
discharged.

1108

THE WEEK.

Certain of our contemporaries have been trying hard to find fault
with Lord DERBY, because he didn't anticipate the Queen's Speech in
returning thanks to the Lord Mayor. It is true enough that Lord DERBY,
had he been so minded, might have screwed some political capital out of
the occasion. A precedent, and a very recent one, was not wanting. It
is but one short year ago when the walls of the Mansion-house were ring-
ing with the applause showered on either a less cautious or a more ne-
cessitous Minister. Nor were the temptations to a great political mani-
festo less obvious in 1858 than in 1857. A Reform Bill is even nearer at
hand. Cherbourg has become known to the British public. And in one
recent action of a foreign Power there lay the excuse for
a flourish of defiance, to which the recent warning of M. de MosTAr.EM-
BERT would have lent additional point. Yet can those who profess wonder
at what they style Lord DERBY'S reticence have forgotten the results of
Lord PALMERSTON'S loquacity ? Can they have forgotten that it was the un-
provoked challenge of November the 9th that prepared the minds of
Frenchmen to put the worst construction on the atrocity of December the
2nd ? Has it escaped their memory that this example of bad taste and bad
judgment on the part of Lord PALMERSTON added one more to
his long list of offences in the eyes of independent men, and
detracted much from that general good opinion which had borne
him through so many storms ? If it has not, we presume that the
remarks to which we allude can only have been prompted by a feeling
of annoyance that Lord DERBY did not commit the same indiscretion, or
exhibit the same eagerness for a momentary cheer. His Lordship's
speech was sensible and moderate. Neither shrinking from the profes-
sion of principles, nor courting popularity by the premature disclosure of
details. He stood before his audience—as an Englishman whose word
could be trusted, as a Minister who, it was well known, would scorn to
purchase a life-long tenure of power by the misrepresentation of a single
moment—to tell them on the highest authority what was the existing
condition of affairs. They heard from his lips a declaration, which,
however gratifying to themselves, they felt they could implicitly rely upon ;
and we cannot but think that, in adopting this style of oratory, his Lord-
ship showed a much truer conception of what a Minister ought to say inter
lances mensasque nitentes, than he who either plunges into thorny political
details, or soars into martial invectives. Only think of the nightmares
which an outline of the Government Reform Bill might have entailed
upon one portion of the audience—of the permanent indigestion which an
overdose of finance might have inflicted upon others—of the domestic
terrors which an unwary allusion to the army and navy might have
brought upon a third Verum luee impransi mecum disquirite is what we
should observe upon the subject ; and much as we like to hear Lord
DERBY at most times, we confess we should rather have been away had he
made an official after-dinner speech.

Many of our readers must during the last twelve months have fre-
quently noticed a spectacle in the streets of London which has occasioned
them considerable perplexity, not always intermingled with danger. The
ear of the passer-by is now continually liable to be assailed by sudden,
wild, and unfamiliar cries, as though he were being warned of some great
impending danger—a house about to fall upon him, or a mad dog bearing
down upon his calves. He becomes aware at the same time of a more than
usually violent tumbling and crushing among the street vehicles. If an
elderly gentleman, and engaged in getting over a crossing, the con-
sequences may perhaps be serious. But at best the effect is highly irritating
and disagreeable. On looking up or do wn the street, as the case may be,
he will observe some three or four lumbering vehicles dashing madly along,
not racing, but with apparently no purpose whatever—while the drivers
and conductors thereof are exercising their lungs and their invention by
an interchange of the choicest slang, and oath following upon oath like the
bullets from a revolver. We have often paused in astonishment at one of
these absurd and vexatious exhibitions. But as we never had time to sit down
upon a bench, like Sir IBAAC NEWTON, and think the phenomenon out, we
remained in ignorance of its import up to the present week. How-
ever, on taking up Monday's journals, we found no less than
two columns and a half devoted to the solution of this enigma. The
cause of all this unusual disturbance turns out to be merely
the existence of two rival omnibus companies—an explanation
which to any but the true philosopher might possibly have occurred
sooner. But the interesting question which arises out of the quarrel is not
quite 9) commonplace. It is, whether " nursing " is or is not contrary
to law. It seems that whenever one of the new, or Saloon Company's
vehicles, starts upon its journey, four of the old Metropolitan Company's
are immediately started to accompany it. So pressing are their
attentions, that a passenger trying to get into the first omnibus is
frequently in danger of being impaled on the pole of the pursuer ;
while throughout the progress horrid yells are kept up which tend to the
advantage of the " nurses, " inasmuch as eight men can shout louder
than two. The result of all this, of course, is, that the drivers of the
Saloon omnibus are in turn so " druv " by this incessant persecution,
and the proprietors so nearly ruined, that they have determined to bring
the thing to an end, if possible. And a sort of preliminary inquiry is now
going on before Mr. PAYNTER. The cross-examination of the conductors,
if it ever comes to that, will, to some extent, compensate the public for the
annoyance to which they have so long been subjected.

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 13, lB5B.

