The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 10, 1858.

s' Governments on earth, including the Federal
Government, we will hang hint."

The Federal Government itself, when it has
a point to carry, is equally unscrupulous. In
England we are shocked, if a landlord, to
avenge a hostile vote, gives a tenant notice to
leave his land. In America, openly, and with
the approbation of all his own party, the Pre-
sident unhesitatingly gives notice that all
public servants who do not vote as he wishes,
shall be dismissed.

There are 26,000 postmasters in the United
States. To each of these, the following letter
was addressed, previous to the late Presiden-
tial election :

TO THE

OT -.

Dear Sir,—At a private consultation of the leading
Democrats of the Union held in this city, immediately
after the adjournment of the Cincinnati Convention, it
was recommended that each postmaster be requested to
contribute an amount proportionate to the receipts of their
respective offices. Upon examining the returns of the
Post-office department, it is found that your proportion
would be three dollars, which you will confer a favour by
remitting by return of mail.
The principal object in making these collections is to
throw into the doubtful States an immense quantity of
speeches in favour of the policy of the Democratic party,
and also to assist in defraying the expenses of speakers
who will be employed during the coming canvass. You
will therefore perceive that every postmaster who wishes
for a continuance of his official position will find it his
interest to use every effort to bring about so desirable a
result. Postmasters are appealed to because they are con-
sidered the representatives of the party in their respective
localities, and being the recipients of the patronage of the
Administration, it is but just that they should comply
with its demands.

Please send us the name of some reliable leading De-
mocrat in your town whom we can confer with hereafter.
Address PERRIN M. BROWN, Jun.,
Washington City, D.C., 1856.
More recently, on the agitation of the Kansas
question, the New York Daily News, a Govern•
ment organ, wrote as follows :

The present Postmaster of Chicago is an active oppo-
nent to the admission of Kansas as a State under the
plan proposed by the President, and consequently a busy
and zealous adherent of Mr. Douglas, and favourable to
the movements of party disorganization lately initiated
by the Senator. The postmaster, Wm. Price, based his
hopes of retention on the friendship of Mr. Douglas, and
the demands he knew the Senator would make upon the
Administration in his behalf. This demand was made,
and firmly insisted upon, but Mr. Buchanan could not be
moved—the fiat had gone forth ; such insubordination—
such opposition to the known will of the Executive,
could not be countenanced or recognised, and Mr. Price
was promptly removed, and Isaac Cook, Esq., a true and
reliable Democrat, a devoted friend of the Administration,
and an able and honourable man, appointed in his place.
This is as it should be. Mr. Ponglas, we learn,
threatens to defeat the nomination of Mr. Cook whenever
his name shall came before the Senate ; but this effort, if
made, will certainly fail of success, and will only show the
declining—the wasting strength of the " giant."
A similar case has occurred at Cleveland, Ohio, where
Mr. Gray, editor of the Plaindealer, has turned his bat-
teries upon the Administration and against the admission
of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. The fact
of his having control of a Democratic paper bad no weight
with the Executive, any further than to make his deter-
mination more posittve; and Mr. Gray will soon find, if
be his not ere this, that he cannot serve two masters and
at the same time hold a lucrative place under the Admi-
nistration. This is a movement of no little significance,
as Mr. Gray was an early appointment of Mr. Buchanan's.
In Columbus (Ohio), another recusant postmaster was
found, and he too retires, and will be succeeded by ex-
Governor Sam. Medarv. We wish that this stern old
Democrat and popular writer would also resume his edi-
torial control of the Columbus Statesman, which has be-
come unstable and wavering, and lost much of the popu-
larity and all the strength and v. jour for which it was
formerly so justly noted.
Such are some of the foreshadowing of events to come.
It is quite time this bold and determined stand was taken
by the President.
The people expect it—look for it, and it is the only
policy the Administration can pursue if it hopes to sustain
itself and maintain in all its vigour the supremacy of the
Democratic party of the Union.

This simplicity and directness mark the Ame-
rican system at every step. Our readers will
be reminded of the famous circulars of M.
LEDRII RoLuN, when he was Home Minister
at Paris—which circulars were marked with the
same straightforwardness and absence of cir-
cumlocution.

Naturally enough, the same directness and
simplicity attend the movements of indi-
viduals. Does an Abolitionist make a dis.
agreeable speech in the Senate, the most
straightforward course is to knock him down ;
and if possible, as in the Brookes and Sumner
case, to give him such " a cowhiding" as will
make him more cautious for the future.

