The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-26 00:00:00

60,

years only 100 or 200 such arrangements are
made. Well, in those 100 or 200 parishes, at
least, the Church-rate question would be settled
for ever.
2. To permit landlords, whenever Us ay desire
it, to have their names insetled in the Church•
rate book, and the names of ;heir *touts taken
off the rate. The rate Would then be paid by the
landlord ; and the tenant, not being charged,
would have no right to ateend the palish Vestry
when Church-rates were under consideration.
There can be no doubt that, in this way, then-
sands of Dissenters would obtain immediate re-
lief; and by so much, the existing► warfare would
be reduced, and peace become more possible.
These two measures might be included in one
short Bill, and that Bill might pass, even in the
present session. No doubt, some of the Dis-
senting champions would oppose it, on the ground
that it reduced the grievance, and so "took the
wind out of their sails." But would the respect-
able Whigs of the House of Commons take this
view ? Would they say—We want the whole
grievance kept up, in order that the whole may
some day be swept away ?

DISAGREEABLE RECOLLECTIONS.

IT is just thirteen years since that calamitous
period, when the last great breach in the Con-
servative party commenced, and that party,
completely predominant in the House of Com-
mons elected in the summer of 1841, became
shattered, divided, and nearly powerless—not by
the assaultsof its opponents, but by the fatuity
of some of its principal members.
It was, if we remember aright, on One eireilitig
in June, 1845, when, after a few hours spent in
painful reproaches, directed towards Sir ROBERT
Picts., by those whom he had deserted and
betrayed, a different Lkind of speaker arose.
Mr. GEORGE SMYTELE, M.P. for Canterbury,
poured forth a glowing eulogium of the Premier.
" Proceed," he said, addressing Sir R. PEEL, " in
the noble career you have marked out for your-
self. Be it yours to effect and complete what
others .ha yin for years been proposing and dis-
cussing: Heal the wounds caused by sectarian
dissensions. Be the great DOER of your age."
The speaker achieved at least one purpose.
lie had touched a chord which thoroughly
gratifiel Sir R. PEEL. The Premier showed this
in an unwonted manner. He condescended to
notice the speech of his flatterer, and to return
praise for &Rise. He did more. Betbre that
summer had ended, Mr. SmTnrit sale an Under-
Secretary of State! • te-ctrit to
Yet both the Premier and his applauder had
forgotten one fact, which was, in truth, the great
feature of the case, and the forgetfulness of which
deprived the whole picture of any truth or value.
Sir ROBERT PEEL did indeed, by his Maynooth
Bill and his Corn-law Repeal Bill, settle, for the
moment, two questions which had long perplexed
and divided public men. lie did, unquestionably,
DO, what other men had only been trying to
effect. But then he did all this, by suddenly
"turning his back upon himself." lie had, for
played the part of the Protestant and the
ction.
sad had, in those characters, drawn
together a great party. It was by those pro-
fessions that he had gained that great majority
of ninety-one, which rendered him, indeed, a
powerftd Minister. And hence Mr. Swrrint's
praise and exhortation should have run thus :
" You have now, by your Protestant and Protec-
tionist professions, gained a position which
enables you successfully to betray your party,
and to carry all those measures which you have
spent your life in op .. g. The key of the
position is in your • .ds. That which the
Whigs could not do, because ofyour opposition—
that which a man of honour would not do,
heeause it is treacherous—you now can do.
Nettle all these questions, at once and for ever ;
&Vast to which no other statesman is competent.
_
A 1111713 your nameon record, as the great DOER of
rir time no other sacrifice is needed, but that
Htriparty, and your personal honour."
titr ias on this occasion, we believe, that Mr.
Vim Amid the felicitous remark, that the
-Constervitittre leader " had caught the Whigs
‘‘ bathing, and had run away with their clothes.'
But Mr. hiscartmtr, at greater length, stripped

