The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-14 00:00:00

THE APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY.

Tnn aspect of the political cAsis has greatly
changed since our last issue. Lord PALMERS•
TON'S defiance of the vote of the Commons
was prompt and boll. A Minister wise re-
solves on as appeal to the country from the
decision of adverse majority shows or
feigns some confidence in the justice of his
cause. There is a presumption that he has
good ground for expecting that a dissolution
will increase his strength ; and when he has a
compact following at his back, and a powerful
press at his command, ho has ample means
for maintaining this presumption until public
opinion—always slow in its manifestations
when unexpected events occur—shall express
itself in decided tones.
The vote of the Commons on the China
question was challenged as a factious vote.
The agreement of the most eminent men on
both sides of the House was said to wiring,
not from conscientious motives, or from the
natural and legitimate action of party obliga-
tions, but from a conspiracy to overthrow Lord
PALMERSTON'S Government, and to sully the
honour of the British name. The issue to be
tried therefore was, whether the House of
Commons on this occasion truly represented
the sense of the country, or whether the men
who had heretofore, from their general views
and signal ability, been regarded as worthy
exponents of the opinion of great sections
of the community, had failed,—either from
being above or below the national sentiment,—
to apprehend and express it. The country was
called on to decide between the House of
Commons and the Government.

For a day or two the tide seemed to run
strongly in favour of the latter. Some gre It
commercial bodies lv

their verdic

oraanisatio

their in teres'
cial bodies '

they desire
by force of
Commercial

by strict ru,
the part of
into shocking
consideration

!1

1 bodies promptly met to record.
et in favour of the Minister. Their
n allowed of alio tepid action, and
'est pro tot! it. Purely cominci•
have al Is been warlike.. Either
f
to erus,_f_oroign rivals. or to open
arms new channels of enterprise.
il advenplr , when not restrained
Iles of Tau oration and justice on
the goveL :. g po e.r, is apt to run
ing exce ,'fint -o sacrifice every
ion of h .b... . : . tOlOwnuit of gain.
. .

242

.~
~:..

Its records till some of the blackest pages in
history. It has enslaved distant nations ; it
has desolated whole continents ; it has sought
to legitimatise traffic in human beings, and in
commodities which degrade and poison them ;
and when it has obtained supremacy in any
country, it has not unfroquently, by its inso-
lence mid aggression, provoked such a spirit
of opposition on the part of other States as to
involve its nation in long and desperate wars,
closed at last in utter ruin. The fall of great
commercial communities is not, as some have
supposed, to be traced to a decline of mar-
tial spirit among them, but to the desperate
wars they have provoked in their endeavours
'to aggrandise their trade by deeds of injustice
and violence.

Tho strength and virtue of England consist
in the composite character of her people.
Our chambers of commerce and great mari-
time bodies, however useful when restrained
within their duo limits, would prove fatal to
the permanence of our power if they ever
obtained complete ascendancy. Their in-
terests are only consistent with national in-
terests when pursued under superintendence
which restrains outrage and compels respect
for the rights of humanity. The sudden action
of these confederations on the China question
looked suspicious. It provoked inquiry
whether they might not have objects in this
dispute adverse to the welfare of the country
at large. Such bodies may have a very acute
perception of what is best for dick own im-
mediate profit, but a great contempt for what
is most conducive to the permanent prosperity
of an extended empire.
The opinion of the great body of the people
.has been more sluggish in its movement; but
'it is now beginning to assume consistency,
and to find a voice. At great public meetings
held in dttlorent parts of the country, the pro-
ceedings at Canton have been condemned by
overwhelming majorities. The Liberal "con-
spirators," whom a dissolution was primarily
to punish, have become the heroes of their
respective constituencies. LordJOHN RUSSELL,
after a period of hesitation, has decided on
standing for the City—an indication that he
Las discovered that his vote is not likely, after
all, to prove unacceptable to the first com-
mercial constituency of the empire. Sir F.
BnitEco, Mr. LINDSAY, Sir ERSKINE PERRY, Mr.
RonoucK, Mr. Mukt.r., and other of the conspi-
rators, have manfully stood forward to justify
their votes ; and there appears not the slightest
probability that Government influence, how-
ever unscrupulously exerted, will suffice to
defeat them From this party Lord PALMERS-
TON'S Government, in a new Parliament, will
have little forbearance to expect.
IL is too early yet to speak with any cer-
tainty of Conservative prospects. AU we know
at present is, that they improve day by day
The Conservative connection in the next
Parliament in all probability will be stronger
and more compact, and 1011 be reinforced
by sonic eminent rising talent; while the
Liberal party must be irreconcilably divided
so long as Lord PALMERSTON'S Government
subsists. Such contempt as he has cast on
the Liberals who refuse to submit to his dicta-
tion can never be forgiven.

Ills chance of securing a Palmerstonian
majority is at an end. Enough is already
known of the temper of constituencies to
prove that it is absolutely impossible for him
to maintain his ground in the new Parlia-
ment. his policy at this moment is of that
suicidal kind which is popularly described by
the expression, that a man is digging his own
grave.

He has deprived himself of the only plau-
sible pretext he had for a dissolution, by
recognising the wisdom and justice of the vote
he denounced as factious. As the result of
that vote, he proposes to send a Plenipc-
tentiuiy to China to supersede Sir Jo►ix
BOWRING—a measure never so much as hinted
kit before the verdict of the House of Commons
was given. He disputes that vote, and he
submits to it at the same time. lie shoxs
hiniselfobedient to the "faction" against which
he makes an appeal to the country.

im (lees he select for his Pleni-
The Alinisterialists have Lut one
hustings. It is, outcry agaiust
linationo.

THE PRESS.

Their chief is determined to deprive them
of this pretext. He who pretends that he is
the victim of an unnatural coalition flies for
support to the Duke of NEWCASTLE—a promi-
nent member of the Aberdeen Government—
the colleague of Sir JAMES CrRAIIAM, Mr. GLAD-
STONE, and Mr. HERBERT—a connection to
which he is still believed to be attached.
When Lord PALMERSTON desired to become
Premier, he made no effort to shield the Duke
of NEWCASTLE from the odium of having mis-
managed the war. He offered his Grace no
place in his Cabinet. He presses him to
accept the post of Plenipotentiary to China
only that he may command the Duke's elec-
tioneering influence. He does this, moreover,
with the knowledge that the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE absented himself from the China de-
bate in the Lords, that his name is not found
in the division list, and that his connection
and friends in the Commons exerted them-
selves to secure the "factious vote" which
defeated Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration.
The Duke of NEWCASTLE, With honourable
indignation, refuses the offer, and declines to
have any further connection with Lord
PALM EnsToN.

- -
This fact must surely open men's eyes to the
absurdity of Lord PALmEnsToN's pretended
indignation against coalitions. His offer to
the Duke of NEWCASTLE shows that he is ready
in his extremity to clutch at any kind of
coalition or combination which might afford a
chance of aiding him. in his present desperate
condition. Like the priest in that woodcut
which figures on the covers of VICTOR Hcuo's
" Notre Dame," he looks around him with
despairing eyes for some object to break his
inevitable fall. The Gulf of Resignation is
below him, and the avenging face of Lord
JOIIN RUSSELL is above.

LC: 11111.11.VJuu
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potentirtry ?
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