The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

MR. BAXTER AT MONTROSE.

MIL BAXTER, M.P., addressed his constituents this
week at Montrose. The hon. member, before enter-
ing upon the proceedings of last session, gave his
impressions of the House of Commons, and referred
at some length to the loss of time in the session by
the outrageously long speeches of the second-rate
men of the house. It was, no doubt, one of the
evils of free discussion, but he thought it had
reached such an alarming height " as to call for the
attention and reprobation of the public.", Mr.
Baxter then explained his reasons for his different
votes during the session, and reviewed the proceed-
ings of the house regarding several bills of minor
importance. With respect to the peace, he thought
the treaty a valuable one; but to insure its being
properly realised, the Government must improve its
diplomacy. He was in favour of a reduction of our
armaments to the peace footing. On the American
question he believed both Governments were to
blame, but thought her Majesty's Government had
acted with great wisdom in not dismissing Mr.
Dallas. With respect to our future relations, he ob-
served:—

I will now only express a hope that when another am-
bassador is sent to Washington—which however, proba
bly, and for obvious reasons, will not be until the new
President is elected—the Ministry will appoint a first-
class, a liberal-minded, and able man—one who sympa-
thises generally with the American people, and under•
stands their institutions—not some employe or attache who
has filled a subordinate office on the continent of Europe,
but a politician of advanced ovinions, who will be accept-
able to the people of the United States, and whom they

SdrURDAY,

will consider a fitting representative of Great Britain
There are many such men amongst us ; and without men.
tioning the names of others well qualified to fill the office,
I may point to Mr. Charles Villiers as a type of this class
of persons to which I refer. When the Republic sends to
us statesmen of such mark as Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Everett,
Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Dallas, we are expected with jus-
tice to select individuals of similar standing to represent
British interests at the seat of its executive power.
Mr. Baxter now came to the present state of
Europe, and, like Mr. Roebuck, at Sheffield, last
week, he anticipated a cataract of revolution. It
was hopeless to expect peace or good government
till the Bourbon dynasties of Spain and Naples were
driven to share the exile of their relations. The
Court of Madrid, politically and morally, was so
abandoned as to deserve respect of none ; while
Italy was in such a state of smouldering volcanic
fire that a terrible eruption may be speedily ex-
pected:—

You do not require to be told that every part of this
land, with the exception of Sardinia, is at this moment
groaning under a tyranny too terrible for description—too
agonising to last. An immense military force alone pre.
vents rebellion in Venetian-Lombardy; the Austrians, the
detested Tedeschi, are also in Tuscany and the Legs.
Lions; priestly rapacity, exaction, and violence have
crowded more than ever the dismal dungeons of Rome,
while perfidy, espionage, and horrible cruelty have reached
such a height in Naples as 1 verily believe, if not checked
by the interference of earthly potentates, will ere long bring
down upon their perpetrators the consuming vengeance of
Heaven.

Now, the question was, bow far we were interested in
this latent volcano, and under what circumstances
would our interference be justifiable, if justifiable at
all. Mr. Baxter was doubtful on this point :

There is no one, I presume,who will dispute the sound-
ness of the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of
other States ; but it appears to me that there may be ei•
ceptiona to this general rule—first, when the affairs of a
neighbouring kingdom are in such a condition as seriously
to threaten the peace of our own; and, secondly, when, as
in the case of the slave trade, humanity is outraged by re.
peated and continued deeds of cruelty and blood. On the
first Sardinia, but certainly not England, might go to war
with Naples. Before acting on the second we must be
well assured that the dungeons of King Bombs are worse
than those of Pope Pins, and that anything has occurred
by order of the former mare revolting than the massacre of
Ceceruacchio by the satellites of Austrian tyranny. For
my own part L confess to a doubt lest, appalling as are the
sufferings of State prisoners in the Two Sicilies, they are
worse than those in other quarters where the fleet of Great
Britain might not be able to act at the moment when the
iniquity of the Amorites was full. It is certainly no part
of our national duty and would be unmistakably Quixotic
to act as kntght•errants in all parts of the world, either for
oppressed men or oppressed nationalities; but, if tho-
roughly convinced that such an exceptional state of things
exists at Naples as renders it necessary for us to interfere
for the sake of humanity, let us not waste words, nor time,
nor letter•paper, but send such a fleet as shall surround
the Island of Procida, open the gates of its hateful guard-
house, and set the prisoners free.

AT THE COUNTY OF DURHAM AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETY'S ANNUAL DINNER, last week, Mr. G. H.
Spearman, in proposing the toast of the evening,
" Success to the Society," alluded to the system of
church leases, which he asserted retarded the agri-
cultural advancement of the county. In this view
the parliamentary committees supported him. In
the recent session, the act 14 and 15 Vict., chap. 104,
having required amendment and continuance, it was
referred to a select committee of the House of Com-
mons. That committee had reported that the subject
of fines for the renewal of leases, while it is an impro-
vident system to the lessees, is an obstacle to the
good management of the property and to its improve-
ment :

They had therefore, he was happy to say, the authority
of both Houses of Parliament upon this subject. Little
had been done so far under the Enfranchisement Act,
and, as it appeared to him, for this good reason, amongst
others, that easy as it might be to come to an agreement
with regard to the simple value of those properties, it was
found to be by no means so easy to come to an agree.
ment with regard to what constituted the interests of
lessors and lessees. The committee expressed a hope
that much would be done before 18.5 U in the way of
voluntary enfranchisement, so as to render it unnecessary
to resort to compulsion. He wished that might prove to
be the case; but it was pretty nearly equivalent to an
opinion that if voluntary enfranchisement should not
have been carried out by that period compulsory enfran-
chisement should be had recourse to; and in this opinion
he most perfectly coincided, because the public generally
were interested as well as the lessors or the lessees, for
every one ought to be managed to the greatest possible
advantage, and no system of tenure likely to interfere with
the management should be allowed to exist. But if every
one in the kingdom were enfranchised, it would be neces-
sary, to do justice to the county of Durham, that there
should be a reduction of the mortmain estates—of our
great episcopal capitular establishments—to suchen extent
as would render it merely sufficient to pay the fixed incomes
of members of those establishments. He did not, how-
ever, say that the grievance of a considerable portion of
the county being held in mortmain had not a countervail-
ing advantage iu its securing a fit and decent provision
for the clergy. Ile did not advocate laying hands on the

SEn. 13, 1856.

property of the Church ; but that the Situation of that pro-
perty should be equalised; and that all property held on
mortmain in the county, beyond what was to yield the in-
comes of the bishop and clergy, should be sold, and allowed
to pass into the hands of laymen.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON arrived in town on Mon-
day from St. Leonards, and returned again on
Thursday.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE TURKISH AMBASSADOR bad
an interview with Viscount Palmerston on Wednes-
day. The French Charge d'Affaires had also an in-
terview with the noble viscount, at his official resi-
dence in Downing-street.
HIS EXCELLENCY SENOR DON JOAQUIN FRANCISCO
PACHECO, the newly appointed ambassador from
Spain to this Court, has arrived at Chapman's Hotel
Cavendish-square.