The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-28 00:00:00

194

carry about with them a bait the poor animals
cannot resist. They are led, against their will,
by their nose. They have a perception of the
infamy of their capture, but they cannot resist
the lure. They prick their ears at the sound
of their master's whistle, but not even his
well-known tones can tear the baser sort from
the thraldom which holds them.
This system is sure to meet with a speedy
and disastrous end, because it is degrading to
the character of the Legislature, and a,ubver-
sive of the great ends for which Parliamen-
tary Representation exists. It is no more
possible to maintain the Administration of
Lord PALMERSTON than to keep a sieve full of
water, or to chain the winds, or perform any
other impossible feat. Its existence involves
principles of antagonism which must
destroy it. It is one of those monstrous
births of accidental circumstances which
offend against the organisation of nature. To
attempt to prolong its life from any notions of
fancied convenience would be a crime. It can
exist only as a nuisance. It putrifies while it
lives.

In all the departments of Administration
since the commencement of the session there
has been a total absence of the candour which
was once thought characteristic of the highest
class of English officials. Every Minister
seems to have taken his cue from the Premier.
Facts are denied until evidence is at hand to
refute the denial, and then come reluctant
and partial admissions, the force of which is
attempted to be weakened by the most tor-
tuous and disingenuous misrepresentations.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER brought
forward a budget which he attempted to im-
pose on the House as a faithful exposition of
our financial state. Questioned closely on
certain details, he was compelled to make a
supplementary and entirely different state-
ment of the manner in which the deficiency
of future years was to be met ; and, after all, he
left the House and the country in a complete
maze whether an equilibrium between income
and expenditure was to be effected by a
reduction of estimates, or an increase of taxa-
tion, or the repudiation of existing financial
obligations, or the contraction of fresh debt.
His second statement was like the ending of
" Rasselas." It was an explanation in which
nothing was explained.
The duplicity of the India Board is, if pos-
sible, more glaring still. It is very important
that the Legislature should know whether the
expedition to the Persian Gulf, involving, of
course, war with Persia, was or was not resolved
on while the Parliament was sitting last ses-
sion. If the intention existed while the Minis-
ter hail the opportunity of communicating
with Parliament, he committed a scandalous
breach of trust, and threw contempt on the
representative assembly of the empire, in
refusing to communicate to it circumstances of
the highest and gravest national import.
Now, let us look at the manner in which the
Government has endeavoured to evade inquiry
on this momentous point. On Thursday in
last week, Mr. GLADSTONE extorted with diffi-
culty from Mr. VERNON SMITH a statement that
the instructions for sending a military and
naval force into the Persian Gulf were dated
the 26tli of December last, four mouths after
Parliament had been prorogued. Mr. BAILLIE
bad reason to be dissatisfied with this state-
ment. He rose, and by questions, which it was
impossiLle to evade, put it to the Right
Honourable President of the Board of Control
whether those instructions had not been sent
in July last; and whether they had not reached
Bombay on the 20th of August; and whether
transports had not been taken up, and other
preparations made, on receipt of such instruc-
tions. Thus challenged, the President of the
Board of Control, who had been willing to
shelter himself under equivocation, shrank
from direct falsehood. The acknowledgment
was wrung from his lips that instructions had
been sent out in July, but he endeavoured to
destroy the force of this admission by adding
that those orders were provisional, and that
rtiftsai instructions were not sent out until
irk
,t hl
In fact, the decree for the invasion
Persia consisted of a regulated series of in.
4truc *OBS ; and Mr. VERNON SMITH would
44.001/6 us that the " Make ready—Present "
formed no part of the direction,
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