alnh tin r -r I/ Hi 4 '
the whole • bare, and Placed the great
DOER in light of truth. He said :
" I moat readily 'admit that the Right Hon.
Baronet at the head of the Government is a man
Of considerable capabilifiras a legislator; he
sea mat taleits fbr Ante, fbr the managee
ant of this Ho" and for the transaction of
Oficial business. thill, it is impossible for me to,
deny that there i 4 100 stanch ground for the re-
proiches of those who hafting, in *pite of bitter'
experience, a 'Nand tient trusted hiM and raised
him to power, have tound themselves a second
time deluded. (Cheers.) As soon as he reaches
power, a change—a salutary change for the
country—takes place. The instruments are flung
aside—the ladder by which he elimbed is kicked
down. (Cheers.) This is not a solitary instance
—and I am forced to say that this sort of conduct
is pursued by the Right Hon. Baronet on some-
thing like a system. I shall uot attempt to go
over the events of years ago. I shall say nothing
more of 1827 and 1829 than this—that one such
change was quite enough for one man. . . .
You offer to the eager, honest, hotheaded Pro-
testant a bill to take privileges away from the
Roman Catholics of Ireland, if he will only assist
you to power. He lends you his aid, and then,
when you are in power, you turn round on him
and give him a bill for the religious endowment
of the Roman Catholic College in Ireland!
(Hear, hear.) Is it strange that such proceed-
ings as these should excite indignation?
(Cheers.) Can we wonder at the clamour which
has been raised in the country, or be surprised at
the petitions which have been showered, thick as
a snowstorm, on the table of the House? Is it
possible that the people out of doors should not
feel indignation at seeing that the very parties
who, when we were in office, voted against the
Maynooth grant, are now being whipped into
the House in order to vote for an increased May-
nooth
rant ? (Cheers.) Show us some clear
prince e, with respect to Irish affairs, which hays
guid you, both in Office and in Opposition.
(Loud cheers.) Show us how, if you are honest
in 1845, you could have been honest in 1841.
(Cheers.) Explain to us why, after having,
when out of place, goaded Ireland into madness
in order to ingratiate yourselves with England,
you are now throwing England into a flame in
order to ingratiate yourselves with Ireland.
Let us hear some argument that, as Ministers,
you are entitled to support, which shall not
equally show that you were the most factious
and unprincipled Opposition this country ever
saw. (Loud cheers.). ,t :,wm.J.

This speech never received the hiaatittetnpt
at an answer. But it sank deep into the hearts
of the people; and when, the very next summer,
the members of the House of Commons went to
their constituents, at least one hundred followers
of Sir Rouzirr PEKL were reckoned among the
rejected ones! • .

hi Dn.',

b»-!

Why do we harp upon these strains now ?
Because, although Mr. SMYTHE is gone—and we
believe he was " a wiser and a better man" before
he went—we sena to hear his periloakimments
again in a jouniat:whieh, like him, dibeiitaelf
Conservative..bisfte 03 otai vlibornL •

The Standard, which at least priteliatiS and
desires to support the present Government,
argued, once de t*Acer: the past week, in
the tone of Mr.' SkrritttEd7in(re have been accus-
tomed for thelast twetity years to deem one
party in Eng/6nd the CONSERVATIVE PARTY,
and the opptlifie party the LIBERAL. But the
Standard-assure. us in its last Tuesday's number
that "we have been making a prodigious mistake
" for the last five and twenty years," for that it is
from Lord DERBY'S Government that we are to
expect " a long string of liberal measures."
But Englishmen, Conservative Englishmen,
do not want—they dread "liberal measures." Take,
for instance, the very measures which the
Standard promises, as follows :
" The final settlement of the question of Jewish
disabilities is another claim to the national respect.
For years this remnant of intolerance had belied
our vaunted love of religious liberty. A differ-
ence of feeling had been long springing up be-
tween the Upper and Lower Houses, which at one
time threatened to bring the action of our Con-
stitution to a dead lock. By a prudent epirit of
compromise the privileges of either House have
been maintained, and the desire of the nation

spirit
in

Jewish demands
Tsai "gridlifthe desire of the nation" we utterly
deny. As far as we know anything of the desire
of the mitten by its petitions—that desire has been
expressed this very year in opposition to the
Jewish shims. Tie petitions &pipet esaseesion .
are more numerous than those in favour of it.