Lord GIRT is a statesman, and writes with
statesmanlike decorum ; but in his recent vo-
lume on Parliamentary Government he says :
"M. de Tocqueville has shown that the
effect of this system has been nearly to exclude
from public business the men most eminent
among their fellow-citizens for talents and for
virtue. Since he wrote, these evils have grown
more and more apparent, and it is becoming
a subject of anxious speculation to those who
take an interest in the welfare of mankind,
what part the United States will hereafter
play in the affairs of the world. They possess
gigantic and fast increasing power, the direc-
tion of which seems day by day to be falling
more completely into the hands of the least
estimable of their citizens—men little under
the restraint of any sense of justice, or of
right or wrong among nations, and whose
party organization enables them to control the
measures of those who are ostensibly intrusted
with the conduct of affairs."
Lord GREY refers to the case of America,
because he sees clearly that it is this way we
ale tending. And he observes, also, that the
American system introduced here, would he
even worse than it has yet been found in
America itself :

"In the American Union, the division of
authority between the Central and the State
Governments, and the independence of the
President in the exercise of his executive
functions, together with the constitution of the
Supreme Court, effectually prevent the con-
centration of all power in the hands of one
man or of one set of men. But in this coun-
try the machinery of the Government places
in the hands of the House of Commons such
means of overruling all the other authorities
of the State, that if it were elected under a
purely democratic system it could hardly fail,
in times of popular excitement, to become an
irresistible engine for carrying into effect any
measure, however violent, which the passions
of the People might dictate. Unrestrained by
any of the checks upon abuse created in the
United States by the division of authority,
such a House of Commons would find, in the
extreme use of its acknowledged powers, easy
means of compelling the Crown, the House of
Lords, and even the Courts of Law, to become
the mere instruments of its will."

Such is the course things are taking; and
those who " yearn for the creation of a really
" popular party," yearn for the commencement
of a system like this. We do not say that
they all mean this, consciously—that they
all know whither their road leads. But
the point they are now pressing—which is the
only point on which a new party could be
organized—the separation of Church and
State—is the foundation-stone of the whole
American system. Once admit the principle,
which the Manchester school fully appreciate,
that the only proper functions of a Govern-
ment are the protection of life and property,
and the raising the necessary taxes for that
purpose, and we are on the high road for that
simplicity of system in which America
rejoices, and in which Established Churches,
Hereditary Peerages, and Monarchy of all
kinds, hold no place.

haunting the chambers of that home of
Indian administration.
It has been said by the eulogists of Lord
DALHOUSIE that our Eastern empire has never
been administered by so able a Governor since
the days of WELLESLEY Whether this be
true or untrue, it. is not for us, amongst the
passions and commotions of the present
moment, to hazard an opinion. political
events, like pastoral prospects, require combi-
nation to exhibit their true characteristics ;
and in the same way the historian, like the
artist, requires to be removed some distance
from his objects in order to appreciate their
beauties or detect their deficiencies.
But there are some points of view which
strike the untutored eye, as well as the
skilled, immediately; and no one can survey
the administration of 1797 to 1805, and that of
1848 to 1856, without perceiving singular re-
semblance both in duration, and spirit and
policy. On the matter• of finance the oppo-
nents of the latter• Marvia will justly take
exception to any parallel being dvawn with
his predecessor ; but as we are not now writing
apologetically for any one, we may at once
confess our own opinion that the weak point
in the administration of Lord DALHOUSIE was
the adoption of the crude schemes of his
Secretary in the Financial Department ; which
proved a complete failure, and shook the con-
fidence of the money market in India. Let it
be admitted that this was what in politics is
assumed axiomatically to be worse than a fault
—namely, a blunder.
In other respects, though we are not going
to assert that Lord DALHOUSIE was a rival, or
a servile imitator, of the Marquis WELLESLEY,
there cannot be a doubt that he endeavoured
to revive the traditions of his Government
and policy.
Three or four years ago, when the Embassy
from Burmah waited on the Governor General
in Calcutta to take their leave, they intro-
duced at parting the object with which they
bad sought their meeting with Lord DAL-
HOUSIE. In the name of the Golden Foot they
demanded back the territory which had been
acquired by the forces under General GODWIN.
In pei feet keeping with Eastern fashion and
figure, Lord DALHOUSIE pointed to the sun ,and
told them, that while it shone in the heavens,
the flag of England should wave over the town
of Rangoon. This fact exhibits the Governor-
General's faith in the advancement of British
acquisition in the East.
It may be said that our sun has been under
a cloud, or perhaps it has suffered a partial
eclipse. But at this moment we are with
stedfast gaze waiting to see the close of this
imperial occultation. The storm that raged
in so many directions l*s come to a centre in
Oude, and upon that spot all eyes are fixed,
waiting, as Gloucester has it, to see " the
"winter of our discontent made glorious
" summer by the sun of"— victory.
Oude and Annexation have in some mouths
became convertible terms; and the evil of the
late Governor-General's system of administra-
tion will be considered by many to be proved
by the simple fact, that the rebellion has
established its head•quarter•s in the scene of
the last annexation. This is pretty and
plausible, but is it true ?
In the Indian warfare, which may at this
moment be terminated, it is impossible to
help observing that not ,r swot d is drawn or a
word uttered in favour of the deposed Royal
Family of Oude. If injustice was perpe-
trated, it was perpetrated upon that family,
and nut upon the people ; for the people were
reduced to such a condition of misery, that when
at one moment it was proposed in the Supreme
Council to withdraw our troops from Oude,
and leave the Court to its iniquities, the mea-
sure was negatived through fear of the people
rising in immediate rebellion. These people
can hardly consider that a great wrong bas been
done to a family on whose behalf they do not
strike a blow or speak a word. They have had
the opportunity, and have observed a profound
silence.

The rebels having cumulated at Lucknow
we believe to be the result of a geographical
accident. It was the best position to fall
back upon and defend behind Delhi ; for the
north was guarded by LAWRENCE, and the
south was increasingly occupied with the