The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12,1857.

has hit the truth, though not altogether, we presume, in the
sense he himself intended. There is something, we are well
aware, which Lord PANMURE prefers to even aristocratic sympathies.
Charity with him begins in the strictest sense of the word " at home."
"As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake," a " Dowb " agitates the
serene bosom of PANMURE ; but whether it makes wider and wider
circles, i 3 a question which the British public is rather disposed at
present to answer in the negative. But, to quit his Lordship awl re-
gard the question generally, the old soldier's proposal would, even
supposing his allegations true, be only from bad to worse—from pro-
vincial favourites into bureaucratic and benumbing centralisation.
The influence and power of our great county magistrates are the best
counterpoise we have to this growing evil. And if they will conde-
scend to take our advice, we should recommend them to look rather
more sharply after their own privileges than their apathy iu regard to
the Militia indicates a disposition to do.

A valuable Parliamentary report upon the Public Moneys was
issued yesterday. A Select Committee of the House of Commons,
consisting of Sir F. BARING (chairman), Lord STANLEY, Sir J. GRAHAM,
Mr. HENLEY, Mr. G. A. HAMILTON, Mr. WILSON, Mr. ELLICE, Sir O. C.
LEWIS, Sir H. WILLOUGHBY, Mr. BOWYER, and Mr. WILLIAMS, was
appointed on the 12th of May last "to inquire into the receipt, issue,
" and audit of moneys in the Exchequer Pay-office and Audit Depart-
" merit." The Report of the Committee is now published. The prin-
cipal recommendation is the immediate improvement of the system of
audit by a large extension of the duties and powers of that board, and
its erection into a great department of State, under a special head,
and which should no longer transmit the public accounts to Par-
liament through the Treasury, but should have direct communi-
cation wit:r Parliament, and annually to submit the accounts of
the past year to a select committee of the House appointed by
the Speaker. With respect to the mode of preparing the public ac-
counts, the Committee recommend the extension of the appropriation
check, now applied only to the naval and military expenditure, and the
expenditure of the Woods and Forests and Public Works, to the
accounts of the income and expenditure kept at the Treasury, to the
accounts of the Revenue departments, and to the various accounts
comprising the expenditure of the votes for Civil Services, including
civil contingencies, and that, in order to strengthen the check upon
Government with regard to the issues of money, the accounts be
daily checked by the Paymaster-General, who should " cease to be a
" political officer discharging his duties by deputy, but that he should
" become the acting and efficient head of the Pay-office, performing
" his duties in person." There are other recommendations of detail,
but the above are the main objects recommended to be attained by
the Committee for a more efficient control over the public money than
at present exists. The Committee conclude their report by admitting
that " the important and extensive changes which they have suggested
" cannot all be immediately carried into effect ;" but they believe that
" the continued attention of Parliament and of the Executive Govern-
" ment to the subject will secure, at no distant date, all the objects
" embraced in their recommendations."

One good effect, it appears probable, will result from Dr. Limo-
szoNE's travels in Africa. Public attention will be now fully turned
towards that lung neglected quarter of the world, and the only effective
step at length taken to suppress the abominable slave trade by the
substitution of a more sound and legitimate commerce. Dr. LIVING.
STONE'S appearance before the Manchester Chamber of Commerce this
week will, we trust, lead to some definite result. Of the capacity of
Africa to supply us amply with cotton, and sugar, and rice, besides
other products, no doubt now exists ; the only point is, how to induce
the native chiefs to turn their attention to commerce instead of slave-
hunting. This can only be effected by the gradual opening up of the
country by means of expeditions, and by the foundation of a regular
trade at certain points, by the establishment of factories and store-
houses, and finallyby the creation there of towns. In fact, if we want
to open Africa we must colonise it to some extent. We must have more
than one Sierra Leone, for your merchant is your best missionary in
such a country as Africa. The people are eager to trade ; the
native chiefs readily appreciate the material advantages commerce
gives ; show them that it is less to their advantage to sell their
domestic slaves than to employ them in the cultivation of cotton and
sugar for our market, and the foreign trade in slaves will receive its
death blow. We may rely upon it that it is only by trade and com-
merce that we can destroy the slave trade we have so long and so
vainly struggled to put down; and to found that commerce and induce
the native African to prefer its advantages to the profits of slave-
dealing, we must have armed trading expeditions,—not expeditions
for mere scientific purposes, but expeditions originated in private
enterprise, and aided by Government, to ascend the rivers to open
friendly trading relations by means of presents and barter with the dif-
ferent chiefs. Expeditions by land are perhaps too hazardous to attempt;
by water there is less danger, more ease for escape in case of danger,
and the country is more readily penetrated. the river-bordering
countries possess inexhaustible resources of natural wealth; ivory,
cotton, palm oil, camwood, and mineral wealth abound. The natives
arc eager to trade, and there can be no doubt that if a trade
is once opened at any fresh spot upon the western coast,
that it would rapidly become self-sustaining. We venture to
think that this question of opening up Africa is one of a practical
nature, and well worthy of attention. An expedition can be fitted out
at the cost of about 5,000/. This sum, or twice this sum, might be
safely deducted by Government from the existing yearly cost of the
African squadron, and given in aid of African trilling expeditions,
with a much greater certainty of benefit than any Chit can or does at
present arise from the blockade ; and if private enterprise be added,
we see no obstacle to the establishment of an extended and legi-

893

timate trade with Africa, and in course of time to tho extinction
of the foreign slave trade.