The universal approval bestowed on one of the most recent acts o
Lord DERBY'S Government—the permanent embodiment of the Militia
Artillery—is honourable alike to all parties, and evinces the change in
public feeling which has taken place of late years with regard to that
national institution, the Militia force. Few persons could now be found
so unpatriotic or so prejudiced as to quote with satisfaction DRirnEs'sunjust
and bitter lines:—

Mouths without hands, maintain'd at vast expense ;
In peace a charge, in war a weak defence ;
Stout, once a month they march, a blust'ring band,
And ever, but in times of need, at hand.
Under a Constitutional Government the liberties of the people can never be
endangered by a standing army, any more than the Government itself can
be imperilled by placing arms in the hands of the people. The only true and
enduring form of a commonwealth is where every class is concerned in the
welfare of the others, and all are ready to co-operate for the common good.
The natural exponent of this feeling, as regards the defence of the country
from internal disturbances and from foreign invasion, is the Militia force,
consisting of free-born citizens armed and equipped at the expense of the
State. At present we are happily free from all dissensions within, and no
man, while enjoying the good things that fall to his own lot, is disposed to
grudge his neighbour the possession of a larger share of worldly prosperity.
Abroad, too, the political atmosphere is apparently clear and unclouded ;
but who shall answer for the continuance of its serenity? How often
within the last few years have not men's minds been disturbed by the
announcement of a small black speck on the horizon just rising above the
sea ? Hitherto the storm has spent its fury before reaching these favoured
shores; but it would be presumptuous thence to infer that we stand secure
and inaccessible. An experienced statesman, as well as an eloquent writer,
only the other day raised a friendly voice of warning from across the
Channel. Count DE MOSTALEMBERT has frankly told us that we have
more reason to expect danger from Europe than from Asia. It is not in
Hindostan that we have to apprehend the greatest peril, but at our own
doors. That we arc not popular on the Continent is notorious to all who
have ever crossed the waters that have hitherto proved our chief bulwark
of defence. Our " advancing and prosperous freedom," we are told, "has
" created in Europe a common ground of animosity" against this country.
Influenced by such motives, Ministers have acted wisely and with com-
mendable foresight in giving permanence to one great and invaluable in-
strument of defence ; and it must be gratifying to them to observe how
justly the measure they have taken has been appreciated by men of the
most opposite views in political matters.

Our readers may have noticed that for some time past we have not
ceased to call their attention to a particular class of police cases as often as
they occurred. We mean those in which persons in a respectable station
of life are taken into custody for " interrupting the police in the discharge
of their duty." If the reader will refer to the daily papers of Thursday
last, they will there find the details of a case of this description. Two
respectably dressed men, named BROWN and TEE, belonging, as it seems, to
the lower middle class, were in the pit of the Britannia Theatre. A dis-
turbance arose among the audience, and the police interfered to restore
order. One of them on getting into the middle of the crowd was assailed,
as he asserts, by most offensive language, and on endeavouring to turn out
the offender, was struck by the prisoner TEE, who he alleged to be very
muchintoxicated. Another policeman, going to his assistance, declared
that he was struck two violent blows by BROWN, and both prisoners were
accordingly given into custody. Now mark what took place before the
magistrate
" Sergeant BOWLER deposed to its being a scene of very greatconfn
m-
on, and seeing BROWN deliberately strike HEATH. TEE was both intoxi-
cated. and violent.—TEE denied the whole of this. He was not intoxicated,
unless tea, ham, and eggs, which were all that he had had, could make
him so. His character was well known to be totally different from violent,
and, though he might certainly have raised his hand to the officer, it was
done gently, and to deprecate the violence of the latter, who was dragging
the other man away. The conduct of the officers was brutal ; they
knocked the people about like beasts.—BßOWN declared he had never
raised his hand at all; the evidence of the police was the grossest perjury;
he had never heard anything like it."
We are sorry to say that we have. But the difficulty is to see how the
magistrate can come to the assistance of the injured person under such
circumstances. Mr. IYEYNCOURT did all that could be done.
lie was
not, as too many magistrates are, satisfied to take the policeman s oath
against any other man. Ile sent for the inspector on duty at the station
to which the prisoners had been taken, and, on his confirming the statement
of his associates, the magistrate had nothing for it but to act, and fined
the defendants accordingly. Now the sending for the inspector was, a very
right and proper thing to dosed Buis custodiet ipso: custodes ChVlng._
a policeman by an inspector is like checking a cook by a policeman. • ue.,_`;
are, of course, some miracles of honesty whose virtue is inaccessible tolnu.
charm of cold pie, or to the nobler temptation of esprit du corps
. force16
these are rare birds indeed; and we fear that among this
black sheep are more common than swans of that colour. But, sero.us_lY:
we would. call upon all persons who are unfortunate enough to find them-
we
selves in the proximity of " a row " to remember these two pom.ts-11"nic
of. all, that it is too much to expect from officers engaged in quieting so,_
violent and possibly mischievous knot of fellows that they should exercf".
any very. subtle discrimination of character upon the crowd around tne,w_.
gallant.
Even in their calmest moments, there are few of them capable of that
nicety of judgment which would be required to insure us
takes on such occasions. And, in the next place, we must remember that
it is only natural for them to put down any excitement of deineanou
against all
t.i.a