The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

VoL. VI. LONDON, SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 2,1858•
STAMPED SIXPENCE.
UNSTAMPED FIVEPENCE
No. 282.

are the facts out of which a story has be en
manufactured that filled the Journalist Commu-
nity of Europe with agitation, and made the
friends of Lord PALMERSTON dream dreams and
see visions.
We cannot conceive how all these good people
could have been so taken in. They must have
had a curious alacrity in believing, and been as
eager to be imposed upon as Andreas Mag the
baker, who thought to make his fortune in
German lotteries. Surely, after this specimen
of their own credulity, this portion of the public,
at all events, will have no right to laugh at those
of their fellow-creatures who put faith in the
Winking Virgin of Rimini, or the Lady of
Salette.
It is not surprising that in Austria, where the
greatest jealousy prevails of any competition with
the Austrian Lloyds, there should have been
great anxiety felt at this advance of Russian
navigation, and that an attempt should have
been made by exaggerated and distorted represen-
tations of the true state of the case to create a
strong feeling upon the subject in the minds of
the other European Powers and their population
adverse to Russia ; but it is odd that expe-
rienced politicians should have seen through the
glass held up to them so darkly, and that
they should have failed to detect through it
the "canard." It is perfectly natural that
Russia, in her altered political and commercial
position, should seek to obtain a share in the
carrying trade and commerce of the Mediterra-
nean. Such a course is the inevitable conse-
quence of our having deprived her of the
monopoly of the Black Sea, and of our having
thrown it open to all nations, to their ships, to
their traders, and to their commercial and
political agents. Surely it is hardly com-
petent to the Powers who have done this
to insist upon the Mediterranean being invested
with that close character of which they have
made it one of the main stipulations
of a Treaty consequent upon a successful war
that the Black Sea should be deprived. As an
aid to commercial enterprize we see no reason to
regard the coal-sheds of Villafranca with the
slightest apprehension, and we are quite sure that
we may trust, even had we a less vigilant
Foreign Minister, to the strong common interest
which England, France, and Austria have in the
matter for care that the commercial station shall
not be converted into a political lodgment.
But, then, the public is told by the organ of
Lord PALMERSTON that "in the days that we
have seen " Russia never would have attempted
such an advance into the southern seas of Europe.
The thing has been projected and done, because
Russia knows that now a faineant rules at the
Foreign-office of England. Audacity of asser-
tion is a great matter, but such superlative
auvlacity as this defeats its purpose. Surely
these good people think the public remember as
dimly as they themselves perceive. If the
Minister who in a few days disposed, with honour

E't Vress.

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1858.

THE VH.LAFRANCA CANARD AND HOW
IT LOOKS NOW.

THE Villafranca coal-shed was to be the
point d'appui for the lever by which Lord
DERBY'S Government was to be hoisted out of
its position, and Mr. CONINGHAM, M.P. for
Brighton, was to be the man who was to in-
state Lord PALMERSTON in the vacant place.
So, at least, we gather front the articles that
have appeared in the Morning Post. The un-
fortunate point d'appui has disappeared in a
quicksand, and the exulting artificers are left
staring with astonishment, and lamenting. What
a pity they did not examine the ground a little
before they fell foul of Lord MALMES-
BURY, and glorified themselves with remem-
brances of the bygone foreign administration
of Lord PALMERSTON, or indulged, like Justice
Shallow, in jovial exclamations about " the days
that they had seen."
We need not now, at the close of a week,
enter into a detailed refutation of this absurd
report and the futile comments which have been
wasted upon it by eager journalists who jumped
at the bait that some of their brethren on the
other side of the Channel had cast upon the
water with as rabid an appetite and as little
consideration as a lean and hungry trout does at
the first artificial Mayfly which the wily fisher
throws over his nose. Thetpublic has already
learnt from the daily papers hat there has been
no lease of Villafranca by Sardinia to Russia,
and that the transaction amounts to no more
than this, that Sardinia has given permission to
the Russian Steam Navigation Company, which
has been established in opposition to the Aus-
trian Lloyds, to use the port for coaling
and for stores. That Steam Yavigation Com-
pany is conducted, like our own undertakings
of a similar character, by a body of share-
holders, and the Russian Government, as is
their universal custom, have given support
to the enterprize by taking a large number
of shares in it. Their connection, however,
is commercial and not political. As is the cus-
tom of our own Government with regard
to the mail packets, the Russian Government
stipulates as an equivalent for its support that
the steamers shall be made capable of carrying
guns and of being converted, if circumstances
should render it necessary, into vessels of war,
and no doubt there may be found in the employ
of the Company many of the naval officers
-whom our destruction of the Russian fleet in
the Black Sea has effectually shelved. These

to England and credit to France, of the embran-
glement between the two nations which Lord.
CLARENDON created and Lord PALMERSTON
had been pottering over for weeks, is
a faineant, what are they ? And if Lord.
MALMESBURY, who, in a few weeks after his
accession to office, obtained from Naples re-
lease and full indemnity for the British subjects
illegally seized and imprisoned under the Admi-
nistration of Lord PALMERSTON, who had for
months neglected their case and sluggishly and
feebly paltered with the rights of England,—if
Lord MALMESBURY, we say, who did all this
with this rapidity, actual as well as comparative,
be a fainéant, what, we ask, is Lord PALMERS-
TON ? If these be the performances of a faineant,
all we can say is, let us have him by all means in
the capacity of Minister. His sluggishness is
like that of the Black Knight, Le Noir Faineant,
in " Ivanhoe," and we much prefer it to that kind.
of bastard activity of which the chief effect is to
make the water perpetually boil and to keep the
Nation always in it.

REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.
IN the varied suggestions which are daily pat
forth on this subject, their authors generally
appear to be guided by one grand principle,—
we might almost say, by one alone. They seem
to be of opinion if they can but show that those
whom they would enfranchise are individuals in
a position of life to give them a fair claim to
the franchise, that that is all that is necessary
to be done in order to entitle them to it.
" Behold," it is said by the Everting Star, " the
loyal and decorous conduct of the men at Leeds,
" when the barriers were broken down, and the
" mob found themselves in the august presence
" of their Sovereign; so far from any advantage
" being taken by them topress rudely round
" her, the most practised courtiers could not
" have treated her with greater delicacy and
" respect. And ought not," it is asked, " such
" an incident to have told upon the mind of the
" Premier, and taught him that men, who could
" 90 conduct themselves, and could so honour the
" majesty of the living representative of the
" Constitution, were men fit to be trusted with
" the franchise, and to have a voice in selecting its
" guardians ? "
Now, we yield to no man in the high opinion
which we entertain of many of the singularly able
and clever men who are interspersed amongst
the working classes, and we are very sure that
we have found amongst them those who enter-
tain wiser and nobler views of State policy,
both foreign and domestic, than very many of
those who now figure as members of the Legis-
lature. It is with no intention, therefore, of
disparaging the character of
fellow-subjects, that
more is necessary, in
nate admission to the
merely to show that .
racters are such as render
Those who clamour
and what they call
who, not going quite .
advocate such an extension

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