But where does the Standard learn that, in the
matter of Church-rates, as well as in Jewish
dementia, " concession to the spirit of the age"
is to be the policy of the present Government?
To the deputation of Churchmen in defiance of
Church-rates, Lord DEBBY'S language was Mu
and satisfactory. In the House of Commons,
with one single exception, every member of the
Government voted in defence of the Church.
Who eim venture, therefbre, to tell Conserve-
tiVee, in the . columns of the Standard, that
Church-rates, as well as Jewish claims, are to be
"conceded" ?
We believe nothing of the kind. We have
not the slightest notion that such men as Lord
DERBY, Lord SALISBURY, Lord MALMESBURY,
and Lord CHELMSFORD, will ever submit to carry
out the behests of JOHN BRIGHT. We trust to
their really Conservative principles ;_ and we
trust also to their common sense. They have
seen the results of two great " concessions to
"the spirit of the age." They saw a powerfnl
Conservative Government broken up, in 1830,
simply by its "concessions to the spirit of the age."
They saw a still more powerfid Conservative
Ministry again dissolved, in 1846, and, as before,
not by its firm adherence to Tory principles, but
by its "concessions to the spirit of the age."
The plain fact is, that a Conservative policy is,
to maintain, to defend, to stand in the old paths.
So asserting and adhering to its proper policy, the
Conservative party may gain &majority, in Parlia-
ment, and in the country. It had such a majority
in 1828, and, after a long struggle, it gained such
a majority again in 1841. But the moment $
Conservative Government begins to vaunt its •
Liberalism—the moment it begins to play into
the hands of Papists, Radicals and Dissenters,—
that moment its strength is gone. The people
cannot understand the propriety of a Govern-
ment's coming into power on one policy and then"
deserting it for another. They said, in 1845-6,,
"If we are to have a Whig or Liberal policy,
" let us have a Whig or Liberal Government.",
And so they will say now,—" If JOHN BRIGHT
"is to rule, let Jonx BRIGHT take his seat in
" Downing. street."
We lay the more stress upon these alarms,
fbolish as they may be, because we cannot fbrgd
that all the perils and losses which have befallen
the Conservative cause, for forty years past, have
been self-inflieted.. Lriet at the long and quiet
sway of Lord Lilet`nittillbok at the firm do-
minion of the Wellinbato!-Ministry of 1828, veil
begs*
it to concede-4°ok at the upward
course he Conservatkvi • • • &in 1835 to 1841,
when boldly asserted ,", rple—and then look,
again,* its rapid de se and fall immediately it
began 'a course of concession.
, :tip
kad:na was it in the neighbouring kingdom,
through its whole deplorable history of 1789 to
1794. In that history we see as amiable but
weak monarch, led by Ministers whose only
panacea always was concession. The fashion of
yielding was set, and whole classes rnshed into
it. Thus, its LAMARTLNE tells us (in his
"Heroic Chiiiiicters"),7,ollx9 971ri 4, ii„jj

"The French Rev.:Anion inn geitertals
thought of the aristocracy. Philosophy in the
salons, it had become revolt in the streets.
The Cote droit in the National Assembly com-
prised those whom we might have looked upon
as the natural enemies of the movement—
the nobility and many of the higher clergy.
Reprit de corp., was not weighed, when there
was a question of coalition with the tiers ant.
The tionimorencieg, the Noailles, the Monte,-
quieus, the Riirabeaus, &c., all concurred in

. .. . 6. " . .
with
- - - - - -
has been gratsJi.ol. , A 416-40shwe i Church-
totes and with the Proporty Qualification the Go-
vernment has bees satiated with the same spirit
of concession to the ipisi of the, age. Thus, in
the courOe of three or tour Months, these great
questiokt, width have 4 ahg afitated the country,
114
till ha,. bri:lve4l, d tha hot by a hasty or
Orude Its on, but a44.tdatice with an
equablt tiamk or fights of all classes
AM( of ,litioy Set.' ' ' r'' 4
•., i •
That At immealleion of the Jewish demands