The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-03 00:00:00

riors. Love of luxury leads to profusion,
Idleness to - debt. Debt
once contract or, as official
salaries are " Government

present term
aunt nosPhere
Indict. One
freedotta of
ho out, are
We, italie‘ principal caw"
of the evil 1 we have a
strong impr ,e creditors of
any legal rel debtors, when
the latter are in the service of the Government,
weled go fer to cure the existing state of
things. It would be no hardship on officials,
ford& India their salaries are sigh; And any
regulations that may tend to elevate the cha
racter of Anglo-Indiana is, at all evetta, *oral
serious consideration.

native usurers,
skilful than lit
iese gentle
honestyrin

SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH AND THE
STATUES.
IT is difficult to understand the principles of
a " Philosophical Radical." Like the court
lady in the days of the Monarch whose statue
was lately carted from Leicester-square, he
wears " oak-leaves and acorns on the 29th of
" May, and orange and blue on the 4th of No-
" vember, because they both suit the corn-
" plexion." Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTFI'II pro-
posed protection of the statues might be
regarded as a designed example of the
school to which he belongs. Looking, even
after his explanation, at the schedule of
these memorials of past greatness which
are to have the advantage of the pro-
tection of the Woods and Forests, we find,
first, that the Minister, who, we might assume,
would have joyfully undertaken the care of
Sir Harry Vane or Andrew Marvell, or the
much-misused Hobbes, proposes first to look
after the statue of James 11. By that process
of mental association peculiar to his school,
Sir WILLIAM then passes to George Canning.
He proposes to take that great man's statue
into custody, probably because CANNING truly
discerned the spirit of that Radicalism in
wirieh
Fin* n 1d Philoeophy was taught to scan,
The Wrongs of Providence and Rights of Man.
And with Canning he selects Charies 1.,
George 111., Charles IL, George II„ and
Queen Anne.
But the statues that are not to be taken
care of—what of them? If George 11. is
worthy a regard, why should the Duke of
Cumberland be left helpless in Cavendish-
square ? Surely the Radical philosophy which
approves of Dettingen cannot object to Cullo-
den ; and the taste that selects George 111. in
Cockspur-street might be extended to William
111. in St. James's-square. To look after old
Major Cartwright in Burton-crescent might,
we admit, provoke disagreeable souvenirs of a
time when the Whigs were talking of " heads
" rolling in the dust ;" and as fur the Duke of
Bedford in Russell-square, and George IL on
the steeple of St. George's, Bloomsbury, the
one may safely be left to the care of the public
spirit which raised it, awl the other is pro-
bably high enough to be out of the reach of
mischief.
In some instances Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH
has exhibited a commendable modesty. He
has not proposed to take the charge of Pitt or
Fox. His bill as regards those statues is
eloquently silent. For his omission of another
statue in such company, commemorating the
open, manly, thoughtful countenance—the
student's head and soldier's frame of one made
by Nature a statesman and by necessity a
leader—Sir WILLIAM is to be thanked. 'The
statue of Lord George Bentinek will stand
safely on its pedestal till the Administration is
found not ashamed to recognise the worth of
public honour and consistency.

A CABINET OF CLERKS.
A MINISTRY not associated with any fixed
principles must by the mere force of things
turn into a mere cabinet of clerks. When a
Government in Olga eountry °eases to be re-

SATURDAY,

presentative, its moral power expires, and it
can derive only precarious vitality from rely.
ing on official routine. " All power, even the
" most despotic,* says DAVID HuME, " rests
" upon opinion ;" and a Ministry elaborately
constituted for the avoidance of representing
any pactieular sehtiesent, Uonservative, Whig,
or Radical, can have wa solid political foun-
dation.
Clerks eau register and correspond, but they
cannot represent national feelings, or create
political systems. Convictions under a free
constitution spring from sympathies and
moral associations, and not from the logic of
the formalist, or from the austere arts of

septuagenarian statesmanship. Lord Jogs
RUSSELL rashly quoted " Mr. BURKE " this
week, and gave rest to the shade of Lord
SoNtEns, whom he did not disturb in his
venerable dust. If he does not himself re-
collect where BURKE has described the
condition of a Ministry like that of Lord
ABERDEEN'S, he can consult " my Lord LANS-
" DOWNED' Or Mr. MACAULAY, for the source of
the following grave words :—" It is a serious
" thing this studied disunion in Government.
" What must be the consequence where the
" very distemper is made the basis of the
" constitution, and the original weakness of
" human nature is still fktrther enfeebled by
" art and contrivance? It will make no dif-
" ference whether the constituent parts of
" such an Administration are men of virtue, or

" ability, or not. * * * All
" men who take part in systems so con-
" strutted as to disable them from their duty
" make themselves guilty of the present dis-
" traction, and future ruin they may bring on
" their country."
Under the Coalition system so described
the ruling power for the time is suspended,
and evils must be warded off by the vigilance
and energy of a national opposition.

ADULTERATION OF COFFEE.

Loan TORRINGTON has given notice that he will
present a petition from the merchants and planters
of Ceylon, praying for the appointment of a com-
mittee to inquire into the laws which regulate and
permit the adulteration of coffee with chicory.
Coffee, which is the staple product of Ceylon, is sub-
ject to a duty of threepence per lb. on importation
into England, and this, after deducting the cost of
freight and insurance, amounts to 75 per cent. of its
selling price. Chicory costs less than the amount of
duty levied on coffee, and is, besides, exempt from
taxation. Now, if retail tradesmen are permitted to
adulterate a highly-taxed with a wholly untaxed
article, mistaket will occasionally occur, and the
spurious will be sold when the pure is asked for.
The late Government altogether prohibited the
sale of adulterated coffee, so that, if any admixture
occurred then, it could scarcely be the result of acci-
dent, and thus fraud was easily detected. If the
consumer liked chicory and coffee better than the
latter alone, he bought them separately and mixed
them himself. It surely does nut require argument
to demonstrate the absurdity of permitting a trades-
man to have an impure article on his premises when
the pure is often wanted. But there are some minds
so constituted that, like the lady who told the clock
by algebra and took her tea by stratagem, they would
rather fail in their object than attain it by simple
means. Amongst these is the present CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER. His object is, we presume, to
benefit the revenue, and secure to the consumer a
genuine article. To accomplish this the Lords of
the Treasury now permit, under certain regulations,
retailers to sell as "an avowed substitute for conee
a mixture which may consist of ninety-pine parts
"of chicory and one of coffee." The duet regula-
tion is, that a label must be affixed to each packet
stating what the contents are. How admirably this
plan has answered its purpose is attested by
the
numerous convictions which have recently occurred
for violations of the law.
We do not see how offences can be avoided. n
So
long as it is lawful to sell adulterated coffee, even a
honest tradesman may make mistakes, whils. t the
dishonest tradesman will pursue a syst.eln.
Amongst the thousands who purchase his spurious
article how many will prosecute ? Not a sulhcieseth
of fraud.
e
number to make the penalties inflicted. exceed
profits of fraud. But tilers is another point involved

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