In AUOUSTE COMTE, whose death at Paris is just reported, the
philosophic world has lost one of its most original thinkers and.
writers. He was born at Montpelier in 1798, within a year or two of
the close of the eighteenth century, and came of a family which was
eminently Catholic and monarchical in its predilections. Educated at
one of the French Lycees, he gave very early proofs not only of a highly
speculative turn of mind, but also of a dissatisfaction with the existing
methods of knowledge and forms of society, and a belief that he was
himself destined to become the Bacon of the nineteenth century, and
to initiate a revolution in the world's philosophy. Mathematics and
the physical sciences engrossed much of his attention, but before
reaching the age of manhood he had already turned his attention to
social questions, and had become possessed of the idea that the time
had come when all science and philosophy must be treated from the
social as the supreme point of view. It was with aims of this kind.
fermenting in his mind that, whilst still a youth, he was drawn within
the vortex of the Saint-Simonia.n school, which arose at Paris soon
after the Restoration of 1815. The genius of' SAINT-SIMON, then in the
maturity of his intellect, drew around him, as by some magnetic
attraction, a number of ardent disciples whom he indoctrinated with
his views, and almost all of whom have since become distinguished
in the history or the literature of their country. Of these COMTE
was the youngest. and such high hopes did the master
entertain of his youthful pupil, that when the school of SAINT-
SIMON resolved to put forth an exposition of their peculiar
tenets, it was on AUGUSTE COMTE that the preparation of the work
devolved. The " Systeme de Politique Positive " (as the work was
called) did not entirely satisfy SAINT • SIMON, who acid that "it expounded
" the generalities of his system from the Aristotelian point of view,
" but overlooked. their religious and sentimental aspect." This diver-
gence between their views ended in their mutual separation in the
year 1825. In the following year M. COMTE was seized with what he
termed a " cerebral crisis," which it was at the time believed could
only end in insanity. He recovered, however, and lived to promulgate
his own philosophy, and to give his name to a school of his own.
During the last seven-and-twenty years the leisure time of M. Comrs
was bestowed on the production of a series of original works devoted
to the elucidation of the principles of his " Positive Philosophy,"
and in which, to use the expression of a writer in the " English Cycle-
pmdia," " even those who have no sympathy with that system
"in its fundamental doctrines and general spirit, unite in re-
" cognising great vigour of intellect, and an extraordinary
" power of generalisation on all kindred subjects." COMTE 'S
first and greatest work was his " Cours de Philosophie
Positive," published in six large volumes, between 1830 and 1842.
" In this work," to quote the work already referred to, "he propounds
" his main doctrine, namely, that the human mind, by a natural law,
" has passed through three successive stages in its thoughts upon all
" subjects—namely (1), the theological stage, or that in which pheno-
" mena are accounted for by the supposition of the agency of super-
" natural beings to produce them ; (2), the metaphysical stage, in
" which, whilst supernatural agency is got rid of, certain abstract
" ideas, such as nature," harmony,' and the like, take their place in
" men's thoughts as the productive causes of everything ; and (3),
" lastly, the positive stage, in which, shaking off both unseen spiritual
" agencies and abstractions, the mind grasps the notion of' the universe
" in all its departments as proceeling according to certain laws or
" uniform sequences, to be ascertained by observation and induction."
These principles, we should add, he subsequently applied in a prac-
tical manner to the entire system of human knowledge. In 1843 M.
COMTE published two short treatises, one on analytical geometry, and
another on astronomy, which were followed in 1844 by his " Disconrs
sur l'Esprit Positif," enforcing the ideas of his larger work in a popu-
lar way. Soon after this date an attachment to a lady whose death
left him miserable revealed to him the meagreness and hollowness
of his philosophic system in a religious point of view, and induced him
to attempt the delineation of a new religious system, consistent with
the doctrines of his former works, and for this purpose he published
his " Discours stir I'Ensemble du Positivisme," and his "Cults
Systematique de l'Humanite," in which he proposes the worship of
humanity itself as represented by its greatest men of all ages.
These he arranges in a regular cale-idar, assigning tweve to preside
over the twelve months of the year, and nominating for each week and
day a long list of minor celebrities. His countrymen, however, were
not prepared for such a development of Positivism ; and in his
list published work, entitled " Systeme de Politique Positive, on
Traits do Sciologie, instituent la Religion de l'Humanite," he complains
that his greatest sorrow at the approach of old age is to find
that he can see no one in all the world worthy to be consecrated
by him as his successor in the Chair of his new philosophy
and religion, the Pontificate of which he may be said to have
assumed, inasmuch as he not only preached its doctrines, but
actually performed the marriage ceremony and the last funeral
rites over such of his disciples as called upon him so to do.

The intelligence that the Persians have evacuated Herat should be
received with caution. We shall be glad to hear that it is confirmed ;
but Lord PALMERSTON, it will not be forgotten, very recently expressed
the gravest doubts of the good faith of Persia, and his firm belief that
Herat would not be evacuated according to treaty. It will bo
instructive to discover that at the very moment the Noble Lord was
exciting the apprehensions of the country about Persian treachery,
Herat was surrendered in perfect good faith. We wait with
some impatience to learn whether Lord PALMERSTON'S apprehensions
were well founded, or the result of a reprehensible want of sound
information.