The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-07 00:00:00

A CHARGE OF HIGH TREASON.

AN article of a most extraordinary kind has ap-
peared this week in the columns of a daily
supporter of the Prime Minister. A charge
of high treason (for it amounts to that) is
made against some person or persons un-
known. In the leading columns of the Morning
Post, it is stated :
On the arrival of Feronk Khan in Paris, every attempt
was made to circumvent and wheedle him by emisßaries

from this country. The Persian wax implored not to yield.
It was intimated to him a week or ten days ago that the
days of Viscount Palmerston's ministry were numbered, and
that a Coalition and a confederated Cabinet would come into
office, from which he would obtain much better terms than from
Viscount Palmerston's Government.

That statement is either true or false If it
be true, we cull at once upon the Government to
do its duty, and to indict " the emissaries "
who engaged in traitorous proceedings. If it
be false, we say that the journal, in which
such " an unfounded calumny " appeared, has

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incurred heavy responsibility. It is utterly
impossible that such an assertion made at
this time, with such pointed preciseness of
incrimination, can be allowed to pass without
rigorous inquiry. " The arrival " of FEROUR
KUAN is taken as the time when these (alleged)
treasonable proceedings took place ; and in
forwarding them, it is affirmed that "every
attempt " was made by " emissaries from this
country."
The guilt and deep criminality of such
conduct would be of the most flagrant kind ;
and when so positively asserted, we are at
once entitled to demand that the statement
be either proved, or else be branded as " a
flagitious falsehood." Who were the " emis-
saries " ? What were their names ? From
whom did they proceed ? If such transactions
took place with the privity of the parties who
have recorded them in print, their guilt as
connivers will be very considerable, unless
they at once come forward and expose
the actors in such heinous intrigues. The
honour of our country, the reputation of her
diplomatic establishment, the character of her
political parties, are all compromised deeply
by such a statement if true ; and if it be false,
the responsibility of circulating such a calum-
nious statement is painfully onerous.
Again, we imperatively call for the proofs
of that statement. To make such charges in
an eminent public organ, and to circulate
them far and wide, while there was no evidence
to support them, would be such a scandal to
political literature, and to the profession of
journalism, that we could scarcely believe it
of any English newspaper. To make such
charges without proofs would he a dereliction
of all the first duties of a publicist. We are
not here dealing with a dubious assertion
about some matter involving no criminality.
Quite the contrary. It is not a statement, but
a charge, and the offence imputed is nothing
less than TREASON.

The leading article in which this charge
is stated commences—" Never was a more un-
" founded calumny uttered than the one
" that the Noble Lord who is the First Lord
"of the Treasury delights in contention and
" war." Now, we call upon those who so
boldly wrote about " unfounded calumny " to
prove their assertions when they circulate
charges imputing to "emissaries from this
" country " the highest offences against the
Crown. If the charge turns out to be false,
we must say that the conduct of those who
can either invent or circulate such unfounded
" calumnies" deserves indignant reprobation.

INFLUENCE OF LAND SOCIETIES ON
COUNTY ELECTIONS.
THE electoral contests in West Kent and East
Sussex have been hard-fought battles, and
have brought into action the voters registered
through the agency of the Freehold Land
Societies. In the ger.cral election of 1852,
Middlesex was lost to the Conservative can-
didate owing to the votes created by the
National Land Society ; and to counteract the
growing and dangerous influence, the Conser-
vative Land Society was established in the
same year. It was in West Kent that its
allottees had the first opportunity of recording
their votes ; and the result was, that out of
fifty-six on the register, only four persons who
had thus acquired the franchise voted for the
Liberal Member. In East Sussex eighty
members were registered by the Society, and
of these only six were found to poll against
Lord PEVENSEY. Thus out of 136 shareholders
who had obtained the freehold qualification in
the two counties through the instrumentality
of the Conservative Land Society, only ten
were found to vote for the Liberal candidates.
This remarkable result in the age of political
tergiversation ought not to be lost sight of.
The fact is indeed of no little moment in the
present crisis. It shows that men have been
brought together from all classes of the com-
munity, including the operative and the son
of the peer, who, without any promise, pledge,
or condition of any kind imposed on them,
obtained county votes, and, when the elections
took place, went to the poll and acted loyally